Interesting People mailing list archives
The end of the Bellheads
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 09:21:34 -0800
________________________________________ From: DV Henkel-Wallace [gumby () henkel-wallace org] Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 4:45 PM To: David Farber Cc: Lauren Weinstein Subject: Re: [IP] BEST LAW MONAY CAN BUY -- Senate votes Telecom immunity I was struck by two things, one tangental to the IP list and the other deeply connected. Both were triggered by the following quote: "...But supporters of the plan said the phone carriers acted out of patriotism..." It seems clear that patriotism or fear drove the decision. Although the companies are accused of venality, I consider it unlikely because the were almost certainly not making a profit on the deal, but were just in fear of future regulatory or fiscal pressure. However the same two arguments can be used to explain vigilanteism participation in a lynch mob, which doesn't make that better either. What I find far more interesting is that this clearly shows that the bellheads are gone for good. Even at the hight of the cold war these kinds of shenanigans were hard to pull off. But it's been at least a decade since I've heard terms like "reliability", "audio fidelity", or "availability" in connection with voice service. And now "privacy" is gone too. -d On Feb 12, 2008, at 13:01 , David Farber wrote:
________________________________________ From: Lauren Weinstein [lauren () vortex com] Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 2:56 PM To: David Farber Subject: Senate votes Telecom immunity http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/washington/12cnd-fisa.html ------------------------------------------- Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
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Current thread:
- The end of the Bellheads David Farber (Feb 13)
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- Re: The end of the Bellheads David Farber (Feb 13)