The Off Topic Topic

[CountDeMoney]

I'll put my faith in the ATT Death Star.

Whoa.

[11B4V]

I'll put my faith in the ATT Death Star.

Whoa.

I even get to bars with ATT out around ST Helens where I hunt.

[jimmy olsen]

Ethics. I has it.

We have an internal policy that when a field location detects certain impairment indicators, they have to report them to corporate. So it turns out a field location is being audited right now, and auditors have discovered that last year impairment indicators. The location swears they emailed corporate, but our emails auto delete after a year, so they can't find a record of it. Audit is preparing to write them up for this. The location is trying to find some evidence: they emailed corporate to see if someone has a record of the email the email they claim to have sent.

So I work in corporate. The two main contacts for this type of thing can't find anything - their emails also auto deleted. They asked me if I might have anything. It turns out--I do--I apparently saved this particular email to keep it from deleting.

The thing is: based on the records I have, it seems we just ignored the email. So I could say I can't find it, and audit will be all over their ass, or I can send them the email, and audit will be all over ours. I sent the location the email.

What are impairment indicators?

[Tamas]

Oh dude, I did that;  that was such a mistake.    I have yet to manage a conversation longer than 10 minutes without it crashing my internet connection and having to reset my router. 

But hey, let's run our entire modern telecommunications infrastructure on it.

Who the hell still uses a landline?!!

[CountDeMoney]

Who the hell still uses a landline?!!

Fortunately, places like government, utilities, hospitals.  You know, places where shit still needs to work.

[celedhring]

Cell phone coverage in my area can be unreliable, so I have a landline too.

[garbon]

I only have a landline as it basically is a required part of my internet service. Someone called me on that number the other day and I was quite confused.

[The Larch]

I unplugged my landline phone a couple of years ago already, the only ones calling me there were my mom and South American telemarketers wanting to offer me great deals right when I was napping or getting ready for dinner. My mom is an avid mobile phone user nowadays and I don't miss the telemarketers at all. I don't even remember my number.

[Josquius]

I only have a landline as it basically is a required part of my internet service. Someone called me on that number the other day and I was quite confused.

Why did you buy a phone for it?
I think I have my own land line.  I used to for sure. Never plugged a phone in.

[garbon]

I only have a landline as it basically is a required part of my internet service. Someone called me on that number the other day and I was quite confused.

Why did you buy a phone for it?
I think I have my own land line.  I used to for sure. Never plugged a phone in.

I figured if I had a landline I might as well have a phone. Wasn't a big expense or anything.

[celedhring]

I had 4G internet when I lived in Barcelona proper. It wasn't tied to a phone line and thus very convenient (I could take my modem anywhere and still use it), but it had rather stringent data caps (30Gb/60Gb depending on the plan).

[CountDeMoney]

Until cellular gets straightened out and is as consistently reliable as old copper, I am not relying on cellular alone. Simply too much nonsense, and not appropriate for certain instances.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Cell phone coverage in my area can be unreliable, so I have a landline too.

I have Google Fi for cell service, so I get VOIP capability for free.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Until cellular gets straightened out and is as consistently reliable as old copper, I am not relying on cellular alone. Simply too much nonsense, and not appropriate for certain instances.

Things must be different in Baltimore, because in my neighborhood "old" is an excellent description for the copper, and it is about as reliable as a Labrador on speed.  Back when I had the T1 I ended up calling them so many times that they finally came out and dug up an entire terminal post.  The other rats nests in the area still look like shit, though.  I would trust my cell ahead of a landline here, even without the VOIP.

[alfred russel]

What are impairment indicators?

At a high level, in accounting you record the value of something at what you paid for it. So you buy a bunch of equipment for $1,000,000, you record an asset of $1,000,000.

You then depreciate it. So you think it will last 20 years, you lower the asset value by $50,000 a year.

So in 10 years, when you report your financials, you will tell the world you have an asset of $500,000. That is fine, but what if the asset has become obsolete or has for some other reason become worthless? The standards say you have to revisit the value under certain circumstances, and evaluate whether it needs to be lowered, which is referred to as impairing an asset. The circumstances requiring you to revisit the value of the asset are "impairment indicators".