DarylDawkins.net

I found this article by Ernesto over at TorrentFreak (”Decluttering The Tubes, Solutions to the BitTorrent “Problem”?“) to be very interesting and open-minded, but his readers are really taking him to task for it. In the piece, Ernesto outlines the upsides and downsides of 6 possible ISP responses to the “BitTorrent Problem,” which has been in the news a great deal lately. (These models were apparently suggested to Ernesto by Art Reisman, who is chief technical officer at APConnections):

1) Ask for voluntary cooperation.
2) Keep connections within the providers network.
3) Usage based quotas.
4) Limit the total connections allowed at one time per user.
5) Build out networks to handle the increased load and pass the cost onto the consumer.
6) Cancel the service of users who abuse their privileges. There have been reports of providers doing this already.

[Again, see full article for explanation of strengths and weaknesses of each.]

I think many of these solutions sound quite constructive and could possibly be used in some combination to alleviate network congestions problems. But the reader response over at TorrentFreak, which obvious skews towards the heavy BitTorrent user, is perhaps all too predictable: Just give us more capacity!
In fact, a great number of the comments following the article run along these lines:

“ISP’s should just quit bitchin’ and make their networks bigger, better, and faster. Problem solved.”

Um, yeah dude, that would be wonderful, but do you think broadband networks just fall from the sky like manna from heaven? Network expansion clearly should, and will be, part of the solution. But these investments cost money. Lots of money. And it is a business, not a charity. Carriers will need to recoup their significant fixed infrastructure investments. And that can’t be done without balancing costs and managing networks to some degree.

Just take a look at the grief that Verizon is getting from Wall Street analysts right now for their multi-billion dollar FIOS roll-out. Many smart people who monitor this industry have deep reservations about the ability of Verizon to pull this gambit off. For example, here’s a passage I found in a recent private newsletter from Craig Moffett of Bernstein Research, one of the very best communications and media analysts in the business:

Verizon’s own estimated average cost of $817 per [home passed] and $718 per connection – and assuming a conservative $200 acquisition cost per customer acquired – yields a total cost per connected customer of approximately $4,000, assuming a 40% connection rate. If penetration were instead to be 30% of homes passed, cost would approximate $5,000 per subscriber. Even at penetration of 50% of homes passed (that is, penetration roughly equal to that of the U.S. cable industry today, before the entry of the TelCos), cost per home would be $3,400 per connected home.

Those are astonishing numbers, folks, and if you happen to be a Verizon shareholder, you are probably left wondering how good of an investment the company is today with an financial nightmare like that in the works. Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely want Verizon to succeed. I am lucky enough to live in one of the very first neighborhoods that was ever wired for FIOS. I am here to tell you that it is wonderful service. But my neighborhood is also a good example of what the problem is here: I’m one of the very few people who subscribes. Why? Because like much of the rest of America, there are plenty of folks in my neighborhood who remain perfectly happy with cable-provided broadband, or even slower telco-provided DSL connections that start at a much lower rate.

A dreamer could say, “Well, just drop fiber to DSL prices!” Sure, and GM should start selling Cadillacs at Chevy prices. It’s just not realistic. If we want better, faster networks, we need to come up with new business models that will allow them to flourish. And existing networks will need to be better managed to deal with legitimate traffic management issues.

Luckily, as Matt Sherman points out, we already have some interesting competition underway in terms of broadband models in this country. And the models outlined in the TorrentFreak story sound like a pretty good place to start a more elaborate discussion about alternative models. Sadly, it’s clear that it’s a discussion many BitTorrent users aren’t willing to engage in.

The fastest quantum computer bit that exploits the main advantage of the qubit over the conventional bit has been demonstrated by researchers at University of Michigan, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and the University of California at San Diego.

read more | digg story

When skin cells from a dead pit bull named Booger gave rise to five healthy-looking puppies with a $50,000 price tag, it marked the formal beginning of a commercial dog-cloning industry.
But for all the attention given to these and other clones, little was paid to the behind-the-scenes science.

read more | digg story

The state of Massachusetts is showing no signs of abandoning its fight to keep a restraining order in place against three MIT students who discovered subway card vulnerabilities. In fact, the state transit agency is escalating its rhetoric.

In a legal brief filed Thursday, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority went

read more | digg story

While on-air, a reporter is grazed by a bullet and goes on to say the shot was fired from the Russian-controlled area.

I love fishing, have not been able to go out as much as I used to. So when I have the chance I jump on it.

Friends planned a half day trip from noon to 5 (real fisherman don’t start fishing at noon I told him)

Planned on catching Flounder and maybe some Bluefish.

Squid and Mackerel, YUM!

Was an overcast and cool day, should be good for fishing right?

A coast Guard chopper flys overhead

Beauty found at the bottom of the ocean.

I believe this one went home to become dinner for someone.

The Mates were pretty excited to gaff this poor guy

A face only a mother could love.

I was told these things can get quite large.

Biggest catch of the day was my buzz.

Headed for a hot oil bath

Couldn'n help myself

Apparently a good day for sailing

just call me ralph.

As Promised

Yes, this is real: 36lbs of concealed pot get delivered to the home of the Mayor of Berwyn Heights, Md. by officers posing as couriers, and the box is left outside. As soon as it is taken inside, SWAT storms the house, seizes the pot, arrests the Mayor and his family, and kills 2 of their dogs. The Mayor maintains he had nothing to do with the box.

read more | digg story

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 27 kilometer (17 mile) long particle accelerator straddling the border of Switzerland and France, is nearly set to begin its first particle beam tests. The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is preparing for its first small tests in early August, leading to a planned full-track test in September

read more | digg story

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A divided Federal Communications Commission has ruled that Comcast Corp. violated federal policy when it blocked Internet traffic for some subscribers and has ordered the cable giant to change the way it manages its network.

In a precedent-setting move, the FCC by a 3-2 vote on Friday enforced a policy that guarantees customers open access to the Internet.

The commission did not assess a fine, but ordered the company to stop cutting off transfers of large data files among customers who use a special type of “file-sharing” software.

Comcast says its practices are reasonable — that it has delayed traffic, not blocked it — and that the FCC’s so-called network-neutrality “principles” are part of a policy statement and are not enforceable rules.

Republican FCC Chairman Kevin Martin proposed the enforcement action and was joined by Democratic commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps in voting for approval. He was opposed by members of his own party, commissioners Robert McDowell and Deborah Taylor Tate, who both issued lengthy dissents.

The commission’s authority to act stems from a policy statement adopted in September 2005 that outlined a set of principles meant to ensure that broadband networks are “widely deployed, open, affordable and accessible to all consumers.”

The principles are “subject to reasonable network management,” a concept the agency has not explicitly defined.

While the FCC action did not include a fine, it does require Comcast to stop its blocking practice by the end of the year. The company must also provide details to the commission on the management techniques it has used and let consumers know details of its future plans.

Martin was particularly critical of the company’s failure to disclose to customers exactly how it was managing its traffic, saying this action “compounded the harm.”

Martin said Comcast managers were not “simply managing their network, they had arbitrarily picked an application and blocked their subscribers’ access to it.”

Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice said in a prepared statement that the company was “disappointed in the commission’s divided conclusion because we believe that our network management choices were reasonable….”

She said the company believes the order “raises significant due process concerns and a variety of substantive legal questions.”

The FCC’s action means network operators are subject to the FCC’s enforcement process and the agency will act on consumer complaints.

Martin told The Associated Press in an interview before the meeting that the agency will consider fines for future violations, but he declined to speculate on how large they would be.

The FCC action arose when bloggers reported that Comcast customers who used file-sharing software like BitTorrent were noticing their transmissions were aborting prematurely.

The Associated Press ran tests and reported Comcast was indeed cutting off transfers by masquerading as its one of its customers.

The report led to a complaint by public interest group Free Press and others that the company was violating agency principles.

Comcast has said it did not block traffic, but delayed it, and only among users of the file-sharing, peer-to-peer programs that were responsible for taking up a disproportionate share of bandwidth and endangering service for other customers.

The company has pledged to stop using its network management practice by the end of the year and switch to a “protocol agnostic” technique that will not single out any particular type of user.

The action is the first test of the agency’s network neutrality principles.

The enforceability of the principles have been questioned by many, including Martin, who said when the policy statement was adopted in 2005 that they “do not establish rules nor are they enforceable documents.”

Members of Congress, including presumed Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, have pushed for network neutrality legislation without success.

Large Internet service providers have fought such regulation, arguing that companies that spend billions on their networks must be free to manage traffic.

Verizon Communications Inc., AT&T Inc. and the U.S. Telecom Association all released statements saying the FCC action proved there was no need for federal network neutrality legislation.