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Washington DC is Most Wired Region in the U.S.
There it is, at the very top of the front page of my Sunday Washington Post: a story claiming that almost 60% of all adults here in the D.C. metro area have and use Internet connections. You can read it online here. The story itself is interesting - it gives up-to-date connection stats for the whole country, by region - but what I found most fascinating about it was that a year ago this article probaby would have been buried back in the business or sci/tech sections, but now the Internet is hot-hot "general interest" news.
Probably somewhere in Hawaii. You know how hard it is to stretch a phone line over there? Much less cable. Seriously tho, I used to live in Kailua, Hi, and it seems like that would be one of the last places to get hooked up. Granted, it was four years ago, so things may have changed. But that's my guess.
How much is it costing you students for the DSL? Is it the same as dial-up? Or, is this one of those invisible tuition costs?
:-p Dialup is free through the university, but I can't stand using a modem after a year of Ethernet, so we had to get DSL... and fast DSL. We're paying ~ $200/month for 1.56Mb SDSL through IBS, with free installation (or rather, we pay $200 for installation and then will get a $200 rebate)
Well, since I moved off campus this year, I no longer have access to the university's internet connection through Ethernet
"Software is like sex- the best is for free"
I'm posting to /. using Alsa Vistas free access(free beer) and it's not costing me a dime. nada, zippo, bupkiss, null, not a thin red dime, nuthin'. There are others (Netzero comes to mind) that also offer free dialup access to the net.
How's the service? sometimes I have to dial twice, but I usually I get a 40+k connection (better than my last ISP). Yea sure I have to look at adds, but I just put the add in the corner of my 2nd monitor and ignore it.
I would have to agree that MONEY=FAST ACCESS, but right now, ~50K access has a very low cost right now, and will be getting cheaper.
Sorry, but what are you smoking?
Of course it makes it more wired: people getting online, surfing, netgaming, emailing, telecommuting etc is wired behavior whether it's over a modem or a T3.
DC may not be cutting-edge like SV (heh, you think?), but in my book wired means "connected" more than "state-of-the-art".
Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it. --Gandhi
I'm at a little engineering school in northern New York.. There are maybe 15,000 people (residents and studetns) living the town and atleast 2500 of us have 100Mbit lines plugged into the tail end of our machines.. The folks in town don't have it quite so well, with their bandwidth limited to 56kb access.. But almost everyone I've talked to in the last year or so has some sort of network access (and that includes non-geeks, i.e. artists, and people I run into from time to time in the woods)... I'd say per capita, DC is no better off than many other portions of the US.
ah, bullshit. when a computer is not your job, and you're not really tech oriented, you have other things to do away from a computer. checking your email and occassionally chatting with friends consumes about 2% of your day.
c) A better music scene in general. Does Minneapolis have the 9:30 Club? I think not. How many bands actually tour through there anyhow?
No, but we do have First Avenue, and many others... Minneapolis has a very cool music scene. In the past couple years I've seen Radiohead, Soul Coughing, Semisonic (twice), Dave Matthews Band, Fatboy Slim, and Moby, just to name a few, and I don't even get out to concerts that much, considering I live an hour and a half away, whether I'm at school or at home.
I don't think it's fair to say "a better music scene" unless you've actually experienced both for yourself...
This is not intended as a flame, I'm just sick of people condescending to Minnesotans (and Midwesterners in general) for not being "cultured."
paranoid.android
ADSL is all over the place here, through both Bell Atlantic and other companies, and several communities have cable modem access as well.
they should really check my dorm room. I am beginning to think that we have a fire hazzard in here. two TV's, a VCR, a stereo hooked to the VCR for the TV, two Nakamichi tape decks and a Pioneer reciever (for my Grateful Dead stuff heh), another stereo, three computers (two w/monitors), two printers, a DVD player, a minidisc player, and ethernet cables running everywhere... normally this wouldn't be alot. But in a room the size of my bathroom at home, hhe, it is :)
*burn baby burn*
Don't forget the complimentary bucket and flute music at the Metro exits.
The proper way to determine how wired a place is is to devide its processing power by its area. If you look at my server closet and where i charge all the laptops in the house, it has a tiny area and big processing power.
xm@GeekMafia.dynip.com [http://GeekMafia.dynip.com/]
see above
I rarely give a "so what/who cares" attitude but this will be an exception.
For some people, getting on the internet means that you are technologically competent and up-to-date. We all know what getting-wired says but most people misinterpret what it means. Getting on the internet has nothing to do with reaching a new level of technological competence. It is, perhaps, a level higher than getting another TV.
I am pretty sure us slashdot people actually use technology to it's most. But most people I know still use the internet for chat and porn. If this is what the internet is for, then how is "getting wired" a good thing.
Chat and porn are two things I stay away from. They are addicting things that doesn't do much more than eat brain cells. Is this what the information age provides?
Come on people. Most of us have access to vast amounts of information, more information than anyone had in our past. Don't waste it.
So don't misinterpet what "getting wired" means. Only for people who exercise self-restraint, getting a connection to the internet would be an improvement. Everyone else is wasting an incredible resource.
(Sorry for ranting)
***Beginning*of*Signiture***
Linux? That's GNU/Linux to you mister!
Of course it's on the front page of the newspaper of the region rated number 1.
Think about that a moment, it IS general interest to the area in which the newspaper covers. It's not suprising, just like Comdex being in town being on the front page of the Las Vegas Review Journal isn't suprising, but rather general interest.
Keep in mind that a lot of those Washington folks get online with Erols, so it's not that much of a bragging right (g).
If only Bell Atlantic would get off their monopoly asses and get some DSL to the east coast, then the DC corridor could have something to brag about...
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
So what? The reason they're probably the most wired is because that's where all my taxes go at the end of the year!!!
I think my basement is more wired than 90% of the slashdot readership - but I'm not going to go out of my way to highlight this fact. The main reason being if anybody ever came downstairs, they'd instantly notice I probably have more old chinese containers, wrappers, empty pop cans, and cardboard pizza thingies than most of the slashdot readership! Washington DC may be the most wired, but I wouldn't want to live there for atleast two reasons - a) ever look BEHIND the whitehouse? An expansive ghetto stretching for miles and miles. It was a stagnant cesspool some 200 years ago and very little has changed. The second reason is there's nobody to have a good conversation with down there. I mean with all those politicians, all you'd get when you asked them what they did was "National security, can't tell you." or "Well, I believe in the American Way and blah blah blah... blah blah.. next question!"
Sigh. Give me good 'ol Minneapolis any day.
--
DC? What's DC got going on, other than a lot of government mumbo-jumbo? Or have they upped their stats by offing and deporting the poor and clueless? -/\/
(In a related story, retail porno shops are noticing a 60% drop in sales. Just kidding.)
Seriously, does anyone know what the literacy rate for the same area is?
_______
2B1ASK1
This is sort of a question for "Ask Slashdot" but when do you guys think that we'll have near 100% of people in industrialized countries will be online? The Internet is getting so pervasive that this is inevitable, it's just a matter of time.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Don't envy us.
The DC area *does* have plenty of connectivity (thanks to the Federal Gov't's needs) and especially in Northern Virginia, there are many big "dot com" firms, ISPs, and co-lo facilities. Local streets are in a constant state of disrepair as more fiber is laid.
But the *net attitude* of the area is still mired in political-style thinking and addressing issues as policy matters rather than real action. Virginia's governor is making a big deal about our status as a hub of the internet. I wish he'd pay as much attention to our roads and mass transit mess! (At least he doesn't claim he invented the Internet!)
The contrast betrween, Silicon Valley and the DC area is striking. It will be a long time until the "go for it" thinking I see in the valley is prevelant here.
-br77-
There are invariably quite a few holes in this report. First of all, the Washington DC "market" seems to have included quite a bit more than just the DC area. Nor does the report list all the markets surveyed. And perhaps most importantly, the survey is only of adults, not the total number of people online. What about the kiddies? They're often online more than the parents in the family. This could definitely sway the ratings a bit. Strangely enough, I heard a report not long ago that the Tampa Bay Area of Florida had some of the largest connectivity in total -- that is, the percentage of adults and children online. This wasn't even mentioned in the report. However, I have talked to people in the Tampa Bay metropolitan area, and if you're not online there, you are most certainly the odd one out. After all, Time Warner and GTE are two competing cable companies in the area (a rare situation). Both provide cable and cable modem services, while GTE also offers DSL ont he telephone line. So it's not surprising that quite a few people in the area are online. Nevertheless, this particular study would be biased against the area, because although almost every kid in the area is online (only met one who wasn't, but he can get online at his high school), there are a ton of elderly people in Florida who have no interest in the Internet. So instead of balancing everything out, Tampa Bay gets thrown lower on the list. :-)
I suppose my point here is this: take these studies with a grain of salt. Every study will be different, and can thus be interpreted differently. So just read the fine print and don't take anything too seriously.
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The "I-4 Corridor" -- the next Silicon Valley?
As for the music scene (while the 9:30 club is cool, and there's nothing like hfstival ANYWHERE), you're ignoring the local music scene. The D.C. Ska scene has been thriving for years, the dc hardcore scene is getting tons of attention now, and we've got the Maryland punk scene to draw off of. Oh, and I know how you feel. I'm stuck in Blacksburg at the moment.
Well, to be honest, I get enough of computers at home and at school, and 1 (yes, one!) computer is enough for me to run my irc and to let me read my email and to browse slahsdot.
I couldn't agree more. Maintaining a lab of twenty-four machines with both Win95 and linux, IP and NetWare, etc. all day at school is enough. I get to play with fun networking stuff at school. But when I come home, the one machine is all I need.
My dad is always messing with his computer at home; installing software, changing settings, changing out hardware, etc; and his machine is down more often than it is up. But he barely uses a computer at work. For me, I don't play with my computer any more than I play with my television or VCR. I got that out of my system my first two years or so of college.
There is definitely a difference between playing with your computer and playing on your computer.
Graham "Teach" Mitchell, computer science teacher, Leander HS
not exactly, with all the high-tech firms in the area it makes sense for this high number.There was a recent news story stating more people in the DC area worked for high tech firms than the government. So that 60% is high-tech firms employees the 40% government workers.
YEAH! Balt-DC/MD/VA has some of the greatest soul/ska bands around, including the checkered Cabs and the PIETASTERS!
/. poster #104543567
Checkit - http://www.baisoftware.com/dcska
-stax
Also, eliminating the infrastructure eliminates a single point of failure. They have been reliable so far but they might not always be that way. We need wireless! It is no longer neccessary for utilities to control the local communication channels when we have wireless and broadband. Utilities should be restricted to the backbones connecting large areas. Local should be broadband all the way baby. Give every person a "broadband ip" in a given town and let them do whatever they want. Local comm utilities are nothing but leeches today. They *aren't neccesary* anymore. Power co's will be around for awhile but we need to lose the dead weight of the local tel and cable co's ASAP.
These are the markets they researched.http://www.scarborough.com/scarbny/m arkets.htm
Any questions?
What about the kiddies? Who cares (sorry kids). They just don't control enough disposable income to have an influence on a market.
And I'm in the Washington Suburbs.
You'd think that with so many people concentrated in one are with a Net-centric attitude that you'd see less crap coming out of the area with regard to regulating said attitude.
*sigh*
Put a million monkeys in front of million computers, and you still just get a lot of dumb looking monkeys.
I'm not really surprised to see that Austin comes in third. Having ubiquitous connectedness makes my job easier, because I can just assume that 1) almost all my students have access to a computer at home and 2) more than half have internet access (probably closer to 75% with the demographic that takes my class).
Thus I can provide DJGPP for my students to download so they can work on projects at home and therefore I get to see higher quality work. Also I keep all my assignments and notes, etc. on a web page rather than using photocopied handouts or having to write quite so much on the chalkboard. And I know that a plurality of students could get to it from home if they are absent, whatever.
The URL to my class web page is linked from my personal home page, in case anyone wants a flashback to high school computer science.
Graham "Teach" Mitchell, computer science teacher, Leander HS
Wonder how this would change the governmental's view on privacy. I've always thought that if the people whom we've foolishly elected were subjected to the same scrutiny and invasions of privacy that have become endemic, then encryption would enjoy the right kind of attention. Course I am not so naive to belive that this will make any difference whatsoever.
Chris DiBona
--
Grant Chair, Linux Int.
VP, SVLUG
Co-Editor, Open Sources
Open Source Program Manager, Google, Inc.
Having lived in DC (in the middle of NW)the past 3 years, the only thing that makes DC "more wired" is nearby AOL (and alot of other companies across the river in Virginia). In the metro DC area itself, they've only started rolling out cable modems, and the current DSL options barely covers any location.
But isn't the purpose of the Doomsday machine lost if you keep it a secret!
And yet for some reason Defcon gets a somewhat different type of press.
Canada is certainly one of the most wired countries, but I doubt it will ever be the top. We will always be ahead of our brother to the south, but there are several smaller countries that boast nationwide rates of 80% connectedness. Finland for one is a big adopter of technology. The U.S. is in the poorest position for growth in technological areas. Canada is in a prime position because of it's lack of existing outdated infrastructure. Finland and other european countries, in contrast, have an underlying infrastructure so old it makes no sense to 'update' or 'upgrade' but to just start from scratch. The U.S. is still in a position where it's old telephone networks etc will still be upgraded rather than tossed aside, making it a slower and more expensive process to jump technologies. I don't personally know a single person that is not connected to the interent, and i even know of a few that are connected, and don't know what a modem is.. or ever will. Canada is great that way, we have as much fibre as we have roads, (well that might be extreme) so fibre to every neighborhood is not an impossible idea (exists already in alot of places.) The best example of recent canadian developments are the new truly digital neighborhoods.. not an analogue line in place, not an anologue phone or modem.. nothing.. all products are digital and have to be to operate within the completely digital communities. There is a new digital community called 'citiplace' in ontario that boasts 12,000 residents living in a completely digital environment - all powered by Canada's newest international provider Telus Integrated Communications. From what i have heard it is a sight to see.. digital video phones everywhere.. even for access to the doors - which is cool you get to see a blind date before meeting him/her so you can fake being away if he/she is ugly!!
No nightlife? Ever heard of the 9:30 Club perchance? Not to mention many other clubs in that area. What would you do in an area with a nightlife, other than sit on Slashdot all day?
---
"'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
"'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
Quine "quine?
Having 100% people on the internet should never be the goal. Contrary to what you might think, there are many many people who should never use the internet. They don't need it. It is kind of like drivers in metropolises. How many of these people could use public transportation instead of yet another vehicle on the streets. But too many people use somethinng because everyone says they should and they end up using it for no good reason.
Push the internet into homes and get more chatters and porn surfers. Push private transportation and we get accidents.
I say that technology belongs in the hands of those that need it. Everyone else are fine without it.
***Beginning*of*Signiture***
Linux? That's GNU/Linux to you mister!
I guess that depends on what you are looking for in a city. Of your list, only reason d) and maybe e) would be something I would care about. Even then, education and the availability of tech jobs would be the most important. I couldn't give a rat's ass about diverse and/or interesting people to talk to.
On the flip side, I would rather have Minneapolis' weather. I prefer nice artic-like winters compared to the wimpy Southern winters and the drivers who freak out when a few snowflakes hit the pavement. The summers in either place would be ok with me.
the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
We may have a lot of people on the net, but everything sucks. Here in Northern VA, we may have a lot of people connected, but its all thru crappy ISPs such as Erols... We have nothing such as ADSL or even cable modem service. Broadband is just an unfufilled dream for me. I believe last time I checked around, there are only about 5 ISPs serving me with local numbers. =\ This is no techie haven.
"There is no surer way to ruin a good discussion than to contaminate it with the facts." -- Cecil Adams
well, i live in DC [district of corruption] and everyone here who can start windows and browse the internet w/ frickin IE thinks they are somthing special. and dont even get me started on the kids in my old school that know about 2 MSDOS commands and think they are hackers. its ridiculous. and then people who have less skills than those of us in this area who are trained get better jobs than us because they took an MCSE class and didnt actually LEARN anything and just memorized crap from books. im sorry. im just mad. thanx. "life is like a video game with no chance to win" -atari teenage riot. neonmatrix@netscape.net
Global warming is good for you!
Your all wrong.. Think Alaska..... thousands of miles of nothing but forest or tundra.
Double you double you double you dot some dumb site dot com.
One would think that advertisers would set up intelligently-named multiple records, eg:
www.buycrap.com
web.buycrap.com
buycrap.com
and give the radio people a break! At least they're not pronounching the aych tee tee pee colon slash slash part. Yes, Prodigy, CIS and AOL really had something going with those simple English keywords.
I have to take exception with sich comments as "...except for when you have to listen to ignorant midwesterners who've never been here talk about how horrible DC is"
[rant] Most of us have 'been there' and 'done that' and have settled into the rest of our lives in peace and harmony, building comunities, and raising families on solid footing. DC is a hole. Like so many empty calories in a BK drive-through, the town is filled with a psudo-educated transient society that couldn't care less about building a comunity . . . . . . . and it shows. [/rant]
The Occupied (formerly "United") States Radical Socialist Genocidal Death/Satan-Worship Party (a.k.a. "Democratic" Party to media brainwashed masses) has wired Washington DC (which they call "Mastery Power Base C" in internal documents) for perfect surveillance of slave-"citizens" and spying on the few legitimate US government personnel (GOP) still inside the Beltway.
So is this a surprise?
It's interesting to see a genuine fact finally appear in the media, but without the context it's meaningless. If you don't know why it happened and what it means, it looks like progress forward rather than the triumphant conclusion of Step 3, Phase 2, Dominance Plan R, which calls for total IFL ("Information-Flow Lockdown") in "Mastery Power Base C" (their code-name, as stated above, for Washington, DC).
Step 1 was IFL in "Mastery Power Base A", the Occupied Territory of California.
Step 2 was IFL in "Mastery Power Base B", the Occupied Territory of New York and Massachussetts.
As you can see, in spite of their anti-wealth socialist ideology, they understand the true nature and strength of capitalism and they concentrate on the true centers of power first: The centers of technology production, finance, and education. Now that the economy is entirely in their grasp they have finalized control/dominance of government apparatus, preperatory to nuclear holocaust on American soil.
I fear for the future.
Sorry, my bad.
To give the rest of the world some additional perspective on this, it was just decided that the Metro system will do a trial extension of weekend hours from midnight (the current closing time -- no, I am not making this up) all the way to 1 AM. This was after a big debate between extending weekend hours to 1 AM and the "radical" proposal to extend weekend hours to 2 AM.
/.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
The "Washington Area" often means from Fredricksburg, VA; to Winchester, and including Baltimore. It's an awful big area.
On the flip side my own observation is that most of that area is about average or a little above when it comes to number of computers or Internet access. Then there are areas like Fairfax county which is just off the charts. Plus Arlington, Alexandira, Loudoun, and Montgomery also have high penetration of technology in most parts of those counties.
I once heard a statistic (around `96) that there are more computers in homes in Fairfax than residents. Homes seems like a stretch (but close if not true), but if you count in computers in offices then the machines probably outnumber people 2 to 1. Many people have two or three machines on their desks to support different levels of classification. It's in interesting area.
The NYTimes had a similar story on Tuesday, which probably prompted this Post story. Interesting point: it says several studies show Metro DC has more engineers and programmers than Silicon Valley or Route 128.
Read it, with free signup, here
Actually, Palo Alto and Menlo Park, CA (VC ground-zero) have more lawyers per capita than DC.
(Frightening, huh?)
--Al
What are you talking about? I live in Mtn View and pay $10/mo. for my DSL connection.
Okay, so Pac Bell made a billing error and forgot to charge me the other $39.
The major Candian cities have access to cheaper Internet because their infrastructure is newer, and they have a concentrated population. It's hard to justify cable (let alone cable modems) in the Wyoming wilderness for the 3 or 4 people that would want it.
However, Toronto and Montreal are by no means tiny cities. See if anyone along the circle in Canada has cheap access to broadband.
Inner cities get hit twice. They have older infrastructure (built when the neighborhoods were mostly blue collar Caucasians), and they have less affluent residents. Thus, the wiring is expensive to upgrade, and you have a lower subscriber rate due to the fact that the residents aren't able to justify the expense.
--Al
DC's a great place to work (I work on Capitol Hill for the House of Representatives). There are a lot of places that are beautiful and there are some "bad" parts, just like any city. I agree, the area around the 9:30 club looks horrible...broken windows, dirty buildings and streets. I've only been there twice at night (I saw Creed and Stabbing Westward) and I never got a very safe feeling. I don't know why they don't move that club...if I was a band I wouldn't want to play there. It's not nearly as bad in the inside though, but we can blame the outside on Marion Barry's crack habit. :)
In contrast, Silicon Valley is full of intellectuals. (I personally find it hard to believe that there are more wired people in DC than SV!) I personally find it probable that the report is including the type of person that has a computer and checks their email with it once or twice a day, and looks for sports, etc as a 'wired individual'.
If this is the standard for a wired individual, I'm fairly nonplused.
The difference is, in SV, most individuals actually know what they're doing on a computer, they know how to use how to use it to benifit their minds. In DC, people are most likely using the 'Net due to the fact that it is culterally hip to 'logon'. People in SV do it for the mere sake of knowledge - and in turn, make it hip.
I personally see the reason for the use of the internet as directly proportional to the mindset of the people. Do because it's cool, or do because it can benifit your mind.
And in no way am I saying the net isn't cool. It is. I just love it to death due to the massive amount of information available.
I wonder if I could download 2GB in pi calculation from anywhere? :)
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CAIMLAS
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
I've seen better bands give free concerts in the D.C./Baltimore area than the bands you just listed.
I'm sorry, HFS sucks...they're a bunch of posers. They're owned by MTV for God's sake. The only good thing they do is the HFStival. HFS doesn't even play Metallica. I mean, come on, even *after* Metallica sold out, HFS of all people should be playing them. DC101 kinda sucks too, but 98 Rock is great. Gotta love Aq!
I wish HFS would just pay more attention to the ska/punk scene surrounding them and not the current top 20 hit songs.
:)
How was the last HFStival, anyways? The one at PSInet was horrible, just because it was too crowded...and there were too many little kids running around...and their parents were up in the good seats doing stuff I thought was silly to do at a concert. Like reading books or painting. I mean, if they were actually going to do that, couldn't they at least go up to the very top? Or something... rant rant rant
That's *three* Shakespeare theaters. The Shakespeare Theater, Washington Shakespeare Company, and the Folger.
I'm thinking of taking a turn out on the West Coast for a couple of years, and that's definitely going to be the thing I miss, the sheer depth of culture. Yeah, SF has a great opera and there's some fine museums here and there, but nothing like the range you get in places like DC and New York.
...into how many live in the city and how many live in its burbclaves.
.GIFs of dinosaurs that little Ashley can embed in her book report, and read those stock quotes! You are part of the information aristocracy, and "your" city is just a preview of the technofeudal paradise to come.
DC is one of the worst examples I have ever seen of a city held hostage by its suburbs. There are wide swaths that were burnt in the 60s MLK riots THAT STILL HAVEN'T BEEN REPAIRED. This is because they are out of sight of the federal office buildings, and therefore don't exist.
The majority of city residents are black and well below the poverty line. I'd be surprised if %30 have ever touched a keyboard, outside the context of a slave-wage data entry job. The public schools will never expose city children to technology, since they're having trouble keeping the school lunch program afloat after the last round of federal cuts.
But don't worry, Mr. AOL marketing manager [or you, Ms. Assistant to the DoA's Deputy Director].
Your kids are going to Thomas Jefferson HS in Northern Virgina, which has a glut of infotech facilities and specialized research labs that puts most universities to shame.
So keep emailing photos of the kids at King's Dominion to grandma, keep surfing for
If you think DC is good, come up to Toronto for a visit... you won't want to go back! It's very safe, there are no ghettos, we have a great music scene, great nightlife, the 3rd largest live theatre centre in the world, sophisticated people, a lot of hi-tech companies, officially the most diverse city in the world, etc. I've heard a lot of Americans describe the people as being like San Franciscans and the city itself as being like a smaller New York. The only downside is it's colder in the winter, but not nearly as bad as a lot of other places (you don't need a block heater, and we don't get a lot of snow like Buffalo).
My paycheque, and those of most readers here depends on that. Stop pushing flashy, kewl, electronic gadgets and software to people that do not need it and most of us would end up on pogy ( canadian for unemployment insurance )
cheers, Frank
A truth that's told with bad intent, Beats all the lies you can invent. -- William Blake
Couple O' comments. Sunday evening rant.
1) I've lived in DC for almost 10 years, but
I've always worked in MD or VA. That's how
it works. Very few jobs in DC. It is a damn
shame, since DC looses all the state income
tax on those jobs, and there is no way (thanks
to congress) we could pass a commuter tax (like
NJ) and get some of that money back.
2) The DC Metro area is wired. But mostly this
means Northern VA. There is some big horken
OC-128 (or whatever) out by Dulles airport.
That's why AOL moved there, I guess. But in
the District proper, I don't think so. I still
dial up to a place in MD.
3) Politics in DC is bizzare. DC had a referendum
(on medical marijuana) and some damn
congressman from georgia said THEY COULDNT
RELEASE THE RESULTS. Can you believe this?
Remember, we get taxed, but don't get a
congressman or any senators. This is not just
a few people, but 6 hundred thousand people!
If you described a city in the balkans that
was treated the way DC was people would send
in troops. (ok, perhaps I'm a little over
the top here).
4) The things people say about the radio and
nightlife are true. The radio is a wasteland.
If it wasn't for "Thistle and Shamrock" I'd
give up on FM (except for classical) completly.
And the place shuts down at 10PM. The day
we moved here, we finished unpacking about
11 and wanted dinner -- tough luck (this is
in SE. Georgetown is probably different.
5) Capitol hill (where we live) is kind of a
wierd mix of city and small town. We like
it (the small town part of it). Plus beer
is cheaper here than MD or VA. So screw it.
We're staying.
Enough for now.
-- cary
I'm right of the Eastern Market Metro stop in DC (six blocks from the US Capital) and had DSL installed back in August. Bell Atlantic had some problems getting it in, but it was damn worth it! As a side note, the company I started working at on Wed. has thirty employees sharing one 56.6k connection. So... that's thirty more people in the DC metro area with a internet connection (nevermind the worst bandwith I've ever heard of)
somobody moderate this AC up. he's got a good point on the development of connectedness.
cheers, Frank
A truth that's told with bad intent, Beats all the lies you can invent. -- William Blake
How can you say that Salt Lake City is a fairly normal city. The local government is more like a theocracy than democracy. With the Morman Church dominating and directing the city and state, what sort of life can you lead? Example: to drink in SLC, you have to become a member of a bar (try bar hopping... you'll end up in jail...)
As far as I can figure about DC, residents are not living in the United States of America, but in the United States... this means we are essentially on the same footing as Guam. I'm down on South Carolina SE and just got a DSL line put in. Email me at settled_drifter@yahoo.com if you want to hear about the stuff they don't tell you or what ever.
How about instead dividing the total bandwidth available to a region by its area? The result would be a completely useless but semi-useful "bits per mile" number that we could put on maps. ;)
The Canadian Government has been working on making Canada the World's most connected country, and IIRC, CBC announced last fall that as much as half of the country has direct access, and there are thousands of CACI (Community Access Centres for the Internet)s across Canada allowing nearly every Canadian to get on line.
:) (I do, anyway)
Gotta love social democracy
OFTC: By the community, for the community
Well, let's say 20% live above-ground, and are basically normal ppl that watch football instead of reading slashdot.
I have a theory that the other 20% aren't wired to the internet because it would violate the strictest security protocols, and that they live underground and do weird, weird shat!
-S
We got no baseball, our hockey and basketball suck. Unless you were born in the area, you hate the Redskins and don't want to go to the games. Our nightlife sucks, unless you think drinking Heinekens in Georgetown is cool. Have you ever heard of a band from DC? There are no alternative Radio stations. (WRNR is in Annapolis). Our museums have the same exhibits as they did 20 years ago. The public TV and Radio is really corporate media. The Washington Post is stale and boring. This is the only city in the US where people actually enjoy talking politics over dinner. If you have one beer in a bar, the cops will ambush you and perform zillions of tests on you.
Jeez, the only way to have fun here is to log on and surf.
Of course it's on the front page. If 60% of adults in the area would be interested in this subject, then the story will sell more papers. It's also a way of bragging to the Nation about the study's results. DC/MD/VA have been drooling long about having a richer techno-presence. The article is intended to attract more outside talent to migrate to the region, as well. And that means more hitech advertising dollars spent in the Post. Yes, the area is wealthy... to a fault. Even during the Bush Recession, you wouldn't have known the economy was in trouble in DC/MD/VA.
Uh, what's happening CC? They still call it the White House But that's a temporary condition, too. Can you dig it, CC? To each his reach And if I don't cop, it ain't mine to have But I'll be reachin' for ya 'Cause I love ya, CC. Right on. Gainin' on ya! Get down Gainin' on ya! Movin' in and on ya Gainin' on ya! Can't you feel my breath, heh Gainin' on ya! All up around your neck, heh heh Hey, CC! They say your jivin' game, it can't be changed But on the positive side, You're my piece of the rock And I love you, CC. Can you dig it? Hey, uh, we didn't get our forty acres and a mule But we did get you, CC, heh, yeah Gainin' on ya Movin' in and around ya God bless CC and its vanilla suburbs
I wouldn't be surprised if it was my very own central wisconsin... yay, we get DSL in 3 years.
Seriously, what area of the United States is the "least wired"?
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"They misunderestimated me." --George W Bush, Nov. 6, 2000
Tutti Frutti is more like it.
Agreed. I think utilities like electric should be forced to a non-profit status. It would change nothing, you'd still have workers getting paid the same but you'd eliminate the greedy pigs at the top from making money off of a monopoly situation and I really feel quality would be concentrated on more since failure would be a let down in the community. I think cabling is fine for local infrastructure, but it must be publicly owned and people should be free to place cabling on poles without having to pay for the priviledge. To be honest I could wire the whole damn city with high speed network access extremely cheaply with just the waste of large corporations. Many of them toss out unused spools of cabling like fiber and coax. Not to mention all the ATM equipment the military goes through like water which they simply send to a junkyard in working order.. often hardly used. This equipment doesn't belong in a fucking junkyard it belongs to people who could do good with it. Unfortunately city hall would be opposed to this since they seem to love the local telco so much. They don't like proactive individuals I guess.
I live in Maryland, DC metro area. BellAtlantic ADSL is widely available everywhere around here, and if BellAtlantic does not offer service in your area, there is always Flashcom and CAIS Internet.
I had mine since May. I have yet to see a friend who could not get a DSL connection even though he tried to. And BellAtlantic offers good service, I have a 640K link and am quite happy with it. Now this is the scene with Maryland, I know downtown Dc and Virginia are even better wired with many more connectivity options. Business grade DSL is available almost everywhere in the DC metro area, and the area is home to DIGEX, so no connectivity problems here.
Looks like you're really misinformed about the area. DC area is a great place to live in, when it comes to Net connectivity. No cable modem service yet(at least where I live), but DSL wins hands down since it is very convenient to have a single bill for phone and Net.
Zigbee Central: A Zigbee weblog
Why does our (residents of the U.S.) government still work on ideas based on the notion that information only travels as fast as the horse? I do use the term 'work' lightly...
It takes three hours for Congress to come to a vote on whether to let 'good old' Jesse Helms get out of his chair to take a crap (which would actually explain a few things if it were true), and about thirty years to decide whether to stop testing nuclear weapons.
I guess it's not enough to have enough nukes to destroy the world several times over -- we need to do more R&D with fresh new information, so even more can be leaked to the Chinese! Beneath the tense surface of Sino-American relations, there's a lot of butt kissing going on by U.S. politicians on both sides of the floor -- in another 100 years, China won't have to be quite as nice.
You can't moderate the truth, which this is unless you count the crack about Senator Helms...
--
E2 IN2 IE?
I live in Fremont, CA where I have a cable modem (for $50/mo) and I'm moving to Mtn View home of Netscape and the new Microsoft campus) where the best I can do is DSL, with $400 in installation and hardware, and $79/mo for half the speed of my cable modem. It's bizarre that DSL would cost so much in one of the wealthiest parts of Silicon Valley, and AT+T/TCI still haven't got cable modems out there.
:^)
In contrast my mother, who lives in Winnipeg (Canada's answer to Cleveland) can get a cable modem for CAN$39.95 or DSL from Manitoba Telephone/Bell Canada for CAN$49.95.
All major urban areas in Canada now have DSL and most have cable modems. A basic unlimited dialup account runs as low as CAN$9/mo., and rarely more than CAN$20 even in isolated rural areas or the north. ISP access in Iqaluit costs less than in Indiana.
I have hopes that this might spur some serious growth in Canadian tech buisness - I'll take Montreal over Palo Alto anyday. But, as I understand it, Finland and Iceland are still the ranking champions for 'Net access.
Social democracy triumphs again. Smoke that, Mike Harris!
Cowed into submission by the accounting department. Can't convert from Metric to English.
The one major drawback to being so connected is that underground service line cuts seem to be a major problem in the region. The diggers keep the utility-locator services so busy that the locators can't seem to keep up... in most of western Fairfax county there is an ongoing major replacement of underground electrical transmission lines. That work has obliterated the cable system in some neighborhoods. My cable modem works fine on the downlink, but the uplink is suffering from a couple of local digging accidents that cut the line past my house. It still works, but it's really dogging it on the uploads. I noticed that the locator service did not mark the location of any of the cable-TV lines in the neighborhood, so it looks like they're going to bill the power company for the repair.
Kris
Kriston J. Rehberg
http://kriston.net/
Kriston
You will be re-educated.
I've never been educated, and I'll never be RE-educated, and I'll defend my right to the peace and security of MY OWN MIND with my LIFE if I must.
What you poor dumb liberal pawns don't realize is that a Free Man just doesn't care about your terror tactics.
Over the situation in DC. At least in Guam (or Puerto Rico, or any other possesion) The people don't have to pay federal income tax. DC residents do. Hmm... I seem to remember something about "Taxation without representation" upsetting people about 200 years ago, but I just can't seem to remember where this happened :) -- cary
Michael, who can only connect at 56k
The reason is that the 60% wired refers to the DC metropolitan area, which includes many affluent suburbs in Maryland and Virginia. If they limited it to DC city limits (like the literacy statistics), the number would be far lower.
go masturbate with Pat Robertson and Rush
The article quotes a study done by Scarborough Research of New York whos research markets include 64 major media markets from Albany, to Wichita ... this research apears to be pretty solid.
I can remember the first time seeing a URL in a print Add. The first time a URL was on the radio. Now, this year, the majority of the add money being spent on the Super Bowl will be done by internet related companies. It's good to see our little web all grown up. :)
Boy, am I glad I chose to go here at the University of Maryland (8 miles outside DC, baby!) While being this close to DC may not be a good thing, we still have good internet access, and we're getting 1.56Mb SDSL installed TOMORROW!!! WOOHOO NO MORE OF THIS MODEM BULLSHIT! (no thanks to Bell Atlantic, I might add)
"Software is like sex- the best is for free"
Actualy, BEHIND the White House is the Elipse and behind that is the Washinton Monument and be hind that is the river and behind that is Virginia (no comment) and behind that is the rest of America, including "good 'ol" Minneapolis. Is that the ghetto you were talking about? Sure, There are ghettos in and around D.C. just as there are in most metropolitan areas.
:)
There are also alot of area residents that do not work for the gummit in any way, myself included. Perhaps you should think or learn before you spew flame bait all over these hallowed pages. Were you home schooled?
Don't diss D.C. Have a nice day
"pull my finger" - Uncle Chuckles
but I wouldn't want to live in Minneapolis. Washington's got:
a) A better theater scene. Half a dozen repertory troupes, plus a pile of others. We have our own french theater, our own Shakespeare theater, etc etc etc.
b) A better classical music scene. Leonard Slatkin and the NSO. 'Nuff said. (and you can go to free concerts year round)
c) A better music scene in general. Does Minneapolis have the 9:30 Club? I think not. How many bands actually tour through there anyhow?
d) More interesting people to talk to. Washington is an extremely well educated city and is very diverse.
e) A better location. I can get anywhere on the east coast relatively quickly. Minneapolis can't say that, and you're not even in California to make up for it!
f) Better weather. Sure, the summers are too hot. But everyplace is airconditioned, and the winters aren't 40 below!
I don't claim Washington is perfect. The traffic bites (officially worse than LA! woohoo!). And the city itself is a miserable place to live, due to years of mismanagement. Only 500,000 of 5e6 area residents live in the city -- you guessed it, the poorest 500,000 for the most part. The suburbs are very nice. Fortunately, the city does seem to be slowly turning around. But for all that, it's a beautiful city to visit, and the public parts (the Mall, pretty much all of NW) is very nice.
Of course, what do I know, I'm stuck in Pittsburgh.
I wonder how the DMA size (Designated Market Area) affects these figures. They mention that Pennsylvania is included, and I know a few neighborhoods that have people who commute to Philly and people who commute to DC.
If these areas are included in the DC DMA, then there's probably a lot of people who work in Philly included in the figures. Same thing for Baltimore.
Is it really fair to include these 'mixed' neighborhoods in any one DMA? Especially if a large percentage consider themselves to be 'residents-in-self-imposed-exile' of another area?
Salt Lake City, where I live, is one of the top five. As far as workforce distribution goes, Salt Lake is a fairly normal city (unlike DC or San Francisco; sure, SLC has some high-tech, but not much), and here it's just kinda assumed that you're online. If you go into stores like REI (an outdoor supplies store which sells hiking, camping, rock climbing, kayaking, etc. gear), the sales people will routinely tell you to go to such-and-such a web site if you ask them for a product they don't carry. The radios and my mailbox are dripping with competing ads for *DSL and for cable-modem. Etc. It really is starting to become ubiquitous here.
At the same time, though, I'd be willing to bet that the 50% here that are wired are mostly east of I-15, and the 50% who aren't are mostly west (which is the poorer side of town). Class distinctions are alive and well in the Internet age, unfortunately.
Keep in mind, though that SF is bigger than DC, and as a per capita, probably has fewer technology workers. DC has WAAYY too many defense contractors, etc. In fact, the Post had an article last week that IT workers now outnumber Govt. workers in the area.
Also, SF has Pac Bell to deal with and while Bell Atlantic is dismal when it comes to service, Pac Bell is even worse (their DSL network was out for at least 3 days last week with no resolution in sight).
I miss my two-way broadband cable modem I had in Pittsburgh... 50 kilobytes per second on a busy night... *sigh*
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I think that a war was fought in that place you're talking about. The guys that thought taxes should equal representative power eventually won and decided to punish the power-elite by creating a city where the taxes are ungodly high, the mayor is a crackwhore, and the one elected representative is a figurehead with no real power. I'm proud to live in such a city.
Judging from some of the comments (no I didn't read every single one but the ones that were moderated up were pretty ridiculous) no one has anything intelligent to say.
/. But then I read all these posts about how high the average intelligence on /. is. I beg to differ. I bet it looks just like a plain old bell curve.
First of all has any of you ever been to the Library of Congress? Last time I checked they get every book that is published in the world within hours of its publishing. That alone would make DC the information capital of the country if not the world. If you include the embassies and museums a pattern starts to form. Being wired would only be an extension of that.
Contrary to popular milita rhetoric "real people" do live in DC. And guess what most of then are from somwhere else originally or at least one or two generations removed.
We have lots of jokes about you guys (the tourists) that make the tech jokes against newbies seem docile.
And to be a little more informative DC is really considered the Metropolitan Area including Northern VA and parts of MD. So then that would mean that the majority of the backbone providers actually exist in relative close proximity to DC. Hmmm... wonder why DC is the most wired city?
Of course you all send your scummiest state residents here to represent you and then you rag on are our city because we have to live with your unwanted. What's the point?
Not to mention the fact that we are taxed and yet have no vote in congress. Damn, I thought that was taxation w/o repersentation? No it's not says your reps, "DC can't be self-suffecient it's our playground!" That sucks. I know I am rambling and ranting but this shit is ridiculous anytime someone or something gets props that doesn't fit the tech status quo they/it gets raked over the coals on
If you can't tell I have been totally Offended
(once again).
nothing excels in every environment
This article, while seeming pretty well put together on numbers, fails to deliver on causes. The best they have to offer:
Observers suggest several explanations for why Washingtonians, whether at home or at work, are the most wired. One is the close to 3,000 technology companies, whose approximately 250,000 workers not only are online but, consciously or not, proselytize their friends and families to get online, too.
seems weak at best. Other areas in the US have huge concentrations of IT workers, chief among them San Francisco. If they talk to all their friends and their friends' friends and get everybody onto the net, why doesn't the Bay area have the lead for most wired? A better reason could be money: Metropolitan DC has the highest average income in the nation. So money correlates more closely to net connectivity than frequency of IT workers. Which means the best way to get your region better connected is to bring in more dollars, not necessarily bring in more tech companies.
With all the hoorah about it being the most wired community, I can't help but wonder where the most "wired for HIGH SPEED" community is.
I heard something about (Oswego, Oslo, something like that), KY being heavily wired up, as their cable access is provided by their electic company, who also provides their internet. I know they have, what I consider to be very low ($20 a month) access charges, which probably makes a big difference.
I guess what I'm getting at is, what city uses the most BANDWIDTH. I don't care about how many homes get on the net to check their email, or chat. I wanna know WHERE the most HIGH SPEED GEEKS are.
Besides (and yes, I know all politicians don't live in DC, but I used to live there, and there are quite a few), I'd bet that the same cities that were listed highly in the article are also in the same contention for MOST WIRE-TAPPED... hehe. Oh well.
Today's lesson on public utilities (telephone, cable tv, electric, water, gas):
"We setup a microwave link from a bank in Massillon to a satellite office in Wadsworth. You know what that means?"
"Uh, yea."
"It means that they can get long distance phone calls to Wadsworth for free now... I say if you can fuck the phone company then YOU FUCK 'EM. Any public utilities... gas... electric... YOU FUCK 'EM. They're out to fuck you and when you have the chance you take it."
Not my words, but it sums up the way I feel about these companies. There isn't going to be any "wired" areas until these people are eliminated.