Date   : Sat, 20 Nov 2010 01:44:00 +0100
From   : rick@... (Rick Murray)
Subject: [OT] Who'da thought...

On 19/11/2010 17:33, paul aslin wrote:

> I've got 21mb/s ADSL2+ over copper here, VDSL can do even faster
> but is distance limited.

Not bad, given I have a book that goes into detail about trellis 
encoding and quadrature something-or-other that basically makes the 
point that you simply won't get faster than about 19k/bit down twisted 
pair. End of.

Mmmm... Sometimes old books make enjoyable reading. Aren't we supposed 
to be wearing tin foil suits and living in big orbiting wheels?


> Government here in Australia here are going to rewire the entire country
> with 100mb/s fibre and replace the entire copper network in the process.

That sounds lovely, but on the other hand you poor sods have a certain 
politician by the name of Conway (Conroy?) to put up with. You might, in 
a few years, have a jaw-droppingly fast infrastructure... and nobody to 
talk to...


> and think its practical or even the same thing.

Of course. It is related to the problem I mentioned otherwise regarding 
the shop's (lack of) fail safe provision. No doubt some pimply-faced 
geek pointed out all of this stuff, but nobody with the authority to 
write cheques is going to want to cough up until something goes 
seriously wrong. And even then...

...likewise, you show me a politician who advocates *spending* money (on 
something other than WAGs, flipping property, and employing relations in 
cushy jobs) and I'll ask "what's in it for them?".


> as a whole and the retards are freaking about the $43B price tag,

You might call them retards, and maybe they are, but $43B is a big 
number. Please write it with the correct number of zeros, then ask 
yourself where the outlay will come from. New company or not, the thing 
to ask is "if it could have been afforded previously, why wasn't it?". 
Maybe greedy management is getting the boot and the cash will be folded 
back into updating the infrastructure. Or maybe in three years your 
bills will double. Or maybe it'll be like western governments that talk 
big, yet ultimately do nothing.


> Its only a matter of time before everything goes to fibre and copper
> goes to china for recycling.

Keep the copper. You'll need it for plumbing and circuit boards.


Best wishes,

Rick.

-- 
Rick Murray, eeePC901 & ADSL WiFI'd into it, all ETLAs!
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