I suspect that for conventional services that the easy to apply rule is that if a competing ISP can deliver a service without exemptions then woe to the ISP trying to claim exemption. It's smart to keep it end-user-pays to keep the com casts from ransoming the net flixes,

Even so it's hard to see how this works automatically even under U.S. Rules. Let's assume that in a neutral world there is some advantage to be had for a better stream. Would not a Netflix competitor want to gain that? And the way they can do that is by offering to pay the consumers bill for a them to get a better connection over a private network backbone.

In a related note I just had a surprising experience with HBO Now. The picture quality and startup buffering time were massively better than I'm used to from amazon or Netflix. I'm puzzled why. In doubtful that HBO has figured out some superior codec all on their own. So this means either they are getting some privileged delivery channel or that what I get from amazon or Netflix is less than the best because they are trying to save money with lower data rates or more overloaded servers.

I should mention I have only a 6mbs Comcast connection. This it's not like Netflix and amazon are trying to serve the lowest common denominator. That connection is the lowest Comcast teir.

Finally I want to dump the odious Comcast and go to DSL but I have to sign up for a year and I'm afraid DSL might suck. Any opinions?

Only the very lowest levels of programming as a profession are so simple that you can get away with being a completely untrained bricklayer. Once you actually get to the point of building anything remotely interesting, ideas you would have been exposed to in academia quickly become relevant.

Even in the more interesting skilled skilled trades you can't get away from "academic" instruction of some kind.

Sure. Lets pander to the flavor of the month corporation just because they are the trendy thing today. Let's forget about the DECADES of work and progress that has gone into the collective body of Free Software. Let's also give a big "fuck you" to all of the nice contributors while we are at it.

It's Apple that's the newcomer playing the jerk imposing restrictions that are entirely unnecessary.

Freedom is not a Mad Max free-for-all where Apple can try to be the boss of the Thunderdome.

You must be a sociopath then, or work for one.

That's really the only reason to not use something with a copyleft license.

All the GPL does is enforce that "everyone plays nice" with a shared resource. If you can't do that, then you're an anti-social jackass that should be shunned.

Stick to the LGPL and it's not even any more viral than anything else.

Was it all uniform though? As an IT guy, I can relate to black listing certain types of updates and preventing Microsoft from just force feeding updates to everyone.

It's the perpetual problem of Microsoft not really being responsible with the hardware vendor really being the one on the hook. They are likely to suffer for Microsoft's mistakes.

...true. But this is much more like the "Pink Slime" controversy over there in the States. People were not aware of what was going on and reacted quite badly when the cat was finally let out of the bag.

Legal warfare against the relevant whistle blowers in the news media commenced.

The offending meat companies claimed damages.

Related to chormeos autoupdates are chrome browser updates. A couple of months ago I woke oneday to find that all my bookmarks where gone in chrome when I was logged in as myself on google. Furthermore they did not just vanish but rather they were all merged into my wife's account. So basically both of us had wrecked user accounts in chrome. Considing I had many hundreds of book marks carefully curated for more than 15 years across browser changes and computer systems, this was a staggering loss. I was able to export her book marks so I didn't lose them and re-import them into Safari (that was the last day I used chrome forever.) but now they are all out of order, have lots of her book marks, and have many duplicates with my old safari bookmarks. I'm still slowly organizing it.

I'm still puzzled how that could have happened. The only clear link between these two accounts is that on at least one of 7 computers in the home, one of them we share. So obviously that must be the source. But how this mode of failure happened I'm puzzled. Without knowing that I will never use chrome again.

The problem with cable is that they escalate the number of commercials in a given time frame. This means that even new prime time shows end up being butchered as soon as they go into syndication. Older stuff (like classic Trek) can get mutilated to the point of being unrecognizable.

It's not just about how insulting or stupid or manipulative the commercials are. Content is altered.

Since there is nothing tying your OS to your browser to your search engine the old retort is still a valid one. ANYONE can get in the game. If Google is dominant, it's more like McDonalds than Microsoft.

Browsers can even send you to a different default search engine if you're too lazy to try something else on your own.

No matter how bad the Greek crisis gets, no matter how much of a haircut people get on their savings from any currency swap, it will still be less risk than bitcoin.

Or a bunch of crackers at a pumpkin festival.

I just got an image of them using Java as their primary control language and the gc decided to collect at the last moment...

Gosh, you are the most awesome person ever. Can I subscribe to your newsletter? Man, I wish I was as cool as you.

We already have a cheap and plentiful food supply.

if you think otherwise then you are highly uniformed MORON.

We have been letting food ROT in this country in order to prop up commodity prices since before you were even born. That's just the stuff that actually gets harvested. Some of it doesn't even make it out of the fields because it doesn't meet stringent packaging guidelines.

> There is no scientific difference.

If that were really true then there would be no value perceived in the "newer" alternative. The fact that these differences do exist despite the shrill attempts of "science fanboys" to say otherwise is why megacorps want to use these methods. At best they are a short cut. At worst, they convey unusual monopoly powers.