Kids and their entitlement issues.

In the good old days we had to power up our laptops at the security checkpoint before bringing them on the plane as carry on and this was before 2001.

Everything you just said is easily explained by:

I refuse to learn it properly.

And in instances where under-served areas tried to create their own municipal broadband network, the ISPs that weren't serving them sued to stop them or got their lobbied state officials to pass laws declaring that illegal.

Their argument is that government shouldn't compete against private enterprise. They didn't sue to stop an independent non-profit or an small business from starting an ISP.

If a community isn't being served by an existing ISP, why is municipal broadband "eliminating competition"? If an area has an ISP but they are refusing to improve service, how is adding a municipal broadband option eliminating competition?

Again is it okay for the government to compete with private enterprise?

People were upset when Walmart used their corporate capital and scale to undercut local businesses and caused them to close and eliminated a lot of competition in rural America (remember Walmart targeted rural markets first). People should be even more upset if the government used tax dollars to undercut a business and cause them to close. It sets a dangerous precedent and a lot of people prefer the government to stick to the basics.

Is the presence of the USPS eliminating competition from FedEx and UPS?

Apple vs. Oranges. The USPS already existed when both FedEx and UPS were formed. Also FedEx and UPS are private enterprises that offered services that weren't available from the government backed USPS.

People take offense when the government decides to compete with private enterprise in an established industry. People do not take offense when private enterprise competes with the government by offering services not provided by the government. A capitalist society favor capitalist solutions. I don't always agree but that's the meat of the argument.

I would like to add that if I wanted to simply be an ISP, I could easily offer DSL and attach some value added service to it. There are a number of communication companies that advertise in my area that offer business communication solutions including DSL internet and PBX services. I'm sure the same can be said in other cities in the US.

Do you speak from experience? I am and the real roadblock is cost and market inertia.

If I wanted to invest a lot of money into fiber optics and spend the next 10 to 20 years recouping my capital investment I do not believe city hall would be my roadblock. I would need to convince my investors and bank that we could recoup our money and make a profit despite the established carriers using their size and mostly paid for infrastructure to undercut us.

The reason that Comcast and others are offering higher bandwidths (without raising the cap) is not because of consumer demand but to defend their territory. It's hard to convince the bank that you will offer something not available elsewhere when they see commercials for "up to 150 mbps" offered at a price below what you would have to charge just to break even.

The only way I would be able to even apply for a permit and pay the franchise fees is by making an insane amount of profit in an internet related venture and I wanted to spend some of the profits to have direct access to my customers (or users). This would not only allowed me to experiment with services that require high bandwidth but also provide good public relations stories to advertise in my other markets. You know like Google does. Also notice how many large cities compete for their next fiber deployment.

I've almost gotten T-boned by a impatient driver pulling a similar stunt.

My street is one block away from a intersection with a traffic signal. The city decided that instead of putting another light synced with the intersection they would save money and prevent congestion by putting up a "Do Not Block Intersection" sign. The light was red and both west bound lanes were stopped and the the drivers in both of those lanes left enough room for me to exit my south bound road and turn east. Unfortunately the street I'm turning on has a turning lane that runs the length of the entire street and an impatient driver thought he could use it as a passing lane more than several car lengths away since he was ultimately going to make a left turn at the intersection with the signal. He had to skid to a complete stop when he realized that our paths would meet. I really wish they would put some concrete islands on the street to prevent this kind of bad driving.

Government bans competition. You can't very well expect an agency that claims a "natural monopoly" to not consider other "natural monopolies" both wise and judicious.

Not true. Anyone can start an ISP as long as they are willing to pay for the infrastructure to deliver the last mile connection to their customers.

Community fiber is still the answer - there are just so many hurdles that make it slow in coming.

You just criticized both the government and lack of competition and your answer is to eliminate competition and let the government run it?

The question that I don't see being asked: "Is there a 'web' language that warrants my employer paying me to learn and use?"

If I was an employer and had a lot invested in Perl, I would view any attempt to introduce yet another language into the shop with suspicion. Does the employee's suggestion merit consideration or is he trying to get me to pay him to learn a new language to pad his resume?

Would I rather have someone with years of experience using Perl work on my enterprise code or would I prefer to have someone with practically no experience in some other language or its associated framework using that language to develop my enterprise code?

Do I really want to fix what is not broken?

Short parking times are in the order of 45 to 60 mins.

We actually have shuttle buses that travel from a park and ride station near the suburbs to the stadium during the two annual college bowl games and other sport events. They close a route to only shuttle busses during that time. I've been able to park my car and be at the front entrance of the stadium in 20 mins.