Tip your waiter.

Verizon hasn't ripped up streets because there are ways to run conduit without digging trenches. I do agree that you 'could' have the different ISPs sharing the same rigid conduit. The conduit would have to be new to avoid all the problems you have with trying to stuff more wire into existing pipes(I know it looks like it would fit but trying pulling that for miles after a couple of 90 degree bends) I think you are oversimplifying things and getting a little squirly with the car analogies. You don't think there is some sort of multiplexing that could be done at the last mile for the $small_ISP of your choice to lease the last mile? I am genuinely ignorant here and would like to know.

I'm as free market as anybody, but wiring is infrastructure, and I don't have a problem with infrastructure being provided by the government. Let the local government, through the power utility, run fiber optic to everyplace that receives power, unless a private company provides a 100MB connection to the house for less than $20. That 100MB line should have low enough latency to provide live TV and VOIP phone connections. If the private companies won't build a better product than can be provided publicly, they shouldn't expect protection from competition.

That is absolutely correct, the newspapers of today would do better if they openly admitted their political bias. And if they stopped trying to demean those who openly admit supporting the opposing view point just for the "sin" of supporting a view (when in fact it is for supporting the opposing view).

How'd that work out for Spore?

"Despite all who liked Vista - and there were many - no, it was not a good operating system if you use simple consumer metrics: a) it frustrated people, b) it caused many working Windows systems to no longer work, c) it created confusion without end." let me try: Despite all who liked Ubuntu- and there were many - no, it was not a good operating system if you use simple consumer metrics: a) it frustrated people, b) it caused many working Windows systems to no longer work, c) it created confusion without end.

What they charge per book matters. I am not sure how many people you are going to get to buy an e-book for the same price that they could pick up a physical copy at their local book store or less if they bought it used on amazon. I am going to hold judgment until I see some prices.

"Zuckerberg envisions a more personalized, humanized Web, where our network of friends, colleagues, peers, and family is our primary source of information, just as it is offline." These groups can aggregate information but they are not really a primary information source. As an idea it sounds a bit like digg but in practice digg doesn't exactly function that way.

Hey, go easy on them. They worked really hard on that rocket. I don't see you making one.