MS & BillG have broken antitrust laws. It is complicated, but clear enough that they've used tying & bundling to leverage their OS monopoly.
What makes MS & BG evil in my eyes is not what they did, but they persist in thinking they did no wrong. Not as a ploy, but I believe genuinely. BillG doesn't understand that what he did was wrong. This is amoral, and amorality is evil. Malevolence [of which there was plenty toward other corps] is not necessary for evil to exist.
Their blythe rejection of the very reasonable settlement offer -- no breakup, no open source, no "stopping innovation" just a price list for all buyers (NYTimes) -- is merely confirmation. And utterly stupid.
Carrying on a bit further, you can see that the fundamental basis of all law to to protect those who build things (originally clearing land, growing crops and domesticating cattle) against those who would simply take it. This is necessary for human development because it encourages creation.
You've touched on the problem of extending this to intellectual property: free duplication. What does the copyright owner lose when a copy is made? Not the work itself at all, but a potential sale. A sales contract is not property, it is a mutual agreement. So the seller doesn't own it any more than the buyer. If the buyer rejects the sellers terms there is no sale, so no potential to lose. Prohibiting copying then is merely spite, but may be necessary to avoid losing others who _would_ pay.
Fully agreed. The Copyright Extention act of 1995 (?) is one of the most odiferous acts of Congress ever. An egregious case of Congress selling out to corporate IP holders, especially Disney who was going to have Mickey Mouse come off copyright.
IMHO, copyright and patent terms should be shortened not lengthened. Modern society changes much faster than historically, works become dated and no longer commercially viable much quicker, and copying and distribution of works takes much less time. The only exception might be patented drugs, which deserve compensation for the lengthy FDA testing period.
Furthermore, I would propose that copyright lapse restorably when new sales are halted. Out-of-print books/disks should lose copyright, but perhaps the copyright holder should be able to reinstate their copyright by restarting publication. Maybe this would lead to a small industry of micropublishers who would maintain copyrights by publishing on demand. But at least the works would be available.
Private works never sold wouldn't have copyright lapse.
The ability to rapidly and cheaply copy, transmit and store information brought on by the Internet and computers has put alot of pressure Intellectual property laws.
Originally, Intellectual property law was modelled after the highly successful and largely settled physical property laws. But from the outset, it was recognized that intellectual property was differenent. That's why copyrights and patents are of limited duration.
The holders of IP, some of whom are large, powerful corporations naturally want to protect and enhance their existing assets. This is to the detrement of the citizenry, because no new creation can retroactively occur. At the very least, new IP protections should apply _only_ to new works.
We need people like Eben who know the law to help ensure the IP corps don't run roughshod over the rights of the people.
When they are acting as citizens (civilians), of course the police have the rights of citizens. But when they are acting in an official capacity, taking up and using the powers the law gives them, they can be no longer permitted to routinely remain silent.
To pretend otherwise is to invite all public officials to plead the 5th. Can you imagine if Bill Clinton simply stonewalled? Furthermore, if an offical pleads the 5th, the assumption should be that s/he has done something illegal.
A person has the right under the 5th not to incriminate themselves. They do not have the right to stay silent when they would not be incriminated.
This becomes dangerous. It is just as important to know what the various authorities are doing as it is to prevent them from doing freedom-depriving things. How else can the public judge when corrective action is required?
Freedom of information is a very important concept. If you don't know what someone is doing, how can you protest or stop it? The secret police are so named because their actions are secret.
Yes, criminal organizations make vast profits and are largely sustained by their drug industry. They are unlikely to replace it by anything else that they are not already doing. Gambling returns have dropped due to the progressive legalization of gabling over the past decade.
The pharms/tobacco/booze companies would get into this industry, but I seriously doubt any heads would roll. They didn't when Prohibition was repealed.
But the gangsters were _very_ unhappy when Prohibition ended. They just couldn't do anything effective about it. Now, I wonder if all the "War on Drugs" lobbying isn't from very well laundered criminal money.
I used to think the way you do until I visited Singapore for a week. That place is crowded! There are some undeveloped parts of the island, but everywhere there are people, there are alot of them.
Policing Singapore is a big problem. Either deterrence works, or you need alot of cops.
Mr Lee decided to push deterence with draconian penalties. Maybe not nice. But I've only visited, and I know that living there can be different. I've lived in Europe, and it's very different from visiting.
"Those who would trade freedom for security will soon have neither" (John Adams?)
Equating crypto with drive-by shootings is utterly wrong. It is the plea of incompetant authorities who ask for more power so they can do their job easier. They might also actively resent freedom.
To solve the drive-by-shooting issues, freedoms have to be increased, not decreased. This is very controversial. Freedom to use drugs, so the underworld is deprived of their astronomical profits. Economic freedoms so underclass members can rise.
I program alot too, mostly in asm. And I would argue that the structure of any programming language, and perfecting it's lines is much closer to writing poetry than prose.
Prose can be written in many ways, ideas presented in many orders, and even gramattical mistakes made without it losing it's message.
Poetry is much more exacting. The wrong syllable and the effect is ruined. Even bad code has to work, even though it might look like doggerel.
Great code is a thing of beauty, to be admired by those who can appreciate it.
Wasn't there a shoot'em'up in a small Alberta town (Taber?) a few years back? And maybe in Quebec?
I expect fewer incidents of all kinds in Canada because there are one-tenth the people.
I was at my kids school, and was frankly surprised by the "wall of Shame". There were oinly six incidents listed. Columbine was by far the worst, but it's still only two/year. Average murders=5.
Regrettable, but teenage drinking, or even sober driving is thousands of times more lethal.
The Salem Witchhunt is part of what gave rise to the American Revolution. But yes, there certainly have been dark periods for freedom in America: The Whiskey Rebellion, Civil War, and Vietnam Draft.
The interesting part is how much _angst_ these episodes have had upoin the national character. Comparative incidents in other countries seem to be accepted with resignation. This is not a path to learning, but to repetition.
As for freedoms, I have no doubt that if America were less free, the rest of the world would be too. It is competition from American and it's freedoms that have actively forced many countries (the UK included) to treat it's citizens better.
America has some of the worst (best?) politicians/officials on the planet. They are remarkably devoid of common/public interest except in speeches. They certainly need threat of arms (your detested 2nd Ammendment) too keep them in line.
How will Pinkertons avoid missing potential troublemakers? By tightening the sieve so that more innocents are caught?
In America, we have a long tradition of cherished freedoms. We seem to be willing to suffer the insecurity this causes.
How will Pinkertons avoid becoming unAmerican? How will you avoid becoming a Gestapo, however well meaning?
What are these Orders at the bottom ???
on
Microsoft Loses
·
· Score: 2
IANAL, but I did read through the entire judgement. Damning, to say the least. But most intersting is the bottom two pages. Judge Penfield has entered his orders:
1) MS has violated Federal & States Laws 2) US claims 2,3 & 5 are granded (ordered). 3) US claim 1 is dismissed with prejudice. 4) A whole bunch of the states claims are granted. 5) States claim 5 is dismissed with prejudice. 6) MS 1 & 2 claims for relief are dismissed with prej. 7) The Court will make a further order for relief, including costs.
Just what are in the key US/States claims that have been granted? And how much more can the Court order?
IANAL, especially not a UK sollicitor, but I don't think you can be sent to gaol for libel. It is a civil tort, and only carries civil penalties.
You could lose your house, but maybe not if you've incorporated into a limited liability company. Or if it's in your wife's name before the tort. Of course, that may have other liabilities...
We always at a turning point because the Internet is still evolving/changing rapidly. Only things that do not move cannot turn.
There is nothing particularly special about this moment in time.
True, the various authorities [control addicts] have been awaking, but there are also lots more `net users who enjoy the freedom they find here.
This doesn't mean we shouldn't fight the straightjackets that others would like to fit us in. Of course we should. This isn't the first time, nor will it be the last. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
Cache organisation is as important as size! The larger caches (512KB-1MB) seen on SS7 boards were often direct mapped. Do not compare these with two-way or four-way (Celeron) caches.
The problem is a direct mapped cache has only one place for each RAM location (repeating every cachelength). Say you have a program that accesses a memory location, then accesses one [cachelength] away. The first will be flushed from cache to make room for the second. And over again = thrashing. You won't generally be able to predict physical addresses because paging remaps everything.
Two way set associative caches are a big win. Every memory cell can go into _two_ cache locations. That way, an LRU algorithm is used to decide who replaces what, and recently used data is much less likely to be flushed.
I'm very pleased with Intel's P6 four way set associative caches. When comparing cachesize, I multiply size by associativity. So a 128 KB 4way cache is as good as a 512 KB direct mapped.
This is definietly an oversimplification. There are a few problems/OSes that can keep their entire working set in L2 cache. Then large direct mapped is a win. But they are rather rare compared to problems that exceed L2 and need to coprocess 2 or more data elements.
If the "Findings of Fact" become of no legal weight, then I'm afraid I don't want a settlement either. There's no room for remedies to others hurt by Microsoft.
AFAIK, all settlements, especially if public, contain a disclaimer of guilt. As you point out, they are `way too damaging otherwise. I'd expect to see language like "Nothing herein is to be construed as an admission by Microsoft that any practices it has engaged in are illegal."
As for MS worming, it will happen. IMHO, the fundamental problem is the BillG and company _really_ don't understand what they've done wrong. They don't get it. They honestly believe they've played by the rules, otherwise they'd've covered up much better.
The problem becomes BillG&co cannot be trusted to play be the rules [settlement] in the future, because they honestly cannot understand the rules. Very sad.
Don't forget that Billy G made a very large (1 M$ IIRC) party/campaign contribution to Clinton in '92. Lopsided, no less. I was surprised the DoJ went after him at all, but Janet[-from-another-Planet?] has always been a loose cannon and a socialist staff is hard to rein in.
I don't think Dubya is going to forgive BillyG for hurting his pappy so easily.
Really? IANAL, but does a settlement at this stage invalidate the "Finding of Fact" already published? I seriously doubt it.
And AFAIK all the other suits are based on the "Findings of Fact" because facts are hard to prove in court. The law is much easier to prove, and may need to be proved over again for the specific damages being sought.
This is a tricky area of law. Any lawysers out there to comment?
Bill Gates could be convicted of perjury if a Court and jury conclude that he knew he was lying in some of his sworn testimony. He did say things that were flatly contradicted by email. If a court/jury considered the email factual, and Bill's "forgettery" unconvincing, they would convict him of a felony.
IANAL, but he's very close to that IMHO. MS did things (forced licencing) that he said in swon testimony that they did not do. I find the email convincing that he once knew. And I find it beyond credence that he forgot.
IANAL. In spite of the apparent upper hand the the DoJ has, it is probably seriously considering settlement for a number of advantages that it has over a court decision:
1) MS cannot appeal a settlement (easily, if at all) 2) The DoJ can get remedies in a settlement (like opensourcing Windows--yuck) that a Judge would be very reluctant to impose.
The problem here is a failure of imagination. The DoJ doesn't really know what to ask for. And MS is naturally stonewalling.
There are no advantages to an imposed decision except maybe the court would be more angry if it were controverted, and might impose contempt penalties quicker.
OTOH, MS has a history of settling, then worming their way around the settlement. That's a big part of why the DoJ dragged them into Court this time. The case is framed as a breach of a previous settlement agreement.
I run both FreeBSD and Linux. The main difference (other than filesystem layout) is that the [bin|file]utils are different. BSD `ls` is diffferent from GNU `ls`, etc.
*BSD still relies on `gcc` just as much as Linux, and AFAIK also uses the GNU libraries. (Although *BSD lacks/lib, and/[s]bin is all cleverly statically linked). To me this is the important point. The utils aren't important enough to justify calling a system after them, although RMS has told me he thinks so. A system has three components:
1) A kernel 2) A compiler and libraries 3) utilities
(1) is non-FSF code under Linux & *BSD. (2) is FSF code under both Linux & *BSD. (3) is FSF under linux and not under *BSD. IMHO, it's just not a big enough difference. Utilities are in no way as critical/important as kernel or compiler. Maybe they might tip the balance, but it's close.
For a Linux rescue distro, I'd shun the loaded GNUutils and go for some nice asm versions.
This is fantastic! If I read and understand this correctly, they have 100km fiber runs _without_ a repeater! That's truly excellent. Most of the cost for long distance runs [after the right-of-way] is in the repeaters and powering them, not in the media.
And they can run it at 40 GHz. That's 4 THz/km. Normally, fiber is limited by "smearing" over long lengths--the light pulses get spread out over the length of the media. Common fiber that is running around campuses and biz-sites is good for something like 1 GHz/km--a one km run can be gigabit, but a 10 km run has to drop to 100 MHz.
The 40 channels per fiber is also impressive, but nothing like 100 km between repeaters or 4 THz/km.
Slashdot Mirror
MS & BillG have broken antitrust laws. It is complicated, but clear enough that they've used tying & bundling to leverage their OS monopoly.
What makes MS & BG evil in my eyes is not what they did, but they persist in thinking they did no wrong. Not as a ploy, but I believe genuinely. BillG doesn't understand that what he did was wrong. This is amoral, and amorality is evil. Malevolence [of which there was plenty toward other corps] is not necessary for evil to exist.
Their blythe rejection of the very reasonable settlement offer -- no breakup, no open source, no "stopping innovation" just a price list for all buyers (NYTimes) -- is merely confirmation. And utterly stupid.
Carrying on a bit further, you can see that the fundamental basis of all law to to protect those who build things (originally clearing land, growing crops and domesticating cattle) against those who would simply take it. This is necessary for human development because it encourages creation.
You've touched on the problem of extending this to intellectual property: free duplication. What does the copyright owner lose when a copy is made? Not the work itself at all, but a potential sale.
A sales contract is not property, it is a mutual agreement. So the seller doesn't own it any more than the buyer. If the buyer rejects the sellers terms there is no sale, so no potential to lose. Prohibiting copying then is merely spite, but may be necessary to avoid losing others who _would_ pay.
Fully agreed. The Copyright Extention act of 1995 (?) is one of the most odiferous acts of Congress ever. An egregious case of Congress selling out to corporate IP holders, especially Disney who was going to have Mickey Mouse come off copyright.
IMHO, copyright and patent terms should be shortened not lengthened. Modern society changes much faster than historically, works become dated and no longer commercially viable much quicker, and copying and distribution of works takes much less time. The only exception might be patented drugs, which deserve compensation for the lengthy FDA testing period.
Furthermore, I would propose that copyright lapse restorably when new sales are halted. Out-of-print books/disks should lose copyright, but perhaps the copyright holder should be able to reinstate their copyright by restarting publication. Maybe this would lead to a small industry of micropublishers who would maintain copyrights by publishing on demand. But at least the works would be available.
Private works never sold wouldn't have copyright lapse.
The ability to rapidly and cheaply copy, transmit and store information brought on by the Internet and computers has put alot of pressure Intellectual property laws.
Originally, Intellectual property law was modelled after the highly successful and largely settled physical property laws. But from the outset, it was recognized that intellectual property was differenent. That's why copyrights and patents are of limited duration.
The holders of IP, some of whom are large, powerful corporations naturally want to protect and enhance their existing assets. This is to the detrement of the citizenry, because no new creation can retroactively occur. At the very least, new IP protections should apply _only_ to new works.
We need people like Eben who know the law to help ensure the IP corps don't run roughshod over the rights of the people.
When they are acting as citizens (civilians), of course the police have the rights of citizens. But when they are acting in an official capacity, taking up and using the powers the law gives them, they can be no longer permitted to routinely remain silent.
To pretend otherwise is to invite all public officials to plead the 5th. Can you imagine if Bill Clinton simply stonewalled? Furthermore, if an offical pleads the 5th, the assumption should be that s/he has done something illegal.
A person has the right under the 5th not to incriminate themselves. They do not have the right to stay silent when they would not be incriminated.
This becomes dangerous. It is just as important to know what the various authorities are doing as it is to prevent them from doing freedom-depriving things. How else can the public judge when corrective action is required?
Freedom of information is a very important concept. If you don't know what someone is doing, how can you protest or stop it? The secret police are so named because their actions are secret.
Yes, criminal organizations make vast profits and are largely sustained by their drug industry.
They are unlikely to replace it by anything else that they are not already doing. Gambling returns have dropped due to the progressive legalization of gabling over the past decade.
The pharms/tobacco/booze companies would get into this industry, but I seriously doubt any heads would roll. They didn't when Prohibition was repealed.
But the gangsters were _very_ unhappy when Prohibition ended. They just couldn't do anything effective about it. Now, I wonder if all the "War on Drugs" lobbying isn't from very well laundered criminal money.
I used to think the way you do until I visited Singapore for a week. That place is crowded! There are some undeveloped parts of the island, but everywhere there are people, there are alot of them.
Policing Singapore is a big problem. Either deterrence works, or you need alot of cops.
Mr Lee decided to push deterence with draconian penalties. Maybe not nice. But I've only visited, and I know that living there can be different. I've lived in Europe, and it's very different from visiting.
"Those who would trade freedom for security will soon have neither" (John Adams?)
Equating crypto with drive-by shootings is utterly wrong. It is the plea of incompetant authorities who ask for more power so they can do their job easier. They might also actively resent freedom.
To solve the drive-by-shooting issues, freedoms have to be increased, not decreased. This is very controversial. Freedom to use drugs, so the underworld is deprived of their astronomical profits. Economic freedoms so underclass members can rise.
I program alot too, mostly in asm. And I would argue that the structure of any programming language, and perfecting it's lines is much closer to writing poetry than prose.
Prose can be written in many ways, ideas presented in many orders, and even gramattical mistakes made without it losing it's message.
Poetry is much more exacting. The wrong syllable and the effect is ruined. Even bad code has to work, even though it might look like doggerel.
Great code is a thing of beauty, to be admired by those who can appreciate it.
Wasn't there a shoot'em'up in a small Alberta town (Taber?) a few years back? And maybe in Quebec?
I expect fewer incidents of all kinds in Canada because there are one-tenth the people.
I was at my kids school, and was frankly surprised by the "wall of Shame". There were oinly six incidents listed. Columbine was by far the worst, but it's still only two/year. Average murders=5.
Regrettable, but teenage drinking, or even sober driving is thousands of times more lethal.
The Salem Witchhunt is part of what gave rise to the American Revolution. But yes, there certainly have been dark periods for freedom in America: The Whiskey Rebellion, Civil War, and Vietnam Draft.
The interesting part is how much _angst_ these episodes have had upoin the national character. Comparative incidents in other countries seem to be accepted with resignation. This is not a path to learning, but to repetition.
As for freedoms, I have no doubt that if America were less free, the rest of the world would be too. It is competition from American and it's freedoms that have actively forced many countries (the UK included) to treat it's citizens better.
America has some of the worst (best?) politicians/officials on the planet. They are remarkably devoid of common/public interest except in speeches. They certainly need threat of arms (your detested 2nd Ammendment) too keep them in line.
How will Pinkertons avoid missing potential troublemakers? By tightening the sieve so that more innocents are caught?
In America, we have a long tradition of cherished freedoms. We seem to be willing to suffer the insecurity this causes.
How will Pinkertons avoid becoming unAmerican? How will you avoid becoming a Gestapo, however well meaning?
IANAL, but I did read through the entire judgement. Damning, to say the least. But most intersting is the bottom two pages. Judge Penfield has entered his orders:
1) MS has violated Federal & States Laws
2) US claims 2,3 & 5 are granded (ordered).
3) US claim 1 is dismissed with prejudice.
4) A whole bunch of the states claims are granted.
5) States claim 5 is dismissed with prejudice.
6) MS 1 & 2 claims for relief are dismissed with prej.
7) The Court will make a further order for relief, including costs.
Just what are in the key US/States claims that have been granted? And how much more can the Court order?
IANAL, especially not a UK sollicitor, but I don't think you can be sent to gaol for libel. It is a civil tort, and only carries civil penalties.
...
You could lose your house, but maybe not if you've incorporated into a limited liability company. Or if it's in your wife's name before the tort. Of course, that may have other liabilities
We always at a turning point because the Internet is still evolving/changing rapidly. Only things that do not move cannot turn.
There is nothing particularly special about this moment in time.
True, the various authorities [control addicts] have been awaking, but there are also lots more `net users who enjoy the freedom they find here.
This doesn't mean we shouldn't fight the straightjackets that others would like to fit us in. Of course we should. This isn't the first time, nor will it be the last. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
Cache organisation is as important as size! The larger caches (512KB-1MB) seen on SS7 boards were often direct mapped. Do not compare these with two-way or four-way (Celeron) caches.
The problem is a direct mapped cache has only one place for each RAM location (repeating every cachelength). Say you have a program that accesses a memory location, then accesses one [cachelength] away. The first will be flushed from cache to make room for the second. And over again = thrashing. You won't generally be able to predict physical addresses because paging remaps everything.
Two way set associative caches are a big win. Every memory cell can go into _two_ cache locations. That way, an LRU algorithm is used to decide who replaces what, and recently used data is much less likely to be flushed.
I'm very pleased with Intel's P6 four way set associative caches. When comparing cachesize, I multiply size by associativity. So a 128 KB 4way cache is as good as a 512 KB direct mapped.
This is definietly an oversimplification. There are a few problems/OSes that can keep their entire working set in L2 cache. Then large direct mapped is a win. But they are rather rare compared to problems that exceed L2 and need to coprocess 2 or more data elements.
If the "Findings of Fact" become of no legal weight, then I'm afraid I don't want a settlement either. There's no room for remedies to others hurt by Microsoft.
AFAIK, all settlements, especially if public, contain a disclaimer of guilt. As you point out, they are `way too damaging otherwise. I'd expect to see language like "Nothing herein is to be construed as an admission by Microsoft that any practices it has engaged in are illegal."
As for MS worming, it will happen. IMHO, the fundamental problem is the BillG and company _really_ don't understand what they've done wrong. They don't get it. They honestly believe they've played by the rules, otherwise they'd've
covered up much better.
The problem becomes BillG&co cannot be trusted to play be the rules [settlement] in the future, because they honestly cannot understand the rules. Very sad.
Agreed politics are important.
Don't forget that Billy G made a very large (1 M$ IIRC) party/campaign contribution to Clinton in '92. Lopsided, no less. I was surprised the DoJ went after him at all, but Janet[-from-another-Planet?] has always been a loose cannon and a socialist staff is hard to rein in.
I don't think Dubya is going to forgive BillyG for hurting his pappy so easily.
Really? IANAL, but does a settlement at this stage invalidate the "Finding of Fact" already published? I seriously doubt it.
And AFAIK all the other suits are based on the "Findings of Fact" because facts are hard to prove in court. The law is much easier to prove, and may need to be proved over again for the specific damages being sought.
This is a tricky area of law. Any lawysers out there to comment?
This is a good point. MS truly doesn't understand what they did was wrong. They certainly won't accept restrictions on what they see as their rights.
As you say, the real question becomes whether the DoJ will wimp out. Who knows? MS's arrogance may make the DoJ more belligerant.
Bill Gates could be convicted of perjury if a Court and jury conclude that he knew he was lying in some of his sworn testimony. He did say things that were flatly contradicted by email. If a court/jury considered the email factual, and Bill's "forgettery" unconvincing, they would convict him of a felony.
IANAL, but he's very close to that IMHO. MS did things (forced licencing) that he said in swon testimony that they did not do. I find the email convincing that he once knew. And I find it beyond credence that he forgot.
IANAL. In spite of the apparent upper hand the the DoJ has, it is probably seriously considering settlement for a number of advantages that it has over a court decision:
1) MS cannot appeal a settlement (easily, if at all)
2) The DoJ can get remedies in a settlement (like opensourcing Windows--yuck) that a Judge would be very reluctant to impose.
The problem here is a failure of imagination. The DoJ doesn't really know what to ask for. And MS is naturally stonewalling.
There are no advantages to an imposed decision except maybe the court would be more angry if it were controverted, and might impose contempt penalties quicker.
OTOH, MS has a history of settling, then worming their way around the settlement. That's a big part of why the DoJ dragged them into Court this time. The case is framed as a breach of a previous settlement agreement.
I run both FreeBSD and Linux. The main difference (other than filesystem layout) is that the [bin|file]utils are different. BSD `ls` is diffferent from GNU `ls`, etc.
/lib, and /[s]bin is all cleverly statically linked). To me this is the important point. The utils aren't important enough to justify calling a system after them, although RMS has told me he thinks so. A system has three components:
*BSD still relies on `gcc` just as much as Linux, and AFAIK also uses the GNU libraries. (Although *BSD lacks
1) A kernel
2) A compiler and libraries
3) utilities
(1) is non-FSF code under Linux & *BSD. (2) is FSF code under both Linux & *BSD. (3) is FSF under linux and not under *BSD. IMHO, it's just not a big enough difference. Utilities are in no way as critical/important as kernel or compiler. Maybe they might tip the balance, but it's close.
For a Linux rescue distro, I'd shun the loaded GNUutils and go for some nice asm versions.
This is fantastic! If I read and understand this correctly, they have 100km fiber runs _without_ a repeater! That's truly excellent. Most of the cost for long distance runs [after the right-of-way] is in the repeaters and powering them, not in the media.
And they can run it at 40 GHz. That's 4 THz/km. Normally, fiber is limited by "smearing" over long lengths--the light pulses get spread out over the length of the media. Common fiber that is running around campuses and biz-sites is good for something like 1 GHz/km--a one km run can be gigabit, but a 10 km run has to drop to 100 MHz.
The 40 channels per fiber is also impressive, but nothing like 100 km between repeaters or 4 THz/km.