NoahVail 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Jon Stewart And Ezra Klein Help GOP Paint Infrastructure Bill Broadband Grants As A Useless Boondoggle

    NoahVail ( profile ), 01 Apr, 2025 @ 11:06am

    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

  • On the post: Jon Stewart And Ezra Klein Help GOP Paint Infrastructure Bill Broadband Grants As A Useless Boondoggle

    NoahVail ( profile ), 01 Apr, 2025 @ 11:01am

    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).

  • On the post: Florida Sheriff Decided It Might Be A Good Idea To Manufacture Crack And Now 2,600 Convictions Might Be Vacated

    NoahVail ( profile ), 27 Dec, 2024 @ 10:31am

    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.

  • On the post: Wyden: CALEA Hack Proves Dangers Of Government-Mandated Backdoors

    NoahVail ( profile ), 16 Oct, 2024 @ 10:03am

    If we voted in just 1 ethical and technically competent federal lawmaker, we would double our national supply.

  • On the post: Trump, Musk PAC Swing State Ground Game Hampered By Shitty, Slow Local Internet The GOP Is Largely Responsible For

    NoahVail ( profile ), 16 Oct, 2024 @ 09:55am

    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.

  • On the post: FBI Informant/Leaker Sues Iran For $5 Million Because It Has Allegedly Tried To Kill Him Multiple Times

    NoahVail ( profile ), 01 Jun, 2024 @ 01:39pm

    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

  • On the post: California State Senator Pushes Bill To Remove Anonymity From Anyone Who Is Influential Online

    NoahVail ( profile ), 28 Mar, 2024 @ 10:57am

    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.

  • On the post: Prominent MAGA Supporter Is Worried New KOSA Won’t Suppress Enough LGBTQ Speech

    NoahVail ( profile ), 21 Feb, 2024 @ 10:41am

    Dang. Missed the reality again.

    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.

  • On the post: America Tires Of Big Telecom’s Shit, Driving Boom In Community-Owned Broadband Networks

    NoahVail ( profile ), 08 Feb, 2024 @ 02:27pm

    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.

  • On the post: New Study In The Journal Of Pediatrics Says Maybe It’s Not Social Media, But Helicopter Parenting That’s Making Kids Depressed

    NoahVail ( profile ), 26 Oct, 2023 @ 11:09am

    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.

  • On the post: Google Accused Of Secretly Altering Search Queries To Drive More Ads And Sales

    NoahVail ( profile ), 07 Oct, 2023 @ 11:31am

    It turns out you may be prophetic.

    Wired pulled the story. Link and discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37802116

  • On the post: KOSA Won’t Make The Internet Safer For Kids. So What Will?

    NoahVail ( profile ), 06 Oct, 2023 @ 11:52am

    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.

  • On the post: ISPs Are Still Ripping Off A COVID Broadband Discount Program

    NoahVail ( profile ), 06 Oct, 2023 @ 11:39am

    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.

  • On the post: Google Accused Of Secretly Altering Search Queries To Drive More Ads And Sales

    NoahVail ( profile ), 04 Oct, 2023 @ 10:27am

    My subscription list is fairly short but Kagi is on it. Using Kagi after Bingle feels like DSL did after dialup.

  • On the post: The Enshittification Of Streaming Continues As Amazon Starts Charging Prime Video Customers Even More Money To Avoid Ads

    NoahVail ( profile ), 22 Sep, 2023 @ 04:32pm

    because YT ad-blockers work there?

  • On the post: The Enshittification Of Streaming Continues As Amazon Starts Charging Prime Video Customers Even More Money To Avoid Ads

    NoahVail ( profile ), 22 Sep, 2023 @ 04:29pm

    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.

  • On the post: Daily Deal: Microsoft Office Pro 2021 for Windows + A Free Microsoft Training Bundle

    NoahVail ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2023 @ 12:54pm

    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.

  • On the post: Daily Deal: Microsoft Office Pro 2021 for Windows + A Free Microsoft Training Bundle

    NoahVail ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2023 @ 12:26pm

    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.

  • On the post: That New York Times Profile

    NoahVail ( profile ), 31 Jul, 2023 @ 08:38pm

    Times got naywall

    but the good part of the web comes thru for us: https://archive.is/CDWoI

  • On the post: Techdirt Has Been Deleted From Bing And DuckDuckGo

    NoahVail ( profile ), 27 Jul, 2023 @ 12:27pm

    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

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