It's not so much getting "caught," but I have realized that I have done myself no favors by just sitting through meetings quietly for years and thinking, "Yeah, no kidding! I could have said that, why does everybody listen to them!" Staying engaged in meetings doesn't come naturally to me but it is a form of valuable work and leads to other things.

Yeah, there's one guy I always tease about pants because once he stood up and was only wearing shorts. Scared me for a second.

Anyways, that's just it... there's no social pressure without eye contact. It is too tempting to websurf during a teleconference.

So I want to have stable, low-latency, 20-way video conferencing before I hear anybody claim more bandwidth wouldn't be useful.

(Of course even then telecommuters have to download big files often enough).

I have been surprised in just the last few years how many full-time telecommuters I suddenly know, and equally surprised by how useful video-conferencing is in making my interactions with them more engaging, as opposed to just talking on the phone. So far, the experience is sub-optimal because there are frequent glitches and disconnects (whether it is the person's Internet connection, or our VPN, or Lync, I am not entirely sure). But the digital divide is no longer a notional idea for me, because I work daily with people who can't earn their living without a good connection.

I distinctly remember when touch screen voting came out the same thing happened in several Republican districts around the country in races which were too close to call.

Mysteriously, people who were voting for the Democratic candidate had their votes changed to the Republican candidate and the same excuse was used.

For reference, reference 2, reference 3.

Based solely on the description provided, this would make for a great setting in D&D.

Lich? Wight? Vampire? Evil mage? Jar Jar Binks?

Presumably the whitebox device would include as core components all of the FCC-approved hardware necessary to use said frequencies. Upgrading the GPU, the amount of RAM, or the battery shouldn't have anything to do with this.

When you build your own PC from separate components, you don't have to worry about whether it can be powered by 60hz AC. The power supplies sold in this country are built to handle the electric supply found in this country and come with all of the UL (etc.) approvals.

The idea is that open source and the freedoms that come with it facilitate and ensure that you can continue to do cool and interesting things, often things the original designers didn't think of. It's certainly easier to be creative when you have the full specifications, source code, and documentation. It's easier to share your creativity with others when you can legally redistribute your derived works without violating someone else's copyright.

Obsession with anything is not good; on that I agree. However I haven't seen that in this thread. To cry "obsession" merely because someone points out a controversy isn't helpful (and ironically raises the question of whether you have an obsession with the perceived obsessions of others). All I saw was someone stating that they wish to avoid certain Broadcom hardware because it does not provide the degree of open source access that he or she desired. That people have their own criteria and express a desire to choose products that best suit their own needs is a good thing. Your own priorities being different is not surprising and doesn't indicate fault with anyone else.

I still don't understand what "problem" they are trying to solve.

You're missing the point. This isn't about solving a problem, it's about using technology. It doesn't have to solve a problem so long as technology is involved.

Even better, you get to use a laser!

but it is the left's investment in ongoing hysteria.

Sort of like the right's hysteria over Ebola. Less than 5K deaths on the entire planet and they panic, completely ignoring the 50K+ deaths from flu or the 30K+ roadway deaths which occur in this country every year.

So they need to spend thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars for a situation that crops up ... virtually never? And you want to talk about "government waste"?

Nope. That's exactly the problem solved by a cloud. Pooling server resources between a large number of content providers averages the demand between all of them, so each content provider can pay for their average demand while also supporting their maximum demand.

Let's not overcomplicate this - it just means hosting your service on Amazon Web Service or somesuch.

Since it's not your money, why do you care?

I don't.

Since it's not your wife or husband, why do you care?

I don't.

Since it's not your dog, why do you care?

Since it's a living, breathing creature, unlike a blob of cells, mistreating it shows ones lack of civility, humanity and general lack of morals.

Since it's not your house, why do you care?

I don't, up to the point where your negligence in keeping your property maintained interferes with my property because critters from your area migrate to mine.

Since it's not your city, why do you care?

I don't.

Since it's not your book, why do you care?

I don't.

Since it's not your life, why do you care?

I don't. But then a blob of cells isn't a life.

It's almost as if some people just really want it to be legal to destroy human embryos.

Since they're not your embryos, why do you care?

Why should the government be the main source for recall information?

One central point of information.

Shouldn't that come from the manufacturer/importer?

They do but most people ignore the mailings or emails. However, by pointing to a web site, that somehow triggers people into looking (considering how much people are online to begin with).

Besides, if you're buying a used car, this is an easy way to see if it is on a recalled list since you wouldn't have been notified by the manufacturer.

No, crime did not go down.

Not to mention places being specifically targeted.

Yes, it is an insignificant figure considering they said they would get $184 million. Do the math, that's less than a quarter of what they said they would get (21.7% to be exact).

But thank you for playing and proving my point of people's hypocrisy when it comes to something they don't like (red light cameras) and things they do like (legalizing marijuana).

When something you don't like doesn't meet its expectation it's a complete and utter failure. When something you do like doesn't meet it's expectation it still got something.