In and of itself, not paying taxes is not what makes corporations (big or small) evil. It has much more to do with what they use it for and how they go about it.

Exxon and GE, as examples, are rather famous for not paying anything on their recent profit/income taxes (or even getting billions in rebates, in GE's case) while at the same time raking in world-record-breaking profits, and then taking that extra cash and simply lining the executives' pockets by paying out huge bonuses. They also downplay or even attempt to hide their lack of taxpaying, or go to extreme creative-accounting lengths to hide their money so as to avoid taxation.

Tesla (and California)--at least in this particular case--is being very public about this tax windfall, letting everyone know they're being done a favor. And instead of just paying bonuses to the top brass or otherwise pocketing the money and walking away, they're putting it right back into development and product output (yes I'm aware they do profit on sales from that increased output, but that gets taxed separately anyway). They're literally using this tax break to be more productive.

There's a pretty fundamental difference there.

Speaking as someone currently working in the electrical utility industry, I can tell you how my company does it. We use a combination of things, depending on what's most cost-effective, but the vast majority of our communications are done via microwave relay. We actually set up our own towers, get FCC licenses, and transmit private microwave signals to our substations and to our satellite control centers, as well as our generation plants. Some of it is proprietary serial protocol (DNP, very common in the utility industry) and some of it is standard TCP/IP based.

We run multiple networks over these microwave links (which ARE isolated from each other both in microwave frequencies and in physical equipment), as our satellite offices also get corporate network connectivity and Internet connectivity via microwave as well, communicating to our HQ and using its Internet hardline.

For locations where we couldn't set up microwave, we sometimes use private leased lines (direct, always-on, no-dial telephone connections, but these we only use if we have to because they're the most expensive). On a few occasions we use spread-spectrum radio, or as an absolute last resort we use GPRS radio over mobile networks. This last solution is NOT the same network as what a cell phone or other consumer access point goes through. We are basically leasing access to their mobile tower for a "private line" more or less.

In ALL cases, whether it's microwave, radio, leased line, or anything else, over-the-air communications are end-to-end encrypted, because yes we're totally aware that OTA stuff can be intercepted and eavesdropped, even point-to-point microwave links. It is also a closed, air-gapped network. As I said, the Internet and corporate network stuff to our remote offices goes over its own separate microwave channel with separate air-gapped communications equipment that's independent of the equipment talking to substations and the like.

So that's how we suggest you do it.

C'mon down to Central Texas. $5 matinee (anything before 6pm, seven days a week), $7 regular adult admission. Discounts for seniors, students, children. That's at a fully digital theatre too, 100% of their screens. Even better, most of their screens are 2D as they've found 3D isn't all that popular. They also offer online ticket purchase with no add-on fees; you can even buy up to a week in advance.

Sometimes it feels odd to realize a relatively small, somewhat pokey almost cow-town actually has good things to offer the modern world. We even have some of the best broadband speeds and prices in all of Texas. Maybe the town ought to be renamed Twilight Zone.

I did point out I was trying to talk "average person" here, and for that matter "average day". I'm aware there's always exceptions to the rule, and special circumstances sometimes. I sort of figured someone would go about pointing out exceptions instead of actually using a normal day as the example.

1) I'd call this one of those outlier circumstances. Plus, voicemail. 2) Very much an unusual circumstance. Also voicemail. 3, 4, 5, voicemail voicemail voicemail. 6) Yet again, special circumstance, but also an expected one so in that particular case you'd know to answer an unknown call. 7, 8.. yep, voicemail, voicemail. Hey I'm seeing a pattern here!

Still, sorry to hear CID is only an option instead of a standard, included feature in the UK. That's a pretty shitty rip-off. A bit amusing too. Usually it's us Americans getting shafted by telecoms and looking on in envy at UK and European standards (paying for received text messages here, which are also unblockable, certainly comes to mind).

Hung up on or told to PFO? Honestly, I'm shocked anyone even answers an unknown call at all anymore. These days Caller ID is almost universal--certainly in the U.S. (this being a story about the FTC), but I'd wager the case is pretty similar in most any first-world nation. And cell phones (smart or dumb, doesn't matter) have contact lists, making CID even more friendly and usable.

I realize a business line gets plenty of unknown calls from real customers so they need to answer, but a personal/home line? A personal cell phone? Does the average person really get a ton of calls from unknown numbers that are actually people they know and/or want to talk to? I suspect the number is so close to zero it's statistically null. Yet incredibly people answer these unknown calls on a regular and consistent basis (and once answered, it's marked "good" in the robocaller's database and you'll be getting LOTS MORE CALLS), certainly plenty enough for robocalling (and fraud calling) to be profitable. I suspect it's the same type of mentality as that which makes business spam profitable enough to continue: just enough people actually read it and accept its offer to make it worthwhile for the spammer.

Unknown calls: just don't fucking answer them. Period. Aside from CID, voicemail is also nearly universal (especially on cell numbers!), so just don't even pick that damn thing up. If it's someone you actually need to talk to, they can leave a message.

I'd love to see whitelisting becoming a standard option available to anyone, too. I'd set my cell to whitelist if I could (I mean at the carrier level, so calls and text don't even go through, not just are ignored by my phone). Maybe I'm just speaking completely for myself and am not representative of the average person, but I quite honestly cannot even remember the last time I received a call that I wanted, from a number that wasn't already known to me. This includes business calls, because quite a number of companies publish the number they'll be calling you on so you know it ahead of time.

What's even more frustrating about it is that we have plenty of examples of what sort of good actual competition produces with U.S. telco services, but they're unfortunately usually in small markets or regional areas so they don't get the national coverage they deserve. The Google Fiber project is a rarity in that regard, for having so much attention on it, including stories about Time Warner's response to it in the areas being served (lowering prices and upping service speeds to compete).

I can relate with you, having seen my city (also a college and university city) triple in size in the last decade. Time Warner has done virtually nothing in that time, at least not on a large scale, and certainly nothing on their infrastructure. However, there's been an upstart, regional competitor that's been moving in, slowly slowly slowly. It's been slow because Time Warner's been fighting them tooth and nail, with legal tactics and otherwise. That company's been building up a modern infrastructure, almost all fiber, with current-gen equipment. They've been spending a lot of money to do it, it's true, but despite that they've been consistently profitable year after year, because customers WANT their service.

Just two years ago, that company finally won the right-of-way access to lay down new lines in my neighborhood. As soon as service was available, I switched. I went from 15Mbps/512Kbps(!) on Time Warner to 65M/5M with the new guys. I also pay less for it, and that's not even their top tier; it's one of their mid-range offerings. Plus, I almost always GET the advertised speed too, thanks to the modern back-end. I'm also still a television watcher (I know, I know..) and I'm getting more channels I actually want, including some that were "premium" with Time Warner, included in my package, while also paying less for the television service. I even get TiVo units direct from the cable provider, instead of Time Warner's horrifically shitty lowest-bidder cable boxes and half-broken cablecards.

The reason I bring all this up (yeah yeah, I know I'm getting off-topic a bit) is to point out Time Warner's response to all of this. In the areas that the new provider manages to get in (and ONLY in those areas!), Time Warner almost immediately moves to upgrade its equipment, lower the prices, and up the broadband speeds and television offerings, trying to hold on to customers they never had to give a shit about before. This has actually gotten them in a bit of trouble, because they're literally charging different prices for the same service, depending on which part of the city you live in (whether your neighborhood has competition or not).

Right after I left, I started getting notices and mailings from Time Warner offering to "win me back" and telling me how they'd "improved their services" in my area, having admittedly spent a bundle to upgrade their lines and equipment, and offer higher broadband speeds and more television channels (ironically, their improved services are still not as good as the new guys and aren't cheaper either). This is the kind of thing that happens over and over and over, again and again, anywhere where even a duopoly springs up, let alone even greater competition. But since it's only some small area in Texas in my case, it doesn't get the coverage it deserves. These kind of things should be brought up on a national platform to point out the kind of lies TW's PR is spewing as in the original article up there. I mean mainstream media; it's already well-known on places like Slashdot but you've got to admit it's not an "everyman" news site.

As an aside, wandering even more off-topic, I know what you mean about AT&T not laying shit for DSL and gouging customers. My neighborhood had DSL when I first moved in (expensive $40/mo for 5Mbps/128Kbps). Less than a year later, AT&T actually went in and pulled all the DSL equipment, dumping the customers that were using the service (this was when Time Warner was the only other competitor in the area, too). Their reason? It wasn't profitable enough. As in, they weren't losing money in the area, they just weren't making enough. So they took their ball and went home (they moved all the DSL equipment to another area of town rather than purchase new equipment to serve that area).

I second you on that any decent video site. Not just news websites and Hulu, but I found that even YouTube can't live without it yet. Much has been touted about the site itself using HTML5 in place of Flash, and yeah that works fine. However, embedded videos? All still Flash. Unless you go to YouTube.com directly and view, you still need Flash. Doubly annoying because embedded videos don't appear at all, just the usual "broken plugin" placeholder, so you can't even get the link out of it to be able to go view the video directly.

I think it largely depends on usage. Back before I had a smartphone, PAYG was way, way cheaper than contract. As in I paid about $25 per quarter for service. That was just voice and text though, no data at all.

Frankly though, I think the off-contract being cheaper is true for a vast amount of the U.S. Anywhere where the AT&T network is usable (I use the term "usable" subjectively of course), you can use StraightTalk, as they're an MVNO for the AT&T network. In fact their SIMs will even work in phones that are SIM-locked to AT&T. They sell SIM-only, and welcome bring-your-own-phone. StraightTalk has a $45/mo unlimited talk/text/data, and they allow smartphones on that plan (they just recently made an announcement they'll begin selling iPhones directly, and with that plan). AT&T actually makes a point of saying their PAYG plans don't allow smartphones, though you can get around that of course.

I mean, you're welcome to call AT&T and haggle with them, "Hey StraightTalk gives this deal on your network so surely you can give me a good deal!" To that I just say: good luck.

This is why it disturbs me that a goodly number of states actually mail voters a ballot (not an absentee ballot), which they can fill out at home and then either mail back in or simply drop it off at a polling station. Big voting blocks, like California, do this. In Arizona this is how the vast majority of voting is now done (since they began the process in 1992) and polling stations there are practically just formalities.

How do you prove something like that was not a coerced or sold vote?

This disclaimer is not nearly as silly or crazy as one might think. CyanogenMod, for example, has well-documented problems with E911 functionality on various phone models. In fact they completely dropped support for the T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant because dialing 911 didn't work!

I don't know about you, but I can sure see the inability to call 911 to be a "dangerous consequence" that could absolutely lead to "property damage and/or bodily injury, including death" even if it's not the phone itself that's literally the thing killing you.

They have already done so. In fact they went beyond twenty. They went to the "Share Everything" service plans and completely eliminated the Individual plans. They've also stated that grandfathered plans will be forced to change over if they wish to upgrade their devices. So no more grandfathered unlimited plans for anyone, at least if they ever want to replace their current phone (or god forbid it gets broken).

The cheapest Share Everything plan is.. (ready for this?).. about $30/mo more than the cheapest Individual plan that was previously available, as the article points out. Interestingly enough, this went into effect almost exactly a month before this FCC ruling. Now, I'm not usually one for conspiracies, but I'm also not usually one for coincidences either..

No, no the specification does NOT mandate that it have a disable option. The specification simply does not prohibit providing such an option (for the moment at least). The motherboard manufacturer and/or BIOS makers are completely free to not provide a disable option if they so desire.

Whether the (lack of) option becomes common or not is another thing entirely, of course.

That was kind of my point, yes. The actual act of getting this disclosed is part of the process of checks and balances, not merely an indicator of it. It wasn't like the Air Force themselves made big of it; a professional had to pour through the reams of documentation and unearth it. Then they had to get it disseminated to the public. And now it can be (in my opinion, rightfully should be) contested.

All of that has to happen before checks and balances is working.

The reason why it's a notable thing is because the military, in fact, doesn't have the authority to take footage. Right at the top of the article (but this is Slashdot, so no one read it) it's pointed out that the military, like the CIA, is not supposed to perform surveillance of citizens on domestic soil.

They're using weasel-words to try and loophole around that block, and it's this type of skirting action that should always be made public and pushed against. Checks and balances, watching the watchers, that sort of thing.

Many schools across the country (though especially in the remarkably poorly rated school systems of the Deep South) don't even require an education degree. Or a degree at all. Often you can get by with a simple certification.

The whole "gym teacher also teaching science/biology/etc class" is a classic stereotype but very real. I can't remember what grade, by one of my biology teachers was indeed also the gym teacher. And he didn't even have a phys ed degree, let alone a science degree.