Mike Soja 's BestNetTech Comments

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  • On the post: Verizon At Least Shows It Has A Sense Of Humor About Net Neutrality, Even If It's Incapable Of Respecting It

    Mike Soja ( profile ), 27 Feb, 2015 @ 07:39am

    Re: Re:

    Yer kiddin' me, right, Masnick?

    You're being a little coy there, so it's hard to tell, but isn't that the same goddamned tripe that shows up every once in a while in free speech comment thread where somebody says, "I've got a big important message that needs to be conveyed and I have a right to your radio station in order to efficiently convey that message, the First Amendment Sez So!"?

    I dunno, you tell me: When was the last time you read about the politically stacked First Amendment Agency (3 Dems, 2 Pubs) pretending to "hold a conversation" with the American people via a cheesy website just before said agency eructed 300 pages of Constitutionally questionable lawyer fodder? I bet it has been a while.

  • On the post: Verizon At Least Shows It Has A Sense Of Humor About Net Neutrality, Even If It's Incapable Of Respecting It

    Mike Soja ( profile ), 27 Feb, 2015 @ 03:06am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    The Internet would surely still exist without initial gov involvement.

    If McDonalds "owns" the path to Burger King, that's Burger King's problem.

    Again, as to monopolies, between the two, Verizon and the U.S. government, I know which "monopoly" is a real threat and which one isn't.

  • On the post: Verizon At Least Shows It Has A Sense Of Humor About Net Neutrality, Even If It's Incapable Of Respecting It

    Mike Soja ( profile ), 27 Feb, 2015 @ 02:39am

    Re: Sorry Verizon

    It isn't necessary to socialize an entire industry to compensate for a few isolated instances of alleged malfeasance. There are already numerous laws on the books pertaining to fraud.

    In fact, the new FCC regs amount to nothing more than the codifying of a certain type of fraud as legitimate.

    It's the fraud that all Internet consumers are equal, that they want and need what the government decides they want and need.

  • On the post: Verizon At Least Shows It Has A Sense Of Humor About Net Neutrality, Even If It's Incapable Of Respecting It

    Mike Soja ( profile ), 27 Feb, 2015 @ 02:24am

    Re: Re:

    Probably because net neutrality isn't "government engendered". Net neutrality protects what already exists, it's not the government inventing something new.

    Net neutrality wouldn't exist at all without government coercion. And net neutrality, in and of itself, is not self-evidently a good thing. It's like saying I should be able to buy a Whopper at McDonalds.

    As to competition in allegedly low competition regions (which I guess is where I live), what exactly will "net neutrality" do for me? The new law is ostensibly a boon to content creators, but I don't buy my Internet from them.

    I consider myself a somewhat heavy Internet user, but most of my neighbors are not, yet they pretty much have to buy the same plan I do. What's the sense of that? And going forward there is going to be no relief in such regards, as even upstart Joe Schmoe ISP will have to present the entire web just the same as the Bell South does, despite possibly wanting to serve a smaller niche.

    And I'm not particularly concerned with "monopolies", except for those facilitated by government edict. Free market "monopolies" have a way of disintegrating due to natural market forces. The new government edicts are very likely to preserve exactly those entities you now erroneously decry as monopolistic.

  • On the post: Verizon At Least Shows It Has A Sense Of Humor About Net Neutrality, Even If It's Incapable Of Respecting It

    Mike Soja ( profile ), 27 Feb, 2015 @ 01:16am

    Re: Re:

    Your "extortions" are not crimes in the common sense of the word. You may not like telco terms or methods, but that doesn't make them fraudulent, though their promises or advertisements may be so, but that's two different things.

    The free market machinations between such entities as Netflix and Comcast are merely the market sorting itself out in times of great change, which is only natural. And which will be worked out by mutual consent by mutually consenting parties according to their abilities.

    A lot of those natural tussles are off the table now. Netflix and Comcast will now have to take a number at the new DMV FCC window, to wait while surly bureaucrats paw over the particulars with their surly bureaucrat eyes on the continuance of their surly bureaucrat careers.

    Importantly, "what government is for" ought not to encompass the particular terms of contractual obligations, but to preserve the rights of people to enter, or not enter, into such contracts. The government is now (in yet another arena) prohibiting certain mutually agreed upon contracts. We are less a free nation for it.

  • On the post: Verizon At Least Shows It Has A Sense Of Humor About Net Neutrality, Even If It's Incapable Of Respecting It

    Mike Soja ( profile ), 27 Feb, 2015 @ 12:13am

    I've been a long time BestNetTech reader, and have linked to them numerous times on my blog, but the continued support of a government engendered "net neutrality" has been bothering me.

    On the one hand, BestNetTech is a sturdy espouser of the free market in the tech world, and a steady critic of government malfeasance and overreach in numerous realms including surveillance, copyright, etc.

    On the other hand: Cheer leading the FCC and the government in their latest endeavor.

    There is a disconnect somewhere that I just can't reconcile.

    As I undoubtedly will continue to read BestNetTech, I suppose I am to be happy that my local ISP will not be permitted to block it (et. al.), but I still wish that they had the freedom to do so if they deemed it necessary for their own personal economics.

  • On the post: Verizon At Least Shows It Has A Sense Of Humor About Net Neutrality, Even If It's Incapable Of Respecting It

    Mike Soja ( profile ), 26 Feb, 2015 @ 11:45pm

    Verizon is right...

    ... though probably for the wrong reasons.

    One hundred years filled with numberless examples of collectivist failures and a nation founded on principles of liberty socializes one of its greatest accoutrements.

    There is never a free lunch in these things. Maybe Netflix won't have to raise prices to its customers in order to pay Comcast to shovel the load, but the cost of providing its bandwidth will still have to paid. Comcast customers who don't stream Netflix will be subsidizing those who do. Hell, if I were Netflix now, I'd cut my prices in half, and let the content delivery boys deal with the cost of the increased traffic on their end.

    Long live the unintended, short-sighted, consequences.

  • On the post: Republicans And Democrats Alike Overwhelmingly Support Net Neutrality; Why Don't GOP Officials In Congress Recognize This?

    Mike Soja ( profile ), 13 Nov, 2014 @ 10:03pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Forcing Freedom?

    "It has nothing to do with paying for the bandwidth you use."

    Of course it does. The crunch may take place UP one or two levels from my use but it's the same argument.

    Why the hell would I want the FCC to attempt to sort it out?

    They know less what I want than Comcast does.

    At least I can choose Comcast or not. In today's world I can't choose FCC or not.

  • On the post: Republicans And Democrats Alike Overwhelmingly Support Net Neutrality; Why Don't GOP Officials In Congress Recognize This?

    Mike Soja ( profile ), 13 Nov, 2014 @ 09:54pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Forcing Freedom?

    Rescind the various special dispensations granted them by sundry government bodies.

    No matter what, though, designating them utilities will only solidify the alleged oligopoly.

  • On the post: Republicans And Democrats Alike Overwhelmingly Support Net Neutrality; Why Don't GOP Officials In Congress Recognize This?

    Mike Soja ( profile ), 13 Nov, 2014 @ 12:15pm

    Re: Re: Forcing Freedom?

    Because forcing a heavy Internet user to pay proportionally more than grandma checking her facebook twice a day is akin to cotton picking fun times in the old South?

    No, Kent is right, out of almost everyone else here.

    I start with the premise that the FCC is an illegitimate blight on the freedom of the citizenry from its beginning. Debating the ins and outs of sundry FCC endeavors is like debating whether the slaves should be fed potatoes or corn.

  • On the post: Quantifying Comcast's Monopoly Power

    Mike Soja ( profile ), 03 Aug, 2014 @ 05:41pm

    So? End the monopoly.

    As cable monopolies are special dispensations granted by government, why not just end the special dispensations?

    Let cod sort it out from there.

  • On the post: DailyDirt: Basic Science Deserves Some Respect

    Mike Soja ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2013 @ 06:27pm

    Woe

    --*Sad fact: Funding for basic science research makes up less than 1% of the federal budget.*--

    I wonder why it should make up even that much.

  • On the post: DailyDirt: The Biggest Shipping Days Of The Year

    Mike Soja ( profile ), 21 Dec, 2010 @ 06:05pm

    big fake drawing

    Whoops. Should have given a link, but the "artist" used to have a disclaimer at the bottom of his page. Apparently removed, for some reason.

    http://gizmodo.com/393597/gps+tracked-biggest-drawing-in-the-world-is-complete-fake

    http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/05/artist-says-he/

  • On the post: DailyDirt: The Biggest Shipping Days Of The Year

    Mike Soja ( profile ), 21 Dec, 2010 @ 05:53pm

    Biggest drawing on the world

    The guy faked it. A GPS was never taken anywhere.

    I blogged about it two and half years ago.

    Otherwise, keep up the good work.