Seriously though, you honestly can't expect more than 250 GB per month for residential service. Those of you arguing about Blu-ray transfers and GB of backup data, shut up. Get a goddamn commercial line if you're not an average consumer.
Are you saying watching HD movies and backing up pictures/home video to Carbonite or something aren't residential activities?
Complaining over a 250 GB cap is like complaining that you can't run a 20,000 machine data centre at home off the city's public electricity grid.
No it's not. It's like complaining that my connection to the power grid can't support eight computers in my home, because the "average user" doesn't have eight computers. Who's to say, though, that I don't have a high-power desktop for gaming (1), a laptop for surfing, etc (2), a laptop for the wife (3), one laptop each for the kids (4, 5), one MythTV box each for the upstairs TV and the downstairs TV (6, 7), and a media server (running Windows HOME Server, not something Enterprisey) (8)?
Sure, this is a hypothetical example, but it's not at all unreasonable. The fact that I'm not "average" doesn't mean I should need a commercial-grade connection.
My daughter finally learned to climb. She climbed on the couch (I was still with my wife of the time) and stood up on it. She and her uncle who were there wanted to get her down. I told them that I'd rather that not happen and asked that they watch. She fell straight down at an angle that you'd think would break a child's neck (but onto a heavily carpetted floor) and got back up crying. They wanted to run to her and comfort her and, again, I said that I really wished they wouldn't and actually stood between them in the hallway so that they'd have had to push past me. She got back on the couch and sat her ass down and never ever jumped on the couch again.
Good to see I'm not the only dad with this philosophy.
if you have access to a high-speed connection that allows you to host a server, and can afford it, you could host it locally, but that is a huge number of people you just removed free speech online from.
That's just one more reason the telecommunications oligopoly in this country is such a terrible system. Our internet connections exist subject to the whims of a few gargantuan corporations.
Why couldn't we have candidates make their campaign promises under oath? "I solemnly swear that I will vote (for/against) these bills."
Then we implement a streamlined congressperson-perjury court, and any citizen can file a complaint for review, and if the congressperson is found to have violated one of his sworn promises, he or she is immediately removed from office.
Disclaimer: this is just a top-of-my-head idea... obviously it's imperfect, but I imagine it could be refined easily enough.
I would guess it's probably more likely that they just don't have one government-sponsored monopoly corporation that's able to charge their competitors up the ass for access to the physical network. What a novel idea!
So, in New York City -- the supposed center of the world -- "competition" is 3 carriers?
In backwoods America, there's generally one cable and one DSL provider... if you're lucky.
That is NOT competiion.
An excellent point, and it makes me wonder...
Could that judge with all the "porn" on his "website" file criminal charges against whomever dug that stuff up? After all, I'm pretty sure he didn't explicity grant them permission.
People expect to be able to live in any old shit town these days, no matter how far away from civilization, and get everything they need through that magic connection.
We expect that because it was promised to us.
The Internet was supposed to be the great equalizer -- anybody, in any part of the world, would have instant access to the sum of human knowledge and culture. You could communicate instantly, in real time, via audio and video, with someone on the other side of the globe. You could find any information you wanted to find, quickly and easily.
In the US, at least, telecommunications companies received billions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks so they could provide a nationwide fiber network making this service available to everybody, putting us all on an equal footing and ensuring our citizens would have the access they needed in an ever-more-connected and technology-based world...
Would you be surprised if Time Warner opens its own online store to sell movies and TV shows, one where downloads aren't counted against the monthly bandwidth limit?
"Similarly, it's the job of the government to keep myself and the rest of the American citizenry reasonably safe, while still protecting the freedoms we value so much."
First, let me thank you for your service to our country. I am sure that you folks "in the trenches" are hard-working, honest individuals, and as patriotic as any one of us could hope to be. With that said, I urge you not to take it personally when I say: "WE DON'T WANT YOUR HELP."
There are bad things in the world. I recognize that, and I am glad to hear that there are people like you working to keep me safe from those things. Surly you must realize, however, that no matter what you and the rest of our government do, some element of danger will still exist... but in the process, we are being stripped of the very freedoms that we as Americans used to hold absolutely sacred.
Look at it like this: I have an 18-month-old son. My wife and I made sure when he started crawling that we had those safety plugs in floor-level outlets, we put some cabinet locks on the cupboards with the dangerous substances, and we put gates across the stairwells. We did these things because there are real dangers around our house that we can very easily mitigate. Of course, there are also dangers that are harder to deal with -- for example, he could fall off the sofa (and has). Does this mean we should get rid of all the furniture, because he could fall off? Maybe we should just take the furniture out of his room, and keep him in there 23 hours out of the day. Perhaps some form of restraints?
Obviously, I can't make the world perfectly safe for my son. My job as a parent, then, is to try to strike that balance between keeping him reasonably safe and giving him the freedom to learn and grow. Similarly, it's the job of the government to keep myself and the rest of the American citizenry reasonably safe, while still giving us the freedoms we value so much.
This administration, in my and many others' minds, has crossed far past that balance point. The safety this sort of program would grant is certainly a good thing, but the cost is just too high. Thanks, but no thanks.
Just FYI, they can't (legally speaking) encrypt everything. FCC regulations require that local, over-the-air channels (including the hi-def stuff) be carried in the clear.
If your HTPC doesn't support QAM, that's one thing... but if you had a capable digital tuner, and still couldn't get local channels, a little note to the Feds might not be a bad idea.
The Creative Commons website is not someone randomly pulling a "form contract" and using it as you state. Creative Commons website asks the user questions about what he or she wants in a license as surely as I would were that person sitting in my office. Then, Creative Commons generates a license to fit the person's apparent need.
NO.
There are several CC Licenses, allowing for different combinations of rights. Nobody is "generating a license" to fit your need - it's simply pointing you at the best-fitting, pre-existing license.
Take the example of the Linux Distro Chooser. The site asks a series of questions about your needs and experience, and then suggests a distribution that should work well for you. It's not generating a new Linux !just for you! on the spot -- it's merely pointing you in the right direction. Same with the CC site - it asks what rights you want to keep and/or release, and then (based on that) tells you which of their existing licenses you should consider.
I like it.
When I reformat my computer, it's hit-or-miss which games I reinstall. Basically, whatever CDs I have handy, I might toss in.
Except for my Steam games. I install the Steam client, spend 5 minutes getting all the downloads started, and a few hours later there are my games. I've never had a problem with it.
I know lots of people at my university that would LOVE to live off-campus. The problem is that the South Dakota Board of Regents requires students at state schools to live in the dorms until they're two years out of high school.
Your options are: (1) have parents that live within 60 miles of your school, so you can apply for a commuter exemption, (2) get married, to qualify for a family exemption, or (3) wait two years after you graduate. (If you're rich, I suppose you could just pay the ~$1200/semester housing fees as well as rent/utilities at an off-campus place... but how many people at a state school are gonna do that?)
FORTUNATELY, USD doesn't block anything. They DO limit you to 1Mbps/256Kbps, but you're free to do with that what you wish. You're free to do any filesharing you want - but I can speak from personal experience, they DO pass along BSA (and presumably MPAA/RIAA) takedown notices.
I've used Linux. I've used OSX (and OS 8, and System 7). I've used a Commodore 64. And yes, I've used Windows.
They all have their good points - like I said, I have a server or two running Linux, and I trust that sort of thing to CentOS a helluva lot more than I'd trust it to Windows. It's better at that sort of thing. But we're not talking about Linux on a server, we're talking about advocating to normal, run-of-the-mill, day-to-day workstation users.
Linux needs to be easier to use for the mid-level folks like myself. I do a hell of a lot more than just web surfing and email, but I don't see why it's necessary for me to slog through startup documentation to make things work. Moreso, I'm not the only one who thinks that. If you'd "rather not have us," then fine - Linux will forever be a "geek OS," and you're wasting your time "advocating" it to anybody.
(Also, I'll hold you at your word: if you're not going to bother us, then I won't expect to see any more "Just use Linux!" posts in any MS-related stories going forward.)
Do you understand the basic procedure Linux starts up all the way up to KDM/GDM/XDM login?
It's all in the config files and well documented (at least it is on Debian). I understand how these processes work, and how to fix them.
That's great.
I don't.
I do know how to deal with Windows issues. I've been using it for ten years, after all (in various flavors, of course). Is it easy? No, maybe not. Sometimes I just need to reinstall - which sucks, I'll admit - but the fact is, I know Windows. I'm familiar with it, and it does what I want it to do.
I have nothing against Linux - as a matter of fact I have a CentOS 4 web/smb/etc. server sitting behind me that I painstakingly built and configured as a sort of learning experiment - but I'll stick to Windows for my everyday use, thanks much.
The DMCA defense is a farce. Yet another Bush-approved kickback law in the post-9/11 panic that needs to be very intently reviewed by the Supreme Court, Congress, and the Senate now that people aren't all in panic mode. Scared people make mistakes; smart people try to correct them.
Passed on October 8, 1998 by a unanimous vote in the United States Senate and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on October 28, 1998, the DMCA amended title 17 of the US Code to extend the reach of copyright, while limiting the liability of Online Providers from copyright infringement by their users.
Slashdot Mirror
I've been following that project for at least five years. I think they've done a damn good job of stopping themselves, TYVM.
This one feature is well worth the price of admission... more selections would be nice, but they're improving that quite nicely.
Are you saying watching HD movies and backing up pictures/home video to Carbonite or something aren't residential activities?
No it's not. It's like complaining that my connection to the power grid can't support eight computers in my home, because the "average user" doesn't have eight computers. Who's to say, though, that I don't have a high-power desktop for gaming (1), a laptop for surfing, etc (2), a laptop for the wife (3), one laptop each for the kids (4, 5), one MythTV box each for the upstairs TV and the downstairs TV (6, 7), and a media server (running Windows HOME Server, not something Enterprisey) (8)?
Sure, this is a hypothetical example, but it's not at all unreasonable. The fact that I'm not "average" doesn't mean I should need a commercial-grade connection.
Good to see I'm not the only dad with this philosophy.
That's just one more reason the telecommunications oligopoly in this country is such a terrible system. Our internet connections exist subject to the whims of a few gargantuan corporations.
This is a bad thing.
Why couldn't we have candidates make their campaign promises under oath? "I solemnly swear that I will vote (for/against) these bills."
Then we implement a streamlined congressperson-perjury court, and any citizen can file a complaint for review, and if the congressperson is found to have violated one of his sworn promises, he or she is immediately removed from office.
Disclaimer: this is just a top-of-my-head idea... obviously it's imperfect, but I imagine it could be refined easily enough.
I'm terribly disappointed that I ran out of mod points last night. :(
On the plus side, now I'm not limited by the moderation choices, and I hereby award you +1 Punny.
I would guess it's probably more likely that they just don't have one government-sponsored monopoly corporation that's able to charge their competitors up the ass for access to the physical network. What a novel idea!
So, in New York City -- the supposed center of the world -- "competition" is 3 carriers? In backwoods America, there's generally one cable and one DSL provider... if you're lucky. That is NOT competiion.
An excellent point, and it makes me wonder... Could that judge with all the "porn" on his "website" file criminal charges against whomever dug that stuff up? After all, I'm pretty sure he didn't explicity grant them permission.
The Internet was supposed to be the great equalizer -- anybody, in any part of the world, would have instant access to the sum of human knowledge and culture. You could communicate instantly, in real time, via audio and video, with someone on the other side of the globe. You could find any information you wanted to find, quickly and easily.
In the US, at least, telecommunications companies received billions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks so they could provide a nationwide fiber network making this service available to everybody, putting us all on an equal footing and ensuring our citizens would have the access they needed in an ever-more-connected and technology-based world...
THEY SCREWED US OVER.
That's why we're bitching and complaining.
Netflix not working for ya, huh? Oh, hey, good thing Comcast offers stutter-free On-Demand videos!
What's that? You didn't want to use Comcast's on-demand, because it's more expensive and has a crappy selection?
Huh. Too bad, I guess.
Welcome to the world of tomorrow.
Oooh, fair point. Excellent point, in fact.
How 'bout we pretend I said it like this:
"Similarly, it's the job of the government to keep myself and the rest of the American citizenry reasonably safe, while still protecting the freedoms we value so much."
Thanks for the correction!
Sir or Madam:
First, let me thank you for your service to our country. I am sure that you folks "in the trenches" are hard-working, honest individuals, and as patriotic as any one of us could hope to be. With that said, I urge you not to take it personally when I say: "WE DON'T WANT YOUR HELP."
There are bad things in the world. I recognize that, and I am glad to hear that there are people like you working to keep me safe from those things. Surly you must realize, however, that no matter what you and the rest of our government do, some element of danger will still exist... but in the process, we are being stripped of the very freedoms that we as Americans used to hold absolutely sacred.
Look at it like this: I have an 18-month-old son. My wife and I made sure when he started crawling that we had those safety plugs in floor-level outlets, we put some cabinet locks on the cupboards with the dangerous substances, and we put gates across the stairwells. We did these things because there are real dangers around our house that we can very easily mitigate. Of course, there are also dangers that are harder to deal with -- for example, he could fall off the sofa (and has). Does this mean we should get rid of all the furniture, because he could fall off? Maybe we should just take the furniture out of his room, and keep him in there 23 hours out of the day. Perhaps some form of restraints?
Obviously, I can't make the world perfectly safe for my son. My job as a parent, then, is to try to strike that balance between keeping him reasonably safe and giving him the freedom to learn and grow. Similarly, it's the job of the government to keep myself and the rest of the American citizenry reasonably safe, while still giving us the freedoms we value so much.
This administration, in my and many others' minds, has crossed far past that balance point. The safety this sort of program would grant is certainly a good thing, but the cost is just too high. Thanks, but no thanks.
Just FYI, they can't (legally speaking) encrypt everything. FCC regulations require that local, over-the-air channels (including the hi-def stuff) be carried in the clear. If your HTPC doesn't support QAM, that's one thing... but if you had a capable digital tuner, and still couldn't get local channels, a little note to the Feds might not be a bad idea.
"Copyright infringement is not a big truck. It's a series of tubes..."
... wait.
What were we talking about again?
There are several CC Licenses, allowing for different combinations of rights. Nobody is "generating a license" to fit your need - it's simply pointing you at the best-fitting, pre-existing license.
Take the example of the Linux Distro Chooser. The site asks a series of questions about your needs and experience, and then suggests a distribution that should work well for you. It's not generating a new Linux !just for you! on the spot -- it's merely pointing you in the right direction. Same with the CC site - it asks what rights you want to keep and/or release, and then (based on that) tells you which of their existing licenses you should consider.
I like it. When I reformat my computer, it's hit-or-miss which games I reinstall. Basically, whatever CDs I have handy, I might toss in. Except for my Steam games. I install the Steam client, spend 5 minutes getting all the downloads started, and a few hours later there are my games. I've never had a problem with it.
A link to another article, with an (admittedly short) excerpt, and a picture of the student (which, sadly, may shed some more light on the issue):
http://www.dailyherald.com/story.asp?id=306398
I'm curious what they're calling this, if not suspension or expulsion.
I know lots of people at my university that would LOVE to live off-campus. The problem is that the South Dakota Board of Regents requires students at state schools to live in the dorms until they're two years out of high school.
Your options are: (1) have parents that live within 60 miles of your school, so you can apply for a commuter exemption, (2) get married, to qualify for a family exemption, or (3) wait two years after you graduate. (If you're rich, I suppose you could just pay the ~$1200/semester housing fees as well as rent/utilities at an off-campus place... but how many people at a state school are gonna do that?)
FORTUNATELY, USD doesn't block anything. They DO limit you to 1Mbps/256Kbps, but you're free to do with that what you wish. You're free to do any filesharing you want - but I can speak from personal experience, they DO pass along BSA (and presumably MPAA/RIAA) takedown notices.
I've used Linux. I've used OSX (and OS 8, and System 7). I've used a Commodore 64. And yes, I've used Windows.
They all have their good points - like I said, I have a server or two running Linux, and I trust that sort of thing to CentOS a helluva lot more than I'd trust it to Windows. It's better at that sort of thing. But we're not talking about Linux on a server, we're talking about advocating to normal, run-of-the-mill, day-to-day workstation users.
Linux needs to be easier to use for the mid-level folks like myself. I do a hell of a lot more than just web surfing and email, but I don't see why it's necessary for me to slog through startup documentation to make things work. Moreso, I'm not the only one who thinks that. If you'd "rather not have us," then fine - Linux will forever be a "geek OS," and you're wasting your time "advocating" it to anybody.
(Also, I'll hold you at your word: if you're not going to bother us, then I won't expect to see any more "Just use Linux!" posts in any MS-related stories going forward.)
That's great.
I don't.
I do know how to deal with Windows issues. I've been using it for ten years, after all (in various flavors, of course). Is it easy? No, maybe not. Sometimes I just need to reinstall - which sucks, I'll admit - but the fact is, I know Windows. I'm familiar with it, and it does what I want it to do.
I have nothing against Linux - as a matter of fact I have a CentOS 4 web/smb/etc. server sitting behind me that I painstakingly built and configured as a sort of learning experiment - but I'll stick to Windows for my everyday use, thanks much.
Ummm....
(From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMCA) Check your facts next time, please.