191–200 of 200 posts
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We can build our own ISPs. I've read many good posts today that dispute your statement. Here's one, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15926261
From the post you linked: > The only real roadblock is money. Fiber ISPs are super cheap at scale, but are effectively impossible to bootstrap unless you are already a millionaire. (I didn't downvote you)
I'm all in favour of treating Internet access as the "fourth utility". It's clear it's become almost as essential to modern life as electricity. I do however find the doom and gloom prognostications around Title II repeal to be incredibly hyperbolic and unhelpful. Fact is, Title II was only introduced in 2015. It's not like repeal in 2017 is going to end the Internet overnight. There are three problems here: 1. The U…
> It actually doesn't make much sense to build multiple last-mile networks. This is called an overbuild and is rather wasteful given the capex involved. Yes, obviously. Just like roads. Which is why local governments should design and operate all residential internet networks. Or: Yes, obviously. A house really only needs one electrified wire, which is why we should turn over internet service to the power company. Or…
This completely side-skirts the rule that disallows states from making their own NN legislature.
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I used to defend Sonic as a scrappy startup fighting the good fight for good people. But seriously, it's tiring and old. They needed to raise money to roll out fiber to more than 25 people in the sticks. They didn't and I think a large part of it I was Dane didn't want to give up control in return for capital. OK, that's his choice, but I'm no longer going to laud Sonic. It's basically a cute toy if you're lucky, not…
I think building out FTTH networks, and doing so profitably, is harder than you give it credit for. Look at all of the issues that Google and Verizon have run into - and they have all of the resources in the world at their disposal.
Google might have some smart developers, but they know very little about rolling out a full ISP with fiber plant. Their webpass acquisition showed that. This is another case of Google's hubris tripping them up and landing smack on their face.
Real companies and organizations with good operations can roll out an all fiber ISP. It's not like it's never been done before. Your two counter examples were due to greed and incompetence.
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Ok, I can see where you are coming from, but I guess we fundamentally disagree on this. I see any company that provides a de facto public "square" as being equivalent on some level to a public space. (Much as malls were deemed to be a form of public space in the courts a while back, not that it is completely settled law.) In my opinion, when a company's platform becomes one of the largest and most important venues fo…
There are two key differences between Twitter and public space. One is that public space is owned by the public. The other is that public space is physically central to a community. All web sites are equidistant. The reason we don't have public space on the Internet yet is that we have a such a superfluity of private spaces. I get your theory that private community spaces take on additional responsibilities once they…
I completely agree that it would be impractical to legislate moderation or terms of service, except on maybe a very coarse scale. I'm not sure what the answer is. Like much in the political sphere, this may just be a space where law and litigation has to fight it out with private industry until the end of time. A "solution" that satisfies all parties may not be possible.
Thanks for the discussion.
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I didn't say it wasn't bad. We aren't discussing good and bad. We are discussing a specific situation that requires govt intervention. I am implying this is a equivalent situation where govt didn't create rules for grocery stores to call all brands of goods equally. Also, that is not what a word game is.
False dichotomies and appeal to the middle are absolutely types of word games. I am sick and tired of "moderate"-sounding weasley arguments that excuse corporatocracy and cronyism as "free competition". There's only one grocery store in many towns, because the moment another chain opens, the dominant one lowers prices to below what the market can bear. The dominant chain takes temporary losses to drive competition ou…
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Like everything else, it's been trampled on and buried deep in the mud as everyone races to the "us versus them" false dichotomy. We won't get over this ridiculous pro-big-business wealth redistribution project until people can think beyond fighting for their favorite color.
I have to disagree, not because I want to though. One party has shown itself time and time again to put the interests of business far above those of the consumer and in many cases, act totally contrary to what opinion polling shows their constituents actually want on issues like gun control and net neutrality [1][2]. Given the fact that we only have 2 viable parties (yes it would be nice if that weren't the case but…
I suppose CA could set net neutrality regulations for web users in CA connecting to web services in CA. I guess you could implement this if CA got their own internet country code; I think .ca is already taken though.
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I have to disagree, not because I want to though. One party has shown itself time and time again to put the interests of business far above those of the consumer and in many cases, act totally contrary to what opinion polling shows their constituents actually want on issues like gun control and net neutrality [1][2]. Given the fact that we only have 2 viable parties (yes it would be nice if that weren't the case but…
I think the last election demonstrated very clearly that the blue team is not willing to give up power to make reforms anymore than the red team. I keep hearing people say this ("vote for the blue team because we can reform things from the inside!") but I'll believe it when I see it.
I honestly don't think that they've used as sleazy of tactics to get what they want (such as denying a president a supreme court appointment) but I don't have hard data to back that up other than a couple recent examples.
I'm saying they need to make it part of their platform. Someone has to be adult enough to realize that restoring our democracy to a more working order is essential. That means gerrymandering, campaign finance, filibusters etc.
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Well that is not really true depending on if the state has ever regulated something in the past. For example cars used to come with CA emissions standard as an item because CA regulated air quality before the federal government. It is not in cache right now but I believe they way it came down was if the state has regulated in the past and the state rules are stronger then the federal then the state wins.
CA got an exemption for CARB written into the federal emissions law at the time it was drafted. That's not the same as being grandfathered in just by virtue of having been the first to regulate.
Interesting background of the current president trying to pull the waver here:
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/trump-ca...
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We tried that in the US. The incumbents did weaselly things to make life difficult for the CLECs, and eventually lobbied Congress to remove the requirement.
That's because your regulatory bodies are useless and given that Ofcom in the UK is Murdochs poodle - the FCC is realy useless