Let Them Eat Cake
An Editorial
by Don Singleton
Tulsa Computer Society
From the January 2000 issue of the I/O Port Newsletter
During the French Revolution Marie Antoinette was told that the poor
didn't even have bread to eat. She wasn't necessarily unmoved, just
oblivious, when she responded "let them eat cake" and that response is
one thing that cost her her head. Modern day leaders are equally
oblivious to the needs of their constituents. When representatives from
TCI came to our November 20 presentation on Cable Modems we learned that
TCI had been required by "Tulsa City Government" to begin their rebuild
efforts (both for digitial cable and cable internet) in North Tulsa, then
move to West Tulsa, before doing their rebuild in South and East Tulsa.
I don't know whether it was the Mayor's office or City Council that lead
this wrong-headed plan, but the "bone" it threw to the residents of North
and West Tulsa was one that many of them could not afford to use
anyway (they probably would have preferred to see money spent to support
some program they could really use), and by requiring TCI to make their
initial investment in areas that would not generate an immediate "Return
on Investment" (RoI), TCI went slower with their rebuild than they probably
would have, had they gotten an immediate return on their investment, and
hence all of Tulsa was delayed in getting these new capabilities. The
net result was that Tulsa was left with old, out of date technology, while
Oklahoma City with the more innovative Cox Cable, was launching the
new technology way ahead of Tulsa.
As you recall from last month's article "ADSL Changes Slow Things Down"
(http://www.tcs.org/ioport/dec99/adslslow.htm) Southwestern Bell's policy
of installing pair gain hardware to put multiple phone calls on a single
pair of wires is preventing Tulsa residents from fully taking advantage of
the speed potential of their 56kb modems. KOTV showed (http://www.kotv.com/pages/viewpage.asp?id=1545)
in their piece Southwestern Bell South Tulsa Customers See Slower Computer Connection
that the use of these pair gain devices is costing Day Traders a lot of
money because they cannot get Stock Market Investment Information as
quickly as they formerly did.
Does anyone know whether anyone in Tulsa City Government is encouraging
the use of the pair gain devices, for any reason?
It could just be that SW Bell is installing the pair gain devices intentionally
to try to force internet users to move over to their more expensive DSL
lines, but if they have been encouraged to do it by anyone in City Hall,
we may be able to prove that there is an overt move being made to delay
technological advancement in Tulsa. If so, just as the guillotine dealt
with the last advocate of "let them eat cake", we should ban together and
use the upcoming election to install people who will support, rather than
retard, technology.
For more information on the Tulsa Computer Society click here
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Tulsa Computer Society 12/12/99
Don Singleton, President
don@donsingleton.com
