I had the SAME CAP/DMT quandary. I moved, switched my DSL to the new address, and come the turn-up day, NO dsl. Crap. They switched me to DMT and of course nobody bothered to even mention it, and they weren't about to credit me for the new 678 I needed. Typical Qwest bullshit.
I raised HOLY hell, but sweet as pie. At first they said they'd split the difference with me, no lie.
Of course they shipped TWO 678's, like they always do, along w/ a $700 bill. I asked for and got a meeting w/ a billing specialist in Boise, approached it politely as win/win, and in the end I walked out owing $29.95 for everything (even my phone bill that month) she having seen fit to **eliminate** my bill just for being polite yet persistent.
Then again as a WAN analyst, I have gotten REALLY good at finessing the telecom vendors. They just want somebody to love them...
And the MSNQwest deal? You gain "use" of a Intel DSL card, no ownership. That sucks for MANY reasons, of course.
I switched from Qwest to Fiberpipe when Qwest told me and my Linux box to take a flying you know what...
I mean, I may be being naieve here, but since it's encrypted, how would they know it was vpn traffic? The authentication packet/header? If the ports were non-standard, the payload encrypted, I suppose all that'd give it away would be some part of the IP source/dest combination, say NATed addresses....but even that could be anything?
Could they filter on IKE? ESP? AH? This baffles me, arguably no VPN sage....i'm currently muddling thru FreeSWAN; this is of interest...
Paypal doublebilled my CC, and it took me a TWO MONTHS for them to credit the right amount back to me. I ultimately did a whois on their domain, came up with some bizarre business name in CALIFORNIA, called and called that company and eventually I socially-engineered my way to a PayPal manager (damn, i'm good) and HOUNDED them till they sent my money back. I called at all hours of the day and let them know what I thought. I was pissed.
Hey! I deal with Qwest and Verizon's frame groups all day (when a telecom vendor cries, an angel gets his wings....), so I can get a little direct.
There was NO procedure to rectify the situation in a timely fashion-they blamed their software, of all things.
I was double-billed over $500.
I will ***NEVER*** use Paypals again.
Isn't the article author, John Markoff, surrounded by controversy regarding Kevin Mitnick? I seem somehow recalling that Mr. Markoff engaged in a betrayal...
it seems like so long ago. I can't remember the details, but there are those I know who turn up their noses at the mention of his name, muttering that this guy hosed Mitnick pretty ruthlessly..
Regards,
Eric
It would seem the whole thing boils down to the ol' First Law of Thermodynamocs: Things tend from order to disorder, and not the reverse. Seems the Open Source movement (whatever that is...) would bear this axiom out.
AAhh...
To me the continents would boil down to:
Open Source vs. Corporate Control.
Diametrically opposed, sorta segueing into Karl Marx's thesis-antithesis-synthesis, the two worlds will battle irreconcilably forever. There is no reconciliation, especially considering that there's a disturbing trend toward power not really being solely consolidated politically, but power being insidiously co-opted by corporate concerns: i.e.The Bottom Line.
AAAhhh...fuggddaboutit.
When it comes down to it, aren't we all really anarchists? Think it over...natural monkeywrenchers.
You seem quite the moron yourself, br4dh4x0r. Then again, life is full of complete morons like yourself, your a dime a dozen. Have you ever had an intelligent thought in your life? Doubtful.
I think a serious point being missed here in relation to John Katz's well-written dissetation on the issue is that the public Genome Project is currently being pursued in parallel by large private genetic research firms such as Genentech, and currently they are way ahead of the public entities involved, at least timeline-wise.. Currently Genentech is patenting EVERYTHING they can related to genome mapping as it relates to their own economic self-interest, which poses more immediate concerns: Will they then OWN the patents on anything related to the Human Genome? Will economic self-interest relegate products and cures derived from such research to whatever they may have slid past the US Patent Office? THERE's your immediate concern.
NY Times had a WONDERFUL article on just that, earlier in the fall.
Slashdot Mirror
I had the SAME CAP/DMT quandary. I moved, switched my DSL to the new address, and come the turn-up day, NO dsl. Crap. They switched me to DMT and of course nobody bothered to even mention it, and they weren't about to credit me for the new 678 I needed. Typical Qwest bullshit.
I raised HOLY hell, but sweet as pie. At first they said they'd split the difference with me, no lie.
Of course they shipped TWO 678's, like they always do, along w/ a $700 bill. I asked for and got a meeting w/ a billing specialist in Boise, approached it politely as win/win, and in the end I walked out owing $29.95 for everything (even my phone bill that month) she having seen fit to **eliminate** my bill just for being polite yet persistent.
Then again as a WAN analyst, I have gotten REALLY good at finessing the telecom vendors. They just want somebody to love them...
And the MSNQwest deal? You gain "use" of a Intel DSL card, no ownership. That sucks for MANY reasons, of course.
I switched from Qwest to Fiberpipe when Qwest told me and my Linux box to take a flying you know what...
I mean, I may be being naieve here, but since it's encrypted, how would they know it was vpn traffic? The authentication packet/header? If the ports were non-standard, the payload encrypted, I suppose all that'd give it away would be some part of the IP source/dest combination, say NATed addresses....but even that could be anything?
Could they filter on IKE? ESP? AH? This baffles me, arguably no VPN sage....i'm currently muddling thru FreeSWAN; this is of interest...
Vinylone, the accidental buddhist...
Paypal doublebilled my CC, and it took me a TWO MONTHS for them to credit the right amount back to me. I ultimately did a whois on their domain, came up with some bizarre business name in CALIFORNIA, called and called that company and eventually I socially-engineered my way to a PayPal manager (damn, i'm good) and HOUNDED them till they sent my money back. I called at all hours of the day and let them know what I thought. I was pissed. Hey! I deal with Qwest and Verizon's frame groups all day (when a telecom vendor cries, an angel gets his wings....), so I can get a little direct.
There was NO procedure to rectify the situation in a timely fashion-they blamed their software, of all things.
I was double-billed over $500.
I will ***NEVER*** use Paypals again.
Vinylone.
Isn't the article author, John Markoff, surrounded by controversy regarding Kevin Mitnick? I seem somehow recalling that Mr. Markoff engaged in a betrayal... it seems like so long ago. I can't remember the details, but there are those I know who turn up their noses at the mention of his name, muttering that this guy hosed Mitnick pretty ruthlessly.. Regards, Eric
Did you say *spanking hardware*?
Ouch!
E.
It's raining like hell here in Boise, and there's Wormholes all over my lawn!
Halp!
Eric Lecht
"I do what I can, I work in the dark"
It would seem the whole thing boils down to the ol' First Law of Thermodynamocs: Things tend from order to disorder, and not the reverse. Seems the Open Source movement (whatever that is...) would bear this axiom out.
AAhh...
To me the continents would boil down to:
Open Source vs.
Corporate Control.
Diametrically opposed, sorta segueing into Karl Marx's thesis-antithesis-synthesis, the two worlds will battle irreconcilably forever. There is no reconciliation, especially considering that there's a disturbing trend toward power not really being solely consolidated politically, but power being insidiously co-opted by corporate concerns: i.e.The Bottom Line.
AAAhhh...fuggddaboutit.
When it comes down to it, aren't we all really anarchists? Think it over...natural monkeywrenchers.
Eric Lecht
vinylone
"Minds were made to be blown"
You seem quite the moron yourself, br4dh4x0r.
Then again, life is full of complete morons like yourself, your a dime a dozen. Have you ever had an intelligent thought in your life? Doubtful.
V.
I think a serious point being missed here in relation to John Katz's well-written dissetation on the issue is that the public Genome Project is currently being pursued in parallel by large private genetic research firms such as Genentech, and currently they are way ahead of the public entities involved, at least timeline-wise..
Currently Genentech is patenting EVERYTHING they can related to genome mapping as it relates to their own economic self-interest, which poses more immediate concerns: Will they then OWN the patents on anything related to the Human Genome? Will economic self-interest relegate products and cures derived from such research to whatever they may have slid past the US Patent Office?
THERE's your immediate concern.
NY Times had a WONDERFUL article on just that, earlier in the fall.
Eric Lecht
"I do what I can, I work in the Dark"