tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post7568392588041423478..comments2024-03-28T21:56:51.675-04:00Comments on Face to Face: More moronic antitrust actions to followagnostichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-37395355694503517232009-08-13T15:03:31.619-04:002009-08-13T15:03:31.619-04:00Anyone with a "passing familiarity" with...Anyone with a "passing familiarity" with tech history may think it's nonsense, but those with a greater familiarity know that it's true.<br /><br />Virtually every major high-tech invention from 1940 to 1984 was invented at Bell Labs. A decent handful of others were developed at the DoD. And then things stopped altogether.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-46952101281166189782009-08-13T10:29:39.565-04:002009-08-13T10:29:39.565-04:00"Then they busted up AT&T, and Bell Labs ..."Then they busted up AT&T, and Bell Labs along with it -- and the output of major new innovations virtually stopped the next year."<br /><br />Anyone with a passing familiarity with tech history knows this is blatant nonsense. "Innovation" within the AT&T monopoly might have stopped the next year, but you have to look at the big picture over the next ten or twenty years. Anyone who thinks that "innovation" stopped after the AT&T breakup has already lost the argument in the eyes of anyone who has any basic knowledge of the topic.<br /><br />Under the AT&T monopoly, innovation was strangled. You couldn't hook up a modem; AT&T wouldn't allow it on their network. You had to rent your phone from AT&T; wasn't that fun? There's no way in hell an AT&T monopoly would have allowed people to log on to the internet over AT&T's phone lines. We would have been stuck with whatever crappy internet service AT&T chose to offer, if any, and monopoly sycophants would have lauded this as "innovation". <br /><br />You want to see Telecom monopoly "innovation" in the internet age? Check out France's Minitel. A worthy system when the internet was not an option, no doubt, but charging monopoly prices and hardly innovative compared to free market alternatives. <br /><br />The AT&T breakup did not put an end to "innovation". Your argument is moronic.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-70736129561952949932009-08-13T09:09:49.921-04:002009-08-13T09:09:49.921-04:00It is examining the sharp increase in text-messagi...It is examining the sharp increase in text-messaging rates at several phone companies. <b>And it is scrutinizing obstacles imposed by the phone companies on low-price rivals like Skype.</b><br /><br />So not all else is equal.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-39320752616777604852009-07-29T14:55:50.446-04:002009-07-29T14:55:50.446-04:00Text messaging allows someone to get a vital piece...Text messaging allows someone to get a vital piece of information to another person, without having to go through the rigamorole of actually having a conversation with that person and listening to them prattle on about how their kid got intentionally walked twice at his little league game because he is the next Barry Bonds or whatever. <br /><br />With texting, you can simply text something like: fix #5 b4 #3&#1 @9AM.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-19030092056779925612009-07-29T13:12:16.914-04:002009-07-29T13:12:16.914-04:00That wasn't the basis of their concern, though...That wasn't the basis of their concern, though. It was the "sharp increase" over time, not the discrepancy between two types of data transfer at the same time.<br /><br />I already said I know little about these industries -- but enough to know that the reasons they're giving smell bogus.<br /><br />Obviously they could be acting anti-competitively, but the reasons they give have to make sense. And here it made no sense. A "sharp increase" in price could easily be due to a tenfold increase in demand.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-31833234312885362732009-07-29T10:32:43.692-04:002009-07-29T10:32:43.692-04:00Text messaging is nice because it's one instan...Text messaging is nice because it's one instance where the price is obviously <i>not</i> set by supply and demand.<br /><br />How do we know? Cell phone companies are charging about $1000 dollars per megabyte for text messages. They charge a few cents per megabyte for normal data transfer.<br /><br />There is no way that you can get 6 orders of magnitude of markup through normal supply demand forces. Your analysis is silly.Thrashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06536525467048363111noreply@blogger.com