Agreed. In fact, even MORE regulation was passed with the Bell breakup. And service suffered in many ways. With Bell, you didn't have any repair charges: Bell owned every piece of wire in the home. Including the phone itself. When the phone (or any wire) was broken, Bell fixed it, quickly, without charging the customer. If the phone broke, or some standard changed (50Hz to 60Hz, for instance), Bell just fixed it. No cost, no question. Without Bell, now you are responsible for your wiring in your home and any device connnected to it. If you break something (or a mouse chews through a wire), you are responsible for getting it repaired, and you will be charged for it.

Ever heard of the Rural Call Completion problem? Would never have happened with Bell.

The FCC's rules post-Bell increased the costs of the consumer in multiple ways, and created reams more regulation.

Also, you absolutely used the incorrect term. It is impossible for a Government to have morals. A Government may (or may not) have ethics, which are defined in professional or legal ways. Only an individual can have morals: it is a *belief* that something is either right or wrong. A Government cannot have beliefs, only a person can.

So, based on this information, if capital punishment is defined as ethical in the legal sense, a Government has not broken any ethical boundaries by using capital punishment. Your argument is therefore illogical.

Don't anthropomorphize an entity like a Government, or you'll be doing exactly the same thing as those who say businesses are people. And if you believe Governments have morals and yet businesses should not be treated as people, well, then, I have no time to argue with you because you have beliefs that are not logical and trying to convince you otherwise is a waste of time.

Gotta agree with the T-series Lenovos. Best bang for the buck in the marketplace. And Linux runs very well on them. Been running Mint on mine since 13, now on 17.1. EVERYTHING works, including the fingerprint reader. Extremely happy with the Lenovos.

Well said, though I haven't seen much in the way of partisan statements yet..

And exactly how much do you suspect that upgraded equipment is going to cost? How much are you, as a consumer, willing to pay to get that upgrade? Because all I hear is people bitching about how expensive everything already is... Do you have any idea at all how much this kind of equipment costs???

Bullshit. Electrons are generated using power and gas. So, therefore, are also limited. Wow. Complete fail on your part.

I, for one, welcome our new NSA overlords.

FTFY. There IS no anonymity on the Internet. And if you still believe that there is, you are an idiot, my friend.

Bullshit. The rights of way for utilities is already established. The basis of your arguement is invalid, so making your entire arguement invalid.

Besides, every instance of municipal-owned infrastructure has failed miserably. Why? Because governments are not in the communication business, and farm the work out to the lowest bidder. Then, once the crappy installation is done, they don't keep anyone with skills on staff to maintain the crappy installation. Ever tried to get a pothole in front of your house fixed in any kind of timely manner? Why do you think those same bozos would be more responsive on a fiber cut?

Municipal infrastructure is not the answer. They can hardly keep the streets in decent shape; why would you expect them to be able to keep something as complex as a communication infrastructure in decent condition?

And like I said, isn't the Linux universe great?

I haven't tried Debian, though I should as it's been around *forever* and is very well known for it's stability. But you know what it's like: you start using something that's familiar and get in a rut. And time is precious. So looking into something different becomes difficult.

Maybe a Debian New Year's Resolution...

Well said, and, other than the "Mobile" version (which I have no interest in, so haven't researched), they are already out there in use.

For instance, this is my current life (and this is by NO MEANS comprehensive or complete, or even possibly fit for others!!!):

Server - CentOS: no GUI by default, many choices during install for different server functions, dev and build libs easily available, no real bloat, lean and fast.
Desktop - Mint, Elementary, etc... Each are user-friendly FOR THE USER, including those migrating from Winblows or Mac.

I'm a sysadmin, have been for 20 years, and have always used some form of Linux and as few M$ servers as possible. And we're successful and have a growing body of customers using our servers and services.

HOWEVER, I agree with you in that a distro should firmly recognize and position itself into one of these three flavors (using your syntax), and not try to be all three. It would make selection and use more clear and easy. It would also help those distros become better at what they are trying to accomplish, rather than a "one ring for all" mentality where nothing works as well as it could and should.

That's why I chose CentOS for my servers (as their mentality is SERVER, not desktop or GUI or some other function) and Mint or Ele for desktop (again, they are focusing on an end-user experience, user application stability, and usability, rather than server functionality). I am NOT saying this is right for everyone, just what I have found works perfectly for ME and MY OPERATION. CentOS may not work for some server applications (though, I haven't found that to be true), or there may be something about it that another sysadmin may hate... That's fine, there are other choices. That's the great thing about the Linux universe.

And Mobile fits right in there too: a moble OS GUI should be VERY different from a desktop OS GUI, as Micro$oft has so eloquently proven. No suggestions from me. Though, I carry an Android phone, if anyone cares. :)

The right tool for the job. The Linux distros should embrace this concept, and if it would, the world would be a better place.

...in the mirror.

Finished TFU.

:)

Dude has porked and haired up a lot.

Someone mod this up. I am def going to use this definition in the future.

Thanks zugmeister!

You fail in your response to address the size of the area to be covered. If the US was half the size of Texas (read: Finland... and to save you the trouble, Texas is 696,241 km), infrastructure could have been finished years ago. Size matters, in this instance, and in bed. :)

And that matters, how, to someone in Australia?

Valid points, and kudos for looking at this situation logically and rationally, rather than emotionally. The fact that the CPS pressured the parents into signing a questionably legal document without their lawyer present also raises great big flapping red flags with me. Anytime any kind of authoritarian governmental organization attempts to squeeze out a lawyer's professional advice screams of overreaching, overstepping, and any other kind of over-ing that you can think of.

If I were the parents, I would run to a lawyer as fast as I could and find out the proper legal way to deal with this.