The report (press release) from the Computer and Communications Industry Association argues that the reliance on a single technology such as the Windows operating system for such an overwhelming majority of computer systems threatens the security of the U.S. economy and critical infrastructure.
Update: the messenger was shot
ITU’s SPU newslog: Canadians are among the world’s leaders in broadband use.
Nearly half (49%) of all regular home Internet use households had a high-speed Internet connection in 2001. For the private sector, 2002 marked the first year in which the majority (58%) of enterprises using the Internet connected using broadband technologies.
Absolute percentage of broadband connected households being 23% and the percentage of broadband subscribers per inhabitant is 10.3%, close enough to the ITU Birth of Broadband figure of 11.2%.
Maybe StatCan excluded poor souls like me who connect through a cable modem at below single-ISDN speed and who’s DHCP lease mysteriously expire every few hours forcing a manual renewal? Yes yes, I’m bitter, especially because it is hard to complain about inadequate connections when you bust your monthly transfer quotas…
I didn’t find the Connectedness series when I was looking for it the other day. Good thing the article provides a handy link to the PDF.
Much fanfare has been made around Skype, KaZaA’s VoIP offering.
Here is a post on Voxilla, Rebels Without Case, that captures my state of mind very well.
[via Hack the Planet]
While I’m on the topic of VoIP, a municipality in Michigan is selling VoIP to it’s residents.
The move appears to be targetted at the friendly local monopoly, Verizon. Another broadband provider exists in the area, but the city’s offer combines broadband and Vonage’s service.
Community or municipal access providers are not a first, but are there (recent) precedents of a municipal telco?
I don’t see much implications besides convenience for the consumer, and maybe cost savings, since the same service can be accessed using another broadband provider. Although it’s nice to see a small city try to address a problem, this might go against what I just said regarding convergence…
AT&T plans a Bring Your Own Access VoIP service for consumers, Vonage style.
The article mentions that such a service could offer « services like ‘pick your own area code,’ ‘phone number for life,’ and the ability to reach the service from anywhere over the Internet. »
I hope the trend of BYOA services will increase and that connectivity will be considered a basic utility-like service. From what I can see, bundling service with access, or restricting them based on corporate affiliation, is tempting for entities in the position to do such things.Some people call it convergence. Au contraire, I think convergence comes from abstracting services and information from a given support, be it a material support or a specific delivery medium.
To keep going with my VoIP thread of the week, CNet has a interview with Vint Cerf.
I like the way he sees VoIP:
[…] VoIP starts the natural progression of another modality that the Internet can support. It also changes the whole of the telephony world substantially, so (VoIP) is hard to ignore.
And wouldn’t that be nice:
Q:You view VoIP as just one of several next-generation services. What are some of the other services?
A:There are several already showing up. You can show up at a hotel and register your normal telephone number–as long as you can plug in your PC to an Internet service. What that means is your visibility in the communications world is now portable. Wherever you are, your communications are (there also). You can control where things go. If someone’s trying to send a fax, you can vector that to your e-mail as an attachment or vector it to a different fax machine. There’s an incredible amount of interaction over what had been completely separate services.
Slashdot has a story about a Dartmouth project that develops on TCPA using Linux. This will be fun to watch as it evolves.
So TCPA will not be a Microsoft-only field after all, it’s a tool that can be used for many purposes.
Every time we exercise control, we lose. Every time we let go, the thing we fought becomes the thing that feeds us. »
Jim Griffin of Cherry Lane Digital, quoted in LA Times, « Legal Effort May Slow but Not Stop Music Revolution« , in fine
[via Bag and Baggage]
I’m alone in thinking that Bell’s decision to use VoIP on it’s backbones or offer VoIP services to customers should be no big deal. It was all over the radio and the papers this morning. I guess it’s mostly because it involves Nortel.
Meanwhile, Businessweek reports that Vonage would rather forget about telecom regulations altogether, branding them as irrelevant.
I don’t have any clear ideas on how consumer VoIP could or should be regulated, but I do feel the current landscape does not allow for sufficient quality and accountability, on the part of both access providers and service providers to offer a solid alternative to the traditional POTS. Are the actual regulations appropriate? Most likely no. But an absence of regulation of a critical infrastructure element, either because of planning, ignorance or by omission, will not serve the consumers and the market well. Kevin Werbach seems to come to the same conclusions: this issue needs some rational policy making now.
Update: Chalk up one vote against regulation from Net2Phone’s CEO in that Cnet article. He does seem to accept that once VoIP is not considered a nascent business anymore, some regulatory attention will be inevitable, at the demand of the LECs.
New IBM commercial featuring a kid prodigy part of a global Linux ad push.
Avoid the irony of a Linux ad available only in WMP format by grabbing the QT or the MPEG on IBM’s own site.
Can’t wait for « The future is closed and proprietary. And delayed one more year. »
Bell will begin to transition some of it’s equipment to VoIP using Nortel’s boxes says CNet.
I think this should be a non issue. Whether Voice is done on IP or on circuit based connections will hopefully become irrelevant. It’s a service. Like mobile phones: using GSM or CDMA doesn’t matter as much as the end result, which is the provision of a mobile voice (ok, and a bit of data) services. The same argument could be made with cable or satellite TV services. Services are key, and some ways to deliver them will probably prove to be more efficient or flexible or lucrative.
Maybe the old way is more appropriate in some cases, maybe VoIP makes more sense in most cases. Hopefully telecom regulations will adapt to this new context and allow for a rich ecosystem of services.
I just found out about Waybath’s Buzz Maker tool.
It uses Waypath’s database to map the fluctuation of the occurrences of certain terms in the blogosphere.
Since they kindly provide the HTML code, I assume they don’t mind including a dynamically generated image: Here’s a example:
It seems, from experimenting a bit, that the big spikes are mostly due to spidering cycles, since they are present in all the keywords I tried. Or maybe they coincide with summer vacations?
« This is an experiment in property rights in the digital age, something that’s gotten surprisingly little attention. » An intrepid netizen is auctionioning a song he bought from the iTunes Music Store on eBay. The license doesn’t seem to explicitly cover (much less prohibit) this action. As more and more things become digital, what do we do with things we no longer want that have "value" but no physical substance?
Update: Picked up by Slashdot
Update: The auction was pulled.
Update 2: Apple’s director of marketing for applications and services says this whole thing does not matter since re-selling songs is impractical. Of course the question of what your service actually sell or licence (and what I get for my money) can’t be too important… What about asking the question to someone in legal affairs?
Canada’s cell phone operators are planning the « Interac of WiFi« :
The 12-million people who own cellphones, personal digital assistants or any wireless device and subscribe to Bell Mobility (with Aliant Mobility), Microcell Solutions (Fido), Rogers AT&T Wireless or Telus Mobility will be able to use all Wi-Fi hot-spots operated by any one of those companies.
Ok, but are there any WiFi hot-spots operated by any one of those companies? I know about the Bell AccessZones. Are there others?
It seems the announcement is similar to the one that led to the « success » we’ve had with SMS interconnection, which is not very reassuring.
[via BoingBoing]
Remember that open letter to WIPO regarding a meeting on open source issues?
A meeting was initially planned, but due to vigourous pressure from the US administration, it seems the meeting is no longer on track.
This is sad because from strong intellectual property laws stem the right to do whatever you want with this intellectual property. Including licensing it under an open source licence.
Lois Boland, director of international relations for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, said that open-source software runs counter to the mission of WIPO, which is to promote intellectual-property rights.
The mission of WIPO is to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world through cooperation among States and, where appropriate, in collaboration with any other international organization. Licensed IP, even under the GPL is indeed protected, thanks to the various IP legislation everywhere, harmonized under WIPO or WTO treaties.
This is not p2p file-sharing, this is legitimate licensing of one’s own IP under the terms one chooses. Especially considering the interest developing, and not so developing nations, have shown in considering open source code, WIPO should do the right thing and promote intellectual property and not be lured into considering IP as a generic item of trade.
[thanks Brightblue]
[Update: Oh.. Lessig is not amused.]
[Update2: Slashdot picked it up. It’s great that this story is making waves…]