Memex 1.1

NY Times: entrenched interests fear Wi-Fi may cause retrenching: In a nicely clever piece of reasoning, John Markoff spells out Wi-Fi’s potential to disrupt entrenched telecommunications interests especially as the FCC examines opening up more spectrum to unlicensed or related use. As I have often said, incumbent market interests always get angry when consumers produce a more efficient marketplace. Rather than fight in the market, they encourage regulation or legislation to tip the playing field that’s already heavily tilted their direction.

[80211b News]

WSJ article on weblogs. [Scripting News]

Change Urged in Broadband Policy. A group of technology and media companies argue that the open nature of the Internet will be lost unless the F.C.C. amends its broadband policy.  [New York Times: Technology]

Read it and weep: This morning I went to hear Jin-wook Son, the managing director of the UK office of Korea Telecom, speak about S. Korea’s phenomenal broadband market — it has 10 million b/b subscribers (mostly DSL), around 70 per cent of households, the highest b/b penetration in the world. 55 million Koreans are online. Most Koreans subscribe to the ‘premium’ DSL offering from Korea Telecom, which gives 8 Mbps for… ready?… about 33 $/? a month. Modem rental is an additional 2.50 and the one-off installation cost is ?/$25. Setting aside factors such as very high density housing, which makes getting people wired up easier, he ascribes the fast take-up to huge govt support, a competitive telecoms market (and remember, he is from the incumbent operator!), and lots of content and services. Online gaming is very, very, VERY big in Korea. More on all this during the week. [[ t e c h n o c u l t u r e ]]

Lindows 3.0 released
InfoWorld report

Parents are more wired than non-parents

According to the latest Pew Internet survey, parents are more enthusiastic about technology than non-parents and more likely to use the Web for health information, for their work or training, and for getting religious information. Seventy percent of parents with a child at home use the Internet, compared to 53% of non-parents. These parents are more enthusiastic than non-parents about technology and its benefits and are strong believers that their children need to master computers and the Internet in order to get ahead in life.

Bush Mark 2 equals Orwell Mark 1

William Safire’s vitriolic attack on Admiral Poindexter’s [of Iran Contra fame] plan for “Total Information Awareness” — which is part of the Homeland Security Act. If this goes through, then Osama bin Laden has really won. Meanwhile, here’s David Carr’s splendid article on the impossibility of making the US terrorist-proof.

Useful guide to Microsoft shady practices

A scarifying document detailing the various ways in which acceptance of Microsoft software exposes users to intrusions by the company into their privacy and the innards of their machines.

The latest Halloween memo

This one is a remarkably candid meditation on the progress of Microsoft’s anti-Open Source campaign to date. Conclusion: it hasn’t worked. The memo also recommends that Microsoft should stop denigrating Open Source software. Black propaganda doesn’t work. Well, well.

How the law is an ass when it tangles with digital stuff

Red Hat vs. the DMCA. Red Hat publishes information about a security patch ONLY to people outside the United States, because of fear of the DMCA. It seems that a description of a fix to a vulnerability also contains information about the vulnerability itself, which could be a violation of the DMCA. And while we’re on the subject of ridiculous, here are some of the “digital media devices” that would be required to incorporate government-approved copy-protection technology under the Hollings CBDTPA Bill: hearing aids, talking picture frames, scrolling signs, and baby monitors.