[backhoe]

Ernest, I wonder just what the H is going on with this stuff... we are in the middle of a vast widening of I-95 between Jacksonville, the King's Bay Naval Station, and Savannah- going from 4 to maybe 8 lanes.

They are laying fibre-optic cable like crazy, still. Piles of huge reels still sit in the work areas, and they have been laying this stuff for about a year. Wonder what's up?

[jimtorr]

"You feel everybody involved either knew or should have known the spectacular risks that were taken,"

This was a product of boom times. Everyone involved "felt" that the boom would go on forever. If it had continued another two years, of course, the companies laying fiber might have cashed in. As it is, only the fiber makers cashed in.

The people really hurt are the residents of western Oregon. Both of my brothers have had to find service-sector jobs.

[IronJack]

It'll get used eventually. In another 10 years, these same people will be carping because there's not enough bandwidth to satisfy their needs.

[constable tom]

""You feel everybody involved either knew or should have known the spectacular risks that were taken," said Reed Hundt, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission from 1993 to 1997..."

Reed Hundt speerheaded (and hyped) the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which directly led to much of the highly speculative investment he's now complaining about. What a hypocrite.