Inside or out of the HN bubble, if Comcast had real competition you wouldn't be paying nearly as much for your 105 megabit connection. You're kinda making my point.
First of all, I don't think anyone (least of all Comcast) is going to roll anything out "next month." This is not a new issue for the US (having crappy broadband). This article [1] talks about what came of the $200 billion the government gave away to telcos to help build out our infrastructure since 1990 (spoiler: nothing came of it)... and the article is from 2007 so the total giveaway is even more at this point. So I don't think this is a new problem that we are suddenly looking at "next month" solutions for.
Secondly, there is no incentive for anyone (again least of all Comcast) to roll out anything next month, next year, or next decade that would significantly improve broadband in the US. For that you would need meaningful competition. We don't have that here. That's why idiots like TW cable's CFO can say things like "nobody wants gigabit internet" [2] and all that happens is the tech media gets ruffled feathers for a few days. Why on earth would Comcast roll out anything other than what they already have? What are their customers going to do if they don't like it? Go to satellite? Slower but maybe more stable DSL?
Yeah, it was one anecdote, but it was one that highlights the political incompetence and corporate graft that help hold us back from having nice things.
I'm sure it does. I'm from West Virginia, by the way, where federal stimulus money for broadband expansion ($24 million) got funneled to Verizon Network Integration to put routers in libraries. They used $22,600 dollar Cisco 3945's.
I'm sure corruption, regulatory capture, incompetent politicians, and oligopolies have something to do with it too.
Ok. I'm close to your age and about to graduate in the spring with degrees in physics and applied mathematics. I have a similar background to yours (entrepreneur, software, and webdev, but not as much on the hardware side). College is valuable not so much for what it looks like on paper, for much of what you said about getting hired as an 'older' engineer is true, but for shoring up your knowledge with formal training. Also, I have had several really good ideas come to me in math classes over the past few years. You never know where inspiration will come from. You will also be immersing yourself somewhat in the culture of a younger generation. There is value to that especially if you plan on marketing something to an Internet market that largely consists of their demographic. You will also meet a lot of people and those connections are terrific, and not just for networking value. But, ultimately, what jborden13 said is true. You shouldn't make a big commitment like that if you don't truly want it. I loved it.
For me, I feel like entrepreneurship is like touching butterfly wings; you'll never be the same again and probably not very happy in a "job". Good luck
> Schmidt set out the trajectory of robotic warfare and considered whether it would be confined solely to national governments. "It's probable that robotics becomes a significant component of nation state warfare," he said.
This after Google makes a huge investment in robotics companies. Their future potential competitors in this space are in peoples' garages right now. This is Google pulling the ladder up after them.