AT&T: Pay More For The Internet Or Else

AT&T’s CEO Ed Whitacre is complaining once again, that it isn’t fare that web content owners are allowed to use large volumes of communications companies’ bandwidth for ‘free’. He wants big sites such as Google and others to pay for access to their clients. I read this a month ago but it has come up again. Don’t these people realize that Google doesn’t just plug into the Internet for free? Google must pay for several optical connections to their server farm and ISP fees, which their ISP pays to connect to other networks, such as AT&T’s network. Then the consumers, you and me, pay to connect to AT&T’s network, my Mediacom cable connection connects to the AT&T network. Why should Google and others pay twice for their Internet connection?

The real problem lies with what lies before us in the next five to ten years. About ten years ago we were promised fiber to the wall and all the bandwidth we could suck up, well about 100mbps both ways. What happened was the web 1.0 bubble popped. Suddenly around 2001 these big Telephone Companies found themselves with some fiber upgrades and a large amount of dark fiber, since the demand shifted, they stopped investing in their networks, except when they absolutely had to.

Now as the so called Web 2.0 movement catches fire and begins to run with the economic torch, the telephone companies realize that demand has increased (shifted to the right on the demand curve graph) but their supply capacity has remained the same since they foolishly lined the pockets of their CEOs and management instead of investing in their networks. The entire Web 2.0 movement will heavily push VOIP and IPTV. POTS will more or less die soon, as in by 2010. Once POTS dies as everyone uses VOIP, SBC/ATT will find itself with a bunch of worthless copper. They should have upgraded ever last inch to fiber but now it’s too late. That’s what Ed Whitacre is seeing, though he could be just seeing a plan to line his pockets since as a general rule of thumb all CEO/CFOs are corrupt, self-centered, evil rats. Their profits will dwindle and the new ATT will die a quick painful death, just like Enron.

Here is the link: The 200 Billion Broadband Scandal

-John Havlik

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Pawns

In keeping with the pessimistic view of the media theme of this week, I decided to release a poem that I wrote for Creative Writing.

The media’s captives consume
another war story,
economic issues, news of an urban shooting,
incorrectly used slang, drug use and abuse,
hate, rape, sex, incest, ignorance, and infatuation.

Today’s music consumer enjoys well-rounded plethora music.

-John Havlik

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Longest Page on the Net

So there is this art collaboration by the art community at Blue Sfear that is approximately 56.25 feet long. The image is about 7.0 MB in size, so dial-up users you have been warned. Each member has created a section is 600×450 pixels, and the artist is allowed to use any program he/she wants. The worm flows as one gigantic mural and is a must see. There is some sexually suggestive content on it, even though the artists are required to refrain from posting explicit images.

-John Havlik

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WordPress 2.0

I installed WordPress 2.0 today, after deleting some important files and having to figure out my database information I finally got it running. I had a temporary ‘Under Construction’ banner up, which is a preview of the skin that I’m working on today. Plan on there being outages later today and possible broken template layout/pages.

I also have this nice little Weblogs.us logo that I made that I’ll share

Weblogs.us Free WordPress Blog HostingSo this is it, 100% transparent PNG in all of it’s glory. Feel free to use this on your weblogs.us hosted WordPress blog. Leave a comment with your blog URL if you decide to use it, and if you wish to critique it just comment on it as well. Just right click and select ‘Save Image As’. Then select the destination on your computer to save it.

I love the backend improvements of WordPress 2.0. The blogging pane is much better. A lot of AJAX went into it and a really cool thing is that one is able to dynamically resize the size of the blog pane. Plus, the need to preview has been reduced since images and formatting can be automatically be displayed.

-John Havlik

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The North Face Men’s Dominant TriClimate

Finally, it’s coldish and there is snow here in Minnesota, which was a sudden reminder that I need a new winter coat. My old orange and navy blue Columbia Fire Ridge served me well for many years, well since seventh grade to be exact (do the math). The only problems with it are it’s now too small for me, two years ago I accidentally punctured it while running near a fence (a long story but I did repair the hole with some superglue), and it doesn’t have Omni-Tech (breathable waterproofing, similar to Gore-Tex.).

I initially wanted a Columbia Titanium series jacket but not a single store in our area handles the good Titanium jackets. There are several cheaper Titanium jackets which are, well, inferior. So we found ourselves in REI and they have tons of The North Face apparel and some Columbia stuff too, but not the good Titanium jackets. They have a 400 USD Deceptacon TriClimate jacket which is top of the line for what REI carries. There are about 5 or so better jackets produced by The North Face. There is also a 280 USD Vortex TriClimate jacket but it doesn’t fit right, for some reason the arm length on the right side is too short.

Today we went to a new Sports Authority which opened in EP. They have this Dominate TriClimate jacket which is made by The North Face and it is 300 USD list price but on sale for 250 USD. It fits correctly as did the Deceptacon and is much more moderately priced so I ended up with it. I haven’t really tested it yet but will soon. The only thing I can’t figure out is why The North Face doesn’t acknowledge its existence for a men’s variety. It is supposedly a women’s jacket name so then I tried to find out what it really was and why it was miss marketed. Sports Authority doesn’t have the jacket for men or women on its website so I’m back to square one. It appears to be directly based off of the Deceptacon but without the 200 USD liner (“Soft Shell”) that it has, and not as many internal pockets. But, all the other vitals are there, waterproof via HyVent (works the same as Omni-Tech/Gore-Tex) and the correct size.

-John Havlik

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