Musings of the Great Eric

Stewart is brilliant as always:

Technorati Tags: Jon Stewart, The Daily Show, Ted Stevens, Internet, Net Neutrality

From Microsoft:

Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: “YHOO”) and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: “MSFT”) today will begin limited public beta testing of interoperability between their instant messaging (IM) services that enable users of Windows Live® Messenger, the next generation of MSN® Messenger, and Yahoo!® Messenger with Voice to connect with each other. This interoperability — the first of its […]

During a hearing before a House of Representatives subcommittee, politicians argued over the merits of compelling schools and libraries to cordon off access to social-networking sites, requiring some form of an Internet ID that would prove a person’s age, or doing nothing at the moment.

My favorite quote from the article:

“MySpace.com has been a center of […]

It’s a series of tubes:
I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o’clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why? - Sen. Stevens, R-AK

Senator Stevens, you are a man of genius.
Do read the whole thing… every line of it is pure gold.
Technorati Tags: […]

Engineering Gems of the U.S. Highway System

The U.S. interstate highway system is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Fifty years ago, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill to pay for the wide ribbons of highways that connect America’s cities and towns.
The system of highways profoundly changed American society: where we live, how we live and how […]

Google Blogoscoped compiled the list, but I’d just like to briefly rant on number one: “We Need Separate Print Pages”
We’ve all seen this – a separate print page, linked to from a crowded, table-layoutish HTML page, aiming to serve no other need than being printed out (it fails, because bloggers link to print pages – […]

A good list detailing all the ways that the studios have already fucked this up and the technology is doomed from the start. The only thing I’d add is the draconian DRM schemes, especially in the case of Blu-ray. Consumers aren’t going to switch to media that actually does less than the media they have […]

Let’s see. Last week it was employers not getting it, so this week it must be summer camps.
Camps say they are increasingly concerned about being identified in photographs or comments on these sites, even innocuously. They worry about online predators tracking children to camp and about their image being tarnished by inappropriate Internet juxtapositions — […]

If not, you should ask for your money back.
The case is simple: Do you have a 45 Mbps, bi-directional service to your home, paying around $40? Do you have 500+ channels and can choose any competitive service? You paid an estimated $2000 for this product even though you did not receive it and it may […]

Video sites grapple with specter of smut:
Online video-sharing sites such as YouTube, Yahoo Video and Google Video are competing in one of the fastest-growing entertainment segments on the Web. They may also be victims of their own popularity. The vast majority of videos available on these sites depicts budding musicians, comedians, filmmakers or just people […]

Andy Kessler writes an interesting take on the debate in The Weekly Standard:

Telcos and cable companies have no choice but to lobby for legislation that bars neutrality. Because without the ability to extract money from the webbies for the use of their not-so-fast Alexander Graham Bell-era wires (forget that you and I already overpay for […]

Or will as of 2008, anyway. He’s one of the few rich folk I actually respect - he earned his billions and now he plans to devote himself to giving it away (Of course, my opinion of Microsoft these days is someone less praising).
It’s probably a good thing overall. My suspicion is that with Gates […]

For Some, Online Persona Undermines a Résumé

When a small consulting company in Chicago was looking to hire a summer intern this month, the company’s president went online to check on a promising candidate who had just graduated from the University of Illinois.
At Facebook, a popular social networking site, the executive found the candidate’s Web page […]

Brin says Google compromised principles:

Meeting with reporters near Capitol Hill, Brin said Google had agreed to the censorship demands only after Chinese authorities blocked its service in that country. Google’s rivals accommodated the same demands — which Brin described as “a set of rules that we weren’t comfortable with” — without international criticism, he said.
“We […]

So cool.
Technorati Tags: Military, Toys, Flying

Well, it had to happen eventually. When you have hundreds of little differentiated, buzzword heavy “web 2.0″ sites with hardly a business model between them, it’s no surprise that some of them simply aren’t going to make it. My prediction is that this is the start of a trend, and we’re going to see some […]

Email Battles:

Critics at the Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference demanded that Yahoo chief Terry Semel explain… once again… the rationale for collaborating with Chinese authorities in ways that result in sending non-violent political protestors to long jail sentences.
They asked… once again… if Yahoo would have helped Nazi Germany the same way.
Semel patiently […]

Wow. That’s just… wow. Or maybe insane. I can’t make up my mind. But sheesh, that’s impressive looking either way.
Technorati Tags: Apples, Mac, OS X, Web, AJAX

Google’s Search for Political Influence

Since opening its Washington office last summer, Google’s attempts to establish its presence has moved at dial-up speed — resulting in a slow and sometimes balky connection with lawmakers that has irritated both Democrats and Republicans.
“I think they’ve been a little bit too innocent in how the game is played,” said […]

Giving consumers the option to pay for their computers as they use them. Pay one third upfront and then pay for the rest with calling cards, necessary to get the computer to run.
Or, you know, they can just get cheap hardware for that same upfront price, and run linux on them for free, owning the […]