> Communication is not quite "free", but it is effectively unmetered. Yet we're in a conversation about data centers, and our concept of "unmetered communicati

> Communication is not quite "free", but it is effectively unmetered. Yet we're in a conversation about data centers, and our concept of "unmetered communication" only refers to one end of the line. What does it cost companies and orgs to communicate with us? What does it cost them to keep a server operational, functional and sending data to us? It's "free and unmetered" for you to watch YouTube, run yt-dlp, put up your ad blockers and PiHoles, but what cost for everyone but you? I would also consider time/effort costs in communicating. Compare having a rotary-dial phone, the ultimate "thin client", with a general-purpose computer or smartphone. How much time and effort do we put into fiddling with them, upgrading them, fixing settings, troubleshooting whatever communication software is on top of them? Newspapers cost us $0.25-$1.50, but that's a highly subsidized cost like riding public transit.