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But Jot Carpenter, vice president of government affairs for CTIA-The Wireless Association, resists the move to turn on the FM chip..."What Americans really want

But Jot Carpenter, vice president of government affairs for CTIA-The Wireless Association, resists the move to turn on the FM chip..."What Americans really want is the ability to stream, download and customize music playlists to meet their personal preferences," Carpenter said... I wonder if the people whose job it is to make these sorts of patronizing arguments privately feel embarrassed when doing so.

grecy 12y ago
I work at a telco that constantly makes ridiculous patronizing arguments. The people making those statements are drinking so much kool-aid they honestly don't even know they're talking nonsense. They actually believe it to their core.
- isomorphic 12y ago
  "The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of IngSoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible."
- late2part 12y ago
  The funny part is when kool-aid drinking folks make dependent assertions. Then you have this whole series of partial or completely untrue assumptions. Sort of like "The Emperor's New Clothes."
- toomuchtodo 12y ago
  I'm 32, pay $10/month for Spotify, and T-Mobile doesn't count music services towards my data cap. I haven't listened to the radio in my car in over a year. Even if I'm an outlier, Spotify still has a free tier. Why would I go back to the radio? That would be like trading Netflix back in for Blockbuster Video. shudder
  - wtallis 12y ago
    How enticing would it be if T-Mobile's net neutrality violation were stopped?
    - toomuchtodo 12y ago
      Probably the same. I'd just switch to their $50/line unlimited plan. Strangely enough, I only have a problem with net neutrality violations when you're charging me extra for certain packets, not when you're giving me certain packets for free. Go figure. Not all data is equal, spectrum is limited, and I'd rather users be permitted to get music bits that don't count towards their cap than some twit using spectrum for bittorrent. I would pay more because of T-Mobile's disregard for net neutrality in this case, because it benefits me as an end user. I've never seen Comcast, Verizon, or any other throttling of video content benefit someone (while at the same time they not being constrained by shared spectrum bandwidth limitations).
    - RubyPinch 12y ago
      Its only a violation if its a paid exchange or an affiliate, no? I don't know if that is the case or not in this situation, but it could be. Not everything becomes a violation
      - wtallis 12y ago
        If there's money changing hands, it's bribery or extortion. If there's no money changing hands, it's still at least non-neutrality: the ISP is picking winners by determining which service providers get a competitive edge.
  - StavrosK 12y ago
    > That would be like trading Netflix back in for Blockbuster Video. Not to be the "analogy not exactly right" guy, but it would be like closing Blockbuster Video just because "NETFLIX IS SO MUCH BETTER AND IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT THEN TOUGH SHIT".
anigbrowl 12y ago
I was so irritated that I sent a polite but snippy email to his lobbying agency, before deciding it would be more effective to repost it here (it was posted earlier today but largely ignored). No, I don't think they feel embarrassed at all. This the human-level equivalent of promulgating botnets, and involves a similar principle - that if people are too passive to harden their systems against such obviously lame exploits, then they deserve whatever they get. I find this an obnoxious argument, which is why I have so little sympathy for the 'black hat hackers help people improve security' argument sometimes floated here on HN. I actually think it's true that most people are ignorant or possibly even stupid, and that they won't adopt good security (or critical thinking) practices until they've learned the hard way - by being exploited for someone else's gain. But going from observing this fact to actively leveraging it is precisely the point at which one is making the world a worse place. /GRAR
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
clarkmoody 12y ago
Politicians, corporate types, etc. who start a sentence with "What Americans really want..." are usually indicating what they want Americans to want. It's about the same as a politician talking about proposed legislation with the phrase common sense. The goal here is to paint people who oppose your view as out of touch with the average American or acting nonsensically.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
blfr 12y ago
It seems silly to disable a perfectly good chip but to be fair, I only checked if my phone can receive FM radio after reading this post yet I have used AntennaPod, Spotify, and SoundCloud for hundreds of hours. Motorola shines again btw. Not only do they not cripple their phones but also include a simple FM Radio app by default.

grecy 12y ago

I work at a telco that constantly makes ridiculous patronizing arguments. The people making those statements are drinking so much kool-aid they honestly don't even know they're talking nonsense. They actually believe it to their core.

isomorphic 12y ago
"The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of IngSoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible."
late2part 12y ago
The funny part is when kool-aid drinking folks make dependent assertions. Then you have this whole series of partial or completely untrue assumptions. Sort of like "The Emperor's New Clothes."
toomuchtodo 12y ago
I'm 32, pay $10/month for Spotify, and T-Mobile doesn't count music services towards my data cap. I haven't listened to the radio in my car in over a year. Even if I'm an outlier, Spotify still has a free tier. Why would I go back to the radio? That would be like trading Netflix back in for Blockbuster Video. shudder
- wtallis 12y ago
  How enticing would it be if T-Mobile's net neutrality violation were stopped?
  - toomuchtodo 12y ago
    Probably the same. I'd just switch to their $50/line unlimited plan. Strangely enough, I only have a problem with net neutrality violations when you're charging me extra for certain packets, not when you're giving me certain packets for free. Go figure. Not all data is equal, spectrum is limited, and I'd rather users be permitted to get music bits that don't count towards their cap than some twit using spectrum for bittorrent. I would pay more because of T-Mobile's disregard for net neutrality in this case, because it benefits me as an end user. I've never seen Comcast, Verizon, or any other throttling of video content benefit someone (while at the same time they not being constrained by shared spectrum bandwidth limitations).
  - RubyPinch 12y ago
    Its only a violation if its a paid exchange or an affiliate, no? I don't know if that is the case or not in this situation, but it could be. Not everything becomes a violation
    - wtallis 12y ago
      If there's money changing hands, it's bribery or extortion. If there's no money changing hands, it's still at least non-neutrality: the ISP is picking winners by determining which service providers get a competitive edge.
- StavrosK 12y ago
  > That would be like trading Netflix back in for Blockbuster Video. Not to be the "analogy not exactly right" guy, but it would be like closing Blockbuster Video just because "NETFLIX IS SO MUCH BETTER AND IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT THEN TOUGH SHIT".

anigbrowl 12y ago

I was so irritated that I sent a polite but snippy email to his lobbying agency, before deciding it would be more effective to repost it here (it was posted earlier today but largely ignored). No, I don't think they feel embarrassed at all. This the human-level equivalent of promulgating botnets, and involves a similar principle - that if people are too passive to harden their systems against such obviously lame exploits, then they deserve whatever they get. I find this an obnoxious argument, which is why I have so little sympathy for the 'black hat hackers help people improve security' argument sometimes floated here on HN. I actually think it's true that most people are ignorant or possibly even stupid, and that they won't adopt good security (or critical thinking) practices until they've learned the hard way - by being exploited for someone else's gain. But going from observing this fact to actively leveraging it is precisely the point at which one is making the world a worse place. /GRAR

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

clarkmoody 12y ago

Politicians, corporate types, etc. who start a sentence with "What Americans really want..." are usually indicating what they want Americans to want. It's about the same as a politician talking about proposed legislation with the phrase common sense. The goal here is to paint people who oppose your view as out of touch with the average American or acting nonsensically.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

blfr 12y ago

It seems silly to disable a perfectly good chip but to be fair, I only checked if my phone can receive FM radio after reading this post yet I have used AntennaPod, Spotify, and SoundCloud for hundreds of hours. Motorola shines again btw. Not only do they not cripple their phones but also include a simple FM Radio app by default.