You didn't eat enough fiber with your sugary snack, so you had a blood sugar spike. It's why apples are better for you than apple juice.

Telephone service in the USA is granted monopoly service districts by the 50 state governments to one or more telephone companies within each state. This originally was to encourage the provision of local telephone service when telephony was relatively new (more than 100 years ago). Companies, such as AT&T, operated local districts and franchised technology to other local providers. AT&T began selling long distance (between local districts) in 1885 and coast to coast long distance in 1915. The Kingsbury Commitment (1912) provided for interoperability between telephone networks. Over time, holding companies (including AT&T) acquired local providers and created large multi-state networks. [End of the Line, by Leslie Cauley]. So while the federal government may talk of improving things, the fundamental problem is the 100+ year old state monopolies that inhibit competition in telephone service.

Cable television service (including internet) in the USA is regulated by the 50 state governments. However, the (federal) Cable Communications Act of 1984 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_Communications_Act_of_1984] has been both positively and negatively disruptive. The act was used by cable companies to force state and local government to provide right-of-way access to customers. Either by leasing government owned right-of-way or by forcing electric power companies to lease space on neighborhood overhead power poles. (Note: power companies also have state granted monopolies, which allowed the state governments to force compliance.) Initially there were many providers and a great deal of competition. The problem is the act allowed for Cable Television Franchise Fees [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_television_franchise_fee]. These fees are based on gross revenue collected by the cable company from customers within a local government (ie city, county, or parrish). The local governments discovered that competition drives down prices, which in turn reduces these franchise fees. Thus, local governments have been discouraging competition amongst cable companies.

This is why Americans pay too much money for too little bandwidth.

LOL

Licensee used to create PDF

Software used to create PDF

The US of A has too much debt (and contingent liabilities). Perhaps another country is willing to pick up the tab?

Amen to that. I try to be nice to the other passengers, but I start with the premise that I don't owe them a reclining seat.

I see the same level of competence in first model year cars, as you see in Adobe Reader or Internet Explorer. And it is for the same reasons: Add these features. Get it out the door by ship date. We''ll fix the problems next year.

I normally read slashdot (well, skim) at -1, and the comments here are relatively decent. It really helps that I can browse as a single webpage. Compare slashdot to "news" sites, where the "noise" overwhelms the signal. And since slashdot has (had?) a reputation for tech articles, many of the commenters know how to type.

Here in the United States, the cut-off is approximately 15% graft. I suspect this may be from the high costs of auditing and investigation quickly outpacing cost recovery.

Joe's Own Editor. Read the top line (press ctrl-k [then] h for help) . It's soooo hard to learn.

"At 60 cents per 1,000 gallons, it's far cheaper than any other source of water..."
I believe Israel is desalinating ocean water for 0.50 USD per cubic meter, which would be 60 cents per 316 gallons.

"Without any hardware to test on, developers are leery of committing to supporting new hardware features. Without software that takes advantage of new hardware capabilities, customers aren't willing to pay for new equipment."

Is it not the manufacturer's interest to provide initial software / libraries? At least version 1.0?

Joe's Own Editor!

I use JOE for teaching students how to write code. That way they can concentrate on learning the material and not how to make the editor work.