I won't claim to be an expert on regulation matters. But to my naieve
ears, demanding regulation says "we can't play together nicely, someone
please tell us how". Which means someone else dictates how you live
your life or what you deserve. Which means people stop thinking for
themselves because it is convenient to let someone else do it for them.
You have abdicated your freedoms.
This describes governments, religions, cults, and various other
organizations. I strongly believe that the moment we stop thinking for
ourselves (aka making our own choices), we the sheeple deserve what we get.
When making choices for ourselves there are consequences - good or bad
(or sometimes both). To experience good consequences more often, we
need to make "good" choices. To make a good choice means to examine the
alternatives and educate ourselves on the matters at hand to properly
understand the choices available to us. Where this is hard/difficult,
or just too much for a layman to understand, we need to consult experts.
Choosing an expert that meets YOUR needs is also a case of
research/education. Don't pick an expert that others won't stand
behind, or that someone else is paying (they aren't in it for YOUR best
interests then!).
To tie this back in to the main discussion, when I choose my Internet
provider, I do research. I examine the options available to me. I
choose the best option. I try not to play favorites, or blindly follow
recommendations. Because I have done the research, I know the
consequences if I choose to change my service provider at any point.
But I also know I am free to do so if I want to. So the moment I notice
my bills out of line with my expectations, the company gets one, maybe
two chances to rectify the problem. If they don't I pull the plug and
switch to someone else, and start the process over - the best service
available that meets my needs.
All the talk about UBB, last mile, etc. are completely irrellevant to me
in this case. The "best" option for me will have accounted for those
(i.e. I'm not picking the provider/package where I get to pay through
the nose over and over, when there is another provider/package that
doesn't treat me like that). The market will best sort itself out when
people learn that there are options and they don't need to blindly use
CompanyX just because they provide phone services AND Internet in one
package (and all the extra charges as well). Being a pure consumer
(buying stuff because we are told to buy it) is the same as letting
someone else make our choices for us.
Disclaimer - I know this is *not* a black and white discussion. It has
shades of grey. Which means none of us are "right" in all cases. Or
ever will be. But to find the "best" solution means to not polarize the
discussion to only one side.
My thoughts.
Shawn
On 11-02-13 01:00 AM, [email protected] wrote:
Off topic but if anyone comes across anyone looking to do a "recofit" then let
me know. I can show houses in this city where the builder left out the furnace! I think
we can pretty much guarrentee dropping the heating bills into the $100 per year range on
an average size house but the question is if its already built then is it worth it to go
this far.
Hmmmm... come to think of it why not note pretty much any commercial building
such as the one your friendly garageman rents. I looked at the Brentwood
Sportsplex and in the middle of summer the HVAC was runnign full tilt trying to
keep their ice in and when I looked at the walls it looks like concrete block
to me which will be less than R2.
Ellen,
Thanks for your comment. Yes... we do need regulations and we need policing
too and accountability... however I have to say on the *net front I look for
more competition on the last mile. I totally agree with competition in a free
market. Those who have already made this point get my pat on the back. Yes!
I think we should set up a team to build some asterisk servers. I don't have
time to do this all by myself but a team to do it might be fun. We can build
multiple flavours of linux but I'd like to see OpenBSD as well since I run it
on my servers.
I run Linux on my desktop and in the past have run VMware. I would like to try
virtualbox from Oracle.
I really want to see what Asterisk can do!
I would also vote to set up an 802.11* system which can haul net traffic
throughout a neighbourhood and maybe later a city. Maybe we could get enough
coverage we could support the equivalent of cell phones.
Then I would like to see some of our technology in the high school computer
labs. Now that netbooks are under $200 and can be put in a typical purse toted
by an agressive shopaholic... we can put this together and show our stuff!
Of course I believe it is FreeBSD which runs the iPod. Am I right?
What do we need to do to interface an iPod to asterisk?
On Sat, Feb 12, 2011 at 08:17:43PM -0700, Ellen Mably wrote:
If builders in this city could get away with leaving insulation out of their
houses do you think they might?
I was told by a former real estate agent that they did in some houses in
Valley Ridge.
Ellen
On 12 February 2011 10:14,<[email protected]> wrote:
No reason the government should be telling private businesses how to run
tehir business?
Lord!
DO you think there might be butchers who toss rats into the meat grinder
which makes hot dogs if it were legal for them to do it?
How about eye balls in cans of corned beef? A neighbour found part of one
in his sandwich.
What about glycol in wine?
What about melamine in milk?
If builders in this city could get away with leaving insulation out of
their houses do you think they might?
What about plastic plumbing pipes in contact with the flue of the furnace?
Or all the wiring in the basement of a house AND the kitchen run off one
breaker?
How about floor joists sitting with 1/4" of catch on the supporting wall
and we're talking about the joists which hold up the middle of the living
room floor where perhaps someone might want to place a piano or where lots
of people might gather for a party...
This is WITH regulations.
On Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 11:26:30AM -0500, Jesse Kline wrote:
<sarcasm>My god! Private, for-profit companies want to charge customers
based on the amount of resources they consume. What is this world coming
to?</sarcasm>
I think this issue is fairly simple. There is no reason the government
should be telling companies how to run their businesses. I don't like
UBB,
but I see no reason why companies should not be allowed to engage in the
practice. As with the net neutrality issue, the problem is a lack of
competition, not a lack of regulation. There is obviously a demand for
unlimited Internet and, as the article said, smaller ISPs would like to
provide the service. We should be pushing policy makers to make it easier
for new ISPs to break into the market and to provide service that
utilizes
their own infrastructure, instead of relying on the existing companies
and
common carrier provisions. Here are a few ideas of what we can do:
http://thesis.kline.ca/net-neutrality?start=4
But the open media guys are not pushing for competition, because they
think
the Internet should be a public good. Simply put, they hate private
companies and look to the government to solve all their problems. It is
no
wonder that the NDP is on the same side of the issue.
Jesse
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