To the homeowner it is storage - I generate more power than I need during the day and I'm allowed to use that excess power in the evenings. Without the power company and their grid, I would have to implement my own storage system with batteries. Regardless of how the electricity utility balances it on their side, they are providing me the service of electricity storage.

They benefit only if they need those electrons at the time I'm putting them there. If they can't count on my power generation (which they can't), then they still have pay for the electricity from a traditional source (e.g. coal-fired power plant).

I can't speak to the specifics of the Austin Energy system but as an IT manager in the public utility space, I can promise you that few CIS/billing system upgrades go well and most people who go through one swear off ever doing it again. Many utilities are still stumbling along on legacy systems written 30-40 years ago on platforms increasingly difficult to support and customized in house by staffs outsourced in the past decade. The rules and regs vary from state to state and business logic is often very different between types of utilities, but the consultant or salesperson will assure you that they can handle your RFP without issue. Once you figure out otherwise, you are deep into a project that you're unlikely to do again in your career.

However, if Austin Energy is getting misreads from an AMR or AMI setup (my assumption given your comment about a smart meter), something is really wrong. That isn't bleeding edge technology and lots of companies have been doing it for years. Our limited AMR deployment generates near zero complaints about misreads, unlike our manual reads or estimates. We estimate that a full AMR rollout would eliminate nearly 40% of the calls to our call center.

Some will have you arrested. This dad wasn't allowed to walk into the school and pick up his kid. Instead, he was expected to stand outside in a line with vehicles for 40 minutes.

I'm not yet fortyish and that's how it worked in my house as a kid. Mom literally locked the door and we weren't allowed back in the house until dinner time.

Yes, if you are lucky and the folks at the store are able to successfully diagnose the problem, have spare equipment in stock, and are willing to make the exchange for you. Of course, for me the nearest Apple store is a three hour drive into a neighboring state so that's not a great answer.

I was a long time Newegg customer and fan until my Black Friday laptop two years ago. They shipped me a DOA unit (which was a common issue in this model as comments after Black Friday revealed). They were reasonably quick to suggest a few basic troubleshooting items and issue an RMA. Then it went to hell. Long story short, they received my laptop then lost it. They lied to me repeatedly, blamed it on the carrier, refused to cooperate with the carrier (who was willing to cover it despite the obvious problems with Newegg's story), and strung out the process over several months. I eventually filed a claim with my credit card company and got my money back. I have refused to deal with them since. I don't remember being treated so poorly by any vendor in the past decade.

Look at the submitter. He's also one of the most active posters in the thread. This is propaganda from 'cold fjord' - a straw man that he builds, feigning outrage about run-of-the-mill international spying in hopes of distracting you from the massive illegal surveillance of ordinary US citizens practiced by the US government.

I'm afraid you're wrong.

"Once a person submits to the screening process, they can not just decide to leave that process," says Sari Koshetz, regional TSA spokesperson, based in Miami. Such passengers will be questioned "until it is determined that they don't pose a threat" to the public.

Once you are near the TSA security check points, you are not allowed to leave. The "Don't touch my junk" guy was told that he was being ejected from the airport while simultaneously being told that he would be arrested and fined $11,000 if he tried to leave. Not only was the underwear dude in San Diego arrested, another passenger who filmed the encounter on her iPhone also was arrested and had her phone confiscated for "illegally filming".

What's your position on this now?

I believe that you've misunderstood my response to the GP...

The GP suggested that allowing multiple carriers to build competing, redundant infrastructure would somehow solve the lack of competition. He implied that the market would magically fix everything. My argument isn't blind to other options. In fact, in another post in this thread I pointed out that a better solution is to have the government own the local infrastructure or at least require that the local utility provides transportation services to anyone who wants to use their pipes.

Again, you're not arguing against me but the GP to which I responded. I agree. Provide the access as a government service and let private companies compete for the service.

One minor point with your post:

First 8% is not a strong return. I work for a regulated public utility and our maximum rate of return is capped in the 9.5% to 10% range (it varies from year to year). To investors, we are a safe and slow bet - as long as we do things right they aren't going to lose money but even 10% isn't sexy. Second, whatever the return achieved by cable companies, there's no way they are going to get that kind of return in a competitive market. They make their money in monopoly arrangements where most of their customers choose the incumbent provider or no service. My point was that the ROI isn't there for these same companies to build a network where someone else already has one and already has most of the customers.

I'm not sure why you felt it necessary to post your anti-Netflix bullshit. As pointed out in a sibling post already, Netflix hosts on AWS and your claims about Netflix randomly switching carriers doesn't even make sense.

Further, Netflix has built its own CDN hardware and network and tried very hard to work with ISPs to get this equipment in their data centers. They've deployed CDN units to hundreds of ISPs but the big boys won't play. I don't suppose it has anything to do with the fact that these ISPs also sell content and have no desire to improve Netflix's performance.

In my county, there is one option for Internet service - the local cable company. The franchise agreement is not exclusive. However, there is no way for a second company to show reasonable ROI on duplicating the existing infrastructure in order to compete. They are better off finding another area where they can be the exclusive provider or simply buying the other company. Basic economics makes your suggestion bad for everyone but the company who owns the only network in the neighborhood.

Again, you miss the realities of simple business economics. What is the motivation for someone else to build an expensive network where there already are incumbent providers? They have to convince you to leave your current company or bring something so new and exciting that they create new customers, and in such quantities to show sufficient returns on the capital invested.

I work for a public utility. We are regulated by the state PUC and are capped at 9.5% - 10% profit (it varies from year to year). We primarily distribute natural gas but the state also requires that we offer transportation services for anyone who wants it. A customer can go to any producer or interstate transporter with connections to our pipe network, buy their own gas, and have it delivered via our pipes. While this could work, the customer contracts are complex and billing is complicated.

It seems much simpler to make the local network a government-owned facility to which any number of carriers can connect at defined delivery points. This eliminates your problem of multiple carriers digging up the street for their own last mile and there is no need for another regulated utility.

Actually, isn't this the guy who was a director of something at AOL during their years of rot and a director of user experience at the shithole known as Yahoo?

But that's still a failure on the part of the so-called parent. If you can't outwit a 5 year old, you have no business trying to raise one.

I hope that all of your meat, eggs, milk, and other animal-based products come from small farms where you can verify the treatment of the animals. Otherwise, you're simply outsourcing your animal torture to ADM and Cargill.