Last year I was living in a hotel room with a big fat internet pipe. I was downloading stuff faster than I could watch it, so I purchased an external 300 gig drive. It was full in about 3 months time.
Now I am home again, with a slow connect, and slowly but surely watching all the TV shows and movies I acquired. In retrospect, I probably should have bought a 1000 gig drive.
GE has developed an incandescent "60 watt" bulb that only uses 30 watts. They are trying to create one that only uses 15 watts.
Such a bulb would have the same efficiency as a compact flourescent light, but with the "instant on" advantages of incandescents and no poisonous mercury to clean up if the bulb accidently breaks.
Personally I'd like to see anyone desiring to be President to be required to dissociate him/herself from any party. Run on his own name alone. Independent.
After all, the President is supposed to be swearing allegiance to the Constitution, not a party. His actions should follow his own moral code without any allegiance to anything except the Supreme Law he has sworn to protect and defend.
I prefer McCain, but also thought if Obama became president I'd be happy with that. But then I learned Obama's been attending a "hate whites" church for the last 15 years, and now I'm not so sure. It would be like if I attended an all-white, segregated, anti-black church ever week for many years, and then claim I'm not racist. Even if I'm telling the truth, you can't hear those words week after week after week without some of it absorbing into your psyche.
Now I'm putting my support behind Billary - a 90s-style presidency with the Clintons back in charge.
>>>"You seem to be under the mistaken impression that internet service functions as a typical utility. A bit of data is not the same thing as a kilowatt hour or gallon of water -- both of those required resources to produce -- coal/gas for the electric and energy/treatment for the water."
Internet requires resources. Rubber/metal or glass for the cables. Labor to dig the ditches to lay the cable. Employees to maintain it. Electricity to power it.
You are making a false assumption that "adding extra bandwidth" is somehow free. It is not. If you want to download 1000 gigabytes a month, then your ISP is going to have to lay-down more cable to provide the extra bandwidth, and that's going to cost money. It is not unreasonable to ask you to help pay that bill (i.e. raise your monthly rate).
If you're looking for free or almost-free cellphone service, you're asking for the impossible. Things cost money. Even the old wired phone, at 100+ year old technology, still costs me $6.00 a month and 10 cents per call. You'd probably label this as a "failure of the free market" but it isn't. The free market is providing phone service as cheaply as possible, once you take into account employee and maintenance costs.
>>>"Why? What possible reason could there be for continuing to allow these companies to oversell their bandwidth?"
There isn't any reason. Which is why I propose charging more to people who demand more bandwidth, rather than try to pretend everyone uses the internet equally. Why should someone who downloads 1000 gigabytes pay the same $15 a month I pay when I'm only downloading 10 gigabytes? That makes no sense.
(It would be as if my neighbor was burning his lights/heaters 24 hours a day, while I lived with just one lightbulb, and yet we both pay the same $15 electricity bill even though the neighbor used 100 times more electricity. Illogical.)
>>>"LOL hogging. If you aren't using the bandwidth, it shouldn't matter if I use it, no?"
It matters if I'm trying to reach my Spamcop Email account, but cannot, because you have the lines tied up. You need to pay more money (say $100 for unlimited gigabytes), so the ISP can use those extra funds to buy more cable, and provide the additional bandwidth to support your "greed" in downloading.
i.e. You use more, you should pay more, to support the extra infrastructure required for your habits.
I'm glad this merger happened, because they already announced an "a la carte" plan. You pay $5 and get 20 channels of your own choice. That would be cheap enough for me to sign up.
(Although I did just get free HD Radio which provides about twice as many channels.) (Hmmmm. See? The customer does have choices.)
All I know is that my 68000 Amiga ran circles around the NES and Sega systems of the late 80s. They were still stuck using early 80s hardware (6502s) and primitive graphics/sound, while the Amiga was producing arcade-level clones of games.
That may be some of the confusion. You're thinking "IBM PC gaming", while I was thinking of "PC gaming" in the generic sense which included Atari STs and Commodore Amigas which were far more advanced than anything the consoles could do.
Yes. Digital dropouts are far more annoying than the ghosting on analog. If the FCC were serving the People, instead of the Corporations, they would have done tests to see what the People prefer. I suspect most would say they'd rather have ghosting analog.
In any case, rabbit ears have proved worthless.
I acquired a Channel Master 4228 antenna which is extremely directional. It can pull in UHF 70 miles distant and VHF 100 miles distant, although it must be aimed very precisely (within one degree).
>>"Your weak but still watchable televsion 5 will disappear in 11 months anyhow,"
No it won't.
It will still be there as digital channel 5. Along with digital channel 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, and so on.
My concern was whether or not some guy with a Google White Space thingie decides to broadcast on those channels, because he (mistakenly) believes they are empty. That would not make me happy.
>>>"But isn't AI and metadata just around the corner?"
Yes. And it's been "just around the corner" since the 1970s (along with battery-powered cars and flying cars). There's a difference between predicting something will happen, and when it will happen. So far the task has proved itself far more difficult than people originally thought (which is why A.I. was predicted to happen in 1980 - and yet still had not happened).
Yes. Burned CDs use dyes, and the dyes fade over time (like a painting exposed to light). So the burned CDs erase themselves. Pressed CDs use actual physical pits which don't fade.
As for cost:
. Didn't the U.S. government recently sue the record companies for Cartel-style Price Fixing? I know I got a $20 check in the mail as reimbursement for that crime. Apparently the record companies have not learned anything.
If I was a band or solo singer, I wouldn't even waste time with CDs. I'd hand-out my web address which would be filled with bit-torrent files. People could then download the music for free, and pay $1 or $2 per song if they enjoy what they hear. Like shareware.
No sense wasting time on slow, cumbersome, and expensive physical recordings. I'd do the same thing if I were an author - why waste time inserting a bunch of middlemen like editors and publishers between me & my customer?
>>>"Microsoft responded aggressively, saying that 'there is no such thing as free software"
He forgot to add: "no such thing as free software... unless you steal it." . MS-DOS (from a young programmer) . MS-BASIC (from a local club) . Windows NT (from IBM) . Windows 95 (from Mac's Finder OS, trashcan and all) . Internet Explorer (thus killing Netscape & spinning-off antitrust court hearings)
>>>"Microsoft responded aggressively, saying that 'there is no such thing as free software">>"a polite tirade against 'hackers', meaning the proper meaning, not the criminal one. They didn't want them"
Had I been at that event, I probably would have yelled out, "That's okay! We hackers don't want you either!" and left the auditorium with a box of free pizza.
How are "low income areas" supposed to afford the equipment needed to access these Wi-Fi connections? Most of them are just trying to pay their weekly grocery bill. (Talk about mixed-up priorities by the Houston City politicians.)
Slashdot Mirror
"so is saccharine and nutrasweet"
(later)
"Ooop we were wrong; they cause cancer"
Last year I was living in a hotel room with a big fat internet pipe. I was downloading stuff faster than I could watch it, so I purchased an external 300 gig drive. It was full in about 3 months time.
Now I am home again, with a slow connect, and slowly but surely watching all the TV shows and movies I acquired. In retrospect, I probably should have bought a 1000 gig drive.
GE has developed an incandescent "60 watt" bulb that only uses 30 watts. They are trying to create one that only uses 15 watts.
Such a bulb would have the same efficiency as a compact flourescent light, but with the "instant on" advantages of incandescents and no poisonous mercury to clean up if the bulb accidently breaks.
Personally I'd like to see anyone desiring to be President to be required to dissociate him/herself from any party. Run on his own name alone. Independent.
After all, the President is supposed to be swearing allegiance to the Constitution, not a party. His actions should follow his own moral code without any allegiance to anything except the Supreme Law he has sworn to protect and defend.
I changed my mind.
I prefer McCain, but also thought if Obama became president I'd be happy with that. But then I learned Obama's been attending a "hate whites" church for the last 15 years, and now I'm not so sure. It would be like if I attended an all-white, segregated, anti-black church ever week for many years, and then claim I'm not racist. Even if I'm telling the truth, you can't hear those words week after week after week without some of it absorbing into your psyche.
Now I'm putting my support behind Billary - a 90s-style presidency with the Clintons back in charge.
>>>"You seem to be under the mistaken impression that internet service functions as a typical utility. A bit of data is not the same thing as a kilowatt hour or gallon of water -- both of those required resources to produce -- coal/gas for the electric and energy/treatment for the water."
Internet requires resources. Rubber/metal or glass for the cables. Labor to dig the ditches to lay the cable. Employees to maintain it. Electricity to power it.
You are making a false assumption that "adding extra bandwidth" is somehow free. It is not. If you want to download 1000 gigabytes a month, then your ISP is going to have to lay-down more cable to provide the extra bandwidth, and that's going to cost money. It is not unreasonable to ask you to help pay that bill (i.e. raise your monthly rate).
"free market" is not the same thing as free.
If you're looking for free or almost-free cellphone service, you're asking for the impossible. Things cost money. Even the old wired phone, at 100+ year old technology, still costs me $6.00 a month and 10 cents per call. You'd probably label this as a "failure of the free market" but it isn't. The free market is providing phone service as cheaply as possible, once you take into account employee and maintenance costs.
My last electricity bill was $220. Since you believe it can be lowered, please tell me how.
You should wander into the Health & Human Development building.
;-)
It's the exact opposite of an engineering class. All women with maybe 2 or 3 guys. I knew I picked the wrong major.
>>>"Why? What possible reason could there be for continuing to allow these companies to oversell their bandwidth?"
There isn't any reason. Which is why I propose charging more to people who demand more bandwidth, rather than try to pretend everyone uses the internet equally. Why should someone who downloads 1000 gigabytes pay the same $15 a month I pay when I'm only downloading 10 gigabytes? That makes no sense.
(It would be as if my neighbor was burning his lights/heaters 24 hours a day, while I lived with just one lightbulb, and yet we both pay the same $15 electricity bill even though the neighbor used 100 times more electricity. Illogical.)
>>>"LOL hogging. If you aren't using the bandwidth, it shouldn't matter if I use it, no?"
It matters if I'm trying to reach my Spamcop Email account, but cannot, because you have the lines tied up. You need to pay more money (say $100 for unlimited gigabytes), so the ISP can use those extra funds to buy more cable, and provide the additional bandwidth to support your "greed" in downloading.
i.e. You use more, you should pay more, to support the extra infrastructure required for your habits.
I'm glad this merger happened, because they already announced an "a la carte" plan. You pay $5 and get 20 channels of your own choice. That would be cheap enough for me to sign up.
(Although I did just get free HD Radio which provides about twice as many channels.)
(Hmmmm. See? The customer does have choices.)
If you say so.
All I know is that my 68000 Amiga ran circles around the NES and Sega systems of the late 80s. They were still stuck using early 80s hardware (6502s) and primitive graphics/sound, while the Amiga was producing arcade-level clones of games.
That may be some of the confusion. You're thinking "IBM PC gaming", while I was thinking of "PC gaming" in the generic sense which included Atari STs and Commodore Amigas which were far more advanced than anything the consoles could do.
Correct. The NES was using an 8-bit CPU with ~64 colors. But PC gamers had already moved onto 16-bit CPUs (68000s/80286s) with 512 or 4096 colors.
The Super NES had a 16-bit CPU with ~65,000 colors. But PC gamers were already upgraded to 16 million colors.
The console is typically one generation (4-5 years) behind the PC gaming world, becuase using older technology helps keep console prices low (~$300).
Yes.
Of course it helps that I have a directional antenna with amp.
Yes. Digital dropouts are far more annoying than the ghosting on analog. If the FCC were serving the People, instead of the Corporations, they would have done tests to see what the People prefer. I suspect most would say they'd rather have ghosting analog.
In any case, rabbit ears have proved worthless.
I acquired a Channel Master 4228 antenna which is extremely directional. It can pull in UHF 70 miles distant and VHF 100 miles distant, although it must be aimed very precisely (within one degree).
>>"Your weak but still watchable televsion 5 will disappear in 11 months anyhow,"
No it won't.
It will still be there as digital channel 5. Along with digital channel 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, and so on.
My concern was whether or not some guy with a Google White Space thingie decides to broadcast on those channels, because he (mistakenly) believes they are empty. That would not make me happy.
>>>"But isn't AI and metadata just around the corner?"
Yes. And it's been "just around the corner" since the 1970s (along with battery-powered cars and flying cars). There's a difference between predicting something will happen, and when it will happen. So far the task has proved itself far more difficult than people originally thought (which is why A.I. was predicted to happen in 1980 - and yet still had not happened).
Sounds like the Record Companies are still acting as a Cartel (multiple companies colluding/operating as one)
and Price-Fixing the cost of CDs.
They were already brought to U.S. court once for that crime; maybe it's time to do it again?
Yes. Burned CDs use dyes, and the dyes fade over time (like a painting exposed to light). So the burned CDs erase themselves. Pressed CDs use actual physical pits which don't fade.
As for cost:
. Didn't the U.S. government recently sue the record companies for Cartel-style Price Fixing? I know I got a $20 check in the mail as reimbursement for that crime. Apparently the record companies have not learned anything.
If I was a band or solo singer, I wouldn't even waste time with CDs. I'd hand-out my web address which would be filled with bit-torrent files. People could then download the music for free, and pay $1 or $2 per song if they enjoy what they hear. Like shareware.
No sense wasting time on slow, cumbersome, and expensive physical recordings. I'd do the same thing if I were an author - why waste time inserting a bunch of middlemen like editors and publishers between me & my customer?
>>>"Microsoft responded aggressively, saying that 'there is no such thing as free software"
He forgot to add: "no such thing as free software... unless you steal it."
. MS-DOS (from a young programmer)
. MS-BASIC (from a local club)
. Windows NT (from IBM)
. Windows 95 (from Mac's Finder OS, trashcan and all)
. Internet Explorer (thus killing Netscape & spinning-off antitrust court hearings)
>>>"Microsoft responded aggressively, saying that 'there is no such thing as free software">>"a polite tirade against 'hackers', meaning the proper meaning, not the criminal one. They didn't want them"
Had I been at that event, I probably would have yelled out, "That's okay! We hackers don't want you either!" and left the auditorium with a box of free pizza.
Maybe you should send an email to the African minister? Introduce him to your services and the free availability of Linux.
I'm wondering:
How are "low income areas" supposed to afford the equipment needed to access these Wi-Fi connections? Most of them are just trying to pay their weekly grocery bill. (Talk about mixed-up priorities by the Houston City politicians.)