__/ [ Linonut ] on Thursday 04 January 2007 17:14 \__
> After takin' a swig o' grog, Roy Schestowitz belched out this bit o'
> wisdom:
>
>> I Blew It on Microsoft
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | We pro-regulators were making an assumption that history has shown
>> | to be completely false: That something as complex as an OS has to be
>> | built by a commercial entity. Only crazies imagined that volunteers
>> | outside the control of a corporation could successfully create a
>> | system over which no one had exclusive command. We knew those
>> | crazies. They worked on something called Linux.
>> `----
>>
>> http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.01/posts.html?pg=6
>
> This part is just as important:
>
> The core of this resistance comes from municipalities. Local
> governments are building neutral infrastructures that allow anyone,
> from ISPs to community networks, to use and extend blisteringly fast
> broadband networks. At the end of its first year, a project in
> Sandoval County, New Mexico, for example, already provides many in
> the area with more than 10 times the capacity than anywhere else in
> the US.
>
> . . .
>
> Will these grassroots alternatives check the power of the big
> companies? I remain skeptical. But the frantic efforts of traditional
> broadband providers to persuade states to ban municipal broadband
> should give you some clue as to the potential of these services.
Recent quiet scoop:
Grassroots or astroturf? AT&T and the politics of influence
,----[ Quote ]
| In the course of our earlier reporting on AT&T's attempt to deploy
| IPTV to the Chicago suburbs, we discussed the Advanced Technology
| Alliance. It's an interest group that pushes the AT&T agenda hard
| through letters to the editor and a giant chicken, but local critics
| have charged it with being an "astroturf" (that is, a fake
| "grassroots" effort) group funded by AT&T.
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061221-8476.html
--
~~ Best wishes for the new year!
Roy S. Schestowitz | Useless fact: Brazil spans 47.8% of S. America
http://Schestowitz.com | RHAT GNU/Linux ¦ PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
run-level 5 Oct 18 14:45 last=S
http://iuron.com - help build a non-profit search engine
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