Fux the Penguin's Journal: The sad state of the soysauce vending machine industry

My post attached to Qwest & Cablevision Launch VoIP Service:

Great! I'm very pleased to see the deployment of a new technology like VOIP, because I can certainly see how it will increase access to telephone service in metropolitan areas, while decreasing costs for the consumer. At the same time, the increased deployment of high-speed interconnects may help break the old 56K bottleneck that's throttling the Internet.

While I'm always glad to hear about the deployment of new technologies like VOIP I do worry because it's coming at the hands of YAHC (Yet Another Huge Corporation). I certainly applaud Qwest, but what will this do the mom-and-pop telecoms in the area? How are they supposed to compete against this behemoth? I hope that before switching to this fancy new service, people stop to think about the effect this may have on the hard-working, middle class telecom owners who live in their neighborhoods, and whose children play with yours.

Sorry if that sounded like a rant...I'm a small business myself. My company is the second-largest soy sauce vending machine manufacturer in the U.S., but recently we've been dwarfed by the likes of Wal-Mart, IBM, and Kikkoman. Don't worry about me, though...worry for our way of life. Sadly, it seems the mom-and-pop telecom and the mom-and-pop soy vending industry may be a thing of the past, just like the agribusinessman and the zebra.

----

Yet again, the clueless moderators, slaves to the corporate machine, attempt to silence me. Don't cry for me, brothers. I'll carry on. One day, the majestic zebra will glide through the air, king of the skies yet again. Just you wait.

Just you wait.