nasadude
join:2001-10-05
Rockville, MD
 ·Comcast
| reply to RadioDoc
Re: The problem is...
said by RadioDoc  :...that most people don't care. ... I don't think it's a matter that most people don't care, it's a matter of using the service with what you have. I wouldn't run out and buy a laptop just to use this service, but I would sure jump on 3M/3M at $17/mo for my home use on my desktop.
I'm not sure why the reporter thought it would be "buck rogersville" with people lounging everywhere hooked to the 'net. Although the article doesn't address it, this wi-fi system is probably the only internet choice besides dial-up for that town.
With the monopoly environment in this country, wi-fi is simply a third way to bridge the last mile and to more easily serve rural areas. |
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RadioDoc
58ef2c0
Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11
 ·AT&T Midwest
| I think that if you surveyed people in Chaska the majority would be rather ho-hum about the whole thing. That doesn't mean I don't think it's not a good idea (it appears to be being financed entirely through user fee income, although that water bill tie-in is troublesome). Just that a minority of folks give a crap about high speed access. Most don't even know what "speed" they're getting.
They seem to be getting a lot of fixed installations, which is good. The roaming-with-your-laptop aspect is fluff. Their coverage map shows very spotty hotspot availability.
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Toolmaster of La Grange. |
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dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ
| reply to nasadude
said by nasadude :said by RadioDoc :...that most people don't care. ... I don't think it's a matter that most people don't care, it's a matter of using the service with what you have. I wouldn't run out and buy a laptop just to use this service, but I would sure jump on 3M/3M at $17/mo for my home use on my desktop. I'm not sure why the reporter thought it would be "buck rogersville" with people lounging everywhere hooked to the 'net. Although the article doesn't address it, this wi-fi system is probably the only internet choice besides dial-up for that town. With the monopoly environment in this country, wi-fi is simply a third way to bridge the last mile and to more easily serve rural areas. its worth $17 just for that 3 megs of UPLOAD alone assuming the TOS isn't too restrictive.
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You can never be too rich, too thin or have too much Bandwidth |
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RadioDoc
58ef2c0
Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11 | No servers. At all. |
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G_Poobah
join:2004-01-17
Schenectady, NY
| The way to win, is to make the 'next big thing'.
How about a nice, tivo like appliance based on mythtv, where everyone joins a mesh network to subscribe to a TV show. You an use the ratings, etc, join and leave shows, download and upload all the tv shows in your town as part of a group mind. Download, watch and rate and entire season. Do the same thing for music, like a slimedevices mp3 player. Or share DVD's with your friends and neighbors, rating good/bad/ehh.
Go down to what people want. It all comes down to exposure to what's available. Ask yourself how many Tivo users will ever go back to watching TV without a TV? I'd save very very few.
The internet is about empowerment. It's about making you, the individual, more powerful, more informed, better educated about the issues, and most importantly, a customer, not a consumer. It's about sticking it to the man, about doing things the way YOU want to do things. It's about non-conformity, it's about exposure to the world. It's the anti-thesis to the small minded isolationists. It's a big world, and we're only a small part of it. And as long as Americans are content to eat whats fed to them by the megacorps, we will continue to fall farther and farther behind. We have seen the enemy, it's not communism, it's not muslim extremist, it's not even canadians.. It is us.
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Flabby? pastey-skinned? riddled with phlebitis? Then you've got a good Republican body! So compare your lives to mine, and then kill yourself. |
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