Flawed BPL is no broadband panacea

[k4kyv]

From NewsForge The Online Newspaper for Linux and Open Source

Remember the first of the three BPL talking points, the one about bringing affordable Internet access to America's poor and rural areas? It's not true. Perhaps it was at one time, during its infancy, while BPL was still on the drawing board. That was before experimenters learned that transformers can eat the broadband traffic at points between the power plant and its final destination. Now that we know the signal has to carried by other means in order to get it into the neighborhoods being served, a large chunk of the original cost savings have disappeared, and it's clear that the BPL is no panacea for the digital divide...

After having spent some considerable time researching this story, I'm left primarily with a sense of deja vu. BPL today is like the very worst of the dot com era: mythological, deliberately misstated, and majorly overhyped technology that is being used in ways it was never designed to be in the first place.

For the complete article, view

NewsForge

[N9NEO]

Heheh.  We still talking about BPL?

Somebody told me that it was going to be too cheap to meter.  

Oh, sorry, wrong story.  That was NUKE power.



73
Bob

[W2VW]

Somewhere around here is a 1945 Popular Science (forget which month). It contains an article which states that by 1950 all homes will have their own nuclear reactor located in the basement to generate electricity.
Probably less RFI than BPL also.

[k4kyv]

I recall an article in a 1950's magazine that predicted without a doubt a cure for cancer and heart disease would be found by 1970.

[W2VW]

I recall an article in a 1950's magazine that predicted without a doubt a cure for cancer and heart disease would be found by 1970.

We do have several cures for cancer. The problem with some of the cures is that they kill the patient.

[K1JJ]

According to April, 2007 QST, by 2020 most old folks homes
will have virtual ham stations on wide-surround 3-D screen
computer. You will be able to select your station of boat
anchors, homebrew or high tech rice boxes. A virtual view
of your antenna farm will be in the background.

There will be auto-QSO selection:  old buzzard transmissions,
break-in, hi-hi OM QSO's, corntesting, wind chime QSO's,
aggravating QSOs and the degree of jamming and hecking
you desire.

You will be able to program in your own signal reports
and comments like: YOU are the loudest, best sounding and
cleanest signal on the band, OM... what are your working
conditions?

For reality, there's a telephone that chimes in with calls from
nasty RFI neighbors and an XYL in the background yelling
when the hell you're gonna come upstairs and spend time
with the family.

T

[W2VW]

There will be auto-QSO selection:  old buzzard transmissions,
break-in, hi-hi OM QSO's, corntesting, wind chime QSO's,
aggravating QSOs and the degree of jamming and hecking
you desire.


T

No nets? You can't have meaningful communication without nets. You must have a net control. Someone who knows everything about radio has to preside. Someone with people skills. No one ever did anything on ham radio without a net.

None of the advances of the 20th century would have happened without nets.
See what is happening in Iraq? Ever hear of the Iraqi Freedom Net? Nope, I didn't think so. That is why things are not settled there.

I predict chaos unless nets are included within the software.

[k4kyv]

http://www.motorola.com/mediacenter/news/detailpf/0,,5519_5509_23,00.html

[W1IA]

There will be auto-QSO selection:  old buzzard transmissions,
break-in, hi-hi OM QSO's, corntesting, wind chime QSO's,
aggravating QSOs and the degree of jamming and hecking
you desire.


T

No nets? You can't have meaningful communication without nets. You must have a net control. Someone who knows everything about radio has to preside. Someone with people skills. No one ever did anything on ham radio without a net.

None of the advances of the 20th century would have happened without nets.
See what is happening in Iraq? Ever hear of the Iraqi Freedom Net? Nope, I didn't think so. That is why things are not settled there.

I predict chaos unless nets are included within the software.

Hmmmmmm...you must be talking about the Macaroni Net? :badgrin:

B

[K1JJ]

The whole whirl is a one big net.

We're little spiders spinning nets with big vampire spiders weaving OUR nets.

Hair nets, fish nets, macoroni nets.   Yes, nets must be included into the software.

T

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

You have value Tom.

[k4kyv]

http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6517610416