I like to turn this around a bit when I come across Americans (I'm Australian). I'm always happy to have a chat with international visitors, but I can never resist acting a little dumb when people mention they're from the US. I reply, 'America? I've heard of that. That's right, it's south of Canada!'
I don't think it would be a good idea to try to connect every station, township and run down cattle farm in Australia with fibre. Don't they live in the bush to get away from it all?
No, they live in the bush because city folk don't like living next door to several hundred head of cattle or herds of sheep being driven up the street. And a hundred hectares of burning wheat stubble is sure to upset the neighbours.
That said, most farms I have had anything to do with are run by thoroughly modern people. For all the stereotypes getting around farmers are early adopters of new technology. Have you ever seen a header cropping wheat and guided by GPS? Or a robotic dairy?
Your average farm these days is a well oiled business that needs the same access to communications as the next. How are farmers supposed to do their banking? They can't run into town every other day. No, just like you they do it all electronically. When their tractors need new parts, do they take it down to the local mechanic who just happens to have it in stock? No, they email a photo of the part to the John Deere rep who has the part couriered off within the hour. When you need your tractor, you need your tractor. And how do you get the vital stats on bull scrota come AI season? Wait for the catalogue in the mail?[1]
And let's not forget the rest of the family. If the children aren't within cooee of a bricks and mortar school, how do you suggest they learn? School of the Air's great, but internet plus radio is far better than just radio. And I'm sure their need for on demand p2p and YouTube is no different to the average townie.
Admittedly this is a little unusual, but I have a friend who runs a small farm. His wife has IT degrees coming out the wazoo, but they live five hours drive away from anywhere she can use them. Despite that, she has a six figure job that is done predominantly over the internet. That particular connection isn't great -- she's got a pretty fat pipe coming into the house via satellite, but the uplink is via a very intermittent 28.8 kbps dial-up. That can be really frustrating, especially when her boss needs those commits yesterday.
The idea of the bush being very lightly populated is true, depending on what you mean by bush. 'The bush' doesn't simply mean the Simpson Desert -- if you were to go to Orange[2] and drove twenty minutes in any direction you'd pass through several towns without access to piped gas or running water. These areas are only lightly populated, but they do service the bread, meat and milk basket for most Australians. As such, why should we presume they don't need reliable, fast and comparatively cheap internet access?
[1]Okay, fair enough -- that's how they do it, not to mention the travelling salesmen hawking their wares. But studs are starting to publish stats on line.
[2]I've never been to Orange, but if it's a typical 'regional centre' of between 20 and 50 thousand people, I'm pretty sure my point stands!
I asked a constitutional lawyer once about the mechanism by which NZ could ever become a state of Australia, but she never got back to me. However that turns out cricket would never be the same again.
Seriously moderators, this needs to be modded + 1 Insightful -- don't even think about a 'Funny' mod. If they spent half the effort installing the infrastructure they guaranteed to give us as they do complaining about how they shouldn't have to keep their promises we'd have had fibre to the door of Uluru Tuesday last week.
My knowledge of Asian politics and geography is a little hazy, and I haven't read TFA, but the summary says that fossils come from Mongolia. So if these are coming out of China, the researchers must have taken them there first...
The third participant in the conversation is usually Carol. That's what she wants you to think. If Carol signed her messages Cathy would find spoofing her address much harder.
Unless, of course, a British archeologist has outdone the entire technical expertise of the NSA and CIA. But that would make them look pretty much like bumbling civil servants rather than the sleuthing savants that we are led to believe they are.
So... you believe him then?
An old workmate of mine taught me to do this. Actually, he had it perfected before email became so widespread.
Whenever anything came in the mail he would turn the paper shredder on and open the envelope. If the contents weren't obviously important he would shred it. That included anything from head office. Once in a while he'd get a phone call asking where such and such a form was. He'd tell the person on the other end that he'd shredded it because it didn't seem important, so they'd better fax him another one. When it came he'd process it and fax it straight back.
The curious thing was that after six months head office would only send him stuff that was actually important, and he had more time to do real work than the rest of us.
Unfortunately there are a lot of people here who think they're lawyers because they see a lot of legal drama on TV. Unfortunately it's all American, and even then I'm pretty sure the legal stuff going on doesn't pass legal muster anyway.
As for me, I learnt the law by reading/.
Slashdot Mirror
Of course, if you're talking about transporting an atom of Jumbonium you might want to reconsider.
After the turds Kath and Kim have been turning out this year, I wish it was them and they'd been arrested without bail.
...don't have sex. It's not hard.D'uh. Not having sex isn't a problem when it's not hard.
Yep, the military earned it's pay that day.
I like to turn this around a bit when I come across Americans (I'm Australian). I'm always happy to have a chat with international visitors, but I can never resist acting a little dumb when people mention they're from the US. I reply, 'America? I've heard of that. That's right, it's south of Canada!'
I'm yet to be disappointed with the reaction.
The real sign of bad journalism is the /. at the beginning of the article.
Unfortunately I have no way to find out. It seems they don't have the phone on.
Dude, I've been posting here for years and I never thought to use RANDOM CAPITALISATION to make my posts more readable. I always just
put paragraph breaks in odd places instead.
No, they live in the bush because city folk don't like living next door to several hundred head of cattle or herds of sheep being driven up the street. And a hundred hectares of burning wheat stubble is sure to upset the neighbours.
That said, most farms I have had anything to do with are run by thoroughly modern people. For all the stereotypes getting around farmers are early adopters of new technology. Have you ever seen a header cropping wheat and guided by GPS? Or a robotic dairy?
Your average farm these days is a well oiled business that needs the same access to communications as the next. How are farmers supposed to do their banking? They can't run into town every other day. No, just like you they do it all electronically. When their tractors need new parts, do they take it down to the local mechanic who just happens to have it in stock? No, they email a photo of the part to the John Deere rep who has the part couriered off within the hour. When you need your tractor, you need your tractor. And how do you get the vital stats on bull scrota come AI season? Wait for the catalogue in the mail?[1]
And let's not forget the rest of the family. If the children aren't within cooee of a bricks and mortar school, how do you suggest they learn? School of the Air's great, but internet plus radio is far better than just radio. And I'm sure their need for on demand p2p and YouTube is no different to the average townie.
Admittedly this is a little unusual, but I have a friend who runs a small farm. His wife has IT degrees coming out the wazoo, but they live five hours drive away from anywhere she can use them. Despite that, she has a six figure job that is done predominantly over the internet. That particular connection isn't great -- she's got a pretty fat pipe coming into the house via satellite, but the uplink is via a very intermittent 28.8 kbps dial-up. That can be really frustrating, especially when her boss needs those commits yesterday.
The idea of the bush being very lightly populated is true, depending on what you mean by bush. 'The bush' doesn't simply mean the Simpson Desert -- if you were to go to Orange[2] and drove twenty minutes in any direction you'd pass through several towns without access to piped gas or running water. These areas are only lightly populated, but they do service the bread, meat and milk basket for most Australians. As such, why should we presume they don't need reliable, fast and comparatively cheap internet access?
[1]Okay, fair enough -- that's how they do it, not to mention the travelling salesmen hawking their wares. But studs are starting to publish stats on line.
[2]I've never been to Orange, but if it's a typical 'regional centre' of between 20 and 50 thousand people, I'm pretty sure my point stands!
That really depends on your reading of Point Six in the Preamble to the Australian Constitution
I asked a constitutional lawyer once about the mechanism by which NZ could ever become a state of Australia, but she never got back to me. However that turns out cricket would never be the same again.
Seriously moderators, this needs to be modded + 1 Insightful -- don't even think about a 'Funny' mod. If they spent half the effort installing the infrastructure they guaranteed to give us as they do complaining about how they shouldn't have to keep their promises we'd have had fibre to the door of Uluru Tuesday last week.
My knowledge of Asian politics and geography is a little hazy, and I haven't read TFA, but the summary says that fossils come from Mongolia. So if these are coming out of China, the researchers must have taken them there first...
I too am glad that /. doesn't have a webcam facility.
No, the flood lasted for 150 days (Genesis 7:24). The rain that caused the flood lasted for forty days and forty nights.
Of course, the biblical story of the flood is an amalgamation of at least two separate stories, so there is certainly room for movement there.
I, for one, would like to see the tuatara version of a Lucy Liu-bot.
That would be "Execute Rectangle Kill". How is that not intuitive?
I always thought Emacs was a little scary. Now I can see why!
So... you believe him then?
An old workmate of mine taught me to do this. Actually, he had it perfected before email became so widespread.
Whenever anything came in the mail he would turn the paper shredder on and open the envelope. If the contents weren't obviously important he would shred it. That included anything from head office. Once in a while he'd get a phone call asking where such and such a form was. He'd tell the person on the other end that he'd shredded it because it didn't seem important, so they'd better fax him another one. When it came he'd process it and fax it straight back.
The curious thing was that after six months head office would only send him stuff that was actually important, and he had more time to do real work than the rest of us.
Of course, he didn't have Slashdot, either.
Unfortunately there are a lot of people here who think they're lawyers because they see a lot of legal drama on TV. Unfortunately it's all American, and even then I'm pretty sure the legal stuff going on doesn't pass legal muster anyway. As for me, I learnt the law by reading /.
Not to mention that pleading the Fifth in Australia makes you look as stupid as hell.
I do know someone who tried this. The judge adjourned the hearing immediately and refused to continue until she got a lawyer.
Right. I was thinking, oh I don't know, 'buzz?'
What do bees use for Buzz words?
Are you talking Australian or US law? Because this is most certainly illegal in Australia.
Do these things go faster than light? It's the only way I can explain the fact that the first post is modded redundant.