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The USG provides the GPS service for free. You can argue that connecting to it isn't free (since you need hardware that can do so), but then connecting to Goog
by wutbrodo 9y ago
The USG provides the GPS service for free. You can argue that connecting to it isn't free (since you need hardware that can do so), but then connecting to Google and Facebook isn't free either.
This took literally two seconds to think of off the top of my head. The quotation is _still_ not accurate. It's a useful perspective on how to think about free services, but it's not a substitute for thought.
- dspillett 9y agoIt would likely cost more to make GPS non-free because extra users don't increase the cost of running the service and keeping people locked out (until they have paid) would be a potentially very expensive technological arms race. That doesn't apply to most services like facebook for which each active user creates extra bandwidth and processing load.
- tnone 9y agoIn what way are tax funded services free?
- wutbrodo 9y agoDude, are you kidding me? "If you're not paying for it, you're the product" is taking about free for the user. There's so many ways in which this question is incredibly stupid, but here's an easy one: In what way is usage not free for every one of the billions of people who are untaxed by the USG? Or are you under the impression that GPS only works if you show your US passport first?
- chongli 9y agoGPS is an outlier case. Unlike almost everything else, GPS has perfect scaling. No matter how many users use it, it will not be adversely affected. Other services like that are public radio and TV.