As we've learned in economics 101 if the price is too low for a scarce commodity, you get a shortage
Economics 101 also says that if you're short of resources you increase them. Broadband providers were given hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to buildout broadband but all they did with it was pad their bottomline.
If they wanted to push this through, they should have unilaterally instated it like Comcast did. After all, what are you going to do if you don't like it?
Push for a free market. I'm one of the lucky ones, if my cable ISP tried to cap downloads/uploads I could switch to DSL, however I'd still let them know I was contacting all of my government representatives and tell them I want them to push to open up the infrastructure and or push for a free market in net access. Just one person doing it wouldn't have much of an effect but a lot of people doing it can.
Also, like all linux distros, in order to do any real damage on a mac, you need to enter an admin password
Please stop repeating this fallacy! First, on a single-user system (e.g. the vast majority of home computers), the end user has rights to all the interesting data files (songs, pictures, documents, etc.), so anything running as the user can do significant local damage.
I'm typing this on a single user Mac, I'm the only one that uses it. When I got it I created an admin account then a user account. I only use the admin account when I install software or when I run updates.
I'd mod you up if I could...Well said.
I am certainly guilty of smugness when I see these malware du jour articles, because I use Kubuntu.
Though I try not to be I am guilty too. I'm using my Mac now, but I want to upgrade a PC and run Ubuntu on it. Actually I may install Ubuntu on my Mac as well.
I could argue that I could get the source code(if available), and check that, but most people running Linux don't do so routinely. In my case, I don't bother because I would have no clue what I was looking at, much less what to look for.
The most programming/coding I know, is getting links to work here on/.(and I cheat at that!)
I've done some programming, mostly for classes, but none professionally. Now I'd like to start a photography/web development business. Unfortunately we're in a bad economy.
What version of NT was it? 4? Of course Geek Squad didn't exist when NT4 existed.
Yes, NT4. I ordered it in December 1997 and tried to run Windows Update in January 2000. The Windows Update site said I had to order a CD with the update. And Geek Squad did exist then, Geek Squad was established in 1994.
don't listen the CATO institute, they're not very trustworthy.
First, why do you say CATO is not trustworthy? Do you trust Forbes? That article CATO has is from "Forbes", CATO just reprinted it. As this next one is anti-nukes you probably won't accept it either but there goes. Dating from 2005 " True Costs of Nuclear Power -- Half-a-Trillion Dollars Sunk" says electricity from nuclear power plants cost at "least 9.0 cents a kilowatt-hour, far more than other readily available fuels." But the most important assessment of nuclear power's profitability is Wall Street and Wall Street has never funded nuclear without subsidies.
Yucca mountain is no longer a viable storage site if that is what you were talking about. They found a fault ran underneath it that they didn't think did.
Why should they be surprised? Back in the '70s a building was damaged when Yucca Mountain was hit by an earthquake. Then several years ago another earthquake hit near Yucca.
The general impression I get from your post is that you think nuclear power is somehow really dirty.
Nuclear power is dirty, as are all sources of power we could use. even geothermal energy is dirty.
All you need for long term storage is a geological stable site that is isolated from the water table.
And where will sites like this be found?
I was not aware of mines on native lands, most of the best mines are in Canada from my understanding.
So basically if you were not a moron computer user and did any reasonable subset of safe computer precautions you have no problem with conficker even without AV software in the mix.
The last tyme I tried to update my NT PC it was no longer supported by the Windows Update website, and I had the brand new PC for a whole of 2 years. I ended up taking it to the Geek Squad to have it updated.
I'm a Mac user who doesn't run applications downloaded from completely untrustworthy sources like pirate p2p networks and you're correct -- I don't need a virus or malware checker.
Even if you do as you say, and don't run software downloaded from untrustworthy sources, if you share documents with Windows users you should still use AV software. Though you may not get infected you can pass to a Windows user malware. I'm not too concerned about my Mac being infected, but I am concerned about infecting others. And I use NeoOffice and OpenOffice.org.
The truth is that a Mac is less likely to be targetted because it's a minority operating system.
I've never understood this assumption. It seems contradictory to say the minority is less likely to be targeted when IIS servers get popped a lot more than Apache when Apache is more widely distributed.
While Apache and IIS have 46.35% and 29.47% market shares respectively it could be that IIS is cracked more because it's less secure.
There are a lot of negatives when it comes to nuclear power but I am convinced that we needed to cut our carbon emissions yesterday
I agree carbon emissions need to be cut, but I don't think nuclear does it. Here's an article that questions whether nuclear power cuts emissions. As that one does, this one points out mining and processing of uranium emits CO2 as well.
the coal industry is going to take advantage of loopholes or changes so that (a) they get to go on polluting, (b) the legislators will act like they did something
OS X may be harder to compromise but it was only tyme before Macs were infected. And as Macs gain market share more Macs will be compromised. I don't think any thing, OS, can ever be compeatly secure.
Are there things you can do to the actual modem itself to 'tune' it?
I don't know about tuning the modem itself but I imagine if it possible you can find out by googling.
I run 99% linux and a couple of osx boxes...so, the windows stuff doesn't do me much good...
I use OS X, though I have two Linux PCs I haven't used one in about 1 1/2 years. That reminds me, I want to upgrade one and make it a server. Thanks. As for Linux, again Google is your friend: "cable modem" tuneup OR optimize linux. It's probably be a good idea to add the distro you're using like ubuntu.
Those are good reasons to cut back on coal, I didn't know about those earlier. Thanks for posting those.
I knew coal mining was deadly but I was absolutely shocked by the first photos of mountaintop removal. I love mountains and seeing one turned into a parking lot just doesn't sit well with me. As I read more I found other problems also. Do you remember that leak of coal slurry last year at TVA? There have been other leaks. Mountaintop removal also buries rivers and streams, and toxins enter into drinking water.
Also relying on wind puts your grid at the mercy of whether the wind blows or not.
Ah, the use of solar and geothermal can help. I once heard that when the wind doesn't blow it's usually sunny. I'd add that solar and wind energy can be harvested at the same tyme during the day. And geothermal can be used as a baseload.
From your other posts in this thread you're generally a pretty rational environmentalist, so much so i sent you an email.
I try to be rational. I started calling myself an ecologist instead of environmentalist because I disapprove of some of the antics other environmentalists use. I understand but disapprove. As for emailing me, unless you put slashdot in the subject line I'll probably delete it without reading it.
However I am disappointed to find that you are in the knee-jerk nuclear crowd. Yes nuclear isn't "perfectly clean" but a proper nuclear energy generation system, with spent fuel recylcing
I guess you didn't read enough of my posts on nuclear power. Yes, I oppose it but I can change my mind if it can be shown it can be cleaned up, and here's a big one, Wall Street will finance it NOT the government. The article "Nuclear Energy: Risky Business" published on the Libertarian Free Market CATO Institute website says that even in France, India, and Russia businesses don't find nuclear power profitable. And they don't have the laws and regulations the US does. Here's the quote:"
"Given all of this, how do France, India, China, and Russia build cost-effective nuclear power plants? They don't. Government officials in those countries, not private investors, decide what is built. Either these governments build expensive plants and shove them down the market's throat-or they build shoddy plants and hope for the best."
Fission power, per gigawatt, is FAR cleaner than coal. Which would you rather have - some radioactive waste we have to find an already ruined, but geological stable, place to store it in and some limited open pit mining. Or the coal industry.
Though I haven't seen any life cycle analysis for coal and nuclear I do believe nuclear can be cleaner than coal, but it needs to be cleaned up. As I said in my reply to the post above yours American Indian tribes have had to suffer from nuclear power. Uranium mines are located on reservation land, the test site for nuclear bombs is by treaty rights part of an Indian reservation. And the proposed nuclear waste storage site is Western Shoshone land, and they oppose storage there.
which is not banned in the US - Ford introduced the ban, Carter approved the ban, Reagan in a rare show of intelligence repealed the ban
Ah, someone who knows the truth, I hear or read so many people blame the ban on reprocessing on Carter when it was Ford who banned it. Another thing they don't know or admit is that Carter had training in nuclear power, though not credited, while in the Navy. He was involved in a cleanup of a nuclear meltdown.
Which would you rather have - some radioactive waste we have to find an already ruined, but geological stable, place to store it in and some limited open pit mining. Or the coal industry.
I'd rather have neither. I'll first start with nuclear power. I would go along with building nuclear power plants that can use the "nuclear waste", perhaps like CANDU, we already have so long as the two points I list above are done, clean it up and have Wall Street finance it. But otherwise no new plants. Next I'd boost geothermal, solar, wind, and other alternative energy sources. There's more than enough of the first three to power the US, and though I don't know how quickly geothermal can come online both solar and wind can do so quickly.
I expected the obligatory Chernobyl mention, but TMI and Chernobyl were night and day.
Yea, Chernobyl showed how nuclear power can fail but TMI showed how it can work. The control and safety systems prevented a worse incident.
I'm inclined to view TMI's accident as an example of how far we've come and how much we learned from Chernobyl, and I'm far from unique in that assessment.
Except TMI happened before Chernobyl, lessons from Chernobyl didn't help TMI.
even if I was as strongly against nuclear power as they were, I'd still hope to be intellectually honest enough to call that article out for being the complete mess that it is.
Of course if it goes through and waste is stored there it'll just be another broken treaty in a line of treaties the US has broken with Indian tribes. That I know of no nation has broken as many treaties as the US has.
Fact is, there's no other energy technology available that can be widely implemented during Obama's administration, even if he's re-elected. You can't build nuclear plants that fast. Solar and wind aren't ready for wide-scale connection to the grid.
I don't know about solar but there are already large wind farms hooked to the grid. Currently the US has more than 9 Gigawatts of wind power installed. California leads but Minnesota and Kansas, Texas, and other states have wind farms in operation. And using 5 Megawatt wind turbines, if 20 are erected a month in 1 year you'll add 1.2 Gigawatts of generation capacity a year.
recycled paper takes more energy to make than the original wood paper.
Where's your source? According to the Energy Information Administrationthere is a "40% reduction in energy when paper is recycled versus paper made with unrecycled pulp." Another webpage answers the question "Does virgin paper use less energy to produce than recycled paper?" as thus: "There can be no definitive statement on which uses more energy because each forest, producer, vehicle, mill and so on will have its own way of working, and the different types of energy-use also have different environmental impacts. Broadly the reprocessed fibre in recycled grades is more efficient in energy terms."
You realize that the CO2 in soda pop comes from the air so ignoring the energy expended to get it into the can that is carbon neutral.
In a sense it does but then again how the soda is made has to be taken into consideration. Commercial manufacturing of soda has the CO2 injected into syrup. Old fashioned methods didn't do that though. Naturally sparkling water comes out of the ground carbonated so the favoring would be added to it. Or soda can be carbonated by the same process beer and wine are made, add some yeast to the drink. That's how I've made my own soda. I used to brew my own, beer, wine, and soda and would like to start again.
Many people wonder why you Yanks get yourselves worked up about it.
People in the US get upset over capping because they were sold unlimited access by the cable companies. Capping is a limit.
Also though many Americans may not know it the US governments, federal, state, and local, have given broadband providers hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to broadband providers to buildout broadband. Instead of doing so they pocketed the money to pad their bottom lines.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm fed up with these bandwidth leeches.
Oh, you mean like all those who use that bandwidth to watch cable hdtv?
Falcon
As we've learned in economics 101 if the price is too low for a scarce commodity, you get a shortage
Economics 101 also says that if you're short of resources you increase them. Broadband providers were given hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to buildout broadband but all they did with it was pad their bottomline.
Falcon
If they wanted to push this through, they should have unilaterally instated it like Comcast did. After all, what are you going to do if you don't like it?
Push for a free market. I'm one of the lucky ones, if my cable ISP tried to cap downloads/uploads I could switch to DSL, however I'd still let them know I was contacting all of my government representatives and tell them I want them to push to open up the infrastructure and or push for a free market in net access. Just one person doing it wouldn't have much of an effect but a lot of people doing it can.
Falcon
"Steadily becoming" would imply if not come out directly and say OS X is becoming more vulnerable.
Falcon
Also, like all linux distros, in order to do any real damage on a mac, you need to enter an admin password
Please stop repeating this fallacy! First, on a single-user system (e.g. the vast majority of home computers), the end user has rights to all the interesting data files (songs, pictures, documents, etc.), so anything running as the user can do significant local damage.
I'm typing this on a single user Mac, I'm the only one that uses it. When I got it I created an admin account then a user account. I only use the admin account when I install software or when I run updates.
Falcon
I'd mod you up if I could...Well said.
I am certainly guilty of smugness when I see these malware du jour articles, because I use Kubuntu.
Though I try not to be I am guilty too. I'm using my Mac now, but I want to upgrade a PC and run Ubuntu on it. Actually I may install Ubuntu on my Mac as well.
I could argue that I could get the source code(if available), and check that, but most people running Linux don't do so routinely. In my case, I don't bother because I would have no clue what I was looking at, much less what to look for. /.(and I cheat at that!)
The most programming/coding I know, is getting links to work here on
I've done some programming, mostly for classes, but none professionally. Now I'd like to start a photography/web development business. Unfortunately we're in a bad economy.
Falcon
What version of NT was it? 4? Of course Geek Squad didn't exist when NT4 existed.
Yes, NT4. I ordered it in December 1997 and tried to run Windows Update in January 2000. The Windows Update site said I had to order a CD with the update. And Geek Squad did exist then, Geek Squad was established in 1994.
Falcon
don't listen the CATO institute, they're not very trustworthy.
First, why do you say CATO is not trustworthy? Do you trust Forbes? That article CATO has is from "Forbes", CATO just reprinted it. As this next one is anti-nukes you probably won't accept it either but there goes. Dating from 2005 " True Costs of Nuclear Power -- Half-a-Trillion Dollars Sunk" says electricity from nuclear power plants cost at "least 9.0 cents a kilowatt-hour, far more than other readily available fuels." But the most important assessment of nuclear power's profitability is Wall Street and Wall Street has never funded nuclear without subsidies.
Yucca mountain is no longer a viable storage site if that is what you were talking about. They found a fault ran underneath it that they didn't think did.
Why should they be surprised? Back in the '70s a building was damaged when Yucca Mountain was hit by an earthquake. Then several years ago another earthquake hit near Yucca.
The general impression I get from your post is that you think nuclear power is somehow really dirty.
Nuclear power is dirty, as are all sources of power we could use. even geothermal energy is dirty.
All you need for long term storage is a geological stable site that is isolated from the water table.
And where will sites like this be found?
I was not aware of mines on native lands, most of the best mines are in Canada from my understanding.
Those mines in Canada are on First Nations's land. "Greenpeace joins First Nations and citizens to oppose Sharbot Lake uranium exploration". "A Violation of Algonquin Law".
And it's not just the US and Canada that mines uranium on Native lands. Australia does it as well as other nations.
As for "government funding" it's just government loans that I've heard of no grants
From January 2007, "Analysis of Nuclear Subsidies in Lieberman-McCain Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act of 2007 [pdf]". It says "Finally, Sec. 323 of the bill enables projects within different technology categories, including nuclear power, to bid for an additional federal grant of as much as $100 million - or more if approved by the Secretary of Energy."
Now those subsidies are just US ones not Chinese, French, Indian, or Russian.
Falcon
So basically if you were not a moron computer user and did any reasonable subset of safe computer precautions you have no problem with conficker even without AV software in the mix.
The average user right?
Falcon
The last tyme I tried to update my NT PC it was no longer supported by the Windows Update website, and I had the brand new PC for a whole of 2 years. I ended up taking it to the Geek Squad to have it updated.
Falcon
I'm a Mac user who doesn't run applications downloaded from completely untrustworthy sources like pirate p2p networks and you're correct -- I don't need a virus or malware checker.
Even if you do as you say, and don't run software downloaded from untrustworthy sources, if you share documents with Windows users you should still use AV software. Though you may not get infected you can pass to a Windows user malware. I'm not too concerned about my Mac being infected, but I am concerned about infecting others. And I use NeoOffice and OpenOffice.org.
Falcon
The truth is that a Mac is less likely to be targetted because it's a minority operating system.
I've never understood this assumption. It seems contradictory to say the minority is less likely to be targeted when IIS servers get popped a lot more than Apache when Apache is more widely distributed.
While Apache and IIS have 46.35% and 29.47% market shares respectively it could be that IIS is cracked more because it's less secure.
Falcon
Which (no pun intended) is steadily becoming an Apple.
Apples are becoming the low hanging fruit? Windows has OS X beat on that score.
Falcon
There are a lot of negatives when it comes to nuclear power but I am convinced that we needed to cut our carbon emissions yesterday
I agree carbon emissions need to be cut, but I don't think nuclear does it. Here's an article that questions whether nuclear power cuts emissions. As that one does, this one points out mining and processing of uranium emits CO2 as well.
the coal industry is going to take advantage of loopholes or changes so that (a) they get to go on polluting, (b) the legislators will act like they did something
I'm with you there.
Falcon
OS X may be harder to compromise but it was only tyme before Macs were infected. And as Macs gain market share more Macs will be compromised. I don't think any thing, OS, can ever be compeatly secure.
Faclon
Are there things you can do to the actual modem itself to 'tune' it?
I don't know about tuning the modem itself but I imagine if it possible you can find out by googling.
I run 99% linux and a couple of osx boxes...so, the windows stuff doesn't do me much good...
I use OS X, though I have two Linux PCs I haven't used one in about 1 1/2 years. That reminds me, I want to upgrade one and make it a server. Thanks. As for Linux, again Google is your friend: "cable modem" tuneup OR optimize linux. It's probably be a good idea to add the distro you're using like ubuntu.
Falcon
Those are good reasons to cut back on coal, I didn't know about those earlier. Thanks for posting those.
I knew coal mining was deadly but I was absolutely shocked by the first photos of mountaintop removal. I love mountains and seeing one turned into a parking lot just doesn't sit well with me. As I read more I found other problems also. Do you remember that leak of coal slurry last year at TVA? There have been other leaks. Mountaintop removal also buries rivers and streams, and toxins enter into drinking water.
Falcon
wind turbines are rated by thier output under ideal wind conditions.
According to howstuffworks "At 33 mph, most large turbines generate their rated power capacity". In places it is windier than that. The Wind Energy Resource Atlas of the United States details by region wind potential.
Also relying on wind puts your grid at the mercy of whether the wind blows or not.
Ah, the use of solar and geothermal can help. I once heard that when the wind doesn't blow it's usually sunny. I'd add that solar and wind energy can be harvested at the same tyme during the day. And geothermal can be used as a baseload.
Falcon
From your other posts in this thread you're generally a pretty rational environmentalist, so much so i sent you an email.
I try to be rational. I started calling myself an ecologist instead of environmentalist because I disapprove of some of the antics other environmentalists use. I understand but disapprove. As for emailing me, unless you put slashdot in the subject line I'll probably delete it without reading it.
However I am disappointed to find that you are in the knee-jerk nuclear crowd. Yes nuclear isn't "perfectly clean" but a proper nuclear energy generation system, with spent fuel recylcing
I guess you didn't read enough of my posts on nuclear power. Yes, I oppose it but I can change my mind if it can be shown it can be cleaned up, and here's a big one, Wall Street will finance it NOT the government. The article "Nuclear Energy: Risky Business" published on the Libertarian Free Market CATO Institute website says that even in France, India, and Russia businesses don't find nuclear power profitable. And they don't have the laws and regulations the US does. Here's the quote:"
"Given all of this, how do France, India, China, and Russia build cost-effective nuclear power plants? They don't. Government officials in those countries, not private investors, decide what is built. Either these governments build expensive plants and shove them down the market's throat-or they build shoddy plants and hope for the best."
Fission power, per gigawatt, is FAR cleaner than coal. Which would you rather have - some radioactive waste we have to find an already ruined, but geological stable, place to store it in and some limited open pit mining. Or the coal industry.
Though I haven't seen any life cycle analysis for coal and nuclear I do believe nuclear can be cleaner than coal, but it needs to be cleaned up. As I said in my reply to the post above yours American Indian tribes have had to suffer from nuclear power. Uranium mines are located on reservation land, the test site for nuclear bombs is by treaty rights part of an Indian reservation. And the proposed nuclear waste storage site is Western Shoshone land, and they oppose storage there.
which is not banned in the US - Ford introduced the ban, Carter approved the ban, Reagan in a rare show of intelligence repealed the ban
Ah, someone who knows the truth, I hear or read so many people blame the ban on reprocessing on Carter when it was Ford who banned it. Another thing they don't know or admit is that Carter had training in nuclear power, though not credited, while in the Navy. He was involved in a cleanup of a nuclear meltdown.
Which would you rather have - some radioactive waste we have to find an already ruined, but geological stable, place to store it in and some limited open pit mining. Or the coal industry.
I'd rather have neither. I'll first start with nuclear power. I would go along with building nuclear power plants that can use the "nuclear waste", perhaps like CANDU, we already have so long as the two points I list above are done, clean it up and have Wall Street finance it. But otherwise no new plants. Next I'd boost geothermal, solar, wind, and other alternative energy sources. There's more than enough of the first three to power the US, and though I don't know how quickly geothermal can come online both solar and wind can do so quickly.
Falcon
I expected the obligatory Chernobyl mention, but TMI and Chernobyl were night and day.
Yea, Chernobyl showed how nuclear power can fail but TMI showed how it can work. The control and safety systems prevented a worse incident.
I'm inclined to view TMI's accident as an example of how far we've come and how much we learned from Chernobyl, and I'm far from unique in that assessment.
Except TMI happened before Chernobyl, lessons from Chernobyl didn't help TMI.
even if I was as strongly against nuclear power as they were, I'd still hope to be intellectually honest enough to call that article out for being the complete mess that it is.
Perhaps another one could have been better to use, such as this one: "Nuclear Materials 'Poison' Navajo Land", but that one was one of the first results when I googled. Or this one, " FACT SHEET on Uranium Mining and Nuclear Pollution in the Upper Midwest". Indian tribes and reservations have had to deal with uranium mining, and storage, including having their treaty rights violated. The proposed permanent storage site, Yucca Mountain, is by the Treaty of Ruby Valley part of Western Shoshone land, and they oppose the use of it for nuclear waste.
Of course if it goes through and waste is stored there it'll just be another broken treaty in a line of treaties the US has broken with Indian tribes. That I know of no nation has broken as many treaties as the US has.
Falcon
Fact is, there's no other energy technology available that can be widely implemented during Obama's administration, even if he's re-elected. You can't build nuclear plants that fast. Solar and wind aren't ready for wide-scale connection to the grid.
I don't know about solar but there are already large wind farms hooked to the grid. Currently the US has more than 9 Gigawatts of wind power installed. California leads but Minnesota and Kansas, Texas, and other states have wind farms in operation. And using 5 Megawatt wind turbines, if 20 are erected a month in 1 year you'll add 1.2 Gigawatts of generation capacity a year.
Falcon
Does it really matter if it leaks to the surface if the rate is significantly less than we are currently releasing?
It can be a matter of live or death for life around a leak. Thousands of people and lifestock died when Lake Nyos, in Africa, released CO2.
Falcon
recycled paper takes more energy to make than the original wood paper.
Where's your source? According to the Energy Information Administration there is a "40% reduction in energy when paper is recycled versus paper made with unrecycled pulp." Another webpage answers the question "Does virgin paper use less energy to produce than recycled paper?" as thus: "There can be no definitive statement on which uses more energy because each forest, producer, vehicle, mill and so on will have its own way of working, and the different types of energy-use also have different environmental impacts. Broadly the reprocessed fibre in recycled grades is more efficient in energy terms."
Falcon
You realize that the CO2 in soda pop comes from the air so ignoring the energy expended to get it into the can that is carbon neutral.
In a sense it does but then again how the soda is made has to be taken into consideration. Commercial manufacturing of soda has the CO2 injected into syrup. Old fashioned methods didn't do that though. Naturally sparkling water comes out of the ground carbonated so the favoring would be added to it. Or soda can be carbonated by the same process beer and wine are made, add some yeast to the drink. That's how I've made my own soda. I used to brew my own, beer, wine, and soda and would like to start again.
Falcon
Many people wonder why you Yanks get yourselves worked up about it.
People in the US get upset over capping because they were sold unlimited access by the cable companies. Capping is a limit.
Also though many Americans may not know it the US governments, federal, state, and local, have given broadband providers hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to broadband providers to buildout broadband. Instead of doing so they pocketed the money to pad their bottom lines.
Falcon