Again, when things are congested nobody can rightly complain if speeds get throttled *during the congestion*. See dropped calls around a concert venue. It has nothing to do with their wider network ability but localized tower supplies.

But that's not what Verizon (and the rest do). They CUT you off entirely if you use more than 4GB....completely independent of any congestion

Now, Verizon will, for a additional fee, not cut you off entirely but throttle your entire connection to 256kbps for the remaineder of your billing period...again completely independent of any congestion.

It's almost as if congestion isn't actually a problem since it isn't what they use to set their pricing.

Your points are logically sound...they just aren't supported by the realities of the wireless networks current status.

Verizon has flatly stated "We don't compete on price". In what fucking mass market does a company say this and survive? It's a oligarchy among a few companies controlling duplicate massively inefficient networks that know they don't have competition to force them to be competitive.

The cost of the data to Verizon is zero. They didn't spend a dime to put YouTubes videos online for me to stream over Verizon s network. Congestion on the network is a real issue but unrelated to a per GB charge. nothing stops them from simply slowing speeds on a congested tower. Which solves that problem, but doesn't make them money. There is so far no evidence of the significant limits claimed by Verizon. Not the theoretical, but actual on the network.

There are 2 costs. Infrastructure and content. The former is entirely non-linear. It has absolutely no relation to a per MB charge structure. The latter is not something Verizon is paying so is entirely free in this scenario. Physical goods simply don't translate here.

Physical good analogies don't work here. Your gasoline or burger costs money to be created. Verizon isn't creative the data on the network so there is zero cost to Verizon for the data transiting their network. The cost of data transit is not a per data amount so charging that way is pure profit for Verizon

I'm an OpenSuSE fan, for my desktop. I run Linux on my personal stuff and windows on my business laptops, with an x2go session open to my linux desktop, usually XFCE.

I have yet to meet a file "sharer" who thought there was *any* perceived risk. Not audio, not video, not programs...

Seriously. Not one. Since the first digital days. That's anecdotal, but it's a whole lot of anecdotes, as in every adult and teen I've met in the last 40 years.

And speaking as a software developer that decided not to copy protect, threaten or prosecute, but did implement anonymous active copy / IP reporting over the net so I knew what was going on in terms of interest and activity, there have been hundreds of times the number of non-purchased copies of my various software products in use as compared to the number that were purchased during the sales lifetimes of those products.

There's no fear out there. I'm not sure there should be, either. Because the threat level is basically zero. And perhaps it should be, ethically speaking. Legally... well, the law is often wrong.

RTFA? RTFA???

This is... this is slashdot... WTF are you thinking?

o Read TFS
o Bitch about editors and / or submitters
o PROFIT!

AC's right, though. What AC described is a far better circumstance than what the kids have allowed the game machine vendors and game vendors to sell them. Having made that bed, now everyone gets to lie in it. It's really a shame.

Luckily, my XBox still works, so not stuck with this shite.

TFS: All that without saying how fast they are. lol

so half a world away?

lol. Free doctor, eh?

Someone's been feeding you a line of propaganda.

You get incarcerated, if you're *lucky*, you'll see a doctor after a few months, and even then, probably only if someone beats you within an inch of your life.

The free medical care? Mostly myth, and absolute bottom feeder quality if you do get any. Too little, too late if it's serious.
The free food? Trust me, you don't want to eat it. Any of it.
The free room / roof? Sure. Complete with free beatings, rape, and deaf/blind guards. And an hour a day in the yard. Pick your power group.
The free education? Awful. You can't use it anyway, you're a felon. Start figuring out who and how to rob, because that's the only decent-paying job you can get hired for now.

Jails and prison in the US are hellholes, the inevitable fruit of the popular retribution-centric mindset combined with scare-the-populace political maneuvering. You approve, okay, that's your call but don't try to sell those places as poverty relief. There's no relief to be found. Of any kind.

What OS are you running?

ok, fine -- but isn't it reasonable to expect that load to go away when I close the slashdot tab?

Oh, and also, "You cannot perform further updates on this system."

So fuck me, I guess. Here's some broken shit, live with it.

...except the upgrade they pushed to me today was 48.02, not 49. Just looked. I ASSumed that today's update would be today's update as represented here. Silly me.