As we observe "nature" it is very evident that there are very definite "rules" by which these "natural" processes operate. The reason science is possible at all is because by learning about these rules, we can predict and modify some of these processes to our advantage. Once these rules or laws are established and at least partially understood we can postulate how these laws might have shaped what we observe in nature and the laboratory.
The big question really isn't how we or everything else we observe came to be by following these rules or laws, but how these laws came to be in the first place. As far as we can tell, these laws, commonly called the laws of physics, appear to operate consistently not only here on earth, but also in the most distant observable reaches of the cosmos.
The relationships and characteristics of these laws are so exact, that if any of them were altered, in some cases only one part in a million or less, we the observer, and no other physical life forms could not exist. The binding energies of carbon are the only element we know of that allow the construction of the extremely complex protein molecules advanced physical living entities are observed to have.
The Bible is a book that tells us outright that physical life forms, are at the bottom of the scale of life. We are told of a transcendant, non-physical intelligent entity called God, (Elohim in Hebrew) who exists outside of, and is not subject to these laws, but created these laws along with the time-space-matter-energy universe they control. Furthermore, this God of the Bible came here to Earth, where in the human form of Jesus Christ, He voluntarily subjected Himself to these laws of physics He had formulated, even to the point of being subject to and suffering death. He did all this in order to enable us have a relationship with Him beginning right here and now, while we are still subject to these laws of physics, including entropy which guarantees the death of our physical body. The promise is, and that must be taken by faith right now, that He desires for us also to transcend the limiting laws of physics and be forever joined to Him.
Science and our limited intellect cannot go that far, and that is why the Bible tells us that "without faith it is impossible to please God". The Bible tells us that we are non-physical entities that live for a short time in physical bodies, wherein we may freely decide by faith, whether we want to live in the presence of the One who is self-existent and eternal, or apart fom Him. Being apart from Him is what the Bible labels Hell.
I guess your system is not connected to the Internet where it would be immediatly 'altered' by one or more malware programs installing themseves without the user adding or doing anything.
...Its believed to some other extraterrestrial civilization....
The problem here is just pushed back a level. Where did this conjectured extraterrestrial civilization come from? Postulating an eternal, self-existing creator is a much more reasonable way out. Science cannot prove or disprove God, but it is a matter for faith only.
...Actually, evolution is both fact and theory. It is fact in that it has been observed...
Really now. What repeatable experiment has anyone done to show evolution as a fact? Has anyone ever created even a single living cell from non-living matter. If anyone ever is able to do this, then evolution is indeed a verifyable experimental fact. Until that happens, it shall remain a theory that can explain some things in our world, but cannot explain others.
...that there are virtually no reputable scientists who would accept ID as a legitimate scientific theory...
Just because a majority of people, scientists or otherwise, believe something to be true, does not make it so. Before Mr. Roemer came along in the 1600s, the majority of 'reputable' scientists believed that light traveled instantaneously from place to place. It took over 50 years for that belief to change to the fact that ligh takes a finite amount of time to travel a given distance. There have been so many wrong ideas all accepted by "reputable" scientists that eventually turned out to be wrong. Evolution will be another one of these some day.
The Bible certainly is not a book of science, but in all areas of science it touches, but especially archeology, it has so far always eventually proved to be right. NONE of the false ideas about our world, that abounded throughout human history have found their way into this book. The book of Job for example correctly tells us that the Earth is a sphere and that it is suspended in space. Long before science learned of the water cycle we are told that the rain comes from the sea and it cycles back to there. How did Moses know that the blood clotting factor of a newborn peaks at the eighth day when he specified this as the day of circumcison? Did he get this info from the biochemist who designed the bood clotting system?
Science is a search for truth and no truth ever discovered and actually measured and understood as a FACT, experimentally verified, has ever been at odds with any statement in the Bible. Evolution has never been experimentally measured to take place.
...Evolution is a thory that can be proved through experimentation...
Really!? When has *anyone* EVER shown the change from say a cat into a dog or an ape into a man experimentally?! If those changes are too complex, has anyone ever experimentally "evolved" and ameoba into say a paramecium? Both of these are "simple" single celled organisms. Experiments have been done in adaptations and breeding and even, more recently, genetic engineering that all only prove that even only limited changes require large amounts of intelligently directed effort.
...should be discussed in theology classes not in science classes...
If science and theology both seek truth, then they both must overlap at some point. Science is good at answering "how" questions but lousy at "why" questions that theology attempts to address. The most important, deepest questions we ask begin with "why", such as "why are we here", why is there suffering and evil etc. Science cannot answer these.
...Too convenient to always know where everyone (kids, criminals, employees) is...
Not only knowing WHERE a person is, but also WHAT they buy and WHOM they associate with and who knows what else. This sort of thing was predicted in the Bible almost 2000 years ago. For centuries scholars have played guessing games as to how anyone could "not buy or sell unless they had a mark on their forehead or hand". With modern technology this will soon be a reality that will surely come to fulfillment and is no longer subject to guessing how this can be done.
Yes, load Linux, or better yet get a Mac with OSX Tiger for $499.00 instead of waiting a whole year or more for longjohn or whatever MS will call it. Right away you'll get most if not all features or more of the vapor-ware long-whatever that MS promises you might get eventually.
Disconnect the old malware infested Wintel boxes from the net and use them for games. The network will likely be fine for the forseeable future after that, since so far there are NO malwares out on the Internet that affect OSX computers. Who cares WHY there are no malwares for the Mac. The facts are there are none and so why not tell the users about that loud and clear?
Indeed true! In fact when they came looking for Jesus to arrest Him in the garden they asked who they were looking for. Then He answered them "I am" the same phrase given at the burning bush you are alluding to. The result was that they all fell over onto the ground, a detail that many readers miss. The self existing One become human, revealed for an instant that He is God and the enemies fell over as if dead.
Science is very good at answering "how" questions, how things work, but is bad at "when" questions and even worse at answering "why" questions. Answering "when" questions and as to when things began or when things may end always requires making assumptions largely based on the observable present. To try to answer for example when the Grand Canyon was formed requires making certain assumptions about erosion rates, climate and who knows what else. Scientific asssumptions are really faith based since no one was there to see the Grand Canyon getting formed. The millions or billions of years postulated for these "when" questions of long ago are based on the assumption (faith) that the processes we see or can imagine today may be reasonably be mapped back in time.
We see no fossils being made today, because when a living organism dies it is generally decomposed and its parts are recycled by other organisms. Only in the absence of oxydation and decay causing organisms is it possible to make a fossil. The existence of fossils therefore implies a removal of both of these and perhaps other decay causing mechanisms in a short time frame. This means that at the time fossils were made there was a large, world wide discontinuity of some kind that prevented the presently known mechanisms of decay from operation on a large number of the then existing life forms. Modern science cannot deal with such discontinuities since it is impossible to make any reasonable, let alone correct assumptions about them from our present perspective.
Answering "when" questions in the opposite direction, the future, is even more problematic. In predicting "Gobal Warming" for example a large number of assumptions are made which most likely are wrong. Some so called scientists think they can predict the climate in a hundred years, yet can't even accurately predict the next day's weather at times.
It is amusing to read some of the predictions of the past concering almost any conceivable subject and then compare this with what actually took place. Man is singularly bad at prediction of the future. God challenges humans to be godlike by accurately predicting the future. (Isaiah 41:23)
When it come to the "why" questions, science specifically and humanity in general is totally at a loss. Why are we even here? Are you really an accident whose ancestors way back have crawled out of the primordial slime? Why are the laws of physics so exactly the way they are, so we could exist and observe them? Philosphers and sages have wrestled and are still debating these "why" questions.
Left to ourselves we will never find an answer, but the One eternal self existing God has given us an answer, a revelation we can BELIEVE if we so choose to or not. He who exists totally outside of our space-time dimensionality, came and limited Himself to time and space, became human, in order to communicate to us in an understandable way, who He is and why we are here. The Bible, chronicles some of answers to the "why" questions. God tells us that He has chosen the criterion of FAITH to determine a relationship to Him. Faith is universal to all mankind, unlike intelligence, wealth, health, location or any other human activity or quality. Anyone can believe or not.
The issue is NOT engineering. Modern digital technology is wonderfull engineering. If the consumers do not perceive VALUE they will not spend their money. Apple computers have always been engineered better than the run of the mill or even some brand name Windows boxes, but the latter are good enough for the price. Until recently, Apple's better engineered merchandise has languished in the marketplace. Lots of folks would love to have a BMW, but make do with a Toyota or Honda because they cannot afford a BMW or Mercedes which have superb engineering. A DVD player with VCR can be had at Walmart for less than $80. That is seen as value, but a digital HD TV for $1500+ is not a good value for the small benefit of only a bigger sharper picture yet still running the same old tired, commercial ridden programs. When these TVs get into the $300-$500 range the value equation will be different.
I understand technology very well. The digital TV is a great thing, but the average Joe viewer apparently does not. My point is that there is no benefit to the non-technical majority viewers. It is not like DVD, CDs or mp3 music devices which are seen beneficial by many ordinary people and are therefore selling like hotcakes.
...collides with my right to put the frequencies to better use...
Those few who want to do this want to benefit at the expense of millions of consumers who see no benefit whatsoever from this new technology. For them the old analog non-DRM TV is just fine - thank you.
Indeed it has! Why? Simple, because the consumers see no benefit from digital TV the way they did from color TV, DVD, CD records, cell phones, mp3 players etc. technology over what existed previously. What benefit is there in this for the end users? Is a DRM restricted digital TV a benefit for the consumers?Ordinary TV is good enough and there is no reason to spend money for no perceived benefit. There is of course big benefit for everyone else EXCEPT the consumer in this.
...a stone-age technology that a minority of people are asking for...
If that "stone-age" minority votes, given the close elections lately, they can throw most if not all of the Congress critters out of office if they mandate the darkening of all those TV sets. What advantage is there for the VIEWERS in all this? Will the programs be better? No! Fewer commercials? No! Someone tell me what advantage there is for the viewer in this! Is being able to see the unshaven newsanchor's whiskers clearly really something to buy a new TV set for? I see this as an advantage for lots of corporate entities and the government, but definitely NOT for the average TV couch potato voter.
...force an upgrade for the good of the rest of the world...
This upgrade is good for everybody except the average TV viewer. Digital TV with its government mandated anti-copy bit and government mandated DMCA is good for the corparate money bags, but the average Joe will no longer be able to use the TV as they do now. Making a time shifting recording will be at the gracious mercy of the program providers and we all know how much mercy they have. What improvement is there in that? It seems that nobody here on/. nor in Congress has thought this through. I suspect there will be a huge outcry when millions of perfectly fine TVs suddenly stop working by government decree.
Really now!? A DRM'ed digital TV system is superior to a totally free non-DRM encumbered analog system? Will the new digital system be superior in that it has no or few commercials? No? Will it be superior in the programs? No? Will Joe or Jane voter be able to buy a brand new, perfectly fine 27 inch digital TV at Walmart for less than $200.00 No? Then why the h*** make such a change? This nothing BUT a political issue, the politics of big money in corporate America. It has NO benefit whatsoever for the ordinary Joe, especially the low income Joes whose well paying job went overseas and all Joe can do now is flip burgers.
Pay attention any congress critter reading this! You WILL definitely, surely, without fail no longer be in office after you have voted affirmatively on replacing free TV with hobbled, rights restricted digital TV. Joe and Jane voter will be VERY angry when they learn they can no longer record their favorite 3AM TV program from the new-fangled TV you are forcing down their throat. They want to watch it at a reasonable time, but because of the copy restrictions you have already voted into place for the digital TV system they may not be able to do so. You Mr. congressman or senator MIGHT get away with eliminating social security, but you definitely WILL NOT get away with taking TV away from the people!
...In the end it all comes down to proper organization...
Indeed true. Some people are forever looking for certain physical things, such as their car keys, cell phone and other small items. The computer is like a workshop. A workshop with its tools well organized is a pleasure, but a disorganized one, with tools mixed up is a real pain. Organization in a computer is just as beneficial in getting work done as it is in a real workshop. Even so, adding a good search system should not affect an organized computer user much, but might help those who are not well organized.
...They kind of feed off each other, and I think infrastructure is more imporatant.
In a sense that is true and I agree with you. Sort of buid it and they will come kind of thing. However, a bridge usually is not built unless there is the need to cross the waterway or whatever. For the beginning, a ferry might be all that is needed, but as more people want to cross, a bridge will eventually replace the ferry boat. Right now the Internet is still in the ferry stage and there is no great demand for a bridge (broadband) yet. Perhaps no single killer app will fuel the demand for a bridge, but if the bridge can be built cheap enough, maybe more people will want to cross just to see what's on the other side.
...apple's iTunes music store be so successful if you had to wait 35 minutes to download every song?...
Actually, over a 40K connections it would take about 15min to download a song. Most music however on most iPods did not come from the Internet, but was ripped from the iPod owner's CD collection. I have about 16G of music on mine, and only 800MB came over the network. Ipods would be big sellers, even if there were no iTunes music store, simply because they allow music to be listened to very conveniently.
Usually the application has to come first, then the infrastructure will be created. The automobile made for the construction of good roads. The Visicalc spreadsheet started the boom in the personal computer.
The idea is to pay the SAME or maybe less,....
Freeways cost more than 2 lane highways and if there are not enough cars to justify freeways, they will not be built if there are already adequate 2 lane roads. Similarly, if there are no applications that demand a high speed information highway which MUST cost more, since the existing POTS road has already been long paid for, then the existing modem roads will be adequate. It is indeed a chicken and egg problem and right now there is only a limited demand for eggs, so there is no sense in having too many chickens around.
...Not all redistribution of wealth by the government is evil...
Fine with me, as long as it is YOUR wealth they are redistributing, not mine....but maybe corporations should be taxed more...
Corporations are fictitious entities run and owned by real live people, just like you. These real people usually ARE taxed on the profits or salaries they get from the corporations. These real people are taxed when they make capital gains from the sale of shares in these corproations. In the end, it is always real people, not fictitious entities that pay real taxes, either directly or indirectly through higher prices for the products of these corporations. When the total tax burden of a society approaches or in some cases exceeds 50%, the incentive to work harder for more income is eliminated for many people. If a nation is likened to a business enterprise, then the total tax burden is like the overhead. When the overhead of a business gets too high, bankruptcy becomes a very real danger.
...whose financial goals are contrary to the longer term improvements in communications...
The goals are to make money, that's all. Until someone comes with a compelling application for broadband, there is not really much demand. Most people still use the ordinary telphone and even fax machines to communicate. In many other countries, telephone use has basically switched to wireless. The ordinary land phone line will do for most people's communication needs, including e-mail and getting useful info from the web. How much bandwidth is needed for a Google search? Just because broadband is AVAILABLE, still does not mean that anyone with POTS will pay extra for no perceived extra benefit. Businesses and educational institutions mostly have high speed access and the students and employees use that as needed. Most bandwidth, especially at educational places is used for entertainment downloads, music, much of it illegal. Download from iTunes at work or school, copy to iPod and take it home! No need to pay $25-$30/mo extra for that service at home. No need to have the hassle and extra expense of protecting the home computer from malware when it is only connected to the Internet for a short time to do e-mail or order something from Amazon or sell something on e-Bay. Broadband needs a killer app that will allow companies to make a lot of money.
...here's absolutely no incentive to give people the access they want...
What IS the incentive for people to want high speed Internet? E-mail? Checking for info on Google? Buying a book from Amazon? All of these work perfectly fine on dial up for most people not reading/. posts. Someone living in the sticks of Canada may not have a Blockbuster video nearby and might want to download (mostly illegal) movies.
Broadband Internet needs a real killer app which CANNOT be done over cheap dial-up which is good enough for grandma to read her e-mail and possibly look at a photo of her latest grandchild. Even if movies were available legally for download, the average broadband connection is still too slow to download the content of the average DVD in any reasonable amount of time. With the new hi-def video and the up-coming 30-50+GB video disks, even the fastest existing DSL or cable services are way too slow. Other than video, I see no compelling reason for most ordinary people to want to pay extra in order to get their spam e-mail faster than they do now over dial-up.
Most people don't switch to a new way of doing things unless the new way is SIGNIFICANTLY better than what they are using now. The iPod and other portable music players are an example of a much better way of enjoying music than before, and that's the primary reason their use is skyrocketing. Having one's entire music collection in the shirt pocket is a VERY compelling incentive.
...Yes, the majority of the Canadian population is near the US border...
Maybe another reason there is better broadband in Canada is the fact that the whole country is frozen solid and snowed in for much of the year and people are stuck indoors (unless they happen to love winter sports) much more with nothing better to do than to surf the web or watch mostly the same inane TV shows we have here in the US. In more southern climes, especially in California, people spend more time outdoors. In California, being the cradle of the microchip, most people have high speed Internet access at work and may not be all that interested in paying for something at home they get for free at work. After all cheap dial-up is just fine for checking e-mail at home. Many employers allow their employees to dial into their network for free.
In California, which has as many or more people as Canada, a significant fraction may be stuck in one of those long daily traffic jams listening to their satelite radios or talking to someone on their cell phone. What can be said about California also applies to most of the spread out city-suburban communities of the south-western part of the USA.
...And then there's a few million people displaced into the prairie provinces...
I wonder what the broadband statistics would be for these widely dispersed communities? Germany is about the same size as Oregeon, has about 80 million people, but Oregon not yet 4 million. The cost per user is always higher for thinly populated areas. It took a long time and extensive government initiatives for the electric grid and telephones to be commonplace in rural areas and small communities. Capitalism is only interested in bottom line profits, not universal service to areas where no or only little profit can be made.
Slashdot Mirror
...evolved naturally...
As we observe "nature" it is very evident that there are very definite "rules" by which these "natural" processes operate. The reason science is possible at all is because by learning about these rules, we can predict and modify some of these processes to our advantage. Once these rules or laws are established and at least partially understood we can postulate how these laws might have shaped what we observe in nature and the laboratory.
The big question really isn't how we or everything else we observe came to be by following these rules or laws, but how these laws came to be in the first place. As far as we can tell, these laws, commonly called the laws of physics, appear to operate consistently not only here on earth, but also in the most distant observable reaches of the cosmos.
The relationships and characteristics of these laws are so exact, that if any of them were altered, in some cases only one part in a million or less, we the observer, and no other physical life forms could not exist. The binding energies of carbon are the only element we know of that allow the construction of the extremely complex protein molecules advanced physical living entities are observed to have.
The Bible is a book that tells us outright that physical life forms, are at the bottom of the scale of life. We are told of a transcendant, non-physical intelligent entity called God, (Elohim in Hebrew) who exists outside of, and is not subject to these laws, but created these laws along with the time-space-matter-energy universe they control. Furthermore, this God of the Bible came here to Earth, where in the human form of Jesus Christ, He voluntarily subjected Himself to these laws of physics He had formulated, even to the point of being subject to and suffering death. He did all this in order to enable us have a relationship with Him beginning right here and now, while we are still subject to these laws of physics, including entropy which guarantees the death of our physical body. The promise is, and that must be taken by faith right now, that He desires for us also to transcend the limiting laws of physics and be forever joined to Him.
Science and our limited intellect cannot go that far, and that is why the Bible tells us that "without faith it is impossible to please God". The Bible tells us that we are non-physical entities that live for a short time in physical bodies, wherein we may freely decide by faith, whether we want to live in the presence of the One who is self-existent and eternal, or apart fom Him. Being apart from Him is what the Bible labels Hell.
...The most stable system I have ever seen...
I guess your system is not connected to the Internet where it would be immediatly 'altered' by one or more malware programs installing themseves without the user adding or doing anything.
...Its believed to some other extraterrestrial civilization....
The problem here is just pushed back a level. Where did this conjectured extraterrestrial civilization come from? Postulating an eternal, self-existing creator is a much more reasonable way out. Science cannot prove or disprove God, but it is a matter for faith only.
...Actually, evolution is both fact and theory. It is fact in that it has been observed...
Really now. What repeatable experiment has anyone done to show evolution as a fact? Has anyone ever created even a single living cell from non-living matter. If anyone ever is able to do this, then evolution is indeed a verifyable experimental fact. Until that happens, it shall remain a theory that can explain some things in our world, but cannot explain others.
...that there are virtually no reputable scientists who would accept ID as a legitimate scientific theory...
Just because a majority of people, scientists or otherwise, believe something to be true, does not make it so. Before Mr. Roemer came along in the 1600s, the majority of 'reputable' scientists believed that light traveled instantaneously from place to place. It took over 50 years for that belief to change to the fact that ligh takes a finite amount of time to travel a given distance. There have been so many wrong ideas all accepted by "reputable" scientists that eventually turned out to be wrong. Evolution will be another one of these some day.
The Bible certainly is not a book of science, but in all areas of science it touches, but especially archeology, it has so far always eventually proved to be right. NONE of the false ideas about our world, that abounded throughout human history have found their way into this book. The book of Job for example correctly tells us that the Earth is a sphere and that it is suspended in space. Long before science learned of the water cycle we are told that the rain comes from the sea and it cycles back to there. How did Moses know that the blood clotting factor of a newborn peaks at the eighth day when he specified this as the day of circumcison? Did he get this info from the biochemist who designed the bood clotting system?
Science is a search for truth and no truth ever discovered and actually measured and understood as a FACT, experimentally verified, has ever been at odds with any statement in the Bible. Evolution has never been experimentally measured to take place.
...Evolution is a thory that can be proved through experimentation...
Really!? When has *anyone* EVER shown the change from say a cat into a dog or an ape into a man experimentally?! If those changes are too complex, has anyone ever experimentally "evolved" and ameoba into say a paramecium? Both of these are "simple" single celled organisms. Experiments have been done in adaptations and breeding and even, more recently, genetic engineering that all only prove that even only limited changes require large amounts of intelligently directed effort.
...should be discussed in theology classes not in science classes...
If science and theology both seek truth, then they both must overlap at some point. Science is good at answering "how" questions but lousy at "why" questions that theology attempts to address. The most important, deepest questions we ask begin with "why", such as "why are we here", why is there suffering and evil etc. Science cannot answer these.
...Too convenient to always know where everyone (kids, criminals, employees) is...
Not only knowing WHERE a person is, but also WHAT they buy and WHOM they associate with and who knows what else. This sort of thing was predicted in the Bible almost 2000 years ago. For centuries scholars have played guessing games as to how anyone could "not buy or sell unless they had a mark on their forehead or hand". With modern technology this will soon be a reality that will surely come to fulfillment and is no longer subject to guessing how this can be done.
... Require users to have their OS reloaded...
Yes, load Linux, or better yet get a Mac with OSX Tiger for $499.00 instead of waiting a whole year or more for longjohn or whatever MS will call it. Right away you'll get most if not all features or more of the vapor-ware long-whatever that MS promises you might get eventually.
Disconnect the old malware infested Wintel boxes from the net and use them for games. The network will likely be fine for the forseeable future after that, since so far there are NO malwares out on the Internet that affect OSX computers. Who cares WHY there are no malwares for the Mac. The facts are there are none and so why not tell the users about that loud and clear?
..."He who exists."...
Indeed true! In fact when they came looking for Jesus to arrest Him in the garden they asked who they were looking for. Then He answered them "I am" the same phrase given at the burning bush you are alluding to. The result was that they all fell over onto the ground, a detail that many readers miss. The self existing One become human, revealed for an instant that He is God and the enemies fell over as if dead.
Science is very good at answering "how" questions, how things work, but is bad at "when" questions and even worse at answering "why" questions. Answering "when" questions and as to when things began or when things may end always requires making assumptions largely based on the observable present. To try to answer for example when the Grand Canyon was formed requires making certain assumptions about erosion rates, climate and who knows what else. Scientific asssumptions are really faith based since no one was there to see the Grand Canyon getting formed. The millions or billions of years postulated for these "when" questions of long ago are based on the assumption (faith) that the processes we see or can imagine today may be reasonably be mapped back in time.
We see no fossils being made today, because when a living organism dies it is generally decomposed and its parts are recycled by other organisms. Only in the absence of oxydation and decay causing organisms is it possible to make a fossil. The existence of fossils therefore implies a removal of both of these and perhaps other decay causing mechanisms in a short time frame. This means that at the time fossils were made there was a large, world wide discontinuity of some kind that prevented the presently known mechanisms of decay from operation on a large number of the then existing life forms. Modern science cannot deal with such discontinuities since it is impossible to make any reasonable, let alone correct assumptions about them from our present perspective.
Answering "when" questions in the opposite direction, the future, is even more problematic. In predicting "Gobal Warming" for example a large number of assumptions are made which most likely are wrong. Some so called scientists think they can predict the climate in a hundred years, yet can't even accurately predict the next day's weather at times.
It is amusing to read some of the predictions of the past concering almost any conceivable subject and then compare this with what actually took place. Man is singularly bad at prediction of the future. God challenges humans to be godlike by accurately predicting the future. (Isaiah 41:23)
When it come to the "why" questions, science specifically and humanity in general is totally at a loss. Why are we even here? Are you really an accident whose ancestors way back have crawled out of the primordial slime? Why are the laws of physics so exactly the way they are, so we could exist and observe them? Philosphers and sages have wrestled and are still debating these "why" questions.
Left to ourselves we will never find an answer, but the One eternal self existing God has given us an answer, a revelation we can BELIEVE if we so choose to or not. He who exists totally outside of our space-time dimensionality, came and limited Himself to time and space, became human, in order to communicate to us in an understandable way, who He is and why we are here. The Bible, chronicles some of answers to the "why" questions. God tells us that He has chosen the criterion of FAITH to determine a relationship to Him. Faith is universal to all mankind, unlike intelligence, wealth, health, location or any other human activity or quality. Anyone can believe or not.
...no excuses for doing poor engineering...
The issue is NOT engineering. Modern digital technology is wonderfull engineering. If the consumers do not perceive VALUE they will not spend their money. Apple computers have always been engineered better than the run of the mill or even some brand name Windows boxes, but the latter are good enough for the price. Until recently, Apple's better engineered merchandise has languished in the marketplace. Lots of folks would love to have a BMW, but make do with a Toyota or Honda because they cannot afford a BMW or Mercedes which have superb engineering. A DVD player with VCR can be had at Walmart for less than $80. That is seen as value, but a digital HD TV for $1500+ is not a good value for the small benefit of only a bigger sharper picture yet still running the same old tired, commercial ridden programs. When these TVs get into the $300-$500 range the value equation will be different.
I understand technology very well. The digital TV is a great thing, but the average Joe viewer apparently does not. My point is that there is no benefit to the non-technical majority viewers. It is not like DVD, CDs or mp3 music devices which are seen beneficial by many ordinary people and are therefore selling like hotcakes.
...collides with my right to put the frequencies to better use...
Those few who want to do this want to benefit at the expense of millions of consumers who see no benefit whatsoever from this new technology. For them the old analog non-DRM TV is just fine - thank you.
...The whole transition has been a mess...
Indeed it has! Why? Simple, because the consumers see no benefit from digital TV the way they did from color TV, DVD, CD records, cell phones, mp3 players etc. technology over what existed previously. What benefit is there in this for the end users? Is a DRM restricted digital TV a benefit for the consumers?Ordinary TV is good enough and there is no reason to spend money for no perceived benefit. There is of course big benefit for everyone else EXCEPT the consumer in this.
...a stone-age technology that a minority of people are asking for...
If that "stone-age" minority votes, given the close elections lately, they can throw most if not all of the Congress critters out of office if they mandate the darkening of all those TV sets. What advantage is there for the VIEWERS in all this? Will the programs be better? No! Fewer commercials? No! Someone tell me what advantage there is for the viewer in this! Is being able to see the unshaven newsanchor's whiskers clearly really something to buy a new TV set for? I see this as an advantage for lots of corporate entities and the government, but definitely NOT for the average TV couch potato voter.
...force an upgrade for the good of the rest of the world...
/. nor in Congress has thought this through. I suspect there will be a huge outcry when millions of perfectly fine TVs suddenly stop working by government decree.
This upgrade is good for everybody except the average TV viewer. Digital TV with its government mandated anti-copy bit and government mandated DMCA is good for the corparate money bags, but the average Joe will no longer be able to use the TV as they do now. Making a time shifting recording will be at the gracious mercy of the program providers and we all know how much mercy they have. What improvement is there in that? It seems that nobody here on
...analog signal transmission is inferior. ...
Really now!? A DRM'ed digital TV system is superior to a totally free non-DRM encumbered analog system? Will the new digital system be superior in that it has no or few commercials? No? Will it be superior in the programs? No? Will Joe or Jane voter be able to buy a brand new, perfectly fine 27 inch digital TV at Walmart for less than $200.00 No? Then why the h*** make such a change? This nothing BUT a political issue, the politics of big money in corporate America. It has NO benefit whatsoever for the ordinary Joe, especially the low income Joes whose well paying job went overseas and all Joe can do now is flip burgers.
Pay attention any congress critter reading this! You WILL definitely, surely, without fail no longer be in office after you have voted affirmatively on replacing free TV with hobbled, rights restricted digital TV. Joe and Jane voter will be VERY angry when they learn they can no longer record their favorite 3AM TV program from the new-fangled TV you are forcing down their throat. They want to watch it at a reasonable time, but because of the copy restrictions you have already voted into place for the digital TV system they may not be able to do so. You Mr. congressman or senator MIGHT get away with eliminating social security, but you definitely WILL NOT get away with taking TV away from the people!
...In the end it all comes down to proper organization...
Indeed true. Some people are forever looking for certain physical things, such as their car keys, cell phone and other small items. The computer is like a workshop. A workshop with its tools well organized is a pleasure, but a disorganized one, with tools mixed up is a real pain. Organization in a computer is just as beneficial in getting work done as it is in a real workshop. Even so, adding a good search system should not affect an organized computer user much, but might help those who are not well organized.
...They kind of feed off each other, and I think infrastructure is more imporatant.
In a sense that is true and I agree with you. Sort of buid it and they will come kind of thing. However, a bridge usually is not built unless there is the need to cross the waterway or whatever. For the beginning, a ferry might be all that is needed, but as more people want to cross, a bridge will eventually replace the ferry boat. Right now the Internet is still in the ferry stage and there is no great demand for a bridge (broadband) yet. Perhaps no single killer app will fuel the demand for a bridge, but if the bridge can be built cheap enough, maybe more people will want to cross just to see what's on the other side.
...apple's iTunes music store be so successful if you had to wait 35 minutes to download every song?...
Actually, over a 40K connections it would take about 15min to download a song. Most music however on most iPods did not come from the Internet, but was ripped from the iPod owner's CD collection. I have about 16G of music on mine, and only 800MB came over the network. Ipods would be big sellers, even if there were no iTunes music store, simply because they allow music to be listened to very conveniently.
Usually the application has to come first, then the infrastructure will be created. The automobile made for the construction of good roads. The Visicalc spreadsheet started the boom in the personal computer.
The idea is to pay the SAME or maybe less,....
Freeways cost more than 2 lane highways and if there are not enough cars to justify freeways, they will not be built if there are already adequate 2 lane roads. Similarly, if there are no applications that demand a high speed information highway which MUST cost more, since the existing POTS road has already been long paid for, then the existing modem roads will be adequate. It is indeed a chicken and egg problem and right now there is only a limited demand for eggs, so there is no sense in having too many chickens around.
...Not all redistribution of wealth by the government is evil...
...but maybe corporations should be taxed more...
Fine with me, as long as it is YOUR wealth they are redistributing, not mine.
Corporations are fictitious entities run and owned by real live people, just like you. These real people usually ARE taxed on the profits or salaries they get from the corporations. These real people are taxed when they make capital gains from the sale of shares in these corproations. In the end, it is always real people, not fictitious entities that pay real taxes, either directly or indirectly through higher prices for the products of these corporations. When the total tax burden of a society approaches or in some cases exceeds 50%, the incentive to work harder for more income is eliminated for many people. If a nation is likened to a business enterprise, then the total tax burden is like the overhead. When the overhead of a business gets too high, bankruptcy becomes a very real danger.
...whose financial goals are contrary to the longer term improvements in communications...
The goals are to make money, that's all. Until someone comes with a compelling application for broadband, there is not really much demand. Most people still use the ordinary telphone and even fax machines to communicate. In many other countries, telephone use has basically switched to wireless. The ordinary land phone line will do for most people's communication needs, including e-mail and getting useful info from the web. How much bandwidth is needed for a Google search? Just because broadband is AVAILABLE, still does not mean that anyone with POTS will pay extra for no perceived extra benefit. Businesses and educational institutions mostly have high speed access and the students and employees use that as needed. Most bandwidth, especially at educational places is used for entertainment downloads, music, much of it illegal. Download from iTunes at work or school, copy to iPod and take it home! No need to pay $25-$30/mo extra for that service at home. No need to have the hassle and extra expense of protecting the home computer from malware when it is only connected to the Internet for a short time to do e-mail or order something from Amazon or sell something on e-Bay. Broadband needs a killer app that will allow companies to make a lot of money.
...here's absolutely no incentive to give people the access they want...
/. posts. Someone living in the sticks of Canada may not have a Blockbuster video nearby and might want to download (mostly illegal) movies.
What IS the incentive for people to want high speed Internet? E-mail? Checking for info on Google? Buying a book from Amazon? All of these work perfectly fine on dial up for most people not reading
Broadband Internet needs a real killer app which CANNOT be done over cheap dial-up which is good enough for grandma to read her e-mail and possibly look at a photo of her latest grandchild. Even if movies were available legally for download, the average broadband connection is still too slow to download the content of the average DVD in any reasonable amount of time. With the new hi-def video and the up-coming 30-50+GB video disks, even the fastest existing DSL or cable services are way too slow. Other than video, I see no compelling reason for most ordinary people to want to pay extra in order to get their spam e-mail faster than they do now over dial-up.
Most people don't switch to a new way of doing things unless the new way is SIGNIFICANTLY better than what they are using now. The iPod and other portable music players are an example of a much better way of enjoying music than before, and that's the primary reason their use is skyrocketing. Having one's entire music collection in the shirt pocket is a VERY compelling incentive.
...Yes, the majority of the Canadian population is near the US border...
Maybe another reason there is better broadband in Canada is the fact that the whole country is frozen solid and snowed in for much of the year and people are stuck indoors (unless they happen to love winter sports) much more with nothing better to do than to surf the web or watch mostly the same inane TV shows we have here in the US. In more southern climes, especially in California, people spend more time outdoors. In California, being the cradle of the microchip, most people have high speed Internet access at work and may not be all that interested in paying for something at home they get for free at work. After all cheap dial-up is just fine for checking e-mail at home. Many employers allow their employees to dial into their network for free.
In California, which has as many or more people as Canada, a significant fraction may be stuck in one of those long daily traffic jams listening to their satelite radios or talking to someone on their cell phone. What can be said about California also applies to most of the spread out city-suburban communities of the south-western part of the USA.
...And then there's a few million people displaced into the prairie provinces ...
I wonder what the broadband statistics would be for these widely dispersed communities? Germany is about the same size as Oregeon, has about 80 million people, but Oregon not yet 4 million. The cost per user is always higher for thinly populated areas. It took a long time and extensive government initiatives for the electric grid and telephones to be commonplace in rural areas and small communities. Capitalism is only interested in bottom line profits, not universal service to areas where no or only little profit can be made.