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Comment Re:The people lose again (Score 1) 323

In Sweden schooling is not only free but you also get around $800 each month while you study.

Except it's not free. It's subsidized, so you're paying for it by paying taxes. As far as "giving everyone a chance", I suppose that might mean different things to different people. Sure, no tuition means that poor people can go to college. Except they don't. By a large margin, college students have parents who also went to college, and so on. I'm not sure why this is, maybe working class parents instill a different set of values in their children, one that might not prioritize getting a degree.

While tuition-less college might mean that it's easier go from poor to middle class, the taxation levels also mean that it's more difficult going from middle class to rich. It's also frequently claimed (at least by Norberg, et al) that the US has a higher social mobility than Sweden, meaning that while it's certainly possible to go from working class to rich, it happens less frequently than it does in the US.

We want the best not the richest

Do you really believe that the best are studying at Uppsala or Lund, and not at Harvard and Oxford? What I mean to say is, the best can usually get a scholarship. If your objective is to maximize human capital, my guess the US is doing a better job of it.

Comment Laptop bags. (Score 2, Insightful) 438

From summary: For pirates, the message is clear: there is more money to be made slinking around cinema car parks looking for laptop bags.

What? Sigh. Once again, all together now: Piracy is not stealing.

So that advice is for thieves, not pirates. But wait, there's one more oddity in the same sentence: "more money" - which assumes that money is made at all by piracy. It's sad that even among the IT elite (/.), such myths are propagated.

Comment Re:I don't know, but... (Score 1) 494

The answer? Stop using that stuff ...

I agree, to an extent. It's still useful to be able to construct proper sentences, but spelling isn't really that useful in my opinion (and incorrect spelling is a pet peeve of mine). Handwriting is even less useful, and if it doesn't come naturally - forget about it. Spend your time learning a more useful skill. I think it's a bit like saying stop using pen and paper, or a computer, to remember things, it'll deteriorate your memory. In fact, true, but irrelevant. The cognitive unit of pen plus human is much more effective than human alone. So unless you plan to live without pen and paper (and computers, and spelling-correction software), nevermind.

My two cents.

Comment Re:Some crazy conspiracy? (Score 3, Informative) 443

It simply means that if you, through no fault of your own (they usually require you to do some debugging, i.e. switching rj45, bypassing your router, and so forth), cannot reach the guaranteed speed when measured to a reference server, they'll fix it. (Oh, and it probably has to happen with some regularity - I don't think they'll send a technician if you got 47 Mbps just the once.) I actually don't know what happens if they can't, I've never seen that happen. You'd probably be able get a refund, at a minimum. Now, while they do oversell bandwidth, it's my understanding that this mainly applies access outside each providers' own net. I.e. you should be able to max out your bandwidth to the reference servers (commonly the ones reached through bredbandskollen.se). Don't quote me on this though, I'm sure there are other slashdotters with better knowledge of this.

If all their customers was always maximizing their bandwidth, my guess is that the policy would change, or rates would spike. There are no caps in place on regular broadband right now, that I know of. Though, if memory serves, the mobile broadband providers have caps.

Comment Re:Some crazy conspiracy? (Score 5, Informative) 443

They order 100mbit and its usually 4-6MB/s.

I seriously doubt this is true, for at least two reasons.
(1) All broadband providers have a minimum bandwidth guarantee (and I'm talking about normal consumers here). As far as I understand, it's mandated by law. In fact, they don't market it as "100 Mbps", they market it as "50 - 100 Mbps" or similar. E.g., Telia has a 50+ Mbps guarantee and Bredbandsbolaget has a 60+ Mbps guarantee.
(2) As a previous employee of one of the larger ISP I have first hand knowledge of at least that company's delivered speeds. While a few customers do in fact receive the download speeds you mention, it's usually end-point related (meaning if you switch rj45 or remove your router, it's no longer an issue). Most customers are located at the higher end of the spectrum, 70+ or 80+ Mbps.

One group of customers which actually do have a large variation in bandwidth are DSL customers, where the bandwidth is very dependent on the length and quality of the copper lines. Another piece of evidence, anecdotal as it may be: I currently have a 100 Mbps subscription. When wired, and even through a somewhat crappy router, I usually reach about 90 Mbps.

The Internet

Submission + - Italy to restrict blogs

nx writes: "Italy wants to restrict bloggers' rights by forcing everyone to register their blogs, pay a tax and have a journalist as a "responsible director". This law is clearly designed to curb critical voices and free speech. Yet to be approved by parliament, I call for everyone in Italy (and elsewhere) to contact parliament or anyone who might have a chance to stop this!"

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