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Google to Offer Free Wi-Fi?
meaning writes "Business 2.0 reports on the possibility of Google building a national broadband network and giving Wi-Fi access to everyone in America. From the article: 'So once the GoogleNet is built, how would consumers connect for free access? One of the cheapest ways would be for Google to blanket major cities with Wi-Fi, and evidence gathered by Business 2.0 suggests that the company may be trying to do just that. In April it launched a Google-sponsored Wi-Fi hotspot in San Francisco's Union Square shopping district, built by a local startup called Feeva. Feeva is reportedly readying more free hotspots in California, Florida, New York, and Washington, and it's possible that Google may be involved.'"
Free Wi-Fi? Sure. Why Not? They've been ladling out the free Kool-Aid here for months, and that's worked out well for them. Tastes great too, doesn't it?
DOESN'T IT?!?
*sigh*
OK, Citizen-Praetorian DiBona, you win. Resistance is futile, I see that now. Tell me where I report for re-programming.
This has got to be satire.
I use Gentoo; how does this affect me?
...then I don't know what will.
I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!
these are the real times we will all need a tinfoil hat. Who knows how Google will broadcast ads using a nationwide network of Wi-Fi
do.what.promptcmds
Google to colonize Mars!
Google to build moon base!
Google to cure cancer!!!! OMG!!!
I'll believe it when I see it.
They don't want municipal free wireless, so they sure aren't going to like Google doing it. Maybe they'll try to start an antitrust action against them, saying they are getting monopoly profits from search. Wouldn't it be ironic if Google is declared a monopoly and this is stopped and Microsoft is only given a slap on the wrist!
1. offer free wifi 2. offer free search 3. ?? 4. Profit Now, souls might be swomething worth selling.
if sign.nil? Sig.new
I wonder if it will be 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0?
Hah.
I always thought this would happen. Man, now the only thing missing is Googzilla.
I, for one, welcome our new Search Engine overlords.
Dance Dance Revolution.
Next Google will take over horse farming. And give us all ponies!
Seriously people.
We are worthless cretins at the feet of Google Almighty! There is nothing they cant do... even if they can't, slashdot will post about it anyway!
Prepare to toil in our underground sugar caves! Remarkably clean, usable, state-of-the-art sugar caves, but toil you shall!
I for one, welcome our new internet overlords. May God be with you Google as you enslave the human race.
What do I have to do to get a sig around here?! www.bearscanfly.org
Based on how much difficulty people have had trying to blanket even smallish cities, I have no idea how Google could possibly cover a country the size of America with WiFi. How many thousands of hotspots would it take?
What they should do is bring back Ricochet...
If this did happen, it of course wouldn't reach the more rural areas. Stuff like this always has us missing out. :( Looks like I'll be moving into a city when I'm older if I don't want to miss out on nifty technology...
Lately there have been so many newly announced (and shortly there-after: denounced) rumours concerning Google, I'm proposing that Slashdot create a new category just for Google related rumours.
Seriously... are there people out there that have nothing better to do than speculate as to what new thing will come out of google's labs next?
And people say that I need to get a life...
/dev/random
Step 1. Blanket the entire nation with free internet access, costing the company millions.
Step 2. ?????
Step 3. Profit!
The first and most obvious question is how Google would manage to support a huge wireless network without charging for service. Perhaps they'd sell ad space and coffee near the hubs?
The second question I had was how much damage such a network would do to existing local internet companies. If Google moves in and essentially gives their product away, how can the current ISPs cope?
As a user, I'd be glad to have reliable, free wireless service available. A country where the service was ubiquitous, much like the electrical system and water system, would be a dream (probably the network administrator's worst nightmare, though).
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
I hope this happens. Google rocks.
Once they get big enough, I hope they will overthrow the governments of the world.
When they do, they will make it simple, basic, and easy to use. In addition they will offer free healthy lunches daily, plenty of fun activities, free healthcare and dental onsite, free gym access, a free gmail account, and the best ever... a Microsoft-free world. Whoops, I spilled the news about their secret G-OS
Sweet now just load a sniffer on which ever router im connected to and start capturing all login information!
Seriously. What the fuck are you thinking when you deploy a wifi network with it's security risks. It's going to be abused then there would be articles posting of "Hackers use sniffers to steal personnel information on public networks." I suggest go back to the drawing board.
First it was VoIP, then it was IM, now it's Wi-Fi? Why does the news media keep reporting these *completely* unsubstantiated rumors about Google as if they were actually news? Why not wait until Google actually announces what it is going to do? It's not as if there won't be an interminable beta period between announcement and public release anyway. This rampant Google speculation that has gripped the tech media has moved past the "annoying" phase to the "just plain stupid" phase.
main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
And it doesn't sound like the author hasn't any further proofs or even rumors.
What if Google wanted to install cameras all over the world and call itself Big Google henceforth? What if Google launched a Mars mission and secured themself exclusive rights for the whole planet? What if they bought Blizzard and released the MMORPG World of Google where virtual elves can search a virtual Azeroth-Net for magic potions?
What if Google didn't anything that would cost more than their market capitalisation, instead concentrated on remaining a search engine with new searches for kitchensinks and lost pets and perhaps a cooperation agreement with some other companies (Apple, publishers for their library project, etc) along the way? Or is that last one too far-fetched?
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
For those wondering how offering Free WiFi could possibly make sense from a business perspective:
From TFA: Google could stand to save millions of dollars by having an end to end network of its own instead of carrying its traffic over major ISPs (TFA states that Google is also buying up dark fiber).
Now, there are also some interesting ways Google might earn revenue from this system:
1) Imagine having to view a short ad before full access is granted
2) Imagine a special browser or access program you would need to download before use. The program could show ad words content or other ads
3) Of course, there's always "Get 24 hrs DOUBLE THE SPEED for only $9.99!"
Anybody have any other ideas for how Google could generate revenue from this?
It seems likely that you can only use Google, and Gmail, and you will constantly be monitored and sent targeted ads.
I like Google. Excellent search engine, great news aggregator, webmail done right. But I'm getting more than a little uncofortable about the reach of the company. I have been cutting them a good deal of slack, but I'm gradually coming around on that. They have enough data on me and my habits that they probably can map my relationships better than I can myself. They can know my interests, my taste, my foibles, probably what I'm working on, and the only thing standing between potential knowledge and actual mining of it is a non-binding, pretty vacuous "Don't be evil" statement.
And while free Wifi is great and all, that risks becoming another chokepoint - who will be able to compete in practice if the lazy, easy way is to connect to Google Wifi to access your Gmail account and get the latest news in the Google aggregator or perhaps do some comparison shopping with Google. And finding the store is easy - just click the Google maps link and you'll see exactly where it's at.
If the company ever does decide to be evil, they have a huge amount of subtle control over their users at their disposal.
Oligopolies or monopolies are bad, no matter who is holding it.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
This is truly starting to worry me a bit here. Google seems to be giving away quite a bit of good stuff for free. Nothing is free so they must want something back in return. Are we potentially just selling our souls to the devil in disguise?
so, a delusional blogger made an entry about a nonexistant relation about a slide, and his own fantasies and this shit is published, for god sake, looking the bio confirms that he is a moron.
>Google to colonize Mars!
>Google to build moon base!
>Google to cure cancer!!!! OMG!!!
>I'll believe it when I see it.
Actually, one seems to be "true":
http://www.google.com/jobs/lunar_job.html
This is what I've been waiting for: private companies providing free access instead of tax payers paying for it.
Capitalism does work!
-Nick
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
By supporting a variety of products and exploring countless different potential businesses, Google keeps its core nebulous. Anything is a potential target for Google to diversify into. This gets them a lot of free coverage for products they may or may not even be associated with, but the "Gee-Whiz" factor is still there.
Whether or not its an actual strategy per se, or pleasant happenstance, I don't know, but it's done damn well in either case.
--mOperandi
Special Thanks To
The Bryant Park Wireless Network is proudly sponsored by Google.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Google is to 'Rumours' as Microsoft is to 'F.U.D'
Given enough time, resources, money and good old Greed and Google will become just as evil as WalMart, Microsoft and Apple.
Eventually google will offer so many 'free' things, that it will eventually suffer from a 'God Complex' and demand payment for service, or we will take away what we created!
- No Sig for you!
OMGWTF! Google sponsored one wi-fi hotspot in a tech-heavy city! This must mean they plan to roll out free wifi all over the country!!!!
I am failing tos ee the logic.
Google's http://www.dontbeevil.com/2004_05_09_arch.htmldon' t be evil culture is something we hear less and less about. While I'd like it to be true their privacy policies leave a lot of openings for them. This is the next logical step for them -- they're already tracking a lot about you so why not take the last step and literally track everything everyone is doing with free Wi-Fi.
I use Google but the more I read about these types of plans I wonder if it is time to start thinking about an alternative.
Paul Barth
It's socialism, actually, and yes it does work as long as someone with deep pockets pays for it. Google gives nothing away for free, between the ads they cram down your throat and the consumer information they collect, the money never stops streaming in.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,39020369,392132 95,00.htm
For those of you that were hoping to read more than some author's wild speculation here's real google news... They've suspended scanning books due to copyright issues. It sounds like they're giving everyone a chance to respond that has a copyright on whether or not they get their books included.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
The negativity on this board is a little depressing. I, for one, am tired of getting gouged by; baby bells, cable companies, cell phone companies, etc., etc. The hope that Google, of all companies, will come in and save us from the ongoing rape of consumers of communications, is something that makes me hopeful. I know without a doubt that all these services can be provided by one vendor instead of three, using one communications technology instead of four or more.
Europe, Japan, and other countries have better services for less money. If Google can shake up the status quo in the United States of Greed, I'm right there with them. Hooray for Google.
Best regards.
Google to offer free sandwhiches...
Some pudgy guy was quoted as saying, "If google is doing it, I will eat it and I'm sure they will destroy the competition."
Subway was unavailable for comment, but an anonymous source said they were on the verge of releasing a competing search engine to combat this new competitor in their own arena.
The pudgy guy was no longer available for comment as he was stuffing his face with google sandwhiches.
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
[Stunned look] ... Google?
Your worried about
What OS are you using to type this?!?
I hope it is Linux or your hypocracy is unbelievable!
Thank goodness we have you to warn us. Now please
shut off your MS based PC and go relax with an XBOX game.
Oh, but don't forget to record ATHF with your MS DVR system.
Your saftey from the oppressive Google will be ensured by the benevolent Bill!
Yes, there are.
Sergey - Skynet is fully functional.
Larry - Time to take full control over the unwashed masses.
I always find myself thinking that there's a little 1-pt font trailer on that message that says "until we decide otherwise"
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Now if only google offered free porn.. then I wouldn't have to ever leave the computer
They already offer free porn. Enjoy.
(PS: Turn off Safesearch or you won't get anything decent.)
I read this, but somewhere I read that Google will be the biggest company in the entire history by the year 2007 ( might be 2010+, cant remember )
Anyone know where I heard this?
Let's look at this through what I like to call the Google Lens: nothing that Google does is mysterious, unexplainable, or even particularly charitable. They are a business, and they are interested in only two things in the pursuit of profit: (1) organizing and searching large quantities of information and (2) advertising. Nothing else.
So where would this fit in? I'm not saying it wouldn't, or that they aren't planning something like this...I'm just saying that some derivation of this would have to intersect with their business interests at some point.
The best explaination I've seen is that the USA is the only country that uses "America" in its name, so really, it makes sense as a shorthand.
The United States of America is the only country with America in its name. There is no other place called America, there is North America, South America, Central America, and the Americas, but no other place which is just referred to as America. Do you get pissed off at other people for only using part of a countries name, like people referring to the People's Republic of China as China? Hell, there its at least warranted since there's another country with China in its official name.
WTF are you on about? You must suck a lot of cock because I can't understand a word you're saying.
So all the other wireless carriers shit a brick once it's launched. But don't worry instead of doing something like this they'll spend their money on lobbists to get laws passed when nobody is up outlawing free access.
Why couldn't the motto have been
"Be Good."
random underscore blankspace at ya know hoo dot comedy.
I am sick of the word "consumer". Why does the post use this word? Why not "customers" or "citizens" or "people"? The word shows disrespect. It puts the world into two categories: corporations and consumers. I am not a consumer! Now even /. posters have been trained to use this word! ...FUCK! WE'RE FUCKED!!! FUCK YOU!!!
Let's take a quiz. Which of these countries has "America" in its name, and would therefore be most likely to use "America" and "Americans"?
Dominion of Canada
United States of America
Estados Unidos Mexicanos
Republica de Guatemala
Republica de Honduras
Republica de El Salvador
Republica de Nicaragua
Republica de Costa Rica
Republica de Panama
Republica de Colombia
Republica Bolivariana de Venezuela
Co-operative Republic of Guyana
Republiek Suriname
Republica Federativa do Brasil
Republica del Ecuador
Republica del Peru
Republica de Bolivia
Republica de Chile
Republica del Paraguay
Republica Argentina
Republica Oriental del Uruguay
I believe that covers everything on the two American continents (French Guiana not being a country). I can go through the island nations in this hemisphere too, if you'd like.
Not that I expect you to even read this, being a troll and all. But still.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
How is this POSSIBLY flamebait? This is a perfectly legitimate viewpoint relevant to the story. Moderators, please mod this comment up.
Yep, AOL and the roaches will be the only things to survive nuclear war. :-)
- Kevin
The less confident you are, the more serious you have to act.
Unlikely.
The Big Yuan - tracking mainland China
M$ will do something similar, very fast. Of late, I have noted that M$ has been playing "catch-up" on several fronts. Google could be in trouble since M$ is bigger and more present than Google in many markets. But I also know that being bigger does not necessarily mean better or even relevant.
Is it me or does it seem everyone speculates Google will do all these different services? IM, WiFi, Bill Pay, electronic transfer of money, etc... ...where are they getting all this info?
There's an old saying... The most expensive gift you can get someone is a Free Puppy.
Similarly speaking... I'm not sure I can afford to get "Free" Wi-Fi access from Google.
I'm just a whee bit tired of being innundated with advertising, and the cost of product purchases going up to pay for all of it. You know, I'd be willing to spend a little bit of money to just get the things I want and need, rather than paying for everybody else to get stuff they never asked for.
Google is a major investor in one of those Internet-over-power-lines companies. Perhaps someone got their rumors mixed up, but there may be some sort of Google internet coming your way (Or at least Google will have their hand in it)
Just don't click on the Pi symbol in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.
Google goes all this amazing stuff... it really does.
Free Wi-Fi *tear* god bless you lil Google.
Can daddy have his complimentary hookers and an 8-ball?
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
And the only prescription is MORE COWBELL!!!
Linux - Because Mommy taught me to Share.
At least Google is big enough in recourses to accomplish something like this. I wonder if their free wifi comes with AdSense?
I could be wrong. ;)
You have to put up so many access points to cover even an average sized office building, nevermind a whole city. You'd practically have to deploy one on top of every street light or telephone pole, and even then it wouldn't cover everything.
Unless, of course, they got a license to use high gain antennas and transmitters, which they wouldn't because Verizon and Friends (c) would cry.
To cover anything but the top 8 big cities would take hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of WiFi access points.
New long-distance wireless tech shows some promise, but we'll see how well it works and if anyone deploys it. In my opinion, until any broadband technology starts to reach into the rural areas, it's not successful. NYC and San Fran already have so many broadband options that adding one more doesn't even count.
Plus, this whole article is silly anyways. Just because Google sponsers a hotspot doesn't mean they are planning on deploying WiFi on a wide scale.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
In other news, a 14-year-old daytrader announced today that Google is giving out free blowjobs.
Really, this kind of vapid rumormongering is tapping out all the useful wishful thinking that a real Bubble can harness to fund real companies. Indulging every possible fantasy just proves that we've learned nothing from the Bubble Pop, and very little from its inflation. Do we really need Jim Clark to run everything, just so some real engineers can just get paid for a few years?
--
make install -not war
And one Google employee bought some fish and put them in an aquarium. Rumour has it that Google is going to have a BableFish (literally) online very soon, so that humans can converse in fish language. Or are they creating a new breed?
me too!
OHMYGOD I just heard that GOOGLE is about to come out with a new CPU ARCHITECTURE and it's going to run their own OS and it's so ungodly fast it's like a quad Xeon box but the basic model's only going to be like $500 or you can lease it for a year for the cost of having it shipped to you and it's so damn amazing and after they're done with that they're going to come out with their own distribution of Linux that will be a lot like Google's OS but faster and open source. Oh, and they're going to be giving away free cars in Central Park on September 4, so totally be there, and they're going to use the proceeds from all of this to bring back the dinosaurs - I swear to God! - and it's so cool because they're giving all this shit away for absolutely nothing but they're still making money hand over fist from it. Honestly, this is all true. They're like the coolest company in the world or something.
Sure, giving away free wifi is sure to make your customers like you very much, but if Google continues to provide these free services, they're going to encounter a proportional backlash when (if?) it comes time to charge for some services. Yes, Wifi services are cheap to set up, but sooner or later shareholders are going to demand more than just advertising revenue.
I think I just came in my pants...
...the Weekly World News of the grey suit set.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
Oh noooooo, it's the evil Google trying to take over the world instead of microsoft......call congress, call a lawyer, get some lawsuits started quick!! (if you don't figure that the above was meant as a joke, then...nevermind)
is completely ignorant of the 'free market' theory (but then, so are all politicians)
if someone offers a better product, or better price, the original company should wither and die.
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Free wifi isn't going to kill AOL by a long shot, sadly. The grandmothers and computer newbies who think AOL IS the Internet will still continue to think this, even if the highly unlikely chance they figure out what WIFI is and how to access it. And remember AOL protects you from nasty spam and viruses out there on the intarwebs!.
What would kill AOL? Easy... T$$#!!NO CARRIER.
i'm getting this:
"Server Error
The server encountered a temporary error and could not complete your request.
Please try again in 30 seconds. "
From what I understand, Google already pays next to nothing for transit. It seems like everybody peers with them anyways. If anything they are using the new dark fiber to link up their datacenters and for internal uses to ensure that they can get more data to the enduser with less hassles. Google Earth alone has to eat up an insane amount of bandwidth.
-nick
I think the tech community sees Google as the end-all of benevolent companies, seeking to create the world that geeks want to live in.
./ please stop posting these bullshit columnist pipe dreams.
Bullshit.
While they may 'do no evil', Google is still a public, profit-driven company that happens to produce some cool tech that we geeks like. However, can
Yeah, I would love it if Google gave us free WiFi and broke the IM lock-in, and brought world peace, but it's not going to happen unless they can make a buck or two (billion) from doing it.
...on Comcast's plan to Rule The World.
I'm not really a web designer, I just play one on the Internet.
That was reported here on August 13th. Which means, we'll have to wait for another day for it to be reported.
More than mere navel gazing.
Seeing as how companies base at least some decisions on what the customer wants, allow me to go on record here as saying if google gives me free internet, I will gladly have as many little google babies to support their googmatrix as they want.
Let's face it, they're google. If it's on the internet and they care, they'll read it. Google is already watching you, comrade. Embrace it.
Now that would be flexible!
All right, all right, all right, what's it going to be? A new instant messenger for Christopher. A VoIP service for Otis. An Internet based OS for June Marie. And listen! Google's got a new one today. Free WiFi for everyone. Just watch out for the Billmicious Knid (and Grandpa...he kind of gives me the creeps...and while we're at it, so did that "freak-out" boat ride).
Nintendo has already said they are having nation-wide free Wi-Fi for the Revolution and DS. Clearly these two companies are in cahoots.
The article is rather bad at proving anything. It is really just speculation -- poorly thought out speculation at that. Some of their facts seem wrong as well. $60 per megabit!? No way it could be that expensive. Also, saying Goggle will provide FREE Internet all across America is really presumptuous. They have a duty to their stockholders, you know...
Slashdot writes about how meaning writes about how Business 2.0 writes about how Google may or may not be doing something based on circumstantial evidence.
Sign me up!
By that logic South Africa could be referred to as Africa.
If I hadn't seen such riches, I could live with being poor.
All they have to do is place a coffee machine next to it, hell make that free too, put "em outside of Satrbucks, and imagine the crowd gathered around an access point in an airport! This is about the most effective use of advertising dollars that I could ever imagine...
This is not a rumor. I have a friend who works at Google and he's been talking about this for at least 8 months now. The question is, how will the phone companies respond? They are losing their phone business to VOIP, now their ISP business is being threatened.
...is that everybody's routing for them.
If this isn't vapor - just imagine how you could use it for the pure anonymity of it all.
Imagine the p2p possiblities!!!
also
I wonder if they would serve up private or public ip addresses? Imagine the number of public numbers they would need - are there that many left to have?
---- "Logoff! That cookie shit makes me nervous!" - A. Soprano
On an unrelated note relating to the confusing North /Central/South America and folks from the USA generally getting called Americans, I suggest we rename the continents North/Central/South Mexico. Mexico, being in the middle, makes a better reference point.
> Business 2.0 reports on the possibility of Google
> building a national broadband network and giving
> Wi-Fi access to everyone in America.
Okay, now I *know* that Google is just a CIA, FBI,
NSA, front.
surely if this was going to happen, wouldn't the person in the telecom company that 'leaked' this info have signed an NDA? They have managed to give out very specific information, which I imagine would be announced by Google themselves, or released as a 'quiet' beta like GMail, Groups, and we would have found out from people actually using it.
The reason girls and Windows users don't understand UNIX is because all the documentation is in Man files.
Not to defend a troll, but using your own logic, what would you call the whole of the following combined parts?
North America
Central America
South America
Parent was correct, whether your fuzzy logic likes it or not.
0110100100100000011000010110110100100000011000100
How do you make a small fortune giving away free Internet access?
First, start with a large fortune...
then they can use that information to provide more relevent searches. What better way to find out what people are really looking at? Maybe this would be an extension of their Google Web Accelerator.
http://www.halorising.com/epic/ols-master.html
Or perhaps,
Gnoodle: Food that's free-as-in-beer.
I mean, considering that they have been searching for a Chief Food Officer (or whatever)...
More than mere navel gazing.
Uh, I would call that "The Americas" Plural...
Ever get to that point where you have seen a word so many times it begins to stop looking like a word, Or at the very least, looks spelled incorrectly?
Web Developers: Celebrate to our roots! Animated Gifs and Tiled Backgrounds, dont let our history die!
So if you follow the same logic Uruguay can call themselves Oriental Republic? I don't think so.
Everyone living in any of the American Continents, with the exception of the US and Canada, know that America refers to South/Central/North America and not just The United States of America. They simply refer to it as The United States. If America refers to The United States, then what does Americas refer to but collectively North, Central and South America? two or three United States? This is yet another self centered "American" standard. It may be standard to call the United States "America" but America had been used to refer to the continents since 1507.
The confusion is such that they had to come up with "Americas" to refer to the continent to prevent the term from getting confused with the good ol USA.
From Wikipedia:
" The use of the term America for the United States of America in English and colloquially in other languages is seen by some as politically incorrect (it may be seen as cultural imperialism). By some interpretations, this is also illogical (for example, it would place South America outside America), although the context usually makes clear which 'America' is meant. This led to the emergence of the term Americas to take away the ambiguity (in English), if not the illogicality."
So to please the people who call the United States "America", they had to rename a whole continent?
[alk]
Google has some great products, many of which I can't use at home because I use a Mac. In looking at the list below I'd venture a guess that Microsoft has more Mac compatible apps than Google, which strikes me as real funny.
Google Applications that require Windows:
Basically - anything you need to download (outside of a web browser) requires MS Windows.
The Luddites were ahead of their time.
me too!!!!
SlashSig Karma: Excellent (mostly affected by moderatio
Washington D.C. or Washington State?
No, your example sucks. Just like there is no country of South America, there is no country called Africa. Shortening the United States of America to America doesn't lead to confusion with a continent.
Maybe the original ranter would like it more if when referring to North and South America, people just said the Americas. I'm fine with that. North, Central and South, all in one tidy name.
You know what?
I am, of course, assuming that they would use 802.11.
How would they get around the problem of interference? I work for a small wireless ISP, and we have enough problems with interference in very small towns. I can't imagine dealing with the amount of interference in a large city.
Of course, I don't know how Ricochet was able to do it using just unlicensed frequencies, so I guess with enough money and the right technology it could be done. However, didn't Ricochet use proprietary client hardware?
...wifi.google.com. Yes, it returns an error. But the host resolved, as opposed to, say, porn.google.com.
Interesting.
BytesTemplar.com
Nice troll.
Fag.
What do you call the whole of:
Europe
Middle East
Africa
?
Because the niponese call their country "Nipon", not japan. Japan is just a weird bastardisation of "Nipon", just like Morocco is a bastardisation of Maghreb.
From their latest Quarterly Report:
"the main focus of our advertising programs is to provide relevant and useful advertising to our users, reflecting our commitment to constantly improve their overall web experience, and therefore steps we take to improve the relevance of the ads displayed on our web sites, such as removing ads that generate low click-through rates, could negatively affect our near-term advertising revenues."
Just because they're a public company, doesn't mean they can't run an ethical business. Especially if its part of their image. And considering their shareholders have realized gains of 300% over the past year, they don't have very much to complain about, do they?
In fact, when it gets down to it, maybe - just maybe - you can run an ethical and a profitable business.
1) finance:
/sq ft. That hardware cost is down to $10 Billion. Which google can do.
yes this is a stuipd calculation.
The US has about 9M sq km of land (or about 1 x 10^14 sq ft )
An average AP can do about $.005 / sq ft. (Hardware costs). Figure go solar/battery and you up your costs to $.01 / sq ft.
1 x 10^14 * 1 x 10^-2 = 1 x 10^12
1 Trillion dollars. Or in Google's case, more than Chump change for hardware. Or about $300 / American.
Now realize that the vast expanses of open land in America need not be covered. The Elk of the ANWAR have little use for wireless. More than 1/2 of Callifornia is government owned... Most of Alaska is vacant, Wyoming, Utah, most of the west, etc. etc.
Now figure you get better than average APs with some good antennas, on polls, or assume that people who want free interent can setup a repeater and a canetta.
Suddenly the $.01 / ft drops way way down to something more like $.0001
Now realize that the vast expanses of open land in America need not be covered. The Elk of the ANWAR have little use for wireless. More than 1/2 of Callifornia is government owned... Most of Alaska is vacant, Wyoming, Utah, most of the west, etc. etc. That probibly brings the price down to $1-2 Billion.
Installation could be done cheaply in many places. Do deals with locals, 'free internet' for shipping and handling costs.
Back haul bandwith would of course be expensive, but some good peering software, and some wire connected nodes and you are good to go.
2) Why:
There search engine needs better and more data.
There are lots of places where googles spiders dosn't go, for whatever reason. Most traffic is in the clear. By snooping a large cross section of the network you can get a tremendous amount of info for the search engine and page rank from actual user traffic. Responsivness would increase, and in many cases the spiders wouldn't have to run at all.
Many of the tricks people use to get higher page ranks would nolonger work so well, or could be effetivly combated.
Result ) : A few billion dollars to have asustainable advantage over a fair number of competitors. Sounds like a steal. About $5 / American.
Way over there.
Web Developers: Celebrate to our roots! Animated Gifs and Tiled Backgrounds, dont let our history die!
Not really, no. The Wikipedia entry isn't really correct when it suggests that usage of the term "Americas" is simply disambiguation. There is no single continent named "America". There are two distinct continents differentiated by the prefixes "North" and "South". When referring to both together, the only logical form to use is the plural "Americas". When one says "America", it's patently obvious that one is not talking about the pair of continents. About the only argument that can really be made over the appropriation of the term "America" by the USA is that the dominant country in South America should have had an equal chance at it-- but then, which country would that be?
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
I'm fairly certain they're reading the signs wrong here:
Any WiFi involvment on google's part is most likely some sort of GoogleMaps-intergrated hotspot finder for finding other (free and 3rd-party-commercial) hotspots.
On the other hand, TFA mentions google acquiring bits of dark fibre. IMO, this makes very little sense for building a WiFi ISP, as I would imagine that the fibre isn't exactly located in the sorts of places you'd want to put a hotspot. This could be some sort of project to connect their datacenters using private lines.
On the other hand, this could simply be a capital investment on their part. It could be an attempt to spark some life into the dormant telecom markets. Sure, the fibre's cheap now, but the increased attention Google will get from this will drive up interest, thus driving up prices, allowing google to sell the lines at a nice profit.
That said, AT&T left a heck of a lot of dark copper and fibre lying around. It'd be a shame to see it not put to use.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
If they next hire heidi to do switch adds, very soon they will chown all our base!
Google may be a $billion+ company but they seem to do things differently. I'd rather have them as my ISP than Qwest (the shitty provider who's DNS servers are down five minutes of every hour).
Frankly, they have shown time again again that they appreciate innovation and a new business model. Keyhole used to charge for satellite picture - Google bought them and gives us the service for free. It's the same with lots of other products.
Telcos have gotten used to raping us on prices. DLS subscriptions have maintained their $40/month price for years now while the product just gets cheaper to provide.
Franlky, I'd take anybody who wasn't one of the current telcos.
World Changing - News for Humans, Stuff about our planet
Google - Nintendoogle....err I guess not.
'Don't be Evil' is completely consistent with shareholder value. A good name is worth something, not incuring congressional hearings is worth a lot. Microsoft is dealing with alot of trouble in US and Europe because of their business practices, and it is probably not over.
'Make as much money as possible' might be what the theoretical market shareholder wants, but it is not a business plan. EVERY business plan must include ethical considerations, for legal reasons, PR reasons, and employee recruitment reasons, among others.
You think a jury would convict a CEO for NOT being evil? We have corporate officers because the optimal strategy is not always clear, and officers have to weigh different options and values. Yes, it is good financial sense to forclose on the orphanage, but it will be bad for business in the long run. Google codifies it's strategy as 'Don't be evil' It is a winning strategy.
And frankly, real world shareholders have values other than making money. They express these values through voting. Now, if the Google shareholders vote to recind the 'do no evil' policy, then we can worry.
Abolish Copyright. Restore Freedom.
Ignoring the improbability of Google actually doing this...
you'd think Google would be smart enough to deploy it's network with WiMax (which has a range of 30 miles). So, basically one node per average-sized city. Then if they could require mesh functionality on every client to keep the load light... this would keep costs way way down (make the nodes solar-powered for even less maintaince cost).
If anyone did this, it would be nothing short of revolutionary. Free wireless broadband everywhere? Kick ass.
Co-Editor, Open Sources
Open Source Program Manager, Google, Inc.
I can't decide which is stupider- the weekly reports of Google doing something earth-shattering or the fact that someone modded the parent "Informative"...
google gets the dark fiber, some decent antenas and a few hacked routers gives away the smallish wifi stuff sells the the fiber as a 'postitive externality' to killing the need to depend on ISP's. or it's a rumour, or they may just decide to do a a jew cities with some kind of richochetish stunt.
Actually, as I was informed by my college Spanish professor who spent several decades living in Columbia, calling the USA "The United States," or "Los Estados Unidos" in Spanish, is not a particularly useful term, because there is more than one "Estados Unidos"--Mexico being Los Estados Unidos de Mexico, or The United States of Mexico, if you prefer.
Eagles may soar, but weasles don't get sucked into jet engines...
You mean Nipponjin, not "niponese" right? And even there it's not rock solid. In almost all casual situations, it's Nihon, not Nippon. And how many Germans in Germany do you know call it Germany?
Google won't do this, and that's not even the worst...
Remember the post of bbc comercialising on WikiPedia? To me this sounds just about the same... Scary huh?
Google MIGHT do much, so just wait untill they DO something before informing us about it.
Let's take another quiz. Which of these organization has "World" in its name and would therefore end up in a championship called "World Series".
a) American League of Professional Baseball Clubs
b) Major League Baseball
c) National League of Professional Baseball Clubs
A company is going to provide free information and research to the entire planet. How on earth could that be possible?
So Google is kind of like if the Yellow Pages and the Phone Book were published under one cover with the one subsidizing the production costs of both.
Whether or not they're making enough through ad sales to pay for the whole parade as it currently stands is questionable, but if you can convince enough investors that Google is worth pouring zillions of dollars into, then fine. Whatever.
So basically, Google is sitting on a big pile of investor money at the moment, with perhaps a modest ad based revenue. However, Google has also hired a lot of programmers and project leaders and they're doing a lot of interesting and expensive stuff, which I suspect isn't quite covered by Google Ad revenue. The water leaking in is more than is being bailed out. Google right now sounds a lot to me like one of those tech-boom start-ups swimming in IPO cash.
This means, I suspect, that expansion into new sources of revenue is probably fairly high on the To Do list around Google's board room at the moment.
How they do this is up to them. I doubt somehow, though, that it involves 'free' microwave pollution to every corner of the U.S. --Though, doing that certainly sounds reminiscent of some of the dumb things those crazy tech companies tried back in 'The Day' when investors were insane and huge gobs of IPO cash were free to any who asked.
I just hope they don't set up any microwave hot spots in my neighborhood. Cell phones are already a plague which I never agreed to.
-FL
While it is somewhat way over the top, it is amusing anyways, so if someone has a spare mod point or two, could you mod the parent "funny"?
"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." - HL Mencken
"Google is curing cancer." As a matter of fact, that's true. From the Folding@Home website: "What happens if proteins don't fold correctly? Diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, cystic fibrosis, BSE (Mad Cow disease), an inherited form of emphysema, and even many cancers are believed to result from protein misfolding. "
Both economically and culturally... Economically - many houses having an extra 10-80 dollar lying around every month.. - That's a lot of money to be spent on products and services from other sectors. Talk about a tipping point. Then if *everyone* was connected - Look how much society has changed in 10 years with the interenet or even the last 5 years - and thats like with only 40-80% of the population connected. I'm sure it's been asked, but how would google benefit from this besides building it's brand identity?
Are you completely certain they're false? It's common in politics for people to deliberately leak what they're thinking of doing just to test public opinion about a controversial idea in a deniable way.
It's also possible that the occasional idea is leaked by an employee or ex-employee who doesn't like the proposed strategy and wants to raise alarm bells early enough to do something about it.
I'm not saying either of these is in play in the various situations with Google we've seen recently. But they are ever-present possibilities.
Kent M Pitman
Philosopher, Technologist, Writer
it makes sense if you are required to use a mechanism which will allow Google to collect your browsing habit etc. to use this service. Google needs information about this to further refine their search engine and probably other similar service. The google-layer above (or below) normal web will also allow google to insert ads. Think about TV broadcasting signal, which is also free.
"Announced late today, Google is teaming up with Travelocity to offer patrons trips back in time, Developers for the site say they will use a form of thier cacheing service to allow visitors to physically travle to the past. Financial reports of this venture are expected to raise the google stock 14 points late in the 3rd quarter..."
Is it just me, or does google seem to be the breeding ground for all rumors and half-baked ideas???
I drive WAY too fast to worry about cholesterol!
I guess its just a coincidence, but having this topic immediately followed with "FCC Wants to Track Wireless" seems to say so much more than either of these articles do on their own.
Canada -> Canadian
Mexico -> Mexican
USA -> USAnian ?
That is why /. keeps us in line... ...oh wait, nevermind.
If you're speaking in English and/or happen to be standing in the United States -- preferably, being a part of it -- then yes, I suppose that is so.
Since when did the USA decide North and South America are different continents? Pretty much everyone else in America seems to think otherwise. And I'm referring to the continent, by the way.
*shhh* don't upset him. He was feeling all good that he knew 'nippon' and 'niponese'... I mean, since it isn't what everyone else says, it must be right.
Come to think of it, i'm hard pressed to think of one instance where I've seen nipon used instead of nihon.. though admittedly I'm only at a lower intermediate level of study.
Is what we need to hear.
And when Google figures it out (if they figure it out), I do honestly believe they're entitled to a patent or two..
(when is OOO going to remember my corrections to the spell-checkers' mistakes)
mod parent up as insightful
Are you suggesting that we start calling Americans "US-poeple"?
You are right though, Americans insistence on short handing their nationality as Americans is clearly because they are imperialist pigs and has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that there is not another nation in the world with the word America in it, but dozens with the words United and States.
Candyoogle?
Googandy?
Fight Frist Psoting!
Browse Slashdot with 'Newest First'!
If it's free as in free beer, does that mean you will give me an antenna, an AP, a laptop with a wireless card so it's free to me? probably not. You'll ask me to pay for my kit, pay for a share towards the central infrastructure (backhaul costs, your server etc), and once we've got this in place we can exchange packets for free, this is probably what I think we mean by "free".
An even more compelling reason for Google to build its own network is that it could save the company millions of dollars a month. Here's why: Every time a user performs a search on Google, the data is transmitted over a network owned by an ISP -- say, Comcast (CMCSK) -- which links up with Google's servers via a wholesaler like AboveNet. When AboveNet bridges that gap between Google and Comcast, Google has to pay as much as $60 per megabit in IP transit fees. As Google adds bandwidth-intensive services, those costs will increase. Big networks owned by the likes of AT&T (T) get around transit fees by striking "peering" arrangements, in which the networks swap traffic and no money is exchanged. By cutting out middlemen like AboveNet, Google could share traffic directly with ISPs to avoid fees.
Like all other servies from google, everything will be logged and ensured you get "great" ads just for you. And if you complain an GMAIL privacy issues, use encryption.
being a CAC (Canadian Anonymous Coward), and living in Europe, I have noticed that Europeans commonly use the word Americans to mean the people living west of Europe but not as far as Asia.
Being CAC and speaking my own native and culturally blurred form of English, I say Americans live south of the border.
Continental Europeans may speak a trillion languages, but sometimes they don't get the nuances.
North and South America were first described as separate continents on European maps of the 16th century. And the usage "American" to refer to anglo-Americans living in the land which would one day be the USA goes back to the 17th century (soon after the usage "American" to refer to native Americans gave way to the less correct, but older, "Indian" in English). In English, "America" was always shorthand for "the English colonies in America," and so the usage "America" to refer to the USA is purely an anglophone phenomenon, and one that originates in Britain, not the States. Usage of "America" to refer to the entirety of North and South America is more a Spanish-language usage, as "America" was used in Spanish to refer to the Spanish colonies in the Americas.
Amen to that. That's what I learned in school: America is a continent, USA is a country. I just checked in the dictionary: My French Larousse 1996 agrees, America is a continent made up of three regions (north, central, south). However, the Encylopedia Britannica doesn't agree, and list South America and North America as separate continents, with no indication on where's the separation.
why do slashdot technophiles hate the idea of free or cheap broadband?
free or cheap is like the holy grail of technology? Why is it every time it comes up we have so many supposed technophiles slamming the idea here?
Peculiar.....
eat shiat and bark at the moon
"Overseas". It's a mythical place that exists only to provide exotic locations for holidays.
There already is Welsh Google.
http://www.google.com/intl/cy/
What's better:
(a) Free WiFiOR
(b) Free sex with a pony mareGoogle Cosmos as next upgrade to Google Earth;
Google Prophet -- in beta at their web site -- enter an ethical or lifestyle dilemma and hit "I'm Feeling Lucky" for an answer;
Google Clippy to help you fix up all your word processing and spreadsheet problems;
Google Slashdot interface with automated trolling and moderation (plus layout fixed for Firefox);
Google China is a new crockery set for house and home. Not to be confused with Google China, the upcoming communist state bought out by Google last Thursday.
You might run out of things to say because the jokes wil soon get out of hand as each week's episode has to better the previous one.
Just for the record, Canada doesn't take the style 'Dominion of' any more. They're just Canada.
Look out!
Seems like you were misinformed by your professor in "Colombia"
I've gotta tell you, I used Yahoo in the pre-gmail days and I could't stand the big, bright, flash-based ads. With Gmail however, the text-only ads fit into a small column on the right-hand side. I can literally go for weeks without even remembering that they're there. In the search engine itself, it's almost the same way - small, unobtrusive, etc. As far as it concerns me, Google might as well be ad-free.
10100111001
Umm... Pardon me, but firstly, I take exception to your presumption that places outside of America are also America. This is part of a European short-sightedness that leads them to believe that all parts of the world not in Europe are either America, or do not exist. I, as an Australian who has never set foot out of this country, am most certainly not an American, but I still refer to America as 'America'.
Secondly, where else in the world is called 'America'? I can find nowhere. There's a continent called 'North America', another called 'South America'; there's even a region called 'Central America'. Perhaps you wish to take the sum of them? Then you have many options: the Americas (there is, after all, more than one of them!); the Western Hemisphere; the New World.
Using 'America' in its conventional and long-standard way of referring to originally the British Colonies there, and now the United States, is also very useful. There's no word for people who hail from the US other than 'American'. Its a damn fine adjective and derived noun for things coming from the US.
If you don't allow us English speakers to do what we want, you're taking away a word (leaving something with no clear and simple way to be referred to) to make it a member of a set of already three synonyms.
(Any argument that because 'South America' has the word 'America' in its name, it must be a subset of 'America' is sadly mistaken, and does not fully understand the English language. If that were the case, it would be 'southern America'. Being called 'South America' means it's a place, that's South, which derives its name from 'America' (in a less specific definition). Such can be seen in many place. New South Wales was not so named because a section of the Bristol Channel was reclaimed for Wales; on the contrary, it's in a very different part of the world. The North Island wasn't so named because it's the North part of Island; on the contrary, it's an Island that's South (of what? who knows?). This is not a hard-and-fast rule that no-where named North (Place) is simply the northern part of (Place), just that you cannot infer from a name North (Place) that it is the northern part of (Place).)
Look out!
Just like Google Earth and Video.
Why is universal wifi a problem when it's provided by a private company, but a Good Thing (TM) when it's provided by municipalities and paid for with tax dollars?
Key to financial independence: Spend less than you earn. Save and invest the difference. Do it for a long time.
What's the point of this post? Is there anything new to report? We all knew about the Google Hotspot months ago and the article just presents speculation. What ever happended to "Stuff that matters?" Has it been changed to "Stuff that doesn't matter and rumors that appear to be news?"
Imagine: /. article a few months ago to this effect). Why bother plugging every router into a cable/DSL/other-wire line when there are enough overlapping wireless routers to support each other? Only a few need be actually wired; there's enough overlap among the rest to share the network entirely wirelessly. The hardware already exists, just someone needs to persuade the router makers to include repeater software and have it turn on by default.
Google contracts with WiFi router manufacturers to provide repeater capabilities (there was a
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
neither one offers as much funcitonality as Outlook
Such as being the #1 software for virus and worm distribution in the world?
I banned Outlook and IE (the #2) at work around 1997, based purely on my reaction to the whole design of Active X, Active Desktop, and the rest of the Active culture.
The biggest difference between our email environment and the rest of the company's email environment was that the only way we knew when another email worm was galloping about on the Internet was that we got a bunch of infected junk mail from people at other sites.
We had zero virus infestations. We occasionally had a single infected box, and most of those were people who were running Outlook despite our ban, but I never had to clean more than one box at a time.
I did once have to argue with a contractor over the policy while I was sitting there digging through his files to clean a particularly nasty virus out of his box.
I don't care what the capability of the rest of Outlook is: until they rip the HTML control out of it or implement a version of the HTML control that has no mechanism to run "Active Content", I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot asbestos pole and I would strongly recommend using it unless you do something horribly desparate like MAC-lock every port and put everyone on a separate VLAN with their own external hardware firewall that QOS-throttles SMTP and scans for surges.
Ever hear of NetZero?
baaaa... I love google... baaaaaaaaa *bleat*
That's the one thing about Terminator and Terminator II that upset me. The day Skynet became self-aware was on my birthday in August. Although I don't recall the exact date ever being mentioned in T3.
Speaking of Arnold, the U.S. has had two State Governors to come from the movie Predator. In following with that phenomenon I predict Carl Weathers will become the next Governor of Louisiana.
I hate all sigs, even this one.
It actually boils down to the Americans being totally brain dead to the fact that there are countries outside of their borders; if they grasp the concepts of borders in the first place. That said, it would not realy be in Google's interests to set up a chain of wi-fi hotspots in countries where most people are still on dial up.
Thats easy.
1) Buy a few Senators
2) Buy some more Congressmen
3) Continue campaign to outlaw public wifi
4) Buy lots of lawyers
5) Patent the air we breathe and a method of transmitting data through it (f**k marconi etc)
6) Buy/Bribe a President or two
7) Sit back and go down with the titanic
The only Phone Co to survive would the the one that got into bed with Google and did the deal to be the carrier of choice.
I'd rather be riding my '63 Triumph T120.
Advertise it instead!
My birthday, too. My 21st birthday, no less.
The question swings both ways. Since when does Latin America get to decide the definition of a continent? The isthmus of Panama is 20 miles narrower than the isthmus of Suez, yet Suez is enough to demarcate two continents and Panama isn't? With the exception of Japan and Iran, the rest of the world sees the Americas as two continents. Calling it one continent makes about as much sense as calling Europe and Asia two continents. The problem is that it's an issue chock-full of politics rather than one of simple geography. By the strict definition there are technically only 4 continents (Afrasia, Antarctica, America, Australia), but that one clearly over-generalizes.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
HE FORGOT POLAND!!!1!
"Our interests are to see if we can't scale it up to something more exciting," he said.
I know most "Americans" (US citizens) don't know this, but there's actually no country called America. America is a continent, and is composed of North America (Mexico, US and Canada), Central America, and South America. When Columbus discovered America, he did not discover the US, as many people assume.
XML UI Browser/Platform
Well, what about residents of the "Americas" (South, North, Central) wouldn't it be correct to call them all americans?
The Western Hemisphere?
Sure, but only if it's clear that we're talking about pure geography and not nationality. The default frame of reference for identity is essentially culture-based, which in the modern world roughly translates to nationality. The fact alone that there are no less than four official national languages and dozens of indigenous "unofficial" languages found across the Americas make it unlikely that someone would really have reason to identify themselves so unspecifically as a "resident of the largest contiguous landmass in the western hemisphere".
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
Actually, "Japan" is a corruption of "Jipangu", a much more ancient word for the area that presumably was in use when westerners first encountered them.
Everybody's got the Feeva?
First it was VoIP, then it was IM, now it's Wi-Fi? Why does the news media keep reporting these *completely* unsubstantiated rumors about Google as if they were actually news? Why not wait until Google actually announces what it is going to do? It's not as if there won't be an unending beta period between announcement and the heat death of the universe. This rampant Google speculation that has gripped the tech media has moved past the "annoying" phase to the "just plain stupid" phase.
Had to proof read your post a bit...
To refer to the combination of North and South America (and Central America if you are so inclined to divide it that way) as a single continent is rather silly. It does not really make any sense from a geological perspective (then again neither does the Europe and Asia divide), a watershed one, a geopolitical one (unless you are talking about the Monroe Doctrine and that style of thinking), or a environmental/biological perspective.
The term "Americas" makes so much more sense. Once you are to that understanding, then it is no so far to shortening the USA to "America".
Where the heck is Google getting that kind of cash?
If it didn't come from investors, then where???
What the heck are they selling? Ad spots are making three BILLION dollars in revenue?
Did they figure out "Step 2" in that Profit! joke?
And if it's just investor cash, then, yes, it's very similar to one of those tech bubble companies swimming in IPO cash.
-FL
All they would have to do is contract with some major cell phone provider to handle the backend the way Yahoo contracts with SBC to provide dsl.
Will it happen? I doubt it. Could it? Yes, of course it could.
air travel is a "product" now. Maybe I can re-sell it. What do I do if it breaks, can I take it back?
Well, your estate can try...
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
Are they going to announce the same thing next week ?
You forgot Belize.
I think it's very similar to the way we view roads. Most of them everywhere are "free" in the obvious sense that you don't have to pay a toll to use them.
This doesn't mean that it doesn't cost money to use on a road, of course. Vehicles cost money; fuel costs money; insurance costs money. Some places, you even have to pay extra for a parking spot. Part of your taxes, especially on fuel, go to maintenance of the roads.
Still, it makes sense to say that the roads are "free". You don't hand out money when you use most roads, except for a very few toll roads.
It wouldn't be surprising if the Internet ends up "free" in the same sense. You'll have to buy your comms equipment, and/or pay a monthly rent. But, except in some special spots with special controls, you'll be able to communicate from anywhere without paying a toll to a local ISP. Like the roads, the Net will be accessible if you have equipment able to use it.
Perhaps your monthly rent will be for bandwidth. You pay $N per month, and get B bytes/second of access. Pay $2N and get 2B bytes/sec. Or something like that.
We're nowhere near that yet, of course. Most of our comms are like a road system where you have to stop and pay a toll every few blocks, and each road owner can decide whether your vehicle is allowed on the road, what sort of freight you can carry, etc. for his little stretch of road. But there are signs of change
Actually, a number of science fiction writers have already used this idea as a plot gimmick. Several have considered the effect on society of a guaranteed Right of Communication. The ones I've read have been centuries in the future. Maybe we'll live to see the start of it.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
Funny how this confusion keeps coming up, and how few people see the obvious answer.
;--)
Similarly, we refer to the Estados Unidos Mexicanos as "Mexico", and the República Federativa do Brasil as "Bra[sz]il". I wonder why people don't object to those shorthands? Maybe because they realize that there is no other country with "Mexico" or "Brazil" in its name. You'd think people would be smart enough to see the same explanation for the "America" shorthand.
Then there's the case of the Bundesrepublik Deutschland. It takes a bit of convoluted linguistic history to explain why we call it "Germany" in English. Most people would fall asleep some time during anything like a detailed explanation.
Anyway, "USA" is also a city in Japan, so using it alone is ambiguous.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
Depends on your field of study. I've seen a number of geological discussions. That 4-continent definition is included in the wikipedia definition,
but few if any geologists would agree. Thus, Africa really is a separate continental plate, which just happens to be bumping up against Eurasia.
Similarly, there are distinct North American and South American plates. The North America plate's southern edge is a bit fuzzy, but it actually ends roughly at the southern edge of Mexico. The isthmus between Mexico and Columbia, "Central America", is really a recent (10 million years) volcanic development, like Cuba and the Antilles. It was produced by plate tectonics, but isn't part of a continental plate.
But this is just for geology. For other fields of study, other definitions make sense. Though it has always been a bit odd to classify Europe and Asia as different continents. This is partly historic confusion caused by the fact that "Asia" used to mean what we now call "Turkey", and what we now call "Asia" wasn't known to Europeans. Somehow "Asia" got extended to all the land to the east of its original definition, and since the fastest way there from Europe was by boat, people decided it must be a separate continent.
It can be hopeless to try to straighten out terminology when it's as confused as this. Especially when people in different fields are using a definition that makes some sort of sense to them, but not to anyone else.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
In the same way that most Americans refer to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as "England."
No thanks!
By that logic South Africa could be referred to as Africa.
No, because there is some other entity named "Africa." There is nothing else named "America." There is "North America" and "The Americas," but there is no "America" other than as use as shorthand for USA. With a complete lack of ambiguity, "America" has one and only one meaning. The only people confused by that use are people without sufficient grasp of the English language to get the nuances which result in the unique use of "America." Of course, that doesn't prevent people that don't like it from claiming confusion, but none exists.
Learn to love Alaska
(Just thought I'd test your theory.)
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
Excluding Africa, since it is not considered to reside in the same continent.
US-people Yeah, that's a hell of a lot easier to say than American. :lol: