[TriLUG] Intel bug in the news today

[Scott Chilcote via TriLUG]

There are some real-word yardsticks that are available to measure how
deep the "nothing" in the Net Neutrality burger goes.

1. A study claims that well over half a billion dollars was spent by
Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T to lobby against the FCC regulations since
2008 (citation:
http://bgr.com/2017/07/12/net-neutrality-explained-internet-day-of-action-july-12/).

2. Of the over twenty million comments that were submitted to the FCC in
response to its decision to gut the Net Neutrality rules, over 57% were
found to be from duplicate or temporary email addresses (Pew Research:
http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/04/technology/net-neutrality-fake-comments-eric-schneiderman/index.html
).  Of those comments that were found to occur only once in the FCC's
database, the vast majority were in favor of the current Net Neutrality
rules.

I dunno, David.  These monopolies are so avaricious they have driven
away most of the customer base for cable television, and that's saying
something.   Now they're getting ready to reach for our wallets for
substantially higher ISP fees, according to several news outlets. 

I have to wonder what they're going to do when they run out of sources
for easy profits, if it isn't to hold broad swaths of the internet tubes
for ransom?

  Scott C.


On 01/03/2018 01:54 PM, David Burton via TriLUG wrote:
> I think "net neutrality" is a great big nothingburger. Net neutrality
> regulations are a solution in search of a problem. The only example of a
> real, relevant problem addressed by net neutrality regs was many years ago
> when some ISPs tried to coerce their customers into using their own VoIP
> products instead of Vonage etc.
>
> Don't get me wrong. Like every red-blooded American I detest TWC/Spectrum
> and AT&T, for their insatiable price-gouging, and their complete disdain
> for customers' needs.
>
> Why do they have no interest at all in proactively detecting and correcting
> customers' connectivity problems? It's not like they can't detect dropped
> packets from their end!
>
> And what kind of company *forbids their tech support reps from having
> access to email,* fer cryin out loud??? *Spectrum*, that's what kind.
>
> But I don't think the presence or absence of net neutrality regs will make
> any noticeable difference.
>
> Now let's talk about a possible* real *problem. Does anyone know anything
> about the big Intel bug in the news today is? Breathless headlines say the
> fix could slow some workloads by up to 30%:
>
>    -
>    https://www.pcmag.com/news/358249/intel-chips-have-a-major-design-flaw-and-the-fix-means-slowe
>    -
>    https://hothardware.com/news/intel-cpu-bug-kernel-memory-isolation-linux-windows-macos
>    - https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/02/intel_cpu_design_flaw/
>    -
>    http://pythonsweetness.tumblr.com/post/169166980422/the-mysterious-case-of-the-linux-page-table
>
>
> Dave
>
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 3, 2018 at 11:21 AM, bak via TriLUG <trilug at trilug.org> wrote:
>>
>>> On Jan 3, 2018, at 09:08, Thomas Delrue via TriLUG <trilug at trilug.org>
>> wrote:
>>> On 01/03/2018 10:01 AM, Jeremy Davis via TriLUG wrote:
>>>> hmmm.. almost smells like the compromise of net neutrality.. maybe not
>> but
>>>> it still offers a glimpse of what to expect if net neutrality goes
>> away.. I
>>>> can see how the ISPs would love to cramp Google's style if they could..
>>> Big players can either pay to be prioritized or have enough weight to
>>> make ISPs think twice about blocking access to them because said ISP
>>> would have its customers complain; but small players will be footing the
>>> bill for everyone else (what's new there) since they don't have that
>>> type of weight to throw around nor will they ever, as will be made
>>> certain by every-more-charging ISPs if they ever become successful.
>>>
>> Well put — it cannot be stated enough that the loss of Net Neutrality is a
>> blow to small Internet-based businesses. Indeed, revoking Net Neutrality is
>> both anti-business and anti-competition.
>>
>> The only businesses it is good for are ISPs — you know, the
>> mono/duopolistic ones known far and wide for abusing their customers so
>> flagrantly and for so long that they flee to someone, anyone else as soon
>> as they have the opportunity.
>>
>> —bak
>>

-- 
Scott Chilcote
scottchilcote at ncrrbiz.com
Cary, NC USA