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I'm in OZ and a number of ISPs here don't block any ports. A number do. You have to check the conditions of each before you join and be very careful with the ability to run servers, bit torrent, etc. Lots of gotchas, but you can wend your way around them with a little research on http://whirlpool.net.au/

I also believe its policy in most of Europe not to block ports or filter, except in the UK, though somebody in Europe can clarify that for me. Seems that in the US most ISPs do and most people only have access to a couple of choices so the point is moot. Just my assumption from this side of the ditch.

And unfortunately, down here a lot of ISPs are trending further towards the US model :-( Bye bye Internet, its was fun.

Back in '02 Internode http://www.internode.on.net/ introduced Flat Rate plans, whereby you could download as much as you wanted while the network wasn't congested, however when utilisation reached 100%, those with the highest downloads over the last 28 days (rolling period) would be progressivly slowed down, to as low as dial-up speed. Once the network was less congested, your speed would ratchet back up (again depending on network congestion and your priority based on your downloads).

Those that only occassionally downloaded large files would get full speed pretty much all the time, those that downloaded continuously would see their downloads slow during peak periods.

It wasn't rocket science, but that 28day rolling period and how it worked was a confusion that eventually forced the cancellation of these type of plans - which is too bad, as they essentially gave everyone a fair go depending on how much you downloaded. No excess charges, just a flat fee and as much GB as you could squeeze out of the link.

It was a great system and I was sorry to see it go. I'm sure the developer of the software was dissapointed in much larger ways - this system could have made bandwidth provisioning & customer charging a lot easier to predict and manage.

More info in an FAQ http://whirlpool.net.au/article.cfm/1037

In Australia we've had caps since around when al gore invented the internet.

There's one dishonest company that is charging people 15c/megabyte for excess usage on a 200mbyte plan. There have been people with $20k internet bills.

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=862549
http://users.bigpond.net.au/Ice_Cold/BPbill01.JPG

• where do you get that 200 MB download limit from? Telstra's plans start from 600 MB per month.
  
  
• You are a fool if you are going with BigPond anyway. It is horrendously expensive (for the same $70 which BigPond gives you 600 MB, you can get a TPG ADSL2+ account with 150 GB monthly download limit or look for Internode or iiNet if you want quality service). BigPond is vastly inferior to anything under the sun. Contention ratios of 500:1 are quite common on their residential plans.
  
  
• Yes, most other ISPs do use Telstra gear in the background (well, they own 90%+ of the exchanges anyway), but Telstra Wholesale and Telstra Retail are quite distinct beasts, and the former is heavily regulated to allow other ISP to use Telstra's infrasturcutre. Their Retail division is a shambles.

• where do you get that 200 MB download limit from? Telstra's plans start from 600 MB per month.
  
  
• You are a fool if you are going with BigPond anyway. It is horrendously expensive (for the same $70 which BigPond gives you 600 MB, you can get a TPG ADSL2+ account with 150 GB monthly download limit or look for Internode or iiNet if you want quality service). BigPond is vastly inferior to anything under the sun. Contention ratios of 500:1 are quite common on their residential plans.
  
  
• Yes, most other ISPs do use Telstra gear in the background (well, they own 90%+ of the exchanges anyway), but Telstra Wholesale and Telstra Retail are quite distinct beasts, and the former is heavily regulated to allow other ISP to use Telstra's infrasturcutre. Their Retail division is a shambles.

Jesus H. Christ! Just 200 megabytes a month? Sounds like you guys would welcome Comcast or Verizon.

Look for yourself http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/isp.cfm/Telstra-BigPond/1.html

Even on their highest speed cable plan the quota starts at 200 meg a month.

In Australia friends don't let friends get used by PigPuddle. They instead send them here http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/ and give them every opportunity to become an informed customer.

That is fine for friends but it does not help with parents. The names Telecom and Telstra have been around all their lives. It is the known brand. It is a big player so it must be better than any they have not heard of.

Even so parents eventually learn. It took less then 1 month before mum started realising that with the 1500/256 400 meg plan she was on actually gave her less freedom on the net than the no quota dialup plan she was using previously. With contract payout value she is not moving anywhere soon.

I found a way of getting the point across. Put it in terms of youtube videos. Point out with bigpond they might be able to watch a couple of youtube videos + their normal usage with bigpond compared to hundreds or thousands depending on which other isp.

This from a company that at one stage were disconnecting people from mobile phone service who had terminal illnesses because it was to hard to collect the final bill from the deceased estate, no joke, they are really that low, petty and a truly disgusting company (the real interesting part of that story was how they were able to find out that customers had terminal illnesses).

In Australia friends don't let friends get used by PigPuddle. They instead send them here http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/ and give them every opportunity to become an informed customer.

To put in perspective the entry level plans have measly bandwidth quotas from 200mb to 600mb per month. Then to add further insult to injury any additional usage is charged at $150 per GB.

However don't think all Aussie internet is as bad as this, there are many competing ISPs so you would have to be a complete idiot to sign up to Bigpoo.

I would say the metering makes this a problem, but Telstra broadband isn't aimed at nerds. It's aimed at the average person who, let's face it, probably hasn't heard of open office.

We can see that Telstra is aimed at the average Aussie by examining what they offer in the way of broadband. Their plans are as a rule more expensive than what the competition offers (not sure how that works considering they are the wholesaler as well as a consumer ISP) and often come with hefty "hidden" charges (usually $0.15 per Mb referece) for going over miniscule download limits. The reason they get away with this is slick marketing and plenty of muscle politically from previously being the government monopoly telco in Australia. Many normal people think Telstra BigPond IS broadband, and don't know about other ISPs.

In contrast, nerds are aware that there are many ISPs in Australia (well at least in the capital cities) and can research plans on sites such as http://whirlpool.net.au/. The nerds, who would be likely to download open office, would generally be on better plans with other ISPs where the size of the open office download isn't going to be an issue.

That said, I'm an Australian, and rather unclear on who offers which services here. In Australia everyone simply uses whirlpool.net.au to check what services are available where. (For those not familiar, it's an unbiased 3rd party that compares broadband services, shows which are available in your area and gives a tool to compare various plans.) Does anything like that exist for the US?

On the internet, everything you could think of has already been done:

Telemarketer Torture script for Asterisk:
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/823244.html

Actual recording of such a call: http://custom3dgraphics.deviantart.com/art/Hip-Hurts-v-2-22995489

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=222993&p=43

Whirpool is an aussie forum for discussing all kinds of things over here.
Anyhow an online store 'just over the pond' in Thailand called Zest has been selling a lot of games lately, they often open the product, give you the CDkey via email and dispose of the rest, or you can pay to have the whole lot shipped.
Sounds shady but well apparently it works and very few cases of people having CD key issues.

It's hard to know where to stand on this, I can certainly see why Valve have done it. In order to stop piracy in dodgy countries like China and Thailand they simply drop the price, way way low, if I recall Microsoft were thinking (or did?) the same thing with Windows at one point..?
Technically it's still a valid key, however it was intended for that country.

All that being said Organge box (stupid bloody name) is cheap as chips right now. Despite being a tightass consumer, when you think about 45$ US for the preorder is like 55$ AUD, that's fantastic value in my mind. (yes, I purchased on steam)

However! other companies besides Valve like EA are also blocking these online sales and they DON'T release with nice prices like Valve. You want Crysis? 100$ AUD (or 91$ US) and we speak the same damn language, it's not like they need to re-author it (color/colour jokes aside) or make a 220V power supply (software here, not hardware)
I don't agree with those prices at all.

I frequent US-centric forums all the time and it kills me to hear of the bargains you guys get as consumers.
Price match this, rebate that, sale this, 2 for one on that.
I mean you get a brand new game, sure it's 50 or 60$ US but within 2 weeks a smart consumer can have it for 30$ US (40$ AUD)
Over here, the new stuff starts at 120/110/100$ AUD (109/100/91$ US!) and may drop if we're lucky to 70$ US in a month or two - what the fuck people what the fuck.

So ultimately, this isn't cool for some tightasses but really go complain to EA about blocking regional games from Thailand, because those cockhats DON'T offer a cheap good download service like Valve yet they are doing the same thing.

Just a heads-up to those who are considering buying The Orange Box cheaply from an overseas retailer: don't. Valve has been banning CD keys for games bought from Zest (a Thai online store) and possibly other retailers. Apparently there was some kind of agreement between Valve and Zest not to sell to customers outside of Thailand, and Zest broke that agreement, resulting in keys being banned. This has pissed off a lot of gamers who have been playing Orange Box and suddenly found their games no longer worked.

Details here:
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=843730

I think this could've been handled a lot more diplomatically by Valve without antagonising their customers. Nobody got a hint of a warning before their games were disabled.

Fanboi IS the correct pseudospelling.

This doesn't apply to SlashDot, since even unpopular / off-topic / odd / even a disident's posts are almost never removed by moderators.
(Isn't it only Court Orders that lead to SlashDot taking down such posts?)

Australia if different. Lacking a Bill of Rights & having NO Freedom of Speech legislation, seems to have affected how its Social Networking Tools are written and whether posts are routinely removed by those who operate or moderate a web site based on them.

Moreover, posts are deleted by small groups of chosen (ie, by the site's owner, not elected) moderators. We wonder why they invest the time to moderate users' posts. As they remain unknown to even member of the Social Networking community. The 3 "senior moderators" of one site are young (2 x in their 20's & is in low 30's) I can't tell you how they come to have so much time to devote to their moderation tasks; we suspect they are public servants, at gov't work sites & Internet-connected computers.

Our example is: http://whirlpool.net.au/ - apparently organised as a user group for those intending to get on the Internet, as well as for more experienced Internet users. It features a reasonable (if somewhat out-of-date) "BroadBand Connect" ISP plan search tool that must have been top of its class, before ISPs started changing plans in all directions (eg, selecting various speeds, to which shaping is done (after user's data limit is exhausted), etc.).

Whirlpool reportedly attracts some interesting, talented and, sometimes, influential people to its Forums. In fact, in December 2006, a Nuclear Scientist appeared on the site (for an hour) to answer questions. Have a look at the thread (riddled with signs of user post deletions) here:

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=648235

Interestingly, one doesn't see all of Whirlpool's forums when first joining... later in one's WP existence, additional ones appear that long-term members have seen for yonks. One wonders what other hidden forums might appear, ie, to those with special interests - don't ask me what they might be...

Blinkering new members to just those forums, that comprise what Whirlpool is / was supposed to be all about continues, it seems, ie, when one is posting.

Recently, someone posted seeds to an analysis of Australian News reporting trends in the Whirlpool "In the News" forumm, only to have it swiftly deleted.

If SlashDot has readers in China, they may be quick to suggest that, surely, that poster must have written something that put at risk Australia's National Harmony...?

No, the post simply contrasted recent news reporting trends - with more Quantitative content - giving some general examples, based on actual reports, from sound bites or TV interviews... with a (proposed) Quantitative reporting style, ie, those including specifics on costs.

Some exampled were given, in the form of "cost-equation" skelatons for quantitative news reports on those issues, for:

- Australia's & New Zealand's very different responses to asylum-seekers & their children

(Anyone living here can tell you that Australian news reports
were very sparse on New Zealand's more cost-effective approach)

- Australia's response to a major report on sexual abuse of Aboriginal kids

- the hot issue of whether Australia should build Nuclear Power Plants for itself

In any case, the post was removed, despite being described as "otherwise perfectly fine"
by one of Whirlpool's senior moderators (one of a group of 3).

As if as a consolation, the poster was offered only a relocation for his post
- away from the more serious "In the News" forum - to a more leisure-based "Lifestyle" foum.

(I don't know if the Leisure forum is seen by Whirlpool's new members...)

Now, anyone bas

This doesn't apply to SlashDot, since even unpopular / off-topic / odd / even a disident's posts are almost never removed by moderators.
(Isn't it only Court Orders that lead to SlashDot taking down such posts?)

Australia if different. Lacking a Bill of Rights & having NO Freedom of Speech legislation, seems to have affected how its Social Networking Tools are written and whether posts are routinely removed by those who operate or moderate a web site based on them.

Moreover, posts are deleted by small groups of chosen (ie, by the site's owner, not elected) moderators. We wonder why they invest the time to moderate users' posts. As they remain unknown to even member of the Social Networking community. The 3 "senior moderators" of one site are young (2 x in their 20's & is in low 30's) I can't tell you how they come to have so much time to devote to their moderation tasks; we suspect they are public servants, at gov't work sites & Internet-connected computers.

Our example is: http://whirlpool.net.au/ - apparently organised as a user group for those intending to get on the Internet, as well as for more experienced Internet users. It features a reasonable (if somewhat out-of-date) "BroadBand Connect" ISP plan search tool that must have been top of its class, before ISPs started changing plans in all directions (eg, selecting various speeds, to which shaping is done (after user's data limit is exhausted), etc.).

Whirlpool reportedly attracts some interesting, talented and, sometimes, influential people to its Forums. In fact, in December 2006, a Nuclear Scientist appeared on the site (for an hour) to answer questions. Have a look at the thread (riddled with signs of user post deletions) here:

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=648235

Interestingly, one doesn't see all of Whirlpool's forums when first joining... later in one's WP existence, additional ones appear that long-term members have seen for yonks. One wonders what other hidden forums might appear, ie, to those with special interests - don't ask me what they might be...

Blinkering new members to just those forums, that comprise what Whirlpool is / was supposed to be all about continues, it seems, ie, when one is posting.

Recently, someone posted seeds to an analysis of Australian News reporting trends in the Whirlpool "In the News" forumm, only to have it swiftly deleted.

If SlashDot has readers in China, they may be quick to suggest that, surely, that poster must have written something that put at risk Australia's National Harmony...?

No, the post simply contrasted recent news reporting trends - with more Quantitative content - giving some general examples, based on actual reports, from sound bites or TV interviews... with a (proposed) Quantitative reporting style, ie, those including specifics on costs.

Some exampled were given, in the form of "cost-equation" skelatons for quantitative news reports on those issues, for:

- Australia's & New Zealand's very different responses to asylum-seekers & their children

(Anyone living here can tell you that Australian news reports
were very sparse on New Zealand's more cost-effective approach)

- Australia's response to a major report on sexual abuse of Aboriginal kids

- the hot issue of whether Australia should build Nuclear Power Plants for itself

In any case, the post was removed, despite being described as "otherwise perfectly fine"
by one of Whirlpool's senior moderators (one of a group of 3).

As if as a consolation, the poster was offered only a relocation for his post
- away from the more serious "In the News" forum - to a more leisure-based "Lifestyle" foum.

(I don't know if the Leisure forum is seen by Whirlpool's new members...)

Now, anyone bas

Here in Australia, we have had download quotas since the early days of broadband. This is necessary due to the extremely high costs associated with international data links here (there is a duopoly on submarine telecommunication cables linking Australia to the rest of the world, so prices are high).

While nobody in Australia really likes the download quotas, our ISPs at least spell out the limits in detail, and allow users to check their current usage in real-time. A variety of Internet plan options are available, so heavy users can opt to pay extra to have a higher download quota (e.g. see iiNet's plans and Internode's plans).

Comcast seem to be introducing quotas without really going all the way. I guess they view this as being more "gentle" than actually imposing hard limits, but I'd say that it's just more confusing. Users need to know what their quotas are and how much they have downloaded, otherwise, the whole system just seems arbitrary.

I can see how US ISPs might want to impose some usage limits on their customers. Data connectivity is cheap there, but it isn't free... and people are getting ever-faster home connections. However, if they are going to do this sort of thing, they need to spell out exactly what the limits are, and what the consequences are for going over those limits. Vague statements like "30,000 songs" don't really help anyone.

Here in Australia, we have had download quotas since the early days of broadband. This is necessary due to the extremely high costs associated with international data links here (there is a duopoly on submarine telecommunication cables linking Australia to the rest of the world, so prices are high).

While nobody in Australia really likes the download quotas, our ISPs at least spell out the limits in detail, and allow users to check their current usage in real-time. A variety of Internet plan options are available, so heavy users can opt to pay extra to have a higher download quota (e.g. see iiNet's plans and Internode's plans).

Comcast seem to be introducing quotas without really going all the way. I guess they view this as being more "gentle" than actually imposing hard limits, but I'd say that it's just more confusing. Users need to know what their quotas are and how much they have downloaded, otherwise, the whole system just seems arbitrary.

I can see how US ISPs might want to impose some usage limits on their customers. Data connectivity is cheap there, but it isn't free... and people are getting ever-faster home connections. However, if they are going to do this sort of thing, they need to spell out exactly what the limits are, and what the consequences are for going over those limits. Vague statements like "30,000 songs" don't really help anyone.

The forum thread had been running for many months, but in late August there was some real action starting to occur on getting information for legal action against 2clix.

My guess is that they would like to shut the thread down and prevent more people from getting involved in suing them.

Hope I can help in any way possible.

Regards,

Simon

Then again the rest of the thread is full of daily-WTF worthy gems like this:

Who am I kidding, suing your critics has to be the worst public relations disaster you could dream of. These guys are history.

I agree, it would set a very scary precedent. I've found Broadband Choice immensely helpful over the years finding ISPs, all thanks to the in-depth user feedback. The court claim reads like any typical forum thread, which is why I have faith this will be thrown out at the first opportunity. While not having a constitutional protection of free speech, we do have rights enshrined in common law which should apply here (IANAL etc.)

Links to the threads in question:

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=628356
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=479484

Links to the threads in question:

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=628356
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=479484

You may have to pay (for the moment! ULL coming soon! Maybe!) the Telstra Tax (min $20 a month atm), but you get to choose from over a hundred DSL providers.

http://www.whirlpool.net.au/ has a list of them :)

Australia is like this.
Your physical connection - copper wire - is provided by Telstra (in most places). You pay min $20 per month. It is REQUIRED to pay this fee if you want/need a landline.
Your internet connection is via many ISPs who have a variety of connection methods and paths. Some, like iiNet, build their own (or parts of their own) network. How much you pay is down to how much you are willing to shop around.

These days you can join an ISP without a contract, up front cost is around AUS$100

For more info, go to http://www.whirlpool.net.au/
See the lively discussion on the forums there about Australian ISPs.

I am sure that we can do this a better way. Canberra is 1/3 of the way through building a fiber network (Transact) but it turns out that it isn't FTTH it is Fiber To The Curb - the last 'mile' is a standard DSL box. Ouch. It's more of a pain in the ass to deal with that standard DSL.

In other news, plans for 'better' networks are being killed by DSL2 - speeds up to 8MB down are now available across Australia.

More news: To try and save his political position the prime minister of Australia declared that the Liberal Government will spend bucketloads in deploying 'high speed internet' everywhere. We'll wait and see on this one. At the moment DSL2 costs a chunk more than DSL and adoption isn't as high. It's like having dialup vs DSL.. some people can't justify the extra cost for the extra speed.

One thing that the Mercury article doesn't mention, is that part of the OPEL plan involves using the (currently dormant) Basslink fibre under Bass Strait, as well as construction of a second fibre. This will create a Telstra-free, fully redundant backhaul path from Victoria to Tasmania, which is what one of the biggest problems is with supply of broadband here - Telstra previously had a monopoly on it.
See http://www.minister.dcita.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf _file/69976/Fact_sheet_OPEL_Network.pdf

In the past, getting data from Victoria to Tasmania cost ISPs way more than what it would cost to get the same data from Sydney to Tokyo.
Source: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t =635221&p=4#r65

Not true. Telstra is restricting access to new estates where RIMs are installed. Even relatively suburban ones (such as where I live). Even if other ISPs wanted to install their own DSLAMs in them, they wouldn't be allowed. Which means until recently, I havn't been able to get anything higher than 1.5M. I'm still with a limit of 8M, which I'm not using because they charge through the roof for it.

Howard has already spent the ~$1bn on this "broadband plan". So it is concrete, not just a promise.

Maybe this is a move to undermine Labor's attempt at a broadband plan, as Labor now have to go back and change it to accommodate whatever mess has been signed onto with OPEL.

The current Australian PM has a history of announcing shit like this, allocating X billion dollars to it, with no results a year later. This is the guy who invented the phrase "non-core promise", from the same administration that spent 12 million buying every family a copy of net nannying software. Australians will take this announcement with a Liberal amount of salt (pun intended).

Internet access in Australia seems similar to the US horror stories posted here. All exchanges are owned by Telstra, a company created when the telephone system was privatized. They charge each ISP a rental of around AU$30-50 for each ADSL line, which pushes up the cost of casual user low quota plans. Most people can't get anything faster than 1500K, and dialup is the best available in rural areas. Cable providers are few, come with anal restrictions (e.g. you aren't allowed to run servers), and have limited coverage even in urban areas. The government was subsidizing new ADSL2 DSLAMs, but they canceled that program earlier this year, so the only ADSL2 coverage is in capital cities.

Whirlpool is a good place to look if you want more background on the state of broadband down here.

Why is the Sydney Morning Herald running an AFP report on an important Australian issue? The report's badly written, misspells the name of one of the two major political parties in Australia and measures costs in US$...

For the record, much more accurate and informative news on Australian Broadband can be found at Whirlpool at http://whirlpool.net.au/.

Found this after searching. Apparently there is no shortage of idiots..
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archi ve.cfm/745391.html

That would be Telstra: A company which sells "broadband" for $30/month which includes 200MB/month transfers (up+down) and 15c/MB excess use. You can get this price on either 8mbit cable (metro) or 256kbit ADSL (around 95% of the country). (And yes, people have had huge bills and Telstra makes them pay) See: http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/isp.cfm/Telstra-BigPond /1.html You can get better deals off other companies, but all must give some money to Telstra (except the very few non-Telstra-cabled areas).

Quickest I've had ADSL installed was 3 days, slowest 21 days. I've had it connected at about 10 different places with 8 different ISPs - all wholesale customers of Telstra.

Telstra did, but now they have renamed Unlimited to Liberty (and yes, they were previously advertising as Unlimited). That link claims that they changed the name in response to a complaint by the Victorian Fair Trading Commission. I can't think of any others off-hand - most of the ISPs that I know of are somewhat more reputable than claiming unlimited when you either pay extra or are capped.

Good idea, but in places like Australia, its not feasable, its expensive for ISPs here for both the Links and the Data.

Check here for consumer prices, we get shaped (generally to 64Kb/64Kb) til the end of the monthly period once we hit our limit.
http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/bc-plan.cfm

Fill out the form at the above location and see what you could get here (in Australia) for the same price you pay there.

It is illegal (a was law passed about 6 months ago) for companies to offer unlimited if the plan is being shaped, maybe they should do it there.

Cheers

And with a DS3 connection, he can access seven of them simultaneously!

instead it might be an innocuous-looking box at the end of the block

instead it might be an innocuous-looking box at the end of the block

You might be interested in this series of blog entries by a longtime .NET developer whose recent adventures in Cocoa have opened his eyes to just how, well, shitty the whole VS.NET approach to development really is. Here's an entry on "double-click and code syndrome". Here's another on how flexibility need not be sacrificed for ease of development; that's a fallacy perpetuated by Microsoft's habitually thoughtless design.

The APC Broadband Choice section gets its information of Whirlpool, http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/

You can see that almost every major centre in Australia has various ISP's trying to get your money, but to be honest its utter trash the idea that they will cut off telephone use, as thats typically Telstra domain not ISP domain. The author is just proving he doesn't know what he's talking about.

If you were in Australia, you could use http://www.whirlpool.net.au/.

A consumer advocacy group, with an extensive ISP plan database that lets you search on all the criteria you've mentioned. Anyone know if there is an equivalent in the US?

Aussies can use YouTube to protest against the lack of decent broadband. Very... slowly...

http://whirlpool.net.au/article.cfm/1715?show=repl ies

Hang on, Australian broadband sucks but it doesn't suck this hard. Most, and by that I mean about 98% of, Australian isps have a stated download limit before you are shaped. Plus if we don't like our isp we are free to change. That isn't how it works in the US, where you have one, maybe two ISPs you can choose. If you have a suck plan, and by the sounds of it you do, you should change. Internode is a great isp, I get an 8mbps plan with free premium usenet access and a 40gb limit for $90 a month. You don't have to believe me, check out whirlpools latest survey results, Internode comes out on top in every question.

Yeah, sorry, the market was ruined by the consumers, not the producers. If you don't demand competition, then don't be surprised when producers don't compete. Go ask an Indian how many monopoly products he bought last year. Shit, we don't even haggle in the western world anymore - it's considered rude. Where's the US version of whirlpool? Exactly how much effort have you put into finding the best price, on any product, in the last week? And don't go blaming the marketing and the slick advertising... you let it get this bad. Now you're crying to the government for regulation.

I have the choice of about 100 different DSL providers.. and I live in an outward suburb of the second smallest city in Australia.

Is it just me or is this not a good idea

I can't see what the author's talking about, but NSW is a state here in Australia, and they've (the state) recently announced that they will provide free wireless broadband in some areas. (See http://whirlpool.net.au/article.cfm/1693 )

The Subj URL gets me to a site that does the job better here in Oz,
at least for ICT stuff.

When shopping for broadband ([A]DSL, cable, {1 or 2 way} satellite
or wireless) service plans, http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/ is the place
to look. ISPs fill-in their plans' details & shoppers search.
Eg, go & check-out Chariot's wireless plans (20 or 40 GB / month!)
- too bad they got it shot down after [more expensive] competitors
complained to ACMA about "interference" (no new services available
now...)

One big service, for the world (eg, Froogle) sux, but following the
Whirlpool "Broadband Choice" (where vendors just fill-in their pro-
duct / service details & prices, and the site's custom db search
features connect would-be buyers to what they're after, at a price
they'd be happy to pay, that's cool & effective.

StaticIce is too simple, eg, doesn't give any hint of shipping costs;
now that electronics vendors in China put up eBay auction offering
"fraudulently" low prices & try to make-up the rest in "exorbitant"
shipping & "required insurance" fees, any site that leaves out the
shipping fees is setting shoppers up for time-consuming, wasted calls
(that hopefully leave an overcharing would-be vendor with "No Sale")

There ought to be a "blacklisting" site that lists vendors who play
such games (at least on eBay), and another Froogle-like site that
optionally BLOCKS access to blacklisted vendors when one is searching.

---

Disclosure: I recently "won" an nice Kenwood radio (on an eBay auction)
only to have the vendor unduly -ADD- more than the cost of the item
to the total demanded for the item.

Ie, the total should have been (item_price + shipping), an amount I would
have been quite happy to pay.

However, after vendor's action - which they justified by "the winning bid
was too low for us to make any profit"), the total became:

    (item_price + shipping + extra_amt_MORE_than_item_price)

Of course, I declined to pay more than the item's listing prepared me for;
vendor reported me (!!!) for non-payment, which eBay accepted on face value
(at first; ie, until advised of the fraudulent adding of extra cost)

Now, I may be harboring an unfavorable feeling about such vendors (in my
experience, only from China... that's the reason for my present bias... &
this disclosure)

Oh, the vendor has since changed their way of doing business on eBay,
but has never agreed to accept the correct price for the item,
in my case. Lots of time wasted... never again! ;-/

This is the fastest I've ever seen news hit the front page on slashdot

What?

He was killed approximately 11am localtime
First posted to www.whirlpool.net.au ItN forum at 1:52pm (Radio in FNQ is the orginal source)
Major Local news sites pick the story up from around 2:10pm onwards
Wikipedia picks the story up about 5 minutes later
Major Local news sites go down
Major Local news sites come back up
First posted to /. at 3:37pm /. is pretty slow considering

Try living in Australia:

http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/isp.cfm/Telstra-BigPond /1.html

8 or 17Mbit with a 200MB cap, then excess charges at 15c/MB - this is the one they market at Mums and Dads who have no idea - then wonder why they have thousands of dollars of excess charges! Telstra also charge uploads+downloads, not just downloads. Get infected with a trojan or unknowningly leave a P2P running, have to sell the house... (yes, there have been cases like this)

That cable is also very limited in area it covers, but most Australians can get ADSL, albeit limited to 1.5Mbit in most places, and relatively low download limits. Most ISPs are better value compared to Telstra, but Telstra uses its monopolistic power as most people still think they are the only game in town.