Gizmodo 
Enter your username and password.
Tip your editors:
tips@gizmodo.com
Editorial Director:
Brian Lam | Email | Twitter
Editor:
Jason Chen
Email | AIM | Twitter
Features Editor:
Wilson Rothman
Email | Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor:
Jesus Diaz
Email | AIM | Twitter
Mark Wilson, Reviews
Email | AIM | Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Matt Buchanan
Email | AIM | Twitter
Adam Frucci
Email | Twitter
Sean Fallon
Email | Twitter
Jack Loftus
Email | Twitter
John Herrman
Email | Twitter
Dan Nosowitz
Email
Chris Mascari
Email
Danny Allen
Email | Twitter
Columnist:
Brendan I. Koerner
Interns:
Don Nguyen
Email
Chris Jacob
Email
Comment Intern:
Nick Ellenoff | Email
Comment Account Questions:
Comments@gizmodo.com
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
10/27/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
They had a 6mb connection compared to my 8mb connection via Ethernet. Their connection was faster and more reliable most of the time. They had the same ISP. I looked into it, and it appears that they were f*cking with my bandwidth for no reason.
The internet in my area was down for about 50,000 people last night. This is one thing I hate about living in the semi-rural Midwest. My internet goes out at least once a month. My power also goes out about as frequently.
Other people having way faster internet saddens me. :(
10/26/09
From my ludicrous perspective, America is doing "fine". Not great, not bad, but "fine" in the middle of the group. If our goal is to get into the top rung of speed and price, we are going to have to change a couple of things:
1. Geographic size. Notice that the five at the top could fit their land mass in Texas with room to spare. Clearly the answer is to move all 300 million people into the space that makes the best TexMex in the world.
2. Socialism kicks ass. Well, maybe not - but I believe (and yield to those with better knowledge than my understanding) that all of the top five help pay for that broadband connection through taxes. All we need is some socialist like Obama to lead the way and we can get a bill passed that would pay for this with China's money.
I am joking on both counts (I am not moving to Texas, I hate borrowing from anyone, and I like Obama), but it also points at what I believe are the potential solutions. We cannot shrink our country, so we are going to have to spend serious dollars by our government to offset the cost of building the infrastructure to make it to the top third. If we all had fiber to our homes (note the government helped roll out coax to every home in the early cable TV days), we could change our spot dramatically.
Ladies and gentleman of the Giz community, start tossing those shoes. I need some free shoes. #broadband
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
[www.lvrj.com] #broadband
10/26/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/26/09
Cars? we get most dumbed down version
Gadgets? we get the shit version long after other markets.
Healthca...errr....industry? do i need to say more?
Internet? slowest of all.
Forza? a week after Europeans.
*sigh* #broadband
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
yes the US has the best health care, which is why the rich from other countries come here for major surguries. france you have to get on a 2-week+ waiting list for your normal doctor to treat a cold, flue, etc. the definition of "better" i guess determines how you look at it (cheaper? quality? rationing?) whatever... #broadband
10/26/09
"l much healthier for a number of "lifestyle" reasons" they drink wine and smoke cigarettes.
About illegals immigrants they do have the same problem.
To get back on the subject the real problem is that France is a free market regarding ISP, this is not the case here.
This sole explanation is why they have better service than we do.
10/26/09
Our (U.S.) federal government subsidizes corn farmers, which makes high fructose corn syrup as cheap as it is harmful. Have you tried to find foods without hfcs? It's not easy and it's certainly not cheap. Because France doesn't have those subsidies, junk foods (including soda) are very expensive and the higher price is a strong argument for healthier food choices. Better food choices (and actually slowing down to taste and appreciate the food) help to keep them away from the obesity death spiral that so many of us find ourselves fighting. #broadband
10/27/09
10/27/09
The fact that many promising new treatments come from the US has more to do with venture capital availability than anything else. And we do have quite a bit of high end research; to wit, the first hand transplant or the first face transplant were done here. #broadband
10/27/09
You should be ashamed of yourself. #broadband
10/27/09
10/27/09
At any rate, I like your idea that a freer ISP market would improve service - I'd love to see the regulatory changes necessary to make it easier for more competitors to enter the market. #broadband
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
10/27/09
There are economies of scale in medicine: nothing is so rare those days, with the exception of transplantable organs obviously, that you can't make it available on a wide scale if needed.
The health care system negotiates with suppliers for a fair price; if said supplier wants to play hardball, they take the risk of alienating public opinion and, eventually, having lawmakers fix a price for them. #broadband
10/27/09
It's just that they are not free to spend 1/3 of their income on advertising, which is almost completely verbotten for them (especially for prescription meds). There, instant 33% rebate on drug prices. #broadband
10/27/09
And before you start calling this a "waiting list," no, it's not: there is no list with your name on it. And in any case it's no different from what you'd do in the US if you pay out of pocket. And entirely different from an HMO where there are actual waiting lists, with your name on it. #broadband
10/26/09
I decided to crunch the numbers myself to see how we do when adjusting for population density...not much better, really. From 15 to 10 and Canada is No. 1!
source data:
[www.itif.org]
[en.wikipedia.org] #broadband
10/26/09
can we really be the best country in the world without the fastest internet? #broadband
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
You also have the issue in that it would be impossible (financially) for a company to provide 20mb+ to people that live in the middle of nowhere.
The cities I've lived in all had over 20mb available, while I know it's not that way all over the country, I don't know anyone that lives in a major city that can't get well over 5mb. I know they are out there, I just don't know of any first hand.
10/26/09
Remember the US is a country where people still mail back and forth pieces of paper (checks) to pay each other. Where card transactions are done with an easily-copied magnet stripe, and confirmed using easily-forged signatures. A country where the train network is a joke. Where the internet is slow. etc etc I could go on and on. #broadband
10/26/09
10/26/09
Besides, none of those things you mentioned make living in America worse.
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
Canada and Australia are not better and I don't even see Russia or China on those charts. (probably due to the lack of data)
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
Even if all of the greater SF, LA, NY, or DC areas were fully networked, connecting to each other would require the backbone to consist of high-bandwidth infrastructure with thousands and thousands of miles of cable.
10/26/09
Japan Fail. #broadband
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09