And Americans wonder why they have such a rotten reputation worldwide...
The internet was created by the US, in the US. The UN now wants to take control of something they did nothing to create. Now you understand why the UN (and Europe) has such a rotten reputation in the US.
Goodbye karma!
It's very interesting to see how mods go based on the time of day. Right now, about 5pm PST, most of Europe is asleep and the mods on this thread are distinctly anti-UN. Were this story posted a few hours later - when most of the US is asleep and Europeans have just woken up, the moderation would be decidedly anti-American.
Remember the case where Microsoft is getting sued by that company who claims to hold the patent on browser plugins?
If Microsoft wouldn't patent this, what are the chances that someone else would and sue them for patent infringement? It's quite possible that this is just a defensive patent to prevent stuff like that.
What the hell am I thinking?! This is Slashdot. We don't give MS the benefit of the doubt. Ever.
I agree with you except for calling the American lifestyle "bloated". Apart from the wastefulness of limited resources - oil, garbage, etc which is a wholly separate issue - there is nothing "bloated" or excessive about the American lifestyle. Rather, it is the lifestyle in the other countries that is minimalist. The trade deficit is inevitable while disparities in lifestyles persist but the solution is not to bring down the American lifestyle but to raise the lifestyle in other countries - which is slowly happening.
Economis is not a zero-sum game. Wealth can be created. Using technology and outsourcing does not have to imply a reduction in lifestyle quality since those human resources are now freed to work on presumably higher and more productive tasks. Take for example, the use of powertools in the construction industry. When they were first introduced, there were fears of wide-spread unemployment and the consequent economic downturn. Rather, the fact that we can now use an excavator to haul the dirt out means people are not working on a hard, shitty job which has minimial economic value (compared to a machine doing the same job) and are doing something else instead.
The article states that Comcast was offering a $19.99 rate for cable modem rates.
That is incorrect. Comcast has run this deal multiple times where they offer $19.99 a month for three months. After that the rates go back up to something around $45.99 (IIRC). The rate is not being offered right now but will be back in a few months.
Re:If this shipped with Lindows instead...
on
AOL's $299 PC
·
· Score: 1
Not quite. From the court depositions, and other stuff I've heard, I believe the OEM price for Windows is closer to $40 than $100.
Have you ever used AOL? Would you like to be stuck paying for AOL for a year even if you don't like it just to get a "new" PC? Sure, you can install Linux, but try to get support from AOL if something needs to be replaced under warrantee, and forget about even getting on to AOL with Linux.
The terms of the deal are clear. It's your choice whether you want to take the deal or not. Sounds like you've already decided you don't want to - that's your prerogative. Someone else may decide it makes sense - that is their prerogative.
I see Slashdot's communist mafia has modded me down as a "Troll". Some idiot forgot to check the definition of the word but I don't give a fuck. I've got plenty of karma to burn and I'll speak my mind.
It's not "Bush's" budget deficit. It's the United State's budget deficit.
The US economy (along with the rest of the worlds) is in the shitter right now. The main factors for this are: - The bubble from 1999 - Revelations of corporate scandals that occurred during the last presidents watch. - The terror attacks of 9/11.
But sure, go ahead and blame Bush. Just don't be surprised when the majority of the country disagrees with you come 2004.
Last time I checked Germany and France were running record deficits too. Are those Bush's fault too?
Between 1992 and 2000, the US was the sole champion of crushing sanctions against Iraq. The US bombed Iraq several times in that period, including 1998.
This is the same Iraq that supposedly didn't have any WMDs.
Clinton also shot cruise missiles into Afghanistan and Africa which missed more than they hit to deflect attention from the Monica Lewinski case.
This scored a 5: Insightful? "Houston Astros" : Uh, get your facts straight, buddy. Mr. Bush never owned or managed the Houston Astros. He owned (NOT managed) the Texas Rangers.
It sounds like you haven't absorbed enough of the "Everything American is sloppy and inferior. The rest of the world is so much superior than the US" programming.
Please report back to your programming classes or you will be banned from Slashdot.
Tax Cut You mean your one-time "benefit" of somewhere in the vicinity of $300? Real big help there.. Just in time to help boost Christmas spending so he can claim a "recovery" and a "robust, booming economy". Bzzzt.
No, you fucking moron. The Tax cut is not a one-time thing. The tax cut is for every year. Last year the tax cut was enacted retroactively. The $300 was a "refund" for the additional withholding that would not have happened had the tax cut been in effect the entire year.
You know, if you're too stupid to know and understand that, you're too stupid to comment on any of the other policy decisions. People like you should do the whole world a favor and not vote - preferably eliminate yourself from the gene pool also. It's because stupid people like you, who think they understand what's going on but don't, vote that we have the problems we have right now.
Unless their call system is really messed up and calls are not take sequentially ("...in the order in which they are received..."), that means that everyone else is waiting on hold for 8 hours, too.
That's weird. I've been with Sprint for 4 years now and I've always had nights start at 7pm.
Btw, good luck getting ATT customer service to even answer your phone. I was going to buy a new smartphone and move to ATT but my friends told me horror stories about having to wait on hold for up to 8 hours at a time just so they could get the phone activated.
Interestingly, they are only charging me $1.10 a month for it.
I did call and complain and the lady basically told me that the agreement I had with them said that they could charge me for any fees as they saw fit. I informed her that I would now be availing of this feature and switch to Verizon.
Personally, I hate the government mandate. Everyone of us will have to pay $1.10 a month because some babies couldn't be bothered to inform people that their number changed.
Phone numbers change all the time. People move, other things happen. I don't see why it is so important to be able to keep your phone number while moving between carriers. It's a nice feature but certainly not worth everyone paying $1.10 a month for ever.
The more important aspect is the timing skew - GSM and CDMA require the mobile and the base station to have a VERY accurate idea of the time of flight delay between them, so as to keep the transmissions in their allocated time slots (IIRC GSM requires something like a 5 microsecond accuracy, but not being at work yet I can't get the specs right now.)
IIRC that is only relevant to GSM which is TDMA. CDMA phones share the entire spectrum at the same time and there is no time division multiplexing.
We didn't complain when the government tacked on a universal service fee to our phone bills because it was "for the poor".
We didn't complain when the government tacked on a public access fee to our phone bills to pay for internet access in schools and libraries because it was "for the children".
Now we are getting bit in the ass by those same taxes and the loss of revenue that would ensue from moving to an unregulated system.
The right solution would be to insist that the government stop taxing every economic activity and restrict taxes to sales, income and property taxes and use those revenues to pay for everything the government wants to fund.
The problem is that telecom taxes are a revenue source. This problem will persist while we have a tax structure that imposes taxes at multiple points: sales tax, income tax, property tax in addition to overhead taxes like universal access tax, gas tax, etc. Politicians like to hide the amount of money they are taxing you by sliding taxes onto as many activities as possible.
Your phone bill includes, among other taxes and fees, a universal access change. This money goes towards funding internet access for schools and public libraries, among other things. This stuff should have been funded by the property taxes that the city and county collect anyway but a property tax increase is never popular. Instead we have a scheme where the government is depressing economic activity by taxing it.
An unregulated VoIP network would mean taking money away from these things and here is where the hair-brained taxation scheme comes back to bite us. Something that would provide a better service to the citizens and make better use of available infrastructure is being hindered because the government hasn't figured out a way to make money off of it yet.
What do you mean no funding is available? A large portion of my property tax dollars go towards funding the local public library system which I will probably never use.
I am not complaining about it because I believe libraries serve an important function. What I am pointing out is that libraries are funded - and that it's a lot of money.
This country was founded on the basis of limited government and the ability of the public to spend their money based on their own priorities rather than having the government spend it based on the governments priorities.
My English teacher is doing backflips as we speak.
And all of you who haven't had a class where you have to dissect a poem, reading all kinds of meanings into it and identifying figures of speech that the author probably never even intended, can buzz off.
Slashdot Mirror
And Americans wonder why they have such a rotten reputation worldwide...
The internet was created by the US, in the US. The UN now wants to take control of something they did nothing to create. Now you understand why the UN (and Europe) has such a rotten reputation in the US.
Goodbye karma!
It's very interesting to see how mods go based on the time of day. Right now, about 5pm PST, most of Europe is asleep and the mods on this thread are distinctly anti-UN. Were this story posted a few hours later - when most of the US is asleep and Europeans have just woken up, the moderation would be decidedly anti-American.
Africa is part of the same landmass as Eurasia - or at least was until the Suez Canal.
North and South America are also part of the same landmass.
Remember the case where Microsoft is getting sued by that company who claims to hold the patent on browser plugins?
If Microsoft wouldn't patent this, what are the chances that someone else would and sue them for patent infringement? It's quite possible that this is just a defensive patent to prevent stuff like that.
What the hell am I thinking?! This is Slashdot. We don't give MS the benefit of the doubt. Ever.
I agree with you except for calling the American lifestyle "bloated". Apart from the wastefulness of limited resources - oil, garbage, etc which is a wholly separate issue - there is nothing "bloated" or excessive about the American lifestyle. Rather, it is the lifestyle in the other countries that is minimalist. The trade deficit is inevitable while disparities in lifestyles persist but the solution is not to bring down the American lifestyle but to raise the lifestyle in other countries - which is slowly happening.
Economis is not a zero-sum game. Wealth can be created. Using technology and outsourcing does not have to imply a reduction in lifestyle quality since those human resources are now freed to work on presumably higher and more productive tasks. Take for example, the use of powertools in the construction industry. When they were first introduced, there were fears of wide-spread unemployment and the consequent economic downturn. Rather, the fact that we can now use an excavator to haul the dirt out means people are not working on a hard, shitty job which has minimial economic value (compared to a machine doing the same job) and are doing something else instead.
You can't complain about not being able to see any ads.
You were able to read this article right?
The actual quote is:
Sharma said the technology was "crucial to the ultimate moon shot," alluding to India's plan to send a manned mission to the moon before 2015.
It sounds like it's the journalist who concluded that the "moon shot" was about sending a man to the moon instead of just a satellite.
Never attribute to malice what can just as easily be accounted for by bad journalism.
The article states that Comcast was offering a $19.99 rate for cable modem rates.
That is incorrect. Comcast has run this deal multiple times where they offer $19.99 a month for three months. After that the rates go back up to something around $45.99 (IIRC). The rate is not being offered right now but will be back in a few months.
Not quite. From the court depositions, and other stuff I've heard, I believe the OEM price for Windows is closer to $40 than $100.
Have you ever used AOL? Would you like to be stuck paying for AOL for a year even if you don't like it just to get a "new" PC? Sure, you can install Linux, but try to get support from AOL if something needs to be replaced under warrantee, and forget about even getting on to AOL with Linux.
The terms of the deal are clear. It's your choice whether you want to take the deal or not. Sounds like you've already decided you don't want to - that's your prerogative. Someone else may decide it makes sense - that is their prerogative.
Sorry, I just don't suffer fools gladly.
And no, I'm not a Republican.
I see Slashdot's communist mafia has modded me down as a "Troll". Some idiot forgot to check the definition of the word but I don't give a fuck. I've got plenty of karma to burn and I'll speak my mind.
Don't worry. On Slashdot, we will still find a way of making him the villain of the piece.
It's not "Bush's" budget deficit. It's the United State's budget deficit.
The US economy (along with the rest of the worlds) is in the shitter right now. The main factors for this are:
- The bubble from 1999
- Revelations of corporate scandals that occurred during the last presidents watch.
- The terror attacks of 9/11.
But sure, go ahead and blame Bush. Just don't be surprised when the majority of the country disagrees with you come 2004.
Last time I checked Germany and France were running record deficits too. Are those Bush's fault too?
Between 1992 and 2000, the US was the sole champion of crushing sanctions against Iraq. The US bombed Iraq several times in that period, including 1998.
This is the same Iraq that supposedly didn't have any WMDs.
Clinton also shot cruise missiles into Afghanistan and Africa which missed more than they hit to deflect attention from the Monica Lewinski case.
This scored a 5: Insightful?
"Houston Astros" : Uh, get your facts straight, buddy. Mr. Bush never owned or managed the Houston Astros. He owned (NOT managed) the Texas Rangers.
You must be new here.
It sounds like you haven't absorbed enough of the "Everything American is sloppy and inferior. The rest of the world is so much superior than the US" programming.
Please report back to your programming classes or you will be banned from Slashdot.
Thank you.
Tax Cut
You mean your one-time "benefit" of somewhere in the vicinity of $300? Real big help there.. Just in time to help boost Christmas spending so he can claim a "recovery" and a "robust, booming economy". Bzzzt.
No, you fucking moron. The Tax cut is not a one-time thing. The tax cut is for every year. Last year the tax cut was enacted retroactively. The $300 was a "refund" for the additional withholding that would not have happened had the tax cut been in effect the entire year.
You know, if you're too stupid to know and understand that, you're too stupid to comment on any of the other policy decisions. People like you should do the whole world a favor and not vote - preferably eliminate yourself from the gene pool also. It's because stupid people like you, who think they understand what's going on but don't, vote that we have the problems we have right now.
Unless their call system is really messed up and calls are not take sequentially ("...in the order in which they are received..."), that means that everyone else is waiting on hold for 8 hours, too.
Very, very, (very very very) unlikely.
You didn't read the reviews, did you?
That's weird. I've been with Sprint for 4 years now and I've always had nights start at 7pm.
Btw, good luck getting ATT customer service to even answer your phone. I was going to buy a new smartphone and move to ATT but my friends told me horror stories about having to wait on hold for up to 8 hours at a time just so they could get the phone activated.
Take a look at the reviews at Amazon about it.
Interestingly, they are only charging me $1.10 a month for it.
I did call and complain and the lady basically told me that the agreement I had with them said that they could charge me for any fees as they saw fit. I informed her that I would now be availing of this feature and switch to Verizon.
Personally, I hate the government mandate. Everyone of us will have to pay $1.10 a month because some babies couldn't be bothered to inform people that their number changed.
Phone numbers change all the time. People move, other things happen. I don't see why it is so important to be able to keep your phone number while moving between carriers. It's a nice feature but certainly not worth everyone paying $1.10 a month for ever.
The more important aspect is the timing skew - GSM and CDMA require the mobile and the base station to have a VERY accurate idea of the time of flight delay between them, so as to keep the transmissions in their allocated time slots (IIRC GSM requires something like a 5 microsecond accuracy, but not being at work yet I can't get the specs right now.)
IIRC that is only relevant to GSM which is TDMA. CDMA phones share the entire spectrum at the same time and there is no time division multiplexing.
We didn't complain when the government tacked on a universal service fee to our phone bills because it was "for the poor".
We didn't complain when the government tacked on a public access fee to our phone bills to pay for internet access in schools and libraries because it was "for the children".
Now we are getting bit in the ass by those same taxes and the loss of revenue that would ensue from moving to an unregulated system.
The right solution would be to insist that the government stop taxing every economic activity and restrict taxes to sales, income and property taxes and use those revenues to pay for everything the government wants to fund.
The problem is that telecom taxes are a revenue source. This problem will persist while we have a tax structure that imposes taxes at multiple points: sales tax, income tax, property tax in addition to overhead taxes like universal access tax, gas tax, etc. Politicians like to hide the amount of money they are taxing you by sliding taxes onto as many activities as possible.
Your phone bill includes, among other taxes and fees, a universal access change. This money goes towards funding internet access for schools and public libraries, among other things. This stuff should have been funded by the property taxes that the city and county collect anyway but a property tax increase is never popular. Instead we have a scheme where the government is depressing economic activity by taxing it.
An unregulated VoIP network would mean taking money away from these things and here is where the hair-brained taxation scheme comes back to bite us. Something that would provide a better service to the citizens and make better use of available infrastructure is being hindered because the government hasn't figured out a way to make money off of it yet.
What do you mean no funding is available? A large portion of my property tax dollars go towards funding the local public library system which I will probably never use.
I am not complaining about it because I believe libraries serve an important function. What I am pointing out is that libraries are funded - and that it's a lot of money.
This country was founded on the basis of limited government and the ability of the public to spend their money based on their own priorities rather than having the government spend it based on the governments priorities.
My English teacher is doing backflips as we speak.
And all of you who haven't had a class where you have to dissect a poem, reading all kinds of meanings into it and identifying figures of speech that the author probably never even intended, can buzz off.
There's nothing immature about screaming "developers, developers!" at a company meeting - it's called oratory.
Don't confuse a petty or shallow act with one that was deliberately planned with an intended effect.