A thought occurred to me as I was somewhat stewing over Comcast's recent limitations on my downloading and uploading starting on Oct. 1.
Quite a few products are made from a barrel of oil or a byproduct of. With the price of oil over $100, everyone and their cousin is crying conservation, smaller cars, and better fuel mileage. Now granted, vehicles (*cough* SUVs *cough* Hummers) are a part pf the problem, but what if there was something else that could make a huge dent in oil conservation? Something in the Occam's Razor category? Something KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid)?
I ran into Circuit City the other day trolling around for a new mouse, while also finishing a shopping trip from Target and a quick run through Best Buy and I noticed how many movies and games there were at all the stores. And they're all on optical discs. Movies, Music, TV Shows, Blu-Ray, PS3, X360, Wii, PS2, PC games, applications, and on, and on, and on. All on optical discs, all in plastic cases and boxes, and all made, material wise, from oil in some way, shape, or form.
Guess what folks. We go to downloadable and digital distribution content, we take out a giant chunk of oil-manufactured products. From actually making the discs and plastic cases, to shipping the material on giant freighters and UPS/DHL/USPS shipping trucks, a giant dent can be made in oil and fuel consumption in one fell swoop.
The digital distribution framework is there. The broadband and bandwidth speeds and pipe are there. With low power server SSD drives, a dent can be made in server farm energy consumption and heat dissipation right there. All the parts and puzzle peices are there; they just have to be put together.
Detroit and the auto industry are far behind the curve as they've ben working hand and hand wit the oil industries for years and they had gotten very comfortable with navigating the money making and shaking beauracracy with each other and the various governements of the world. They're not going to give up the cornerstone of their money making abilities without kicking and screaming quietly into the night.
Imagine the money that can be saved and made just from going to digital distribution content.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Comcast's Broadband Limits
First off, I would like to applaud the FCC on taking a stand with Comcast with their blocking and spoofing of the Bittorrent protocol. Even though what they recieved was a slap on the wrist; it established that the internet should be neutral and set a precedent for other ISPs who were doing or considering their own protocol and content blocking.
But Comcast has gone ahead and decided to go with Plan B; imposition of limits on people's use of the internet by capping how much can be downloaded/uploaded in a month. This is just a blantant attempt for Comcast to almost force it's broadband only customers to also purchase Comcast's phone, digital cable services, and pay-per-view content.
Let me explain.
First off, let me complain about the price. I pay $70 a month for Comcast's high speed internet (8MB downstream/ 2 MB up). It's expensive, but I use it quite a bit. I play online video games here and there with my PC and Xbox 360. I download movies from either iTunes, Amazon Unbox, or Netflix and with the advent of downloadable high defintion movies I will be getting those types of movies as well streamed to my HDTV. I also stream music from Pandora or my XM Satellite radio online. I also use VOIP services over my internet connection. So, bottom line is I use my expensive high speed internet to pay for and receive quite a few other services.
I don't use any other Comcast services, but they do call or send mail always asking me to sign up for their digital cable (pay per view and downloadable), or their phone service. I use DirectTV and I'm perfectly happy with it, and my VOIP and cell service serve me fine (I tell them). What's funny is if I add Comcast's digital cable service to their internet package the price goes from $70 to $55.
But what about families of 4 who use quite a bit more downloadable services? Xbox 360, Playstation 3, VOIP, Netflix, Apple TV and iTunes, Amazon Unbox, PC games and downloads and music. You name it. They're going to hit that 250GB ceiling really quick all because Comcast does not like you paying for and using other provider's content over their internet pipes. They want you to pay for their pay-per-view movies and downloadable content and make and pay for phone calls on their network.
Comcast has always advertised their broadband internet as unlimited and high speed, but now Comcast has resorting to imposing limits on your usage and blocking protocols instead of innovating and adding to their network. Whatever happened to spending money to make money and promote competition? Remember the dark ages of AOL/Prodigy/Compulink dial-up ISP service and that they charged consumers based on hourly usage and how much was downloaded on the internet? Do we really need or want to return to that?
I would change ISPs in a heartbeat, but Comcast in the only game in town and the surrounding towns.
Comcast needs to be stopped yet again. Moving forward, innovating, and inventing are what's needed; not blocking and limits. If companies like Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google, and the like are to provide consumers with services they they want and use, they need to work without limits as well.
But Comcast has gone ahead and decided to go with Plan B; imposition of limits on people's use of the internet by capping how much can be downloaded/uploaded in a month. This is just a blantant attempt for Comcast to almost force it's broadband only customers to also purchase Comcast's phone, digital cable services, and pay-per-view content.
Let me explain.
First off, let me complain about the price. I pay $70 a month for Comcast's high speed internet (8MB downstream/ 2 MB up). It's expensive, but I use it quite a bit. I play online video games here and there with my PC and Xbox 360. I download movies from either iTunes, Amazon Unbox, or Netflix and with the advent of downloadable high defintion movies I will be getting those types of movies as well streamed to my HDTV. I also stream music from Pandora or my XM Satellite radio online. I also use VOIP services over my internet connection. So, bottom line is I use my expensive high speed internet to pay for and receive quite a few other services.
I don't use any other Comcast services, but they do call or send mail always asking me to sign up for their digital cable (pay per view and downloadable), or their phone service. I use DirectTV and I'm perfectly happy with it, and my VOIP and cell service serve me fine (I tell them). What's funny is if I add Comcast's digital cable service to their internet package the price goes from $70 to $55.
But what about families of 4 who use quite a bit more downloadable services? Xbox 360, Playstation 3, VOIP, Netflix, Apple TV and iTunes, Amazon Unbox, PC games and downloads and music. You name it. They're going to hit that 250GB ceiling really quick all because Comcast does not like you paying for and using other provider's content over their internet pipes. They want you to pay for their pay-per-view movies and downloadable content and make and pay for phone calls on their network.
Comcast has always advertised their broadband internet as unlimited and high speed, but now Comcast has resorting to imposing limits on your usage and blocking protocols instead of innovating and adding to their network. Whatever happened to spending money to make money and promote competition? Remember the dark ages of AOL/Prodigy/Compulink dial-up ISP service and that they charged consumers based on hourly usage and how much was downloaded on the internet? Do we really need or want to return to that?
I would change ISPs in a heartbeat, but Comcast in the only game in town and the surrounding towns.
Comcast needs to be stopped yet again. Moving forward, innovating, and inventing are what's needed; not blocking and limits. If companies like Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google, and the like are to provide consumers with services they they want and use, they need to work without limits as well.
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