I was just thinking exactly that....

Its amazing. For the past 10 years TW has been steadily increasing rates, "confusing" their billing (Oh, sorry sir for the $12/mo mistake for the past 3 years that was hidden in your "bundle"), and their service of ALL types has been getting crappier and crappier. To the point where I was ready to just ditch them all together and do ANY thing else.

Crappy cable box problems. Internet outages. S L O W internet (at times) and OK others. Finally FIOS came around here about a year ago, and several people I know switched. Initially they had some technical issues but nothing really bad, and NO one I know including myself has had any issues at all in the past year.

I called TW 4 times, and got all the way to a management type 3 of those times, to ask about a billing situation after our bill went up $60 a month. For no reason. They were NOT interested in fixing the situation and retaining me at ALL. In fact, the last words they told me, when I said I prefered to stay with them but was going to just go to FIOS if they couldnt fix it, were "Well, you have to do what you have to do". From a manager.

When I turned in my boxes, the girl said "wow, you have been a customer a LONG time, why are you leaving?" I told her, she just rolled her eyes and apologized and said "Thats typical (of the TW customer support folks)".

Now TW is running these commercials on the radio around here 24/7 trying to get people to "come back". "See the difference" "Your money back if you are not satisfied" etc. Too funny really. As long as VZ - another HUGE company - keeps their customer service and value where they are now, Im staying. For sure.

Competition is a GREAT thing....

I did exactly this one year back when I was in my late teens (too old to trick or treat, but young enough to have fun still). Sitting on the roof all night was fun, and those moments when you get it right and scare the crap out of them make it all worth it. People simply do not generally look up....

This... for me anyway. 5 lines on VZ is actually less than prepay. BUT we dont have data. So, when contract is up in December we will definitely look at straight talk or another MVNO. Our son already bought himself a used iPhone and switched to straight talk. He loves it.

Except that if you only print occasionally the ink heads clog or dry up, requiring a ink-wasting cleaning cycle or replacement... A cheap laser, even a cheap color laser, is so much better a choice for anything but photo printing. Decent color lasers can be had for $200 on sale sometimes. Really decent ones for $300.

My grandfather was in WWII, in Germany, and actually spent time in a POW camp (and escaped). He went in to the army 6'1" and 225, came out of the camp weighing 92 lbs. He hardly ever would speak about the things he saw, I only got little tidbits out over the years, until one day in 2000. We were on the deck with the whole family, nice day, etc, and I just asked about the war. He started with some basic stories and talked for over an hour. Everyone listened to him. I heard stuff I never thought anyone would want to see much less live. True atrocities by any measure. When he was done he just said "Phew. You know, I haven't talked about any of that in 50 years. It kinda feels good to get it out.". That was the only time he ever talked about it, even to my grandmother. I think that was the case with a lot of guys from WWII. I'm so glad I was there that day.

And to add to all the others on here who said so - thanks for doing what you did and standing up for what you believe in a very elegant way. I wish I had seen you do that.

You can easily buy REALLY GOOD lcd monitors in whatever size you can imagine. I install them in office conference rooms all the time, generally large samsung in the 42-60" range. These are designed as transportation and information displays, and are very rugged and last a long time. You just won't find them in your local walmart or best buy. And they won't cost $399 on sale either...

http://www.samsung.com/us/business/commercial-display-solutions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqh54rSzheg

Oh, god, you just gotta watch Ginger BAKEr... in this live film. I can just smell the dope smoke from my monitor...

And you can thank the mostly over-the-top EPA requirements for that. There is absolutely no GOOD reason why they should not be sold here, the only reason is the huge expense of getting each model EPA certified. I know for a fact that 90+% of the driving population does not remember or give a crap about the shitty 1970's failed GM diesel cars. We all know that there are good, reliable diesels available in the rest of the world - PLEASE get with the program USA and accept the Euro certifications as "equivalent" in the US.

Hell, they BUILD diesel models HERE IN THE US that you can not buy. Export only. Id love a nice little 2.0 diesel Jeep. Cant buy it here....

Looks like the slashdot effect is in full force already...

Sorry, Ive been a bit out of the robotics loop lately, but holey freaking crap. If that isnt "uncanny valley" freaky, I dont know what is. It seems we really will see something resembling 100% humanoid robots in my lifetime. Tethered or not (think factory worker, hazmat, or ... military...) this is amazingly cool (creepy).

Wish I had Mod points... Bit how to implement this in regards to teaching? Again, what are the metrics? Its simple to measure a gear/bearing/physical tolerance. How do you measure teaching? But I do agree, Total Quality as an overarching goal, even a mantra or culture, would go a long way. The Japanese have a culture that melds very well with this philosophy, in the US not so much...

I have to say, time and again, its pretty cool shit to see the breadth of people who hang out on Slashdot... Here's a story about a woman at the freaking SOUTH POLE and we have people posting who actually know her. AND someone chimes in from another one of the most isolated places on the planet. Its just cool in so many ways. (technology - the fact that anyone can read Slashdot from apparently anywhere... and then the fact that they do...) Hey, anyone on the ISS want to chime in?

This is a really neat idea... I think you should probably submit it to Google and/or Facebook. Wouldnt it be possible to write an app that would do this? I mean, yes youd have to somehow have access to the FB/G+ data, but in a possibly generic way? Like your code determines the "anitpode" characteristics, and queries FB/G+ for some matches, which you anonomize and display to choose from somehow?

Pretty cool idea, I gotta say....