Assuming this isn't a ponzi scheme, what would happen to this company if it was incredibly overcast for 6 months? It's not impossible. For example, Helensburgh, Scotland only sees about 5 or 6 clear days a year. Obviously, you wouldn't install these in Scotland, but something of that nature could happen anywhere, especially with the way the weather has been becoming more extreme as of late.
Also, let's say it's cloudy for a week or two, and the customer runs out of electricity. They'll have to pull energy off the grid, and incur a bill. Who pays that bill, the company or the homeowner? There are just too many holes in this scheme.
My biggest complaint is their inability to follow standards.
I'm a web developer. I use Firefox, because I like it and it follows standards. So I create a web page with some nice CSS, and it looks perfect. Then, I look at it in IE, and it's not that it just doesn't look as good, it's broken. Internet Explorer has it's own way of handling margins, padding, horizontal rules, etc. They also assign default values to things that shouldn't have them. It's really irritating. Often, the differences cause things to break and render horribly. Then I have to get creative and hack the CSS so that IE doesn't shit a brick when it renders the page. The worst part is that the only reason I can see for them to not follow standards is because they "want to be different".
The second is lack of options in their software, especially defaults. I'll give you a perfect example. At work, in a corporate environment, we're forced to use Antepo for instant messaging. Besides being a piece of crap that breaks down all the time, it lacks options. If you click on a link, it tries to open Internet Explorer, even if your default browser is Firefox. Better yet, I have IE7 and IE6 installed, so that I can fix the above mentioned rendering problems. IE7 is what's officially installed on the system, but Antepo will open links in IE6. What the fuck is that? And how about a line-break? You hit shift-enter, and you would expect your text to continue on the next line. Not in Antepo. You get three line breaks, and you can't do shit about it. On, and about the links, you can't click on a link someone has sent you unless they place a space behind the link. What the fuck is that?
This is just my list of complaints from THIS WEEK ALONE.
Bottom line: I hate Microsoft because they can't design software worth a shit.
Aero
Some more I just thought of. IE7 breaks Dreamweaver 8. Dreamweaver 8 can no longer store passwords and logins once you install IE7. I don't know if this is the fault of Macromedia(Adobe) or Microsoft, but it's fucking stupid. Also, whoever designed Microsoft Frontpage needs to be burned at the stake. If I ever catch those motherfuckers..
Re:Why is this under Linux?
on
VLC 0.8.6 Released
·
· Score: 2, Informative
It's under Linux because VLC runs under Linux, and is possibly the best media player for Linux. Yes, there are versions for Mac and Windows, but that's for many reasons. First off is that a tarball will do you little to no good on either of those systems. More importantly, and I'm not 100% sure because it's slashdotted, there are probably things added to the Mac and Windows versions that just won't work under Linux. Should the software runs worse than it's capable of under Windows because it's intended for Linux? No. A perfect example is that not all web-browsers support advanced CSS techniques. Should we not create better websites that only the newer browsers can handle? We develop for both, one that the older browsers can handle, and one that the new browsers can make look even better. There is nothing wrong with developing for both. If you happen to look at the mirrors, there are.bz2 and.gz files, as well as a Suse version, in addition to the Mac and Windows versions.
I also highly recommend Virgin Mobile. I've never had a problem with them, and I've been with them for three years. At first, I rarely ever used my phone and had the $.25 a minute plan. It worked great and didn't cost that much. Later, I started to use my phone more often, and I switched to a plan that cost $.35 a day, and $.10 a minute. Not bad, considering this is all no contract. Now, I've started using my phone quite a bit, and I switched to one of their monthly plans. I get unlimited nights and weekends and 400 anytime minutes. I'm at work all day, so I hardly touch the anytime minutes. For $45, I get to talk all I want.
It is true that the signal is weak in some rural areas, but I rarely have a problem with it.
Another nice thing is that you can use a Virgin Mobile phone completely anonymously if you're a privacy nut/criminal. You can pay cash for the phone, register it online with any bogus name you want, and pay cash for the cards to add minutes, even if you have a monthly plan.
I'm looking to get a new phone here in the next month or so, but that's not because of the service. My dog chewed up the phone. Broke the camera lens, the external display, and the battery is covered in teeth marks.
Now that I think about it, I do remember that I had a problem last year. My phone was acting all sorts of crazy. Hanging up when I made calls as soon as the other end picked up and what not. I called their customer service to ask about it, and they asked me when the last time I had turned the phone off was. I honestly couldn't remember. It had been months, maybe a year. I turned the phone off, gave it a minute or two, and then turned it back on. It was fixed. The phones are quite reliable, and a six hour charge will usually last 4-5 days.
And yes, you can get cute ringtones and games on the phone.
She's in trouble for "Making available"? FUCK! Quickly! Close down all those public libraries! They're "making available" all those copyrighted books! Anyone could take one home and photocopy it, scan it, or even copy it by hand.
Actually, I agree with you completely. I can honestly say that taking one rogue to level 12 by savescumming did help me a lot, though. I learned a lot about the creatures I need to be on the lookout for. I haven't done it since that character.
You're right though. Saving it like that does make the game pretty boring pretty quickly. But dying constantly also makes it pretty boring.
For my information, I personally like Wikihack. It has just about everything.
Of course, I'm still not that great at the game. I've gotten to the quest portion, but only by savescumming. I know it's frowned upon, but savescumming is a good way to learn what the hell you're doing. And when I did get to the quest, I wasn't high enough level to start it, which sucked because there were two liches (a master lich and an arch-lich) on the same level as the quest master. That sucked.
Last I heard, everyone on Slashdot was screaming bloody murder because IE7's CSS implementation didn't pass the Acid 2 test. Now we're upset because it implements the CSS standard better than IE 6 did?
I forgot to mention something. Have you ever tried reading Slashdot with IE7? It completely slaughters that CSS and is pretty much unreadable. If IE7 is so standards compliant when it comes to CSS, why does Slashdot look like shite?
Slashdot has some of the best written code I've ever seen. You can't argue with that.
IE6 has horrible CSS support. IE7 has pretty decent CSS support. If someone's coded their site so it doesn't work with a browser that implements CSS in a standard way, then they're idiots for doing that, and they've already got problems with any customer-facing stuff, because they're turning away customers who use Firefox.
I can't argue wih you that IE7 has better CSS support than IE6. It is better. And it's also far from standards compliant. My friend's company? It's the Florida Times-Union, and their website is Jacksonville.com. The code on this site is just about perfect, displays perfectly in Firefox and Opera, and up until last week when they changed the code, was bring ripped to shreds by IE7.
Of course, my original post wasn't about IE7's mediocre CSS support. The post was about how IE7 is causing other applications to throw odd errors. The Florida Times-Union has removed IE7 from all of their computers, with the exception of web development, because people couldn't clock in, could calculate payroll, etc. That's IE7 breaking other apps on the system.
Most people won't upgrade to IE7 because tabs and anti-phishing software are not enough incentive to break all their other applications, especially when they can run Firefox for free.
From what I understand, IE7 is being removed from corporate systems just as quickly as it's being installed. IE7 is breaking applications left and right. Macromedia's Dreamweaver won't operate properly if IE7 is installed on the same computer. There are other applications as well. Payroll software, punch clock software, etc.. It's apparently breaking all sorts of things.
At my friend's company, there was a corporate wide memo stating that no one was to install IE7 except the "new media" departments, because they do all the website work and need to be able to test how IE7 slaughters their HTML and CSS. Even the new media departments were told to install "At your own risk".
I don't think it's too far fetched to believe that the Japanese market caught word of how IE7 is breaking all sorts of other software and asked Microsoft not to push it. I think the response in the IE blog is bullshit. The Japanese don't want IE7. Not if it's going to break everything.
I don't understand Microsoft. The Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) is actually very easy to defeat, and I'm sure this new OGA will be just as easy. Why irritate customers when the people who intend to use without purchasing it will do so anyway? Did they buy a copy of Sony's playbook titled "How to piss away your loyal customers and then blame them for your lack of growth"?
I really don't get it. Why continue to do something after it's been proven ineffective?
Aero
I don't understand what the big deal is about Vista security. Microsoft will attempt to provide a total solution to security and lock everyone out. First off, Microsoft can't lock out everyone for very long. The security software companies and hackers will find a way to design and use software for Windows Vista. This is only a matter of time.
Also, we all know how horrible Microsoft security will be. It's almost certain that Windows Vista users will need third party security software, and someone will be sure to provide it. Nothing will change with Windows Vista.
Even though I know feeding the trolls is a lousy idea, here I go again..
The reason that this election is such a big deal is that a very senior senator is in a very tight race with someone from his own party. The democratic voters in Connecticut are tired of having Bush's lapdog taking up their seat in the senate. I wouldn't ordinarily throw names like that around, but what else do you call some who's voting record deviates from the President's wishes in less than 1 percent of his votes? If he was smart, he would have switched parties before this election. It's not unheard of, and he'd actually have a chance at winning. His opponent, Ned Lamont, has a lot of big groups behind him, including MoveOn.org. Lieberman is so afraid of losing his seat that they brought out the big dogs and had Bill Clinton campaigning for him in Connecticut. This is not your average race.
You may be right about the democrats saying 'goodbye to '08' though. This race definitely shows that democratic voters are tired of the democrats attempting to be republicans. Democrats, and even republicans, that want to win this fall will need to go against the President and distance themselves from him.
It's a simple concept really. You take your empty propane tank to the corner store, you give them you're empty old one, and they give you a full one. Very simple.
Now, I realize you can't exactly throw 6,831 Li-Ion batteries over your shoulder and walk into the store, but it really wouldn't be that difficult to have an attendant with a tool do it. What's an attendant? Stop by new Jersey sometime, as all fuel stations there are still full service only, or were until recently.
With a standardized method of mounting and unmounting a battery, even a robot could do the replacement for all vehicles in 5 minutes or less. Imagine this simple process:
1. Drive into a typical garage with an in and out like a car wash.
2. Robot removes battery using standardized mount.
3. Robot verifies the battery is in good working condition. (Other options would be available if the battery failed testing, such as additional fees for repair..)
4. Robot inserts the new battery and tests to make sure installation was successful.
5. Drive away, fully charged in less than 5 minutes.
Now, I realize that I left out a step (Profit??), but it wouldn't be that difficult to make money on this without raising the cost of a recharge too much. I'm sure most of you have seen those car washes, self done or drive through, that have no attendants and are open 24-hours. This could easily operate exactly the same way.
This is not that complicated and can be easily done. This is a solution to the long charge time. We're already doing it with propane tanks just for the sake of convenience.
I agree with you and disagree with you at the same time.
The way I see it, the congress is worried about the billions of Dollars that's sipping out of the country.
I disagree with you, and I think congress is more worried about upsetting the lobbyists that put money in their re-election campaigns. You know, the lobbyists that are paid for by the legal, standing structure casinos that the US already has a TON of? Remember, in congress, maintaining the 97% incumbency rate is job #1.
I agree with everything else, just not their motives.
Sure, there are plenty of legitimate online gambling sites, but many of them are there solely to rip you off of your hard earned dollars, and often times people (unfortunately) cannot tell the difference.
There are only a few things that should be banned. Murder, rape, etc. Banning something is usally going overboard. Most things that people want banned only need regulation.
Imagine if instead of legislation to ban online casinos, they decide to regulate it. They could create a small commission who's purpose is to verify that an online casino is not:
a) Ripping off their customers with unusually low odds.
b) Taking advantage of customers that have some sort of gambling addiction.
c) Ensure that the casino is paying some form of taxes on income from US users. They taxes would pay for the cost of running the commission.
I know my idea isn't a bad one, as it's already working in states like New Jersey and Nevada.
Most things that people think need to be banned, just need to be regulated.
Here's a global solution for you. The cost of one 802.11b wireless modem. There are free wifi spots just about all over, and if there aren't any free ones, there's likely at least one with no security.
As for Netzero's coverage, it seems pretty good. I use Speakeasy, so I don't know personally, but the few phone numbers I did test, were well covered.
I think it's funny that you would go ahead and encourage misconceptions in your post while your sig dispels one.
Or do you suggest that I pay $239.88 for a 12-month commitment to dial-up Internet access at home?
You're kidding, right? I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that it's been so long since you've had a dial-up connection that you don't realize that you have no fucking clue what you're talking about. Do you live in a cave? Mom's basement? Prison possibly? Netzero is still alive and kicking with a $9.95/month offer, with no commitment. There's also PeoplePC Online. Both of these are cheap dial-up.
$9.95 is a hell of a lot cheaper than the $239.88 misconception you were shouting about.
I think I just figured out how your estimate got to be so far off. You're still on AOL, aren't you?
Actually, I love this joke because I'm a bartender, and happen to be one in Duval County, Florida, which went to Bush last election. That makes it good for getting my customers spun up.
And although I realize your statement was made tongue-in-cheek, I feel I should point that I don't own a TV, but make sure to download The Daily Show everytime a new episode airs. Damn shame that it's on a two week break..
A guy walks into a bar, and sees that there is a robotic bartender behind the bar. He shrugs and sits down. The robot comes over and says, "Hey, I'm the Autobot, what can I get you to drink, and what's your IQ?"
The guy says, "I'll have a Jack and coke, and my IQ is 140."
Well, the autobot makes him a perfect drink, and starts talking to him about theology, nano-technology, and even some philosophy.
The guy is impressed. He finishes his drink, pays his tab, leaves, and comes right back in.
He sits down at the bar, and the robot comes over and says, "Hey, I'm the Autobot, what can I get you to drink, and what's your IQ?"
The guys says, "I'll have a screwdriver, and my IQ is 110."
Well, the autobot makes him a perfect drink, and starts talking to him about movies, literature, women, and even some sports.
The guy is still impressed. He finishes his drink, pays his tab, leaves, and comes right back in.
He sits down at the bar, and the robot comes over and says, "Hey, I'm the Autobot, what can I get you to drink, and what's your IQ?"
The guys says, "I'll have a Miller Lite, and my IQ is 70."
The robot poors him a perfect beer, and then comes over to the guy and says REAL SLOW... "So you gonna vote for Bush again?"
Slashdot Mirror
I had to look up GIYF. I honestly thought it was 'Google it, you fuck!', but as it turns out, it's 'Google is your friend.'
Who knew..
Aero
Hmm.. I didn't know that. I also checked you facts, and it's 41 states + D.C.
Thanks
Aero
Assuming this isn't a ponzi scheme, what would happen to this company if it was incredibly overcast for 6 months? It's not impossible. For example, Helensburgh, Scotland only sees about 5 or 6 clear days a year. Obviously, you wouldn't install these in Scotland, but something of that nature could happen anywhere, especially with the way the weather has been becoming more extreme as of late.
Also, let's say it's cloudy for a week or two, and the customer runs out of electricity. They'll have to pull energy off the grid, and incur a bill. Who pays that bill, the company or the homeowner? There are just too many holes in this scheme.
Aero
Wow.. That is one disgruntled motherfucker!
But.. You can't argue with him. He's right.
Aero
AeroFS.. I bet that would bring a lawsuit from Microsoft..
Aero
My biggest complaint is their inability to follow standards.
I'm a web developer. I use Firefox, because I like it and it follows standards. So I create a web page with some nice CSS, and it looks perfect. Then, I look at it in IE, and it's not that it just doesn't look as good, it's broken. Internet Explorer has it's own way of handling margins, padding, horizontal rules, etc. They also assign default values to things that shouldn't have them. It's really irritating. Often, the differences cause things to break and render horribly. Then I have to get creative and hack the CSS so that IE doesn't shit a brick when it renders the page. The worst part is that the only reason I can see for them to not follow standards is because they "want to be different".
The second is lack of options in their software, especially defaults. I'll give you a perfect example. At work, in a corporate environment, we're forced to use Antepo for instant messaging. Besides being a piece of crap that breaks down all the time, it lacks options. If you click on a link, it tries to open Internet Explorer, even if your default browser is Firefox. Better yet, I have IE7 and IE6 installed, so that I can fix the above mentioned rendering problems. IE7 is what's officially installed on the system, but Antepo will open links in IE6. What the fuck is that? And how about a line-break? You hit shift-enter, and you would expect your text to continue on the next line. Not in Antepo. You get three line breaks, and you can't do shit about it. On, and about the links, you can't click on a link someone has sent you unless they place a space behind the link. What the fuck is that?
This is just my list of complaints from THIS WEEK ALONE.
Bottom line: I hate Microsoft because they can't design software worth a shit.
Aero
Some more I just thought of. IE7 breaks Dreamweaver 8. Dreamweaver 8 can no longer store passwords and logins once you install IE7. I don't know if this is the fault of Macromedia(Adobe) or Microsoft, but it's fucking stupid. Also, whoever designed Microsoft Frontpage needs to be burned at the stake. If I ever catch those motherfuckers..
It's under Linux because VLC runs under Linux, and is possibly the best media player for Linux. Yes, there are versions for Mac and Windows, but that's for many reasons. First off is that a tarball will do you little to no good on either of those systems. More importantly, and I'm not 100% sure because it's slashdotted, there are probably things added to the Mac and Windows versions that just won't work under Linux. Should the software runs worse than it's capable of under Windows because it's intended for Linux? No. A perfect example is that not all web-browsers support advanced CSS techniques. Should we not create better websites that only the newer browsers can handle? We develop for both, one that the older browsers can handle, and one that the new browsers can make look even better. There is nothing wrong with developing for both. If you happen to look at the mirrors, there are .bz2 and .gz files, as well as a Suse version, in addition to the Mac and Windows versions.
Aero
I also highly recommend Virgin Mobile. I've never had a problem with them, and I've been with them for three years. At first, I rarely ever used my phone and had the $.25 a minute plan. It worked great and didn't cost that much. Later, I started to use my phone more often, and I switched to a plan that cost $.35 a day, and $.10 a minute. Not bad, considering this is all no contract. Now, I've started using my phone quite a bit, and I switched to one of their monthly plans. I get unlimited nights and weekends and 400 anytime minutes. I'm at work all day, so I hardly touch the anytime minutes. For $45, I get to talk all I want.
It is true that the signal is weak in some rural areas, but I rarely have a problem with it.
Another nice thing is that you can use a Virgin Mobile phone completely anonymously if you're a privacy nut/criminal. You can pay cash for the phone, register it online with any bogus name you want, and pay cash for the cards to add minutes, even if you have a monthly plan.
I'm looking to get a new phone here in the next month or so, but that's not because of the service. My dog chewed up the phone. Broke the camera lens, the external display, and the battery is covered in teeth marks.
Now that I think about it, I do remember that I had a problem last year. My phone was acting all sorts of crazy. Hanging up when I made calls as soon as the other end picked up and what not. I called their customer service to ask about it, and they asked me when the last time I had turned the phone off was. I honestly couldn't remember. It had been months, maybe a year. I turned the phone off, gave it a minute or two, and then turned it back on. It was fixed. The phones are quite reliable, and a six hour charge will usually last 4-5 days.
And yes, you can get cute ringtones and games on the phone.
Just my two cents..
Aero
She's in trouble for "Making available"? FUCK! Quickly! Close down all those public libraries! They're "making available" all those copyrighted books! Anyone could take one home and photocopy it, scan it, or even copy it by hand.
This argument is full of holes.
Aero
Actually, I agree with you completely. I can honestly say that taking one rogue to level 12 by savescumming did help me a lot, though. I learned a lot about the creatures I need to be on the lookout for. I haven't done it since that character.
You're right though. Saving it like that does make the game pretty boring pretty quickly. But dying constantly also makes it pretty boring.
aero
For my information, I personally like Wikihack. It has just about everything.
Of course, I'm still not that great at the game. I've gotten to the quest portion, but only by savescumming. I know it's frowned upon, but savescumming is a good way to learn what the hell you're doing. And when I did get to the quest, I wasn't high enough level to start it, which sucked because there were two liches (a master lich and an arch-lich) on the same level as the quest master. That sucked.
Aero
Last I heard, everyone on Slashdot was screaming bloody murder because IE7's CSS implementation didn't pass the Acid 2 test. Now we're upset because it implements the CSS standard better than IE 6 did?
I forgot to mention something. Have you ever tried reading Slashdot with IE7? It completely slaughters that CSS and is pretty much unreadable. If IE7 is so standards compliant when it comes to CSS, why does Slashdot look like shite?
Slashdot has some of the best written code I've ever seen. You can't argue with that.
Aero
IE6 has horrible CSS support. IE7 has pretty decent CSS support. If someone's coded their site so it doesn't work with a browser that implements CSS in a standard way, then they're idiots for doing that, and they've already got problems with any customer-facing stuff, because they're turning away customers who use Firefox.
I can't argue wih you that IE7 has better CSS support than IE6. It is better. And it's also far from standards compliant. My friend's company? It's the Florida Times-Union, and their website is Jacksonville.com. The code on this site is just about perfect, displays perfectly in Firefox and Opera, and up until last week when they changed the code, was bring ripped to shreds by IE7.
Of course, my original post wasn't about IE7's mediocre CSS support. The post was about how IE7 is causing other applications to throw odd errors. The Florida Times-Union has removed IE7 from all of their computers, with the exception of web development, because people couldn't clock in, could calculate payroll, etc. That's IE7 breaking other apps on the system.
Most people won't upgrade to IE7 because tabs and anti-phishing software are not enough incentive to break all their other applications, especially when they can run Firefox for free.
Aero
From what I understand, IE7 is being removed from corporate systems just as quickly as it's being installed. IE7 is breaking applications left and right. Macromedia's Dreamweaver won't operate properly if IE7 is installed on the same computer. There are other applications as well. Payroll software, punch clock software, etc.. It's apparently breaking all sorts of things.
At my friend's company, there was a corporate wide memo stating that no one was to install IE7 except the "new media" departments, because they do all the website work and need to be able to test how IE7 slaughters their HTML and CSS. Even the new media departments were told to install "At your own risk".
I don't think it's too far fetched to believe that the Japanese market caught word of how IE7 is breaking all sorts of other software and asked Microsoft not to push it. I think the response in the IE blog is bullshit. The Japanese don't want IE7. Not if it's going to break everything.
Aero
I don't understand Microsoft. The Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) is actually very easy to defeat, and I'm sure this new OGA will be just as easy. Why irritate customers when the people who intend to use without purchasing it will do so anyway? Did they buy a copy of Sony's playbook titled "How to piss away your loyal customers and then blame them for your lack of growth"?
I really don't get it. Why continue to do something after it's been proven ineffective?
Aero
Up to 24 MB of memory for user file storage, such as music and videos.
24MB of memory? That's about 4 songs or a 1/3 of a music video.
That doesn't sound too appealing.
Aero
Windows Security? Isn't that an oxymoron?
I don't understand what the big deal is about Vista security. Microsoft will attempt to provide a total solution to security and lock everyone out. First off, Microsoft can't lock out everyone for very long. The security software companies and hackers will find a way to design and use software for Windows Vista. This is only a matter of time.
Also, we all know how horrible Microsoft security will be. It's almost certain that Windows Vista users will need third party security software, and someone will be sure to provide it. Nothing will change with Windows Vista.
Aero
Even though I know feeding the trolls is a lousy idea, here I go again..
The reason that this election is such a big deal is that a very senior senator is in a very tight race with someone from his own party. The democratic voters in Connecticut are tired of having Bush's lapdog taking up their seat in the senate. I wouldn't ordinarily throw names like that around, but what else do you call some who's voting record deviates from the President's wishes in less than 1 percent of his votes? If he was smart, he would have switched parties before this election. It's not unheard of, and he'd actually have a chance at winning. His opponent, Ned Lamont, has a lot of big groups behind him, including MoveOn.org. Lieberman is so afraid of losing his seat that they brought out the big dogs and had Bill Clinton campaigning for him in Connecticut. This is not your average race.
You may be right about the democrats saying 'goodbye to '08' though. This race definitely shows that democratic voters are tired of the democrats attempting to be republicans. Democrats, and even republicans, that want to win this fall will need to go against the President and distance themselves from him.
Aero
Anyone ever heard of Blue Rhino? I know I have.
It's a simple concept really. You take your empty propane tank to the corner store, you give them you're empty old one, and they give you a full one. Very simple.
Now, I realize you can't exactly throw 6,831 Li-Ion batteries over your shoulder and walk into the store, but it really wouldn't be that difficult to have an attendant with a tool do it. What's an attendant? Stop by new Jersey sometime, as all fuel stations there are still full service only, or were until recently.
With a standardized method of mounting and unmounting a battery, even a robot could do the replacement for all vehicles in 5 minutes or less. Imagine this simple process:
1. Drive into a typical garage with an in and out like a car wash.
2. Robot removes battery using standardized mount.
3. Robot verifies the battery is in good working condition. (Other options would be available if the battery failed testing, such as additional fees for repair..)
4. Robot inserts the new battery and tests to make sure installation was successful.
5. Drive away, fully charged in less than 5 minutes.
Now, I realize that I left out a step (Profit??), but it wouldn't be that difficult to make money on this without raising the cost of a recharge too much. I'm sure most of you have seen those car washes, self done or drive through, that have no attendants and are open 24-hours. This could easily operate exactly the same way.
This is not that complicated and can be easily done. This is a solution to the long charge time. We're already doing it with propane tanks just for the sake of convenience.
Aero
I agree with you and disagree with you at the same time.
The way I see it, the congress is worried about the billions of Dollars that's sipping out of the country.
I disagree with you, and I think congress is more worried about upsetting the lobbyists that put money in their re-election campaigns. You know, the lobbyists that are paid for by the legal, standing structure casinos that the US already has a TON of? Remember, in congress, maintaining the 97% incumbency rate is job #1.
I agree with everything else, just not their motives.
Aero
Sure, there are plenty of legitimate online gambling sites, but many of them are there solely to rip you off of your hard earned dollars, and often times people (unfortunately) cannot tell the difference.
There are only a few things that should be banned. Murder, rape, etc. Banning something is usally going overboard. Most things that people want banned only need regulation.
Imagine if instead of legislation to ban online casinos, they decide to regulate it. They could create a small commission who's purpose is to verify that an online casino is not:
a) Ripping off their customers with unusually low odds.
b) Taking advantage of customers that have some sort of gambling addiction.
c) Ensure that the casino is paying some form of taxes on income from US users. They taxes would pay for the cost of running the commission.
I know my idea isn't a bad one, as it's already working in states like New Jersey and Nevada.
Most things that people think need to be banned, just need to be regulated.
Aero
Here's a global solution for you. The cost of one 802.11b wireless modem. There are free wifi spots just about all over, and if there aren't any free ones, there's likely at least one with no security.
As for Netzero's coverage, it seems pretty good. I use Speakeasy, so I don't know personally, but the few phone numbers I did test, were well covered.
Aero
I think it's funny that you would go ahead and encourage misconceptions in your post while your sig dispels one.
Or do you suggest that I pay $239.88 for a 12-month commitment to dial-up Internet access at home?
You're kidding, right? I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that it's been so long since you've had a dial-up connection that you don't realize that you have no fucking clue what you're talking about. Do you live in a cave? Mom's basement? Prison possibly? Netzero is still alive and kicking with a $9.95/month offer, with no commitment. There's also PeoplePC Online. Both of these are cheap dial-up.
$9.95 is a hell of a lot cheaper than the $239.88 misconception you were shouting about.
I think I just figured out how your estimate got to be so far off. You're still on AOL, aren't you?
Aero
Actually, I love this joke because I'm a bartender, and happen to be one in Duval County, Florida, which went to Bush last election. That makes it good for getting my customers spun up.
And although I realize your statement was made tongue-in-cheek, I feel I should point that I don't own a TV, but make sure to download The Daily Show everytime a new episode airs. Damn shame that it's on a two week break..
Aero
This reminds me of a great joke..
A guy walks into a bar, and sees that there is a robotic bartender behind the bar. He shrugs and sits down. The robot comes over and says, "Hey, I'm the Autobot, what can I get you to drink, and what's your IQ?"
The guy says, "I'll have a Jack and coke, and my IQ is 140."
Well, the autobot makes him a perfect drink, and starts talking to him about theology, nano-technology, and even some philosophy.
The guy is impressed. He finishes his drink, pays his tab, leaves, and comes right back in.
He sits down at the bar, and the robot comes over and says, "Hey, I'm the Autobot, what can I get you to drink, and what's your IQ?"
The guys says, "I'll have a screwdriver, and my IQ is 110."
Well, the autobot makes him a perfect drink, and starts talking to him about movies, literature, women, and even some sports.
The guy is still impressed. He finishes his drink, pays his tab, leaves, and comes right back in.
He sits down at the bar, and the robot comes over and says, "Hey, I'm the Autobot, what can I get you to drink, and what's your IQ?"
The guys says, "I'll have a Miller Lite, and my IQ is 70."
The robot poors him a perfect beer, and then comes over to the guy and says REAL SLOW... "So you gonna vote for Bush again?"
Aero