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Its more fun in Norway. We actually managed to produce more electricity than we need, so naturally we sell it abroad, thereby increasing the price here, and most of it is own by the local municipalities i.a. the people. Even more funny, the government has increased its support for wind mill power supplies, even though we have a surplus, which mean that the municipalities will get a lower price for the electricity. The logic? Well, I dont know...
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We have that in Norway as well, but it is hidden in the price. Nearly all the physical phone lines actually own by a partly state run (35% i think) company Telenor, and they rent out the line capacity to other companies within Norway, and it is overseen by a department.
It was fully state own before, meaning that the state own all the phone lines, but they decided to sell away most of it to develop the company abroad.
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I don't even know what's a line rental. There's a fixed price that I pay every month, and I get internet. The bill amount may increase based on telephone usage though.
"Real men drive manual transmission" - Rajesh.
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You can rent the line in my sig for a mere EUR 2.50 a month.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I've never heard of anything called a line rental charge, but all utilities charge a fixed per customer or per connection charge. This is intended to recoup the fixed, recurring cost of maintaining a system capable of serving a customer, whether the customer uses the service or not. Variable costs are recovered using service charges that vary by usage. Here in the colonies, most of these charges have to be approved by some sort of regulatory body, which varies by jurisdiction. Here on the Indian Reservation, we set our rates with the approval of the Tribal Utilities Commission; off-reservation, charges are regulated by the Arizona Corporation Commission, unless they delegate that duty to the Tribal Commission. In most states, there is a Public Utilities Commission, sometimes appointed, sometimes elected, and usually comprised of member from both the utility industry and the public in order to attempt a balanced view of rates. It doesn't always work out...
In every case I know of, it's the utility that gets screwed, never the consumer. We recently watched the demise of a major generating plant in our area. It was ordered to make environmental improvements by EPA, via a court case which was settled, but later proved to be a false accusation. The company had the money to make the improvements, but had to get permission from the California PUC to spend the money because the majority owner was a CA company. The PUC denied the request, forcing the plant to be closed and destroyed, along with all of the well paid jobs in our area. Brilliant...
The closest I can think of to your evil "line charge" is the $10 a month charge Sprint is allowed by the FCC to bill me for a service they have never provided, nor intend ever to provide, simply because the phone I own is capable of using that service.
Will Rogers never met me.
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We pay line rental in Aus too. Although it sounds like a rip off, I think it is there for two reasons.
Telstra (national ex-nationalised telco) are 100% responsible for the infrastructure - regardless as to who your supplier is - so the rental goes toward the physical connection.
the maintenance of the physical infrastructure doesn't change depending on your use - so if you have a phone but rarely or never use it, the telco would be making a loss on your connection.
I must admit i don't know what happens here if you go naked DSL - I believe you no longer pay the line rental, so if there is a problem I don't know if it still gets fixed by Telstra, or your naked ISP.
MVVM # - I did it My Way
___________________________________________
Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011
.\\axxx
(That's an 'M')
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Here, we still have to pay line rental if you just wanted broadband.
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I recently downloaded Bitdefender's 30-day AV evaluation. Upto now I've been using MSE. The first thing I noticed once I installed Bitdefender is how my machine's performance nose-dived. I don't mind losing some performance as it's a small cost for the protection it offers but what I experienced was a significant hit. I uninstalled it and, voila!, performance was back to normal. Opening Outlook and Fox took a long time and loading pages was painfully slow.
I'm prepared to give Bitdefender another chance but has anyone else used it and could comment or should look at another pay-for-use AV app like Kaspersky or something else?
Please don't suggest MacAfee. Please... 
If there is one thing more dangerous than getting between a bear and her cubs it's getting between my wife and her chocolate.
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SeptimusHedgehog 151576 wrote: Please don't suggest MacAfee.
OK.
Have you tried Sementick Symantec? Trust me, it's even worse! 
Seriously? I use MSE - haven't had a problem.
The only instant messaging I do involves my middle finger.
English doesn't borrow from other languages.
English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.
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The problem I have is not if its slow or fast, but if it actually works? How does one judge that really, let the NSA have a go or what?
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I suspect that none of them will keep the NSA out.
If that is what you need, then never connect it to the t'interweb... 
The only instant messaging I do involves my middle finger.
English doesn't borrow from other languages.
English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.
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Or Friend Obama on Facebook
But I really cant tell if I have a virus or not except if the speed of the computer suddenly changes.
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You cannot tell if your AV works until it fails to something particularly nasty and obvious.
“I believe that there is an equality to all humanity. We all suck.” Bill Hicks
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Yeah, but then the people that make the competing software could create a nasty virus to slow your computer down, and make you switch to their product. At least according to some rumors...
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They do: McAfee is created by Symantec, and Symantec by McAfee...
The only instant messaging I do involves my middle finger.
English doesn't borrow from other languages.
English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.
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Dont follow 
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I suspect that McAfee do some of the work on Symantec to make McAfee look "good" while Symantec add code to McAfee to make Norton AV look "good" in comparison.
Because they can't be producing those two steaming piles of rancid monkey poop deliberately that bad independently, can they?
The only instant messaging I do involves my middle finger.
English doesn't borrow from other languages.
English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.
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Quote: two steaming piles of rancid monkey poop
That would depend on who you are hire I dont know, but there are lots of features that I have bought in the past, which I could have done myself as RegEdit cleaners, nearly better to do manually, but a looooot of work . Hat nasty cookieses (In Smeagol voice)...
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I put everything on the internet because I have such a banal life that by being less guarded I make the job of anyone spying on my communications that more tedious and long-winded.
“I believe that there is an equality to all humanity. We all suck.” Bill Hicks
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I too have a banal life - I just don't publish it to make them feel they have achieved something!
The only instant messaging I do involves my middle finger.
English doesn't borrow from other languages.
English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.
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If everyone does that it would explain all the BS questions Perhaps I also should do that?
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Whereas Chris's approach explains 99% of twitter...
The only instant messaging I do involves my middle finger.
English doesn't borrow from other languages.
English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.
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Yep, it might appear as if we are being vacuous and needy, but we're actually fighting against The Man.
“I believe that there is an equality to all humanity. We all suck.” Bill Hicks
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Perhaps SymanShite and MacCrappy will embrace like that photo of the alligator and snake that both died; the alligator killed the snake with a bite and the snake choked the alligator to death. Perhaps other AVs will nuke them as well as it's long overdue.
No wonder John MacAfee went into hiding. He should be punished for crimes against humanity; making a lot of money selling shite to a public that deserved better for their bucks. BTW: does anyone know what Bill is doing these days?
If there is one thing more dangerous than getting between a bear and her cubs it's getting between my wife and her chocolate.
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Not while they still manage to persuade systems builder to ship "trial" versions with product. Even those are a PITA to remove - to the point where most people just don't bother...
The only instant messaging I do involves my middle finger.
English doesn't borrow from other languages.
English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.
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