Open Thread

I am opening up this thread for comments on any issues facing Delaware and or the nation.

We have already seen some striking legislation passed here in Delaware, and more is being proposed.

Since I am posting this on Super Bowl Sunday, I will even entertain predictions and discussion  of the game before, during and after.

We have seen legislation here in Delaware that in my opinion does nothing to better the environment for new, and small businesses, but simply makes it harder for both to start-up, and to succeed.

We have seen a bill to raise the minimum wage, and another to restrict the hiring practices of both the state, and private contractors.

We have the governor proposing outrageous amounts of spending on infrastructure, with no way to pay for it beyond higher taxes, since the so-called cash cows of the lottery and gambling have failed to produce the revenue that we were told they would.

Raising the minimum wage and taxes at the same time makes no sense for any law-maker that calls themselves a pro-business legislator. Both will only drive away both existing and potential enterprises.

There is plenty of fodder for the mill here, please feel free to chime in.

95 Comments on "Open Thread"

  1. Rick says:

    Pretty lame Super Bowl. At least all the weather gloom-and-doomers got slapped. I believe that the site of the Super Bowl should alternate between conferences, alphabetically. If the weather is cold, it’s cold- the stadium will still be full. They play playoff baseball in Chicago and Boston and Detroit in the 30’s, so they can play football in the 20’s.

  2. House Tuxamus Maxamus says:

    Ok we’ll take a stab at this one! WHY (and we’ve pounced on this one in the past) does the vast majority of this county only have dial up internet service as the only available source of internet made available? Sure the towns all have cable (slow compared to the rest of the modern world) but the telephone company could be quasi forced by the county commission to at least provide DSL at a reasonable rate.
    The infrastructure is there (poles) so what’s the deal?

    The benefits to all involved would be priceless! The joke that economic development is supposed to take place here would be greatly enhanced and that alone would make Sussex look like something other than a forgotten world.

    Here at HTM we’ve got a ride on a system far away that provides us with 60 MBPS and two satellites that although much slower still beat dialup service but the download data limits are an issue. It’s downright funny that we have the fastest speeds in the county for all we’ve found and it’s FREE to this house.

    WHAT’S UP WITH THIS? Doesn’t anyone here in Sussex understand the importance of at least trying to be somewhat modern?

    If Verizon was forced to offer DSL to all parts of the county that would be HUGE. Even 10 MBPS is better than dialup. If we’re wrong please enlighten us! For all we know, and this goes back to the place that F & W had with a view of “The Brick” even then the fastest cable was just 10 MBPS.

    Help us out here! Enlighten us! Correct us! Teach us! We are stumped. It screams backwards to us city type people. F & W can’t provide an answer but they are “Sussex Lifers” so they didn’t even know more existed until we came along. All they had was a phone they used as a hotspot for a laptop in a van they lived in. It doesn’t have to be the 60 MBPS that the TMV man has but dang…dialup? Most of us have never used a dialup connection but our parents did MANY YEARS AGO. There are boonies that have fiber optic lines in many places throughout this country that offer reliable DSL service. Demographics for Sussex state just over 200,000 people in this county. It’s a low number but still enough to make a DSL seemingly worthwhile.
    Laffter? Dave? Waterpirate? Harry W (are you still out there?)? Pandora? We’ll even take a response from Hale Bopp into consideration!

  3. Rick says:

    Hale Bopp responding via Comcast wifi. Instantaneous downloads.

    Now, if I could only get electricity- this generator just eats gas.

  4. waterpirate says:

    I am no tech head by any definition, however I did find it interesting that the U.S is the only country on the planet that regulates and charges for internet speed. When freinds go to Panama or belize or points farther the internet connections run wide open full trottle from the decks of ships that are moored in coves with no electricity?? Maybe we should get Pat Fish on the case as she is stalking the Sussex Council as of late?

  5. delacrat says:

    HTM,

    Up in NCC, we have FIOS. so internet speed is not a problem.

    You in “lower and slower” have the beach instead.

    So it kind of evens out.

    Hope that makes sense.

  6. tony stark says:

    HTM, Verizon has made a business decision long ago to invest heavily in the fiberoptic technology. The whole state of Delaware is actually well placed for this. The State Government invested years ago in installing fiberoptic lines that ran parallel to the major highways. This was for the benefit of state agencies and the transmission of data to these agencies.

    This may sound expensive. In fact it was not that expensive. Whenever, work was being done on Route 13, a fairly regular occurrence, fiberoptic lines were placed in the ground along with the road construction. This project began when Mike Castle was Governor.

    One of the first beneficiaries of the fiberoptic project was the University of Delaware. Now the real expense of fiberoptics is not in the initial trunk line from Dover to Newark, but in the hook up to the various buildings at the college to the main line. UD solved this by having Computer Science interns doing the jobs. The interns did no outside construction jobs, they did the internal wiring, which is huge.

    The Internet speed at Delaware Schools, IF they are close to the main trunk line, and they are hooked into the fiberoptic network, is impressive. Response speed is better than any DSL line. The same can be said for state agencies.

    Now, the biggest problem for Verizon is how do you get the signal to the individual homes of subscribers. This is where the expense comes in. Does a particular neighborhood pay for tearing up property and installing lines? Why would The Sussex County Council mandate this?

    Comcast is a more than reasonable alternative. If you are already paying for Comcast Cable TV, than you are potentiallyalready connected to the Comcast Internet. In the case of Comcast the infrastructure already exists.

    From what I have seen, Comcast does not deliver an inferior product to residential users.

    I really don’t want to get into the details of , twisted pair, coax, or fiberoptic technology.

  7. House Tuxamus Maxamus says:

    Hale Bopp…key words ‘Sure the towns all have cable…”.
    To all the rest THANKS…Keep it coming! Makes sense from all.
    Sorry we didn’t mention Tony Stark but that was GREAT! We’ve been in a lot of places that have cable in TOWNS but get a few feet out and it’s dial up world kinda kidding but mabye it’s yards. Anyone else care to educate us even more?

  8. House Tuxamus Maxamus says:

    We should add that once we started to come across this phenoma, and after F & W couldn’t answer we asked TMV and he told us of a guy he knows that lives just a mile, maybe two, past the college that only has dial up service. From that point on we were on a mission to figure this out to no avail. You’re all helping!

  9. Frank Knotts says:

    HTM, I am always struck when people use the word, “FORCED” in relation to government and the so called private sector.
    In your gripe of places that only have dial up, you seem to have either forgotten, or never heard of, or chose to leave it out since it puts your argument to lie. Satellite!
    I happen to live in a rural area that has neither cable nor fiber optics, nor even DSL, yet I can buy satellite, that while not as fast as other options is far and above dial up. I can also use cell technologies if I am willing to pay for them.
    So what are you really arguing for here? The affordable internet act? Where all citizens have access to the same levels of broad band? Where no one is left waiting for a down load while their neighbor is streaming videos? Where old people who don’t even want internet service are “FORCED” to pay for it to cover the cost of those who can’t afford the service?
    Force you say. How? Through economic blackmail? Why waste time, why not simply send in the troops to take over Verizon at the point of a gun and be done with it?
    If the government can “FORCE” Verizon to supply this or that to the citizens, then what is to stop them from “FORCING” Verizon to stop supplying this or that to the citizens? Think China! Your question is of a very narrow view and doesn’t seem to take in the broader ramifications of government forcing the private sector to do anything.

  10. Dunleve says:

    WHAT ARE THE TECHNICAL LIMITATIONS? If the local Telephone Company is unable to offer you DSL service it is probably because your property is too far away from the nearest Central Office. The maximum distance is 15,000 wire-feet (not actual distance) for DSL to work properly. Additionally some properties cannot be served if they are equipped with load coals. Load coils are placed on lines that are longer than 18,000 feet (the distance between the customer and the central office). The purpose of the load coils is to improve the quality and transmission of the voice grade service. However, these same coils are an impediment to DSL service and can be removed if necessary.

    Signals degrade over long distances. That is just a law of nature. Copper is a good conductor, but it’s not a perfect conductor. Inside any metal line, there is resistance as the electronic waves travel through the metal. Because of this fact, there is a limit to how far DSL can travel from the main telephone switch. Usually it can only go 2 or 3 miles at the most before you need to build another office to repeat that signal. A regular analog telephone conversation can be pushed out much further, because signal degradation is not as critical, but to deliver internet data , with the digital packets being sent in very precise, technical ways, any kind of interference, loss of signal or degradation is going to cause problems.

  11. Dunleve says:

    If it were somehow mandated that Verizon had to spend the money to overcome the technical difficulties of providing DSL across Sussex County, 5G and 6G service would probably be available before the project was completed, and at a lower cost.

  12. House Tuxamus Maximus says:

    We wondered if replacing the wording along the lines of “providing incentive” with “forcing” would bring the Overlord of keeping Sussex in the Dark Ages from his healing bed and it did!!! Happy Dances all around!! We’re leaning towards the name of Dark Ages Overlord now that the show respect rule has been lifted. We’re just not sure yet that we can’t come up with a two word description that fits.

    Now we will use the phrase “provide incentive(s)” instead of ‘force’! This is FUN for us!

    As we remember the county coffers have a rather large surplus ($2 million give or take?) and if that remains we think that providing a dollar for dollar (or maybe a half dollar to dollar if the cable companies want in on it) INCENTIVE to make high speed internet available to all of Sussex might just give the Sussex Economic development office and opportunity to recruit a call center for some large corporation to locate in Sussex. It’s happened in a lot of areas. An example: When High Speed Internet was brought into the Blacksburg, VA region (near VA Tech) a call center for one of the Satellite TV Providers was built and provided well over 300 JOBS. Not sure of the exact numbers but you can look it up if you wish Dark Ages Overlord. It’s happened in many other places as well. States with counties similar to Sussex that didn’t have access to much more than indoor plumbing now provide JOBS using modern technology! It happens like that in areas that lose JOBS of one kind (coal industry in southeast Kentucky as an example) are replaced by JOBS of another kind.

    What is it with the Dark Ages Overlord and the ‘F’ words of Fair and Forced? We are the curious young people (of places from over the bridges) that wonder why Sussex must remain in the dark ages while the modern world evolves around the lost peninsula of ‘Delmarva’. If it could be made to happen that Verizon could be provided incentives to build and thus provide (as may well the cable company) high speed internet to the vast open spaces where building could be built it’s just possible that JOBS would follow. Build it and they will come theory? Food for the Dark Ages Overlord to ponder. Hmmm, the “The affordable internet act?” may well be a good idea!!! If Hale Bopp can download with no waiting than why should those residents of let’s say Gumboro be made to wait? But then again Hale Bopp is a rather unique individual…..

    That the Dark Overlord may well have Satellite Internet means he has made the investment to enjoy it and should another source of high speed (that’s a relative term regarding Sussex) be made available going past his rural residence it could well make his investment less valuable. Is that why the Dark Lord resists a possible change to the modern world for all? “Resistance is futile young Sussex Skywalkers of the future as if we allow such technology you may not stay to obey our commands” speaketh the Dark Lord! (something like that as we’re all laughing too hard to make the words work properly)

    As for the House of Tuxamus Maximus we have satellite in a BIG WAY here. Two trees had to be cut down to make it possible that they could all be functional. Internet accounts and TV account as well with much more to make all that goes on here happen efficiently.

    Oh well our “narrow view” ranting must end as we have to stop laughing and get back to the business at had and our JOB descriptions. Thanks you for the laughs Dark Lord of the Sussex Dark Ages. One day this wonderful gig will end and we will be gone back to the world that offers what most others have to enjoy. One day even you will be brought kicking and screaming to the real world that most other places enjoy modern JOBS.

  13. Rick says:

    I am about five miles from the ‘town’ of Lewes, and I have wifi.

  14. Dave says:

    Consider, if you will, that the “information highway” is virtually no different than a “post road.” Consider also, that if our society were visionary enough to have seen that. We would probably have trunks (fiber optics, cable, microwave) paralleling all primary and secondary roads. What would remain is the “last mile” of connection where a citizen would pay to connect or groups of citizens pooling resources to connect. Just as in Sussex County where there are only two types of roads; state roads and private roads. Or where a homeowner is responsible to build an access driveway from their home to the nearest road.

    Unfortunately, our society did not envision the importance and ubiquity of the information highway. What then should the role of government be in ameliorating that lack of foresight? When the state builds a road, why could they not bury cable or fiber along side? When a new development is built why isn’t both fiber and cable present when the infrastructure is being built?

    Partly the answer is that there is little attention paid to the future and the technology and services that might be available to us in the future. Partially, because no one is really in charge from a system perspective. While we have a Department of Transportation, we do not have a Department of Information Technology. Consequently we have a hodgepodge of services and capability.

    Fortunately there is innovation and technology in the industry and slowly services that provide connection to remote and/or rural areas are becoming available. Not the easiest way, but still, the means is becoming available.

    In Sussex County, there is only one council person who has advocated greater penetration of broadband, especially in the more rural areas of the county. The rest of the council is focused on trying to hold on the good old days of yesteryear when we focused on building chicken plants and planting watermelons rather than entering the information age.

    There is nothing wrong with chickens and watermelons, the world must eat and there should be no thought of becoming the next Silicon Valley. But consider the salaries of those in the information industry, our proximity to DC metropolitan area, and telecommuting opportunities and one can see clearly a way to open up opportunity, increase salaries, and generally raise the economic standard of the state and Sussex County specifically. It does not take a great deal of vision. One merely has to open their eyes.

  15. Tuxamus Maximus F says:

    Welcome to the discussion Dunleve! The Dark Lord may not appreciate the word ‘mandate’ but we sure do!! No one here noticed your comment as the crowd was coming up with comments. Thanks for sharing the wisdom!

  16. fightingbluehen says:

    “Up in NCC, we have FIOS. so internet speed is not a problem.”

    I live off of Robinsonville Rd. near Lewes, and we have Verizon FiOS high speed internet.

  17. Rick says:

    Hale Bopp…key words ‘Sure the towns all have cable…”.
    To all the rest THANKS…We’ve been in a lot of places that have cable in TOWNS but get a few feet out and it’s dial up world kinda kidding but mabye it’s yards. Anyone else care to educate us even more?

    I live about five miles from the ‘town’ of Lewes and I have wifi.

  18. Dunleve says:

    TM, I grew up on dial up, and never had high speed till college. I agree it seems senseless that this area has so many under served zones.

    I guess my earlier point was that I think the wireless technology will evolve faster and more efficiently than adding the infrastructure that is buried in the ground. While its maybe not “High Speed” 4G is available nearly everywhere, and at $40/month it is very comparable in price.

    It seems as you have researched this a lot more than me.

  19. Dave says:

    ” I think the wireless technology will evolve faster and more efficiently than adding the infrastructure that is buried in the ground. ”

    Generally that is true. However, the airwaves (frequency use) are already crowded and number of frequency bands that can be allocated to wireless are finite. Additionally, there is limitation on the number of bits that can transmitted on any specific frequency. We’ve come a long way. Still, there are technical limitations that are difficult to overcome with wireless, including the infrastructure necessary to support 4G (5G, and so on) and of course there is the demand side of things where capability begets demand which serves to overcome capacity (Netflix anyone?).

    I think a combination of hardline and wireless (all OTA (over the air) capabilities should be in the mix.

  20. House Tuxamus Maximus says:

    Thanks to all as this is GREAT stuff and we are learning. Fighting bluehen has fios but is near Lewes. Says it all…near Lewes. Near the resort area.

    Hale Bopp has wifi…OK…who makes the wifi? We have wifi too but we produce our own off one of the dishes to a router to an antenna on a secured system. Where does yours originate? An asteroid?

    Once again…great stuff and backing up our theory. Keep it coming and we are looking forward to the Dark Lord telling us why Sussex should stay in the Dark Ages.

    THANKS to all keep it coming!

  21. Rick says:

    Where does yours originate?

    I don’t know- or care. Maybe you could ask Comcast.

    But I notice that you’ve expanded your range of accessibility from ‘a few feet out’ of ‘TOWNS’ to the ‘resort area’…which would include Lewes, Rehoboth, Dewey, Bethany, South Bethany Fenwick Island and inland from those locations several miles. In other words, from a population standpoint, most of Sussex County.

  22. House Tuxamus Maximus says:

    Well Hale Bopp that’s why we started this…so we could LEARN! Most of us are from other places and we are LEARNING! You are in an area where cable exists…how about Gumboro?

  23. Dunleve says:

    TM, Internet in Gumboro? They have CB’s!

  24. Laffter says:

    Here is the reason hi- speed should be made, yes MADE, available to customers all over….

    In western sussex, they don’t have wiFi, and firs and high speed in some places…..we are a rural area.

    However, today kids in school, have iPads, provided by the school……the problem being that the iPad, that is linked and fire-walled and does not have three G capability, only wi-fi

    DOES NOT FUNCTION IF IT CANT CONNECT TO THE INTERNET, ………therefore the children simply can’t do their home work. Period end of story

    Why do we need hi-speed internet in rural areas, ?……so our children can get their education and do their homework.

    Is that a good enough reason? I sure do!

    The fact that business might need it to compete and communicate in the ” free market place” might be another good reason……

    But hey, who’s counting?

  25. Rick says:

    …how about Gumboro?

    I don’t care for okra, but to each his own.

    …today kids in school, have iPads, provided by the school……the problem being that the iPad, that is linked and fire-walled and does not have three G capability, only wi-fi…
    DOES NOT FUNCTION IF IT CANT CONNECT TO THE INTERNET…

    I wonder how we built the atomic bomb, the Hoover Dam, the Veg-A-Matic and put a man on the moon without the internet?

  26. Dunleve says:

    Laffter

    I am stating that in Sussex anyone can get 3G or 4G. Yup you have to pay for it, but a mobile hotspot will provide Wifi for your house. It’s much fatser than dialup. Theseare $35 to $40 plans at Verizon. Not really sure what more people expect in rural areas, T5 service?

    This is the same question as I live 10 miles out of Town, why don’t I have: water, sewer, better roads, snow removal, better drainage, no chicken manure smell, no barking dogs, no hunting, consistent electric, significant police presence, etc.

    Because you enjoy low taxes in a low overhead County.

  27. Dunleve says:

    The Hoover Dam was built without the watchful eye of OSHA.

  28. House Tuxamus Maximus says:

    Well this was an interesting turn of comments and those of us currently at HTM will share a few thoughts on each:

    Dunleve wrote: “TM, Internet in Gumboro? They have CB’s”
    Once we stopped laughing we realized how most likely that’s the truth but Laffter took our trump card when he mentioned the kids. We feel for the kids not only in Gumboro but all the places that are just falling more and more behind without what so many others kids have available to them in most of the country. Those CB’s might as well be sandbags.

    Laffter…sometimes we wonder if you are a fly on the wall in this house. You know we love and appreciate you and every word you wrote was what we had in mind for dealing with whatever fearless leader Dark Lord Knotts came back to us with because no matter how one looks at this the bottom line is the lack of educational resources available to the students that are being left behind so many others in so many places. But when you consider the attitude of…

    Hal ‘Rick’ Bopp its easy to see he doesn’t care about the opportunities of any student when her writes:…how about Gumboro?I don’t care for okra, but to each his own.” and “I wonder how we built the atomic bomb, the Hoover Dam, the Veg-A-Matic and put a man on the moon without the internet?”
    It’s sad that we have to tell him that those were all built with the greatest educated minds of the times. They went to schools that kids/students of Sussex would never even be able to consider going to because they don’t even know that league of intellect.

    Dunleve wrote some very interesting thoughts! Welcome once again to the Dark Lord’s site Dunleve.
    We offer that many in Sussex don’t have a clue as to what they could expect. Seriously. As we meet and talk with people when out and about it’s truly sad that most are so behind in what’s available out there in the real world. Some even seem to like it that way!
    T5…yeah man that’s the ticket and we’ve been told we’re in for an upgrade soon (dark lord may see an IP change) and we have high hopes! TMF has told us TMV is tiring of us slowing his bandwidth.
    But in all reality T5 isn’t in the mix for Sussex not in our lifetimes anyhow.
    Dunleve also wrote: “Because you enjoy low taxes in a low overhead County.” And he’s right but when you consider that the county is sitting on about $2 Million when do the kids get considered?
    Concerning the Hoover dam comment….lots of lives were lost building that dam. Just saying Dunleve

  29. Frank Knotts says:

    HTM, incentives is a much nicer word. However the incentives should not be in the form of funding, but tax breaks and the relaxing of regulations.
    I must point out once again that you entire argument is irrelative since every person in Delaware has access to high speed (a relative term) internet, either through satellite or cell technologies, if not phone lines and cable.
    So let me ask, who is the “DARK AGES OVERLORD”? The person who recognizes this, or the person who insist that all services must come through a wire and out of that funny little box on the wall?
    As for my investment in satellite and cell technologies? Well if something better were to come past my driveway, I would bail in a minute and invest in the new and better technology. But I sure wouldn’t sit around crying and whining that no one had forced the company to make it better.
    You are not lamenting the lack of technology in Sussex, you are lamenting the fact that some can’t afford the technology. This is just another form of make it “FAIR”. I guess when you grew up in the HTM everything was fair. Must have been a dream world. But in the real world little can be described as fair.
    As for the poor little kids in Gumboro, well their parents can buy satellite and cell tech as well as I can, no company will refuse them, that’s fair isn’t it? There is also the option of the public libraries if they don’t have service at home. And what idiot parent bought heir kid a IPAD if they don’t have service at their home? And how did they afford the IPAD if they can’t afford satellite.
    Your argument falls apart in the light of reality.

  30. House Tuxamus Maximus says:

    The Dark Lord of Keep Sussex in the Dark Ages comes back with what is a pretty good argument HOWEVER, (and here comes the kicker Dark Lord) due to cherry picking what he wants to respond to he fails to address the issue of potential JOBS.

    We wrote of this earlier. It was the first thing we brought up regarding bringing this region into the modern age (well at least regarding JOBS) and how making high speed internet available to all areas of the county so that JOBS involving use of technology could be at least possible. The build it and they will come theory… remember that part Dark Lord?

    Without the high speed internet available the JOBS won’t come to Sussex. Let’s keep this simple. It’s just an example we’re using because there are so many other businesses out there that require modern tech to be available. Company XYZ is being recruited by Sussex Economic Development (SED) to build a call center (that would require internet service) and would employ lets say 100 people. XYZ states to SED that “we need internet” and SED replies “that’s for sure! Just buy 100 dishes or 100 cell phones for hot spots and you’ve got all the internet you’ll ever need!” and XYZ says “that’s a bit expensive and region ABC is offering us a T5 line that is already there (and huge tax breaks) with other incentives” as they walk out to the door never to be seen or heard from again. That’s assuming they even made the trip to begin with considering they knew that high speed internet wasn’t available in the Dark Lords’ Sussex.

    Those JOBS would, if they came to Sussex, make it a bit more possible for the parents to buy the dishes, or cell packages, to provide high speed internet for the kids that are being held back from the experience needed to compete with the rest of the modern world.

    BUT….hold on now…they wouldn’t need those dishes and cells because high speed internet was already there because the county made it possible so that the JOBS would be a possibility to recruit XYZ in the first place.

    Horse/cart or cart/horse? Cherry pick that one Dark Ages Overlord!

    Oh yeah Dark Lord you wrote:” You are not lamenting the lack of technology in Sussex, you are lamenting the fact that some can’t afford the technology.” And we offer that we ARE lamenting the lack of technology in Sussex! If you don’t have it they won’t come with the JOBS that come along with the technology! Aside from F & W the rest of us could care less because when this great gig ends we’ll be going back to the lands of the modern world. One of our parents is a professional industrial recruiter/developer and has that parent as a resource. Sussex doesn’t have what it takes and really the whole region doesn’t offer what it takes to get the big industry interest without the technology needed. Ponder that one Dark Lord.

  31. Dunleve says:

    TM,

    Company XYZ comes to County Econ Development and says they need bandwidth for 100 desks. County says we have plenty of internet availability. Company XYZ says not on Deer Forest Road, East of Bridgeville. County says there are not the roads, sewer, or water to support 100+ people, let alone being AG Zoned. County says why don’t you consider a suitable location in Town or along the highways corridors, which have the infrastructure you need.

    Or County says we have Obamanet, high speed County wide.

  32. House Tuxamus Maximus says:

    Good one Dunleve! And the same could be said for locating on Dublin Hill Road (west of Bville) as well as a few others. Please don’t limit this to just call centers but for the sake of argument…
    XYZ states we can buy the land a lot cheaper there and we can pull from the available work force and infrastructure that exists in Federalsburg MARYLAND…oh yeah we could locate there and have it all…never mind they have an empty building in the existing INDUSTRIAL PARK (please don’t mention Georgetown’s joke of a park) with all that and more plus a free year or two of taxes as incentive.

    Keep in mind that it’s a dog eat dog world out there involving industrial recruiting and if when asked to jump the locality had better ask how high, far and in which direction or that locality is forgotten. They have the gold (JOBS) and they make the rules and big business knows it! Just saying…

    Besides…what if Bridgeville, or Delmar, or Laurel says we can’t afford to extend our water, sewer and all that out to the location you want. XYZ might say Seaford may want to do it and Federalsburg and Easton have all we need NOW.

    What if a chewing gum company wants to locate in Gumboro? (peanut gallery comment we had to add)

  33. Rick says:

    It’s sad that we have to tell him that those were all built with the greatest educated minds of the times. They went to schools that kids/students of Sussex would never even be able to consider going to because they don’t even know that league of intellect.

    My stepfather, John Fraumann, went to grade-school in a one-room schoolhouse in the middle-of-nowhere, upper NY state. After graduating from the U of Buffalo (hardly an elite institution) he was offered a job as a special civilian assistant (Navy Dept.) to Capt. Engelman (USN), who commanded the USS Avery Island, the ship charged with the electronic testing component of Operation Crossroads, the Bikini Atoll test of Aug., 1946. He spent the next twenty years working on our nuclear weapons program, until he was finally sent to the Retired Scientists and Engineers Home, otherwise known as the US Bureau of Standards (the old one, on Connecticut Ave near Van Ness).

    Yes, he possessed a high IQ. But my point is that a fatuous belief in the internet as savior is absurd. China, and many of the nations that regularly pummel the US in international tests have very limited access to the internet.

    What is needed is a return to the traditional curriculum, a rejection of ‘education degree’ fads that don’t work and re-instituting strict discipline and order, thus creating a proper learning environment without distractions or gimmicks.

    Does this mean I oppose the internet as an education tool? Not necessarily. But, I think the jury is still out as to it’s efficacy. What is known is that it certainly isn’t necessary.

    Parenthetically, I understand the problem that arises if your child’s assignments are internet-only accessible. If this is the case, then I blame incompetent administrators who would introduce an internet curriculum in an area without ubiquitous internet access.

    If you don’t have it they won’t come with the JOBS that come along with the technology…

    Technology companies tend to congregate around institutions who offer cutting-edge engineering curricula; Boston/Cambridge and the Palo Alto/San Mateo area, for example. If a kid wants to work in high-technology, he needs to move. Delaware is all about DuPont, banks and the beach.

    Want to be a waiter? Major in sociology, art history or women’s ‘studies.’

  34. Dave says:

    “The Hoover Dam was built without the watchful eye of OSHA.”

    Number of industrial fatalities involved in building Hoover Dam: 96 industrial fatalities. (drowning, blasting, falling rocks or slides, falls from the canyon walls, being struck by heavy equipment, truck accidents, etc.).

    The Big Dig (one of the largest construction projects ever attempted) tally: 3 industrial fatalities.

    I wouldn’t necessarily give all the credit to OSHA, but companies do not usually institutionalize safety as part of their culture because it is a core value.

  35. Rick says:

    I agree that OSHA has improved construction safety. But I also think it is ludicrous to compare the Big Dig to the Hoover Dam- there is just no comparison.

    As an aside, the Big Dig has been plagued with leaks, collapses, sub-standard concrete issues, faulty lighting fixtures, fissures and so on.

  36. House Tuxamus Maximus says:

    Hale Boop needs to understand that technology is everywhere now. Not just Silicon Valley. It’s a brave new world out there and if you’re not current you’re left behind and your thinking is so old its way past ‘past tense’. Automation is everywhere and that includes prisons. A to Z and we’ve become a caretaker to the are NOT going to describe it anymore than that and if you can’t accept it we’ve done our best to inform you.

    You mentioned China as not having “very limited access to the internet’. Really? You might want to look into that ‘fact’. The whole of the country may not have internet access (rural farming areas like Sussex) but when you get into the cities it’s to a point where the government censors access to Google and other search engines to limit access to the outside world. Rethink what you write or do some research other than what you think you hear on Fox News. You are sadly misinformed Hale Bopp.

    Hale Bopp also wrote: “Want to be a waiter? Major in sociology, art history or women’s ‘studies.’” WOW. That one is causing us to disregard you entirely in the future. Old white man thinking at it’s best. You are sadly misinformed Hale Bopp because it’s a temporary thing for most at best. One of us was a waitress until this gig came along and when it’s over she’s got the same JOB she has here just in a different location she works when in the off rotation like she is now.

    Hale Boop’s last comment came in while the Dave comment was being typed. Just so over the top we won’t be responding to any more Hale Bopp silliness. They do compare but you’re entitled to your opinion. We just don’t feel it’s (your opinion on anything) worthy of our time and trouble anymore.

    DAVE!!! It’s been decided that you’re now added to the nightly toast list with Pandora and Laffter. Every night when ‘Wilma’ sets dinner at the table you will be toasted. Seven days a week. Some things we don’t even research because it’s mutually agreed as fact. You took the extra step to back us up. Anyone that has our mutual backs gets toasted nightly.

  37. House Tuxamus Maximus says:

    THat was, in the first paragraph, meant to read as: A to Z and we’ve become a caretaker to the automation and we are NOT going to describe it anymore than that and if you can’t accept it we’ve done our best to inform you.
    Opps…we stand corrected.

  38. anon says:

    This the only safe place to post where Don Ayotte can’t redact or erase my comments.

  39. House Tuxamus Maximus says:

    Hello anon! Please let us here at the House Tuxamus Maximus be the first ones to welcome you to the site of ‘Integrity’! Jump on in and have some fun. We’ve only been able to admire from afar wondering why you even bothered and where you had gotten to and now we know. Feel free to take Hale Bopp’s place for us. Well not really as you’ve almost always made sense at the place we couldn’t play. The Dark Lord runs a nice playground!

  40. Laffter says:

    DUNLEVE- you missed my point when I said

    ” the iPad does NOT have 3G capabilities”. is that option is out

    Which means the children can only use wi-fi. And if the freaking wi-fi is crap and the bandwidth is crappy and comcast has been out 4 times in a month and can’t seem to find the problem

    There IS A PROBLEM,

    I get so mad that I honestly am thinking about getting the 4 computers hook them together together and pinging comcast all day long….maybe they will pay attention then!
    Comcast lowers their bandwidth in the evenings, so they can provide more bandwidth elsewhere, robbing our local area. I can ping them with packets all day long and have the technical knowledge to do it too. Obviously, asking nicely doesn’t get their attention.

    Dude, I pay the same as other folks, why is mine and my neighbors bandwidth dropped in the evenings? This needs to be fixed because the consumer….me and my neighbors , are being robbed.

    HTM, you will get a big chuckle over that one,

    As for government regulation? Google Bophal India, then google the same company having the same issue in the US , West Virginia again….and see how many American were killed, injured or blinded?

    REGULATIONS- they work, and that WAS the difference!

  41. Laffter says:

    As to Halle Bop’s ” the internet isn’t necessary”

    Hell, guess what, neither is electricity, running water, heated homes, air conditioning, nuclear energy, nuclear fusion,

    With thinking like that, why don’t we just give it all up and go back to the Bronze Age ?

    I just SMH at those who look backwards, because they are too afraid to look forward.

    Honey, don’t look in the rear view mirror, we ain’t going that way……

  42. Tuxamus Maximus V says:

    Well it looks as though the kids at HTM are having fun and have good open thread going. It’s been a fun read and I’m learning a bit as well. To keep it in perspective and on topic (it is however an Open Thread) you’re upgrade happens in the am so the system will be down at some point in the am so the remote access thing will have to be shut down. Will text when ready to restart.
    (Note to Frank: You’ll probably see an IP change Thursday morning. Big change being made here and going supersonic big time bandwidth kind of thing I don’t understand. The only thing I haven’t seen with all this equipment is afterburners and they may show up in the morning.

    Ok so ya’ll TM’s wanted some open notes (making notes for Friday call though):
    The “Hale Bopp” title works for me and it seems for him as well. Your decision is probably a wise one. Dying to know how that came about.

    Waterpirate! The answer to every question is NO until it’s asked. You know how to ask. Thanks for the input you’ve provided on all counts.

    Delacrat: Beach vs. good internet isn’t a good trade off. Hate jellyfish and hot sand. Love fresh water lakes and my choice of internet speeds.

    Tony Stark…all I have for you is that I’m not worthy and if the TM’s aren’t toasting you on a regular basis they should be is my opinion.

    Dunleve you must be new to Frank’s site? Will find out Friday I hope. TMV gets to use the ‘I’ and if you’re around long enough you’ll figure it out. This is the first time I’ve commented on a thread other than the ACA thing in a LONG TIME. I will write that I’ve never been to the house but have seen a lot of pictures and videos of that funhouse. Maybe too many.

    Dave! That you’ve made the daily toasting is a GOOD THING! If you’re the ‘Dave’ at DL you’re a good guy in my book! Priceless Hoover Dam comment.

    Fightingbluehen…thanks for the input but you wouldn’t get the extra $5 because of my bumpersticker.

    Laffter! What do I write other than what I’ve done on the ACA thread? ALL of the TM’s love ya so I do to!! Long timer on the daily toasting list says it all for me.

    TM’s (the young ones)… DARK AGES OVERLORD. The Dark Lord of Keep Sussex in the Dark Ages. A bit heavy handed but once I stopped giggling (actually did the LOL thing) I realized I’m good with it. Price paid for rescinding the rule and his lack of humanity. You’re all doing a good job here and hope you’re getting the clue(s) you’ve wanted for so long. Happy that you haven’t been ‘trolled’ as Laffter put it on the thread I’m on.

    TM’s F & W thanks for cooling off before writing on the Integrity thread. Found it quickly and that’s deep stuff. Proud of you both. Way Cool and well done. Printed it for my own use.
    Good luck keeping the kats herded! Talk soon. Text even sooner! Ya’ll be doing the Zoom Zoom internet thing like you’ve not imagined really soon.
    Way past my bedtime and hope all at HTM are happy with this opus!

  43. Frank Knotts says:

    HTM, first let me say that it saddens many that the great House of Taxamus Maximus has descended into the realm of name calling, reminds us more of the House Of Ayotte. It seems for all your criticism of the House of Ayotte, that once you find fault with someone’s view on an issue like ACA you have no problem becoming that which you criticize. So like the House of Ayotte, I will leave your childish name calling up as a testament to all, to show exactly who the formally great House of Taxamus Maximus truly is.
    As for your point about jobs, well again, you simply want the state to supply that which the private sector can. Maybe if this make believe company XYZ wanted to locate here they should have people doing evaluations of the best locations with the needed infrastructure, roads, sewer and such.
    And maybe instead of trying to make Delaware conform to some imaginary company’s needs that still might never materialize, maybe a better model would be to seek out companies that have needs that our area can already supply. Might that not be a better model?
    I notice that you again use a movie mantra, like your, “the needs of the many” from Star Trek, you use the Field Of Dreams’ “if you build it, they will come”. But what if they don’t? You would have the county build sewers into the middle of nowhere, alongside internet cables and whatever imaginary needs of your imaginary company XYZ “MIGHT” need, and if no company “COMES”? Then what? The citizens of Sussex would have to burden the cost of infrastructure that they neither wanted, nor needed.
    Now there is some childish thinking if ever I saw me some.

  44. fightingbluehen says:

    “Fightingbluehen…thanks for the input but you wouldn’t get the extra $5 because of my bumpersticker.”

    Your loss.
    Good luck with the next guy who will charge you $10 more, and probably give you worse service.
    BTW, tax payer subsidized solar panels will also get you a rate hike.

  45. Dave says:

    “But I also think it is ludicrous to compare the Big Dig to the Hoover Dam- there is just no comparison.”

    Agree. Which is why I did not compare a dam to a highway. The comparison was large construction projects and industrial fatalities, characteristics they both share.

  46. KL Lagola says:

    Dial -up sucks, let’s face it!!! I had a dial-up modem connection (14.4 mps)back in the days of Gopher, Telnet, Listserv, FTP, and other non-graphical interfaces. It was 1988 with Prodigy, et al. </em) LOL!

    I got a 'taste' of T5 speed via enrolling at the University of Delaware (and I said Amen! — who wouldn’t, right)?

    At any rate, here’s a recent Obama promise reported via the Associated Press…I’ll follow this AP-reported promise with a link to a website that has followed up on President Obama’s past promises (or lack thereof) since taking office in Jan., 2009.

    NATION

    Obama secures $750M in pledges to get kids online

    By Nedra Pickler

    Associated Press

    WASHINGTON — Claiming pro¬gress in his goal to put the world at the fingertips of every American student, President Barack Obama on Tuesday announced $750 mil¬lion in commitments from U.S. companies to begin wiring more classrooms with high-speed Inter¬net.

    Apple is pledging $100 million in iPads, computers and other tools. AT&T and Sprint are con¬tributing free Internet service through their wireless networks. Verizon is pitching in up to $100 million in cash and in-kind contributions. And Microsoft is making its Windows software available at discounted prices and offering 12 million free copies of Microsoft Office software.

    “In a country where we expect free Wi-Fi with our coffee, we should definitely demand it in our schools,” Obama said at a middle school in the Washington suburb of Adelphi, Md. Students there are assigned iPads that they use in class and at home.

    Beyond the promise of millions in donated hardware and soft¬ware, the Federal Communica¬tions Commission also is setting aside $2 billion from service fees to connect 15,000 schools and 20 million students to high-speed Internet over two years.

    Obama last year announced his goal of bringing high-speed Inter¬net to 99 percent of students with¬in five years. He used Tuesday’s announcement as another exam¬ple of how to act without waiting on Congress.

    “We picked up the phone, and we started asking some outstand¬ing business leaders to help bring our schools and libraries into the 21st century,” the president said.

    The average school has the same Internet speed as an average home but serves 200 times as many people, Obama said. About 30 percent of students have true high-speed Internet in their class¬rooms, compared with 100 percent of South Korean students, he said.

    Before the speech, Obama vis¬ited a seventh-grade classroom and noted one benefit of their In¬ternet access: lighter knapsacks because they don’t carry as many books to and from school.

    ________________________________________

  47. fightingbluehen says:

    Who do you think needs more help with their electric bill anyway? Someone living in a multi million dollar house at the beach or the average Joe who is seeing his electric bill increase partly because of the whole green movement?

  48. Rick says:

    Hale Boop needs to understand that technology is everywhere now. Not just Silicon Valley. It’s a brave new world out there and if you’re not current you’re left behind and your thinking is so old its way past ‘past tense’.

    What does ‘technology is everywhere’ mean? Any moron can use an i-pad or laptop. The software used by doctors and nurses, bank tellers, auto mechanics, realtors and so on are not complicated. There’s a limited demand for system and software engineers. Automobiles are everywhere too, and we all drive them but only a few fix them.

    Rethink what you write or do some research other than what you think you hear on Fox News.

    I already did. Within China there is a debate as to the role of computers in education. There is also the matter of internet censorship and the fact that a half-a-billion people in China have no access.

    What is ubiquitous in Chinese schools is learn-by-rote math and strict discipline- sort of like in the US fifty years ago.

    Hale Bopp also wrote: “Want to be a waiter? Major in sociology, art history or women’s ‘studies.’” WOW. That one is causing us to disregard you entirely in the future. Old white man thinking at it’s best. You are sadly misinformed Hale Bopp because it’s a temporary thing for most at best.

    What ‘high paying’ job do you think a sociology degree will get you? How many art history majors work in their field of study? ‘Women’s studies?’ Forget it.

    You know as much about education as you do wifi access in Sussex, which is not very much.

  49. House Tuxamus Maximus says:

    To anyone interested. Just off short call with the TMV and here’s what up at his home office. We’re back on temporarily (while the IT guys there are at lunch) with remote access and doing some things on this end so all works well by the end of the day but it may be Friday until all this is done.
    All this is being done, or been done, or will be done but for sure is happening:
    Telephone company installing a Full T1 line for his new business server operations from his home office.
    Cable company adding a second cable line and modem of 60 MBPS.
    (We’re running off a 128 MBPS right now which is double what we had…WOOOO HOOO!)
    Three new desktops running Windows 8.1 (the older PC’s will be added to the new server) and apparently TMV and his wife have been learning 8.1 on new laptops they’ve had for a while prepping for this change. For all we can figure he’s got six PC’s of various ages/operating systems (one is a win 98) and a bunch of laptops running on the (being upgraded today) secured wireless system.
    The pictures we got had 6 brand new monitors and two of them are 40 incher’s(?) set up in two corners of the office. Apparently the wife works from home a lot when it snows or when she’d rather work from there in peace and quiet…we just don’t know for sure…yet.
    We’re thinking he couldn’t just sit back and let us use a lot of his bandwidth and/or wanted to have bigger and better than he set us up with! Bottom line is he’s hooking us up with even MORE SPEED and bandwidth!
    We will deal with the above comments when all this is done and we’re back up and running full time. Compared to what is possible in Sussex what TMV is doing is light years ahead of what will be here in 20 years. It’s the modern world calling Sussex…ANSWER THE PHONE!!
    OH yeah…for anyone that thinks the TMV man doesn’t know much about computers we’re pretty sure he’s forgotten more than most of HB will ever know.
    TM’s IT 2 and 3 want the system now but we will be back when he tells us it’s done and remote access is ready. Now it’s just the satellites for us to use for the time being.

  50. Frank Knotts says:

    WOW! Someone has a penis envy issue! If you don’t feel that Sussex fits your needs then you are not forced to live here, anymore than someone who wants to work in an IT field, rather than a corn field.
    People live here because the taxes are low and the life is slow. If you choose higher tech, then expect to pay the higher tax. In your forced world of technology, where the county subsidizes as of yet unneeded infrastructure, who really pays for it? Tax payers, that’s who.

  51. Rick says:

    “But I also think it is ludicrous to compare the Big Dig to the Hoover Dam- there is just no comparison.”
    Agree. Which is why I did not compare a dam to a highway. The comparison was large construction projects and industrial fatalities, characteristics they both share.

    But you did compare them. And they are not comparable, other than the fact that they were ‘large.’ For example, most of the Big Dig was routine- highways and bridges- other than the tunneling. But just as much tunneling was needed at Hoover, to re-route to Colorado River.
    But the construction of the dam itself was much more dangerous than building roads. The blasting of solid rock, the dangling at height to smooth the cliff surface, the enormous amounts of concrete to pour…just look at the dam. They are not comparable and you did compare them.

    …you are not forced to live here, anymore than someone who wants to work in an IT field, rather than a corn field.

    This is a fact. If a young person really, really wants to work in tech, he’ll have to move. Just like a kid who grew up in NYCity would have to move if he really, really wanted to raise dairy cows or a kid in Nebraska who wanted to run a surf shop.

  52. House Tuxamus Maximus says:

    Thanks to the satellite internet we’ve been able to stay current with the Dark Lords ranting on this and the thread TMV is commenting. We’re back and in sync now with the host system. Seriously now…does the Dark Lord think we don’t pay attention to that thread? We’re the ones that brought his attention to it and at his request when we were allowed to comment again.

    The Dark Lord made it clear he has no heart and could care less about the plight of others. The Dark Lord stated “bad financial decisions” concerning cancer becoming a part of a couple’s life falling apart is nothing short of horrid. Wilma didn’t sign up for cancer. Cancer signed her up TWICE. Equal opportunity disease and it’s not cheap to deal with once but when it comes back to visit a second time?

    Maybe the Dark Lord is one of the very few that has never had someone in his life to ever be effected by some form of cancer? What a charmed life he must lead. Every TM in this home has had someone in their lives suffer through a cancer of some kind.

    So what title would the Dark Lord wish for from us? Man of the decade? Hero? You wish that progress pass over the county of Sussex for decades to come or even forever? The Dark Lord loves that “taxes are low and the life is slow” and that’s what it is until you get to the resort edge of the county.

    So we’ve fallen to the level of the house of Ayotte? We think you’ve dropped to the same level as well by associating us with that ‘person’. The only real difference between you and DA is that you do have some small measure of Integrity compared to him. He may actually have you on the humanity measure though. You say hurtful things about people that we care about and you get the title of the Dark Lord. You wish for the people to remain living in the dark ages well you’ve got it Dark Lord. We’re not here for low and slow. All are well compensated for enduring…..

    Curiously you go on to address our points of contention in this thread of making it possible to high speed internet to all homes that would make use of it?
    Hmmm…a bit hypocritical don’t you think?

    Before we move to those points we ask what about the home that might like to start an at home business selling on Ebay? They have to compete in the modern world that isn’t Sussex.

    YES Dark Lord job making companies locate in areas where what they need is provided and it happens all over the country except here and other backwoods low and slow areas doomed to complain about no jobs forever and ever. They are not imaginary companies and you don’t know it because you are low and slow. Elsewhere in the world these imaginary companies get Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) to locate in a city or town and those imaginary companies provide JOBS.

    You want to look for companies of which the needs can be supplied and we see chickens, soybeans and corn for the most part. If that’s the model recruiting of industry is done with well we see how that’s worked out. We’ll do as Pandora does and ask you to offer up a plan Dark Lord. Seems we have to some extent.

    “The citizens of Sussex would have to burden the cost of infrastructure that they neither wanted, nor needed.” Says the Dark Lord of NOOOOO.

    “Now there is some childish thinking if ever I saw me some.” We are the Kids of HTM! We will leave here one day and know that like many from here that get educated we will only come back to visit. What we needed has been brought in to fit the temporary needs for now. Don’t worry Dark Lord the tech stuff will leave with us when the need for us to be here passes.

    Lastly there is the “penis envy” thing. You had to think of it before you write about it Dark Lord. We’re not even sure to what the intent regards but you did think and write it.
    WOW. OK…and Sussex doesn’t fit our needs.

    Laffter you are our HERO!! You da MAN!! We are chuckling here! You need to talk with TMV because he can tell you why your bandwidth drops in the evenings. We’d love to but that’s not in our “job descriptions” according to him and things like that can’t be in print according to TM J.

    Can we request a favor of our beloved Laffter? If you think it’s possible for a person to make a purchase in a store that the sale doesn’t pass through a computer (aka cash register), even for a pack of cigarettes could you try to explain it to the one that can’t see the drinks being filled by a machine at McDonalds? That’s ‘tech’ and it’s surrounds us to everything we do and everywhere we go in the vehicles that auto techs use computer to diagnose and repair.

    Fightingbluehen…TMV welcomes you to provide a bid to be his lawn mowing man! He expects they will be even lower this season as regular fuel is below $3 a gallon where he is located.
    “BTW, tax payer subsidized solar panels will also get you a rate hike.” Well feel free to take over this Open Thread with this newsflash!

    Dave got toasted at dinner along with Laffter and Pandora!

    KL Lagola….we had to look it up as all we’d ever heard of was 28.8 modem speeds in the Dark Lord’s wish for the olden days long ago past. It turns out that 14.4 really was the only thing around at the start of it all.
    We do wonder if you have a problem with “Obama secures $750M in pledges to get kids online” because we sure don’t. It’s pledges. Take over the open thread if you wish!

  53. Frank Knotts says:

    HTM, you like TMV seem to feel that there is an unlimited amount of tax revenue to pay for all that you see as “FAIR”. Grow up.
    Not sure who put you in charge of deciding who is humane and who is not. Maybe you run it through you “BIG” computer. The size must be impressive.
    As for people creating a business selling on Ebay? Not sure but are you saying that satellite would not be able to handle this? Since you brag and brag and brag and brag and brag about how satellite makes it possible for you to come here and brag and brag and brag and brag and brag. And brag!
    Oh that’s right, you want someone else to pay for those less fortunate who can’t have the “BIG” computer like the HTM.
    You have shown your true self here as of late. When I was writing about the things and people you disliked it was all high praise. But now you come here with little more than name calling and braggadocio.
    You say I have no humanity, that is your opinion, you are welcome to it. But unlike you I am consistent in my views.
    I do fear that there is a genetic strain of insanity that runs deep through the whole of the House of Taxamus Maximus. Do the nuts fall far from the tree?

  54. waterpirate says:

    Frank,
    Congrats on the new position, I got one 2 and the transition has kept me busy as well.
    Part of the curse of technology is that there is allways a way to climb the mountain, if there is a roadblock on your current path. Bringing jobs to Sussex with the expansion of high speed internet into the rural areas is on of the dumbest ideas I have heard of late, especially if we the tax payers are going to foot the bill. Just like areas not served by cable television, which there are many. Get a dish or go down to town and get a library card. When my desk top went belly up some years ago, I was pleased to learn that I could go down to Deltechs library and carry on free of charge to my hearts content.

    Jobs in Sussex are a complex yet simple equation to understand. We have a never ending migration of mature people moving here who need services provided to them, cause they are to mature to do it themselves. We encourage our students to smarten up and get off the Peninsula to get the good job. That leaves many of our students not blessed with an aptitude for college, trapped here in low paying service jobs. Then on the third tier we have what I will call the down right un employable for a host of reasons. The only tax based job creation I would support would be in public services, sewer,water, power, and the most important the preperation of our students who are not bound for college another option besides working in retail or lawn care, or fast food.
    YMMV

  55. Dave says:

    @Lafter who said “Comcast lowers their bandwidth in the evenings, so they can provide more bandwidth elsewhere”

    Comcast uses bandwidth throttling as a means to regulate network congestion. Consider, if you will, that bandwidth has a finite limit (with their current architecture) and consequently the amount data that can be transferred over that bandwidth is also limited. Consider also, that in the evening when most people are home, demand increases considerably, with customers streaming movies, music, video games, and yes the occasional student doing homework. During the day, there is a great deal of unused capacity. In the evening, not so much. So they throttle speeds in order to provide the greatest number of people the fastest service. It’s a form of socialism, a greater number of people grumble but everybody gets a little bit of something.

    Those who work swing shift are golden though and never encounter throttling. Now if they were to offer a guaranteed level of service, especially in the evening, would people be willing to pay for that? I might do that if I needed it because I can afford it. But what about those who can’t afford it, even if they needed it?

  56. Rick says:

    Nearly anyone in Sussex can save some money, buy an inexpensive pickup, a riding mower, a push mower, a trailer and so on and then knock on some doors in towns and developments during the winter to procure landscaping contracts. Getting fifty contracts, at an average of $45-per-cut, would earn the young entrepreneur $2250 per-week, minus taxes, maintenance and gas, from March through October. During the off-season, mulching, leaf-raking, branch and twig removal, gutter cleaning, landscape improvement and the procuring of more contracts would provide even more immediate and long-term income and growth.

    It is unrealistic to think that everyone can be- or even wants to be- a brain surgeon or a systems engineer. To those who whine about a lack of opportunity in Sussex, maybe they should get off their butts and create an opportunity- for themselves.

  57. Tuxamus Maximus Wilma says:

    For the first time since the holidays I’m the only one here and it’s quiet. All have left for either Dover or Salisbury and it’s just me. I’ve got time and I’m going to enjoy this time.

    Well Mr. Dark Lord Knotts you want to know who is in charge of deciding who is humane around here that that would be me…TM ‘Wilma’. Fred has some say as do the ‘kids’ that come and go but I’m the one that said the man has a black hole where his heart should be. I said that when you wrote about us making bad financial decisions regarding my bouts with cancer. I’m a survivor two times now and have yet to figure out how any financial decision we made has to do with my surviving or living with cancer.

    I’ve met you and even way back then there was something about you that was sinister. It turned out I was right. You and other Tea’s took an absolutely wonderful Republican party and destroyed it. You call yourselves conservatives and Ipods but all you are, the whole of you, is selfish uncaring people that stepped on good men like Ron Sams and others to get your way. Once we met you and those other we decided not to go back again. Now all you do is fight among yourselves.

    When TMV set us up here in this home after it was clear the apartment wasn’t going to be enough he had few rules in which he asked we abide. Showing respect for you was one of them if we wished to comment on your site. We held our noses and respected that rule for a long time but when you wrote about our plight something had to change. I like having a roof over our heads but I want my dignity even more and would go back to that van in a heartbeat rather than lose my dignity. Before I could say a word our long time friend told us that we no longer had to show respect to you ever again. Everyone here happy danced as they call it around here at this wonderful home of happiness.

    For your information there are many ‘BIG’ and very powerful computers here and they are performing a large number of tasks by some very brilliant young people. In the past few days our friend has made it possible for everything here to work even better or faster or maybe even both. I don’t know or even care now because they seem to be happy with the new status of how all of this stuff works.

    The kids started writing on this open thread as it may be because they have long been amazed how lost in time Sussex is and why people seem so backwards compared to the places they grew up. Now they understand its people like you that want this area to remain 10 years or more behind. Even our own kids only come back to visit and consider Sussex as the “land that time forgot”.

    In know from friends we have had all our lives here that if their children go away to school they don’t come back here to live. It’s the curse of Sussex. I also know that it was hard for our smart kids to keep up with those they went to school with because the schools here are so far behind the kids they had to learn with in college had so much more than ours did in high school. But its people like you that like it that way and you’ll bully anyone that doesn’t agree with you.

    It’s you and others like you that doom the children of Sussex.
    That’s my turn at a keyboard. The kids will deal with the others that have written since you did when they return and when they wish.

  58. Tuxamus Maximus Peebles says:

    Oh Dark Lord that we all fall to the ground to worship you is not going to happen. Looks like the free time Wilma had today kind of put you in a tight space. You say grow up and we say look and see the real world.

    We’re going to keep this rather simple for you Dark Lord. A business on ebay from home requires a relatively powerful computer (not nearly what we have here) with lots of RAM because of the graphics among other things that are required to make a ‘store’ in the world of ebay. That’s a bit of change up front. We’ve yet to see the satellite system that provides internet that’s free to install and keep active.

    Starting a business of any kind is risky at best and if you’re barely making ends meet as it is why go into debt on a risky venture? Now we’re sure you’ll find some fault with that as always oh Dark Lord but we answered your question.

    Just how green are you with envy that we are proud to have what is made available to us and that the V man has even so much more and shares. Brag Brag Brag!! When we all leave here one day and take at least one system each with us as a parting gift is a great deal. Sadly for you there is no benefactor and you hate on us for this? Blood pressure rising?

    You make light of us and question our sanity. OK we fail to see the correlation between cancer and poor financial decisions. Your true colors Dark Lord. Please do remember that there was a time in which we had to be respectful towards you. We like the job here and the ones we will have afterward. You were never ‘friended’. You were merely tolerated.

  59. Tuxamus Maximus IT1 says:

    Waterpirate! That you disagree with our hope that Sussex could be motivated into the modern world doesn’t surprise any of us nor does it disappoint. Oh well horse to the water kind of thing. We can’t help but still like you none the less. That as a whole we thought it would be possible to provide incentive (ok we used the word ‘forced’ to poke the Dark Lord) to help make the modern world arrive in Sussex was just a thought of our caring for the Land that Time Forgot. Not everyone can afford a dish or the time for the library (is that open 24/7?) or go to Del Tech (is that open 24/7?) but hey…we still like ya matey!

    One reason we still think highly of you is your second paragraph! Too cool the way you use the word ‘mature’. If the high speed internet isn’t going to happen in the Dark Lord’s Sussex an you wrote “The only tax based job creation I would support would be in public services, sewer, water, power, and the most important the preparation of our students who are not bound for college another option besides working in retail or lawn care, or fast food.” is a GOOD thing as well. All are necessary and we sure won’t argue that happening. Apparently there are still a number of areas that still don’t have even Phase 2 power? Waterpirate got a toast tonight!

    PS: WP the mileage varies greatly around here at HTM. You should see the various vehicles during a rotation change. One is totally electric!! Another is a Roush Stage 2 GT Mustang with many in between that spectrum. We got your drift though.

    Dave your description to Laffter is a lot more understandable than what we tried to understand being discussed between TMV and the IT guys here. Way over our heads and you wrote something the rest of us could make sense of. To hear what they were saying and read what you wrote were the same yet so very different. TM IT 1 read it and said “that’ll work”. But they know they are geeks!!

    As for Fightingbluehen we have to own up to a needed correction. TMF not only told us but showed a picture of TMV with what seem to be a really big walk behind mower that has a 13 HP engine and “Armstrong Steering” and that he loves to mow the yards of his homes (down time from his cell phones and offices apparently). However, and we stand corrected once again, he does have some elderly tenants that the mowing is a part of the rentals and he does take bids on those yards. We didn’t pay full attention and hit the submit button too soon.

    Now we here at HTM have all read Fightingbluehen’s travails regarding his business. Just this past season we all remember him spending time on the DL site bemoaning the facts of too much rain, the illegal’s that caused price issues and the long hours of maintenance that came along with cleaning the deck of his mower on a daily basis. What if nearly anyone in Sussex can save some money, buy an inexpensive pickup, a riding mower, a push mower, a trailer and so on and then knock on some doors in towns and developments during the winter to procure landscaping contracts really happened? The supply of men like Fightingbluehen would outweigh the demand and prices would be cut, and that wouldn’t be a good thing would it? Those in that business don’t need insurance for the truck and equipment. Food for the family or any other expenses as well. No need for healthcare insurance either. Power and phones bills don’t count either for those professions. No doubt that pickup never breaks down or need upkeep because it’s a magic inexpensive truck.
    Fightingbluehen busts his hump to make a decent living making ends meet and a bit more. Way to go Fightingbluehen!! We’re being serious here and men like you perform a necessary service and do great work but we’re sure you wouldn’t want much more competition in your line of work. Do you plow driveways? The guy that services HTM does!!
    From what W tells us it seems that many get educated. Leave, make opportunities ELSEWHERE in the modern world.

  60. KL Lagola says:

    RAM? Negative Starship Trooper. A high – end graphics card with a requisite fast micro – processor rules the day.

    In fact, nearly any decent i5 or above off-the-shelf computer will more than suffice.

    Now go forth and embark on Adam Smith’s vision. The biggest risk, btw, is to ‘not’ take a risk in the first place!

    No risk, no grist…

  61. Tuxamus Maximus IT1 says:

    You’re correct KL Lagola just trying to keep it simple for the Dark Lord and LOTS of RAM does help with any application. The hign end graphics card really isn’t neded on the Ebay site builder as it’s provided. Let’s just keep is simple for st&^%d if you don’t mind.

  62. JJM says:

    My GOD HTM sits as judge and jury of Frank hurling names. How soon you all forget how fast you jumped on the bandwagon spewing shit at others who were going through issues just as difficult as yours. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
    Brag,brag, brag, brag, look at me, look at me look at me, look at me believe me nobody gives a flying **** how many computers or vehicles you y’all have.
    Frank may be a lot of things but green with envy of you or anyone else isn’t anywhere in the description of him. While Frank can be outspoken he has humility which can’t be bought, he has integrity which can’t be bought, he has the love of his family he hasn’t had to buy. So while Frank may not have all the toys you continually brag about he does have one thing y’all surely don’t have. He knows what it is and so do all the people who really know Frank.

  63. House Tuxamus Maximus says:

    Strike up the band as the puppet parade begins!
    One thing all here know is that “bad financial decisions” have nothing to do with cancer and the financial devastation that can accompany fighting cancer. Even puppets know that fact.

  64. Laffter says:

    Hear House TM,

    I know MANY MANY places where purchases can be made and off the grid. The registers used and the businessness that use them deal in cash only,

    And sometimes, there is no cash register at all only a drawer that the cash goes into.

    Some are restaurants, some stores or general merchant stores.

    Check out the stores on Race St in Georgetown, or at 5 points in LEWES, or in certain places in Seaford, if you get my drift.

    There are a few in Dover and many more in the Hilltop area of Wilmington. It’s a simple process, walk in gather your items pay in cash- or order you food and do the same.

    And Language is never a barrier…..consignment and most thrift store work the same way…..I like staying off the grid as mush as possible,

    To DAVE- thanks for the explanation ……I am sure you are correct, but the kids homework is FAR MORE IMPORTANT to our society in general , than some lazy ass 20 something with no job and no desire to get one, downloading his movies, porn and games on Momma’s cable internet.

    I wish there was some way to fix that, but when 2 hours of homework turn into 4 coz the wi-fi broadband is asbysmally slow……….it does get annoying. And iPads can be plugged into the Ethernet cable…….SMH and looking for solutions……
    If there was an option to do in on a computer, plugged into an Ethernet cable. That would be nice and the only viable one I see.

    I am trying to ensure that when mine are 20 something’s they will not be sitting on a couch somewhere surfing the net all day with no job, and I can tell you that couch won’t be in my home…..and if they are, it’s because they busted butt all day doing something to improve this society in which they live.

    It’s an expectation and a mandate in this home, not an option.

    It was hard work all day today, so sorry I was away, toasting tonight was some strong Mojitos……yummy

  65. TM 'Pebbles' says:

    Laffter I’m up late studying and only wish we could provide some of what we have for your kids. I’ll be Skyping with others Sunday night in a study session and I can’t wait to try what we have with this speed.
    I’m going to put your comment on the kitchen monitor for all to see so the giggle you provided will be shared by all as I sleep in.

  66. waterpirate says:

    I would conceed that high speed internet would not hurt anything only help if it were part and parcel of the other infrastructure improvements I mentioned. Sewer, water, and power would jump start more than internet based commerce or trading IMHO.

  67. JJM says:

    HTM tough swallowing the financial devastation pill your pushing when there’s all your continual bragging about all the material things. Those are the bad financial decisions wasting money on material things rather than your health. Seems to me health is more important this car or that car and all these mega computers you claim to have. Both my parents had cancer, I too am a cancer survivor. What good is a car with a turbo with this and that or a computer that goes faster than someone else’s if your to sick to use it or worst your dead. now anyone who agrees with Frank is a sock puppet how soon you forget how far up his (Edited for content, Frank Knotts) your head was at one time.

  68. waterpirate says:

    OPEN CALL FOR CIVILITY

    Having just returned alive again from the sewer that is the other blog. I post an open call for civility. We all get tangled up in emotion and the heat of the moment and sometimes ego is what prevents us from admiting our shortcomings and moving forward. There does not have to be a harmonic convergance of ideology, but there does need to be a call to stay on topic and refrain from taking the important issues before us to the personal level.

    The sewer and its behaviour has all but garaunteed the un electibility of any participants over there and serves no usefull purpose other than being able to keep track of all the crazies in one easy to find place. If that happens here, all will be lost.

    I respectfully ask that the entire BORG collective and Frank, go to time out on this issue and get back to something that will push us all forward, not drag us all down into the sewer.

  69. Laffter says:

    WATERPIRATE…. You are correct! Although emotions do get fired up( which is generally is a good thing) this blog certainly does not want to become that other sewer.

    Of course Waterpirate, over on that other blog…..there are a lot of Pot-stirrers, I only wish they had to lick the spoon afterwards……

    House TM, skype around here LOLOLOL……it’s like those old films where the astronaut is taking to Houston command and the audio and the video doesn’t line up……..it’s actually kinda amusing……

    But we skype a lot to Europe and the Middle -East where their side is OK but ours is questionable………there is only one or two countries that are problems……..understandably so given the politics.

    Maybe we should just all have a very LARGE STOUT, or PORTER. Waterpirate, your choice for today would be?

  70. Dave says:

    A society is more than the rules, conventions, culture, and laws by which it lives. A society is also the infrastructure that serves to connect and interconnect. I consider the information highway a key part of the infrastructure, just as I consider the sewer highway a key part of the infrastructure. Unfortunately, in Sussex County we have balkanized infrastructure with all our utilities, including water, wastewater, internet, and power. The somewhat standardized and common part of the infrastructure is that we have no county roads and all non-private roads are state roads. I am thankful for that because to be honest if Sussex County had any responsibility for roads, I shudder to think what those roads would be like.

    In short, we in Sussex County, have low property taxes. On the other hand, we get what we pay for – nothing.

  71. Dunleve says:

    What a thought, our new slogan could be – Sussex County – “High Speed Internet to Every Field” Just think of the value of having miles of cable strung along vacant fields, in case someone wants to open an EBay Store.

    Or maybe that employer with 100 jobs can finally build his empire out in rural Sussex. Why bother writing comprehensive plans?

  72. KL Lagola says:

    We can call it “Field of Dreams”

  73. pandora says:

    Flame wars and blogs go hand in hand. They’re easy and emotionally based. ‘Nuff said.

    Here’s the way I look at internet access: it’s a tool – A tool you’ll need to master in order to succeed in almost any field. Tech isn’t going away, so the argument of student access to technology resonates with me.

    Granted, (with me living in Wilmington) fast tech access is something I’ve always taken for granted (altho, I do summer in Sussex. Yep, I’m one of those summer people!). Just like I took for granted my son understanding and using CAD in high school. If this is not available to kids in Sussex then they will have trouble competing. That’s a huge problem, and one we (personally) didn’t have to deal with which gave my son a huge advantage when it came to college. Sussex children should have that same advantage.

    And I really don’t understand people arguing against progress. Their arguments strike me as someone arguing against indoor plumbing in defense of chamber pots… because blah, blah, blah founding fathers and one room school houses. Puhleeze. I don’t get it. Either that, or they’re retirees who already raised their children elsewhere and don’t see tech as “their” problem because… corn fields?

    (Okay, a bit snarky, but, come on! Even if you aren’t college bound, tech matters. Worked on a car lately?)

  74. waterpirate says:

    Whooo hoooo!
    We are back on a sane path. My choice for today would be…… O.K. One of each.

    Pandora, having lived in three cities on the east coast, I am the fish out of water that came back. I chose a slower pace, but the students need every advantage to make a informed choice for themselves and that begins with quality education and infrastructure.

  75. Rick says:

    In short, we in Sussex County, have low property taxes. On the other hand, we get what we pay for – nothing.

    I’m sorry to hear that where you live you have no roads.

    I live in Sussex…and I have a road. I also have electricity, wifi, cable TV, trash pickup and phone service, which I pay for. I am also close to the ocean, outlets, bike paths, the boardwalk, the state parks and the shops and restaurants of Lewes and Rehoboth.

    In Alexandria (VA), way back in the late 80’s, my next door neighbors, who were retired, had to sell the house they had lived in for nearly thirty years because they could no longer afford to pay the taxes. The moved to North Carolina.

    What did/do Alexandria residents “get” for their ludicrously high taxes? Police and trash pickup.

    I’ll take the low taxes in Sussex any day.

    Exactly what would you like to “get” from the county? Have you considered moving?

  76. Dave says:

    I have state roads and private roads. You also do not drive on any county roads in Sussex County, because no such roads exist. The state roads you drive on are paid for by state revenues which, in theory, come from state gasoline taxes. I’ll stand on my statement that my property taxes do not provide me with sewer, water, electricity, roads, garbage pickup, or any other service, with the exception of law enforcement. Your situation is no different than mine if you live in an unincorporated area of Sussex County (not in a town).

    I enjoy the low property taxes in Sussex County (never said I didn’t). However, I am also a realist in that I recognize (as I said) you get what you pay for. I didn’t move here because of low taxes. It’s nice to have, but it’s not why I am here.

  77. Rick says:

    Even if you aren’t college bound, tech matters. Worked on a car lately?)

    What is ‘tech?’ Using the internet? Any idiot can ‘use’ the internet, just as your average dolt can use a computer in an office or business environment.

    What are the generally highest-paying jobs in Sussex? Maybe doctor, lawyer, entrepreneur, realtor, school administrator and bartender, to name some of the most obvious.

    Ever been to the doctor’s office? After the paperwork and the wait, an assistant takes your pulse, BP and temperature. When the doctor arrives, what happens? He uses a stethoscope to listen to your heart and lungs, uses a magnifier to look into your eyes and ears, then tells you to say ‘ahhhh.’ Just like fifty years ago.

    Ever been to the lawyer’s office? After some preliminary paperwork, a brief conversation ensues. The lawyer may use a computer to access appropriate case law and statutes (he may just as likely use his office law library). If the matter goes to court, the lawyer advocates your position. Just like fifty years ago.

    Do your brakes squeak? Exhaust noisy? Bring the car to the shop. Sure, you will be entered into the system using a computer program that any ten-year-old could use. A mechanic will look at your brakes and exhaust system, replace the pads and muffler, and send you on your way. Just like fifty years ago.

    Selling your house? Sure, at the real estate office a simple program will track the listings- the computer replaced the pen and paper. And the internet will allow access to views of the property, but it is likely that the property will also be advertised in the newspaper. But the actual sale of the property is dependent upon the hustle, hard work and salesmanship of the realtor. Just like fifty years ago.

    My son Joe graduated from GWU last May. His major subjects were Russian, international relations and business. His only use of ‘tech’ was to research, write, preserve and track his assignments on his laptop. Most of the books he read were book books, not e-books. Just like fifty years ago.

    What I am saying is that ‘tech’ is vastly over-rated. Merely being able to use a simple computer program isn’t ‘tech.’ Certainly, there are high tech jobs- the use of complicated medical equipment, diagnosing complex control systems, flying jet aircraft and so forth. But these jobs require years of specific study.

    The highest form of ‘tech’ – true tech- is the design of software and integrated systems, the use of computers for engineering design and various forms of scientific research and so forth. But, how many of these jobs do you think there are- especially in Sussex?

    My point is this; in most cases, the computer has, to some extent, replaced the book, the pen and pencil, the typewriter, the bookkeepers’ ledger and so. It is not an all-encompassing entity. Merely being able to use a computer- at McDonald’s, the DMV or at a car dealership is not my idea of ‘tech.’

  78. Dave says:

    “Or maybe that employer with 100 jobs can finally build his empire out in rural Sussex.”

    I telecommute to Washington DC using broadband. An NSA data center was built in Bluffdale, Utah, population 7,598 – out in the middle of nowhere. You obviously aren’t in the technology business if you think that data needs are only centered in urban areas. I’m guessing your background is in agriculture. Might want to take a look around fairly quick as those cornfields are rapidly turning into houses.

  79. Rick says:

    I have state roads and private roads. You also do not drive on any county roads in Sussex County, because no such roads exist.

    This is true, and I’ll give you the point. But, other than the main arteries, many of the roads in Sussex were actually built by the county. The state took over sometime around ’35.

    I’ll stand on my statement that my property taxes do not provide me with sewer, water, electricity, roads, garbage pickup, or any other service, with the exception of law enforcement.

    So what? What’s the difference if you pay for them directly, or though a tax? Well, there is one difference. If you pay for these services yourself, than that’s who you’re paying for- yourself. If you pay for these services through a tax, you’re also paying for the ‘disenfranchised’ and the ‘unemployed’ and everyone else who habitually scrambles for a handout.

  80. JJM says:

    When I think tech jobs I think trade skills. There isn’t anything in our daily lives that doesn’t have some aspect of involvement with a machinist. It’s an excellent field, an honorable trade and plenty of room for growth.

  81. Dave says:

    “The highest form of ‘tech’ – true tech- is the design of software and integrated systems, the use of computers for engineering design and various forms of scientific research and so forth. But, how many of these jobs do you think there are- especially in Sussex?”

    None. There’s no infrastructure, anchored by an institution such as Stanford University, which anchored Silicon Valley. Also, the field of information technology is much broader than engineering and design. Data mining and analysis as an example. Still, I’m not suggesting Sussex County reach that far, but it could be more than chicken plants. It just has to want to be, and of course find leadership that sees the county as more than a watermelon farm or more than 6,000 years old cause the bible tells them so.

  82. House Tuxamus Maximus says:

    Hello All. Below we will explain the ‘dinner table theory” and how it will be applied after we deal with the comments of the day.

    Jur Jur Mo really needs to learn how to be a better puppet. Had you or your parents been through cancer you wouldn’t have written what you did let alone agree with the theory of “bad financial decisions”. Computer operated CNC machines have been replacing Machinists for many years now…sadly. Besides, we see more than you think.

    For Waterpirate. You have been a treat over time. We never really saw what TMV told us in the beginning but in time even he came around at least a little bit. The offer of help remains via HTM (or the Borg Collective). We like that and raised a toast to your open call for civility. That you agreed with Pandora would get you an invitation to the table.

    Laffter our dear friend you are so good, and correct so often you literally have a place at our dinner table anytime you wish. That room is available for the whole family is only another problem in which a solution would have to be found. What you wrote about the other blog was being nice…but we must continue to monitor as it’s a “priority”. Earlier we Skype’d with TMV using his T1 and his end was amazing! Ours apparently was greatly improved with all running applications paused or closed down. Skype was the reason for his T1 install as it’s used more and more. The one time we tried it in the past was similar to you description. TMV describes Skype “is now a necessary evil in business”. TM Pebbles has been doing the Skype for about 2 hours now and thrilled with how it’s working.

    Dave! Like Laffter and Pandora you are now a nightly toast and would be welcome at the dinner table at any time. We enjoy you where ever you show up to comment! Debunking the Bopper could be a sport, but we tired of it but making one last attempt in a few moments. That NSA center in Utah is a great example of why tech should be available. Watermelon farm! You’re priceless!!

    Dunleve…you are the definition of Slower Lower mentality and we had higher hope for you when you appeared here.

    KL Lagola won’t be at our dinner table.

    Pandora we have little doubt that Dave and Laffter would be happy to see you sit at the head of our dinner table and you have the best chair in the house for viewing GoT. You’re not ‘snarky’ just truthful. The CAD analogy probably went over most heads here but the chamber pot reference is PRICELESS. Lower is Slower

    Hale ‘Rick’ Bopp we address you only because what you wrote is so ludicrous it’s past sadly misinformed. An example: Every car built since the late 80’s has had an onboard computer that monitors and operates, at the start all those years ago. the EFI (Electronic Fuel Injection) systems. As the years have past many sensors have been added to all systems of vehicles. Anti Lock Brakes operate via computer signals. Fuel systems have sensors. All dealers service departments have laptops with software that communicates with the on board computers and can make adjustments to how it runs or what is wrong with how it runs and tell which sensor needs to be replaced. Not only that but there are TSB’s (Technical Service Bulletins) that should be looked up regarding every car that comes in for repair. Items that over time the maker has found need to be checked for possible issues. Just enter the VIN and presto you might get a free fix! Before computers the TSB’s were kept in a binder and weren’t looked at by anyone because of the time involved. Even you could look your car up and find TSB’s! Just need the make, model and year for most online sites. Debunking you is just too easy. Given time and info we could debunk the neighbor story. Most likely they moved to NC and not Sussex would be available technology. Just thinking possible… that you are misinformed is possible but you might want to realize because of the Internet information is everywhere. The Ford Motor Company Computer diagnostic system is called “Oasis” and has been though many upgrades over the years. Non Dealer shops use other multi manufacturer systems. Other shops just replace sensors until they get the right one and then tell you all of them were bad. Past that it’s hope and prayer unless it’s just a brake pad change. That’s all the time we’ll spend debunking you with the real world facts.

    The Dinner Table Theory is who we would want to sit at our nightly dinner served up by Wilma. It’s always a nice spread and unless a special event usually healthy for us food.

    We’ve asked ourselves over time what people from this blogosphere we would like to invite to our table and Pandora was first one to be toasted. Then she became toasted nightly. Then Laffter gained our respect and toasted nightly at dinner table. Just recently Dave was added. We’ve toasted many as time has past. Waterpirate more than most but even the DL when he dealt with the ‘trolls’ and we toasted Harry W at times. Missed him of recent…hope he’s ok.

    What it boils down to is if we really didn’t like you…you wouldn’t be invited to our table and we can’t sit at the table of one that we just can’t fathom anymore. We have our own playground here and laughing with Laffter, Dave and the occasional Pandora visit is all we really want anymore. Say Hi once in a while!

    This is our “Swan Song” commenter’s! Having lost any possible way to respect the Poster on this site we feel it best to remove ourselves from commenting. There were reasons that TMV asked that we consider it as he respected the poster and the site hadn’t gotten a lot of traffic.

    Commenting helped with the occasional boredom and added to dinner table conversation as well. There are other things to do and talk about now that we’ve been long settled in now. TMV understands and agrees.

    As a parting gift we want the one who runs this playground to feel free to use the ‘name’ we used to help rid this site of really bad troll.
    It was an interesting run and a decision agreed on by all ten that make this the House of Tuxamus Maximus. TMV suspended us once and now we do it ourselves. We will be around using the usual key word searches and more.

    Glasses UP!

  83. Frank Knotts says:

    I guess every blog has to have its Jon Moseley!

  84. Rick says:

    An NSA data center was built in Bluffdale, Utah, population 7,598 – out in the middle of nowhere. You obviously aren’t in the technology business if you think that data needs are only centered in urban areas.

    I never said that. I’m wondering, how many people originally from Bluffdale work there, and I’m not talking about janitors, clerks etc?

    I’m guessing your background is in agriculture.

    Well, my grandfather grew up on a farm in the Berkshires, but I was born and raised in that bastion of agriculture, Washington DC. lol.

  85. Rick says:

    Hale ‘Rick’ Bopp we address you only because what you wrote is so ludicrous it’s past sadly misinformed. An example: Every car built since the late 80’s has had an onboard computer that monitors and operates, at the start all those years ago. the EFI (Electronic Fuel Injection) systems. As the years have past many sensors have been added to all systems of vehicles. Anti Lock Brakes operate via computer signals. Fuel systems have sensors. All dealers service departments have laptops with software that communicates with the on board computers…

    ‘Misinformed’ LOL. I have years of experience in the automobile business- my last job before moving to Delaware was used car manager for a large northern Virginia Toyota dealership. This is why I was careful in presenting my examples; neither squeaky brakes nor exhaust work require any type of computer analysis.

    Furthermore, in any service department, there are a few guys trained to use EEC and ABS (traction control) systems, and many are not. Either way, there is very little ‘tech’ involved- you simply plug-in the analyzer, look at the readout and replace the defective part(s).

    The biggest problem in service departments isn’t finding ‘tech’-savvy mechanics. The problem is finding ‘natural’ mechanics who have the hands and the brains to solve mechanical problems, and who have the work ethic and patience to actually do it in a reliable and consistent manner.

    In major metropolitan areas, a good mechanic can make $100k if he wants to hustle. The same goes for salesmen, finance personnel and of course, managers. There’s nothing quite as satisfying than making a grand off some arrogant, condescending government clerk- light a cigarette, watch his tail lights disappear and say ‘AMF.’

    Please don’t lecture me about the car business- I’ve forgotten more about it than you’ll ever know.

  86. Dave says:

    “Well, my grandfather grew up on a farm in the Berkshires, but I was born and raised in that bastion of agriculture, Washington DC. lol.”

    That comment was not addressed to you. It was intended for Dunleve.
    Who said: “What a thought, our new slogan could be – Sussex County – “High Speed Internet to Every Field” Just think of the value of having miles of cable strung along vacant fields, in case someone wants to open an EBay Store. Or maybe that employer with 100 jobs can finally build his empire out in rural Sussex. Why bother writing comprehensive plans?”

  87. Rick says:

    That comment was not addressed to you.

    Okay. But, speaking about my grandfather in the Berkshires;

    I used to spend my summers there. Excellent weather, no a/c.

    I can remember when I was six or so, watching my grandfather spray tomatoes. I asked him what he was using, and he said “nicotine- bugs won’t touch it.”

    I also watched him convert a barn into a house, in his spare time, usually in the evening when it stayed fairly light to almost ten. With no power tools whatsoever.

    He also had a big, early thirties Pontiac that ran. It wasn’t registered- no tag, bad paint, no top. You could follow farm roads for miles. We used to climb a steep hill, and he always would say that the true test of a car’s power- back in the day- was whether it could climb that hill in top gear.

    Up there, people tend to keep things forever- in the barn, in the attic.

    They also don’t care for Wal-Mart, McDonald’s or Seven-Eleven or any of the rest of the crap that pollutes the landscape and turns the stomach.

    A lot of rural gas stations have a specialty. My favorite was the Granville (MA) Country Store. There, they sold (and probably still sell) cheddar cheese (kept under glass at room temperature) in three varieties; sharp, extra sharp and “rotten.” Outstanding.

    In Westem Mass there are a lot of exposed cliffs and bare mountaintops, due to the receding glacial ice. It affords an excellent climbing venue. Once or twice I wished I hadn’t started- on a free climb, you can only go up, not down (you go down from the top by following a path through the woods that most people use to go up). Once committed- and on a cliff face- you simply must find a way up.

    My grandmother, born 1901, was a college graduate- Smith College, Northampton, Mass. She was a prolific reader and an expert at American literature. She had known Edna St Vincent Millay, somehow. Make no mistake about it, I read every day when staying there- she was a fairly strict task-master when it came to study. She was religious, but never took me to church- there were a lot of churches, almost always protestant, almost always unadorned and almost always beautiful in the way that only objects of simple of design and sturdy construction can be.

    Her sister, also a Smith grad, went to work in the theater in NYC- around 1930, she moved to California. In the summer of 1969 (between my junior and senior year of high school) visited her, in Woodland Hills. I stayed a month. I had use of her car (her Valiant, not her 1960 Imperial), and drove all over- Malibu, Mullholland Highway, Rancho Palos Verdes, Beverly Hills, the San FernandoValley, Griffith Park and so forth. It was fantastic out there, and when I got home I begged- begged my parents to move out there. Of course, they didn’t.

    There are a lot of old, out-of-the-way graveyards up there, and I have a lot of relatives resting in them- 300 years worth. I think I prefer the rural graveyard to the (relatively) modern cemetery.

    Why did I post this? I don’t know.

  88. waterpirate says:

    Meanwhile under the guise of integrity…. the entire exavalient chromium blod bath has been pulled from the sewer and seems to have disappeared permantely. The braintrust over there also appears to be railing against Representative Smyk??? I guess the sewer knows no depth. After the public postings on that site I would say that DA is dead on arrival for elected office.

  89. Dave says:

    “There, they sold (and probably still sell) cheddar cheese (kept under glass at room temperature)”

    I still get my cheddar cheese that way, in upstate NY. Herkimer Cheddar was probably the best. They have a tour you can take on making cheese. I learned that the orange cheddar is made that way with carrot juice. What I never understood is why someone would want their cheese to be orange/yellow, whatever.

    It was fantastic in CA. I don’t regret the time I spent there, if though I would not go back (except to see my kids and grandkids).

  90. Dave says:

    @wp. You can still get to the post and the comments by using the search, since they did not delete the entire mess. And I case they do delete it, you can use the wayback machine to pull it up.

    The Smyk deal is simply a result of the binary nature of the denizens on DP. Either y0u drink the entire glass of kool aid or you become anathema. Actually, that entire blog is irrelevant and is merely a platform for Anderson to periodically post his successes or for Ayotte to forment an issue that creates some momentum and name recognition for his campaign. It has some minor entertainment value, sort of like visiting the zoo. But other than that, even a relaunch couldn’t help it.

  91. waterpirate says:

    Did someone say cheese? I so enjoyed my time in the Hudson Valley. It was a source of many things and cheese was one of those. Imported from all the corners of the world and the finest domestic money could buy. The deli out bu DMV has a surprising selection of imported cheeses, a real cultural revolution for G-town. Stopping there to pick up some cheeese and wandering down to 16 mile for a few pints, make G-town have a allmost Bohemian feel. I would not have ever imagined that in a million years when I moved here 20 years ago! LOL!

  92. Laffter says:

    The best cheese Pattys has is the soft aged goat cheese with the lemon rind in it

    OMG……Eaten with fruit in the am like cantaloupe……grapes……WOW!

    That little place is a gold mine, the ham and apple and brie on panini…..to die for!

    Pairs ok with 16 mile I would imagine.

    Yeah, the sewer Is still a sewer…….it does have entertainment value, at some level, I suppose.

    Of course they never have learned about screen shots and google cache. And cross posting …..
    They can pull what they want, but there is always a way to track it down.

  93. Dave says:

    There is also a cheese monger on Baltimore Ave in Rehoboth. I make monthly trips to Wegman’s though because they have the greatest variety of cheeses.

  94. Ambrosegon says:

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