One of my coworkers had an intestinal problem requiring surgery. Her mistake was not even getting the healthcare provided by the contractor employer ... but anyway, she wasn't fired - she had to quit. She made a bit too much money to qualify to have the operation covered and her life was at risk if she didn't get it.

In her defense - the insurance provided by the employer is crap, so she's probably better off .. but I haven't seen her since, so I don't even know if she's alive.

Those student loans have interest rates so low you can get SAVINGS accounts that make more interest! Who cares if you have to pay it back if inflation is (or was ...) 5% when your loans are 3% ?

Sorry, everyone I know who has student loans never tries to pay them off because it isn't worth it. They make the minimum payment and invest the money elsewhere.

I'll agree with that. My issues with minimum wage is pretty much that it will raise the cost of goods and services. Jack in the box doesn't need to pay a cashier 9$ a hour .. if they do than they have to raise the cost of their products which just keeps going.

Fast food is a bad example, but I honestly don't know too many businesses that pay minimum wage .. Even retail paid 8$ a hour for a starting job and you could afford to live on that. You'd just live in housing complexes that are subsidized for the poor and couldn't afford a car payment.

It has seemed crazy and backwards to you that any of us would even consider having high minimum wages, good unemployment benefits, strong unionised workforces, public health, free education and so on. Such things are apparently "socialist", which to many Americans (especially of the right wing bent) really means a combination of "communist" and "totalitarian".

While I agree that anything that appears socialist is automatically deemed bad by a significant portion of our population..

I just wanted to point out that we actually have a decent chunk of what you said on the list - and have for a while.
1) Minimum wage has been planned to make an increase for at least the last year, if not two or more. Personally I do not agree with it but whatever, off topic.
2) Unemployment benefits are out there, and they are nowhere near what your job was - but they are there. If things get really bad there's welfare.
3) Unions are popular, just depends on the industry and the area. IT isn't one of those - but things like elevator repair are.
4) Public Health - while there is currently no such thing as a Public healthcare system like Canada and Europe have, You won't be denied treatment because you can't pay for it. You might, however, have to quit your job if you don't make enough or the employment benefits are woefully inadequate ...
5) There are plenty of grants and loans out there that most people qualify for. I don't think financing an education is really a problem.

well - at the time it was the best job I had come across, and a 130% increase in wages. In retrospect? I just hope I don't go back down to that...

I was given stock options for a company several years back that vested over a period of time. I never bought them but when they decided to sell most of the stock to another company (With a vested interest in how it was run) they chose to do so by buying back our options (half of them, anyway) at the current estimated stock value. Basically they took the current stock estimated values, subtracted the value at the time of the stock options offer, and made a pay out bi-anually for whatever had been vested until that point. While I didn't get much more than a few grand, it was free money. This isn't a very likely scenario either, and the payout I did get was taxed as additional income. Still, stock doesn't necessarily have to be worth nothing...

Breeds themselves are already pretty genetically controlled to have tendencies one way or another.
My personal objection has more to do with how many are euthanized because people wont adopt them... It doesn't make much sense to clone a dog when so many good dogs will die because there's no place for them to live.

I don't know about where you live, but in Phoenix they have these sensors above most traffic lights that are sensitive to emergency vehicle lights (or something.) Guess what they do? They change the light to allow emergency traffic through. I guess if you really want to get to your destination unimpeded by other traffic you could build your own road. Or you could just use emergency services in an emergency.

I realize that the internet isn't a society funded project but why is everyone so concerned with "getting whats theirs" at everyone else's expense anyway? Because that IS what we're talking about here. Not Cox having the ultimate network that is impossible to saturate - because we know there are applications that will use whatever is possibly available. Consider the alternatives here.

1) Lower bandwidth caps for the same price
2) Much higher prices to pay for massive infrastructure upgrades and higher risk deployment investments.
3) A pay for use service that heavily charges for usage above a certain limit.
4) Enforced monthly bandwidth caps (Which cox does have - and at least for me, do not enforce)

In scenario 1 I would be negatively impacted. Why? I use my internet more heavily after hours for downloading and uploading. I would be limited all the time because of peak usage trends.

In scenario 2 I would be negatively impacted because I would have to pay a hell of a lot more than I do now despite my low network impact during said peak times (IE - when it is a problem)

In scenario 3 I would be negatively impacted because I would get charged out the ASS for bandwidth usage because I use my connection during non peak times. While it does probably cost more, it doesn't interfere with anyone else and it doesn't require massive network upgrades like you're demanding either.

In scenario 4 I might well be limited to only using my connection for work and no file transfers, because I work from home. I have to be available to transfer large files every now and then because sometimes it's required.

In all of the above scenarios, i bet they apply to most other people too. Heavy file transfers during peak usage are already going to be slowed down - I don't think you'll notice much difference if the routers shuffle packet priorities in the buffer because cox has a pretty outstanding network already. other downloads are usually on a "start it and forget it" basis. You can seed your crap overnight - it doesn't matter that much.

Whatever. I'm done trolling this post. Those that get it already get it. those that don't wont. and those that don't give a fuck have bigger problems.

Throttle is probably a bad term to use anyway. If this works like any other QOS service I've ever read about - packets are just shuffled around in the queue. yes - the effect is some things will take a bit longer to be delivered - but it's on a totally different playing field than sending commands to close connections or limiting the bandwidth for protocols to flat amounts because its "peak time" or just doing it all the time. Your bandwidth intensive applications will still be getting whatever is available - it just wont be at the expense of time sensitive stuff.

I did an install a long time ago because I needed an outlet put in my bedroom, and they sent out a contractor for that business too. He was nice enough not to run the cd, and instead called tech support to register the mac address of the modem.

I have a good feeling the tech support guy told him to put in the install disk too, because at one point in the conversation the tech responded by saying "Yea, I don't think this guy would really appreciate me installing this software on his computer."

Since then I haven't had to do much to get service, or pay any install fee. I've also only moved my service. (At the time, it was covered as part of the install too, so I didn't pay anything then either.) The only exception was when I ordered phone service .. They sent a guy out to do the install for that and actually wouldn't let me do it myself. He had to test and certify the line. I suspect this has to do with 911 service and making sure it works.

and imo, I don't mind bandwidth throttling as long as it isn't arbitrarily limiting. You get what is available. By this I mean web traffic and voip SHOULD take priority over someone downloading porn or wares with bittorrent, or anything. The network should also be built to a reasonable capacity - and I guess this just removes your ability to notice such weaknesses - I get that too. But telling an isp not to use QOS is kinda silly. I know I use it on my own network. Typically traffic that requires fast response times is not bandwidth intensive, and services that do require a lot of bandwidth don't need response time. You really wont notice qos affecting bittorrent or downloads over background noise but I guarantee you everyone else who uses responsive applications notices you when traffic reaches peak levels.

They do, however, have monthly bandwidth limitations. So you cannot saturate the connection the entire month.

I wish I shared your experience. I live in Phoenix and i can't even walk across the living room without interrupting the signal. Also, instead of getting partial snow or a possibly wavy picture you get nothing, or at best blocks of your picture.

My solution? Download them. I watch two shows and I can buy the dvd's when the next season starts.

Realistically, your notes may well be in the shredder by now anyway.

Right. Additionally this is a teaching concern. If the teacher is so concerned with cheating that they are willing to go to such great lengths to prevent it then perhaps they would best be counseled by their peers.

This seems to be a case of the teacher being too lazy to mix things up from year to year. Additionally (Especially at a college level) You are paying for that class, and those notes are one of the few means available to re-study the material from. If I got wiff of this ahead of time, my notes would be at home. If necessary - I would negotiate a review of the situation with the teachers boss before agreeing to anything, and that teacher would basically have to take my backpack off me to get at my notes, which I will likely assume to be a form of assault and respond in kind (which means pushing their arm away and leaving (Hey - this isn't my house, I have to retreat before striking back))

Ah, Kudos then =)