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Memories of the 28th Century

Persistence

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I just noticed that the internet is almost as slow as it was in the days of dial-up and other such problems. Apparently, the ISP’s and site owners have decided that just because high speed internet is available is no reason why end users should be able to use it. Internet Service Providers, web hosts, and others set up all sorts of extras that could speed things for some users and slow things for others. One part of that was regulatory permission for those who provide the web services to allow some users to have faster service if they pay more.

That came to mind because this computer was acting in a way that reminded me of dial-up, but I am using a university library where computers are available mostly for students, and the network is supposed to be wonderful. One thing that tends to happen on high quality networks is that administrators try to provide too much. Software and services are available because there is capacity for them, or there was capacity, until so many things were added that he network started to slow down. This is the same problem that the whole country is having. The regulators decided to deal with this by allowing ISP's to charge different customers different rates.

I won't detail the net neutrality discussion, but it is my opinion that the internet should be a common carrier with preferences for none, and this week a bill to restore net neutrality was introduced in Congress (see link below).

Some of the providers claimed that their networks were getting jammed with traffic, and that might be true, but they should have found a more creative way to improve the situation. One part of the problem is that TV is often in the same network as internet, and that can clog things. In addition, the cable companies have been pushing their cable networks over broadcast TV, and their marketing has been winning. In that way they have been damaging their franchise. Another problem is that there isn't anything on TV that's worth watching, so people download movies instead. The cable companies should look at broadcast TV as a place for their overload to go, but there's nothing on TV, so people look for something else. It might be better for good quality programming to be created for TV. In the past, there was some excellent programming, and some of that is still being rerun.

When I started writing this, I was thinking about the attitude that was necessary for enjoying V or the internet, but the internet and TV have also been persistent, even to the degree where they are planning a New Twilight Zone, and I regard that as admission that people today couldn't do as well as Rod Serling did decades ago. I think they will find that to be true, and that the old Twilight Zone will look even better in comparison, unless they have me create some.

Maybe I should send one or more of my stories to the producer of the new version of Twilight Zone. Maybe that's the persistence I started writing about. Now I have to figure out which story, or I will have to write a new story. And it might be athat this site suffers from excess software being added, so the system slows sometimes, but I don't know.




https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2019...oaSm1o89OJCGtQ

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tw...019_TV_series)

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