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Hello. I wasnt sure if this was the proper place to put this post... and I thought about r/gaming, but just because I bought the product FOR gaming, it doesnt mean a bunch of people who love games know how to fix this. However, I might post it there if it doesnt work out here. My problem: I've had a [Razer Naga]( for almost a year now, and recently have run into an issue with it. When I click a single time, something in the mouse is causing it to click multiple times upon that single press. My first thought was to send an email to Razer and see what they could do about it. They provided me with exceellent support and got right to it. They told me they could replace the mouse if I provided a bunch of simple information for them... except on thing... the recipt. I KNEW I should of kept that damn piece of paper, but something in me eventually got to throwing it away probably a month after I bought it. So now I was left clueless as to what to do... So I went to Google. I searched if anyone else was having this crazy issue, and would you look at that... lots of people did... and some had solutions. Pretty much what they said to do was to open it up and clean all around it then pour some solution onto the white little clicker things that should clean it and fix the problem. I didnt own this solution, so I did part of the fix and opened it up and just cleaned it to the best of my ability then put it back together and tested it. At first, the problem was fixed. It stopped doing the multi-click nonsense, and I was as happy as could be. About a week or two later, the problem came back.. (go figure?) I have not tried this solution-onto-the-clickers thing, because I feel like pouring liquids on my electronic (that sounds a bit dirty) would break it. The problem is getting worse and i'm clueless as to what I should do. Unfortunatly, i'm hooked to the Naga. I couldnt possibly imagine playing games without it now. What does R/Tech think I should do? Toss it and spend $80 I cant afford to buy a new one, or just attempt the liquid solution thing? I'm going to go crazy if I get a DotA2 invite and this is still broken. I really dont want to spend the money, but I might have to for DotA2.

I am looking for a new laptop. I need some help with this... I am a soft more in high school who does my school work along with multiple games on my laptop. I prefer a laptop to a desktop so i may travel with it and such. Asus has a lot of cheaper products than alienware, and i have heard better reviews about them, but i have read countless articles about how alienware is better. So i decide to ask you /r/Tech what is better and what type of laptop should i buy?

Hi, does anyone know if there is a way for three or more individual users to access the same Gmail account and send emails, but such that Gmail would automatically add a signature belonging the user who sending the email at that particular instant? I need this for my Dad's small business where there is a department that deals with inquiries from our affiliates. This department has two people at the moment. These two people have access to the same material, but when they address an inquiry, it's convenient for our affiliates to know who to contact about the same inquiry in the future as well as for my Dad to be able to see who addressed what concern and when.

Like everyone else, I hate when movie discs won't allow you to skip to the menu. Big surprise. Most of the time you can't chapter skip either, but you can still fast forward. Today I sat down to watch Narnia Voyage of the Dawn Treader and this effing disc won't even allow you to fast forward through the previews. I had to sit through two or three previews. You know what happens when you download a movie via Torrent? You get to watch the effing movie immediately. I should have downloaded Narnia.

I really, really don't like watching traditional cable/broadcast television. Don't get me wrong; it's not that it's a horrible experience or anything. It's just that it seems utterly archaic compared to using an 'On Demand' service like Netflix. In addition to being an 'inferior' way to watch television, standard cable/satellite is also an absolutely horrible way to pay for something! I truly despise being forced to pay for a multitude of channels I will never, ever watch simply because the channels I DO want to watch are part of some cockamamie package deal. I've thought about this dilemma for a long time, and I think I know a possible solution for someone to capitalize on. I, for one, would gladly hand my hard-earned cash over to a company that offered a service similar to Netflix Streaming BUT one that offered a lot more recent/current broadcast content as well as a significantly larger movie library. That just seems to be where the future is going to be. How much would I be willing to pay for this 'Netflix on Steroids' Super Service? Well, I might be all alone here, but since I'd easily be able to cancel my cable/satellite service, I wouldn't have a problem paying $50 or so a month. If such a large amount of folks are obviously willing to pay for Netflix and Hulu Plus, then I'd wager that a service that dwarfed their available content would be able to command just such a price. Sure, I love Netflix Streaming as much as the next guy, and I appreciate its low cost as well, but if a company could offer the same type of service with a significantly larger number of shows and movies to watch, I think it'd be money well spent. And wouldn't the increased monthly fee provide the content providers enough money to make them happy as well? I want to believe that the day will come when people will be able to watch any movie or tv show ever created, whenever they want to watch it.

HELP PLX this is not fun for me, but i am having psu problems on my pc. I am very competent, bs in comp engr and working but for the love of GOD i cant figure out why my PSU is not working. pic related, my templar need my orders Basically, after a move, My psu, TX950 from corsair, didnt turn on. i didnt bother turning on the pc bc the fan wasnt spinning, substitued for a 650, and same luck, i thought both got fuckedup in the move, so I BOUGHT A NEW 750TX from newegg, plugged into the mobo and crossed my fingers, removed everything from t=he mobo say the essentials, and nothing but a high frequency pitch that died over a second.

I've only been a Redditor for a short time, but it seems I find myself spending hours upon hours browsing here. After looking at the Otterbox for the iPad, having a similar product to protect the Touchpad would be great. I've emailed them asking for such a product, and they tell me that due to the Touchpad being discontinued, they don't anticipate a product to protect it. I tried giving them the numbers for how many were actually shipped and sold and got no response. What I am proposing is to ask as many people as possible take a moment and email Otterbox asking for such a product. (customer.service@otterbox.com).

All thumbnails on my website's main page are suddenly not showing up anymore however the text I have entered in the HTML 'alt' code, text parameter for them is.. I understand this is rather vague but was wondering if anyone has encountered this before or has a hunch what it might be. I am using WordPress to produce the site if that's any use.

Edit: I believe I messed up the link so here it is in the body: I realize I'm about a month behind the curve with this one, but I just saw [Viacom's anti-piracy video]( and it filled me to the brim with rage. Marc Evans, President of Production at Paramount (yay alliteration!) [insinuates]( that his company is being forced to lay off makeup artists, "the guys who hang the lights" and "everyday people working for a wage" because of piracy. Julie Sun, Senior Director of Digital Marketing at Nickelodeon Networks Group [insinuates]( that Spongebob won't be able to continue because of piracy. And this is bullshit. In their defense they don't directly SAY this is what is occurring, or going to occur at Viacom, but, based on this video's construction and sad piano music, it seems pretty clear that Viacom is trying to say "These are the faces of the people you hurt when you go out and download a Bear." So I went to the US Securities and Exchange Commission's website and pulled Viacom's Pre-Tax Earnings numbers from 2003 until 2011. Put them into excel and made a chart. Excepting 2008 (recession anyone?) their numbers go pretty steadily upward. Consistent growth is occurring... where's all the pain they're crying about in the video? Also, if you haven't seen it already, Lauren Weinstein made a [truth-annotated version]( of Viacom's abomination that's worth the watch.

Here's mine: I use .IT domains for my business. I had an issue with my server (due to Plesk, which you should also not use) and had to migrate to a new server. GoDaddy's reps could not manage to update the DNS for the .IT domain. I tried for SIX WEEKS to work through them, on the premise that transferring away would take longer than the "24 more hours, we promise swear " carrot rope each subsequent GoDaddy rep fed me on my daily phone call. After I crossed the threshold into thousands (plural) of dollars in lost business, I called up Internet.BS (my usual registrar, NetEarthOne, doesn't handle .ITs) and they had the transfer AND DNS push done in less than a few hours. The DNS push took minutes . As it should.

Sorry for yet another GoDaddy thread, but I've been disappointed to see a lot of comment threads suggesting that "The Interwebs" should cease fire now that GoDaddy has apologized in order to prevent sending the wrong message to other companies who might back down. There's some merit to the argument, it very well is possible that this may discourage SOPA supporters from backing down from SOPA in the face of a crowd-sourced boycott. On the other hand, it may teach them an important lesson or two: It could teach them that consumers aren't going to sit idle and let SOPA supporters do as they please without any risks at all. Any company could be next and this makes the risks of associating with SOPA much higher than they would be if the boycott only lasts as long as it takes to write a feeble turnaround statement. It would teach them that we won't fall for half-hearted public relations attempts to divert attention from peoples intentions. Are we really supposed to believe that less than 24 hours after a company that not only supported (and helped write) SOPA, but gained preferential treatment in the bills wording would suddenly "see the light" and back down? This is an insult to the intelligence of every person who read that press release and everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. To back down from the boycott now is to prove that consumers will be angry only as long as it takes to pretend to "change their mind" (and get right back into things when the ADD public has moved on) Most important, it will teach them that consumers are not going to purchase goods and services from a company who uses the profit from their activities to promote a goal that the consumer is whole-heartedly against. We can complain all we want about how the writers of SOPA are "buying congress" and the standard rhetoric, but the uncomfortable fact of the matter is that if they're buying congress - it's consumers like you and me bankrolling it. Also this in mind when faced with enticing Steam sales and an upcoming year of glorious movies. I have more to say but this got longer than I intended (originally it was a comment response), so I'll just say...

Trying to transfer my domains from GoDaddy to NameCheap and I applied to coupon SOPAsucks, but that only applied to the first 10 domains. Tried coupon Switch2NC and it was a bit better but still farrr too expensive. They claim to have free transfers but then force you to renew your domain for a year (although this seems rather standard with other registrars I've seen... is it an ICANN thing?) What are my options?

IF I'M POSTING IN THE WRONG SUBREDDIT PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF BACON SOMEONE DIRECT ME TO THE RIGHT PLACE. So reddit I realised that there's not a good dedicated website for mobile apps. and by that i mean where users review apps that they use daily (or would use daily) for other people. I've already done some research. The market isn't completely empty. There's a dozen websites out there doing reviews on apps but i've found that most of them just basically copy and paste the description of each app onto their website then fill the page with ads, which is really annoying. I did, however, find three websites that are doing okay compared to what others are doing. There’s [iusethisapp.com]( This is an okay website with some real reviews, but the apps that have been reviewed are not listed categorically. So for example if I want to go through some Lifestyle apps, I’d have to keep scrolling down on a page or click next page, which is not practical for me. There’s also [appolicious.com]( I was actually quiet surprised to find this website useful. It’s somehow associated with Yahoo! so maybe that’s why they have more quality reviews, but for whatever reason they’ve done a better job at being an app review website. But they still have their problems and flaws. For example, it looks like they have listed every single app from the App Store on their website with copy and pasting the description of each app from their App Store page! They do have real reviews, but mainly for popular apps which people are familiar with, mostly games. They have categories, but it’s not practical to find a useful app under, for example, Lifestyle, because you can’t sort their listing by popular, number of downloads or anything like that. Their search engine also sucks big time! You just have to go with what’s there and hope for the best. There’s also another website called [appcraver.com]( which is just as disappointing as the other ones, with one advantage of having reviews from other website for each app, which is kind of neat in my opinion. So reddit, I ask you. If you own a smartphone and download or browse the apps store on your phone, would you consider using a dedicated website where people do reviews on apps that they use? these reviews can include screenshots, even videos if its of good quality. There'll be no ads what so ever because fuck ads. the reason i say no ads is because I've already bought a host and a free domain (I haven't picked a name yet) for this free service. I'm more looking for the experience of getting into content management. I'm a second year communication student, so again, getting experience is more important to me that making money. So post your ideas please. If anyone is interested in getting involved, send me a private message and i'll get back to you. I do have some ideas that I've come up with on my own but I wanna see what other people say about a dedicated app review website first before i get too excited about what I've got in my head. so anyone with an interest in mobile apps (would like to start with iOS first but I understand there's a lot of Android users on reddit so that can be included too if there's enough resources), web designers, online journaslits and basically anyone with an interest in this topic, please get in touch with me. I'll restate this again, I'm not looking into making any money off this service, I'm really just interested in getting the experience. The website will be ad-free. I seriously believe there's a big opportunity here with this new industry and nobody seems to have gotten it right in terms of delivering a nice, easy to use website for these apps. We use apps everyday in our life, and I myself find it pretty frustrating when I need to find an app for specific needs, specially if it's a paid app where you really just gotta go with your gut and hope for the best. Thanks in advance.

I mean I don't see people saying 'I am not going to buy disney toys/dvds for xmas ?' or 'I'm going to ditch Microsoft OS' or 'not going to listen to songs by SOPA supporting music studios' ... Isn't Godaddy victimized because they are an easy target ? Companies have done far worse ie. CBS has sued individuals with hardly any claims. So why all this hive-minded hate ? I feel reddit is being a little too harsh to a company that provides a decent service.

I realized that there was a flare-up in ]my previous link that created a lot of buzz involving GoDaddy's written authorization policies, but it didn't go anywhere. Reddit, let's make some change! [Check out this list of SOPA supporters.]( There are a lot. You can move your domains from GoDaddy, but chances are that you still use the services of one of the companies listed. It's a lose-lose situation to try to boycott them all. Right now, Reddit has done a terrific job in mobilizing opposition, but we need to take the opposition and have them act. STEP 1: Write to Your Congressman [Click here to find your local representative.]( Fill out their e-mail form. Once you do that, call their offices and let them you know sent them an e-mail. It would also be good to let them know when you sent the e-mail, and be sure to leave your contact information. Millions of e-mails are sent to our elected officials on a monthly basis, but only a fraction of those who send e-mails will follow through with a phone call. If you're willing to drive to their offices, schedule an appointment with your local representative, and bring people! Bring people who oppose SOPA/PROTECT IP. If you have friends who work in the Internet/IT industry, that will give you a tremendous advantage in the discussion. Be prepared by providing documents, testimonials from knowledgeable experts, and read the bill! STEP 2: Take Your Message to Social Media Writing to your friends on Facebook is not good enough because -- let's face it -- you're appealing to a relatively small audience who may or may not spread the word. Increase your chances of exposure by doing the following: Create a blog on sites that receive substantial traffic like [Blogger]( or [Wordpress]( Syndicate your message by taking whatever you wrote to your congressman, and posting it on the blog(s). The more sites you spread your message on, the likelihood of search engines collecting your data increases Tweet about it! Follow news organizations and journalists found here STEP 3: Think Alternatives A common refrain we hear from politicians is, "Do you have any other solution to [whatever issue any controversial legislation is seeking to address]?" You need to have an answer ready for that question. In order to know what that answer is, you need to read the bill to see what SOPA/PROTECT IP wants to do. The bill aims to combat piracy, right? Ask yourself: without creating controls to chill freedom of speech on the Internet, what would you do to combat the problem? Leave your comments below with suggestions, and upvote suggestions that are the most appealing to you. Then take the best suggestions, and create your own alternative. Show 'em what you got, Reddit!

So I'm at my parents for Xmas, and was going to try out Netflix today for the first time. All I get is the same message over and over - this content requires HDCP for playback. Apparently, it's already done this once and my brother in law changed the settings from HDMI 1 to HDMI 2 on the tv so it would be fixed. I have no idea how to change it. So now I'm stuck with regular cable, which is awful. Any suggestions?

There's yet another thread on the front page about Net Neutrality, this one about Verizon offering a new service through their own app that allows people to stream content without charging against their data cap. Net Neutrality is to combat paid prioritization, blocking of content, and throttling specific content. Telling your customer you won't count certain content against their data cap isn't against net neutrality in any way, shape, or form. In every thread that pops up about T-Mobile and Music Freedom or Binge-On, or even any thread that pops up about net neutrality, I see the same ignorant comments complaining about how this threatens a free market or some such. Knock it off. If T-Mobile reduced the speed of traffic from all other streaming websites except from the ones on their music freedom list, then that'd be against net neutrality. Companies like Comcast and Verizon were trying to roll out systems that gave an unfair advantage to content they had control over. They tried to force Netflix to pay them since so much of their bandwidth was being used for Netflix, on top of what Netflix was already paying to have their content connected. That's not Netflix's choice. That's the customer's choice. Netflix should not have to pay to provide content, pay to make that content readily available, and then pay for that content to be delivered to a customer. That 3rd leg is what the customer pays for. This is why net neutrality protects against paid prioritization, to prevent ISPs from double dipping on the information they transport. If Netflix didn't pay up, they were being throttled on those networks. Customers saw dramatic increases in quality when a VPN was used. When the provider saw the content was coming from somewhere they disagreed with (i.e. Netflix's IP), they reduced the bandwidth allocation for that connection. This is why net neutrality protects against paid prioritization and throttling. Netflix pays for their connection with their SLA and bandwidth requirements, and the customer pays for their connection with their SLA and bandwidth requirements. Beyond that, the provider's only business in directing traffic is to provide the most efficient route through their own network that meets the SLAs all concerned parties have with the provider. So here's the common arguments against what I've just said: > But new people can't compete with the services T-Mobile is making free! 1: It's not free, the customer still pays for it. 2. If you come up with a service that can effectively compete with Pandora, iHeartRadio, Apple Music, Google Music, Rhapsody, SoundCloud, Spotify, or any of the other services on [this list]( then you will have something truly special and people will flock to your service. Same goes for Binge On. What the hell competes with ESPN, HBO GO, Hulu, MBL, Fox Sports, DirecTV, NBC Sports, and Netflix? There is one black eye in this whole thing: YouTube. Some reason the default is forced to 480p or some such and won't change until you opt out of Binge On. I'm sure this new YouTube guy has a hell of a service to reject whatever offer T-Mobile had, but I'm confident that service is going places. Also, T-Mobile has like less than 20% market share in the wireless market, so whatever they do doesn't affect the vast majority of wireless subscribers. > Zero rating content forces us to watch what T-Mobile wants us to watch! No, Comcast's plan to throttle down traffic from companies that didn't pay them enough was a step in that direction. All T-Mobile did was add more items to their buffet. You can still get anything else on the menu at any time you want for exactly what you paid for it previously, just if you want certain services, you don't have to order it from the menu anymore. T-Mobile doesn't change the speed or contents of the packets flowing through its network aside from what is already agreed upon by the customers (as in, after your 1GB of 4G LTE is up you get throttled down to 40kb/s or whatever).

This morning, I timed a reddit page load at over 60 seconds. Sure there were over 500 comments but 60 seconds to load a page? Before I bailed on reddit altogether, I thought I should check to make sure the problem wasn't on my end. I opened up Chrome's developer tools (wrench menu/tools/developers tools) and clicked on the network icon. I reloaded the page I was looking at to see where the delay was coming from and waited. The page reload took 40 seconds as several of the components were fetched from cache. But down at the bottom, there were 3 items that took the lion's share of the loading time. One was a Web Of Trust extension and the other two were extensions that did I know not what. Went to Chrome's extension page (wrench menu/tools/extensions) and disabled all the extensions. Reloaded the page and the 40 seconds dropped to 10 seconds. From 60 second page loads to 10 seconds. Worth giving up extensions? For me, the answer is definitely. Perhaps adding some extension like ad-block might speed things up even more but for now, I'm satisified.

We started our own business just over a year ago and have been reselling Dell systems since we opened. We are very familiar with Dell's business systems (e.g. Vostro, OptiPlex, etc.) and we are familiar with the constantly in-flux specials/promos/pricing. I came across two identical Dell OptiPlex 390MT systems, one priced nearly $100 less than the other. Here are a few links so everyone can get their bearings: Dell OptiPlex 390 Home Page: OptiPlex 390MT System #1: OptiPlex 390MT System #2: Screen shot, for the future... [Screen Shot #1]( Now, I know Dell runs specials/promos. This post isn't because I'm unaware of specials or promos. My gripe is twofold: 1) These are public links and depending on the "luck of the draw," one person could purchase the same system as another person, for about $100 less - on the same site (the system with the lower base price, being the more expensive system at checkout). 2) When I brought this to the attention of our Dell rep, all he could do was say "there must be a spec difference." There is no spec difference. These are Dell OptiPlex 390MT systems with Intel Core i3 2100 CPU @ 3.1GHz, 3 GB DDR3 SDRAM @ 1333MHz, 250GB SATA 3.0 Gb/s HDD w/ 8MB Cache, E2011H 20" monitor & 3 year basic HW service, NBD. Here is a detailed print out of each system, from Dell's cart... [Page 1]( [Page 2]( [Page 3]( It's just frustrating that a large company like Dell, would have two systems like this, on a live site. It's even more frustrating when you point it out to your Dell rep and whoooooosh , right over his head.

I wasn't sure whether to post this to r/Music or r/Technology, so I decided to start here :p I'm preparing to leave to Ireland for a month to work in a science lab. I've never owned any sort of "nice" or "quality" headphones, and want to pick some up before I depart next week. Sound quality is what I'm looking for first and foremost, however I'll be using an iPod the whole time and I understand headphones can only give you so much quality when playing from an iPod (I will be using them in higher quality ports when I return, though). I also can't stand in-ear headphones. A friend recommended the Sony MDR-V6s but I'm afraid a 10 foot cord will do nothing but frustrate me in my travels. I'd like to keep my spending under $150 if at all possible.

Hi, my name's Tj. I realize this sounds desperate but I'm turning to you reddit because I love you so. I'm an iPhone/iPad app developer with two apps on iTunes, and three in final production stages. I've created complex and incredibly professional projects and programmed them entirely myself. I'll be happy to show anyone examples. Some are entertainment, and some are educational, for both iPad and iPhone. After being trained by a former VP of Tech at now defunct Midway Games and managing large scale products from conception to completion, I'm an expert with iOS. I've been working for sales percentages recently, and a small hourly wage that just covered living expenses. None of these apps are being marketed yet, so no sales percentages. Work is done now, and marketing may take awhile to get off the ground. The cost of living is really high in Chicago, makes it hard to save, and even frugal as I am, I'm going to run out of funds if I don't find another paying project soon. I have no money coming in, and I really don't want to take another Chef job while I'm trying to finish my degree. Take pity on a fellow redditor and give me a job, and I'll make you a kick ass app, and a kick ass dinner too.

So just a few minutes ago I ordered an F.A.H. rig off newegg, at the same time as watching a video with a newegg advertisement opening it. When I noticed, newegg is getting kind of big. I have always trusted newegg as a site with at worst decent customer service, and a pretty knowledgeable community. And I have noticed their new ad campaign is based mostly on their user base. So I have to ask, do you think that this expansion of a trusted source will do away with the "Best Buy" level of stupidness. Of course people will still buy laptops, and prebuilt and all-in-ones, and not everyone will do DIY, of course. But just being exposed to that kind of environment, with a more somewhat on top of shit group of people, will give a base level of knowledge.

I wasn't exactly sure what subreddit this should go under, but I think a self post in technology fits the bill. It's a quick funny story I thought I'd share with you guys. So these past two weeks, I have been writing a college research paper on the concept of [cloud computing]( . The final draft was due by wednesday morning, so I had to have it finished tuesday night. As you guys may know, Starcraft 2 went live tuesday. All I did for the past week was eat, sleep, and breathe cloud computing for my paper. After I turned it in tuesday night, I digitally bought SC2 and fired it up. In the fourth or fifth mission, I called in mercenaries (more on this in a second) and I immediately thought to myself "Wow the mercenaries in this game explain the cloud computing model perfectly" ... I was then a little weirded out about how I made the connection. In SC2, you can choose to have your own barracks that you use to train your own units. These units obviously take time to build. Think of this as our traditional computing model, the troops symbolic of computer resources. Another option of acquiring troops is to call in mercenaries. Instead of waiting around for troops to train, you could call in mercenaries instantly for a fee. On a fundamental level, this is the cloud computing "service" model. Instead of maintaining the barracks to produce resources, your resources get delivered to you instantly via some type of medium. In SC2 they're delivered in pods by the merc companies. In cloud computing, the resources are delivered over the internet by a service provider, versus having to maintain the resources yourself. For all you hardcore cloud computing people, I understand this model doesn't exactly explain the cost model behind cloud computing as in real cloud computing you pay only for what you use. Anyway, I thought that it was kind of funny that I had researched this topic so much, that I began making connections with random things that are totally unrelated.

until proven otherwise. Before I begin, let me say that I know many of us here are fans of Google. I myself have always had a soft spot for the innovative, funny, creative tech startup that took on what I viewed as the Microsoft (evil) empire. And like many of you, I use Google everyday for search, email, IM, voice, and even mobile phone services (Android user here). However, some things about Google's discussions with Verizon have been troubling me. And because it involves the number one issue for the tech/business world today, Net Neutrality, we cannot dismiss it so easily. Yesterday, yanw, posted the following discussion believing that Google is on the right side of the debate and to not worry: In very quick fashion, the hivemind took over with the resounding view that Google is great and not a threat to the internet. I am troubled by this because many people are blindly accepting this because some nameless twitter account says so. Even calling for the NY Times to post a retraction and apologize. Yes, it is the Google Public Policy account, but who posted the actual tweet? More on this later... I reposted Astroturfer's comment from yanw's post as it was buried near the bottom and he did a good job of articulating the real risk that Google represents. First of all, let me point out that I am not saying Google is against Net Neutrality. And yes, Google was one of the original proponents of Net Neutrality. But as in politics, sides can be switched pretty quickly based on what's in best interest of the stakeholder. Especially when trillions of dollars are at stake, and more importantly, the control and flow of information. My argument is that Google remains a risk because we don't know enough about the discussions they have been having with Verizon and possibly others. Furthermore, we should not blindly accept PR spin machines to be forthright and truthful with our futures. There is enough smoke here to cause concern. I still like and hope that Google does the right thing. But let's not forget one key point - Google is in business to make money. I do not begrudge them for this as I am a capitalist myself. But knowing this, I know that like any other company out there, they will be willing to sell their "morals" if it means delivering a higher EPS to their shareholders. Yes, they preach their "Do no evil" motto, but they only adhere to it as long as it doesn't prevent them from making money. Case in point, anybody here do a search on Tiananmen Square from Shanghai before March of this year? So why isn't Eric Schmidt coming out with clear statements about the nature of these discussions? This isn't some minor issue we are talking about. And as anyone who works for a Fortune 500 company can tell you, PR statements are routinely retracted or dismissed by the company for the slightest of reasons. Especially ones that are not even attached to a company executive's name. Even with an executive making an official declaration, that declaration can still be detracted, but not as easily and without raising a few eyebrows after the fact.

I landed a software engineering internship with a large company, and I'm brand-new to software design in the "real world." I know what they teach in school, but I bet it's different out there in the wild. For larger school/personal projects, I usually use visual tools like MS Visio, [Lucidchart]( or a crayon/napkin. I find it helpful to design and manage how all of the components interact with each other visually. So how do you design your software? What have you found works/doesn't work?

Seriously, this thing is fast and it just works. Turn on your tether and boom, you have fast internet wherever the heck you are. I was dreading my new position as an overnight guard. But now I think I am going to miss it. I watched soo many movies and caught up on my shows. lol Seriously, this thing is awesome. I got a new pair of Klipsch headphones for 20bucks from CompUSA and I couldn't wait to go to work.

Please let me know if you already get one before I get back to you. Thanks.

He asked for me by my last name and said he was from Windows. I immediately got a huge grin on my face and said, "Oh really? How can I help you?" It was a struggle to listen to him. It was a very bad connection and his accent was very difficult to grab a hold of. on top of that, you could hear what seemed like about 25-30 people talking very loudly on phones in the background. He started saying that I had malicious files on my computer that was stealing my personal data like my credit card numbers. He then asked me to hit "the button beside the control key plus the R button". So I say "You want me to open up the command prompt?". He has no idea what I'm talking about so I repeat myself. Obviously having no clue what "command prompt" means he asks me to hit the same keys again. I ask, "Excuse me sir, what company did you say you worked for?" He says, "Windows" I say, "Microsoft Windows?" "No, computer Windows", he replies. "Oh." I said, "Maybe I can speak with someone else because you seem to be doing a horrible job of trying to con me into something. Do you have a manager I can speak to?" I almost instantly got transferred to another to another person. The connection was worse that before and I think he accent was even thicker. I was really trying hard to hear what he was saying. I wanted to have some fun with these guys. Eventually, I told him I couldn't understand him. He said he'd call back but I've been waiting 20 minutes and I don't think it'll happen. I have to admit, I'm a little sad I didn't get to know my new friends a little better or even find out what the hell they wanted. Is it pathetic that this was the best part of my day?

I've noticed in the last year more and more frequently Chrome will hang the entire system to a crawl, and most of the time the internal hang-recognition system won't respond before I have to kill the process. My entire system slows to a crawl (mouse motion delayed 1 second, etc) making this very difficult. Win7Ultx64, etc. I'm not a software engineer, but I do know how to build a stable system. Has anyone else experienced this?

I am looking to buy a computer for college. I will be a freshman this year. and I know I am going in the school on engineering and I know I will probably major in a computer related field. My question is will the laptop I have linked below be outdated within 4 years? I feel like everything else is pretty good, besides the 4 gig of ram. Do you think 4 GB rams are about to be outdated?

Hey guys, I have a big problem on my hands. A few months ago, I purchased an LG Optimus V. Recently, I was trying to boost my reception and found a plug on the back of the phone below the battery. Thinking this was an antenna port. I inserted a makeshift antenna made out of wire into the port. This increased my reception slightly but was not enough to warrant having my battery cover constantly open so I removed it. However, after removing the makeshift antenna, the phone stopped receiving a signal. It now no longer receives any signal at all except when i re-insert the antenna. I tried a factory reset but this did not fix the problem. This is a big problem for me because I cannot really afford a new phone at the moment. Is there anything I can do or am I screwed completely.

For all of the outrage over Facebook privacy issues, how is Google+ not seen as a step in the wrong direction? Google makes its money by mining and providing information, and to be honest I'd rather have my information sold to an advertiser (Facebook) than used by Google. Google also promotes the association of user accounts across multiple services ([e.g. YouTube, Blogger, Gmail, etc.]( Although the younger generation seems blissfully ignorant about leaving a digital footprint and putting their information online, linking accounts makes it much easier for your information to be collected be it by employers or [more malicious entities]( Personally, I watch what a Google search of my name turns up very carefully. I'm not adamantly anti-Google or obsessive about privacy. I use Facebook, and I might end up using Google+. But I've been surprised that everyone is so gung ho about making the switch to Google when the largest appeal to me about potential Facebook alternatives (such as Diaspora) was improved privacy.

So, after many comments bashing on how it's complicated to set up Facebook lists, and how much more intuitive Circles are, I decided that maybe we should get a post on how to create lists in Facebook, and really show how simple it is to do. Before I begin, I have to say this: Facebook did not start with this feature, thus you started amassing hundreds of friends, and once they added the feature, it was kind of hard to get started in sorting your friends through lists. You had to manually add each friend to each list. This is no different from G+ as of now. You manually add each person to each circle. The reason why the feature looks so much more attractive in G+ is due to the fact that you are sorting your friends into lists from the beginning. You are forced to do it from the get go. However, in Facebook you now have this new option, but maybe 200-300 friends that you need to sort. That doesn't sound pretty right? But without further a do: Start off by going to facebook (duh.) Once there: On the left hand side, you should see different places you can go to (your news feed, Messages, Events, and Friends). Click on Friends After you click on Friends, you will be taken to a new page. In the middle column, on the top right, you will see a button that says Manage friend lists, click on that. New page, again right in the center column, at the top right there's a new button that says "+ Create a List." Click on that. Finally you are at the part where you can create your new list, and add whomever you want to this list. THEY DO NOT GET NOTIFIED IF YOU ADD THEM TO A LIST (some people might confuse this list making with the addition of family members, which is a completely separate process) Enter the name of your list, and then start searching/adding the people you want. Once you are done with this, you can then hit the "Create List" button, and there you have it! Now, for some privacy: If you want to make a status update, upload a photo, or a video, all you have to do is click the Lock icon next to the "share" and hit custom, and in the field where it says "Hide This from these people:" type in the list or lists of people that you want to hide your status/video/photo/whatever. The other way you can do it is to make only a certain list see your post. You can do this by clicking the "Make this visible to these people" and pick specific people, and finally type in the list you want. This is where I feel G+ may be a bit better, as all you have to do is pick a list, instead of clicking on the lock and going through these two more steps. Again, I'm just trying to help some people out who might have not known about this function in Facebook!

I'm a software engineer. I know technology. I understand deeply how far we've advanced in the last ten or twenty years. However, I just felt like posting a bit of stream-of-consciousness: I have in my pocket a piece of plastic, glass, and silicon that vibrated and let me know that my friend was at a concert. While he was there, we talked, and I found out who the band was. With that same piece of plastic, glass, and silicon I went to their website and am now watching their live show over imperceptible electromagnetic waves while enjoying a glass of wine on the other side of the city. Wow.

Not sure where to put this, hopefully this is the right place. I recently had AT&T's home security system installed in my home(and by installed I mean plugged into outlets). It has been an absolute disaster. The original installer (a subcontractor), trash talked AT&T the entire time he was in my home, complained about his back being injured, etc. This guy ended up putting a fire hazard in my attic(power strip with POE camera transformers plugged in). AT&T said it would be over 3 weeks before someone could come back to fix it when I found it a couple days later. I "tweeted" @ATTCares about the issue, and I was contacted by someone from corporate that had someone out the next Tuesday. Now three weeks later my cameras wont detect and record anyone coming to my door. I had UPS drop off two separate packages and it only recorded the trucks driving away. So I've had enough of them and want the system out. This is the fun part. The installer signed and submitted all of the T&C paperwork on his own, and told us we had 30 days to try the system, and if we didn't like it, they would remove it free of charge. Now on day 29 they are telling me it was in fact 14 days, and its $692 to remove the system out of the house. We got that resolution after being hung up on 5 times in a row. Is there anything that can be done to remedy the situation? Or am I screwed because of a shady installer?

Today I attempted to purchase a product from the online marketplace for BestBuy. After completing many steps I was only disappointed when I was unable to use my Gift Card I had received over the holidays. I live more than 50 miles from the nearest BestBuy and this was quite frustrating. The webpage even includes a tab to enter gift card codes, when expanding said tab you are met with an message stating that gift cards are unusable on the marketplace. Why in the hell would the tab be there in the first place.

I am aware of this comprehensive list of Netflix-ready devices for the US - but does anyone (perhaps a Spanish-speaking Redditor) know of a similar list for Latin America? I have already checked both the English , and I haven't seen one that says that all the SAME devices would be compatible in Latin America.

My lap top stopped accessing the hard drive today. I'm not sure if it is something wrong with the hard drive or something else. Anyway, my brother-in-law sId he would change the hard drive out for me if I got a new one, but I can't afford to buy windows, and like a tool I never took the time to make a recovery CD. The computer is an HP Pavilion model# dv5-1235dx. It had Windows Vista on it before. It is out of warranty so there is no chance of getting it repaired. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks reddit.

I work for a College, we just got in some new Macbook Pro's. I went to install Snow Leopard on them so that they would conform with our current environment and when I tried to boot off the SL disk I got 3 post beeps which is usually memory error but since I could run an entire OS i thought this can't be memory. So I target booted the machine and used an older machine to install SL. On boot I got the same 3 beeps. So I phoned Apple who promptly told me that they have put a firmware block into their new machines that STOPS you from running anything but Lion on their new machines. When I BUY hardware I should be able to run whatever licensed OS I want on it. When I asked why they were limiting their users ability to install SL I was told that Apple does not cater to business's and this was a way to force everyone to Lion.

I'm looking at a new gpu for my computer I build about 4 months ago. I'm looking at Which is a 570 with more stream processors, and Which is a 560 with a faster clock.

So earlier tonight my MacBook (mid 2010) decided to go on the fritz out of nowhere, giving me the beachball of doom anytime I try to do something. Reboot a couple times, eventually decide either the drive has physically crashed, or the filesystem has gone screwy. Grabbed a Snow Leopard disc, proceeded to "Repair Disk" from the GUI, which tells me soon enough that it can't repair, suggesting I back up my files and reformat. Oh really? I don't like that answer. I open up the terminal, proceed to run fsck_hfs, which magically mends my tormented filesystem and brings my Mac back to life so I can tell you if your Mac acts funny, don't pay $$$$ to get it fixed at some snobby Apple store, fix it yourself or find a friend who knows a thing or two that can. Feel free to flame HFS/HFS+, I don't like it either. Always been an ext3, more recently ext4 guy myself.

I have a game which needs me to have the latest driver for my GPU or it will crash at launch. But the latest driver for my GPU isn't compatible as Acer forces me to download drivers through their site. And on their site I can't get the new driver cause they only have their "VGA driver" which includes energy saving options and other useless stuff that I as a gamer would never need. And this "VGA driver" is very old, doesn't seem to have been updated ever. Anyone got into the same kind of problem or have a solution for this? I think the problem is caused by the fact that my Acer Aspire 8951G runs on two graphics cards, one for energy saving and one for graphics performance. Downloading the newer drivers gives me the program to select which card I would like to use but it doesn't change to the more powerful one when I try. It says it is activated but it never gets any GPU load and games are unplayable.

After I saw [this post]( I wanted to let Redditors know that there is [a group of people who are doing their best]( to stay on top of this issue. It started last year with [this post]( and it's now become the Open Source Democracy Foundation. We've actually gotten a 501(c)(4) off the ground, we've been to D.C. a couple times, and I've actually [had a conversation with FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn]( Granted, we're still relatively small, but I think it's fair to say that we're pretty plugged in. We're about launch a campaign next week against Virginia Attorney Ken Cuccinelli who is [talking about suing the FCC to dismantle the rules they passed last December]( I urge you to come to [r/rpac]( (and soon, [r/osdf]( to participate with us. The more people we have, the more money can raise, the more powerful we will be. We are not as helpless as they would like us to think.

After I saw [this post]( I wanted to let Redditors know that there is [a group of people who are doing their best]( to stay on top of this issue. It started last year with [this post]( and it's now become the Open Source Democracy Foundation. We've actually gotten a 501(c)(4) off the ground, we've been to D.C. a couple times, and I've actually [had a conversation with FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn]( Granted, we're still relatively small, but I think it's fair to say that we're pretty plugged in. We're about launch a campaign next week against Virginia Attorney Ken Cuccinelli who is [talking about suing the FCC to dismantle the rules they passed last December]( I urge you to come to [r/rpac]( (and soon, [r/osdf]( to participate with us. The more people we have, the more money can raise, the more powerful we will be. We are not as helpless as they would like us to think.

I am going to school in the UK next year and I know that most phones in the US are specific to carriers (that is what the told me at the ATT store). they said I would need to unlock the phone so I could use it in the UK with a new sim card. does anyone know where I can do that? also I have an iPhone 3gs currently and didn't know if Blackberry is better for international use (haven't decided which I will get, which is why I asked about both). Thanks Reddit!

All, My GF's grandfather is senile and lives in Russia, near Moscow. He will randomly wander away. He got lost once for days; police refused to help because they couldn't afford a great bribe; surmised that he was probably eaten by wolves after a few days. Turns out he was laying face down in a ditch. Alive, but weak and very confused. Of course, her grandparents would take him to a doctor, if they believed in that kind of thing. Instead they take him to a "spiritualist" who says that his senility is really him seeing ghosts in another dimension. Anyway, she would like to buy them something that will work in Russia and help track him when he goes wandering. Help?

I currently leave in Portugal, where, as you know, things are tough. My current phone is a Samsung e330. He is very faithful, but...well, belongs in a museum. By the greatest of chance, I find myself in possession of over 5000 thousand Vodafone points, meaning I can get some pretty cool stuff for free. My question is: should I get myself a smartphone or a tablet. I do not have any computer running windows or mac and I don't want them on my phone either, so the OS must be android. My dilemma is as follows: I'm an IT student, in electronics, and I watch quite a lot of movies, read many books and listen to a lot of music. I also to a lot of hacking and having a light, small computer could really be helpful. However, my phone isn't the newest thing on earth and it really would deserve some rest. I'll be much thankful for any insight you could provide. PS: do you thing Reddit would be interested about what life is like in Portugal for a foreigner and a secular humanist?

So lately since I have updated my computer it has been having some troubles. I have gotten advice from three members of Geek Squad and as well a small computer retail/repair shop that my dad has used for years. From them I got two different reasoning as to what the trouble is being caused by, but the problem is each answer I got was completed contradictory to the other. So I need help from a REAL expert. The problem is that while the two following things are present, the image on my screen gets an effect that makes it look like it is a combination of waving, shaking, and jerking (the best way I can describe it): When I am playing high end graphical games When the temperature in my room (and therefore the computer) is very hot due to the summer weather My computer specification are: Windows Vista AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core Processor 6000+, ~3.0GHz 3326 MB RAM Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 5770 1gb DDR5 Important- The video card requires 450w while the PSU is 500w The first answer I am getting (which I believe is more reliable) is that due to above reasons, the video card is overheating and causing this effect. The remedy is more fans for additional cooling and airflow. Also answer one says that it can't be an overload on the PSU because if this ever occurs, the computer will automatically restart. The second answer, which is completely opposite, is that due to above reasons, the fans are working too hard and using too much power. So in turn the video card cannot produce its maximum picture and the image gets this effect. Also answer two states that it can't be overheating in temperature because if this were to happen the computer would automatically turn off to avoid damages.

I need help with an image I want to use for a presentation. My presentation is in regards to Security Solutions we offer. I want to use a Castle as an analagy to speak to "Non-Techies". We offer Firewalls, IPS/IDS, EndPoint Security, as well as others, but thus far I was thinking: Guards on the perimeter representing a Firewall, guards standing in front of individual rooms and doors representing End Point Security, and guards navigating hallways and what not representing an Intrustion Prevention/Detection type solution. Am open to other ideas as well can anyone help here?

So today I formatted my computer, reinstalled the OS blah blah blah. When it came to getting a PDF reader I went to get adobe reader as I always have to use it for PDF's and got to the download page. I was surprised to find that I now had to use the adobe download manager as a default to get any adobe software other then flash(?) and reluctantly agreed to install it. Upon installing it I went to download Reader and it automatically popped into the download manager as expected; what I DIDNT expect was for it to also install Mcafee security scan without ANY prompts, requests for permission or even a notification, it just started installing with no way to stop it. It wasnt impossible to remove, but that isnt the point; the point is it did it without permission. My point in this post is not so much to rage, but I'm more doing this to ask if anyone else has had the same crappy experience and then gone what the hell and to find out the kind of legality that surrounds software doing this. Also, if theres any professional marketers or whoever would make this kind of decision in adobe/Mcafee out there, I'd like to know how the hell this makes any sort of real sense on the advertising/marketing end of things.

When at work, I am involved in a cramped, but quiet environment where I can enjoy listening to music, podcasts, etc. I bought myself some nice secure wired headphones to go with my old version one iPod shuffle and it is just barely tolerable. The wires stick to me as I build sweat and just overall bother me since I need to leave one ear open at all times for people calling me out. What I really want to do is get myself a bluetooth ear piece to listen to my player, but of course my current player has no bluetooth connectivity. When it comes to Apple products, I really enjoy their mp3 players and other portable devices. I read up on what they offer nowadays and would really want to get myself the iTouch in the future. However I want to plan carefully before I put the amount of money required for that in. Is there a cheap alternative for a portable player that has bluetooth connectivity and is cost effective? Any advise would be awesome. One more thing to clarify: I reside in Ontario, Canada so my options might be more limited than Americans.

When at work, I am involved in a cramped, but quiet environment where I can enjoy listening to music, podcasts, etc. I bought myself some nice secure wired headphones to go with my old version one iPod shuffle and it is just barely tolerable. The wires stick to me as I build sweat and just overall bother me since I need to leave one ear open at all times for people calling me out. What I really want to do is get myself a bluetooth ear piece to listen to my player, but of course my current player has no bluetooth connectivity. When it comes to Apple products, I really enjoy their mp3 players and other portable devices. I read up on what they offer nowadays and would really want to get myself the iTouch in the future. However I want to plan carefully before I put the amount of money required for that in. Is there a cheap alternative for a portable player that has bluetooth connectivity and is cost effective? Any advise would be awesome. One more thing to clarify: I reside in Ontario, Canada so my options might be more limited than Americans.

Steve Jobs is going to hide five "Golden Tickets" in randomly selected songs. If you find one of these Golden Songs, you will be taken to see Apple's real factory, manned by iLoompas. Life insurance will increase tenfold, followed by a large string of murders. This will be to fund the rampant buying of songs from iTunes, hoping to find the Golden Song. The world will fall into disarray, and from the rubble, Steve will rise up and put in place a new ruling order.

Comcast has required everyone to upgrade to [these]( boxes and only giving two free. Well i live in a large house with many TV's and we required 5. So that an extra $6 a month for the same service we already had. Well at least these boxes will somehow improve the service. Right? NOOOO. Now i have these stupid fucking boxes taking up room on my shelf and each one has 4 cords i need to hide. So they look like shit anywhere i put them around my entertainment area. Plus they require a second remote on each TV now. They are the worst designed remotes in the fucking world [see]( To top it all off there not HD so my tv that had a HD antenna and picked up the basic channels no longer does so through the box. Paying more money to lose HD channels wtf. Well congratulations Comcast you lost a long time customer whose parents were paying for your shitty triple play along with multiple DVR's and HBO. Any suggestions on what good to switch to?

I've been luck and have had Spotify for a few years now, on a Norwegian account for 99NOK per month (about 19 USD). I live in the US and when they launched in the US, charging only 9.99USD for the same service, I wanted to rather pay that fee... Naturally I envisioned a long drawn out process of either fighting with customer service to move my account and payments, or to manually create a new user and move every playlist and stuff over. But , to my surprise, Spotify fully supported changing regions. I just chose "US" from a dropdown menu instead of "Norway", agreed to the new fee (of 10 dollars less) and entered an American Credit card's info. Done in 3 minutes! I just really wanted to share that experience, since there are so many companies out there hell bent to screw you over.

I want to ease my pain a little bit while editing quite a lot of footage. It's recorded in an AVI with one video-track and two separate stereo audiotracks. So far I've extracted these tracks using [VirtualDub]( and combined and edited them in [Audacity]( So far so good. This is were the problem starts. The only way I've found to get the video back to the audio without stuff going all weird on YouTube is if I first export the video (with the edited audio-file selected as an external audio source) as AVI and then compressing that AVI with [Handbrake]( to save time while uploading. However, the extra step of exporting the AVI takes about an hour and the Handbrake-step takes about 20 minutes. Both of which I have to initiate manually. Considering I need to do this process about 40 times I would love to be able to automate as much as possible.

I work for one of those retail outlets where PC repair type services are offered. Interestingly enough, we have no real training, and almost everything we do is expected to be done by letting someone from corporate do everything remotely. With that said, today my manager gave me a 4GB flash drive with nothing but a shortcut to an HTML page we're supposed to use for services. So Reddit, I'm looking for simple programs like combofix that can be used to solve problems, programs like Malwarebytes or AVG to prevent problems, things that will help a computer's performance, and anything like Plants vs. Zombies that has a 'portable' function and lets me kill time while I'm waiting for services to run.

Hello R/Tech! I currently own a Asus EEEpc for portability and a iPhone 3Gs and I was hoping you would do me the honour of stopping me from buying a IPAD3 and a iPhone5 because in my heart I know it is the right thing to do. First up here is some info on my current phone. (Oh and plan is up get free new phone basically) Why I like my current iPhone Amazing Messaging System Great Apps - Facebook,Tumblr,Phonebook,Notes,Banking,Tumblr,GoogleMaps,Dictionary!,Remote,Authenticators,Gmail I am 'ok' with the browser 'meh' The Ipod side works well enough 'meh' Why I dislike my current iPhone iTunes is the worst program in the world. No Freedom I don't like how mail is handled. Terrible Camera Terrible Call Quality (Although great headphones!, perfect call quality) What I want in my next phone Same apps as above, iPhone messaging, Great Camera, Good Clock,Alarm,Calendar A good enough ‘Ipod’ side. Good call quality.

Been following TV deals for the last few months and looking to spend around $500 (give or take $50). Finding mostly 42-46" 1080p LCDs. So that's what I thought I had settled on. Then I came across this projector: ...except I found a (factory refurb) for a shade over $500. Other than lacking some add'l inputs, which actually works in my setup, I can't figure out why it's not a no-brainer to get this instead? It's going to be in a fairly dark basement room anyway... What am I missing? What downfalls of a projector (other than bulbs) am I not seeing?

Basically pretty much most of the community is rightfully upset that: The company lied and pulled the bait n switch tactic at the last moment. Their tweets and other statements said everything was on track for the February release. Then at the last minute before release they announce this BS: DRM implementation which contradicted statements in their original campaign (We would have bought or stuck to chrome-cast if we wanted this..). It's not about the fact that it's delayed (although its RIDICULOUS for a half a year delay) It's the fact they were shady, lied, and have piss poor communication. They aren't acknowledge all concerns. They aren't accepting refunds. It's just BS and people are mad become we have good morals! Anyone who is involved or wants to spread the word, please do. To get a refund you will have to call your credit-card company to do a charge-back and/or tell amazon. If any of that was hard to understand or confusing let me know. I'm just MAD at the practices of this company. You do not do stuff like this and get away with it! If you redditors have any other ideas please let us know. Thanks Edit: If anyone knows or would like to accept the challenge of making the streaming stick everyone wanted in the kickstarter project, GO FOR IT! They delayed matchstick till August so you have time to out do them, just have your ethics straight. 2nd Edit: Solutions Call Banks and Amazon for a chargeback and report Matchstick company as FRAUD! Call FTC NOTE: They are saying to message them privately (privately, they got some nerve) but people have reported they still deny refunds in the messages. Utter BS!!

So in my new house I can't get dish because of trees and unfortunately had to get Charter HD cable. When I signed up the agent quoted me a price for the "Digital Home" package and linked me to this website showing the different packages But on that list there is nothing called "Digital Home" just "Digital View". I told the agent that and she said "Digital Home is the same as Digital View". Later I contacted them again and again an agent gave me a price for Digital Home and said that this would include all of the Digital View packages. So after a few days I realize I am not getting any of those channels and I contact them and they say "I'm sorry, for that price you do not get Digital View channels. When you spoke to the first agent she had a system error that cause her to tell you that." and I said "What about the second agent that said the exact same thing?!' And he said "She had an error too." WOW. WTF! So I ask for a supervisor and go off, saying they told me a price and what channels I would get, now once I sign up you say "Oops, you don't actually get any of those channels for that price, if you want those channels you have to pay more." So the supervisor is all apologetic and says he will take care of it. I say "So you are going to give me the channels you originally told me for the price you originally quoted?" And he says, "More or less." I go, "What do you mean, 'more or less'?" And he says, "They will give you those channels, but you will have to pay more." WOW. Thanks. Great resolution to the problem. I'm calling AT&T monday to get U-verse tv.

Some asshat spilled beer on my macbook this weekend. Its the first time my computer was literally (<-correct usage, high-five!) broken, and I was freaking out because I hadn't backed up my files in forever. Luckily, one of my friends who had prior experience with spills like this immediately informed me to take the battery out and not try to turn it back on. Also, I figured that if I turned it upside down (with laptop open) and laid it on some towels, some of the liquid might drain out before seeping into my hard drive. Did this help? I don't know...Anyway, I took it into my school's tech desk the next day and they said they would try to fix it, and that it would most likely take around week. Luckily again, I have a slightly older macbook that has side-wall screws, which allows them to get inside to clean it, unlike the latest versions whose "sleekness" prevents them from fixing it without sending it out to apple. cdemps62 sits at his empty desk for the next 24 hours, twiddling fingers, praying that 4 years of papers written, music amassed/created, etc. hadn't been lost to the abyss ...then ring, ring ring ...."Hi this is so-and-so from the tech desk, you're computer is finished, you can come pick it up." I couldn't believe they had finished it so soon! I ran over to the library to pick it up, and when I saw it I was speechless from how clean and new it looked. Apparently the only technician who fixes macs when they are brought in happens to be the tech desk boss! She gave me the computer equivalent of a premium deluxe car wash...and now I'm comfortably back in my room, typing on a gunkless keyboard, glossy screen, with updated software, and all of my files still here! She even fixed this problem I'd been having with my "SuperDrive Update 2.1" every time I used to logged in, and I hadn't even mentioned it to them, but now its gone! Can't thank you enough for the professional and prompt job you did. Whether or not this was a routine fix for you, I was freaking out that all the things I had on here would be lost, and it meant a lot to me.

In light of the recent update in the developer's agreement for the iPhone, countless discussions have appeared on the internet which follow the same beaten path of such conversations. Namely, they boil down to somebody saying someting along these lines: "It's Steve Job's company, and he has every right to do whatever he wants with it. He sets up the rules. If you don't like the rules, don't buy his products, don't bitch about it on the forums". This point is incorrect for many reasons, one of them being that if you don't like people bitching about anything, you are just as free to not read it. However, that's not the reason I am going to talk about. The reason I will talk about is this: Doing so does not make sense from an economic point of view. The argument makes assumptions that: there exists a product that satisfies all of your requirements; you are able to invest in such product and use it; your pruchase of a competitor's product will make a company reconsider its choices; telling other people about what you don't like about X does not make any difference. All these assumptions are false. First of all, it is rarely the case that there exists a product on the market that has all the feature any particular customer wants. For that matter, one can desire a product that, in fact, is an iPhone with feature X on it. Secondly, the argument assumes that one can just go and buy a new piece of technology at any time, even if there is a product that satisfies the requirements. Not all people have the budget to switch. Some are tied by other factors (e.g. people who actually want an iPhone might be deterred by AT&T). Some people purhcased a product before a better one appeared on the market. Thirdly, simply buying a competitor's product doesn't work if only a minority of its users are not satisfied. As long as the decrease in the influx of customers is a smaller loss than the cost of adding a feature (think Fight Club!). More importantly, a person who bought an iPhone, didn't like it and switched is not a loss for Apple if the said person is silent about it. This brings us to the fourth point: that's exactly what Apple would want you to do: they would rather lose customers than have complaining customers. This is why the phones are locked and the App store is insanely restrictive, in spite of potential loss of customers that it brings. So, as a consumer who is unhappy about X on the iPhone, what are you to do? You are to bitch about it, loudly and publicly. You are to scream in all forums about how X makes your life miserable, and how iPhone is not good without X. You are to say that you are going to switch to an Android phone next month because X on the iPhone makes it unusable for everybody. Make a "Top 5 reasons why you shouldn't own an iPhone" on your blog ("Top 10" if you own one), with X being the No. 1 reason. In short, you are to make a person about to buy an iPhone reconsider doing it because of X. So, you are to make some bad publicity for Apple. Bad publicity is always a loss for a company, and it's a loss that is noticeable to shareholders. In this day and age, even a blog post can go far. And if you scare the shareholders, even Steve Jobs will have to abide. And if Apple still keeps its course in spite of your efforts, you still win by strengthening the competition, who (if smart) might even make a product for you that is good and has X.

This is a widespread problem, but [this article]( is a great example. warning unstructured rant ahead One defense of Apple's censorship is basically that as a private company Apple has the right to do whatever it likes with its property. Its own right to free speech includes censoring others who try to express themselves through its technology. That way of thinking is outdated. The fact of the matter is, the main forums for public activity are more and more frequently under the control of private entities. The marketplace has become the mall, and the mall corporation can kick you out if it doesn't like you. The places and means the public actually uses for "public purposes" are legally private property. In the same way, public forums for debate on the internet are divided up into ownership by various private companies, each with little responsibility to protect your freedom of speech. Freedom of expression is protected in one form or another in all states governed by the western tradition of rule of law. Unfortunately such protections generally only guarantee your free speech from restrictions by the government. The fact is, nowadays private entities are just as or even more in a position to censor public debate, because they own the main forums that the public uses for debate. The reality of the situation is, private companies now are in the position to control people's lives in the same way the state used to be . Therefore free speech protections should carefully be updated to include a greater degree of protection from censorship at the hands of private corporations. Some countries already have this to a degree. Rights and responsibilities are a balancing act, and the balance is way out of whack in the modern world. It's short-sighted to defend the actions of companies like Apple with the claim that private companies don't have a responsibility to protect public free speech.

I have Comcast high speed internet and use a Zoom 5352 router/modem. I was getting service turned back on and for the life of me I could not connect. I called Comcast and spoke with tech support who did not understand why my modem showed up as being 'offline.' I gave them my modems mac address and serial and their system said it was a supported modem, which is why I bought it. They suggested I try buying a different modem or renting one of the ones offered by the local Comcast reps. They were adamant that a technician would have to come out to check the line and modem. I asked if this would be free and was told that it would only be free if the issue was occurring outside of my residence. I consented as I had no idea how to fix the issue beyond what I had already tried. Since it was not for a few days I started digging further and found interney enyries about a 'known issue with the Zoom 5352 device and Comcast service,' that requires Comcast to push out an update to each 5352 device or it cannot finalize the connection. The pages on both the Zoom website and Comcast website stated that to remedy this issue, one had to email or call Zoom support with the mac address, serial and associatef Comcast account info. They would then forward that info to a tier 3 technician at Comcast who would fix the problem. It was late at night when I found this so i decided to call Comcast tech support to see if I could get it done sooner than waiting for 8 or 9am. Even after guiding the Comcast rep to their own website stating the problem they had no clue, and mentioned that since the article was from 2013, that the issue had probably been fixed. When morning came around I called Zoom and gave them my info, sure enough, a short time later my intetnet started working. What angers me about this is, had a tech come to my home they would have blamed my modem since everthing else is fine, leading me to a service chatge of $49.99 or more and either the price of a new modem or a new monthly rental fee from Comcast. All because they either are doing this intentionally to gain more mobey or simply incompetence for not making this problem and solution known to their tech support. Why, as the customer is it my job to figute out how to fix Comcasts flaws. They have known about the problem for over a year but cannot make it so that when a tech enters in that someone with an issue has a 5352 modem, this could be it? The rep actually entered in my modem info and it said it was supported, which is exactly where an asterisk should be so that customers can get the service they have paid for, without incurring additional dubious charges. Thank you for reading my novel about Comcasts BS!

I know this will probably be downvoted to oblivion, but whatever. About 6 years back, Windstream Communications bought out my ISP, Iowa Telecom. Literally, since the day of the switch, they have been complete garbage, lie about their speeds, give you the big middle finger if you call their support hotline and tell you that its "on your end apparently", etc etc etc. The worst thing is, nothing can be done. My small town of Argyle, Iowa has only about 100 people, and Shitstream is the only telecom company within 10 miles, aside from satellite internet. Again, they refuse to fix problems, overcharge for services that never work correctly, and just generally don't give a fuck. Hundreds to thousands of complaints have been filed with the BBB and the FCC, and nothing gets done. Were stuck for good it seems.

I got pushed around by Comcast yesterday. They can do what they want, since I have no other options. []( EDIT: I'm glad this is getting some attention. Last night I sent the video to We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com and ecare@comcast.com , as well as the tips address for the Consumerist. Today I submitted an FCC complaint per the suggestion of /u/BarbwireCake. I've only received an automated response from Comcast so far. Some are suggesting that a class action lawsuit might be a catalyst for change; I'm not sure. I will update when I hear from someone. (12:17PST) Filed with BBB and posted to twitter EDIT: I spoke with someone from Comcast Executive Customer Relations. He wanted to discuss my complaint, but refused to be recorded. I record all of my calls with creditors so that I won't be promised something that is never delivered. As I found out yesterday, it might not even matter if the call has been recorded. Luckily this thread got some attention today, so I might actually get help with this issue. He assured me that I would change my mind about Comcast after speaking with him but I declined to continue the conversation. I've obviously learned my lesson today about keeping accurate records, and I don't want to hear anymore crocodile tears or pseudo-promises. In any case, he said he would email me details of our non-conversation, which I will place here: -- Hello /u/sweetlethargy, I regret not being able to consent to your recording our conversation due to the nature of the reasons or possible intent that you may have for the recording. In reviewing the original and unedited version of your initial call, the agent gave you correct information on the service plan and promotional services at the time of the call. This is the product and service that you spoke about: Internet Plus 09/06 - 10/05 69.95 Includes Limited Basic, HBO, Streampix, a Standard Definition Digital Converter and Remote For The Primary Outlet, and Performance Internet. Service Discount -19.96 Total XFINITY TV $49.99 plus taxes and fees Franchise Fee 1.42 Utility Tax 2.00 PEG Access Support 0.28 State Sales Tax 0.16 FCC User Fee 0.09 Total Taxes, Surcharges & Fees $3.95 (these vary slightly per month and are only collected by Comcast) Docsis 3 Owned Mdm 09/06 - 10/05 0.00 Blast! Internet Svc 09/06 - 10/05 11.00 Service Discount -11.00 Total XFINITY Internet $0.00 (this was added after your conversation with the agent as a bonus) which may have caused this confusion We have extended this promotional offer as a gesture of good will for an additional 12 months as long as you understand that at the end of that term if you wish to keep it, it will be billed at its standard rate. It seems that they aren't accepting responsibility for anything, but they are offering me something. Here is my response. (All I want is what I was quoted): -- Bottom line: do I have 100mbps down, 25mbps up, no contract, at $53.85 total per month including taxes and all other fees for 12 months? Im waiting for a response. For people who were asking, I used the android app Automatic Call Recorder by Appliqato. Everyone should record conversations with their creditors to keep them accountable. (18:24PST) FINAL UPDATE: Just spoke with an "Executive Customer Relations Supervisor" who apologized for the actions of the two customer retention reps, as well as the Executive Customer Relations rep who refused to be recorded yesterday. She was very polite, took full responsibility for Comcast's mistakes, and allowed me to record our conversation. She explained that "both representatives you reached were freshly out of a training class" and they "should've placed you on hold" to get more information. This is strange, since I could clearly hear the second rep being coached on what to say... In any case, the Executive Customer Relations Supervisor said she would credit me a month of service as a sign of good will. She also explained that I would be receiving the promotional rate through August 15th 2015, however, due to the fluctuation of taxes and fees, she could not guarantee my final cost of $53.85. This month the final cost would be $55.55, for example. I indicated that all I wanted was the out-the-door $53.85 cost that I was quoted in August. I agree that the dollar amount is negligable, but all I've wanted is the price I was quoted when I agreed to keep the service. She agreed to credit my account $5 every month so that at no time I would be expected to pay more than $53.85. Today I Learned that if Comcast pushes you around, the best course of action is to expose them on social media. I can honestly say that this has been easier, less time consuming, and less stressful to make and post the video than it would've been to dial 1-800-COMCAST again. I hope these Comcast horror stories continue to get posted so that something might change one day. Proper competition is the only answer to this solution, and I personally feel that public utilies should also operate as ISPs. Everyone should be recording their interactions with creditors, as it is obviously the only way to keep them (somewhat) honest. It's sad that I was granted my simple request only after my video had been posted to the Consumerist, Techdirt, BGR, Gawker, yahoo, etc, etc... I realize that most people will simply never receive help with their complaints. Good luck to all of you who are dealing with similar situations.

Don't get me wrong, I love all things Google, and welcome our new overlords, but it seems to me like they're simply expanding too fast, without regard to the incomplete condition of most of their past undertakings. Add to that, the fact that many of their core products are suffering from neglect or mismanagement, to the point, that instead of fixing the issues that have arisen, they just dump the whole product altogether (like Wave, Gears, Video and Notebook). We, the general public, have marveled at their ambition and I have personally experienced an incredible excitement each time a new announcement has come out, like the Elon Musk investment, or the new cellular service, but what of their other promises? We've all been waiting patiently for their mass-produced Self-Drivable cars, Google Fiber, and a host of other R&D projects, but have we seen the ripe fruit of any of these innovations? Where is the dedication that Google was built on? Not to mention the issues their encountering just keeping what they already have top-of-the-line, such as Google Glass (which is now dead), their search engine (which is falling apart at the seams due to aggressive SEO manipulation), the Android OS (which they can't decide whether or not to rebrand, dump, reinvent, or all of the above), and the Google Hangouts system (which replaced Gchat and lost many of its key features and abilities). Again, I love their passion for blazing new trails and I'm not trying to be a naysayer, but I think that their time and resources should be spent improving what they already have at this point, not expanding into unknown fields. Like a web-based McDonalds, they need to stop branching out and focus on their core products, and existing innovations, or I feel like they'll rot from the inside out.

You'll never believe what this is! . I cancelled once U-Verse came out and after about 12 minutes on the phone it was done. They sent me a bill for like $132, I called and said I cancelled and read the risk free 30 day trial conditions to them. In about 15 minutes I was off the phone and they said they would eliminate the bill. The following month I got a bill for $32 and some change. I called, told my story again, and they said they would eliminate the bill (maybe 8 minute call). Well, something happened and instead of just wiping out my bill they send me a refund for that amount! I never paid them a penny! Get on my level!

I'm sorry about this long post, but I've had enough, Reddit. If even 1 person sees this and does something to help, it will have been worth my time. I live in Chicago and have Comcast as my ISP. I hate them just as much as anyone in this community. However, I think we all have shifted our attention to the wrong culprit in all of this. The recent posts regarding $1000+ wrongful charges, job loss, and countless other disappointing support stories are fantastic examples of a conglomerate taking advantage of it's place in the market, and its customers. But sharing and discussing these stories isn't doing anything. At all. Look at the results. It's getting WORSE. We need to change the way we think. Comcast, while guilty of some truly despicable things on a very regular basis, is not the root of what we are experiencing in this country. The real problem is the lack of competition and regulations set on service providers as a whole in this country. It's no coincidence that Comcast is typically the only option for cable or even high-speed internet in a given area, while also having the worst customer service. The don't have to care. And they won't as long as they don't have to. NO AMOUNT OF COMCAST SHAMING IS GOING TO CHANGE OUR SITUATION, NOR WILL IT CHANGE THEIR ATTITUDE TOWARDS US. IT WON'T CHANGE THEIR VIEWS ON THEIR CUSTOMERS, THEIR PROFITS, OR THEIR STRANGLEHOLD ON THIS COUNTRY. They. Don't. Care. And it's because they don't have to. We are going after the wrong entity here. Comcast isn't the root. There are other Comcasts in the United States (and the world). They aren't the only ISP with horrible service, high prices, and vindictive attitudes towards the people lining their bottomless pockets. The real problem is the lack of regulation, the allowance on monopolization of markets, and most importantly, the lack of decent competition. Even if people hated Comcast enough to switch providers, who are they going to switch to? In most places, there is no other high-speed option. We have been backed into a corner. We are being told to like what we are given. The rest of the world knows that Americans don't put up with that, because we're like that, and here we are taking it in the ass and we are doing nothing about it but calling names. Stop trying to plea to Comcast. I beg of you (irony!). They won't listen. We need to concentrate our efforts on changing the laws in this country to MAKE them change. We need competitors in the market. Then, and ONLY then, will you get better service, better prices, and a better internet experience. Hell, if we push to make them a public utility, the game changes for the better instantly, providing standard pricing and service regulations. We can't wait around for Google Fiber. That's not the answer. The answer is to even the playing ground for us, the consumers, and that's the job of the federal government. They are the ones to shame. They are the ones to go after. Fuck Comcast and their bullshit. Go around them.

Some background first. I'm a resident in Warragamba, NSW. About an hour out from Sydney, so not too rural. We have ADSL2 available as our fastest connection, and a very small local population (only a few thousand including the surrounding area). My issues with Telstra began around 6 months ago. We had some heavy wind, and a tree was blown down over our lines, knocking out the phone service for 4 properties (my own included). "That's fine" I thought. "It shouldn't take them long to fix the problem is 4 services are down". How wrong I was. It took 2 week before something was done. 3 services were corrected and, you guessed it, mine was not one of them. Funnily enough, the other 3 services were not Telstra services. That's right, they fixed the services of other companies before their own. Another 2 weeks passed, and around 5 calls and reference numbers, before the issue was corrected. They decided that a 3 month credit was enough to satiate my anger. No phone and internet for a whole month. That makes it hard to do anything. So our internet was connected again, excellent. Or not. About a week later, after I finally had time to fully test the connection, I noticed our speed was down. Drastically. I was used to getting speeds around 18-20MBPs. I was getting 0.45MBPs. Now, if someone out there with more knowledge than myself can help out, I'd like to know just how many more services would be required to knock that out. I know there are a number of factors, including the number of existing services and so forth, but assume a local population of 2,000 with a 50% connection rate. Surely it would take hundreds of new services to cause the slowdown that we experienced, and for that to occur in a month? That's madness. Several more calls to Telstra, and another 5 or so reference numbers, and I was finally told the issue was congestion. A little odd that it would happen immediately after my previous issue, but I accept their diagnosis. "How long until it's fixed" I asked them. "We have no way of knowing" they informed me. "Since there is no projected timeframe, it could take more than a year". A year, folks. A year to fix the exchange. "That's alright" I thought to myself. "I'll just get them to credit my account for the service that I'm not receiving. I'm happy to pay for the speeds I'm getting." Here comes another fun fact. Telstra charges you for your download limit, not your speed. 200GB download on Dial-up, despite the fact that you will never actually get that amount in a month, is the same cost as 200GB on the NBN. Go figure. So after working my way up through managers, 5 in all (that appears to be the magic number), I finally get told that a higher up is not in the office (fair enough, it's a Sunday) and that someone will call me on Monday. They also offered to credit me for the cost of the internet part of my package for 3 months (despite having previously stated that this was impossible). Satisfied that someone would contact me, I agreed and hung up. 2 weeks later and no call. Should have seen that one coming. However, just as I was about to call Telstra and get my complaining on again, we get a call from them. "Hi, my name is ### from Telstra, I'm just calling to see if you're happy with your service." I nearly bit the poor girl's head off. Instead, I calmly explained to her the situation of the past months, and she agreed that it was absolutely ridiculous, but being in a specialised part of billing, there was nothing that she could do except put another note on my account (onto the pile that she noted was already massive). I accepted that, as she was easily the nicest employee I had spoken to thus far. Now, something I want everyone to understand out of this. I asked each and every person that I spoke to one question: "Why are you setting up services that you can't support?" Each and every person stated that it is up to the system. If the system states that there is an available service, then they are permitted to assign it. After further questioning, and a lot of pushing, they admitted that it is their technical department that sets these things up, and that it is not an automated process. That's right. Telstra is knowingly setting up services that they cannot support just to make a few extra dollars. Not from above that they have told me that it will take likely more than a year before the issue is resolved. This means that they are, assuming the other services are bottlenecking the same as mine, offering a connection speed that is 5% of what they are advertising and still selling their services in the area. How do I know this? I called from another number asking to set up a service down the road. I was not informed of any slowing in the area and was told that they could have it set up within a week. Wow. So here I am, using 3G (since it's faster than my ADSL2 connection) to post this. I'll be spreading this through several subreddits in the hope that I can get as much light on this appalling service as I can. It's disgusting that the largest telco in Australia can get away with this.

Why is a non-profit cooperative's fiber-to-home internet service this expensive and this slow? This past year Highland Communications (a wholly owned subsidiary of the Highland Telephone Cooperative installing an all fiber optic network. The brochure had very few concrete details, and I'm pretty sure was merely a perfunctory contractual obligation for receiving a $50 million grant and $16 million loan from the [USDA Rural Utility Service Broadband Initiatives Program]( The [blazing speeds]( the locals will have access to: "The cost of service for five-meg broadband service will be $49.95 per month, Patterson said. For customers currently on Highland Telephone’s 256k DSL package, the price increase will be about $13 per month, while for customers currently on the 1.5m package, the price decrease will be about $10...HTC will also offer 10-meg and 20-meg broadband service for those who require it. The residential cost of 10-meg service will be $87.95, while 20-meg service will cost $129.95." The phrase "for those who require it" is maddening. In other words, these apparently ridiculous speeds are only for those users who want to do things like stream HD video content, play fast-paced on-line games, live in a home where more than one person uses the internet at a time, efficiently back-up their data to cloud storage, download their latest console update in less than an hour, or participate in any number of emerging, interactive technologies that require a little more headroom than 5Mbps of bandwidth! Where I currently live, I have cable internet 25Mbps/12Mbps for about $60. Why will this fiber network be much slower and over twice as expensive?

Have you moved to Australia with your UK power board? Has your computer and other sensitive equipment suddenly stopped working? Do you use an AU adapter with a UK Belkin Surge protector? It would appear that I've stumbled upon a fundamental flaw with the UK Belkin surge protector line when you use these products with your UK electronics in Australia. On the surface, Australian and UK power appear very compatible, they are the same frequency and voltage... and for all intents and purposes they are compatible with the one exception of when you use a Belkin Surge Protector. At least I've tested it with the models F9G820UK4m & F9H400UK2m and I'm sure there's more models which will demonstrate the same issues. The swivel port in these surge protectors will destroy any computer equipment plugged into it when plugged into Australian energy sources with an AU/UK adapter. It would appear only sensitive circuitry is vulnerable to this flaw... other electrical equipment like lights/toasters etc. are not vulnerable... but electronic equipment will slowly degrade with continued use or sometimes - immediately stop working if it's particularly sensitive. The degradation of electronic equipment can take weeks, or it can take days. A Bluray player died after just two uses (literally just turning it on twice)... some computer equipment has slowly degraded over days whilst I couldn't identify the problem (I build PCs as a hobby so exchanged out every component trying to see what the issue was - it was only after I assembled a completely new PC with fresh components and had it plugged into the same board and watched that degrade that I realised the board was the problem). I also had a Mac-mini plugged into the swivel port of the 4-way Belkin adapter... this was unaffected I assume because it has it's own external power converter like a laptop... my mistake was thinking the port was fine and later plugging an X-box 360 into it. This died (red-ringed) after 3 uses. Up until this point I thought I had a faulty board which was destroying my equipment - now I realise it's a fundamental product flaw across not only the same Surge protector models - but the whole range of Belkin surge-protectors. I have lost 3 PCs, a Laser Printer, a Bluray player and an Xbox360 from this error over a period of years before I was able to pinpoint the exact problem. It's worth noting also that the degradation of computer equipment (which is highly visible as apparent screen/gpu/BIOS corruption) can be reversed BEFORE the system dies when the Belkin surge protector is removed from the equation... the equipment will "recover" over time with continued use through a non-belkin power adapter. As it's very common for Brits to emigrate to Australia and returning Australians to bring many UK electronic equipment with them along with UK power boards so they can continue using their British electronic s - I'm guessing this flaw must have destroyed millions of dollars/pounds worth of equipment... and most people would have no idea the cause of the problems... they would have simply assumed their computer and or equipment failed and bought new ones with an Australian adapter thus bypassing the problem. As I said - it's NOT a one off freak accident - it is easily replicated. So I've been tossed between many support staff from 3 different countries at Belkin before finally being told "tough Luck". They now have not even returned my surge protector which I sent them for testing (although they said they would I suspect they don't want it being sent to other people for testing). I'm sure companies have done worse to cover up things like this but I've not encountered it myself until now. Any suggestions of what I do next? 'The Register' initially expressed an interest in this case but have not contacted me again... are there good consumer websites to post this on?

I got a TWC bill in the mail yesterday (lord knows why, as I've tried selecting the paperless option several times in the past) and I glanced it over. I immediately did a double-take and was shocked to see a $98 on it. At first I thought it was an amount owed, but it was actually a credit of -$98.63 that my previous balance was and then my current balance after my monthly bill of $34.99 (vs $41.46 as I now have my own router so I'm not paying that extra fee ) is now sitting at -$63.64. Wondering what the hell had happened, I logged onto my account. This is what I found after looking into my payment history: I had signed up for the auto pay/recurring payments so I didn't have to worry about missing any payments (I've accidentally done this in the past). I started up service mid April for my current apartment and it worked fine for taking care of the bill for May, but for some reason I got charged 4 days later. Then 16 days later they charged me again, this time for $20 more than my previous bill...and the same amount again 11 from that. I didn't realize at first that it had happened in June and hadn't occurred since and only noticed the $61 charges so I quickly got on the phone with TWC (oh joy) to see what was up. After double checking my balance with the guy (Stanley, I think it was) that I didn't owe anything he just laughed and told me that I should be happy with a credit on my account. Well I'm actually not too happy with them charging me $164 within a month when my bill is only $35 He then "assured me" that it wouldn't happen again after I voiced my concerns and then there was nothing more for me to really do. Wasn't about to leave that in their hands again so my auto payment was promptly turned off. I guess this'll teach me to check my CC bill more closely and to trust TWC with charging me automatically.

I've been a subscriber for several years, and generally I love the content on this sub. But in the last 1-2 years, there has been a staggering increase in the number of anti-Comcast posts. To the extent that there is now a specific flair/tag, just for Comcast posts. Now I'm sure Comcast are terrible. And I'm definitely in favour of calling out sub-par technology companies. But we should all bear in mind that not everyone on /r/technology resides in the USA . So for a significant portion of the users here, Comcast news is utterly irrelevant and meaningless. Yet it's quickly becoming the predominant content on this sub. I remember a few months ago, there was some big Comcast scandal, and there was a prominent post that suggested we all upvote every anti-Comcast story, no matter what the content. I dare say this might explain some of the prominence of Comcast posts. Once again, I am not defending Comcast . I'm sure they're terrible. All I'm saying is that we need to bear in mind that there are many countries in the world that are not the USA. There are probably thousands of people who browse this sub, for whom Comcast news is utterly irrelevant. Can we try to broaden our horizons here? Can we try to talk about technology , rather than bitch about American telecoms companies?

Reddit is one of the best communities on earth in terms of understanding the importance of net neutrality. Reddit users understand that every person with an idea for a start-up should be able to pursue their vision without having to worry about the dumb pipes that carry their service to end users. However, there are other questions many of us might be curious about. Namely, how much more web based innovation can we expect to see? E-commerce sites were the great leap forward of the 90s (think Amazon and EBay) and the big innovations of the 2000s were more competition amongst browsers, the growth in prominence and efficacy of search engines (especially Google), radical improvements in consumer computing, the emergence of smart devices, and social media. We're nearing the half way mark for the 2010s. What have we gotten so far? The IPad, vine, snapchat, growth in the popularity/adaptation of crowdfunding, and limited progress in the wearables market. Here's the question- how much more innovation via web/applications can we expect to see? It's obviously an unanswerable question, but it's fun to speculate. Promising emerging areas include mobile payments, virtual reality, 3D printing, wearables, home automation, driverless vehicles, artificial intelligence, alternative energy technologies, and space travel. The thing is, even if the FCC creates the most stringent net neutrality protections imaginable, even if we had 1 Gig fiber connections to every home, even if there were 1000 more competitors in telecoms and Internet access was as cheap and ubiquitous as the air we breath, that would be wonderful, but it would not necessarily move the ball forward all that much on many of the topics listed above. Has the Internet largely ran out of space for new categories of enterprises, or are we just in another rut like in the early 2000s?

First let me start by saying DO NOT BUY AN IPHONE WITH SPRINT. Great, now thats out of the way - I was a loyal sprint customer going on 16 years and up until today I had no issue with them except of their pricing and disinterest in incentivizing their loyal customers to stay with them. I purchased an iPhone 6 the day it came out (which will be an important note in a second) and on Tuesday (February 2nd 2015) I decided enough was enough and chose to move to Verizon to save some money. I got to Verizon and started setting up my account and was told I need to call sprint and have them release my phone number to begin the transfer. I’ll try to condense what is to follow. I spoke with customer service and they said I had to pay off my phone and outstanding phone bill (it wasn’t under contract with sprint) before I could have my phone unlocked… the balance was $1100.. reluctantly I paid it off and then was told they couldn’t unlock it from the network and I had to wait until the 19th (today) because Apple was going to be sending an update that would allow me to unlock my phone to move providers… It was an inconvenience but the guy at Verizon said I could get an iPhone from them until this was cleared up and then return it when I was finished.. SO I went with the flow and got an iPhone from Verizon with the intention of returning it before the 14 day period had expired. (This was a 3 hour waste of time at Verizon) SO HERE COMES THE FUN PART. Today, the 19th. I went back to Verizon and said “Okay, I should be able to move my phone over today” popped in their sim card.. nothing.. I called Apple Care and she had no idea what I was talking about when it came to an update. She then made it a 3 way call to sprint and the guy said “oh no sprint is suppose to send the update not Apple!” Puts me on Hold 30 minutes later … Sprint: “Is the apple rep still on the phone?” Me: “No, I’m pretty sure she left 10 minutes into being on hold” Sprint: “Well, it doesn’t look like Apple has sent you the update” Me: “You just said it wasn’t apple that was going to push me the update, it was sprint.” Sprint: “Oh yeah, well I’m unable to unlock your phone, let me transfer you to customer care and they should be able to help you” Me: “… okay..” Starting over again… Sprint: “Customer care how can I help you ect.” I explained everything over again for a THIRD time and was told it shouldn’t be an issue.. an hour later I was transferred to THAT persons supervisor a was told that they were getting an error saying that my phone had not been activated for 90 days so it couldn’t be released from the network. I insisted that I in fact bought the phone on launch day so it was well over 90 days, she then started talking in circles trying to blame the problem on EVERYONE but Sprint. Such excuses like “Its hard coded into the phone, theres nothing I can do…” She told me I couldn’t get a refund of the amount I paid 3 days earlier and that the only option I had was to take my phone to a sprint store and do the buy back program which I would get completely screwed on. So now I’m stuck with a $750 sprint brick thats worthless to ME and now have a Verizon iPhone I have to pay off.. The FUG should I do? Share this story in any other applicable sub PLEASE.

Just thought I'd throw this customer experience out there. We've had Cox in Phoenix for just over a year, had them in Omaha for about four years prior to our move to AZ. I liked Cox, they were always quick to respond when we had an issue/offer bill credits for problems/etc. About a month ago I was told on the phone that our monthly rate was going up by about $10 a month. This was fine - our rate was relatively acceptable as it was based on a promotional rate we were given when we moved to AZ. For another $10/mo, I felt we were getting a good amount of product for our money (decent digital cable subscription...no DVR, ~70mb/sec internet). Bill came, the increased rate was TRIPLE the amount we were promised - by a little over $30/mo. Keep in mind I've had about half a dozen service issues over the past twelve months and have spent MANY hours on the phone with Cox dealing with billing and service problems. So to call in and rectify a billing issue that shouldn't exist was not high on my list of things-to-do-with-my-free-time. Called in, talked to customer loyalty/billing and explained in a very calm and respectable way that we were told the bill wasn't going to be raised more than $10/mo. After spending about 40 minutes on the phone and being juggled between three different representatives, I was told either we would have to cut services to meet the promised rate or the rate increase would be at least double what we were promised. I explained that this was unacceptable - that our rate was promised without detracting from any services we currently had - and was essentially told by two separate loyalty employees "tough shit, it doesn't matter what you were told by another Cox representative 30 days ago - the prices are now what they are". This is the first time in my experience with Cox that they were unwilling to TRY and add a discount or promotional rate to fix an issue that was caused by their company. Had they not promised the rate increase at $10/mo I wouldn't be upset, but the fact that they made the promise and failed to do the right thing caused me to cancel my service. Cox is obviously not afraid of the Comcast/Time Warner public relations fiasco...it is high time all cable companies are aware we're the reason they exist, not the other way around.

Prelude and note: I signed no NDA's, no trade-secret contracts, etc. I worked as a contractor some time ago, and was not actually employed as a W-2 Comcast Employee. I just figured today was finally the day to tell my story. So, a little background. I'm an IT contractor, working for an anonymous company in some sector of the US, located between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Real Specific. Some months ago, I was approached by the contract agency for a job. If you've ever worked in IT for any length of time, you know these recruiters will say anything to get you on the phone. However, having recently been trashed by my current employer over nothing, and not making anything close to market wages for the work I was doing, I decided to talk to one. They had a position as a Server Engineer / Systems Administrator opening up, and wanted me to move into it. It was a short-term, back-fill contract to replace an employee who was bought out of his previous contract. It would be a technical raise (I would be leading deployments, installs, etc), and a financial raise (Not a significant annual amount, but almost 30% more than I was currently making). The catch is, it was with Comcast. Now, I'm very well versed in IT. I've been working with computers since I could walk and talk, servers and networking since elementary school (I kid you not), and I have a Bachelors of Science in Information Engineering Technology. I'm well aware of what the FCC Chairman is trying to do, and I'm more than a little aware of the Comcast Oligopoly in my area (my choices for internet in my area are currently 12Mbps DSL for $60/mo, or 80Mbps Comcast for $70/mo. Gee, what should I pick). However, I figured I'd give it a shot, because I'm not the kind of person to write off a job and a raise without at least giving it some thought. My interviews with Comcast went fantastically. They had a contract written up before I could blink. For the next 5 weeks, I busted arse to do anything and everything they needed. I took the night shift at a National Data Center while a co-worker had family concerns. I offered ideas on how to help others with productivity. I completed 30-server installs days ahead of schedule. Twice in two nights, I prevented what would've been regional and national service-affecting downtime events (one taking down a large chunk of NBC, and the other affecting corporate/customer data). My manager was thrilled to have me around, even going so far as to contact my contracting agency and thank them for my work, and I started helping out on a massive 800+ server expansion. Now, at one point some time into my contract, a few weeks before it ran out, I was approached by my manager and Comcast HR. My performance as a contractor was exemplary. They were considering buying me out of my contract. At one point, I was given an interview for a W-2 full-time position. After the interview, a co-worker offered me some book by the current CEO (I forget the title), that detailed the company's values, and how he was the best person on Wall Street to work for. I politely declined the book, as I didn't agree with some of the net neutrality arguments, the Comcast-TWC merger, and a few other things (note: I mentioned none of this. I simply declined the book, and the co-worker joked about it, "what, you don't want the brainwashing material every employee gets a copy of?"). Then, out of nowhere, on Monday morning after my 4th night that weekend (Thursday-Sunday night), one of the Comcast higher-ups on the east coast contacted my contract company, and made it very clear, in no uncertain terms, that my contract was terminated, and that it was not open to any further discussion. I was not asked about anything that would get you fired (illegal activity, torrents, porn, etc. None of which, of course, I did at work). In fact, nobody from Comcast contacted me, in any way, whatsoever, but they did make it clear they wanted no further contact with me. I was to return my company laptop and phone to the contract company I worked for, and they would return it to Comcast on my behalf. They refused any phone calls from me or my contract manager, and when HR of my company called Comcast HR, they refused to discuss any details, saying only that my "Contract was terminated, and the nature of it is sensitive, so there will be no discussion on the matter". Now, after this, I took another contract, as the contracting company heard nothing but good things about me until Comcast terminated my contract. I currently have another job, with an unrelated company. I'm not thrilled with how Comcast handled this issue (okay, no sugar-coating it. The situation sucked and I was pretty massively depressed for awhile, because I had no idea what I did, and started blaming myself), but they technically did nothing illegal. I was a contractor, and could be released from my contract by them at any time, for any reason. Comcast does this a lot; most of their company positions not in Philadelphia are contract or contract-to-hire positions. Even their internal I.T. and Server/Systems help desk is outsourced to India.

So recently I was moving from one townhouse to another and I had Comcast service. When I found out the new place had Fiber through Frontier I planned on canceling my Comcast service and just going through with the move away from Satan. When I called Frontier the earliest that a Technician could come out to hook the place up would be 2 weeks. So since I had my own modem I thought I would keep Comcast and hook up my modem in the new place(since that is what I did in the old place) and then call them up to have them recognize my modem number and IP then have internet until Frontier could hook me up. When I called Comcast they said the new house I was moving to had not been serviced since 2012(which he said was 4 years ago) and they had to have a technician come out and "make sure everything was hooked up and ready to go". I declined saying that if I was going to have to wait for a technician then I may as well just wait for the Frontier tech, since it would be about the same timeframe. Then he told me about a "service" that Comcast provided where you can sign in through a Comcast portal to have limited access to the internet. So I said that would be nice but who the hell am I getting the internet access from? He responded that he has no idea how it works but you can get internet. I would not consider myself a Network Engineer or really even close but it seems to me that in order to get internet you would have to use someone else's private internet and then you would sign in through some sort of Comcast portal to get past the password on their router. So I think that if you have Comcast internet there may be a backdoor where someone could piggyback off your internet. Needless to say I will look into it more but I thought all of you should know.

Let me start this off with some full disclosure: If you want to skip right to the start, scroll past the bullets I talked to Comcast Support at 4:30 pm EST today. Immediately I regretted not having recorded the conversation since the information I was told needs to be heard. I took the screenshot shortly before 5pm EST. When I realized I needed some tangible evidence for my post to have credit. The time in between the screenshots and this post was due to me getting off work and traveling home to start this post. The first screenshot shows Comcasts data usage cap locations and was last Updated Sept 23rd. The underlined city is where I live: I call Comcast Customer Support to see about getting my data cap either raised or removed. None of my Billing Agreements or Terms and Restrictions was a data cap ever mentioned when I first signed up for 50 Mbps Blast! Internet, I did not find the above information about data usage cap areas until after the call today. I was surprised in August when I went over by A LOT and received text and emails about my data usage. As you can see in the 2nd screenshot: I talk to someone and she is no help at all (Of course right?) so I ask to speak to a supervisor, hoping to get a less scripted person. She agrees and I get put on hold. She answers a couple minutes later and tells me that her supervisor just told her they removed the data usage cap recently. Whether or not it applies to you may differ, but it doesnt hurt to call and ask. I then proceed to ask 2 questions. Im caught off guard by her response and need some confirmation to make sure I am hearing correctly: So if I ever go over that 300GB I will not be charged anything at all? She responds," No, sir, there will be no overage charges since the data cap has been removed." So, hypothetically, if I had already used my 3 Courtesy Months and go over this month there would be no extra charges? She responds," There is no data cap so you will not receive any charges for overage. " Great news right? I suggest double checking if it applies to your area since the data usage areas were updated September 23rd, but my city remains on the list. Here is the weird part, if you look at my past data usage: Both September and October stopped at 277GB, I downloaded a 10GB game on October 30th since I still had 23GB of data left and I didnt want it to go waste. My data usage never went over tha 277GB. So basically, they have capped the measured data usage so that you cant go over it looks like. I just think its really dumb that they removed this data usage cap and did not think to inform the people like me who it affected. Especially, with all the bad publicity they get. The removal of the data cap is good move and really awesome for customers overall IMO.

For the last few months, I have recorded all of my conversations with customer service representatives when I have needed to call a company about anything. It seems that in today's world that you need to do so in order to resolve any issue that may arise or to make a company keep a promise that they give you. Here is my story of dealing with Comcast yesterday. [Youtube audio of my entire series of calls]( I am hoping that this will get their attention and they they can just give me the real answer or solution to my issue. August 5th, 2014 - I receive an email from Comcast, with a subject of "SERVICE UPDATE: We've increased your speed!" Screenshot of my Email from Comcast . I have heard about this happening around the country, and it's nice to know that Sacramento County is being included. I follow the instructions in the email (turn off computer, unplug the cable modem, wait 10 seconds, plug it back in, wait 30 seconds, turn on computer) and go to test on speedtest.comcast.net. Still only 50Mbps. I think to myself, I received this email at 4:05pm, and opened it at 9pm. Maybe I just need to wait a day or so for this to be active. I then went to bed and promptly forgot about it. August 12th, 2014 - I am scrolling through my emails looking for something, see the email from Comcast, and go to check my speeds again. Still 50Mbps. Do the reset process again. Same thing. Think to myself, maybe something is wrong, I will call them in the morning to ask about it. I go to bed that night and again, forget about it. August 19th, 2014 - My phone pops up with a reminder to call the Comcast Executive Care team. [Side note, this call is to fix a problem with applying a new price to my TV service, as when I moved, the TV somehow became tied to the internet. I had no contract internet, but a 2 year contract on the TV service. I have each of them as a Single Play service, and the internet is priced at 29.95 for 1 year. When I went to cancel the TV service, they said that they were connected as a double play, both were under contract, and if I went internet only, they would raise the price to $54.05/month.] After the helpful representative fixed the billing problem with my services, she asked me if there was anything else she could do to help. At that point, I remembered the email from Comcast, and I ask her to look into that issue. She verified that the speeds were increased in my area, and that I should have already been getting the higher speed. She ran some tests, and verified that I was able to receive the higher speeds on my modem, but was not sure how to fix it as it was out of her area of expertise. She then asked me if it was ok to connect me with someone who would be able to fix the problem and I agreed. After a brief hold, a new representative came on the line. That representative was aware of the issue, identified, and went to fix the problem. The unfortunate part, is that while I was on hold, the call was dropped. I am not sure if my phone lost reception or if it was dropped on the Comcast side. This call lasted about 29 minutes. I then called back, and here is where an hour long call began, in which nothing was resolved, even though I was told it was. I was transferred many times, told many different things, received a call back while I was on hold, then hung up in frustration. I will summerize that I was told by each representative. Feel free to listen to the audio if you want to feel my pain. [Youtube audio of my entire series of calls]( There is alot if silence in the audio while I wait for a response or am on hold. Representative 3 (25:40 into audio) - Unable to understand what the doubling of the speed is. Does not know how to fix the problem. I request to be connected with an engineer who can understand the problem. She transfers me to another representative. Representative 4 (34:30 into audio) - Was transferred to the cable troubleshooting department. They only deal with TV signal problems. The Representative offers to connect me to the correct department again. I ask this person to stay on the line, but he does not. Representative 3 (38:50 into audio) - Kim, the earlier representative calls back. Says she identified and fixed the problem. I will just need to power cycle the modem. For some reason, I do not believe here. It is funny as I merged the calls, so she is also on hold with me as I wait for the next representative. She does confirm what the Comcast Executive Office representative told me earlier though. Representative 5 (41:30 into audio) - Bill picks up the line. After telling him the problem, he is telling me that I understand the email wrong. He states that it was a limited time promotion that has passed. He told me that I needed to call in to receive the higher speed. He then tells me that I need to pay to get the higher speed. He then tells me that I need to add another line of service like phone service to get the doubled speed. I argue with him for about 5 minutes, but he insists that the offer expired and that he can no longer add the rate code. He then tells me that he will need to reboot the cable modem from his end. I go through that process, run a speed test, and still at 50Mbps. Still insists that I needed to call to receive this. I request to be connected with a higher level engineer that can help. He transfers me. Representative 6 (1:07:00 into audio) - Priscilla with Comcast Wireless Support picks up. After she looks up my account info, she does the line which tries to get me to ok her trying to sell me products. I state that I am declining all sales and not to change any rates or services on my account. She stated that I already have the highest tier and that I was not eligible for the upgrade. I also let her know that I was recording the call and that based upon previous customers experiences, that it seems that the only way to get something fixed is to upload the conversation the internet. She accuses me of threatening her. I told her that I was just frustrated and that everyone was telling me something different. She told me that I have the fastest tier, and that I can't get anything higher. She tells me that I need to be hard wired into the modem. I tell her that I am. She then told me that it hasn't gone into affect in my area. I tell her that they need to push out the new config file to my modem to fix the problem. She calls it the code. After some back and forth, she tells me that only the billing or sales department can code and push it out. She said she would transfer me, but they are now closed and they close at 7pm. I look at the clock, it is 6pm. I tell her that and she is a little stunned. She asks me to give her a moment. She then transfers my call without letting me know. Representative 7 (1:22:30 into audio) - A new department. Comcast Business. WTF. I am so frustrated I hang up and decided to post this to reddit.

Before you stone me, read why! I have had comcast since I was a teenager (now 29) because my parents had it in their home. When I moved out it just made sense to me to set up the service because I knew what it was like. It wasn't really good, but it wasn't horrible. Basic TV watching and online gaming - I had minimal problems. After my first two years my contract changed and they wanted to charge my almost double what I was paying! I was not about to do that so I called them to complain/cancel/threaten with AT&amp;T packages. They did the typical hold/transfer that you all hate so much, so after about 20 minutes I decided to ditch this plan and drive to the customer service center. It is about half an hour from my home. I go and stand in the awfully long line and then politely chat with the CSR and talk about TV/sports/general tv related things and then show him my new bill. I explain that this is a bummer and that I want to stay with comcast because it is easier for me. He then asks if I am willing to stay for another 2 years, which I was. So he lowered my new rate to an even lower monthly charge! Ever since then I take my problems/concerns to the service center. I honestly think that there are comcast employees that aren't agents of satan. You just have to force them to give your account number a face. I hope this helps. I'm sorry if this is out of the question for you, but I think it's worth the little bit of time I have to waste to have cheap rates.

You've all heard the awful audio recordings of terrible Comcast customer service. I don't have that, but I do have a personal story so bad that if it had a smell, it would curl your nose hair. Last year I moved into a new home. I scheduled an appointment with Comcast to install service on my Friday move-in date. Who doesn't want internet as soon as they move in? The tech shows up on-time and informs me he can't install service because there is no cable line from the street to my home. What!? Apparently, a line needs to be dropped from a telephone pole across the street to the cable box on the side of my home. I ask the tech why Comcast didn't check to see if there was pre-existing service to the home? The tech didn't have a good answer, but he was a pleasant enough man so I was content when he called in the problem and informed me a bucket truck was scheduled to run the line from the street on Monday, three days later. Thinking ahead, I called Comcast to schedule another tech to complete the install after the bucket truck runs the line from the street. I was able to secure an appointment for Tuesday, the day after the supposed bucket truck was to appear and run the line. Well guess what? Bucket truck doesn't show on Monday. Another call to Comcast, I cancel the pending tech install, and after being shuffled between three reps in different departments I was able to talk to someone who supposedly can schedule bucket trucks. Another appointment for a Friday (for which I take-off work), and another bucket-truck no-show. But they did send a regular tech, who could do nothing for me without the line from the street except look at my exasperated face. Now maybe I'm a masochist or just a very patient person. Of course I felt anger and if that were sufficiently motivating I might have called another company and avoided the ensuing debacle. But I fell victim to the sunk-cost fallacy, believing that since I was already eye-ball deep in shit it couldn't get any worse than the time I had already invested and wasted. Maybe being a non-believer sentenced me to Comcast hell, because if there was a God he surely would have saved me by now. I called Comcast again to explain the problem to see if they can meet my needs. A few more rep shuffles and I speak to a supervisor who listens to my plight (somewhat sympathetically) and tells me a bucket truck is really scheduled for the following week. Guess what? Another no-show, but after another call to a rep, they inform me that I was on the schedule for the next day. Bucket truck shows up and installs the line. Holy cow, I'm one step closer to my internet salvation. Tech comes a few days later (for which I take-off time from work again) and is a complete tool who is on the phone with his incredibly insecure girlfriend the entire time comforting her fears that he's banging girls while on his cable install appointments. Dude got the girl pregnant and put a ring on her finger. I'm a psychologist and I want to tell him it's not too late - he can just be a good dad to the baby without marriage and the horror he will sustain, but I don't give advice so I refrain and let nature take its course. Totally unprofessional dude installs my internet and gets it working. I spend more time on the phone with Comcast trying to get money off my bill for all the time that had been wasted. I managed to secure $120.

So yeah so... Flaws with the iPhone 5S: Clearly no real customization other than ringtones and text tones, icon placement and wallpapers No native GMail push... either check email every 15, 30, or hourly... yes, there's an app but you can't attach a document in that app... only photos it seems. Jailbreaks are typically temporary (last on the current version for about a couple of months, then a restore will kill it since you can't restore to an older version after a new OS version is released). You could still iLEX RAT, but you still have to not have ever accidentally/intentionally updated/restored to the newest version of iOS. Nothing beats reddit is fun for Android for Reddit browsing. The app looks like the Reddit web interface in terms of colors and readability and Alien Blue seems to be too polished for a reading app which is essentially what it is. More focus on content would be nice... Getting ringtones and setting them without purchasing them is a bigger hassle than it should be. Safari sync is great, but I use Chrome on my Mac. Chrome is just better. No main file storage place where I can just put files and access them in any app. Like I download a file and want to edit it with two apps. It's possible, but it's a pain in the ass. Hopefully Dropbox integration exists in both apps. Flaws with the Nexus 5: No lockscreen notifications by default (can't even swipe down on the bar to show notifications if you have a passcode enabled). You need an app for that. Tapping on links gives me like 30 options to choose from and all I wanted to do was open an email. Sometimes if I tap Always, I can't completely predict what the thing is. Do I want to open Sounds in Media Store or Audiko Ringtones? No idea as to what will happen if I choose Audiko Ringtones. All I wanted to do was set a ringtone. I don't need choices. App quality (for many apps) sucks. Try installing the Seamless app... omg ugly as fuck... It feels like there's not much patrolling of the Play Store, so many apps get installed and deleted after seeing that the app is crap or something someone coded in 5 mins that is really just terrible. No real device backups and restores (only the list of apps gets restored, good luck on getting app data back). Not on the Nexus devices, but bloatware (in general). Battery life seems to fluctuate a lot more than on iOS. You have to go through 3 menus to kill an app. Too many choices for an SMS app and most of them suck. I should just have something that works. Google Hangouts (default) is way too integrated with Google+ to be a good texting app. I really don't consider Google+ to be a real social network. I wish, but I don't think it'll ever get there. Chrome for Android has text flow bugs where paragraphs of text just pile themselves on top of each other and become unreadable (usually forum sites have this issue). ROMs typically decrease battery life even though they advertise a battery life increase. A guy sitting in his parents' basement clearly knows what he's doing better than the Android team combined with all their experience. Nothing exists like AppleCare or AppleCare+ for Nexus phones. Not waiting a week for a package from LG to arrive... sorry... nope. Too many dark colors everywhere. Samsung. (no innovation but random gimmicks for the sake of feeling superior and just copying the market leader - I can't wait until they go for Tizen and just completely invest in that losing strategy...) Nexus devices have their sound too low at the highest setting and I hate changing things that just should work out of the box.

By this point, most of everyone on here, as well as the other technology related subreddits have heard that the [F.C.C. is considering proposing the idea of internet fast lanes into their latest “Net Neutrality” proposal.]( As I am sure that many of you are aware, if this decision comes to fruition, it will make for a terrible day in the History of the United States Internet. This decision will allow for pay-to-play models, in which the ISP’s can dictate which companies can transmit data over their networks at the fastests speeds. One could argue that this practice is little more than digital extortion, and it will eventually pave the way towards higher premiums for digital content distribution services and a drastic stifling of innovation on the same front. What little innovation that does manage to survive this decision will likely be shipped overseas, where tech startups will have room to flourish, and will not have to deal with the crippling fees that the US market deems necessary to place upon them. Essentially, the internet that we Americans have come to know and love is on the brink of extinction, and there isn’t much we can do about it… Or is there? Over the last several hours, I have been reading the general reactions to this news. The first, and most damning are that of complacency. The comments that essentially boil down to, “Well guys, we tried. Net Neutrality is dead. Sadpanda.” On the other half of the spectrum are the reactions of those that are furious and want to see some form of action set forward to finally bring an end to the battle for Net Neutrality. While I fundamentally agree with the latter half, the problem remains that neither of these are taking the proper steps towards rectifying this situation. So what are we to do then? Do we write angry emails to the F.C.C. commissioners? Do we vent our frustrations within the comment sections of tech related subs? Do we share this information on popular social networking sites, in the hopes that maybe we can rally the mainstreamers to our cause? The short answer to all of those questions is, “yes,” however, taking all of those steps will amount to very little in the long run. So what is the missing element then? How can we hope to get our voices out in front of the right people who have the most influence in this decision? Two words: organized protest . Washington D.C. has a population of 632,323 people. There are also a total of about 19.79 Million people that live within a four hour driving distance of Washington D.C., most of which hail from New Jersey and New York City. Why is this number important? Consider that the United States is gigantic, and the financial burden is huge for someone who lives in Middle-America or the West Coast to travel to D.C. The fact is that very few people outside of this regional demographic will have the opportunity to travel to D.C. for the sole purpose of protesting, regardless how much they would want to be a part of it. Now, ask yourself, out of the 19.79 million people that live within a short driving distance of D.C., how many of them do you think are redditors? Considering that as of July, 2013, reddit touted that 6% of the US population were current users of reddit, we can draw the assumption that about at least 1.19 million of those individuals are redditors. The more difficult statistic to pin down is just how many of these individuals have heard of, or let alone, care about Net Neutrality. The only poll number I was able to find dates back to late 2010, and it claims that only 21% of U.S. voters support Net Neutrality. we assume that the same percentage carries over to the U.S. user base, then that equates to about 871,200 U.S. /r/Technology subscribers. If we take the roughly 6% of the US population that lives within a 4 hour driving distance of D.C., and apply it to the estimated U.S. /r/Technology subscribers, we get an estimated total of 52,272 people. Granted, this estimation has an extreme margin of error, considering that we do not have definitive numbers of the /r/Technology geographics, but for the time being, we’ll work with it. Let us assume that out of those 52,272 people, 1% are willing to make a trip to D.C. and stand out in front of the F.C.C. Building, sign in hand, yelling out for a united cause. Will 500 protesters be enough to put a dent in this thing? Probably not, but what if we can get 5% (~2,600)? What about 15% (~7,840)? Imagine the ruckus that could be raised with 25% (~13,000). Regardless, whether the number is 500 or 15,000, the fact is that someone will take notice. Sure, the mainstream media will not air a moment of the protest for anything less than 5,000 people most likely, but the hundreds of tech blogs likely will, as well as the various local outlets surrounding the D.C. area. Point is, a grassroots movement has to start somewhere, and every person that is out picketing with a sign, is one less who is not. To elaborate: if redditors want to actually do anything to deter the almost inevitable death of Net Neutrality, then we are going to have to do a little more than just type angrily on our keyboards and huff at our monitors. We need to get out, get organized, and do everything within our power to start a National debate on this issue, and with it being an election year, this is the perfect opportunity to just that. Rally the troops. Let’s get ready to go to war.

So here's the story. Back in January I dealt with a very similar situation. My internet goes to shit for weeks> Comcast sends out Technician> Technician uses SpeedTest.Net> Technician says internet is working fine> Leaves. Repeat this exact same cycle 7 times (with a few corporate calls thrown in for good measure) and it miraculously fixes itself. I'm fine for months. I can play my vidya games, I can stream, I can watch my prons, life is good. ...Until about 3-4 weeks ago. Going back and forth with poor "support" from the Middle East and China, countless transfers that either: A.) disconnects (convenient right?) or B.) transfers to a department that has nothing to deal with my internet issue (they sent me to wireless a few times). I eventually got fed up and just started calling Corporate and harassing them on Twitter. At least I can understand them there. I was scheduled for this past Saturday, awesome! I then call "support" just to make SURE it's for Saturday because Comcast HAS cancelled appointments of me before out of nowhere. My appointment was set for WEDNESDAY, between noon and 2pm (I'm not even home during those hours). I called corporate, explained things, and now fast forward to today (Thursday) because fuck me right? Scheduled for the hours of 5pm-7pm. I call around 6:55pm to see where the guy is at. I'm then greeted with an automated service which tells me the technician will be here between 7pm-8pm. [Here]( is the link to the recording.

I've been following this news story for days now. After Apple's letter to it's customers, and the subsequent backing of Google, Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter, it's gained my interest, and I read article after article every single day. What frustrates me the most about this news story, though, isn't the content; it's the comments. I've read comment after comment on news sites, tech sites, social media sites, hell even Reddit that are inane and spreading complete misinformation. So I'm here to try and piece together in a somewhat coherent fashion my thoughts, as a 23 year old SysAdmin with a base level understanding of encryption and a pretty good grasp of politics, the issues that are going to arise to the common layman like me should Apple or any other technical company be forced to comply with the judges order. Disclaimer: This is all purely swayed by my opinion and technical understanding, which, while better than the average worker outside the IT industry, I do not profess as fact. Your Government, whether US, UK, Germany, Italy, Holland, Australia or China doesn't care about your personal information. They don't care about the nudes you sent to your ex girlfriend while your wife was out of town. They don't care about the risky snapchat you sent while you were at work. They don't care about the text message you sent to your best mate about that crazy night you just had. Seriously. Get that in to your mind now, and this will become a lot easier. Your government doesn't want your personal information. There's people out there who do though. There's people who want to know what information is stored on your phone, and it's a lot of information. Nobody cares too much about your browsing habits, but the fact your Facebook account, your Reddit account, Your Twitter, Bank Account, Credit Card(s) and all the other personal information that could help them take what they want from you, they care about that stuff. Think of a common case of identity theft. It starts with social engineering. They find out who you are, what you like. Eventually, they find your passcode to your phone. But that can take months, and especially if you have a fingerprint scanner, or better, a '10 strikes and all the information is wiped' feature (to be topical!) means they have to be sure they're right, or they don't get in at all. If they do, though, they can take apart your life piece by piece. This is what Apple is trying to prevent first and foremost. What they're asking for is a way to circumvent inbuilt security features. Right now, if you enter the wrong passcode in to a phone too many times, it locks you out from attempting again for a progressive amount of time. First minutes, eventually going up to hours at a time. This means the amount of human effort necessary to get into just a single phone isn't really viable if you don't know what's in there, and even if you do, it's mostly not valuable enough for that amount of time anyway. Here's what the FBI want. They want a way to stop that auto-lock out from happening based on incorrect attempts. They want the feature that you're able to switch on to be disabled that will wipe your phone of all data after 10 incorrect passcode attempts. They want a way to keep trying passcodes without having a person there (electronically, and with a computer). This is good, in fact, what they're asking for, they're doing it for the right reasons. Here's the ramification of building something like that. When it gets out into the open about how it's done (and it will, John McAfee, legendary hacker - read some of his stuff on social engineering - it will happen), the people who are currently restricted suddenly aren't. They can remotely hack your phone, even if it's in your pocket, or on your desk, or whatever. And they can do it fast . A computer entering in to a phone every passcode from 0000 to 9999 will take hours, minutes, even, once an algorithm is built and streamlined to do it for you. And then they have access to your whole life. Everything you've ever put in to your phone. Your history, your bank details, your address, your family, and their address, even. It doesn't take long to become public knowledge. The hackers will find it and abuse it. And it's a danger to the general populace worldwide, not just the people the governments of the world might think are slightly dangerous. The FBI have said they want this as a one time use programme, but believe me when I say, there is no way to build this for a one time use. Slightly modify the parameters, and bam, it'll work on any iOS device out there (and it's been widely stated that there's a billion in the world today). It won't be long before it's modified to work on OS X too. A couple of scenarios you should imagine while we're here. David Cameron, Prime Minister of the UK, Barack Obama, POTUS, and many other world leaders have iOS devices. A technical terrorist could get hold of their information too. That's dangerous on a lot of levels. Another; should the FBI force this through on Apple, they can use the same laws in the same context to force this through on any tech company. Windows, Mac, Android, iOS - none of it will be safe. Not even Linux. So please be informed about this. The real issue isn't that your Government wants to spy on allthethings , it's that the code that would have to be built can be socially engineered into the open, and that puts everyone, including you and I, at a major risk.

A few months ago I rented a room down in San Diego for about 2 months. I stayed there during the week, and returned to LA for the weekends. Weeks later, LinkedIn was able to ask me if I knew someone else who stayed there...even though I was connected to her in ZERO ways. It was puzzling. The house had four different professionals renting rooms there. One of them was a young Chinese woman who worked at Broadcomm. She was quiet, I barely saw her in the house, when I did we spoke only courteous hellos. This place was a complete "off the books" temp stay. No mail forwarding. No mention of the address anywhere online. I didn't know this girls full name, I didn't know her email, or Facebook or anything. And she didn't know mine. I only knew her first name and where she worked thru chat in the house. Weeks after leaving the house, when LinkedIn pushed her profile on me, asking if I knew her, I was stumped. NOTHING tied me to her, or the house, that anyone online would know. Then I remembered. Twice while there, I had Amazon packages delivered to me. It's THE ONLY INSTANCE of my address ever being written ANYWHERE online. That's crazy, Amazon.

Darknet should be renamed as Lightnet or something positive (New_net?), which should prevail as the #1 way to connect to the internet. This method should allow every device to connect and contribute to the new_net peer-to-peer internet-network. All wireless devices, router or laptop, would help aid in the transfer and the freedom of information. Given that ISPs only use about 2 cents / 1 GB, and charge us $1-2 for the same thing, it is becoming highly apparent that they will be greatly not needed in the future. Imagine sharing files from your house, without having to ask permission from your ISP, or worry about a hefty ftp server charge / or ban. Imagine using your cell phone for free, without any service charges or agreements in well-populated areas. Because the FCC isn't doing their job with equal rights regulation of the internet, and falling to lobbying, the government will adversely make it very tough to find criminals on the internet on their own. Because packets are decentralized, they would have to ask for individualized help to extract answers, instead of always spying on us. Hopefully this symbiotic relationship creates more trust between the people and their governments. The current form of Internet already includes decentralized compatibility functions. Such as packet distribution through multiple points. It just so happens that all packets are largely routed with ISP-owned routers. With the possibility of your information being blindly passed on from your ISP to 3rd parties such as the NSA, MPAA, RIAA without your permission. In the future, routers in houses/busineses will contribute to the New'net using load-balancing features. This will be based on how much CPU power the router isn't using at the time, and what signal strengths are available. Initially, ISPs will fight the idea, but they started this process a long time ago when they started putting data caps on 50 $ a month plans (remember that 200 GB would cost them about 4 dollars). New'net will also alleviate everyones legal liability via anonymizing information packets. Information is free, and freedom of information should be as well (with only a very small electricity charge or zero with a small solar panel / battery) This method retorts humanity back into a positive mindset: that humans are generally caring of others, and they will do positive things if given the chance. I'm personally in IT and am amazed at how supremely complicated the internet can get in its current form. This complication leads to blind eyes being granted, and backdoors being allowed. In this mesh-net scenario, the idea is to simplify and to take millions of cheap and simple devices and make them profoundly useful.

I posted this elsewhere in a thread and thought it should be presented here, given the net neutrality opinions voiced in this sub, as my view runs against the grain. Here it goes, apologies for the novel. This discussion begins with the role of an ISP. It involves the FCC and it's presumed role in communication. It then reaches the tiered structure (fast lane/slow lane) proposed in 2014. An ISP is a service provider. It makes its money by providing a consumer access to the internet. This consumer might be a company selling its goods. It also might be a buyer, one of the general public. As part of its mission to sell internet access, it must create the infrastructure to send and receive data to and from customers. As a service provider myself (not an ISP), my goal is twofold, in no particular order: to make money and to help people accomplish something they cannot on their own. ISPs are the same, but lets presume they're only in it for the money. How do I, as a seller, make money? The answer is, selling something worth buying. More specifically, something that makes someone want to buy my good or service. If I provide the same service or good as another person, I make my service more appealing to the customer. I do this by increasing the quality of service, for which I must (1) identify the things my consumers desire, (2) identify what costs I must incur to meet these needs, and (3) raise sufficient revenue to cover costs. In 2005, one of the early instances of FCC involvement in the internet occurred, when a service provider blocked access to lawful content. ([Source]( Since then, it has passed directives to maintain an "open internet," by preventing ISPs from limiting access to any portion of the internet and discriminating quality of service. ([Source]( The 2014 proposal is to eliminate the prohibition on disparate treatment of consumers. In short, the FCC currently regulates the ISPs by making them mere vessels for internet consumption. ISPs' have no ability to create a unique product from other ISPs, save connection speeds and customer service. So, in the end, money making and product quality is cyclical. If I want to make money, I provide a better product than my competition. If I want to provide a better product than my competition, I need to make more money. As is apparent, in the case of today's ISPs, they've been extremely limited in their ability to create a unique product from competing ISPs. They've been limited because of FCC oversight and "net neutrality" dressed up as a limit on competition. Getting to my viewpoint on deregulation, I think we should deregulate all limits on ISPs, save the requirement that contracts be transparent and that those contracts should be enforced vehemently. This deregulation should be phased in, so contracts from service providers can be realized by consumers and different ISPs can begin to distinguish themselves and cater to certain consumers. Returning to my point from earlier, this can result in specialized ISPs. I'm not going to consume from an ISP who throttles my internet for gaming purposes. I'm not to consume from an ISP who limits access to certain goods that I don't consume. I'm not going to consume from an ISP who throttles Amazon Prime. Many might only consume from an ISP who refuses to throttle in any way--if the market demands such a provider. There could be internet service providers that offer WONDERFUL low cost packages to elderly persons who only want access to their bank account website and Netflix. There could be ISPs that offer AMAZING all access content with zero throttling to the nether-regions of the internet. I believe the possibilities are limitless when it comes to ingenuity in the private sector. Look at Elon Musk! But what can be guaranteed is, we won't see this ingenuity if the government continues to suppress ISP R&D. In the end, that's exactly what the current system provides. So many people complain about Comcast doing a poor job. But why do they? Is it truly that they hate their consumer? Or is it really because they don't have a reason to work for it. Is it really because they don't have a need to distinguish themselves and create a quality product. Anywhere, I go, in the US, the ISP sucks. They're cookie cutter, they have awful customer service, they're regional, and they readily screw over customers because there's no need to provide a better product. In the end, I like competition and I like the free market. I don't believe ISPs are the evil companies we believe them to be. I feel they are just like any other company, out to make money and provide a product. What needs to happen, in my book, is that they should be given the ability to do it. Changing gears a bit, [here]( is an article regarding concerning aspects of the new FCC rules for "net neutrality" placed on top of the prior "net neutrality rules from 2010 to the present. It looks as if this is tailored in a way to provide the government extreme control over entire market. In my book, that's a bad thing. I respect this discussion and think it's great to have a conversation on such an important issue. This is a defining moment, in my opinion.

I was doing some thinking and I realized that Apple could be making a mistake by pushing the iWatch to its customers. This is because the world might not be ready for it. Especially since no one has been really asking for it. An example of a tech product released too early could be the tablet. In 2000, the world saw Bill Gates show off the Microsoft tablet, yet it wasn't until 10 years later that the public started buying tablets on a mass scale, tablets made by Apple that is. Microsoft might be the first to come up with a concept of a tablet but they did it at the wrong time. Because of that, Apple is now at the top of the tablet industry with their iPad, not Microsoft. I believe that Apple is now making the same mistake Microsoft did. Although this is all speculation, if the iWatch does not do that well when it is released, a tech company 10 years later might be able to control the smart watch industry. Of course these are only my own thoughts. I was wondering what you guys opinions about the iWatch are.

Comcast, for years, has sold people on internet speed. Faster than DSL, crush your old dialup, we've all heard the commercials and slogans they've used. Looking at Xfinity internet options right now you'll see the mid level plan gives you 50Mbps, which means each second you can download roughly 6.25MB assuming your network is working at the capacity they are actually selling you and isn't just cleverly routed to certain websites and speed test pages. So what does that mean? It means that if Comcast were actually providing the numbers they've used as a sales tool for years, and actually providing the services they sold you on and you are already paying for, you would blow through the new 300GB/Month plan in shockingly fast time, requiring you to then pay additional money for the service they already sold you on in the first place. Here is how it breaks down at 6.25MB/s (the 50Mbps plan) download speeds (and this is not including upload), you can use the internet for (without going over): 48,000 Seconds 800 Minutes 13.33 Hours 0.55 Days 0.0185 Months On the assumption of a 30 day month. Comcast has gone out of their way to sell you on internet speed, billed you based on the service offered at that speed, and then put a cap on it that covers barely one half of one day if they were providing the speeds they had sold you in the first place. So at $10 per 50GB in overages how much would it cost to actually use the service they've quoted and billed you for for the entire 30 day month? We have an additional 2,544,048 seconds to account for to fill our 30 days. Equating to about 15,900,300 MB of already sold transfer left on the table. This equates to 15,900.30 GB, or 318 overage charges An additional $3180, per month, to use the services you already paid for and they already sold you on. Bringing the cost to roughly $3230 a month before taxes, fees, equipment charges, installation, and so on.

So, the other day I won a raffle at work and won a Nexus 7 - so yeah woot woot! I was pretty stoked to give this to my son to fart around with and have fun, so I was setting it up. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon MP3 Player, Pandora, all no problems. Then I got to my Amazon Prime, hmm...nothing is working the App in the Google Play store wont work, and I can't get there through any browser even with enabling Flash through Puffin etc. This is pretty damn frustrating...why can't I use my subscription on this device? Then I decide to go and ask Amazon why I can't use this, as it works on iPad and iPhones and the Kindle why not the Nexus? This is where the fun begins, if you didn't know already the support is off shore so you know what comes with that - not much. My Questionnaire: What device you are using? (e.g. Kindle Fire HD, PC, iPhone, iPad, Roku, etc.) Nexus 7 Describe your question regarding Amazon Instant Video. You are blocking all access from the app AND the web interface - I got this as a gift from work and I pay for a subscription I can't use even through a web browser? What is the name of the video you are referring to? Cars 2 for my kid... Describe the problem and include any error message you see, if any. Blocked under the idea if you block it I will buy a Kindle...wrong. Their Reply (emphasis theirs): At this time, Amazon Instant videos aren't supported on Android devices. I'm sorry for any inconvenience this has caused. I realize that it’s disappointing to know that the device from which you intended to stream the Videos isn't compatible, but please know that "ANDROID" has exclusive rights to the hardware and software that would make it possible for Amazon.com to provide Amazon Instant Videos for these devices. Because of these restrictions, we are unable to offer compatible video content on 'ANDROID' devices at this time. I hope you understand. Whoah...so step the fuck back, Android is blocking them not the other way around? So, I was a little shocked at this...and replied. My Reply: I really hate it when people assume you are dumb. I work in IT, this isn't an Android problem of any sort, this is an Amazon problem. Netflix is working perfectly on all devices...why? Because they want people to use their service and buy it, not try and force them into a platform to use the service they purchased. Why wouldn't this work in Puffin browser with Flash enabled? Because you purposefully block their IP address to not allow access to paying members. Seriously, just man up and say we are stupid and we think that forcing people into a Kindle by blocking their subscription is what we are doing. Change the policy, you will make more money. Your companies answer is to lose subscribers to Prime rather than fix it so you can get more? Brilliant! And an escalated reply: I understand that you are upset about not being able to stream Amazon Instant Video on your Android device. I agree that making androids compatible with Amazon Instant Video would improve our business and also prove convenient to our customers. I've checked your previous contact and see that my colleague had already forwarded your feedback to our technical team. Then I realized something....new product launch and I checked it and you gotta be kidding me. That is awesome, you guys know you are going to have to come up with different excuses. As you look like fools and are liars. Your new Amazon Fire set top box runs ANDROID! *The device runs "Mojito < version 3.0 of the Android-based Fire OS which is compatible with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. According to Amazon, that will make it "simple for developers to port their services and games over to Fire TV."[2] < Seriously is Amazon Prime going to run on this box? Duhhhhh! Anyway, there you have it, another stupid move by a great company...grrr.

Looking for thoughts on an idea: Here is the problem : you take a video or picture on your smartphone, but you want it backed up on YouTube (or Vimeo, or Facebook, etc.) Doing this from your phone is a pain and can take a long time and drain your battery while it's uploading. Instead : when you get home, your videos and pictures get automatically synced quickly over WiFi to your home computer. Then, you set up rules for where and when your home computer should put that up on the internet. For example: videos get uploaded as private videos on YouTube overnight, pictures get posted to a private Facebook album, etc. You set the rules and your content automatically gets where you want it.

After reading about how the court has blocked the FCC from disclosing TV contracts in the Comcast/TWC merger, I realize enough is truly enough. It's not hard to find scathing articles and posts to show the blight on our society that is Comcast. After reading many such articles, I find that sometimes what can be lost is that Comcast at the end of the day is run by normal people who make bad decisions to further their own wealth and power. So let us put names to faces shall we? Take a gander at the leadership and next time you have that bubbling feeling of hate and disgust, remember, these are the folks at the top.

This is something I have noticed in recent years is the amount of bugs appearing in all technology is getting ridiculous, I think I have a reason for it. I would call myself a tech savy person having done computing at college and learned VB, but I could very well be mistaken. Now Lets go back 25 years to the year 1990, technology was booming, the world eager to jump on and make everyday tasks simple and fast. Where 200MB was a big deal. Now I know bugs would probably not be in the history books but from software I'v seen dating back then there was a lot less bug's. A lot more flexibility, and better performance. Take the N64 console, that thing ran like a dream. Take the Xbox one, That thing has bug's crawling out of the damn thing! It seems as more power is coming to Dev's the less they care about optimizing there code. That or the new generation are sloppy. My reason is simple, back in 1990 you only had what 200Mhz processors, now you got quad core 2.4Ghz so its easy to do sloppy code and run as fast. But thats causing a lot of bugs in many mobile devices and a lot of software. A friend of mine works at IBM, Theres a lot of his work he can't talk about, I get that, but when ever I mention the subject to him, he rolls his eyes and gives this look of annoyance, he's mentioned before that he dose a lot of bug testing on 3rd party software and it's hell, there is so much sloppy code. So this is not something that only I am noticing.

Update 12:51pm EST 12/22/2015: The FCC claims these comments weren't lost. See new thread: Update 7:42pm EST 12/19/2014: This situation isn't hopeless. Insiders think the FCC will come out with a Title II rule. The hard part will be defending it from a Comcast-captured Congress. That's why it's so bad for us that the FCC botched these numbers; it makes the public look divided, when it's not. What can you do? Write Congress at www.battleforthenet.com, and generally be ready for when shit hits the fan in January/February. We'll need local volunteers in major cities to organize protests & stunts aimed at members of Congress. If you can help, email team@fightforthefuture.org. We're a 501c3 / 501c4 fueled by donations. [Those help too :)]( Earlier this week, Sunlight Foundation [released a study]( claiming that anti-Title II comments from a group with ties to the Koch Brothers “dominated” the second round of FCC commenting, beating out comments from pro-net neutrality groups like EFF and Fight for the Future. Now, [anti-net neutrality groups]( and [journalists]( are seizing on this report to try to make it look like the public is against Title II net neutrality. The problem is, the FCC’s data was missing hundreds of thousands of pro-net neutrality comments, and I can prove it. To make things worse, Sunlight’s study counted every anti-net neutrality comment while systematically ignoring pro-net neutrality comments. It’s a mess. Full disclosure: I’m Jeff Lyon, CTO at Fight for the Future, a pro-net neutrality group responsible for driving 777,364 pro-net neutrality comments through the Battle for the Net campaign. I’m posting this here, along with all of our evidence, with the hope that Reddit can help us verify these claims. The FCC data dump was missing hundreds of thousands of pro-net neutrality comments. The raw data [the FCC released]( and that Sunlight used for its study was missing hundreds of thousands of pro-net neutrality comments sent from Battle for the Net. I noticed this and emailed the FCC’s Chief Enterprise Architect, who confirmed via email that, of over 525,000 comments we submitted via CSV, at least 244,811 were missing from the data that the FCC released (**[screenshot of email from FCC]( As of right now, the failure point is still unclear: did the FCC simply fail to export these comments, or did they actually fail to process them in the first place? Worse, of the comments the FCC did include, Sunlight found that 95,000 of them were duplicates—the same comment showing up multiple times, and this means an additional 95,000 of the unique comments we sent are missing. (I verified we did in fact send unique comments by examining reference numbers attached to them, can’t exactly prove this without violating our privacy policy) Taking 244,811 + 95,000 gives us at least 339,811 pro-net neutrality comments that are provably missing from the data. This is alone is enough to unseat Sunlight’s (methodologically-flawed) conclusion that anti-net neutrality comments “dominated” the second round, and the total number of missing comments is probably much higher. Sunlight analyzed 1,674,385 comments and determined a 60 / 40 split between anti- / pro-net neutrality comments. They didn’t specify, but if we conservatively assume that 0% of the comments were undecided or ambiguous, then this amounts to 1,004,631 anti-net neutrality and 669,754 comments. Adding in the 339,811 proveably missing pro-net neutrality comments gives us 1,009,565, shifting the dominant group in favor of net neutrality (this margin would be increased if we assumed more than 0% of comments were ambiguous, and if Sunlight’s logic wasn’t completely flawed [more on that soon]). There are probably many more missing comments. The total number of missing comments is probably much higher than the number I’ve (thus far) identified. To help establish this, it’s useful to examine the different ways that people could submit net neutrality comments to the FCC, as well as the precise approach I used to determine these numbers. In the beginning, there was ECFS The FCC soon realized that ECFS wasn’t working, and [started accepting comments by email]( However in September, right before the second net neutrality commenting deadline, the FCC made it possible to submit comments in bulk using CSV spreadsheets. Given the sheer volume of comments we were collecting through Battle for the Net, this option made the most sense in order to ensure timely delivery to the FCC. Unfortunately, it seems that CSV option was unreliable. Over half the comments we submitted via CSV were missing from the FCC’s final data, and in Sunlight’s study, no comments were attributed to some other big companies that participated with Battle for the Net and submitted CSV comments on behalf of their users. If the FCC actually failed to process comments from these groups, the total number of pro-net neutrality comments would be even higher. It’s also worth noting, the technique I used to determine the missing CSV comments is simplistic and only establishes a floor, not a ceiling, for the possible total missing. Here’s what I did: Battle for the Net submitted 527,952 unique comments via CSV to the FCC between the dates of September 12 and September 15 Of these comments, 525,189 contained the phrase ‘We are writing to urge you to implement’ (people were signing onto an open letter from Senator Angus King) If all of these were counted, we would expect to see at least as many occurrences of that phrase in the raw data released by the FCC, but instead there were only 374,421 occurrences. Of these, 374,421 occurrences, FCC’s Chief Enterprise Architect confirmed via email (**[screenshot of another email from FCC]( that 92,645 were from comments submitted through the FCC’s email address, meaning that 281,776 is the maximum number of comments possibly from the CSV files in their data, and they were missing at least 244,811. We only did a basic text search to arise at this number. If other people submitted comments with the phrase ‘We are writing to urge you to implement’, it would mean that even less of our CSV comments made it into the final data. And of the 374,421 matches that were in the data, Sunlight confirmed that at least 95,000 were duplicate records, meaning that at least another 95,000 of the comments we sent are also missing. We still don’t know whether comments submitted via ECFS were properly reflected in the FCC’s data. I’m running a full analysis, comparing our data to theirs, but it will take some time to complete. To make things worse, Sunlight’s study counted every anti-net neutrality comment and systematically ignored pro-net neutrality comments The Sunlight Foundation studied the FCC’s data and concluded that comments from net neutrality activists were eclipsed by anti-regulatory comments from American Commitment, a known astroturfing group with ties to the Koch Brothers (they sent paid emails with misleading messages, but that’s [another story]( However, Sunlight applied a flawed sampling methodology to a flawed set of data, and drew conclusions that are impossible to make with any “reasonably representative” certainty. In particular, of the 2.4 million comments released by the FCC, they ignored 800,000 comments that they couldn’t parse, and assumed these comments maintained the same distribution of pro- vs. anti- net neutrality comments. They’ve said the 1.6 million comments they did look at were “reasonably representative” of the whole group, but have provided no evidence to support that claim. I’ve looked at the data myself. It’s extremely inconsistent, with comments in a multitude of formats, some plaintext, some XML, and many simply as concatenated strings with no delimiting characters separating them from one another. It’s generally very difficult to parse. However, it’s extremely easy to pick out and parse the email comments, as they tend to follow a consistent format. The group of commenters that “dominated” the second round of comments (in Sunlight’s words) could have simply been the one organization that–due to the technique it used for submitting–didn’t get all its submissions garbled. In fact, it looks like that’s what happened. The FCC counted all 92,645 of the comments we sent via email, and failed to parse comments we sent via CSV. On the other hand, all 777,364 anti-net neutrality comments from American Commitment were sent via email, present in the FCC’s data, and counted in Sunlight’s study. What this means is that, after Sunlight threw 800,000 comments away, half of their remaining sample pool of 1.6 million comments are easily parseable emails from American Commitment. It is erroneous to assume that you can throw away a third of your data and that the distribution of the remaining data will be unaffected. Taking this further, Sunlight has publicly acknowledged a non-trivial difference in how they counted some comments from pro-net neutrality groups like Free Press versus comments from American Commitment. All groups were effectively collecting signatures on a letter. American Commitment submitted them as a barrage of identical comments, while groups like Free Press submitted them as signatures on a single letter. The FCC says it recognizes and counts both. But Sunlight Foundation admits they chose to treat them differently, excluding multiple signatures on a single letter from the count. This further confounded the result of their study in favor of anti-net neutrality commenters.

I recently created a some blogs at wordpress.com. In the last couple days, I have got two emails worded thusly: >Hello, >During an internal audit we noticed that we recorded the password you chose during signup for WordPress.com in plain text. Our policy is to never store plain-text passwords, and we have taken steps to remove the passwords from our systems. >These passwords were stored in a secure location, and there is nothing that suggests they were compromised or the security of your account was decreased in any way. However, out of an abundance of caution we have reset your password. >To reset your password and get access to your account and blog, please follow these steps: Go to WordPress.com Click the "Log In" button on the homepage Click on the link "Lost your password?" Enter your WordPress.com username: [REDACTED] Click the "Get New Password" button >If you have any further questions or trouble resetting your password, please reply to this message to get help from our support team. We will never ask you to supply your account password or financial information via email. >The WordPress.com Team Big plus for coming clean on it, but I'm having trouble envisioning the system design that allows for "maybe" encrypting passwords. I have no clue if it affects older accounts or what, but the first account I checked did indeed require a password reset, and was actually marked as "deleted".

Greetings All, In an effort to be a better citizen - I have written to my congressman and representatives several times this year. These message were during times where things were hinging for various items such as NSA spying and net neutrality. I understand these folks are extremely busy people and cannot read all their mail - so their assistants use canned responses... Every single one of the responses I have received did not address my concern but at best sounded like skewed Wikipedia entries about the topic. This last response about the FCC getting its budget cut because of net neutrality - set me over the edge - they couldn't even be bothered with editing "Dear [Firstname]" on their canned response - I was just curious how many of you out there have experienced the same?