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The $200 Billion Rip-Off: Our broadband future was stolen (2007)

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Re: The $200 Billion Rip-Off: Our broadband future was stolen (2007)

#161

Post by gradstudent »

derleth wrote: post #131
gradstudent wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To the best of my knowledge it is not "illegal to dress as a Muslim" anywhere in Europe. In France it is prohibited to cover one's face while in public. The argument for this law is not grounded in any religious objection, as I understand it, but rather in the fact that face coverings make identification difficult and do not fit in with the expected norms for social interaction in that country. France also has a ban…

> The argument for this law is not grounded in any religious objection, as I understand it Wow. This is monumentally dishonest, especially given how the law came to be and how it's been applied. http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/when-did-islamop... > but rather in the fact that face coverings make identification difficult A poor reason to assault someone's culture and religion. Rather Big Brotherish, in fac…

I can only comment on the situation as I understand it; I.e. that the law does not specifically mention Islam and it does not prohibit, as you have misrepresented, "dressing up as a Muslim". Moreover, as others have pointed out, there are already plenty of places that prohibit face covering attire.

Also accusations of Big Brother coming from Americans at this point is rather hilarious.

Re: The $200 Billion Rip-Off: Our broadband future was stolen (2007)

#162

Post by expertentipp »

kevinalexbrown wrote: post #124

Anyone who comes up with a reasonable way of bypassing the natural local monopolies of cable companies is going to make a fortune. I would think dense wireless networks in urban areas could work. I'm not an expert, and would be interested in hearing from one, but I imagine that wireless networks could benefit from algorithmic advances in a way that might be more difficult in traditional copper/fiber networks. If you…

Maybe drone routers providing floating/adhoc networks:)

Re: The $200 Billion Rip-Off: Our broadband future was stolen (2007)

#163

Post by speleding »

kevinalexbrown wrote: post #124

Anyone who comes up with a reasonable way of bypassing the natural local monopolies of cable companies is going to make a fortune. I would think dense wireless networks in urban areas could work. I'm not an expert, and would be interested in hearing from one, but I imagine that wireless networks could benefit from algorithmic advances in a way that might be more difficult in traditional copper/fiber networks. If you…

> Anyone who comes up with a reasonable way of bypassing the natural local monopolies of cable companies...

I'm nowhere near a socialist, but government intervention is a perfectly reasonable way to deal with natural monopolies. How do you think Northern European and Asian countries pulled so far ahead of the US on this?

Re: The $200 Billion Rip-Off: Our broadband future was stolen (2007)

#164

Post by Moru »

bowlofpetunias wrote: post #143
Moru wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lobbying is legal in the EU too. The organisation is one of the bigger employers in the EU. It's just not so known as in the US.

Lobbying bribery. There's a difference between buying a politician diner and talking to them and writing a big fat check.

Lobbyists was supposed to be experts in the field of whatever subject they are helping the politicians with. In practice they are experts in lobbying, nothing else. The salary comes from a company that has a certain interest and pays the lobbying organisation to get this result through the politicians. The bribery is not actually exchanging with the politician, it's with the lobying organisation. Bribery would have been more understanding, here it's just a question of stupidity sadly. The lobbying groups are confusedly just taking the money and wondering why it's so easy. There are a few documentaries on this subject and all the lobbyists are talking openly about what they do. The politicians not so.

Re: The $200 Billion Rip-Off: Our broadband future was stolen (2007)

#165

Post by corin_ »

ihsw wrote: post #26
hbags wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. Corporations do nothing but good. They bear no responsibility for their purposeful misuse of the funds. And government does nothing but bad. Swear on your stack of Ayn Rand books that the world would be better if we had more corporations, because they are perfectly ethical and never screw anybody over. Yes, that's right. Never blame the con artists^W^Wcorporations who didn't do what they promised. Instead…

You're taking what he said and swinging it so fully in the opposite direction it makes you look as crazy as him. Can't we both agree that corporations and governments abuse their power as a matter of fact?

Why not tone down even more to get to the fact that not only can they both abuse their power, but they can both not do so too. Not all politicians and corporations are created equal.

Re: The $200 Billion Rip-Off: Our broadband future was stolen (2007)

#166

Post by eli_gottlieb »

cbhl wrote: post #158
simoncion wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anyone who comes up with a reasonable way of bypassing the natural local monopolies of cable companies is going to make a fortune. That reasonable way is for municipalities to gather some courage and run their own open-access fiber. Until municipalities realize that the monopolies that they've granted their "local" cable companies are now working fiercely against the interests of their citizenry, real change in thi…

"Decision-making power in the US is too spread out to make that feasible!" If you wanted to run a fiber-optic line between SFO and SJC, you'd probably have to ask at least three or four different county governments, never mind the state, federal, or municipal governments. Take a look, for example, at the mess that is keeping Caltrain funded every year.

That problem is mere politics and provides no fundamental technological barriers.

Re: The $200 Billion Rip-Off: Our broadband future was stolen (2007)

#167

Post by eli_gottlieb »

uxp wrote: post #120
jjoonathan wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be precise, bribery isn't just legal, it's mandatory under the current campaign finance setup. Campaign finance reform is a prerequisite for addressing any of the anti-consumer legislation we are stuck with today. Best of all, it hasn't been turned into a partisan wedge yet, so there's hope, assuming we can find a way to make people care. Unfortunately, last time I saw a campaign finance reform proposal cross the…

Campaign finance reform has always been a partisan wedge, insofar as the party that loses the most seats in a given election cycle is the one touting how much it's needed, but shuts up the next cycle when they gain the most seats. Thus, the only politicians willing to put money into that fight are either already outnumbered, or just crazy (or smart) enough to vote against their own future reelection.

Or, they actually believe they can get reelected in a system not based on bribery.

Re: The $200 Billion Rip-Off: Our broadband future was stolen (2007)

#168

Post by eli_gottlieb »

Goladus wrote: post #59
mikeash wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The health care system is fine if you can afford it. The main problem with American health care is financial, and if you have good insurance (which should come with any good job) it's fine. Not great, but on par with the rest of the first world. Limited annual leave depends on the job. If you're in software engineering or similar, you're unlikely to have a problem. If you get offered a job that doesn't offer the annu…

Murder rate thing is probably because an Australian national named Christopher Lane, in the US playing Baseball at college, was randomly murdered in Oklahoma this year. He was out jogging when a couple of teenagers ran up and shot him in the back for no obvious reason. Australian politicians immediately started telling people not to visit the US because it's so full of guns.

I grew up in America and holy shit really!?

Re: The $200 Billion Rip-Off: Our broadband future was stolen (2007)

#169

Post by anon4 »

X4 wrote: post #160
anon4 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WiFi is slow though, I just want a lan box. Start small in a part of the city populated by mostly young people - like university students. Buy ad time on the Discovery Channel. Run your cables through the air between buildings and over trees - it will fail with every storm, but it's cheap to replace. Hopefully you'll get big enough fast enough to put some proper cabling before regulation catches up with you.

>> WiFi is slow though, I just want a lan box. hahahaha :D OK, dear anon4, do you have idea what the fastest connection to the stock market today is, no? Hint, it's "wireless". High Frequency Trading set an arms race to have the best and fastest connection to the trade-market. Every nanosecond counts. TL;DR? Wireless is faster than Cable. Yup.

What I mean is that I currently get my internet via a LAN cable that goes into my router box. I have a tower PC hooked via a cable to it and a laptop that connects via WiFi. The tower can achieve the full 5 megabytes/sec I pay for, while WiFi maxes out at about 1½ mbytes/sec. It's slow.

Re: The $200 Billion Rip-Off: Our broadband future was stolen (2007)

#170

Post by eli_gottlieb »

bane wrote: post #53
michaelochurch wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some neat cities with character. For quality-of-life (relatively speaking) you have Austin and Portland. If you think you can make it rich, there's San Francisco and New York. For historic charm, you have Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore. The upper midwest has a relatively high quality of life, too. Life in the politically sane parts ("blue states") of the US, if you have a job in tech, isn't so bad. You…

I'd strike Portland and Baltimore off of that list and replace them maybe with Seattle and D.C.? The greater Portland area ain't bad, but downtown Portland kind of blows. The food scene is okay, but it's hard to get just normal good greasy spoon food without having to find out more than you want to know about the meal. Seattle is nicer is almost every way and has more to do and a far better tech scene. Baltimore is a…

>The Middle East is well...it is what it is. A couple nice cities in a very difficult socio-economic environment with one industry. Depending on how you count it (European or Central Asia), lots of Turkey is actually pretty nice.

Oy, what about Israel ;-)?

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