Comcast got in trouble with the FCC for traffic shaping P2P bandwidth. They implemented a change to the service agreement that places a monthly limit of total bandwidth usage of 250GB.
Exceeding that limit gives Comcast the right to suspend your service without notice.
Their service agreement allows the terms to change with 30 days notification. I believe the change gave me 90 days notification.
I upgrade and update my linux systems and run windows update service on my wife's windows system. I frequently download movies from Amazon via TiVo. I have not exceeded this limit. Seems like a fair alternative.
Interesting that they use EZ-tags for speed monitoring. They are here for the tolls in New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania on bridges, tollroads, and tunnels, but not for speed monitoring.
The cameras that they use for monitoring the freeways are all web cams. The cameras are mounted on office buildings that are already wired for Internet connectivity. I doubt there was a lot of expense involved in setting this up. The tunnels and bridges have dedicated wiring, but that was all put in as part of the $20B "Big Dig" boondoggle.
The Massachusetts water authority, which is responsible for the Quaban reservoir which supplies many of the towns including Boston and all of the states water reclamation and sewage is using WIRELESS to collect meter information. So is NSTAR for monitoring the gas meters at homes and businesses. NSTAR and other electrical power companies are planning to do the same for the power meters. So far no one has hacked into these systems and I suspect that it would be hard to do.
BPL just doesn't make sense up here. We already have two cable companies in most of our towns (Comcast and RCN), and Verizon has refitted the phone wiring and is already bringing fiber to the neighborhoods. Standard DSL speed has been increase to 3MPBS/256KPBS to compete with Cable data service. I am getting 6 MBPS/256KBPS at home for about $45 per month.
I don't know why the electrical utilities would want to put in BPL instead of using the EVO CDMA wireless or G3 GPRS services for the meters. The infrastructure is already in place and the network is fairly extensive.
They still don't understand, bringing the costs down would solve a lot of their problems. If I can get an album (record, tape, cd, or whatever) for $5, why bother pirating it? But, looking at a $20 price tag, that may encourage me to pirate. At $5 each, I'd consider actually going to the store and buying music.
Hmmm... I haven't the industry losing DVD or CD sales because of the price. They are in a economically powerful position because people will buy their content in high volume at high margins.
When people stop paying $15 to $25 for CDs and DVDs, then the industry will change. Until them, intimidation seems to be a good way of protecting profits. I personally do not get enough enjoyment from popular movies or music to justify paying the price. I don't pirate, I just don't listen or view until they hit broadcast TV or Radio.
Cool. Houston needs a good monitoring system. 610 at the Galleria was always a nightmare. They put in a similar system here in Boston and you can see the traffic in real time at any hour of the day. They also started putting in those electronic sign boards. Doesn't help though. When you hit the traffic, where ya gonna go?
The BPL announcemen reminds me of something I once read about Houston and public works projects. I remember reading about some other very large technologically infeasible boondoggle that someone put together in Houston during the 1950's for two way television. It was too expensive and not profitable, but they built it anyways with the idea that is you build they will come. As I recall they even got funding from the state to wire the schools for remote teaching and the roads for traffic monitoring. Problem is that the two way schools were worthless, it was cheaper at the time to hire more teachers and highway monitoring was useless without the means for getting feedback to the commuters. I think they even gave this company all the first rights for utility right of way which can to bite them in the ass when cable came into being.
As I recall, the company became a poorly operated cable company that through it's connections to the Houston community and govenment, put enough fiber in the ground to light up each corporation 100 times over.
Yeah, this BPL stuff will get built at the taxpayers expense. Will it work, well I am not sure that is really a fair question at this time:-)
Actually the commercial QT 4 package integrates really well with Visual Studio and Visual C++. After taking the QT 4 course, it was really easy to write windows programs without working about the complexities of the Windows APIs. The hard part for me was figuring out all of the QT 4 objects and their event and signal processing. Once I figure that out, getting apps going was very easy. It took me 4 to 6 months to get proficient with the Win32 API and a week to get good at QT programming. I don't know what it takes to get the QT runtime installed on a windows platform, but I imagine its pretty straight forward.
My main point is that the market for Business apps has always driven the mass adoption of the PC technology. Getting the apps requires some strong market force to prime the pumps and get the initial popular vendors on board. After that happens the others follow suit pretty quickly.
There isn't a market force like IBM or Microsoft to drive apps onto the Linux desktop. The tools exist for fast cross platform development, but there's no motivation to do so. If you write your app in QT and you discover bugs then you first have to determine whose libraries are at fault. If the bug is on the Windows platform, then you have to get either Microsoft or Trolltech to fix it or prepare a workaround. If you develop to the Windows API then you only have to deal with Microsoft. If there was a 600 pound marketing Gorilla behind QT, this may be less of a problem.
Given this lack of motivation for desktop business apps on Linux, who cares whether KDE or GNOME dominates. The rest of us will still be running Windows.
CAL's allow you to license the software based on your number of computers rather than users. If you have 50 users who share 5 computers, then you only need to have 5 CALs. On the other hand, in development organizations 5 users can end up using 10 computers if users need to work on multiple computers. In this case the per user model would be less expensive.
I think you already understand the economics of per user licensing. It allows Microsoft to have different price points depending on the size of the organization.
Nope it's not dead, I don't think we have even begun to see the
beginning of IPTV. Imagine the cable companies switching for a
channelized broadcast model and delivering all 700MHZ of content to
your set top box or PC as a single IP network. That's what they are
thinking about with IPTV. The programs becomes and IP stream and are
under computer control. Think about what the level of integration and
interactivity you could have.
If you held patents on pausing programs while pursuing hyperlinks,
then you have a lot of control over that interactivity.
IBM put their name on the PC and used their market power to got
vendors to put useful business apps on it. BOOM the PC became a
necessary business tool.
Apple introduced the Mac. Nice interface but no apps.
Microsoft introduced Word and Excel on the Mac and suddenly it was
a useful business tool. Microsoft put windows on those PCs and
suddenly all those business users could run Word and Excel in
addition to the business apps. BOOM windows became a useful business
tool.
UNIX? AT&T screwed around with licensing, created a industry
war and noone wanted to touch it with apps. Why bother when IBM was
behind the PC. Now if IBM had put Unix on the PC and got the apps
then it would have been a different story. While Microsoft was
expanding it's Windows market, the workstations makers were caught up
in the OSF versus system V battle.
Linux has become a great server solution for Business, but where
are the desktop apps? The KDE versus GNOME arguments aren't helping
this cause. Maybe if there was a lot of marketing muscle behind a
tool like QT, then the app vendors would port their apps more would
appear on Linux. But there isn't and I don't see it happening.
You're Suprised? Really?
IBM put their name on the PC and used their market power to got vendors to put useful business apps on it. BOOM the PC became a necessary business tool.
Apple introduced the Mac. Nice interface but no apps. Microsoft introduced Word and Excel on the Mac and suddenly it was a useful business tool.
Microsoft put windows on those PCs and suddenly all those business users could run Word and Excel in addition to the business apps. BOOM windows became a useful business tool.
UNIX? AT&T screwed around with licensing, created a industry war and noone wanted to touch it with apps. Why bother when IBM was behind the PC.
Now if IBM had put Unix on the PC and got the apps then it would have been a different story.
While Microsoft was expanding it's Windows market, the workstations makers were caught up in the OSF versus system V battle.
Linux has become a great server solution for Business, but where are the desktop apps? The KDE versus GNOME arguments aren't helping this cause. Maybe if there was a lot of marketing muscle behind a tool like QT, app vendors would port their tools and the more apps would appear on Linux. But ther isn't and I don't see it happening.
Actually, I think the problem is worse than placement by ad dollars paid. All the these sites, including pricegrabber give you incorrect information because the stores play games with what they post as their shipping versus handling costs. Recently I went to pricegrabber and found the lowest price based on price and shipping only to find that the store added a hefty handling fee not advertise on pricegrabber. Fortunately, I noticed the discrepancy and pulled my order before it was too late. I liken this kind of price comparison to bait and switch which in my book is the same as lying.
I experienced the same form CNET shopping.
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Comcast got in trouble with the FCC for traffic shaping P2P bandwidth. They implemented a change to the service agreement that places a monthly limit of total bandwidth usage of 250GB. Exceeding that limit gives Comcast the right to suspend your service without notice. Their service agreement allows the terms to change with 30 days notification. I believe the change gave me 90 days notification. I upgrade and update my linux systems and run windows update service on my wife's windows system. I frequently download movies from Amazon via TiVo. I have not exceeded this limit. Seems like a fair alternative.
The Lotus Notes team at IBM is a bunch of whiny fucking losers. I wonder if they can patent that?
Interesting that they use EZ-tags for speed monitoring. They are here for the tolls in New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania on bridges, tollroads, and tunnels, but not for speed monitoring. The cameras that they use for monitoring the freeways are all web cams. The cameras are mounted on office buildings that are already wired for Internet connectivity. I doubt there was a lot of expense involved in setting this up. The tunnels and bridges have dedicated wiring, but that was all put in as part of the $20B "Big Dig" boondoggle. The Massachusetts water authority, which is responsible for the Quaban reservoir which supplies many of the towns including Boston and all of the states water reclamation and sewage is using WIRELESS to collect meter information. So is NSTAR for monitoring the gas meters at homes and businesses. NSTAR and other electrical power companies are planning to do the same for the power meters. So far no one has hacked into these systems and I suspect that it would be hard to do. BPL just doesn't make sense up here. We already have two cable companies in most of our towns (Comcast and RCN), and Verizon has refitted the phone wiring and is already bringing fiber to the neighborhoods. Standard DSL speed has been increase to 3MPBS/256KPBS to compete with Cable data service. I am getting 6 MBPS/256KBPS at home for about $45 per month. I don't know why the electrical utilities would want to put in BPL instead of using the EVO CDMA wireless or G3 GPRS services for the meters. The infrastructure is already in place and the network is fairly extensive.
They still don't understand, bringing the costs down would solve a lot of their problems. If I can get an album (record, tape, cd, or whatever) for $5, why bother pirating it? But, looking at a $20 price tag, that may encourage me to pirate. At $5 each, I'd consider actually going to the store and buying music. Hmmm ... I haven't the industry losing DVD or CD sales because of the price. They are in a economically powerful position because people will buy their content in high volume at high margins.
When people stop paying $15 to $25 for CDs and DVDs, then the industry will change. Until them, intimidation seems to be a good way of protecting profits. I personally do not get enough enjoyment from popular movies or music to justify paying the price. I don't pirate, I just don't listen or view until they hit broadcast TV or Radio.
Cool. Houston needs a good monitoring system. 610 at the Galleria was always a nightmare. They put in a similar system here in Boston and you can see the traffic in real time at any hour of the day. They also started putting in those electronic sign boards. Doesn't help though. When you hit the traffic, where ya gonna go?
I think that might be it. You know anything about them?
The BPL announcemen reminds me of something I once read about Houston and public works projects. I remember reading about some other very large technologically infeasible boondoggle that someone put together in Houston during the 1950's for two way television. It was too expensive and not profitable, but they built it anyways with the idea that is you build they will come. As I recall they even got funding from the state to wire the schools for remote teaching and the roads for traffic monitoring. Problem is that the two way schools were worthless, it was cheaper at the time to hire more teachers and highway monitoring was useless without the means for getting feedback to the commuters. I think they even gave this company all the first rights for utility right of way which can to bite them in the ass when cable came into being. As I recall, the company became a poorly operated cable company that through it's connections to the Houston community and govenment, put enough fiber in the ground to light up each corporation 100 times over. Yeah, this BPL stuff will get built at the taxpayers expense. Will it work, well I am not sure that is really a fair question at this time :-)
Actually the commercial QT 4 package integrates really well with Visual Studio and Visual C++. After taking the QT 4 course, it was really easy to write windows programs without working about the complexities of the Windows APIs. The hard part for me was figuring out all of the QT 4 objects and their event and signal processing. Once I figure that out, getting apps going was very easy. It took me 4 to 6 months to get proficient with the Win32 API and a week to get good at QT programming. I don't know what it takes to get the QT runtime installed on a windows platform, but I imagine its pretty straight forward. My main point is that the market for Business apps has always driven the mass adoption of the PC technology. Getting the apps requires some strong market force to prime the pumps and get the initial popular vendors on board. After that happens the others follow suit pretty quickly. There isn't a market force like IBM or Microsoft to drive apps onto the Linux desktop. The tools exist for fast cross platform development, but there's no motivation to do so. If you write your app in QT and you discover bugs then you first have to determine whose libraries are at fault. If the bug is on the Windows platform, then you have to get either Microsoft or Trolltech to fix it or prepare a workaround. If you develop to the Windows API then you only have to deal with Microsoft. If there was a 600 pound marketing Gorilla behind QT, this may be less of a problem. Given this lack of motivation for desktop business apps on Linux, who cares whether KDE or GNOME dominates. The rest of us will still be running Windows.
CAL's allow you to license the software based on your number of computers rather than users. If you have 50 users who share 5 computers, then you only need to have 5 CALs. On the other hand, in development organizations 5 users can end up using 10 computers if users need to work on multiple computers. In this case the per user model would be less expensive.
I think you already understand the economics of per user licensing. It allows Microsoft to have different price points depending on the size of the organization.
Nope it's not dead, I don't think we have even begun to see the beginning of IPTV. Imagine the cable companies switching for a channelized broadcast model and delivering all 700MHZ of content to your set top box or PC as a single IP network. That's what they are thinking about with IPTV. The programs becomes and IP stream and are under computer control. Think about what the level of integration and interactivity you could have.
If you held patents on pausing programs while pursuing hyperlinks, then you have a lot of control over that interactivity.
You're Suprised? Really?
IBM put their name on the PC and used their market power to got vendors to put useful business apps on it. BOOM the PC became a necessary business tool.
Apple introduced the Mac. Nice interface but no apps.
Microsoft introduced Word and Excel on the Mac and suddenly it was a useful business tool. Microsoft put windows on those PCs and suddenly all those business users could run Word and Excel in addition to the business apps. BOOM windows became a useful business tool.
UNIX? AT&T screwed around with licensing, created a industry war and noone wanted to touch it with apps. Why bother when IBM was behind the PC. Now if IBM had put Unix on the PC and got the apps then it would have been a different story. While Microsoft was expanding it's Windows market, the workstations makers were caught up in the OSF versus system V battle.
Linux has become a great server solution for Business, but where are the desktop apps? The KDE versus GNOME arguments aren't helping this cause. Maybe if there was a lot of marketing muscle behind a tool like QT, then the app vendors would port their apps more would appear on Linux. But there isn't and I don't see it happening.
You're Suprised? Really? IBM put their name on the PC and used their market power to got vendors to put useful business apps on it. BOOM the PC became a necessary business tool. Apple introduced the Mac. Nice interface but no apps. Microsoft introduced Word and Excel on the Mac and suddenly it was a useful business tool. Microsoft put windows on those PCs and suddenly all those business users could run Word and Excel in addition to the business apps. BOOM windows became a useful business tool. UNIX? AT&T screwed around with licensing, created a industry war and noone wanted to touch it with apps. Why bother when IBM was behind the PC. Now if IBM had put Unix on the PC and got the apps then it would have been a different story. While Microsoft was expanding it's Windows market, the workstations makers were caught up in the OSF versus system V battle. Linux has become a great server solution for Business, but where are the desktop apps? The KDE versus GNOME arguments aren't helping this cause. Maybe if there was a lot of marketing muscle behind a tool like QT, app vendors would port their tools and the more apps would appear on Linux. But ther isn't and I don't see it happening.
Actually, I think the problem is worse than placement by ad dollars paid. All the these sites, including pricegrabber give you incorrect information because the stores play games with what they post as their shipping versus handling costs. Recently I went to pricegrabber and found the lowest price based on price and shipping only to find that the store added a hefty handling fee not advertise on pricegrabber. Fortunately, I noticed the discrepancy and pulled my order before it was too late. I liken this kind of price comparison to bait and switch which in my book is the same as lying. I experienced the same form CNET shopping.