John Linton ....there really is no 'NBN2'.....it's just a story told to the very young of intellect to keep first Krudd and now Ms Faustus noses in the political trough". (apologies to the UK Daily Telegraph December 24th 2010 edition for bowdlerising the text of their cartoon about the 11.32).
....which was what I told my father in law over lunch yesterday when he turned to me and said: "John, what does this NBN mean to me?" Now my father in law is a cult hero to his grand children (and a very decent bloke - starting his life as a highly decorated WW2 Lancaster pilot who managed to fly over 40 missions and live and then going on to have an interesting and equally daring business career before ending up as CEO and then Chairman of Arnotts) who, despite his advanced age, has been an 'early adopter' of first PC technology and then internet/voip/streaming internet usage courtesy of his son, son in law and now grand children who have 'kept him at the forefront of technology use' over the past twenty years.
Apart from his advanced age making the delivery time frame of the 'NBN2' to Mosman some sort of barrier to him ever having the opportunity of experiencing the collective wisdom of at least fiv of the people sitting round the table (three of whom who had used computers since the were five years old and internet since it was a dial up service with a 28 kbps modem and the original Zork, Buck Rogers, Leisure Suit Larry and Space Quest were the computer games of the day) those five people, from their differing view points, couldn't give him a sensible reason why a "super fast fibre service" would deliver him any benefits than his pretty fast (mid teens) Optus based ADSL2 service provide him today. Cost was not an issue because his grateful family have always provided him with PCs and internet services.
Only a gullible fool makes predictions on technology directions and, while some significant number of people may well consider me a fool, I doubt whether even they also consider me to be gullible....though perhaps I am wrong about that. However, if the brief history of silicon, fibre and wireless based technologies shows anything at all it shows that every prediction made about it's limitations has been wrong every time someone has made some pronouncement on its future limitations in terms of capabilities. These three technologies have continued to defy the popularly trotted out "laws of physics" if only because the "laws" referred to were merely poorly understood concepts of their day that had to be 'adusted' in line with new knowledge. (Gallium Arsenide was 'man made' to overcome 'God's' "laws of Physics" that were preventing the ongoing densification of micro chip technolgy being an obvious example).The oft trotted out "Field Of Dreams" mis-quotation also has no applicability to the 'NBN2' - for all of the obvious reasons - that stream of cars would not be heading to the boondocks if the admission ticket price was double a Yankees v Boston game).
So the conversation around our Christmas lunch table moved on to more interesting and appropriate things and we completed a very enoyable family gathering. Later that evening I read this:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703548604576037920087686958.html?mod=WSJ_Tech_RIGHTTopCarousel_1
which reminded me that our industry has always been full of 'got rich quickly stories' with a similar number of 'went broke equally quickly' stories because their are always a continuing stream of 'opportunities for the wide boys and con men to divert a portion of the communities general 'wealth' to their own pockets. Krudd and Ms Faustus are simply two recent examples of people with that lack of basic morals and dearth of principles. They are the true descendants of people making a 'quick buck' by espousing PTB's observation of human frailty.
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