The Draconian internet. April 27, 2006
Posted by piro in Politics, Random Inno.add a comment
Exit Net Neutrality, enter the end of the Internet.
The beginning of the end of the free Internet has began, news.com reports. The Democrat sponsored bill was pushed out of the American senate (by 34 – 22) we should expect our next Internet fees to either rise or expect google, yahoo, hotmail to pass the charges incurred on to us. In a nutshell the Net Neutrality bill was proposed to force the FCC regulate how ISPs handle data on their networks. Now if the FCC can't regulate, then nothing and I mean it, nothing stops firms like AT&T and Verizon from slowing your connection down (literily, because in reality they would actually just put your packets in the saturated bittorent pipe) when you try to access your gmail, yahoo or hotmail account or when you try to purchase "Rambo" the movie from Amazon. It sucks, but it's not all that bad because the same ISPs have promised not to tamper with the data*.
Help is at hand. Also in the news is that firms like Google, Amazon etc… can pool cash together to purchase the soon to be auctioned wireless frequency spectrum. What does this have to do with you and I you say, well this same wireless spectrum can be used to distribute content and also act as a wireless Internet blanket. Nothing different from your typical wifi connection. This counter measuring scenario is very feasible especially since Google has proved that they can provide free Internet access like in San Fransisco.
Eventually if this is the outcome no freedom loving sole would be left on the old network of Evil. Old because a new Network of Evil even more frightening would emerge. The New corpuration (NOTE: link to flash movie) would be effectively one with the Devil, it would be owned by one corporation with the most powerful lobby group in the entire world. Don't forget the won your hearts already, just imagine if Google turns out not to simply be a search company.
* I bet they had their fingers crossed.
Google and China April 23, 2006
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It seems that google’s good citizen image is not limited to western shores. The NY Times has a nice long article about how the Chinese gov. censors the media, and what kind of challenges western companies like google in particular face. The Chinese gov. actually leaves most of the censoring to the companies, without creating any guidelines. This creates an environment where anything gets filtered because the gov has not laid down any kind of guidance.
I can’t wait to start work in China, as I’d really like to experience things first hand.
Yahoo and China April 19, 2006
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News.com has a 2 minute piece from the lawyer and brother of the yahoo mail user sent to jail because yahoo released his details to the chinese gov.
Define: Anti – Semitism April 19, 2006
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This is not my usual tech post but I feel enlightened, Hung Fu over at Kuro5hin has written a very interseting article about anti-semitism. To summarise:
When Harvard and University of Chicago professors Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer released a working paper entitled “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” (Full version here), few expected the national storm of controversy that was about to be unleashed. It’s not often that academic research is roundly condemned by the American media and Harvard University forced to remove it’s official seal from a paper.
