Thank you for this information. I'd been looking into getting a blu-ray player as soon as I had the spare cash for it, but hearing that it needs firmware updates (when you're right, these devices should never need firmware updates. unless it's to read a disc that's acheived higher data density), I now have no desire for blu-ray. I'd rather deal with pirating and maybe buying a disc just to give people their share then deal with the nightmare you just described to me.

since the troll won't give a NSFW label.

This is the United States of America. Anyone who doesn't complain about even the slightest inconvenience obviously is not from here. So why would they check the people who do complain when that's the American way?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra_fAYl4Th4 Michael Moore did that for you already actually.

ack!! You're one of them! one of those government spies! You're only here to tell us our paranoia is unfounded as it lacks proof.. just as the government would say if they didn't want us to look deeper...

ah ha! You're insinuation that our paranoia is unfounded is the exact proof needed to say our paranoia is fully justified!

instead of JUST making things entirely multiplayer, can we go back to split screen on games that make sense for it? (such as racing games?!) I really really don't like having to move a TV, with all the cables, from my neighbor's apartment to mine just so I can race against him in the same room!

There is a simple problem you run into. Usage based billing only works in the following idea.

--------
-company charges $x for unlimited plans because their network costs are high due to a few people using a LOT of bandwidth.
-company switches to usage based billing. Charges less as high bandwidth users now pay what they owe vs low bandwidth uses paying the difference.
-------

However, this is not the reason for usage based billing in this instance.

Instead Bell, the backbone company was forced to charge ISPs on it's backbone an "at cost" rate, meaning they couldn't charge more than it cost them to run the line. This allows the ISP to determine what pricing plan they want, including usage based to reduce overall costs.

During this time, an ISP going to usage based billing can potentially have lower costs for other clients.

Now, Bell is charging it's original rate, along with an extra $1.12/GB over a low 60GB limit. This artificially raises the rates of the smaller ISPs that are on Bell's backbone as they were paying all of Bell's costs for those lines to begin with, and now have to pay even more. Meaning that the ISPs were likely already at the lowest amount they could charge, and have to now pay a gigantic extra fee for simply moderate usage.

I am short on time right now, but the quick and simple is this. Usage based billing only works when it's the company that deals directly with the customer that determines it, not the backbone. The backbone company getting to charge extra only raises rates for it's competitors.

let me get this straight.. We have decided to shoot people making phone calls with a MISSILE?? Doesn't anyone think that's a bit of overkill for taking out a single person?

what subgroup uses "lawl" in actual speech? Because I wish to slap that group.

and charlie chaplin still won't be in the public domain.

wow, if you're going to troll in this way you could at least have put this in a thread about linux.

don't fire the drone for making the mistake that quickly. If the person was in the wrong department (say, was routed to a tech support agent that was handling customer care overflow) the drone may not have known the full policy, and may not have gained the skill to find the correct policy. When I was working the tech support contract for VZW, many of my fellow tech agents couldn't find the customer care policies, and several of the supervisors were only decent at.. err.. I'm not sure what they were good at actually.. managing underlings I guess.

Since you're a member of Slashdot and therefore unlikely to ever procreate, therefore making the hypothetical sure to stay hypothetical, nope. Not at all.

.

Wait.. are we REALLY saying there are error messages that the common user doesn't get confused by? Oh yea. The error messages such as

yea.. that one NEVER causes confusion to the consumer...

Who would want to buy a self inducing debt system? That's the worst deal on craigslist.