True, but for 25 years they were made out of ferrite donuts.

Curiously, they're just bringing ALMA online. It was a billion dollar project that ran over budget. I imagine that it costs about $50 million a year to run.

That's the nature of Big Science. They have to cut a dozen old scopes to pay for one new instrument. fortunately, the new instrument can do wonderful new things. Unfortunately, it only can do one astronomer's observation at a time.

It's above 10,000 feet altitude, and we work in the winter. Waking up frozen stiff would not be preferable to some creaking and groaning.

It takes $10 million a year. That money pays for engineers, mechanics, office staff to take care of the paperwork, staff scientists, a lot of electricity, etc.

You'd need a dedicated millionaire to support it, or find some way to make its operation sexy enough to bring in advertising revenue. Good luck with that.

I sleep under a radio telescope (the SMT on Mt. Graham) when I'm on site for several days. It creaks and groans like an old pirate ship.

Perhaps the installer could check the ID of the person receiving the service to see if it matches the data given over the phone. In my case, it wouldn't have.

As for those poor little rich people with multiple homes, they can afford to spend a few minutes of their lives dealing with this.

Some scumbag used my name and SSN, but their address, to open a DirecTV account which they didn't pay for. I got a call from a collection agency (which involves them calling the house 14 times and only accepting the call if I answer the phone) informing me of this fact. I got them to drop the accusation after I had some talking-to with DirecTV about their sloppy customer identity verification.

A year later, the same thing happened again, different address, same scam.

DirecTV still sends junk mail to me, in the vain hope that I will forget what right bastards they are and buy their service.

Yahoo's customers are advertisers, and viewers are their product, just the same as any television or radio station.

As long as you don't do anything with the company, then it's just maintenance of the registrations and filing of very short annual reports. Your stockholder's meetings could take place in your bathroom.

This sounds like a ploy to retain employees by tempting them with shiny objects.

Yeah, he's a much nicer guy, but engineers tend to make lousy CEOs.
Jobs had some rather negative attributes, but he did change the world. Woz doesn't have that drive, so much as the drive to do the impossible and have fun doing it.
It was the combination that was so powerful.

The article is about ads on screens. I'm talking about ads on screens.

I'm highly aware of when I'm being lied to by shills for products, as they tend to use the same wording as the professional marketers.
The other, more subtle stuff, is harder to turn off. But it can be done to some extent. I just took the radio out of my car and replaced it with a bare amplifier for my music player.
Google is the biggest problem - it used to provide information, but now it offers up all sorts of web pages that are selling something (or just want me to click to improve their income).

I cringe when I see those shirts that advertise themselves. I only advertise robot teams, bands I love and pirate radio stations on the shirts that I wear.

I don't watch TV, and I use AdBlock Plus on my computer. So in a sense I am blind.