While biofuels aren't fossil fuels, they still present a huge list of problems. First, they're still hydrocarbons, so they still emit just as much CO2 into the atmosphere as burning coal or oil. Second, some people (myself included) believe that a biofuel-based economy is not sustainable. Biofuels like ethanol are produced with corn, which is also a food crop. If we suddenly switched all our fuels to ethanol, we wouldn't have enough food to eat. Add to that the fact that many resources are used in the growing and harvesting of corn, so ethanol is not an efficient replacement for fossil fuels.
Hydrogen COULD be used as a means of energy storage, except conversion from electricity to hydrogen is VERY inefficient. That's not to say we shouldn't try to research and improve the process, though.
I could be wrong (and probably am) but I thought that CO2 levels in the atmosphere had a pretty resilient natural equilibrium, and that if we weren't constantly pumping so damn much of the stuff up there it would fall down to semi-normal levels relatively quickly. I thought I remembered seeing something like this on NOVA or some other "educational" program.
I yield the floor to someone who knows more about this than I do. I'm actually pretty interested to know if someone out there has a good answer.
Sorry, I mangled my description. Others in the thread explained it much more clearly and accurately than I. What can I say, it's late, my brain is shutting down and slashdot won't let me edit my posts. I am error.
Base-load power is power that isn't dependent on uncontrollable factors. The way our current power system is built, the electricity that's powering your computer right now was probably generated only a few milliseconds ago at the power plant. When demand gets high, they can always throw more coal in the furnace, pull out some of the carbon rods, or run more water through the turbines. They can't dial up the wind or the sun when demand peaks. Sure, we could smooth out the peaks and valleys a bit with batteries, but the bottom line is that we can't build a robust power system based on something that could go away for days, even weeks at a time. I don't want to sound like I'm poo-pooing alternative power completely. They're terrific supplements, and I think we should be spending much more time and effort in researching and building them. It's possible that the power distribution could be designed to make them more practical, but I can't imagine a system that didn't have some sort of on-demand generation component as a part of it.
I don't disagree with your premise, but I do disagree with your use of the word "few." Online play is great, but I would warrant that a vast majority of online play is with random opponents. Even my regular online buddies are playing random people most of the time. I am in that NES generation you're talking about. Honestly, I think it's more fun to play with friends, and I prefer that mode, but with a job, wife and kids, I'm lucky to get in an hour of play every couple nights. Trying to schedule that with my friends who are in the exact same boat is a nightmare. I usually end up playing random people.
I believe I have a reasonably strong understanding of genetics, and I'd like to disagree with your premise. Yes, there is definitely an education component involved, and it's important to acknowledge that, however, intelligence is highly genetic. That doesn't mean you have to have smart parents to be smart, but it does mean that your level of intelligence is highly affected by what genetic ingredients you have in you. Remember 9th grade biology when you studied Mendel's pea plants? It's very possible from two tall plants (dominant) to product a short one. (recessive.) However, both tall plants must posses the recessive short gene. I think the point of the demonstration in the movie is that over long periods of time, that Trevor gene could eventually become less and less prominent, perhaps one day disappearing completely.
Now, I'm not necessarily advocating that we start sterilizing the stupid or anything, but it's incorrect to say that anyone, with the proper education, can become a Trevor. Personally, I believe that we are on a track towards a divergence in our evolution. (if we don't kill ourselves first) I'm talking hundreds or thousands of generations in the future, not anytime soon.
First off, your hostile response was an unnecessary reply to a thoughtful post. Clearly, the GP had thought out what he wanted to say, and while you may personally disagree with his philosophy, your personal insult to him doesn't contribute anything positive to this discussion.
Secondly, I work in a field which requires a lot of attention to security. While it may not be important to you, it IS the focus of this discussion and the article. Your post of "Well, security isn't important to me, so you're an idiot." is very shallow and shows a true lack of understanding as to why it's important. My customers are non-profit government agencies. They are required by law to have a high level of security, yet they do not have the budget to hire a high-end security specialist. Articles like these which point out said security flaws are invaluable. Many of my customers probably don't realize that these devices are insecure. (Note, I am NOT a security consultant. It's not my job to audit my thousands of customers to make sure they are up to code. I help out where I can, but I don't visit all of them every day.)
Finally, if you're going to make a belligerent post, make sure you know what you're talking about. There are MANY 2.4GHz wireless keyboard/mouse solutions that don't use Bluetooth. Most of these don't follow any rules and don't play nice with BT and WiFi. The GP post was dead-on in that respect, and I'm sure there are plenty of knowledgeable slashdot readers that could back that up. Yes, in the US there are 900MHz devices out there, but the GP wasn't talking about them, he was talking about the ones that are cheaply made and don't play nice with well-designed protocols. The airwaves are public domain, so when a cheaply made and poorly designed device starts blaring out interference, it's our right to be annoyed. Yes, the 2.4GHz spectrum is unregulated. (at least, in the US) Of course, I'm not required by law to be quiet during a movie, but I'm still an asshat if I don't.
Very interesting, and again, if you're talking about a 10 digit nuclear launch code, or (more realistically) 256-bit cryptographic keys used by government computers, it's probably worth the effort to make sure the thing's gone. They wouldn't have to or need to recover the entire key, for example. If you recovered some of the bits, you could brute force the remaining bits more easily. Not knowing which bits, if any, were correct would slow the process, but it would offer a huge advantage over random brute force attacks.
I believe that all life on Earth evolved from a common ancestor. I believe in natural selection. I don't think Darwin was a godless antichrist, and I support his Theory of Evolution.
However, I still believe in Genesis. If you read it with an open mind, not subject to literal interpretation, it's amazing how much science and religion agree and even compliment one another. In fact, for the sake of argument, let's say I was God, and I made a universe, and I made it EXACTLY as described by modern science. Now, let's say I was trying to describe it to a bunch of people living in tents that still crapped next to their dining areas. I think that I would write a book to explain the origin of life, and I think it would be a whole heck of a lot like the Bible. I wouldn't try to explain the concept of general relativity, string theory, or recombinant DNA in said book. It would be simple stories about things those tent-dwellers could relate to. Seriously, read the first chapter of Genesis and don't get hung up on terms like "day" and "spirit" and tell me how that doesn't match up with scientific theory. Imagine you're trying to explain modern science to a caveman.
However, I acknowledge that my belief in a greater power is not something I can prove, or something that can be subject to scientific analysis. Therefore, I don't go around calling what I believe science. It's philosophy, pure and simple. It's not testable, it's not reproducible, and most importantly, nobody can prove that it's incorrect.
I think what the ID movement did so wrong was to start calling their philosophy a science. They're trying to shoehorn it into a biology class, so they have to call it a science, but clearly it's not. Anything that can't be disproved isn't a science. So, why I think my ideas are neat and everything, I would want them taught in a science class. I'd want them put in with religion and philosophy where they belong.
Really, a single wipe with random data would *almost* do it. It would render the system unrecoverable, but my guess as to why the DOD requires 3 wipes is that if you're talking about nuclear launch codes, you'd only need to recover a few bytes of information to get very, very valuable data. If you knew exactly where to look, and knew exactly what you were looking for, it's conceivable that you could re-create the missing data based on residual magnetic signatures and complex mathematical analysis of the exact levels of magnetic field for each bit. There are many values between "on" and "off". It wouldn't be easy, but the KGB had a lot of resources dedicated to such follies.
I couldn't imagine even a determined individual could recover anything from a drive that's been wiped twice, but the DOD always tends to overdo everything, so thrice is the magic number. Anything more is just wearing out your magnetic media.
Firefox is a terrific product which I use and wholeheartedly endorse, but I think they have lost sight of their original intentions a bit. I originally started using Phoenix way back when because of the fast, simple interface. People have been so enamored with lots of pretty icons, plug-ins and add-ons, that in many cases, IE is a faster, leaner browser.::shudder:: I like many of the add-on features on more powerful systems, but I pine for a browser that I can run quickly and easily on low-end machines. I've ever once used a Firefox theme. The default one is just fine for me. I've heard rumors that FF3 is headed in that direction, and I just hope that they keep that focus. Maybe they could even have separate installations or installation options for low-end and high-end machines.
I wonder if they're part of, or getting kickbacks from Rapidshare? I'm hit with about 10,000 opportunities to get a premium rapidshare account when I click on the link at southparkzone.com. Could be a reason they aren't using BT...
I won't deny being skeptical about everything. To a fault. It drives my family and friends nuts. I'm still not convinced that they're not all figments of my imagination...
Generally, I don't disagree with your train of thought, however, what you consider a demonstrable advantage? Compared to the size of a single bee's brain, which is a known quantity, their hives are fantastically complex. Perhaps this is a result of their ability to communicate and think as a collective. Just because one dolphin doesn't teach another dolphin a trick doesn't mean he can't. Again, we don't really know what they're communicating in their complex series of clicks and beeps. Maybe one is telling the other "Hey, that guy just gave me a bunch of free fish to do a backflip. Don't do it, though, or else they'll imprison you and try to study you."
My point is that we need to keep an open mind. We can't just come out and say we're the best at communication when we really don't know what other species are trying to communicate. I'm not trying to assert that we aren't the best at communication. Maybe we are. But until we know for sure how everything works it's arrogant for us to assume these things. Who knows, maybe earthworms really rule the world and they're just toying with us, making us think that we're in charge. After all, we do provide them a steady diet of rotting human flesh when we bury our dead...
My company uses VZON, and I have no say in the matter. I have a kickass 4000 minute plan, plus unlimited data and TXT, and my company will purchase any phone I want once every two years. But with VZON, I'm consistently stuck with crap. I'd love to go to a provider like T-Mobile that more or less leaves their users alone. It's true that VZON provides unbeatable coverage and great call quality in my area, but I'd sacrifice a lot of that to get a phone that doesn't suck. The fastest EVDO network in the world still sucks on my Palm 700P.
Ah. I see. I misunderstood the intent of your original statement. Yes, my Verizon phone will function on Sprint's network, and vice-versa, using roaming. I cannot, however, activate a Sprint phone with my Verizon account. That's what irks me more than anything, not just about VZON, but the majority of the major carriers in general. To me, it seems a bit of a joke that a Sprint RZR can't be activated on a VZON account. They use identical hardware, but both companies have back-room deals with Motorola saying that the phones need to meet their specifications. Since VZON and Sprint have different specifications (namely different firmware and different OSes) the phones are not interchangeable. Even more, useful features are purposefully disabled or "left off" of phones because these companies want to protect their monopoly. My Palm 700p has bluetooth, and it has a fast Internet connection. I cannot, however, use it as a bluetooth modem. My GPS has bluetooth and it has the ability to get traffic updates over a bluetooth phone, but I can't use that feature. Although the feature would be trivial to include in the phone, since it already has the necessary hardware, VZON (as well as Sprint and Altell) have had the feature "unincluded" from the phone, because they want people to use Aircards in their PC's. Wifi is another feature that comes to mind. Palms had Wifi built into the OS, but the carriers insisted they leave it out of their Treo line for fear that people would use it for VoIP and stop using their minutes.
The free market is supposed to benefit the consumer. Why is it, then, that these features are commonplace on phones sold in other countries? I can get a better phone in socialist France or Communist China than in the USA.
Sorry for the offtopic soapbox rant. I'm tired of hearing how great the USA is when we're lagging behind in more and more areas. This problem is just an illustration of other areas where we're strangling ourselves creatively and economically, and my children and grandchildren are going to be the ones who pay for it.
Errr... Verizon, Sprint and Alltel all use CDMA phones that are compatible with each other's network without a problem. I had to reread your post a couple times just to make sure I wasn't mistaken. Have you ever actually taken a Sprint phone into a Verizon store and asked them to activate it? I have. Let's just say it's a no-go. Yes, they all use CDMA. Yes, the basic underlying technology is the same. No, you can't do it. Just because a manufacturer makes the same basic phone, for example the Moto RZR, for both Sprint and Verizon does not mean that the same phones can be used on different carriers. That is precisely what this whole thing is about. It's also why the best phones aren't available in the US. (compared to Asia and Europe)
I've run across a great many companies that operate like this. Unfortunately, most of them are small(ish) local businesses. Simple psychology. It's harder to screw someone over when you have to look them in the eye. I do, however, go to great lengths to work with those companies in my business.
IMHO, that's untrue. My company has used Verizon for years, and they are NOT becoming more friendly towards us. They have better PR people now, but they are just as much on the lookout for "revenue leak" as they've always been. Any company that treats their customer as opponents in some sort of battle for cash is not customer friendly. A good business deal should benefit both parties involved. That's not done by screwing your customers.
Any device that meets the minimum technical standard will be activated on the network That's a helluva loophole. It's possible that they just want to protect their network from rogue devices, but I think they could use that clause to deny a lot of devices. Also, the article mentions fees associated with testing. Are those fees geared towards the individual consumer or phone manufacturers? Hundreds or millions of dollars?
I'd like to be optimistic, but I've (unwillingly) been a Verizon customer for years, and I'd be surprised to see a leopard change its spots...
Bees can signal the location of flowers dozens of miles away to others in the hive. Dolphins can communicate the location and type of predator amongst themselves very effectively. Certain monkeys in Nigeria can re-arrange combinations of different sounds in different orders to communicate complex ideas. After centuries of study, we still have virtually no idea what's being communicated in whalesong.
How arrogant for we humans to assume that we are the only ones capable of "high level" communication when we don't even know what communications are going on in other species. Just because other species haven't built freeways, factories, nuclear weapons or prisons doesn't mean we're on a higher level than they are.
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While biofuels aren't fossil fuels, they still present a huge list of problems. First, they're still hydrocarbons, so they still emit just as much CO2 into the atmosphere as burning coal or oil. Second, some people (myself included) believe that a biofuel-based economy is not sustainable. Biofuels like ethanol are produced with corn, which is also a food crop. If we suddenly switched all our fuels to ethanol, we wouldn't have enough food to eat. Add to that the fact that many resources are used in the growing and harvesting of corn, so ethanol is not an efficient replacement for fossil fuels.
Hydrogen COULD be used as a means of energy storage, except conversion from electricity to hydrogen is VERY inefficient. That's not to say we shouldn't try to research and improve the process, though.
I could be wrong (and probably am) but I thought that CO2 levels in the atmosphere had a pretty resilient natural equilibrium, and that if we weren't constantly pumping so damn much of the stuff up there it would fall down to semi-normal levels relatively quickly. I thought I remembered seeing something like this on NOVA or some other "educational" program.
I yield the floor to someone who knows more about this than I do. I'm actually pretty interested to know if someone out there has a good answer.
Sorry, I mangled my description. Others in the thread explained it much more clearly and accurately than I. What can I say, it's late, my brain is shutting down and slashdot won't let me edit my posts. I am error.
Base-load power is power that isn't dependent on uncontrollable factors. The way our current power system is built, the electricity that's powering your computer right now was probably generated only a few milliseconds ago at the power plant. When demand gets high, they can always throw more coal in the furnace, pull out some of the carbon rods, or run more water through the turbines. They can't dial up the wind or the sun when demand peaks. Sure, we could smooth out the peaks and valleys a bit with batteries, but the bottom line is that we can't build a robust power system based on something that could go away for days, even weeks at a time. I don't want to sound like I'm poo-pooing alternative power completely. They're terrific supplements, and I think we should be spending much more time and effort in researching and building them. It's possible that the power distribution could be designed to make them more practical, but I can't imagine a system that didn't have some sort of on-demand generation component as a part of it.
I don't disagree with your premise, but I do disagree with your use of the word "few." Online play is great, but I would warrant that a vast majority of online play is with random opponents. Even my regular online buddies are playing random people most of the time. I am in that NES generation you're talking about. Honestly, I think it's more fun to play with friends, and I prefer that mode, but with a job, wife and kids, I'm lucky to get in an hour of play every couple nights. Trying to schedule that with my friends who are in the exact same boat is a nightmare. I usually end up playing random people.
I believe I have a reasonably strong understanding of genetics, and I'd like to disagree with your premise. Yes, there is definitely an education component involved, and it's important to acknowledge that, however, intelligence is highly genetic. That doesn't mean you have to have smart parents to be smart, but it does mean that your level of intelligence is highly affected by what genetic ingredients you have in you. Remember 9th grade biology when you studied Mendel's pea plants? It's very possible from two tall plants (dominant) to product a short one. (recessive.) However, both tall plants must posses the recessive short gene. I think the point of the demonstration in the movie is that over long periods of time, that Trevor gene could eventually become less and less prominent, perhaps one day disappearing completely.
Now, I'm not necessarily advocating that we start sterilizing the stupid or anything, but it's incorrect to say that anyone, with the proper education, can become a Trevor. Personally, I believe that we are on a track towards a divergence in our evolution. (if we don't kill ourselves first) I'm talking hundreds or thousands of generations in the future, not anytime soon.
First off, your hostile response was an unnecessary reply to a thoughtful post. Clearly, the GP had thought out what he wanted to say, and while you may personally disagree with his philosophy, your personal insult to him doesn't contribute anything positive to this discussion.
Secondly, I work in a field which requires a lot of attention to security. While it may not be important to you, it IS the focus of this discussion and the article. Your post of "Well, security isn't important to me, so you're an idiot." is very shallow and shows a true lack of understanding as to why it's important. My customers are non-profit government agencies. They are required by law to have a high level of security, yet they do not have the budget to hire a high-end security specialist. Articles like these which point out said security flaws are invaluable. Many of my customers probably don't realize that these devices are insecure. (Note, I am NOT a security consultant. It's not my job to audit my thousands of customers to make sure they are up to code. I help out where I can, but I don't visit all of them every day.)
Finally, if you're going to make a belligerent post, make sure you know what you're talking about. There are MANY 2.4GHz wireless keyboard/mouse solutions that don't use Bluetooth. Most of these don't follow any rules and don't play nice with BT and WiFi. The GP post was dead-on in that respect, and I'm sure there are plenty of knowledgeable slashdot readers that could back that up. Yes, in the US there are 900MHz devices out there, but the GP wasn't talking about them, he was talking about the ones that are cheaply made and don't play nice with well-designed protocols. The airwaves are public domain, so when a cheaply made and poorly designed device starts blaring out interference, it's our right to be annoyed. Yes, the 2.4GHz spectrum is unregulated. (at least, in the US) Of course, I'm not required by law to be quiet during a movie, but I'm still an asshat if I don't.
Very interesting, and again, if you're talking about a 10 digit nuclear launch code, or (more realistically) 256-bit cryptographic keys used by government computers, it's probably worth the effort to make sure the thing's gone. They wouldn't have to or need to recover the entire key, for example. If you recovered some of the bits, you could brute force the remaining bits more easily. Not knowing which bits, if any, were correct would slow the process, but it would offer a huge advantage over random brute force attacks.
I believe that all life on Earth evolved from a common ancestor. I believe in natural selection. I don't think Darwin was a godless antichrist, and I support his Theory of Evolution.
However, I still believe in Genesis. If you read it with an open mind, not subject to literal interpretation, it's amazing how much science and religion agree and even compliment one another. In fact, for the sake of argument, let's say I was God, and I made a universe, and I made it EXACTLY as described by modern science. Now, let's say I was trying to describe it to a bunch of people living in tents that still crapped next to their dining areas. I think that I would write a book to explain the origin of life, and I think it would be a whole heck of a lot like the Bible. I wouldn't try to explain the concept of general relativity, string theory, or recombinant DNA in said book. It would be simple stories about things those tent-dwellers could relate to. Seriously, read the first chapter of Genesis and don't get hung up on terms like "day" and "spirit" and tell me how that doesn't match up with scientific theory. Imagine you're trying to explain modern science to a caveman.
However, I acknowledge that my belief in a greater power is not something I can prove, or something that can be subject to scientific analysis. Therefore, I don't go around calling what I believe science. It's philosophy, pure and simple. It's not testable, it's not reproducible, and most importantly, nobody can prove that it's incorrect.
I think what the ID movement did so wrong was to start calling their philosophy a science. They're trying to shoehorn it into a biology class, so they have to call it a science, but clearly it's not. Anything that can't be disproved isn't a science. So, why I think my ideas are neat and everything, I would want them taught in a science class. I'd want them put in with religion and philosophy where they belong.
Really, a single wipe with random data would *almost* do it. It would render the system unrecoverable, but my guess as to why the DOD requires 3 wipes is that if you're talking about nuclear launch codes, you'd only need to recover a few bytes of information to get very, very valuable data. If you knew exactly where to look, and knew exactly what you were looking for, it's conceivable that you could re-create the missing data based on residual magnetic signatures and complex mathematical analysis of the exact levels of magnetic field for each bit. There are many values between "on" and "off". It wouldn't be easy, but the KGB had a lot of resources dedicated to such follies.
I couldn't imagine even a determined individual could recover anything from a drive that's been wiped twice, but the DOD always tends to overdo everything, so thrice is the magic number. Anything more is just wearing out your magnetic media.
C'mon... It's Saturday. I guess lame content is better than no content.
Firefox is a terrific product which I use and wholeheartedly endorse, but I think they have lost sight of their original intentions a bit. I originally started using Phoenix way back when because of the fast, simple interface. People have been so enamored with lots of pretty icons, plug-ins and add-ons, that in many cases, IE is a faster, leaner browser. ::shudder:: I like many of the add-on features on more powerful systems, but I pine for a browser that I can run quickly and easily on low-end machines. I've ever once used a Firefox theme. The default one is just fine for me. I've heard rumors that FF3 is headed in that direction, and I just hope that they keep that focus. Maybe they could even have separate installations or installation options for low-end and high-end machines.
OK, my bad. For some reason, I was convinced that southparkzone.com was the "official" viacom distribution site. Apparently, it is not...
So we'll see what comes up on the official site, which to the best of my knowledge, isn't up yet.
I wonder if they're part of, or getting kickbacks from Rapidshare? I'm hit with about 10,000 opportunities to get a premium rapidshare account when I click on the link at southparkzone.com. Could be a reason they aren't using BT...
I won't deny being skeptical about everything. To a fault. It drives my family and friends nuts. I'm still not convinced that they're not all figments of my imagination...
Generally, I don't disagree with your train of thought, however, what you consider a demonstrable advantage? Compared to the size of a single bee's brain, which is a known quantity, their hives are fantastically complex. Perhaps this is a result of their ability to communicate and think as a collective. Just because one dolphin doesn't teach another dolphin a trick doesn't mean he can't. Again, we don't really know what they're communicating in their complex series of clicks and beeps. Maybe one is telling the other "Hey, that guy just gave me a bunch of free fish to do a backflip. Don't do it, though, or else they'll imprison you and try to study you."
My point is that we need to keep an open mind. We can't just come out and say we're the best at communication when we really don't know what other species are trying to communicate. I'm not trying to assert that we aren't the best at communication. Maybe we are. But until we know for sure how everything works it's arrogant for us to assume these things. Who knows, maybe earthworms really rule the world and they're just toying with us, making us think that we're in charge. After all, we do provide them a steady diet of rotting human flesh when we bury our dead...
My company uses VZON, and I have no say in the matter. I have a kickass 4000 minute plan, plus unlimited data and TXT, and my company will purchase any phone I want once every two years. But with VZON, I'm consistently stuck with crap. I'd love to go to a provider like T-Mobile that more or less leaves their users alone. It's true that VZON provides unbeatable coverage and great call quality in my area, but I'd sacrifice a lot of that to get a phone that doesn't suck. The fastest EVDO network in the world still sucks on my Palm 700P.
Ah. I see. I misunderstood the intent of your original statement. Yes, my Verizon phone will function on Sprint's network, and vice-versa, using roaming. I cannot, however, activate a Sprint phone with my Verizon account. That's what irks me more than anything, not just about VZON, but the majority of the major carriers in general. To me, it seems a bit of a joke that a Sprint RZR can't be activated on a VZON account. They use identical hardware, but both companies have back-room deals with Motorola saying that the phones need to meet their specifications. Since VZON and Sprint have different specifications (namely different firmware and different OSes) the phones are not interchangeable. Even more, useful features are purposefully disabled or "left off" of phones because these companies want to protect their monopoly. My Palm 700p has bluetooth, and it has a fast Internet connection. I cannot, however, use it as a bluetooth modem. My GPS has bluetooth and it has the ability to get traffic updates over a bluetooth phone, but I can't use that feature. Although the feature would be trivial to include in the phone, since it already has the necessary hardware, VZON (as well as Sprint and Altell) have had the feature "unincluded" from the phone, because they want people to use Aircards in their PC's. Wifi is another feature that comes to mind. Palms had Wifi built into the OS, but the carriers insisted they leave it out of their Treo line for fear that people would use it for VoIP and stop using their minutes.
The free market is supposed to benefit the consumer. Why is it, then, that these features are commonplace on phones sold in other countries? I can get a better phone in socialist France or Communist China than in the USA.
Sorry for the offtopic soapbox rant. I'm tired of hearing how great the USA is when we're lagging behind in more and more areas. This problem is just an illustration of other areas where we're strangling ourselves creatively and economically, and my children and grandchildren are going to be the ones who pay for it.
I've run across a great many companies that operate like this. Unfortunately, most of them are small(ish) local businesses. Simple psychology. It's harder to screw someone over when you have to look them in the eye. I do, however, go to great lengths to work with those companies in my business.
I think you just hit the nail right between the eyes.
IMHO, that's untrue. My company has used Verizon for years, and they are NOT becoming more friendly towards us. They have better PR people now, but they are just as much on the lookout for "revenue leak" as they've always been. Any company that treats their customer as opponents in some sort of battle for cash is not customer friendly. A good business deal should benefit both parties involved. That's not done by screwing your customers.
I'd like to be optimistic, but I've (unwillingly) been a Verizon customer for years, and I'd be surprised to see a leopard change its spots...
Bees can signal the location of flowers dozens of miles away to others in the hive. Dolphins can communicate the location and type of predator amongst themselves very effectively. Certain monkeys in Nigeria can re-arrange combinations of different sounds in different orders to communicate complex ideas. After centuries of study, we still have virtually no idea what's being communicated in whalesong.
How arrogant for we humans to assume that we are the only ones capable of "high level" communication when we don't even know what communications are going on in other species. Just because other species haven't built freeways, factories, nuclear weapons or prisons doesn't mean we're on a higher level than they are.