Smalltalk with James Robertson

Now I'm just baffled. Last week, I got xAuth working in Smalltalk - I was able to post a few tweets from a VisualWorks workspace. I then pushed the code out to my blog server, and wham, it stopped working. I can't make test tweets from a workspace any longer even, with the same code. Bizarre. It can't be my code; nothing changed. I get "invalid signature" back with every attempt, from code that worked just fine last week.

Technorati Tags: xAuth, smalltalk

If it comes from the regulators, rest assured that the regulators will get captured:

In a letter sent today to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, the RIAA and other music trade groups expressed their concern that the riddled-with-gaping-loopholes policy framework nevertheless might put a damper on ISP attempts to find and filter piratical material flowing through the Internet's tubes. Failure to allow for this sort of behavior would lead to an Internet of "chaos."

Better to have nothing, and depend on bad PR events than to have full on regulatory capture - because in the latter scenario, arguing over an FCC decision will be like arguing with the local zoning board - only more so.

Technorati Tags: net neutrality, riaa

I love the press release Google shipped out touting their *cough* net neutrality plan *cough* with Verizon. Here, let me translate the long missive down to what they actually said:

"We didn't manage to keep control of wired internet, so we like the idea of having the FCC strangle that as much as possible with new regulations. Meanwhile, trust us with this whole wireless thing, we promise you'll love what we intend to do to you"

Sure guys. Can you toss in some free swampland with that, too?

Technorati Tags: net neutrality

The network neutrality crowd is up in arms over a proposed business deal between Google and Verizon:

Google and Verizon, two leading players in Internet service and content, are nearing an agreement that could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content’s creators are willing to pay for the privilege.

End users already get the same choice with their ISP - I could be paying more money for a faster connection than I have, but the symmetric 20/20 seems good enough for me for now. Additionally, Verizon and Comcast are already doing this - if you don't think that an on demand movie being streamed to your tv is getting priority over YouTube (et. al.), then you haven't really thought things through. If anything, this kind of deal at least allows content providers to approach parity with the content being pushed by the two big players here in the US.

You wouldn't know that from the coverage though; here's the NY Times, nearly fainting over this:

Such an agreement could overthrow a once-sacred tenet of Internet policy known as net neutrality, in which no form of content is favored over another.

Wake me when any of this actually matters. For all the yelling and screaming, we crossed the rubicon on this one the instant that on demand services popped up at vendors like Comcast and Verizon.

Technorati Tags: google, verizon, network neutrality

I never thought Google Wave was useful - and according to TechCrunch, I'm not alone:

Maybe it was just ahead of its time. Or maybe there were just too many features to ever allow it to be defined properly, but Google is saying today that they are going to stop any further development of Google Wave.

That's death for a web service. The problem was always simple: Things like Skype worked just as well or better, and already existed. Wave was a solution in search of a problem.

Technorati Tags: google wave

Sometimes, the network neutrality advocates baffle me. Take today's post from David Weinberger, where he says (in part - follow the link for his entire post):

It’s time for Genachowski to stand firm and act at the FCC. He has a vision for the Internet as a place where small voices speak and where new ideas get a fair chance. He understands the Internet as a potentially transformative force in culture, business, education, and democracy.

I just don't see the supposed problem. Anyone can get a free or cheap site - blog or otherwise. People with some technical skills can get inexpensive hosting (like the one I use here) and run whatever kind of server they feel like. This one runs on Smalltalk, because that's what I like.

How about Video and Audio? Well, there are more solutions in that direction than I can count. YouTube, Vimeo, Mevio all come to mind immediately, as does Facebook. Photos? Flickr and a ton of other services.

Given all that, what the heck is the problem that requires some kind of forceful response from a government agency? A "small voice" can be heard much more easily now than at any time in history. The main impediement isn't scarcity; it's actually finding a niche where you can stand out from the huge crowd.

I just can't figure out what Weinberger wants the FCC to do, because I can't see the problem he's clearly agitated about.

Technorati Tags: fcc, net neutrality

Rudolf van der Berg explains how so many telecom execs get things wrong - they point at Apple (iTunes) and Google (YouTube) as "bandwidth hogs", without seeing the bigger reality:

The main reason this viewpoint irritates me is; they complain about their underinvestment in their network. They then point at two companies who are very visible, but don't really matter in the equation. If Apple hadn't existed, someone else would have come with a bandwidth hogging device in a matter of 0-2 years. If Youtube hadn't existed, Dailymotion and Facebook would have existed and would have delivered the goods. What I mean to say is that user behaviour wouldn't have changed and somewhere between 2010 and 2013 we would have hit the exact same limit as now.

Demand and technology met - had Apple and/or Google missed the boat, someone else would have caught it. The piper laying companies just keep under-guessing on how much pipe they'll need, and then they look around for someone to blame. It's a good article; read the whole thing.

Technorati Tags: bandwidth, telcos

Now that AT&T has gone to tiered pricing, it sounds like Verizon is following:

Hang on to your megabytes, folks, because it looks like the Brave New World of limited data is truly upon us. AT&T and Verizon tend to follow each others' moves pretty closely -- the two carriers regard each other as their nearest competitors, after all -- and we're hearing that Big Red intends to move to some sort of tiered bucket strategy on July 29.

We're into an interesting divide here - at home, things have gone to an increasingly big pipe of unlimited data at a flat rate. Meanwhile, wireless plans are clamping down to pretty low limits with high prices.

I say "llow limits" because of how we expect to use our devices. Consider an iPad on 3G, where you have Netflix, the ABC tv app, and maybe Hulu+. You're taking a trip in the car, and some of the passengers would like to watch something. Bam - you'll hit those 2 GB limits and run into overage charges pretty quickly.

There's going to be a real battle between Apple, Google, and the carriers over this stuff. The device makers are delivering gadgets that make it increasingly easy (and pleasant) to consume massive amounts of data. Meanwhile, the carriers, relegated to being dumb providers of bandwidth, are having a lot of trouble keeping up with demand - and trying to stifle it.

Technorati Tags: mobile, bandwidth caps

TechDirt points out the absurdity of making it a criminal offence to not read a site's terms of service - this is in regard to ticket scalping/reselling:

This isn't to say that ticket scalpers and resellers who buy up all the tickets aren't necessarily a problem, but should they be criminally liable because they violate a website's terms of service?

While the following example is absurd, it's a good example of just how bad this is:

I could just quickly put up a terms of service that says something as ridiculous as "you must be 8 feet tall to read this website." And, if you're not, you've then violated the terms, and are guilty of criminal hacking under the CFAA -- which could potentially result in jail time.

That's just awesome. It also means that just about every person in the US who has ever visited a website that has TOS is an unindicted criminal...

Technorati Tags: law

Looks like Flash is getting dropped by more and more sites. Campaign Monitor is the latest:

When it became clear that the iPad wouldn't be supporting Flash, and that it was likely a device many of our customers were going to view reports on, we had all the motivation we needed to overhaul our charts to work around the problems mentioned above. At the same time, JavaScript based charts that take advantage of standards like canvas and SVG had come a long way and would likely make the transition a much simpler process.

I expect this trend to continue. With Hulu coming out for the iPad and iPhone, even the streaming sites don't need Flash anymore...

Technorati Tags: apple, adobe, flash