[Cialug] How the Internet works

[Dave Weis]

On Mon, 3 Jul 2006, Claus wrote:
> First of all you have to remember that Senators have to deal with all kinds 
> of issues, not just IT.  So it's very difficult for them to be an expert on 
> everything.  If you listen to the audio you'd know that right away.

If it's part of your job to make decisions that affect 250+ million people 
directly, plus a few billion more around the world indirectly, you should 
understand the basic principles of how it works. He's also not a first 
year peon, he chairs the Committee on Commerce, Science and 
Transportation. That sounds like someone that should have an inklink of 
how things work.

> While he did get some things incorrect, he also had several things correct. 
> While he wasn't the smoothest speaker, he voiced a valid concern.  It is hard 
> for us to overhear the little mistakes like "sending the Internet" and such 
> and focus on the real concern.
>
> All what I hear is bashing by us but nobody stepped up and tried to clarify 
> things and argue for or against it with solid and easy to understand reasons. 
> In a democracy it is our duty as citizens to stay informed in politics and 
> elect and vote intelligently when called upon.  As technological experts it's 
> our duty to advice our political representatives.  For this list it would be 
> fully appropriate, with the proper subject line, to discuss the amendment 
> intension while bashing people shouldn't be.

The amendment was completely reasonable and had a good reason to be there, 
see next paragraph.

> The part that makes me sick are the people that make just make fun of them 
> but don't contribute anything useful.  Such behavior is extremely low and 
> just plain destructive.  Who wants to serve in a public office or voice their 
> opinions just so others make fun of you?

There are plenty of astroturf groups making noise about the issue. I saw 
in person a petition paid for by the telephone companies getting people 
excited about protecting the internet from regulation. The regulations 
being that carriers can not intentionally degrade traffic over their 
network that goes to a competitor. It didn't prevent carriers from giving 
themselves priority, just preventing them from affecting competitors. The 
request for the law has come up because some carriers are intentionally 
harming traffic like Vonage when it eats into their wireline revenue.

dave

> On 7/3/2006 7:11 AM, Dave J. Hala Jr. wrote:
>> Sometimes you want to laugh when you realize that these politicians just
>> don't get it. Then you realize that they are our leaders, and it just
>> makes you sick.
>> 
>> On Mon, 2006-07-03 at 06:50, Dave Weis wrote:
>>> I guess I was wrong on how I thought things worked:
>>> http://blog.wired.com/27BStroke6/?entry_id=1512499
>
> _______________________________________________
> Cialug mailing list
> Cialug at cialug.org
> http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug
>

-- 
Dave Weis
djweis at internetsolver.com
http://www.internetsolver.com/