Probably a little of both. In the long run, it is likely to be an amazing jet. Pilots say the thing is just amazingly capable, and near impossible to fight against. So while it is expensive, it pays for itself in terms of a force multiplier. Like say it could take enemy jets 11:1 which cost 10% of the price (I'm not saying it can, just say). It is actually superior then, since you spend less on it. Even more so because you keep your people safe and that has all kinds of repercussions.

However, it isn't very likely to be needed. A major conflict against another large power is pretty much out of the question and barring that, the jets already available are more than fine. So it is going to be a big pricey powerful toy, that does a job expensively that something else could do much cheaper.

Also the cost could potentially equalize out a bit in the long run if everybody uses them. If lots of services from lots of nations use them, that'll help reduce the over all cost.

So my guess is it'll be seen as just another jet in the long run, nothing particularly disastrous, or particularly great.

Their interface is stable per version of Windows. They freeze the ABI and it is set until the next one. They don't change it much usually anyhow, Vista being a notable exception. Now of course when new DX features come out you have to update your drivers to support it if you want those features, but it isn't necessary to make your driver work, the old driver continues to work.

It does not get updated with every kernel patch, ala Linux.

The unusualness of your job pales in comparison to high school.

Imagine a building that is constructed along the lines of a prison. Students are routinely padded down, put through metal detectors, and practice going into lockdown. There is no freedom of thought or speech.

Deviation from social norms is treated with torment by fellow inmates or punishment from the building staff. The ostensible goal of the institution, education, is secondary to social and athletic considerations.

No one wants to be there. Ungodly sums of money are spent on this program, yet the results are worse than most of the rest of the developed world.

And the nerds program computers on their own time because the teachers will not give them a relevant education. That is without a doubt the most unusual place any of us has programmed.

Cruel and unusual.

Business skills are not actually applicable in business. Sure, like recognizes like, but that mostly applies in golf, accounting, and working on Cisco routers. Three completely separate skill sets. Once you are pigeon-holed as IT, there you will stay.

You can move to marketing and run reports and websites. But don't try to be creative, because you are IT.
Senior Management won't want you around, because IT are nerds.
HR? Well, that's a career for paid liars, so maybe you could work there.
Accounting? Get your CPA.
Sales? No, because you are IT.

Get it? Good. Now get a golf club and start making friends.

The reason is the categories, specifically the "YouTube(tm) HD Verified" one. Sounds like "Do what we like to get official cred or else."

Also seems to be what is happening in my area. We are on their results list. However Comcast Xfinity is the only "HD Verified" ISP. Cox is listed as SD...

But then you look at the results and you see that Cox's graph looks basically the same as Comcasts in terms of HD/SD video plays. Also my informal surveys of people seem to support that Cox does a better job around here. I find way more people who hate Comcast than Cox.

And of course it highly depends on package. Cox has everything from a "ultimate suck cheapy" service which maxes out at 5mbps, and thus might have poor streaming, up to a 150mbps service that I have for which Youtube streams are less than 10% of available bandwidth. Anywhere you can get their service in town you can get those two or anything in between so people's experience can vary greatly.

Heck even Century Link, which is fairly crap service as phone companies often are, has many more HD than SD views and still qualifies as an "SD" provider.

So something smells fishy. Unless there's clearer definitions as to what it means to be "HD Verified" I'm wondering if this isn't more of a "pay us and/or do what we want to get verified" kind of thing. Otherwise, what's the deal? Like at this time period, they claim Comcast has 93% HD streams and Cox has 90%. Shit that is easy within a margin of error accounting for differences in speeds of connections, computers, and even choice of video (I watch a number of videos that don't have HD). Yet somehow that 3% is enough for a difference in classification?

I'm all for better streaming video, but I am a little suspicious about this.

I don't have Watch Dogs but I was playing Far Cry 3, which uses it, and it seemed to work fine.

If you want absolutely guaranteed bandwidth, go buy it. You can buy lines that have committed information rates, where they guarantee, by contract, that you'll get a certain speed. You'll find many companies willing to sell them to you (Cox included).

Just don't bitch about the price.

Internet can be cheap because we share. Normal Internet usage doesn't require all of the bandwidth all of the time, so having it committed to one person is wasteful. Hence we oversubscribe and share.

This happens with everything, yes even Google Fiber. Look up GPON to find out how it works. Everyone on a segment is sharing a 1 gbit laser. So if one user is slamming all that, then the rest don't get any. For it to be fast, people have to share. If that doesn't work for you, you don't want a PON, you want a traditional active fiber connection which you can have, it just costs more.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=cox+data+...

It takes one Google search, and the first result, to find their policies on this shit. Perhaps if you can't be bothered to do that, you shouldn't bother to type up a Slashdot post.

In terms of speeds, of course ti is oversubscribed. That doesn't mean that it'll be slow. Outside of torrent heads who feel the need to download anything they can find, most people use their connection in a bursty fashion, meaning infrequently and for small periods. Hence you can oversubscribe a line and still get good speed.

I'm not sure how much total bandwidth they have per segment, but it is at least 300mbps since they use 8 channel modems. Could be more, the CMTS can have more channels per segment, each modem can just only use 8 at one time.

Regardless, it is enough I've never had speed issues.

I have yet to see them lie about their service. They advertised 150/20mbit Internet here and I took them up on it. It's great, fast downloads abound. It gets the promised speed, even during fairly peak times. They do not slow any services I can see, and indeed have Netflix cache engines in their data centers so Netflix streaming is great.

They have a bandwidth cap, but it is fairly reasonable, 400GB/month, which I've yet to get anywhere near. I'd prefer a little higher, but this is high enough that even with regular Netflix/Youtube streaming, downloading from Steam, etc, it is still enough. The cap is stated in their literature clearly, and you have a meter you can use to see your usage.

If you go over? No charge, no slowdown. If it is a little and not that often, they'll send you a message, nothing more (I have friends with lower tier accounts that have gone over). Enough over and they'll call you about it and bitch at you. I don't know anyone who's been shut off, though Cox says they can do that in extreme cases.

So I'm gonna say you don't know what you are talking about. Cox are not saints or anything, but their service is fast and operates as promised, they don't seem to pull any BS, and they keep upgrading it.

For various (often stupid) reasons most brands don't want to be associated with "porn" even in a very passing way. So advertisers will pull their ads if you have what they deem to be porn.

Fark had this problem. They used to run stories now and again with a "boobies" or "wieners" tag to denote photos/videos of either women or men respectively that others might find attractive and want to look at. They were always clearly marked, and flagged NSFW if that was an issue. It wasn't a large part of the content

However advertisers kept complaining and pulling ads, and so Fark spun that content off in to a separate site. It was that, or watch ad revenue dry up.

This sort of thing is also why ads on places like the Pirate Bay and such tend to be so scummy: Most brands aren't willing to associate with those sites so they have to take whatever they can get.

There is no way I can go to a Barnes and Nobels to buy books. There aren't two in my city alone, and also their website. There also aren't other general purpose retailers who sell books and tons of other good like Amazon. We certainly don't have 5 Targets, 10 Walmarts, 3 Costcos (and associated websites) in town. There also aren't any local booksellers or anything. And of course you can't buy eBooks from anyone else, certainly not from Apple, who's market capitalization far exceeds Amazon's.

I think some geeks like the GP need to get out of their house more often.

We might need to spend more money on helping people improve their memory so that they don't, say, just as a random example, post the same shit twice in one thread on Slashdot.

Is that there is no way they were complicit in anything.

So the crazy nutball shithead argument for the OKC bombing is something along the lines of the government being evil, the workers in that building being part of some government conspiracy, etc, etc. You can see that kind of bullshit logic in one of the other replies to the grandparent, who talks about "McVeigh's actual targets" and gets all conspiracy nut as though it was the government's fault.

Ok fine, but even if you accept that BS, there's the issue of the kids present. They weren't involved, they weren't complicit, etc. So it is a pretty hard action to defend. Even if someone buys in to the fact that government agents some how "deserve it" you have to deal with the fact that he chose a target where employees bring their children (and there are other federal facilities where that's not allowed).

Just because his conviction wasn't proper, doesn't mean he's not an asshat, or even that he didn't break the law. Note that his conviction was overturned because of the venue (meaning it was tried in the wrong court) not because of a problem with the charge or evidence. Now that's a good thing, the state needs to do everything properly in a trial, and if they fail to do so, the defendant gets to walk. That is a cornerstone of the American justice system.

This is just him showing more asshattery, and a pretty good indication that his time free is likely to be only temporary. Anyone with that level of delusion and self grandeur is likely to do something illegal again, and sooner rather than later, and the state will probably make sure to do everything right the second time around.

Like a friend of mine used to work in the PD's office. He got a client who had been arrested for tagging (graffiti) since a cop stopped him and found sharpie markers in his pockets. The kid had sure as shit been tagging and had used said markers to do it, but the cop hadn't seen that, and had no reason to search him, so my friend got it tossed out. So what happened? Same kid went and tagged again, but this time the cops watched him do it and caught him in the act. The kid was miffed my friend couldn't do anything the second time.

We all know robots aren't competent. They are consistently being defeated by John Connor, the Doctor, and Starbuck.