[Dclug] FIOS

[Kevin Cole]

On 11/4/07, Larry Howe <larry.howe at comjet.com> wrote:
> Sure. Not saying you should be making a different choice. I'm just
> pointing out the irony of the choices, or lack thereof, that we're faced
> with. FIOS, paid for with monopoly money, very much mirrors the
> dominance of windows, also paid for with monopoly money. Except that
> it's much worse. At least in the OS case, people have real choices with
> Mac and Linux. Not so with Internet access. And our government stood by
> and let it happen. I'm disappointed that there aren't more people who
> are mad about this.

IMHO, the lack of anger is largely due to an unsophisticated audience.
For example, as someone who has never owned a car (and in fact has
probably been behind the wheel of one 10 times in 50 years), a lot of
what goes on in the car industry is "magic" to me.  Sure, I get the
basics of how a combustion engine and drive shaft work, but would I be
able to distinguish new technology from magic?  Doubtful. So, I
imagine someone could do something unscrupulous in the auto industry
-- and no doubt has -- with government permission, and I would remain
largely unaware of the consequences.

So, just as many see viruses as the inevitable consequence of having a
computer, I think many see FiOS as just "the way it is, was, and ever
more shall be" and it never occurs to them that there's a fundamental
flaw in the way it has been implemented / (not) regulated.

-- 
Ubuntu Linux DC LoCo
Washington, DC
http://dc.ubuntu-us.org/