FTC looks at broadband connectivity
The FTC Broadband Connectivity Competition Policy Workshop was on Feb. 13 and 14. Gigi Sohn and David Isenberg voice opinions about the proceedings. Webcasts available.

Feb. 28 is the deadline for comments.

Labels: broadband, policy

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 6:39 AM |

 
Moving the blog, sorry for the mess
I recently moved my blog from Old Blogger to New Blogger. New Blogger does not have an easy way for me to tag and list my blog posts at del.icio.us. (Those tags at the top of the blog connect to the del.icio.us account.) New Blogger does have a labelling (category) feature and I'm using that (see bottom of some of my posts).

My plan is to better integrate the del.icio.us tracking and the labelling. I may stop updating del.icio.us and simply use New Blogger labelling. Ideally, I'd like to use both and I've put out some requests to the Fresh Blog folks to see if they have any answers.

Stay tuned.

Labels: blogging

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 7:01 AM |

 
One-third wireless and one-third dial-up
Reuters:

One-third of U.S. Internet users have connected to the Web using a wireless network to send e-mails, check the latest news or read other things, according to a survey released on Sunday by the Pew Internet Project.

Given that many (most?) cable and tele home connection routers/modems come equipped with wireless, this is not surprising.

More surprising, even shocking, and not mentioned at Reuters, is that one-third of U.S. Internet users connect at home with dial-up. (See p. 7 of the Pew report.)

Download the Pew report (PDF).

Labels: broadband, wireless

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 6:49 AM |

 
Minneapolis Snow Notes
The biggest snowstorm for this century in Minneapolis started late Friday evening and is continuing on through Sunday. I will estimate over 12 inches so far.

We had to get out early so Mary could teach a class at the YWCA. The alley was plowed; the street was not plowed. This didn't make any sense as I would think it would be better for cars to get stuck in the alley rather than in the street. But we made it with our little Chevy Prizm. I've loads of experience driving in weather like this.

Then the shoveling. The snow was fairly light so it wasn't too much work.

I would love to see a snow day tomorrow but it's unlikely. I work at the University of Minnesota and they rarely close for snow.

Click the image below to see some pictures at Flickr.

Labels: CityLife, snow

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 6:02 PM |

 
Redux: Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us
Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us is the cool video by Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. I blogged about it recently.

In terms of my Web beliefs, I like his "Web is us" ideas. I see that to mean an ever-expanding "us"; the Web today isn't the same Web tomorrow. The potential of mixing and remixing and mashing up global cultures and ideas is awe-inspiring and why we need low-cost hardware and access.

I love the music too. It's "There's Nothing Impossible" by Deus and available for free.

I revisited the video today at YouTube and discovered there have been two drafts of the video with a final version on the way. Prof. Wesch is gathering comments and revising especially factual errors. There is also a transcript and high-quality version available. (See his blurb that displays next to the video at YouTube to get all the links.)

He has posted a version at Mojiti where you can add comments directly to the video. This is an interesting idea that gets to be less interesting in practice. It would probably work better with a limited commenting group.

Labels: web2.0, youtube

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 11:38 AM |

 
Introducing the Book (repost)
Improved version of The Book video with better subtitles. ZrednaZ at youtube reposted at a new URL so my old link broke.



And thanks to Roy for pointing me to this...

Labels: humor, tech

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 6:08 AM |

 
Center for Public Integrity wants FCC database
CPI suing FCC to get at real state of broadband competition in the US at Ars Technica.

The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) wants to find out exactly how competitive the US broadband market is. To do that, it needs access to the raw data collected by the FCC, but the agency has refused to turn it over on the grounds that it could give a competitive advantage to other companies.

The data is from Form 477 filings and list each company's line deployments by zip code. This type of data would be immensely useful for crunching out various reports on broadband deployment around the US. The current FCC reports don't share much and consider broadband to start at 200 kbps. Ack.


- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 6:58 PM |

 
Blogger: The Switch
Update: Still have an old-style Blogger blog? It looks like if you go to www.blogger.com, there is a log-in available for the old blogs. I can't test it as I'm in the new system. And I'm reasonably happy with it.

Google rolled the new Blogger out of beta several months ago and they have been inviting me to migrate my blog to the new system. I've avoided the move because I was afraid of losing comments (I use Haloscan for commenting because they provide a trackback system) and because I use del.icio.us for categories. I knew the del.icio.us part would break; wasn't sure about the comments.

Yesterday Google forced my hand. I was not able to get past the migrate screen without, well, migrating. I could still post via email or youtube or flicr to the old blog but I couldn't edit any posts. So I pushed the button.

The new Blogger does have categories to replace the del.icio.us tagging system I used.

No other problems so far.

Labels: blogging, tech

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 9:05 AM |

 
Cringely writing for Technology Evangelist
Local budding blog empire Technology Evangelist has scored big with Robert X. Cringely, aka Mark Stephens.

I first started reading Bob back in his InfoWorld days (where still exists another RXC). His departure with the Cringely moniker in 1995 was a bit controversial. His 1992 book, Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date, an entertaining history of Silicon Valley. He also did the PBS show Triumph of the Nerds.

In 2005, Cringely started NerdTV, sometimes described as a Charlie Rose for geeks, where Bob would interview technologists. A few weren't really that well-known but still excellent choices and made for an interesting interview. I think the shows were online only and available in several different formats (including a podcast). My favorite was his interview with super model Anina, who happens to be a cellphone geek (show #9). And if you don't know who Brewster Kahle is, check out Bob's interview (show #4).

I was waiting for the second season to start and even emailed Bob. Now I discover that NerdTV was a financial bust. That's where the Technology Evangelist folks come in. They've been working with high-quality video, they admire Bob, so they ended up filming the second season (coming soon to an Internet near you).

So thanks Evangelist, congratulations on the addition of an excellent writer, and Welcome, Bob!

Bonus links: Pioneer Press article on the Cringely-Evangelist deal and Ed Kohler's follow-up post at Evangelist.

Labels: tech

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 8:32 PM |

 
Blogumentary @ GoogVid
Local vlogger Chuck Olsen has released his blogging documentary Blogumentary to Google Video.

The film premiered at the Oak Street Cinema here in Minneapolis back in November of 2004. It's a good film and I recommend it. You can download the file in several formats.

Bonus links 1, 2, and 3.

Labels: blogging, film

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 5:55 PM |

 
Introducing the book
Update... the video disappeared, then reappeared in an edited version with better subtitles (although it seems darker this time around). Now includes The Book Manual.

Youtube video...



From ZrednaZ via buddy Roy...
- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 6:01 AM |

 
Chicago: Principles for Digital Inclusion
The Chicago Digital Access Alliance has drafted a statement of ten principles around digital inclusion in order to "guide the development of the wireless network and the opportunities that emerge from its formation." If your city wiring or unwiring and you want all residents to benefit, read it. Excellent job, Chicago.

Via Sascha and MuniWireless.


- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 10:19 PM |

 
Happy Valentine's Day, Mary
It's been a crazy week and I couldn't find a card I liked. Now Valentine's Day and Mary works and I go to school. Damn.

At least there's a geek solution. Mary, Happy Valentine's Day. I'll try to find the Neccos. But if I don't...

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 7:01 AM |

 
Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

Fantastically beautiful video about Web 2.0 and people.

We are the machine.

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 1:31 PM |

 
St. Paul looking at fiber
Update: Doug (in the comments) provides a direct link to the Pioneer Press story. Thanks! He also tells me that the PiPress doesn't have a paywall. Wrong. If you start at the PiPress home page, and search for 'fiber optic,' your only search settings are 'Recent,' 'Archives' or 'Web.' A recent search yields no hits. An archive search finds the article but tells me I have to pay $2.95 to see it. A search over the Web from the PiPress site using 'fiber optic St. Paul', gets me a Minneapolis Star Tribune article (behind their paywall), the LaserFocusWorld article that I link to below, and even this blog post. But nothing at PiPress (at least on the first page of hits). So maybe there is a version of the article outside of the archive/paywall section, but there is no way to find it. I also tried some Google and Google news searches with no luck in digging up that PiPress link but always a hit on the StarTrib story. So PiPress, you better work on your search profile, both internally and externally. Bonus links.

LaserFocusWorld has a reprint of a St. Paul Pioneer Press article about St. Paul considering a fiber optic network. (The original article is behind the Pioneer Press paywall now.)

St. Paul explores fiber optic link for entire city by Jason Hoppin.

It's thorough and looks and takes a look at big city fiber optic from several angles including discussing the public utility concept where there is a local model with District Energy, the downtown St. Paul utility that provides alternative energy sources.

We need high-speed dependable networks. Wireless (the Wi-Fi flavor) is great for roaming around and it's cheaper to build out but it's relatively slow and subject to all kinds of interference.


- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 6:50 AM |