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As long as we're killed to bury you it's all fine.

So where to they draw the line?

Is this included? https://is.gd/ds2qgI

Loved your post, esp the reality that Version which is just as bad... as the Cable providers....so true. While FIOS is better than Cable, usually, its not Symmetrical and they still throttle / limit bandwidth.

There are less than 41 communtiies with Symmetrical / Synchronous Fiber To The Home (FTTH).

DSL is usually better than throttled Cable internet. (You don't want DSL from AT&T, or affiliates of Cable providers, do your homework to avoid problems) And the price of DSL, $30 or less...often $15 or less, is way better than FIOS. Just move to a true FTTH community. Do not waste your time with Verizon FIOS or anythingG (ie. 3G, 4G, 5G, etc...).

Warning: if you do get service from FIOS...get in writing that FIOS will NOT cut your premise wiring while installing theirs, (if they cut it, they should replace it or do not accept their service). Too many have complained that Verizon does this to cost you $200+ (to run new uncut premise wiring) if you try to switch away from them. There is no other reason for their techs to cut your premise wiring when installing FIOS.

Just say no to 20Mb/4Mb, 100Mb/10Mb, 100Mb/5Mb, etc... if the upstream (second value) is not the same as the downstream value, that provider will throttle your service.

Is the upstream bandwidth the same as the downstream bandwidth ie. 10Mb/10Mb, 50Mb/50Mb, 100Mb/100Mb, 1Gb/1Gb, etc... than that fiber might be Symmetrical and Synchronous, meaning the provider will not throttle your bandwidth.

FIOS is not Fiber To The Home (FTTH). FIOS is not Symmetrical. With true FTTH, there is absolutely no business incentive to throttle bandwidth as that one fiber link goes from the switching station (best if owned by the community) to your home. Its not shared, thus no reason to limit it. Remember that FTTN, FTTP share parts, which ultimately end up allowing/causing the provider to limit your bandwidth un-necessarily.

Best of all, it costs a $1,500 - $3,000 to run that one link of fiber to your home and increases the re-sale value of your home by $5,000. In communities where this is successful, that link is owned by the homeowner and sold with the home. The providers compete for your service at the community owned switching station, meaning there is plenty of competition and you fire the bad players when they mess up. Added plus: FTTH communties have cheaper Cable internet rates...no surprise there.

Loved your post, esp the reality that Version which is just as bad... as the Cable providers....so true. While FIOS is better than Cable, usually, its not Symmetrical and they still throttle / limit bandwidth.

There are less than 41 communtiies with Symmetrical / Synchronous Fiber To The Home (FTTH).

DSL is usually better than throttled Cable internet. (You don't want DSL from AT&T, or affiliates of Cable providers, do your homework to avoid problems) And the price of DSL, $30 or less...often $15 or less, is way better than FIOS. Just move to a true FTTH community. Do not waste your time with Verizon FIOS or anythingG (ie. 3G, 4G, 5G, etc...).

Warning: if you do get service from FIOS...get in writing that FIOS will NOT cut your premise wiring while installing theirs, (if they cut it, they should replace it or do not accept their service). Too many have complained that Verizon does this to cost you $200+ (to run new uncut premise wiring) if you try to switch away from them. There is no other reason for their techs to cut your premise wiring when installing FIOS.

Just say no to 20Mb/4Mb, 100Mb/10Mb, 100Mb/5Mb, etc... if the upstream (second value) is not the same as the downstream value, that provider will throttle your service.

Is the upstream bandwidth the same as the downstream bandwidth ie. 10Mb/10Mb, 50Mb/50Mb, 100Mb/100Mb, 1Gb/1Gb, etc... than that fiber might be Symmetrical and Synchronous, meaning the provider will not throttle your bandwidth.

FIOS is not Fiber To The Home (FTTH). FIOS is not Symmetrical. With true FTTH, there is absolutely no business incentive to throttle bandwidth as that one fiber link goes from the switching station (best if owned by the community) to your home. Its not shared, thus no reason to limit it. Remember that FTTN, FTTP share parts, which ultimately end up allowing/causing the provider to limit your bandwidth un-necessarily.

Best of all, it costs a $1,500 - $3,000 to run that one link of fiber to your home and increases the re-sale value of your home by $5,000. In communities where this is successful, that link is owned by the homeowner and sold with the home. The providers compete for your service at the community owned switching station, meaning there is plenty of competition and you fire the bad players when they mess up. Added plus: FTTH communties have cheaper Cable internet rates...no surprise there.

>> Haz (tap that magma)... thermal electricity generator...?

Yes, this guy: http://is.gd/8w8Rjo

Nice writeup but I wish these folks writing these kinds of articles would at least take a look at the graphics they're putting out there. The graphs are senseless drivel and you don't know if the new card is better or worse. It's still a nice card but here's a better write up at Toms Hardware.

Man, what country do you live in? Here in the US, you have two choices: The local cable internet monopoly, or nothing. Unless you seriously consider wireless phone data an option.

Not if you move to one of these less than 30 symmetrical Fiber To The Home (FTTH) communities, check out the map!

So when moving, know you have options and move to an area that will give you FTTH internet freedom.

Prosperity and jobs are already flowing to these cities.

Man, what country do you live in? Here in the US, you have two choices: The local cable internet monopoly, or nothing. Unless you seriously consider wireless phone data an option.

Not if you move to one of these less than 30 symmetrical Fiber To The Home (FTTH) communities, check out the map!

So when moving, know you have options and move to an area that will give you FTTH internet freedom.

Prosperity and jobs are already flowing to these cities.

I agree that anyone with a house paid off and a job in their area is not going to move. However, that same person, with a house paid off, but no job, better move or have investments paying a livable wage or the property taxes will eventually cost their heirs the home.

Those looking for a job, should seriously consider making the jump to a Symmetrical FTTH community sooner rather than later.

Of course you can always get DSL, dd-WRT on a supported firewall/router, has shown me that unthrottled DSL is faster than over 80% of throttled cable service. Remember, 100% of cable internet service is throttled, its only a matter of how much, not if. In a few areas where symmetrical FTTH competition exists and the oligopoly has not been able to pass legislation (see red states especially) at the state level to prevent competition, they actually throttle less than normal, thus only there is Cable internet faster than DSL.

If you are shopping for internet access and can not get symmetrical FTTH, than go DSL for Internet. If you want cable for TV and movies, so be it, but never package anything else with it. No phone, no Internet with Cable TV & movies unless you want to be gouged forever. As that will cost you much, much more over time, then getting them separately. Better just to go straight to DSL for internet, if you can not get FTTH.

I agree that anyone with a house paid off and a job in their area is not going to move. However, that same person, with a house paid off, but no job, better move or have investments paying a livable wage or the property taxes will eventually cost their heirs the home.

Those looking for a job, should seriously consider making the jump to a Symmetrical FTTH community sooner rather than later.

Of course you can always get DSL, dd-WRT on a supported firewall/router, has shown me that unthrottled DSL is faster than over 80% of throttled cable service. Remember, 100% of cable internet service is throttled, its only a matter of how much, not if. In a few areas where symmetrical FTTH competition exists and the oligopoly has not been able to pass legislation (see red states especially) at the state level to prevent competition, they actually throttle less than normal, thus only there is Cable internet faster than DSL.

If you are shopping for internet access and can not get symmetrical FTTH, than go DSL for Internet. If you want cable for TV and movies, so be it, but never package anything else with it. No phone, no Internet with Cable TV & movies unless you want to be gouged forever. As that will cost you much, much more over time, then getting them separately. Better just to go straight to DSL for internet, if you can not get FTTH.

You may not want to move from a home you own, but I'm surprised that people don't consider these types of things when they are moving. During my last move, I determined I wanted better internet than Comcast provides and specifically limited my search for a place to live to somewhere where that was the case. Now I'm enjoying 100mbit symmetric internet for under $40/mo and really enjoying the fact that none of my money goes to those greedy bastards.

As a bonus, when I travel overseas, I can use my own home connection as my VPN service. I can completely sidestep the regional blocking done by the streaming providers.

Intelligent and smart, why on earth were you rated down? Amazing what you can get for less than $50 per month if you move to a FTTH community.

Perhaps some Cable shills with moderation powers....

Everyone can do this if you are looking to move. Look for Fiber To The Home (FTTH) like the less than 30 communities on this map.

The secret to look for is that the Fiber connection offers the same bandwidth upstream as downstream. So there advertised bandwidths are the same, ie. 10Mb/10Mb, 15Mb/15Mb, 20Mb/20Mb, 30Mb/30Mb, 50Mb/50Mb, 100Mb/100Mb, 1000Mb/1000Mb (1TB/1TB), unlike services that call themselves fiber but are not symmetrical and advertise 50Mb/5Mb - - - wrong, 50Mb downstream and 5 Mb upstream tells you they limit, restrict, censor, throttle their bandwidth. Move somewhere else.

With true FTTH, there is no business incentive to throttle, limit, restrict, etc... for bandwidth reasons.

Added bonus, having FTTH adds $5,000 to the price of the home, costs between $1,500 ~ $3,000 to run the fiber link from the switching service to your home and once run, that FIBER link is sold with the home, its property of the home-owner, not any other company, period.

Anything less than this is a wrong, a mistake and prepetuates the failed scarcity myth / increased monthly prices to perpetuity, which is the only reason to restrict bandwidth. To make you think its scarce, when its not, to get customers to pay more.

In the right circles, the Cable company CFOs will admit this scarcity myth fact to investors as a reason investing in cable companies makes more sense. We have a great business model, we can increase our customers rates anytime we want for as much as we want, thus we are always going to be profitable, invest in us

If you are moving, only purchase homes in a community in the map, avoid the others.

Another added plus, the communities with FTTH, are growing small business and jobs with livable wages faster than all other communities in the USA! Small businesses are thriving and actively looking to relocate to these areas for the bandwidth that only true FTTH can provide. Big data demands symmetrical FTTH.

A very smart post, you should be modded up!

You may not want to move from a home you own, but I'm surprised that people don't consider these types of things when they are moving. During my last move, I determined I wanted better internet than Comcast provides and specifically limited my search for a place to live to somewhere where that was the case. Now I'm enjoying 100mbit symmetric internet for under $40/mo and really enjoying the fact that none of my money goes to those greedy bastards.

As a bonus, when I travel overseas, I can use my own home connection as my VPN service. I can completely sidestep the regional blocking done by the streaming providers.

Intelligent and smart, why on earth were you rated down? Amazing what you can get for less than $50 per month if you move to a FTTH community.

Perhaps some Cable shills with moderation powers....

Everyone can do this if you are looking to move. Look for Fiber To The Home (FTTH) like the less than 30 communities on this map.

The secret to look for is that the Fiber connection offers the same bandwidth upstream as downstream. So there advertised bandwidths are the same, ie. 10Mb/10Mb, 15Mb/15Mb, 20Mb/20Mb, 30Mb/30Mb, 50Mb/50Mb, 100Mb/100Mb, 1000Mb/1000Mb (1TB/1TB), unlike services that call themselves fiber but are not symmetrical and advertise 50Mb/5Mb - - - wrong, 50Mb downstream and 5 Mb upstream tells you they limit, restrict, censor, throttle their bandwidth. Move somewhere else.

With true FTTH, there is no business incentive to throttle, limit, restrict, etc... for bandwidth reasons.

Added bonus, having FTTH adds $5,000 to the price of the home, costs between $1,500 ~ $3,000 to run the fiber link from the switching service to your home and once run, that FIBER link is sold with the home, its property of the home-owner, not any other company, period.

Anything less than this is a wrong, a mistake and prepetuates the failed scarcity myth / increased monthly prices to perpetuity, which is the only reason to restrict bandwidth. To make you think its scarce, when its not, to get customers to pay more.

In the right circles, the Cable company CFOs will admit this scarcity myth fact to investors as a reason investing in cable companies makes more sense. We have a great business model, we can increase our customers rates anytime we want for as much as we want, thus we are always going to be profitable, invest in us

If you are moving, only purchase homes in a community in the map, avoid the others.

Another added plus, the communities with FTTH, are growing small business and jobs with livable wages faster than all other communities in the USA! Small businesses are thriving and actively looking to relocate to these areas for the bandwidth that only true FTTH can provide. Big data demands symmetrical FTTH.

A very smart post, you should be modded up!

Thats $15 for 2Mbps down / 1Mbps up... My internet provider here in Sweden don't event have something that slow.

Actually I have had multiple cable internet providers who promised 20Mb/2Mb, yet my dd-WRT enabled firewall/router showed that my actual bandwidth in real time was 300Kb/40Kb or 101Kb/20Kb 80% to 90% of the time. I would have loved 2Mbp/1Mbps. I was paying $50 per month for that throttled and limited bandwidth.

Where I am now has DSL, I pay less than $20 per month and while the advertised speed is lower than cable, the actual speed is much higher than throttled cable and I love it.

I would still switch to FTTH if I could get it, however no way will I ever be a cable internet provider while I live at this location. And when I move, I will purposefully move to one of the less than 30 communities that have symmetrical FTTH, simply because they have no business incentive to limit my upstream bandwidth, thus my streaming content will never stutter, stop or buffer.

The reason why USAian broadband is so "slow" is because vendors (all vendors, everywhere) only supply a product that is "good enough", and no more, for people to pay the price they're paying. In the USA broadband is very cheap for what is being supplied.

In other countries around the world people can only dream of having that amount of bandwidth for that price. Suppliers outside of North America simply don't offer packages that cheaply.

While I agree with you that they (providers) usually only give us a little bit of bandwidth when they could easily provide more, I can not agree with your second paragraph. It might be true in a small percentage of countries, but the great majority have been putting in Fiber To The Home and giving their customers fantastic bandwidths (100Mb/100Mb or 1Gb/1GB) for less than what most cable internet providers charge their customers in America.

This was not true in 2007 and is not true today. Americans do NOT have it better with respects to Internet bandwidth. As of 2010, broadband penetration dropped to 25th place worldwide. We are not even on the chart any more, we have dropped that far, however we still pay more for less, no its not better in the US.

We, USA, dropped to 17th from 15th in 2008, but at least the US is on the chart

Wish it were not true, but it is.

"Broadband service here (Japan) is eight to 30 times as fast as (faster) in the United State..." and cheaper as well.

In the year 2000, most Japanese had 100Mb/100Mb, symmetrical FTTH, for less than $52 per month. Most American Cable providers charge well over $50 per month for a promise of 20Mb/2Mb that is throttled (except during the speedtest) to less than 300Kbps/40Kpbs. So in reality Americans pay a heck of allot more for a heck of allot less.

1GB/1GB; And this from 2008, thanks to the Fiber To The Home investment started in the year 2000 with the de-regulation of NTT in Japan, "The Hikari One Home Gigabit service will cost 5,460 (US$51.40) per month and provide an upstream and downstream connection at 1G bps"

Since most cable providers push customers to the $100 to $150 per month range, well it only is worse for Americans, not better. If you think its better, well their marketing works doesn't it.

If you can not get FTTH, only purchase DSL, do NOT purchase cable internet as they have always and will continue to always rip off consumers with higher prices for less service...its their business model, no matter what promises they have made over the years to provide Fiber. They will not unless forced to.

One day we may have it cheaper, but that day is not today...nor has it been for the last two decades. Here is a map that shows you were you can move to in order to get Fiber To The Home (FTTH). Well worth it if the bank took your home as those communities are creating better paying jobs faster than other communities in the US.

Excellent observation!

I want FTTH so bad, to have symmetrical bandwidth, the same upstream as downstream (10Mb/10Mb, 100Mb/100Mb, 1Gb/1Gb) and never bothered by the Cable Company poor scarcity myth laden throttling business models, now there is a thought worthy of every freedom loving American. Especially those that want to encourage small business economic activities and jobs.

For those lucky enough to be looking, here are almost 25 communities that have symmetrical FTTH!

The solution is to not to use the Cable company's last mile segments...in other words, don't purchase a house that does not have either DSL or FTTH.

Why DSL, glad you asked, the lower bandwidth of DSL (2Mb/756Kb) is way superior to a throttled (300Kb/40Kb) cable internet connection. That 300Kb/40Kb was what my dd-WRT firmware enabled router showed that the cable provider was allowing me to have. I was paying for 20Mb/2Mb, even paid $10 extra for additional burst bandwidth, you guessed it, they still throttled at 300Kb/40Kb or lower. I fully understand from first hand experience why most of us hate cable internet providers.

Yes, here: http://is.gd/7q1YoR
and here: http://is.gd/A29tl4

Why am I still here? Why are you still here?
I guess http://xkcd.com/386/

Yes, here: http://is.gd/7q1YoR
and here: http://is.gd/A29tl4

Why am I still here? Why are you still here?
I guess http://xkcd.com/386/

via Glenn Greenwald:

Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald)

Posted Tuesday 12th March 2013 from Twitlonger

The Progressive Mind (in some hyper-partisan precients):

(1) Rand Paul holds numerous horrendous positions. Therefore, it is impermissible ever to agree with or support him on any one specific issue. The minute one agrees with him on any one issue, one is infected with all his other views, no matter how much one disagrees with those other views.

(2) Barack Obama not only holds numerous horrendous positions, but actually does numerous heinous things (eg http://is.gd/5tKFC4,http://is.gd/GrHG86, http://is.gd/FpAt7a, http://is.gd/kNa9D0, http://is.gd/CmXP4F). Nonetheless, it is not only permissible - but mandatory - to support him not just on an issue-by-issue basis but for his general empowerment. One is free to support him and cheer for him without being infected by any of his heinous views and actions with which one disagrees.

I would give a big prize to anyone who can come close to reconciling those lines of reasoning.

It's extremely simple: you support politicians in those instances when you agree with their views, and oppose them in those instances when you disagree with those views.

Literally, I could live to be 500 years old and never comprehend how so many progressives, who (by the way) reside in the reality-based community, are unwilling and/or unable to process this very basic proposition.

via Glenn Greenwald:

Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald)

Posted Tuesday 12th March 2013 from Twitlonger

The Progressive Mind (in some hyper-partisan precients):

(1) Rand Paul holds numerous horrendous positions. Therefore, it is impermissible ever to agree with or support him on any one specific issue. The minute one agrees with him on any one issue, one is infected with all his other views, no matter how much one disagrees with those other views.

(2) Barack Obama not only holds numerous horrendous positions, but actually does numerous heinous things (eg http://is.gd/5tKFC4,http://is.gd/GrHG86, http://is.gd/FpAt7a, http://is.gd/kNa9D0, http://is.gd/CmXP4F). Nonetheless, it is not only permissible - but mandatory - to support him not just on an issue-by-issue basis but for his general empowerment. One is free to support him and cheer for him without being infected by any of his heinous views and actions with which one disagrees.

I would give a big prize to anyone who can come close to reconciling those lines of reasoning.

It's extremely simple: you support politicians in those instances when you agree with their views, and oppose them in those instances when you disagree with those views.

Literally, I could live to be 500 years old and never comprehend how so many progressives, who (by the way) reside in the reality-based community, are unwilling and/or unable to process this very basic proposition.

via Glenn Greenwald:

Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald)

Posted Tuesday 12th March 2013 from Twitlonger

The Progressive Mind (in some hyper-partisan precients):

(1) Rand Paul holds numerous horrendous positions. Therefore, it is impermissible ever to agree with or support him on any one specific issue. The minute one agrees with him on any one issue, one is infected with all his other views, no matter how much one disagrees with those other views.

(2) Barack Obama not only holds numerous horrendous positions, but actually does numerous heinous things (eg http://is.gd/5tKFC4,http://is.gd/GrHG86, http://is.gd/FpAt7a, http://is.gd/kNa9D0, http://is.gd/CmXP4F). Nonetheless, it is not only permissible - but mandatory - to support him not just on an issue-by-issue basis but for his general empowerment. One is free to support him and cheer for him without being infected by any of his heinous views and actions with which one disagrees.

I would give a big prize to anyone who can come close to reconciling those lines of reasoning.

It's extremely simple: you support politicians in those instances when you agree with their views, and oppose them in those instances when you disagree with those views.

Literally, I could live to be 500 years old and never comprehend how so many progressives, who (by the way) reside in the reality-based community, are unwilling and/or unable to process this very basic proposition.

via Glenn Greenwald:

Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald)

Posted Tuesday 12th March 2013 from Twitlonger

The Progressive Mind (in some hyper-partisan precients):

(1) Rand Paul holds numerous horrendous positions. Therefore, it is impermissible ever to agree with or support him on any one specific issue. The minute one agrees with him on any one issue, one is infected with all his other views, no matter how much one disagrees with those other views.

(2) Barack Obama not only holds numerous horrendous positions, but actually does numerous heinous things (eg http://is.gd/5tKFC4,http://is.gd/GrHG86, http://is.gd/FpAt7a, http://is.gd/kNa9D0, http://is.gd/CmXP4F). Nonetheless, it is not only permissible - but mandatory - to support him not just on an issue-by-issue basis but for his general empowerment. One is free to support him and cheer for him without being infected by any of his heinous views and actions with which one disagrees.

I would give a big prize to anyone who can come close to reconciling those lines of reasoning.

It's extremely simple: you support politicians in those instances when you agree with their views, and oppose them in those instances when you disagree with those views.

Literally, I could live to be 500 years old and never comprehend how so many progressives, who (by the way) reside in the reality-based community, are unwilling and/or unable to process this very basic proposition.

dpilot,

Thanks for your comment - as an infant's parent and just figuring out my way on this parenthood thing I found your story very inspiring.

2001: Space Odyssey was the one that let me to get a computer engineering degree. Let's see what happens with the Little One when he's old enough to understand stories.

Self serving, cutesy post: 10-month old kid watched Star Wars with me the other night. The whole thing. Without blinking. Is this some kind of omen?

http://is.gd/3hR7RF

Cheers and best wishes!

You know what? If Igor thinks can do it better, then he should fork that thing and roll his own distro. Lots of people have something to complain about, but very very few pitch in and try to help or change things. http://is.gd/tM5hgy

Timewarp - Larry Craig can flash his SENATOR CARD I'll FLASH LARRY with the GHOSTS of 3 stars off the wall he never respected. http://is.gd/tM5hgy

Its true "In all my life testing Linux and other operating systems, I have never ever seen an installer that is so counter-intuitive, dangerous and useless, all at the same time.'" I also working with linux operating system Its more secure...... http://is.gd/KM70vR

I think if we plug up volcanos then we can save our earth surface few percent because there many other activities are involved like.... http://is.gd/BJhxxh

"if you don't want your ads filtered, be it by Mega or anyone else, integrate them into your content." Useful hint I was looking for such tips as I have many ads on my site.... http://is.gd/DG7Voi

I have not read the article, but a couple of things in this summary ringed some bells: current GMOs use is not to feed the world population, for instance USA corn monopoly is empowered with Monsanto GMO corn to make farmers and countries even more dependent and them. There is a whole vicious circle involving subsidies, monoculture, corn industrial derivatives, corn feedstock, antibiotics that has nothing with "feeding the world population" but with empowering monopolies". Furthermore "'natural' agriculture", is he talking about traditional agriculture? I couldn't agree more that it's doomed. But the UN has studied Agro-ecology and found out that it could double agriculture production http://is.gd/oxtixy

I've been using these for the last few months: http://is.gd/AdiF8o

Affordable (especially second hand. Little over 30 euros.) Adjustable. And they double as chairs!

There's plenty to see and shop at the PC Show 2011, but we found a handful of really interesting deals that you should keep tabs on. This time, we present you specific deals suited at different price categories. From less than $100, to more than $3000, there's something for everyone.

Though the HTC Desire shares a few common traits with the earlier Google Nexus One, there's more to it than meets the eye. We highlight some of the key differences, and advantages, of the new and improved HTC Sense UI on this new Android 2.1 device.

Microsoft sets the mood for the Consumer Electronics Show 2011 starting tomorrow with a pre-CES keynote this evening. In this first part, we've put together a few of the more important updates for Kinect users and the Windows Phone 7 ecosystem - http://is.gd/eqN4vu

Oh, you must be a hoot at parties! I bet you also are one of those that responds to annoyed friends with "that's not what I said..." and follows with a pedantic description of the technical and semantic nuances between words.

That's generally how geek parties go, mate.

So the images are not binary equivalent--do you really think that's what a court will consider?

If you'll recall NimbleBit's whine (http://is.gd/rJwkR7 ), to Zynga about Tiny Tower vs Dream Heights? The response (http://i.imgur.com/ajaYt.jpg ) was to show how NimbleBit had seemingly copied Corporation Inc, which looks itself to be a rip-off Sim Tower, and so on.

The lesson of the casual game industry is there's little originality. Thousands of games (perhaps tens of thousands now) leveraging, what, a couple of hundred game ideas across a few dozen genres?

When it comes down to lawsuits about copyrighted look, injunctions and other court-orders are the ordnance of the day. These things rarely end up in full-blown trials. It's all about intimidating competitors to change or quit. Or settle, as Vostu did with Zynga over their MegaCity clone of CityVille (in itself copied from many other game ideas): http://is.gd/XK1nnX

To me, this way of doing business is all one and the same with software patents.

For the primary use cases of devices like these, gigabit Ethernet is simply a waste of money.

Could not disagree more. Based on the size, you could fit two of those in the size of an old Nokia N800, allowing for a decent size screen also. And if one of those two devices was simple an add on board with more memory, more ports, additional processors etc...so much the better.

When installing, I prefer Ethernet to Wifi.

Even if I do not use the Ethernet port all the time, I want to have it for the times I need it.

I would add no fewer than 3 USB ports to as many as 5. 2 USB ports are not enough when the USB hub will not connect for some weird reason.

I would also want 2 Micro SSD slots. One could be internal, say under the battery, harder to get to, but still exchangeable but one should be available without turning off the device or opening the case.

I too agree that Wifi is sadly considered to be fast and that is pathetic. I want to live in one of the less than 30 US communities that offer Fiber To The Home (FTTH)...when I move there, I would appreciate the device having a second ethernet port for out of band monitoring of that device. Basically a second network not connected to the same VLAN and/or firewall/router as the connection to the Internet. Overkill perhaps, but something I would like to have.

I want the device to be able to do more, than a just one use case or one task.

Allow any telecommunications company to put cables on the pole and we'll have a similar situation to what we have with cellphones. Cellphones are also very regulated but they're less regulated then cable and telephones.

They should be tarred and feathered if they do anything less than Fiber To The Home. Normally its the oligopoly paying millions to create legislation to prevent competition. I would rather see them spending $1.2 Million (and more) per week putting in Fiber than lobbying politicians to prevent competition.

Since they will not behave and provide decent bandwidth, the ONLY solution is government intervention as in Japan. Had this happened in America in 1996 rather than the telecommunication regulation the oligopoly got passed, there would be very few communities in America without Fiber To The Home today.

With the money they have wasted they could have laid Fiber To The Home, three, four or five times. What they have done, does not protect their shareholders, pierce their corporate veil and take away their monopolies....history shows us there is no other effective option.

What is their excuse for FRAUDULENTLY declaring their service to be BROADBAND when they restrict bandwidth both upstream / downstream to less than 768Kbps?

In EVERY case the less than 30 communities that have FTTH, the oligopoly has attempted (and failed) to use laws and the courts to prevent competition.

They get away with this because of REGULATION and legislation they helped create. Japan has shown that ONLY deregulation and forcing them to provide will work. It is ironic that after deregulation, these players will be in the dominant position simply because they have the license to control that fiber infrastruture.

Smart communities will control the infrastructure for their citizens and let the oligopoly offer services only from the community owned telco exchange out. This is what most of, if not all of the FTTH communities are doing and it is working very well for their citizens.

Of course not. If you don't like Verizon (or any other companies) Terms of Service, then find a new provider. It is as simple as that.

A straw man argument simply because with the exception of these less than 30 communities, there are not other providers to move to in most communities.

But the network isn't one, especially compared to their competitors.

Based on the networks in these 30 communities, I would disagree with you.

Not all of Verizon FIOS Internet plans offer the same bandwidth upstream as downstream. And such bandwidth ONLY exists in 30 communities in the USA as of July 2012. Pathetic.

And they have worked with others in their industry to pass laws in 18 states to prevent competition, how un American and anti-capitalistic of them.

Comparing them to any other non FTTH competition is not meaningful. It was not meaningful as of the year 2000, even more condemning as of 2012. Without government intervention, we will have the same problems 20 years from now. Why stifle innovation, prevent job growth, decrease economic activity by denying bandwidth when it simply is NOT necessary with a true FTTH network.

They do not have to do this, but they do anyway.

They are easy to criticize as there is no excuse to limit the upstream bandwidth. Only 5Mb on a 50Mb/5Mb plan. Yes its better than Cable. However there is NO technical reason for it not being 50Mb/50Mb and offering lower priced (under $50 per month) plans of 5Mb/5Mb, 10Mb/10Mb, 15Mb/15Mb, 20Mb/20Mb....plans where the effective cap is the plan. No one is going to max out all their plans. In fact I seriously doubt if 1% of Americans could max out a 5Mb/5Mb plan, much less a 50Mb/50Mb plan.

If you use Verizon FIOS and either OpenWRT, DD-WRT or Tomato firmware on your firewall router, do they throttle/limit your service? My guess is they do....but I would like proof one way or the other. Just don't use the lying Speed Test to determine this, try downloading a couple of large files and do a quick screen capture of the bandwidth log and that will be telling. As well as make over 90% of Americans very jealous of your excellent service.

But the network isn't one, especially compared to their competitors.

Based on the networks in these 30 communities, I would disagree with you.

Not all of Verizon FIOS Internet plans offer the same bandwidth upstream as downstream. And such bandwidth ONLY exists in 30 communities in the USA as of July 2012. Pathetic.

And they have worked with others in their industry to pass laws in 18 states to prevent competition, how un American and anti-capitalistic of them.

Comparing them to any other non FTTH competition is not meaningful. It was not meaningful as of the year 2000, even more condemning as of 2012. Without government intervention, we will have the same problems 20 years from now. Why stifle innovation, prevent job growth, decrease economic activity by denying bandwidth when it simply is NOT necessary with a true FTTH network.

They do not have to do this, but they do anyway.

They are easy to criticize as there is no excuse to limit the upstream bandwidth. Only 5Mb on a 50Mb/5Mb plan. Yes its better than Cable. However there is NO technical reason for it not being 50Mb/50Mb and offering lower priced (under $50 per month) plans of 5Mb/5Mb, 10Mb/10Mb, 15Mb/15Mb, 20Mb/20Mb....plans where the effective cap is the plan. No one is going to max out all their plans. In fact I seriously doubt if 1% of Americans could max out a 5Mb/5Mb plan, much less a 50Mb/50Mb plan.

If you use Verizon FIOS and either OpenWRT, DD-WRT or Tomato firmware on your firewall router, do they throttle/limit your service? My guess is they do....but I would like proof one way or the other. Just don't use the lying Speed Test to determine this, try downloading a couple of large files and do a quick screen capture of the bandwidth log and that will be telling. As well as make over 90% of Americans very jealous of your excellent service.

But the network isn't one, especially compared to their competitors.

Based on the networks in these 30 communities, I would disagree with you.

Not all of Verizon FIOS Internet plans offer the same bandwidth upstream as downstream. And such bandwidth ONLY exists in 30 communities in the USA as of July 2012. Pathetic.

And they have worked with others in their industry to pass laws in 18 states to prevent competition, how un American and anti-capitalistic of them.

Comparing them to any other non FTTH competition is not meaningful. It was not meaningful as of the year 2000, even more condemning as of 2012. Without government intervention, we will have the same problems 20 years from now. Why stifle innovation, prevent job growth, decrease economic activity by denying bandwidth when it simply is NOT necessary with a true FTTH network.

They do not have to do this, but they do anyway.

They are easy to criticize as there is no excuse to limit the upstream bandwidth. Only 5Mb on a 50Mb/5Mb plan. Yes its better than Cable. However there is NO technical reason for it not being 50Mb/50Mb and offering lower priced (under $50 per month) plans of 5Mb/5Mb, 10Mb/10Mb, 15Mb/15Mb, 20Mb/20Mb....plans where the effective cap is the plan. No one is going to max out all their plans. In fact I seriously doubt if 1% of Americans could max out a 5Mb/5Mb plan, much less a 50Mb/50Mb plan.

If you use Verizon FIOS and either OpenWRT, DD-WRT or Tomato firmware on your firewall router, do they throttle/limit your service? My guess is they do....but I would like proof one way or the other. Just don't use the lying Speed Test to determine this, try downloading a couple of large files and do a quick screen capture of the bandwidth log and that will be telling. As well as make over 90% of Americans very jealous of your excellent service.

I didn't see this answered anywhere.

Which is one of the many problems with legislation against technological innovation. There are ample examples of the US government doing things, like monitoring, to individuals that they legally can not do. But to protest that you are being monitored, you must first be aware that you are being monitored and at that time you can go to a judge, which is your write, and force the monitoring entity to justify their action or stop.

The problem is that no one tells you when you get a strike and when you are being monitored.

In fact government entities will often tell the ISP that it is against federal law to inform you that you are being monitored. Good luck finding out so you can assert your birth rights.

Its broken and broken bad. I can not think of a single instance where censorship is working effectively.

Look at Youtube, someone puts in a DCMA complaint against you, your content is taken out. The person who theoretically was offended is given adsense (a monetary value, rewarded) for lying. You spend 10 plus days fighting it, even though it should never have happened in the first place. Even if put back up, your momentum is stymied and the chance to get your content to more people is effectively prevented. After the fact, Google never goes back and penalizes the person/entity that censored you. They do not even put in place measures to prevent it from happening to you again, and again, and again.

This six strikes BS will not be any different.

As a friend of mine says, and we should all repeat as the reality of this thought is so obvious. "It is insane to assume that one every street, in every neighborhood, of every city block in every community, in every city, in every county there are torrent users stealing content. Yet the ISP, unless you have Fiber To The Home (FTTH) and a plan guaranteeing you the same bandwidth upstream as downstream...10Mb/10Mb; 50Mb/50Mb... 1Gb/1Gb, throttles every house on every street to below the FTC definition of broadband (768Kbps) 100% of the time.

My friends FTTH map: Less than 40 communities have FTTH where all the plans include the same bandwidth upstream as downstream. Hint: Not all of FIOS plans give you the same bandwidth upstream as downstream!

Importance: No incentive to throttle, which should remove any incentive to censor, your plan becomes your effective bandwidth restriction if if you some how use 10Mb upstream every second of every minute of every hour of every day you can move to the next largest bandwidth plan for a few extra dollars....think about that. Americans should have had this as of the year 2000, except for BS legislation like this designed to force you to pay more for less. Make no mistake, this is the real reason for this type of legislation.

Especially Cable providers. If you get a DD-WRT firmware installed firewall/router, you will see your upstream / downstream bandwidth in real time. You will NEVER see upstream bandwidth throughputs above 768Kbps, except during the Speed Test. Cable plans that provide 16Mb/2Mb normally throttle to less than DSL speeds(100Kbps/10Kbps or 200Kbps/20Kbps), in fact in most cases to less than 1/4 of DSL Speeds, especially upstream. Which means DSL is not only cheaper but faster, provides more bandwidth upstream than throttled cable service.

Even when I manage to get 10Mb downstream, my upstream is throttled to below 120Kbps. How is this not FRAUD? If 768Kbps is the minimum definition for BROADBAND, than upstream speeds below that level can NOT be considered BROADBAND.

And the reason for their throttling, those evil bit torrents that they lie and say are ONLY used to steal content. I bet not a single neighbor on my street has ever used a bittorrent...so why is my service throttled 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to less than BROADBAND speeds?

You will never see it answered anywhere because its a lie. It is not true. And they know it.

I didn't see this answered anywhere.

Which is one of the many problems with legislation against technological innovation. There are ample examples of the US government doing things, like monitoring, to individuals that they legally can not do. But to protest that you are being monitored, you must first be aware that you are being monitored and at that time you can go to a judge, which is your write, and force the monitoring entity to justify their action or stop.

The problem is that no one tells you when you get a strike and when you are being monitored.

In fact government entities will often tell the ISP that it is against federal law to inform you that you are being monitored. Good luck finding out so you can assert your birth rights.

Its broken and broken bad. I can not think of a single instance where censorship is working effectively.

Look at Youtube, someone puts in a DCMA complaint against you, your content is taken out. The person who theoretically was offended is given adsense (a monetary value, rewarded) for lying. You spend 10 plus days fighting it, even though it should never have happened in the first place. Even if put back up, your momentum is stymied and the chance to get your content to more people is effectively prevented. After the fact, Google never goes back and penalizes the person/entity that censored you. They do not even put in place measures to prevent it from happening to you again, and again, and again.

This six strikes BS will not be any different.

As a friend of mine says, and we should all repeat as the reality of this thought is so obvious. "It is insane to assume that one every street, in every neighborhood, of every city block in every community, in every city, in every county there are torrent users stealing content. Yet the ISP, unless you have Fiber To The Home (FTTH) and a plan guaranteeing you the same bandwidth upstream as downstream...10Mb/10Mb; 50Mb/50Mb... 1Gb/1Gb, throttles every house on every street to below the FTC definition of broadband (768Kbps) 100% of the time.

My friends FTTH map: Less than 40 communities have FTTH where all the plans include the same bandwidth upstream as downstream. Hint: Not all of FIOS plans give you the same bandwidth upstream as downstream!

Importance: No incentive to throttle, which should remove any incentive to censor, your plan becomes your effective bandwidth restriction if if you some how use 10Mb upstream every second of every minute of every hour of every day you can move to the next largest bandwidth plan for a few extra dollars....think about that. Americans should have had this as of the year 2000, except for BS legislation like this designed to force you to pay more for less. Make no mistake, this is the real reason for this type of legislation.

Especially Cable providers. If you get a DD-WRT firmware installed firewall/router, you will see your upstream / downstream bandwidth in real time. You will NEVER see upstream bandwidth throughputs above 768Kbps, except during the Speed Test. Cable plans that provide 16Mb/2Mb normally throttle to less than DSL speeds(100Kbps/10Kbps or 200Kbps/20Kbps), in fact in most cases to less than 1/4 of DSL Speeds, especially upstream. Which means DSL is not only cheaper but faster, provides more bandwidth upstream than throttled cable service.

Even when I manage to get 10Mb downstream, my upstream is throttled to below 120Kbps. How is this not FRAUD? If 768Kbps is the minimum definition for BROADBAND, than upstream speeds below that level can NOT be considered BROADBAND.

And the reason for their throttling, those evil bit torrents that they lie and say are ONLY used to steal content. I bet not a single neighbor on my street has ever used a bittorrent...so why is my service throttled 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to less than BROADBAND speeds?

You will never see it answered anywhere because its a lie. It is not true. And they know it.

Frankly I'm flooring the Indians did so miserably. What is wrong with their educational system WRT CS/IT?

That's very simple. Corruption. And the devaluation of "qualifications" and "certificates" earned through such a system.

Honestly, not trolling. Please check it out for yourselves.

I lived in a very large Chicago high-rise with an HOA. They decided to go with the fractional fiber-optic approach with a small provider/reseller/whatever. I'd have to say, the service was incredible. Haven't had anything like it before or since. The best part was that the tech support didn't skip a beat when he asked me about my OS and I said "Ubuntu." Then again, this was the same building that told me I couldn't have orange drapes in my 15th floor unit. Whatever...

Nothing like a positive real life example and in the same town as the person asking the question no less. Having read through almost the entire thread, loved the truth of an entire building or an entire group using their combined bargaining power to get the best deal for everyone.

Whoever set that up for that building did a great job as your response shows.

Best solution for others, move to one of the less than 30 FTTH US communities. With true FTTH, ALL the bandwidth plans offer the same bandwidth upstream and downstream.

If you are unfortunate enough to live in a city like most of us where the service is spotty and not consistent, find out who the backbone providers are in your area and where their networks / telco switching stations are located. Find a home/apartment closer to one of these. The closer you are, the more likely you will get great bandwidth at an affordable monthly rate. And if you must run a local loop, you have that option, though it will cost you each and every month.

If too far away from the telcos, DSL is not available. You may not have options, which means the one provider to your area has you and they know it. DSL is often better than Cable for Internet, as you do not share the line (as with FTTH). (Often due to throttling of bandwidth, you would be better off with DSL over Cable Internet that is throttled...all cable Internet is throttled hard, Speed Tests only tell you what you could get, not what they will allow you to have, thus they lie.) Since DSL usually costs 1/3 the price of Cable, you could in reality get two different DSL providers and use both cheaper than 1 Cable provider. Imagine streaming content on one, while doing other things on the other.

DD-WRT, OpenWRT and tomato firmware on a supported firewall/router is your best method to determine actual throughput, bandwidth in real time 24 X 7. Cable providers that offer 20Mb/4Mb and 16Mb/4Mb plans, always throttle, reduce. limit, restrict bandwidth to much lower levels. It is common to see bandwidth as low as 200kbs/40Kbs, 100Kbs/30Kbs and 100Kbs/10Kbs...rarely do Cable providers provide the FCC definition for broadband, 768Kbps, rarely if ever upstream will you see above 100Kbps...which is what you really need to stream content...an upstream bandwidth guarantee.

Some DSL providers will offer bandwidth guarantees, no .. up to .. BS. Cable Internet providers will NEVER offer a guarantee and if they do, get it in writing, because they are lying. I can imagine them twisting the marketing in order to mislead and not lose customers as competition starts to destroy their failed tiered pricing model.

Have you been living under a rock? In the U.S. every major city has 100mbit+ net service offered by many providers to residents and business alike. It would more difficult to not find 100mbit in a major urban area than it would be to find it. Even one of my several detractors on this thread offered a link to $50/mo 100/100 [localtel.net]. I got FIOS as do many people. Cox and Charter offer 100mbit.. So.... There's that for ya.

There are less than 30 communities that offer both Fiber To The Home (FTTH) and the same bandwidth upstream as downstream.

With FTTH, No bandwidth caps are necessary as your plan becomes the cap. A 10Mb/10Mb connection provides 10Mb X 24 hours X 365 Days both upstream and downstream without caps, without restrictions. With Fiber done right, FTTH, there is no need to screw over your customers. American consumers have been getting abused since the 1990s.

Your link did not work. The one for $50/mo 100/100

Enough FRAUD. FCC says Broadband = 768Kbps, yet 100% of cable Internet users are throttled to below 768Kbps, in fact 100% are restricted to much, much lower bandwidths than the FCC definition both upstream and downstream. Why is this not FRAUD?

100% of Cable companies throttle bandwidth to below the FCC definition of BROADBAND (768 Kbps), except during the Speed Test. Speed Tests lie. On my DD-WRT firewall/router I see bandwidth throttled immediately after the Speed test finishes to as low as 100Kbs/30Kbs. My guess is if the cable providers allowed for the FCC definition of BROADBAND upstream, most streaming problems would cease to exist. Of course they need the scarcity myth to drive up a customers monthly rates paid to them. Pathetic.

While FIOS offers the same bandwidth upstream in some locations as downstream, it does NOT offer the same bandwidth upstream as downstream on all its plans.

Cord cutting is just the start, already have done that....saving well over $1,500.00 per year. Plan to save even more by creating my own electricity and auto fuel sometime in the next 3 - 5 years.

Love Voice Over IP (VoIP)

I cut the cord years ago, both phone (landline way back and cellular in 2006) and cable TV. I will ONLY purchase Cable Internet if its my only option...of course I hate the Cable company for their monopoly and the way they treat their customers. Just makes me want to move to one of the 26 - 28 communities with synchronous bi-directional bandwidth plans. And the day I do that, I will NEVER ever purchase Cable TV.

Remember back in the 1980s when your BASIC (TV ONLY) cable bill went from $15 per month to over $30 per month and they would tell you but the cable channels only cost you $1.00 more instead of $15.00. Lost on them (Cable) was the fact that I had not subscribed to any premium channels. Or rather that was the point of the price change. Charging more for less. I have never forgotten and will never forgive, have felt cheated ever since. FYI, I did not know that you can FORCE, via county officials, the Cable company to give you TV ONLY cable service...they will tell you that its not available...they lie. Counties require them to offer it by law for the lower income in your county...but of course they want everyone to pay at least $50 per month, preferably $100 per month.

The Cable company has treated its customers so poorly for the last 20+ years, why should we want to use them. I can not wait to be rid of them. I am only reacting to their customer no-service policies and handling of my service over the years.

Bandwidth throttling ~ anti American.

It does not make me like them more that I pay for 20Mb/4Mb or 16Mb/2MB (Internet Bandwidth download/upload) and they throttle, limit, restrict, reduce my bandwidth (in real time as shown by DD-WRT) to lower than 300Kb/30Kbps, often as low as 100Kb/4Kbps.

Bandwidth Caps ~ anti American.

And to add insult to injury they add in bandwidth caps that are below the expected monthly usage of a typical family (300 GB per month). Remember the first cap they wanted, 50 Gb per month, when people screamed they settled on 200 - 250 Mb per month...still below the 300 GB per month they knew we would need circa 2006.

Hulu, but not if Cable Subscription is required.

Hulu is good with the buffering, however even with Hulu, the cable internet bandwidth is so severely throttled that its skips and sputters. I am guessing that if the companies gave us the FCC definition for broadband upstream, 768Kbps that all streaming content would just work great. Of course they reduce it because they can, not because they have to. Now if Hulu requires a Cable TV subscription, than I will stop using them. Not going to go back to Cable, ever, would rather stop watching TV or any content.

Fiber To The Home is the ONLY answer! (Get FTTH HERE)

Once I relocate to one of the FTTH communities where I can get 10Mb/10Mb; 15Mb/15Mb; 20Mb/20Mb; 30Mb/30Mb; 50Mb/50Mb; 100Mb/100Mb or 1Gb/1Gb than and only than will I subscribe to Hulu....and than only if they DO NOT require any other related subscriptions(no cable subscription) and the price does not exceed $10 per month. I would have become a paid Hulu subscriber a year or two ago if I could get a Broadband bandwidth guarantee and verify that they did not restrict me.

My plan is to move within 2 - 3 years to one of those cities. Thankfully they are growing fast, companies are relocating for the FTTH infrastructure and jobs are being created, so that should help me in the move. An added plus that a FTTH link to a home increases the homes value by $5,000.00. Its #1 on my new home shopping list, the next home I purchase will be my 5th and probably my last, and I will only

Cord cutting is just the start, already have done that....saving well over $1,500.00 per year. Plan to save even more by creating my own electricity and auto fuel sometime in the next 3 - 5 years.

Love Voice Over IP (VoIP)

I cut the cord years ago, both phone (landline way back and cellular in 2006) and cable TV. I will ONLY purchase Cable Internet if its my only option...of course I hate the Cable company for their monopoly and the way they treat their customers. Just makes me want to move to one of the 26 - 28 communities with synchronous bi-directional bandwidth plans. And the day I do that, I will NEVER ever purchase Cable TV.

Remember back in the 1980s when your BASIC (TV ONLY) cable bill went from $15 per month to over $30 per month and they would tell you but the cable channels only cost you $1.00 more instead of $15.00. Lost on them (Cable) was the fact that I had not subscribed to any premium channels. Or rather that was the point of the price change. Charging more for less. I have never forgotten and will never forgive, have felt cheated ever since. FYI, I did not know that you can FORCE, via county officials, the Cable company to give you TV ONLY cable service...they will tell you that its not available...they lie. Counties require them to offer it by law for the lower income in your county...but of course they want everyone to pay at least $50 per month, preferably $100 per month.

The Cable company has treated its customers so poorly for the last 20+ years, why should we want to use them. I can not wait to be rid of them. I am only reacting to their customer no-service policies and handling of my service over the years.

Bandwidth throttling ~ anti American.

It does not make me like them more that I pay for 20Mb/4Mb or 16Mb/2MB (Internet Bandwidth download/upload) and they throttle, limit, restrict, reduce my bandwidth (in real time as shown by DD-WRT) to lower than 300Kb/30Kbps, often as low as 100Kb/4Kbps.

Bandwidth Caps ~ anti American.

And to add insult to injury they add in bandwidth caps that are below the expected monthly usage of a typical family (300 GB per month). Remember the first cap they wanted, 50 Gb per month, when people screamed they settled on 200 - 250 Mb per month...still below the 300 GB per month they knew we would need circa 2006.

Hulu, but not if Cable Subscription is required.

Hulu is good with the buffering, however even with Hulu, the cable internet bandwidth is so severely throttled that its skips and sputters. I am guessing that if the companies gave us the FCC definition for broadband upstream, 768Kbps that all streaming content would just work great. Of course they reduce it because they can, not because they have to. Now if Hulu requires a Cable TV subscription, than I will stop using them. Not going to go back to Cable, ever, would rather stop watching TV or any content.

Fiber To The Home is the ONLY answer! (Get FTTH HERE)

Once I relocate to one of the FTTH communities where I can get 10Mb/10Mb; 15Mb/15Mb; 20Mb/20Mb; 30Mb/30Mb; 50Mb/50Mb; 100Mb/100Mb or 1Gb/1Gb than and only than will I subscribe to Hulu....and than only if they DO NOT require any other related subscriptions(no cable subscription) and the price does not exceed $10 per month. I would have become a paid Hulu subscriber a year or two ago if I could get a Broadband bandwidth guarantee and verify that they did not restrict me.

My plan is to move within 2 - 3 years to one of those cities. Thankfully they are growing fast, companies are relocating for the FTTH infrastructure and jobs are being created, so that should help me in the move. An added plus that a FTTH link to a home increases the homes value by $5,000.00. Its #1 on my new home shopping list, the next home I purchase will be my 5th and probably my last, and I will only

Cord cutting is just the start, already have done that....saving well over $1,500.00 per year. Plan to save even more by creating my own electricity and auto fuel sometime in the next 3 - 5 years.

Love Voice Over IP (VoIP)

I cut the cord years ago, both phone (landline way back and cellular in 2006) and cable TV. I will ONLY purchase Cable Internet if its my only option...of course I hate the Cable company for their monopoly and the way they treat their customers. Just makes me want to move to one of the 26 - 28 communities with synchronous bi-directional bandwidth plans. And the day I do that, I will NEVER ever purchase Cable TV.

Remember back in the 1980s when your BASIC (TV ONLY) cable bill went from $15 per month to over $30 per month and they would tell you but the cable channels only cost you $1.00 more instead of $15.00. Lost on them (Cable) was the fact that I had not subscribed to any premium channels. Or rather that was the point of the price change. Charging more for less. I have never forgotten and will never forgive, have felt cheated ever since. FYI, I did not know that you can FORCE, via county officials, the Cable company to give you TV ONLY cable service...they will tell you that its not available...they lie. Counties require them to offer it by law for the lower income in your county...but of course they want everyone to pay at least $50 per month, preferably $100 per month.

The Cable company has treated its customers so poorly for the last 20+ years, why should we want to use them. I can not wait to be rid of them. I am only reacting to their customer no-service policies and handling of my service over the years.

Bandwidth throttling ~ anti American.

It does not make me like them more that I pay for 20Mb/4Mb or 16Mb/2MB (Internet Bandwidth download/upload) and they throttle, limit, restrict, reduce my bandwidth (in real time as shown by DD-WRT) to lower than 300Kb/30Kbps, often as low as 100Kb/4Kbps.

Bandwidth Caps ~ anti American.

And to add insult to injury they add in bandwidth caps that are below the expected monthly usage of a typical family (300 GB per month). Remember the first cap they wanted, 50 Gb per month, when people screamed they settled on 200 - 250 Mb per month...still below the 300 GB per month they knew we would need circa 2006.

Hulu, but not if Cable Subscription is required.

Hulu is good with the buffering, however even with Hulu, the cable internet bandwidth is so severely throttled that its skips and sputters. I am guessing that if the companies gave us the FCC definition for broadband upstream, 768Kbps that all streaming content would just work great. Of course they reduce it because they can, not because they have to. Now if Hulu requires a Cable TV subscription, than I will stop using them. Not going to go back to Cable, ever, would rather stop watching TV or any content.

Fiber To The Home is the ONLY answer! (Get FTTH HERE)

Once I relocate to one of the FTTH communities where I can get 10Mb/10Mb; 15Mb/15Mb; 20Mb/20Mb; 30Mb/30Mb; 50Mb/50Mb; 100Mb/100Mb or 1Gb/1Gb than and only than will I subscribe to Hulu....and than only if they DO NOT require any other related subscriptions(no cable subscription) and the price does not exceed $10 per month. I would have become a paid Hulu subscriber a year or two ago if I could get a Broadband bandwidth guarantee and verify that they did not restrict me.

My plan is to move within 2 - 3 years to one of those cities. Thankfully they are growing fast, companies are relocating for the FTTH infrastructure and jobs are being created, so that should help me in the move. An added plus that a FTTH link to a home increases the homes value by $5,000.00. Its #1 on my new home shopping list, the next home I purchase will be my 5th and probably my last, and I will only

Cord cutting is just the start, already have done that....saving well over $1,500.00 per year. Plan to save even more by creating my own electricity and auto fuel sometime in the next 3 - 5 years.

Love Voice Over IP (VoIP)

I cut the cord years ago, both phone (landline way back and cellular in 2006) and cable TV. I will ONLY purchase Cable Internet if its my only option...of course I hate the Cable company for their monopoly and the way they treat their customers. Just makes me want to move to one of the 26 - 28 communities with synchronous bi-directional bandwidth plans. And the day I do that, I will NEVER ever purchase Cable TV.

Remember back in the 1980s when your BASIC (TV ONLY) cable bill went from $15 per month to over $30 per month and they would tell you but the cable channels only cost you $1.00 more instead of $15.00. Lost on them (Cable) was the fact that I had not subscribed to any premium channels. Or rather that was the point of the price change. Charging more for less. I have never forgotten and will never forgive, have felt cheated ever since. FYI, I did not know that you can FORCE, via county officials, the Cable company to give you TV ONLY cable service...they will tell you that its not available...they lie. Counties require them to offer it by law for the lower income in your county...but of course they want everyone to pay at least $50 per month, preferably $100 per month.

The Cable company has treated its customers so poorly for the last 20+ years, why should we want to use them. I can not wait to be rid of them. I am only reacting to their customer no-service policies and handling of my service over the years.

Bandwidth throttling ~ anti American.

It does not make me like them more that I pay for 20Mb/4Mb or 16Mb/2MB (Internet Bandwidth download/upload) and they throttle, limit, restrict, reduce my bandwidth (in real time as shown by DD-WRT) to lower than 300Kb/30Kbps, often as low as 100Kb/4Kbps.

Bandwidth Caps ~ anti American.

And to add insult to injury they add in bandwidth caps that are below the expected monthly usage of a typical family (300 GB per month). Remember the first cap they wanted, 50 Gb per month, when people screamed they settled on 200 - 250 Mb per month...still below the 300 GB per month they knew we would need circa 2006.

Hulu, but not if Cable Subscription is required.

Hulu is good with the buffering, however even with Hulu, the cable internet bandwidth is so severely throttled that its skips and sputters. I am guessing that if the companies gave us the FCC definition for broadband upstream, 768Kbps that all streaming content would just work great. Of course they reduce it because they can, not because they have to. Now if Hulu requires a Cable TV subscription, than I will stop using them. Not going to go back to Cable, ever, would rather stop watching TV or any content.

Fiber To The Home is the ONLY answer! (Get FTTH HERE)

Once I relocate to one of the FTTH communities where I can get 10Mb/10Mb; 15Mb/15Mb; 20Mb/20Mb; 30Mb/30Mb; 50Mb/50Mb; 100Mb/100Mb or 1Gb/1Gb than and only than will I subscribe to Hulu....and than only if they DO NOT require any other related subscriptions(no cable subscription) and the price does not exceed $10 per month. I would have become a paid Hulu subscriber a year or two ago if I could get a Broadband bandwidth guarantee and verify that they did not restrict me.

My plan is to move within 2 - 3 years to one of those cities. Thankfully they are growing fast, companies are relocating for the FTTH infrastructure and jobs are being created, so that should help me in the move. An added plus that a FTTH link to a home increases the homes value by $5,000.00. Its #1 on my new home shopping list, the next home I purchase will be my 5th and probably my last, and I will only

Fiber is what the countries with the (presently) fastest residential user internet infrastructure in the world are using.

Singapore is presently rolling out it's nation wide fiber network and somewhere close to 70% of the households have been fiber connected. 95% of the households islandwide are scheduled/projected to be connected by the end of 2012.

I recently had fiber installed in my home, though 1000Mbps is an option at $319 per month, I opted to go for 100Mbps for $47 per month.

Seems silly to spend money on bandwidth for your home if your provider will not give you even Broadband level bandwidth to begin with. Such would be my decision point when considering Fiber runs to my server rack in my home versus Cat5/Cat6.

You must be one of the lucky few that live in one of less than 30 United States cities/communities that offer Fiber To The Home (FTTH)...I am envious and planning to fix my envy by relocating to/near one of them in the future specifically for Synchronous FTTH, basically you get the same bandwidth upstream as downstream, nothing throttled either upstream or downstream. (FIOS does not qualify, however is better than cable, as long as you resign yourself to living with the scarcity myth and perpetual increases in prices over time for your family. Heck given the throttling/restricting of upstream bandwidth specifically, DSL is better than cable...for the price of one Cable Internet connection you could afford 2 DSL connections, preferably through two different providers.)

If you do not live in one of the communities on that map, how much did it cost you to run your Fiber? How did you get your local Telco to agree, as this is extremely rare and most will not? In fact they spend billions every year to prevent people living in many states (http://www.muninetworks.org/communitymap) 19 US States at last count from even getting FTTH, effectively preventing competition.

I understand costs of a single FTTH run between $1,500.00 and $3,000.00 from your home to the Telco Switching station. The cities that split the cost of the FTTH over the last mile to their townspeople's home see an increase in economic activity, jobs, businesses relocating and springing up for the FTTH infrastructure. Of course this adds $5,000 to the value of the home should you sale it one day, better than most home improvement projects as it actually adds value to the home, assuming you can get it (http://www.muninetworks.org/communitymap) many cannot.

If you do not live in one of the less than 30 communities that have FTTH you should get a DD-WRT, Tomato or OpenWRT firmware supported router and see your actual bandwidth in real time, as over 90% of Cable Internet providers are throttled to less than Broadband speeds (FCC definition is 768Kbps) except when the customer runs the lying speed test. I see well below 300K/100K the majority of time, often bandwidth is throttled to less than 101K/30K, which is just pathetic and sad as of 2012. One thing is for sure, by any measure/definition, its NOT BROADBAND.

Fiber is what the countries with the (presently) fastest residential user internet infrastructure in the world are using.

When Japan got 100Mb/100Mb FTTH back in the year 2000, they determined it cost them approx .50 cents per Gbps to deliver the service. Thus when 1000Mb/1000Mb (1 Gbps) was rolled out a few years later, the price for consumers actually went down, not up.

If Americans started throwing/voting politicians out of offi

Yeah, an informed account of that decision by the actual lawyer for ReDigi was posted on slashdot just this morning.

You telling me NewYorkCountryLawyer is a real lawyer? Damn, I preferred the fictional version --> "6 most badass lawyers ever"

I like you say "the old and the poor" are not the largest share, then proceed to "prove" it by showing a chart that leaves nearly all of "the old and the poor" spending off and conclude that something else is the majority of spending. Look at the total budget, including entitlements (which are left off your chart), and you'll see that defense is like 18% of the budget, and "the old and the poor" are about 38% of the budget. Add in servicing the public debt to the latter figure (because servicing the public debt is largely servicing the "Social Security Trust Fund") and you're talking about over half the federal budget.

http://is.gd/xImQWK