Verizon currently is required to share their copper network with 3rd parties. There are lots of "paper" phone companies that rely on this network to deliver services.
I asked my rep at ATX telecommunications why they could not resell FIOS service. My rep simply replied - Verizon won't let us.
A friend of mine recently complained to Verizon about his poor quality voice service. His phone lines would make a terrible humming noise every time it rained. Verizon came out and installed FIOS gear and moved his phone service onto the FIOS gear. He was told that Verizon no longer fixes copper circuits if FIOS is available.
Verizon negotiated deals to ensure exclusive use of their fiber network, stating they would not deploy fiber if they could not recoup the costs.
It's a good strategy for Verizon - install their exclusive fiber and let the copper network rot. Eventually they force out all the "paper" phone companies. Screw all that "public rights of way" stuff.
This is one reason why cable companies and telcos need to be regulated within an inch of their lives.
If the RIAA goons and their rent-a-cops decide to enter my home (assume no state law enforcement is present). Do I have the right to shoot them?
As far as I know, I am defending my wife, child, and property from an unknown threat. What is to stop a gang of street thugs from wearing "RIAA" windbreakers and robbing my house?
What if I don't even know what "RIAA" means? Am I supposed to be familiar with every trade organization when defending my home?
This must be a recent addition. Last year we bought a ton of Macbooks and a few MacBook Pros. The option was not available. I even called the Apple sales rep for my company and he confirmed that the option was coming, but not available.
That said - servicing the damn things sucks. I routinely gut Dell laptops in the field to replace/upgrade hard drives, ram, WIFI cards - even CPUs. Good luck doing that with a Mac.
Other flaws: No docking stations for Macbook/Macbook Pros and no option for 7200 RPM hard drives. I can't understand why Apple wouldn't give that option to a high-end laptop consumer.
Apple has made tremendous strides in converting corporate IT guys like me. They still have a way to go to really take share from the big guys.
Where does the government's responsibility in "protecting children" end?
Movies, music, radio, bedtime, their friends....some of the many factors in a child's life that can help or hurt.
Where is the line drawn?
Governments have no business telling parents how to raise their children unless the parental actions are considered criminal. I agree with you, the government should step in if a child is in an environment that could endanger the child's life. Movies, music, and radio are not that severe and the Government should stay out.
I like Howard Stern as much as any guy, but I don't want my kids listening to him until they are older. That should be the parent's decision only, not the FCC's.
The only people who can tell my kids what to watch (or what not to watch) are my wife, and myself.
The government has no business deciding what is decent and what is not. If you aren't enough of a parent to decide what is appropriate for your kids, you shouldn't have had them. Why do my tax dollars have to raise your kids?
If you can't regulate what your kids watch, how are you going to keep them out of the liquor cabinet, or prevent them from taking your car without permission, later in life?
Parents need to realize that raising kids is their responsibility, not the government's.
Here is my reply to another post explaining the decision:
"Almost the entire staff and students moves around. Apart from administration, no one has their "own" computer. Having that many machines with different versions of software is a logistical nightmare.
Also, Office 2007 has the ability to save in a new XML based format. Users will not be able to exchange those new documents without the new version of the software.
I have forced the default format via group policies as the "2003" version, but that does not stop a user from using the "save as" function. Deploying the same software universally prevents file exchange issues."
Have you had the burden of supporting a large network with a large userbase? What happens to support requirements as the software base grows more diverse? The support requirements go up. Our network is maintained, not for the comfort of the users. It is maintained for the business of teaching students.
I'm sure that if a construction or assembly line worker threw a fit when his favorite welder was replaced management would show that person the door. Software is no different, it is a tool used to complete a task. The nature of progress means change. If you don't want to learn the new tools, you can find another place of employment.
Almost the entire staff and students moves around. Apart from administration, no one has their "own" computer. Having that many machines with different versions of software is a logistical nightmare.
Also, Office 2007 has the ability to save in a new XML based format. Users will not be able to exchange those new documents without the new version of the software.
I have forced the default format via group policies as the "2003" version, but that does not stop a user from using the "save as" function. Deploying the same software universally prevents file exchange issues.
The iPod enjoys a HUGE ecosystem of accessories. Lots of devices from mini-systems to automobiles support the iPod dock connector - that's powerful.
One of the criteria for my next car is that it either supports the iPod natively, or it has the ability to have that feature added (i.e - easily replaceable radio).
I bought an iPod for the accessory ecosystem - and now that I'm and iPod owner, I only buy products from that ecosystem - it's a positive feedback loop.
I'm the Network Manager for a small private school. Recently, our school was audited, and we found that we were short on our MS office licensing.
I proposed Open Office as a viable replacement for most of our machines. Administration would continue to use MS Office alongside of Open Office. The school's administration tried Open Office, and after a short learning curve, they liked the software. The only real complaint was that the menus were different from MS Office. Administration assumed that teaching "professionals" would learn the new software and continue on with their jobs.
It took an entire year, but the whole school was eventually migrated to Open Office, and it worked for most people. A few, very loud teachers, hated it.
Those very loud teachers made lots of noise - so much so that administration finally coughed up $11,000 for MS Office 2007.
After another lengthy deployment process, we had Office 2007 in place. Now the very loud teachers are complaining the new software is different from the old stuff.
Most banks do not maintain their own PIN systems. Their transactions go through a clearinghouse service (like STAR). Companies like STAR handle the logistics of PIN numbers.
The difference is this: PINs can be changed easily and often.
FFIEC guidlines recently required banks to implement something other than single factor authentication for electronic bank transactions. I don't see how credit card transactions are any different.
The simple reason that credit card companies do not do this, is that is is not worth the effort; the losses from fraud cost less (than a network upgrade to require pins) due to the many ways credit card companies can recover/write-off bad debt.
And yes, I've talked to managers at Visa, STAR, Open Solutions....etc. They all confirm this to be true.
In the US, the separation of church and state is largely a by-product of our political system, but it has never specifically been spelled out in law. There are laws that prohibit favoring one religion over another in the public arena (like sanctioning a national religion), but nothing that draws the line between separation of church and state.
It is time for that law.
We have a secular government, and it is time to codify that into the laws that govern our society. Personal belief systems do not belong in public policy. This national law would help protect local governments and school boards from religious political pressure applied by a small group of very loud individuals.
I've said it before; I've worked in the banking industry, and it is widely known that requiring a PIN number for every transaction would reduce credit card fraud to almost zero. The infrastructure to require a PIN number is already in place, but credit card companies don't want to deal with the hassle, since they do not feel the pinch of the fraudulent charges.
Why do banks require PIN numbers on ATM and Debit transactions? I'll tell you why - they are directly liable for any funds that leave the bank fraudulently. This is not the case for credit card companies since they can charge-back the vendor and recover their funds.
The shop I work in right now is a mix of Dell and Apple hardware. We now buy all our Desktop machines from Apple - why?
Intel CPUs.
We can now run Windows and Mac OS on the exact same hardware. Dell has lost all our desktop business as the result of Apple's move to Intel. One hardware platform is very nice from a purchasing and management perspective.
I'm sure we aren't the only shop with that strategy - and that's why Apple's conversion to x86 was a good decision.
The clueless newbie says that his/her computer is built with fairly modern hardware running windows 2000. I would love to see an article about that install.
Surely, windows 2000 would need to partition the hard drive. Does windows 2000 give you the option to dual boot? Does any Microsoft OS give you the option to boot other operating systems? None that I know of. Maybe Vista does, I only got my Vista copy a few days ago....
Did windows 2000 detect and install all of the hardware correctly? I'm betting it didn't. Hell, even windows XP would probably need help with drivers. I'm sure the clueless newbie had to go hunting for sound, video, and network drivers.
Why is windows given a free pass on the issues that are continually criticized about Linux?
I expected more from the slashdot community on this topic. Lots of posts suggest that if you put anything in a public space, you shouldn't expect privacy in your professional life.
Here is the problem; What if you didn't put the information out there? Remember the school principal who sued a bunch of students for putting up a fake myspace page? What would you say if the board of education fired this guy because of the content on the page?
I've seen some great "photoshopped" pictures that were very believable. Would you like an HR person to make an employment decision about you based on a fake picture or a malicious blog entry?
Employers, much like students doing research, should only use verifiable authoritative sources for personnel information. The internet (most of it) falls very short of this standard.
Windows Server Update Services is free and it works like a champ. This free tool has enabled every machine on our networks to remain up to date on patches. It usually takes a couple of days for all of our machines to check-in and install the updates due to roaming users. It only requires a few clicks on my part.
I'll admit that it doesn't make testing any easier, but it does give you the ability to block patches until you have tested them for stability.
I usually test patches for a few days against major apps before approving the updates for installation.
If you have a large number of apps that continually break, then the problem is not patch management, it's vendor management.
Assume for a moment that a cable company will actually run four cable lines to your house in lieu of fiber. Most home users will have little need for that type of speed.
I remember hearing the CEO of Time Warner ask this question in regards to fios: What can't you do with 30 Mbps that you can do with 100 Mbps? He was stating that you can easily do VOD, Voice, and Data over 30 Mbps connections and there was no reason for more speed.
With that attitude, do you think these guys will actually deploy this technology?
The only application I can see for these types of speeds is private connections. I would love to have a 100 Mbps connection between my sites, but the only way to get private connections between sites is leased lines and the last time I priced a private DS3 my boss got sticker shock.
Eventually regular consumers will not care about extra speed. We may already be at that point - plenty of people like Verizon's cheap DSL (768k/128k) because it's cheap and faster than dialup. Once joe average stops caring about speed increases, the only way to sell this service will be to interconnect businesses via private circuits.....but that is a long way off.
Cable companies and telcos like Verizon need to start thinking about faster uploads, static IP, and private connections to get businesses interested.
When connecting sites together, especially where voice services are used, T1s work better because you can usually get someone to guarantee that your packets will be delivered in less than 50ms, and someone will come out and fix it quickly when it goes down.
This may not be a problem in the future as Verizon opens its FIOS network to "private" point to point services. Verizon knows that this will eventually cannibalize its old network. That's fine with Verizon since they need to share that old network with other telcos. FIOS, on the other hand, is a protected network. They can keep FIOS as their own product.
Sure, Internet T1 circuits are a waste. We recently got rid of a $350/mo internet T1 and replaced it with a $99.00/mo FIOS 20/5 Mbps circuit with static IP. Verizon does not guarantee uptime, or latency, but we really don't care that much for internet traffic.
This is Slashdot, so Microsoft will get crucified here for sure, but they are a BUSINESS, and they are working to protect their business. Every shareholder of every company wants management of that company to protect their business. It is their duty to the shareholders.
The people who should be receiving scorn are the CAREER POLITICIANS who write legislation in exchange for corporate dollars. Substitute any big corporate interest for Microsoft (Tobacco, Oil, Autos....etc) and you will see that Microsoft is not the only company that engages in these shenanigans.
Sure bitch and whine about Microsoft and how evil they are....you don't have to buy their products.
I would much rather bitch and whine about elected officials that are not doing the jobs they were elected to do.
If they take corporate money - vote the fuckers out.
Slashdot Mirror
Verizon currently is required to share their copper network with 3rd parties. There are lots of "paper" phone companies that rely on this network to deliver services.
I asked my rep at ATX telecommunications why they could not resell FIOS service. My rep simply replied - Verizon won't let us.
A friend of mine recently complained to Verizon about his poor quality voice service. His phone lines would make a terrible humming noise every time it rained. Verizon came out and installed FIOS gear and moved his phone service onto the FIOS gear. He was told that Verizon no longer fixes copper circuits if FIOS is available.
Verizon negotiated deals to ensure exclusive use of their fiber network, stating they would not deploy fiber if they could not recoup the costs.
It's a good strategy for Verizon - install their exclusive fiber and let the copper network rot. Eventually they force out all the "paper" phone companies. Screw all that "public rights of way" stuff.
This is one reason why cable companies and telcos need to be regulated within an inch of their lives.
-ted
If the RIAA goons and their rent-a-cops decide to enter my home (assume no state law enforcement is present). Do I have the right to shoot them?
As far as I know, I am defending my wife, child, and property from an unknown threat. What is to stop a gang of street thugs from wearing "RIAA" windbreakers and robbing my house?
What if I don't even know what "RIAA" means? Am I supposed to be familiar with every trade organization when defending my home?
-ted
This must be a recent addition. Last year we bought a ton of Macbooks and a few MacBook Pros. The option was not available. I even called the Apple sales rep for my company and he confirmed that the option was coming, but not available.
Glad to see they added it.
-ted
Before the flames start - I have a 13" Macbook.
That said - servicing the damn things sucks. I routinely gut Dell laptops in the field to replace/upgrade hard drives, ram, WIFI cards - even CPUs. Good luck doing that with a Mac.
Other flaws: No docking stations for Macbook/Macbook Pros and no option for 7200 RPM hard drives. I can't understand why Apple wouldn't give that option to a high-end laptop consumer.
Apple has made tremendous strides in converting corporate IT guys like me. They still have a way to go to really take share from the big guys.
-ted
Where does the government's responsibility in "protecting children" end?
Movies, music, radio, bedtime, their friends....some of the many factors in a child's life that can help or hurt.
Where is the line drawn?
Governments have no business telling parents how to raise their children unless the parental actions are considered criminal. I agree with you, the government should step in if a child is in an environment that could endanger the child's life. Movies, music, and radio are not that severe and the Government should stay out.
I like Howard Stern as much as any guy, but I don't want my kids listening to him until they are older. That should be the parent's decision only, not the FCC's.
-ted
I'm a parent, so I have the right to say this:
The only people who can tell my kids what to watch (or what not to watch) are my wife, and myself.
The government has no business deciding what is decent and what is not. If you aren't enough of a parent to decide what is appropriate for your kids, you shouldn't have had them. Why do my tax dollars have to raise your kids?
If you can't regulate what your kids watch, how are you going to keep them out of the liquor cabinet, or prevent them from taking your car without permission, later in life?
Parents need to realize that raising kids is their responsibility, not the government's.
-ted
If using both hands to interact with something is a patentable idea, then I'm going to patent using both feet for walking.
Our patent system is FUBAR.
-ted
Here is my reply to another post explaining the decision:
"Almost the entire staff and students moves around. Apart from administration, no one has their "own" computer. Having that many machines with different versions of software is a logistical nightmare.
Also, Office 2007 has the ability to save in a new XML based format. Users will not be able to exchange those new documents without the new version of the software.
I have forced the default format via group policies as the "2003" version, but that does not stop a user from using the "save as" function. Deploying the same software universally prevents file exchange issues."
Have you had the burden of supporting a large network with a large userbase? What happens to support requirements as the software base grows more diverse? The support requirements go up. Our network is maintained, not for the comfort of the users. It is maintained for the business of teaching students.
I'm sure that if a construction or assembly line worker threw a fit when his favorite welder was replaced management would show that person the door. Software is no different, it is a tool used to complete a task. The nature of progress means change. If you don't want to learn the new tools, you can find another place of employment.
-ted
Almost the entire staff and students moves around. Apart from administration, no one has their "own" computer. Having that many machines with different versions of software is a logistical nightmare.
Also, Office 2007 has the ability to save in a new XML based format. Users will not be able to exchange those new documents without the new version of the software.
I have forced the default format via group policies as the "2003" version, but that does not stop a user from using the "save as" function. Deploying the same software universally prevents file exchange issues.
-ted
The iPod enjoys a HUGE ecosystem of accessories. Lots of devices from mini-systems to automobiles support the iPod dock connector - that's powerful.
One of the criteria for my next car is that it either supports the iPod natively, or it has the ability to have that feature added (i.e - easily replaceable radio).
I bought an iPod for the accessory ecosystem - and now that I'm and iPod owner, I only buy products from that ecosystem - it's a positive feedback loop.
That's a big reason why the iPod is so popular.
-ted
I'm the Network Manager for a small private school. Recently, our school was audited, and we found that we were short on our MS office licensing.
I proposed Open Office as a viable replacement for most of our machines. Administration would continue to use MS Office alongside of Open Office. The school's administration tried Open Office, and after a short learning curve, they liked the software. The only real complaint was that the menus were different from MS Office. Administration assumed that teaching "professionals" would learn the new software and continue on with their jobs.
It took an entire year, but the whole school was eventually migrated to Open Office, and it worked for most people. A few, very loud teachers, hated it.
Those very loud teachers made lots of noise - so much so that administration finally coughed up $11,000 for MS Office 2007.
After another lengthy deployment process, we had Office 2007 in place. Now the very loud teachers are complaining the new software is different from the old stuff.
You can't win with Teachers.
-ted
I work in a school, and what the kids carry around in their backpacks is a pretty good indicator of the general popularity of the product.
So far, most popular things I see in kids hands are iPods, PSPs (the little kids have Nintendo DS lites) and every type of cell phone on the planet.
This year, I only saw one kid with a Zune. She said she was sorry she bought it since all the accessories she wanted to buy only worked with iPod.
So if kids (or their parents) aren't buying Zune, who is?
-ted
Most banks do not maintain their own PIN systems. Their transactions go through a clearinghouse service (like STAR). Companies like STAR handle the logistics of PIN numbers.
The difference is this: PINs can be changed easily and often.
FFIEC guidlines recently required banks to implement something other than single factor authentication for electronic bank transactions. I don't see how credit card transactions are any different.
The simple reason that credit card companies do not do this, is that is is not worth the effort; the losses from fraud cost less (than a network upgrade to require pins) due to the many ways credit card companies can recover/write-off bad debt.
And yes, I've talked to managers at Visa, STAR, Open Solutions....etc. They all confirm this to be true.
-ted
The big difference is that PIN numbers can be easily and frequently changed. A good PIN policy forces PIN numbers to be changed regularly.
In the US, the separation of church and state is largely a by-product of our political system, but it has never specifically been spelled out in law. There are laws that prohibit favoring one religion over another in the public arena (like sanctioning a national religion), but nothing that draws the line between separation of church and state.
It is time for that law.
We have a secular government, and it is time to codify that into the laws that govern our society. Personal belief systems do not belong in public policy. This national law would help protect local governments and school boards from religious political pressure applied by a small group of very loud individuals.
-ted
I've said it before; I've worked in the banking industry, and it is widely known that requiring a PIN number for every transaction would reduce credit card fraud to almost zero. The infrastructure to require a PIN number is already in place, but credit card companies don't want to deal with the hassle, since they do not feel the pinch of the fraudulent charges.
Why do banks require PIN numbers on ATM and Debit transactions? I'll tell you why - they are directly liable for any funds that leave the bank fraudulently. This is not the case for credit card companies since they can charge-back the vendor and recover their funds.
-ted
The shop I work in right now is a mix of Dell and Apple hardware. We now buy all our Desktop machines from Apple - why?
Intel CPUs.
We can now run Windows and Mac OS on the exact same hardware. Dell has lost all our desktop business as the result of Apple's move to Intel. One hardware platform is very nice from a purchasing and management perspective.
I'm sure we aren't the only shop with that strategy - and that's why Apple's conversion to x86 was a good decision.
-ted
The clueless newbie says that his/her computer is built with fairly modern hardware running windows 2000. I would love to see an article about that install.
Surely, windows 2000 would need to partition the hard drive. Does windows 2000 give you the option to dual boot? Does any Microsoft OS give you the option to boot other operating systems? None that I know of. Maybe Vista does, I only got my Vista copy a few days ago....
Did windows 2000 detect and install all of the hardware correctly? I'm betting it didn't. Hell, even windows XP would probably need help with drivers. I'm sure the clueless newbie had to go hunting for sound, video, and network drivers.
Why is windows given a free pass on the issues that are continually criticized about Linux?
-ted
I expected more from the slashdot community on this topic. Lots of posts suggest that if you put anything in a public space, you shouldn't expect privacy in your professional life.
Here is the problem; What if you didn't put the information out there? Remember the school principal who sued a bunch of students for putting up a fake myspace page? What would you say if the board of education fired this guy because of the content on the page?
I've seen some great "photoshopped" pictures that were very believable. Would you like an HR person to make an employment decision about you based on a fake picture or a malicious blog entry?
Employers, much like students doing research, should only use verifiable authoritative sources for personnel information. The internet (most of it) falls very short of this standard.
-ted
Windows Server Update Services is free and it works like a champ. This free tool has enabled every machine on our networks to remain up to date on patches. It usually takes a couple of days for all of our machines to check-in and install the updates due to roaming users. It only requires a few clicks on my part.
I'll admit that it doesn't make testing any easier, but it does give you the ability to block patches until you have tested them for stability.
I usually test patches for a few days against major apps before approving the updates for installation.
If you have a large number of apps that continually break, then the problem is not patch management, it's vendor management.
-ted
Assume for a moment that a cable company will actually run four cable lines to your house in lieu of fiber. Most home users will have little need for that type of speed.
I remember hearing the CEO of Time Warner ask this question in regards to fios: What can't you do with 30 Mbps that you can do with 100 Mbps? He was stating that you can easily do VOD, Voice, and Data over 30 Mbps connections and there was no reason for more speed.
With that attitude, do you think these guys will actually deploy this technology?
The only application I can see for these types of speeds is private connections. I would love to have a 100 Mbps connection between my sites, but the only way to get private connections between sites is leased lines and the last time I priced a private DS3 my boss got sticker shock.
Eventually regular consumers will not care about extra speed. We may already be at that point - plenty of people like Verizon's cheap DSL (768k/128k) because it's cheap and faster than dialup. Once joe average stops caring about speed increases, the only way to sell this service will be to interconnect businesses via private circuits.....but that is a long way off.
Cable companies and telcos like Verizon need to start thinking about faster uploads, static IP, and private connections to get businesses interested.
-ted
There, that wasn't so hard.
-ted
What has Slashdot come to? I surely expected a haha tag on this article.
-ted
When connecting sites together, especially where voice services are used, T1s work better because you can usually get someone to guarantee that your packets will be delivered in less than 50ms, and someone will come out and fix it quickly when it goes down.
This may not be a problem in the future as Verizon opens its FIOS network to "private" point to point services. Verizon knows that this will eventually cannibalize its old network. That's fine with Verizon since they need to share that old network with other telcos. FIOS, on the other hand, is a protected network. They can keep FIOS as their own product.
Sure, Internet T1 circuits are a waste. We recently got rid of a $350/mo internet T1 and replaced it with a $99.00/mo FIOS 20/5 Mbps circuit with static IP. Verizon does not guarantee uptime, or latency, but we really don't care that much for internet traffic.
-ted
This is Slashdot, so Microsoft will get crucified here for sure, but they are a BUSINESS, and they are working to protect their business. Every shareholder of every company wants management of that company to protect their business. It is their duty to the shareholders.
The people who should be receiving scorn are the CAREER POLITICIANS who write legislation in exchange for corporate dollars. Substitute any big corporate interest for Microsoft (Tobacco, Oil, Autos....etc) and you will see that Microsoft is not the only company that engages in these shenanigans.
Sure bitch and whine about Microsoft and how evil they are....you don't have to buy their products.
I would much rather bitch and whine about elected officials that are not doing the jobs they were elected to do.
If they take corporate money - vote the fuckers out.
-ted