Spot the "Concern!"
Sometimes I like to read the NYTimes and play a little game with myself. I call it Spot the Concern. I'll read along with the article, and silently predict to myself when the "concern" paragraph appears.
You know what I mean, right? The paragraph that begins with something like, "Others, though, have expressed concern..." Or: "Experts are concerned...." Or: "A rising chorus of voices have made their concerns heard...."
Here's my recent favorite. In an article about slow data download speeds in Idaho, the first half of the piece identifies the problem. From the NYTimes:
Idaho...had the slowest Internet speeds in the country earlier this year for residential customers who were downloading things like games — a “dismal” average of 318 kilobytes per second.
Translation: In Idaho, it would take you 9.42 seconds to download a standard music file compared with 3.36 seconds in Rhode Island, the state with the fastest average speeds, at 894 kilobytes per second.
So, like, you'd have to wait six more agonizing seconds! But don't you dare make light of this, you insensitive right wing kooks! Because:
Such speed distinctions might seem insignificant. But with larger files, downloading delays of just a few seconds can stretch into crucial minutes or hours and over time result in losses across many aspects of life, some experts say, beyond entertainment and games, affecting fields such as public safety, education and economic growth.
Safety? Really? Education? Seriously? Seriously?
And now it comes:
“The last thing I need is a report that says we don’t have the capacity and speed, when I know it exists,” said Gynii A. Gilliam, executive director for the Bannock Development Corporation, a nonprofit group working for economic growth in the Pocatello area. She noted that Allstate Insurance was opening a $22 million call center in Pocatello and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has a service center there. “We have not lost any business because of Internet speeds,” she said.
Indeed, speeds for Idaho’s businesses can be as fast as those anywhere, if customers pay for it. The federal government says Idaho is among the states with the greatest disparity in speeds available in urban areas versus rural areas.
Even Ms. Gilliam acknowledged that her home service was sluggish.
“It feels like it’s moving in slow motion,” she said. “A lot of times I’ll start downloads and not complete them.” She said she was happy as long as she could get e-mail.
But others are concerned.
Others are concerned. Spot the Concern! And why are they concerned? What, specifically, about a trivial non-problem concerns them? What is it about a simple supply-demand relationship has led the NYTimes and its Chorus of the Concerned to voice their concerns in a concerned way?
Simple: the folks in Idaho don't seem to know, or care to know, that there is federal money available to get those precious six seconds back. All they have to do is fill out a form. Why are they being so stubborn?
Bibiana Nertney, a spokeswoman for the Idaho Department of Commerce, said residential customers often could not afford broadband.
“It’s not the lack of availability,” she said. “It’s the lack of demand and what people are willing to pay. It goes to Idaho’s philosophy and mentality that we don’t spend more than we need.”
While grants and loans are available to build out the Internet infrastructure, Kerrie Hurd, the broadband liaison for the federal Department of Agriculture Office of Rural Development in Idaho, said the grant requirements could be onerous.
“Not a lot of communities are willing to put in the application and find the broadband provider, especially when taxpayers want money to spend on an essential service, like fixing the streets and updating the sewer system,” she said.
I guess people in Idaho don't "spend more than [they] need." I guess they'd rather spend the money on "essential" things.
I'm concerned.
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Comments :
Jul '10
Re: Spot the "Concern!"
So, Rhode Island has broken streets and an outdated sewer system all in the name of six seconds?
Sep '10
Re: Spot the "Concern!"
This is gonna be on Martini Shot, right?!?! It would be great to hear you read it. Much more droll than listening to your voice inside my head as I read the words.
Mar '11
Re: Spot the "Concern!"
New magic lasers provide unlimited energy for everyone! Traditional gas station owners, however, are concerned...
Re: Spot the "Concern!"
Remember back in the days when it took Ricochet some 15 seconds to load? I was pretty concerned about that in those days.
May '10
Re: Spot the "Concern!"
I stopped taking liberals seriously when I added up all the things they insisted upon for "Justice" and came up with a figure several dozen times the gross national product.
Jul '10
Re: Spot the "Concern!"
We have a Winner. The competition is now closed.
Dec '10
Re: Spot the "Concern!"
I am concerned. How many towns in Idaho are going bankrupt?
Jul '10
Re: Spot the "Concern!"
Just imagine how concerned "Others" will be when they realize the Sun rises two hours earlier in Rhode Island than Idaho.
Oct '10
Re: Spot the "Concern!"
If speed of service is a government investment, let them speed up the lines at StarBucks.
My, how a few seconds delay can be so devastating on the InterNet, is this how we base satisfaction ?
May '10
Re: Spot the "Concern!"
I'm having Tom Daschle flashbacks.
Edited on Sep 20, 2011 at 6:39pmJul '11
Re: Spot the "Concern!"
Interestingly, this same kind of "concern" about access to the LaserWeb, in our state's biggest city (Burlington, Vt), which had many options in what I like to call the free market in terms of cable/broadband access, required the City of Burlington to create Burlington Telecom. An NGO, of relative small scope, until it was discovered that the City had taken $17 million from its cash pool (where I would like to take a swim) to keep the doors open at the floundering telecom, without notifying, um, anyone. Burlington Telecom leased $33 million in equipment from CitiCapital, too, in order to build out their infrastructure.
Now it's insolvent, although experts hired to advise the firm still claim it's "cash-positive", if you don't, you know, count the debt. The rural broadband piece is an extension of the same lunacy, writ large, and many of those projects that were started across the country are now getting 2nd looks, because the numbers don't add up. Once towns buy into the publicly-owned telecom deal, they end up owning public debt, rather than paying less for service.
May '10
Re: Spot the "Concern!"
How will those Idahoans overcome their ignorant right-wing views without faster access to the New York Times online?
Jun '10
Re: Spot the "Concern!"
Area citizens in numerous locations throughout the south are concerned that some workers are going without their sausage biscuit in the morning due to extended wait times at the drive through window. Not only are people having to suffer through the morning shift with short attention spans and bad attitudes but the reference to "fast food" is degrading the language and potentially confusing to the immigrant population. Surely there is, implicit in the existence of a drive though window, a commitment to expeditious delivery. If customer expectations are routinely not met then perhaps some oversight is warranted.
Edited on Sep 20, 2011 at 7:01pmAug '10
Re: Spot the "Concern!"
I'm "concerned" that high internet speeds mean that Rhode Island likely has more intellectual property pirates than Idaho.
Jun '10
Re: Spot the "Concern!"
Certain individuals expressed a concern to this reporter about their inability to down load pirated movies in less time than it takes to watch the movie in theatres. "What's the point," a hacker named BiteMeSpielberg, complained, "it takes so long to down load a flick a guy may as well pay the twelve buck at the cineplex in Coeure d'alene."
Edited on Sep 20, 2011 at 9:30pmSep '11
Re: Spot the "Concern!"
It's not just six seconds.
I'm a beta tester for a major media application--each new version has a 38 GB download. Each minor update is typically 425 MB.
The output from these projects are music recordings--two minutes of music can easily be 75 MB. A tweak to the theme that occurs throughout a larger project might necessitate re-creating 20 GB of files.
That's new media, friends.
And unless you're sitting on very, very fat pipe, you can't play in the new media world.
Smaller communities see that problem--they see access to high-speed Internet access as being entirely akin to being on the railroad main line, or being on the Interstate. Get bypassed? Your community dies. Get fat pipe? Your community attracts new media jobs.
Example: Kutztown, Pa. A century ago they couldn't get electric lines run from Philadelphia--so they built their own generating plant. In the 1990s Kutztown was the first municipality in the U.S. to wire fiber-optic to every building in town. Their muni utility makes money--and they've attracted jobs.
This is a big issue in small-community America.
May '10
Re: Spot the "Concern!"
And if a local community like Kurztown, PA wants to solve a local problem locally, HURRAY!
It's no concern of the Feds or the state.
Jul '10
Re: Spot the "Concern!"
It is amazing how acutely concerned a dwindling city newspaper in a state that is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy is with the data rates of people they have never met and have no special affinity with. If they were as thoughtful with regard to their own state budget...oh, wait. They are.
Dec '10
Re: Spot the "Concern!"
How DARE those Right-wing militia-loving neo-Fascists in Idaho refuse to do their patriotic duty and have the Federal Government create good-paying jobs to bring them rural broadband? Literally TENS of people could be employed if those spud-growers simply asked for a few billion dollars in Federal stimulus grants.
Jul '10
Re: Spot the "Concern!"
John Murdoch:
Smaller communities see that problem--they see access to high-speed Internet access as being entirely akin to being on the railroad main line, or being on the Interstate. Get bypassed? Your community dies.
Right, because universal access to "fat pipe" that's 6 secs faster is exactly the same as the difference between having electricity and not.
Sure we all live that new, flat, mobile, global existence and everyone who's anyone moves everywhere and changes jobs on the hour.
Except that's not true. The nonsensical meme that America's most nomadic folks generally determine the life or death of communities needs to be put to bed. These upper-middle class gypsies do provide value where they temporarily descend, no doubt. All else equal, a town is much better off with an influx of young, career-driven talent than without.
However, the belief that single yuppies focused in one tiny economic arena ("new media") will routinely dictate the long-term health of a community seems, well, hysterical.