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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (33612)	9/24/2000 2:15:02 PM
From: sunshadow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

OPEC Warns Against More Reserve Releases Sep 24 12:53pm ET CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - OPEC Secretary-General Rilwanu Lukman cautioned industrialized nations on Sunday against following the U.S. lead in releasing strategic oil reserves to counter high prices. ``Those who hold reserves should be careful when they use them so they can be there for real emergencies,'' Lukman told a news conference ahead of the oil producer group's summit this week in Caracas. President Clinton decided on Friday to release 30 million barrels from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve over 30 days to prevent heating oil supply disruptions this winter. ``It's not our business to interfere with what industrialized countries do with their reserves, but I don't know whether the current situation could be regarded as an emergency. It's not quite an appropriate use for it,'' Lukman said. U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson has said the United States was prepared to take further action if necessary to calm oil prices, which last week hit their highest level since the Gulf War. Prices have fallen sharply as the United States signaled it would release reserves, and European leaders called for measures to ease high prices. Lukman said he hoped that the United States' move along with an 800,000 barrel per day increase OPEC will implement beginning October 1, would moderate prices, but he said the group would work to avoid prices falling back too far. ``We are not going to get pushed into putting more oil into the market than it needs,'' he said. ``People forget that prices have come up from just $10 a barrel two years ago. No one felt sorry for OPEC then.'' OPEC oil ministers meeting on Tuesday would not emerge with any new supply decision, Lukman said, adding that the group had the option to raise supply at the end of October under its price stability mechanism. This week's summit, only the second in the group's 40-year history, will help OPEC's efforts to work together to manage oil prices, he said. ``It could not have come at a better time for our organization. It will go a long way to strengthen us,'' he said. He reiterated that OPEC believed high taxes in consuming countries, lack of refining capacity and oil market speculators were just as responsible for current high prices as a shortage of crude oil. ``It's all very well to blame OPEC. We are a very convenient scapegoat,'' he said. ``We have taken steps to alleviate high prices and we believe prices will come down to a level us and our customers are happy with. People expect this to happen in five minutes. Time is required.'' Strong prices were necessary to make sure oil producers invested enough in exploration and production to meet future demand, Lukman added. ``Without good prices we may well end up with a shortage of capacity in the future,'' he said.

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (33612)	9/24/2000 2:20:15 PM
From: active22	Respond to of 50167

Now you're getting me sick. Fiber to the home, are you sure? Oh I guess since you live in the sewer, the backbone is easy to tap in to. Opps wrong thread.

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (33612)	9/24/2000 2:20:16 PM
From: PMG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

** OT ** If it's fiber optic it can carry a much higher bandwidth than phone wire which is also used for DSL. Standard tv cable is not fiber optic so what you look at really seems to be something more advanced... looks good! I had ISDN and have DSL now and it's so worth it, whole new experience, watching video, net radio, fast downloads and much faster pageloads... go for it (and higher price is quite a good quality indicator in any competitive field)I don't know the At&T offer, I don't live in the US... PMG

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (33612)	9/24/2000 2:24:17 PM
From: HoodBuilder	Respond to of 50167

GZ, I'm not an expert but I will tell you that their comment regarding the "return line" via POTS is incorrect. The slowness results from cable not being point to point like DSL, it has very little to do with the "upload" speed from your computer to elsewhere on the network. The vast majority of speed is required for downloading files to your machine or refreshing or loading new web pages. When on a cable system (as I am) you share bandwidth with the other subscribers in you area, as use increases by subscriber, speed is degraded like during peak usage times 6-10 pm. This may be reduced on a "totally fiber" network but I have a hard time believing they can deliver a consistent 1-1.5 MB connection which would be 3X faster than the higher rate DSL. I've been waiting for over a year to get DSL in my area and I've been putting up with the terrible performance and lousy reliability of Adelphia PowerLink Cable Modem Service. If you can get BellSouth to give you DSL I'd go for it before cable. Just my $.02.

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (33612)	9/24/2000 5:05:21 PM
From: HeatherN	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

GZ, I have had both a cable modem (previously) and now a DSL line with a router in my current home. Overall, the DSL provided by Ameritech/SBC seems to be consistently faster than the cable. At peak hours the cable speed was noticeably compromised. The only disadvantage that I've found with the DSL is that I tend to have 1 minute service interrupts a few times per week. I doubt this is universal, though. The bottom line is that anything beats a dialup connection. The biggest problem I have encountered with both services is the fact that they have now made me an even more impatient person while waiting for anything.........I'm a speed junkie now <g>. Heather

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (33612)	9/24/2000 10:57:55 PM
From: Peace	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50167

*OT* Hi GZ, I have a cable modem and my ISP is @home. I am not sure if it is the same service that ATT is offering you. I have had this service for about 2 years. Initially it was very erratic in terms of speed and I used to have a lot of outages but several months ago they upgraded the network and gave us new cable modems. Since then I mostly see speeds between 2.5 and 3 Mbits and the service has been virtually outage free. I had been looking into DSL but dropped the idea as they couldnt even get me 1.5Mbit which is what Mindspring offers. The speed depends on the distance between your DSL modem and the local Central office. For cable service I believe it is still a coax cable from your house to the local hub in your neighborhood and then it is fiber beyond that. You do share bandwidth with your neighbors with a cable modem so it is difficult to forecast the speed you will get. I have been pretty satisfied with my cable modem service and will not consider DSL until the speeds get better or my cable service degrades as more users sign up. I believe that the current 1.5 Mbit offered for consumer DSL is expected to go up to 4 Mbit next year. Good luck. Peace