the discussion is about internet access, not cable tv. That they run on the same lines by the same companies is not part of the conversation - there are countries that were decades behind us in getting internet access, and are now (seemingly) decades ahead of us. Those countries have found that providing broadband access to nearly everyone dramatically improved the economies there. Yet here, we still have people who can only get 128k (or maybe slightly better) from DSL. I have a client that has a location (which I'm currently sitting in) where ~300 people use a 3mb connection. They're constantly losing calls, have problems with web conferences, etc - dramatically hurts their productivity. There just isn't decent access available in this area - and it's in a relatively nice area of Houston, a relatively modern metro in the US. This isn't the 90s, we can get speed not measured in kbps or single-digit mbps now...we should be looking at gig, like they've had for years elsewhere.

Given the type of IT consulting I do, I have to stay comfortable with Windows - I've been trying out Win10 on my fairly new high-end gaming laptop, installed on a SDD, and have been amazed at how often a seemingly menial task can lag - or even hang up the entire UI. For instance, I started up IE a bit ago - while using a blank default/home page - and it froze up the entire desktop for a few seconds (even briefly sputtering the audio of a movie I had playing in another window). Seems to me like they have more to work on than animations - maybe they should focus on usability for a bit first.

I've got solar. I don't imagine that those who are in areas where they burn dirty coal and dead babies for energy are big markets for Tesla. California accounted for 36% of Tesla sales in 2013 - and hey, what do you know, not only does California have a growing percentage from renewable, but there's incentives for installing solar in California too. Oh and even in most of the metro areas in Texas, you can choose to pay extra to get renewable for your portion added to the grid. So....yeah.

This is the line (whole post, really) to which you were responding:

And I wish people would stop using the word "universally" when we even haven't reached another solar system yet.

pray tell, how is that not obviously a witty comment, in response to the complaint about using "slavery" versus "sweatshop?" The response was clearly meant to show that arguing over the word used to describe the conditions is silly. Mayhaps you should calm down, have a glass of wine, and re-read the thread. You may find things about which you are still infuriated, and some of that may well be righteous anger that I share with you, but this particularline shouldn't be a thorn in your side.

seriously.

how was "left the planet" as a response to UNIVERSally not enough of a clue for you?

PersonA said he wished people would stop calling sweatshops slavery, but said good conditions is a "universal" human right. PersonB said he wished people would stop saying "universal" when we haven't left the planet yet - meaning, instead of "universal" he thinks the word "planetal" or such should be used, since there aren't any humans outside of Earth's atmosphere for the word "universal" to be used. IE, he was makign a witty joke. So, in that sense...no, not "seriously" - instead, jokingly. (blah blah something about if you have to explain the joke it wasn't funny blah blah)

you're really going to use their UID against them? Seriously? I mean fark, this is isn't even my first account here (dated by the mixed case, which was popular at the time). Does that mean everything I say is wise, reflexively?

"fully fledged UNIX" - no, it's not. If the idea of what UNIX even meant was ever successfully codified, OSX wouldn't come anywhere close.

Uh, what? Windows NT came out in 1994. Windows 3.0 (first usable Windows) came out in 1990, 3.1 came out in 1992. Any "kid" that was using windows in 1990 to play games, wasn't making business decisions by 1994. Further, absolutely every single major game in that era still used DOS. One had to set up a boot disk that did blah whatever with extended memory and driver loading, and then viola - "Masters of Magic," "Doom," Dungeon Keeper," "X-COM" etc - all the super cool games of back then - all ran in DOS, not Windows. Your theory is fail.

funny, those problems all existed prior to, and during, the skyrocketing usage of Linux. Maybe, for fark's sake, it isn't meant to be the same experience as Windows.

so your suggestion is for hundreds of people to volunteer substantial amounts of time, to make it easier for commercial entities to make money? Funny how people in IT are "libertarians" until it comes to such subjects... No. Linux was better off without systemd, where a solution with no problem farked up everything permanently. It's better off making the substantial changes which would be necessary for fast gaming too. For fark's sake, while it lost the core principle of simplicity, it is still a bloody unix...get a mac or a windows box (or a console...) if you want to game.

"Someone who supports conservative economic policy but liberal social policies"

solar flares != geomagnetic storm. solar flares /cause/ geomagnetic storms, but the storms can persist past the incident of the flare. At least, according to my understanding...

Isn't that what caused the problem in the first place, someone (in this case, the sun) throwing some light (in this case, a solar flare) on the subject (in this case, Earth's magnetic field)? Fighting fire with fire only goes so far, people...

I was online in 1994 (heck, I owned/operated an ISP...) and I'd prefer it over the internet of today. There was tremendous practical value at that time - especially for research/academics.