[Linux-aus] Political Recognition for Technology in Australia - was Re: Seeking feedback - EFA Citizens Not Suspects campaign

[Bret Busby]

On Fri, 28 Jun 2013, Charles Gregory wrote:

> Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2013 10:29:44
> From: Charles Gregory <la.lists at chuq.net>
> To: russell at coker.com.au
> Cc: Linux Australia List <linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au>,
>     Bret Busby <bret at busby.net>
> Subject: Re: [Linux-aus] Political Recognition for Technology in Australia -
>     was Re: Seeking feedback - EFA Citizens Not Suspects campaign
> 
> On Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 10:58 AM, Russell Coker <russell at coker.com.au>wrote:
>
> On Fri, 28 Jun 2013, Bret Busby <bret at busby.net> wrote:
>>
>
>>> In the meantime, using a (rough, and, not very accurate) figure of a
>>> population of about 20 million, then, the listed cost cited above, of
>>> $37400000000, gives about (3.7x10E10 / 2x10E7) $1800 per person.
>>
>> 37400000000/7600000 == 4921 which is pretty close to the 5000 number that
>> has
>> always been used for the cost per household.
>>
>> This isn't economically viable and there's no realistic possibility of the
>> NBN
>> being privatised in any sort of profitable manner which doesn't involve
>> writing
>> down the value to something significantly less than $37.4 billion.
>>
>
> It's also worth pointing that the build cost is being spread over ten
> years, and the actual lifespan of the network is often stated as 50 to 100
> years.
>

According to the (wonky) NBN web site, the NBN is expected to be 
operational here, in about 2018.

I think that, by the time that the NBN is fully implemented, it will be 
obsolete and redundant.

I still have my PC-XT clone, and, as far as I know, it will still work, 
providing I kick start the harddrive.

But, whilst it may still work, that does not mean that it is now a 
worthwhile computer. My (al)pine mail directory, alone, is larger (by a 
few hundred times) than the capacity of the hard drive in that computer. 
And, something like (al)pine is all that that computer would be good 
for, now. I assume that a version of DOS or Minix is available (if Minix 
itself, would not fill the hard drive), that would run on the PC-XT 
architecture, if I did not use the PC-DOS or Novell-DOS or DR-DOS that 
was last run on that computer.

Just because a thing still exists, and, may be still (kind of) usable, 
does not mean that it would fit in with the technology at the time.

--
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
  you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
   Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
   "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
   A Trilogy In Four Parts",
   written by Douglas Adams,
   published by Pan Books, 1992
....................................................