death in the rearview mirror

Dean offers a roll call of some public figures who died this year, within a reflection on the day and the season.

It's usually impossible for me to ever keep straight who in the glittering house of fame is alive, and whose beam is on automatic. The advent of fame is the advent of death, only some are strangely still breathing. Or something.

Dean identifies the names by field, by personal reminiscence, by endeavor, or claim to fame - the Taco Bell dog, e.g. It reads like an x-ray of the ganglia of a generation. One that is still generating, and degenerating, for a bit longer.

There's more to it - to us - to everything - than we know. Ideas are to objects as constellations are to stars, wrote Benjamin.

Perhaps constellations are the fame of stars. When Dean goes to Yankee stadium, he tweets the games.

Trinitarian billability

Brilliant comment by Dean Landsman responding to Doc:

There is no real “Triple Play.” Rather, there is one connectivity instance (hooking up premises) for which users are given three different recurring billable events. A recurring monthly charge makes sense - after all, they do provide this service. How they bill for it, however, is another issue.

When a cable or a fiber service offers TV (aka video from existing networks or channels, formerly known as “TV”), also offers voice (formerly known as phone service), and also offers internet connectivity, these are all merely billable events, all of which come from that original connection of pipe to premises.

The TV service breaks down into subsets of billable events, such as VOD, premium channels, and so on.

The phone service offers premium billing for certain “long distance” events, many of which are running on the net and are actually less expensive than the old paradigm of copper and undersea cable.

The internet is simply basic connectivity, allowing users to join a network of other users enjoying a connection to the backbone. The upsell here is gigs of use (up or down).

Bottom line: the costs to the companies of providing these services are nowhere near as high as the upsells and events would indicate. But until competitive offerings are allowed to flourish (and IMHO we can hope but should not set our expectation levels too very high, vis-a-vis the incoming administration), the small group of Big Cos controlling this environment will do all they can to control our connectivity, our access, and their ability to charge us for it on a premium and multiple level and event basis.