Posts by L05ER 133 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Feb 2013
I'm all for testing this hypothesis... I don't believe local government could be much worse than the ISP duopoly around here.
Thankfully the way has been cleared to find out which of us is correct. I don't understand why the opposing side is so against letting the invisible hand of the market sort it out... Oh right, Bailout Mentality.
$20 added to my bill per month... $480 over the term, when the phone itself (at the time of contract signing) costs almost exactly that.
add in that i get more data and minutes than a comparable ($ wise) pay as you go plan... AND that i will not find myself without need of a phone for those two years... i'm far from an idiot, just a realistic guy who can actually do math.
i believe the point was that the smart people running these companies know that it is in their best interest to do so. therefore those "hired cheaply" are done for legitimate reasons like skill or experience, or in the non-poaching pact... corporate profits. not whatever the -ism of the day is.
i'm a total halo fan boy and i approve this message.
aside from the single player story, every iteration has only made it more and more CoD-ified.
love that Halo Wars tho. it was nice to see it in it's original vision, even if it was a simplistic version.
while Microsoft Game Studios has funded some of the best games of the past decade, i don't think that's what the author was thinking. i'm leaning achievements outside of the games themselves. like pushing sony into online multiplayer, after the dreamcast failed and console online multiplayer died with it.
in a perfect world this would spur an exploit cold war of sorts... with microsoft and google blowing through their respective cash hordes. pouring over each others software... each trying to defame the other (not that M$ could lose much fame over the quality of its code). it would be glorious.
billions pumped back into the economy and we all get better software... that's a win-win in my book.
but we all know no one can be bothered anymore... i used exactly one capital letter in this entire post, for example. so they'll cry about it, maybe sue someone and move on.
is that the only reason they would have to not disclose this information is operational secrecy... if they were to say we used prism to pull jong-un's email ordering the hack... and here it is... no one is in danger and it exposes no new info.
i figure the "evidence" is a spy... maybe they are eager to leave and jumped on the opportunity? lies be damned...
> A modern car's wing mirror has got more electronics in it than an entire 20 year old car.
a motor, a heater and some lights in the most high tech mirrors on the planet? my 44yr old car has all those, and even if you want to count individual electronic components, you still fall far short.
you know nothing about cars, and very little about electronics.
actually...
i bought a 55" last year specifically knowing i would buy the xbox one... i opted to skip the "SmartTV" because they only came with LED back lights... i would have preferred to not power up the xbox just for netflix or hulu, but i'll do it to avoid uneven lighting (cheap things are cheap).
$600 (before tax) got me a 120hz 55" LCD screen. if i wasn't buying the xbox one, i could have spent twice as much and got a better tv however...
of course not, that would be naive...
you painted a picture of a very lax attitude toward tax collection here in the US, i was simply pointing out that we all have taxes we are supposed to pay, but avoid at times (or as much as possible, whatever).
i have never heard anyone use the justification of "no sales tax" when deciding to order online. it's always : availability, base price or ordering direct from the manufacturer.
generally, shipping negates most potential tax savings... a $400 item would be $28 in sales tax in my state. if i overnight it... it would cost considerably more than the gas it takes to drive to the store AND sales tax combined.
if you want any support for your high dollar purchase, you buy from a retailer you can take it to...
it's just not that easy anywhere to "beat the system" plain and simple. can it be done? yes. is it rampant? hardly.
That's only half true...
businesses collect sales tax on anything purchased in your state, or from a business with a location in your state. The percentage varies by state.
Even then... You are compelled to pay that tax at the end of the year, via a box on your state tax forms.
it would be a mistake to think your govt is more adamant about collecting taxes.
particularly tight, yes. unique? not by a long shot.
same situation here, 1 provider. Randolph Telephone.
$70 for 5Mb Internet (frequently laggrific)
$15 for phone (not optional)
$10 various taxes, etc...
just shy of $100/mo for service that would never survive with competition from cable.
i had to pay a $10 member fee, $100 DSL installation fee, $65 location visit fee... on top of the $100 security deposit.
my bill is 8 pages long...
my only other option for broadband is wireless from Verizon, which as stated is prohibitively expensive.
called the cable company... no exchanges within 3 miles of me. talked to a contractor... cost would be somewhere around $80k, and they want 30 customers per mile to build out.
Randolph Telephone is building out their fiber network, with somewhat more reasonable prices ($100/month for 20Mb) but you still aren't allowed to unbundle the phone...
http://rtmc.net/myhome-internet-DSL.php
this wasn't even really a microsoft centric move... they were giving devs and publishers control of their content. giving them the ability to choose whether to allow trade-ins, rentals, etc...
i loved the announcement. i hate gamestop and their ilk... middlemen with no interest in the sector other than money. they have driven local shops out of business, and now abuse their power to the the detriment of the producers and consumers.
since the industry relies on these parasites at this point... the producers were forced into anti-consumer tactics like online passes and restricting content ("DLC" unlocks) to help fight against that clerk pushing the used version over the 10 brand new copies they have in stock. it would also be nice to not have to hear the clerk complain about the very anti-consumer tactics the industry instituted to fight them.
ultimately consumers are to blame for ruining gaming for gamers... if gamers purchased ethically, and ponied up that extra $2-$5, knowing they were actually supporting EVERYONE that made it possible and not just the parasites.... we'd see no DRM (involving physical media) and no season passes...
i'll admit it made no difference to me... i buy new, i don't buy every game that comes out, and i don't sell my games. i was more glad to see someone trying to make a stand, and it's a shame more don't see it this way...
fail to treat your car as a cheap appliance.
how about... tire pressure, engine and transmission oil levels, coolant levels, belt life remaining, etc... it would be nice to know my tires are outside optimal inflation range when i'm making my daily plan, so i can alot time to fix the issue and maybe diagnose why the status changed.
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