Why do you all bother with individual state taxes anyway?
I was in Chicago in January and as an experiment, I went to 3 different McDonalds in different parts of the city and was charged 3 different amounts for the same exact meals. And that's just in the same city (almost within walking distance of each other - by which I mean a couple of km, not every other block), forget going down to Indiana or in to Michigan and getting charged differently still. It's so annoying I can't even find the words!
Why not just have the same rates for taxation nationwide? It would make accounting and everything SO much easier! After all, the name of the country is the UNITED States, but they're not really very united, it would seem, since everybody wants to be different in their own little worlds.
Sure, it might mean that tax revenue by state will shift on favour of some states and less in favour of some others, but who cares, really, since at the end of the day, the main reason will be population density, so the federal spend per capita will end up being approximately the same, excepting the differences in the cost of living (but even that would end up balancing itself out). And as an added bonus, you *might* even end up with less disparity. Who knows.
As to why Americans fear and hate Socialism, many of us have been thoroughly indoctrinated about the supposed evils of it. It's called "moral hazard". Socialism leads to welfare queens, to lazy deadbeats who just lie about doing nothing constructive (such as posting on Slashdot?) because they don't have to work, they need only collect the next welfare check.
Be you posting as if that is actually you're opinion? If so, it's a fucking lie, and you know it.
If not, well, as you've probably figured out by now, while it may be what Americans are taught, but it doesn't mean it's even remotely close to correct.
My experience is thus: so-called "welfare queens" and "lazy deadbeats" are just as common (if not more so) in your United States of so on and so forth than they are in any of the "socialist" countries mentioned. And as a citizen of one of those countries, oh my god... hells teeth... I really can't believe the number of FAT, LAZY people with way too many kids - even in the somewhat moderate state I'm currently visiting. But it causes me so much anger that I just want to kick them off of their mobility scooters (and no, I'm not even in Florida, Texas or California!!)
Alternatively, if one must participate in these things, one could have something like LastPass generate and store the password for you so that if the employer asks for it, one could legitimately say "I don't actually know my Facebook password".
Well. Here in India, Internet and cable TV use wires hanging between buildings, and have done so for decades. Theft is not really a problem.
Oh, but it is. And not just of the copper, but also of the switches and repeaters and pretty much everything that's not nailed down - and some of the stuff that is nailed down.
The cheapest wireless internet we have is 256 kbps at $5 a month. That's quite adequate for everything but video. $10 for 1 mbps wired.
The important thing is for everyone to with the most basic literacy to be able to afford unmetered Internet *access*. Higher bandwidth is much less important. Upper tiers just get used for entertainment and are not critical.
While understandable if all you do is check your emails and slashdot, yeah, fine, 1mbit/s or even 256kbit/s might be fine... and there are definitely a lot of people who agree with you. But there are uses for high-speed Internet other than entertainment!
Additionally, the case for unmetered (I presume you mean unlimited as in "can max it out 24x7") in a country like India isn't really there because that's what they do. Higher speeds mean things get done faster, not to mention that it is overall better for the network if the thing isn't running at 95% capacity all the time.
I feel that making basic Internet access at limited bandwidth (256 kbps is fine, 1mbps is better if we are to target online education), available as free as radio waves or water, is a better goal than 20 for 20 by 20.
If the current spectrum sales are any clue, radio waves are very much *not* free, and the amount my society pays for water when the city can't supply suggests that, sadly, neither is the water.
The problem of giving away free *anything* in India is that the system often gets abused. As such, the telcos may be right to assume the same about super-cheap or free Internet - that is to say, *everyone* would sign up for the "free" plan and/or scam more than they deserve - it happens with other things already for it would just be another day at the office in that respect.
Plus, the deployment cost is huge (considering telcos pay a whole lot more to lay cable than the electric companies do) which makes it very difficult even when you're charging for the service sometimes...
The way it's done in other countries is that public libraries and such have free wifi and/or sometimes computer terminals. Not so many facilities like that in India but even if there were, the problem would be keeping such facilities clean - especially in a city like Mumbai.
Mauritius Telecom (AS23889 http://bgp.he.net/AS23889) has far more diversity - connecting to Tata, Telecom Italia, France Telecom, Telekom Malaysia and TTN Vietnam.
Seems like you're trying to elicit some kind of retaliative response.
I've already answered your question about who sells in MBps (nobody). Also, just because Windows and Mac say something, doesn't make it right - they also measure in ^2 for hard-drive sizes which are sold in ^10 - but do you ever tell someone you have a 936GB hard drive? No, you don't.
Consistency is the key factor here and in the original posts, not only were you not being consistent, you were stating the incorrect units - 3 times in 1 sentence - and then try to fob it off as a typo.
Also, I'm still not Indian, no matter how much you seem to insist that I am. And I think everyone would agree, the insults are not really necessary or justified - not to me, nor to anyone else, although based on your post history, it seems as though this is not the first incident of you simply being rude to people.
Other than that, please re-read my previous answers and kindly bugger off. Thanks (also: any future response from you will only be replied with the line "Cool story bro, TL;DR")
1. I know the difference between racism and xenophobia... but do you? You're not exhibiting an irrational dislike of me because I'm foreign, you're specifically calling me an "Indian idiot", thus distinguishing a dislike of a particular race, even though I'm personally not a member of it. As such, racism. 2. I'm not Indian. Get it right or bugger off. 3. Can't count, huh? Cite evidence. I counted 3 posts from you in *this thread* (http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3492827&cid=43004729) prior to my getting involved, posts outside the scope of the that one notwithstanding. 4. I wasn't *trying* to solve anything - I was questioning your use of the units of measurement in your post. 5. It does not concern you as to why I might be "poking my nose in to Mauritian matters". The mistake you have made is not unique to any one country, so this is really not relevant. 6. My employment visa would say otherwise - I am a resident of India, pay tax in India - so even though I am not a citizen nor of Indian descent, I'm pretty sure I live in India.
In any case, I've come to the conclusion that something is wrong with you. So... do us all a favour and allow me to cease participation in your nonsense because it seems that all you seem prepared to do is insult everyone who says anything in your direction. Thanks.
1. Nobody does, but then, I'm not the one failing to distinguish units properly in all 3 of the postings relevant to this particular argument. 2. Sorry, but no, your conversation does not have "more Mbps" - note that in the post http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3492827&cid=43079231 I gave 2 examples, not just one - and in one of the sentences you'd made the mistake at least 3 times. As such, it is *not* clear that this is a typo. In fact, one might even agree that I'm not simply only being pedantic, either. 3. Apparently you can't read. I've already told you I'm not Indian. If you want to be racist, at least get my race right. 4. I wasn't trying to achieve anything in my reply - I was merely wondering aloud if you were making a mistake which, frankly, many people make, which is to mix up the units either by accident or because they don't understand the difference because nobody has properly explained it to them - many customers simply are not aware of the difference between bits and bytes (or MBps/Mbps) and just because this is Slashdot I'm not necessarily inclined to take for granted that you are any different from any of them.
There was no need for you to get all offended, much less go name calling to both myself and simpleguy when we separately corrected you on different issues, thereby suggesting that - vishnu forbid - you might be wrong. In future, perhaps you should be gracious and accept that people are trying to be helpful by pointing minor errors out, even if they might be sounding a little condescending (this is Slashdot, after all). Now, you can think I'm an idiot all you like (actually, you're reminding me of someone who went to an IIT - with the god complex and "I'm always right" thing even when demonstrably wrong which is why I refuse to hire IITans) but it doesn't make simpleguy or myself any less right - or you any less wrong. Something simpleguy has already pointed out to you, I might add.
Now, if you want a diagnosis, you have a big attitude problem, and you need to tone it down and not get all hoity at people. And if you want a solution to your speed issues with Mauritius Telecom, change. You have the choice, and it has been pointed out to you that they are no longer a monopoly on international traffic, and that EMTel seems to deliver fairly consistent speeds. That is all.
And by Mbps and MBps of course I'm referring to bits (as advertised) and bytes (as your computer displays). Very common mistake which based on the context it has been used in your posts, is one that you appear to be making when you're writing things like:
ADSL sold as a 1 Mbps only delivers 30 KB/s in real terms during the day
When you could/should instead use the same unit of measurement for both: say something like "ADSL sold as 1Mbps only delivers ~256kbps in real terms during the day - unless you're appearing to make it *seem* like it's worse than it is.
And then you have gems like:
...you list "upto 4 MBps"... BT Broadband sells upto 24 MBps ADSL packages... get 5-8 MBps...
Firstly, I'm not Indian, I just live and work there. Secondly, I *did* read the whole conversation, hence the comment. I'm not the one making the mistake of mixing Mbps with MBps, please re-read your own posts. Thirdly, learn some manners. I should hope you don't go around your island calling people dummies and idiots as you have done to myself and simpleguy - if you do, I'm surprised that you don't get slapped in the face on a daily basis.
He will be given a trial based on American laws, when he was a German citizen doing business in New Zealand. The idea that US law applies to him at all is simply unconscionable.
Wasn't he operating servers in Virginia?
IIRC his company was Hong Kong based, not New Zealand based. The *new* company is NZ based though.
Inclined to agree with echnaton192 - even without a significant amount of knowledge in German, the spaces between the dollar signs and in f * ck are a fairly clear indicator of ye olde Google Translate;)
Dear dear me, please tell me that Tasha26 isn't making that all-too-common mistake of mixing up bits and bytes ("on a 1 MBps package, I get pathetic speeds during daytime from 10 KB/s to 30 KB/s")... what do you reckon, simpleguy?
(Granted, whether a 97% or a 70% reduction in speed the quality of his service isn't good, but, we get customers confusing the terminology **all the time** and we have to explain that their computer - rather stupidly - measures download speeds using a different unit than the one that we sell them - and probably everyone working for an ISP has the same problem).
I do this too. I've had this exact same thing happen myself, although fortunately not too frequently - maybe once a year.
Easiest thing is to reset your email address in their database to a new alternative, block the old one at the server and be done, because sending them proof that you've received spam to that email address is one thing (wow, you got spam, didn't come from us) but telling them "But yes, YOU AND ONLY YOU had this email address on your records, therefore you've been compromised because I didn't sign up to Royal Jordanian Airways with the same email address I would use to sign up to Twitter"... is another matter entirely.
India is like this too. Except the cable operators are actual goons, not the semi-"civilized" folks you have in the USA who play within the rules of law (or at least bend the rules) - we get to deal with beatings and deaths, among other issues.
In most of Europe: No caps, whatsoever. This is considered the norm for the most part. In some parts of Europe and South-East Asia: Gigabit is available (usually around 99 euros in Europe or like $50 in Asia - in HK it was US$27 last time I checked) In parts of Europe/SEA where Gigabit isn't available, 100mbit/s is pretty cheap. Even in Australia, 1TB (either on DSL or NBN) costs just AUD$99....so while you may pay $32 for 50/10 with 23ms latency (which is AWFUL by the way - I can ping Google in under 3ms on my connection in India thank you very much - or even on a stock-standard DSL connection in NZ I can ping 300-400miles away in 23ms - so if you're on fiber, something's wrong with it), uhh... yeah... anyway, MOST providers in the United States have caps or awful speeds or both.
I was in Michigan last week and most of that state almost seems to be an Internet black-hole. Illinois Internet isn't that great either (at least not what I was able to find in Chicago - the best seemed to be Comcast). Right now I'm in Latin America but in a couple of weeks I'll be in Florida checking out Internets there - and frankly, I'm not expecting much. Even parts of the Middle-East are eating your country for breakfast when it comes to HSI.
Oh how I wish I had mod points. Americans have been asking me why I travel around with such a shitty laptop (my answer: I don't want to travel with my good one in case I get anal-probed and robbed by the TSA/DHS/etc).
Slashdot Mirror
Something like this was featured on "Dara O'Briain: Science Club" - I think it was episode 3 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01p39dw
Why do you all bother with individual state taxes anyway?
I was in Chicago in January and as an experiment, I went to 3 different McDonalds in different parts of the city and was charged 3 different amounts for the same exact meals. And that's just in the same city (almost within walking distance of each other - by which I mean a couple of km, not every other block), forget going down to Indiana or in to Michigan and getting charged differently still. It's so annoying I can't even find the words!
Why not just have the same rates for taxation nationwide? It would make accounting and everything SO much easier! After all, the name of the country is the UNITED States, but they're not really very united, it would seem, since everybody wants to be different in their own little worlds.
Sure, it might mean that tax revenue by state will shift on favour of some states and less in favour of some others, but who cares, really, since at the end of the day, the main reason will be population density, so the federal spend per capita will end up being approximately the same, excepting the differences in the cost of living (but even that would end up balancing itself out). And as an added bonus, you *might* even end up with less disparity. Who knows.
As to why Americans fear and hate Socialism, many of us have been thoroughly indoctrinated about the supposed evils of it. It's called "moral hazard". Socialism leads to welfare queens, to lazy deadbeats who just lie about doing nothing constructive (such as posting on Slashdot?) because they don't have to work, they need only collect the next welfare check.
Be you posting as if that is actually you're opinion? If so, it's a fucking lie, and you know it.
If not, well, as you've probably figured out by now, while it may be what Americans are taught, but it doesn't mean it's even remotely close to correct.
My experience is thus: so-called "welfare queens" and "lazy deadbeats" are just as common (if not more so) in your United States of so on and so forth than they are in any of the "socialist" countries mentioned. And as a citizen of one of those countries, oh my god... hells teeth... I really can't believe the number of FAT, LAZY people with way too many kids - even in the somewhat moderate state I'm currently visiting. But it causes me so much anger that I just want to kick them off of their mobility scooters (and no, I'm not even in Florida, Texas or California!!)
Scandinavia and the Baltics. That is all.
Some universities and businesses do this already with things like this http://www.bradfordnetworks.com/network_sentry
Alternatively, if one must participate in these things, one could have something like LastPass generate and store the password for you so that if the employer asks for it, one could legitimately say "I don't actually know my Facebook password".
Wish I had mod points today, but alas.
> Reason being copper theft. It's big deal.
Well. Here in India, Internet and cable TV use wires hanging between buildings, and have done so for decades. Theft is not really a problem.
Oh, but it is. And not just of the copper, but also of the switches and repeaters and pretty much everything that's not nailed down - and some of the stuff that is nailed down.
The cheapest wireless internet we have is 256 kbps at $5 a month. That's quite adequate for everything but video. $10 for 1 mbps wired.
The important thing is for everyone to with the most basic literacy to be able to afford unmetered Internet *access*. Higher bandwidth is much less important. Upper tiers just get used for entertainment and are not critical.
While understandable if all you do is check your emails and slashdot, yeah, fine, 1mbit/s or even 256kbit/s might be fine... and there are definitely a lot of people who agree with you. But there are uses for high-speed Internet other than entertainment!
Additionally, the case for unmetered (I presume you mean unlimited as in "can max it out 24x7") in a country like India isn't really there because that's what they do. Higher speeds mean things get done faster, not to mention that it is overall better for the network if the thing isn't running at 95% capacity all the time.
I feel that making basic Internet access at limited bandwidth (256 kbps is fine, 1mbps is better if we are to target online education), available as free as radio waves or water, is a better goal than 20 for 20 by 20.
If the current spectrum sales are any clue, radio waves are very much *not* free, and the amount my society pays for water when the city can't supply suggests that, sadly, neither is the water.
The problem of giving away free *anything* in India is that the system often gets abused. As such, the telcos may be right to assume the same about super-cheap or free Internet - that is to say, *everyone* would sign up for the "free" plan and/or scam more than they deserve - it happens with other things already for it would just be another day at the office in that respect.
Plus, the deployment cost is huge (considering telcos pay a whole lot more to lay cable than the electric companies do) which makes it very difficult even when you're charging for the service sometimes...
The way it's done in other countries is that public libraries and such have free wifi and/or sometimes computer terminals. Not so many facilities like that in India but even if there were, the problem would be keeping such facilities clean - especially in a city like Mumbai.
No they don't - Emtel (AS30999 http://bgp.he.net/AS30999) connects solely to Belgacom.
Mauritius Telecom (AS23889 http://bgp.he.net/AS23889) has far more diversity - connecting to Tata, Telecom Italia, France Telecom, Telekom Malaysia and TTN Vietnam.
Also, Emtel peers at MIXP but MT doesn't.
Says the person spamming my twitter feed and making stuff up. Honestly, some people.
Seems like you're trying to elicit some kind of retaliative response.
I've already answered your question about who sells in MBps (nobody). Also, just because Windows and Mac say something, doesn't make it right - they also measure in ^2 for hard-drive sizes which are sold in ^10 - but do you ever tell someone you have a 936GB hard drive? No, you don't.
Consistency is the key factor here and in the original posts, not only were you not being consistent, you were stating the incorrect units - 3 times in 1 sentence - and then try to fob it off as a typo.
Also, I'm still not Indian, no matter how much you seem to insist that I am. And I think everyone would agree, the insults are not really necessary or justified - not to me, nor to anyone else, although based on your post history, it seems as though this is not the first incident of you simply being rude to people.
Other than that, please re-read my previous answers and kindly bugger off. Thanks (also: any future response from you will only be replied with the line "Cool story bro, TL;DR")
1. I know the difference between racism and xenophobia... but do you? You're not exhibiting an irrational dislike of me because I'm foreign, you're specifically calling me an "Indian idiot", thus distinguishing a dislike of a particular race, even though I'm personally not a member of it. As such, racism.
2. I'm not Indian. Get it right or bugger off.
3. Can't count, huh? Cite evidence. I counted 3 posts from you in *this thread* (http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3492827&cid=43004729) prior to my getting involved, posts outside the scope of the that one notwithstanding.
4. I wasn't *trying* to solve anything - I was questioning your use of the units of measurement in your post.
5. It does not concern you as to why I might be "poking my nose in to Mauritian matters". The mistake you have made is not unique to any one country, so this is really not relevant.
6. My employment visa would say otherwise - I am a resident of India, pay tax in India - so even though I am not a citizen nor of Indian descent, I'm pretty sure I live in India.
In any case, I've come to the conclusion that something is wrong with you. So... do us all a favour and allow me to cease participation in your nonsense because it seems that all you seem prepared to do is insult everyone who says anything in your direction. Thanks.
1. Nobody does, but then, I'm not the one failing to distinguish units properly in all 3 of the postings relevant to this particular argument.
2. Sorry, but no, your conversation does not have "more Mbps" - note that in the post http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3492827&cid=43079231 I gave 2 examples, not just one - and in one of the sentences you'd made the mistake at least 3 times. As such, it is *not* clear that this is a typo. In fact, one might even agree that I'm not simply only being pedantic, either.
3. Apparently you can't read. I've already told you I'm not Indian. If you want to be racist, at least get my race right.
4. I wasn't trying to achieve anything in my reply - I was merely wondering aloud if you were making a mistake which, frankly, many people make, which is to mix up the units either by accident or because they don't understand the difference because nobody has properly explained it to them - many customers simply are not aware of the difference between bits and bytes (or MBps/Mbps) and just because this is Slashdot I'm not necessarily inclined to take for granted that you are any different from any of them.
There was no need for you to get all offended, much less go name calling to both myself and simpleguy when we separately corrected you on different issues, thereby suggesting that - vishnu forbid - you might be wrong. In future, perhaps you should be gracious and accept that people are trying to be helpful by pointing minor errors out, even if they might be sounding a little condescending (this is Slashdot, after all). Now, you can think I'm an idiot all you like (actually, you're reminding me of someone who went to an IIT - with the god complex and "I'm always right" thing even when demonstrably wrong which is why I refuse to hire IITans) but it doesn't make simpleguy or myself any less right - or you any less wrong. Something simpleguy has already pointed out to you, I might add.
Now, if you want a diagnosis, you have a big attitude problem, and you need to tone it down and not get all hoity at people. And if you want a solution to your speed issues with Mauritius Telecom, change. You have the choice, and it has been pointed out to you that they are no longer a monopoly on international traffic, and that EMTel seems to deliver fairly consistent speeds. That is all.
And by Mbps and MBps of course I'm referring to bits (as advertised) and bytes (as your computer displays). Very common mistake which based on the context it has been used in your posts, is one that you appear to be making when you're writing things like:
ADSL sold as a 1 Mbps only delivers 30 KB/s in real terms during the day
When you could/should instead use the same unit of measurement for both: say something like "ADSL sold as 1Mbps only delivers ~256kbps in real terms during the day - unless you're appearing to make it *seem* like it's worse than it is.
And then you have gems like:
...you list "upto 4 MBps" ... BT Broadband sells upto 24 MBps ADSL packages ... get 5-8 MBps ...
(truncated for emphasis)
Firstly, I'm not Indian, I just live and work there.
Secondly, I *did* read the whole conversation, hence the comment. I'm not the one making the mistake of mixing Mbps with MBps, please re-read your own posts.
Thirdly, learn some manners. I should hope you don't go around your island calling people dummies and idiots as you have done to myself and simpleguy - if you do, I'm surprised that you don't get slapped in the face on a daily basis.
He will be given a trial based on American laws, when he was a German citizen doing business in New Zealand. The idea that US law applies to him at all is simply unconscionable.
Wasn't he operating servers in Virginia?
IIRC his company was Hong Kong based, not New Zealand based. The *new* company is NZ based though.
Inclined to agree with echnaton192 - even without a significant amount of knowledge in German, the spaces between the dollar signs and in f * ck are a fairly clear indicator of ye olde Google Translate ;)
Dear dear me, please tell me that Tasha26 isn't making that all-too-common mistake of mixing up bits and bytes ("on a 1 MBps package, I get pathetic speeds during daytime from 10 KB/s to 30 KB/s")... what do you reckon, simpleguy?
(Granted, whether a 97% or a 70% reduction in speed the quality of his service isn't good, but, we get customers confusing the terminology **all the time** and we have to explain that their computer - rather stupidly - measures download speeds using a different unit than the one that we sell them - and probably everyone working for an ISP has the same problem).
I do this too. I've had this exact same thing happen myself, although fortunately not too frequently - maybe once a year.
Easiest thing is to reset your email address in their database to a new alternative, block the old one at the server and be done, because sending them proof that you've received spam to that email address is one thing (wow, you got spam, didn't come from us) but telling them "But yes, YOU AND ONLY YOU had this email address on your records, therefore you've been compromised because I didn't sign up to Royal Jordanian Airways with the same email address I would use to sign up to Twitter"... is another matter entirely.
India is like this too. Except the cable operators are actual goons, not the semi-"civilized" folks you have in the USA who play within the rules of law (or at least bend the rules) - we get to deal with beatings and deaths, among other issues.
...how hard have you looked?
In most of Europe: No caps, whatsoever. This is considered the norm for the most part. ...so while you may pay $32 for 50/10 with 23ms latency (which is AWFUL by the way - I can ping Google in under 3ms on my connection in India thank you very much - or even on a stock-standard DSL connection in NZ I can ping 300-400miles away in 23ms - so if you're on fiber, something's wrong with it), uhh... yeah... anyway, MOST providers in the United States have caps or awful speeds or both.
In some parts of Europe and South-East Asia: Gigabit is available (usually around 99 euros in Europe or like $50 in Asia - in HK it was US$27 last time I checked)
In parts of Europe/SEA where Gigabit isn't available, 100mbit/s is pretty cheap.
Even in Australia, 1TB (either on DSL or NBN) costs just AUD$99.
I was in Michigan last week and most of that state almost seems to be an Internet black-hole. Illinois Internet isn't that great either (at least not what I was able to find in Chicago - the best seemed to be Comcast). Right now I'm in Latin America but in a couple of weeks I'll be in Florida checking out Internets there - and frankly, I'm not expecting much. Even parts of the Middle-East are eating your country for breakfast when it comes to HSI.
TWC is wrong. That is all.
No mod-points today, but right on!
I'm told Mexican mothers work equally well.
Oh how I wish I had mod points. Americans have been asking me why I travel around with such a shitty laptop (my answer: I don't want to travel with my good one in case I get anal-probed and robbed by the TSA/DHS/etc).
'merica. Yeahhhhh.