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KCK_Halo
KCK_Halo
Last reply · posted in DIRECTV General Forum

LAND LINE REALLY NECESSARY?

Hello Folks,

I am stepping out of the Sports Forum for the 1st time to ask the pros here a simple, basic question that a co-worker cannot receive a straight answer about:

She is thinking of giving up her land-line phone as she really only ever uses her cell anymore. She was told that a land line is required to retain her Direct TV service. However, when she called and spoke to technicians they used the line "Direct TV PREFERS that you have a land-based line" over and over without saying it is actually REQUIRED.

FYI, the only "extra" subsriptions she gets is the Sports Package and Extra Innings. She does not do PPV or any movie rentals, etc. (Some kind of gal, huh?):D

Many thanks for your consideration with this basic question. Too bad she can't get a complete, direct and honest answer from their support staff.

Regards,
KCK_Halo
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J
Joe Diamond
STILL,

The Home Service Provider (HSPs) that DTV uses for installations insist that their installers connect phone lines or face deductions in pay. So the installer has to choose between connecting existing lines, installing phone runs for free OR finding some way to dump your installation and move on to the next job WITH an easy phone situation.

SO it depends who you ask. All above statements are accurate.

Joe
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MikeinBaja
MikeinBaja
Considering that some very high percentage (don't want to quote a number off the top of my head and get flamed) of US households have abandoned landlines for better cellular deals, both "majors" needs to just accept that fact.

Have heard of no Directv consumer issues with it and DN needs to just give up their $5 charge (which is costing them subscribers, and ultimate revenue potential).

Welcome to the new paradigm.
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P
ParvoPup
To clarify the statement about people dumping landlines - as a recently early retired Telco employee - - I can you assure that the numbers of "cell only" households is growing.

And yes - the Telcos are suffering - especially VZ.

The last set of internal study numbers I saw about a month ago had the national average at 21% with the under 35 age group as high as 48% in select markets.

I currently work for D* and our local unscientific "study" puts our area close to the 40% no landline zone.
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J
Joe Diamond
ParvoPup said:
To clarify the statement about people dumping landlines - as a recently early retired Telco employee - - I can you assure that the numbers of "cell only" households is growing.

And yes - the Telcos are suffering - especially VZ.

The last set of internal study numbers I saw about a month ago had the national average at 21% with the under 35 age group as high as 48% in select markets.

I currently work for D* and our local unscientific "study" puts our area close to the 40% no landline zone.
Click to expand...

About a year ago I saw a study in the New York Times that stated 1 in 6...no land line.
My little phone fixing side line is dead in the water. You can get a prepaid cell phone for the cost of one land line repair or jack install @ $60.00 hr.

Joe
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sudnshok
sudnshok
Joe Diamond said:
STILL,

The Home Service Provider (HSPs) that DTV uses for installations insist that their installers connect phone lines or face deductions in pay. So the installer has to choose between connecting existing lines, installing phone runs for free OR finding some way to dump your installation and move on to the next job WITH an easy phone situation.

SO it depends who you ask. All above statements are accurate.

Joe
Click to expand...
Had it installed about 2 years ago with no land line and the installer didn't hassle me one bit.
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P
PMKS
I've been a subscriber since 1995...

In the early days it was a big deal to DirecTV if your phone line was connected. My first IRD was always hooked to a phone line, as IRD prices went down and I added more boxes some of them weren't hooked to phone lines. ( My house was built in 1961 and it's a PITA to run wires )

I had a box shut off in the late 90's once because the phone line wasn't hooked up. :mad: I had to run a long phone line overnight once a month to that IRD so it could "phone home" and keep DirecTV happy.

Lately they seem to not care at all.... only about half of my boxes are hooked to phone lines now.
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Almighty1
Almighty1
MikeinBaja said:
Considering that some very high percentage (don't want to quote a number off the top of my head and get flamed) of US households have abandoned landlines for better cellular deals, both "majors" needs to just accept that fact.

Have heard of no Directv consumer issues with it and DN needs to just give up their $5 charge (which is costing them subscribers, and ultimate revenue potential).

Welcome to the new paradigm.
Click to expand...


Just curious but what is the $5 charge that you're referring to? I am a recent Directv customer after buying a new house and then installing it on May 15, 2009. I did not have phone service because all the inside telephone wires were disconnected inside the wall which the telco can't fix. So I asked Directv if the landline was needed for installation on atleast 6 occassions prior to install and they said no and the installer just installed without even asking about the phone line, the only thing is that the installer said was for the first 90 days, to call one of the three numbers on the sticker on the side of the box if there are any problems and he'll be back out to fix it and not to call Directv, otherwise they will take money away from him so it seems like even with the Service Plan according to him, don't use it until 90 days after installation. As for alarms, those don't need landline anymore since if you use something like nextalarm.com, it can all use your internet connection and you can even view the status of all the sensors as well as the logs. As for faxing, I use Verizon Wireless so all I do is use a scanner and a printer and use my cellphone to fax with fax software so basically I get to fax for the same rate as voice. free on nights and weekends and it just uses minutes during the daytime. Other people have used things such as magicjack voip service which is $19.95 per year but the first year is included with the $39.95 devide and has unlimited anytime calls to the US and Canada.
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srenker
srenker
Almighty1 said:
Just curious but what is the $5 charge that you're referring to?
Click to expand...

Dish Network charges $5 a month if the box is not connected to a phone line. (He abbreviated it DN so it was easy to overlook.)
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Scott Greczkowski
Scott Greczkowski
Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU! Cutting Edge
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club

Song Name Game Part 3!

Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!

So let the game continue!

The last song was added by Bobby who posted...

One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters

CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!

Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game

Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.

Example:

Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow

Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio

Another example:

Ride the Lightning -- Metallica

Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne


Get it?


An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
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long_time_Dish
I Can Hear Music - The Beach Boys
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dishstaller
dishstaller
Boom Boom ( Out Go The Lights ) - Pat Travers
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sdfntx
sdfntx
Palisades Park - Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon
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RaiderPower
Cherry Hill Park - Billy Joe Royal
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long_time_Dish
long_time_Dish
Lakeside Park - Rush
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Bruce
Bruce
Supporting Founder Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in Internet Television (IPTV) Discussion Forum

How things have changed

I was reading this article

thehill.com

Cable TV ‘cord-cutters’ became the majority in 2022

The steady decline of cable and broadcast television, and the rise of streaming services, reached a sort of inflection point over the past year. Last summer, for the first time, streaming ser…
thehill.com thehill.com

That said this-
Last summer, for the first time, streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime claimed the largest share of the television viewing audience, surpassing both cable and broadcast TV. Streaming captured 34.8 percent of July viewers, according to Nielsen data, compared to 34.4 percent for cable and 21.6 percent for broadcast.

And then, sometime in the second half of 2022, cord-cutters became the majority. The share of cable and satellite television subscribers dipped to 48 percent, according to a report from Samba TV, a television technology company.

Now I do not consider those with YTTV and the likes, Cord Cutters, but they still do not have Traditional Cable/Satellite delivered Live TV, so I decided to do the math.

There are, now, 129 Million Households in the United States.

In 2015, there were 100 Million Cable/Sat Subscribers , no streaming Live TV Service.

Today, there are 66 Million Live TV subscribers, including Cable, Satellite and Streaming.

Roughly, Streaming Live TV has 14 Million subs including all of them.

So that means, Cable/Satellite now has, roughly, 51 Million Households

So in just 8 years, lost 49% of their subscribers and by the end of this year, expected sub count to be, roughly, 45 million households.

That means a total loss of 55% since 2015 at the end of 2023.

But out of 129 Million households, 45 million will mean only 35% will get Cable/Satellite Delivered Live TV by the end of 2023.

Imagine what 2024 will be like.
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Bruce
Bruce
And again, 15 months in a row, streaming wins-

Cable and Broadcast added together-36.4%

Streaming with a massive 49.6%, 13.2% higher than Broadcast/Streaming.

IMG_2172.webp
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Jimbo
Jimbo
Bruce said:
And again, 15 months in a row, streaming wins-

Cable and Broadcast added together-36.4%

Streaming with a massive 49.6%, 13.2% higher than Broadcast/Streaming.

View attachment 194983
Click to expand...
Your Still Thrilled about all this ?

These numbers will Never be accurate as many people use Both still ...

You have services like Hulu Live and You Tube TV that do, what you call Cable, but they ARE Streaming, so Which is is ?

Does it get counted 2x as both Streaming and Cable ?
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S
savarese04
Jimbo said:
Your Still Thrilled about all this ?

These numbers will Never be accurate as many people use Both still ...
Click to expand...
Nobody is "happy" or "sad" about this. Simply posting data in an non-editorialized way has nothing to do with anyone's feelings.

The data on the streaming side is immensely accurate, I'm guessing to the millisecond. Plus most people likely have not turned off data sharing and thus they are grabbing a huge swath of data. Much more accurate than cable which relies on a smaller sample size and probably not to the second.

In either case, nobody is getting "double counted" because it's usage based. If I watch 100 minutes of content and 30 minutes is on Youtube and 20 minutes on Disney and 50 minutes on YTTV, it's going to show up as 30%, 20%, 50% slices of my personal pie respectively.
Jimbo said:
Q.
Who does the Counting for Streaming ?

Neilson does the Broadcast/Cable ...
Click to expand...
Nielsen does. If you go into the settings of any of your streaming accounts, you can turn off the option to share to usage data with their third party measuring service - Nielsen.
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Jimbo
Jimbo
savarese04 said:
Nobody is "happy" or "sad" about this. Simply posting data in an non-editorialized way has nothing to do with anyone's feelings.

The data on the streaming side is immensely accurate, I'm guessing to the millisecond. Plus most people likely have not turned off data sharing and thus they are grabbing a huge swath of data. Much more accurate than cable which relies on a smaller sample size and probably not to the second.

In either case, nobody is getting "double counted" because it's usage based. If I watch 100 minutes of content and 30 minutes is on Youtube and 20 minutes on Disney and 50 minutes on YTTV, it's going to show up as 30%, 20%, 50% slices of my personal pie respectively.

Nielsen does. If you go into the settings of any of your streaming accounts, you can turn off the option to share to usage data with their third party measuring service - Nielsen.
Click to expand...
I have turned some off, not others ...
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Jimbo
dishstaller
dishstaller
Jimbo said:

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/u4rACh-Tt5k?feature=share
Click to expand...

Funny thing is that as the screen size and pic quality increase, the quality of the programming has DEcreased.
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MikeD-C05
dishdude
dishdude
MikeD-C05 said:
skipped the OLED Tv entirely?
Click to expand...

AI slop
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dishstaller
dishstaller
Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in DISH Network Support Forum

Claude's site is still up and running. New link required

I figured some of the guys would be looking here for an answer. You'll need to use this link

DishRetailer

America's Oldest Satellite Forum!
satelliteretailer.com satelliteretailer.com

I'll mention what happened over there. I don't want to cause Scott any issues or put him in a bad spot.
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dishstaller
dishstaller
If any of you know some of the guys from the board and you have their contact info, please reach out to them....many failed to update their contact info and some even had starband email addresses.
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Scott Greczkowski
Scott Greczkowski
dishstaller said:
I figured some of the guys would be looking here for an answer. You'll need to use this link

DishRetailer

America's Oldest Satellite Forum!
satelliteretailer.com satelliteretailer.com

I'll mention what happened over there. I don't want to cause Scott any issues or put him in a bad spot.
Click to expand...
Now I have to go check out what happened now. Lol!
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Scott Greczkowski
Scott Greczkowski
Went and looked, not too bad...

Just let people know the address is satelliteretailer.com as DishRetailer.COM is not working. :)
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osu1991
osu1991
Pub Member / Supporter
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club

USA Healthcare Costs are Ridiculous

:mad::mad::mad::mad:

Pissed off at the crappy healthcare costs

My health Insurance renewal for 2027 just came in. Going from $827 a month to $1,187 a month. Deductible going up a $1k to $9,350. Max out of pocket also going up $1k to $11,000. Doctor co-pay of $40. Urgent Care co-pay $50. ER 50% coinsurance after deductible. That's all in network. Out of network is double, should it be needed.

Have to think about this. I'm really tempted to just go without now. I only go to the doctor once or twice a year. I pay out of pocket for Tirzepitide and can do without the Rosuvastatin (crestor) now. Really tired of spending over $10k a year and getting nothing out of it.

After years with Blue Cross I switched last year to Ambetter as my Blue Cross premium was going from $1200 to $1800 for a Silver plan and the Bronze plan was still going to be $1300 at BCBS. Ambetter was $827 for the same coverage with a Bronze plan. Didn't think it would jump this much so soon.

I'm guessing a Silver plan is probably over $2,000 a month for 2027.
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b4pjoe
b4pjoe
osu1991 said:
Pissed off at the crappy healthcare costs
Click to expand...
Are you employed with no work insurance or that is what you are paying for your workplace insurance? Or is that through Healthcare.gov? Retired? Eligible for medicare?
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vazhog
vazhog
that cut is only for illegals to get off the rolls and I was being sarcastic before -
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osu1991
osu1991
b4pjoe said:
Are you employed with no work insurance or that is what you are paying for your workplace insurance? Or is that through Healthcare.gov? Retired? Eligible for medicare?
Click to expand...
Started my own business in 2006, been self employed for 20 years this year.
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meStevo
meStevo
vazhog said:
that cut is only for illegals to get off the rolls and I was being sarcastic before -
Click to expand...

Even sarcastically it's wrong. Undocumented immigrants already weren't eligible for federal Medicaid, so there's no one to "get off the rolls." The immigrant-related pieces are a small part of the ~$1 trillion. They cut the federal match for emergency care from 90% to the state's regular rate and end eligibility for some lawful immigrants like refugees. Most of the "savings" come from work requirements, more frequent eligibility checks, and provider tax limits, which hit citizens.

Either way, the cost doesn't disappear. It shifts to states, hospitals, and everyone else's premiums and will only serve to make issues like those raised in this thread worse.
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dishstaller
dishstaller
meStevo said:
Undocumented immigrants already weren't eligible for federal Medicaid, so there's no one to "get off the rolls."
Click to expand...
That's only part correct. Actually I had to look it up to make sure. There is NO Federal money going to Medicaid for illegals but there ARE some states that use State money to pay for Medicaid for illegals. Here's the list

    • California: Covers all income-eligible undocumented adults. [1, 2]
    • Colorado: Covers specific adult demographics (with upcoming budget caps in 2027). [1]
    • Illinois: Covers specific adult age brackets. [1]
    • New York: Covers specific adult demographics. [1]
    • Oregon: Covers all income-eligible undocumented adults. [1, 2]
    • Washington: Covers specific adult demographics. [1, 2]
    • Washington, D.C.: Provides adult coverage through the D.C. Health Care Alliance. [1, 2]
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meStevo
meStevo
dishstaller said:
That's only part correct. Actually I had to look it up to make sure. There is NO Federal money going to Medicaid for illegals but there ARE some states that use State money to pay for Medicaid for illegals. Here's the list

    • California: Covers all income-eligible undocumented adults. [1, 2]
    • Colorado: Covers specific adult demographics (with upcoming budget caps in 2027). [1]
    • Illinois: Covers specific adult age brackets. [1]
    • New York: Covers specific adult demographics. [1]
    • Oregon: Covers all income-eligible undocumented adults. [1, 2]
    • Washington: Covers specific adult demographics. [1, 2]
    • Washington, D.C.: Provides adult coverage through the D.C. Health Care Alliance. [1, 2]
Click to expand...

Fair point, but it's consistent with what I said: no federal Medicaid money goes to undocumented immigrants. Those programs are state-funded, so the federal ~$1T cut can't touch them. Whatever states decide to do with their own programs is a separate budget decision.
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vazhog
vazhog
The feds give money to the states for them to use - Cutting the fed funding only means the taxpayer savings will passed onto the states that need to make up the Fed dollars cut -See the list above for those states affected
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TWiT Tech Podcast Network
· posted in TWiT Tech Podcast Network

Rest in Peace Walter Koenig & Patrick Stewart

Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxc8oEnTTpc


Direct YouTube Link - Rest in Peace Walter Koenig & Patrick Stewart
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
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TWiT Tech Podcast Network
· posted in TWiT Tech Podcast Network

Apple's New Touchscreen MacBook Pro with Tandem OLED Display

Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!


View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Obg_1yMsldU


Direct YouTube Link - Apple's New Touchscreen MacBook Pro with Tandem OLED Display
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
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Linus Tech Tips
· posted in Linus Tech Tips

Ep. 35 - Best Tech for a Deserted Island...

Time for another AWESOME video from Linus Tech Tips!


View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9st7OYkUHJk


Direct YouTube Link - Ep. 35 - Best Tech for a Deserted Island...
Linus on Facebook
The LTT Store
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dfergie
dfergie
Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU!
Last reply · posted in What's Cooking?

What's For Lunch?

We have a Breakfast and Dinner thread so... :)
Continuing from the Breakfast thread, found Cornbread mix so ...
Yellow Cornbread Mix
2 Hatch Green Chiles -diced
1 Egg
2/3 cup of milk
add to greased pan
Bake for 400f 20-25 minutes(From instructions)
now to put together and try... this to go with pinto beans...
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dfergie
dfergie
Chili dog bowl, water… (homemade chili)
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TRG
Leftover wanton soup and pork fried rice. Water.
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dfergie
dfergie
IMG_5955.webp

Sweet tea…
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TRG
TRG
Tuna salad sandwich on toasted honey whole wheat bread with a handful of kettle chips. Water.
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TRG
Breakfast for lunch. Crispy corned beef hash, home fries, two over easy eggs and sourdough toast.

1653.webp
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dfergie
dfergie
Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU!
Last reply · posted in The Sports Section

Auto Racing 2026

New thread or keep this one?

View: https://www.youtube.com/live/AgOI9DNCmPg?si=l-YcZmHl7GXXF8fX
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dfergie
Foxbat
Foxbat
Weird F1 weekend is already over with a Saturday race.
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dfergie
dfergie
Tried to watch the truck race but the stage c**p is why I don't watch NASCAR anymore…
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Yespage
Today is the anniversary of Dan Wheldon's passing at Las Vegas in a dreadful crash that luckily didn't take more drivers' lives. I vaguely remember the crash, but I more strongly remember Paul Tracy trying to keep it together as he left the Medical Center knowing that Dan most likely wasn't going to.

The safety in these vehicles is beyond incomprehensible, especially relative to what it was 60 years ago, when dying wasn't unexpected. But it is still very dangerous. I always scoff at the prayer invocations, but never scoff at the risks these drivers take and the emergency workers out there who might need to pull short of a miracle to save a driver's life.
dfergie said:
Tried to watch the truck race but the stage c**p is why I don't watch NASCAR anymore…
Click to expand...
HBO Max has the live in car streaming without commercials, which provides an interesting take, but you are driving blind, knowing only what the team is telling the driver about what is happening on the track. The stages definitely ruin the NASCAR set up.
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Yespage
NASCAR is an abject mess, but at least it has Kyle Larson. Guy had the lead on the green/white checker, fell back to 12th or the like, kept his cool, and charged back to win with room to spare at the line. And win very cleanly!

NASCAR needs to stop racing at Talladega. Especially if they are going for elderly Sunday drives at the track! Stage racing is real stupid, but NASCAR should consider one half point a second per group gap as a bonus.
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TWiT Tech Podcast Network
· posted in TWiT Tech Podcast Network

Cyberattacks Are Coming—Is Your Company Ready? #shorts

Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!


View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4JfcPctpQmk


Direct YouTube Link - Cyberattacks Are Coming—Is Your Company Ready? #shorts
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
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