yoyar

I was referring to the hardware. Not the set of supplier corporations that are intertwined with the state.

If there is an Oligopoly, then how has this occurred? What entity is there providing the conditions for the Oligopoly to exist and persist? If there were not government interference via the CRTC we would have open competition. But we don't because the CRTC is there. And they have the power to make sure that no real competition can take hold. Where does this lead us? Straight back to corporatism (the government and corporations are in bed together) - Let's not use the term capitalism anywhere in this context.

Corporatism.

This is why I wrote the comment in the manner that I did.

There is an ongoing confusion about what is the free market and what is corporatism/fascism. The free market provides for free competition between individuals where all transactions are voluntary and no force is used to interfere with any interactions between parties. In a corporatist/fascist environment the government uses force to interfere in nearly all aspects of the market. In fascism, corporations end up in bed with the government and the corps use that power to get what they want while the government sells the idea by using propaganda to fool people into thinking that "it's all for your own good".

When the government is in charge of setting rates for internet access this is the farthest thing in the world from a free market. What it is, is soviet style socialist central planning.

But there seems to be a strong desire to blame the free market for all woes, despite the obvious government interference in all aspects of these interactions.

What is free about having the government set the policies for internet charges?

In a free market the government wouldn't be involved at all, and the rates would be determined via competition.

Take a look at markets that are relatively more free, such as the cell phone market and the market for computer chips. Quality and features improve while prices go down over time.

When I admire my HTC Android phone I marvel at the quality and features and the amazing technology. This is the result of healthy competition.

Take a look at markets where the government is involved such as health care. Quality and choice are reduced while prices go through the roof. (and no, that's not going to change with "obamacare")

Please don't confuse markets that are highly regulated and controlled by the government with free markets. They are polar opposites.

Seems like the CRTC needs to find a way to remain relevant. This is central planning, socialist style. I hope everyone enjoys it.

It isn't sensible to think that any system can eliminate fraud entirely. If you want a system that gets it right most of the time then you can look to ebay.

Reputation for purchasers and sellers is a solved problem. Eg, ebay.

Hello World is there to validate that you can setup, compile and run a program in your new language of choice. Complicating that process by trying to write something non-trivial defeats the purpose of the exercise. I call BS on this article.

Assange is poking at the illusion of democracy and it makes people damn uncomfortable as far as I can see. I think most people know that they are ruled by rulers and that the idea of the state as benefactor is dead, but to admit it is another thing for most. They will fight very hard to retain the comfort of the illusion. And the state will act to retain it also, by any means necessary.

If there is a significant enough demand, it will eventually be produced.

<canadian-pedantic>A kayak is longer and thinner and lower to the water and is often covered. A kayak is typically paddled using a double ended paddle. In Canada, the boat in the article is a kayak; I don't think anyone here would call that a canoe. A canoe is deeper, wider and fatter (like some Canadians perhaps ;). A canoe can transport a lot of cargo but is also light enough to carry across portages. Many years ago native people and fur traders could travel entirely across Canada in a canoe. Some people still attempt this feat.

In other parts of the world the boat in the article might be considered a canoe, but I would say not in Canada. </canadian-pedantic>

<pedantic> It's an amazing project but that's a kayak, not a canoe. </pedantic>

As someone who's written tons of Java/J2EE etc... and who's been writing PHP for several years, I don't get all the PHP bashing. I've seen tons of garbage code in Java, and in PHP. And I've seen amazing things done with both. It's a poor carpenter that blames his tools. And yes, for many tasks I opt for PHP, because it is fast for both implementation and performance. It's fun and it works really well, as long as you know what you are doing. How's that different from Java, Python, Ruby etc...? One more thing, if you want to judge a language based on how much trouble you can into, what about C? Or what about the threading and memory leak issues you can run into in Java? I mean, all of these languages have massive pitfalls and none of them can effectively stop a bad programmer from doing bad things.

It's isn't a chance that Gov't involvement will cause more hard than good, it is a certainty.