Did I say I didn't want *any* oversight? I'm not an anarchist. I just want it easier. End exclusive franchises. Open things up. This has to happen at the local level. So, yes, let the *local* voters decide.

BTW, many people already have microwave transmitters in their house. It's called a cell phone. Also, WiFi is microwave. The FCC allows license free use of some frequencies. For all you know, you may already have a dish pointed at your house.

How does common carrier fix this? In the old days, if I was an alternative long distance provider, say MCI (they paved the way for others), wouldn't I have to make sure that I had enough capacity at the local exchange? The local exchange would "peer" with me. I can't imaging the local exchanges forcing all the long distance traffic to the various companies out of a *single* port on their switch.

Let's put it another way. Say I had this brand new idea for a phone service (the industry term is "audiotext"). I decided I want MCI to handle my calls instead of Ma Bell. So I setup with MCI. Suddenly everyone likes my service. The only problem is that MCI doesn't have the capacity that MaBell has at some of the more popular localities. MCI's switch just isn't as big as MaBell's and the link to the metro switch is saturated. Do I stick with MCI and pay MaBell? Or do I make my own links to those popular metro areas?

This is not common carrier stuff. What this fast lane law is proposing is something completely new.

That what is means to you. Net Neutrality in the beginning only meant that all packets were treated the same. Peering *does* treat all packets the same. Peering is a good thing so that ONE large provider of content can't spike out the connection for *everyone*. How is that helpful?

Think about my example with long distance companies. Even *with* common carrier it was up to the individual long distance companies to accommodate the required capacity at the local exchange. The entire long distance traffic for a CO didn't come out of a single port on the switch. MCI in the early days built out their own alternative path for calls using microwave towers. Phone companies had to pay other telcos to connect calls at the local level. Sound familiar? Isn't that what Netflix is doing?

What you are proposing is not common carrier, but something brand new.

Good. I don't want the local government running broadband. I want actual, real, competition. I want the right-of-ways to be loosened. I want less paperwork, less cost, less red tape. I want local governments to make it easier for companies like Google to come in and build out infrastructure. Or heck, just the local guy wanting to setup a microwave tower on his farm and then run fiber to all the nearby farms. That's the way make things better. Not government owned broadband.

What does common carrier have to do with peering? Even long distance companies of old had to connect to the local exchanges. The local exchanges had only so much capacity on their switches. It would be possible that a call couldn't go over a particular long distance router because the switch was full "all circuits are busy, please try again." This is no different than Internet peering except that Internet peering doesn't have discrete channels for each "call".

Exactly! This stuff needs to happen at the *local* level, not at the FCC level. I firmly believe the government is ignorant on how the Internet works and they will only screw it up. The best way to solve the problem is working with the local city that manages right-of-way. Force the city to make it easier for companies to get permits. Reduce the cost and paper work, etc.

Netflix chose to build peering links. They could have just easily pulled back all peering and started sending all traffic over transit links. What do you think would have come of that? Netflix decided they received more bang for buck when they directly peered with ISPs.

I predicted this would happen. As soon as lawmakers figured out there was this thing called peering they'd freak out and try to control it. The discussion went from treating each packet the same to controlling peering. How long will it take for lawmakers to completely screw up the Internet? Much of what I see about net neutrality is like reading people's thoughts on organic food. Small bits of truth, but mostly junk. Now turn that ignorance over to the power of the Federal government. No good can come of this.

So basically between 1 in 4 to 1 in 2 packets going over the ISP's transit link will be Netflix data. Why would an ISP do that if they have the option to peer directly with Netflix? It makes absolutely no sense. Any spike in Netflix data will cause everyone's connection to be crap. Not just Netflix users, everyone. This is not helping the potential competitor to Netflix, it is hurting them! Peering is a good thing! Please stop trying to regulate it.

Except that CreatureComfort wasn't arguing what the money *should* be spent on, they were arguing that in the case that the most desirable things don't get funded, that at least we aren't funding the *least* desirable things. Essentially "the new status quo isn't bad enough that I can be assed to fight it". You're putting words in their mouth that are strikingly different than what it sounds like they intended.

Agreed that it's not in the summary, but as you correctly note, it's just a "summary". Anyone who reads the underlying blog post will read this among the facts on which the court based its opinion: "The public was allowed to search by keyword. The search results showed only the page numbers for the search term and the number of times it appeared; none of the text was visible."

So those readers who RTFA will be in the know.

I routinely deny apps their updates because I don't like their modified list of permissions. This sounds like it'll make it harder for me to use my phone the way that I want to (which is the reason that I decided against an iOS phone in the first place). Google, you're whittling down my reasons to stay with your devices (or at least with the stock OS).

"Elsewhere" doesn't sell in bulk or at Costco's prices, while also paying their employees better than most large chain stores. And the Kirkland brand is pretty good, all around.

With my card, in most cases, I get a call where they verify a half-dozen or so purchases. There was once where they called me to say that my card was cancelled, with a new one in the mail. I've never had to fill out any paperwork from that particular bank/card, let alone had to fax anything. The policies vary company-by-company, so something that's onerous for you may be much easier for someone else.

Initially, yes. CentOS narrowed and then beat SL with each point release

Now that CentOS is part of RedHat, I would expect that CentOS should be able to keep pace.