This is not an issue of incapable hardware. That's proven both by the fact that there's no reason why Google couldn't have kept the minimum system requirements the same from 2.2 to 5, and the fact that plenty of manufacturers were already abandoning their 2.2 shit before 2.3 came out, let alone anything actually more advanced!
FYI, you'd be (in a similar sense) "broadcasting" your location when using your home landline too (i.e., the fact that you're at home). But they still need a fucking warrant for that!
Alright, here are some of my experiences with Comcast's evilness (not including the "normal" and endemic DNS hijacking, Bittorrent and Netflix throttling, and secret data cap issues that Slashdot has reported on, of course):
1. I called up Comcast to negotiate my rate, and the customer service rep offered me $19.99/month (for I think 20Mbps internet). When I got my first bill, it was for $60+. I called to complain, and (after escalating to a manager) was basically told that they did not offer such a rate, that I was a liar for claiming to have been offered such a rate, and that they refuse to go listen to their own recording of the phone call (which would have proven that I was correct). Once I filed the BBB complaint, I was contacted by somebody higher up in Comcast (some kind of VP... it was over a year ago and I'm going by memory) who said they'd reviewed the recording of the call and would honor the rate for one year. Then, after 6 months, they jacked up the rate again, so I filed a second BBB complaint to get them to finish honoring their original agreement.
2. After that previous rate had ended, I changed my plan to a $39.99 plan that included Internet + basic cable TV (because Comcast is so desperate to inflate their TV subscriber numbers that they often offer that plan cheaper than Internet by itself). I refused to let them give me a cable box, opting instead to use my digital-cable ready TV's built-in QAM tuner instead. Then my PERFECTLY-GOOD built-in tuner stopped working, because Comcast decided to start encrypting the signal (which is nothing more or less than a blatant power and money grab, to force people to use set-top boxes and drive business for 'on demand'). Of course, Comcast will tell you the government forced them to do it -- trying to conflate it with the over-the-air digital transition -- but that's a big fat fucking lie. Long story short, I ended up filing the following FCC complaint:
Per FCC 12-126, Comcast is required to provide free set-top-boxes (STBs) OR CABLECARDS (CCs) to those affected by basic-tier encryption. However, Comcast appears to have a systematic corporate policy of making it as difficult as possible to obtain a CC, including lying to customers.
1. Comcast began encrypting WGTV weeks BEFORE sending the notice required by Title 47 SS. 76.630 (a)(1)(vi)
2. Service call technician would not admit that encryption caused the WGTV outage but only told me to use a STB
3. I called to request equipment compatible with my HTPC (without specifically asking for a CC). The rep insisted that Comcast did not support non-TV equipment, and that the only thing available was a STB
4. Comcast mailed me an unsolicited and unwanted STB
5. I called to request a CC (and return the STB). Several reps and supervisors insisted variously that a) unlike STBs, CCs could not be mailed (CC users are 2nd-class), or b) there would be a monthly fee (variously $5 or $10) for using a CC
Once I eventually obtained a CableCard -- which required physically going to a Comcast office, and was such a painful experience that I started yelling at the service rep and almost got arrested by the county sheriff's deputy that Comcast apparently employs to keep the peace because their customer service is apparently THAT BAD! -- I found out that having the CableCard actually entitled me to a discount vs. having the "free" set-top box. In other words, 1. the "free" set-top box isn't actually free, and 2. Comcast overcharged me for the several months between signing up for the plan and getting the CableCard registered on my account.
He overstated it a little bit: if you're dealing drugs in 'cyberspace,' they'll just arrest you. It's only 'meatspace' drug dealers that get shot.
Are there any? negative externalities that people have an obligation not to impose on others
There are a couple of ways to answer that:
Of course, these are really the same answer (because in answer #1, it would be the government who created the obligation); it just depends on perspective.
On the other hand, no clothing at all would be bad for the profits of the fe-male clothing industry. What were those Ferengi thinking? There's a huge market there!
I think that there was an episode where Quark's mom pointed that out to the Nagus.
I don't get it. Are you citing that as an example of how AT&T is worse than Comcast? Because it isn't -- I've had send complaints to regulators to get Comcast to do shit too.
What's my upload? I'd rather not upload one goddamned thing. How does my upload matter? I don't give a shit.
Upload speed matters in the sense that the Internet was supposed to be a democratized peer-to-peer infrastructure that would enable global dialogue, while you're apparently content for it to be "just another entertainment service" dominated by oligarchic commercial interests.
Do you report the results to F-Droid, and/or upload your "clean" version of the program? It'd be nice if you did, and I get the impression that the F-Droid repository maintainers care about stuff like that (so they'd welcome your contribution).
Indeed. I, too, grew up in the '90s, and remember (briefly, in elementary school) the library still having an actual [paper] card catalog instead of an electronic database. Does that make me somehow not a "digital native?"
I even used DOS when it really was DOS (on my first computer, a Tandy 286 with DeskMate). In fact, I think I was learning to use the computer at the same time I was learning to use the card catalog...
I can see self-driving technology, but all-electric powertrains? Other than aircraft, long-haul trucks seem to me to be the hardest things to run off batteries. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that even the future of "green" trucking is standard Diesel engines running on biodiesel or synthetic diesel, not electricity.
A microwave users much less power than a conventional oven, that's part of the point. A 1kW (electrical power) microwave should be fine for most households and you only use it for a few minutes at a time.
Wait, are you suggesting to replace an oven with a microwave? You do realize that an oven can do things microwaves can't, right?
Blah, blah, blah.
I have one word -- just one word -- that renders your entire argument moot. You want to know what it is? Alright, here it comes:
EUROPE.
Somehow, the police in Europe manage to deal with the same kinds of crime we have here, yet manage to do it without killing nearly as many people as our police do. One statistic I've heard is that American police killed more people in March than the UK police have since 1900. That's one month vs. more than a century. (And I don't care that the US population is higher; it doesn't matter -- we're talking orders of magnitude here!) There is no explanation, other than American police having a SYSTEMIC problem of incompetence, corruption, and needless brutality.
Also note that, while bad cops are bad cops, "good" cops that cover for bad cops are bad cops too. The problem in Ferguson and Baltimore is not that one bad cop fucked up, it's that one bad cop fucked up and all the other bad cops -- namely, the vast majority of the cops in those jurisdictions -- defended him!
In other words, it's "only" 99% of cops who make the rest look bad.
Apparently, Mr. Aleynikov's real mistake is that his behavior wasn't profitably illegal...
That's not true: the President is perfectly free to veto all spending until Congress is willing to give him a sane budget (or 2/3 of it is insane enough to override him).
I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"
