Comment Re:Good reason for it to be illegal (Score 1) 383
How do you prove something like that was not a coerced or sold vote?
If they thought they could have already raised prices $20 without resulting in a backlash leading to loss of revenue or other undesirable outcome (i.e. price regulation), they would have already done so.
They have already done so. In fact they went beyond twenty. They went to the "Share Everything" service plans and completely eliminated the Individual plans. They've also stated that grandfathered plans will be forced to change over if they wish to upgrade their devices. So no more grandfathered unlimited plans for anyone, at least if they ever want to replace their current phone (or god forbid it gets broken).
The cheapest Share Everything plan is.. (ready for this?).. about $30/mo more than the cheapest Individual plan that was previously available, as the article points out. Interestingly enough, this went into effect almost exactly a month before this FCC ruling. Now, I'm not usually one for conspiracies, but I'm also not usually one for coincidences either..
Don't like it? Go into your BIOS and turn it off. The specification mandates that it have a disable option..
No, no the specification does NOT mandate that it have a disable option. The specification simply does not prohibit providing such an option (for the moment at least). The motherboard manufacturer and/or BIOS makers are completely free to not provide a disable option if they so desire.
Whether the (lack of) option becomes common or not is another thing entirely, of course.
.... It isn't strange that our military also has the authority to take footage.
The reason why it's a notable thing is because the military, in fact, doesn't have the authority to take footage. Right at the top of the article (but this is Slashdot, so no one read it) it's pointed out that the military, like the CIA, is not supposed to perform surveillance of citizens on domestic soil.
They're using weasel-words to try and loophole around that block, and it's this type of skirting action that should always be made public and pushed against. Checks and balances, watching the watchers, that sort of thing.
As for tablet and such devices, yes it's true that Apple ones come with Safari and generally make it difficult to install other browsers (though they are now available, if in more limited quantity and not quite the same as the 'native' on-device Safari browser).
It wasn't very difficult for me to open Safari, download Firefox, open the disk image and drag Firefox to my Applications folder. Firefox even popped up a modal dialog box on first launch asking if I wanted to make it the default browser.
Yes, note the part I conveniently highlighted for you. I'm well aware that desktop/laptop Macs have no problem installing competing browsers. By "tablet and such devices" I was specifically referring to iOS devices, which are a different story.
Sure, they'd hire 5000 new people, but how many would they fire from T-mobile in the process? My money is on a good deal more than 5000.
AT&T laid off 6000 people just this past spring (in April they announced they'd made 5,900 cuts during the first quarter, but I don't have the press release handy). Between 2006 and 2010, they've cut over 37,000 jobs. Plus as you say, how many would get the chop during the merger to "eliminate redundancies in the workforce" as one of the favored sayings goes.
So yeah I'm with you, "bringing back" 5,000 call center jobs (which I'd be willing to bet only pay close to minimum wage, too) would be an insulting token gesture, at the very best.
It's like a car manufacturer advertising that their latest pickup is great for heavy construction use... then in the fine print they note "Warranty invalid if used for heavy construction use".
Which they do, extensively, and have for years. Think of all the commercials for performance cars that show speeding (indeed outright racing), drifting, stunt turns, etc. through the middle of a city's downtown/urban center. All underlined by the tiny print "Professional driver on a closed course. Do not attempt." Think they'd honor their warranty--or for that matter an insurance company honor their contract--if you went out and actually used the car the way they show in their commercials and had a wreck?
"Luke, I'm yer father, eh. Come over to the dark side, you hoser." -- Dave Thomas, "Strange Brew"