Posts by Rampant Spaniel

Re: So have i got this right?

As it stands right now...

A website owner \ content creator pays to put data out onto the internet. Various companies received a cut of this (transit fees) or benefit in kind (peering) and the money passes down the chain to the ISP who owns the end mile, the access to the customer. Installing a last mile network is expensive, at some point somebody has to pay for the buildout. Hence the ISP gets paid or benefit in kind from the network backbones AND by the customers who buy their connections.

However, the market is fierce in the UK and some other countries. ISP's providing consumer connections don't want to put up prices, they generally peer more than sell transit so income from this isn't huge so now they are looking for a 3rd revenue stream. The first from the customers (you and me buying broadband), the second from the backbone companies who provide the global transit and now a third from the website owners who have already paid to get their data out there.

It's only my personal opinion but this is a mistake and will impact ISP's quality of service. Not everyone will pay, consumers will leave etc.

The first link in the chain already pays based (almost always) on the quantity of data it transmits (by the mbps, GB per month, 95th percentile, whatever method, even unlimited connections are capped to port speed and often contended) so why should they then pay extra for something they have already paid for?

ISP's & cellular providers are simply trying to avoid doing what they need to do, put up retail prices.

Re: Socialist medicine is bad, m'kay.

You mean like all the Senators who bitch about socialism then grant themselves access to America's largest social healthcare system (the military hospitals \ VHA).

I would respect their beliefs if they stood by them, however they are hypocrites.

Re: Swings and Roundabouts

Average cost per person per year in the US for healthcare $7538. In the UK $3129. A rich person in the UK would pay more than a poor person in the US, but the underlying cost per person is cheaper in the UK. I guess it depends how much you earn as to how you would view it but basically how you are charged and the actual cost is not as clearly linked in the UK as it is in the USA. Not intending to attack or dispute your comments, just a different view :)

Having had the same experience as you (UK then US), a lot of what you say is true. The quality of care is similar, there is a lot less GP contact in the US, a lot less preventative care, however things like cancer care are superior in the US. You do get private beds more often, nicer surroundings etc. There system does however piss away a fortune in inefficiencies.

The government does provide some healthcare services to vulnerable people. Sometimes (like Hawi'i's QWEST) this is better than what working schmucks like me get. However, this care is often limited in scope and as it pays less than private insurance plans, until you actually see it in action you don't realise how inferior it is. As it pays a lot less doctors and specialists are less willing to accept patients with Medicare of QWEST type plans. The insurance is no use if you cannot make a claim.

It is a personal belief and I don't expect others to agree, but I feel we have a duty to ensure every child has a decent education and healthcare irrespective of their parents situation. Frankly we fail at this which is a sad reflection of our society. Big TV's and trucks are not important next to kids health and well being. These kids will be the countries future. Their taxes will pay our retirement (if we are allowed one). We need smart, fit kids. It is also the right thing to do as human beings. Apparently thinking like that makes me a pinko communist or something similar, I think it has something to do with the size of your bbq?

Re: "and the UK ISPs want to know why they shouldn't get some licence-fee cash."

It is to do with network ingress and egress. You have content producers who make traffic, websites etc, you have viewers at the other end who are basically black holes for data, and you have a varying number of links inbetween. The idea is that the producers pay their provider for the data they produce send out into the world. The networks then either peer with each other or purchase transit from other networks to get it to the user. ISP's (which may or may not be involved with the middle of the chain as backbones) then deliver it to the user. They have a lot of power as they can take data off networks and give it to users, everybody wants to love them! They generally do not pay for connectivity to backbones, however, users pay them. Basically money enters the chain from the end user to pay the isp for the 'last mile' network and from the content producers to pay the backbones to link them to the last mile.

Where all this has fallen over is marketing. ISP's have been driven to offer stupidly cheap pricing. Very few folks are willing to pay for quality and many are trapped by a lack of choice. The ISP's, rather than put up pricing, are looking to change the model to drag more money from the other end of the chain. This is bollocks, the content producers have already paid or come to arrangements to get data off their servers onto a network. If the ISP cannot sustain its arrangements, it needs to charge more and invest more.

Yes peering can become one sided (cogent was famed for this) but that is why contracts are written to drop peering should it become unfair to one party. Peering for free as opposed to buying transit is supposed to be mutually beneficial. If it isn't fire the muppet who wrote the agreement.

Re: Indoctrinated

This varies state to state. My healthcare is covered by my employer at just under $500 a month. My wifes by her employer (the same amount, same provider) and my kids out of my sad empty wallet (again the same cost per person, same provider, via work but not subsidised by work). It is probably completely different in other states and other jobs.

Should I lose my job I would pay the full amount via cobra for a few months then be left to find coverage by myself.

The system is insanely complicated, nobody knows how much anything actually costs (with the NHS it is free at the point of use, with Bismark models there tends to be a controlled cost which is easy to find, no mass of different pricing), its a mess. Education and health should be basic things we get right for the benefit of our economy and well being. We fail.

Re: Indoctrinated

US health care costs significantly more than in countries with Beveridge or Bismark models.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_spe_per_per-health-spending-per-person

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2225rank.html

US Life expectancy is 50th in the world

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html

US 48th in Infant mortality (174th in reverse order)

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html

The US system wastes money, it doesn't deliver value for money. It fattens wallets. There is little incentive for preventative care. Many people are not covered. Many people cannot afford treatment they need. I wish it were better but frankly it is overpriced and under delivers unless you happen to be making a fortune selling drugs etc.

As regards socialism. What is an army but socialised protection? Which country has the biggest expenditure on armed forces? Doesn't that make the USA the most socialist country? The same could be said for police forces, fire fighters? Perhaps a little less salad and school dodging would improve peoples health and ability to discuss things rationally. Then again, who ever let facts get in the way of politics!

Re: @Mike Street (was: Anyone in the private sector who bought into Facebook at IPO ... )

the absence of the information should have been enough to worry people. The problem is the 'market' isn't as smart as people believe. A lot of it works off fear and herd mentality. Plus it is often our money not theirs they are playing with and when it all goes to shit it's our money that bails them out while they take a mild hit to their bonuses for a month or two.

Re: international league tables

Amen, exactly the same problem as the UK. Having lived in both countries, run a business in both countries, I can say that the problems I experienced in both had nothing to do with beer coming in pints. It was entirely to do with poor parenting, under investment in education and people believing that getting razzed every night of the week was more important than earning to money to pay for it.

At no point in the past 10 years have I ever seen a need to abolish the few vestiges of the imperial system. The only arguments I hear for it are basically lies or 'because it hasn't been done yet'. The same type of argument we heard from those that didn't want any metric. We have metric where we need it, we have it where there is a cause for it. the rest simply doesn't warrant the effort.

If you want a public works project that is fine, have one that produces a real benefit. Build a hospital, expand a canal network for freight, rebuild some roads, replace some railway ballast, regenerate some old housing, build some playgrounds. Do something useful, do something that will actually impact positively on peoples lives. Pissing money up the wall on somebodies pet peeve in the middle of a serious financial crisis is utterly irresponsible and personally I find it reprehensible that people would be so selfish. We need people in work, we need them earning and teaching their kids that it is more important to do well in school and earn a wage than it is to play COD 4.

Re: so they invented SAE (Society of American Engineers)

apologies, my mind wandered off to another definition :)

It isn't tradition for me at least, I Just fail to see enough of a benefit to justify the cost. Especially in the current economic climate. It has been done in some situations where the cost was low, such as the sale of spirits which just required and optic change, and wine I think is sold in metric glass sizes.

To switch Beer from pints, it would mean a large switch of glasses, for what benefit? Just to unify on a single measurement. It isn't like you need a specific amount of beer (other than more), a litre isn't better, personally I would rather see beer sold by the yard! But seriously, if there is a valid reason, like in building a house as mentioned earlier, than sure, if the benefit (such as alignment with Europe for purchasing materials and setting standards) outweighs the cost of retooling I agree, but in those cases it has probably already been done.

This is just another case of an out of touch, overdue for retirement fossil wasting our time and money that would be better directed towards improving the huge ass hole we are currently in. We have wasted billions recently on aircraft carriers, planes, NHS procurement etc ad nauseum (not that we didn't need them, we were just inefficient to the point of idiocy), it's about time we got down to some basics, like making more than we spend, investing in our peoples education and health and not making dumb ass decisions that waste a fortune.

Re: three different US gallons?

Sorry it was Wet, Dry and Imperial, only 2 of them are specifically American.

Re: Agree

Is it really that difficult? Not being mean but I was raised with metric at school and imperial at home. I never found an issue with carpentry, even when rebuilding a house, but I am not a professional. Plus, you choose to live with the French, it's your own fault! :)

Re: Agree

The US also has a similar arrangement to ours, if not even more confusing as they have 3 different gallons. Tools come in SAE (imperial in effect, but they didn't like the word imperial) and metric, they use cups instead of weight for most baking, and yet shit still gets done.

I buy my petrol in US Gallons, I don't care what the unit is, I pull the lever until the bikes full. The bike has never rejected fuel because it wasn't sold in litres. On the tools front it means owning more tools which is a bit of a pain. Milk is sold in quarts or gallons, the exact size is rather inconsequential, if I need a set amount I measure it. I don't think I've ever been bothered by it, it's just how it is and you get on with it. It's not exactly killing anyone.

The comments about the size reducing but the price remaining the same are spot on.

I was born in the uk in the 80's, I have no issues using either American or traditional imperial or metric. It's not exactly difficult to do.

Whilst I can see it would make life simpler for the hard of thinking, there are far more important issues to deal with right now and the potential for the gov't to screw this up is immense.

Re: Just another example of the NOT SO FREE nations child like attitude.

The downvotes have started, I guess my fellow merkins are waking up lol.

Re: Who was it who said...

Until you get us citizenship, as a legal immigrant, you pay taxes without being able to vote, even in local elections. Not something I agree with but you take the good and the bad :-)

Re: Your one of us, or one of them.

It does allow it, the confusion probably arises from the fact that if you become American you have to renounce any other citizenship, but if you are already (or once you become ) American you can attain dual citizenship, at least that's how I understood it.

Re: what goes around comes around

Do they? When you factor in healthcare (24kusd a year, an average of 500 usd per month per person), education (35k usd a year in our household) etc to make it like for like I pay more tax in the USA than in Europe by far, even including the additional vat and fuel duty in Europe.

Re: Just another example of the NOT SO FREE nations child like attitude.

Yes because Europe has such terrible things like Bismark & Beveridge universal healthcare systems that deliver better quality care at between half and one third the cost. They have education free at the point of use.

Nasty socialist ideas that turn out to be better and cheaper. Before you spout out some rubbish about how America's system is better, go check out the annual cost of healthcare vs life expectancy & quality of care. Despite costing twice as much per person & not offering universal coverage the USA's system is ranked 37th in the world.

Having experienced quite a few countries around the world, including the USA and several European countries, America would be smart to look at what other countries are doing and learn from them. America has so much potential, it's sad to see it wasted.

IOS Cornflakes

MS Cornflakes - all grey in colour, surprisingly tasty, vastly underrated, only bought by about 6 normal consumers a year, forced on millions of workers.

IOS Cornflakes - individually crushed under the feet of Chinese infant workers, nibbled into a uniform shape and size. Box designed by a team of 160 phd's to give the optimal opening experience. Can only be eaten from an ibowl and you have to take the spoon back to the store to be cleaned each time.

Android Cornflakes - Every few minutes the box vibrates and all the cornflakes fall out the bottom.

BEOS Cornflakes - We all heard about them once, but how many people actually tried them? A passing fad like tab clear.

Re: Worrying

Well put. I can't help but think that what we needed to do originally was ftth instead of adsl. Yes adsl was cheaper initially and allowed for cheaper services (although 512k wasn't all that cheap) we kept putting off what we really needed to do. Adsl is great if you live in a tent on the roof of the exchange but even a mile or two away the speed drops significantly. Vdsl is more of the same, great speeds if you live over the road but the drop off is steep.

Put in ftth and lease access to virgin media to expand their footprint which should help offset the high costs of the civils work somewhat.

Re: Or...

The author is correct in as much as the tactics do work in some companies, notably those with poor management. I have 'played the game' it does work, but having also worked at companies where the managers have been 'promoted from the ranks', know your job well, and can recognise your performance it can be career suicide.

Personally I wouldn't want to work for a company that puts too much value on window dressing and not enough on real performance but I respect others do. Walking in and raping the company for everything you can get is fair game, there's plenty of companies would do the same to you. Luckily I work now for a company that actually pro actively rewards its better employees and there is daily interaction between most levels of staff, the joys of a SME :)