OT: General OT Thread #44 - The World is Still Turning

[Wabit]

Wow, a lot of Florida hate!

Meh. You almost have to hate on warm weather, beaches, and deep sea fishing; when the best you can hope for is not to get frost bite while fishing for bluegill from a hole in the ice.

FL is the same as most any other place, meaning it has good things and bad things about it.

 

[63firebird]

The warm weather is great no doubt. Not so crazy about the Algae blooms though.

 

[57special]

The warm weather is great no doubt. Not so crazy about the Algae blooms though.

The red tide really gets to me. I can feel it from a mile away.

 

[MuckOG]

I have Rocky III playing in the background as I work, and I'm wondering why they got Hulk Hogan to play Thunder Lips instead of Ric Flair? The whole Thunder Lips routine was a complete rip off of the Nature Boy.

 

[TaLoN]

I have Rocky III playing in the background as I work, and I'm wondering why they got Hulk Hogan to play Thunder Lips instead of Ric Flair? The whole Thunder Lips routine was a complete rip off of the Nature Boy.

Because Hulk Hogan was far wider known at the time of the film.

 

[MuckOG]

Because Hulk Hogan was far wider known at the time of the film.

I get it. But it still doesn't change the fact that they totally copied the Nature Boy routine.

 

[TaLoN]

I get it. But it still doesn't change the fact that they totally copied the Nature Boy routine.

Actually, he was stealing the MO of the infamous Glorious George...

 

[57special]

I have Rocky III playing in the background as I work, and I'm wondering why they got Hulk Hogan to play Thunder Lips instead of Ric Flair? The whole Thunder Lips routine was a complete rip off of the Nature Boy.

Ah, the eternal questions…

 

[Wabit]

John Wick 4 comes out on Thursday.

I'm really torn. If I go to see a movie it's usually on a Tuesday afternoon when the theater runs a popcorn + drink + ticket for like $8 a person. But it is John Wick and all the mayhem. I'm not sure if the cheap side or the impatience side of me will win.

I'm probably going to go on opening day. I'll justify it to myself by saying the wife is out of town so I don't have to pay for her ticket and that offsets the cost. The added bonus of I get to rub it in her face that I'm there and she's not is probably what will be the deciding factor.

 

[57special]

John Wick 4 comes out on Thursday.

I'm really torn. If I go to see a movie it's usually on a Tuesday afternoon when the theater runs a popcorn + drink + ticket for like $8 a person. But it is John Wick and all the mayhem. I'm not sure if the cheap side or the impatience side of me will win.

I'm probably going to go on opening day. I'll justify it to myself by saying the wife is out of town so I don't have to pay for her ticket and that offsets the cost. The added bonus of I get to rub it in her face that I'm there and she's not is probably what will be the deciding factor.

I am immensely saddened by Lance Reddick’s too early death. Loved him in The Wire, The Fringe, Bosch, as well as the Wick movies. Didn’t realize that he married here in Minnesota to a woman he met while doing a play at the Guthrie.

Kept himself in great shape, but died suddenly of natural causes.

 

[MuckOG]

I am immensely saddened by Lance Reddick’s too early death. Loved him in The Wire, The Fringe, Bosch, as well as the Wick movies. Didn’t realize that he married here in Minnesota to a woman he met while doing a play at the Guthrie.

Kept himself in great shape, but died suddenly of natural causes.

Loved him in The Wire, as well. Haven't watched Bosch yet, but I hear its good so it will be on my list.

 

[Soldier13Fox]

I am immensely saddened by Lance Reddick’s too early death. Loved him in The Wire, The Fringe, Bosch, as well as the Wick movies. Didn’t realize that he married here in Minnesota to a woman he met while doing a play at the Guthrie.

Kept himself in great shape, but died suddenly of natural causes.

Oh man, I hadn't heard of his death. That's so sad. He has been in so many of my favorite shows, absolute legend. RIP

Loved him in The Wire, as well. Haven't watched Bosch yet, but I hear its good so it will be on my list.

Bosch is very good.

 

[57special]

It took me a couple of tries to get into Bosch, as it seemed to me to be just another formula cop show, then it really took off, and i couldn't stop watching.

Fringe is a totally different type of show. At first i thought it was an X files knock-off, then it grabbed me, and i ended up liking it more than the X files (original). Reddick's character is good, though somewhat peripheral, but Walter's character is an all timer.
The Wire speaks for itself.

 

[thestonedkoala]

Damn. Another 6 dead including three children.

 

[Minnewildsota]

Damn. Another 6 dead including three children.

Who? What?

 

[TaLoN]

Who? What?

Another school shooting

 

[Minnewildsota]

Another school shooting

Oh, I didn't know those were still news. They happen every (other) day. Truly a sad state of affairs.

 

[Sweetnut]

Oh, I didn't know those were still news. They happen every (other) day. Truly a sad state of affairs.

89 school shootings this year. On the first 86 days of the year

 

[Minnewildsota]

89 school shootings this year. On the first 86 days of the year

That's my point, I think, at this point, it's bigger news if there ISN'T a school shooting.

 

[thestonedkoala]

That's my point, I think, at this point, it's bigger news if there ISN'T a school shooting.

This one was a female shooter and young kids involved

 

[Bdub]

Another train derailment in Wyndmere North dakota carrying fuel oil. Pipelines are safer.

 

[Minnewildsota]

Another train derailment in Wyndmere North dakota carrying fuel oil. Pipelines are safer.

Yeah. No they're not.

 

[Bdub]

Yeah. No they're not.

Umm yeah they are.

 

[Minnewildsota]

Umm yeah they are.

Explain to me how they are safer because, on average, pipelines leak 200 gallons per day. (Source)

You can't mean a large amount of people died on the trains, because they're not a passenger trains.

 

[MK9]

I'll start this off with, I don't think that smaller companies can do it better. The problem is, in a lot of areas, there are laws that prevent them from even trying.

IIRC, about a decade or two ago, the broadband companies received a HUGE sum of public funds to grow out internet connectivity. Did companies actually do that? Of course not. There was no reason to. If the companies don't build the infrastructure what are customers going to do? Go to another company? Doesn't matter if there's only 1-2 broadband companies in the area. There's very little competition in the ISP sector, in most places. Less competition brings lesser, more expensive services/products.

As I'm in that industry, I'd be interested in knowing more about those. I guess I'm not aware of any. US Internet and Arvig operate in and around the metro. They don't seem to be affected by these laws. Do you have any more info about where I can find and read them or what they prevent these companies from doing?

What I think you're referring to is CAF I and CAF II (the Connect America Fund). These were Federal grants given to providers to improve HSI (high speed internet) to mostly rural customers. The project started about 6-7 years ago. These grants weren't specific to major companies. Smaller companies were given these grants as well if they applied for them. We installed and upgraded a LOT of rural customers with those projects. They were essentially fiber fed DSLAM's off of another node. We had farmers in places like Zimmerman, who were only able to get 1.5mb for 15 years suddenly able to get 60, 80 or 100mb internet. Again the problem is network build. Those CAF sites could only get out so far. Once you get far enough out, you'd have to build a new distribution hub. And that is a shitload of money. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Even with the CAF I & II money, it didn't last long. Those upgrades clearly aren't cheap. Because the United States covers a lot of area. 1 CAF site could be upwards of 150K or more just for the node itself. That doesn't include getting the fiber cable to that node. Competition is fine, but when companies don't have the capital to do the job, where does it go from there? Far as I can tell, the smaller companies didn't make any headway with all the grant money they got. The competition isn't there because the return on their investment isn't there. It's the same reason Comcast & CenturyLink don't just go out to rural areas on their own and start upgrading their equipment. If you spend 150-250K to upgrade a DSLAM that only feeds 50 customers. That $60 a month bill from 50 people isn't paying that equipment off in any sort of worthwhile timeframe. As soon as I explain this to every rural customer that asks me, 'Are you guys ever going to get faster speeds out here?' and I explain a lot of what I just said here, they're understandably disappointed, but the key word there is, they do seem to understand.

Luckily the fiber build may help as we can get that significantly further out. IR light doesn't have near the same issues with distance, corrosion, induction and interference, etc. that the old copper lines had. That and it's cheaper to make and purchase. It'll still cost a metric f***ton to get it to where it needs to go, but it's going to take a while. But again, what other companies have to capital to get it done?