* Posts by joneda1

8 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Oct 2016

Daddy, are we there yet? How Mrs Gates got Bill to drive the kids to school

joneda1

Re: Living in a capitalistic structure. . . . .

Regardless of whether the Gates' are fabulously wealthy or not, the point is valid if perhaps a little overstated. Across the globe there are very few examples where non-capitalist countries out-perform capitalist ones on standard of living and general quality of life. Of course the definition of "capitalist" here is fairly broad and includes the countries of Europe, for example, which in many cases include a good dose of socialism with their underlying capitalist structures.

I think much of this expression of the quality of capitalist life is a necessary addition to her main statement about tax inequality, put there mainly to avoid the wrath of the right-wing loonies in America who would otherwise jump down her throat and brand her a communist for ever daring to suggest that America's tax system should in some way be re-jigged to actually provide some real benefit to the poor, rather than just dropping more money in the pockets of the rich (Trump tax cuts??).

I would like to think (perhaps very optimistically) that this is a shot across the bow, a warning that perhaps the ultra-billionaires of the world are finally starting to realise that the pendulum needs to swing the other way. America is probably the worst in this regard (of anything bigger than a crackpot dictatorship like Brunei or half the Middle East), where wealth inequality is spiralling out of control.

Team Trump snubs Big Internet oligarchs

joneda1

Re: A strategy or gathering a comfort zone?

Jack Welch??? Perhaps you should revisit some history and look at just what Jack Welch managed to do with GE. I have no doubt that many in the crop of Internet billionaires/millionaires are very smart and talented but they're not the whole economy and they're not the real creators of jobs.

Internet companies on the whole employ a modest number of people in tech hubs. Apple and other tech hardware makers do most of their manufacturing in China.

Trump was voted in on the demand for the forgotten "working man" to be remembered again and given an opportunity to rebuild their good fortunes. Whether that's inclusive and equal opportunist is another matter but Trump is picking people qualified to deliver on that promise as opposed to the shinier side of life that emanates from Silicon Valley. And Jack Welch, as old as he may be, is still a very smart guy.

Of course the Donald may just be giving the finger to all the shiny people who stood with Hillary during the election??

Australian government lends nbn™ AU$19.5bn to finish the job

joneda1

Re: Boad of lollocks

"Central Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane should've been first priorities with a nice fat cable reaching from one to the next tying in whoever it was economical to do so on the way, like Canberrea."

Except that's not quite how it works. NBN builds its system up to 121 Points of Interconnect (POI's) located around the country. Everything from the POI to your home becomes NBN property and capacity is wholesaled to the RSP's (Telstra, Optus, TPG, etc.). From the POI's the network connects to backhaul fibres which are typically owned by Optus, Telstra, AAPT and others. Generally these already exist so the "nice fat cable" is already there.

The problem with rollout, I agree, is a lack of attention to high-density and high-value suburban areas. A quick look at the rollout map shows a distinct lack of purple (ready for service) areas in the capital cities and major regional centres. Many of these locations have reasonable ADSL compared to regional areas so the social argument of addressing the worst areas first is understandable. However, these areas are typically lower density and lower economic return so the NBN has done itself out of early income by taking this path.

It shouldn't go all the other way but perhaps a year concentrating on urban areas at the beginning of the rollout would have been financially prudent.

joneda1

Re: @ Mathew42

"But let's blame Labor shall we Mathew42 especially since they have lost the last 2 elections, therefore it must STILL be their fault."

The shift from fibre to MTM was certainly a political play but the elections weren't lost on the NBN. Outside of the people who are passionate about their internet (actually a small minority), most of Australia doesn't really care that much, as long as they get a service and it's reasonable. Just look at the takeup of the NBN, most people are on 12 or 25Mbps plans even when 50 or 100Mbps is available (on both MTM and fibre).

Only a small minority really direct their vote based on who support fibre or who supports MTM. Those in the know are also (hopefully) wise enough to know that the Genie is out of the bottle and neither LNP nor Labour will go back to a full fibre rollout.

I think the best we can hope for now is a continued rollout of fibre in new estates (lucky people) and a shift from FTTN to FTTdp. FTTdp gives most of fibre's benefits but cuts out the sometimes high and unpredictable cost of running fibres from kerb to home. This is actually one of the highest cost components in the fibre rollout.

Trump's plan: Tariffs on electronics, ban on skilled tech migrants, turn off the internet

joneda1

Re: And we thought BREXIT was bad

True,

Having recently spent some time in the US (back 2 days before the election) it is apparent that Hillary is reviled by pretty much everybody who's not a hard core democrat believer. They've even coined a term for it - Clintonopathy.

Clinton represents a business as usual, political elite at a time when many Americans who feel forgotten have had enough. On any other day the result might have been different but this was perhaps a perfect storm for Trump:

- Clinton reviled

- A lacklustre bunch of Republican contenders who Trump defeated early

- A general feeling of revolt against the status quo (so ably represented by Hillary)

- Overconfidence by the Democrats that women and Latinos in particular would only be concerned with Trumps (undeniable) flaws and that this would carry their votes for the Democrats

- A bunch of pollsters who will probably be looking for jobs next week

The world will not end - what happens remains to be seen but Trump actually delivered a victory speech which, if it represents his real path, should be a sign of confidence. Of course it's not all a bed of roses:

- Bad luck if you want an abortion

- Bad luck if your neighbour's unhinged and likes his large magazine assault rifles

- Maybe bad luck if your LGBTQI (or however may letters we're up to now) but I don't think Trump will actually bow too much to the religious loonies. They didn't seem too front and centre leading up to the election and that was even while watching FOX news. At least consider yourself lucky you didn't get Ted Cruz.

- Bad luck if you rely on free trade but once again this is complex and there's a lot of water to go under the bridge on this one.

joneda1

Re: OMG! You mean I won't be able to buy, umm, errr, wait a mo, it'll come back to me

Many Ford and Chrysler group cars

BMW X series cars

Lots of Software

Intel CPU's and many other components

Lots of industrial controls (Allen Bradley, Eaton, Foxboro, Honeywell)

Defence products

Guns (not that we want them on the streets)

nbn™ says nobody needs gigabit internet, trumpets XG-Fast at 8Gbps anyway

joneda1

Re: digging up lawns

"For the average suburban property, it would be two hours or less to change over from copper to glass."

"Winged keels" are great until you dig up the first electrical conduit somebody forgot to bury deep, hit the first gas line or run into lumps of concrete and bricks which have been buried in the front lawn as fill. Running under concrete requires the concrete to be sawn and then repaired - reo-mesh is there for a reason, not to simply be cut through at will.

The easy houses are lucky to take 2 hours.or less:

- Drive to site, say 1/2 hour between jobs.

- Greet owner, open pit, set up gear, say 1/2 hour.

- Locate inside termination point of conduit (can you even get to it without removing walls?), say 10 minutes

- Mount NTD and install extended conduit, say 1/2 hour.

- Pull fibre cable, terminate both ends, say 1/2 hour.

- Log job completion, pack up, say 20 minutes.

That's 2.5 hours with all conduits intact before you even strike any complications. Talk to a few installers who actually do this for a living and you'll find that it's a much harder and more time-consuming job than you imagine.

FTTC avoids all this complication of premises work and delivers speeds comparable to fibre. If the infrastructure cost is OK then it's a potentially great solution.

joneda1

Re: Wheres baldrick

"Oh FFS, if your going to run it to the bloody curb, run it the house, this is getting insane. Why would you want to mainintain 5-10m of copper to the majority of houses in the country....."

There is actually a good reason for this. Running fibre in public streets is not especially expensive and the cost is reasonably predictable for the quality of service gained. There are variations for sure but overall it is a manageable exercise requiring mostly just public land access with predictable outcomes.

Running fibre from the curb into the premises, however, is a very different prospect. Cost and scale of the work are both highly variable and it is difficult and expensive to manage because of the variability and the need to arrange access individually to every premises.

FTTC allows for the best compromise on many fronts:

- the expensive part of the fibre rollout (curb to premises) is avoided.

- speeds are still high. Even VDSL over such short distances can generally deliver 100Mbps.

- GFast should be able to deliver even higher (perhaps Gbps+) speeds without curb to premises fibre.

- For those who absolutely have to have fibre, the conversion cost should be comparatively low.

All politics aside, FTTP would have been a great result but nobody is promising a return to a full FTTP rollout. FTTC offers a solid alternative with many upsides and few downsides.

As for the politics, FTTC is probably the best outcome we can ask for. LNP can do it without losing face and Labour (if they regain power) can still roll it out with performance that matches fibre for all but the most extreme users.