Author: RB

Fixing the Internet

Interesting article about the Internet’s next iteration, The Internet Reborn, via Volokh:

A grass-roots group of leading computer scientists, backed by Intel and other heavyweight industrial sponsors, is working on replacing today’s Internet with a faster, more secure, and vastly smarter network: PlanetLab.

Most of the article deals with common-sense enhancements to speed up web browsing and conferencing that have the side effect of limiting viruses and DoS attacks. This is a good example of the benefits of good engineering.

Broadband TV takes off in Asia

Reuters reports that Asian telco now offer pay TV services:

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Asian phone companies are rolling out new pay TV services using their broadband Internet networks, injecting fresh competition into an industry dominated by cable and satellite operators.

The trend has taken off in Asia first because the technology is already in place: three-quarters of the region’s broadband connections use digital subscriber line (DSL) technology to transform ordinary telephone lines into high-speed data pipes, industry analysts say.

Modifying existing DSL systems to handle pay TV is a relatively minor expense for most Internet companies as they look for new ways to make money, said Marcel Fenez, an Asia media consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

There are a couple of issues here, penetration and bandwidth. Japan and Hong Kong offer higher-speed DSL than we’re used to in America, and more people are hooked up. There must be some subsidies at work, but I don’t have the details on them.

Link via Broadbandits author Om Malik.

Dean’s campaign too “blog-centric”

Some pols notice that Howard Dean’s supporters are all professionals, just half of the traditional Democratic constituency that usually encompasses working and unemployed people alike. See Howard Kurtz, just over half-way down:

This concern, which has popped up repeatedly in the media, is shared by many other Dean supporters, including Richard Hoefer, a San Francisco filmmaker who believes that the campaign has been too ‘blog-centric.’ Asked if he thinks there’s a homogeneity to Dean’s base, Hoefer responds, ‘You mean whitey?’

We know that blogging, like political giving, is only for white professionals, but voting is something everybody gets to do, so Dean may not be as strong as he looks based simply on fundraising.

Song stealing suits commence

The RIAA has finally started suing major music thieves, starting with a few hundred people who’d each “shared” over a thousand tunes. One file thief’s reaction was typical:

Another defendant, Lisa Schamis of New York, said her Internet provider warned her two months ago that record industry lawyers had asked for her name and address, but she said she had no idea she might be sued. She acknowledged downloading ?lots? of music over file-sharing networks.

?This is ridiculous,? said Schamis, 26. ?People like me who did this, I didn?t understand it was illegal.?

?I can understand why the music industry is upset about this, but the fact that we had access to this as the public, I don?t think gives them the right to sue us. It?s wrong on their part,? said Schamis, who added she is unemployed and would be unable to pay any large fine or settlement.

OK, perhaps she was genuinely in the dark and didn’t know that what she was doing was wrong. Perhaps those of us who know better can help those who don’t understand this behavior by calling it by its name. So from now on, instead of calling it “file sharing” let’s call it “song stealing” the better to educate the masses. It’s the responsible thing to do.

Here’s a statement from songwriter Hugh Prestwood on song stealing:
Continue reading “Song stealing suits commence”

Silicon Valley

On one of my many trips to Fry’s this weekend, I ran into an old buddy from 3Com who now works for Wi-Fi champion Atheros, and we quickly ran down 802.11, 802.15, 802.16, UWB, Intel’s wireless strategy, and the limitations of IPv6. Little chance encounters like that are what’s best about Silicon Valley, but on reflection I didn’t learn much from it except that it’s nice that I don’t have to write code for a living any more.

Broadbandits

Om Malik’s book on the bubble, Broadbandits, sounds moderately interesting:

WorldCom in bankrupt, Global Crossing is decimated, PSINet sold for peanuts, and Genuity sold its assets for a mere $250 million, a fraction of its one-time worth. With over 100 companies bankrupt and equal number that have shut shop, as many as 600, 000 telecommunications workers are now without a paycheck, these are staggering numbers for an industry that accounts for a sixth of the U.S. economy. But they are not as staggering as the amounts of money that hard-working employees at these broadband companies have lost.

As executives were cashing out on their own holdings, they encouraged employees to put their 401(k) dollars into company stock. The telecom industry is perhaps the worst culprit in the spate of financial dirty dealings that have been splashed across the business pages and yet the rewards reaped by the top executives at many of these failed, or failing, companies have been inversely proportionate to their decline.

Can somebody who’s read it comment on whether it’s worth the time?

The dustbin of history

Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy and Steven Rosenfeld of TomPaine.com are worried that capitalism is Stealing The Internet:

The Internet’s early promise as a medium where text, audio, video and data can be freely exchanged and the public interest can be served is increasingly being relegated to history’s dustbin. Today, the part of the Net that is public and accessible is shrinking, while the part of the Net tied to round-the-clock billing is poised to grow exponentially.

I’m going to have to hurry up and publish my critique of “The Future of Ideas” because this kind of crap gets more and more common. For the record, and because I don’t have much time today, let me remind my readers that the Internet, at the time TCP/IP was rolled-out in 1982, consisted of a half-dozen computers connected by 56Kbps modems on leased liines, and nobody was exchanging any video or audio over it. It’s become what it is today because capitalist enterprises were willing to invest money in upgrading the infrastructure, which they did on the expectation that they could make some money off it. It already costs more to get a broadband connection than a dialup, and that’s as it should be. As we go to more metered services, the richness of the overall environment will improve, not decline.

So no, the socialist vision of the Internet as something as free as air has never been true, the Internet is not dying, and we don’t need more government regulation of the Net, thank you very much.

I wish these dudes would go and find themselves an issue they can understand.

Whither techno-populism?

It strikes me as odd that techno-populist Larry Lessig and his many disciples (Weinberger, Searls, Gillmor, Ito, Winer, et. al.) are are bitterly opposed to the recall. If you believe in grass-roots democracy, emergent democracy, and self-organizing movements, why stomp your feet and hurl angry insults about right-wing coups when the people have mobilized to make their voices heard? It just makes no sense. Lessig even tries to use some fuzzy math to invalidate the successor election:

So if this California recall succeeds, then more likely than not the Governor who replaces Gray Davis will have received fewer votes than Gray Davis. Davis could get, say, 49.9% of the vote, and would be “recalled.” But his replacement is chosen with a simple plurality. Thus, in a field of 200 candidates, it is more likely than not that the replacement governor will have gotten fewer votes than the governor he replaces.

This is what we call an “apples to oranges” comparison, since we have one election with a field of one and another election with field of a hundred or so. But even accepting Lessig’s handicap, Arnie’s polling better than the governor right now, 48 – 26.

One upside of the recall is that it’s taken both Kobe Bryant and the Nine Dwarves of the Democratic Party off page one for a while, and maybe that’s what’s got the TechPops upset: they’re mainly hardcore Deanies, after all.

And who’s advising Weinberger?

David Weinberger announces he’s joined Howard Dean’s campaign:

I now have an official title — “Senior Internet Advisor” — so I figure I should come out of the closet entirely.

I was going to leave this comment on Weinberger’s blog, but thought better of it:

It’s great that you’re advising Dean on the Internet, David, as he clearly needs to understand it.

Now the question that pops into my little mind is: “who’s advising you?”

That would have been rude, of course. But the point is that Weinberger, as a card-carrying, charter member of the Larry Lessig “End of the Internet” club has consistently demonstrated a lack of understanding of what the Internet is, how it’s put together, and where it’s going. In this job, that’s not a disadvantage, as all he needs to do is rail against Big Everything to advance the Little Guy’s campaign.

So good luck to all concerned.