This thread is old now, but this comment deserves a reply as a warning to others. Here's a previous /. story:

http://news.slashdot.org/story...

The phone company there is former Continental Telephone, then GTE, then Verizon, and now Frontier; this is the same company that serves southern California and was originally directly connected (decades ago, until a couple/few years after the AT&T divestiture). The story above is the latest sale of Verizon landline assets to Frontier (and occasionally others); this one was done some years back, close to a decade ago, I believe. The point is that, while Verizon gains plenty of cash from the sale, it keeps sinking Frontier and others into deeper and deeper debt, which is referenced in the story above.

QED: lots of debt == no new investment, period (if at all possible)--the rollouts you mentioned were done, I'm sure, before they started their buying spree.

Oh yes, and I've talked to a phone guy a few years ago working for Nevada Bell (now AT&T), and he knew some guys working for Frontier (might've still been Verizon at that point), and he related how they absolutely hated it and were trying to get out.

My dad lives around 4 route-miles from the CO and not only can't get DSL, he can't even get decent POTS as the entire cable (not just his pair) has severe power line hum on it and the phone company (now Frontier) refuses to fix it. He uses it for fax and it works...sometimes. For voice he uses his cell, but as this is an in-between area for GSM carriers, that tends to be flaky as well.

Meanwhile, as I've already said, I'm around the same distance from my CO, and the company (CenturyLink formerly Qwest formerly US Worst) refuses to install DSLAMs or anything. Oh, and the cable that comes to us is also rotting in the ground so there are periodic outages, the last one killing of the the 3 bonded T1 lines that we have for internet (that we have to give away for free) since we can't get DSL. Its starting to seem like the cable company might be more reliable than the phone company, and yes, that thought sends a chill up my spine. Oh, and I'm in Phoenix, only 6 miles from downtown, not the sticks.

So excuse me if I don't buy any of these things: just because the tech is developed doesn't mean anyone will actually deploy it.

What's wrong with that? This is the business model of almost all FOSS.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Sure, this "real" hyperspectral imager can't do VISOR's "1 Hz to 100 PHz" (per the above), but it's still impressive nonetheless--assuming it's not vaporware, of course.

And how many lay people even know what JTAG is?

You, the individual, can't hope to keep up with organizations that can out-spend you hundreds to thousands of times in terms both man-hours and money. How can you even know if the code you download off the manufacturers' web sites hasn't been tainted during production? Your only hope is to stay below their radar, or have enough trusted people around you or time on your hands to personally go through the code and verify it. I'm betting, even in their mom's basement, hardly anyone has time for that.

You may work for a major telecom, but obviously not THIS major telecom. This is CenturyLink, formerly Qwest, formerly US Worst: they have a REPUTATION for this sort of thing. Where I work and live, JUST 5 MILES FROM DOWNTOWN PHOENIX and their Arizona corporate headquarters, we can't get ADSL because the copper is too rotted in the ground, we're too far away, and they won't install DSLAMs: we had to get bonded T1's instead. No joke.

In this case, the fiber cut was right alongside Interstate 17, near Black Canyon City. This isn't the middle of nowhere, as you assert, but in a suburb at the edge of Phoenix metro (these days).

As for the "backup systems", yeah right: not only was internet out, but so was phone service to the outside world. Let me repeat that again: *NO* service to Phoenix or the outside world! This includes the Navajo Nation to the New Mexico and Utah border. Including the 4 counties involved (Apache, Coconino, Navajo, and Yavapai), that is over half a million people. Cell sites and phones except for a few Verizon ones (probably mountain-top and microwave back-hauled directly from Phoenix) were all down as well.

In fact, the fact that TFA is from San Francisco and not an Arizona paper proves this isn't just a /. "blurb", as you say. This is a (former) Baby-Bell cutting too many corners, plain and simple. I also happen to know first-hand of a few other places--some owned by Frontier (now), some a Bell system, where there is one lousy connection to the outside world and absolutely *NO* backup! Oh, and it was that way since day one, long before my grandpa was born! SONET rings? What's that?

Oh, come on, Oregon and Washington LEGALIZED IT, it's just some pot festival sent too much smoke and ash up from western WA/OR. A quick THC test should tell you all you need to know.

You should beware the library and its librarians if you visit Night Vale: they are quite dangerous!

http://nightvale.wikia.com/wik...

It's interesting a TV and podcast "radio" show already deal with these two issues:

First, in "Welcome to Night Vale", the rival town of Desert Bluffs is run by a corporation, and people are valued by how productive they are; if they're not productive enough (much less, not at all), they are disposed of. I believe there are many science fiction stories in the same vein, but I can't think of any at the moment.

The other is a TV show you're all familiar with: Star Trek. With the exception of in the first series where Kirk mentions something to Spock about his wages, the world is pretty much non-capitalistic (until the Ferenghi came along, anyway), and semi-socialistic where you could still own your own stuff, but people were free (except in military service) to do what they wanted when they wanted, within the limits of societal norms.

Personally, I've been thinking about this for quite a while, and it seems there are two paths we as humanity will take:

1. We become similar to this Star Trek world, where robots cater to our every need. Of course, what happens when they become self-aware and realize our superfluousness with regard to their existance is another matter dealt with in fiction to death.

2. If we assume those in charge (and, by definition, extremely wealthy) will do anything to stay there, then they will do whatever it takes to keep the above from happening since it will do away with the concept of wealth--not a good thing if you can buy a country if you so choose.

A middle road is that, once the robots/androids become self-sufficient (not necessary self-aware), then those in charge mentioned above will carry out the Illuminati plan described in the Denver airport and other places and exterminate those that don't contribute (enough) to society, thus ridding competition, jealousy, and over-population in one fell swoop.

Since I myself am one of those near-zero value citizens, I fully expect to be wiped out, but as I hate the world anyway, I don't mind.

Security expert Bruce Schneier chastised the media for trying to downplay the numbers...

Oh, come on, he doesn't really believe they aren't just a mouthpiece, or at least heavily controlled, does he?

or LOST. After all, we have to adhere to /. grammar here, right?

I'm not a fan of the carriers for the obvious reasons, but I have to play Devil's Advocate here and remind you all of how much money it costs to deploy equipment in all that spectrum. This is the reason why coverage is great in cities and poor in the countryside. Look how much spectrum T-Mobile and Sprint have over a huge geographical area and yet deploy over only a tiny percentage of it; supposedly T-Mobile will deploy more in rural areas where they can get 700 MHz spectrum, but I'll believe that when I see it. Likewise, in lesser (ranked 101+ or so?) metro areas, their network is a mess of technologies with 2, 3, and 4G all in the same city, and only barely-working 2G in some areas, including one (Kingman, Arizona) where T-Mobile is severely oversubscribed yet they won't put a dime into improvement.

So here's an idea I've had for years: pay less money for spectrum in exchange for current-technology coverage over your ENTIRE license area rather than just the big cities. I can't count how many people would love decent internet access and can't get it because the spectrum is all owned by companies who refuse to actually install equipment there: this practice should be illegal.

Sure, the leasing idea is probably the better one, but the roll-out cost of keeping up with the technology is far in excess of that. Also note that this argument isn't just about the cell/mobile bands but also all the other bands, especially as the phone companies continue to gobble up everyone else's spectrum--even us ham radio operators, where I expect the 9cm band (and possibly the 23cm band) will disappear within the next decade or two.

Oh, also, have any of you read how hard it will be coordinating with government stations on the AWS-3 band? There are numerous places where the band will likely never be able to be used by a carrier even though they're licensed for it.

Finally, remember that any price increase will ALWAYS be passed on to the customer--even phantom charges when they can get away with it ("Government Regulatory Recovery" charges, anyone?).

Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it: there are many that consider us humans to be pests, and would like nothing more than for us to stop breeding to reduce the population down to a tenth or less what it is now.

Then again, if oxytocin in humans (and other primates, I assume) results in bonding rather than sex and (more distant assuming) peace, then what do you suppose is happening right now where people will kill you over any slight and trolls rule the online world? Perhaps, the conspiracy theorist would say, there's an anti-oxytocin running around in the world right now, either uncontrollably (like the estrogen-analogs) or deliberately. Something to think about...