Slashdot Mirror
Doctorow Tears Up ISP Contract Over Net Neutrality
Burz writes "As a reaction to Virgin Media CEO's promise to violate the concept of net neutrality, Cory Doctorow is declaring his ISP contract void, canceling the service, and calling on other Virgin customers to do the same. He isn't alone. Charlie Stross counts the ways the gang that became Virgin Media is trashing Sir Richard's brand. Myself, I am thinking of stopping my Virgin Mobile service in protest."
feels great!
As a mobile virgin, I'm not quite sure what I think of this whole thing.
Yeah, that'll hurt 'em. They'll go down in flames just like Blockbuster did when they drove out all their unprofitable customers.
Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.
Who is Cory Doctorow and why does he matter?
I would Read The Friendly Article to find out, but it's slashdotted already!
as Doctor who?
alias possession='chmod 666 satan && ls
Thats nice if there is more than 1 broadband option where you live.
You mean you are personally thinking of stopping your Virgin Mobile service.
www.purevolume.com/martyd
I wonder if there will be a day when net neutrality has been usurped, despite all the protests, and we've come to accept as the status quo. And then, all of a sudden, another *unconscionable* development of corporate greed takes place, in which we have the same uproar, and the same eventual defeat. Can anyone think of examples in the past where has taken place? I'm not coming up with anything that passes a basic coherency test, but this has to be some cycle we go through on a regular basis. Do these things ever lead to positive outcomes, or are we just the man in front of the tank?
These boycotts are always so effective.
Perhaps this is not such a bad thing, it may bring more attention to the issue than there is currently. Maybe if some people start to experience and understand what the lack of net-neutrality actually causes, they will be more likely to be more involved in ensuring net-neutrality is enforced.
However, I must admit that if net-neutrality is lost, it may be impossible to re-gain--much like public health-care in the US will be next-to-impossible to get.
What consumers need are more consumer lobby groups. I am certainly very willing to pay an extra 1% tax just to get the benefit of such a lobby group. Oh, wait, we are already paying for the government, why not get them to do something?...oh...right...never mind.
Huh? [devShell.org]
We're supposed to worship him as some landmark visionary who knows everything about the technology world. What's funny is that every time I hear Cory talk about something I know something about on a podcast, he frequently gets key facts wrong, or he completely misrepresents the situation. I mean, he's entertaining, and he's a decent scifi writer, but knowledgeable about important ongoing events or legislation, he is not. No matter how much he presents himself to be.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Doctorow
Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to Trotskyist teachers, Doctorow was raised in an activist household, working in the nuclear disarmament movement and as a Greenpeace campaigner as a child. He later served on the board of directors for the Grindstone Island Co-operative on Big Rideau Lake in Ontario, helping to run a conference center devoted to peace and social justice education and activist training. He received his high school diploma from SEED School, a free school in Toronto, and dropped out of four universities without attaining a degree.
Doctorow moved to Los Angeles, California in mid-2006 from London, England, where he had worked as European Affairs Coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation for four years, helping to set up the Open Rights Group, before quitting to pursue writing full-time in January 2006. Upon his departure, Doctorow was named a Fellow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Doctorow spent the 2006-2007 academic year teaching as a visiting professor at the University of Southern California, despite not holding any academic degree. He then returned to London. He is a frequent public speaker on copyright issues.
Doctorow's daughter with Alice Taylor, Poesy Emmeline Fibonacci Nautilus Taylor Doctorow, was born on 3 February 2008.
Cory's parents have suggested that he is related to author E.L. Doctorow, but E.L. Doctorow himself could not confirm or deny the family connection.
----
Don't know, sounds like someone I'd care about...
I dont have a virgin phone service. A billing "discrepancy" from last year, an offer I bartered for, was fixed last month with Virgin claiming to shoulder the costs. What actually happened is they added the XL phone package to my discounted XL TV + XL Broadband offer. I have been a customer for 18 months, and I bartered for my previous deal of £41.50/pm only to have them add the Phone package without informing me, and charge me £70.
I rang to cancel and let them know I intended to move to sky and and was offered my old £41.50 offer at a no-contract rate of £49pm (I'm not sure where I'll be living in 3 months, so I can't get a contract). Problem fixed, or so I believe. The debt collection team phone me this morning to inform me my direct debit had bounced - and it would do if it was in excess of £50 as the account is for bills only, and is credited with a standing order for the appropriate amount each month.
It transpires (I guessed it instantly), that after billing me £70 and changing it back to the negotiated rate of £49, they discounted next months direct debit by £20, so that the net 2 month charge would be equal to my negotiated rate over 2 months.
But! That doesn't mean I can pay £70 in one month for a problem they have caused, because I subject to cash flow issues. To make things worst, I have been charged by my bank for the defaulting direct debit, wasted £15 on the phone last time I called, and £10 today.
Today was awful! I was called this morning by the debt collection team who would not let me pay £49 or change my direct debit, until I settled the £70 mistake, even tho it was obvious the real amount was £49 based on the remedied discount applied to the next bill. I'm forced to pay for their mistake!?! They told me there was nothing they could do, and that I had to phone them back and fixed the issue. I got through to India twice and was told the same thing, only that the team that called me was the team that dealt with it. In the end I gave up. I asked to be put through to the cancellation team.
The cancellation team were great. The credit was applied to this month, and my outstanding balance returned to what I should pay/can pay. I've praised VM in the past, and will continue to do so in the future - but only their cancellation team, as they're the only ones with the power to resolve your problems.
I am contemplating billing VM for the saga cost me £20 in phone calls (I have a mobile phone, and no one would phone me!), and the bounced direct debit penalty stemming from their inability to resolve the problem when I called them and they called me.
Matt
Guess I had better educate myself about why we need net neutrality...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_neutrality
www.purevolume.com/martyd
Meh. Can't hold a job. Can't get a degree. I may or may not be kidding about this.
That really is the issue here. You're never, ever going to get enough people to dump an individual ISP over this sort of thing to make their brass go, "Whoa! We'd better not do that!". The issue is simply too involved for the 'average' net user to really understand well enough to care about.
Some things require legislative solutions, and this is clearly one of those things. While I'm not saying that users of Virgin Media *shouldn't* change providers, it should be recognized that it's nothing but a symbolic step. If you really want to see this sort of nonsense avoided, contributing to the EFF might be a far better use of money.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
I was duped by my ISP into saving the rainforest by switching over to paperless billing so I do all transactions electronically.
I've rethought this and will once again deal with paper so that I can receive the satisfaction of "tearing up" any documents that I deem unsatisfactory.
This article references stuff going on in a country that is not even America! What does that have to do with the internet?
wtf is a "google" Alright, I'll search about it on WebCrawler...
If you can't convince enough customers to switch providers, perhaps that is a sign that the issue is not as dire as you think.
I'm always annoyed when people jump straight to the legislative "solution". Get the word out, start web sites, educate people. If the populace is ignorant about the problem then remove their ignorance.
These companies love making money above everything else. There are still enough choices left that you can make them realize that the way to make money is to be a good citizen. If they all band together to be evil together then it's time to start looking at legislation, but until that time you should at least try to fight them through other means.
And I should note that if the general public doesn't care about your issue then your chances of getting laws passed about it are slim to nil anyway, so the same techniques serve both purposes.
Of course if your purpose is just to whine on slashdot about how Something Must Be Done then you don't need any popular support at all.
Ok, boingboing guy that used to work for the EFF. Unless his living in toronto makes him particularly important.
that said at the speed of which i got modded down must mean hes done something particularly important....
Cory Doctorow, editor of Boing Boing, a blog which censors comments from their readers, not for anything controversial but for being "impolite," is crying because Virgin is interfering with his access to the web.
Pot, meet kettle.
Ah, and what you left out of the wiki article:
author who serves as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing
So just as the Parent stated, just a silly boingboing repost. Nothing to see here, just a pedantic blow hard being pedantic.
Why do I care? Am I supposed to be impressed that submitter is "considering stopping [his] Virgin Mobile service in protest"? On my way to work today, I considered pushing a fisherman off the bridge so that I could giggle whilst watching him splash about in the water -- it's a far cry from doing it.
Article 82 - abuse of a dominant position.
A82 is directly enforceable in the national courts. VM has a dominant position in the UK broadband market - this is an automatic presumption in the cable market as their share is 100%, and, based on the structure of the UK backbone-network, a reasonable and fair assumption regarding broadband in general.
they are acting in a manor that can only be said to be taking unfair advantage of their position to the detriment of the broadband market in general - and they are doing this independently of us the consumer: ie: we get this crap and there is absolutely nothing we can do.
whilst having a dominant market share, and being in a monopolist position is _not_ illegal - abusing this position is. VM are starting a consumer/isp war that the consumers cannot win. they are abusing the technological development of the UK's broadband system by prejudicing our use in a way we cannot avoid. an utterly artificial creation.
as VM own the cable network, there is no cross elastic supply. the consumer is lacked into contracts which generally fall foul of elastic demand the moment they abuse their position. the good news is that no VM customer is bound to their unfair contracts that stifle the advancement of uk broadband - be it traffic shaping or whatnot.
vote with your wallets - sign up to another ISP!
It's not actually Branson's company, he just (foolishly) licensed the brand to NTL Telewest so they could use it.
That's what she said!
...you're "thinking" about canceling your account? That makes you nothing more than a troll. If you really believe in NN, then DON'T SUPPORT ANYONE WHO DOESN'T FINANCIALLY, no matter what service they provide for you. You know why McDonald's uses such a poor grade of beef? BECAUSE PEOPLE BUY IT.
I know the submitter has good intentions, just hate to see people "outraged" yet still supporting the very thing they protest.
The mofos over at 4chan are on it, rallying the troops.
/b/tards.
http://img.4chan.org/b/res/62813659.html
In other news, Scientologists left alone thanks to a short attention span of
It would still be newsworthy maybe more so. The only thing of value he is giving them is his name, if he publicly denounced the product he'd be taking that all back.....
Is this a case of Wikipedia vandalism, or does his insatiable attention-whoring extend to ruining his poor daughter's life?
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Public apathy does not mean that an issue isn't worth fighting for. Fortunately, we're set up as a republic for just such an emergency.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
that if enough people rip up their contract, cancel service, and petition the local authority who allowed them to be the dominant broadband provider to allow others it would be something of a political stickler. Change the local rules or find a new job. Don't just complain about the ISP, complain about, and to the people who gave them any kind of sway of what kind of services you have to choose from.
BTW, IMO, satellite ISP services are NOT equivalent to wired broadband services.
As soon as my time's up, they can take a long, hard suck on my conspicuously non-Virgin friend, Darth Veiner.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
I like Infoseek.
I drank what? -- Socrates
"..Greenpeace campaigner as a child. "
That's not a plus. Greenpeace puts peoples lives at stake, and lies to bully large corporation. Green Peace lost any vestige of what it was around 1980.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
People complain about the coming change in 'net neutrality' without ever considering what it is really doing.
Tiered pricing is no different than tiered pricing in any other arena. Prime office space on the top floor in downtown San Francisco, California is going to cost you a lot more than the shack behind Pete's Tacos. A Rodeo Drive storefront costs more than your mom's basement.
That is how it is. The Internet grew the way it did for a number of reasons, now though, it is just another way of doing business. If you want a better storefront, you pay for it. Does that give an unfair advantage to established businesses? Yes.
Welcome to the world of capitalism, where nothing is free except you.
Think for a moment how incredibly inefficient what you are proposing is. Every single time a company does something stupid that's detrimental to the rest of us we have to organize a boycott and start educating everyone else? No thanks.
We have government to make this process easier. It makes laws and it enforces them. We elect people run it for us. It collects taxes to finance itself. Perfect? Hell no. But government is certainly a of a lot better and reliable than having everybody trying to police everybody else. I don't know about you, but I prefer living in an advanced modern society instead of a cave.
So, now, go out and educate your law maker as to why they need to pass a net neutrality law and we won't have to revisit this issue again.
---Technology will liberate us if it doesn't enslave us first.
People don't understand issues such as these. When you tell people to go to a web site and they automatically put "www" in front of whatever you tell them, these are not the sort of people that will understand you or the need.
Things people will understand include their inability to record a football game because of a copy control flag in their digital TV signal. They understand what is directly standing in the way of their wishes. They won't understand why youtube is slow and why "ipaidvirgin-video.com" is fast... but they will presume the latter is better.
Unfortunately, it's not vandalism.
Doctorow's daughter with Alice Taylor, Poesy Emmeline Fibonacci Nautilus Taylor Doctorow.... Ouch; how can this child grow up normal with a name like that???
I'm confused.
"That's not a plus." Okay, statement of thesis.
"Greenpeace puts peoples lives at stake, and lies to bully large corporation (sic)." Okay, support of thesis. Though it's unsupported as a statement itself, let's take it as it is.
"Green Peace (sic) lost any vestige of what it was around 1980". I read this as "today, Greenpeace is horrible (see previous statement); it was around 1980 that they lost their way and descended into horridness." This is where I am confused, as that was around the time when Doctorow was a member, yet you state it's bad in your opinion that he was.
So, were they horrid even before 1980? Then I don't understand your statement about losing themselves. Did they become horrid in 1980 but where fine before then? Then I don't understand your statement about Doctorow campaigning for them being a negative.
How about instead of ranting and talking about boycotts, he and his gang of tech-hippies start some sort of movement where they either flat out block requests from certain ISPs or at least throw up a "Here's our complaint about this ISP and why you should be using them" interstitial? That's the sort of thing that gets people to sit up and take notice.
"We shall grapple with the ineffable, and see if we may not eff it after all." - Douglas Adams
Unfortunately, it's not vandalism. (sorry, posted this under the wrong comment earlier...then Slashdot wouldn't let me post a reply to your comment because the comment ID wasn't found...)
. . . bitter.
What, you think I'm joking?
We've gone from the Electronic Frontier to a bunch of company towns run by greedy bastards and populated by idjiots who are happy as long as their YouTube videos play OK.
Ahh so he was "that guy" at university. Campus-wide reputation for being rebel looking for a cause, always hatching up various plots to occupy the president's office, chaining himself to various things on campus, fighting "the man" wherever possible.
Often times "that guy" has a parent who is tenured faculty who keeps pulling his ass out of fire when he gets arrested by campus police for the 10th time. Invariably goes through multiple uni's without finishing his degree which is quite a feat considering it's really not hard to graduate with at least *some* kind of degree even for those who do not enjoy carrying the academic yoke (speaking from personal experience here).
- Toby
I can guarantee that it's more than just a blip on Virgin's radar today.
If you don't think internet word of mouth regarding a company's service, and some bad and highly visible blog posts about said company can do any damage, you might want to talk to the newly unemployed upper management from Northwest Airlines who just had to sell out to Delta because their reputation was so dismal.
Soon (and you can quote me on this), something similar will happen to United Airlines. There has been a constant drumbeat on the web from people who have had bad experiences with them. You should assume that they will soon merge with a company with a very good reputation, like Delta (but not Delta). In fact, you might want to make a play in the options market betting on that very thing (as I have).
It's worth noting that there is money to be made from the collapse of the US economy, and you can bet that the people who are in charge of our economy are making money that very way. Since I am charged with the responsibility of taking care of my family, I am following their lead and betting that we have entered what will be a protracted and very severe recession. In fact, betting on the miserable leadership of the Bush Administration in the options market has been so profitable, that I've been able to retire from being a wage-slave. I actually owe a debt of gratitude to George Bush for fulfilling every prediction that was made about his being a total failure. Most intelligent people predicted that he'd shit the country's bed, and he has exceeded every one of these predictions in both quantity and quality of shit.
You are welcome on my lawn.
He's the biggest fucking drama queen in all of blogland.
excuse me, this aint gonna be a smooth, politically correct post. im gonna flat out say what im feeling and thinking, as a customer.
you invent something new, you build an entire telecommunications infrastructure, hell, even a new medium, a way of life (internet) over it, it becomes a big success, and after a while a few FUCKTARDS comes up and and try to scuttle the CORE principle that made that big success for their personal greedy agenda. and furthermore, there comes a total PRICK, so PRICKY that he harbors the courage to SINGLE HANDEDLY trash and abolish those principles (net neutrality) in lieu of ENTIRE internet, internet tradition, all functioning services, companies and agreements up to date, in lieu of the LAW, in lieu of what they promised their customers, and anything.
im not a violent person. im a hippie in concept even. has history as my hobby and whatnot, and like classical music. but even i know that such people, who are that selfish and greedy enough to commit bastardizations like these in lieu of EVERYthing, deserve one single response : a strong, sharp kick in the middle of their face. literally.
Read radical news here
Seems the FCC only lets us have that in the 5Hz to 400 kHz ranges.
The FCC then sells the rest to corporations that in turn tax us for its use.
You are seriously dating yourself, just like I am without asking, "What's Webcrawler?".
It was sorta like Excite.
I think it's about time some major websites made an agreement to block all traffic from any ISP that distinguishes based on website. A deterrent besides "we'll tell our family and friends not to use Virgin" is something we really need. Normal people won't stick with an ISP that can't reach youtube.
[I don't actually know the technical details of how or if this can be done]
the gang that became Virgin Media is trashing Sir Richard's brand.
He does a fairly good job of that himself
You don't need to cancel your entire service to make a protest, you just need to switch to a lower tier service. In the case of broadband, that would mean dropping down from XL (20Mb) to L(10Mb), or down to M (2Mb), although the savings are not that much.
Virgin Media Deals
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
being one and the same company, have always been bastards. Here's my story.
/per day/ for the period my account was in the red;
/their/ mistake or take it up with my bank. Or face charges of attempted theft.
Not so long ago, I had an 8MBit account and two phone lines with them. £48/mo. Cool. Fine. Everything was hunky-dory, until one week before Christmas and two weeks before my paycheque landed. They applied their Direct Debit THREE WEEKS EARLY. Resulting in;
DD bounce, there being no funds to cover it;
Bank charging £25
The bank also charged me £30 for bouncing the DD;
ntl, as it was then, also tried charging me £30 for "administration costs" to cover the fact that their attempted theft was thwarted. A fact I made clear during a legal planning meeting at which not only the bank representative (the area manager) and the ntl rep (who just happened to sit on the Board) were present.
The settlement went as follows:
ntl were to dismiss the charges. The bank were to refer the charges made on my account to ntl. ntl had to pick up the tab for
In all that, not a single fucking apology from ntl for potentially fucking up Christmas with my family. Luckily my bank manager was a kind soul who advanced me enough cash to get over the three weeks until I got paid.
That was that, or so I thought.
Ten months later, my (now 10MBit) cable and two phone lines suddenly stopped working. Nothing electrical was wrong with them, so I called tech support. They claimed nothing wrong their end. After several weeks of trying to get this sorted out, during which time I informed VM in writing that they were not getitng any payments until the service was restored, I got a letter and statement from VM billing me for the princely sum of £166. A week later it was £260. A week after that it was back to £133.
I called VM and demanded to know what the balance in fact, was. They told me £133, which I duly paid at the bank. After five working days, I called them and asked where my service was. They told me the revised bill was now £166. Yes, they had received the £133, yet they had reneged on their promise to restore the service after payment was received. I politely told them to swivel on my suckstick and sent them a paper bill for the insane amount of money I'd blown in both time and in mobile tariffs calling them to get ripped off, and for the £133 back. I'm still waiting for my fucking cheque.
So yes, two years I've been VM-free, and I don't miss the ripoff bastards one bit. They can rot in audit hell for all I care, and to any shareholders reading this - may your portfolios be eaten by starving termites.
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
The average net user is also happy to buy (rent) music from iTunes, use Windows Media Center (crippled codecs) and not realise where their freedom is bing restricted. If you want to know what the net would be like without neutrality, look at the cellphone network. Thats so bad the telcos can even tell you what service your phone has to be connected. Imagine if Apple or MS paid Virgin, (or vice versa) to limit connections from Windows or OSX to their carrier only. There is nothing in law to stop it.
This is a perfect example not only showing that corporate greed is nothing new, but also showing that people, in their very basic ways, do not really change.
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams [...]."
After the unreliable Virgin trains, it has to be his dumbest move. What next? Virgin logos on anti-personnel mines and cluster bomblets?
Perhaps the Bearded Demon himself could redeem himself by coming out and publicly supporting net neutrality.
I thought Virgin was talking about tiered bandwidth. X dollars for slower bandwidth, XX dollars for medium, XXX for fast/capable of streaming HD pr0n? If not forgive me, but I think its fair to assess such tiered network schemes as a violation of neutrality. I get faster internet because I pay more. My service provider isn't neutral at all. They favor me.
In that respect, I think yeah, things are already not neutral. So if you want to throw a fit because your service provider gives you more for paying more, I suppose that's your right. As for me, I really appreciated when my service provider gave me the option of category 'XXX'. It costs more than I used to pay, but is totally worth it....Isn't that why I switched from dial-up?
Just in case this wasn't a rhetorical question:
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/03/fine-news.html
Who wants to grow up normal? What sane parent would inflict normality on their children?
Infuriate left and right
ATPEFNTD the name is long even as an acronym. Its so long you could write it as pant deft .... and write it as the acronym PD. Seriously the name is just too damn long.
Is this a case of Wikipedia vandalism, or does his insatiable attention-whoring extend to ruining his poor daughter's life? If I ever had a daughter, I would name her Princess Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Fana Bobesca III but I'm not sure if it's because I like Animaniacs or hate children.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Duh, she'll go by P. E. F. N. Taylor Doctorow. That's what I'd do if I had a fucked up first name.
Attention-whoring ... need you ask about someone who chooses such attention-getting causes?
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/03/fine-news.html
First hit on Google.
Lots of people have long, ridiculous names, though, at least in certain cultures. I doubt it's going to affect her life any more unusually than any other name. It might be indicative of a larger problem, though...
Individual consumers are paying less and less for their broadband, which must be a good thing. Right?
Well, it's very definitely not if you're an ISP. Their profit margins are falling rapidly, and they're still having to try and undercut the competition and spend increasing amounts on advertising to try and attract customers. A number of UK ISPs are in pretty serious financial trouble, and whilst I don't know if that applies to Virgin Media, they're certainly going to be looking at every possible way of cutting costs and generating additional income. The cost cutting will result in poorer customer service, and the additional income has to come from big business.
This guy may well seem to be an idiot for making his comments public the way he has, but I suspect that this was a well thought out tactic to blow the lid off what's been going on behind closed doors within the industry for a very long time. Right now, I wouldn't be surprised if most of the other ISPs in the UK (who are all basically in the same situation, whether they are prepared to admit it or not) are sh1tting bricks because they'll soon be in the spotlight as a result of this. It may even be that Virgin Media has calculated that they've the least to hide, and ultimately could come out of this in a much stronger position.
I actually find it almost refreshing that he's prepared to say what's actually going on in the industry, because whether you like the idea or not, *ALL* ISPs are under pressure from big business (who are their only source of *real* income these days) to give them preferential treatment.
I'd rather be with an ISP who was honest and open about doing things that I'm not happy about, than one who right now is sh1tting bricks as they are very likely to be exposed for past deeds. You know exactly where you are with a guy who can't keep his mouth shut, but know nothing whatsoever about someone who never opens his.
Look, I don't want to piss you off or anything, and I'm sure Cory is smart, but... what exactly has he done to prove it? I'm really not trying to be facetious.
He dropped out of four universities. He's a blogger. He writes science fiction about as well as Alan Dean Foster. Which is to say, mediocre science fiction. He started Boing Boing. He occasionally writes non fiction articles.
Am I missing something? Cure for cancer, grand unified theory, anything?
I'm sure Cory is both nice and smart, but his importance to a certain set of geeks seems blown way out of proportion to his actual accomplishments.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
amen, it's just like over in the US though. You have two choices DSL (Verizon) Outsourced tech support, no local office, slow speeds, unreliable service, even after talking to their tech support the best answers they can usually offer are to exchange the equipment. Cable (comcast) US based tech support, fast speeds, very reliable, local office, local office in case items need exchanged, only had to call them probably twice in 4 years. So if the UK market is anything like the US market, boycotts are fine, when you have a choice.
Dude, just look at his glasses. Look at all of the smart people's names he saddled his kid with. Can't you see that he's full of innovation and smart thoughts?
Exactly. 9 out of 10 marxists I've known came from privileged, intellectual households - often parents of professors, as you say. Doctorow's wikipedia entry says that he dropped out of four universities without receiving a degree. I suppose that he regards this as a badge of honour, maybe enjoying the implication that he's too intelligent or too special for a conventional education. How contemptible: most people are happy to just get into university, and regardless of the deficiencies of the educational system, work hard so that they can get decent jobs and have some kind of social mobility.That he got a high-level job at the EFF apparently without much of a resume suggests more benefits of a privileged background. People like this of course rarely acknowledge their privilege - they like to identify as working class, even though they've never experienced the real danger of being poor and not having well-to-do parents to bail you out, or not having an education that you can always fall back on. I read Doctorow's wikipedia entry and find him quite contemptible.
His bio smells like patchouli and he named his daughter Poesy Emmeline Fibonacci Nautilus Taylor Doctorow. If that doesn't make him a douche, nothing ever will.
That's because he's a hipster wannabe posing as a technology guru. Which wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't such an attention whore about the whole thing.
Google Mig Goggles Doctorow. I'm pretty sure *that* made him a douche long before he fucked up his kid's name.
That's not a plus. Greenpeace puts peoples lives at stake, and lies to bully large corporation. Green Peace lost any vestige of what it was around 1980.
Well, he was born in '71 so that gives him 9 years before your approval expires.
Great, now who's going to ride the Unicorn Chaser?
I like music
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
First, I like Alan Dean Foster. I was actually being charitable to Cory comparing him to Foster. Foster is a talented word smith with a good sense of pacing and dramatic tension. But he writes fairly pedestrian space opera.
Cory writes about some fairly interesting ideas, but they aren't really that original. And he doesn't know how to flesh them out into an interesting plot. It's almost as if they aren't really his ideas, and he didn't listen that carefully when they were being explained to him. His sense of pacing is a bit off, and his characterizations are flat. Especially women, who come off as caricatures.
I haven't had anything published, but I've read over two thousand speculative fiction books and stories. I've discussed the genre quite extensively. I'm objective enough to recognize a good author even if I don't like their style or subject. I think Cory is a halfway decent author, and I can actually finish his books without throwing them across the room in disgust. If there's no new Bear, Benford, Banks, Baxter, Egan, Gaiman, Gibson, Hamilton, Mieville, Pratchett, Robinson, Rucker, Simmons, or Vinge around, I might consider reading something he wrote.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
"All the way", meaning "convince enough potential customers to threaten the popular churn business model".
Churn, in the business world, is the ultimate in corporate mediocrity: Be cheap enough to keep costs to a bare minimum, but not so much to piss off everyone that hears about you. The core concept is that you don't care about customers leaving, because if you blitz the advertising channels with enough glowing info about you, there's always going to be a sucker who buys your products/services. The natural result of such a model is crummy service and crummy products, while putting piles of cash into the company coffers. This is also why I think that unless they get this message to enough Britons, Virgin will simply shrug and say, "There's plenty more customers."
The best way (and thus far, only way) to defeat this model is to inform the customer at the point of purchase (say, a Virgin Mobile kiosk) about the worst-case scenario in customer service, usually by handing out flyers on public property-- the objective is to make them decide that stopping being a jerk to their customers will help their bottom line more than continuing, because then they wouldn't have a swarm of former customers driving away their income.
"We are Microsoft. You shall be assimilated. Competition is futile."
You do realize it is a running gag, that xkcd started, right?
Just -1, Troll talking to another.
Cory,
You're probably aware of this, but your friend here is the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999:
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1999/19992083.htm
Note in particular the following examples in Schedule 2 of terms that may make a contract unfair:
1(j) enabling the seller or supplier to alter the terms of the contract unilaterally without a valid reason which is specified in the contract;
(k) enabling the seller or supplier to alter unilaterally without a valid reason any characteristics of the product or service to be provided;
- both of which it seems Virgin Media could reasonably be accused of in this instance. Apparently this is a legitimate legal excuse to cancel your contract.
Just -1, Troll talking to another.
Agreed. That name is child abuse, literally.
Who needs a degree when get a job working as a visiting professor for a year at USD without one?
It's not what you know, it's who you know.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
pefnTaylorDoctorow still looks like Hungarian notation though.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
In fact, he said it while speaking of himself in the third person. Dreamy!!!
In Information Week (and again)
About Information Week InformationWeek is a weekly print magazine that reaches 440,000 Business Technology professionals at more than a quarter million unique locations. It is read by Business Technology professionals whose titles span the IT spectrum and provides unique perspective and in-depth analysis on news, research and IT trends. Our mission is to help Business Technology professionals drive business innovation. And over the last 19 years, IT professionals have responded with unparalleled loyalty.
.
.
In The Guardian
About The Guardian The Guardian newspaper, of which guardian.co.uk is its online presence, was founded by John Edward Taylor in 1821, and was first published on May 5 of that year. The paper's intention was the promotion of the liberal interest in the aftermath of the Peterloo Massacre and the growing campaign to repeal the Corn Laws that flourished in Manchester during this period. The Guardian was published weekly until 1836 when it was published on Wednesday and Saturday becoming a daily in 1855, when the abolition of Stamp Duty on newspapers permitted a subsequent reduction in cover price (to 2d) allowed the paper to be published daily.
.
.
In Forbes
About Forbes Forbes.com Inc. is a leading Internet media company providing business information services and lifestyle editorial content designed to serve the needs of business leaders, professionals, investors and affluent consumers. The Forbes.com Web site, located at http://www.forbes.com/ is focused on the theme of wealth -- how it is created, how it is managed and how it can be enjoyed. The site includes daily original reporting on the business of technology; real- time business information news updates; the complete online editions of Forbes magazine, Forbes Global, Forbes ASAP and Forbes FYI; a powerful search engine with access to all current and archived Forbes content; stock and mutual fund stock quotes, and comprehensive company profiles; an expanded online version of the Forbes.com Best of The Web guide; and a wide array of interactive tools, calculators and databases, including the annual Forbes Lists.
.
.
In The New York Times (I sure as hell shouldn't have to find an about section for the NYT)
````````````````
As for you being an economist: I don't have access to your transcripts, and therefore feel unqualified to comment on your qualifications. However, if you have a blog concerning economics, and show a certain level of knowledge and understanding in it, I would be willing to call you an economist, as you would fit the definition
Just -1, Troll talking to another.
Most parents would want that.
While to us slashdotters being normal is some kind of curse. To a parent your kid never suffering stigma or harassment for being "different" is a dream. Your parents want you to settle down and have 2.4 children, like every (good) parent does.
I like muppets.
So every time you don't like the service a company is offering, have the government ban it?
Well, I don't like the fact that Nestle stopped making the Secret bar, can someone please pass legislation to bring it back?
Or we could just make our own decisions in life, rather than expecting the government to hold our hands from cradle to grave.
too != to You can preach to the converted and you can preach to the unsaved too. Though I'd prefer "as well" instead of "too" in this case.
has anyone found somewhere to complain at the group level? I can't find any way to contact the virgin group, just the individual company.
VLC Remote for iPhone and Android
You can easily obtain VM cable TV/BB without paying the fuckers a penny.
Step 1: Obtain an NTL 250 Modem such as this one: (check on ebay.co.uk, the fucking autowrap won't let me post a link even if i make it 5 lines long ffs... they go for about £20
Step 2: Not all modems are flashed, so you will have to flash the modem with the INFINITY firmware.
This will lock your modem to the maximum config file (20mbps).
Read the forums here for info on how to do that.
http://forums.digitalworldz.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=142
You will have to sign up for a free account.
Step 3: Sniff a new MAC address. You will need a working VM cable connection do to this, and a program. There are links and tutorials on the forum above. You need to change the MAC address on the pirated modem so it appears the connection is coming from the local area and not a MAC address registered 100 miles away.
Step 4: telnet in and change the MAC address to the new one. also change the default telnet u/p or VM will login remotely and brick it, (as in really brick it, not slashdot brick it), ou'll need to replace a chip to fix it
Step 5: Plug your modem into any coax. as long as it's live (i.e. connected to the green box) it will work. You don't need to have a current subscription with them! and the fuckers have no idea who you are as nothing is registered with them apart from the MAC.
It might be a good idea to spoof the MAC address of your router/NIC though incase they do investigate.
It's a good idea to read tutorials and get familiar before you go out and do this btw.
oh, and if VM do knock at your door, just tell them to fuck off, they're not the police.
NOTE - You can also pirate TV and get all the channels for free, with devices like the Dreambox 500c and Eurovox. Flash these with the Digitalworldz image via FTP (they have an Ethernet port), do a scan, and hey, all the channels! use a splitter to use the same coax feed.
FUCK VM! they treat their employees like shit, and spend more money on 1 advertising campaign than they spend on making their service actually work. First peak time capping, then phorm, now this.
Branson, I know you only own 10% of VM and it's still basically NTL, but fuck you.
120 characters should be enough for anybody
Such strongly worded protests will, I imagine, encourage other ISPs who are making such arrangements to cover them up and not publicize them.
Of course, Cory could have just changed ISP and pointed out the net neutrality without turning it into some chest beating exercise.
Corporations are perfectly free to engage in these sorts of practices because the law allows them to. If we want true net neutrality, we need to have laws created as we did for POTS telcos. Complaining about one company will not help, and will probably encourage others to keep their "arrangements" under wraps.
Convince the lawmakers, not the corporations!
I'm also flushing their stock on the next uptick
so much for your "kicker".
Hey, calm down a bit. First of all - they all do this. Haven't you ever noticed how certain kinds of traffic is obnoxiously slow? So Branston is saying that Virgin too do this. The big news is that he has the guts to tell it as it is. Maybe it would be worth looking at what kind of price plans he has in mind - perhaps you can pay a little bit more for your subscription and get better bandwidth, or something like that. As things are at the moment there are some bandwidth-hogs that pay the same cheap price as everyone else and almost blocks everybody else out at times.
Virgin Media (VM) is fundamentally a cable TV company that happens to sell phone and broadband on the back of their cable TV network. They are attempting to transition into an IP based world, and in doing that, it's not surprising they want to undermine rival systems like BBC iPlayer (which is how this net neutrality issue came up with VM). VM have their own video on demand system too ....
Actually, he's the largest shareholder, a position he assumed when ntl:Telewest (as it then was) bought Virgin Mobile (Virgin Mobile shareholders were paid in ntl:Telewest stock and as Branson owned the vast majority of Virgin Mobile, he ended up as the largest shareholder of the combined group).
Though he does also get shedloads of money for allowing Virgin Media to use the Virgin trademark.
Brilliant. Pre-naming your child Banana Fana would cause the Name Game to be an impossible recursive mess.
Planning to be moderated ± 1: Bad Pun.
Hat's off to Doctorow, I almost wish I was a current customer just so I could cancel along with him. As nice as it would be to see the FCC able to enforce net neutrality by law, this story serves as an important reminder that as consumers, we can act to directly influence corporations towards accepting net neutrality not only out of our ideals, but because in practice it's gotten damn effective results that we do not want to and should not have to relinquish.