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Publicly Funded Broadband and 802.11
bflame writes: "The Canadian province of Alberta is building the infrastructure to provide highspeed internet service to 422 cities. The government of Alberta along with Cisco Networks, Microsoft and Axia will be installing highspeed fiber optic lines to link 422 cities. The contracts also required competition among ISPs to insure lower internet costs. Cisco provides a nice
write up in IQ magazine. Globe Technologies is
reporting that work has started on the Alberta Supernet. The government of Alberta has an article about the supernet along with this article." We've mentioned Alberta earlier - nice to see they're moving ahead with the project. And an anonymous reader sent in a link about the city of Tallahasee rolling out a public WLAN.
Aaah, now I know why they mentioned Microsoft. On the last link you'll find a nice
:-P
"We recommend Internet Explorer 5.0+"
I wonder how much they paid for that?
Ciryon
on behalf of all of us here, i'd like to welcome the thousands of hard drinkin' gun rack owners to the information superhighway! :P
mp3s by me
This seems like a good thing to me.
Greetings, for free software!
I'm really happy about this, although the only software company I know in Alberta is BioWare.
It's about time the Canadians teach Americans (and several other nationalities) how to really run government to support the people.
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. - G.B. Shaw
This is what I like to see, this is good stuff. This should happen more often, everywhere, but it doesn't. I think I like Canada more and more to be honest.
now you can check hockey scores onine, eh
A rather high figure isn't that?
Maybe 422 communities?
Perhaps the moose can now use XChat to talk to each other, eh? At blasing fast speeds, of course, eh? I'm certain the 14 people can use it to order Tim Horton's online, eh?
In the west there's Shaw Cable with speeds around 4000/350 or Telus DSL at 1500/256. In the east there's Bell Sympatico 1000/128, Rogers Cable 2000/128 and Videotron 3000/128. Plus there's also the various resellers that are basically rebranded from the bigger companies. The above all cost about $40-$50 CAN. Some companies are also introducing a "lite" product which offers 128/128 speeds for $25 CAN a month which is great for people that have little use for the internet but hate keeping the phone line busy. Even if you can't get DSL or Cable there is a satellite service which will allow you to download at better speeds than dialup.
This will bring more jobs and more broadband, hopefully the other provinces will follow.
To "ensure" lower internet costs, not "insure".
Now, who wants to volunteer to put up repeater stations so people outside of Alberta can leech off of the public infrastructure? :)
Alberta is to Canada as Arkansas is to the USA.
Will Cisco be throwing in their patented 'Wall of Oppression' firewall package?
omg... in a funny way, but i didn't expect to see something like that on /.
From a public policy perspective, I don't understand why there aren't more governments doing this. It is generally accepted that governments should provide and maintain a highway system; how is internet connectivity any different?
There are many things which governments get involved with (eg health care) which I think they should stay out of as much as possible; but when it comes to natural monopolies I certainly see that they have a role to play.
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
Ashland, Oregon already has a publicly owned fiber-optic network through out the town.
http://www.ashlandfiber.net/
This is serving as the basis for a community wireless network. Businesses and individuals will hook 802.11b nodes up to their connections to the public broadband network and open it up to guest access by anyone within range. The goal it to get enough people involved to cover the whole town with WiFi.
http://www.ashlandunwired.com/
That's not to say that *every* unprofitable service should be provided but the internet is becoming increasingly important to modern society. The first communities to get these ubiquitous connections will start to be seen as high-tech communities. The rest will fall behind. They'll get it eventually, but by then it won't be any more special than the telephone. It'll snowball. As more tech-savvy (and high income) people move into the area, they'll increase demand for more tech-services.
Well, that's what I think anyway. OK, I'm dreaming. This is making Australia (where I am) look even more backwards. This will be really interesting to follow.
Not to spoil the party of those people looking for free broadband... but this strikes me as very silly for two reasons:
1) There are only 3 non-overlapping channels in 802.11b. Are all of the transmitter sites going to occupy just one of those, or will they use all of them to overlap and maximize coverage? How will this interact with private WLANs?
2) 802.11b is a stepping stone to future wireless LAN/WAN/etc technologies and a primitive one at that. Building a whole infrastructure around it is crazy. (see also: the reason North America is still on CDMA/TDMA)
I've seen a large number of projects crop up locally trying to connect all kinds of things with 802.11b... government facilities, hospitals, etc. Even my company is using it now to link our buildings. It's going to be very crowded with only 3 channels and no one to coordinate the whole mess.
I wonder what American corporations will be without American citizens? Oh what was I thinking, there getting rid of their American workers every day.
I already live in Detroit, so you just let Windsor get a city internet. I will move my arse right across that border.
Well when the city has people to support and bills to pay, its nice to see them make the $$$. In the end it saves you tax dollars. As opposed to some FAT head buying a Bahamian beach with the billions he has profitted.
The real shocker in this article is not that the Canadian government is doing something so tech-savvy in provisding ISP services...
... but that the province of Alberta actually has 422 cities!
(In fact, according to this google cached page, there are only 9 cities over 25,000 population!)
Color me amazed!
-RT
SlashSigTheorem: Humorous, Political, Critical, Constructive- If you have a
And sure, 802.11b is just a stepping stone to more effective technologies, but it's cheap and is a start. If we all waited about util the new super duper extra fast and secure systems arrived, nothing would ever get done.
As to who's going to co-ordinate it, well, you join up or fade into the background noise.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
And to say that the Canadian government could have used that money to make extra episodes of the X-files.
<Sig>The good thing about having a good memory is ... euh
The use of 802.11b isn't actually specified on any of the referenced sites, so no one needs to worry too much about the 3-channel problem.
I live in Edmonton, and I've only ever heard it described as a huge all-inclusive fibre optic network to every Alberta community. Perhaps they'll use wireless in the [two] dense cities. I look forward to some more specific details from Axia, the company contracted to lay down the infrastructure.
I'm moving out of the province in the summer, after being here for six years. Ow, the irony.
I find it hard to see what kind of useful contribution Microsoft can make to this venture. Most of the large-scale networking infrastructure doesn't run on Microsoft platforms and doesn't use Microsoft software. Granted, Microsoft runs some large web sites, but that doesn't really seem a useful qualification. Any ideas?
Speaking as an Albertan
Yes, this is a cool tech project, yadda yadda.
However, the alberta government is doing this at the same time as they are introducing budget cuts to other little things like hospitals... The public school teachers are on strike (and the government claims there isn't any more money to pay them)... if we killed this project, I wonder if all the money that is going into this could do some real good, in more essential areas
(I mean, it's not exactly hard to get high speed internet in most of the province already!)
The governments are busy trying to relinquish all their responsibilities. They want to raise taxes and not have to actually do anything in return.
They are all desperately trying to get out of managing roads, rail, telecoms, education, energy, health, law and order. The only thing which they seem to want is defense. I suppose that's because the toys are bigger, more expensive and make loud noises.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
"... you can expect them to be thinking of ways to "sell the internet", not bring publicly funded connections to the people."
Explains why they choose Micro$oft, huh?
Seriously though, the Internet is the future. Any government that doesn't go out of its way to ensure that its citizens have fast, secure, private, and low-cost connectivity only does it's citizens a disservice.
"The only thing which they seem to want is defense."
Of course they will always invest heavily in defense in order to protect and maintain their power.
But you're right. These days, governments seem less interested in ensuring that all their citizens get what they need to ensure a good standard of living than they are about pursuing power. How is the Internet any different in importance compared to roads, education, health, etc., but they stumble here. Who is in a much better position to provide such a nation-wide service at a low cost than the government? Instead, they choose to leave the job to corporations - entities who have money, and not the welfare of the public, as their main concern. Don't get me wrong: I really don't mind corporations offering services too - hey, the more choice, the better. However, for something this crucial, it is pertinent that there is also a good public offering by the government that is available to all.
We call it CommunityNet here in Saskatchewan, and the project is over a year old. It's mandated by the Federal Government, Supernet just happens to be the name for the 'Alberta' part of the project. The mention of Microsoft or any other software provider is meaningless. Each hospital, school, government site runs whatever software they want, and here, serveral of them are running Linux, Mac or Solaris. Some of the schools also have the Sun One? connected to the network.
It's a nice project, and a huge cash cow for the big ISPs and hardware providers, but there is still room for the little guy to get a peice of the action
.
-- I care not for your foolish signatures.
Let the industrialists build broadband, Keep governments out of it. Letting governments rob you of your money and then Letting them spend this money (your money. My Money!) to build information pipes to you sounds frightening. When the time comes, this is just going to give them an additional "reason" as to why they should be able to control what goes through those pipes. Can't you just hear it comming: "The voting taxpayers has paid to build this information superhighway so therefore the community should have some say as to the things that are allowed to be sent over this highway. We cannot ask our upstanding religious citizens, like your grandmother, to pay for communication of material which they find objectionable - such as pornography and subversive political viewpoints."
and take credit when it's completed. Standard marketing practice.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
last time i drove through New Jersey the NJPD had unencrypted 802.11b nodes all over the place - isn't that a publicly-funded accessable-by-anyone wireless network?
You want free government supplied access but you don't want big brother looking over your shoulder. I'm sure the Canadian government (whose socialist system is SO MUCH more free than America) will benevolently set up a system and then leave it unmonitored. It seems that you either have no government involvement or total government involvement.
because the Vancouver job market is dead as a doornail. Can anyone in AB testify to more jobs being there, I'll move back no problem....or is it more gov't work?
Good to see someone taking the initiative because the 'all talk no action' federal government isn't despite all the promises. I remember the promises of $4 billion to wire rural communities and bring internet access to every Canadian household.
Canada is really good at showing up countries much higher up the GNP chain. Take a look at the G7.
First off we have the USA and Japan, broadband coverage isn't too bad in these countries, although rural coverage is somewhat patchy. Canada is one-uping both of these countries.
Germany is third. As of the start of 2002, Germany had 1.8 million DSL subscribers. For a country with a net population of something around 10 million, this is pretty good.
Next is the United Kingdom, my home country, which puts up the most pitiful broadband attempt of any of the top 20 countries by GNP. There are places 15 miles from LONDON that can't even get DSL yet. British Telecom has pretty much said that any telco exchanges not being converted to provide DSL by 2005 probably won't be done forever.. the demand is too low.
Unlike the Canadian government, the British government is keen for everyone to have broadband, but doesn't actually want to help. They believe that private enterprise will get there, and don't want to risk getting their hands dirty (a la Millennium Dome)
So, well done Canada. I think Canada will leapfrog us all, and with e-government and a 90%> wireup rate throughout the country, it could actually jump up the GNP tables and become a serious industrial contender this century. Heck, the tiny Netherlands did it in the 1700s.
mogorific carpentry experiments
You have to hand it to Intrigna. They beat out Alberta's own telco (Telus) to get this contract, which to me is quite a feat. Intrigna jointly owned by BCE and Manitoba Telecom Services. MTS (majority holder) currently has a bunch of communities (from large to extremely small) in it's own province wired for dsl, part of its own 300 million dollar initiative to wire the province for highspeed internet.
:)
Wondering how much we pay for dsl? Try 19.95 for the first 6 months (~1.2Mbps down, 256kbps up) then the price is 39.95 each month after that. Free install and startup kit included, of course. How about them apples.
The use of the word "cities" is a little strong in the article... I'd imagine some of the communities have less than 100 people.
It's been said in earlier post that this is a good move. I agree wholeheartedly... this has so many more benefits than just 'getting everyone online'.
What many people fail to see is that by doing this, you'll draw young people into the world of computer science and other badly-needed fields, like engineering, physics and chemistry. Giving young kids the access to the vast resources that the Internet has to offer is going to encourage them to use the technology and become skilled with it, and that's the first step to a 21st-century workforce. Schools are laden with psyc, business and communications majors, none of whom are helping the estimated half-million job vacancies in high-tech job positions in the US alone. But get kids motivated and interested in technology, and even if a small percentage of them becomes so enamoured of it that they choose it as a career, Alberta is developing a very, very educated and desired workforce. This brings jobs and investment to the province.
I honestly cannot see why the US doesn't do this more. Kids' education here, let's face it, is suspect, and those that do graduate won't touch engineering and science (hence the glut of comms and psyc majors searching low-paying jobs in the market right now). But light the spark of interest in technology by granting them access to these resources, and reap the rewards many hundred fold in the future.
Karma: Excellent Birds (mostly as a result of listening to Laurie Anderson)
Why is it not suprising that Canada is doing something like this? They are about two hops short of Communist Cuba as far as governmental control of facilities goes, albeit the US is close on their heels in the electric arena.
I'm just interested in why anyone would want the government to handle those sort of domestic industries.
Now if only the government would give us some decent restaurants, we'd be all set! (not that I dislike Momo's, Gordo's, and the like, but it would be nice to actually have the option of a nice dinner with my girlfriend occassionally.
That and finish the campuswide wireless. Can't stray to far from my office yet. =)
Daniel
For those of us who came in late, is there a definitive directory online anywhere of existing public wireless networks? Or semi-accessible private ones, for that matter? I'm new to this whole 802.11 thing.
"Luck is the residue of design" --Branch Rickey
Interesting government tactic. Find a service out of your control that people like, then agree to provide the service to the taxpayers for 'free'. Everybody knows who's paying for the service, yet the government will still claim it's free, and thereby extend their influence and power.
What's particularly interesting is that governments typically have not taken control of means of communications where private industry has been successful. Sure, there's the Postal service, but AFAIK, that wasn't a government take over, it was a government-inspired service (at least the Pony Express part). Somebody correct me if I'm wrong here.
Governments could have provided free newspaper, telegraph, radio, telephone, and television services, but they typically haven't done this to the exclusion of private enterprise. They tend to stick to things like sewers, water, roads - things that can really only be accomplished by local governments.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
your ideas intrigue me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter
your ideas intrigue me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter your ideas intrigue me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter
BT has had it's day - if you can, get Tele2 or Blueyonder installed - GIVE BT NOTHING, THEY HAVE FAILED US TOO LONG
That was classic intercourse!
Ummm, because it works and it works well. The rotting corpses of most American cities and the massive population of its jails are tributes to the American distaste for anything "social".
Canada is really good at showing up countries much higher up the GNP chain.
Yea, it's really amazing that they have no qualms about institutionalized theft (a redistributionist tax system).
Although hardly original, Canada excels at confiscating the personal property of its citizens and repurposing it. Too lazy to work? No problem! We'll give hoser free health care. Don't feel like paying cost for broadband? We'll give it to you for half (though it really costs us four times as much as the private sector - but hey, it's not our money! Hahaha)
Really, this is a wonderful model. Steal from the productive, establish a government monopoly, and empower the liberal-voting lazy populace. Its worked for decades in the United States black population - why not use it on Canadian whites?
What public sectors are next? Autos? Grocery? How about ag? Put those farmers on a state-owned commune! Soon we'll have one great communist state of beer guzzling high-speed p0rn surfing losers on the government pay.
sorry, but broadband coverage sucks in the usa. rural coverage isn't "somewhat patchy" it's nonexistant. my choice of occupation basically requires me to live in a city right now, and i am anxiously waiting for broadband coverage in the rural USA to become "somewhat patchy" so that i'll have a few options for places to buy a house. at the rate things are going, though, i'll just have to bite the bullet and get a T1.
khac a,mnd,kkksa aska,knc,acn,a FUCK! FUCK! CUNT!
Hmm, as a resident of Calgary Alberta, I don't think that there are 422 cities here. Even the largest city, Calgary, has less than a million citizens and won't be classified as a city in most other countries - just a large town...
So, at least 400 of those 422 'cities' must have about 10 residents, if that many!
The US had a monopoly Internet for a few years - NSFNET - which wasn't widely used by many other than academic and research folks, and really had done very poorly extending beyond subsidized locations. Yes, many of us /.ers cut our teeth there and have wonderful memories of the fun we had (at significant taxpayer expense), but we can't forget that while NSFNET advanced the protocols and connected the schools, the real revolution came when real, normal people got connected (I know, this is soooo anti-elitist!)
In 1992, I worked with a rural community of about 8,000 that wanted to launch a freenet. The local NSF regional gave us a quote of $65,000 up front plus $2,500 a month for Internet service - using a 56 Kbps leased line! (They had 35 PhDs on staff and naturally had high costs - that was their justification).
Thanks to the pioneering efforts of UUNET, CERFNET, PSI (now defunct, alas), Sprint, NEARNET/SURANET, and the folks at the Commercial Internet Exchange, the NSF monopoly (which was planned to go into a Bell-like regional with ANS and the RBOCs running the show) was broken apart. Multilateral and later, bilateral peering, became the norm. Exchange points grew (like MAE-E, MAE-W) and the commercial market blew open.
This commercialization is what also brought hundreds of millions of regular people (read "not employed by the government") onto the Internet. Not 23 years of NSFNET, but 3 years of commercial Internet.
While you'd think folks would have discovered the government model doesn't work, we still have numerous states, municipalities and even national governments trying the old way. Iowa, for instance, built a boondoggle fiber network that costs $75,000 to get a connection. Sure, you get fiber, but the Internet connectivity squeezes down to a connection no faster than an ISDN pipe at the egress to the Internet. Although the taxpayers paid for it, many of the fiber customers are leaving for - you guessed - competitive commercial service. We've got the same issues with municipalities providing broadband and having to raise electric, sewer and gas rates to cover their inefficiencies.
I really hate beating a very dead horse, but for some reason some folks like the previous poster continue to believe misnomers. The Internet isn't like a highway system and it doesn't benefit from government administration.
What it does benefit from is being offered and operated by people that focus on this and only this expertise - not people that also issue your license plates, run the welfare agencies, operate electric power, clean your sewer, etc. Being a competent ISP is not a part-time operation.
It also benefits from competition, since this is usually about the only motivator for most folks.
*scoove*
/me feeds the troll:
:^D
Whoa there, Mr. Rebublican. Two hops short of Cuba? Don't think so. We are as democratic as they come (well, almost).
This is a Canadian thing, you see. Our country is so big with so little population thay we are forced to be communictaions intensive. Yup, lots of our infrestructure is government mandated, but it needs to be - otherwise, it just wouldn't get done. Private Industry wouldn't do it, and well they shouldn't, since there's not much profit to be made. However, we as a country essentially need top shelf communications like this in order to remain a country, since we wouldn't speak to each other much otherwise. It may sound weird to USAians, but it's good for us - like universal public health care. I for one look forward to conversing with my Albertan comapatriots over High Speed bit-pipes - it brings us closer.
So, at the risk of being a jingoist,
Take off, eh?
Soko
PS - Maybe you're just miffed at the Hockey Gold we won.
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
lol, I didn't watch the Olympics... mainly b/c I hate listening to people moan because they didn't win. I can understand your plight of long distance communications, however isn't it possible for you and your buddies to create a means of communicating. For instance, you and a group of folks get together and instead of begging the government to do it for you, have fund raisers and what not(I'm not talking about starting a commercial venture) and get your own network started. It has been done before, why not now-days? Where I'm from, my family set up their own electricity in the boon-docks using diesel generators. It was a nieghborhood thing, not a government thing. Then, they had all of their rights yanked out from under them and they can't do that sort of thing now... they _have_ to buy power from the power company... governmentally sanctioned monopolies run by private corporations. See, I'm pissed at both sides!
Microsoft is investing in partner companies.
What was good for Enron must be good for Microsoft.
And this differs from the US how?
Although hardly original, Canada excels at confiscating the personal property of its citizens and repurposing it. Too lazy to work? No problem! We'll give hoser free health care. Don't feel like paying cost for broadband? We'll give it to you for half (though it really costs us four times as much as the private sector - but hey, it's not our money! Hahaha)
Once again, how does this differ from the US? Ever hear of Medicaid? The Medicaid system is far larger and more expensive than Canada's health care system, and it is being expanded.
You've demonstrated an amazing ignorance of what a nanny-state the US truly is. At least the Canucks are getting something out of it. In the US you pay comparable taxes, which are immediately sent to Israel. Enjoy!!
This is Alberta (pop approx 2.5 million), not Canada. No other province can afford it.
n d/foreword.a sp
I believe Singapore is far ahead of any of the nations you mentioned.
http://www.sgbroadband.com.sg/broadba
Yea, Chicago has come up with these grandious plans for their MAN. It's still YEARS away from being operational, last I heard. There's talk about an 802.11 net in it.
In the meantime, what's going on with community wireless in Chicago? NADA! Everyone is waiting for the government handout. Government handouts mean government control.
Government promises of free (beer) Internet will deter free (speech) networks from forming.
(kostenlos = free (beer), freiheit = free (speech). I like german)
Now, as I am not involved with Chicago politics much, if someone wants to correct me on the Chicago facts, I'd be happy to hear it.
rural coverage isn't "somewhat patchy" it's nonexistant.
Not true at all. Between fixed-wireless (and NLOS developments coming to market now - finally!), DSL, satellite service, cable modems and potential power-line technology, there's a solution.
If you're not serviced yet, you're dealing with a problem of "too small to be of interest yet" - something that'll be solved as the bigger markets get built out.
After all, if you had to choose between two otherwise identical jobs - one paying $80K/year and one paying $12K/year, we know which one you'd pick. Service providers are no different - and since it usually takes us a year or more to recover our capital investment, we must focus on the bigger markets first (or else go out of business).
Regarding your biting the bullet and getting a T1, I'd suggest you check first. We've come into towns that have had multi-billion dollar corporations with food processing plants that have been trying to get a single T1 for 2-3 years (to no avail). No amount of lobbying can get the incumbant to upgrade and provide service.
Find a competent fixed wireless company and offer them a hilltop or a water tower and see how your luck changes.
*scoove*
to link 422 cities
Let me see, 3 million people, 422 cities, that is what? 7109 people per city. Well, it is a foreign culture, we do have different words for things up here. You say City, we say Town. Same difference.
Maybe bflame could come visit us some time, broaden his horizons a bit.
Seriously, though, I think you have to go Mainland China to find a province with more then 400 cities.
Because how do you fund-raise to purchase several thousand kilometres of fiber-optic cable in a population base smaller than New York City? The percentage of people who contribute to fund-raising efforts, even for such "real" causes as a children's hospital is ludicrously small. You're doing well if you get 5% of the population to contribute.
Setting up your own generator is one thing. Running a fiber-optic cable through 800 km of field and bush is something else entirely.
That Jesus Christ guy is getting some terrible lag... it took him 3 days to respawn! -NJ CoolBreeze
The county is setting up a wireless 802.11b network that can be reached from almost anywhere in the count
Free cell phone tracking
First we beat the USA at Hockey.. And now 802.11b! Way to go eh!
I'm all for highspeed internet access, especially being a resident of Alberta, but...
One thing not mentioned, that is typical of the Alberta government with their 'bold' and 'innovative' money making ideas, is the fact that these cables have to be laid in the ground. I haven't dug out my topographical maps but it looks to me like a lot of these internet access areas intersect or encompass native land claims/reserves. I'm sure that the government will whip up public support for the project in the media before any native protests are heard so they'll be easily quashed and ignored.
"Who cares about them damnass backward injuns, eh, I need my high-speed in-ter-net"
// RANT
OH NO!!! I might not have all the government services I need!! Who will wipe my ass for me when I crap my pants and the prospect of having to support myself.
Who will tell me what to do? Who will shut up all those people who don't think the way I do?
What a load of crap! If I hear the phrase "tax cuts for his rich corporate friends" one more time I'm going to hurl! It makes about as much sense as "capitalist running dog" did 20 years ago. Sure the tax cuts gave more in absolute dollar terms to people with more money, but that's because they PAID MORE in the first place. For crying out loud people! Get a clue!
For the record, I am have been unemployed for over a year and I'm tired of this lousy economy brought on the the NDP. I am currently in two classes at SFU because the damn tuition freeze made it impossible to get into any classes.
So quit your whining about having to work for a living. Suck it up and deal with it. Big brother aint gonna hold your hand no more.
// END RANT!
. --- If you're looking for free e-mail you won't find it here! http://www.noemailhere.com
Perhaps you missed the word 'net' in there. I didn't mean it in a gross and net kinda way, I meant it as in the Internet population.
mogorific carpentry experiments
That might be, but I have personal reports that the government is funding similar efforts in other states.
For example, I know people in the *Yukon* who have broadband. You're talking an area at least a thousand miles away from any place that would be called a 'city' in European terms!
I am not quite so familiar with other provinces, but I hear that Ontario and Quebec also have broadband pretty far out into the sticks.
mogorific carpentry experiments
Singapore is probably far ahead of everyone else chiefly because the government there needs an efficient network so it can spy on it citizens anywhere and everywhere and make sure that each and every one of them flushes the public toilets properly. The funny thing is that their fearless leader is still scared shitless about terrorism.
Whoa there, Mr. Rebublican. Two hops short of Cuba? Don't think so. We are as democratic as they come
(well, almost).
Tell me something. How many people leave Canada every year compared to Cuba?
You're pretty screwy.
Then one day my roomate complained his wireless connection wasn't working. Turned out Shaw had decided to start charging for the additional IPs, so they turned them all off but one.
They said - get a firewall. I said, naw, my Linux box can do this for free. So I setup my Linux box, and turned on DHCP, ran IP MASQ and also decided to run ez-ipupdate so I can host my own domain based website (actually three).
I'm still using less than most high speed users (my roomate on the wireless connection uses the most being a Morpheus addict). The Shaw guys are cool - they seem impressed and don't chew you out for running Linux (unlike those in the States, like Adelphia). Although I'm pretty sure they've flagged my account, because my IP used to change every 6 months or so, and now it's changing every two weeks.
Gotta like the cheap broadband. I'd give up cable TV before giving up broadband Internet...
:-)
The cost of printing a million books is vastly smaller than 1M times the cost of printing one custom book. Should Random House have a monopoly?
sulli
RTFJ.
dude, for dinner in Tallahassee, you gotta look hard, btu it's there... here's some names:
Casual dining (lunch, dinner)
catfish pad
Shell Oyster Bar
Leaning Tower
Little Italy
Tia's Tex Mex
Nice Dining (Dinner)
Nicholson's Farmhouse (it's out of town off '27, but DAMN is it good!)
Marie Livingston's
Bon Thai (I think that's how it's spelled)
Samrat (Indian food)
The Wharf (nice seafood here)
that's a decent list of good eateries in and around Tallahassee... if ya need locations or anything, lemme know and I'll try and remember where they all are
The Alberta Supernet is nothing but corporate
welfare worth $193 million to Microsoft, Cisco
and the other in the consortium.
Will they use free software? Of course not,
despite (ostensibly) being a ``public''
endeavor.
The stated goal is to provide broadband to
schools, libraries and hospitals (all public)
in the province. For $193 million, what do
Albertans get (ignoring, please, whether you
think schools, hospitals and/or libraries should
be publically funded)?
Practically nothing; the government will not own
the infrastructure resulting and the schools,
libraries and hospitals will have to pay for their
access anyway! Plus, Alberta recently privatized
the formerly-government-run telephone system
(AGT, now Telus), the bandwidth from which could
almost certainly have helped connect nearly
all of the schools, libraries and hospitals in
the province.
See more:
http://mike-warren.com/articles/supernet.html
Mike Warren
I said that you can't *expect* them to be viable not that it's *impossible* for them to be viable. I said that if they're *not* profitable, but are important, then the government should step in. The computer market in general *is* profitable, so... what are you talking about? How is it relevent to what I was saying? My point was that until technologies like broadband are profitable, they should be helped along. The computer industry is already profitable and so needs no help. You're just using my post as a way to bring up the whole Microsoft-Linux thing in a seemingly on-topic way. That's low dude.
It's not and probably never will be publicly supported if I know both the City of Bradenton politics and ClearAccess. But, having the infrastructure already in place paves the way for other local governments to go with publicly owned networks. The City of Thomasville is a prime example of a publicly owned network (www.rose.net). E-mail me if you want that story.
Here's hoping it never snows in Tallahassee. That brings up a question, I am sure that it snows pretty regularly in Canada. Doesn't atmospheric interference (ie. snow, rain, fog) wreak havoc on the propagation of the wireless signal?
Patche says, "You will attract more flies with honey than vinegar... but who wants flies?
As strange as this may sound, Whitehorse Yukon is far more likely to have hi-tech telecomm than even urban areas of Ontario and Quebec; it's the nature of the beast.
They've been getting their TV from home sattelites for 30 years; phone networks are not based on landlines, etc. If a rural resident (which in the Yukon means "doesn't live in Whitehorse") has a telephone and a computer, it's almost certainly a sat-based TV/broadband service they're hooked up to.
Satellite phones are nearly as common in the Yukon as regular cellphones are in many urban areas (recent trouble by Qualcomm, etc hasn't affected Canadian customers, just like Iridium continued for a year in Canada after US customers where cut off).
For those in Whitehorse (a town composed of college-educated administrators and young, single men, typically transplants from somewhere else in Canada and there for the work; the Yukon has Canada's highest average income) they get broadband from the same Teleco and Cable firms that operate in BC and Alberta.
In other words, this is the land of early communications adopters.
Right. And the value of our dollar is approaching that of the Mexican peso. Whoop-dee-doo.