幹壞事是進步最大的原動力
先前知道不少單位會選擇用 CloudFront 的原因就是 S3 到 CloudFront 這段是不需要傳輸費用的。畢竟 CDN 的 hit rate 還是有限，用其他家 CDN 得付這塊費用。
而現在 Backblaze 宣佈跟 Cloudflare 合作，免除掉 Backblaze 到 Cloudflare 的費用：「Backblaze and Cloudflare Partner to Provide Free Data Transfer」。
Today we are announcing that beginning immediately, Backblaze B2 customers will be able to download data stored in B2 to Cloudflare for zero transfer fees.
AWS 這邊會不會有其他動作呢...
在 Twitter 看到 Jeff Barr 提到日本區的 EC2 與 S3 傳輸費用降價：
AWS Data Transfer Price Reductions - Up to 34% (Japan) and 28%( Australia) - https://t.co/ejk3TgIxgU pic.twitter.com/oSdAr4f76y
— Jeff Barr ☁️ (@jeffbarr) September 19, 2018
網站的說明文章則是在「AWS Data Transfer Price Reductions – Up to 34% (Japan) and 28% (Australia)」這邊。分成幾個部份降價：
然後自動回朔到 2018/09/01 開始算：
Effective September 1, 2018 we are reducing prices for data transfer from Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), and Amazon CloudFront by up to 34% in Japan and 28% in Australia.
另外有提到 CloudFront 也有降價，以及澳洲的部份，應該不太會碰到所以就跳過去...
但就文章這樣寫明 EC2 與 S3 的流量有降價，應該表示從 ELB 出去的流量就不算在這次的降價？除非你是直接 S3 裸奔，不然對大多數的人應該沒差？
Steam 宣佈停止使用 Bitcoin 購買遊戲：「Steam is no longer supporting Bitcoin」。
官方提到的原因是因為交易費用太高 (雖然是讓使用者付)：
In the past few months we've seen an increase in the volatility in the value of Bitcoin and a significant increase in the fees to process transactions on the Bitcoin network. For example, transaction fees that are charged to the customer by the Bitcoin network have skyrocketed this year, topping out at close to $20 a transaction last week (compared to roughly $0.20 when we initially enabled Bitcoin).
另外一個原因是波動問題：
Historically, the value of Bitcoin has been volatile, but the degree of volatility has become extreme in the last few months, losing as much as 25% in value over a period of days.
所以這樣推測，Steam 不是直接換成法幣？我記得他們合作的交易所 (BitPay) 可以馬上換成法幣...
在「Mastercard sued for $19 billion in Britain's biggest damages claim」這邊看到的幾個重點，第一個是歐盟對國際手續費 1% 的限制：(雖然 Brexit...)
A lawyer working on the case said Mastercard charged shops fees in excess of 1 percent for card use on international transactions between 1992 and 2008.Although the EU's anti-trust regulator only ruled Mastercard's international fees were illegal, this impacted British consumers as it was the default fee used in Britain.
另外一個是兩年前的新規定：
Two years ago, the European Union capped the fees retailers pay at 0.2 percent for debit cards and 0.3 percent for credit cards.
唔... (回頭看台灣的帳單)
T-Mobile 將要推出國際漫遊單一費率的資費方案：「T-Mobile to offer free unlimited international data, texts」。
引用裡面的文字：
T-Mobile's latest shake-up puts international roaming rates in its sights, with the carrier eliminating fees for data and text messages entirely in more than 100 countries. It will also simplify the calling rates, charging a fixed rate of 20 cents per minute.
語音的部份，每分鐘新台幣 6 元？
不過 unlimited international data 是有速度限制的：
Chief Marketing Officer Mike Sievert said the average speed customers would get would be around 128 kilobits a second.
如果要速度，多付錢可以解決問題：
T-Mobile hopes to make some of its money back with "speed packs" that customers can purchase on the fly to boost their connection speed temporarily. For $15, a customer gets a single day's worth of high-speed data up to 100 megabytes, while $20 gets one week at 200 megabytes and $50 gets two weeks and 500 megabytes. The speeds are more accustomed to T-Mobile's HSPA+ networks, since international roaming with LTE isn't broadly available.
在官方網站的「Simple Choice International Plans | Unlimited Data & Text | T-Mobile」上面寫的更清楚：
Only T-Mobile’s network can give you unlimited everything for everyone. Other carriers may even make you share minutes, messages, and data between you and your family. With the Simple Choice Plan, each line comes with unlimited talk, text, and data while on our home network—and starting October 20, unlimited data and text in over 100 countries at no extra charge. That means no overages just about anywhere you go. Plus, there's no annual service contract and it's easy to add additional lines.
現有用戶在漫遊時直接受益...
不知道外國人辦這個划不划算，尤其是常常跑去國外的...
在 Slashdot 看到的新聞「Arizona Governor Proposes Flab Tax」，原文轉自 WSJ 的「Arizona Proposes Medicaid Fat Fee」。
文章裡提到：
Arizona's governor on Thursday proposed levying a $50 fee on some enrollees in the state's cash-starved Medicaid program, including obese people who don't follow a doctor-supervised slimming regimen and smokers.
那個「including」的意思表示不只跟這些人收，不然會用「only」而非「including」，以避免被政敵咬住利用，所以還不知道影響範圍有多大...