Why? Because now if you want to start an internet business (streaming or not) that becomes even modestly successfully, every ISP on the planet will start looking for a way to demand a chunk of your profits. "Yeah, sorry that that little 100ms latency spike is affecting 1 million customers of yours, Blizzard, but we'll be happy to form a collaborative network-tuning relationship with you for $250,000/mo."

Cumulatively, it means that ISP's can rent-seek off of internet businesses, cutting down on the quantity and competitiveness of such businesses while simultaneously forcing them to raise prices.

Maybe a basic part of web literacy is learning what a URL is and what it's useful for. "Whoa!" you say, "we need to do anything we can to make computers easier and more self-explanatory." Well, yes, I agree with that, but we're reaching a point where designers start to "overtrain" their design. Take this "origin chip", for example. You make it slightly easier to identify the site you're on and perhaps slightly less intimidating for a newbie [which is sort of ridiculous in this context because the web is do damn ubiquitous now], but you've also made a host of other tasks slightly harder (viz., copying/emailing a link, fixing a link, manually entering a link, inspecting a link, etc.). In addition, you're no longer subtly informing the intuitions of future authors, librarians, technicians, webmasters, programmers, and judges/juries as to the URL~=page association. That's ultimately making it harder for people to understand how their technology works.

Usability design is a noble endeavor, and I'm all on board with Norman, Tufte, etc. What I'm NOT on board is the current fad of software that drops functionality, removes technical visibility, and overhauls the interface with each release. That's just user-hostile.

[ranting because Google Camera dropped exposure control recently]

As an aside, in Hebrew, "comma" means "how many" or "some". I often chuckle at the overuse of commas.

... this is what I would do:

- completely independant Federal Bank & Mint (think Bundesbank or ECB) ... this alone would solve a large chunk of all of todays problems in the US

- redesign, reprint and reissue of the dollar (forge-proof like the Euro or better)

- healthcare system, dutch refund-model (maybe some good parts of the German model, ... maybe, really not sure about that ... not sure if there are any good parts of the German model you could salvage in a meaningful way ...)

- "Loser pays all" for civil lawsuits, nationwide (this is a total no-brainer ... one of the reasons many people consider the US a tad wacko ... it boggles my mind how anyone can think of their nation as a land of the free where this rule isn't in place ... ), audited lawsuit cost support for the poor (German model with independant lawsuit feasibility evaluation along with it)

- NRA becomes official authority (Goat becomes gardener), mandatory 80 hour training, education and licencing required for any semi-automatic gun or more powerfull ones (nationwide)

- communities may create firearm ban zones where concealed non-single-action firearms are not permitted, these zone are then enforced by a nationwide law / ruleset

- ban of death penalty (nationwide)

- transform of anglo-saxon precedent law system to a more continental-european rules-based law system with revision opportunities (no more locking away of people for 25 years for stealing a slice of pizza or any of that sort of bullshit possible with todays state of affairs in the US ... land of the free bladiblah ... my ass)

- mandatory civil or military (personal choice) service of 15 months for all full-aged that have finished highschool (think the former German Zivildienst doing health-care support, community service or military service, all would be gouverned by a military type system, civil service would get same pay and follow the same disciplinary rules and order of rank)

- 5 years tution free college after completed civil-service + optional 3 vacation semesters or, as alternative, 4-5 years of regulated and guilded "Apprentice of Crafts" / "Master of Crafts" education, training and diploma (think German "Master of Crafts" model ("Handwerksmeister")) ... interest free gouvernment loans for the time of enrollment in college or "Master of Crafts" training (German model, time/amount of loan limited, repayment of loan takes precedance over any other private loan by law)

- change of the electorial system to a more direct democracy, German 5% rule for new parties in federal congress, implementation of 'election zones' based on fixed amount of citizens (nationwide) ...
That's all I can come up with now, but it would probably solve 90% of the problems in the US today.

My 2 cents.

PAC: Political action committee, an organization formed to contribute funds to influence the outcome of political elections in the United States

For those non-US citizen among us.

Quick! Where's the German version? I need to boost my sociology grades!

Seriously, the first thing you have to thouroughly disable when doing sociology is your brain and any sense of logic or common sense in it. The bizar bullshit that is put out in this field even at academic level is mindboggling. The blatant non-sense that's in the books and readers of this subject is unbelievable. ... I need that generator to keep my braincells from killing themselves to end the agony.

It's not only the Software people that suffer. The guy who built the Golden Gate Bridge got sick over it and was depressed for the rest of his life and died early. I probably would've shot myself half way into the project.

Does it matter if it was malice or vigilantism? Over zealous or mean spirited, he still vandalized all communication around him, even passengers using their phones and other legitimate and safe communications.