There's a quite amazing number of instances of stupidity in this story. Here's a few:-
- Recycling phone numbers
- Facebook (FB) continuing to send SMS while a phone number is out of action
- FB user signing up for SMS alerts and then walking away when they lose their phone
- Charging for receiving SMS
- FB unable to manage their alert system
- The Telco unable to manage their SMS system and apply a selective block
- A lawsuit
- A class action law suit
- A lawsuit against FB instead of the Telco.
- AP picking up the story
- Hundreds of news outlets regurgitating the AP story verbatim without adding any value.
Still. I guess, "That's just the way it is in the USA".
What I'm seeing in London is large numbers of people standing around outside offices, pubs and clubs with a cigarette in one hand and a mobile in the other. I don't think it's texting as a displacement activity. I think it's multi-tasking and keeping working while having a smoke break.
So what Market Share do you think Skype has of the IM+Voice+Video market? It seems hard to get reliable figures for total accounts, downloads, total online of the other systems.
Meanwhile Skype continues to ship early, ship often with a significant release every qtr. For the other IM players this seems more like a minor release every 18 months. As long as this disparity exists, Skype wll continue to overhaul and pull away from them.
Most distressing in all this is:-
- Lack of progress on IM interoperability
- Lack of progress on the open source side in implementations of libjingle, Gtalk interop and combinations of SIP with Jabber.
I'm really puzzled as to why this stuff seems to be so hard for the USA and why they seem unable to look at the experience of other countries that are ahead of them. They really should take a look at DAB (Digital Radio) and DVB (FreeView Digital TV) in Europe.
In the last 100 years we've built several layers of new infrastructure. Electricity, phones, cable TV among others. So how do we get to the point where Fibre to the Home is as ubiquitous as phone lines? And can we do it this time without huge handouts from the government and without creating another set of government mandated monopolies?
You know what? If you Americans can't work out that competition in the broadband space is good, that your artificially created, government sponsored monopoly on broadband provision is bad and needs changing or that cheap fast broadband is good for your economy and your long term future as a global player, then screw you. We'll just start treating the USA as damage and route round you.
I'm getting really, really tired of this debate. It's not about net neutrality. It's not even about end to end connectivity. It's about propping up the failing business models of dinosaur corporations by spinning and lobbying.
yes, yes, yes, it's about competition.
I wish the US commentators on this subject would actually look at what's happening in the rest of the world instead of just blindly dismissing it as "of course it could never happen in the USA". The telco/cable hold over the last mile is an artificial government sanctioned monopoly. It's time for government to change the rules slightly and force it open. If that means LLU and forcing them to sell wholesale bandwidth, then so be it.
Over the last century we've built a water, sewage, electricity, phone and cable TV networks. Why is it now impossible to layer another network on top using fibre? It'll take players with deep pockets and good lobbying skills but it can be done, surely?
I wish somebody would do the research to actually follow the money. AllOfMp3 claim to pay royalties to ROMS. ROMS claim to pay royalties to the copyright owners. Does this actually happen? How much money changes hands?
You know what? I've actually reached the point where I no longer care that the USA is being screwed by the ISPs run by the US Telcos. The rest of the world will just carry on as usual. The end to end principle and net nerutrality will continue to flourish in most places outside the USA.
The US government has created a state sponsored and controlled "market" or more properly a monopoly. This has the inevitable side effects. If the state controlled "market" isn't working then the solution is to change the rules to encourage competition. The solution is not to leave the monopoly in place and then regulate what the monopoly players do. All the discussion I've seen about this tries to mandate that any one Telco plays fair. What I never see is anything questioning why there's effectively only one ISP in any geographical area. And that's because there's only one Telco in any one area and they are allowed to freeze out any other ISP.
Perhaps another view of this is that patent protection goes for on for much too long.
I'm all for people having a controlled monopoly for a short period so that they can get funding and attempt to establish some market presence with a genuine implemention. Like most of us here, I'm hugely against patents that are awarded for 15-20-30 years to companies that fail to implement and simply use the patent for lawyer enforced licensing. In the technology sphere, if you haven't implemented and are making revenue in 2 years, then you probably never will.
So what if we tightened up prior art checking, limited patent protection to 5 years and finally allowed a valid defence after 2 years that the patent owner hadn't brought anything to market. Isn't that what we really want to see?
I thought everyone who actually knew what warchalking was, accepted that it was just a geek joke cooked up over one too many garlic shots in a Soho bar by Matt Jones.
A brilliant idea with absolutely no real world use...
But it did serve to pump up the hype and gave a whole load of journalists an easy story to write.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by jbond.
Why?
Shouldn't we be asking why SMS is unreliable and inefficient? it's just another computer system, why doesn't it work?
Oh, wait, we're talking about the USA.
Nice to know that mobiles save gas.
At what oil price does the USA lose it's infatuation with the SUV, bigger is better in cars and Car-centric city design? $10 per gallon? $20? $30?
Stupidity
There's a quite amazing number of instances of stupidity in this story. Here's a few:-
- Recycling phone numbers
- Facebook (FB) continuing to send SMS while a phone number is out of action
- FB user signing up for SMS alerts and then walking away when they lose their phone
- Charging for receiving SMS
- FB unable to manage their alert system
- The Telco unable to manage their SMS system and apply a selective block
- A lawsuit
- A class action law suit
- A lawsuit against FB instead of the Telco.
- AP picking up the story
- Hundreds of news outlets regurgitating the AP story verbatim without adding any value.
Still. I guess, "That's just the way it is in the USA".
Business model
"creating artificial market barriers on products they sell in order to boost the price."
Isn't that Apple's entire business model?
Or is it?
What I'm seeing in London is large numbers of people standing around outside offices, pubs and clubs with a cigarette in one hand and a mobile in the other. I don't think it's texting as a displacement activity. I think it's multi-tasking and keeping working while having a smoke break.
Cable? or ADSL?
Cable speeds seem to be pretty much as advertised. Is this just an ADSL thing?
Market Share
So what Market Share do you think Skype has of the IM+Voice+Video market? It seems hard to get reliable figures for total accounts, downloads, total online of the other systems. Meanwhile Skype continues to ship early, ship often with a significant release every qtr. For the other IM players this seems more like a minor release every 18 months. As long as this disparity exists, Skype wll continue to overhaul and pull away from them. Most distressing in all this is:- - Lack of progress on IM interoperability - Lack of progress on the open source side in implementations of libjingle, Gtalk interop and combinations of SIP with Jabber.
Puzzled
I'm really puzzled as to why this stuff seems to be so hard for the USA and why they seem unable to look at the experience of other countries that are ahead of them. They really should take a look at DAB (Digital Radio) and DVB (FreeView Digital TV) in Europe.
Pre-loaded
Isn't this about what software comes pre-loaded on the phone? And how easy it is to load alternate software?
Getting to the next infrastructure
In the last 100 years we've built several layers of new infrastructure. Electricity, phones, cable TV among others. So how do we get to the point where Fibre to the Home is as ubiquitous as phone lines? And can we do it this time without huge handouts from the government and without creating another set of government mandated monopolies?
Tired of this
You know what? If you Americans can't work out that competition in the broadband space is good, that your artificially created, government sponsored monopoly on broadband provision is bad and needs changing or that cheap fast broadband is good for your economy and your long term future as a global player, then screw you. We'll just start treating the USA as damage and route round you. I'm getting really, really tired of this debate. It's not about net neutrality. It's not even about end to end connectivity. It's about propping up the failing business models of dinosaur corporations by spinning and lobbying.
competition
yes, yes, yes, it's about competition. I wish the US commentators on this subject would actually look at what's happening in the rest of the world instead of just blindly dismissing it as "of course it could never happen in the USA". The telco/cable hold over the last mile is an artificial government sanctioned monopoly. It's time for government to change the rules slightly and force it open. If that means LLU and forcing them to sell wholesale bandwidth, then so be it. Over the last century we've built a water, sewage, electricity, phone and cable TV networks. Why is it now impossible to layer another network on top using fibre? It'll take players with deep pockets and good lobbying skills but it can be done, surely?
The usual half truths
Ah, well, the same old arguments.
I wish somebody would do the research to actually follow the money. AllOfMp3 claim to pay royalties to ROMS. ROMS claim to pay royalties to the copyright owners. Does this actually happen? How much money changes hands?
Yeah, whatever,
You know what? I've actually reached the point where I no longer care that the USA is being screwed by the ISPs run by the US Telcos. The rest of the world will just carry on as usual. The end to end principle and net nerutrality will continue to flourish in most places outside the USA. The US government has created a state sponsored and controlled "market" or more properly a monopoly. This has the inevitable side effects. If the state controlled "market" isn't working then the solution is to change the rules to encourage competition. The solution is not to leave the monopoly in place and then regulate what the monopoly players do. All the discussion I've seen about this tries to mandate that any one Telco plays fair. What I never see is anything questioning why there's effectively only one ISP in any geographical area. And that's because there's only one Telco in any one area and they are allowed to freeze out any other ISP.
Shorter timescales
Perhaps another view of this is that patent protection goes for on for much too long.
I'm all for people having a controlled monopoly for a short period so that they can get funding and attempt to establish some market presence with a genuine implemention. Like most of us here, I'm hugely against patents that are awarded for 15-20-30 years to companies that fail to implement and simply use the patent for lawyer enforced licensing. In the technology sphere, if you haven't implemented and are making revenue in 2 years, then you probably never will.
So what if we tightened up prior art checking, limited patent protection to 5 years and finally allowed a valid defence after 2 years that the patent owner hadn't brought anything to market. Isn't that what we really want to see?
Friendster, RIP?
"should Friendster disappear"
Friendster is going to disappear? When?
a geek joke
I thought everyone who actually knew what warchalking was, accepted that it was just a geek joke cooked up over one too many garlic shots in a Soho bar by Matt Jones. A brilliant idea with absolutely no real world use... But it did serve to pump up the hype and gave a whole load of journalists an easy story to write.