Okay Geek Farm
ISPs screwing you over, AT&T throttling, Fox restricts streaming, cats and dogs sleeping together
Brandon Davenport
It seems as if overnight a bunch of companies launched plans to screw you over, namely the big ones. ISPs, content providers and mobile carriers have decided to restrict access and jack up prices — basically the same bull crap that has happened ever since the day money became an object. The thing that’s different this time is that three major upstirs have happened almost on the same day, and we feel it’s only fair you know about them.
ISP costs are down, but prices keep going up
TechCrunch’s John Biggs wrote a piece about how “Your ISP is screwing you over” and how they’re convincing us to pay more. He essentially says that “basically, they’re quietly raising our rates while pretending to prevent a tragedy of the commons” and if anything explains the hikes in broadband costs, it’s that sentence. ISPs aren’t interested in margins — they want to make every cent back and more. In the end we’re pretty sure their costs show as a rounding error on their quarterly profits.
Read more — Your ISP Is Screwing You
Fox restricts free access to their shows
Yet another case of a company trying to make money the wrong way. Now, people who don’t subscribe to participating cable or satellite services will have to wait eight days before they can see a new episode of any popular Fox show like Glee and The Simpsons. Analysts say that “this move is likely to fuel an illegal market for Fox shows, because not everybody will necessarily have access to authenticated services” — No f***ing way!
Read more — Lengthy piece by LA Times
AT&T Will Begin Throttling Data Plans
What’s new with AT&T? Not much, just taking advantage of the whole “we’re suffering as a business” charade. AT&T is planning to throttle users with unlimited plans when they see fit. “Many experts agree the country is facing a serious wireless spectrum crunch” says AT&T, and they say that if you don’t want to be throttled, you better fork up the cash to pay for a watered down, tiered plan so “you can buy more data of you need it”.
Read more — PC World (it’s been confirmed)
So there you go fellow geeks
I think we’re just fed up with how much bull crap we have to put up with as a collective, and watching the general public buy into this nonsense like sheep. I think it really upsets us to see these corporate giants desensitise us to their un-fair ways, and make everything seem like “it isn’t a big deal”. I don’t want to end on a sour note, so here is a cat and dog sleeping together.
