What is Digg?78 Comments
- warrenfalk, on 10/12/2007, -5/+18I patented comical patent comments.
- BloodJunkie, on 10/12/2007, -4/+17rishid, i must insist you cease all uses of the words "common sense" and "love"...as they infringe on a number of patents that I hold.
- wbreim, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Uhm.... I think private companies are no more trustworthy.
- invader, on 10/12/2007, -4/+15but didn't google recently patent the process to "reduce the cost of wireless with advertisements"?
- jonnyeh, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Most people still on dialup are there because there is no broadband option available to them. Hopefully since wireless broadband will be cheaper to deploy in rural areas, it should help people in those areas.
- andyengle, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12@Lyph4
Excellent post!
I love it how the government always steps in and thinks they can do something better than the private enterprise. With a few things, they can, such as with the national defense. But for most things, government isn't the solution to the problem, government *is* the problem (quote credit: Ronald Reagan).
It would be good for government to stop over-taxing us to pay for sub-par services such as wi-fi. Contrary to what some politicians will tell you, free wi-fi isn't a "right". - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -20/+28Why not reduce the taxes people pay, and stop forcing this crap on people?
I don't want free wifi, I want my fast, private, and secure cable connection.
I don't want to pay for your wifi connection, your healthcare, or your education.
If you want broadband, sign up for some and pay.
If you want healthcare, sign up for some and pay.
If you want an education, sign up for some and pay.
There is no reason that the government should be supplying these things to the people.
If you can't take care of yourself, don't expect my money to help you. - fishbert, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11Nah, Scooby Doo learned to type.
- Chewie67, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10I actually patented the word "patent". So, everyone owes me money.
Come to think of it, I'm going to patent money.
... and owing.
... and breathing. - JMartin13, on 10/12/2007, -11/+18It amazes me how people take stabs at the president any chance they get.
- NJank, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7US gov't does postal mail for the same reason it does highways, it was an invaluable resource to support a growing economy, which at the time couldn't be adequately or reliably provided by the private sector. Universal broadband internet access, while something that would support the economy, is different because it is not a stumbling block to economic development. It would likely cost more to the public, (meeting user demands, upgrades, etc.) and be less efficient than you'd get by promoting more competition in the arena. Now, for those rural, low demand areas, their particular market may warrant a local government solution, but it should definitely only be a local, case by case issue.
- rishid, on 10/12/2007, -5/+11I love how you can patent common sense now a days if this is true.
- samdu, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7There will ALWAYS be enough money to go to war. Politicians will find the money somewhere.
- Pizon, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9I'm in agreement with Lyph4 here and just for the record I am not among the "top 1%" who are the target of the taxes you mention, I am WELL below the poverty line. I don't want to pay for your health care, education or Internet access and I don't want you, or someone like Bill Gates, to pay for mine either. Adding another tax just adds to the overall bureaucracy and that ends up costing taxpayers more.
Regarding the article, I wish Mr. Muleta success in his endeavor. I think his concept of using a free, ad-supported plan as a "carrot" to lure people into paying for higher quality service is the most sound idea I have seen involving free wireless Internet access. It seems he is looking at purchasing some licensed spectrum to build his network but his choice of frequency may not be the best choice for many rural areas. Rural Kansas, yes. Rural Michigan, probably not. In my experience anything above about 1.2GHz has a hard time penetrating the tree cover or getting over some of the rolling hills we have here in Northern Michigan. Granted, this is only one small area of the country and new technology is being developed all the time but I just don't see how this is going to do anything other than provide another high-speed service that will overlap with existing cable and DSL infrastructure. Choice is good but many of those without broadband have no choice. Wireless has a lot of potential to give folks without broadband a choice but I think that the service will have to be delivered by smaller, regional providers not huge nationwide corporations. Then again you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs so maybe Mr. Muleta's idea will provide a foundation upon which others can build. - wetplant, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I remember something else the government did better than private organizations . . . it was called electricity. FDR brought electricity to rural parts of America during the New Deal and guess what? It rapidly modernized those areas. The government also created a national highway system, which helped create some massive companies that employs hundreds of thoudands of Americans -- GM, Ford, Crysler. The government is good at building infrastructure. The Internet is a necessary part of our countries infrastructure and should be available to everyone.
- ViperDaimao, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7Because as you said the USPS sucks. As does Govt run anything. For years they said overnight mail was impossible. Then when they finally let in competition and FedEx and UPS start doing overnight mail, it suddenly became possible. I would rather not have my taxes pay for your broadband access. Plus doesnt our govt spend enough money as it is? We need to scale it back not add on more bureaucracies. If you want to improve broadband access, end the monoplies that the telcos and other utilities have. Open up the market.
- BrewedInTexas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4No, my last comment didn't make sense.
I meant 19.2 kiloBAUD.
This is what dial-up does to your brain. - omnithought, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Remember your words if you ever have some kind of accident where you get seriously injured and the insurance company does all it can to not cover your treatment and you end up paying thousands or even tens of thousands in debt for the rest of your life.
I think paying a bit more for the peace of mind of knowing you're taken care of no matter what is worth it.
Plus, "universal" doesn't mean free. It means it's paid for through taxes. No one is saying it's free. - mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -6/+10I think this is a great plan.. we really need to get the rest of the country to adapt broadband (hard to believe there are still dial-up users)..
hopefully this will help. if the president won't do anything about it, do it yourself. - lormahoykyd2007, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4After spending the past 4 years at Hillsong in Australia I have to agree that their service works great. Government provided health care. My fiance' grew up with it and has no adverse affects from "cheapy" government programs. Also if you look at a phone bill you are paying the USF. The FCC should take that and provide broadband to area's that can't get it. Except mine as I built our home in the country bought a T3 line and I sell wireless internet. As I was told by my local phone company if I wanted high-speed I should buy my own T1 line. So if phone Co's don 't want to spend the money meant to build out under-developed areas they should not have access to it. We are already seeing the response from AT&T as VoIP's drive costs down. I remember growing up with a 10 minute long distance call from Little Rock to Dallas costing almost 10.00.
- omnithought, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6@Lyph4
Our lack of such things makes us behind much of the world in progress. We're not better off because we have to pay for all that. We're socially primitive and selfish. Plus, none of that is free in any country. They have higher taxes to pay for it.
I'd pay more if it meant that I knew that if I got seriously injured, I'm taken care of and it's not an issue of how much insurance I could afford. Imagine everyone getting access to a college education, not just the ones who can afford it. We could reduce our dumbass emissions considerably. - Technopundit, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8Free broadband, free VoIP, free this, ad-supported that .... It's making it hard for the fat telco monopolies to make massive amounts of cash to grease republican palms with. Next thing, the people will want companies like Halliburton out of the pockets of the fat cats in the White House. Then where ya gonna be? There'll be less money to support dropping bombs in the desert to boost oil prices.
Get a clue, man! - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -7/+10he's still moving isnt he?
- mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4"unless they've run some fiber through the oil fields recently, so's cable. "
america is chock-full of dark fiber optics. all we need is the telecoms to use them like they promised when we gave them a massive tax break to build the infrastructure..
..and how exactly are you getting 19200kbs on a phone line? that's 19mbit.
..your last comment didn't make any sense.. - kev23777, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Where is this $15 - $25 Broadband, I've never seen anything that cheap unless it was a 3 - 6 month promotional offer. With the SBC(now AT&T) / Comcast monopoly in the Chicago-land area broadband continues to be in the $40 - $50 range for a decent broadband connection.
How about the phone companies that were broken up 20 years ago stop merging together, and the courts stop ruling in the favor of monopolistic Cable companies and against any sort of legislation that would allow for more competition. In my opinion there simply isn't any real competition occurring in the Internet marketplace at the moment. People can rattle off about the free market all they want but the fact of the matter is, unless there is decent competition, companies are going to charge high rates for sub-standard products. - meyerj88, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Articles like these remind me why I like the free market economy. If the people want broadband bad enough, an entrepreneur will provide. We just need more companies like M2Z and Google to challenge the old guard (Verizon, at&t).
- omnithought, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Here's an idea, folks.
Have universal AND private health care.
If you got the money, go to a private doctor and get better care. This would help curtail the flooding of the universal system so that they can take care of those who otherwise would be unable to provide it.
Do the same with university education. Have free colleges and tuition colleges.
If everyone can get just the basics in healthcare and education, then we have more productivity. If we had those things, then the propensity of the small-minded tunnel-vision remark of "get a job you lazy bum" would actually be applicable. At the very least, at least we wouldn't have so many stupid ***** running about.
Dumb people and unhealthy people are a drain on society in every way. Let's provide a solution. - Daem0nX, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Too bad I can't patent the patent process...
- fireant202, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Why can't someone just dig a bunch of trenches, fill em with fiber optics, and be done with it! If the government would just subsidize something like that...we'd all be in a better way.
- ThatGuyBob, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6Would anyone care to explain why this is a GOOD idea? The government does absolutely nothing better than a free and open market does (other than waste money and time, that is).
- bkool, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I hate when people say "It isn't really free if it's ad-supported." Let's say some company is supporting this free wi-fi and I already buy from them regularly. I am getting a product from them back for my money. I would buy from them wi-fi or no wi-fi. Then they use the profit from my purchase to give me FREE wi-fi. I have my product now I have something extra for FREE. Unless the cost of the product goes up enough where you feel that you are purchasing it because you get the wi-fi then the wi-fi is just a free perk.
- ccunni, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7with all we know about "domestic spying" and AT&T's government cooperation.. the government will never have my trust with Internet access of any kind
- samdu, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7"maidix, because he's a Republican and Republicans don't wan tthe government to pay for social programs. They'd rather you pay big business to do it because... well... most of them are big business (or own a business) or big business pays them to feel that way."
Do you have a job? If so, guess what? You benefit from business. Don't have a job? Get one. I get so sick of hearing how "evil" businesses are.
The primary reason I don't want government administering all of these programs (and I'm NOT a Republican) is that government pretty much sucks at just about everything. Business, while not perfect (nothing is), is significantly more efficient than government. Government should protect us and... er... that's it. - pzarker, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3i would have dugg this, if i hadn't posted the same story 4 days ago: http://digg.com/deals/Free_national_wireless_internet_
- lnxaddct, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2andyengle,
You're paying for the tuition of other kids to help better the country as whole. Despite the bad news that the U.S. gets in regard to education at younger levels, we are one of the most literate countries in the world, which really says something considering our size. You are selfish, and probably don't belong in this country. It is about everyone contributing whatever they can for the good of everyone else (regardless of whether you benefit or not, i.e. it is not all about you, never was, never will be), and that is how a country will be its strongest. I think additional services provided by the government is an excellent idea, such as wi-fi, and will ensure competition in the market place. It would make private wi-fi providers need to offer a service significantly better to entice you to switch. Boo-hoo, sometimes you pay twice (i.e. if you send your kid to private school, you're still paying for others' public education), and it is a good thing. It doesn't matter if you're not directly benefitting from it, you're helping the country benefit from it and that's all that matters in the end (sure enough benefitting the country, will help you benefit in the long run). If you don't feel the need to help the country, but would rather remain a selfish and ignorant fool, then leave, we don't want you. - bkool, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Where is this $15 - $25 Broadband, I've never seen anything that cheap unless it was a 3 - 6 month promotional offer."
I completely agree. Everyone I know pays around $40/month for broadband in addition to roughly 40/month for cable tv. The cheapest I've seen dsl is $25/month. Broadband (at least w/ speeds over 1Mb) is definitely not cheap yet. - kev23777, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I am for anything that would/could encourage AT&T/Comcast to lower their rates and increase my upload/download rates. If I have to pay a couple more dollars in taxes to provide community WiFi, so be it. This assumes, of course, that community WiFi access is still legal in your area.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/cc/?id=110007188
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/ensign.telecom.bill.072705.pdf - wbreim, on 10/12/2007, -8/+10"Free" Wi-fi broadband should be a service like electricity or water, from our cities and states. Look at your taxes and you will see the fee for your local library(not optional), they could just add one more for wi-fi.
- elkos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I prefer wireless communities like www.awmn.net or whatever.... thank God I live in Athens
- mercano, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4When has that stoped anyone?
- nronhubbard, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2hippies rule, dude. and since when is it a hippy thing to provide basic social services. Is Norway constituted completely of hippies? How about germany...?
- invader, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1the parent post is referring to these:
http://digg.com/technology/Google_patents_free_Wi-Fi - cyclotron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah!
- bmatherlyjr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"He founded the company with Milo Medin, founder of the @Home Networks broadband service." translation, the venture is destined to fail.
- haruki, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1tragic... how we miss your dugg...
- haruki, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Sounded good up to the 'ad-supported' part. So is John still working for the FCC or not? I mean why is it that the FCC blatantly teaches that the airwaves, communications channels and so on are OWNED by ads.... Sell yourselves somewhere else please. That is, just as when you watch tv you are being sold to advertisers, when you browse 'free' broadband (ad supported) you are being sold as well.
- Technopundit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's the same in many areas. Cheap DSL doesn't exist there because the telco's won't make deals with low cost broadband providers.
Why? Because they don't have to! - azermuffin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The nine most terrifying words in
the English language are: 'Im from the
government and Im here to help.' - elkos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I prefer wireless communities like http://www.awmn.net or whatever.... thank God I live in Athensn(ooops I double posted!)
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