So are you saying this a good thing? You sound almost defeatist. Yes big corporations get away with a lot of things that they should not, and little corporations dream about having the power to do the same - does this mean we should give up and let them?
Should we not try to level the playing field - either through regulation or by creating oppurtunities for competition through other means (startup grants and the like for new companies)?
And no, the telcos could not charge the ISP even for the use of the phone network. If VOIP grew so big that it supercedes the phone network, what would they charge for? The telcos would be demoted to being merly the providers of physical interconnectivity between ISPs or between ISPs and end-users (let's not even go into the whole wireless issue)
This is what free enterprise is all about. Faced with the threat of the loss of telephone services the telcos of the world must either adapt or find a new line of business (which they will inevitably screw up like they have the analog phone system)
If they are smart, they will move onto become ISPs themselves, which is what many of them are doing, such as QWEST, AT&T, etc.
I didn't see any one mention it, so I thought I would. There is a great company in the UK, codefree.com. For the uninitiated, they take off the shelf consumer DVD players and modify them to disable the macrovision and enable all 6 regions (via adding extra some extra ICs)
Obviously, this violates the manufacturers warranty, but they offer their own warranty for the same term as a replacement. The only downside I can see is that if you don't live in the UK, you have to pay for international shipping plus you may get killed on the monetary exchange rates depending on your country of orgin.
Has anybody here on/. tried them, I would be curious of any reviews as I have not tried them yet, but I am seriously considering it.
For the electronicly inclined, they also offer do-it-yourself kits for most major models.
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So are you saying this a good thing? You sound almost defeatist. Yes big corporations get away with a lot of things that they should not, and little corporations dream about having the power to do the same - does this mean we should give up and let them?
Should we not try to level the playing field - either through regulation or by creating oppurtunities for competition through other means (startup grants and the like for new companies)?
And no, the telcos could not charge the ISP even for the use of the phone network. If VOIP grew so big that it supercedes the phone network, what would they charge for? The telcos would be demoted to being merly the providers of physical interconnectivity between ISPs or between ISPs and end-users (let's not even go into the whole wireless issue)
This is what free enterprise is all about. Faced with the threat of the loss of telephone services the telcos of the world must either adapt or find a new line of business (which they will inevitably screw up like they have the analog phone system)
If they are smart, they will move onto become ISPs themselves, which is what many of them are doing, such as QWEST, AT&T, etc.
I didn't see any one mention it, so I thought I would. There is a great company in the UK, codefree.com. For the uninitiated, they take off the shelf consumer DVD players and modify them to disable the macrovision and enable all 6 regions (via adding extra some extra ICs)
/. tried them, I would be curious of any reviews as I have not tried them yet, but I am seriously considering it.
Obviously, this violates the manufacturers warranty, but they offer their own warranty for the same term as a replacement. The only downside I can see is that if you don't live in the UK, you have to pay for international shipping plus you may get killed on the monetary exchange rates depending on your country of orgin.
Has anybody here on
For the electronicly inclined, they also offer do-it-yourself kits for most major models.