"Absolutely right. I've often wondered why we don't treat internet service like any other utility. If I use more water, I get a larger water bill. Same goes for electricity. Why don't we do the same thing for ISP's?"
Because with bandwith you are not actually using anything. Its a faux concept (along the lines of copyright) If i download 1 megabyte or 2 megabytes it is no different to their equipment.
"he BBC pays for upstream bandwidth. Consumers pay for downstream bandwidth. But ISPs don't actually have the bandwidth they're selling,"
Exactly - nobody does. Which is why bandwith should be free - subscription fees should pay for what hardware is needed, but its not as there is a great wear and tear from invisible bytes going through the equipment.
"isn't it better to have a well-read populace who disbelieves and doubts everything? and how do you train such a populace? you throw bias at them from every monitor and printed word, and you train their mind like a muscle to develop an extremely strong and sophisticated bullshit detector"
*BONG* - the bullshit detector just went off.
You have a population which disbelieves everything, but most of them base their belief on what they feel not what they know. (I suspect this is a side effect of religion, where its fine to believe in the unprovable based on what you feel)
"Astrology is sort of a flawed mental shortcut for understanding the world, but so is disregarding someone because of their spiritual beliefs"
Disregarding someone because they believe in superstitious nonsense is a flawed mental shortcut? And opinion i suppose from someone with flawed mental shortcuts?
"I love it when arts majors try to emulate Orwell and struggle hard to dream up "dystopian" scenarios in anything and everything to appear sophisticated in the eyes of their colleagues..
God only knows we are living in dystopian times, with our society under attack from left, right, and corporate interests which don't fit into any pat category.."
" No, not everyone is a lifelong learner. That's the ideal not the reality. Just look at how hard it is for some older people to pick up computers after 40."
The mind, like a muscle, atrophies if not used - it doesn't have to be hard, but many don't tax their brains after leaving school.
Slashdot Mirror
Because its not a resource which is consumed, used up or produced. Subscription should be for hardware maintenance, and bandwidth free.
"A team of European scientists has deliberately triggered electrical activity in thunderclouds"
As opposed to all those times they did it by mistake, eh?
"Absolutely right. I've often wondered why we don't treat internet service like any other utility. If I use more water, I get a larger water bill. Same goes for electricity. Why don't we do the same thing for ISP's?"
Because with bandwith you are not actually using anything. Its a faux concept (along the lines of copyright) If i download 1 megabyte or 2 megabytes it is no different to their equipment.
"he BBC pays for upstream bandwidth. Consumers pay for downstream bandwidth. But ISPs don't actually have the bandwidth they're selling,"
Exactly - nobody does. Which is why bandwith should be free - subscription fees should pay for what hardware is needed, but its not as there is a great wear and tear from invisible bytes going through the equipment.
"Our legal system may permit a certain level of litigiousness"
Wow joke of the day! *lol*
that transfer should be free, and that its greedy ISP's trying to make money from nothing.
It makes sense (except in texas where it is outlawed)
Or you could grow up.
I know, but you can't edit the comments here...
And not interesting to the mail scientists ;)
Though unless i can train the software, I strongly doubt I shall agree with its findings.
"isn't it better to have a well-read populace who disbelieves and doubts everything? and how do you train such a populace? you throw bias at them from every monitor and printed word, and you train their mind like a muscle to develop an extremely strong and sophisticated bullshit detector"
*BONG* - the bullshit detector just went off.
You have a population which disbelieves everything, but most of them base their belief on what they feel not what they know. (I suspect this is a side effect of religion, where its fine to believe in the unprovable based on what you feel)
"no media ever dies"
You wish.
"television was supposed to kill both radio and the movies"
Not really.
"no one wants to see indiana jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull in your parent's basement by yourself on a 19 inch monitor"
But many will be fine with seeing it in their livingroom on their 30 inch monitor.
"one answer: trust
like the story summary suggests, user generated content sucks."
But a lot of people especially the newer generations *trust* it over other media.
"this form of online content obviously isn't a threat to anything newspaper's do,"
Yet they, and magazines, are going out of business like nobodies...
"and so the newspaper will morph into a less prestigious role in society, but it will never die,"
Naa, you can still find them at the Smithsonian.
Assuming of course you know of whom I speak.
We want religious crackpots we can turn on the news.
"The miniseries and first season of BSG was probably the best science fiction even made for television."
If you like that kind of science fiction.
Well that's nothing new, they revealed that in the same episode they revealed that Thor and O'Neil were replicators.
"Astrology is sort of a flawed mental shortcut for understanding the world, but so is disregarding someone because of their spiritual beliefs"
Disregarding someone because they believe in superstitious nonsense is a flawed mental shortcut? And opinion i suppose from someone with flawed mental shortcuts?
What the heck is he smoking?!
"I love it when arts majors try to emulate Orwell and struggle hard to dream up "dystopian" scenarios in anything and everything to appear sophisticated in the eyes of their colleagues..
God only knows we are living in dystopian times, with our society under attack from left, right, and corporate interests which don't fit into any pat category.."
So... how's life as an arts major?
Actually evolution is a fact. The theory is us trying to explain how it works.
" No, not everyone is a lifelong learner. That's the ideal not the reality. Just look at how hard it is for some older people to pick up computers after 40."
The mind, like a muscle, atrophies if not used - it doesn't have to be hard, but many don't tax their brains after leaving school.
"From the summary there's no sign that the article says anything about what I regard as the largest misperception"
... surely the largest misperception is that it is just a theory of something possible.
And unless i blinked, neither did you
You must record it and publish on youtube :)
"Are athletes going to be allowed to blog about Chinese human rights issues?"
Yes. They'll be shot afterwards, but they can write what they want.
Bla bla.
You said it didn't work - that is a lie, it does.
But its too slow, try this one instead - also free:
http://www.docu-track.com/home/prod_user/PDF-XChange_Tools/pdfx_viewer