+1 for same here. We're aggressively moving off of any & every Oracle platform, mostly because of the cost they've come back to us with to continue using their software & hardware, but also how inflexible they are with the whole process. Mind you, we've been a long time Sun customer, and had as such had a very favorable relationship with them, so the cost is more of a shock to us than someone with a more heterogeneous environment.

It's unfortunate for a lot of the people & products with extensive experience and development interest in Sun/Solaris. In my eyes, Solaris is a true enterprise grade OS. I think the OS industry as a whole is very lucky to have Red Hat made the progress it has over the past few years. They're slowly moving from a linux on commodity hardware strategy to enterprise level products and resulting development. Before a few years ago, I'd be reluctant to run linux for something really high-end, however they're now powering the infrastructure for the NYSE. That's a pretty reputable feat. Rumors of ZFS porting to RHEL are out there, and they've improved greatly on their clustering and virtualization offerings too. Red is the new purple.

I'd like to be paid in Jessica Alba's.

I'd love to see their entire library online too! Netflix is currently victim to their own success though. Content provider's don't see the revenue stream for giving Netflix the rights to their latest shows. So Netflix has been forced to go after the older releases. Whereas cable companies and networks already pay the provider's to carry their shows. So if the cable companies said "Hey, we're now going to deliver your content via the web and give you 50% of the on-demand video price", content providers I think would go for vertical integration, given that roughly 80% of their revenue stream still exists with cable TV offerings.

It will be interesting to see the business model mature over the next year, and see where the chips will actually fall.

I wish we could keep _unlimited_ bandwidth, but it's becoming harder and harder for the ISPs to keep up to consumer bandwidth demands. Especially when everyone and their dog wants to stream HD movies instantly both wired and wireless.

The USPS hasn't called you to say you've used too much mail because you pay on a per letter basis. Comcast gives you "x" GB for "x" a month and advises you if you go over, you may be paying per usage.

Shaw and Rogers are looking to make sure their networks aren't so saturated with HD video streaming that it ruins the experience for your neighbor who's trying to send a few emails.

Usage based billing (UBB) is currently a way to make it fair for everyone, although it is a drastic culture shift from what we're used to in Canada. Netflix pays the ISPs zero dollars to use their networks to stream to their customers, unlike how the content provider's pay the networks for airtime. Bandwidth unfortunately isn't free.

Imagine if it were free to use snail-mail to ship DVDs anywhere you liked. How would the post-office survive as a business?

I have been that guy constantly following someone on the highway. I try to be safe about it though. I drive a truck, and any drafting I do, especially to semis, increases my mileage by 3-4 mpg.

I agree. It's too bad, but glad to see they at least got something. We use both NSN and Nortel switches for our network infrastructure. Be interesting to hear NSN's take on the bidding process. I'm gonna bet their available cash flow kept them out of the Nortel bid, and they only secured enough now. That and I wouldn't have predicted Ericsson to go as high as they did.

I went to private school to get my BSci., it was quite a bit more expensive than public uni. But keep in mind, the more you pay for tuition, the more you can deduct in tax. And it carries over year to year (Im in Canada). I've been out of school 4 years now, and this year I will finally be paying normal tax amounts as I've used tuition as a large deduction since I've been out. It also was used as a deduction for my parents for when I was in school, saving more money there.

Things to think about to help your debt:
- Challenge BS classes. Costs like $150 to take a test, or $1100 to sit in something bogus and waste your time.
- Be selective about textbooks (or get used textbooks). Lots of profs teach right from the book, lots don't even use the ones recommended for the class. I sold all the texts I didn't use after I was done for approx $1000 total. Probably saved around $1500 in not buying bogus texts too.
- Part time job. I bartended at a night club while I went to school. Started in a garbage restaurant that would hire anyone and worked my way up in the industry. Made tons in tips, still had a social life.
- Reduce ridiculous trips/nights out/expensive benders, etc. I know ppl who took out a loan to go to Mexico during school, or lived in an apartment that looked like the Taj Mahal. Pizza adds up. So does dropping $100 at the bar every weekend. Your a student, live like one. I found pubs in the city that had .10 cent wings for every night of the week. Thats cheaper than buying groceries. Working at a restaurant serving usually gets you staff meals and 50% off their menu too.

Using the above, 6 months after I graduated I had everything paid off.

I worked low wage entry level jobs that sucked for the first couple years. Job hopped probably 8 times since I've been out, but I found a place I liked, started at the bottom, and now worked my way up to Systems Administrator for a large ISP. Doing quite well now.

It's all what you're willing to work for, and willing to sacrifice that determines how much debt your in. Tuition is just a part of that. And the part that invests in yourself, however expensive that may be. Can you really put a price on that?