Recently in Society Category

We've received enough interest about our previous notes on Iranian Internet connectivity that I wanted to give a brief update, and some reflections.

Seventy-five years ago today, on May 29th, 1934, Egyptian private radio stations fell silent, as the government shut them down in favor of a state monopoly on broadcast communication. Egyptian radio "hackers" (as we would style them today) had, over the course of about fifteen years, developed a burgeoning network of unofficial radio stations. They offered listeners an unfiltered, continuous mix of news, gossip, and live entertainment from low-powered transmitters located in private houses and businesses throughout Cairo.

It couldn't last. After two days of official radio silence, on May 31st, official state-sponsored radio stations (run by the Marconi company under special contract) began transmitting a clean slate of government-sanctioned programming, and the brief era of grass-roots Egyptian radio was over.

New York.--Senator Robert Bulkley, of Ohio, has made a proposal which is certainly worth considering.

It is as clear as daylight that, to bring about any sort of recovery, somebody must start some new sort of business or some extension of an old business.

It is also clear that nobody is in sight right now who has any notion of doing that — at least not in time to do this country any good as a depression cure.

There is one business which is a public business but is also a private one. This is the road-building business. The Government pays for the roads and hires the contractors. But the roads are built usually by private contractors and with materials furnished by private manufacturers.

If there is one thing needed in this country now, in view of the development of the automobile, it is express highways running east and west and north and south. Why, therefore, cannot the Government go into the business of building these highways?

Tough Times for Local Exchange Carriers

This week, the headlines seem to be full of fresh doom and gloom for wireline carriers, who employ people in every congressional district across America. Sooner or later, someone is going to call for Congress to tap some of the hundreds of billions in 2009 economic stimulus to help the LECs through troubled times, save lots of jobs, and preserve the way we do business in our critical last-mile communications infrastructure.

Is this wise? Is there a better way?

Randy Epstein of Host.net and WVFiber graciously (or perhaps maliciously, given the quality of the performance) filmed and did the post-production on the recent performance at the Global Peering Forum. If I had a virtual tip jar, I would set it out. Enjoy:

At the recent Global Peering Forum I performed a spoof song based on the recent YouTube hijacking. (I'm told that video will eventually be available, at which point I'm sure I'll have to go into hiding at an undisclosed location.)

American Pie was previously parodied at a RIPE meeting and now is practically a tradition, much to Mike Hughes's chagrin, as he thinks it's overdone already. The great thing about the original song is that it's choc full of references in the music industry. I tried to pepper several more into my version (and I have a few additional verses in progress that I just didn't finish).

What links would you provide to these references? What additional references do you think are important and missing (given the history of the Internet theme)?

The Day the YouTube Died

A long long time ago
I can still remember how the videos used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance,
I'd watch the prison thriller dance
and maybe I'd be happy for a while.
But February made me shiver with every packet I'd deliver
bad routes in the tables, the paths they were not stable.
I can't remember if I cried when I saw my request was denied
but boredom welled up deep inside
the day the YouTube died.

Google is building a Fiber Backbone in order to take over the world (we're not sure how that works, but you should be worried). Google is digitizing libraries violating copyright! Google is spying on your email! Your email, man! Your private email! Google is watching every click you make! Google is in league with China! Google is building a free, ad-powered wireless network to spy on good people everywhere! Good God! Look Out Geek: Google Power Gonna Get Yer Mama! [1]

This is the post promised by a previous entry about Google and AT&T peering. It seems that no matter what Google does, they catch endless raftloads of criticism from the masses (and pundits) about the nature of each project and its nefarious implications. Of course, there's nothing wrong with individuals being concerned about the way in which multi-billion-dollar corporations treat them. It's healthy and part of a competitive, free society. But the knee-jerk reactions to Google's every move stray beyond the normal, rational vigilance. So whence the Googanoia? Where does the fear come from?

After just spending a month of virtually non-stop travelling for work, I began to reminisce about the last actual vacation I took, and to wonder just how different it was.

Cast your thoughts back to the late-summer. The afternoon was finally cooling off, two-year-old Agatha was blissfully asleep in the bedroom, people were enjoying themselves at the pool right next to our cabin and on water skis down on the lake, and I was catching up on email. Sigh.

Such are the joys of the Internet. As network connectivity marches steadily towards ubiquity, there is a palpable loss. I suffer less from this than most people in that I enjoy my work and manage to integrate it (mostly) successfully into my daily life and even my vacations. But I have to admit that it was with mixed feelings that I saw the "Wifi now available" on the office door at Gobblers Mountain Resort. One more connection made. One more refuge lost. There are definitely down sides to all of this networking stuff.