Inevitable death, was Re: Verizon Public Policy on Netflix

Benson Schliesser bensons at queuefull.net
Mon Jul 14 16:08:44 UTC 2014


Thanks for adding this perspective, Barry. I think it's realistic. But I
also think it might miss an orthogonally connected issue - this isn't just
about bandwidth, but about commoditization, consolidation, size etc. It may
be that small ISPs just can't compete (at least in the broader market) as
the market evolves. Similar to how I was disappointed by the loss of my
local bookstore, but still buy all my stuff from Amazon. ... I hear Brett
essentially asking for Netflix to do more for him than it does for big
ISPs, because his small rural business model can't compete with the big
guys.

Thoughts?

Cheers,
-Benson
 On Jul 13, 2014 3:59 PM, "Barry Shein" <bzs at world.std.com> wrote:

>
> Just an observation:
>
> I've been on the internet since dirt was rocks.
>
> It seems to me that one theme which has come up over and over and over
> is that some new-ish technology demands more bandwidth than whatever
> it was people were doing previously and as it popularizes people begin
> fighting.
>
> In the early 80s it was downloading the host table, "could people
> please try NOT to all download via a script at exactly midnight!!!"
>
> Then it was free software in the eighties, did WSMR et al really have
> a RIGHT to become a magnet for such popular program downloads?!
>
> And graphic connection to remote super-computer centers. Could the
> images please be generated locally and downloaded "off hours"
> (whatever "off hours" meant on the internet) or even shipped via tape
> etc rather than all these real-time graphical displays running???!!!
>
> Hey, the BACKBONE was 56kb.
>
> Then Usenet, and images, particularly, oh, explicit images because OMG
> imagine if our administration found out our link was slow because
> students (pick a powerless political class to pick on and declare
> THEIR use wasteful) were downloading...um...you know.
>
> And games OMG games.
>
> I remember sitting in an asst provost's office in the 80s being
> lectured about how email was a complete and total waste of the
> university's resources! Computers were for COMPUTING (he had a phd in
> physics which is where that was coming from.)
>
> And the public getting on the internet (ahem.)
>
> On and on.
>
> Now it's video streaming.
>
> And then the bandwidth catches up and it's no big deal anymore.
>
> And then everyone stops arguing about it and goes on to the next thing
> to argue about. Probably will be something in the realm of this
> "Internet of Things" idea, too many people conversing with their
> toaster-ovens.
>
> My comment has always been the same:
>
>    There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who try to
>    figure out how bake more bread, and those who herd people into
>    bread lines.
>
> I've always tried to be the sort of person who tries to figure out how
> to bake more bread. This too shall pass.
>
> --
>         -Barry Shein
>
> The World              | bzs at TheWorld.com           |
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> Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 800-THE-WRLD        | Dial-Up: US, PR,
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