As a fitting follow-up to last week's commentary, I came across news of ISPs turning their backs on rural America and condemning them to the ineffective access we know as dial-up. There is a complete link to the story elsewhere in this issue. The point of the story is that short-term profits are driving ISPs away from expanding access to high-speed internet for all Americans. It is shameful that the USA is already behind Japan and various European nations in the speed of our internet networks. But the fact that rural communities are excluded from much needed broadband access is unforgivable. The short-sighted business decisions leading to these policies need serious reconsideration by all ISPs. What are the chances that they will do that? I have not seen wings on pigs yet. But maybe if we all start contacting our State and Federal officials we can begin influencing how ISPs operate in our areas. How about it -- are you willing to stand-up for rural America?
And speaking of stupid business decisions, it appears someone at Microsoft has decided that the great program called "AutoPatcher" somehow violates one of the thousands of rules, laws, regulations they have invented to make more money from the public. As of this writing, thousands of IT and computer-savvy users are being deprived from using AutoPatcher to update Windows systems while offline. Yes, another greed-driven decision that not only hurts the company that made the move, but mostly impacts consumers.
Please do not get me wrong: I am not anti-profits or anti-corporate; I am pro-consumer and pro-intelligence.
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