Yes, and in New Jersey there's a law that mandates that 911 calls and calls to the local emergency contact go to the same operator and are treated as equal, meaning that E911 worked here as soon as Vonage implemented it. Not that I'm bashing Ohio, because I'm from there, but there are better ways to implement mandates.
The point is that the mandate is wrong. They're mandating someone to do something without mandating anyone else to comply. It was well-known before all of this that E911 is seriously lacking as a system because the telcos control 911. So the FCC waits until there's a lot of media attention about the problem, then they fix it by mandating the organizations with the least control to fix a problem that the telcos (organizations with the most control) have a vested interest in not complying with. Why haven't they mandated the telcos to work with VoIP providers?
The taxes are a whole nother issue. VoIP gets away without the taxation because the FCC ruled that it's a data service. The taxation is purely to subsidize rural telephone access. Billions of dollars are taxed on interstate phonecalls every year, and that money just goes right back to the telcos because they're saying it cost them too much to provide service in Nebraska. The FCC should re-evaluate the entire taxation system, not simply impose the same taxation on VoIP carriers that wouldn't even benefit from it. As for other taxes, my VoIP line carries the same basic line taxes that my Verizon land line did and my Verizon cell phone still does.
About the marketing claims: Well, it's true that they market their services as phone services. However they make you click through LARGE PRINT disclaimers that clearly state that 911 may not be available, and when it is it may not be functionally the same as standard 911. This should only be a problem if you can't read. It's not even buried in fine print as so much important information seems to be anymore. It's there, plain as day. Shouldn't people be held accountable for reading something like that?
No, they have resorted to legal chicanery. They used FUD, and I'm sure a few kickbacks, to persuade a mandate on E911. Mind you this doesn't place any mandate on the telcos to provide any access to the 911 system.
What really gets me about all of this is that most of the cases that are fueling most of this FUD were ones in which Vonage already provided an E911 connection to the county emergency contact line. It just happens that most counties ignore those lines and only man true 911 lines 24/7.
So, don't mandate municipalities to properly man emergency contact lines, don't mandate telcos to make 911 services universally available, and don't point out that vonage had several large print warnings about the limitations of it's 911 service, just give them 120 days to "fix it".
I can't speak for Blockbuster Online, but NetFlix is worthwhile for the non-movie buffs, non-'pirate's, and non-mathematically-challenged.
If I'm on the $20 a month plan then I simply have to watch 4 movies a month before I'm saving vs. renting in-store at Blockbuster. Although I'd be saving only a small amount, I'm also saving my time. I can't speak for where you live, but where I live Blockbuster rentals are $5.25+tax (last I checked), and you have to wait in, at least, a 15 minute line unless you go out of your way to get there before the rush (like leaving work early or skipping lunch).
Since I joined NetFlix I've only had to deal with that once, because I wanted to rent something to watch it that night. Otherwise, I know that I have a DVD or two lying around for whenever I want to have a movie night (which sometimes is only 4 times a month, and sometimes it's 12 times). I considered trying Blockbuster's Online service just because I heard that you get two free in-store rentals per month which would solve that short-coming of the system.
I also find that it's kinda like having a gym membership. You'd never go if you had a pay-per-use membership.
From TFA: "They began their study by surveying chief marketing officers and consumers, asking them to identify brands they felt were both growing fast and being innovative."
Loews seems to have begun to figure this out. The year before last they introduced Priority Seating in their Elizabeth, NJ theatre. They clean the floor more often, the seats are larger, made of leather, have more leg-room (at least thrice as much as regular rows), and between every second seat is a foot-wide armrest.. to keep the neighbors away. Before the show starts they have waiters to take your snack order, and your tickets are assigned a specific seat number so no one can take your seat.
Not that there aren't drawbacks. Price is one, you have to pay a $2.50 premium on an already expensive $9 ticket. Another is that, although the people in the priority rows are probably respectful of others who paid to see the show, the people in the other rows are the usual riff-raff. The biggest drawback, though, is probably the exclusivity of it.
I've gone there a couple times for that, and it really makes the experience more pleasant, but I've noticed how others react to it. The first reaction is when they walk in and see two nearly empty rows of seats: They try to rush right into the row and sit down in the good seats. This leads to a confrontation with one of the employees charged with checking tickets, they have to explain what those seats are and that they can't sit there. The second is after they know what those seats are that you get shot dirty looks and other little things to basic make you feel like "the man." The third is the funny one, when they realize that there's no one there during the movie to enforce the seating (unless someone comes in late) they move into those rows anyway.
AMC Clifton Commons in Clifton, NJ recently started doing this. I noticed a few weeks ago that they had a showing of Madagascar with captioning and descriptive services.
I had to do almost that last year.
My wife and I were at the theater and one of those "I'm going to audibly guess what'll happen next" people sat behind us. Halfway through the movie when she'd ignored glares and a couple of "shh"s I had had enough. She said "I bet that..." and I looked back and said "If you'd shut the fuck up then we just might find out."
The rest of the movie was quite enjoyable.
The spin comes when they use this to demonize file sharers with claims that schoolyard copiers aren't going around their weak DRM. Then they'll be back to claiming billions in losses on P2P.
McD's pizza was tested in Dayton too. I think it failed because they couldn't live up to the 5 minutes or less promise. Almost every pizza order that was placed via the drive-through required the customer to pull aside in the parking lot and an employee to run it out to their car. Inside, you could tell when someone had ordered a pizza because they were off waiting to the side while everyone else got their orders.
Re:Oh? I can't run linux as root?
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Of course, that still doesn't change the fact that they never should have integrated windows update into IE. They'll also probably never learn from their mistakes and make it a separate product, either.
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Yes, and in New Jersey there's a law that mandates that 911 calls and calls to the local emergency contact go to the same operator and are treated as equal, meaning that E911 worked here as soon as Vonage implemented it. Not that I'm bashing Ohio, because I'm from there, but there are better ways to implement mandates.
The point is that the mandate is wrong. They're mandating someone to do something without mandating anyone else to comply. It was well-known before all of this that E911 is seriously lacking as a system because the telcos control 911. So the FCC waits until there's a lot of media attention about the problem, then they fix it by mandating the organizations with the least control to fix a problem that the telcos (organizations with the most control) have a vested interest in not complying with. Why haven't they mandated the telcos to work with VoIP providers?
The taxes are a whole nother issue. VoIP gets away without the taxation because the FCC ruled that it's a data service. The taxation is purely to subsidize rural telephone access. Billions of dollars are taxed on interstate phonecalls every year, and that money just goes right back to the telcos because they're saying it cost them too much to provide service in Nebraska. The FCC should re-evaluate the entire taxation system, not simply impose the same taxation on VoIP carriers that wouldn't even benefit from it. As for other taxes, my VoIP line carries the same basic line taxes that my Verizon land line did and my Verizon cell phone still does.
About the marketing claims: Well, it's true that they market their services as phone services. However they make you click through LARGE PRINT disclaimers that clearly state that 911 may not be available, and when it is it may not be functionally the same as standard 911. This should only be a problem if you can't read. It's not even buried in fine print as so much important information seems to be anymore. It's there, plain as day. Shouldn't people be held accountable for reading something like that?
What really gets me about all of this is that most of the cases that are fueling most of this FUD were ones in which Vonage already provided an E911 connection to the county emergency contact line. It just happens that most counties ignore those lines and only man true 911 lines 24/7.
So, don't mandate municipalities to properly man emergency contact lines, don't mandate telcos to make 911 services universally available, and don't point out that vonage had several large print warnings about the limitations of it's 911 service, just give them 120 days to "fix it".
I can't speak for Blockbuster Online, but NetFlix is worthwhile for the non-movie buffs, non-'pirate's, and non-mathematically-challenged.
If I'm on the $20 a month plan then I simply have to watch 4 movies a month before I'm saving vs. renting in-store at Blockbuster. Although I'd be saving only a small amount, I'm also saving my time. I can't speak for where you live, but where I live Blockbuster rentals are $5.25+tax (last I checked), and you have to wait in, at least, a 15 minute line unless you go out of your way to get there before the rush (like leaving work early or skipping lunch).
Since I joined NetFlix I've only had to deal with that once, because I wanted to rent something to watch it that night. Otherwise, I know that I have a DVD or two lying around for whenever I want to have a movie night (which sometimes is only 4 times a month, and sometimes it's 12 times). I considered trying Blockbuster's Online service just because I heard that you get two free in-store rentals per month which would solve that short-coming of the system.
I also find that it's kinda like having a gym membership. You'd never go if you had a pay-per-use membership.
Really interesting, from the article:
The most paranoid people at Microsoft even think "Google Office" is inevitable.
From TFA: "They began their study by surveying chief marketing officers and consumers, asking them to identify brands they felt were both growing fast and being innovative."
Microsoft is neither of those.
Loews seems to have begun to figure this out. The year before last they introduced Priority Seating in their Elizabeth, NJ theatre. They clean the floor more often, the seats are larger, made of leather, have more leg-room (at least thrice as much as regular rows), and between every second seat is a foot-wide armrest.. to keep the neighbors away. Before the show starts they have waiters to take your snack order, and your tickets are assigned a specific seat number so no one can take your seat.
Not that there aren't drawbacks. Price is one, you have to pay a $2.50 premium on an already expensive $9 ticket. Another is that, although the people in the priority rows are probably respectful of others who paid to see the show, the people in the other rows are the usual riff-raff. The biggest drawback, though, is probably the exclusivity of it.
I've gone there a couple times for that, and it really makes the experience more pleasant, but I've noticed how others react to it. The first reaction is when they walk in and see two nearly empty rows of seats: They try to rush right into the row and sit down in the good seats. This leads to a confrontation with one of the employees charged with checking tickets, they have to explain what those seats are and that they can't sit there. The second is after they know what those seats are that you get shot dirty looks and other little things to basic make you feel like "the man." The third is the funny one, when they realize that there's no one there during the movie to enforce the seating (unless someone comes in late) they move into those rows anyway.
AMC Clifton Commons in Clifton, NJ recently started doing this. I noticed a few weeks ago that they had a showing of Madagascar with captioning and descriptive services.
I had to do almost that last year. My wife and I were at the theater and one of those "I'm going to audibly guess what'll happen next" people sat behind us. Halfway through the movie when she'd ignored glares and a couple of "shh"s I had had enough. She said "I bet that..." and I looked back and said "If you'd shut the fuck up then we just might find out." The rest of the movie was quite enjoyable.
The spin comes when they use this to demonize file sharers with claims that schoolyard copiers aren't going around their weak DRM. Then they'll be back to claiming billions in losses on P2P.
McD's pizza was tested in Dayton too. I think it failed because they couldn't live up to the 5 minutes or less promise. Almost every pizza order that was placed via the drive-through required the customer to pull aside in the parking lot and an employee to run it out to their car. Inside, you could tell when someone had ordered a pizza because they were off waiting to the side while everyone else got their orders.
Of course, that still doesn't change the fact that they never should have integrated windows update into IE. They'll also probably never learn from their mistakes and make it a separate product, either.