From the/. editor:The new rules do force line sharing as long as companies are willing to offer voice service. Actually, if I read it correctly, it forces undbundling only if the DSL provider rents the whole copper loop, hence there will be no "line-sharing" like today (i.e. the Bell transmitting analog voice on low frequency, and the DSL provider transmitting DSL on high-frequency on the same copper pair) anymore. The FCC paper talks about a 3-year transition period to switch to the new rules.
In practise:
a) The DSL provider will have to rent the whole copper loop at a higher cost (the FCC paper explicitly mentions that the price shall go up during the 3-year phase)
b) Since the loop belongs to the DSL provider, the local Bell won't provide the original voice service over this copper loop (even though this is technically possible, since that's exactly what they're doing up to now)
c) To keep the voice service going either:
- The DSL provider offers his own voice product (which is an unprofitable pain in the ass in itself), needing to upgrade ALL his access sites to support telephony (either analog or VoDSL or whatever), with the voice-traffic clogging his high-capacity lines back to his network.
- The DSL provider buys voice service from the local Bell to resell (a zero margin business - if you're lucky)
- The customer (you) has to buy a new separate voice line from the local Bell, who can collect setup fees, make you pay extra to send a guy to your house to twiddle 2 new wires out of the bundle going into the building, change the tariffs, etc. etc
All in all, this preserves looks like a pretty heavily biased decision, as it not only protects the Bells business model no matter what happens, but actively attacks the DSL provider's existing technical and business models. Good luck getting DSL in the American outback, as there will be less competition driving the deployment.
Somehow, it seems like poetic justice that the Network "ping" - which was named after the sonar "ping" used for chasing submarines - has come full circle and is being translated back into sound.
I have a vision of nervous and grimy network admins with shaggy beards sitting in a cramped room full of cables, with water dripping off the ceiling (that damn AC again), listening to the ghostly "ping" of their network connection getting better or worse...
"Depth Charge (= Denial of Service) full astern, mein Kapitain!"
"Brace for explosion!"
KABOOOOOOM!
Effects: Room shakes, racks fall over, sparks, yells of "Feuer!", lights flicker on and off
"All stations report damage!"
"Load the torpedo tubes with empty Ramen noodle packets and AOL CDs and fire at will! Let those Schweinehunds think they got us"
"If you collect the silver paper from 100 cartons of Marlboro Lights, Philip Morris will pay you a DNA screening for lung cancer shielding genes, but then you're not allow to sue them ever again"
What's really frightening about this idea is that it's probably a workeable business model.
I'm pretty much slap bang in the middle of the described bracket (1971). I graduated from school in 1988 and spent the next 11 years studying (without much enthousiasm), partying (with enthousiasm), generally having a good time.
My peers had overtaken me by 1995, high-paying jobs, stock options, stomach ulcers, the lot.
In 1999 I was kind of jealous coz i was approaching 30, not much to show for it, a classical "loser".
I then joined the telco industry in 2000 and witnessed the crash from within, my stock options were never worth jack (thank god we didn't IPO)
My Point? Due to my modest studenty lifestyle which I continue to this day, I never punched my expenses or debt up to an unmanageable level, the telco crash didn't affect me as much as my friends (almost all of which lost most of their paper millions through hanging on to their shares), and I am generally quite happy with my life.
I have enjoyed watching the rest of my office tearing their hair out while staring at the Nasdaq plunge, comfortable in the knowledge that I have never owned a single share. If my present owner goes belly up, I know I can still get by flipping burgers or failing that digging potatoes in my garden.
The 90s were a wasted decade for me economically, but boy did I have a good time. On the whole, I believe I came out on top or at least broke even. No ulcers, no debts, most of my hair and most important my self esteem are where they should be.
I still have teletype (an early, mechanical form of telnet) transcripts from the mid-70's, where my dad was writing to business associates in the US (we were in France at the time).
Abbreviations such as "R" "U" "2" were absolutely commonplace and widely understood at the time.
At 50 bits per second with a 5 bit alphabet and 5+ US$/minute translatic charges (back when a buck was actually WORTH something), this added up to noticeable saving.
I must say that I loved that teletype, even going so far as to manually decode the punch-tape alphabet at about 7 years old, thank god the DMCA wasnt around back then...
Some info gleaned from a conference i attended recently:
- U.S. military is completely on IP V6
- Big japanese government funding for "pushing" IP V6
- 900 Trial customers in Japan, including 3 cars (all this for just ~$20 Million in Public money)
- The same body received approx $9 Million from European Comission to push IP V6
- Less that 20 commercial broadband IP V6 customers worldwide...
Two scenarios: Like with UMTS, governments pushing a standard they don't understand will result in failure. IP's success was based on market success, and theres nothing like 10^7 dollars for turning a good concept into a bloated Frankenstein monster
OR
The governments are pushing this because it will give them the infrastructure they need to come out with true "big brother" scenarios... Unified protocol with full control
Paradoxically, in this day of "global liberalization of markets", this major infrastructure development is not being driven by market forces, but by centralized government bodies like in the best days of Communism... weird
Just a note: As long as they were nationalized, not a single telegraph, telephone or telecoms company made any profit. Strangely, the same industries started blasting out profits almost immediately after privatization
In Germany almost a dozen companies started rolling out this technology (since late 2000).
Almost all (but one) have either ramped-down / ceased operations, and several have gone bust. A lot of this was due to the market downturn = financing slashed, but it shows that this stuff ain't that easy to make money with.
From personal experience I can say the technologies are reliable and powerful when implemented right, but it's expensive stuff and not exactly "plug-n-play".
Quote: "A common complaint about computer books: I've just spent 25 quid on a book which will sit open on my desk for months. Is it too much to ask that it be ring bound?"
The book is not ring bound because it costs 25 quid (= British Pounds).
'Twould be far too easy to stick it through a photocopier or scanner if it were.
Old, but apposite:
"If video games influenced childrens behaviour, all those among us who grew up playing Pacman would spend our spare time in badly lit rooms rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music..."
People have been warning of MacDonaldization before the 70s. A noteable example is John Steinbeck in "Travels with Charley" which is from the 60s (I think).
There, the standardization and loss of culture was attributed mainly to nationally syndicated radio and TV shows, which probably provide an even better analogy to the Net.
Personally, I managed to recover from a bad back caused by weak posture (too much reading/computers) beyond the age of 27 by starting a martial arts course, which focuses a lot on proper stretching and especially coordination.
Not very suitable: Tae-Bo, Karate, Taekwon-Do, Kung-Fu, Win-Tsun - all rely too much on strength and speed. If you're that fit, you ain't no geek.
Suitable: Judo, Aikido, Jiu-Jutsu, Tai-Chi, Taijutsu - anything that focuses more on slow and precise movements (at least initially).
Alternative for those too scared to go fight: Feldenkrais Therapy - look for ressources on the web. Very difficult to describe. Try a session. It rocks (with a good trainer).
After a days hard hunching over the PC, there is nothing like being on the receiving end of a hip- or shoulder-throw to clear your back.
The knots in my spine generally dissappear between the moment my feet first leave the ground and the ensuing impact 0.5 seconds later. The trick is to let your instincts take over again.
Although Patents existed at the time of Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the moveable type printing press (patents were assigned by local King, Duke or equivalent bigwig), and although his friends and associates urged him to patent his invention, Gutenberg consciously chose not to do so, since he wanted it to be used "for the good of all mankind" (and, since it was the middle ages "for the greater Glory of God(TM) ).
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
...and in mass deployment it will have the usual problems
of any 'breakthrough' technology which wants to do last mile on existing infrastructure:
[NotQuiteAnUrbanLegend]BT cannot reliably use 25% of it's existing copper phone wiring because they don't know exactly where it is
[ActualNewsItem]There was talk of moving a bunch of German Cable TV frequencies elsewhere in the spectrum (can you imagine... a million TV's to retune), because the badly terminated cable installations were turning buildings into antennas radiating in Aircraft Traffic Control bands.
Of course you can send X fnurblebits of signal over a line in lab or 'test' conditions, but any mass deployment borders on the impossible, so you can either:
- send some semi-skilled body out to every street and every house (make that every floor while you're at it) of every block etc. etc. etc. to check out the lines, or
- get them to put in some decent fiber while they are there anyway.
the printing press was invented in 1452, meaning that the patent expired in 1469
Although patents existed back in Gutenberg's days (issued by local king, duke or equivalent fatcat), and many of Gutenbergs friends/associates encouraged him to get such protection, he always declined, citing some rubbish about his invention being for the good of all mankind and to distribute the word of God(TM).
Joe Gutenberg: The first open-source geek dreamer.
Food for thought: if the first Gberg Bible had Chapter and Verse references at the top of each page, would this weaken BT's patent on the hyperlink?
Slashdot Mirror
Oh Great. After several years, the Aibo now provides the functionality of an X10 digital camera on legs.
- Couldn't they have thought of this sooner? Hardly sounds worth a press release
- Barking Popup ads anyone?
Linux machine that operates entirely in the console, including applications, without the user ever having to enter anything at a command prompt
Sounds like Windows NT/XP/ to me.
OMG, there will be nothing stopping normal people using Linux if this comes true...
This flow in SSL also seems able to affect the flaw of correct spelling in certain /. editors.
From the /. editor:The new rules do force line sharing as long as companies are willing to offer voice service.
Actually, if I read it correctly, it forces undbundling only if the DSL provider rents the whole copper loop, hence there will be no "line-sharing" like today (i.e. the Bell transmitting analog voice on low frequency, and the DSL provider transmitting DSL on high-frequency on the same copper pair) anymore. The FCC paper talks about a 3-year transition period to switch to the new rules.
In practise:
a) The DSL provider will have to rent the whole copper loop at a higher cost (the FCC paper explicitly mentions that the price shall go up during the 3-year phase)
b) Since the loop belongs to the DSL provider, the local Bell won't provide the original voice service over this copper loop (even though this is technically possible, since that's exactly what they're doing up to now)
c) To keep the voice service going either:
- The DSL provider offers his own voice product (which is an unprofitable pain in the ass in itself), needing to upgrade ALL his access sites to support telephony (either analog or VoDSL or whatever), with the voice-traffic clogging his high-capacity lines back to his network.
- The DSL provider buys voice service from the local Bell to resell (a zero margin business - if you're lucky)
- The customer (you) has to buy a new separate voice line from the local Bell, who can collect setup fees, make you pay extra to send a guy to your house to twiddle 2 new wires out of the bundle going into the building, change the tariffs, etc. etc
All in all, this preserves looks like a pretty heavily biased decision, as it not only protects the Bells business model no matter what happens, but actively attacks the DSL provider's existing technical and business models. Good luck getting DSL in the American outback, as there will be less competition driving the deployment.
Quick comment on your point b) which is not limited to Steve Jobs:
b) he's someone that has Vision
When managers are having Visions, they should get therapy.
Is this the same American flag which them yanks were making all the fuss about, with or without "under God(TM)" in the pledge of allegiance?
Signed:
Confused European
Somehow, it seems like poetic justice that the Network "ping" - which was named after the sonar "ping" used for chasing submarines - has come full circle and is being translated back into sound.
I have a vision of nervous and grimy network admins with shaggy beards sitting in a cramped room full of cables, with water dripping off the ceiling (that damn AC again), listening to the ghostly "ping" of their network connection getting better or worse...
"Depth Charge (= Denial of Service) full astern, mein Kapitain!"
"Brace for explosion!"
KABOOOOOOM!
Effects: Room shakes, racks fall over, sparks, yells of "Feuer!", lights flicker on and off
"All stations report damage!"
"Load the torpedo tubes with empty Ramen noodle packets and AOL CDs and fire at will! Let those Schweinehunds think they got us"
10 seconds on Google show that the book is still available, for instance here.
"If you collect the silver paper from 100 cartons of Marlboro Lights, Philip Morris will pay you a DNA screening for lung cancer shielding genes, but then you're not allow to sue them ever again"
What's really frightening about this idea is that it's probably a workeable business model.
I'm pretty much slap bang in the middle of the described bracket (1971).
I graduated from school in 1988 and spent the next 11 years studying (without much enthousiasm), partying (with enthousiasm), generally having a good time.
My peers had overtaken me by 1995, high-paying jobs, stock options, stomach ulcers, the lot.
In 1999 I was kind of jealous coz i was approaching 30, not much to show for it, a classical "loser".
I then joined the telco industry in 2000 and witnessed the crash from within, my stock options were never worth jack (thank god we didn't IPO)
My Point? Due to my modest studenty lifestyle which I continue to this day, I never punched my expenses or debt up to an unmanageable level, the telco crash didn't affect me as much as my friends (almost all of which lost most of their paper millions through hanging on to their shares), and I am generally quite happy with my life.
I have enjoyed watching the rest of my office tearing their hair out while staring at the Nasdaq plunge, comfortable in the knowledge that I have never owned a single share. If my present owner goes belly up, I know I can still get by flipping burgers or failing that digging potatoes in my garden.
The 90s were a wasted decade for me economically, but boy did I have a good time. On the whole, I believe I came out on top or at least broke even. No ulcers, no debts, most of my hair and most important my self esteem are where they should be.
I still have teletype (an early, mechanical form of telnet) transcripts from the mid-70's, where my dad was writing to business associates in the US (we were in France at the time).
Abbreviations such as "R" "U" "2" were absolutely commonplace and widely understood at the time.
At 50 bits per second with a 5 bit alphabet and 5+ US$/minute translatic charges (back when a buck was actually WORTH something), this added up to noticeable saving.
I must say that I loved that teletype, even going so far as to manually decode the punch-tape alphabet at about 7 years old, thank god the DMCA wasnt around back then...
Some info gleaned from a conference i attended recently:
- U.S. military is completely on IP V6
- Big japanese government funding for "pushing" IP V6
- 900 Trial customers in Japan, including 3 cars (all this for just ~$20 Million in Public money)
- The same body received approx $9 Million from European Comission to push IP V6
- Less that 20 commercial broadband IP V6 customers worldwide...
Two scenarios: Like with UMTS, governments pushing a standard they don't understand will result in failure. IP's success was based on market success, and theres nothing like 10^7 dollars for turning a good concept into a bloated Frankenstein monster
OR
The governments are pushing this because it will give them the infrastructure they need to come out with true "big brother" scenarios... Unified protocol with full control
Paradoxically, in this day of "global liberalization of markets", this major infrastructure development is not being driven by market forces, but by centralized government bodies like in the best days of Communism... weird
Just a note: As long as they were nationalized, not a single telegraph, telephone or telecoms company made any profit. Strangely, the same industries started blasting out profits almost immediately after privatization
Break out the protest banners and start singing:
"Amaaaaaaziiiing Graaaaace!"
In Germany almost a dozen companies started rolling out this technology (since late 2000).
Almost all (but one) have either ramped-down / ceased operations, and several have gone bust. A lot of this was due to the market downturn = financing slashed, but it shows that this stuff ain't that easy to make money with.
From personal experience I can say the technologies are reliable and powerful when implemented right, but it's expensive stuff and not exactly "plug-n-play".
Quote: "A common complaint about computer books: I've just spent 25 quid on a book which will sit open on my desk for months. Is it too much to ask that it be ring bound?"
The book is not ring bound because it costs 25 quid (= British Pounds).
'Twould be far too easy to stick it through a photocopier or scanner if it were.
Last line of space.com story:
``We have no idea what it was, whether it was a meteor or what,'' said National Weather Service spokesman Curtis Carey.
a) How many tax-dollars does this outfit cost a year? a) This guy is a SPOKESMAN?!? Fear what the actual geeks must sound like.
Old, but apposite:
"If video games influenced childrens behaviour, all those among us who grew up playing Pacman would spend our spare time in badly lit rooms rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music..."
Rav(e)ing Loony
Slightly Offtopic, but are there any more news on the rumoured Linux which they got to run on a PS2?
A vision... MameSX: 1 CD with 2048 emulated arcade games for the PS2...
People have been warning of MacDonaldization before the 70s. A noteable example is John Steinbeck in "Travels with Charley" which is from the 60s (I think).
There, the standardization and loss of culture was attributed mainly to nationally syndicated radio and TV shows, which probably provide an even better analogy to the Net.
Personally, I managed to recover from a bad back caused by weak posture (too much reading/computers) beyond the age of 27 by starting a martial arts course, which focuses a lot on proper stretching and especially coordination.
Not very suitable: Tae-Bo, Karate, Taekwon-Do, Kung-Fu, Win-Tsun - all rely too much on strength and speed. If you're that fit, you ain't no geek.
Suitable: Judo, Aikido, Jiu-Jutsu, Tai-Chi, Taijutsu - anything that focuses more on slow and precise movements (at least initially).
Alternative for those too scared to go fight: Feldenkrais Therapy - look for ressources on the web. Very difficult to describe. Try a session. It rocks (with a good trainer).
After a days hard hunching over the PC, there is nothing like being on the receiving end of a hip- or shoulder-throw to clear your back.
The knots in my spine generally dissappear between the moment my feet first leave the ground and the ensuing impact 0.5 seconds later. The trick is to let your instincts take over again.
All your BBS are belong to us!
Although Patents existed at the time of Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the moveable type printing press (patents were assigned by local King, Duke or equivalent bigwig), and although his friends and associates urged him to patent his invention, Gutenberg consciously chose not to do so, since he wanted it to be used "for the good of all mankind" (and, since it was the middle ages "for the greater Glory of God(TM) ). Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
Like a certain OpenSourceOperatingSystsem (OSOS): If they're giving it away for free, it can't be worth anything.
the test site for a new technology
...and in mass deployment it will have the usual problems
of any 'breakthrough' technology which wants to do last mile on existing infrastructure:
[NotQuiteAnUrbanLegend]BT cannot reliably use 25% of it's existing copper phone wiring because they don't know exactly where it is
[ActualNewsItem]There was talk of moving a bunch of German Cable TV frequencies elsewhere in the spectrum (can you imagine... a million TV's to retune), because the badly terminated cable installations were turning buildings into antennas radiating in Aircraft Traffic Control bands.
Of course you can send X fnurblebits of signal over a line in lab or 'test' conditions, but any mass deployment borders on the impossible, so you can either:
- send some semi-skilled body out to every street and every house (make that every floor while you're at it) of every block etc. etc. etc. to check out the lines, or
- get them to put in some decent fiber while they are there anyway.
Legacy Layer 1 Hardware Sux Ass.
the printing press was invented in 1452, meaning that the patent expired in 1469
Although patents existed back in Gutenberg's days (issued by local king, duke or equivalent fatcat), and many of Gutenbergs friends/associates encouraged him to get such protection, he always declined, citing some rubbish about his invention being for the good of all mankind and to distribute the word of God(TM).
Joe Gutenberg: The first open-source geek dreamer.
Food for thought: if the first Gberg Bible had Chapter and Verse references at the top of each page, would this weaken BT's patent on the hyperlink?