Sales tax in texas starts at 6.5% (State) and is legally capped at 8.25%. Localities, library districts, metro and such can have taxes that add up to more, but there is a priority in who actually collects it (because of the 8.25% cap).

As far as know every state will credit sales tax paid towards use tax. Texas shouldn't have to build a use tax enforcement system (there isn't one for consumers).

Amazon should have been collecting these taxes. I usually try not to hold sales tax against the merchant when comparison shopping (although on expensive appliances I have been known to).

Dell did this LONG before they had stores. The rules are clear, you ship from within the state, you are considered to have a presence.

I have used my iPhone 3GS to tether to my laptop while fixing network problems and had no issues holding a conversation with the person I was helping at the same time. 4G assumption not required. I was at a Marina and an 18 wheeler parked between me and the Marina's WiFi access point.

Well, you don't have to have unlimited LD, caller Id, voicemail, etc. Those services are the only way your landline was $60.

I was able to have a land line (measured, I think 25 calls free a month and $0.02 per local call after that) and Elite DSL for $58/mo. I dropped it and went to cable Internet for $55 so I could get 3-4 times the speed (too far from equipment for Uverse. They have it at the other end of my block).

They described a usage difference, but no real difference.

I seriously doubt the restrictions were useful anyways. I am sure they could download the software with foreign proxies, or if that failed (it wouldn't) use an agent in another country to forward the program.

So I don't care if we poke holes in the restrictions, they are political and nothing else. If we could make them work that would be great, but realism must be recognized.

I can get AT&T DSL which only has port 25 blocked, 6mbps x 768kbps.... Or I can get cable with a 107x5 mbps (or the 20x2mbps I have purchased). The Cable blocks the following ports, all supposedly because of worms:

25 TCP SMTP Both* SMTP Relays
80 TCP HTTP Inbound Web servers, worms
135 UDP NetBios Both Net Send Spam/Pop-ups, Worms
136-139UDP,TCP NetBios Both Worms, Network Neighborhood
445 TCP MS-DS/ NetBios Both Worms, Network Neighhood
1433 TCP MS-SQL Inbound Worms, Trojans
1434 UDP MS-SQL Inbound Worms, SQLslammer
1900 UDP MS-DS/ NetBios Both Worms, Network Neighborhood

I run a small web server on https and have had no trouble. I run ssh, no problems. If you want the blocks removed they charge for a very expensive business connections.

I bought hosting and moved my websites to dump AT&T DSL. It was too slow. I am 4400 ft from the switch, so I won't be getting their newer services.

Apparently in order to participate they have to lower prices, but I still think this is a terrible use of public funds.

You can still have nVidia video, just not motherboard chipsets as I understand it. My recent Core i7-720QM laptop has nVidia graphics.

A bit soon?

Wasn't it VERY recently that a Google employee was caught reading private communications? If the service providers have the ability for the government to intercept the messages, so can people at the provider without any safeguards!

I want the ability to have secure end to end communication. I enjoy being able to share passwords with family members, and I don't think those should be interceptable by ANYONE!

Hunters come from all walks of life. No-one I know is going to be shooting at fiber or insulators. Unfortunately in a rural area you have lots of teenagers and young adults that are bored with nothing to do, much like in inner cities!

Your point is valid, but I think far more people would absent mindedly walk off with pens with no intent for theft! Since I can never keep up with my own pens, maybe I should chain one to my desk! I always walk off with them and set them down in odd places!

think the numbers the OP came up with are absurd. When they say the average customer uses 200MB, I think they probably meant the average customer uses less than 200MB. They certainly did not say was that the average amount of data consumed was 200MB. Maybe 200MB is the median, and the 99th percentile is 500MB, etc.