Catching up

Posted by Richard Bennett

I’ve been too busy to blog lately, what with the conferences, a white paper I’m writing about protocols and regulation, a recalcitrant editor (at a local paper,) and a new gig blogging for IEEE Spectrum’s Tech Talk. My observations on networking and policy will be appearing there for the while.
The focus over here is going [...]

How Hard is it to Find Authors?

Posted by Richard Bennett

One of the mind-boggling facts about the Google book deal is the number of so-called “orphan works” there are. According to Brewster Kahle, most books published since our current copyright regime was adopted in 1923 are orphan works:
But the settlement would also create a class that includes millions of people who will never come forward. [...]

Recycling Garbage Abroad

Posted by Richard Bennett

Advocates of network neutrality regulations have been largely unsuccessful in advancing their agenda in the US. The one case in which they claim to have secured a victory was the Vuze vs. Comcast action in the FCC, which was severely tainted by Vuze turning to porn to resuscitate its dying business:
In a bid to increase [...]

Blackberry dominates the world

Posted by Richard Bennett

Everybody knows we have our first Blackberry-toting president, but how many know that BlackBerry outsells Apple?
An aggressive “buy-one-get-one” promotion by Verizon Wireless helped RIM’s BlackBerry Curve move past Apple’s iPhone to become the best-selling consumer smartphone in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2009, according to market research firm The NPD Group.
RIM’s consumer smartphone [...]

What slows down your Wi-Fi?

Posted by Richard Bennett

The Register stumbled upon an eye-opening report commissioned by the UK telecom regulator, Ofcom, on sources of Wi-Fi interference in the UK:
What Mass discovered (pdf) is that while Wi-Fi users blame nearby networks for slowing down their connectivity, in reality the problem is people watching retransmitted TV in the bedroom while listening to their offspring [...]

Interlocking Directorates

Posted by Richard Bennett

The New York Times reports that regulators have an interest in the structure of the Apple and Google boards of directors:
The Federal Trade Commission has begun an inquiry into whether the close ties between the boards of two of technology’s most prominent companies, Apple and Google, amount to a violation of antitrust laws, according to [...]