Who's "dividing"? I asked a legitimate question. Your assumption that I was trying to "divide" is actually dividing.

Would you have said the same thing if I had said it was a Republican rather than a Democrat? I am curious.

My point was simply that a Democrat was blatantly pandering to corporate money. That might not be "fascism" in a genuine technical sense, but it is pretty close to the popular sense and the modern version of what is often called fascism.

And "be polite", my ass. I have already emailed and otherwise notified both the FCC and my erstwhile representatives in Congress, and told them what I think of Wheeler's idea. I was blunt and to the point. Politeness is not appropriate when regulators are guilty of such blatant bullshit.

But just for the record: no, I did not accuse him of being a "fascist" in those communications, because it's not technically accurate. Read my original comment again. I wrote that he was "acting like" one.

Yes, the industry uses Autocad. Just like Artists used to use Apple almost to exclusion. But now the indi-people are moving to other things because Autocad is insanely expensive. (and yes, the price really is insane) So what happened when all the indi-people started doing graphic art and recording on IBM PCs in the late 90s early 2000s? It didn't go so well for the apple desktop. Teenagers couldn't learn on ultra-expensive apple computers and apple software so they learned on PCs. When they got to school they took that knowledge with them and the idustry realized they could get away with buying stuff that was 1/10th the price. The market now is rife with PC art and recording software that's every bit as good as anything apple has.

I think the same thing is going on with Autocad now. Highschool kids in their basement with a 3D printer aren't playing around with Autocad... and that should be very worrying to Autodesk. And the next decade? You're probobly right there... I'm talking 5 to 10 years out. But do you think Autodesk isn't planning that far? They'd be foolish if they weren't.

Yes, I honestly read GP and I don't see any "stereotyping".

I have honestly read your comment, and I do see stereotyping.

Since when is "you know who I mean" a racist comment? In my opinion, assuming it was racist is both racist and paranoid.

But that's just my opinion.

Lets regulate netflix instead.

99% of slashdot doesn't even want to admit there's a problem.

Netlfix (and yes, this is entirely about netflix and almost no-one else) has no finacial reason to be responsible with how they transmit data. Every ISP out there hates them. Not because they compete. Netflix is one of the few reasons people haven't gone entirely to their cellphones for the internet. What they hate is that Netflix is completely irresponsible when it comes to how they handle transmitting their data. No Cache. No real peering. They switch networks seemingly at random with no notification. All at tremendous detriment to the ISPs network.

The ISPs don't want to end net neutrality. Quite the opposite. Traffic shaping and bandwidth caps are expensive. You need equipment and people to deal with that. But they have to make Netflix poor network decisions hurt netflix. It's the only way they can see to reign them in. The FCC's answer is what you see here. I think it's a terrible idea.

What I'd suggest is something a bit more reasonable. Why is it that Netflix is unregulated? They're basically a broadcaster right? Why not get the ISPs together with Netflix and come up with some industry standards? If you're going to supply 34% of the content during peak usage, why shouldn't you be under some obligation to do it in a way that wasn't going to harm the network? Wouldn't that be more reasonable than the insanity they're suggesting now?

Or are we going to continue to pretend there's this vast ISP conspiracy to stop you from using the internet because losing customers is somehow possible?

Skipjack was not known to be compromised. That is true. But key escrow was a REAL problem. The whole thing was just plain a bad idea that would have enabled government spying and intrusion, and NIST knew that. (It's not enough to say there were "inadequate controls" on the keys. When government is involved there are never enough controls.)

None of this has much to do with my original point. Government was trying to get a foothold on your communications, and NIST was determined to allow it.

A better analogy would be:
5% of people are driving RVs that take up both lanes and they drive like old ladies.
The road builder doesn't want to tick anyone off so they went to the RV manufacturer and asked "Could you keep the size of your RVs to a single lane so people can pass them and not get stuck behind them?" to which the RV manufacture said "Yea, no"

So then other road builders built parallel roads, that only had one lane and were cheaper. All the people that didn't have RVs (average facebook user) moved over to those roads if they could to get away from the RVs

The road builder was then stuck with all the RV people, and 5% of the revenue and still having to maintain 2 lane roads. They panicked and begged the government to let them put in a bypass so the non-RV people had a way to get around the RVs and the road builder wouldn't lose ALL of their customers over night.

Now the road builders roads are congested by hippies with picket signs yelling "Fascist" and "We are the 99%!!!" Rather than do something about the totally uncooperative RV manufacture flouting industry standards, they expect all the road builders to expand all the roads to 8 lane highways for free, and not raise the price. They cite the Autoban as an example of how "all of Europe" is better than what we have. Meanwhile the road builder is accepting offers on the road and quietly trying to buy a chain of pizza places because this is just to infuriating to deal with anymore.

you seem to be making a distinction between a democrats and republicans. Answer: there is none.

Support is Redhats only real product... (ok, they probably do development work to if you pay them to)

I'm sure they would support competitors products if you put it in your support contract. This is more like them clarifying "Our cheapest support contracts doesn't cover 3rd party stuff" but I guarantee if you're a top tier customer they're going to bend over backwards to help you. It's not like their Oracle and you're stuck with them. Their competitors OS's are compatible and just as free as theirs.

Um... I think you need to check your facts. You seem to think he's doing this out of ignorance.

Wheeler is hardly "technology illiterate". He was a lobbyist for cable companies! What he was trying to do was 100% intentional and deliberate.

The old saying goes, "Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity." But if you knew the whole story, you would know that stupidity does not adequately explain Wheeler's actions. It is malice, through and through.

The mailman was clearly on medical leave.

I have never in my life heard the word "thugs" used as a "code for black people". That's the honest truth.

I have, however, heard people who call themselves "progressives" use the term as a code for conservatives. That's also just the honest truth.

Disclaimer: I am not a "conservative," so don't waste everybody's time by going there.

Google is only installing fiber in major metropolitan areas. They have a few thousand people served. At best you'll see major markets like New York, Chicago, Austin, etc...

Most places in this country will literally never get fiber. ISPs are slowing deployment of it due to expense. I suspect the ISPs are concerned a wireless tech breakthrough could torpedo their business... and they very well may be right.

Give me a break. NIST was solidly behind Skipjack and the Clipper Chip in the early 90s, an deliberately went ahead with approval even though during the public comment period, they received approximately 80,000 negative comments, and exactly 3 positive comments.

The very idea that they were "stung by the revelation" that NSA might have been behind subverting crypto is blatant BS. They have been the primary avenue for pushing this crap off onto the public.