Genachowski tells Mayor's conference GB internet by 2015
FCC Chairman Genachowski tells Mayor's conference gigabit internet in all 50 states is his goal by 2015. He is kidding right? There is not a chance that he can get anywhere near that.
Chairman Julius Genachoski just issued the "Gigabit City Challenge" he wants to see all 50 states have at least one community with gigabit internet by 2015. "American economic history teaches a clear lesson about infrastructure. If we build it, innovation will come," Genachowski said in a statement. "
I can think of three states immediately; KS, MO and TN for Kansas City (or almost) and Chattanooga. Are there others where 1 Gbps is already available? Just 47 left!
I can think of three states immediately; KS, MO and TN for Kansas City (or almost) and Chattanooga. Are there others where 1 Gbps is already available? Just 47 left!
Doodle 4 Google is an annual program that invites US students K-12 to use their artistic talents to think big and redesign our homepage logo for millions to see. This year, we ask students to exercise their creative imaginations around the theme, "My Best Day Ever..." One talented student artist will see their artwork appear on the Google homepage, receive a $30,000 college scholarship, and a $50,000 technology grant among other cool prizes! Happy doodling!
I rearranged the bedroom last weekend so the TV is now at the head of the bed as opposed to across the room. It is much easier to see now and I also bought a stand to house the networking gear that was in that corner. I also made new jumpers using my cable tools for the cable wiring to the modem and TV. TV is much more enjoyable now with it in the new position.
All of this makes a mockery of net neutrality, but that's old news, what's interesting here is Google paying actual money to France Telecom-Orange for the delivery of its data, which apparently now constitutes half of that consumed France Telecom-Orange customers around the world.
"They pay us for the traffic that they send," the company reaffirmed to El Reg when we checked, saying that the deal had been in place for at least a year and that the money is spent maintaining the network, implicitly ensuring that customers get quick access to Google content.
Telcos have long said that Google and its ilk should be paying them to expedite delivery, and in the US Google managed to get (net neutrality) legislation passed, making it illegal to prioritise traffic, but Europe has been slower to jump to the Googleplex tune, so paying for access is easier.
We've asked Google how this fits in with the public campaign that all packets be treated equal, but haven't had a response yet, so it seems that equality is great just as long as some packets are more equal than others. ®
Google says 1 thing in US whie ignoring net neutrality elsewhere.
I wish Time Warner or Mediacom would buy out the cable system in Springfield, MA as Comcast is getting very difficult to deal with. I have intermittent problems with connectivity and techs who find the problem only to get blown off by their supervisor. They just do not want to fix anything. I suspect the problem is ingress and I also have a problem with modems (that I no longer have) showing usage on my account. I am getting fed up with their run-around customer service. There is only one other ISP in town and that is DSL, which is worse.
If I pay for a service, the service provider has a fiduciary responsibility to provide it in working order and as advertised. In Massachusetts, we have consumer protection laws and one of those is warranty of merchantability, which states a product or service will work as advertised or the seller/service provider has a legal obligation to make it work as advertised.
Comcast may have better technology but Time Warner may have better support.
That is the same way Verizon acts towards their copper and I would be curious how the state's warranty law would work for them. I know you don't particularly support the continuance of copper but if people are currently paying for it they should make it work if that's what the law states.
I think "fiduciary" kind of mischaracterizes the relationship here. What does the franchise authority have to say about it?
Disclaimer: I am NOT an attorney. I am empowered with consumer protection guides though.
What I am talking about is the warranty of merchantability which means a product or service will work as advertised. There are laws against false advertising. And there are laws in Mass against bait and switch. First we'll talk about warranty of merchantability, that means a product or service will work as advertised. If Comcast advertises services, then they have to provide those services in good working order and as advertised. For example, if they advertise 150 channels and 30 of those channels come in with audio/video issues (freezing, snow, tiling, etc) and it is an issue with Comcast (as opposed to customer wiring/equipment), then Comcast has to fix the issue at no cost to the consumer. That is why satellite customers get burned with repair bills because Dish/Direct is only responsible for the transmission facilities and the satellites in outer space so factors beyond their control (foliage, weather, sun/earth position, etc) is not a breach of the warranty of merchantability. Comcast is different as they have much more infrastructure than satellite, they have thousands of feet of cabling, amps, nodes, power supplies, taps, etc which can cause a failure. Finding cable problems can be a game of cat and mouse. The Comcast CSR I talked to last night said she had about a dozen truck rolls for similar problems and it turned out to be a squirrel had chewed the line down the street. On the concept of false advertising, Comcast had gotten into legal hot water for advertising their Internet as unlimited when it was not. A carriage dispute may entitle you to a credit on your bill because they agree to provide you with that channel but it is blacked out due to a carriage dispute (although the agreement may state that they do not have to compensate customers for carriage disputes or dropping channels). Dish and KCRG are in a carriage dispute and KCRG is encouraging Dish customers to request a credit on their bill. False advertising would also state advertising 100 percent HD when only 25 percent of the channels are SD or 100 percent digital when they still have analog. I remember analog cable and some of the channels came in worse than antenna but I think it had to be the result of an electrical backfeed that I was having problems with at the time so the cable company was not responsible.
Second thing I am going to talk about is contract law. My mother took business law in high school (she graduated HS 40 years ago this year) and there are five basic elements of a contract. One of those is consideration and another is offer and acceptance. The offer and acceptance means Comcast is going to sell me a triple play for xx price and they'll provide the equipment needed to receive the service at xx price. The consideration is that they'll provide that triple play as long as I pay the required fee and they'll provide the services that I pay for and in working order. That also means that they'll also maintain their equipment that I rent from them. If there is an outage, then that is a breach of that contract and you are entitled to a credit on your bill. Comcast got into legal hot water again when they terminated paying customers for excessive usage when the contract did not contain language that specified a usage limit so after ongoing litigation, they instituted a 250 GB cap, which became part of the offer and acceptance (which means you'll get HSI at xx speed for xx per month with 250 GB of usage).
I may sound like a jailhouse lawyer with this post but I have never been to jail and I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice and is really just meant to share my point of view. For legal advice, consult a qualified attorney.
I had a similar issue with Cablevision/Optimum several years ago. What I found was that it took something like five service calls until I could convince a guy to go up the pole to the tap and check the signal level while the level was bad (intermittent problem). From there I think some more phone calls were needed, but this time with paperwork from that tech in hand with the signal level and other particulars on it. After many weeks of this I finally got home one evening to see a squad of Cable trucks leaving the neighborhood; they had just fixed the problem(s) since the signal remained good from that point forward (right up until the day I cancelled). They still had congestion problems at times but the modem stayed connected.
I took the squeaky wheel approach and didn't let them off the hook at all. Every time I had signal problems I called and made them roll a truck. Eventually someone (or someone's supervisor/manager) got tired of this and decided to fix it. There's also no way I was the only one calling and that's one variable out of your control unless you have neighbors that are in the same boat. Maybe you can ask around and find some others in the same boat?
Every state can do this now. If they have a FTTH system New 10 gig pon is available. Also FTTH providers can offer gig over a differnt topology such as Active Ethernet. This is really not anything special .
It took me a better part of a week to get things work. The problem is when upgrading from Windows XP I did not have the option to bun a DVD so upgrade using XP settings were my only option. Unfortunately ether upgrade failed or failed registry entry had left my system unable upgrade nor access the Windows store. The wonderful Microsoft tech support was a huge help...NOT! They decided I need to do a windows repair, the person went home right in the middle of the install leaving my system worst off. There was a silver lining: the repair person left the app that allowed me to download the Windows 8 ISO, burn a DVD and do a complete clean install. My problems were fixed.
Re: I Survived Windows 8 and Mocrosoft Tech Support
I myself am not a fan of Windows. I prefer Macs myself and every computer that I have ever owned was a Mac. Apple support is amazing, especially if you buy AppleCare. I had a MacBook Pro die on me and they fixed it and did not try to play the "blame the customer" game. It ended up costing me nothing. I also had an eMac die on me (within two months of buying it) and again, fixed under warranty (free of charge). I have a nearby Apple Store (Holyoke Mall) and they are always helpful at fixing things at the Genius Bar.
I have several friends that are loyal to Mac as well.
I just find Windows is not user friendly. I spent most of my life using Apple computers and I remember the old Apple II computers back in the '80s when I was 5 years old. I remember playing StickyBear on the Apple II computers in first grade back around 1990 when our class was moved to the computer lab because our classroom was getting a fresh coat of paint on the walls. I remember hooking up some type of peripheral and making it work with the StickyBear software. This was long before smartphones and Facebook dominated our lives. Then 5th grade came around and I was using the Macintosh software (I think it was System 6, if I remember correctly). And then I got to middle school and they wired the building for the Internet where they had to run an Ethernet line (before the advent of Wi-Fi) for each computer in the building back to the storeroom that housed the router and switches. The computers were Macs and they had rigged up old computers to run on the Internet and I remember them being slow as molasses and they were always freezing and crashing because the older hardware could not keep up with the demands of the Internet. They even put Netscape 2.1 and disabled the loading of graphics just to keep them from crashing and they had the FoolProof software on them. Then I got to high school and the school district was phasing out Macs (due to cost) and installing Dell PCs running Windows NT (they upgraded them to Windows 2000 my senior year) and I was not a big fan of those having been around Macs most of my life. Then the cost of computers finally came down to a price that we could afford so my mother bought me an iMac 333 MHz in blueberry flavor so I got my first computer and my mother did not want to hook it up to the Internet but we eventually did since WebTV was not keeping up with the new demand of the evolving Internet so we signed up for a cable modem through Mediacom.
Today, I have two MacBook Pros, an iBook (that is semi-retired), a Mac mini, an iPhone, an iPad and an iPad mini. My first computer is now mothballed in my basement.
I remember the old Apple II computers back in the '80s when I was 5 years old. I remember playing StickyBear on the Apple II computers in first grade back around 1990 when our class was moved to the computer lab because our classroom was getting a fresh coat of paint on the walls.
I was in College at that time... I feel so OOOOOOLD....
Apple II user friendly compared to what? Give me a beak. I was in High School while you were still contemplating kindergarten. installation knowing which file one had to modify, and make copies of the disk. I had hands on knowledge on Apple II and know my way around assembly and BIOS. I played around with a Heath Kit H8 and even my friends IMSAI 8080. No computer was user friendly so keep the mac propaganda Gus.
Now if Windows idea of a cloud computing is the now windows norm or keep shoving crippled tablet functionality into pc I might considered a mac, don't get you hopes up.
The again there a huge differed in Windows vs. Mac:, I get to chose my hardware I want windows on. Mac is like a Model T, you have any style of Mac as long it a MAC.
Re: I Survived Windows 8 and Mocrosoft Tech Support
I remember booting those computers. There was a hard boot (power on and off) and soft boot (open apple-control-reset). I remember the 5 1/2 inch floppy disks and if you wanted to save, you needed a data disk. I remember that you could not open the disk drive when the red light was on. And if you wanted to change programs, you had to change the disks and reboot the computer.
I may be loyal to Mac but some may be loyal to windows. To me, OS preferences are a Pepsi vs Coke. I like diet Mountain Dew (PepsiCo) but my mom likes diet Coke. Android vs iPhone is like Burger King vs McDonalds, some have each advantage like Burger King has a better burger but Mickey D's has better fries. Android may be an open platform but Apple iPhone (in my opinion) is more user friendly. I prefer iPhone as it works seamlessly with my Macs and I can use iCloud to sync my calendars and contacts.
Hard Times I tell ya . . Police hunt swan killers over fears birds are 'being stolen to eat' Swans that vanished from a Roman waterway may have been stolen to eat, police believe
Detectives are investigating whether five incidents, in which birds went missing along a Roman waterway in Lincoln in recent weeks, are linked. Authorities believe the birds are being taken for food, after one was found along a canal bank done up like a turkey. Witnesses reported seeing a gang of five men bludgeoning one of the swans with nail-studded baton.