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In the U.S. the internet is broken, thanks to special interests paying to have "exclusive rights" to an area.
- If I want cable (50 Mbps shared) I *must* go through ComCast, which I won't do, so that's out.
- If I want fiber optic (1 Gbps) I *must* go through AT&T, which I won't do, so that's out. (And by the way, Drejk, they pretty much force you to accept cable TV as part of the deal, so the minimum price I saw for this download speed was $110/month.)So I'm stuck with DSL through sonic.net. 6 Mbps for $31.50 a month. Not exactly my favorite thing in the world, but refusing to do business with certain companies has its price.
Last month my current contract was expiring so I got a call from my provider: of course the first proposal was a package internet + cable + phone (you know, landline) - I said that I don't have tv set, and you are calling me on my phone... The seller shrugged and never mentioned the cable again. Most internet providers offer cable in their services, but as far a I know no one forces the package internet + cable,, it's just cheaper than individual services added together. Of course we have free market and multiple companies competing for the customers (there might be also regulations that demand offering such services individual in addition to bundles, I haven't checked). I can pick between at least three different providers if not more.
On the other hand 1 GBit/second is still really rare. The fastest I could get from my providers seems to be 250 MBit/s.
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everyone gets free access to the internet while naked.
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everyone gets free access to the internet while naked.
Internet is for porn, after all.
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Ah. I am admittedly (and in some levels intentionally) oblivious to a lot of that sort of thing.
Well, I think the most comical thing in your area is AT&T paying off politicians to sue the government to prevent (government-run) EPB from expanding.
"How dare we do a better job than private companies! We'd better sue ourselves to stop it!"
(Obviously all the complexities have been stripped out, but basically EPB asked the FCC (federal government) for permission to expand, the FCC said, "Yes", and the Tennessee state government, strongly influenced by AT&T, sued the FCC to prevent this expansion.)
And with that, I'll shut up for a while to avoid any more politics...
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Ah, I see the source of your confusion - you're seeing state governments, and organizations thereof/associated therewith, and federal equivalents as the same entity, when they're very much not =)
To keep this nonpolitical, the short and simple way to put it is that having state authorities and federal authorities at loggerheads and supporting/supported by opposing entities is far from unusual, and that assuming they're at all allied or connected just because they're both governmental authorities is highly inaccurate.
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google just asked me for a security phone number for the same email account twice in a row. thanks for wasting my time, I just wanted to check my email.
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Ah, I see the source of your confusion - you're seeing state governments, and organizations thereof/associated therewith, and federal equivalents as the same entity, when they're very much not =)
To keep this nonpolitical, the short and simple way to put it is that having state authorities and federal authorities at loggerheads and supporting/supported by opposing entities is far from unusual, and that assuming they're at all allied or connected just because they're both governmental authorities is highly inaccurate.
Oh, no. I understand it and I've seen it many times before.
Doesn't keep me from finding it amusing...
Ah, I see the source of your confusion - you're seeing state governments, and organizations thereof/associated therewith, and federal equivalents as the same entity, when they're very much not =)
To keep this nonpolitical, the short and simple way to put it is that having state authorities and federal authorities at loggerheads and supporting/supported by opposing entities is far from unusual, and that assuming they're at all allied or connected just because they're both governmental authorities is highly inaccurate.
Oh, no. I understand it and I've seen it many times before.
Doesn't keep me from finding it amusing...
I guess I just don't see what's funny about it in this context then. Your comment about "let's sue ourselves" doesn't ring true since it's not one organization suing itself, it's an organization suing an often-conflicting other organization. Can you explain the humor? Or does it require being too political?
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I guess I just don't see what's funny about it in this context then. Your comment about "let's sue ourselves" doesn't ring true since it's not one organization suing itself, it's an organization suing an often-conflicting other organization. Can you explain the humor? Or does it require being too political?Ah, I see the source of your confusion - you're seeing state governments, and organizations thereof/associated therewith, and federal equivalents as the same entity, when they're very much not =)
To keep this nonpolitical, the short and simple way to put it is that having state authorities and federal authorities at loggerheads and supporting/supported by opposing entities is far from unusual, and that assuming they're at all allied or connected just because they're both governmental authorities is highly inaccurate.
Oh, no. I understand it and I've seen it many times before.
Doesn't keep me from finding it amusing...
I think I can avoid too many politics in my seeing the dark humor in things.
Basically, a local Tennessee government started its own ISP. It did so really, really well, to the point it started competing with the "big boys" (AT&T and Comcast), and winning that competition. AT&T cried "foul" and started a rather nasty campaign to shut down said ISP. The higher-level Tennessee government agreed with AT&T and started trying to shut down the lower-level Tennessee government-run organization. The lower-level Tennessee organization responded, "Get bent" and went to the Feds, who sided with them.
And it's continued to be a morass of ugliness between multiple state-run organizations within Tennessee itself, the Feds, and AT&T.
I find such things amusing. You may not. If AT&T really could provide better service for a lower price, the government-run ISP would have died off with nary a peep. Instead, AT&T is trying to win out through the legal system, rather than in the "open field of battle".
So the "suing ourselves" was out of place in the context of the Feds vs. the state, but there are two Tennessee state organizations battling each other over whether ESB should exist at all.
I find the whole thing ludicrous. If it's working, it's making a profit, and it's beating out private companies without using any advantages of being a government-run organization, then why is it being shut down?
Saying that the government should never run anything a private company COULD run would do away with public transportation right off the bat, and I'm sure many other things...
EDIT: It would be interesting to find out WHY they decided to start ESB in the first place. My impression is that they started it because there were a lot of Tennessee residents without high-speed internet access at all, so they started the company to provide to those people, then found out, "Hey, we're doing this way better than the big companies are," but I haven't read much on it before the federal lawsuit came along...
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Ah, THAT'S what I missed. Your earlier post implied EPB was being run by the FEDS, or at least that's how it read to me, not that two separate TN government organizations were fighting and went to the Feds to arbitrate.
Now that that's explained, yes I can see exactly why that's funny. And depressing at the same time, admittedly.
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I can see exactly why that's funny. And depressing at the same time, admittedly.
Welcome to my universe! :-P
so the state tennessee government says no, but the federal government says yes. Are they even reading the same rulebook?
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They never have. States and Feds have always operated under different rules. And each individual state also has its own separate rulesets.
And that's probably about the limit of what this subject should expand on before it gets too political for FAWTL.
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B-but I was going to buy a new boat... and the bikes! I was gonna make a killing selling bikes to Freehold! You know Trek doesn't accept returns when you buy wholesale don't you!
You two make me sick!
...now I gotta start a pregnant Paladin thread...
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...now I gotta start a pregnant Paladin thread...
... I am clearly missing some context here...
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so the state tennessee government says no, but the federal government says yes. Are they even reading the same rulebook?
What Orthos said. The government is designed that way. If you study the history of the Continental Congress and the development of the Constitution, states were VERY wary of giving up their rights, so the general attitude was, "The Feds should only have authority over things that affect all the states, and otherwise the states are independent."
And that has been a source of contention ever since then. Conflict is extremely common.
This particular case was amusing to me because the Tennessee Attorney General filed a lawsuit against the FCC to overturn their decision to allow a Tennessee agency to expand. "How dare you let my government do things? You have no right!"
Obviously the politics involved are far more complex (the Tennessee legislature passed laws limiting the size of such agencies, and the Feds overturned those laws), but if you skim the headlines, it really is rather hilarious. And rather sad.
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...now I gotta start a pregnant Paladin thread...... I am clearly missing some context here...
I've seen a few threads lately about adventuring pregnant.
I generally avoid topics like those so I can't tell you how contentious they got or what was said.
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They're selling makeup that actually makes you invisible and books on Mince Magic!
What a time to be alive.
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B-but I was going to buy a new boat... and the bikes! I was gonna make a killing selling bikes to Freehold! You know Trek doesn't accept returns when you buy wholesale don't you!
You two make me sick!
...now I gotta start a pregnant Paladin thread...
I had a Trek once.
A red one. I believed it was a 740. I named her Hayai, for she was as fast as a zephyr. I lost so much weight on that bike. Dropped down to a 34 waist. 190 pounds. Enough muscle that I looked at myself in awe every time I passed a mirror. I caught a woman checking me out once.
She was stolen from me from right outside the market I visited one day. That was supposed to be a day I spent with my now wife looking at houses in the area and planning for the future. Instead I was enraged and powerless at the same time.
I will never forgive the thief. I hope to find them one day.
They're selling makeup that actually makes you invisible and books on Mince Magic!
What a time to be alive.
... llliiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnk?
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B-but I was going to buy a new boat... and the bikes! I was gonna make a killing selling bikes to Freehold! You know Trek doesn't accept returns when you buy wholesale don't you!
You two make me sick!
...now I gotta start a pregnant Paladin thread...
I had a Trek once.
A red one. I believed it was a 740. I named her Hayai, for she was as fast as a zephyr. I lost so much weight on that bike. Dropped down to a 34 waist. 190 pounds. Enough muscle that I looked at myself in awe every time I passed a mirror. I caught a woman checking me out once.
She was stolen from me from right outside the market I visited one day. That was supposed to be a day I spent with my now wife looking at houses in the area and planning for the future. Instead I was enraged and powerless at the same time.
I will never forgive the thief. I hope to find them one day.
bike thieves are some of the lowest pieces of shit on the planet, right up there with big game hunters and third world dictators, well maybe not but I had my favorite bike stolen as well so I might be a little biased.
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bike thieves are some of the lowest pieces of s#~# on the planet, right up there with big game hunters and third world dictators, well maybe not but I had my favorite bike stolen as well so I might be a little biased.
B-but I was going to buy a new boat... and the bikes! I was gonna make a killing selling bikes to Freehold! You know Trek doesn't accept returns when you buy wholesale don't you!
You two make me sick!
...now I gotta start a pregnant Paladin thread...
I had a Trek once.
A red one. I believed it was a 740. I named her Hayai, for she was as fast as a zephyr. I lost so much weight on that bike. Dropped down to a 34 waist. 190 pounds. Enough muscle that I looked at myself in awe every time I passed a mirror. I caught a woman checking me out once.
She was stolen from me from right outside the market I visited one day. That was supposed to be a day I spent with my now wife looking at houses in the area and planning for the future. Instead I was enraged and powerless at the same time.
I will never forgive the thief. I hope to find them one day.
I have had no less than 3 stolen.
I want to find the people responsible.
I don't want to kill them. If I kill them they are dead. I want to break them. Then heal them. And then break them again. I want the process to continue until they beg for a death that will never come, for I want them to be immortal and know only suffering. I want them to look up at the heavens above and the hells below and know only regret without release.
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It may be a little late now but many people have had luck surfing eBay and Craig's list till they find their bike.
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It may be a little late now but many people have had luck surfing eBay and Craig's list till they find their bike.
mm.
I would have sought it out some time ago.
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I had a Trek once.
A red one. I believed it was a 740. I named her Hayai, for she was as fast as a zephyr. I lost so much weight on that bike. Dropped down to a 34 waist. 190 pounds. Enough muscle that I looked at myself in awe every time I passed a mirror. I caught a woman checking me out once.
She was stolen from me from right outside the market I visited one day. That was supposed to be a day I spent with my now wife looking at houses in the area and planning for the future. Instead I was enraged and powerless at the same time.
I will never forgive the thief. I hope to find them one day.
Clearly, dedicated bicyclists need to be equipped with a featherweight Veritech Cyclone exhansile that combines with their bike. Hey Tony Downey Jr., get on this!
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...I looked at myself in awe every time I passed a mirror...
Weird... I thought you did this every day...
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...I looked at myself in awe every time I passed a mirror...Weird... I thought you did this every day...
Nope, that's me.
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...I looked at myself in awe every time I passed a mirror...Weird... I thought you did this every day...
Maybe he passes a mirror on a daily basis?
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It's so nice. Fall weather has finally arrived! Woohoo! I am siting on my balcony and enjoying the lovely not hot weather. The birds and chipmunk who steals all the birdseed are surprisingly unfazed by my presence. The cats continue staring out the window plotting how they would kill all the creatures they can see. They'll leave me for last of course since I give them food and clean their litter box. :P
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That's what they said about me too, boy they were way off...
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Nice weather here too.
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... llliiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnk?They're selling makeup that actually makes you invisible and books on Mince Magic!
What a time to be alive.
No links, I'm afraid - just stuff I saw in shop windows on the way to HEMA. Sorry!
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Despite feeling disappointed about it, here's my newest blog entry and probably the last that'll tackle a specific species for a while. I figured I could approach the actual main plot in the next one.
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But you get a 1 GBit/s connection for that, right? In United States everything is bigger and faster, especially internet, or so we were told far away on the Old Continent, behind the Iron Curtain... Right?...Yeah, mine's up around the $70 mark right now.Just got my cable bill in the mail, and they jacked up the price by $12 without notifying me or explaining why. I don't even have a TV, just internet. F#~+ Time Warner.Ugh?!
I pay approximately $20 a month for my 60 Mbit/second connection.
Nope. Mine's the same as yours. Average internet speeds in the US are comparable to those in Europe.
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...now I gotta start a pregnant Paladin thread...... I am clearly missing some context here...I've seen a few threads lately about adventuring pregnant.
I generally avoid topics like those so I can't tell you how contentious they got or what was said.
The real question is, is getting a paladin pregnant an Evil Act?
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I played a paladin character who tried to have sex with everyone who was willing
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I played a paladin character who tried to have sex with everyone who was willing
That's not a stretch.
The correct quote should be:
I played a paladin character who tried to have sex witheveryone whoanything that was willing
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I've seen a few threads lately about adventuring pregnant....now I gotta start a pregnant Paladin thread...... I am clearly missing some context here...
I love how many of our homebrew races lay eggs or drop seeds.
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homebrew races ... drop seeds
homebrew pikmin campaign. I want it
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Nah, Orthos doesn't need the encouragement for TPK that Pikmin would offer.
I wouldn't know. Just never saw the appeal of pikmin.
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What about a Lego campaign, where if someone dies after 3 rounds they return to life with all their cash scattered about.
The everyone speaks in gibberish thing might be hard to overcome...
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Wow, I don't recognize most of the people in here... have I been gone that long? O.o
Heyah Froggy!!
Wow, I don't recognize most of the people in here... have I been gone that long? O.o
yes, you have.
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Wow, I don't recognize most of the people in here... have I been gone that long? O.oyes, you have.
I'll take care of it starting today! :)
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HUZZAH!
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What's the current count of "official" FAWTLy members?
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What's the current count of "official" FAWTLy members?
Depends... nekkid or non-nekkid? And how do we get "official" status? I did get Freehold to throw a bike at me. Does that make me "official"?