Slashdot Mirror
Will Netflix Destroy the Internet?
nicholasjay writes "Netflix is swallowing America's bandwidth and it probably won't be long before it comes for the rest of the world. That's one of the headlines from Sandvine's Fall 2010 Global Internet Phenomena Report, an exhaustive look at what people around the world are doing with their Internet lines. According to Sandvine, Netflix accounts for 20 percent of downstream Internet traffic during peak home Internet usage hours in North America. That's an amazing share — it beats that of YouTube, iTunes, Hulu, and, perhaps most tellingly, the peer-to-peer file-sharing protocol BitTorrent."
Scare stories like this are used as a marketing chess move by the anti net neutrality lot of lobbyists.
Yes and of course, they are simple minded merchants. Chess is played by merchants and accountants; while philosophers and warriors play Go.
It is unfortunate that the people in power are also merchants and accountants. They will be more apt to respect the chess moves; while those of us who see the larger game in Go-- looking at the whole of the board, seeing how this move doesn't just change this area for the next few moves but alters future positions until the very end of the game dozens of moves later-- will see these chess moves as short-sighted self-serving drivel, and see the larger game taking better shape only if more care and consideration is taken before playing any move.
Of course, the merchants in power will play out with their fellow chess players, haggling over their simple goal of capturing or defending the king with no regard to how many pieces are lost on the board in the process by either side. Even if the businesses don't capture their king, they'll likely spread disaster before submitting to a checkmate; and both sides will think nothing of the destruction wrought, because one side won and the other lost.
Who cares about lost pawns when you won?
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