How electricity became a right, and what it means for broadband
December 14th, 2009
Archive for 2009
Shared by JonGlenn Fleishman's "The Killer App of 1900" draws striking parallels between the present-day debate over the necessity of Internet access and the early 20th century debate over the necessity of electricity. In the early days of electrification, electricity was a luxury, providing lights to a few peop...
File under: History Repeats Itself. Yes, Again.
Short version: Broadband Internet in the 2000s is Electricity in the 1900s.
Shared by JonAmericans lead the world in charitable contributions, giving $300 billion a year to charities. Sounds like a lot right? But this is just a drop in the bucket compared to the over One Trillion Dollars needed to keep US cha...
We're number 1! We're number 1!
(In charitable giving)
Shared by JonGoogle CEO Eric Schmidt says privacy isn't important, and if you want to keep something private, "maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place" (in other words, "innocent people have nothing to hide.") Bruce Schneier calls bullshit with eloquence: "For if we are observed in all matters, we are constantly under threat of c...
I'd forgotten about the Google blacklisting of Cnet's reporters from a few years back!
I love hypocrisy in action!
Shared by JonI'm trying hard to be jaded and skeptical about this, but, well, EEEEEEEEEEEEE! And here's the official synopsis: TRON: LEGACY is a 3D high-tech adventure set in a digital world that's unlike anything ever captured on the big screen. Sam Flynn (GARRETT HEDLUND), the tech-savvy 27-year-old son...
Want!
Shared by JonJesusrollerbladinginspandexchrist-alive. I've watched this video of a robot jedi—making all kinds of objects float across complex paths in midair—about ten times, and I still can't believe what I'm seeing. But it's 100% real, and as impressive as BigDog. The Airbot doesn't use any magic, just a computer-controlled gimbaled air jet, "powered by a 62...
Holy smokes!
FIRSTers: We've been doing it wrong.
For all others, this is the most fearsome beirut playing robot ever!
Shared by Jon"If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines — including Google — do retain this information for some time... we are all subject in the United St...
"If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." - Google CEO Eric Schmidt
Really?
Sigh.
Shared by JonMusic vid for OK Go's WTF? is a lot of fun, but even more so is their making-of video, HTF? Found via...
I've never listen-watched a commentary for a music video before but I like!
Shared by JonThe Genachowski-led Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seems to delight in dropping bombsh...
Money section:
If you're curious how an agency like the FCC says something like "total failure," take a look at yesterday's innocuously titled document, "Comment sought on video device innovation." Buried inside that document are these lines: "The Commission's CableCARD rules have resulted in limited success in developing a retail market for navigation devices. Certification for plug-and-play devices is costly and complex."
"Limited success" is a bureaucratic euphemism for abject failure, as the FCC made clear during its own November open meeting. During that event, as part of its discussion about the National Broadband Plan, it noted that set-top box innovation had stagnated. Agency engineers showed the following chart, pointing out that only 14 non-leased set-top boxes were on the market in the US.
Fourteen—and yet most Americans own a TV, and most subscribe to some form of pay-TV service. Compare this to mobile devices, where innovation has exploded despite (the now loosening) carrier restrictions; in 2008, 879 mobile devices were in existence. Why innovation in the one market but not the other?
"Science doesn't work because we're all nice. Newton may have been an ass, but the theory of gravity still works."
- GAVIN A. SCHMIDT, a NASA climatologist whose e-mail messages were hacked by global warming skeptics, contending the stolen data proves little except that scientists are human.
The flip side of that comment is frustrating. I'm constantly amazed by people who think that since someone is sincere, humble and nice, his/her opinion is valid and expertise is strong.
Found via...Shared by JonHave you ever browned butter? It's an easy way to take a recipe that relies on butter up a notch in flavor. Just by cooking the butter a little past the melting point results in the milk solids in the butter browning, and creating a wonderfully nutty aroma. It's fun to do with butt...
MikeD, remember that time that you walked into the house and said that something I was making smelled delicious and it turned out to be butter?
Now you can too!