Posts by noominy.noom

Re: Is an agreement possible?

@JustSomeBloke

"I'm no expert here (which no doubt someone will confirm) but isn't there some genuine issues that NN causes?

If NN is like a road that anyone can drive anything on and at any time, how do the roads get built and maintained to ensure availability and at a cost point that anyone sees as economic?"

I'll take a quick stab at an answer. There are no issues NN causes. In the U.S., Internet connections are typically made over existing telephone lines. Consumers pay their phone provider to connect them to the public Internet. When the phone providers had no content to sell over the Internet, there were no issues. Over the last couple of decades, small local providers have been bought up by larger communications companies, and cable companies have moved in to supply Internet connections over their wire. Both of those entities want to sell their own content over the Internet. They would like to have an unfair advantage by virtue of controlling the consumer's connection to block or impede any content they think directly competes with their content. What many of us worry about is that it won't stop there. There are a lot of rich organizations that could buy up small and regional providers and control the content that people see.

Note in the above answer that the analogy of a road doesn't figure in. There are lots of analogies to use, all have some use but all have some flaws. In the case of roads, note that unlike roads, the Internet infrastructure is not degraded by traffic. Also note that the consumer is paying for the pipe into their house, and content providers are paying for pipes into their businesses. No common infrastructure is involved, though taxpayers money has been lavished on providers to build infrastructure. Also note that back end infrastructure isn't mentioned. That is an important part of the Internet but NN doesn't play much of a role there.

Railway is British?

I've been living in America for near 60 years and I've only heard train station. I thought the railway station term was British.

Re: not all packets are created equal

@charles9

quote "Similarly, Verizon and the rest know they can't really extort Google and Facebook because they minute they try to block access, customers start looking for a new provider."

One of the reasons for net neutrality rules is to correct for monopoly markets. I have no provider to look for. I have one provider available.

Re: Of course, if the most controversy-friendly president of the millennium

"...Well, to be fair, that's not a high bar to jump since there have only been four US presidents so far this millennium...."

Four? Who's the fourth? Dubya, Barrack, The Donald, ? I suppose technically Bill, as he was Pres until Jan 20, 2000. I don't think conventionally Bill would be considered a 21st century President.

Re: Odd belief

Where I grew up, we mostly had manual trans. But...it was hard to smoke a fag, drink a beer and cop a feel while trying to steer and shift. Usually you talked the date into doing the steering or the shifting.

Re: Can you hold down the power button

@Ben Tasker

>>I'd hazard a guess he's American and means topping up the screenwash, but it is only a guess.<<

I'm American, and I worked as a mechanic for three decades. I've never heard the phrase 'top up the jets' and have never read it. I'd hazard a guess the OP didn't have a clue what they were talking about.

Re: Dis Crimi-nation

@Hollerithevo

You've stated the problem well. Better than I could have. I can only give you one up vote though.

Re: Musk seems to be losing it

@Keith Langmead

I'm a USAian but I had to upvote you. You owe me a keyboard though.

Re: Article needs puppy dog face

@Number6

I don't have sources available, but I've read that most of the last mile infrastructure in the U.S. was indeed built with government subsidies. In a few areas I know first hand that subsidies are being plundered, including in my local home town. I have a fiber box in my yard (large rectangular box with access to an underground fiber connection inside.) They burrowed up and down my street for several weeks when installing it. I have friends that work in management at the local office of the telecom provider (a monopoly enforced by government) that have informed me that the local telecom provider has been taking advantage of federal subsidies to lay fiber underground throughout the city (small midwestern city.) (As an aside, this has been going on for over three years and no public admission of this has been made. 12MB DSL is the best I have available.)

Besides the direct subsidies, keep in mind that telecom companies were protected monopolies everywhere in the U.S. for many decades, and in a large chunk of the U.S. they still are. In the areas where competition is now allowed, only the choicest sites have developed meaningful competition.

Re: minimum weight

@Montreal

Damn you. I need a new keyboard.

I admit the U.S. military is not a lucrative employer. But you're saying $3400 dollars a month. That is more than most of the people I know today are making. Working class people in the town I live in are making 12-14 dollars per hour. Some laborers are at 8-10. That is $1600-$2400 a month.

My military experience was Navy, in Jacksonville, in the 80s. It wasnt bad at first, but the bennies eroded over time. Commissary in particular.

Re: vexatious litigant, eh?

Mine went up but by the normal 20% per year. My deductible is way higher, also. But, my day to day coverage is better, for example preventative care is 100% covered. A wash for me. So the haters make a lot of exaggerated claims. I understand anything Obama backed caused cancer and destroyed the economy, but the ACA hasn't caused me any big problems.

Re: Employment opportunity

Damn you Kryptonaut. You owe me a keyboard!

Re: So when are the big ISPs going to scream about government-subsidized competition?

@Marketing Hack

I live in the midwest in the U.S. and you won't get much for $120. My TV is more than that and I have no sports packages and only one movie package (Starz.) Combined, my internet/phone/TV is just under double your estimate, about $225.

@DaveyDaveDave.

You owe me a keyboard.

Re: It's competition (how unfair)

I can occasionally be a little sensitive about snipes at America. But in this case the criticism is accurate. High prices, no choices and non-existent customer service. American narrowband.

Re: Obvious

@Lysenko

You are absolutely on target. Not only is security always a compromise, but the various advantages and disadvantages are different in different situations. If a system can't be made both convenient and secure then it doesn't belong in an ER.

Re: I know that I would make..

Well, yes salary.com reported the median salary of U.S. pastors as $90,000. But a lot of other sites were more believable. Check out christianitytoday.com. They came up with $72,500 as the average wage of married pastors, and it included housing/parsonage. Solo pastors were correspondingly less.

Re: I'm not sure what the problem is here

Damn you Tom 7. You owe me a keyboard.

Re: Other variations

I've had biscuits and gravy in Florida, Georgia, Iowa and Illinois. Never seen onions in it. I'd like it as I like onions. But it sure isn't common.

Re: Don't believe it

I think they are right. One charger in the dead center of every 50x50 square would be a charger within 50 mile of you everywhere.

Re: She could always have taken the offending banana and throne it in the freezer....

I've never heard of anybody fumigating bananas or any other fruit/veg here in the states. Many grocers often do gas the bananas with ethylene gas to get them to the desired ripeness. And tomatoes.

And they spell through, I spell threw.

Re: Pure BS

"By this definition, having a bandwidth of less than *infinity* is a limit, because if my bandwith is less than infinity, there is a limit to how much I can download in a given period."

This is just hyperbole, This is not referring to a limit imposed by the provider. If I have a 10Mb connection, and routinely see 9Mb or better, then the provider decided they didn't like me for some reason and for early evening only allowed me 2Mb, that is an arbitrary limit. There reason for deciding they didn't like me would be irrelevant, but would likely be because I use an application provided by someone other than them and they would would rather I buy the application from them.

"I can appreciate that people feel they want to get what they've paid for, but in a network of finite resources there has to be, at some times, a way of dividing up bandwith so that all users get some service rather than some users getting all the service."

It is unethical to oversell, and should be illegal (and I think that applies to all appilcations, services etc., e.g. airplane seats.) There should be honesty and integrity in any transaction. If they have 2000 customers on a given segment and can't provide all of them the bandwidth they advertise, then that should be in the contract. If they told me they could only provide 10Mb for 1000 users and the rest of us only get 2Mb until the number of users drops, and they priced it accordingly, then fine. If they have three plans, 2Mb, 10Mb and 50Mb, with respectlively higher prices, and no mention of overselling, I would expect if I paid for the 50Mb I should get that or near it at all times.

Re: There's a problem if this treaty isn't ratified?

I agree with your opinion concerning the TPP. But I don't recall NAFTA being at all like TPP. I have never been a policy wonk or political junkie, but I have always paid attention to things such as this and I don't recall NAFTA being secret. All of it was out in the open.

Re: Looks like 5 TED talks squashed together

"...Musk has already maxed out his credit trying to get into space."

Should read: ...Musk has already maxed out his credit getting to space.

Re: Wonder

@Matt 21

You owe me a keyboard.

Re: Ass-hat

@Mark 85

I've never heard that argument in U.S. media. I've only recently heard it and only after recent events in Europe.

Regardless of where the nonsense is being spewed, it is certainly nonsense.

Re: Pure Genius

@DropBear

Re: Pure Genius

I think Musk qualifies as a proper boffin. Doesn't dress like one or necessarily talk like one but he has both the degrees and the practice. He does do a lot of the design work himself.

Re: Well...

@Mephisto

Well said.