Notice that I indicated leasing pipe space to the water vendor (and other, similar products). Some communities own their own water company and/or power company.
Actually in the US most places own their own water system, whether it be city or county. Only about 1 in 20 people get their water from the private sector. Atlanta, GA was one of the first cities in the US to privatize water, when they sold the water system to United Water. United Water is now owned by France based Suez, the world's largest private water company. However the deal went bad, because of poor management Atlanta retook control of the water system.
- Leave the job to people who are trained, skilled and actually deserve to have it before you end up as a news-item on/.
How did those with the experience get that experience? They got it in training? Where did the trainers get their knowledge? Asker is right about asking how others learned
Reminds me of a saying I liked while in the Army, "the only bad question is the question that is not asked."
The cross-platform requirement just doesn't seem to make sense. That's what standards are for.
Maybe he like I didn't know there was any video chat standards. I never did video chat, all I've ever used was Yahoo! Messenger for text years ago and there was no standard back then that I know of.
And he had two quite ok options, trillian in Windows and Kopete in KDE.
He's asking about a Gnome client not KDE or Windows: "Is there a good program for Gnome that provides cross-platform instant messaging and video chat?" Obviously he like I don't know of any Gnome clients. Some may say he should search for one however by asking on/. not only is he searching but he can get some names and can also read what others think of the different clients out there. I think that's faster than first searching for clients then searching for people's impression of them.
Yeah, and interestingly the "rate limiting" Comcast was doing was ultimately a lot more fair than the caps they're now forced to impose on residential customers.
There is nothing fair about Comcast selling unlimited access then limiting that access. Nor is there anything fair in receiving billions of taxpayer money to build out broadband but not doing it.
Thankfully, I have a commercial account with them. No caps. Works for me.
While I didn't sign up with Comcast my ISP uses Comcast's cable, my access bill is also on my cable TV bill. When I first signed up Time Warner owned the cable. I thought about upgrading my plan as I'd like to run my own server. That was the only limitation on the plan I signed up for, I couldn't run a server. However for the web space they offer as part of the plan they are now allowing some things like database access, perl, and php, they didn't before.
The video is too funny - and very well done. Send a link to your kids and they'll finally understand what CERN and LHC do.
I got a kick out of it myself.
Maybe we should do more science education like this.
My first thought, well one of the first thoughts, was that music videos like the Large Hadron Rap could encourage youngsters to go into science. But the videos would have to come fast and furiously. Otherwise they would get bored.
Many people in China really like the controls on internet access that exist here.
And others don't like the control of the net in China. Thousands there were protesting. Heck a reporter, working for CNN I think, was detained when he was reporting on some protesters. Others find ways around the filters. Just because some have no problem with the Great Firewall of China doesn't mean others don't have a problem with it.
She was very skeptical of the unrestricted access that exists in the west with concerns that it would be easy to be lied to if you have no way if knowing who you are talking to.
I'd ask if her if she thought lies couldn't be told with government control. The government could lie all it wants if it controls all media. A free press supposed to be one of the checks on government.
If it wasn't that he ask for the impossible with his cross platform requirements
The questioner chats with people who use different OSes and obviously he wants to be able to chat with them all. I'm typing this on a MacBook Pro but my desktops run Linux and Windows. So if I chatted, it's been years since I used Yahoo! Messenger, I'd also want something cross platform.
If no competitor comes into the game to challenge the #1 player, then the consumers lose out because the player can just sit down and do nothing and the consumers will have no choice but to deal with it.
And when Google returns bad results, people can switch to other providers. Whether that's in searches or in advertizing. Google got big by providing a better service and they shouldn't be punished for that. They should only be punished if they use their strengths to try to dominate another business sector. And I haven't heard about any cases where they were. Besides Google I use other search engines as well. And if I ran a business, I hope to start one in photography, I could use other ad agencies. If I wanted to place ads on Facebook I'd have to buy ads from Microsoft. Yahoo! bought the ad agency Overture, which before Google came along was a big online ad business.
While Google's there when I want it, they aren't in my space.
Google's products are not generally better, (often flakey or worse (consider google docs and gmail - so what? the only advantage they offer is that they are free
Unless your employer, or you for that matter, demand you use Google's apps you don't have to. Even if you want free software, a lot of the software on my computer is open source, I have none of Google's software on it. I don't even use gmail.
They have already destroyed the search market because only crazy people would start up a search company and go up against them.
Google has gained dominance in searches because it offers better searches than most other search engines. However the new SE Cuil looks pretty good too. I haven't really used it yet but I also use About.com, Alta Vista, Teoma, oops Ask.com, and Open Directory Project for searches.
They are busily destroying most other markets too.
It seems that's what you are doing yourself. A monopoly is a lack of competition.
Microsoft has the majority of the market share of the desktop world. But that is not what makes them a monopoly.
It does make them a monopoly. However being a monopoly is not illegal.
using their position of dominance to suffocate other competitors, such as forcing computer manufacturers to install only Microsoft Office products under the threat that if they don't comply that Microsoft will yank their Windows licenses.
Now that is what is illegal. Simply being a monopoly is not illegal but using the monopoly to squeeze out competition in another area is illegal. The original lawsuit again Microsoft wasn't because they were a monopoly, it was because they used the fact they were a monopoly to force computer manufacturers to install other Microsoft products on PCs instead of competitors' products, IE instead of Netscape.
'here are strategic reasons to not want a single source for a critical material. There are no such strategic reasons relating to Google.'
I'd rate data as pretty critical
I can, and do, go to Teoma, oops Ask.com, About.com, Alta Vista, and Dmoz Open Directory Project for searches. And I may start using Cuil as well for searching. Google isn't the only search engine, nor does it have lockin, other than being a good search engine. Actually I use About.com because Google referred me to it, when I first googled for "Monte Verde" archeology the top result was About.com's section of Monte Verde. Now it's number three. Googling for photography returns About.com as number 4.
While data may be, is critical, it can be gotten from search engines other than Google.
It has surprised me with all the vitriol that Microsoft received for using their desktop dominance to drive IE installs that no one has taken Google to task for using their web dominance to drive Chrome installs.
Until a few days ago, when/. had an article on it, I hadn't heard of Chrome before. And I use Google virtually every day. Google has not once tried to get me to use Chrome.
I hear people saying that a lot, but I've never seen an actual point or list of things wrong with her theory. Care to list them.. I'm genuinely interested in anything that is wrong with her philosophy.
Yea, I don't understand it myself. Whenever Ayn Rand is mentioned someone has to say she was wrong, but they won't say why. Maybe it comes from the movie "Dirty Dancing", a waiter there is carrying a copy of "The Fountainhead" I think and he says something along the lines that some people count more than others. However neither that book nor any other's of Rand says that. I love the movie but hate that scene.
Then again maybe it's because of Objectivism. My sister loved Rand until she found out about Objectivism. Then as a Christian she changed her mind about Rand.
This isn't baseless or in any way shape or form non-obvious, I've been expecting this to happen for months. It's a matter of history repeating itself. The same thing happened to MS at approximately this point in it's history.
It is baseless and Google is not like Microsoft. As "The Wall Street Journal's" FA says Google's advertising market share is about 80%. When MS was sued it's market share of the desktop was more than 90%. And it's easier to get into advertizing or searching than it is to get into the operating system market. Provide better advertizing, and searching, and you can eat into Google's market share. You need more than that to break into the OS market. Linux has billions of dollars behind it, as does OS X, yet they are only slowly eating at MS's lead. Google got big because they offered better search results and ads.
The problem is the cost of wiring up a single home. In the city it's easy because you have to invest much less money on equipment per person living in a certain area. But in Urban areas the cost of wiring up a home could be upwards of thousands of dollars and the broadband companies are not very likely to go into those markets. The State or Federal government should subsidize this cost by taxing Internet connections across the board.
Just the federal government, not counting states, counties, or cities, has given telcos more than $200 billion already but all they did with it was pad their profits. Before any of them get any more tax payer money they should do what they already have been paid to do.
America only become a super power by making investments in the common good. You can't say "we are the greatest and will always be the greatest" with a straight face if you're not willing to invest in this common good.
Unlike chicken hawks I don't see any need to be the greatest super power. I see no need to be a super power period. Nationalism has caused among the greatest human rights crimes. The New World, check. Germany, check. Soviet Union, check. China, check. Cambodia, check. Rwanda, check. Iraq, check.
My biggest problem with the Volt is that it's damn ugly. Sort of reminiscent of muscle cars, which I despise.
I was kind of like a motor head and love muscle cars. A friend's dad had a '68 or '69 Grand Prix he put a big block 350ci with bored out cylinders into. We'd hop into it and cruise to a shooting range at 120 mph where we target practiced. I loved that car, and shooting. My problem with them is that they're gas guzzlers. Though I love racing I have the same problem with race cars. But at least those can be used to test new ideas, whether to improve efficiency or safety.
All I ask for, from any company, is a plug-in hybrid Cabriolet or Roadster.
I'd rather have a cigaretteboat with a Tesla like motor.
"it's the rural areas where the real problems are, telcos are simply not motivated to do anything at all about it."
I agree, but can you blame them?
The telcos couldn't be blamed if they hadn't been given billions of dollars in subsidies to build out broadband, but they did get paid and didn't build out. So yes, they are to blame. They are also to blame when because they refuse to build out, even though they were paid to, they sue local governments for doing it themselves.
given the state of US politics, can you even imagine the outcry if our government tried to implement such a system?
The US already has a place like that. Broadband Utopia in northeastern Utah is a broadband infrastructure owned by the communities, cities and villages, in the region. Though government owns it they let anyone to connect and offer services the infrastructure is able to deliver, including cable tv, net access, and phone service. They are planning on offering speeds of 100Mbps.
if you can't live with the cap, get a business account - no caps. Yes, it costs more, but if you need the bandwidth you should pay for it instead of making MY rates higher to cover the 0.5% of the people that use 95% of the bandwidth.
If the providers didn't have the capacity then they shouldn't have sold an "unlimited" service. And that's on top of receiving billions in subsidies.
Well, they initially sent me a bum cable modem, which I was rather ticked about--and then their tech didn't show up to replace it. After enthusistically complaining I ended up with a chunk taken out of my next bill.
Like the parent I live in the Twin Cities and get cable access through Comcast though it was Time Warner when I signed up. Before the switch I was having trouble with my connection and called my ISP, who uses TWC's cable. The tech walked me through some tests then said the cable modem was bad and needed to be replaced. So he set up a tyme slot for another tech to bring it over. The tech showed up and installed the new modem but there was something wrong with the cable and he had to run a new cable from the junction or whatever on the telephone pole. A couple of hours after he showed up I had a faster connection than I did before, without having to pay for anything above my service.
Actually recycling does reduce CO2 emissions depending what's being recycled. It takes more energy, and water, to produce something from virgin stock than recycling does. Recycled glass only uses 25% of the energy that virgin glass does. And most of that energy comes from coal fired power plants in the US. What I don't like is how many places that require recycling charge people to recycle. When I was young I used to go out and clean litter from roads and what not. I'd then separate different recyclables and turn them into a recycling center and get paid. Now property owners have to pay curbside pickup.
You can avoid the whole moral dilemma by buying yourself a good bicycle
Up until 12 years ago I rode my bike about 200 miles a week, but an accident ended that. Now I have to live with a disability.
and/or using public transit.
I once took a bus someplace. Whereas driving there takes me 10 to 15 minutes, taking the bus took more than an hour. And tickets cost me $5 round trip. Fact is it is cheaper and quicker for me to drive, even with the higher gas prices we have now. I support public transportation but it has to be improved quite a bit before I'll use it.
Slashdot Mirror
Notice that I indicated leasing pipe space to the water vendor (and other, similar products). Some communities own their own water company and/or power company.
Actually in the US most places own their own water system, whether it be city or county. Only about 1 in 20 people get their water from the private sector. Atlanta, GA was one of the first cities in the US to privatize water, when they sold the water system to United Water. United Water is now owned by France based Suez, the world's largest private water company. However the deal went bad, because of poor management Atlanta retook control of the water system.
Falcon
- Leave the job to people who are trained, skilled and actually deserve to have it before you end up as a news-item on /.
How did those with the experience get that experience? They got it in training? Where did the trainers get their knowledge? Asker is right about asking how others learned
Reminds me of a saying I liked while in the Army, "the only bad question is the question that is not asked."
Falcon
The cross-platform requirement just doesn't seem to make sense. That's what standards are for.
Maybe he like I didn't know there was any video chat standards. I never did video chat, all I've ever used was Yahoo! Messenger for text years ago and there was no standard back then that I know of.
Falcon
And he had two quite ok options, trillian in Windows and Kopete in KDE.
He's asking about a Gnome client not KDE or Windows: "Is there a good program for Gnome that provides cross-platform instant messaging and video chat?" Obviously he like I don't know of any Gnome clients. Some may say he should search for one however by asking on /. not only is he searching but he can get some names and can also read what others think of the different clients out there. I think that's faster than first searching for clients then searching for people's impression of them.
Falcon
Yeah, and interestingly the "rate limiting" Comcast was doing was ultimately a lot more fair than the caps they're now forced to impose on residential customers.
There is nothing fair about Comcast selling unlimited access then limiting that access. Nor is there anything fair in receiving billions of taxpayer money to build out broadband but not doing it.
Thankfully, I have a commercial account with them. No caps. Works for me.
While I didn't sign up with Comcast my ISP uses Comcast's cable, my access bill is also on my cable TV bill. When I first signed up Time Warner owned the cable. I thought about upgrading my plan as I'd like to run my own server. That was the only limitation on the plan I signed up for, I couldn't run a server. However for the web space they offer as part of the plan they are now allowing some things like database access, perl, and php, they didn't before.
Falcon
I would almost risk having them hate science, as long as they also can't stand rap music.
Have videos set with country, rock, or other genres of music.
Falcon
The video is too funny - and very well done. Send a link to your kids and they'll finally understand what CERN and LHC do.
I got a kick out of it myself.
Maybe we should do more science education like this.
My first thought, well one of the first thoughts, was that music videos like the Large Hadron Rap could encourage youngsters to go into science. But the videos would have to come fast and furiously. Otherwise they would get bored.
Falcon
Many people in China really like the controls on internet access that exist here.
And others don't like the control of the net in China. Thousands there were protesting. Heck a reporter, working for CNN I think, was detained when he was reporting on some protesters. Others find ways around the filters. Just because some have no problem with the Great Firewall of China doesn't mean others don't have a problem with it.
She was very skeptical of the unrestricted access that exists in the west with concerns that it would be easy to be lied to if you have no way if knowing who you are talking to.
I'd ask if her if she thought lies couldn't be told with government control. The government could lie all it wants if it controls all media. A free press supposed to be one of the checks on government.
Falcon
If it wasn't that he ask for the impossible with his cross platform requirements
The questioner chats with people who use different OSes and obviously he wants to be able to chat with them all. I'm typing this on a MacBook Pro but my desktops run Linux and Windows. So if I chatted, it's been years since I used Yahoo! Messenger, I'd also want something cross platform.
Falcon
Well, I guess if you want to get that picky about the semantics, sure.
It's not a matter of pickiness, if people don't use the same definition then there's confusion.
Falcon
If no competitor comes into the game to challenge the #1 player, then the consumers lose out because the player can just sit down and do nothing and the consumers will have no choice but to deal with it.
And when Google returns bad results, people can switch to other providers. Whether that's in searches or in advertizing. Google got big by providing a better service and they shouldn't be punished for that. They should only be punished if they use their strengths to try to dominate another business sector. And I haven't heard about any cases where they were. Besides Google I use other search engines as well. And if I ran a business, I hope to start one in photography, I could use other ad agencies. If I wanted to place ads on Facebook I'd have to buy ads from Microsoft. Yahoo! bought the ad agency Overture, which before Google came along was a big online ad business.
Falcon
Google is getting in everybody's space
While Google's there when I want it, they aren't in my space.
Google's products are not generally better, (often flakey or worse (consider google docs and gmail - so what? the only advantage they offer is that they are free
Unless your employer, or you for that matter, demand you use Google's apps you don't have to. Even if you want free software, a lot of the software on my computer is open source, I have none of Google's software on it. I don't even use gmail.
They have already destroyed the search market because only crazy people would start up a search company and go up against them.
Google has gained dominance in searches because it offers better searches than most other search engines. However the new SE Cuil looks pretty good too. I haven't really used it yet but I also use About.com, Alta Vista, Teoma, oops Ask.com, and Open Directory Project for searches.
They are busily destroying most other markets too.
And what markets are these?
Falcon
It seems that's what you are doing yourself. A monopoly is a lack of competition.
Microsoft has the majority of the market share of the desktop world. But that is not what makes them a monopoly.
It does make them a monopoly. However being a monopoly is not illegal.
using their position of dominance to suffocate other competitors, such as forcing computer manufacturers to install only Microsoft Office products under the threat that if they don't comply that Microsoft will yank their Windows licenses.
Now that is what is illegal. Simply being a monopoly is not illegal but using the monopoly to squeeze out competition in another area is illegal. The original lawsuit again Microsoft wasn't because they were a monopoly, it was because they used the fact they were a monopoly to force computer manufacturers to install other Microsoft products on PCs instead of competitors' products, IE instead of Netscape.
Falcon
'here are strategic reasons to not want a single source for a critical material. There are no such strategic reasons relating to Google.'
I'd rate data as pretty critical
I can, and do, go to Teoma, oops Ask.com, About.com, Alta Vista, and Dmoz Open Directory Project for searches. And I may start using Cuil as well for searching. Google isn't the only search engine, nor does it have lockin, other than being a good search engine. Actually I use About.com because Google referred me to it, when I first googled for "Monte Verde" archeology the top result was About.com's section of Monte Verde. Now it's number three. Googling for photography returns About.com as number 4.
While data may be, is critical, it can be gotten from search engines other than Google.
Falcon
It has surprised me with all the vitriol that Microsoft received for using their desktop dominance to drive IE installs that no one has taken Google to task for using their web dominance to drive Chrome installs.
Until a few days ago, when /. had an article on it, I hadn't heard of Chrome before. And I use Google virtually every day. Google has not once tried to get me to use Chrome.
Falcon
Rand was wrong about a lot of things
I hear people saying that a lot, but I've never seen an actual point or list of things wrong with her theory. Care to list them.. I'm genuinely interested in anything that is wrong with her philosophy.
Yea, I don't understand it myself. Whenever Ayn Rand is mentioned someone has to say she was wrong, but they won't say why. Maybe it comes from the movie "Dirty Dancing", a waiter there is carrying a copy of "The Fountainhead" I think and he says something along the lines that some people count more than others. However neither that book nor any other's of Rand says that. I love the movie but hate that scene.
Then again maybe it's because of Objectivism. My sister loved Rand until she found out about Objectivism. Then as a Christian she changed her mind about Rand.
Falcon
This isn't baseless or in any way shape or form non-obvious, I've been expecting this to happen for months. It's a matter of history repeating itself. The same thing happened to MS at approximately this point in it's history.
It is baseless and Google is not like Microsoft. As "The Wall Street Journal's" FA says Google's advertising market share is about 80%. When MS was sued it's market share of the desktop was more than 90%. And it's easier to get into advertizing or searching than it is to get into the operating system market. Provide better advertizing, and searching, and you can eat into Google's market share. You need more than that to break into the OS market. Linux has billions of dollars behind it, as does OS X, yet they are only slowly eating at MS's lead. Google got big because they offered better search results and ads.
Falcon
The problem is the cost of wiring up a single home. In the city it's easy because you have to invest much less money on equipment per person living in a certain area. But in Urban areas the cost of wiring up a home could be upwards of thousands of dollars and the broadband companies are not very likely to go into those markets. The State or Federal government should subsidize this cost by taxing Internet connections across the board.
Just the federal government, not counting states, counties, or cities, has given telcos more than $200 billion already but all they did with it was pad their profits. Before any of them get any more tax payer money they should do what they already have been paid to do.
America only become a super power by making investments in the common good. You can't say "we are the greatest and will always be the greatest" with a straight face if you're not willing to invest in this common good.
Unlike chicken hawks I don't see any need to be the greatest super power. I see no need to be a super power period. Nationalism has caused among the greatest human rights crimes. The New World, check. Germany, check. Soviet Union, check. China, check. Cambodia, check. Rwanda, check. Iraq, check.
Falcon
My biggest problem with the Volt is that it's damn ugly. Sort of reminiscent of muscle cars, which I despise.
I was kind of like a motor head and love muscle cars. A friend's dad had a '68 or '69 Grand Prix he put a big block 350ci with bored out cylinders into. We'd hop into it and cruise to a shooting range at 120 mph where we target practiced. I loved that car, and shooting. My problem with them is that they're gas guzzlers. Though I love racing I have the same problem with race cars. But at least those can be used to test new ideas, whether to improve efficiency or safety.
All I ask for, from any company, is a plug-in hybrid Cabriolet or Roadster.
I'd rather have a cigarette boat with a Tesla like motor.
Falcon
"it's the rural areas where the real problems are, telcos are simply not motivated to do anything at all about it."
I agree, but can you blame them?
The telcos couldn't be blamed if they hadn't been given billions of dollars in subsidies to build out broadband, but they did get paid and didn't build out. So yes, they are to blame. They are also to blame when because they refuse to build out, even though they were paid to, they sue local governments for doing it themselves.
Falcon
given the state of US politics, can you even imagine the outcry if our government tried to implement such a system?
The US already has a place like that. Broadband Utopia in northeastern Utah is a broadband infrastructure owned by the communities, cities and villages, in the region. Though government owns it they let anyone to connect and offer services the infrastructure is able to deliver, including cable tv, net access, and phone service. They are planning on offering speeds of 100Mbps.
Falcon
if you can't live with the cap, get a business account - no caps. Yes, it costs more, but if you need the bandwidth you should pay for it instead of making MY rates higher to cover the 0.5% of the people that use 95% of the bandwidth.
If the providers didn't have the capacity then they shouldn't have sold an "unlimited" service. And that's on top of receiving billions in subsidies.
Falcon
Well, they initially sent me a bum cable modem, which I was rather ticked about--and then their tech didn't show up to replace it. After enthusistically complaining I ended up with a chunk taken out of my next bill.
Like the parent I live in the Twin Cities and get cable access through Comcast though it was Time Warner when I signed up. Before the switch I was having trouble with my connection and called my ISP, who uses TWC's cable. The tech walked me through some tests then said the cable modem was bad and needed to be replaced. So he set up a tyme slot for another tech to bring it over. The tech showed up and installed the new modem but there was something wrong with the cable and he had to run a new cable from the junction or whatever on the telephone pole. A couple of hours after he showed up I had a faster connection than I did before, without having to pay for anything above my service.
Falcon
Actually recycling does reduce CO2 emissions depending what's being recycled. It takes more energy, and water, to produce something from virgin stock than recycling does. Recycled glass only uses 25% of the energy that virgin glass does. And most of that energy comes from coal fired power plants in the US. What I don't like is how many places that require recycling charge people to recycle. When I was young I used to go out and clean litter from roads and what not. I'd then separate different recyclables and turn them into a recycling center and get paid. Now property owners have to pay curbside pickup.
You can avoid the whole moral dilemma by buying yourself a good bicycle
Up until 12 years ago I rode my bike about 200 miles a week, but an accident ended that. Now I have to live with a disability.
and/or using public transit.
I once took a bus someplace. Whereas driving there takes me 10 to 15 minutes, taking the bus took more than an hour. And tickets cost me $5 round trip. Fact is it is cheaper and quicker for me to drive, even with the higher gas prices we have now. I support public transportation but it has to be improved quite a bit before I'll use it.
Falcon