[LINK] World's biggest luddite strikes again! / Content is ha ndmaiden.

[Craig Sanders]

On Mon, Oct 29, 2001 at 07:46:48AM +1000, Chirgwin, Richard wrote:
> In a way, this debate demonstrates what I already believed:
> that people need a reason to buy broadband. Without that, they
> don't bother. That's not a failure of government policy; it's a
> misconception that "because I need/want it, everybody needs/wants it."

unfortunately, the primary reason why anyone would want broadband
is explicitly prohibited by the T&C of the residential cable & adsl
products - the ability to share files and provide services (such as a
family "intranet", VOIP, or running a quake server and much more) to
friends and family.

there are a handful of broadband services where these activities are not
actually prohibited. instead, they're prohibitively expensive at $0.20+
per MB.

in short, the problem is that the telcos want to turn the internet into
a passive consumption process like TV (where they are the "providers"
and you are the "consumers") rather than an interactive network of
peers.

this is doomed to failure because nobody wants it...for the same reason
that nobody wants the so-called interactive tv. it's not worth the
effort & expense of having it.


the secondary reason why anybody would want broadband (i.e. the ability
to download audio and video files, such as movie trailers etc) is
severely restricted by arbitrary usage limits on what was originally
sold as an unlimited service (e.g. telstra's 3GB cap).


> Rather than broadband, what I'd really like right now is an e-mail
> appliance client, roughly the size of a Brother label printer, so
> I could get my 77-yo mother using e-mail without having to do the
> Windows tutorials as well...

install a linux box that fetches mail via uucp over tcp from your mail
server.

install a web browser and mail client on it. if that's all she needs
then it'll be a lot simpler to use and learn than a PC, and far less
vulnerable to mal-ware such as viruses....and you can maintain it
remotely with ssh.

i'l quit now because i'm only belabouring the bleeding obvious....

craig

ps: yes, i have "broadband" at home. couldn't do without it. but i work
in the internet industry and also work on free software projects...i
need fast, reliable, low-latency access for ssh sessions to servers all
over the planet.

-- 
craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au>

Fabricati Diem, PVNC.
 -- motto of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch