Consumer advocacy site covering US broadband and wireless providers, with a focus on data caps, pricing, and misleading service claims.
HN commenters cite it as a source on ISP pricing, data caps, and past misleading claims by providers, such as Comcast rate hikes and Spectrum pricing.
Apparently, the following Verizon SMS text[1] Cody Brown got was genuine:
>Free VZQ Msg: You're on the phone with Verizon and just authenticated with an alternative method. Not you? Please call us at 800-922-0204 immediately.
And one of CB's followup recommendations is:
>Make urgent text alerts actionable through SMS. If I received the original alert and was able to text a reply stopping it, or even delaying it, this entire hack would have stopped in its tracks. Instead I was told to ‘immediately’ call a number for Verizon that no one was there to answer.
It seems inevitable that the Verizon SMS alert as a bonafide safety check would embolden social engineers to use that very same method to trick people into calling their own 800-555-2222. Then, a fake Verizon customer service agent "phishes" for even more sensitive identification data by asking official-sounding questions in the guise of "verifying the account".
The tone of that Verizon SMS is panic-inducing and it's very easy for people to not realize they need to verify that the 800-922-0204 is actually a legitimate Verizon phone#. Even if non-techies take the extra step of googling "800-922-0204", they may get conflicting information and get confused on whether it's safe to call back: e.g. http://stopthecap.com/2015/10/05/got-a-call-from-1-800-922-0204-careful-the-verizon-wireless-refund-scam-is-back/
EDIT ADD: I think it's very challenging to come up with a generalized decision tree for non-techies (e.g. your…
> So, now you need your artists to be programmers.
There is some arguments if you should allow artists to program (Blender does have a built in scripting language).
However, the same group that created the FPS demo also created a tool to create demos - artists can go as wild as they want without needing to write a line of code:
http://www.farbrausch.com/prod.py?which=168
If you want something a little more well documented and updated you should check out ZGameEditor - http://www.zgameeditor.org/.
> And that's ignoring the load times, which increases massively if you have to procedurally generate it.
Any reason why you can't render and save the textures on first run? I feel like Natural Selection 2 does that.
> Meanwhile, disk space is pretty damn cheap and will save you a bunch of time and money.
You are forgetting the step in between. Using your argument that disk space is cheap (and assuming they don't use their hard drive to store anything else...) - in the US ISPs are playing a dangerous game. A small DSL provider has a 5GB cap and will charge outrageous fees for going over: http://stopthecap.com/2010/04/14/frontiers-5gb-cap-is-back-now-includes-the-ultimate-in-internet-overcharging-249-99-a-month-for-250gb/
Downloading that 20GB RAGE game has turned into quite a challenge (of course you could always use the Valve response of "take your computer to a friends house").
Good. They bought my isp and jacked up my prices (and did this to countless others as well of course).
Who would have thought that it could get worse than Time Warner.
I'm glad to see that CEO Rutledge's idea of playing hardball with customers and not allowing them to extend or take advantage of promotional offers is not paying off.
I paid $60 a month with tw and would call in every year and extend that offer by explaining that I would consider going with the DSL provider. Annoying, but better than the standard $90 a month.
Rutledge came in and killed that saying that those customers are undesirable. http://stopthecap.com/2017/05/24/get-better-deal-charterspectrum-2017/
Sure, if you are selling a low margin product and not making money on those long time customers that makes sense. But data has almost zero marginal cost once you've got the pipe hooked up and the autodraft payments flowing.
Their refusal to not offer to extend to me, a long time customer, the same offer they are giving to all their new customers caused me to cancel with them and switch to a slower DSL connection, just out of spite.
I suspect by these numbers that I am not alone. And they don't appear to bear out the idea that they would make more money by gouging a smaller set of willing customers either.
Comcast has hiked standalone broadband to $75 - http://stopthecap.com/2017/12/21/75-month-broadband-pricing-arrives-comcast-country-company-raising-rates/
Interestingly, you can get a cheaper promotional rate if you bundle local TV channels (cheaper than $75/month for both internet + tv) so Comcast can inflate its video subscriber (to boost their stock price) amount and they hope you forget you're on a promotional rate your bill jumps $30-40 after you drop off promo. You're free to negotiate (most people do) to get back on the promo rate; many people have success with this, but it's just a cat/mouse game and a hassle.
And Comcast also has a 1TB monthly usage cap. When the era of 2160p + HDR arrives in the next few years, people will chew through that cap rather quickly.
Comcast will continue to jack up standalone broadband prices to hedge against fleeing video subscribers. Why? Because they can, and have very little competition in most markets.
Nothing is really stopping new entrants from joining the market -- other than the fact that deploying a broadband network in the US is really, really expensive
Actually, a lot is: Google "cable franchise agreements" or "city broadband franchise agreements" and you'll find that many if not most cities and counties either forbid or make prohibitively expensive real competition. Here is one news article about a lawsuit related to them: http://stopthecap.com/2012/06/19/court-invalidates-existing-cable-franchise-agreements-in-texas-twc-unshackled/ .
Many states are also passing telco-financed laws prohibiting local municipalities from creating Internet access as a utility. Examples: http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/big-carriers-go-political-kill-local-broadband-235797 or http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/12/30/municipal_broadband_s_death_by_lobbyist_san_antonio_has_the_fiber_they_should.html .
If you want to know why America has such shitty infrastructure (especially cities like San Francisco where the density should warrant it), here is Exhibit A. Environmental studies, aesthetic objections,[1] fake health concerns, etc. In the 4.6 years Americans spend to prepare the average Environmental Impact Statement for an infrastructure project, Europeans can build city-wide subway systems or tunnel through mountains.
Other countries are not going to hold up 5G deployment over fake health concerns. If we don't want 5G to be yet another area, like transit and roads, where the US lags woefully behind Europe and Japan, we must fight such distractions.
[1] Remember when San Francisco held up AT&T fiber deployment in the city for years with a lawsuit about ugly fiber boxes? https://stopthecap.com/2011/06/29/san-francisco-still-in-stalemate-with-att-over-lawn-refrigerators-for-u-verse/