Nick, I'd recommend that you pay for access to a fiber connection at some location that is line-of-sight from your house in rural MA, then beam the signal wirelessly from that point to your house. Wireless access points are inexpensive, and easily cover 10-15 miles if you have line of sight. I'm quite fond of Ubiquiti myself (ubnt.com), as they are available here in EC. You can get a pair of Ubiquiti AirGrid 5.8 GHz access points with integrated antennas for about $150, and they should give you about 50 megabits per second, which is probably at least as fast as the connection to fiber would be. Here in the cloud forest, the biggest problem is getting above the trees, many of which are 20-30 meters tall. I've been playing around with designing masts and towers to get above the trees as cheaply as possible.
On Mon, Mar 7, 2016 at 5:05 PM, Nick Thompson <nickthomp...@earthlink.net> wrote: > Thanks, Marcus, > > > > The rural co-operative thing interests me. Half the year I live in rural > Massachusetts. There the problem is not that there isn’t fiber around. It > is that Verizon has sucked the heart out of the market by running stripes > of fibre here and there, but not going to the effort to connect anybody who > is not 100 feet from the pole. The rest of us have to get our I-net > service by dial up or cell tower. The connections to the Cell tower are > metered, so that if you fall asleep at your computer and it decides to > download an update, you could wake up from your nap with a 150 dollar phone > bill. The whole thing is nerve wracking and stupid. But still, I doubt > that one could get a rural coop thing going in MA because a significant > proportion of each community doesn’t have a problem. > > > > Nick > > > > Nicholas S. Thompson > > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology > > Clark University > > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > > > > *From:* Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] *On Behalf Of *Marcus > Daniels > *Sent:* Monday, March 07, 2016 1:53 PM > *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group < > friam@redfish.com> > *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Ting Internet | Crazy fast fiber Internet for US > cities > > > > My personal belief/preference is that withholding adequate internet access > is like withholding public transportation, education, health care or > nutrition. Now _*I*_ had to make due with a 300 baud modem as a young > person, so in some sense the expectations I’m hearing here are hilarious > (_gigabit_ Ethernet, seriously?). But that 300 baud modem was nonetheless > transformative for me and so I have relatively strong opinions on the value > of bring information to rural users, whether that is BBS, internet , or > just a book mobile. > > > > I see no reason to distinguish between work and entertainment uses. > Would you like it if police pulled you over on the highway (as opposed to > the information highway) to see if you were going to a movie instead of to > work? It’s not a huge cost to overbuild a bit compared to the > infrastructure issues in Flint, Michigan or earthquake preparations in > Seaside Oregon, or any of thousand things that are teetering on or past the > edge of catastrophe in this country. A conservative might say there is > trade off to be made. I would just call them cheapskates. But back in > the rural area where I grew up, prior generations realized right away they > would have nothing if they didn’t form a telephone co-op. Now they are > deploying fiber to the home and many homes have had internet TV for years. > Because they wanted to. So my takeaway is: Just decide you want to.. > > > > *From:* Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com > <friam-boun...@redfish.com>] *On Behalf Of *Nick Thompson > *Sent:* Monday, March 07, 2016 12:56 PM > *To:* 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' < > friam@redfish.com> > *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Ting Internet | Crazy fast fiber Internet for US > cities > > > > Hi, Marcus, > > > > Wait. Hang on. I was actually trying to present arguments in a colorful > way, not being personal. I hope you saw that. I wasn’t trying to > characterize you, or anybody else, really. Not even me. I am not my Inner > Luddite. At least, I hope not. > > > > My fantasy about “interactive pornography” was not directed toward any > person, but was an attempt to stimulate the network neutrality discussion > at the Municipal level. I was interested in stimulating the list to > discuss the question: > > > > Are we obligated to provide expanded bandwidth for all activities equally > > > > I actually don’t know what I think about that question, which is why I > want to hear it discussed. Is there any legitimate argument to be made > for the equivalent of “emergency vehicles” on the “information > super-highway”? Or HOV lanes. Is there really no way to distinguish > between work and entertainment? > > > > Any time a City issues a bond or appropriates funds, it constitutes a > collective action, right? So then, collective benefit presumably comes > into play, if only of the “you scratch my back and I will scratch yours” > kind. So then, we get to make arguments about the relative benefits to a > community (or the individuals in it) of different potential allocations. > That’s all I meant by “moral urgency”, when push comes to shove. I > suppose from Ting’s point of view, it’s all irrelevant. The more use the > better. > > > > Again my apologies for being annoying. You have made several very helpful > contributions to this thread, and I would hate to lose you. > > > > Thanks, > > > > Nick > > > > Nicholas S. Thompson > > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology > > Clark University > > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > > > > *From:* Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com > <friam-boun...@redfish.com>] *On Behalf Of *Marcus Daniels > *Sent:* Monday, March 07, 2016 11:39 AM > *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group < > friam@redfish.com> > *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Ting Internet | Crazy fast fiber Internet for US > cities > > > > Actually my inner nihilist says, “Who gives a damn about your moral > urgency?” > > No one is obligated to do anything in this situation. The advocates get > what they want, or fail to. > > > > *From:* Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com > <friam-boun...@redfish.com>] *On Behalf Of *Nick Thompson > *Sent:* Monday, March 07, 2016 11:36 AM > *To:* 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' < > friam@redfish.com> > *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Ting Internet | Crazy fast fiber Internet for US > cities > > > > Marcus, > > > > I now realize that my Inner Luddite is actually quite a puritan. He says, > “Are any of the activities you describe morally urgent”. > > > > I think your Inner Libertarian replies, “Who gives a damn for your Inner > Luddite?! It’s not for us to police other’s behavior.” > > > > To which my Inner Luddite replies, “Ok. But are we obligated to provide > expanded bandwidth for all activities equally?” > > > > Like all Puritans, my Inner Luddite has a filthy imagination. Let us > imagine a new genre of interactive pornography which requires 1 gig > responsivity. Let’s imagine that a marketing survey shows that 60 percent > of high band width use will consist of interactive pornography. Is the > mayor of Plymouth Massachusetts obligated to facilitate the installation of > 1 gig service in her town? > > > > N > > > > > > > > Nicholas S. Thompson > > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology > > Clark University > > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > > > > *From:* Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com > <friam-boun...@redfish.com>] *On Behalf Of *Marcus Daniels > *Sent:* Monday, March 07, 2016 10:37 AM > *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group < > friam@redfish.com> > *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Ting Internet | Crazy fast fiber Internet for US > cities > > > > There are a variety of technologies, ranging from Ethernet-based frame > buffer device drivers (Userful for Linux), to extended RDP protocols > (RemoteFX for Windows). Google Chromecast or the NetFlix capabilities > integrated into Smart TVs are similar, although they are more oriented > toward delivery of compressed video streams where users don’t care so much > about artifacts. Latency is more of a problem for interactive use. It > doesn’t matter if a video stream for television is delayed by a second, but > it is impossible to use such a thing for a desktop computer or most games. > Services like Playstation Now (simple protocols integrated into new > televisions) have to deal with latency. High performance networking needs > to deal with not just bandwidth (download times), but also reducing latency. > > > > *From:* Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com > <friam-boun...@redfish.com>] *On Behalf Of *Gillian Densmore > *Sent:* Monday, March 07, 2016 9:51 AM > *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group < > friam@redfish.com> > *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Ting Internet | Crazy fast fiber Internet for US > cities > > > > Huh this zero client thing reminds me of a X11 stunt Skunkworks had. > Basically a computer (Fred) could somehow talk to other computers so that > what ever you did was just like it was right there on Ruby, John or who > evers computer. It rocked! > > My testing was mostly on the gaming end since LAN parties were a both > useful and fun way to test it out and find gremlins. > > > > > > > > On Sun, Mar 6, 2016 at 2:30 PM, Marcus Daniels <mar...@snoutfarm.com> > wrote: > > It turns all activities into a 1 Gbit/sec bandwidth. That’s the speed > that is needed to stream high resolution (e.g. 1080p) displays and make > them feel like they are really local. So, instead of some impoverished > stripped-down JavaScript application designed for the web, one can run a > real app running on a beefy machine. Further, the app never has to be > installed or updated. The host does that for the user. > > > > So when companies like Microsoft start offering reduced-price access to > applications on Azure over the Internet, areas like San Francisco or > Portland or New York will be able to make use of those low-cost & high > capability, and we out in the middle of nowhere will not. > > > > *From:* Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] *On Behalf Of *Nick > Thompson > *Sent:* Sunday, March 06, 2016 2:23 PM > *To:* 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' < > friam@redfish.com> > *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Ting Internet | Crazy fast fiber Internet for US > cities > > > > Marcus, > > > > Is the zero-client setup one that would turn wordprocessing into a one-gig > sort of an activity? > > > > N > > > > Nicholas S. Thompson > > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology > > Clark University > > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > > > > *From:* Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com > <friam-boun...@redfish.com>] *On Behalf Of *Marcus Daniels > *Sent:* Sunday, March 06, 2016 2:04 PM > *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group < > friam@redfish.com> > *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Ting Internet | Crazy fast fiber Internet for US > cities > > > > “Do others have very specific advantages that would flow from having 1-gig > service in the City?” > > > > Zero client technology typically requires reliable 1 Gbit Ethernet. This > is the scenario where all apps are hosted on the cloud and display is > thrown to the user that has a super cheap device. This is useful in glove > box scenarios where portability is important (but also access to corporate > databases), security is paramount, or where theft or damage in the user > environment is a risk (e.g. public libraries, issuing equipment to > students). > > > > Also, zero client setups are useful for reducing maintenance costs as > everything is centralized. > > > > Marcus > > > > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >
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