What are Slashdot's feelings on net neutrality generally?
To my mind, it makes sense to have pricing clearly defined based on the bandwidth you use. It should be no different than your electric bill where you're charged based on the power you use. Take my parents - They "do email," now and again watch youtube vids of the grandkids and surf the web a bit. Contrast this with my brother-in-law who is constantly torrenting, playing online games and using netflix. I'm somewhere in the middle. There should be a mechanism to charge us different rates based on our usage. My parents shouldn't be subsidizing my brother-in-law.
However the ISPs don't seem to be well equipped to build this sort of system...
I assume the idea is a Kindle-y tablet with a battery inside (like most tablets) and a solar panel on the back (unlike most tablets). To charge the thing you just lay it down outside, with the solar panel pointed up.
I would really, really love to see them produce a movie specifically for adults!
I would argue that Up! was largely a movie for adults. The segment showing Carl and Ellie's married life together (in four minutes, with no dialogue), complete their being told they can't have children, their economic pressures and Elle's death (blah blah blah spoiler alert, live with it) is not a segment for kids... It rings very true for any 'married' grownups. I remember watching it (again) on a flight, and all the adults in my row were crying.
people start getting indignant about security again
People aren't indigant over security - They're indignant over "security theatre," with billions spent for questionable returns.
For me, the big deal is not that some poor security guard has to look at my fat gut or grope my privates. For me, the issue is that this is a *tremendous* waste of money for little return - Money that desperately needs to be spent elsewhere. The days of terrorists smuggling explosives onto planes on their body is over. The recent "Yemen" incident points to this - The threat to airlines is the same issue that security experts have been telling us about for 20 years: Air freight. If you're on a plane, chances are you've been screened 100X more than what may be in the cargo hold under your feet. These nude-o-scopes do nothing to address that. However, addressing the issue of air freight is very complex and expensive and doesn't easily demonstrate to Ma and Pa Kettle that goshdarnit, the government's doing something - Whereas visibly putting a brown man in a turban into a scanning phonebooth thingamajiggy does.
Finally, if you *are* legitimately concerned about items being smuggled onto a plane on a passenger's person, you only need to talk to a prison guard or Israeli security expert to learn how useless these nude-o-scopes are, as they don't look *inside* the body, which is where most contraband is hidden these days anyway.
I sure do - And at the risk of us sounding like the "Four Yorkshiremen Sketch" I'll also throw Artisoft's LANtastic into the mix. I remember you could get a kit that included the software, coax, terminators + 2 (!) mbit ethernet cards...
For me, the game-changer was "Windows for Workgroups." (Windows 3.11) With Win311, a collection of "NE2000" compatible network cards and some coax and terminators, you could easily set up peer-to-peer networks. Suddenly people were sharing printers, saving files to a network drive and the sneakernet started to fade... Of course it also killed the DOS peer-to-peer networks, but that's another story...
sales tax hurts low income people because they have to spend everything they make in order to live
That's why here in Canada there is a sales tax credit program. If you're low-income you get a cheque in the mail to help buffer what you've paid in sales taxes.
The very important issue here is that while female astronauts are fit & clever, they're rarely hot. Most of them are in their late 30s / early 40s as they've spent 20+ years getting incredible credentials. The ones who have come from the military are somewhat butch, the civilians tend to be somewhat geeky. To wit -
For me, 'the big deal' is not that some poor security guard has to look at my fat gut. For me, the issue is that this is a *tremendous* waste of money for little return - Money that desperately needs to be spent elsewhere. The days of terrorists smuggling explosives onto planes on their body is over. The recent "Yemen" incident points to this - The threat to airlines is the same issue that security experts have been telling us about for 20 years: Air freight. If you're on a plane, chances are you've been screened 100X more than what may be in the cargo hold under your feet. These nude-o-scopes do nothing to address that. However, addressing the issue of air freight is very complex and expensive and doesn't easily demonstrate to Ma and Pa Kettle that goshdarnit, the government's doing something - Whereas visibly putting a brown man in a turban into a scanning phonebooth thingamajiggy does.
Finally, if you *are* legitimately concerned about items being smuggled onto a plane on a passenger's person, you only need to talk to a prison guard or Israeli security expert to learn how useless these nude-o-scopes are, as they don't look *inside* the body, which is where most contraband is hidden these days anyway.
Timothy Dalton wore a Rolex Submariner in the 1980s too
Er, actually, no. Dalton's OO7 wore a TAG Heuer watch, not a Rolex, then in 1995 Brosnan's OO7 wore an Omega Seamaster (the watch that coincidentally happens to be on my wrist right now).
And the fact that the viper had artificial gravity inside
Honest question: Did we ever see that vipers had artifical gravity? Did we ever see evidence of something floating around the viper cockpit? I just assumed the viper pilots were strapped in like John Glenn in his tin can? No question that the raptors had gravity though. But, and not too geek out too much, even if the vipers did have gravity, if you wanted to push the nose down, what could the gravity act against?
Years later I still recall watching the pilot / mini-series and being impressed with the physics of the vipers - When we saw Starbuck push the viper's stick forward we also saw a reaction thruster fire to push the nose down. It was at that moment that I realized, "Hey, this show could be alright." (...and I was correct, except for the last 10 minutes of the series finale.)
I suppose it's how you define "traditionally." OO7 hasn't worn a Rolex since 1973's "Live and Let Die." In fact, aside from the early Connery films Bond has usually *not* worn a Rolex.
I suspect some bean counter realized that as 3rd-party sites like these proliferate, traffic will be driven away from the "official" National Rail site. As a result, the railways will have fewer eyeballs to which to present packages, specials and other similar up-sells which are key to their revenue stream. I realize/. is dramatically anti-ad, but you need to realize the click-through on deals like these from Joe Average is likely fairly good.... So National Rail doesn't want to lose those eyeballs, even if it's to a site that's 100% non-commercial. The stupid part is nobody thought of this before creating the webservice.
In the early 80s, my "80-Micro" magazines used to have ads for a gadget that turned an IBM Selectric typewriter into a computer printer. You fit the device over the keyboard of your typewriter and it had a set of solenoids and plungers that, when signalled, pressed the appropriate keys, causing the typewriter to 'type.' I remember watching these beasties at trade shows - It was almost creepy.
Back in the day almost every office had an IBM Selectric, so this provided a means of getting a "letter quality" printer into an office during a time when a letter quality printer could cost $1500 or more ($3000+ in today's dollars).
I'm always surprised how many people are dependant on alarm clocks... I just go to sleep early enough, such that I wake up naturally in the morning. I usually get up at 6am, so it's lights-out at 10pm. 8 hours later, I wake up. I will use an alarm clock if I need to get up early to catch a flight (i.e. 4am like last week) but even in that case I seem to wake up a few minutes before the alarm goes off.
Main downside is the weekend - My circadian rhythms are set such that I pretty much wake up at 6am seven days a week...
So when you go to a broadway show the people on stage don't mind when you walk into the scene on stage, look at objects, pick them up, manipulate them, and put them back while having the characters react to that manipulation? Neato...
Oh I see what you're saying. If fares were moderately lower 2 or 3 years ago then to say "they've never been lower" isn't correct. My bad... I meant while there have been upswings and downswings, historically fares today are cheaper than they were in the past.
While you might be experiencing a moderate fare bump right now, historically fares have never been cheaper.
50 years ago or so it would have cost about $300 to fly transcon - Nearly $2400 in todays's dollars. Today you can fly from New York to LA for under $500.
Here's some more recent examples:
In 1990 I flew from Vancouver to London... It was my first big backpacking trip after university. I remember the fare was around $950 - Around $1540 in today's dollars. By comparison, that same trip on those same dates would cost $1465 today - Almost $100 less.
I remember around 1999 I used to fly Vancouver to Denver once a month on United. The flight, purchased three weeks ahead without a Saturday stay was around $1000. Indexed to today's dollars, that's nearly $1300.
Today the fare is about half that - Or less.
So are fares moderately higher than they might have been 2 or 3 years ago? Maybe, but in looking at the big picture fares have never been lower.
Slashdot Mirror
It only cost me twenty bucks around ten years ago
Was that the brand-new unlocked phone price? Or was that the carrier-subsidized price?
What are Slashdot's feelings on net neutrality generally?
To my mind, it makes sense to have pricing clearly defined based on the bandwidth you use. It should be no different than your electric bill where you're charged based on the power you use. Take my parents - They "do email," now and again watch youtube vids of the grandkids and surf the web a bit. Contrast this with my brother-in-law who is constantly torrenting, playing online games and using netflix. I'm somewhere in the middle. There should be a mechanism to charge us different rates based on our usage. My parents shouldn't be subsidizing my brother-in-law.
However the ISPs don't seem to be well equipped to build this sort of system...
I assume the idea is a Kindle-y tablet with a battery inside (like most tablets) and a solar panel on the back (unlike most tablets). To charge the thing you just lay it down outside, with the solar panel pointed up.
I'm pretty sure the Heavy Metal cartoon movie was R as well...
I would really, really love to see them produce a movie specifically for adults!
I would argue that Up! was largely a movie for adults. The segment showing Carl and Ellie's married life together (in four minutes, with no dialogue), complete their being told they can't have children, their economic pressures and Elle's death (blah blah blah spoiler alert, live with it) is not a segment for kids... It rings very true for any 'married' grownups. I remember watching it (again) on a flight, and all the adults in my row were crying.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klJcD6HyeOg
people start getting indignant about security again
People aren't indigant over security - They're indignant over "security theatre," with billions spent for questionable returns.
For me, the big deal is not that some poor security guard has to look at my fat gut or grope my privates. For me, the issue is that this is a *tremendous* waste of money for little return - Money that desperately needs to be spent elsewhere. The days of terrorists smuggling explosives onto planes on their body is over. The recent "Yemen" incident points to this - The threat to airlines is the same issue that security experts have been telling us about for 20 years: Air freight. If you're on a plane, chances are you've been screened 100X more than what may be in the cargo hold under your feet. These nude-o-scopes do nothing to address that. However, addressing the issue of air freight is very complex and expensive and doesn't easily demonstrate to Ma and Pa Kettle that goshdarnit, the government's doing something - Whereas visibly putting a brown man in a turban into a scanning phonebooth thingamajiggy does.
Finally, if you *are* legitimately concerned about items being smuggled onto a plane on a passenger's person, you only need to talk to a prison guard or Israeli security expert to learn how useless these nude-o-scopes are, as they don't look *inside* the body, which is where most contraband is hidden these days anyway.
What about all this "Setec Astronomy" business then?
It was getting long in tooth in 1998
I was curious, so I googled up LANtastic. Believe it or not, you can still buy it!
http://pcmicro.com/lantastic/order/
Not sure where you find those NE2000 cards though... (or the ISA slots to plug 'em into)
I sure do - And at the risk of us sounding like the "Four Yorkshiremen Sketch" I'll also throw Artisoft's LANtastic into the mix. I remember you could get a kit that included the software, coax, terminators + 2 (!) mbit ethernet cards...
For me, the game-changer was "Windows for Workgroups." (Windows 3.11) With Win311, a collection of "NE2000" compatible network cards and some coax and terminators, you could easily set up peer-to-peer networks. Suddenly people were sharing printers, saving files to a network drive and the sneakernet started to fade... Of course it also killed the DOS peer-to-peer networks, but that's another story...
sales tax hurts low income people because they have to spend everything they make in order to live
That's why here in Canada there is a sales tax credit program. If you're low-income you get a cheque in the mail to help buffer what you've paid in sales taxes.
The very important issue here is that while female astronauts are fit & clever, they're rarely hot. Most of them are in their late 30s / early 40s as they've spent 20+ years getting incredible credentials. The ones who have come from the military are somewhat butch, the civilians tend to be somewhat geeky. To wit -
http://www.google.ca/images?hl=en&source=imghp&biw=1424&bih=719&q=female+astronauts
what's the big deal?
For me, 'the big deal' is not that some poor security guard has to look at my fat gut. For me, the issue is that this is a *tremendous* waste of money for little return - Money that desperately needs to be spent elsewhere. The days of terrorists smuggling explosives onto planes on their body is over. The recent "Yemen" incident points to this - The threat to airlines is the same issue that security experts have been telling us about for 20 years: Air freight. If you're on a plane, chances are you've been screened 100X more than what may be in the cargo hold under your feet. These nude-o-scopes do nothing to address that. However, addressing the issue of air freight is very complex and expensive and doesn't easily demonstrate to Ma and Pa Kettle that goshdarnit, the government's doing something - Whereas visibly putting a brown man in a turban into a scanning phonebooth thingamajiggy does.
Finally, if you *are* legitimately concerned about items being smuggled onto a plane on a passenger's person, you only need to talk to a prison guard or Israeli security expert to learn how useless these nude-o-scopes are, as they don't look *inside* the body, which is where most contraband is hidden these days anyway.
Timothy Dalton wore a Rolex Submariner in the 1980s too
Er, actually, no. Dalton's OO7 wore a TAG Heuer watch, not a Rolex, then in 1995 Brosnan's OO7 wore an Omega Seamaster (the watch that coincidentally happens to be on my wrist right now).
And the fact that the viper had artificial gravity inside
Honest question: Did we ever see that vipers had artifical gravity? Did we ever see evidence of something floating around the viper cockpit? I just assumed the viper pilots were strapped in like John Glenn in his tin can? No question that the raptors had gravity though. But, and not too geek out too much, even if the vipers did have gravity, if you wanted to push the nose down, what could the gravity act against?
Years later I still recall watching the pilot / mini-series and being impressed with the physics of the vipers - When we saw Starbuck push the viper's stick forward we also saw a reaction thruster fire to push the nose down. It was at that moment that I realized, "Hey, this show could be alright." (...and I was correct, except for the last 10 minutes of the series finale.)
And Bond wore a Rolex Submariner traditionally
I suppose it's how you define "traditionally." OO7 hasn't worn a Rolex since 1973's "Live and Let Die." In fact, aside from the early Connery films Bond has usually *not* worn a Rolex.
I suspect some bean counter realized that as 3rd-party sites like these proliferate, traffic will be driven away from the "official" National Rail site. As a result, the railways will have fewer eyeballs to which to present packages, specials and other similar up-sells which are key to their revenue stream. I realize /. is dramatically anti-ad, but you need to realize the click-through on deals like these from Joe Average is likely fairly good.... So National Rail doesn't want to lose those eyeballs, even if it's to a site that's 100% non-commercial. The stupid part is nobody thought of this before creating the webservice.
In the early 80s, my "80-Micro" magazines used to have ads for a gadget that turned an IBM Selectric typewriter into a computer printer. You fit the device over the keyboard of your typewriter and it had a set of solenoids and plungers that, when signalled, pressed the appropriate keys, causing the typewriter to 'type.' I remember watching these beasties at trade shows - It was almost creepy.
Back in the day almost every office had an IBM Selectric, so this provided a means of getting a "letter quality" printer into an office during a time when a letter quality printer could cost $1500 or more ($3000+ in today's dollars).
I'm always surprised how many people are dependant on alarm clocks... I just go to sleep early enough, such that I wake up naturally in the morning. I usually get up at 6am, so it's lights-out at 10pm. 8 hours later, I wake up. I will use an alarm clock if I need to get up early to catch a flight (i.e. 4am like last week) but even in that case I seem to wake up a few minutes before the alarm goes off.
Main downside is the weekend - My circadian rhythms are set such that I pretty much wake up at 6am seven days a week...
It is called Theater
So when you go to a broadway show the people on stage don't mind when you walk into the scene on stage, look at objects, pick them up, manipulate them, and put them back while having the characters react to that manipulation? Neato...
Mind telling me where I can get a one-way ticket from LAX to DFW for $79 nowdays?
Nowhere - But the $200 it costs today is still dramatically cheaper than it would have cost you 30 years ago, indexed to today's dollars.
Oh I see what you're saying. If fares were moderately lower 2 or 3 years ago then to say "they've never been lower" isn't correct. My bad... I meant while there have been upswings and downswings, historically fares today are cheaper than they were in the past.
Huh? Cite?
actually i am just tired of airline prices
While you might be experiencing a moderate fare bump right now, historically fares have never been cheaper.
50 years ago or so it would have cost about $300 to fly transcon - Nearly $2400 in todays's dollars. Today you can fly from New York to LA for under $500.
Here's some more recent examples:
In 1990 I flew from Vancouver to London... It was my first big backpacking trip after university. I remember the fare was around $950 - Around $1540 in today's dollars. By comparison, that same trip on those same dates would cost $1465 today - Almost $100 less.
I remember around 1999 I used to fly Vancouver to Denver once a month on United. The flight, purchased three weeks ahead without a Saturday stay was around $1000. Indexed to today's dollars, that's nearly $1300.
Today the fare is about half that - Or less.
So are fares moderately higher than they might have been 2 or 3 years ago? Maybe, but in looking at the big picture fares have never been lower.