rare to have the data that maps Cell ID's to locations for every cell tower in a country
I'd expect that data to be readily available at some point in the cellular system. Otherwise, how would they route an incoming call to a cell phone to the proper tower? As you move, your phone continuously 'checks in' with the nearest towers. Depending on the definition of 'where cell phone users go around the globe', that will probably satisfy most nosey governments.
If they need better resolution, they could craft a special SMS message tha would not cause your phone to display any activity, but would provide an acknowledgement with triangulation data to the message originator.
As far as knowing where the cell towers are; in the USA that's a matter of public record.
All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
for military contractors, the paper works is EXPENSIVE!, last I heard, space-X wasn't interested in paying that freight.
Good. That whole system was set up as a protection racket run by the likes of Boeing, Lockheed and its ilk.
Pentagon wants to buy some technology by a small outfit? Fine. Order it on line, just like everyone else does. Pentagon says, "Boo hoo! We can't do it that way. You have to fill out this truckload of paper. Or sell through one of the big contractors." (Who are just office building full of paper pushers set up to re-brand Chinese technology and pass it on as their own with a big markup.) Small firm says, "Screw the big contractors. Go on line and order it just like everyone else."
Chinese army wants to order the same tech. Gets told to go on line and order it. No problem. Paid in full through PayPal. Send us the hardware.
Won't happen. If it even comes close, Congress and the Pentagon will bail them out by allowing them to buy Boeing. Just like McDonnell Douglas did when they lost the JSF contract.
I wonder how the wineries made out. I toured a few of them a couple of years ago. At one place, they had their barrels stacked and kept from rolling only with wooden wedges tapped into place between them. I asked the guide if that was a problem during earthquakes. His response was, "We never get earthquakes here."
when the money is abroad, it is being invested abroad,
Perhaps there's more stuff abroad worth buying. Its all about ROI and customers. And it appears that it is becoming more profitable to sell and invest overseas.
One can only hope. And that's the major problem that people have with our tax laws. Corporations can game the system. Individuals cannot. One way or another, lets all work with the same set of rules.
People want either less corruption or more opportunities to participate in it.
do you prefer to deal with locals, or the county or the state........ or do you REALLY want to go contact your congressman and hassle with the federal government?
I want the federal government to step in and protect my city or county's ability to build the infrastructure that the people want. That means (in this case) the FCC stepping in and throwing out state regulations prohibiting municipal broadband.
What we want in Seattle should not be dictated by a New York corporation.
I can take you on several tours of coal mining effects where the land was stripped, and left as is. Yes, the people who had those mineral rights exercised them. But then they just declared bankruptcy, and walked away, The land is ruined, along with the local streams. Kinda looks like Mars, with a few scrubby trees that can handle the acid.
Because the mining industry helped write the regulations under which they operate. Promise us that, after you are done, you'll clean up after yourself. No fair crossing your fingers. And that couldn't have happened without the collusion of the political entity regulating them.
Simple solution. Do like the banking industry does: You want to mine? You pay into an escow restoration fund. When the mine is finished you can either walk away from your account, which will be used for cleanup. Or you can fix it yourself and get your money back.
Will this ever happen? No. Not because the industry only has their own interests to pursue. But because the politicians we elect and the bureaucrats they hire to oversee the industry have their own special interests to put before the public good. Want to fix the problem? We can't go after a bankrupt business. But we can throw a few politicians in prison. And we can go after those pet interests of the politicians.
The best (most profitable) customer is the one that can be bullied into puting up with your bullshit. The demanding ones, the ones who know how the service should work and cause trouble when it doesn't measure up are worth getting rid of.
So yeah, maybe we need to take a long hard look at consequenses when we build these things.
You build them to code or walk away. That doesn't take months to settle. What takes months is the extraction of favors from anyone who wants do do anything by the political machinery.
... and no investments were made. Business had its chance to shit or get off the pot. And we didn't get shit. So now it looks like municipal investment or nothing.
If the GOP is intent on stopping that, then I guess we should say that the GOP is a barrier to future infrastructure investment. And the solution is to prevent a Republican led anything.
Permits, environmental impact statements, public hearings. And heaven help you if construction frightens a kangaroo rat. The entire project will have to be abandoned.
In fact, they probably are quietly applauding the court's decision. Because the IRS.
The Internal Revenue Service frequently nit-picks employee reimbursement and compensation decisions to death. Pay some key personnel for expenses incurred and some auditor will nit-pick the decision to death. Taxable, not taxable. Reasonable business expense vs discretionary employee benefit. Screw it. The courts has ruled. We have to pay our employees. So you lousy auditors can crawl back into your rat-holes and stay out of private business decisions.
Slashdot Mirror
I think my ISP is blocking email from American Commitment's domain.
Of course, that should be OK with Koch. After all, its capitalism, and ISPs can decide who gets to use their facilities unilaterally.
Now stop using it in the bathroom. That's just gross.
Particularly that third stall from the end.
rare to have the data that maps Cell ID's to locations for every cell tower in a country
I'd expect that data to be readily available at some point in the cellular system. Otherwise, how would they route an incoming call to a cell phone to the proper tower? As you move, your phone continuously 'checks in' with the nearest towers. Depending on the definition of 'where cell phone users go around the globe', that will probably satisfy most nosey governments.
If they need better resolution, they could craft a special SMS message tha would not cause your phone to display any activity, but would provide an acknowledgement with triangulation data to the message originator.
As far as knowing where the cell towers are; in the USA that's a matter of public record.
you can actually hear the PA system clearly with noise-cancelling headphones instead of just screaming children
FTFY.
Pratt and Whitney was supposed to (and is licensed to) produce the RD-180 in the US.
Contract language to that effect? If so, they failed to like up to the terms.
All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
for military contractors, the paper works is EXPENSIVE!, last I heard, space-X wasn't interested in paying that freight.
Good. That whole system was set up as a protection racket run by the likes of Boeing, Lockheed and its ilk.
Pentagon wants to buy some technology by a small outfit? Fine. Order it on line, just like everyone else does. Pentagon says, "Boo hoo! We can't do it that way. You have to fill out this truckload of paper. Or sell through one of the big contractors." (Who are just office building full of paper pushers set up to re-brand Chinese technology and pass it on as their own with a big markup.) Small firm says, "Screw the big contractors. Go on line and order it just like everyone else."
Chinese army wants to order the same tech. Gets told to go on line and order it. No problem. Paid in full through PayPal. Send us the hardware.
they should be driven into bankruptcy
Won't happen. If it even comes close, Congress and the Pentagon will bail them out by allowing them to buy Boeing. Just like McDonnell Douglas did when they lost the JSF contract.
I wonder how the wineries made out. I toured a few of them a couple of years ago. At one place, they had their barrels stacked and kept from rolling only with wooden wedges tapped into place between them. I asked the guide if that was a problem during earthquakes. His response was, "We never get earthquakes here."
but when there's an ROI penalty of -30% for moving the money back into the USA,
You missed my point. That money is never coming back.
If you don't like the rules and want to live somewhere else then fine,
Which is basically what Microsoft did with some of its revenue producing operations. They moved to Ireland and became Irish companies.
when the money is abroad, it is being invested abroad,
Perhaps there's more stuff abroad worth buying. Its all about ROI and customers. And it appears that it is becoming more profitable to sell and invest overseas.
One can only hope. And that's the major problem that people have with our tax laws. Corporations can game the system. Individuals cannot. One way or another, lets all work with the same set of rules.
People want either less corruption or more opportunities to participate in it.
do you prefer to deal with locals, or the county or the state........ or do you REALLY want to go contact your congressman and hassle with the federal government?
I want the federal government to step in and protect my city or county's ability to build the infrastructure that the people want. That means (in this case) the FCC stepping in and throwing out state regulations prohibiting municipal broadband.
What we want in Seattle should not be dictated by a New York corporation.
disassembly
Implies it can be reassembled again.
I can take you on several tours of coal mining effects where the land was stripped, and left as is. Yes, the people who had those mineral rights exercised them. But then they just declared bankruptcy, and walked away, The land is ruined, along with the local streams. Kinda looks like Mars, with a few scrubby trees that can handle the acid.
Because the mining industry helped write the regulations under which they operate. Promise us that, after you are done, you'll clean up after yourself. No fair crossing your fingers. And that couldn't have happened without the collusion of the political entity regulating them.
Simple solution. Do like the banking industry does: You want to mine? You pay into an escow restoration fund. When the mine is finished you can either walk away from your account, which will be used for cleanup. Or you can fix it yourself and get your money back.
Will this ever happen? No. Not because the industry only has their own interests to pursue. But because the politicians we elect and the bureaucrats they hire to oversee the industry have their own special interests to put before the public good. Want to fix the problem? We can't go after a bankrupt business. But we can throw a few politicians in prison. And we can go after those pet interests of the politicians.
The best (most profitable) customer is the one that can be bullied into puting up with your bullshit. The demanding ones, the ones who know how the service should work and cause trouble when it doesn't measure up are worth getting rid of.
Thank you, sir. May I have another?
Yep.
Low test scores correlate with low income. Low income correlates with not affording premium services.
So yeah, maybe we need to take a long hard look at consequenses when we build these things.
You build them to code or walk away. That doesn't take months to settle. What takes months is the extraction of favors from anyone who wants do do anything by the political machinery.
They could just move them here.
"We have met the enemy and he is us." -- Walt Kelly
If the GOP is intent on stopping that, then I guess we should say that the GOP is a barrier to future infrastructure investment. And the solution is to prevent a Republican led anything.
California
Permits, environmental impact statements, public hearings. And heaven help you if construction frightens a kangaroo rat. The entire project will have to be abandoned.
In fact, they probably are quietly applauding the court's decision. Because the IRS.
The Internal Revenue Service frequently nit-picks employee reimbursement and compensation decisions to death. Pay some key personnel for expenses incurred and some auditor will nit-pick the decision to death. Taxable, not taxable. Reasonable business expense vs discretionary employee benefit. Screw it. The courts has ruled. We have to pay our employees. So you lousy auditors can crawl back into your rat-holes and stay out of private business decisions.