Breaking the end-to-end principle

We have talked about the end-to-end principle of network design and the idea that routers treat all packets the same. Now that a few telephone and cable companies control much of the ISP business in the US, they are seeking legislation that will allow them to program IP routers to examine packets. This would allow them to bill for specific services and give delivery priority to their content or that of those who pay a premium. Here is Vint Cerf's advice to congress on this bill. You can also listen to a brief roundtable discussion of this effort.

Lobbying against municipal networks

Telephone and cable companies have lobbied for State legislation to outlaw municipal networks for several years. They are also doing so at the federal level. Russell Shaw shows AT&T (SBC) contributions to the sponsors of the legislation. You can also listen to a short roundtable discussion of this lobbying effort.

Considerations for Pasadena city wireless network

We have talked about municipal networks, and Pasadena, California recently received bids for a citywide WiFi network. The bidders raised many questions while working on their proposals. Note that they are generally not concerned with technology, but with mechanical mounting of the radios, power supply, and other "nuts and bolts" issues. That is typical.

AOL goes P2P for video

AOL will use peer to peer technology to deliver video over the Internet. Would you give AOL permission to store files on your hard drive in return for the ability to download?

A lot of people think of AOL as a network for beginners, but do not forget that they are part of Time Warner. AOL may become an Internet video powerhouse.

Vint Cerf talk

Vint Cerf gave a talk entitled The Internet Today and Tomorrow at Stanford University. He covers some of the topics we will in our Network Applications and TCP/IP sections. Cerf was co-inventor along with Bob Kahn of TCP/IP.

Interview of Bob Kahn

I have posted an excerpt from a NerdTV interview of networking pioneer and TCP/IP co-inventor Bob Kahn. At the start of the excerpt he is talking about the ARPANet. The ARPANet was a single network, like a large LAN. The next step was to inter-connect multiple networks, to create an inter-network. Kahn and his colleague Vint Cerf invented TCP/IP to do that. The initial goal of TCP (later split into TCP and IP) was to connect the ARPANet with two other networks each of which had different packet sizes, data rates and communication protocols. TCP/IP has ended up connecting millions of dissimilar networks (3 minutes 33 seconds).

Recommended paint program

This week's Creative Cow podcast recommended a paint program called ArtRage. There is a free version and a full edition for $19.95. I have not tried it out. If you do, let us know what you think of it or show us some of your work using it.

We paid $200 billion for broadband connectivity -- where is it? (Make that $400 billion).

Bruce Kushnick just published The $200 Billion Broadband Scandal in which he shows that in return for promising to install fiber for high-speed connectivity to US homes, the Bell companies received $200 billion in higher phone rates and tax perks -- about $2,000 per household. The promise was not kept. Today we are the 19th ranked nation in household broadband connectivity rate, just ahead of Slovenia.

In the latest (2009) edition of his book, Kushnick has upped the title to "$300 billion".

The total is now up to $400 billion -- see Kushnick's latest The Book of Broken Promises.

Pracitcal wireless book published under Creative Commons license

Wireless Networking in the Developing World is a practical book that is not limited to developing nations. It covers the wirelss material we will cover in our class and more.

In addition to being a valuable book, it is an example of a new approach to content creation, publishing and intelectual property. It is available for free download under a Creative Commons license and (soon) as a print-on-demand book from Lulu.com.

Some of the material from the book is based on a wireless workshop. You might also find that to be a useful reference on wireless networks.

The role of the Internet in making life decisions

A recent BBC article states that the internet has played an important role in the life decisions of 60 million Americans, research shows. The article is based on a report from the Pew Charitable Trusts, an organization that conducts research on American life. This survey sheds light on one of our course topics: the implications of the Internet for the individual and for society.

Joel Spolsky on interface design

Joel Spolsky just began a series of articles on user interface design. If you are interested in Web design, I'd advise you to check it out.

Note that he is not going to publish them as finished articles, but will start with first drafts, then incorporate reader feedback into the revision. This is another variation on our question "who created the content?"

IEEE 802.11n specification set for first draft vote

This Infoworld article states that the IEEE 802.11n specification will be voted on this week, setting the stage for standard-compliant, 100 Mbps Wi-Fi products by midyear. This article touches many of the topics we cover.

Users judge Web sites in 50 milliseconds

A recent study shows users make very rapid judgements about Web pages. They do not like a lot of complex graphics and do want speed. Google seems to understand this.

British like mobile TV

The BBC reports that a marketing trial concludes that British people are willing to watch TV broadcasts on a small, portable device. Similar service is in use in Korea and is being tested elsewhere. Would you use such a service? How much would you be willing to pay per month?

Data mining and privacy

There has been a lot of publicity about the National Security Agency doing data mining lately. Open APIs allow us all to mine data. Are you comfortable with the Amazon data mining described in this article?

Camstudio -- open source screen casting

Camstudio is an open source program for audio/video screen capture. It sounds like it might be an alternative to Camtasia or Captivate. I have not tried it, but would like to hear from those who have.

Blogs in developing nations

BBC News posted African Bloggers Find their Voice, a survey of African blogs and their implications for politics and the media. The article has links to several African blogs and to Harvard's Global Voices site which follows and encourages blogs in developing nations.

Assessing the Wikipedia

The British science magazine Nature published a comparison of Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica based on the number of errors in selected articles in each. For more on Wikipedia assessment see these links.

Inmarsat: global mobile connectivity

Inmarsat offers global access to portable computers using LEO satellite. For terrestrial mobile connectivity options, see this class note.

Doug Kaye: audio production how-to

At the November 2005 Portable Media Expo, Doug Kaye of IT Conversations gave a talk on what IT Conversations does and will do in the future, open source audio production software tools they are developing, the management of his volunteer organization and many how-to tips on audio editing and production for podcasts. This 24 minute excerpt includes only the how-to portion of the talk in which Kaye tells us how to produce MP3 podcasts. Check the full, hour-long talk for the other topics.

Protopage -- a useful tool?

The Protopage service allows you to create and maintain a site with text, graphics and links very simply using your browser. Can you find applications for it?

Problems with AJAX

User interface expert Jakob Nielsen points out some flaws in AJAX. With AJAX, there is no longer a one-one association between a URL and a Web page, the Back button does not work, some browsers have problems, etc.

A false Wikipedia "biography"

In our homework survey, we found the Wikipedia to be quite accurate and complete; however, errors can go undetected for some time. One example is the Wikipedia biography of John Seigenthaler. It has been deleted now, but, for 132 days, the Wikipedia falsely linked him to the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy and made other completely inaccurate assertions. This erroneous biography was copied verbatim to other Web sites.

In response to this incident, Wikipedia began requiring registration before posting a new article. And, finally, the man who made the false post has apologized.

Don't take the Wikipedia or anything else on the Web as The Truth. Can you find any errors in the Wikipedia?

Portable Media and Podcast Expo

The Expo was held in November 2005 in Ontario, California. The keynotes and sessions covered podcasting and audio technology and business and the future of media. Many sessions were excellent, and they are all online. Here are direct links to recordings of the Friday and Saturday sessions.

Doug Kaye on the value of free content

I posted a 3m 19s excerpt from Doug Kaye's keynote address at the Portable Media Expo held in November 2005. Doug talks about the value of free information. He feels you maximize the value of content by making it free with no impediments (like registration) to accessing it. If you like this excerpt, listen to the entire talk in which he describes his IT Conversations project and his (ambitious) future plans.