I live 1 mile from the Oregon border. I shop and work in Oregon all the time. I am familiar with Oregon.

It isn't speculation to think that an ISP might want to think twice about opening a new operation in Oregon. Comcast fought this new Central Assessment process for business property tax all the way to the Oregon Supreme Court. They lost just last October. http://www.bna.com/oregon-supr... Comcast says that the new assessment rules will cost them big. It increased their Assessment by $701 million in 2009 alone.

Basing the valuation of equipment and property even partly on the name of the owner, instead of the equipment and property alone, seems unfair. Changing the rules to create an exception to get around Measure 50, also seems like dirty pool.

If I owned an ISP, and was considering opening a business in Oregon, I think I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't take a 2nd or 3rd look at how this new assessment scheme was going to impact my business.

This isn't a right wing or a left wing position. This is a business decision. A new, higher property tax system, is going to impact the viability of the budget for the operations.

I had never even heard of this central assessment until today, but it didn't take me 10 minutes to find out that Comcast sure as heck is upset about it. If Comcast is that mad, you can believe that Google and every other ISP in your State is also looking at it.

I do know that the past few years have been financially difficult for Oregon. The recession hit State and Local Government coffers very hard. I haven't heard any of my friends in local Government complaining about tax shortfalls for a few years, so I have to assume that things have started to bounce back. But in 2008/2009 when this change was made, things were really dark for Oregon, tax wise that is.

I found another tidbit. The data center industry in Oregon is well aware of this law. They lobbied for a 2 year exemption, and received it.

Google Fiber in Portland would not be covered by the exemption.

Maybe,
but Google built their Dalles Data Center in 2006. This change in the tax law occurred in 2009.

Maybe Google's experience with this new assessment method has them thinking twice about further Oregon expansion

Weird, I have been jealous of Seattle Internet service since I heard CenturyLink was selling gigabit service there. Must only be in select areas

If I were an executive at Google, that law would definately make me blink twice, and swallow before I built anything in Oregon

By Greg Bear, explored this idea of retrovirus's controlling evolution about 15 years ago. It was a very good read.

I have a couple friends who are senior people at Cable companies I am not sure it is always the Cable companies fault.

1. Cable companies have to pay distributors to license feeds
2. Those distributors bundle their channels. One or two popular channels, 8 - 10 undesirable ones. Cable company has to buy the whole block, it is priced as a monthly charge per subscriber to the tier that includes the block.
3. Distributors are always trying to raise the rates. Thats when you get the websites about "Tell Comcast you want to keep your channels", because the cable company is trying to hold the line on price increases
4. ESPN is the most expensive part of the cable bill. Last I saw the numbers, it cost the Cable company $5 per subscriber per month. It is probably higher now. That is why there has been an explosion of Sports Networks on cable. They are all trying to get that sweet sweet cash flow that ESPN gets.
5. The content providers have been fighting al a carte pricing. It will signal the death of a lot of channels that get few viewers. In the end, it may lead to less choice

My Cable company was very slow to get a lot of HD channels. My friend told me it was part of their strategy to hold the line on prices. They refused to pay extra to include HD feeds. Their belief was, the production company already had sunk the costs into producing the show in HD. It cost them extra to produce a non-HD feed. A customer who was watching the HD channel, was not benefiting from having the non-HD channel available too.

Maybe if I ever had Comcast, my attitude would be different, but I feel like my Cable company is doing what they can to control costs.

Here you go

http://www.mmsonline.com/blog/...

http://en.dmgmori.com/blob/176...

I work in a machine shop. I have seen an ad for a machine that uses a combination of milling and thermal spray to produce parts.

A couple days ago, I learned about the New Year's Day Speech by the Egyptian President. ..http://legalinsurrection.com/2015/01/egypts-president-sisi-calls-for-islamic-religious-revolution/

He called for a deep revolution in thought about the tenets of Islam. He believes that Muslims are destroying themselves and their credibility with the world with the violence being done in the name of Islam.

After I heard about the events in Paris, I really wanted to hear what he has to say. I think he would be dismayed, and point to it as an example of what he was saying.

I live in a very rural area. I am a Captain in a volunteer fire department. I have been doing this for 10 years. I have also been an EMT as well.

There is a reason cell phones are not relied on in emergency situations. An Incident Commander may use one when he is talking to the Mayor, or maybe a Hazmat specialist in another State, but he never uses a cell phone when trying to talk to someone inside the building.

Why? So everyone can hear what is being discussed. I may not be part of the conversation, but I may need to know the conditions on the other side of the building that the IC is talking about.

Dispatch also monitors the fire ground radio traffic so that they can anticipate requests for additional support. '

In the event of a major disaster at hotel property, where we might bring in specialized search and rescue teams, that we don't normally train with, such as a building collapse, Jamming of wireless signals by the hotels network is not going to be an issue. If the collapse didn't shut down the network, it will be down shortly after we shut off all power and utilities to the building.

But again, the hotels are not asking for permission to block Cell Signals. They are asking for permission to treat mobile hotspots like rogue APs, as if they are a potential threat to their wireless network. The technology to interfere with these hot spots, isn't random jamming that will interfere with Cell phone usage, or emergency radios. It is deauthentication packets aimed at the hotspots and the clients of the hotspots. It doesn't interfere with the radio environment per se, it is interferes at the layer 2 or 3 level.

It won't affect emergency communications in any way shape or form. That is a red herring.

There are lots of real reasons to dislike this proposal without inventing problems that don't exist.

First responders are not supposed to rely on cell phones as a primary communications link.

While some areas are trying out 700Mhz emergency communications, most first responders have not adopted it yet. 400Mhz and 2Mhz are the most common ranges in my area.

Most Cell phone jammers will not affect those radios. The type of jamming (flooding hotspots with deauth packets) that the hotels are doing, has no affect on first responder radios

This seems to be a way to get your cell phone out of your hand and into the hands of the police, without a warrant, and your permission.

SCOTUS recently ruled that the police can't search your phone without your permission, absent a warrant. Now you get pulled over, and you have to hand your unlocked cell phone to the nice police officer, while he leaves your site and goes to his car for 5 minutes or so.

Now he has the opportunity to see what else you might have on your phone.

As a bonus, since he has your phone, you can't use it to record your interaction with him.

What is wrong with the piece of plastic in my wallet? It has worked well for a long time. If my State offered it, I might add it to my phone for fun, but I would still have the wallet card to give to a police officer.

Western Governor's University (wgu.edu) is a fully accredited university.

They do MBA programs for a reasonable price. It is an online school. They have have an MBA in IT Administration.

You are management, that is the "cert" that management is looking for to move up the ladder

Certs are for technical people

The LA Bank thing was a bad deal,

but my little town of 5500 people has never had something like that happen in it. Ever. A police officer in my community, has never been killed in the line of duty, in our town. We had one killed in 1947 when he provided mutual aid to a neighboring town.

But our local police chief is currently trying to convince our Mayor that he really needs to upgrade to Armored Vehicles and riot gear. "Look what happened in Ferguson MO, that could happen here."

We have a training culture for our police departments, nationwide, that installs an "Us vs Them" mentality. Every interaction with the public is a potential life or death event for the police.

I suggest that this mentality is making lives more dangerous for the police, and everyone else in this country. And it isn't getting better. The police are hunkering down.

I have a friend that is a Sheriff's Deputy. He recently posted that everyone who is being critical of the police these days is a "Police Hater" and is probably a criminal. It is that type of attitude that has the rest of society looking at our police departments with a new more critical eye.