[Colchester] The Internet

[Joao Verissimo]

>
> There one thing I would like to see... Every body getting together and
> target an ISP like Virgin Media and try and get better support for Linux.
>  If everyone (being Linux users) across the UK acted as one then the ISP
> will adjust to include Linux support
>
>
>
>I think Linux is very well supported these days. Obviously with Linux you
should get a router and not even try and use a USB Modem.

I actually just had some problems with Virgin's modem... no internet at all,
until I launched Internet Explorer inside a virtual machine and it went
through the configuration.... with all sorts of questions and form fields
that I really didn't think I should answer to have a working internet
connection.
Despite the fact that the bloke who installed it said that he had configured
it all for me and I wouldn't need Windows.

2008/6/14 Wayland Sothcott <wayland at sothcott.co.uk>:

> Toby
>
> Toby Whaymand wrote:
>
>> I generally agree with what you are saying mate.  Despite the dangers of
>> the internet it is the freedom it can give people that makes it so great.
>> Imagine if you was in a wheel chair and pretty much house bound most of
>> the day until your career or family member arrives for these people I
>> believe the internet is vital because it can take you around the world.  You
>> can go to New York see all the tourist places like The Statue of Liberty.
>> then a click later you could be seeing Dingo at at Australia Zoo.  Indeed
>> you can travel the world with out leaving your home.
>>
>> Like Television -which I also belive plays an important role. The internet
>> is escapism which can be very important for some people....
>>
>>
>>
> The Internet is not like television, but it could be and this is what I am
> worried about. Google Earth is a fantastic tool, but we have MS Live Earth
> and if I wanted I could start my own version or do overlays to these where I
> show things of interest to me. If Google Earth had some sort of operating
> licence and I was banned from doing a similar thing unless I obtained a
> licence then that would be bad for freedom. From a technical point of view
> the Internet does not require much regulation. Unlike TV channels it expands
> when ever I add a new website or install a new server. To run a website I
> have to pay for monthly bandwidth. The more popular my site the more
> bandwidth (traffic to my site) I have to buy. This money filters out over
> the various providers as they each  buy bandwidth off each other. If they
> start charging for virtual routes between points then that makes it like a
> switched circuit, like the telephone. The Internet can make free
> international calls because it's packet switched, the destination does not
> affect billing. If ISP's do deals to get a faster connection to the BBC's
> servers for video then users of ISP's who don't have such deals will suffer.
> The BBC rejected the plan to make them pay the ISPs for all the extra
> bandwidth their iPlayer users were causing. The BBC already has to pay for
> bandwith and is actually providing content for the ISPs to deliver to their
> subscribers. If we had to rely on the ISPs to come up with content, we would
> still be using Compuserve. What perhaps is a little rich is the huge prices
> BT charge the ISPs, but the solution is that the ISPs should provide the
> connections to the subscribers homes, which I am active in.
>
>  When I heard on the radio about sex offenders registering there e-mail
>> address I could not believe my ears - it's just a joke! That never going to
>> work because it is dead easy to register an e-mail.
>> The only hope that I can see is if a sex offender registers his or hers IP
>> address which will then have some kind of software control.  I think in that
>> kind of case controlling the internet for that person on there own computer
>> is justified.
>>
>>
> So you believe that some sort of control on what sex offenders can do on
> the Internet is justified? That the average person should have freedoms to
> do things that a sex offender is banned from doing? Or maybe that is not
> fair, maybe to make it fair we should all be monitored and banned from doing
> certain things? Recently an insignificant social networking site that only
> allows over 18's banned anyone with a profile over the age of 36 year
> because of concerns about predatory paedophiles. It's hard to know where to
> start with this one. First people lie about their age so under 18's maybe
> online, second people lie about their age so over 36 years maybe online and
> thirdly what does the age of the paedophile have to do with being a
> paedophile?
>
>  There one thing I would like to see... Every body getting together and
>> target an ISP like Virgin Media and try and get better support for Linux.
>>  If everyone (being Linux users) across the UK acted as one then the ISP
>> will adjust to include Linux support
>>
>>
>>
> I think Linux is very well supported these days. Obviously with Linux you
> should get a router and not even try and use a USB Modem. The main problem
> with Linux is proprietary media formats that require a licence. Many sites
> like to use these because of DRM and some of them have pretty good
> performance. It seems to me that these media formats are like printer Ink
> Cartridges. Basically liquid ink would fit into any shaped cartridge, but
> it's always sold in the cartridge which being solid will only fit into the
> right shaped hole. Each time the Ink Cartridge cloners copy a new cartridge
> the printer makers come out with a new printer. I saw a printer in PC World
> (spit) that was £45, I thought that's good value, since the replacement
> cartridges were £40! This is what the computer industry spends most of it's
> time doing, making things incomputable (spell checker suggested that word)
> to screw more money out of us.
>
> Linux provides the computer professional with a means to control their own
> destiny. The trouble is most people are too short sighted to see this. If
> Linux can't connect to the Zune player then Linux is at fault in their eyes.
> The incomputability (I like that word) of things is deliberate. The boy who
> got convicted of mod chipping his X-Box had his conviction overturned last
> week. He was getting round one of these deliberate incompatabilitys.
>
> So when you want Linux better supported you need to fight for the right to
> create better support.
>
> Wayland.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Colchester mailing list
> Colchester at mailman.lug.org.uk
> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/colchester
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.lug.org.uk/pipermail/colchester/attachments/20080614/1723cd76/attachment-0001.html