Monthly Archives: February 2013

BBC Attacks the Open Web, GNU/Linux in Danger

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Over and over again, the rightsholders in the room during the Broadcast Flag negotiations attempted to create a sense of urgency by threatening to boycott American high-def telly if they didn’t get DRM. They repeated these threats in their submissions to the Federal Communications Commission (Ofcom’s US counterpart) and in their meetings with American lawmakers.

And here’s how it turned out:

So what happened? Did they make good on their threats? Did they go to their shareholders and explain that the reason they weren’t broadcasting anything this year is because the government wouldn’t let them control TVs?

No. They broadcast. They continue to broadcast today, with no DRM.

via blogs.computerworlduk.com

Bluff, how often does it succeed?

SaneBox: Email Management Tool Review

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Automated nagging!

And it also has a nifty feature that lets you CC or BCC a message to @SaneBox.com to remind you if someone doesn’t respond.

So let’s say you need an answer from your boss about a project and you need it no later than two days from now. In the CC field just include the address 2days@SaneBox.com and in two days SaneBox will put the message back in the top of your inbox if she never replied to it. This way you remember to bug her again.

via inc.com

Cute.

Tasman Global Access Launched ??? Positives/Negatives

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With the announcing of a non-binding MOU between Telecom, Telstra and Vodafone to build a new trans-Tasman cable, I have noted a few points that immediately come to mind, both good and bad.

Positives:

  • Content providers such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Akamai, etc all peer out of Sydney, so providing cheap point to point connectivity to this wealth of data is of huge benefit. If the price per Mbps is significantly lower than that currently available over southern cross, ISP’s may well look to leave aside local caching options, which in turn brings more content closer to shore.
  • Without being able to confirm this, the building of this second cable “may” remove some barriers around dual country access as required by some of the content providers listed above and make it more likely that NZ will have those networks move on to our shores in the years to come, providing they aren’t put off by Telecom’s partial ownership in both cables, and that domestic demand warrants the expense.
via dts.net.nz

Wonder if “dual country access” would be better addressed by diverse landing stations…

 

Mobile Devices Have Become ‘Prosthetic Brains,’ Web Guru Says

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BI: You wrote: “Mobile devices aren’t consumption devices, they’re prosthetic brains.” The Common thought is that they are consumption devices, so, what do you mean by that?

Alistair Croll: If you need to check your phone to find out about a meeting, you’ve failed. If your phone understands that you need to know about a meeting, and tells you about it, then you’ve won. In the former case, the burden was on you (to check) and the phone was simply a reference.

via businessinsider.com

I think they’re both.