I was on a WiFi SWA plane last week. It benchmarked at 5meg down and about 300k up. Ping time was ~800 ms.
I don't have the tracert anymore, but service on SWA is provided via http://www.row44.com/
All the US has is monopoly areas. That's because our fucked-up government handed out monopolies on phone service way back when, and "deregulation" doesn't help anything but picking who bills your phone service: all they do is "lease" your particular line from the company that owns it. Not true, not true at all. Deregulation has created competition in those places where there is money to be made; problem is that in most places people aren't willing to pay enough for their service for a new company to invest in infrastructure.
I know in little old Lubbock Texas you've got at 3 options for high speed internet access in 100% of the city:
ATT (DSL)
SuddenLink (cable)
eRF Wireless (fixed wireless)
On top of that you have:
NTS (local telco with their own routers and switches for delivering DSL via copper leased from ATT and their own fiber network to several neighborhoods (growing every day) with any bandwidth you're willing to pay for)
Xanadoo (not the best, but better than satellite)
Clearwire (pretty much same as Xanadoo)
So competition can work, the question is really a matter of is your community willing to pay for it?
It sounds like the facility was ordered to cut ALL power because of some fire chief's misguided fear that power flows backwards from a low-voltage source to a high-voltage one. I admit I don't know much about the engineering of this data center, but I'm pretty sure the "Y" junction where AC and generator power come together is going to be as close to the rack power as possible to avoid lossy transformation. It makes no sense why they would have 220 or 400 VAC generators running through the same high-voltage transformer when it would be far more efficient to have 120 or even 12VCD (if only servers would accept that). But I admit I could be wrong, and if it is a legit safety issue...then it's apparently a single point of failure for every data center out there because ThePlanet charged enough that they don't need to cut corners.
-JoeShmoe. I'm glad you admit you don't understand the engineering. As an EE let me assure you that EVERY data center has a single point of failure in its power system. The idea is to minimize the chance that anything could go wrong at that single point. Once walls are blown apart in an electrical room all the power distribution plans are completely shot and the only thing you can do that is safe for both humans and equipment (servers don't react well to 480v instead of 120v) is to shut everything down and go in with a meter to see what is connected to what. Explosions have a nasty habit of rewiring things in ways never intended (though commonly imagined and just as commonly never imagined).
As for the generators they are going to run as few 3 phase 480v "big" generators as they can because fewer generators are much more reliable than many generators AND they NEED all that power to keep everything including the AC up and running.
Seriously go with Alltel, Sprint, or Verizon. They all have networks that are faster than 3G depending on where you are (CDMA rocks). In the right cities I can pull 2meg from my Treo on Sprint's network.
I dont go by -my- definitions btw...just the definition of 95% of colleges.
Fair enough, I am just going by what I knew from my days in school which may not be much by todays standards considering I wasn't a CS student and back when (and where) I was in school the CS department was a subset of the EE department and I honestly don't think anyone really had a clue what to do with the CS students. Basically where I went to college CS was a kind of like EE lite, but with huge focus put on real world application of computers to solve problems.
Ahh, now I see. You and I have a differing opinion as to what CS is (or perhaps should be). I think of CS much like I think of EE. Its a degree in the real world applied computer sciences regardless of if that's programming, networking, applied math, etc. just like EE is a degree in pretty much everything that deals with electrons flowing from one point to another in the real world.
I think they are both extraordinarily broad degrees in which one could specialize in one (or more) niches. The unfortunate part for CS is that it is such an immature degree (no offense intended, just its new by educational standards) that there is not broad standardization between schools as to what should be taught to the CS students.
What you are describing would best be called "Applied Math" and probably should be under the pervue of the Math department. No different from "Applied Physics" which is taking physics from acadedemia to the real world.
I do agree with you, CS should be split into at least two degree programs regardless of what you call them.
I'd think any CS student that might be hire-able upon graduation better be able to handle a small business network, basic Excel stuff, basic database stuff, and basic website stuff by the end of their sophomore year...
Out of curiosity I just asked a co-worker of mine (who will graduate in a few weeks) at what point he thought a CS student would be able to do all of the above, he said end of freshman year and followed up with that anyone in the CS degree program should have at least hobbiest level knowledge/skills in all of the above areas.
Please understand I don't think our hypothetical student working for our hypothetical business is going to whip out a full database system for the company in a week's time, but the student should be able to hack out CS/IT related projects for a small business without much trouble even if it takes way more working hours to accomplish it than it "should" by industry standards...
I guess in the end I find it a bit sad that there might be as many people as you indicate getting into a field they have only a passing interest in. A point to the original poster, make sure you are figuring out who you are and what you LOVE to do... whatever it is you plan to make a career of you need to love doing it. Work should not be simply a method of getting $$$ it should be enjoyable... or as my father used to say, you should find a job where while you're driving to work you catch yourself saying to yourself "Man, I can't believe they pay me to do this!"
Also, just for the record, my degree is in EE; I didn't (and still don't) have enough love of computers to pursue a CS degree, but I'd rank myself at hobbiest or better in the CS field.
True, you do need to have the skills, but if you don't should you be going into the CS field?
Also, I didn't mean to imply one would be doing big complex analysis of some algorithms for a small company, but rather that small companies have "wish lists" full of things someone skilled in CS could easily accomplish. There were two things that went along with that; the wish lists won't keep anyone busy 40 hrs a week (a good thing while you're in school because you don't have 40 hrs a week for work) and the small company probably can't afford to pay someone with a CS degree. That said, someone with a few semesters of CS that has some skills can work out a win-win with the company, the company gets to pay less (because you don't have a degree) and the student gets to make more (compared to flipping burgers).
The guy with real job experience and a degree from a no-name school ranks higher than the guy with no real job experience and a degree from the #1 school in the country... presuming they are both qualified to do the work of course. (just my 2c though).
As a side note, I did most of what I suggested as well and was a minority among my peers. Most of them thought it was odd that towards graduation when we were all looking for jobs my resume listed my degree, GPA, and graduation date dead last and my work experience first. Interestingly enough most of my interaction with prospective employers skipped right over that first interview with the HR idiot that doesn't have a clue and jumped straight to mid level management and engineers who wanted me on their staff...
HBut for the very first when you don't have experience aside internships? Sure does matter. At least, if you want to have all of the doors wide open.
So go get some experience while your still in college!
Any college town will have a small (read 50 employees or less) business that needs the occasional skills of a CS guy, but doesn't have the money to pay a CS guy nor do they have enough work to keep one busy 40 hours a week. GO WORK FOR THEM WHILE YOU ARE IN SCHOOL. Work in the real world as a real employee means 1000% more than interning for even a big company, unless you go to work for the same big company you interned with. Please don't read this as me saying don't go intern, DO GO INTERN, but also get some real work experience while you're still in school.
I promise a resume that has a decent GPA for your major, an internship or two, and shows that you were the entire CS department for a small business while you were in school will mean a heck of a lot. Not to mention the real world experience does much more to temper the pure academia that school gives you than any internship.
Oh, and one other note, do not go to work for a small business and then only work for them for a semester; you need to show a couple of years with them to show that you didn't just screw off while you were being paid for your skills.
In the real world the piece of paper you receive from a college is just that, a piece of paper. At best it lets a potential employer know that you are capable of finishing what you start, but so do a lot of other things.
Unless your dream life is 40 years sitting in a cubicle never interacting with another human which college you go to, and for that matter largely which degree you have, doesn't actually matter one bit.
If I was actively looking to hire a programmer I'd take the person who most appeared to be able to 1) fit in as part of our team 2) learn and adapt and 3) do the job. I'd pick the person based on my opinion of them in that order.
Basically what I'm getting at is that largely the advice here is spot on. The piece of paper from whatever college helps you get your first job after graduation, after you get that first job no one will ever care again.
There is a simple question to your seemingly simple question; In Japan did criminals possess firearms? The answer, of course, is yes.
With that said, what makes you think that passing a law to take any object away from criminals will actually result in the criminals not possessing that object?
I think its safe to assume that the majority of the population is mostly law abiding and possesses the same basic moral beliefs (don't murder, don't rape, don't steal, etc). So if we assume that the majority of the population has the same moral beliefs then isn't it also safe to assume that in general if you give a gun to the average citizen he might use it to stop another person from violating those same basic moral beliefs?
If you stop playing politics and look at the change in violent crime rates vs concealed carry laws you'll find that most of the time the violent crime rate goes down when citizens are given the right to carry concealed firearms and the rate goes up when that right is taken away.
As to the thousands affected by this; my thoughts and prayers are with you all.
There's a difference between fact and truth. I'm sure all of those quotes are legit (no I don't have time to check), but out of context and assembled correctly these "factual" quotes sure don't add up to any semblance of truth.
Too bad the left's desire for power out weighs all else. Just once I'd like to see a liberal do the RIGHT thing, not the PC thing. I know it will never happen, after all the entire liberal campaign is "Hey at least we're not republican" and not being something is nothing to brag about... I guess you have to have a backbone to stand for anything.
They didn't like their old contract (hence why they tried to push a modified one off on me), yes I could have told them too damn bad as they had another 15 months of obligation according to that contract, but I was tired of their shitty service anyway so why would I want to stay in that contract? They didn't like the contract and neither did I so it was decided that my contract could just become null and void.
Maybe I should have phrased it a bit differently... Both parties can at any time mutually decide to terminate any contract in the US... BOTH and MUTUAL...
In my example Cingular was no longer happy with the contract, it just so happened that I was also no longer happy with the contract. Up to this point Cingular had not done anything that would have allowed me to terminate my contract as they never promised (in my contract) that my cell phone would work. So ya I could have forced them to keep to the old contact, but that wouldn't have made much sense. I had already been looking for a way to get out of it without penalty.
I should probably also note that I had to go through 2 levels of customer service before I found someone who actually knew anything about contract law. The first couple of people told me that I didn't have a choice, this is BS and I treated it as such. The third person I talked to told me Cingular didn't want to keep anyone using the old contract so if the new one was unacceptable then they requested we terminate the contract without any penalties. She was intelligent enough not to tell me I had to terminate, just that Cingular would prefer that I did terminate.
As a side note, the only change they made to the contract was a clause that they could modify the contract at any time in the future without any notice to me and that I automatically accepted any such modifications. That clause wouldn't hold up in any court in the US, but you'll see it alot in contracts, just because it won't hold water doesn't mean they won't try. Alot of people will be shown that clause later and think that they have no recourse... In the US ignorance of the law is common and many companies use that to their advantage... Ever seen one of those signs at the car wash stating they're not responsible for damage to your car while they're washing it, guess what, they are responsible, always will be, but most of the people with claims will see that sign and drop their complaints.
Actually US contract law is on our side on this one (not the big comany).
Any time a contract is updated the party updating the contract (you or the company) is required to give 30 days written notice of the intended change. If the new terms are not agreeable then one of two things can happen, 1) the party who updated the contract can keep the original signed contract in force, 2) both parties can decide to terminate the original signed contract (THIS MUST BE MUTUAL).
I got out of my POS Cingular cell phone this way, they mailed me a revised contract and I called them on it. The decided they'd rather loose my business than keep our original contract in force, thanks and good ridance to the worst cell phone company I've ever used.
Just keep in mind there is more to a good or great country than "social achievement".
Everyone has different feelings and wants different things. I'm not aware of a country that meets my personal wants better than the USA.
As a single example there are some who love living in a socialist society where medical care is... "free"... I'd rather pay my doctor and be free to make my own decisions.
The Palm in my phone is great, add simple AC/DC voltmeter and 0-20mA DC ammeter and then if I could just unscrew the tip of the stylus and have a scredriver, and uhh.. I'd have a brick phone... and that would destroy the geeky cool factor...
Keep in mind that the "professionals" never gave into the far inferior (larger physical size, lower quality video, lower storage capacity - all this at the time BETA essentially died in the "home" market) VHS standard.
Have you ever seen a TV camera with a VHS tape in it? They're all BETA, hence why you can still buy BETA.
Think the movie industry is going to stop pressing discs and start burning? Nope, not a chance. What's that mean? Its a "home" market, not a mixed (home and pro) market.
What's this all mean? That just like the original CD formats, only one DVD format will survive and it might not be + or -.
OK let me get this straight... If I don't own a home phone its irresponsible because I might not be able to report an emergancy. I've been wireless for about 5 years now and have gone through virtually every cell company out there and my guestimate would be that the best of the best you get at least 99% (probably 99.9%) of your calls through on the first try, on the worst of the worst I'd say its still at least 90% that go through on the first try.
Now using this same "logic" its also irresponsible for me to not have a cell phone because I can't report traffic accidents or old guys falling over from heart attacks when not at home.
Come on guys, phones (wired or wireless) are NOT a neccessary utility. They are a convinence. No one will die because they didn't have a phone or their phone stopped working, its not a life-line, but ya given the right circumstances it can help to save a life... course in the right circumstances a fast car, fast boat, pocket knife, and gun can also help save a life... Guess its irresponsible not to carry your gun and drive a fast car...
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I was on a WiFi SWA plane last week. It benchmarked at 5meg down and about 300k up. Ping time was ~800 ms. I don't have the tracert anymore, but service on SWA is provided via http://www.row44.com/
I know in little old Lubbock Texas you've got at 3 options for high speed internet access in 100% of the city:
ATT (DSL)
SuddenLink (cable)
eRF Wireless (fixed wireless)
On top of that you have: NTS (local telco with their own routers and switches for delivering DSL via copper leased from ATT and their own fiber network to several neighborhoods (growing every day) with any bandwidth you're willing to pay for)
Xanadoo (not the best, but better than satellite)
Clearwire (pretty much same as Xanadoo)
So competition can work, the question is really a matter of is your community willing to pay for it?
Seriously go with Alltel, Sprint, or Verizon. They all have networks that are faster than 3G depending on where you are (CDMA rocks). In the right cities I can pull 2meg from my Treo on Sprint's network.
Yes, EE is electrical engineering.
I dont go by -my- definitions btw...just the definition of 95% of colleges.Fair enough, I am just going by what I knew from my days in school which may not be much by todays standards considering I wasn't a CS student and back when (and where) I was in school the CS department was a subset of the EE department and I honestly don't think anyone really had a clue what to do with the CS students. Basically where I went to college CS was a kind of like EE lite, but with huge focus put on real world application of computers to solve problems.
Ahh, now I see. You and I have a differing opinion as to what CS is (or perhaps should be). I think of CS much like I think of EE. Its a degree in the real world applied computer sciences regardless of if that's programming, networking, applied math, etc. just like EE is a degree in pretty much everything that deals with electrons flowing from one point to another in the real world.
I think they are both extraordinarily broad degrees in which one could specialize in one (or more) niches. The unfortunate part for CS is that it is such an immature degree (no offense intended, just its new by educational standards) that there is not broad standardization between schools as to what should be taught to the CS students.
What you are describing would best be called "Applied Math" and probably should be under the pervue of the Math department. No different from "Applied Physics" which is taking physics from acadedemia to the real world.
I do agree with you, CS should be split into at least two degree programs regardless of what you call them.
I'd think any CS student that might be hire-able upon graduation better be able to handle a small business network, basic Excel stuff, basic database stuff, and basic website stuff by the end of their sophomore year...
Out of curiosity I just asked a co-worker of mine (who will graduate in a few weeks) at what point he thought a CS student would be able to do all of the above, he said end of freshman year and followed up with that anyone in the CS degree program should have at least hobbiest level knowledge/skills in all of the above areas.
Please understand I don't think our hypothetical student working for our hypothetical business is going to whip out a full database system for the company in a week's time, but the student should be able to hack out CS/IT related projects for a small business without much trouble even if it takes way more working hours to accomplish it than it "should" by industry standards...
I guess in the end I find it a bit sad that there might be as many people as you indicate getting into a field they have only a passing interest in. A point to the original poster, make sure you are figuring out who you are and what you LOVE to do... whatever it is you plan to make a career of you need to love doing it. Work should not be simply a method of getting $$$ it should be enjoyable... or as my father used to say, you should find a job where while you're driving to work you catch yourself saying to yourself "Man, I can't believe they pay me to do this!"
Also, just for the record, my degree is in EE; I didn't (and still don't) have enough love of computers to pursue a CS degree, but I'd rank myself at hobbiest or better in the CS field.
True, you do need to have the skills, but if you don't should you be going into the CS field?
Also, I didn't mean to imply one would be doing big complex analysis of some algorithms for a small company, but rather that small companies have "wish lists" full of things someone skilled in CS could easily accomplish. There were two things that went along with that; the wish lists won't keep anyone busy 40 hrs a week (a good thing while you're in school because you don't have 40 hrs a week for work) and the small company probably can't afford to pay someone with a CS degree. That said, someone with a few semesters of CS that has some skills can work out a win-win with the company, the company gets to pay less (because you don't have a degree) and the student gets to make more (compared to flipping burgers).
The guy with real job experience and a degree from a no-name school ranks higher than the guy with no real job experience and a degree from the #1 school in the country... presuming they are both qualified to do the work of course. (just my 2c though).
As a side note, I did most of what I suggested as well and was a minority among my peers. Most of them thought it was odd that towards graduation when we were all looking for jobs my resume listed my degree, GPA, and graduation date dead last and my work experience first. Interestingly enough most of my interaction with prospective employers skipped right over that first interview with the HR idiot that doesn't have a clue and jumped straight to mid level management and engineers who wanted me on their staff...
So go get some experience while your still in college!
Any college town will have a small (read 50 employees or less) business that needs the occasional skills of a CS guy, but doesn't have the money to pay a CS guy nor do they have enough work to keep one busy 40 hours a week. GO WORK FOR THEM WHILE YOU ARE IN SCHOOL. Work in the real world as a real employee means 1000% more than interning for even a big company, unless you go to work for the same big company you interned with. Please don't read this as me saying don't go intern, DO GO INTERN, but also get some real work experience while you're still in school.
I promise a resume that has a decent GPA for your major, an internship or two, and shows that you were the entire CS department for a small business while you were in school will mean a heck of a lot. Not to mention the real world experience does much more to temper the pure academia that school gives you than any internship.
Oh, and one other note, do not go to work for a small business and then only work for them for a semester; you need to show a couple of years with them to show that you didn't just screw off while you were being paid for your skills.
In the real world the piece of paper you receive from a college is just that, a piece of paper. At best it lets a potential employer know that you are capable of finishing what you start, but so do a lot of other things.
Unless your dream life is 40 years sitting in a cubicle never interacting with another human which college you go to, and for that matter largely which degree you have, doesn't actually matter one bit.
If I was actively looking to hire a programmer I'd take the person who most appeared to be able to 1) fit in as part of our team 2) learn and adapt and 3) do the job. I'd pick the person based on my opinion of them in that order.
Basically what I'm getting at is that largely the advice here is spot on. The piece of paper from whatever college helps you get your first job after graduation, after you get that first job no one will ever care again.
There is a simple question to your seemingly simple question; In Japan did criminals possess firearms? The answer, of course, is yes.
With that said, what makes you think that passing a law to take any object away from criminals will actually result in the criminals not possessing that object?
I think its safe to assume that the majority of the population is mostly law abiding and possesses the same basic moral beliefs (don't murder, don't rape, don't steal, etc). So if we assume that the majority of the population has the same moral beliefs then isn't it also safe to assume that in general if you give a gun to the average citizen he might use it to stop another person from violating those same basic moral beliefs?
If you stop playing politics and look at the change in violent crime rates vs concealed carry laws you'll find that most of the time the violent crime rate goes down when citizens are given the right to carry concealed firearms and the rate goes up when that right is taken away.
As to the thousands affected by this; my thoughts and prayers are with you all.
Looks like its a http://www.valuweb.com/ web site... hope they got the $200/month plan
[rant]
There's a difference between fact and truth. I'm sure all of those quotes are legit (no I don't have time to check), but out of context and assembled correctly these "factual" quotes sure don't add up to any semblance of truth.
Too bad the left's desire for power out weighs all else. Just once I'd like to see a liberal do the RIGHT thing, not the PC thing. I know it will never happen, after all the entire liberal campaign is "Hey at least we're not republican" and not being something is nothing to brag about... I guess you have to have a backbone to stand for anything.
[/rant]
They didn't like their old contract (hence why they tried to push a modified one off on me), yes I could have told them too damn bad as they had another 15 months of obligation according to that contract, but I was tired of their shitty service anyway so why would I want to stay in that contract? They didn't like the contract and neither did I so it was decided that my contract could just become null and void.
Maybe I should have phrased it a bit differently... Both parties can at any time mutually decide to terminate any contract in the US... BOTH and MUTUAL...
In my example Cingular was no longer happy with the contract, it just so happened that I was also no longer happy with the contract. Up to this point Cingular had not done anything that would have allowed me to terminate my contract as they never promised (in my contract) that my cell phone would work. So ya I could have forced them to keep to the old contact, but that wouldn't have made much sense. I had already been looking for a way to get out of it without penalty.
I should probably also note that I had to go through 2 levels of customer service before I found someone who actually knew anything about contract law. The first couple of people told me that I didn't have a choice, this is BS and I treated it as such. The third person I talked to told me Cingular didn't want to keep anyone using the old contract so if the new one was unacceptable then they requested we terminate the contract without any penalties. She was intelligent enough not to tell me I had to terminate, just that Cingular would prefer that I did terminate.
As a side note, the only change they made to the contract was a clause that they could modify the contract at any time in the future without any notice to me and that I automatically accepted any such modifications. That clause wouldn't hold up in any court in the US, but you'll see it alot in contracts, just because it won't hold water doesn't mean they won't try. Alot of people will be shown that clause later and think that they have no recourse... In the US ignorance of the law is common and many companies use that to their advantage... Ever seen one of those signs at the car wash stating they're not responsible for damage to your car while they're washing it, guess what, they are responsible, always will be, but most of the people with claims will see that sign and drop their complaints.
Any time a contract is updated the party updating the contract (you or the company) is required to give 30 days written notice of the intended change. If the new terms are not agreeable then one of two things can happen, 1) the party who updated the contract can keep the original signed contract in force, 2) both parties can decide to terminate the original signed contract (THIS MUST BE MUTUAL).
I got out of my POS Cingular cell phone this way, they mailed me a revised contract and I called them on it. The decided they'd rather loose my business than keep our original contract in force, thanks and good ridance to the worst cell phone company I've ever used.
Everyone has different feelings and wants different things. I'm not aware of a country that meets my personal wants better than the USA.
As a single example there are some who love living in a socialist society where medical care is ... "free" ... I'd rather pay my doctor and be free to make my own decisions.
The Palm in my phone is great, add simple AC/DC voltmeter and 0-20mA DC ammeter and then if I could just unscrew the tip of the stylus and have a scredriver, and uhh.. I'd have a brick phone... and that would destroy the geeky cool factor...
Only if your net worth is $250,000.00
You just almost got that... Everything is bigger AND BETTER in Texas. Makes a lot more sense when you don't edit it :-)
So bigger screens, bigger drives, bigger, bigger, bigger, until we get to weight and then lets stick with better...
Have you ever seen a TV camera with a VHS tape in it? They're all BETA, hence why you can still buy BETA.
Think the movie industry is going to stop pressing discs and start burning? Nope, not a chance. What's that mean? Its a "home" market, not a mixed (home and pro) market.
What's this all mean? That just like the original CD formats, only one DVD format will survive and it might not be + or -.
Now using this same "logic" its also irresponsible for me to not have a cell phone because I can't report traffic accidents or old guys falling over from heart attacks when not at home.
Come on guys, phones (wired or wireless) are NOT a neccessary utility. They are a convinence. No one will die because they didn't have a phone or their phone stopped working, its not a life-line, but ya given the right circumstances it can help to save a life... course in the right circumstances a fast car, fast boat, pocket knife, and gun can also help save a life... Guess its irresponsible not to carry your gun and drive a fast car...