The telling quote is right at the top of the article:
"For me it's a question of values, it's not a question of science," said commissioner Sam Schuchat. "I think selling genetically modified fish as pets is wrong."
So we see the naked core of the environmentalists. This is not about science, it's about imposing their values on the rest of us. Even though 99% of earth creatures have died in past extinctions, the one's living now are the right ones. Why is it that nature can alter her specie mix, but man cannot do the same? Environmentalists must really believe in the intrinsic value of the earth. Most holy wars have been fought over irreconcilable intrinsic values.
Proponents of USF will point to the benefits to schools and poor people. But what of the unseen? What was not purchased because of these fees? What job was not created because a product was not bought? What medical invention was not created because the job was not found?
There are millions of dollars of wealth given to people or organizations who could probably obtain the service if they really wanted to. Rural people already pay less in rent than city folk. Poor people have other choices for being in communication with others. When was the last time that calling the police stopped a crime in progress? Do we really need subsidized 911? Government schools were having trouble graduating kids that can read before the internet was mainstream. Do we really need subsidized computers in the classroom?
If the services this fund provides are so important, wouldn't people be willing to donate to the fund voluntarily? Wouldn't people be willing to provide something in exchange to have this service? It's not a market failure when people don't act on your ideal. That's called a failure to persuade.
Let's honor the right of people to set their own terms for talking. Don't force the issue through an agent with a gun. Keep VoIP free of regulations, fees, and taxes.
The 802.11a 54MBs standard has been finalized, but we have been waiting for vendors to make the chip sets. AtherOS is the first vendor to ship a product.
At 5GHz, walls attentuate the signal even more than at 2.4GHz, the 802.11b standard, so it remains to be seen how close you will get to the 54MBs signalling rate. With the MAC protocol overhead, even in the best enviroment, you'll loose between 30-50%. This is not just a wireless feature, 100 MBs Ethernet also gets a MAC penalty, just not as much as wireless.
What will really impress the geek in all of us is a new wireless products utilizing Ultra Wide Band (UWB) techniques. A UWB radio tranmits its signal using gaussian monocycles instead of sine waves. With ultra-low power emmisions and over 2GHz of spectrum, conventional narrow-band systems are not disturbed and UWB signals appear as white noise making UWB very hard to detect. Highspeed bandwith, precise precision and location, and RADAR capabilities are being demonstrated today. A leader in the field is Time Domain. The FCC is expected to rule on legalizing UWB this fall.
Slashdot Mirror
The breaking of long URLs is annoying. In lieu of people writing their own anchors, try TinyURL. For example: http://tinyurl.com/4hvuu
So we see the naked core of the environmentalists. This is not about science, it's about imposing their values on the rest of us. Even though 99% of earth creatures have died in past extinctions, the one's living now are the right ones. Why is it that nature can alter her specie mix, but man cannot do the same? Environmentalists must really believe in the intrinsic value of the earth. Most holy wars have been fought over irreconcilable intrinsic values.
Proponents of USF will point to the benefits to schools and poor people. But what of the unseen? What was not purchased because of these fees? What job was not created because a product was not bought? What medical invention was not created because the job was not found?
There are millions of dollars of wealth given to people or organizations who could probably obtain the service if they really wanted to. Rural people already pay less in rent than city folk. Poor people have other choices for being in communication with others. When was the last time that calling the police stopped a crime in progress? Do we really need subsidized 911? Government schools were having trouble graduating kids that can read before the internet was mainstream. Do we really need subsidized computers in the classroom?
If the services this fund provides are so important, wouldn't people be willing to donate to the fund voluntarily? Wouldn't people be willing to provide something in exchange to have this service? It's not a market failure when people don't act on your ideal. That's called a failure to persuade.
Let's honor the right of people to set their own terms for talking. Don't force the issue through an agent with a gun. Keep VoIP free of regulations, fees, and taxes.
At 5GHz, walls attentuate the signal even more than at 2.4GHz, the 802.11b standard, so it remains to be seen how close you will get to the 54MBs signalling rate. With the MAC protocol overhead, even in the best enviroment, you'll loose between 30-50%. This is not just a wireless feature, 100 MBs Ethernet also gets a MAC penalty, just not as much as wireless.
What will really impress the geek in all of us is a new wireless products utilizing Ultra Wide Band (UWB) techniques. A UWB radio tranmits its signal using gaussian monocycles instead of sine waves. With ultra-low power emmisions and over 2GHz of spectrum, conventional narrow-band systems are not disturbed and UWB signals appear as white noise making UWB very hard to detect. Highspeed bandwith, precise precision and location, and RADAR capabilities are being demonstrated today. A leader in the field is Time Domain. The FCC is expected to rule on legalizing UWB this fall.