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Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#26
...

Did the FCC check if they actually have internet? Because I'm guessing no, and certainly not to the standards that would be required.
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RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#27
The Internet. Have it your way.

(Sure, it's an ad - but at least it isn't a Pepsi ad.)
--
Rob Kelk

Sticks and stones can break your bones,
But words can break your heart.
- unknown
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RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#28
Kevin and Kell does a rare political cartoon, in the old style:

[Image: kk20180208.jpg]
--
Rob Kelk

Sticks and stones can break your bones,
But words can break your heart.
- unknown
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RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#29
Well, that's not exactly subtle, isn't it?
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RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#30
Neither is the chairman of the FCC.
-- Bob

I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber.  I have been 
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
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RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#31
(12-21-2017, 12:55 PM)SilverFang01 Wrote: Let's see how Mr. Pai deals with this: New York tries end-run around FCC preemption with net neutrality bill

While he's dealing with that, he can also deal with Vermont.

The Register: Vermont becomes fifth US state to boot up its own net neutrality rules

EDIT: On a closer read of the article, it looks like the FCC has nothing to say about Vermont's executive order, in that it applies only to state agencies. This is well within the purview of states' rights.
--
Rob Kelk

Sticks and stones can break your bones,
But words can break your heart.
- unknown
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RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#32
Blog post

Effective #privacy regulation would not kill free Facebook (but even if it did, it might be worth it).
“We can never undo what we have done. We can never go back in time. We write history with our decisions and our actions. But we also write history with our responses to those actions. We can leave the pain and the damage in our wake, unattended, or we can do the work of acknowledging and fixing, to whatever extent possible, the harm that we have caused.”

— On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World by Danya Ruttenberg
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RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#33
RIP Net neutrality in the United States.
--
Rob Kelk

Sticks and stones can break your bones,
But words can break your heart.
- unknown
Reply
RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#34
Ajit Pai hasn’t finalized net neutrality repeal—here’s a theory on why

Quote:Feld has some guesses as to why the FCC followed this slower process. "The kindest interpretation is that since the majority have made their (weakened) disclosure rule the centerpiece of why they can relax the rules, they don't want the repeal to go into effect without the new transparency rule," Feld told Ars.
“We can never undo what we have done. We can never go back in time. We write history with our decisions and our actions. But we also write history with our responses to those actions. We can leave the pain and the damage in our wake, unattended, or we can do the work of acknowledging and fixing, to whatever extent possible, the harm that we have caused.”

— On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World by Danya Ruttenberg
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RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#35
(blows dust off thread)

(12-01-2017, 12:10 PM)robkelk Wrote:
(12-01-2017, 08:36 AM)Bob Schroeck Wrote: You know, if this does go through as it looks like it might, we might still have a way around it. ...  Set up an ISP company (maybe as a not-for-profit or non-profit), buy bandwidth in bulk and sell it to individuals.  ...
Would you believe somebody's already done that in Canada? It's so successful that they don't even bother metering the bandwidth any more, and they supply free service to social housing addresses (subsidized by the users who pay the discounted "full rate").

What? Yes, it is the ISP that I use at home. Follow the link for more information - including contact information, for when you have questions that aren't answered on the website.

Bob, if you're still interested in pursuing this, you might want to take a look at NCF's annual reports for 2018 - they'll give you an idea of how much it costs to run the ISP with the number of subscribers we have. NCF is a non-profit, so there's no need to take into account any return on investment when looking at the numbers.

Keep in mind that NCF has been in business since the dialup-only days; it's a mature business.
--
Rob Kelk

Sticks and stones can break your bones,
But words can break your heart.
- unknown
Reply
RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#36
So, how many Morissette's on the irony scale?

France's Front National (who support the EU's mandatory copyright filters) furious when Youtube's copyright filters kill their channel

Quote:These filters don't even exist yet; the closest we come is YouTube's Content ID, which Google created voluntarily, and which is notorious for acts of arbitrary, incorrect censorship. Google spent $60,000,000 building Content ID, so that's the table stakes for any new online service.

That's what makes the far right European parties' support of this proposal so weird. The big online platforms have increasingly been deputized to police their users' speech, and right-wing forums were the first casualties of this drive, prompting the right to start its own versions of Twitter, Reddit, etc. They were able to do this, in part, because they didn't have to pony up $60,000,000 for a copyright filter (if you're not politically aligned with the far right, you should still be worried about this: when the FBI classes #BlackLivesMatter as Black Identity Extremists and the US government uses anti-terrorism tactics against the Dakota Access Pipeline protesters, the ability of people with unpopular ideas to start their own services if they are made unwelcome on the big platforms has never been more urgent).

Emphasis mine.
“We can never undo what we have done. We can never go back in time. We write history with our decisions and our actions. But we also write history with our responses to those actions. We can leave the pain and the damage in our wake, unattended, or we can do the work of acknowledging and fixing, to whatever extent possible, the harm that we have caused.”

— On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World by Danya Ruttenberg
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RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#37
(06-17-2018, 03:52 PM)robkelk Wrote: (blows dust off thread)
Bob, if you're still interested in pursuing this, you might want to take a look at NCF's annual reports for 2018 - they'll give you an idea of how much it costs to run the ISP with the number of subscribers we have. NCF is a non-profit, so there's no need to take into account any return on investment when looking at the numbers.

Oh, I'm interested. I just don't know how or where to start.
-- Bob

I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber.  I have been 
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
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RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#38
Neither did they, 26 years ago. Send them an email and ask for help...
--
Rob Kelk

Sticks and stones can break your bones,
But words can break your heart.
- unknown
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RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#39
(06-18-2018, 04:29 PM)robkelk Wrote: Neither did they, 26 years ago. Send them an email and ask for help...

Done.  Let's see what happens.
-- Bob

I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber.  I have been 
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
Reply
RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#40
(blows dust off thread again)

(re Vermont internet access)
(01-09-2018, 05:30 AM)hazard Wrote: ...

Did the FCC check if they actually have internet? Because I'm guessing no, and certainly not to the standards that would be required.

I suspect they didn't.

Man drives 6,000 miles to prove Uncle Sam's cellphone coverage maps are wrong – and, boy, did he manage it

Quote:A Vermont state employee drove 6,000 miles in six weeks to prove that the cellular coverage maps from the US government suck – and was wildly successful.

In fact not only did he prove conclusively that reports delivered to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by mobile operators aren't worth the paper they're printed on but also swung a spotlight on just how bad bureaucracy can get when it comes to Washington DC.

Quote:No doubt the FCC will immediately start work on ensuring it has accurate data to work from. FCC chair Ajit Pai's former employer Verizon has made its claim of 98 per cent LTE coverage of the United States' population its main marketing message for years; we have no doubt it would love to update that figure to somewhere between 68 and 88 per cent.
--
Rob Kelk

Sticks and stones can break your bones,
But words can break your heart.
- unknown
Reply
RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#41
You know, they could have gotten better results using an ultralight aircraft. They fly at those speeds, and what's more is they would have gotten a lot more coverage of the state that way.

Now if only we could convince the Texas State Government to do the same. Not likely, though, with as red as our government is here.
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RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#42
Black Aeronaut? Write to the Vermont government and propose it.

About the only problem would be getting enough pilots and clearance to fly that low, but that'd take months anyway so the weather will be better.
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RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#43
Hazard, I know of commercial pilots who'd do the flights just for the time flying. (Get enough hours in the air and you can apply for a job flying a bigger bird, with a bigger paycheck.)
--
Rob Kelk

Sticks and stones can break your bones,
But words can break your heart.
- unknown
Reply
RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#44
Oh, that's the hell of it.

Ultralights don't really have much in the way of rules. The FAA let's the manufacturers and community regulate themselves, and so far they've done a pretty good job of it. And with this being a government job regardless? Yeah, I don't see any issues.
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RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#45
UPDATE: I managed to talk to the man himself. He was kinda surprised by my suggestion and said he would have loved to have had access to an ultralight - he's a pilot himself, apparently - but said that variables like crosswind would have made the data unreliable.

I also tried contacting the Texas Public Utilities Commission and well...

"Yes, who do I speak to in regard to cellular coverage in the state of Texas?"

"Why, that would be the FCC. Would you like me to get your their phone number?"

"...No thanks. Have a nice day, ma'am."

Stupid fucking Republican governments...
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RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#46
Live tweeting in the case of Mozilla vs. FCC re: Net Neutrality



Also see here for some background: https://wetmachine.com/tales-of-the-saus...eutrality/
“We can never undo what we have done. We can never go back in time. We write history with our decisions and our actions. But we also write history with our responses to those actions. We can leave the pain and the damage in our wake, unattended, or we can do the work of acknowledging and fixing, to whatever extent possible, the harm that we have caused.”

— On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World by Danya Ruttenberg
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RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#47
Interesting. So it looks like the public safety angle is gonna be the bullet the FCC and ISP's can't dodge. They really fucked themselves over by throttling bandwidth during disasters.
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RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#48
(02-01-2019, 05:47 PM)Black Aeronaut Wrote: Interesting.  So it looks like the public safety angle is gonna be the bullet the FCC and ISP's can't dodge.  They really fucked themselves over by throttling bandwidth during disasters.

O_O

*Google*

Jesus H. Christ and the Twelve Amigos... Seriously, do companies over there have a 'be as pettily evil as possible' mandate or something?
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RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#49
No.

Companies don't have a human morality system. Companies exist at the sufferance of their bottom line. As such, anything that increases their net profits is good, anything that decreases their net profits is bad.

When you have a product and you are the only one that can provide that product in a timely manner you have the advantage, because you can dictate the terms of the sale to the consumer. If this means that your product is 'access to the wider world' and part of the agreed upon contract is a data limit over a period of time you'd be an absolute moron not to ram the terms of the contract down your consumers' throats when they exceed that limit, as written down in the contract.

This gives you a good negotiation position for a better deal for you because you can now reasonably point out they need a larger, more expensive access plan, and the consumers know they in fact do need that.

What the company in question did is absolutely the right decision in that moment for the company, forcing a consumer to actually pay for the services they demand. It's just that, well, when you are talking about emergency services in the middle of a week long disaster (or longer) suddenly losing the ability to coordinate effectively, that sort of thing has consequences, potentially lethal consequences. And sure, the CEO of the company or some other properly ranking official could've just told the service desk to push some buttons and make an exception.

But that's not a company decision, that's a people decision. And it would've taken time to push to the appropriate level given how far reaching such an exception would be.
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RE: Net Neutrality, Internet access, Media Consolidation
#50
(02-01-2019, 08:29 PM)hazard Wrote: ... when you are talking about emergency services in the middle of a week long disaster (or longer) suddenly losing the ability to coordinate effectively ...

How did you left your permanent infrastructure deteriorate that badly?

We tolerate a lot of crap in the Canadian telecommunications industry, but not that kind of crap.
--
Rob Kelk

Sticks and stones can break your bones,
But words can break your heart.
- unknown
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