Uh...if the telecoms could hand down a $25 surcharge without losing customers, do you honestly believe they would just leave that on the table? All businesses charge as much as they can based on the competition (or lack thereof in the wireless industry). Fines and taxes are NOT passed on to the customer, because businesses are already pricing their products to achieve maximum profitability.
You're an idiot if you think the Fairness Doctrine in any way "silences the opposition".
Also I'm sure the people escorted out of the premises while wearing anti-Bush shirts to Bush's speeches felt like the Democrats were silencing their cause.
I'm also sure the Democrats rounding up people at the health care meetings for bringing guns is indicative of.... wait they didn't do that? Oh nm...
My understanding of the situation is that Telstra also owns the middle mile in addition to the copper networks. If that's incorrect then please feel free to correct me. In places like the US, Canada, and formerly Britain, ownership of the middle mile by ISPs has been a huge conflict of interest that has stifled innovation and artificially inflated prices by an order of magnitude. In the US local ISPs were driven to extinction, and in Canada due to a toothless regulatory agency stocked by former telecom employees (the CRTC), a new ruling has relegated them to being mini-Bells. Canada has caps, and in the last few years they've actually shrunk.
Back to Australia, even if you have a choice of ISPs, it's not true competition If everyone has to rent lines from Telstra, who is itself providing services. Telstra no reason to update their infrastructure, as everyone is forced to buy from them, and they can charge exorbitant fees to those who rent from them. Yes regulatory controls exist, but in situations like these they are often bypassed or weakly enforced.
Even in the US rural ISPs have been laying out fiber methodically, without any help whatsoever from the government. I have little doubt that Australian ISP providers, if not for being gouged of their profits by Telstra, would have used their money to do just this.
As for content, I previously reiterated the fact that IPTV companies have to directly ask the Australian government for exemptions to the cap rule in order to provide their services.
Currently in Australia, content providers find it financially unfeasible to provide services locally to Australians because they will not be exempt from the ISPs' paltry caps even if they host their servers on the Australian mainland. Worst of all, Australians by and large do not engage in broadband/bandwidth-intensive services. Those paltry caps make even Youtube browsing impossible.
There should be some easy, regulated process for applying for cap exemption by hosting servers locally. Or even better, there should be rules forcing ISPs to implement these exemptions on their end. Then you would see an influx of locally hosted content due to the economic advantages of doing so.
Don't mistake "running over budget" for being cost ineffective. The reactor you're referring to in France is a 3rd generation reactor, the first of its kind. Subsequent reactors built on the same technology will naturally cost less and not be underbudgeted.
Since I don't want to wait for the post time limit to come up...
In a previous post you mentioned people should have more "personable responsibility" when it comes to food choices. That is a truly crass and elitist statement, and one of the reasons libertarians are such a fringe group. Not everyone wants to or cares about such intensive analyzations. We all have a very limited amount of free time in or day (many people feeling like they don't have enough as it is), and most people seem to value convenience over whatever it is you believe in.
Your faith in the getting "the word out" assumes that people have plenty of time and energy to analyze and decide for themselves. It also ignores the real-life consequences that involve people, especially kids, suffering before the word "gets out".
It also ignores the numerous new entities that will try to enter the market with substandard milk. Yes, even they will be pushed out by word of mouth, but not until they cause irreparable damage.
No. The government wants to completely separate the infrastructure owning part of Telstra that rents out bandwidth to wholesale customers, from Telstra the ISP that provides actual internet connections and service to end users.
This is essentially what they did in Britain with BT.
If they did this in Canada, Bell would be split up into two. Since the organization owning the infrastructure would be a separate entity than the organization providing ISP services, the infrastructure owning company would have no reason to force arbitrary limits wholesale customers.
It's funny because, if you've watched Outfoxed, this very legal argument is why no one has been able to bring a libel or defamation suit against Bill O'Reilly. He's a pathological liar, and it's impossible to prove he's intending to harm people with his lies and doesn't actually believe what he's saying.
Among a variety of points and arguments you could have made, you chose the "distance from nearest landmass" one. I have to say, you haven't started out too well.
Popular sites are hosted locally, on the "intranet" for that country. It's the most cost-effective solution for both ISPs and content providers. ISPs prefer that Australians use their cap on cheaply accessed services provided instead the country rather than on the expensive underseas cables, so they will do whatever they can to make sure content is hosted locally.
The most popular websites that provide the most bandwidth intensive services are hosted locally. It just makes sense for both the ISPs and the content providers.
As my earlier point noted, you do not receive an exception to your cap rule for traffic that remains within the country. In fact, most IPTV providers have to get EXEMPTIONS directly from your GOVERNMENT in order to avoid the caps.
Most comments about population density are particularly inane.
Most of Australiaâ(TM)s population is concentrated in two widely separated coastal regions ((http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Media?id=mp000282).
). By far the larger of these, in terms of area and population, lies in the south-east and east. The smaller of the two regions is in the south-west of the continent. In both coastal regions the population is concentrated in urban centers, particularly the state and territory capital cities.
Australia's population density at 30 June 2003 was 2.6 people per square kilometre, compared with 2.4 people per square kilometre in 1998. The Australian Capital Territory had the highest population density of the states and territories at June 2003 with 137 people per square kilometre
From what I can tell no one but you thinks Australian ISPs have engaged in "harsh competition", especially since TELSTRA OWNS THE ENTIRE INFRASTRUCTURE.
The bottom line is that you've never actually studied the financial logistics involved with providing broadband throughout your country. No one ever forces ISPs to reveal their internal statistics and costs. Telecommunications has been mostly unregulated, and your claims of 'competition' are ridiculous when you have such paltry caps. Studies indicate Australians don't even make use of modern-day services like Youtube nearly as frequently as other nations.
Hahaha. Your standards are so low it's laughable. "Generous download allowance" of 35 gigabytes? Your attitude is mind-numbingly ignorant.
If most of your data went through underseas cables, then why does your cap apply to all traffic?
You also realize most of the popular sites Australians visit are hosted locally in Australia, right? This reduces costs for the content providers as well as the ISPs.
Japan is a similarly isolated island country, and yet affordable 1 gbps connections are proliferating in urban areas.
Do you fully comprehend that the institution of caps is a gross abuse of the progress of internet technology? Speeds (and routers) increase according to Moore's Law. You should be experiencing internet speed increases on par with hardware speed increases.
Really it's about time. From what I've heard, ever since Telstra went private in 2006, they've been nothing but a nightmare for Australians as well as the government. They've had such an adversarial relationship with the government I imagine they managed to make a good deal number of enemies.
I think this quote from Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is extremely apt: "For years industry has been calling for fundamental and historic micro-economic reform in telecommunications," Conroy said. "Today we are delivering this outcome in Australia's long-term national interest."
There are many countries around the world that could use this sort of reform. For some strange reason internet-related telecommunications has managed to escape government regulation and oversight ever since its inception. Despite the fact that internet speeds increase according to Moore's Law (http://www.physorg.com/news151162452.html), internet service has stayed stagnant or even increased, with price increases and the institution of caps.
My guess is the old-timer politicians could never properly understand the "new fangled technology", and as newer, younger, and more tech-savvy politicians make it into office they are able to see how the industry has abused its unregulated position for so many years.
...Which is why we've used government regulation for the past several decades to prevent companies from putting out ultra-cheap, break-in-a-few days products (like shoddy housing construction).
If you really want better-quality products for higher cost, than simply create a government mandate for it. However in reality there is always a balance that's struck.
Maybe this is different than the experiences of many, but my *middle school* in 6th grade had a mandatory touch typing class for everyone. This was 10 years ago.
What you've described is basically the premise of every Gender Studies class. Well, except that the teacher will argue that all women are angels and all men are evil creatures who oppress aforementioned angels.
To be fair, there are good teachers who will reward you for putting in effort to thoroughly explain a dissenting opinion. But the level of indoctrination that goes on in these feminism-oriented classes is just plain scary.
Yet another reason I'm glad I'm Asian and not white.
I know this is about FPS's, but I think this issue somewhat applies. Mod me offtopic if you must:
You know how to *ruin* a game's immersion factor? Make it *third person* behind the friggin' back.
Thankyou, Dead Space, I forever will appreciate the giant, virtual avatar taking up half my screen as I desperately attempt to maneuver the camera to see what unseen monster has popped up out of nowhere to slice me in half.
Kudos to Resident Evil!
How can the Fed inflate currency when it doesn't even print money?
Inflation isn't even necessarily a bad thing as long as wages keep up.
Thanks to the Bush Administration's complete lack of funding for basic science research our economy's ability to create new high-paying, quality jobs floundered for the last decade. Once proper government policy is in place, along with a new Fed chairman when Bernanke is ousted in 2010, we'll escape from this worthless, lost decade that Bush put us through.
Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power.- Benito Mussolini
Maybe I'm being sensationlist, and mod me down if I am, but to me the RIAA and the PRS's influence on their respective government's policies seems to reflect Mussolini's statement.
Slashdot Mirror
tl;dr
Uh...if the telecoms could hand down a $25 surcharge without losing customers, do you honestly believe they would just leave that on the table? All businesses charge as much as they can based on the competition (or lack thereof in the wireless industry). Fines and taxes are NOT passed on to the customer, because businesses are already pricing their products to achieve maximum profitability.
You're an idiot if you think the Fairness Doctrine in any way "silences the opposition". Also I'm sure the people escorted out of the premises while wearing anti-Bush shirts to Bush's speeches felt like the Democrats were silencing their cause. I'm also sure the Democrats rounding up people at the health care meetings for bringing guns is indicative of.... wait they didn't do that? Oh nm...
My understanding of the situation is that Telstra also owns the middle mile in addition to the copper networks. If that's incorrect then please feel free to correct me. In places like the US, Canada, and formerly Britain, ownership of the middle mile by ISPs has been a huge conflict of interest that has stifled innovation and artificially inflated prices by an order of magnitude. In the US local ISPs were driven to extinction, and in Canada due to a toothless regulatory agency stocked by former telecom employees (the CRTC), a new ruling has relegated them to being mini-Bells. Canada has caps, and in the last few years they've actually shrunk.
Back to Australia, even if you have a choice of ISPs, it's not true competition If everyone has to rent lines from Telstra, who is itself providing services. Telstra no reason to update their infrastructure, as everyone is forced to buy from them, and they can charge exorbitant fees to those who rent from them. Yes regulatory controls exist, but in situations like these they are often bypassed or weakly enforced.
Even in the US rural ISPs have been laying out fiber methodically, without any help whatsoever from the government. I have little doubt that Australian ISP providers, if not for being gouged of their profits by Telstra, would have used their money to do just this.
As for content, I previously reiterated the fact that IPTV companies have to directly ask the Australian government for exemptions to the cap rule in order to provide their services.
Currently in Australia, content providers find it financially unfeasible to provide services locally to Australians because they will not be exempt from the ISPs' paltry caps even if they host their servers on the Australian mainland. Worst of all, Australians by and large do not engage in broadband/bandwidth-intensive services. Those paltry caps make even Youtube browsing impossible.
There should be some easy, regulated process for applying for cap exemption by hosting servers locally. Or even better, there should be rules forcing ISPs to implement these exemptions on their end. Then you would see an influx of locally hosted content due to the economic advantages of doing so.
Don't mistake "running over budget" for being cost ineffective. The reactor you're referring to in France is a 3rd generation reactor, the first of its kind. Subsequent reactors built on the same technology will naturally cost less and not be underbudgeted.
Since I don't want to wait for the post time limit to come up... In a previous post you mentioned people should have more "personable responsibility" when it comes to food choices. That is a truly crass and elitist statement, and one of the reasons libertarians are such a fringe group. Not everyone wants to or cares about such intensive analyzations. We all have a very limited amount of free time in or day (many people feeling like they don't have enough as it is), and most people seem to value convenience over whatever it is you believe in.
Your faith in the getting "the word out" assumes that people have plenty of time and energy to analyze and decide for themselves. It also ignores the real-life consequences that involve people, especially kids, suffering before the word "gets out".
It also ignores the numerous new entities that will try to enter the market with substandard milk. Yes, even they will be pushed out by word of mouth, but not until they cause irreparable damage.
No. The government wants to completely separate the infrastructure owning part of Telstra that rents out bandwidth to wholesale customers, from Telstra the ISP that provides actual internet connections and service to end users. This is essentially what they did in Britain with BT. If they did this in Canada, Bell would be split up into two. Since the organization owning the infrastructure would be a separate entity than the organization providing ISP services, the infrastructure owning company would have no reason to force arbitrary limits wholesale customers.
It's funny because, if you've watched Outfoxed, this very legal argument is why no one has been able to bring a libel or defamation suit against Bill O'Reilly. He's a pathological liar, and it's impossible to prove he's intending to harm people with his lies and doesn't actually believe what he's saying.
Among a variety of points and arguments you could have made, you chose the "distance from nearest landmass" one. I have to say, you haven't started out too well.
Popular sites are hosted locally, on the "intranet" for that country. It's the most cost-effective solution for both ISPs and content providers. ISPs prefer that Australians use their cap on cheaply accessed services provided instead the country rather than on the expensive underseas cables, so they will do whatever they can to make sure content is hosted locally.
The most popular websites that provide the most bandwidth intensive services are hosted locally. It just makes sense for both the ISPs and the content providers.
As my earlier point noted, you do not receive an exception to your cap rule for traffic that remains within the country. In fact, most IPTV providers have to get EXEMPTIONS directly from your GOVERNMENT in order to avoid the caps.
Most comments about population density are particularly inane.
Most of Australiaâ(TM)s population is concentrated in two widely separated coastal regions ((http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Media?id=mp000282). ). By far the larger of these, in terms of area and population, lies in the south-east and east. The smaller of the two regions is in the south-west of the continent. In both coastal regions the population is concentrated in urban centers, particularly the state and territory capital cities.
Australia's population density at 30 June 2003 was 2.6 people per square kilometre, compared with 2.4 people per square kilometre in 1998. The Australian Capital Territory had the highest population density of the states and territories at June 2003 with 137 people per square kilometre
From what I can tell no one but you thinks Australian ISPs have engaged in "harsh competition", especially since TELSTRA OWNS THE ENTIRE INFRASTRUCTURE.
The bottom line is that you've never actually studied the financial logistics involved with providing broadband throughout your country. No one ever forces ISPs to reveal their internal statistics and costs. Telecommunications has been mostly unregulated, and your claims of 'competition' are ridiculous when you have such paltry caps. Studies indicate Australians don't even make use of modern-day services like Youtube nearly as frequently as other nations.
Hahaha. Your standards are so low it's laughable. "Generous download allowance" of 35 gigabytes? Your attitude is mind-numbingly ignorant.
If most of your data went through underseas cables, then why does your cap apply to all traffic?
You also realize most of the popular sites Australians visit are hosted locally in Australia, right? This reduces costs for the content providers as well as the ISPs.
Japan is a similarly isolated island country, and yet affordable 1 gbps connections are proliferating in urban areas.
Do you fully comprehend that the institution of caps is a gross abuse of the progress of internet technology? Speeds (and routers) increase according to Moore's Law. You should be experiencing internet speed increases on par with hardware speed increases.
Really it's about time. From what I've heard, ever since Telstra went private in 2006, they've been nothing but a nightmare for Australians as well as the government. They've had such an adversarial relationship with the government I imagine they managed to make a good deal number of enemies.
I think this quote from Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is extremely apt: "For years industry has been calling for fundamental and historic micro-economic reform in telecommunications," Conroy said. "Today we are delivering this outcome in Australia's long-term national interest."
There are many countries around the world that could use this sort of reform. For some strange reason internet-related telecommunications has managed to escape government regulation and oversight ever since its inception. Despite the fact that internet speeds increase according to Moore's Law (http://www.physorg.com/news151162452.html), internet service has stayed stagnant or even increased, with price increases and the institution of caps.
My guess is the old-timer politicians could never properly understand the "new fangled technology", and as newer, younger, and more tech-savvy politicians make it into office they are able to see how the industry has abused its unregulated position for so many years.
I am SO sick of Google. They are giving every corporation a bad name by being so unevil.
...Which is why we've used government regulation for the past several decades to prevent companies from putting out ultra-cheap, break-in-a-few days products (like shoddy housing construction).
If you really want better-quality products for higher cost, than simply create a government mandate for it. However in reality there is always a balance that's struck.
Maybe this is different than the experiences of many, but my *middle school* in 6th grade had a mandatory touch typing class for everyone. This was 10 years ago.
You *still* haven't watched the full video, have you? *facepalm*
Is there a similar mod for Fallout 3?
Nintendo and its much maligned focus on SD for this generation was proven right.
On the other hand, I'm pretty sure HD will be standard among all next-generation consoles in 2012.
What you've described is basically the premise of every Gender Studies class. Well, except that the teacher will argue that all women are angels and all men are evil creatures who oppress aforementioned angels.
To be fair, there are good teachers who will reward you for putting in effort to thoroughly explain a dissenting opinion. But the level of indoctrination that goes on in these feminism-oriented classes is just plain scary.
Yet another reason I'm glad I'm Asian and not white.
I know this is about FPS's, but I think this issue somewhat applies. Mod me offtopic if you must:
You know how to *ruin* a game's immersion factor? Make it *third person* behind the friggin' back.
Thankyou, Dead Space, I forever will appreciate the giant, virtual avatar taking up half my screen as I desperately attempt to maneuver the camera to see what unseen monster has popped up out of nowhere to slice me in half. Kudos to Resident Evil!
What about in the rain, on a train?
Wasn't Intel recently slammed by the EU for anti-competitive behavior? I guess that's their version of not "slacking"?
How can the Fed inflate currency when it doesn't even print money? Inflation isn't even necessarily a bad thing as long as wages keep up. Thanks to the Bush Administration's complete lack of funding for basic science research our economy's ability to create new high-paying, quality jobs floundered for the last decade. Once proper government policy is in place, along with a new Fed chairman when Bernanke is ousted in 2010, we'll escape from this worthless, lost decade that Bush put us through.
Where can I buy some of their stocks?
Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power.- Benito Mussolini Maybe I'm being sensationlist, and mod me down if I am, but to me the RIAA and the PRS's influence on their respective government's policies seems to reflect Mussolini's statement.