Because OSNews is technically a site from the US, and because the technology industry is decidedly a US-centric industry, we often talk about US politics having adverse effects on technology - or, the other way around. That's why I've been detailing the political movements here in The Netherlands with regards to net neutrality. After a lot of positive news, I've now got some bad news - bad news that involves the largest political party trying to block net neutrality - because one of its members of parliament, Afke Schaart, is a former KPN employee. And yes, KPN is the carrier that first announced it was going to block and throttle traffic.
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Member since:2007-09-22
Member since:2005-07-06
I suppose this might not be a popular view on this story, but I think its IMPORTANT to have elected officials who have worked in real industries. Certainly I vastly prefer those to 'professional politicians'.
The UK parliament is sorely lacking people who truly understand IT technology. If they did, we wouldn't have made the 'universal broadband' rollout at 2mb due to complete in 2012...
That said, one would Hope that they would use their knowledge to bring expertise to the debate and not just maintain old loyalties.
If you dont agree with how your elected official votes. Don't vote for them next time round.
Member since:2011-01-28
Adurbe,
"I suppose this might not be a popular view on this story, but I think its IMPORTANT to have elected officials who have worked in real industries. Certainly I vastly prefer those to 'professional politicians'."
Yes, but there's also a concern in having representatives who still have active ties to the industry.
In the US I see the obama administration placing a bunch of high profile corporate CEOs in government positions with some oversight over their own companies.
Eric Schmit, Google CEO
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-court/google-ceo-for-commerce-s...
Andrew McLaughlin, Google director
http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/enterprise-architect...
Dick Costolo, Twitter CEO.
http://www.freepress.net/news/2011/5/27/twitter-ceo-named-president...
Jeffrey Immelt, GE CEO
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/21/obama-picks-jeffrey-immel-...
I haven't been keeping track, but the list of corporate directors actually pretty long, these are just the ones I remember recently.
Facebook, like the rest, are buying their way into politics.
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/30/135783156/facebook-has-powerful-frien...
I know it's a tough balancing act, but having all the corporate bigwigs appointed to oversee government policy over their own industries is becoming hard to stomach. Is there anybody in government representing "joe the plumber" (or joe the STEM worker for that matter)?
Edited 2011-06-03 02:05 UTC
"So in summary... Google has pulled the plug on support on a protocol they've helped popularize, after years of promising interoperability, for reasons that are dubious at best, and in a way that leaves people who don't jump to the new Hangouts app unable to talk to their contacts without any feedback that their IMs aren't getting through... And they've done that with no warning to anyone. I imagine there's a bunch of people out there wondering where some of their buddies have gone, or why their messages aren't getting responses, because this isn't documented anywhere." Google really messed this up. Such a dick move.
The Tizen Greek Community has some screenshots of a very recent build of Tizen running on a Samsung GT-i8800. It looks wholly unremarkable.Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently."In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies."The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.
Member since:
2008-07-12
I think what you are doing is probably the best and only method for attempting change. The more attention that is drawn to these relationships, and the more the subtle manipulative tactics of large corporations are exposed to the public is the only hope for gaining a decent counter movement.
However assuming they get their way like always have before, is this something that can be manipulated by using an encrypted proxy service?