Some years ago I was listening to a radio program where they mentioned some company in Australia(?) planning to dismantle the urban POTS and replace it with something newer. But the reasoning wasn't just for upgrading: It was because they couldn't get the parts anymore.

Some of the manufacturers had stopped making the relays and whatnot that the POTS used, so the options were to convert to a new set of POTS hardware (an expensive Red Queen's race), get a huge order of compatible components custom-made (ditto), or upgrade-and-cannibalize the urban network to get them enough parts to maintain the rural POTS for another couple of decades and hope the entire system could be upgraded before they emptied their supply.

Oh, shit.

Your rebuttal was quite succinct, but I feel it inadequately addressed your concerns with the previous poster's argument.

> Which makes the linked-in customers idiots.

They're not customers anymore than cattle are customers for the slaughterhouse. Their main customers are recruiters.

It's what happens when you copy a URL off a Google result page without visiting it - Google search results point at a tracking URL that then points you at the real thing. If you want the real URL, you need to click the link and copy the result out of the address bar.

The actual URL is http://www.thetreeofliberty.com/vb/showthread.php?t=142839