Re: BASICS diskette?

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

Linards Ticmanis wrote:
> brad wrote:
>
> > hey...if this is who i think it is get your metal/fv bbs back up
>
>
> I've never run a bbs in my life. In fact over here in Germany they were 
> never very popular, since during the late-70s to mid-80s
>
> 1.) local calls weren't ever free, and around 1980 they also stopped 
> being "pay once, talk as long as you like".
> 2.) phreaking was impossible on the German mechanical-electrical 
> switched phone net.
> 3.) long-distance calls had very hefty prices
> 4.) connecting modems to the phone net was not allowed, except for very 
> expensive bad-quality non-standard models you could rent from the German 
> Post Office for a hefty monthly fee.

Wow.  And I thought the telecommuncations industry in the US was
a mess.  I hope you can get it to change before falling productivity
solves the problem in a Darwinian sense.

<flame>

For over a decade, voice communication has been an imperceptible
trickle in the gush of digital information flow.  It is literally
more expensive to meter it than it is to provide it.

Of course, the actual core competency of the phone companies is
not communication, but bill creation.  They pump out more paper
bills than any other utility--with each negligible-cost call
metered to the fraction of a minute, and bills that fill up
multiple pages!

The only real "capital" they own is copper wires running around
cities that have been fully depreciated for decades.  They are
an obsolete shadow of an ancient franchise granted by government,
and now, government relies on their tax streams too much to put
them out of their misery.

The big switching systems they used to uniquely provide have
imploded into a tiny, silicon-based commodity.  A closet now
holds all the switching that used to require a large building
--and even that becomes redundant with TCP/IP switches when
VoIP becomes standard in homes.

Sure, maintenance of the wires is still needed, but that can
be done for a tiny fraction of the "costs" of telephone companies.
(Cable companies are in a similar state, but at least they are
able to deliver high bandwidth.)  In truth, there is no need
for a low-bandwidth copper pair into the home when there is a
high-bandwidth coax (or even fibre).

If it were not for outmoded patterns of thought, including the
idea that an industry should continue to make a profit even
after it ceases to add value, all voice communcation would be
essentially free--as in $1 per month to register a global phone
number, and that's it.  Skype, Yahoo, Gizmo, and others realize
this and are bringing it about (amid much gnashing of teeth).

The same either already applies to mobile phones, or is about
to, as the technology supports a megabit/second or more.
802.x phones are beginning to appear.

It's quite interesting to watch the cable companies and the
phone companies in the US cooperating to prevent cities
from offering free 811.x wireless networking.  You can be
absolutely certain that anything that two such mortal enemies
join in opposing is a very good thing.  ;-)

It's like watching two bottled water companies trying to
prevent cities from running water mains!

They say to the cities, "But we paid our dues, we deserve to
have our monopoly/duopoly and harvest our returns!"  And we
should say, "Sorry, you bet on a falling market.  Bandwidth
is now cheap and ubiquitous, and you're out of business.
Such is the price of failing to envision the future."

</flame>

-michael

Music synthesis for 8-bit Apple II's!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it is seriously underused."