Slashdot Mirror
FCC Dealt Setback In BPL Push
SonicSpike writes in with word that an appeals court has dealt a setback to the FCC's plans to encourage broadband over power lines. The court ruled that the FCC erred when it withheld parts of the studies it had used in arriving at its position on BPL. The court did not rule that the FCC's decision was incorrect or that it should be revisited. According to the article, about 5,000 people nationwide subscribe to BPL in 35 pilot projects. We've been discussing BPL for years. "...a federal appeals court has sided in part with amateur radio operators who challenged rules designed to speed the nascent Internet service's rollout. When setting rules for BPL operators nearly two years ago, the Federal Communications Commission said it was trying to encourage deployment of a 'third pipe' to compete with cable and DSL services, while establishing limits aimed at protecting public safety, maritime, radio-astronomy, aeronautical navigation, and amateur radio operators from harmful interference. The American Radio Relay League, which represents amateur... radio operators, however, promptly sued the agency, contending that the FCC's approach was insufficient to ward off interference with its radios and inconsistent with its previous rules. On Friday, the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia on Friday issued a ruling (PDF) that took issue with the way the FCC arrived at its rules."
Am I the only one who takes it as a personal affront when people use obscure or ambiguous acronyms.
..and the BPL statistics board.. huh? Yeah BPL. So anyway, the board was..
These people just can't wait for someone to ask what the acronym means so they can go through the motions to utterly shame you.
For instance, if someone were to come up to me at the water cooler with this headline, it would go something like this:
===
Iam Beterthanyoo: "Hey, did you hear that the FCC was dealt a setback in the BPL push, it seems that BPL rollout is not going to be pushed anytime soon because there were problems with BPL research and BPL other things, and the BPL..."
Actual Message: PLEASE ASK ME WHAT BPL IS, I AM SMART AND KNOW THIS INFORMATION.
Me (interrupting): BPL?
Actual Message: Clarify please you pretentious fuck.
Iam:
Actual message: I'll pretend I'm assuming you didn't hear me correctly so I can drive the knife deeper when you are forced to follow up.
Me (interrupting): No, no, what is BPL?
Actual message: Yes I must not have heard you the first ten times you said BPL.
Iam: Ohhhhhhh...
Actual message: Well gosh I just assumed that you must not have heard me correctly because you can't possibly be asking for clarification of something so obvious. I am shocked at your complete and utter ignorance.
Iam: BPL stands for Broadband over Power Lines.
At this point Iam likely will not be able to resume his story because it was all a ruse anyway and all he was doing was trying to fit the BPL acronym into some fragments of the story until he could put you in your BPL ignorant place, he really knows nothing beyond the headline and what BPL means.
This is usually where I will counterattack and ask a (seemingly) informed question about the story.
Me: Oh, Broadband over Power Lines, was the problem the recent state initiative on property rights of the existing fiber infrastructure?
Actual message: Fuck you.
Iam: Yes, yes, something like that I think.
Actual message: Uh oh I'm caught. Bail out, bail out!
Iam: Anyway I have to get back to work.
Actual message: I'm off to find another victim.
===
The mentality is the same as the groups of girls in school who would make up their own language to talk to each other, then turn to the person next to them in class and say something to them in the language, sparking giggles all around from those 'in the know', as though the person is a complete moron for not being able to decipher that he was just called a cootie face in a made up language, the moron.
Well, if that's the case, as I will say to every respondent in a topic concerning Amateur Radio, post your call sign, so we can all verify that you are what you claim.
73 DE K2TIV/AG