Regardless if the target is a giant corporation or a mom and pop store, the 30 day idea is likely to try and limit the financial damage once the attack is known. There are actually folks who sit and watch the underground sites who sell Credit Card information and once big lots of them go up for sale, little red flags start popping up and banks start getting notified about it.
Some folks are trying to claim how small business will be impacted by such a rule but, in my opinion, no one should be exempt from this. If you're going to get in the business of handling or processing sensitive financial data in any way, then you need to have the systems or expertise in place to make sure you're doing it correctly.
A stand alone Doctors office in small town USA has to comply with HIPPA regulations the same way their big counterparts do over at the hospital. That data is no more or less important based on the size of the business who is handling it.
Considering the timing, do you really believe this idea isn't designed to be applied to folks like Charlie Hebdo ?
They'll simply classify satire as abusive or hate speech and that will pretty much be the end of it. Can't make fun of the Muslims anymore, they tend to lose their minds and firebomb embassies, behead " infidels ", or shoot up the place.
The thing to consider going forward is now that Islam knows violence works to get their way, they'll continue to use it to enforce their will / beliefs upon the rest of the world out of fear of further violence.:|
While I enjoy filling up the tank and spending ~$20 atm, I know this is a very short term thing.
No one will admit to it, ( and of course I have no proof of it, so is pure speculation on my part ) but either OPEC is trying to destroy the US Shale-Oil business by pushing the price of oil through the floor, or they are working with the US to punish certain OTHER ( *cough* Russia *cough* ) countries who rely heavily on oil exports to fund their economy.
As soon as the whole Ukraine thing calms down, expect oil to make the jump back to the ~$80 / barrel range shortly thereafter.
Like the previous poster stated, 50 Yards / meters is a long way with a standard issue pistol. Head down to your local shooting range and try it out if you have any doubts.
If both you and target are moving, it's unlikely you will hit your target. Shooting at that range only increases the odds you'll hit an unintended target. Read that: Bad idea.
Want to shoot accurately at that range and beyond ? Use a rifle.
Extremism CAN be fought with violence, one just needs to quit pissing about and get it done.
The problem is, we're too nice. We go into a conflict with rules of engagement whereas the enemy operates without them. This puts us at a huge disadvantage right from the beginning. Is why we can't win a gorilla style conflict. We have too many rules. They know this and use it to their advantage. As long as we continue to play by their rules, we'll always lose.
As for an example of violence stopping violence, I need merely point to the following dates: August 6th and August 9th, 1945.
It does work, but you have to toss aside the idea of pretending to be the nice guys and make the decision to go all in.
Perhaps our education-overlords are worried too many Americans will learn to speak German and head over to Deutschland so they can get a quality education without going into life crushing debt:|
we have the most pathetic excuse for broadband in the United States today.
Perhaps with some enforceable rules in place we can finally get some competition in to break up the big ISP's.
Yeah, we'll have the ones who will threaten to take their ball and go home, but it's expected out of some of the big players. Watch how fast they change their mind when the government funds the network infrastructure needed and opens the lines up to anyone who wants to play ISP. ISP's don't like things to be equal because they no longer get to set the rules.
My choices today for ISP:
1) Satellite. HAhahahahah. No. 2) Comcast. ( My current selection ) 3) Verizon DSL ( via a decrepit copper plant that barely handles voice as it is. Tried it, got 56k downloads on a good day. ) 4) Cellular.
That's pretty much it.
As far as I'm concerned, since the big boys can't seem to play nice on their own, someone needs to lay down the rules to break up this regional monopoly problem. Imagine what our prices would look like if we had true competition in the ISP market. Say, a dozen vendors who can promise equal speeds. Think we would be paying what we are today ? Hah. Not likely. When the playing field is equal, the only way folks choose Company X over Company Y is due to price, reliability, and incentives. ( Usually in that order )
Look at the bright side, ( if they end up regulating it ) now when the most hated ISP on the planet shrugs off customer complaints, you can bring the issue to the PUC. In my organization, that level of complaint gets VP's and other executive levels involved instantly. Seems they don't like to get hit with the hefty fines the PUC likes to wield when company X is doing something stupid.
Given the state of broadband in the US today, do we really want to continue on with the current status quo ?
I had a similar issue on an Alienware M17X ( current generation ) where throttling and ultimately shutdown would occur once I started up a render that took all cores to 100%. The fact was the throttle wouldn't drop the cores fast enough before the temps mandated the shutdown. My fix was to simply disable the turbo feature so the cores never overheated in the first place.
I can now run all-core 100% usage renders all night long without a hiccup.
I've always preferred stability over bleeding-edge speed anyway. ( especially when an image or animation sequence takes anywhere from several hours to a day or two )
While quite a bit of tech is initially designed for the military, it eventually trickles down to the consumer level in one form or another.
Most folks have no need of NV or Thermal optics, but you gotta admit they are pretty cool to play with:D Price will keep this stuff out of reach for the majority of folks anyway. Doubtful it will find its way onto a Walmart shelf near you anytime in the foreseeable future. However, police can certainly use some sort of video mission monitoring on their weapons these days:|
Besides, I've never seen any hardware or software turn an amateur into a professional. Ever.
While the computer can help ( emphasis on HELP ) aim the weapon, there will still be some variables it cannot account for. Especially at those ranges. Wind being the biggest one. Wind can change directions and speed multiple times at long range. By itself, the computer will be unable to compensate and will require a skilled shooter behind the trigger to engage a target at that distance and still hope to hit it.
Folks like to throw the terms " Thousand Yards " and " Mile Long Shots " around like it's commonplace. I laugh when I hear them because if you do shoot seriously, then you KNOW what kind of skill it takes ( in addition to cu$tom, top of the line gear with tolerance$ any engineer would be proud of ) to make that shot a reality.
As the Cable / Satellite companies continue to raise their rates, they'll continue to bleed off customers. Bundled or unbundled services won't matter much unless they get their rates under control. The faster they raise their rates to compensate for loss of customers / profit, the more customers they'll lose. It's a downward spiral from there until the company implodes. It's not really a matter of if, but when at this point.
I've minimized the cable as much as I possibly can while keeping HD, DVR and the channels that get watched. I do have limits though. At some point they'll raise their rates beyond a threshold that I'll put up with. When they do, I'll join the rest in dropping cable completely.
Personally, I would prefer unbundled services because I don't watch 90% of what is included in my " package ". ( Toss out the Shopping Channels, Jesus channels, Spanish channels, Sports channels, Pron channels ( and all their HD mirrors ) and you're not really left with much to choose from )
So I say, let nature take its course. At this point it's all gimmicks and marketing voodoo in an attempt to save a doomed business model.
But then most home users don't understand anything about anything when it comes to their home network either.
Since I understand the fact that any dual connected device can potentially be a backdoor and / or jump-server into my network, and since I have no say so in the design nor operational abilities of said devices ( other than not using them ), I resort to the only methods and techniques I know in order to minimize the possibility of outside access.
So I go the overkill route and isolate stuff. Wireless goes into this pvlan, Alarm into another, wired devices, gaming systems, etc.
One of those devilish little details exempts them if they're trying to locate a fugitive. All they need do is make the claim Fugitive X is thought to be in area Y and they are completely off the hook.
I think only the old-timers could go smartphone free ( since we lived a good portion of our life without one already ) but not the current generation. Take the smartphone away from a kiddo today and they act like an addict that's been denied their drug of choice.
I'm getting to the point where I can drop the phone completely. I already don't trust it, nor the apps that ride upon it. While they will likely deny it, you connect to anything that requires a password and it's likely your phone can record it. Bank info, wireless access point psk's, VPN info, your contact lists. Hell GPS will show where you go and where you've been. If they really take an interest in you they can always bring the mic or cameras online. Or use it as a backdoor into your home network ( if your network is configured like most are anyway. Most folks don't isolate wireless traffic from the main network. . . but you should:D )
While government intrusion into my personal life is unlikely, it's still a concern because it's not something we should put up with. What is of even greater interest to me is what happens when the happy-hacker / disgruntled or bribed employee type folks pull a Sony and get into telecom or provider systems. ( Apple, Samsung, AT&T, etc. etc. ) How much information gleaned about everyone's life via a smartphone sits in a database file on a server somewhere ?
How much security lies between those systems and the folks trying to get into them ? ( My bet is not as much as there should be. )
Today's smartphone is the greatest surveillance gift the government and / or LE community could have ever hoped to ask for. The best part is , unlike the old days, they don't even have to be all sneaky about it. Society is willing to stand in lines for days to get their hands on the latest and greatest versions.
You'll see the very same companies pushing for this do an about face so quickly it will be laughable. Will show their true colors so to speak. They don't want talent, they want cheap employees.
The same argument can be said for ANY laws that differ from States, Cities, Counties, jurisdictions, etc.
Town X is dry ( no alcohol can be sold ) yet town Y is not. End result is all citizens from Town X drive to Town Y to buy all their alcohol. Town Y planning on suing Town X in the near future because of it ? Unlikely.
State X prohibits gambling, yet all adjacent States have multiple casinos running and welcome all of State X's residents with open arms. Is State X planning on suing all the other surrounding States because of it ? Only if they're idiots. The smart State would legalize gambling, tax it appropriately and quit giving truckloads of tax money to surrounding States instead.
Pick a law. Any law that differs from State to State and try to rationalize going the litigation route claiming it's the other guys fault because they're doing things differently.
That's the logical end game were it anyone except the United States.
The US Government is one of the most hypocritical entities on this planet. They love to craft all sorts of rules and regulations then expect everyone -ELSE- to adhere them. When they get caught running afoul of their own laws, they simply start throwing out any number of trump cards they carry at all times:
National Security State Secrets Executive Privilege Terrorists ! Children ! etc.
Or they just rename / reclassify / redirect it.
Oh THAT ? We don't torture anyone ! Really ! We said so on the news so it must be true. Oh THAT ? We don't mass collect domestic data ! Really ! We told Congress we didn't so it must be true.
So, all that said, if the Government wins vs Microsoft and forces them to give up the data in question, the odds of ANY other country applying the same logic towards a US owned company and expecting similar results is just ludicrous. There is just no f'ing way.
Wrong ? Absolutely. But that is how the USG operates.
Here's the scary part:
The US Government is completely out of control and obviously above any laws ( since laws are designed for the peasants, not the elite ). Try to put together everything that has been revealed recently about how the USG operates and the picture it paints is pretty scary. Then realize how much we DON'T know about what other shadiness goes on from the supposedly self-proclaimed " The Good Guys " government, and the image becomes a truly terrifying one.
The job postings may or may not be fictional, but the Telecoms won't be able to tell the difference.
As is typical for the monopoly giants, expect to see a large push for their own services in the cities where Google job postings are springing up. While it -might- be a bluff on Googles part, it is definitely a cheap way to get your competition to spend a lot of money to expand their infrastructure which is long overdue. ( Looking at you there 4MB/s is fast enough AT&T )
Sort of stoking the fire if you will.
The Telecoms can't afford to sit idle because, if it turns out Google isn't bluffing, potential customers will flock to Google en masse on a one way trip. The Telecoms know it. Google knows it too.
As evil as Google is, ( I certainly wouldn't use their services since their business model is completely based on depriving all of us of privacy of any kind ) it takes a Gorilla to move a Gorilla. In the end, maybe we'll see some decent offerings by multiple companies at a price that isn't a complete rip-off.
Assuming, by Enterprise, you mean Godzilla sized network, then it is a royal pain in the ass to maintain.
Take the internal networks of a well known ( and very much hated ) telecommunications company. Depending on which data center you're visiting, you can have absolute bleeding edge state of the art money is no object hardware in one corner and state of the art circa 1975 banks of modems sitting across from it. Stuff that was manufacture discontinued before most here were even BORN.:|
It's so damn big it takes entire organizations to mange portions of it. The sheer amount of money required to update it to current standards would be staggering. Anyone remember Datakit ? Hahahahaha. . . . Still in use. Very much in use.
So, for now, while all your super high tech skills are handy, knowing the old school is still very much in demand.
The monthly rate for cable modem lease jumped to $10 / month so I finally broke down and bought one. I pulled up the list they maintain on their site and started looking at reviews. Settled on a Motorola SB6121. ( My net speeds are 50 / 5 )
Called up Comcast and spoke with their support line folks. Told them I had purchased my own modem and I would like to have it activated. I read off the MAC address for the new unit to her, then hooked it up. She sent the activation signal down and my internet was up and running a few moments later.
To top it off, she didn't leave the line until I was satisfied the speeds were as expected. I bounced the connection against a few different sites to check them and we were good to go. Whole call lasted maybe fifteen minutes. I returned the Comcast cable modem to one of their stores the same day.
If you take a nickel from $number_of_Comcast_subscribers people every month, then it becomes significant.
The idea is fine, but they're just being cheap and not wanting to fund the infrastructure. Then again, were they to build their own, they'll just up the costs to the consumer to pay for it. So either way, we'll likely end up paying for it.
What their program WILL do is flood entire areas with a lot of wireless signals, likely none of which are optimized to prevent interference with each other.
Unless the folks planning the roll outs are doing site surveys to determine what channels are being used and modifying each unit accordingly, you're going to have an awful lot of channel overlap and the whole wireless experience is going to be crap-tastic.
I will admit that -some- wireless access points ( like Cisco Aironet ) has the ability to scan the spectrum periodically and change channels to the least congested one. Though in the most heavily congested areas where Comcast has installed a lot of these units, I don't believe even that will help much.
Slashdot Mirror
Regardless if the target is a giant corporation or a mom and pop store, the 30 day idea is likely to try and limit the financial damage once the attack is known. There are actually folks who sit and watch the underground sites who sell Credit Card information and once big lots of them go up for sale, little red flags start popping up and banks start getting notified about it.
Some folks are trying to claim how small business will be impacted by such a rule but, in my opinion, no one should be exempt from this. If you're going to get in the business of handling or processing sensitive financial data in any way, then you need to have the systems or expertise in place to make sure you're doing it correctly.
A stand alone Doctors office in small town USA has to comply with HIPPA regulations the same way their big counterparts do over at the hospital. That data is no more or less important based on the size of the business who is handling it.
Considering the timing, do you really believe this idea isn't designed to be applied to folks like Charlie Hebdo ?
:|
They'll simply classify satire as abusive or hate speech and that will pretty much be the end of it. Can't make fun of the Muslims anymore, they tend to lose their minds and firebomb embassies, behead " infidels ", or shoot up the place.
The thing to consider going forward is now that Islam knows violence works to get their way, they'll continue to use it to enforce their will / beliefs upon the rest of the world out of fear of further violence.
The drop in oil prices will be temporary at best.
While I enjoy filling up the tank and spending ~$20 atm, I know this is a very short term thing.
No one will admit to it, ( and of course I have no proof of it, so is pure speculation on my part ) but either OPEC is trying to destroy the US Shale-Oil business by pushing the price of oil through the floor, or they are working with the US to punish certain OTHER ( *cough* Russia *cough* ) countries who rely heavily on oil exports to fund their economy.
As soon as the whole Ukraine thing calms down, expect oil to make the jump back to the ~$80 / barrel range shortly thereafter.
Like the previous poster stated, 50 Yards / meters is a long way with a standard issue pistol. Head down to your local shooting range and try it out if you have any doubts.
If both you and target are moving, it's unlikely you will hit your target. Shooting at that range only increases the odds you'll hit an unintended target. Read that: Bad idea.
Want to shoot accurately at that range and beyond ? Use a rifle.
Trigger the camera start when the Taser is removed from its holster.
The same can be done for all weapons the officer wears. This way you have a record of what the target is doing BEFORE they get hit, sprayed or shot.
Police may not be quite so quick to draw their weapon until it is really needed.
Solution.
:D
Every Russian should trade in their car for a horse
Not entirely true I think.
Extremism CAN be fought with violence, one just needs to quit pissing about and get it done.
The problem is, we're too nice. We go into a conflict with rules of engagement whereas the enemy operates without them. This puts us at a huge disadvantage right from the beginning. Is why we can't win a gorilla style conflict. We have too many rules. They know this and use it to their advantage. As long as we continue to play by their rules, we'll always lose.
As for an example of violence stopping violence, I need merely point to the following dates: August 6th and August 9th, 1945.
It does work, but you have to toss aside the idea of pretending to be the nice guys and make the decision to go all in.
Perhaps our education-overlords are worried too many Americans will learn to speak German and head over to Deutschland so they can get a quality education without going into life crushing debt :|
Nachrichten für Nerds Deutsch
It's 2015. . . who the hell puts anything on " The Cloud " without first heavily encrypting it ?
we have the most pathetic excuse for broadband in the United States today.
Perhaps with some enforceable rules in place we can finally get some competition in to break up the big ISP's.
Yeah, we'll have the ones who will threaten to take their ball and go home, but it's expected out of some of the big players. Watch how fast they change their mind when the government funds the network infrastructure needed and opens the lines up to anyone who wants to play ISP. ISP's don't like things to be equal because they no longer get to set the rules.
My choices today for ISP:
1) Satellite. HAhahahahah. No.
2) Comcast. ( My current selection )
3) Verizon DSL ( via a decrepit copper plant that barely handles voice as it is. Tried it, got 56k downloads on a good day. )
4) Cellular.
That's pretty much it.
As far as I'm concerned, since the big boys can't seem to play nice on their own, someone needs to lay down the rules to break up this regional monopoly problem. Imagine what our prices would look like if we had true competition in the ISP market. Say, a dozen vendors who can promise equal speeds. Think we would be paying what we are today ? Hah. Not likely. When the playing field is equal, the only way folks choose Company X over Company Y is due to price, reliability, and incentives. ( Usually in that order )
Look at the bright side, ( if they end up regulating it ) now when the most hated ISP on the planet shrugs off customer complaints, you can bring the issue to the PUC. In my organization, that level of complaint gets VP's and other executive levels involved instantly. Seems they don't like to get hit with the hefty fines the PUC likes to wield when company X is doing something stupid.
Given the state of broadband in the US today, do we really want to continue on with the current status quo ?
I had a similar issue on an Alienware M17X ( current generation ) where throttling and ultimately shutdown would occur once I started up a render that took all cores to 100%. The fact was the throttle wouldn't drop the cores fast enough before the temps mandated the shutdown. My fix was to simply disable the turbo feature so the cores never overheated in the first place.
I can now run all-core 100% usage renders all night long without a hiccup.
I've always preferred stability over bleeding-edge speed anyway.
( especially when an image or animation sequence takes anywhere from several hours to a day or two )
While quite a bit of tech is initially designed for the military, it eventually trickles down to the consumer level in one form or another.
:D Price will keep this stuff out of reach for the majority of folks anyway. Doubtful it will find its way onto a Walmart shelf near you anytime in the foreseeable future. However, police can certainly use some sort of video mission monitoring on their weapons these days :|
Most folks have no need of NV or Thermal optics, but you gotta admit they are pretty cool to play with
Besides, I've never seen any hardware or software turn an amateur into a professional. Ever.
While the computer can help ( emphasis on HELP ) aim the weapon, there will still be some variables it cannot account for. Especially at those ranges.
Wind being the biggest one. Wind can change directions and speed multiple times at long range. By itself, the computer will be unable to compensate and will require a skilled shooter behind the trigger to engage a target at that distance and still hope to hit it.
Folks like to throw the terms " Thousand Yards " and " Mile Long Shots " around like it's commonplace. I laugh when I hear them because if you do shoot seriously, then you KNOW what kind of skill it takes ( in addition to cu$tom, top of the line gear with tolerance$ any engineer would be proud of ) to make that shot a reality.
As the Cable / Satellite companies continue to raise their rates, they'll continue to bleed off customers. Bundled or unbundled services won't matter much unless they get their rates under control. The faster they raise their rates to compensate for loss of customers / profit, the more customers they'll lose. It's a downward spiral from there until the company implodes. It's not really a matter of if, but when at this point.
I've minimized the cable as much as I possibly can while keeping HD, DVR and the channels that get watched. I do have limits though. At some point they'll raise their rates beyond a threshold that I'll put up with. When they do, I'll join the rest in dropping cable completely.
Personally, I would prefer unbundled services because I don't watch 90% of what is included in my " package ". ( Toss out the Shopping Channels, Jesus channels, Spanish channels, Sports channels, Pron channels ( and all their HD mirrors ) and you're not really left with much to choose from )
So I say, let nature take its course. At this point it's all gimmicks and marketing voodoo in an attempt to save a doomed business model.
I agree, complete overkill actually.
:D
But then most home users don't understand anything about anything when it comes to their home network either.
Since I understand the fact that any dual connected device can potentially be a backdoor and / or jump-server into my network, and since I have no say so in the design nor operational abilities of said devices ( other than not using them ), I resort to the only methods and techniques I know in order to minimize the possibility of outside access.
So I go the overkill route and isolate stuff. Wireless goes into this pvlan, Alarm into another, wired devices, gaming systems, etc.
Besides, it gives me something to do
Absolutely not.
One of those devilish little details exempts them if they're trying to locate a fugitive. All they need do is make the claim Fugitive X is thought to be in area Y and they are completely off the hook.
I think only the old-timers could go smartphone free ( since we lived a good portion of our life without one already ) but not the current generation. Take the smartphone away from a kiddo today and they act like an addict that's been denied their drug of choice.
:D )
I'm getting to the point where I can drop the phone completely. I already don't trust it, nor the apps that ride upon it. While they will likely deny it, you connect to anything that requires a password and it's likely your phone can record it. Bank info, wireless access point psk's, VPN info, your contact lists. Hell GPS will show where you go and where you've been. If they really take an interest in you they can always bring the mic or cameras online. Or use it as a backdoor into your home network ( if your network is configured like most are anyway. Most folks don't isolate wireless traffic from the main network. . . but you should
While government intrusion into my personal life is unlikely, it's still a concern because it's not something we should put up with. What is of even greater interest to me is what happens when the happy-hacker / disgruntled or bribed employee type folks pull a Sony and get into telecom or provider systems. ( Apple, Samsung, AT&T, etc. etc. ) How much information gleaned about everyone's life via a smartphone sits in a database file on a server somewhere ?
How much security lies between those systems and the folks trying to get into them ? ( My bet is not as much as there should be. )
Today's smartphone is the greatest surveillance gift the government and / or LE community could have ever hoped to ask for. The best part is , unlike the old days, they don't even have to be all sneaky about it. Society is willing to stand in lines for days to get their hands on the latest and greatest versions.
GD I hate posting via phone :/
You'll see the very same companies pushing for this do an about face so quickly it will be laughable. Will show their true colors so to speak. They don't want talent, they want cheap employees.
however, pass a law that requires companies to pay the folks they hire from overseas the same level of wages the American programmers are paid.
You'll see companies pushing for this due to their claim of " lack of talent " do a com
The same argument can be said for ANY laws that differ from States, Cities, Counties, jurisdictions, etc.
Town X is dry ( no alcohol can be sold ) yet town Y is not. End result is all citizens from Town X drive to Town Y to buy all their alcohol. Town Y planning on suing Town X in the near future because of it ? Unlikely.
State X prohibits gambling, yet all adjacent States have multiple casinos running and welcome all of State X's residents with open arms. Is State X planning on suing all the other surrounding States because of it ? Only if they're idiots. The smart State would legalize gambling, tax it appropriately and quit giving truckloads of tax money to surrounding States instead.
Pick a law. Any law that differs from State to State and try to rationalize going the litigation route claiming it's the other guys fault because they're doing things differently.
That's the logical end game were it anyone except the United States.
The US Government is one of the most hypocritical entities on this planet. They love to craft all sorts of rules and regulations then expect everyone -ELSE- to adhere them. When they get caught running afoul of their own laws, they simply start throwing out any number of trump cards they carry at all times:
National Security
State Secrets
Executive Privilege
Terrorists !
Children !
etc.
Or they just rename / reclassify / redirect it.
Oh THAT ? We don't torture anyone ! Really ! We said so on the news so it must be true.
Oh THAT ? We don't mass collect domestic data ! Really ! We told Congress we didn't so it must be true.
So, all that said, if the Government wins vs Microsoft and forces them to give up the data in question, the odds of ANY other country applying the same logic towards a US owned company and expecting similar results is just ludicrous. There is just no f'ing way.
Wrong ? Absolutely. But that is how the USG operates.
Here's the scary part:
The US Government is completely out of control and obviously above any laws ( since laws are designed for the peasants, not the elite ). Try to put together everything that has been revealed recently about how the USG operates and the picture it paints is pretty scary. Then realize how much we DON'T know about what other shadiness goes on from the supposedly self-proclaimed " The Good Guys " government, and the image becomes a truly terrifying one.
The job postings may or may not be fictional, but the Telecoms won't be able to tell the difference.
As is typical for the monopoly giants, expect to see a large push for their own services in the cities where Google job postings are springing up. While it -might- be a bluff on Googles part, it is definitely a cheap way to get your competition to spend a lot of money to expand their infrastructure which is long overdue. ( Looking at you there 4MB/s is fast enough AT&T )
Sort of stoking the fire if you will.
The Telecoms can't afford to sit idle because, if it turns out Google isn't bluffing, potential customers will flock to Google en masse on a one way trip. The Telecoms know it. Google knows it too.
As evil as Google is, ( I certainly wouldn't use their services since their business model is completely based on depriving all of us of privacy of any kind ) it takes a Gorilla to move a Gorilla. In the end, maybe we'll see some decent offerings by multiple companies at a price that isn't a complete rip-off.
Assuming, by Enterprise, you mean Godzilla sized network, then it is a royal pain in the ass to maintain.
:|
Take the internal networks of a well known ( and very much hated ) telecommunications company. Depending on which data center you're visiting, you can have absolute bleeding edge state of the art money is no object hardware in one corner and state of the art circa 1975 banks of modems sitting across from it. Stuff that was manufacture discontinued before most here were even BORN.
It's so damn big it takes entire organizations to mange portions of it. The sheer amount of money required to update it to current standards would be staggering. Anyone remember Datakit ? Hahahahaha. . . . Still in use. Very much in use.
So, for now, while all your super high tech skills are handy, knowing the old school is still very much in demand.
Viva la X.25 !!!! lol
Opposite experience for me.
The monthly rate for cable modem lease jumped to $10 / month so I finally broke down and bought one. I pulled up the list they maintain on their site and started looking at reviews. Settled on a Motorola SB6121. ( My net speeds are 50 / 5 )
Called up Comcast and spoke with their support line folks. Told them I had purchased my own modem and I would like to have it activated. I read off the MAC address for the new unit to her, then hooked it up. She sent the activation signal down and my internet was up and running a few moments later.
To top it off, she didn't leave the line until I was satisfied the speeds were as expected. I bounced the connection against a few different sites to check them and we were good to go. Whole call lasted maybe fifteen minutes. I returned the Comcast cable modem to one of their stores the same day.
No issues since.
once a month, no one really cares.
If you take a nickel from $number_of_Comcast_subscribers people every month, then it becomes significant.
The idea is fine, but they're just being cheap and not wanting to fund the infrastructure. Then again, were they to build their own, they'll just up the costs to the consumer to pay for it. So either way, we'll likely end up paying for it.
What their program WILL do is flood entire areas with a lot of wireless signals, likely none of which are optimized to prevent interference with each other.
Unless the folks planning the roll outs are doing site surveys to determine what channels are being used and modifying each unit accordingly, you're going to have an awful lot of channel overlap and the whole wireless experience is going to be crap-tastic.
I will admit that -some- wireless access points ( like Cisco Aironet ) has the ability to scan the spectrum periodically and change channels to the least congested one. Though in the most heavily congested areas where Comcast has installed a lot of these units, I don't believe even that will help much.