Thirty Meter Telescope Update

I received this update from Oceanic Time Warner Cable‘s V.P of Operations confirming the recent inconsistent Road Runner speeds.

“Aaron, I checked with the Big Island folks and there are some issues on the node that feeds you along with several others on the Big Island. We are working on both infrastructure fixes as well as software. I will update you as things move along.”

Incidentally, Oceanic recently rolled out a new Road Runner speed tier, 50Mbps/5Mbps.

The ongoing Thirty Meter Telescope Contested Case Hearings should be wrapped up by September 26th, 2011. This whole process has turned in a circus sideshow. One petitioner claimed their child could speak for Mo’oinanea, a Hawaiian God. In addition, an expert witness asserted the Thirty Meter Telescope project “is a textbook case of 21st-century colonialism.”

Tourism, construction, real estate, and the military, the existing backbones of our local economy,  is unsustainable over the long term. So, we need to make a strong push to diversify our economy. However, the anti-telescope opponents would rather see more service industry jobs (e.g Target) created instead of supporting the TMT.

I don’t believe we’ll see widespread 1Gbps Internet access by 2018 in Hawaii. Hawaiian Telcom’s aging last mile copper loop facilities has to be upgraded to fiber and Oceanic Time Warner Cable needs to provide the service they promised before this goal can be realized.

Lastly, the significant drop in building permits from 2006 to 2011 is absolutely staggering. Hawaii County processed building permits valued at 60 million dollars a month in 2006. That figure dropped to around two million dollars thus far in 2011.