First stage complete; second stage underway ... (Score 1)

The mantra of business is to make money. Otherwise, it isn't a business, just an unregistered charity. The Internet is the largest cash cow on the planet right now. Oil? Ha ha. Next week someone might "invent" cold fusion for real and the Arabs will be sucking wind (until they remember that plastic still needs oil); whew [in Arabic]! So how does one profit from the Internet? Well ... what is the Internet? In the old days, it was a few of us nerds exchanging the latest APL code or the latest dirt on some guy named Bill reaming poor Gary to make nice with IBM? Ah ... the good old [collegiate] days. But I digress. So here we have the new and improved Internet. Formerly the haunt of the techie few in pursuit of various scientific holy grails ... now the gateway to entertainment and porn ... with some science still happening in this odd corner or that. Before, no real profitable venues ... I mean who is going to pay for the data on yet another thesis on how queues at the grocery store work, or just how many penguins are at the North Pole, eh? But now! Now we have "valuable" information flowing like water over the Niagra Falls; and at the speeed of light no less, so to speak. Now we have something that people are likely to be willing to pay cold hard cash for. I mean who doesn't want to be entertained and so on and so forth. But how to profit from this? One has to have control in order to profit, eh? Stage one: Control the devices that are commonly used to access the Internet. With Vista and .NET programming firmly in place, Microsoft now has all the tools necessary to control the hardware and software which 90% of the planet uses to access the Internet. Okay, so maybe it is only 80%. Frankly it don't matter much. With the TRILLIONS to be made, even 1% is significant, eh? "What about cell phones, et al?" I know someone is going to ask. Just the fact that you asked means you haven't a clue. Please go away. "Wait, what did you say about Microsoft?" Please. Haven't you noticed that every time you touch the Internet your computer's operating system and any other Microsoft software calls home to see if there are any important upgrades it should have for your protection and benefit? Here's a prognostication. Next year, after Microsoft starts monthly billing for the use of their software and the sending and receiving of email using their software, you get rebellious and refuse to pay. The next time you touch the Internet, you're computer will die. The operating system will turn off and your applications will cease to run ... you must pay the bill my son. Just like the electric bill, the phone bill, and the water bill (I assume most of you don't pay property taxes). You're addicted. You will pay. :-) BTW, this form of control is ALREADY live and operational. Just change a significant piece of your hardware and see how fast your Microsoft operating system refuses to operate properly until you've re-registered your computer with corporate headquarters or their assigned representative. And it isn't just them. Last week I tried to convince an Adobe tech support person that the Adobe application on my computer was legit ... I mean it was 4 years ago when I registered it the first time ... but their database has been updated and now I have to actually send them a copy of the cash register receipt to prove ownership at which time they MAY send me a NEW registration number or they may just tell me to blow smoke and go buy the current version (the first suggestion from tech support BTW). Stage two: Control how these devices connect to the Internet. Wirelessly, via cell phones, et al, is already very tightly controlled by the various service providers and you pay a healthy royalty to do so. The profit margin is very nice and is enabling the service providers (ie, AT&T, Verizon, etc.) to attack the side of the business they couldn't control profitably until now: the home users (ie, dialup, DSL, etc.). A growing number of Verizon users are learning the hard way that getting "updated" isn't necessarily better. You see, the copper wiring that [formerly] connected all your home phones to the system are Federally protected (ie, the FCC) and Verizon, et al, are required to "play nice" with alternate service suppliers to keep the prices down. Hah! The lawyers at Verizon, et al, pulled a fast one on the FCC and all these protective measures only apply to the COPPER WIRING network. Yep. Eventually ALL Verizon customers will be screwed because ... Verizon is using the handsome profits from the cell phone business to REPLACE ALL the COPPER WIRING with fiber optic cabling (thank you, Corning Inc) which is NOT protected by the FCC and therefore Verizon doesn't have to play nice with anyone; least of all their Customers who are experiencing doubling and trippling of their rates to access the Internet. Da dahhhhhh! Stage three: What's left to control? Ah! The Internet. The actual information flow process. Let's see. If we can figure out a way to charge individually for each band aid and sponge we used on that surgery ... oops, wait, that was the CONsultants to the medical industry (formerly profession) two decades ago. Sorry. Let's see. Same CONsultants BTW. If we can figure out a way to charge by the packet (since there are trillions if not more of them coming and going everywhere on the Internet each second) ... [accounting orgasm] ... we'll be richer than Gates and Oprah combined, by George [Foreman]!! We'll make the Arabs and the Russians look silly in terms of cash flow! Yeehawww. Wow! All that to say ... the only reason to look at tiering is to finally determine a way to control the flow. The last untouched piece of the Internet phenomena left to be profited from. Whichever company ends up with this patent will win the lottery. Good luck, gentlemen and start your lawyers. I'm off to the barn to check on the animals and see how the solar collectors are coming after two rainy days. Y'all have a nice day now, y'hear! :-)