The Bells own the copper so they can basically charge as much as they please. Granted, they shove two services over the same pair of wires so one could argue that the only overhead for the telco would be the bandwidth but you also have to add in the switching equipment, wages for technicians, support costs and maintenance. On the flip side, the Bells are using infrastructure that was bought and paid for decades ago and they're basically squeezing every possible revenue stream out of their equipment so their costs aren't really any higher (other than bandwidth) to deliver DSL to a customer.
The Bell's argument for not allowing unbundled pairs (dsl only) has to do with the regulatory requirements placed on DSL service. Now that DSL is classified as an unregulated information service that argument loses merit. Also keep in mind that VoIP is also unregulated for the most part. Add to this the fact that the Bells are beginning to convert portions of their networks to VoIP while building new, high performance ATM networks optimized to carry VoIP traffic. My guess is that the Bells will begin to offer unbundled DSL loops and shortly after this becomes available they will roll out VoIP services. This would allow the Bells to deliver high-speed Internet and dial tone over unregulated mediums essentially bypassing the bulk of the regulations and taxes placed upon telecommunications saving them a heap of money.
I may be way out in left field on this but after having a few discussions with my account managers as well as technicians working for one of the Bells I think this is where they are heading. Bells are HUGE profit driven corporations so they are always looking for new ways to generate revenue, usually at the expense of competition.
This is somewhat of a long-winded reply that has strayed off course a bit but hopefully I've made my point. I'm not going to pretend that I am some sort of authority on how the Bells operate. I am basing my reply on observations I have made and personal experience. I'm just throwing my two cents into the pot.
I agree on both points. The debate as to whether or not Linux is "ready" for the desktop will continue to be heard for many years to come. Also, Linux will always be different but isn't that part of the culture? Personally, I feel Linux is a viable choice for the desktop in some situations. I have been using it as a desktop OS for six years now and it certainly has made a lot of progress since I began using it as a destop OS. Then again, I am not what many would consider an average computer user. My mother, however, is. Linux offers her everything she needs:
Web Browser - Firefox E-mail - Thunderbird Personal Finance Manager - Gnucash Office Suite - Open Office Digital Camera/Image Manipulation - Gphoto + Gimp
I should note that her digital camera is not supported by Windows XP although her new computer happens to have a built-in card reader so that is insignificant IMO.
Why hasn't she chosen to switch to Linux you ask? Simple: If it ain't broke don't fix it!
I believe that says it all for most situations where Linux could replace Windows or OS X or vice versa. Most people simply do not see the value in migrating to another OS because what they are already using gets the job done.
Cisco does not like to lose and they hate being wrong even more but overall I think they're a good company. I like working with their hardware although the price tag is very steep and in a lot of cases a less expensive product serves the purpose just as well or better. I can think of one instance in particular where a custom Linux firewall was replaced with a Cisco 2621 router with the firewall feature set loaded because the Linux firewall didn't meet the organizations security standards. As it turns out those standards meant the firewall had to be a Cisco product, period. I have also seen situations where Cisco tech support blamed my Linux router as the reason for a VPN tunnel failing on a misconfigured PIX firewall. I wasn't really surprised by any of this but it also doesn't surprise me that Microsoft chose someone else over Cisco. Does anyone else find it ironic that a monolithic software company with obnoxious licensing snubs a monolithic hardware company with equally insane licensing? I implement both Cisco and Microsoft products for my customers but the hoops you have to jump through sometimes just to make sure your licenses are on the up and up are ridiculous.
I couldn't agree more. In my experience sometimes regulations such as this work, most of the time they do not. Also, I do not want someone in China deciding how I can use the Internet here in the U.S. The reciprocal should also be true. And as for subsidizing Internet connectivity in Africa, no way. I am supposed to pay a tax so Africa can have better connectivity? What about right here in my own community where the PSTN can barely handle the voice traffic let alone dial-up and high-speed Internet? I don't suppose the U.N. would be interested in subsidizing rural broadband in the U.S. or Canada or even Australia, would they? The Internet is an important, powerful tool and it can definitely be of benefit to many people but adding regulation just isn't going to work. I am also not going to pay a tax just to build out infrastructure in Africa when the facilities in my own back yard are nearly as pathetic. I should probably mention that I own a small ISP in a rural area and I am doing all I can to improve connectivity here. You know what, it's damn hard. There are enough politics and BS involved in delivering Internet access now, no need to add any more.
I couldn't agree more. I'm noticing how many responses posted here are knee-jerk reactions at the simple mention of the Patriot Act. I suppose he could be let off with a slap on the wrist and a very firm warning. What happens when he does something stupid like this again and endangers lives or actually causes a plane to crash? I would imagine folks would be in an uproar because he wasn't locked away the first time he did it. There are a lot of things I don't like about the Patriot Act but shining lasers at airplanes can not be treated lightly. Pilots are under enough stress; they don't need to be bothered with assholes playing games with laser pointers. Personally I think people need to take more responsibility for their actions. Perhaps then the government would realize they don't need to pass more laws to protect us from ourselves. Perhaps instead of screaming bloody murder every time the Patriot Act is mentioned constructive criticism and credible alternatives could be offered instead. Or perhaps things will remain the status quo, who am I to say?
An island of sanity in an ocean of bullshit. You're absolutely right. Sometimes I think parents want to use the TV to raise their kids while they work on their golf swing and talk about who got kicked off the island on Survivor the night before. WELL SAID!
I haven't shopped at Wal-Mart for what is going on nearly 10 months because I can't patronize them in good conscience. I know far too many people who don't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out because they have what can barely be considered a low-paying job at Wal-Mart. It also disgusts me with the way Wal-Mart treats their EMPLOYEES. They can shove that PC "associates" bullshit where the sun doesn't shine. If you treat adults like small children they will act like small children and this is what I see at Wal-Mart. People hate Microsoft because they are anti-competitive, look at Wal-Mart. Karma be damned but everytime I read an article trying to make Wal-Mart look like the greatest thing since sliced bread I tend to just go off. I loathe that company and if it means my cost of living is slightly higher by shopping at local businesses that can't price compete with the devil than so be it. I can also go to sleep at night knowing I am not encouraging further abuse of social welfare programs by giving money to Wal-Mart.
Good point. I would imagine that even with this in place the insurance companies are going to have a set minimum fee (monthly, quarterly, yearly) that you will pay regardless of how much you drive.
Not trying to start a flamewar, just curious. I'm guessing it's probably Mandrake because I seem to remember HP announcing a line of desktop systems featuring Mandrake. Regardless, kudos to HP!
I've been using IRC for around 8+ years myself and although I don't have a list of accolades such as this I have met a lot of great people through IRC as well as plenty of idiots. It if were not for IRC I would not have learned about the recent passing of a good friend of mine. It seems that on the larger networks the "evil" tends to stay separated from the "good" with the occasional nuisance popping up from time to time. Smaller networks and especially those trying to establish themselves seem to have the most problems. I can think of two smaller networks that disappeared into the cyber sunset due to DoS attacks, mostly the result of personal differences between a couple script kiddies and overzealous opers. I've found IRC to be more like a favorite pub where you and your friends meet. I agree, the author needs to spend at least a year on IRC to really get a handle on what it is. It isn't the cess pool that most of usenet has become.
Well said! When preparing proposals for clients I always try to include three options for them. When it comes to PCs I suggest Firefox, Thunderbird and Open Office for most situations. The only way to break the Microsoft monopoly is to educate the end user that there are alternatives. I have found that my clients are usually quite pleased and often surprised by the quality of these free alternatives and I find them coming back to me wanting to learn about alternatives to Windows. The old cliche "Rome wasn't built in a day" fits this situation well. Microsoft will eventually be broken, it will just take time.
FreeBSD + ipfw should be able to handle this for you rather nicely. Find yourself an old P-200 or similar and put a couple NICs in it. That should be enough hardware to accomplish your goal.
It looks like your problem lies with Frontier, not Verizon. Try getting in touch with your state's PUC (public utilities commission or sometimes public service commission.) The PUC is like an 800 pound gorilla that can make telcos jump on command. There's no guarantee this will work but a lot of times they can help.
I think portage is a step in the right direction. Portage already has the capability to install.debs and.rpms as well as build from source and install tarball packages. Granted, it's not perfect but perhaps the way to attack this problem is to create a user-friendly gui on top of portage (I think there is at least one gui already, not 100% sure though) that handles everything being discussed here. I think this would appease power users and newbies alike, especially if the dependency handling is as good as, say, apt-get. My problem with portage is that it seems to be more of a one-way street. You type 'emerge Gnome' at the commandline and it builds and installs Gnome yet if you want to remove Gnome you have a long list of dependencies to remove one by one. Now, I may have overlooked something in the documentation but if we look at this from the standpoint of the newbie, who doesn't want to read volumes of documentation, then portage is not the right answer. It is my opinion that more people need to read the documentation but we all know that isn't going to happen easily so I think some apps will have to be "dumbed down." I think Gentoo has a good start with Portage. There will always be problems with naming conventions and standards but I think with enough effort portage could be molded into the app the author is talking about. The BSD ports system is very nice also but I think it would be wiser to work with the tools already available to develop a solution instead of trying to bring something over from another OS. Then again, maybe I'm so far out in left field that I've missed the boat. Time will tell.
While I haven't used KDE or KOffice in over a year I agree with this statement. I have created database applications for clients using Access and having a friendly front-end for MySQL similar to that of MS Access would be a huge plus. PHP and web interfaces can only go so far.
Re:Additional packaging systems for FreeBSD?
on
FreeBSD 5.2 Review
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· Score: 1
I've only been using FreeBSD for a few hours and I can honestly say I disagree with this post. I have also used Gentoo, Debian, Slackware and several RPM-based distros and I will say that the selection of packages available for FreeBSD is as large or larger than those available in most Linux distros I've used. I'm a little clumsy with the package manager at the moment but one can only absorb so much documentation in a few hours. I am finding it easier to install software on FreeBSD than on Redhat and the ease of use is on par with apt or portage. My experience with FreeBSD thus far has been positive and I have yet to come up short when installing software from the ports collection. Everything I need/want is there.
Slashdot Mirror
Folks on the NANOG list are discussing this rather vigorously at the moment. You can follow the thread here: http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/2005-10/
The short answer is yes, pricing is arbitrary.
The Bells own the copper so they can basically charge as much as they please. Granted, they shove two services over the same pair of wires so one could argue that the only overhead for the telco would be the bandwidth but you also have to add in the switching equipment, wages for technicians, support costs and maintenance. On the flip side, the Bells are using infrastructure that was bought and paid for decades ago and they're basically squeezing every possible revenue stream out of their equipment so their costs aren't really any higher (other than bandwidth) to deliver DSL to a customer.
The Bell's argument for not allowing unbundled pairs (dsl only) has to do with the regulatory requirements placed on DSL service. Now that DSL is classified as an unregulated information service that argument loses merit. Also keep in mind that VoIP is also unregulated for the most part. Add to this the fact that the Bells are beginning to convert portions of their networks to VoIP while building new, high performance ATM networks optimized to carry VoIP traffic. My guess is that the Bells will begin to offer unbundled DSL loops and shortly after this becomes available they will roll out VoIP services. This would allow the Bells to deliver high-speed Internet and dial tone over unregulated mediums essentially bypassing the bulk of the regulations and taxes placed upon telecommunications saving them a heap of money.
I may be way out in left field on this but after having a few discussions with my account managers as well as technicians working for one of the Bells I think this is where they are heading. Bells are HUGE profit driven corporations so they are always looking for new ways to generate revenue, usually at the expense of competition.
This is somewhat of a long-winded reply that has strayed off course a bit but hopefully I've made my point. I'm not going to pretend that I am some sort of authority on how the Bells operate. I am basing my reply on observations I have made and personal experience. I'm just throwing my two cents into the pot.
I agree on both points. The debate as to whether or not Linux is "ready" for the desktop will continue to be heard for many years to come. Also, Linux will always be different but isn't that part of the culture? Personally, I feel Linux is a viable choice for the desktop in some situations. I have been using it as a desktop OS for six years now and it certainly has made a lot of progress since I began using it as a destop OS. Then again, I am not what many would consider an average computer user. My mother, however, is. Linux offers her everything she needs:
Web Browser - Firefox
E-mail - Thunderbird
Personal Finance Manager - Gnucash
Office Suite - Open Office
Digital Camera/Image Manipulation - Gphoto + Gimp
I should note that her digital camera is not supported by Windows XP although her new computer happens to have a built-in card reader so that is insignificant IMO.
Why hasn't she chosen to switch to Linux you ask? Simple: If it ain't broke don't fix it!
I believe that says it all for most situations where Linux could replace Windows or OS X or vice versa. Most people simply do not see the value in migrating to another OS because what they are already using gets the job done.
Cisco does not like to lose and they hate being wrong even more but overall I think they're a good company. I like working with their hardware although the price tag is very steep and in a lot of cases a less expensive product serves the purpose just as well or better. I can think of one instance in particular where a custom Linux firewall was replaced with a Cisco 2621 router with the firewall feature set loaded because the Linux firewall didn't meet the organizations security standards. As it turns out those standards meant the firewall had to be a Cisco product, period. I have also seen situations where Cisco tech support blamed my Linux router as the reason for a VPN tunnel failing on a misconfigured PIX firewall. I wasn't really surprised by any of this but it also doesn't surprise me that Microsoft chose someone else over Cisco. Does anyone else find it ironic that a monolithic software company with obnoxious licensing snubs a monolithic hardware company with equally insane licensing? I implement both Cisco and Microsoft products for my customers but the hoops you have to jump through sometimes just to make sure your licenses are on the up and up are ridiculous.
I don't very often agree with Richard Stallman on a lot of things but this time he's spot on IMO. I mean come on, Paris Hilton?
I couldn't agree more. In my experience sometimes regulations such as this work, most of the time they do not. Also, I do not want someone in China deciding how I can use the Internet here in the U.S. The reciprocal should also be true. And as for subsidizing Internet connectivity in Africa, no way. I am supposed to pay a tax so Africa can have better connectivity? What about right here in my own community where the PSTN can barely handle the voice traffic let alone dial-up and high-speed Internet? I don't suppose the U.N. would be interested in subsidizing rural broadband in the U.S. or Canada or even Australia, would they? The Internet is an important, powerful tool and it can definitely be of benefit to many people but adding regulation just isn't going to work. I am also not going to pay a tax just to build out infrastructure in Africa when the facilities in my own back yard are nearly as pathetic. I should probably mention that I own a small ISP in a rural area and I am doing all I can to improve connectivity here. You know what, it's damn hard. There are enough politics and BS involved in delivering Internet access now, no need to add any more.
I could always find something interesting in useful in Phrack.
It's not but damn is it hilarious. I needed a chuckle to end the day.
I couldn't agree more. I'm noticing how many responses posted here are knee-jerk reactions at the simple mention of the Patriot Act. I suppose he could be let off with a slap on the wrist and a very firm warning. What happens when he does something stupid like this again and endangers lives or actually causes a plane to crash? I would imagine folks would be in an uproar because he wasn't locked away the first time he did it. There are a lot of things I don't like about the Patriot Act but shining lasers at airplanes can not be treated lightly. Pilots are under enough stress; they don't need to be bothered with assholes playing games with laser pointers. Personally I think people need to take more responsibility for their actions. Perhaps then the government would realize they don't need to pass more laws to protect us from ourselves. Perhaps instead of screaming bloody murder every time the Patriot Act is mentioned constructive criticism and credible alternatives could be offered instead. Or perhaps things will remain the status quo, who am I to say?
An island of sanity in an ocean of bullshit. You're absolutely right. Sometimes I think parents want to use the TV to raise their kids while they work on their golf swing and talk about who got kicked off the island on Survivor the night before. WELL SAID!
This thread from the gentoo-users mailing list provides several points of view regarding portage and binary packages.
I haven't shopped at Wal-Mart for what is going on nearly 10 months because I can't patronize them in good conscience. I know far too many people who don't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out because they have what can barely be considered a low-paying job at Wal-Mart. It also disgusts me with the way Wal-Mart treats their EMPLOYEES. They can shove that PC "associates" bullshit where the sun doesn't shine. If you treat adults like small children they will act like small children and this is what I see at Wal-Mart. People hate Microsoft because they are anti-competitive, look at Wal-Mart. Karma be damned but everytime I read an article trying to make Wal-Mart look like the greatest thing since sliced bread I tend to just go off. I loathe that company and if it means my cost of living is slightly higher by shopping at local businesses that can't price compete with the devil than so be it. I can also go to sleep at night knowing I am not encouraging further abuse of social welfare programs by giving money to Wal-Mart.
Good point. I would imagine that even with this in place the insurance companies are going to have a set minimum fee (monthly, quarterly, yearly) that you will pay regardless of how much you drive.
I think my insurance rates are as low as they're going to get, as little as I drive. I think I'll pass on this one.
Not trying to start a flamewar, just curious. I'm guessing it's probably Mandrake because I seem to remember HP announcing a line of desktop systems featuring Mandrake. Regardless, kudos to HP!
"They" have been corn-holing the common man for centuries. Yes, it sucks.
I've been using IRC for around 8+ years myself and although I don't have a list of accolades such as this I have met a lot of great people through IRC as well as plenty of idiots. It if were not for IRC I would not have learned about the recent passing of a good friend of mine. It seems that on the larger networks the "evil" tends to stay separated from the "good" with the occasional nuisance popping up from time to time. Smaller networks and especially those trying to establish themselves seem to have the most problems. I can think of two smaller networks that disappeared into the cyber sunset due to DoS attacks, mostly the result of personal differences between a couple script kiddies and overzealous opers. I've found IRC to be more like a favorite pub where you and your friends meet. I agree, the author needs to spend at least a year on IRC to really get a handle on what it is. It isn't the cess pool that most of usenet has become.
Well said! When preparing proposals for clients I always try to include three options for them. When it comes to PCs I suggest Firefox, Thunderbird and Open Office for most situations. The only way to break the Microsoft monopoly is to educate the end user that there are alternatives. I have found that my clients are usually quite pleased and often surprised by the quality of these free alternatives and I find them coming back to me wanting to learn about alternatives to Windows. The old cliche "Rome wasn't built in a day" fits this situation well. Microsoft will eventually be broken, it will just take time.
FreeBSD + ipfw should be able to handle this for you rather nicely. Find yourself an old P-200 or similar and put a couple NICs in it. That should be enough hardware to accomplish your goal.
It looks like your problem lies with Frontier, not Verizon. Try getting in touch with your state's PUC (public utilities commission or sometimes public service commission.) The PUC is like an 800 pound gorilla that can make telcos jump on command. There's no guarantee this will work but a lot of times they can help.
Precisely. What a subtle way to start ushering in Palladium or whatever they call their supposed digital "rights" management system.
I think portage is a step in the right direction. Portage already has the capability to install .debs and .rpms as well as build from source and install tarball packages. Granted, it's not perfect but perhaps the way to attack this problem is to create a user-friendly gui on top of portage (I think there is at least one gui already, not 100% sure though) that handles everything being discussed here. I think this would appease power users and newbies alike, especially if the dependency handling is as good as, say, apt-get. My problem with portage is that it seems to be more of a one-way street. You type 'emerge Gnome' at the commandline and it builds and installs Gnome yet if you want to remove Gnome you have a long list of dependencies to remove one by one. Now, I may have overlooked something in the documentation but if we look at this from the standpoint of the newbie, who doesn't want to read volumes of documentation, then portage is not the right answer. It is my opinion that more people need to read the documentation but we all know that isn't going to happen easily so I think some apps will have to be "dumbed down." I think Gentoo has a good start with Portage. There will always be problems with naming conventions and standards but I think with enough effort portage could be molded into the app the author is talking about. The BSD ports system is very nice also but I think it would be wiser to work with the tools already available to develop a solution instead of trying to bring something over from another OS. Then again, maybe I'm so far out in left field that I've missed the boat. Time will tell.
Lies, damn lies and statistics ;)
While I haven't used KDE or KOffice in over a year I agree with this statement. I have created database applications for clients using Access and having a friendly front-end for MySQL similar to that of MS Access would be a huge plus. PHP and web interfaces can only go so far.
I've only been using FreeBSD for a few hours and I can honestly say I disagree with this post. I have also used Gentoo, Debian, Slackware and several RPM-based distros and I will say that the selection of packages available for FreeBSD is as large or larger than those available in most Linux distros I've used. I'm a little clumsy with the package manager at the moment but one can only absorb so much documentation in a few hours. I am finding it easier to install software on FreeBSD than on Redhat and the ease of use is on par with apt or portage. My experience with FreeBSD thus far has been positive and I have yet to come up short when installing software from the ports collection. Everything I need/want is there.