Every system wants one and only one system administrator. The body wants a brain. The brain wants a self. The people want a king. The market wants a monopoly. But that's not sustainable for a system. Eventually, as the agents, or actors, or nodes in network are reduced to a handful, and then to a few, there comes a time when there can be only one.
Now is that time. (See previous post for more of this.)
Let's start with this, a bit tangential, but putting the point up front, in practical terms:
ANCHOR website isn’t broken, state says. Error message is a security measure
Sep 2024, NJ Advance Media
This an example of what happens when you offload government services to private enterprise, at a time when all the enterprises get along and follow the same rules, until they don't because they get so big they start eating each other, and make the whole infrastructure of the internet not work, and government is screwed, because that's what's happening:
(ANCHOR is a state program that allows New Jersey residents to get money back for their high property taxes.)“When someone has an ANCHOR status page open in one page, then tries to open another ANCHOR status page, it will stop the user.”Some of the users who got the message insisted they did not have multiple tabs or windows open. They said they tried to use the tool on computers and laptops, tablets and cell phones, but they continued to get the error.Those who tried other browsers reported they were able to access the tool.
Image credit: AI Art - Drunk People 1 - 2024
Now let's look at some direct hits:
Google accuses Microsoft of antitrust violations over Azure cloud platform
Sep 2024, Ars Technica
Google also said in its complaint, which was sent on Tuesday to the EU’s powerful competition unit, that it was concerned that Microsoft was degrading the user experience of those customers that were moving their Windows software to competing cloud providers.
This is almost exactly and literally the same language used by Mehta against Google in the Oct 2024 DOJ anti trust suit: "Plaintiffs contend that Google’s conduct has caused three anticompetitive effects particular to the text ads market: ... (3) product degradation through diminished transparency regarding text ads auctions. ... ." (p258, link)
[^Note that Google's customers are not the average internet user who runs a search, but advertising people, so when they talk about the deterioration of the product, it's of the advertisement4, or its placement, or its audience, not the search results.]
Google accused of shadow campaigns redirecting antitrust scrutiny to Microsoft
Oct 2024, Ars Technica
FTX sues Binance for $1.76B in battle of crypto exchanges founded by convicts
Nov 2024, Ars Technica
Albertsons calls off merger and sues Kroger
Dec 2024, CNN Business
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