Archive for May, 2006

The California State Senate narrowly passed a bill (PDF) to ban use of cell phones by drivers unless they are using hands free devices. The bill will now go to the Assembly for passage. Is this really something we need our legislators spending time on? What other activities while driving will they ban? How about eating? How about changing the radio dial? Talking to passengers? Putting on makeup? Ok, yeah, maybe that last one.

Seriously, isn’t it the distraction of concentrating on something completely outside the task of driving that is dangerous? So, will it really help to only ban handheld devices?

In somewhat of a surprise win, the House Judiciary Committee voted approval of legislation that would assure Network Neutrality, meaning ISPs could not create a two-tiered Internet charging some content providers more to guarantee faster and unhindered delivery of content. If adopted by Congress, the bill would amend current anti-trust law. Passage is far from assured, though. There is a competing bill from another committee that attempts to block any regulation of the network.

In addition, our friends at AT&T (who own the only fiber line connecting Humboldt County to the world) will continue to lobby vigorously in  opposition to any such ‘regulation.’ From the Wired article:

“We are optimistic that the majority in Congress will see this legislation as an attempt to solve a problem that does not exist,” said Tim McKone, AT&T executive vice president for federal relations.

If the net neutrality legislation addresses an problem that doesn’t exist, then why do they oppose it? They shouldn’t care, right?

Democratic representative from California Adam Shiff is also quoted in the article. What’s odd is his statement, which is apparently meant in opposition to net neutrality legislation sounds very much like what people say in favor of it:

“We like the principle of net neutrality (but) I think this is still a growing, vibrant, key industry that we don’t want to take steps that will chill that growth and development.”

I’m not sure what the fear of regulation of the Internet is. Especially in this case where the ‘regulation’ is simply designed to keep the network working as it already is, and to prevent monopolistic ISPs from changing how information flows so they can make more money.

Maybe our local communities won’t have to actually do anything to get free wireless service. According to this article, a company is planning to offer free wireless (plus higher speed access for a fee) to 95% of the U.S. Maybe that’s been the plan all along!

There are a few caveats. It appears customers would have to purchase a connecting device that at least to start out, would cost $250. But more importantly for us on the North Coast: Where is the 5% that won’t be covered? You can bet that’s 95% of the population, not the geography. So, I would assume most if not all of Humboldt County would fall in to the 5% uncovered group. Oh well. Back to the drawing board, council, commission, etc.

Nike and Apple are teaming up to give runners and walkers more data on how far they have moved and how many calories they have burned. This article intrigued me because it seemed to claim that running is “…Really Worth It”.

Now I’ve been ‘running’ off and on for many years. I still jog 2-3 miles nearly every day. My dog makes me. But I remember reading The Complete Book of Running over 25 years ago. I carried it with me when I moved about the country. Back then I really ran - miles and miles in heat and freeing rain. And then, in 1984, the author, Jim Fixx, died of a heart attack WHILE RUNNING! That tended to dampen my spirtits for a while.
So, I was really interested in this article about Nike and Apple and how they were going to tell me that all the pain and sweat was really worth it. But, they don’t. All they are really giving is some real time statistics. Kinda cool. But not enough to get me to buy $100 shoes and a $30 gadget for my IPod. And it still doesn’t tell me if all the running is really worth it. Will I live longer? Does it matter if the pain in my hips keeps me up all night?

Warning: This post not related to technology or the north coast of California. Skip at your own risk.

The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction. That could be considered a statement of fact in spite of the author’s assertions that the story is based on historical accuracy. The movie of the novel by the same name is, then, clearly a work of fiction. So why all the controversy about the book and the movie? Why are so many religious folks so upset?

Let’s put aside the ‘fact’ that the book is a piece of trash as I have already said, and the majority of critics have said as much about the movie.

At the risk of being denounced as a blasphemer (that has happened before), I think it’s because the very basis of Christianity, the stories in the Bible, have clearly been revealed as works of fiction themselves. It’s not that they were based on fictional characters. It’s quite possible that Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Peter, Judas and all the other characters we know really existed in some form. But the people who wrote about them didn’t know them first hand. They wrote down stories they had heard and which had been passed down over many years. The canon (the group of books that have come to be known as the Bible) were selected from a large number of texts over many years in a cultural and political climate that we can barely comprehend at this distance. The defenders of the canon violently excluded other versions of the stories we have come to accept as factual.

So, I profess the virulent denounciations of The Da Vinci Code, both the novel and movie arise out of defensiveness. Of course, the stories in The Da Vinci Code are fiction. No one has proclaimed otherwise. But because the alternative reality they have put forth has captured the popular imagination, people who believe in the stories of the Bible suddenly feel that belief undermined. If the fictions of the book and the movie are so popular, doesn’t that call in to question the reality of the biblical stories? Especially since we now already have numerous alternate interpretations of the life of Jesus that are only considered ‘fiction’ because a group of men in the early centuries of the Christian movement declared them so.

To understand why Christians are feeling so defensive, see the books by Elaine Pagels which chronicle how the canon was formed, and the recenlty revealed ‘Gospel of Judas‘. These revelations undermine the absolute authority of the canon. Their influence is limited to a small minority of readers. But they have plowed the fields in preparation for the more popular and fast spreading shcock of The Da Vinci Code.

Cnet is reporting that the U.S. House Judiciary Committee has released a new bill that includes a network neutrality provision. The bill appears to have some bi-partisan support.

The provision would prohibit telcos from charging higher rates for prioritizing some data, thus creating a two-tiered Internet. According to the article, Republican John Sensenbrenner, “Citing government statistics that 98 percent of Americans have at most two choices for broadband service…(that includes us on the Northcoast), Sensenbrenner said such a ‘virtual duopoly’ is ripe for anticompetitive practices, and ‘a clear antitrust remedy is needed.’”

Elsewhere, some celebrities are getting on board with Net Neutrality. Musician Moby and the band R.E.M. have aligned themselves with the concept. If you’re interested in learning more about this issue visit Save the Internet.

If you’re ready to take some action, here are some contact numbers for our Congressional representatives. You can urge them to support the efforts protect Internet as we have know it.
Here are the numbers:

Congressman Mike Thompson
Phone: 202-225-3311
District Offices:
Eureka: 707-269-9595
Fort Bragg: 707-962-0933
Napa: 707-226-9898
Woodland: 530-662-5272

Senator Dianne Feinstein
Phone: 202-224-3841
District Offices:
Fresno: 559-485-7430
Los Angeles: 310-914-7300
San Diego: 619-231-9712
San Francisco: 415-393-0707

Senator Barbara Boxer
Phone: 202-224-3553
District Offices:
Fresno: 559-497-5109
Los Angeles: 213-894-5000
Sacramento: 916-448-2787
San Bernadino: 909-888-8525
San Diego: 619-239-3884
San Francisco: 415-403-0100

So much is happening on the web that allows people to communicate with each other, create content, get work done, it’s truly becoming a rich interactive environment. Many forsee the web evolving to become the new universal Operating System, superceding Windows, Mac OS S and others.

But many web sites continue to be built as if none if this evolution has happened. They are static unchanging brochures that don’t encourage anyone to revisit them or accomplish anything while there. We still build these kinds of sites ocassionally against our better judgement. But sometimes no matter what we say, the client does not listen to our advice. These static sites can serve a purpose. So, I wouldn’t say they suck. They just don’t take much advantage of the web as a communication medium.

On the other hand, a web site that does suck is the kind that purports to offer a service, but does not. I ran across one just the other day. I needed to rent a car for a day while mine needed extra time in a local body shop. I decided to use the web to reserve a car since I am on the web all the time anyway. I used the Enterprise car rental site. I reserved a car. In the process I indicated I would pick it up at 1:30 PM.

I scoffed at warnings from folks in my office that I should call the local Enterprise shop and confirm the reservation. I was too trusting. I assumed that since the web site confirmed the availability of the car at their store in Eureka there was some communication between the site and the local shop. Wrong. When I arrived at Enterprise they acted surprised to see me. They looked up my reservation while saying they had no cars in the class I reserved. They did offer to try to find a car, but it wouldn’t be in the class I had resesrved. Uh, no thanks. Isn’t that a bait and switch scam?

Now that’s a web site that sucks. How can a national company like Enterprise be so lame as to not offer a system that actually tracks availability in real time? It can’t be that hard. Is this common in the car rental industry?

Good news for the downtown Eureka area. Cox (Cebridge/SuddenLink?), the Redwood Region Economic Development Commission (RREDC) and the Redwood Technology Consortium have teamed up to provide another free wireless hotspot. Cox has provided the broadband connection RREDC has provided the location and support, and RTC is providing the wireless router. The hotspot can be accessed in and around the Prosperity Center, 520 E St.

This was really easy to do. Why can’t other buildings where meetings are commonly held provide the same basic service? Why do the Wharfinger Building and the Adorni Center not have this service? Stay tuned.

In other wireless news,if you’re attending a meeting or conference at the Red Lion, you should be able to get a free day pass to access their wireless system. I have done this twice recently. Works great. Just don’t get caught watching videos on YouTube or reading the New York Times when you should be taking notes…
And finally a web site has been set up to list free wireless hotspots in the county. If you know of any not listed it only takes a moment to submit the information. the site uses the Google Maps API for the mapping interface. Thanks to Doug Renwick of HostGIS for creating the service.

After my initial post on the BPL tests to be undergone in CA, I did a little research. Readers had raised questions about the technology, specifically about the interference BPL causes with radio signals. I had assumed, and still assume the tests would take the questions over the technology in to account. But I think it’s valuable to bring these issues to light. There are many web sites devoted to the technology, both pro and con. But an article by Jessie Seyfour of the San Jose Mercury News summed up the issues quite nicely:

For one thing, it’s slow. Present technology allows it to run about as fast as DSL at its slowest, said Juan Fernandez, an analyst with Gartner. High-end DSL and cable services are five to eight times faster.

As part of the commission’s ruling, a BPL company would be responsible for costs associated with adding equipment to poles.

BPL Internet signals take the form of radio pulses that piggyback on the electrical wires. The radio pulses leak off the power lines and interfere with nearby radio signals.

Rural areas

It’s also unlikely that BPL will end up being the solution to providing broadband to communities where there’s no DSL or cable-modem service. That’s because it’s not as simple as plugging a computer into the socket, Fernandez said. To get BPL out to rural areas, a significant amount of equipment needs to be installed on the lines.

“You need some subscriber density to make it cost-effective,” he said. “It’s not really the kind of thing for farms.”

The last paragraphs about the cost to deploy BPL in rural areas were the most disappointing. I can only hope that increased focus on BPL will bring about improvements in the technology and a drop in cost. Stay tuned.

This may seem like a shameless attempt to get traffic to my blog, but it’s not. Ok, maybe it is a little. Instead of writing about really important things like Net Neutrality, if I have a lot of references to the “Da Vinci Code” I’m sure I’ll get a lot more traffick.

But I have been honestly been thinking a about writing about the “The Da Vinci Code” for quite some time. With the advent of the movie and all the hub bub about the Catholic Church’s oppostion to it, I thought now would be an appropriate time.

I read the book well over a year ago. I like thillers and mysteries. And a mystery about one of the great mysteries in history sounded fascintating. I loved “The Name of the Rose” by Umberto Eco, for example.

But I have to be honest. I think the book sucks. I had to force myself to read it all the way through. I bought it before it had come out in paperback so I wanted to be sure I got my money’s worth. While the premise of the story is intriguing I thought the plot was stupid, the characterization shallow and the writing style awkward and amateurish. I said this at the time I was reading it and I continue to be baffled by all the excitement over this thing. I refuse to read any other Dan Brown book because I don’t think he is a good writer.

Maybe the movie will be better. I think the thinness of the story is more fitting for a movie anyway. I certainly won’t bother to go see it at the theater. I hardly ever go to the movie theater anyway, and this certainly won’t draw me in.