Slashdot Mirror
3G Internet Access Via PCMCIA Card
An anonymous reader writes "Found this on a European site. It's a PCMCIA card that connects you to the internet over a 3G network. With a download rate of 384kb/sec, it's close to broadband speed, and it works wherever there's network coverage. If you're tired of searching for a WiFi hotspot when you need one, this could be the answer."
There are a ton of these pcmcia wireless cards floating around. Now if they had a unlimited data plan that didnt break the bank that would be NEWS!
There are several reasons.
Japan is about the size of a postage stamp, so "upgrading" the network takes a long weekend.
The US is quite large, and "covering" the bulk of the US with a new technology is a vast and expensive undertaking.
Also, we live in a political society that loves to write useless legislation that does nothing but complicate small matters and slow down new and cool undertakings.
The simple truth of the matter is, no matter what sort of government construction you try, it's going to suck. Flopping to socialist democracy from liberatarian is merely exchanging one set of problems for another.
No, the simple truth of the matter is that the US electoral system is designed to shut out third parties by making it next to impossible for small parties to form coalitions and thus get any power. As a result you get two behemoths who take positions on issues, and people choose the least of two evils. That's not a very democratic way of running things. And you see this reflected by government policy often being contrary to what the american public actually wants.
You can't just wave the magic government wand and make things that aren't profitable suddenly be worth people's time. Russia and China both tried that and history shows that it doesn't work.
Russia and China were communist nations (china is gradually transitioning away from communism). There is a world of difference between communism (the abolishment of private property with the aim of maximizing quality of life by providing goods and services on an as-need basis) and social democracy (government funding and regulating of enterprises that are unprofitable and/or natural monopolies with the aim of providing a minimum quality of life by guaranteeing a minimum level of service). If you take something that is not naturally profitable for some segments of the population (like healthcare), and you leave it entirely to private enterprise, private enterprise will cut out service to the least profitable segments of society until it makes maximum profit. That's why so many americans don't have affordable healthcare. You need government involvement in some classes of enterprise to be able to provide that minimum quality of service and life.
As an aside, the reason communism failed was not government involvement, it was lack of personal incentive. When working hard gets you no more than working the absolute minimum, you lose all motivation to work hard. Productivity in Russia was abysmal. Social democracy does not have this lack of personal incentive, and as a result productivity per hour of labor in Europe is roughly equal to the US. The reason Europeans have lower net wages, is because they work fewer hours, have more free time, spend more time with the kids. It's a lifestyle choice, not some inherently bad design of government.
This lack of personal incentive can occur under capitalism too. Everyone knows at least one person who slaves away at a job that won't pay them more regardless of how well a job they do, and as a result spends most of their job hours procrastinating and generally being useless.