Internet

President-Elect Barack Obama's $40 billion <strike>Handout</strike> Bailout to Internet Providers

January 15, 2009

President-Elect Barack Obama is planning to send up to $40 billion in grants and loans bailout funds toward improving broadband availability and speeds as part of broader economic stimulus efforts, according to UBS analysts.

According to Telephony Online:

A draft of the proposed $825-billion economic stimulus bill circulating on Capitol Hill today lists $6 billion for expanding broadband "so businesses in rural and other underserved areas can link up to the global economy," adding that this provision could well aid the job-creation goals of the larger economic stimulus effort.

PC World writes: The money will "strengthen the economy and provide business and job opportunities in every section of America with benefits to e-commerce, education and health-care," a House Appropriations Committee document said. "For every dollar invested in broadband the economy sees a ten-fold return on that investment."

10X the return? I'm not buying it. My BS meter just went off the scale.

Posted in Internet, TMCnet, Technology and Science, Wireless

YouTube Kills Fair Use, Mutes Audio

January 14, 2009

Apparently YouTube has decided to ignore the whole "fair use" thing. You know, the law whereby you are allowed limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review. Fair use also allows for copyrighted materials to be used in spoofs, parodies, etc.

Many YouTube users create an original video using their favorite song as the audio in the background. They won't be able to do that any more, since YouTube has started muting any videos that use unauthorized copyrighted music.

Posted in Home Entertainment, Internet, News, TMCnet

MovableType Facebook Connect Problems and Fixes

January 7, 2009

I've been testing the Facebook Connect plugin for MovableType 4.23 for the past few days. It's in beta, so I expected to encounter some issues. However, it was so close to working 100% that I stubbornly tried to fix the bugs myself rather than wait for Sixapart to fix them. I thought I'd share what I learned and save you hours of troubleshooting yourself.

First, as an example go check out a post of mine demonstrating my Facebook profile picture automatically being inserted into the comments:
Related Entries with Images & Recent Assets Linked to Entries

Feel free to post a comment using the Sign In link.

Posted in Internet, Linux, MovableType, TMCnet

The State of Nortel

December 22, 2008

Rich has an excellent piece on Nortel where he talks to Nortel's President of Carrier Networks' Richard Lowe and Bruce Gustafson, Director of Marcom, Carrier Networks. With all the bad news surrounding Nortel it's interesting to get a perspective of Nortel from the horse's mouth. Of course, Nortel's job or any company for that matter is to try and spin things in a positive light.

However, reading the article it seems that Nortel was fairly open about their current status and the direction they are taking. For instance, Rich's article states, "He did say a large number of carriers are slowing their spending in CDMA...

Posted in Internet, TMCnet, VoIP, Wireless

Verizon FiOS Voice+Internet Cheaper than just FiOS Internet?

December 19, 2008

I had to do a double-take when I read the Verizon FiOS pricing plans page that shows Verizon FiOS Internet with Verizon home phone service is less expensive than FiOS Internet without Verizon home phone service. It's $5 cheaper per month to have the voice service than without? I don't think I've ever seen any double or triple play offering that actually is cheaper when you have an additional "leg" offering in the package.

Here, see for yourself from this screenshot from their pricing plans web page:

Why would someone choose the Single Play (broadband Internet only) option over the Double play (broadband Internet + Voice) if it's $5/month cheaper and you get a voice line?

Posted in Internet, TMCnet, Triple Play

WordPress 2.7 released

December 10, 2008

WordPress 2.7 "Coltrane" was just released featuring some pretty cool upgrades in features. First, it sports a drag-and-drop interface for redesigning the layout of your WordPress blog/website. Second, it automatically updates core WordPress files and your plugins (if you so choose). Heck, you can even have it set to download beta nightlies.

Posted in Internet, News

Single Texting Addicts - Meet Speed SMS Dating

November 24, 2008

Texting (SMS) is certainly popular, especially amongst the younger crowd. In fact, one teenaged girl sends more than 600 text messages in a day -- almost double what an average American sends/receives in a month. A 29-year-old man travelled from San Francisco to Green Bay to meet a woman he met via text message. It was love at first texting.

Posted in Internet, Mobile Phones, News, TMCnet

More Proof That Gadgets Are Good for You

November 20, 2008

See -- as if we needed confirmation -- gadgetry is good for you.
Well, maybe I'm taking a small step here, but a new study from the MacArthur Foundation has found that all those hours that teenagers spend socializing on the Internet are not a bad thing.

(And how to they get access to the Internet? Gadgets, of course!)

"It may look as though kids are wasting a lot of time hanging out with new media, whether it's on MySpace or sending instant messages," said Mizuko Ito, lead researcher on the study, Living and Learning With New Media. "But their participation is giving them the technological skills and literacy they need to succeed in the contemporary world. They're learning how to get along with others, how to manage a public identity, how to create a home page."

See?

More at the New York Times or go directly to the MacArthur Foundation.

Posted in Gadgets, Internet

Vudu Does HD VOD Big Time

November 19, 2008

Vudu, a startup that sells and rents movies via its Internet-connected set-top box, has boosted High-Definition library to 1,100 on-demand titles -- for now, outdistancing any cable operator's HD video-on-demand service.

To build what it claimed is the largest library of HD content available to consumers, Vudu added on average of 150 HD titles per week in October.

The service requires a minimum 4-Mbps connection for instant playback of HD titles.

Vudu is attempting to sell its $300 set-top to home-theater buffs by emphasizing the service's broad content selection and navigation features. Movies on the service are available for 24-hour rental for between 99 cents and $3.99, and $9.99 to $19.99 for download-to-own.

As part of its strategy to target high-end consumers, Vudu last month began offering 65 feature movie titles for rental in 1080p high-definition video format, the highest HD format currently defined.

More at Multichannel News.

Posted in Internet, Video Hardware & Software

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