You may have heard or read about "Net Neutrality" lately. While the term is very vague and the matter is very complicated, Google does a tremendous job of summing it up...
"Allowing broadband carriers to control what people see and do online would fundamentally undermine the principles that have made the Internet such a success...A number of justifications have been created to support carrier control over consumer choices online; none stand up to scrutiny."- Vint Cerf [PDF]Google Chief Internet Evangelist and Co-Developer of the Internet Protocol
"The neutral communications medium is essential to our society. It is the basis of a fair competitive market economy. It is the basis of democracy, by which a community should decide what to do. It is the basis of science, by which humankind should decide what is true. Let us protect the neutrality of the net."- Tim Berners-Lee Inventor of the World Wide Web
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Speaking of Google - they're offering real time traffic times and road conditions to your mobile phone. Wow, someone finally put traffic reports in the car where it belongs. (I can't wait until navigation systems come equipped with those same reports.)
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What does it take to be on "Deal or No Deal"? Wait, wait... lemme guess.....
1) You have to at least pretend that you think Howie Mandel is funny.
2) You have no concept of 2nd grade math and have to be confused by the banker's offer of $17,000 the first time around and actually consider taking it.
3) You're the kind of person that gets super excited about free ice cream day at work and talk about it in constant anticipation at least once an hour.
4) You LOVE bingo and think that you're really good at it.
5) You have been on "The Price is Right" at least twice in your life.
6) You celebrate Sweetest's Day.
7) You're happy because Willard Scott is happy.
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Is your dad a hardcore gamer? (Thanks Sridhar)
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Do you feel kind of occult-y today? The significance of the number 23.
2 comments:
Another reason to love XM: NavTraffic
As someone who works with an organization opposed to net neutrality I would like to offer some additional information. Here is another quote from the very same Vince Cerf,
"If the legislators ... insist on neutrality, we will be happy. If they do not put it in, we will be less happy but then we will have to wait and see whether or not there actually is any abuse, If we are not successful in our arguments ... then we will simply have to wait until something bad happens and then we will make known our case to the Department of Justice's anti-trust division,"
http://today.reuters.com/stocks/QuoteCompanyNewsArticle.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2006-07-04T152432Z_01_L04777905_RTRIDST_0_TECH-GOOGLE-NETNEUTRALITY.XML&rpc=66
All of the net neutrality supporters claims are hypothetical and there is no need for net neutrality legislation to solve a nonexistent problem. As Cerf notes, should there be a problem there are appropriate menas to address it such as the FCC and the Department of Justice.
Also, here is another interesting article regarding Microsoft's refusal to justify their support of net neutrality to their shareholders, that's strange. If they have a good reason for increased government regualtion of the internet the least they could do is explain.
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