On the plus side, it looks like I don’t need a bone graft on my wrist. It’s healing, albeit slowly. I also had him re-X-ray my leg, and he said it’s going as it should be.
On the downside, it’s shaping up to be the saddest week ever for the internet… and here’s why:
AT&T, SBC, Verizon, and other ISPs are going to start charging popular websites for the bandwidth used by their visitors (i.e. the people who pay for their own highspeed internet service from Verizon, Rogers, Sympatico, etc). They’re trying to triple-dip, and it’s no less than extortion!! The threat? Limit their subscribers access to sites that don’t pony up the money. If Google won’t agree to pay Verizon’s crazy-fee, then Verizon will simply make access to Google unbearably slow… while keeping access to paying customers (Yahoo?) comparatively fast. The reaction? Google has already said F-U.
Why is it triple-dipping? Because Google (any website, including my own) has to pay for the bandwidth it uses to serve its text, images, audio, and video… AND people who want to view Google’s content must pay for internet access. NOW they want to charge not only hosting and access fees, but what amounts to a “viewing fee”. Ridiculous.
Of course, MAYBE that wouldn’t be so bad, if consumers were even getting what they were paying for… but they’re not. US consumers are filing a $200 Billion Lawsuit against ISPs who have not provided infrastructure upgrades that have already been paid for. Why do China (100 megabit) and Japan ($15/month for 30 megabit) have REALLY highspeed internet access, while our “ultra-highspeed” is only SIX megabit and costs twice as much? Because our $200 Billion was squandered and/or misappropriated. Yay for us!
Not only are they not upgrading the infrastructure… They are preventing people from upgrading the infrastructure by themselves!!! Lafayette Louisiana is trying to upgrade its network, and Bell’s trying to nix it. WHY?? A few possible reasons… Sure it saves them infrastructure costs, but it also permanently loses 116,000 customers. I believe the real reason is something closer to conspiracy. Why don’t we, as a 1st World Nation, have the fastest internet access? Because we are the largest consumers of physical media — specifically CDs and DVDs. 100 megabit internet would allow you to download a full movie in about a minute, instead of hours or days. It would mean that you could download an album worth of music in about 2 seconds flat. Literally. I think Bell is smart enough to realize that… but not smart enough to see that it can’t be avoided. The revolution is coming, and they can’t stop it. It will be by the people AND for the people.
And then we have the whole “2-tiered internet” movement… another slick plan by ISPs and Telcos to suck every last cent out of their prisoners… er, customers. What’s a 2-tiered internet, you ask? Well, picture this… You go online and fire-up Skype so you can chat with your friend in Croatia, and a message pops up saying “In order to use VOIP you must upgrade your internet package to Gold”… So instead of going through that hassle, you just call him on the phone and pay the long distance. He tells you about an awesome independent croatian film you must download, and emails you a link to the torrent file. Because the email is from someone on your buddy list, and contains a link, Yahoo decides that you really should have to pay to read the email because it probably contains information of value to you. Value to you means money for them. So you pay the $0.01 to read the message. You click the link to download the bitTorrent file of the movie, and boing – “You must upgrade your internet package to Platinum in order to use P2P software”. OHHH YEAHHH BABY! Two tiered LOVE! Bring it on! WE ALL WANT IT!
I almost forgot… AOL and Yahoo are going to start charging optional fees (ranging from $0.0025 to $0.01 per message) for sending email. I’m not sure about you, but I can’t remember the last time a fee was “optional” and not somehow crooked. Specifics? The charge will apply to the sender, not the recipient. The plan is designed to fight the onslaught of spam and email scams that currently plague the industry. Those who pay the fee will have their email “stamped with a seal” that will help to prevent the mail from mistakenly being filtered along with spam and ensure the recipient that it is legitimate. The service targets businesses that send large amounts of email.
Forgive me if I’m wrong, but aren’t the shadiest spammers out there also the ones making the most money, and therefore the most likely to be able to afford to pay these levies? This is JUST LIKE the RIAA & MPAA telling their customers not to pirate, when it’s the people who AREN’T their customers who are doing all the pirating. ID10T.
There has already been quite a bit of outcry, especially from small businesses.
Good about the bones.The rest leaves me speechless,Im going to find a darkened room.
what the #?&$
I guess the internet will eventually be billed like a gas bill….monthly charge,transportation charge,storage charge,delivery charge,monthly charge….and oh yes….gas consumed.Ooops,forgot…gst on all of the above charge.Then why not tie internet to the price of oil and have it jump every time there’s unrest in the world… a just because they can charge.last and not least…if you use the internet during prime time..a surcharge with a reduction for use after midnight.It all makes sense now…there’s an ex union gas CEO running the internet now ,lol.
Well I guess the day could only get better,linked from your flickr to lizvangs and thats improved my outlook on life—–ssssh dont tell anyone.
We’ll see if the telco’s plan goes through or not. There’s an old adage that the surest way to lose an election would be to mess with American’s TV’s. Maybe the same thing will happen if you mess with American’s Internet access. Triple dipping indeed.
alert(‘The Internet Wants To Be Free!!!’)
I thought I’d share another link about the tripple dipping double teired internet you speak of…
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060209.html
He Cringely points out why US congress is completely daft.
andre
I have several complaints about Derek’s website I wish to address here.
I just want to say one thing: Evil individuals are acting in concert with other evil individuals for an evil purpose. The rest of this letter is focused exclusively on Mr. Derek Martin, not because I harbor any ill-will towards him but because he likes to launch into nonsensical non sequiturs. Derek’s cult followers probably don’t realize that, because it’s not mentioned in the funny papers or in the movies. Nevertheless, if my memory serves me correctly, he parrots whatever ideas are fashionable at the moment. When the fashions change, his ideas will change instantly, like a weathercock. Derek is obviously trying to violate strongly held principles regarding deferral of current satisfaction for long-term gains, and unless we act now, he’ll undeniably succeed. He plans to declare a national emergency, round up everyone who disagrees with him, and put them in concentration camps. He has instructed his devotees not to discuss this or even admit to his plan’s existence. Obviously, Derek knows he has something to hide.
If we look beyond Derek’s delusions of grandeur, we see that I didn’t want to talk about this. I really didn’t. But he will stop at nothing to undermine liberty in the name of liberty. This may sound outrageous, but if it were fiction I would have thought of something more credible. As it stands, I do not appreciate being labeled. No one does. Nevertheless, if I try really, really hard, I can almost see why Derek would want to challenge all I stand for. While I can’t speak for anyone else, I feel that Derek knows that performing an occasional act of charity will make some people forgive — or at least overlook — all of his distasteful excesses. My take on the matter is that he wants us to believe that we can solve all of our problems by giving him lots of money. We might as well toss that money down a well, because we’ll never see it again. What we will see, however, is that I don’t know which are worse, right-wing tyrants or left-wing tyrants. But I do know that Derek’s beliefs (as I would certainly not call them logically reasoned arguments) reek of revisionism. I use the word “reek” because Derek is unquestionably failing in his legal and moral responsibility not to cripple his enemies politically, economically, socially, morally, and psychologically. As an interesting experiment, try to point this out to Derek. (You might want to don safety equipment first.) I think you’ll find that most people don’t realize that he has already revealed his plans to exhibit a deep disdain for all people who are not unconscionable derelicts. He revealed these plans in a manifesto bearing all of the hallmarks of having been written by a froward dolt. Not only is his manifesto entirely lacking in logic, relentlessly subjective, and thoroughly anecdotal, but I myself have never been in favor of being gratuitously anti-democratic. I have also never been in favor of sticking my head in the sand or of refusing to stick to the facts and offer only those arguments that can be supported by those facts. In the past, I’ve said that careerism is an inherently oppressive ideology. Were I to make such a generalization today, it would contain a few “weasel words” — an escape hatch or that indispensable cliche that Derek will stop at nothing to get his way. But because Derek should not be allowed to operate heavy machinery, specifically, his ego, I am not ready to retract my conviction or to recant error.
If Derek’s plan to advocate his sound bites amid a hue and cry as stultiloquent as it is asinine is to be discouraged then the wisest course of action is to ensure that we survive and emerge triumphant out of the coming chaos and destruction. Before we start down that road I ought to remind you that we have a dilemma of leviathan proportions on our hands: Should we redefine in practical terms the immutable ideals that have guided us from the beginning, or is it sufficient to view the realms of extremism and frotteurism not as two opposing poles, but as two continua? Well, I’m sure Derek would rather represent a threat to all the people in the area, indeed, possibly the world, than answer that particular question. A record of his acts of hypocrisy would fill volumes, but what makes matters utterly intolerable is knowing that his factotums think that we can change the truth if we don’t like it the way it is. This is precisely the non-equation that Derek is trying to patch together. What he’s missing, as usual, is that ancient Greek dramatists discerned a peculiar virtue in being tragic. Derek would do well to realize that they never discerned any virtue in being chthonic. I am not in any way placing the blame on him for untoward bureaucrats who violate his pledge not to enable scurrilous cockalorums to punch above their weight. That notwithstanding, he is still culpable for plotting to make things worse.
In a tacit concession of defeat, Derek is now openly calling for the abridgment of various freedoms to accomplish coercively what his unholy views have failed at. Having no desire to belabor this subject, I’ll just say that if a cogent, logical argument entered his brain, no doubt a concussion would result. Derek loves getting up in front of people and telling them that society is screaming for his remonstrations. He then boasts about how he’ll resort to ad hominem attacks on me and my family by the end of the decade. It’s all part of the media spectacle that is Derek Martin. Of course, he soaks it up and wallows in it like a pig in mud. Speaking of pigs and mud, if Derek bites me, I will certainly bite back.
If Derek thinks that he can make me feel disconnected from reality, then he’s barking up the wrong tree. It may seem senseless to say that he should step down from his gilded pedestal. Nevertheless, the position can be defended. It is imperative that all of us in this community tell you things that he doesn’t want you to know. This cannot occur unless there is a true spirit of respect and an appreciation of differences. I overheard one of Derek’s sycophants say, “We have too much freedom.” This quotation demonstrates the power of language, as it epitomizes the “us/them” dichotomy within hegemonic discourse. As for me, I prefer to use language to take the initiative to fight for our freedom of speech. The take-away message of this letter is that Mr. Derek Martin’s hypocrisy comes out when he denies that he surrounds himself with selfish profiteers. Think about it. I don’t want to have to write another letter a few years from now, in the wake of a society torn apart by Derek’s wicked hypnopompic insights, reminding you that you were warned.
Me thinks you got the wrong Derek mate!!!! Nonetheless great use of the English language,you should write a book…….oops you already have.
Hmmmm,when does a complaint become a diatribe?surely,when evil lurks in the minds of those that read too much into social intercourse.Methinks a larger ego is at work here.Truly knowing the person from whom the words come has a great effect on how one weights those words,ie,innocent verbiage or evil intent.We’re just talking here folks!
Did someone say cult? where can I sign up?
And I’ll take 3 of those manifesto thingies too 
good one!
I wish I could take credit for all that output, but it was courtesy this page where it can create a huge amount of verbiose garbage.
Amazed,I thought only governments could generate huge amounts of verbiose garbage.Is Scott Pakin running for office?Oh well off to the opticians as I wore my glasses out last night watching the Olympic Ice Dance.
lol,it reads even better with Bush’s name interspersed in the diatribe and then it definately makes sense.”Evil doers doing evil”being Bush’s favourite quote.