Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 1st Jun 2011 22:38 UTC
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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RE[6]: Net Neutrality restricts the ability to economize
by Berend de Boer on Thu 2nd Jun 2011 09:19
in reply to "RE[5]: Net Neutrality restricts the ability to economize"
Member since:2005-10-19
Should amazon be allowed to enter into an agreement with an ISP to charge customers higher prices to access other bookstore websites?
Bad example: Amazon has entered into examples with ISPs to give customers "free" access to the Amazon site, i.e. Whispernet.
Unfair!!!! Should be forbidden! The government should step in with its heavy boots and send people to jail for this.
RE[7]: Net Neutrality restricts the ability to economize
by Alfman on Thu 2nd Jun 2011 17:19
in reply to "RE[6]: Net Neutrality restricts the ability to economize"
Member since:2011-01-28
Berend de Boer,
"Bad example: Amazon has entered into examples with ISPs to give customers 'free' access to the Amazon site, i.e. Whispernet."
You're talking about the amazon kindle, right?
It's an interesting business model.
"Magazines, newspapers and blogs via RSS are provided by Amazon per a monthly subscription fee or a free trial period. Newspaper subscriptions cost from US$1.99 to $27.99 per month; magazines charge between $1.25 and $10.99 per month, and blogs charge from $0.99 to $1.99 per month."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Kindle
They do charge owners a per megabyte fee for transfer of personal documents to the kindle over 3G.
Of course you mention amazon's own site being free for users. Should they be allowed to do that?
I would argue "no" unless competitor's services are also available for the same price (aka "free").
The reasoning is that if this approach were scaled up to more and more providers such that it became the norm, the web would become fragmented. Users would have to use the services endorsed by their ISPs instead of the services which best suit them. ISP customers would be for sale to the highest bidder. Small publishers/developers would be excluded from the market and users would ultimately end up with fewer choices, less innovation, and stronger monopolies.
RE[6]: Net Neutrality restricts the ability to economize
by _txf_ on Thu 2nd Jun 2011 09:37
in reply to "RE[5]: Net Neutrality restricts the ability to economize"
Member since:2008-03-17
DHofmann,
"So, I can either pay more to access Google in exchange for lower Internet access fees, or I can pay more for the Internet in order to save money accessing Google.
I like having choices like that. Don't you?"
Honestly no, and I'm a little skeptical that you're speaking as a consumer at all. But if that's your preference so be it.
"So, I can either pay more to access Google in exchange for lower Internet access fees, or I can pay more for the Internet in order to save money accessing Google.
I like having choices like that. Don't you?"
Honestly no, and I'm a little skeptical that you're speaking as a consumer at all. But if that's your preference so be it.
Sarcasm detector broken much?
I believe the entire concept is so ridiculous that nobody can be happy with this (barring ISPs and Politicians).
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:33 UTC
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
Linked by Anonymous on 06/18/13 22:26 UTC
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:25 UTC
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:45 UTC
"I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:32 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)".
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:58 UTC
"The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:52 UTC
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 21:03 UTC
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 20:46 UTC
"And so it is with Dell's Alienware X51 R2, a small form factor gaming PC in console digs. It's shaped similar to Microsoft's Xbox 360 Slim, and though it's slightly larger than either a 360 or PlayStation 3, the X51 R2 would be right at home in a living room setting nestled next to a large screen TV. Indeed, it's adept at running Steam's Big Picture mode, and if your primary objective is to play games in the living room, go ahead and consider the X51 R2 a hybrid game console." This is obviously not the only machine like this - still, these are very valid console alternatives even for those that don't like being hunched over with a cramped WASD-claw. Also, PC gamers among us: could you get away with the $699 model for gaming?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 17:32 UTC
From Bloomberg: "Microsoft, the world's largest software company, provides intelligence agencies with information about bugs in its popular software before it publicly releases a fix, according to two people familiar with the process. That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes." The lid has officially been blown off.More News »
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Member since:
2011-01-28
DHofmann,
"So, I can either pay more to access Google in exchange for lower Internet access fees, or I can pay more for the Internet in order to save money accessing Google.
I like having choices like that. Don't you?"
Honestly no, and I'm a little skeptical that you're speaking as a consumer at all. But if that's your preference so be it.
However, everyone here should be smart enough to see that your "lower Internet fees" is nothing but marketing spin. It's equivalent to applying a surcharge for doing business with the competition - in effect, google users would be subsidizing bing users through the ISP.
In the hypothetical arrangement above, are there any restrictions at all to the amount the ISP could charge users for using competitor services?
Should amazon be allowed to enter into an agreement with an ISP to charge customers higher prices to access other bookstore websites?
Here, the local cable internet company (OOL) is a monopoly, they also own a news station and newspaper. Should they be able to charge a premium for accessing competing websites? Is that considered censorship?
Now answer this honestly, if you needed to pay your ISP an extra $10/month to access osnews (because OSNews refused to enter into a contract with your ISP), would that not bother you? Would you still be here?
If we don't tread very carefully now, we could easily end up with a fragmented internet where people are blocked off from one another because of greed and corruption.