BEAD funded the fiber that was laid in our rural/suburban area 2 years ago. It's an open network with multiple ISPs providing service.
In 2022 I was paying $130/mo for 1g/40mb with 40ms latency to the IX.
In 2023 I was paying $90/mo for 2g/2g with 3ms latency to the IX.
I use that upload every day.
We had some outages over the 1st year but by year 2 it was fine. Service was lost with power when Hermine came thru - so it requires power like cable (and unlike FiOS).
I’d hate to see how this office works to prevent school shootings.
Lots of us hate simulated school shootings. I get that police are super into make-belive school massacres but I wish they'd stop trying to share the experience with every kid possible.
But the bill did pass .. And the signal still sucks!
The signal sucks where
1. the funds have been allocated but yet been spent
2. major ISPs are spending funds in a way that doesn't lead to new/improved broadband (ex: funds are spent on capex that was already in the pipe)
3. major ISPs are lobbying area pols to prevent the funds from reaching smaller competitors
4. state and local govs are too uninterested/inept to perform their facilitation and oversight roles
a few hundred billion dollars were flushed down the toilet by government, with little to show for it.
This is past tense which makes it untrue; ostensibly because you just made it up. The process is still underway and will be for years.
Broadband improvements are happening where state and local pols aren't owned by major ISPs. My area had fiber trenched here last year and I'm posting from it.
US has $2B of Iranian assets frozen. Perhaps we could order the institutions holding then to carve off $5M.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_frozen_assets
I don't know the answer to this. Do state legislatures maintain an office to review bills to insure they don't run afoul of constitutional and other legal issues?
Here I mean a staff of qualified personnel and an office that falls under the operations of the legislature and does not answer to any particular legislator.
LGBT groups were worried it would make it too easy for red state AGs to target predators who try to groom children
Like every anti-LGBT conservative, he crafts his statements to avoid a super important detail - that the vast, vast majority of people who groom children for sexual intent are straight men.
OpenInfra just buried fiber in my FL neighborhood. OI lays the cable and installs the ONT but doesn't provide service. Instead they make the network available to competing ISPs.
It competes with Spectrum who sells 1Gb/40Mb for $129/mo. My fiber provider (SumoFiber) offers 1Gb/1Gb for $59/mo, 2Gb/2Gb for $79 or 8Gb/8Gb for $199. It's an established ISP; their techs respond to my emails minutes after I send them.
In case what anyone wonders what meaningful competition looks like, it looks like 2Gb/2Gb low latency (2ms to 1.1.1.1) for $79/mo.
I'm early GenX and maybe the last generation with a functioning childhood.
Specifically 1) We had places to roam and 2) Hours each day with no adults.
Much of the our critical, irreplaceable child learning only happens in the absence of adults, with peers. It's where we learn, boundaries, ambition, problem solving skills, negotiation, loyalty and how to think.
We've wiped out the core of what kids need to learn and replaced it with 24/7 parenting - the most wrong thing possible. It puts parents in a fully impossible position, tasking them with a responsibility that no adult can fulfill.
Parents who are wise enough to try sane and healthy parenting risk arrest from police and hazing from schools, press and any nearby clueless adults.
Children who realize they need adult-free time risk the same thing. When they finally reach adulthood, they're greeted with widespread scorn for lacking the skills they were legally prohibited from developing.
So yeah. Adults systemically erased childhood and then punish children for being hamstrung by that. Because adults suck.
-- an adult.
Our problem mostly solved itself.
We couldn't afford phones for the kids and kept computers in the common area. They didn't frequent social media because it wasn't interesting to them.
I did run a reverse proxy at home to protect my kids from ads and malware. It also filtered particularly egregious content but I mostly setup the filtering and forgot about it. I didn't monitor. I did teach some "A can lead to B. Here's how B might harm you in the long run." and left them to it.
They do a fair job of governing themselves.
We have Gig internet only and the included dumb modem.
After Spectrum applied the $30 Covid relief they raised our internet by $15 (July 2023). Two months later (Sep 2023) they raised it another $5.
As our neighborhood just got trenched for fiber (small ISP), this was probably not their best move. It does put me in a better position to convince my neighbors to switch ISPs however.
Even tho I pay for Prime and Netflix, I'm increasingly watching their content on pirate sites. Because search actually works there and I don't get ads before each episode.
Stackexchange came back up and I was able to complete my purchase.
This is the 5th one of these I've ordered in the last year. It's as advertised and I've been very happy with the process.
I had an issue with one because it took me too long (maybe 2 or 3 weeks) to complete the redemption. The affiliate was responsive; they reinitiated the order and it completed right away.
deals.techdirt[.]com is giving a 404 on any page. It's an issue with the affiliate. Other sites domains using that affiliate are giving the same error. eg:store.boingboing[.]net, deals.neowin[.]net.
Techdirt is giving the best price on this bundle btw (or at least it will be). $50 is more typical.
"(DuckDuckGo CEO/Founder) Just seeing this and we're looking into this now. This is not intentional."
ref: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36898217#36898661
This thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36898217
Investor presentation from a BEAD funded infra
Link to OpenInfra investor presentation from last fall. https://openinfra.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Investor-Presentation-January-2024.pdf
Posting this from BEAD funded fiber
BEAD funded the fiber that was laid in our rural/suburban area 2 years ago. It's an open network with multiple ISPs providing service. In 2022 I was paying $130/mo for 1g/40mb with 40ms latency to the IX. In 2023 I was paying $90/mo for 2g/2g with 3ms latency to the IX. I use that upload every day. We had some outages over the 1st year but by year 2 it was fine. Service was lost with power when Hermine came thru - so it requires power like cable (and unlike FiOS).
If we voted in just 1 ethical and technically competent federal lawmaker, we would double our national supply.
US has $2B of Iranian assets frozen. Perhaps we could order the institutions holding then to carve off $5M. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_frozen_assets
Do Legislatures have offices that can vet bills for constitutional and other issues?
I don't know the answer to this. Do state legislatures maintain an office to review bills to insure they don't run afoul of constitutional and other legal issues? Here I mean a staff of qualified personnel and an office that falls under the operations of the legislature and does not answer to any particular legislator.
Dang. Missed the reality again.
New fiber install here
OpenInfra just buried fiber in my FL neighborhood. OI lays the cable and installs the ONT but doesn't provide service. Instead they make the network available to competing ISPs. It competes with Spectrum who sells 1Gb/40Mb for $129/mo. My fiber provider (SumoFiber) offers 1Gb/1Gb for $59/mo, 2Gb/2Gb for $79 or 8Gb/8Gb for $199. It's an established ISP; their techs respond to my emails minutes after I send them. In case what anyone wonders what meaningful competition looks like, it looks like 2Gb/2Gb low latency (2ms to 1.1.1.1) for $79/mo.
We've weaponized safety
I'm early GenX and maybe the last generation with a functioning childhood. Specifically 1) We had places to roam and 2) Hours each day with no adults. Much of the our critical, irreplaceable child learning only happens in the absence of adults, with peers. It's where we learn, boundaries, ambition, problem solving skills, negotiation, loyalty and how to think. We've wiped out the core of what kids need to learn and replaced it with 24/7 parenting - the most wrong thing possible. It puts parents in a fully impossible position, tasking them with a responsibility that no adult can fulfill. Parents who are wise enough to try sane and healthy parenting risk arrest from police and hazing from schools, press and any nearby clueless adults. Children who realize they need adult-free time risk the same thing. When they finally reach adulthood, they're greeted with widespread scorn for lacking the skills they were legally prohibited from developing. So yeah. Adults systemically erased childhood and then punish children for being hamstrung by that. Because adults suck. -- an adult.
It turns out you may be prophetic.
Wired pulled the story. Link and discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37802116
Unhelpful reply of the day
Our problem mostly solved itself. We couldn't afford phones for the kids and kept computers in the common area. They didn't frequent social media because it wasn't interesting to them. I did run a reverse proxy at home to protect my kids from ads and malware. It also filtered particularly egregious content but I mostly setup the filtering and forgot about it. I didn't monitor. I did teach some "A can lead to B. Here's how B might harm you in the long run." and left them to it. They do a fair job of governing themselves.
Charter Spectrum applied $30 relief then raised rates 2x in 3 mos
We have Gig internet only and the included dumb modem. After Spectrum applied the $30 Covid relief they raised our internet by $15 (July 2023). Two months later (Sep 2023) they raised it another $5. As our neighborhood just got trenched for fiber (small ISP), this was probably not their best move. It does put me in a better position to convince my neighbors to switch ISPs however.
My subscription list is fairly short but Kagi is on it. Using Kagi after Bingle feels like DSL did after dialup.
because YT ad-blockers work there?
Even tho I pay for Prime and Netflix, I'm increasingly watching their content on pirate sites. Because search actually works there and I don't get ads before each episode.
Order site is back up
Stackexchange came back up and I was able to complete my purchase. This is the 5th one of these I've ordered in the last year. It's as advertised and I've been very happy with the process. I had an issue with one because it took me too long (maybe 2 or 3 weeks) to complete the redemption. The affiliate was responsive; they reinitiated the order and it completed right away.
domain is 404
deals.techdirt[.]com is giving a 404 on any page. It's an issue with the affiliate. Other sites domains using that affiliate are giving the same error. eg:store.boingboing[.]net, deals.neowin[.]net. Techdirt is giving the best price on this bundle btw (or at least it will be). $50 is more typical.
Times got naywall
but the good part of the web comes thru for us: https://archive.is/CDWoI
yegg at DDG says he's looking into it
"(DuckDuckGo CEO/Founder) Just seeing this and we're looking into this now. This is not intentional." ref: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36898217#36898661 This thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36898217