I haven't subscribed to cable for years. I recently moved to an area with Comcast (and no other competition above 1Gb/s) so now I'm stuck with a 250GB cap for the last couple of months, but I just have to keep an eye on it starting around half way through the month to make sure I don't get close.
I use Netflix on my PS3 for most stuff and Boxee on an HTPC that I built for other online streaming stuff. Unfortunately, Boxee for the PC hasn't been updated in a while because they are concentrated on the Boxee Box platform and the streaming sites (such as Hulu) have been purposely breaking Boxee for a while (due to the networks' interference), so I have been looking for alternatives that allow me to use a remote control rather than needing a keyboard and mouse. And for local news I use broadcast. With digital, broadcast TV is much better quality than it used to be. Anything I can't get through those I can always buy or rent the DVD. Overall, it takes a little patience and some knowhow on finding content, but it's worth it.
If the Nexus One truly "failed", which is debatable since it essentially is sold out in the US so they sold what they made, then it wasn't because it was sold online or because people want to touch the phone before buying. There are plenty of places to buy phones online. I have bought almost all of my phones online. The problem is that it was too expensive because they were only subsidized by T-Mobile, and only if you signed on for a really expensive monthly plan. People these days are used to getting phones for free or almost for free. Also, the biggest selling point of the Nexus One, in my opinion, was the fact that it is controlled entirely by Google. Thus you get updates first without having to wait for the carriers to get around to them, and you get the openness that is Google. That selling point really only hits home with the geeky users that want a customized experience along with a simple physical design. I think the Nexus One is one of the best phones out there right now, but I know that it's not for everyone and the fact that it's so expensive really limits it's audience even more. Thus, I first don't think it's a failure, but even if you believe that, the failure wasn't because it was sold only online.
Just wanted to point out that this article is talking about Manic Depression (aka bipolar disorder) NOT clinical depression. Manic is when you have lots of ups and downs. Clinical is when you are only down. In fact the article that you linked to on NIMH doesn't even use the word depression at all probably to avoid this confusion, it says bipolar disorder. You may want to change the wording in this post.
I hate to say it, but I agree that you'll never get anything fixed by a call center. I've worked in call centers and the people who work there generally have no way to speak to anyone who can fix a problem, even in a "tech support" call center. Also, since they either get paid per call, or at least get docked pay if they aren't actively answering incoming calls, then they have no incentive to fix anything. In fact, they have a big disincentive against fixing anything since it will take away from their pay check and they likely hate the company too much to do it on their own time.
Also, I've been on the other side doing development and it's a similar problem there. It's very easy to make a simple typo or other mistake and never know the difference. No one in the call center ever tells you that the customer is having a problem, so you don't know that something needs to be fixed. So even though it might be a 1 minute fix for you, you'll never know that it needs to be done. There was a bug in this one software that had been there for 3 years, and the workarounds were even in the documentation to train new call center employees. Once a developer finally got it, it took seconds to fix. The customers suffered for 3 years for a few seconds of someone's time. Now I realize you can't fix every bug, all the time, but if the right people don't know about it, then it will never get fixed.
The real problem, IMHO, is that large companies treat their support/customer service departments like they are a drain on the company rather than a way to increase your reputation, thus outsourcing, low pay, strict rules, etc.
Because of this I prefer to do business with smaller companies or, even better, in person. If you're a "real person" standing in line at a bank, the teller is more likely to fix a problem than if you're just a number on a screen and a squeaky voice on a phone. But in-person is so inconvenient in this world of constant multitasking.
This is a bad law. Not that I like child cartoon porn or any other child porn, but the whole reason that child porn is outlawed (and not a valid form of free speech) is that children are harmed in the making of it. I would rather see these people looking at cartoon porn to get their jollies than to make that illegal too. Because then they have to break the law either way so they think, "may as well use real kids". This makes drawing kids having sex just as bad as forcing them to have sex in real life. That blurs the line between fantasy and reality for criminals and makes them more likely to cross it. These lawmakers seem to think that stopping the fantasy will stop the act, but you can't stop the fantasy for these people, so they figure they've already broken the law by fantasizing, so why not commit the act as well. They will get punished the same way, and the act is more likely to satisfy them. This is another case where they are creating laws just to punish certain criminals and not to create a deterrent which is what laws should be for. That's like creating rules in your home for your kids just so you can punish them. They don't learn from the punishment if they get punished no matter what.
I have AT&T broadband with no phone or TV, but it seems their customer service doesn't all know about this yet. I've called several times for support when I first set things up and was told that they couldn't look up my account without a phone number.
My fiance is a Chinese citizen and has been in China for about 10 months now waiting for her Visa so that we can get married (the US doesn't allow a visitor Visa while waiting for an immigration Visa). Anyway, I have AT&T and have never had a problem sending her text messages from the US. I was even able to make calls and send SMS inside China to my friends and family in the US when I visited China to see her. So I don't think it's China's fault. It is probably just that most carriers don't have the connections required because it's not cost effective since most customers probably don't use it.
People seem to want to make China look bad and post some of the opinions here without understanding the true issues. I agree that China is very controlling, but we shouldn't be so quick to blame them for every bit of data that doesn't reach it's destination. The government doesn't have control over everything. Has anyone actually done any research before posting their comments here to find out the real reasons? I think you'd find they were much less malicious than some of you think.
I got an Amiga 1000 as a hand-me-down in like 1989 or 1990 I believe. So that would make me 12 or 13. I had only ever written DOS batch files and a little DOS BASIC but nothing much. I loved programming in Amiga BASIC, though. It was so easy to draw a sprite and write a quick game to use it. Collisions were made so easy to detect. I wrote a side scrolling action game which was the only graphical game I have ever written. I also wrote several other games on this system. I have written very few games since. I also had a couple of flight simulators that rocked for the day. I remember, in one, flying under the Golden Gate Bridge just to see if I could. I was pissed when my parents threw it away along with all my disks and my Nintendo Power magazine collection (I had every copy of the first 5 years or so in good condition) when I went to college. I had put a lot of work into those programs. Such memories.
The last computer I created about a year ago and I left out a floppy drive. I went to install windows XP Pro and of course my SATA RAID drivers were not included. Unfortunately that means it could not find a drive to install on. The only way to install those drivers was to have a floppy with those on it. To say the least, I was pissed. I had waited for a week for all the parts to come in and 3 couldn't even start to do anything with it. When Microsoft decides to allow you to install these drivers from another media I'll happily dump the floppy. That's the only thing I use it for.
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I haven't subscribed to cable for years. I recently moved to an area with Comcast (and no other competition above 1Gb/s) so now I'm stuck with a 250GB cap for the last couple of months, but I just have to keep an eye on it starting around half way through the month to make sure I don't get close.
I use Netflix on my PS3 for most stuff and Boxee on an HTPC that I built for other online streaming stuff. Unfortunately, Boxee for the PC hasn't been updated in a while because they are concentrated on the Boxee Box platform and the streaming sites (such as Hulu) have been purposely breaking Boxee for a while (due to the networks' interference), so I have been looking for alternatives that allow me to use a remote control rather than needing a keyboard and mouse. And for local news I use broadcast. With digital, broadcast TV is much better quality than it used to be. Anything I can't get through those I can always buy or rent the DVD. Overall, it takes a little patience and some knowhow on finding content, but it's worth it.
If the Nexus One truly "failed", which is debatable since it essentially is sold out in the US so they sold what they made, then it wasn't because it was sold online or because people want to touch the phone before buying. There are plenty of places to buy phones online. I have bought almost all of my phones online. The problem is that it was too expensive because they were only subsidized by T-Mobile, and only if you signed on for a really expensive monthly plan. People these days are used to getting phones for free or almost for free. Also, the biggest selling point of the Nexus One, in my opinion, was the fact that it is controlled entirely by Google. Thus you get updates first without having to wait for the carriers to get around to them, and you get the openness that is Google. That selling point really only hits home with the geeky users that want a customized experience along with a simple physical design. I think the Nexus One is one of the best phones out there right now, but I know that it's not for everyone and the fact that it's so expensive really limits it's audience even more. Thus, I first don't think it's a failure, but even if you believe that, the failure wasn't because it was sold only online.
Just wanted to point out that this article is talking about Manic Depression (aka bipolar disorder) NOT clinical depression. Manic is when you have lots of ups and downs. Clinical is when you are only down. In fact the article that you linked to on NIMH doesn't even use the word depression at all probably to avoid this confusion, it says bipolar disorder. You may want to change the wording in this post.
WARNING: RANT...
I hate to say it, but I agree that you'll never get anything fixed by a call center. I've worked in call centers and the people who work there generally have no way to speak to anyone who can fix a problem, even in a "tech support" call center. Also, since they either get paid per call, or at least get docked pay if they aren't actively answering incoming calls, then they have no incentive to fix anything. In fact, they have a big disincentive against fixing anything since it will take away from their pay check and they likely hate the company too much to do it on their own time.
Also, I've been on the other side doing development and it's a similar problem there. It's very easy to make a simple typo or other mistake and never know the difference. No one in the call center ever tells you that the customer is having a problem, so you don't know that something needs to be fixed. So even though it might be a 1 minute fix for you, you'll never know that it needs to be done. There was a bug in this one software that had been there for 3 years, and the workarounds were even in the documentation to train new call center employees. Once a developer finally got it, it took seconds to fix. The customers suffered for 3 years for a few seconds of someone's time. Now I realize you can't fix every bug, all the time, but if the right people don't know about it, then it will never get fixed.
The real problem, IMHO, is that large companies treat their support/customer service departments like they are a drain on the company rather than a way to increase your reputation, thus outsourcing, low pay, strict rules, etc.
Because of this I prefer to do business with smaller companies or, even better, in person. If you're a "real person" standing in line at a bank, the teller is more likely to fix a problem than if you're just a number on a screen and a squeaky voice on a phone. But in-person is so inconvenient in this world of constant multitasking.
This is a bad law. Not that I like child cartoon porn or any other child porn, but the whole reason that child porn is outlawed (and not a valid form of free speech) is that children are harmed in the making of it. I would rather see these people looking at cartoon porn to get their jollies than to make that illegal too. Because then they have to break the law either way so they think, "may as well use real kids". This makes drawing kids having sex just as bad as forcing them to have sex in real life. That blurs the line between fantasy and reality for criminals and makes them more likely to cross it. These lawmakers seem to think that stopping the fantasy will stop the act, but you can't stop the fantasy for these people, so they figure they've already broken the law by fantasizing, so why not commit the act as well. They will get punished the same way, and the act is more likely to satisfy them. This is another case where they are creating laws just to punish certain criminals and not to create a deterrent which is what laws should be for. That's like creating rules in your home for your kids just so you can punish them. They don't learn from the punishment if they get punished no matter what.
I have AT&T broadband with no phone or TV, but it seems their customer service doesn't all know about this yet. I've called several times for support when I first set things up and was told that they couldn't look up my account without a phone number.
My fiance is a Chinese citizen and has been in China for about 10 months now waiting for her Visa so that we can get married (the US doesn't allow a visitor Visa while waiting for an immigration Visa). Anyway, I have AT&T and have never had a problem sending her text messages from the US. I was even able to make calls and send SMS inside China to my friends and family in the US when I visited China to see her. So I don't think it's China's fault. It is probably just that most carriers don't have the connections required because it's not cost effective since most customers probably don't use it.
People seem to want to make China look bad and post some of the opinions here without understanding the true issues. I agree that China is very controlling, but we shouldn't be so quick to blame them for every bit of data that doesn't reach it's destination. The government doesn't have control over everything. Has anyone actually done any research before posting their comments here to find out the real reasons? I think you'd find they were much less malicious than some of you think.
I got an Amiga 1000 as a hand-me-down in like 1989 or 1990 I believe. So that would make me 12 or 13. I had only ever written DOS batch files and a little DOS BASIC but nothing much. I loved programming in Amiga BASIC, though. It was so easy to draw a sprite and write a quick game to use it. Collisions were made so easy to detect. I wrote a side scrolling action game which was the only graphical game I have ever written. I also wrote several other games on this system. I have written very few games since. I also had a couple of flight simulators that rocked for the day. I remember, in one, flying under the Golden Gate Bridge just to see if I could. I was pissed when my parents threw it away along with all my disks and my Nintendo Power magazine collection (I had every copy of the first 5 years or so in good condition) when I went to college. I had put a lot of work into those programs. Such memories.
The last computer I created about a year ago and I left out a floppy drive. I went to install windows XP Pro and of course my SATA RAID drivers were not included. Unfortunately that means it could not find a drive to install on. The only way to install those drivers was to have a floppy with those on it. To say the least, I was pissed. I had waited for a week for all the parts to come in and 3 couldn't even start to do anything with it. When Microsoft decides to allow you to install these drivers from another media I'll happily dump the floppy. That's the only thing I use it for.