Back in the day when AOL was around (after the BBS died out 1996-2001) you could basically dial into anyone in the nation. I would call this the era of the Mom and Pop Isp. Any person with a T1 could make their own dial up service.
There would be many competitors in your area and if you didn't mind long distance charges you could literally pick any of the thousands mom and pop ISPs anywhere in the nation.
But with Broad band... All those places died out... The telco's and cable companies took over and the only way you could get broad band was to choose between two groups who aren't really competing against each other as much as the mom and pop's were.
So the service quality is down and prices stay high with the new cartels.
If only technology would allow the Mom and Pop ISP days, we'd be better off.
Well, there is one service that doesn't fail. That's HAM radio. Here's an article that excerpts some of the gov't reports from Katrina [arrl.org] that illustrate how important the Amateur Radio Service was during a true disaster.
I was going to mention HAM radio and CB's:)
You are right, they are pretty much there are the only reliable form of communication when there is a major disaster (as long as you've got a sulf sufficient power supply with and UPS or a power generator).
For other times, I have found a cell phone sufficient in minor situations. (fallen trees or general outages)
Let me know when VOIP continues to work when the power goes out. Then I might consider using it.
I always thought of this as a fallacy.
Generally, in major disaster or emergency situations you loose both power and lan line since most areas put them on the same pole.
If a tree falls during a hurricane it generally takes out both lines.
Unless of course if you have the phone lines buried and the powerlines on the poles or vice versa... This of course depends on where you live and how good your power is.
While living in Atlanta, the power would go out all the time due to crappy service. In say... Philadelphia, I have never seen the power go out.
However, I've seen my Comcast connection die with all four legs in the air for hours on end with no good reason.
If you are worried about loosing the phone because of power outages... Just get a cell phone. The Central offices and cell phone towers usually have power generator backups and well if those facilities go down, your lan lines wouldn't work anyway and your just screwed no matter what service you use.
True, but the Iranian government represents the population of Iran that would like to see the U.S. destroyed. Thats scary.
Not really. When you compare it to other things, you are more likley to die in a car accident or slipping in your shower.
Chances are Iran would never be able to nuke us. I'd be more concerned if we attacked Iran and then Russia and China decided to declare war on us for no good reason.
They have ICBM's that can hit every city in the US. Iran can barley hit Europe.
Actually, a vegetarian diet combined with eating fish is probaly the best route to go. Eating lots of sushi and non-deepfried sea food will usually cover this. It is why people in Iceland, Norway, and Japan are so healthy... The massive amounts of fish in their diet.
Eating cow, pig, and chicken is tasty but the amount of fats, hormones, and various anti-biotics (plus bad feeding practices) tend to make mass farmed animals unhealthy to constantly eat.
If you do want the occasional steak, you should really put up the extra money and buy organic or range raised. You know... The ones that aren't fed other cows and live on open ranges and they can eat grass and not be in unsanitary farm factories.
I think the 2012 date maybe a bit too soon. I think 2007 will see a great deal of advances and by 2012 we will be up in our ears with real AI (not StrongAI though)
I think many people put the 2012 date because it coincides with Mayan end date and/or Terrence Mckenna's Time Wave Zero.
I think Kurzweil is more on the money with his 2045 suggestion about the Technological Singularity. We simply do not have the hardware right now... But by 2020 we will have cell phones that are able to to outhink most grade school kids (and that said and the majority of adults).
We will most likley have automated cars by 2010-12ish. Or on the market... Hopefully they'll get 100mpg.
Can you imagine what would happen if you put an idiot driver in a robot controlled car, and the AI encountered a conundrum, i.e. a blocked one way or something that required the driver take control?
The point of these challenges is to not have any humans in the car. Otherewise, the IED problem would still be a threat.
I feel that people are confusing "evil" with profit.
Actually, if I am not mistaken, there is something in the Bible against profiteering and gathering wealth in general, but since I'm not an expert in the subject other than the profit taking, I'm not about to make dogmatic suggestions on to the validity of Google's evilness or not;)
Go to the section that says "I'm old enough" with the Cellfactor video and take a look at the flash movie. Although Cellfactors almost could be a poster child game of mother of all physics engines. It looks like it puts Half Life 2 to shame. (Although I wonder if you character has that much physic power to fly through the air and throw jeeps at people then why bother with having a gun?)
I really dig the blood particle effets as someone is gibbed while standing on the ledge and the blood just splashes down the side of the platform.
And you can really tell the difference in particle debris in the comparison videos at the top. However, I wonder if the same effect can be acheived with cranking up your settings on a high end gaming rig without the card. I'd wait til some 3rd party hardware review site gives the final verdict.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but the bugle has no valves or positions, it's all dependent on the strength of the bugler. So no offense, but I doubt you could do it.
Actually, he could... I used to play trumpet in high school and we used to play taps for the other team during football games (I remember it distinctly because we were made to stop the practice).
Its been over 10 years, but I think its like G, G, C.... GG, high C.... I could be wrong about the notation, but a trumpet and brase player plays low C, C, and high C without changing the the valves.
Its been years since and I looked at taps on wiki and realized I can't read music notation anymore, but I think that looks like a G, G, C and then G, G, high G. I think G and C where all open valves... I remember E was valve two and 3 maybe? Its been too long so any one with trumpet background correct me.
We used to have challenges who could get a Double high C or even a triple (only one guy could do that and he went on to be a professional Drum core I think),
Its all in the strength of the lips... The more tight you make you lips the higher the note. Now a Trombone and Tuba player do not have to make their lips as tight (that sounds preverse) as a Trumpet player, but any brass player worth a damn can alternate instruments.
All they would have to do is just change the pressure of their lips to change the notes just like they would go from low C, C, to high C and then double high C. So yeah... Any trumpet player could probaly pick up a bugle and play it.
There are L2 and L3 roles which pay better. I know a few L3 people at IBM and they're smart people earning decent bucks [way more than $7/hr].
I work for an outsource company (in the states) that does 100% phone tech support for corps and get paid... oh... Probably 4 times that... Of course we specialize in obscure applications, charge by the minute, and even help people write code over the phone.
Of course I doubt you'd ever see Dell 1-800support assist its customers with Visual Studio C++ projects over the phone.
Of course the customer gets what they pay for when they use free support... I used to work at such a place a few years back for a major ISP (which I took because I was hurting for a job after the dot com crash). What they would do is just hire 50 people off the street and give them two weeks training... And they'd have about 10 of those people left in about six months.
Most of the people quit either were technically adept and just hated the shitty pay and job stress and then the other part of that was just the people who just didn't get it.
I think the only reason I stuck around was because of my prior tech background and the co-workers (a lot of us would go drinking together and even play EQ together).
Although, pretty much everyone I knew (including my supervisors) had Monster.com in their favorites.
I'm glad I got out of there after a year of it...
Anyways... Because of the experience I usually try to treat any tech support persons I call with respect even if they are incompetent. If the company was worth a damn they'd pay them more training.
And taking your frustrations with the company out on the tech won't help you any... Whether they live in the states or India.
If you are going up against someone 100lbs heavier than you with an equivalent skill level you will probably lose.
If you are going into a no holds bar fist fighting match... Then yes you will probably loose.
However, if you are just fighting with no rules other than subjugate your opponent, then chances are the lighter fighter can use the other fighters weight and lesser speed to pin or get him off balance.
The funny thing is that occasionally you'll see an Ultimate Fighter match where all the guy does is get behind his opponent and pins his arm in such a way that he has to submit.
Else... If he didn't submit, he'd have to break his own arm to get out of the move.
This is known as spray and pray. Fairly effective at about 20 m almost a lottery at 50m and hopelessly outgunned against a marksman of any calibur at 100m.
Unless of course you happen to be in an armored vechicle or happen to have access to a radio which invovles you calling in an air strike.
Then of course it really blows to be the sniper at that point...
It hasn't been scientifically proven that man is causing global warming, but a greater percentage of the NPR audience probably believes it because it's dear to them and their threshold for belief on it is lower.
It hasn't been scientifically proven that more environmentalists listen to NPR than watch Fox News either.
Until we do a poll, we don't know for sure.
And even then we will still be arguing over the poll results about whether or not NPR listeners believe that man is responsible for global warming years after all the costal cities have been submerged beneath 10 meters of water.
Makes me think that it is still the safest option to have stupid customers do all their banking right at a teller.
What if the Phishers send email with instructions for stupid customers to go into fake banks and do business with fake tellers?
Re:Hardcore gamers like Nintendo games too
on
Both Sides of Wii
·
· Score: 1
I liked it. yet it's not selling nearly as well as "Tetris" or "Brain Age" or "Nintendogs" - the latter are games that you don't have to think about (insert irony about "Brain Age" here). yet these are games that a) did not cost a lot to make, and b) could be played by anybody with more than 5 brain cells. Are they fun? Sure - Nintendo gets it: the hardcore gamers don't make them money. Armies of teenage schoolgirls and their parents do.
I dunno.
I consider myself a "hard core gamer" at least that I like PC FPS games. I don't go much for the consoles except for the Xbox, but I find myself playing either computer FPS, MMORPGs, orrr...
The Nintendo DS.
Why?
The Nintendo DS is just fun. Sure I like to play Red Orchestra or Unreal2k4, but I've found myself just picking up Tetris, Yugi-Oh, or Mario Kart and having fun on the DS most of the time these days.
I really dig the Wifi too.
It is the same with other hard core gamers I know... I know a guy who owns every console known to man (maybe not the PC-FX though) and he spends a great deal of time on his DS.
The DS is just fun. It isn't the same old crap the consoles keep throwing at us.
I think its not that the hard core gamers like the consoles, it is just that they put up with a lot more than the average Joe would in attempts to get entertained.
I how a problem understanding how it is to distrust your government like that.
Actually, it is what you should be doing for anything in life. Blindly trusting anything set you up for unpleasentry. Whether that is your friends remembering your bday, boss at work is actually putting you up for promotion, whether that driver sees you in his blind spot, and whether or not people in government have you best interest in mind.
This isn't say you need to be a paranoid ass and question every single thing anyone does in your life, but you should by default "distrust" anything that is told to you without proof.
Even with proof you should be open to the possibility that what you are told could be wrong.
Perhaps you could discuss how the California State Driver's License, which doubles as a state ID, does "almost nothing but enable the [state] government to trample individual rights".
A State Driver's License is needed to prove you can drive legally.
A ID card is not required otherwise.
By itself an ID card isn't an invasion of privacy if used voluntarily or for non-tracking purposes.
However, if id's are used to track your movements and habits. Then yes... It can turn ugly. Imagine you were tracked every time you went to a porn shop or a Church that was sponsored by the government?
Heck... Being in a questionable neighborhood maybe cause you to get marked as a political suspect. Yes my examples are extreme and would require RDIF tracking methods, but there is not reason for anyone that isn't driving to have identification on them.
I don't even think it should be needed to get on a plane.
Why? Because real Terrorists can get fake IDs regardless.
I do recall the 9/11 highjackers all had IDs that passed basic inspection.
If someone does do a crime... Fine... Tag them with a chip and track them down as long as their probation is in effect, but to track innnocent civilians en masse reeks of WWII Germany's "Where are zee papers!"
Slashdot Mirror
Back in the day when AOL was around (after the BBS died out 1996-2001) you could basically dial into anyone in the nation. I would call this the era of the Mom and Pop Isp. Any person with a T1 could make their own dial up service.
There would be many competitors in your area and if you didn't mind long distance charges you could literally pick any of the thousands mom and pop ISPs anywhere in the nation.
But with Broad band... All those places died out... The telco's and cable companies took over and the only way you could get broad band was to choose between two groups who aren't really competing against each other as much as the mom and pop's were.
So the service quality is down and prices stay high with the new cartels.
If only technology would allow the Mom and Pop ISP days, we'd be better off.
Well, there is one service that doesn't fail. That's HAM radio. Here's an article that excerpts some of the gov't reports from Katrina [arrl.org] that illustrate how important the Amateur Radio Service was during a true disaster.
:)
I was going to mention HAM radio and CB's
You are right, they are pretty much there are the only reliable form of communication when there is a major disaster (as long as you've got a sulf sufficient power supply with and UPS or a power generator).
For other times, I have found a cell phone sufficient in minor situations. (fallen trees or general outages)
Considering if it only works on Vista, I doubt I will use it any time soon.
Unless of course Vista works fine on a dual boot Mac and costs less than $400 for a copy. Then maybe... maybe... I'll use Direct X 10.
Have you ever considered Covad or Speakeasy?
They can usually swing you a data only line even if your phone company swears up and down that you can't.
Let me know when VOIP continues to work when the power goes out. Then I might consider using it.
I always thought of this as a fallacy.
Generally, in major disaster or emergency situations you loose both power and lan line since most areas put them on the same pole.
If a tree falls during a hurricane it generally takes out both lines.
Unless of course if you have the phone lines buried and the powerlines on the poles or vice versa... This of course depends on where you live and how good your power is.
While living in Atlanta, the power would go out all the time due to crappy service. In say... Philadelphia, I have never seen the power go out.
However, I've seen my Comcast connection die with all four legs in the air for hours on end with no good reason.
If you are worried about loosing the phone because of power outages... Just get a cell phone. The Central offices and cell phone towers usually have power generator backups and well if those facilities go down, your lan lines wouldn't work anyway and your just screwed no matter what service you use.
True, but the Iranian government represents the population of Iran that would like to see the U.S. destroyed. Thats scary.
Not really. When you compare it to other things, you are more likley to die in a car accident or slipping in your shower.
Chances are Iran would never be able to nuke us. I'd be more concerned if we attacked Iran and then Russia and China decided to declare war on us for no good reason.
They have ICBM's that can hit every city in the US. Iran can barley hit Europe.
Actually, a vegetarian diet combined with eating fish is probaly the best route to go. Eating lots of sushi and non-deepfried sea food will usually cover this. It is why people in Iceland, Norway, and Japan are so healthy... The massive amounts of fish in their diet.
Eating cow, pig, and chicken is tasty but the amount of fats, hormones, and various anti-biotics (plus bad feeding practices) tend to make mass farmed animals unhealthy to constantly eat.
If you do want the occasional steak, you should really put up the extra money and buy organic or range raised. You know... The ones that aren't fed other cows and live on open ranges and they can eat grass and not be in unsanitary farm factories.
Heck... They even taste better.
Vote in a Democratic Congress this fall.
The President will veto anything they put together and they'll refuse to pass anything the president tries to put through.
With luck, we won't have any more new laws until 2008.
I think the 2012 date maybe a bit too soon. I think 2007 will see a great deal of advances and by 2012 we will be up in our ears with real AI (not StrongAI though)
I think many people put the 2012 date because it coincides with Mayan end date and/or Terrence Mckenna's Time Wave Zero.
I think Kurzweil is more on the money with his 2045 suggestion about the Technological Singularity. We simply do not have the hardware right now... But by 2020 we will have cell phones that are able to to outhink most grade school kids (and that said and the majority of adults).
We will most likley have automated cars by 2010-12ish. Or on the market... Hopefully they'll get 100mpg.
Can you imagine what would happen if you put an idiot driver in a robot controlled car, and the AI encountered a conundrum, i.e. a blocked one way or something that required the driver take control?
The point of these challenges is to not have any humans in the car. Otherewise, the IED problem would still be a threat.
I feel that people are confusing "evil" with profit.
;)
Actually, if I am not mistaken, there is something in the Bible against profiteering and gathering wealth in general, but since I'm not an expert in the subject other than the profit taking, I'm not about to make dogmatic suggestions on to the validity of Google's evilness or not
Check out this link: http://physx.ageia.com/footage.html
Go to the section that says "I'm old enough" with the Cellfactor video and take a look at the flash movie. Although Cellfactors almost could be a poster child game of mother of all physics engines. It looks like it puts Half Life 2 to shame. (Although I wonder if you character has that much physic power to fly through the air and throw jeeps at people then why bother with having a gun?)
I really dig the blood particle effets as someone is gibbed while standing on the ledge and the blood just splashes down the side of the platform.
And you can really tell the difference in particle debris in the comparison videos at the top. However, I wonder if the same effect can be acheived with cranking up your settings on a high end gaming rig without the card. I'd wait til some 3rd party hardware review site gives the final verdict.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but the bugle has no valves or positions, it's all dependent on the strength of the bugler. So no offense, but I doubt you could do it.
Actually, he could... I used to play trumpet in high school and we used to play taps for the other team during football games (I remember it distinctly because we were made to stop the practice).
Its been over 10 years, but I think its like G, G, C.... GG, high C.... I could be wrong about the notation, but a trumpet and brase player plays low C, C, and high C without changing the the valves.
Its been years since and I looked at taps on wiki and realized I can't read music notation anymore, but I think that looks like a G, G, C and then G, G, high G. I think G and C where all open valves... I remember E was valve two and 3 maybe? Its been too long so any one with trumpet background correct me.
We used to have challenges who could get a Double high C or even a triple (only one guy could do that and he went on to be a professional Drum core I think),
Its all in the strength of the lips... The more tight you make you lips the higher the note. Now a Trombone and Tuba player do not have to make their lips as tight (that sounds preverse) as a Trumpet player, but any brass player worth a damn can alternate instruments.
All they would have to do is just change the pressure of their lips to change the notes just like they would go from low C, C, to high C and then double high C. So yeah... Any trumpet player could probaly pick up a bugle and play it.
There are L2 and L3 roles which pay better. I know a few L3 people at IBM and they're smart people earning decent bucks [way more than $7/hr].
I work for an outsource company (in the states) that does 100% phone tech support for corps and get paid... oh... Probably 4 times that... Of course we specialize in obscure applications, charge by the minute, and even help people write code over the phone.
Of course I doubt you'd ever see Dell 1-800support assist its customers with Visual Studio C++ projects over the phone.
Of course the customer gets what they pay for when they use free support... I used to work at such a place a few years back for a major ISP (which I took because I was hurting for a job after the dot com crash). What they would do is just hire 50 people off the street and give them two weeks training... And they'd have about 10 of those people left in about six months.
Most of the people quit either were technically adept and just hated the shitty pay and job stress and then the other part of that was just the people who just didn't get it.
I think the only reason I stuck around was because of my prior tech background and the co-workers (a lot of us would go drinking together and even play EQ together).
Although, pretty much everyone I knew (including my supervisors) had Monster.com in their favorites.
I'm glad I got out of there after a year of it...
Anyways... Because of the experience I usually try to treat any tech support persons I call with respect even if they are incompetent. If the company was worth a damn they'd pay them more training.
And taking your frustrations with the company out on the tech won't help you any... Whether they live in the states or India.
If you are going up against someone 100lbs heavier than you with an equivalent skill level you will probably lose.
If you are going into a no holds bar fist fighting match... Then yes you will probably loose.
However, if you are just fighting with no rules other than subjugate your opponent, then chances are the lighter fighter can use the other fighters weight and lesser speed to pin or get him off balance.
The funny thing is that occasionally you'll see an Ultimate Fighter match where all the guy does is get behind his opponent and pins his arm in such a way that he has to submit.
Else... If he didn't submit, he'd have to break his own arm to get out of the move.
This is known as spray and pray. Fairly effective at about 20 m almost a lottery at 50m and hopelessly outgunned against a marksman of any calibur at 100m.
Unless of course you happen to be in an armored vechicle or happen to have access to a radio which invovles you calling in an air strike.
Then of course it really blows to be the sniper at that point...
This is just random bullshit speculation, might it just be that microsoft is in the middle of some of the largest product launches in their history,
;)
Or maybe it is just to pay off all those shills we keep hearing about!
What do call a CEO who makes the decision to chop $400 million off his company's profits?
Carly Fiorina
Well... And unemployed.
Of course I don't see the brain being replaced in the near 100-200 years, not just for technical, but also religious, political and moral reasons.
Religion, politics, and morality will most likley be the main reasons people do switch to artificial brains.
Especially if the "other side" has got em.
I think the "mass mind of humanity" idea ain't gonna work.
Oh and next thing you'll be telling us is that "Government of and by the People" (Democracy) ain't going to work either!
Oh wait...
It hasn't been scientifically proven that man is causing global warming, but a greater percentage of the NPR audience probably believes it because it's dear to them and their threshold for belief on it is lower.
It hasn't been scientifically proven that more environmentalists listen to NPR than watch Fox News either.
Until we do a poll, we don't know for sure.
And even then we will still be arguing over the poll results about whether or not NPR listeners believe that man is responsible for global warming years after all the costal cities have been submerged beneath 10 meters of water.
Makes me think that it is still the safest option to have stupid customers do all their banking right at a teller.
What if the Phishers send email with instructions for stupid customers to go into fake banks and do business with fake tellers?
I liked it. yet it's not selling nearly as well as "Tetris" or "Brain Age" or "Nintendogs" - the latter are games that you don't have to think about (insert irony about "Brain Age" here). yet these are games that a) did not cost a lot to make, and b) could be played by anybody with more than 5 brain cells. Are they fun? Sure - Nintendo gets it: the hardcore gamers don't make them money. Armies of teenage schoolgirls and their parents do.
I dunno.
I consider myself a "hard core gamer" at least that I like PC FPS games. I don't go much for the consoles except for the Xbox, but I find myself playing either computer FPS, MMORPGs, orrr...
The Nintendo DS.
Why?
The Nintendo DS is just fun. Sure I like to play Red Orchestra or Unreal2k4, but I've found myself just picking up Tetris, Yugi-Oh, or Mario Kart and having fun on the DS most of the time these days.
I really dig the Wifi too.
It is the same with other hard core gamers I know... I know a guy who owns every console known to man (maybe not the PC-FX though) and he spends a great deal of time on his DS.
The DS is just fun. It isn't the same old crap the consoles keep throwing at us.
I think its not that the hard core gamers like the consoles, it is just that they put up with a lot more than the average Joe would in attempts to get entertained.
I how a problem understanding how it is to distrust your government like that.
Actually, it is what you should be doing for anything in life. Blindly trusting anything set you up for unpleasentry. Whether that is your friends remembering your bday, boss at work is actually putting you up for promotion, whether that driver sees you in his blind spot, and whether or not people in government have you best interest in mind.
This isn't say you need to be a paranoid ass and question every single thing anyone does in your life, but you should by default "distrust" anything that is told to you without proof.
Even with proof you should be open to the possibility that what you are told could be wrong.
It is called having an "open mind".
Perhaps you could discuss how the California State Driver's License, which doubles as a state ID, does "almost nothing but enable the [state] government to trample individual rights".
A State Driver's License is needed to prove you can drive legally.
A ID card is not required otherwise.
By itself an ID card isn't an invasion of privacy if used voluntarily or for non-tracking purposes.
However, if id's are used to track your movements and habits. Then yes... It can turn ugly. Imagine you were tracked every time you went to a porn shop or a Church that was sponsored by the government?
Heck... Being in a questionable neighborhood maybe cause you to get marked as a political suspect. Yes my examples are extreme and would require RDIF tracking methods, but there is not reason for anyone that isn't driving to have identification on them.
I don't even think it should be needed to get on a plane.
Why? Because real Terrorists can get fake IDs regardless.
I do recall the 9/11 highjackers all had IDs that passed basic inspection.
If someone does do a crime... Fine... Tag them with a chip and track them down as long as their probation is in effect, but to track innnocent civilians en masse reeks of WWII Germany's "Where are zee papers!"