4. Warehouse space. Those giant digital boxes take up a huge amount of space in the warehouse. Cable companies can fit a few dozen of these in a desk or safe easily.
5. Less Cable company owned equipment to go wrong. The cable card is more of an authorization device than a decoder/descrambler. If the internals of the digital box die, cable co eats the cost. If your TV's QAM demod suddenly starts to flake out, well, that's your problem.
6. (sort of) easy, self provisioning installation. You come to the office and pick it up. You shove it into the back of the set. You call tech support to get it authorized (possibly automatically). You fix your own internal wiring problems (or throw the thing back at a customer service rep at the office and refuse to allow a technician to come out and diagnose/fix the problem).
One of the biggest complaints about advanced television in all forms these days is the need for a set top box. This helps eliminate this complaint. It's too bad it had to be forced down from the government, instead of up from the consumer to the manufacturers and cable companies.
Can I pull my cablecard out of my TV, go to a friends house (who has the Same cable provider, and a cablecard ready TV) and plug in my cable card so I can watch the Channels that *I* paid for?
Sure. Just make sure that your friend's cable is able to correctly receive the digital transponders. They are usually way above the analog channels in frequency, and if your friend's cable has been just plain 'ol basic television service (pobts?) for years, it may not be up to current spcifications. If that's the case, don't blame the cable company for not being able to pass a 750MHz signal through a 550MHz bandwidth limited splitter. After all, you canna change the laws 'o physics!
You should be able to do just that. However, the likelyhood of you doing this is somewhat unlikely. The card slots I've seen are in the back of the set, not easily accessable when it is in an entertainment center.
I'm getting really tired of all these "experts" talking about the glut of fiber in this country. The press makes it sound like there's dozens of dark fibers just a few inches from your house, and those darn telcos/cable companies just don't want you to have access to them. The reality is that most of the cash cow areas (such as Boston, NYC, LA and the bay area) have over capicity. Most of the rest of the country, where the payback is greater than 5 years, is very underserved.
And even where there is overcapicity, it is mostly in the urban areas, put in place for business, not single family homes. Good luck getting dark fiber in the 'burbs, let alone the sticks
Well, why don't all the private schools get together and sue the government. After all, they are using public funds to maintain buildings and such, and that's unfair competition.
I could see it happen with some of the charter schools in the future. Right now the schools have to be cozy with the local school board, but just wait for one to get popular. It will happen.
The only thing I can see keeping public schools shilded from this is that there are lots of specific laws in place to make public education possible.
You're missing my point. I'm not arguing if it is right or wrong, just that if I were a phone company and saw the potential for "unfair" competition, I would fight it tooth and nail.
Geez, replace "telco" with "only hardware store in town" and "community network" with "Wal-mart" to get an idea of what the ILECs see.
"Surveying, digging, laying conduit with thoughts to bend radius, redundancy, sewer, water, power, and future repair access for accidental cuts? Hope that the contractor has their best person running the backhoe so you don't have to worry about severed gas, electrical, or water lines."
It's called hiring competent contractors. Gee, when they hire the cheapest crews and people lose service and are inconvenienced, I wonder why people don't like their streets dug up?
Remember that when you buy that new house in a new devlopment for cheap. I don't think he was necessarly talking about the phone company contractor, but the "dude with a backhoe" contractor who's digging up to tie your house into the sewer line.
I don't mean "why is/. posting it?" I mean, why is the newspaper making this out to be such a big deal? Think about the company you work for. Now, imagine (if you are in the private sector) that the government was going to start getting into your business, only without the existing infrastructure to deal with, or uninformed stockholders, or the local government, or franchise fees, right-of-way clearances, etc? Wouldn't you fight to get it stopped, even if you didn't care?
The business model most of these city networks are based on long term bond issues. Most private enterprise deals with a 5 year payback, if that, these days.10-15 years is a long time to gain customers, figure out what works and what doesn't, etc.
The other thing is that they'll need a backbone connection (unless they are going to build out to the closest MAE). Odds are very high that they'll get some portion of that bandwidth over Bell fiber, even though they might be getting service from Level 3 or a long distance co. So don't think the RBOCs are loosing. They're just doing what they have to.
When I am looking at a city on the ground, I would love to know which city that is.
I use my GPSR on planes all the time. You should ask permission before the flight takes off, but I've never had anyone say no, and have never had a problem using it(except from the other cattle/passengers who seem to get freaked out if you don't sit there and shut up). Get a window seat and make sure you get the antenna up close. An external antenna helps as well as a method to stick it to the window.
Great fun seeing where you are and just what Interstate you are following
Do you realize that BPL is being touted as the "rural broadband savior" in order to convince congress that this is a good idea? I live in a rural area and I can tell you first hand that BPL will not be a viable option in the rural areas...
Yep. I live in a rural area (Fraser, CO), and the only options available for our area are: dial-up (26.4kbps thanks to Quest), Verizon Wireless (140kbps), Wireless (1Mbps with a contract and site survey), Direct PC (1+Mbps), and cable modem (3Mbps).
OK, me and the other tech who lives in the area are the only 2 cablemodem users right now, but Comcast is launching high speed internet in a few days. BPL is just another pipe. In time, the cable co's and phone co's will build out to those last few customers, if only because they have to continue to grow.
Have we learned nothing from the antient Star Trek Texts? The scientists will create superior humans who look like an aging heavy metal band. They will cause havoc and be banished to a deserted wasteland. Years later, they'll get access to a super weapon that uses unstable materials. Spock will die.
Come on people, its all spelled out for you. Stop it before it is too late!
There are plenty of people here on Slashdot and in the real world who feel that access to information (be it movies, music, news, source code, what have you) should be limited to those who can afford it. Anyone who can't is obviously a failure at life and doesn't deserve access. These are people who want to see public libraries disappear. They are people who want to see open source/free softwaer die off or be made illegal. They don't believe it is their responsibility to help others. But the question arises... why do these people feel this way?
I wish I had mod points this morning. This post hits the nail on the head as far as what is wrong with the current privatization policy of the FCC and many other parts of the United States government today. There are fundamental infrastructure pieces of the world that bennefit everyone, even if they are sometimes not directly applicable. Access to tax paid transportation systems make it possible to get goods and services delivered cheaply and somewhat efficiently. Libraries and educational structures make it possible for people to realize their potential, even though they may not have the means to pay the full cost of an education. It is only when the cost of administration exceeds the service that it becomes a problem.
Now, the current thinking in Washington is to throw the baby out with the bathwater, and turn fundimental infrastructure over to private intrests. That may seem like a good idea at first, but I really believe that the pursuit of profit at all cost will lead to either a drastic reduction in quality of service (the WalMart model), or skyrocketing costs (Healthcare). Anyway, I'm getting off topic. Thomas Jefferson, someone who gets a lot of attention from conservative thinkers, insisted on access to basic education to every american, becuase he knew that an educated electorate was fundamental to a democratic society.
Don't laugh... Joel Meyers (CEO of Accuweather) has proposed this many times. He wanted NOAA to collect the data (the hard part) while he would take care of the forcasts and dessimination (the easy part).
Well, now you're just being silly. Chairman Powell is just keeping all the children of the world away from bad, bad things like body parts, and "the terrorists."
Seriously, the FCC is now in charge of regulation of what you say, not how it is transmitted. After all, we have all this great technology will sort out QRM and other problems automatically, what with their silicon chips and such. Besides, from a political standpoint, most people don't understand technological issues anymore, and the FCC went from the realm of engineers and science to a way to get noticed in Washington. Remember the deficit elimination plan of Bill Clinton? Much of the money was to come from spectrum auctions. When they didn't happen as expected, the deficit skyrocketed. It really is too bad that people don't understand that the airwaves are a dwindling resource and that our government is more than willing to realize very short term gains for what will be a long term loss.
Well, you can't really ignore the practical limits in your question, since mass is related to energy. I'm not a physicist, nor do I claim to understand the whole thing (but I did stay at a Holiday Inn once). The larger the iron bar, the more mass, so the more energy will be needed to move it enough to get the other side moving. You also have to keep in mind that, although you don't notice it when you move it, there is compression that happens before you actually move the iron bar.
I'm currently reading _The_Elegant_Universe_ by Brian Greene. It is a very readable text that explains (on a very broad level), string theory.
Oh, and if you start interfering with something important (That's the "Harmfull Interference" they speak of on the FCC warning on the back of a device) you can and will have government folks knocking on your doorstep.
No, the FCC's role in modern government is to enforce copyright laws. If anything, there is going to be much LESS regulation of airwaves in the future!
Are you sure about that? What about pulling on the handlebars while cranking, which I do all the time when climbing hills? Seems to make a big difference...
Why do these new technology providers all seem to be able to sell our public servants on the idea that there is no way they can build out a network without public funding, while the incumbent players end up paying taxes and fees to the government? I thought communications laws were being changed to level the playing field.
In an indirect way, the existing infrastructure players are paying for their competition - cable companies pay franchise fees and phone companies pay universal access fees. What taxes are being collected by this WI-FI company? Is there a way for the local government to recover their investment? Will the ISP become a department of the local GVT? If the old comm companies upgrade their lines to compete, will the ISP go back to the government and ask for more funding to compete?
Yep. I think it would be a great tool for coaches and the coverage to get location and other telemetry from the riders in somewhat real time.
I noticed OLN was putting heart rate information from (I think) Robbie McEwen in the final sprint. However, I doubt they were using APRS, as the updates were too fast - they most likely used some constant carrier method. Wasteful of bandwidth, but broadcasters have never been known for efficiency of communication.
I think for small local races, APRS could be a boon for tracking and helping folks understand bike racing. With neat beacons like the pocket tracker and digipeaters on chase vehicles, one could get very good coverage without a lot of complaining from the riders about weight.
The Olympics tripple cast was not designed to make a dime. It was a reason to get PPV eqipment installed in (at the time) TCI cable systems and be able to write off the investment as a loss. NOBODY thought it would be successful on a revenue basis.
Another reason for the major investment in the latest and greatest gear is because Sony and Panasonic usually fight to outfit the network. They then make a big deal about the fact in the trade mags. The other thing is that they sell off the trucks after the event for just about what they paid for them (after all, the equipment is almost new and is unlikely to be beat up).
Due to Hollywood accounting, the olympics and just about everything else on television looses money. But, for some unknown reason, the networks fight for every sports event out there. Maybe in a few years, when the business press starts to investiagte accounting practices of Hollywood, and the real P&L of programs is exposed, we'll break the cycle of constantly escalating sports programming costs (and poorer quality -at least from an excitement level).
The other reason they like sports is because it gives them plenty of chances to promote other programs.
911 works on any copper line connected to the network, at least in Pennsylvania. No need for an account to be established. I don't know if E-911 will work or not, haven't had to try it. Same is true for cell phones. I once had to use my old analog phone that came with the car (no account) and it worked like a champ.
If cable companies have to open up their lines, what's the difference? Your favorite ISP will just set up a domain, or maybe a mail and www server near the cable system's backbone, and charge whatever the cable company charges them + 50% retail markup. Strangely enough, it will cost about the same, have the same level of service, etc.
You'd think that maybe we all would have learned something after the DSL fallout earlier in the decade.
I'm in the process of doing just this sort of thing. I'm lucky enough to work in a field that lets me locate to just about anywhere in the country, so I picked out where I want to live, and got a job there.
However, it goes far beyond that. Since I'm moving to a place that I want to explore for a few years, I made sure I wasn't in a salaried position, like I am now. Sure, I'm taking a pay cut, but on the whole, I honestly feel it is worth it to get time off and not have to worry about being tied to an electronic leash 24/7. We'll see what I think a year or so from now, when the savings are dented, but I didn't take that much of a hit, so I should be OK.
Some things to think about:
Why am I dissatified with my current job? Is it due to short term problems, or long term? In my case, the job changed and it didn't look like things were going to get any better any time soon.
Is there any place I have always wanted to live and/or work? Why am I not going there? Are the reasons I'm not there enough to keep me where I am now?
If I decide to move, is there work in my field of interest? If not, do I have skills that will translate to another field (most people have lots of skills that are useful in many fields)?
What will happen to my family and friends?
Is this move for love or money? I've learned over the years that most people who work for money are miserable and usually broke because they are always attempting to fill the hole in their lives by spending all the money they were intending to save in the first place. People who are doing something they love to do seem to be able to control their spending and still get what they need in the world (a few of them even prosper far beyond their wildest imaginations). Of course, if we all did what we loved, most of us would be sitting around in our underwear eating cheese in front of the TV!
Finally, remember that the grass may be greener on the other side of the fence, but you still have to mow it!
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5. Less Cable company owned equipment to go wrong. The cable card is more of an authorization device than a decoder/descrambler. If the internals of the digital box die, cable co eats the cost. If your TV's QAM demod suddenly starts to flake out, well, that's your problem.
6. (sort of) easy, self provisioning installation. You come to the office and pick it up. You shove it into the back of the set. You call tech support to get it authorized (possibly automatically). You fix your own internal wiring problems (or throw the thing back at a customer service rep at the office and refuse to allow a technician to come out and diagnose/fix the problem).
One of the biggest complaints about advanced television in all forms these days is the need for a set top box. This helps eliminate this complaint. It's too bad it had to be forced down from the government, instead of up from the consumer to the manufacturers and cable companies.
Sure. Just make sure that your friend's cable is able to correctly receive the digital transponders. They are usually way above the analog channels in frequency, and if your friend's cable has been just plain 'ol basic television service (pobts?) for years, it may not be up to current spcifications. If that's the case, don't blame the cable company for not being able to pass a 750MHz signal through a 550MHz bandwidth limited splitter. After all, you canna change the laws 'o physics!
And even where there is overcapicity, it is mostly in the urban areas, put in place for business, not single family homes. Good luck getting dark fiber in the 'burbs, let alone the sticks
I could see it happen with some of the charter schools in the future. Right now the schools have to be cozy with the local school board, but just wait for one to get popular. It will happen.
The only thing I can see keeping public schools shilded from this is that there are lots of specific laws in place to make public education possible.
Geez, replace "telco" with "only hardware store in town" and "community network" with "Wal-mart" to get an idea of what the ILECs see.
It's called hiring competent contractors. Gee, when they hire the cheapest crews and people lose service and are inconvenienced, I wonder why people don't like their streets dug up?
Remember that when you buy that new house in a new devlopment for cheap. I don't think he was necessarly talking about the phone company contractor, but the "dude with a backhoe" contractor who's digging up to tie your house into the sewer line.
The business model most of these city networks are based on long term bond issues. Most private enterprise deals with a 5 year payback, if that, these days.10-15 years is a long time to gain customers, figure out what works and what doesn't, etc.
The other thing is that they'll need a backbone connection (unless they are going to build out to the closest MAE). Odds are very high that they'll get some portion of that bandwidth over Bell fiber, even though they might be getting service from Level 3 or a long distance co. So don't think the RBOCs are loosing. They're just doing what they have to.
I use my GPSR on planes all the time. You should ask permission before the flight takes off, but I've never had anyone say no, and have never had a problem using it(except from the other cattle/passengers who seem to get freaked out if you don't sit there and shut up). Get a window seat and make sure you get the antenna up close. An external antenna helps as well as a method to stick it to the window.
Great fun seeing where you are and just what Interstate you are following
Yep. I live in a rural area (Fraser, CO), and the only options available for our area are: dial-up (26.4kbps thanks to Quest), Verizon Wireless (140kbps), Wireless (1Mbps with a contract and site survey), Direct PC (1+Mbps), and cable modem (3Mbps).
OK, me and the other tech who lives in the area are the only 2 cablemodem users right now, but Comcast is launching high speed internet in a few days. BPL is just another pipe. In time, the cable co's and phone co's will build out to those last few customers, if only because they have to continue to grow.
Come on people, its all spelled out for you. Stop it before it is too late!
I wish I had mod points this morning. This post hits the nail on the head as far as what is wrong with the current privatization policy of the FCC and many other parts of the United States government today. There are fundamental infrastructure pieces of the world that bennefit everyone, even if they are sometimes not directly applicable. Access to tax paid transportation systems make it possible to get goods and services delivered cheaply and somewhat efficiently. Libraries and educational structures make it possible for people to realize their potential, even though they may not have the means to pay the full cost of an education. It is only when the cost of administration exceeds the service that it becomes a problem.
Now, the current thinking in Washington is to throw the baby out with the bathwater, and turn fundimental infrastructure over to private intrests. That may seem like a good idea at first, but I really believe that the pursuit of profit at all cost will lead to either a drastic reduction in quality of service (the WalMart model), or skyrocketing costs (Healthcare). Anyway, I'm getting off topic. Thomas Jefferson, someone who gets a lot of attention from conservative thinkers, insisted on access to basic education to every american, becuase he knew that an educated electorate was fundamental to a democratic society.
Anyway, good post.
Don't laugh... Joel Meyers (CEO of Accuweather) has proposed this many times. He wanted NOAA to collect the data (the hard part) while he would take care of the forcasts and dessimination (the easy part).
Seriously, the FCC is now in charge of regulation of what you say, not how it is transmitted. After all, we have all this great technology will sort out QRM and other problems automatically, what with their silicon chips and such. Besides, from a political standpoint, most people don't understand technological issues anymore, and the FCC went from the realm of engineers and science to a way to get noticed in Washington. Remember the deficit elimination plan of Bill Clinton? Much of the money was to come from spectrum auctions. When they didn't happen as expected, the deficit skyrocketed. It really is too bad that people don't understand that the airwaves are a dwindling resource and that our government is more than willing to realize very short term gains for what will be a long term loss.
I'm currently reading _The_Elegant_Universe_ by Brian Greene. It is a very readable text that explains (on a very broad level), string theory.
No, the FCC's role in modern government is to enforce copyright laws. If anything, there is going to be much LESS regulation of airwaves in the future!
In an indirect way, the existing infrastructure players are paying for their competition - cable companies pay franchise fees and phone companies pay universal access fees. What taxes are being collected by this WI-FI company? Is there a way for the local government to recover their investment? Will the ISP become a department of the local GVT? If the old comm companies upgrade their lines to compete, will the ISP go back to the government and ask for more funding to compete?
I noticed OLN was putting heart rate information from (I think) Robbie McEwen in the final sprint. However, I doubt they were using APRS, as the updates were too fast - they most likely used some constant carrier method. Wasteful of bandwidth, but broadcasters have never been known for efficiency of communication.
I think for small local races, APRS could be a boon for tracking and helping folks understand bike racing. With neat beacons like the pocket tracker and digipeaters on chase vehicles, one could get very good coverage without a lot of complaining from the riders about weight.
Due to Hollywood accounting, the olympics and just about everything else on television looses money. But, for some unknown reason, the networks fight for every sports event out there. Maybe in a few years, when the business press starts to investiagte accounting practices of Hollywood, and the real P&L of programs is exposed, we'll break the cycle of constantly escalating sports programming costs (and poorer quality -at least from an excitement level).
The other reason they like sports is because it gives them plenty of chances to promote other programs.
You'd think that maybe we all would have learned something after the DSL fallout earlier in the decade.
However, it goes far beyond that. Since I'm moving to a place that I want to explore for a few years, I made sure I wasn't in a salaried position, like I am now. Sure, I'm taking a pay cut, but on the whole, I honestly feel it is worth it to get time off and not have to worry about being tied to an electronic leash 24/7. We'll see what I think a year or so from now, when the savings are dented, but I didn't take that much of a hit, so I should be OK.
Some things to think about:
Why am I dissatified with my current job? Is it due to short term problems, or long term? In my case, the job changed and it didn't look like things were going to get any better any time soon.
Is there any place I have always wanted to live and/or work? Why am I not going there? Are the reasons I'm not there enough to keep me where I am now?
If I decide to move, is there work in my field of interest? If not, do I have skills that will translate to another field (most people have lots of skills that are useful in many fields)?
What will happen to my family and friends?
Is this move for love or money? I've learned over the years that most people who work for money are miserable and usually broke because they are always attempting to fill the hole in their lives by spending all the money they were intending to save in the first place. People who are doing something they love to do seem to be able to control their spending and still get what they need in the world (a few of them even prosper far beyond their wildest imaginations). Of course, if we all did what we loved, most of us would be sitting around in our underwear eating cheese in front of the TV!
Finally, remember that the grass may be greener on the other side of the fence, but you still have to mow it!
Nope. Not David Bowie. This guy.