Posts tagged…Internet
Forward to the past with the NBN
Tue, Jun 29 2010Although details are still sketchy, Henry Ergas points out that in one of his last acts, Rudd apparently saddled us with a return to a government-sanctioned oligopoly at the heart of our telecommunications market. Worse still, it will be taxpayer-funded.
"Central to those outcomes is the heads of agreement, which has two basic components. A first, valued at some $5bn, is a payment for NBN Co's…
Read more…Forking MYSQL?
Fri, May 15 2009This still looks like trouble to me.
"The MySQL relational database system is arguably one of the most important pieces of open source server software in existence" Extract from Ars Technica
The 'free' database, that Oracle now owns, competes with its most important commercial product. If Ellison forces users to buy a license or switch to a 'fork' of the code, the disruption would be enormous.
French internet law blocked, for now
Fri, Apr 10 2009In a coup de théâtre, the opponents of the internet surveillance bill managed to block it in the Senate on 9 April. But not for long, it seems:
"L'UMP semble vouloir effacer cet affront en faisant revoter au plus vite le projet de loi. 'Le vote négatif de l'Assemblée nationale retarde l'adoption du texte, ça ne le bloque pas. On va repasser le texte avec une lecture à l'Assemblée et une lecture…
Piracy and privacy
Thu, Apr 09 2009Although the governments negotiating the ACTA treaty deny that it will propose sanctions for personal copyright violation, there's an increasing supply of that sort of thing, from those same governments.
The French Assemblée Nationale is today expected to adopt a uniquely invasive measure authorizing a 'High Authority' to monitor the Internet use of individuals for copyright violation.
"The law…
Senator Conroy finds his internet filter
Tue, Apr 07 2009This is a major move that effectively (re)nationalizes essential infrastructure. Is that good or only inevitable given the history of mistakes in the regulation of private telecom infrastructure?
One immediate concern with this new direction is that history shows companies with a majority government-ownership in Australia and elsewhere become ferocious rent-seekers (think Qantas and the…
Chroming the Internet
Tue, Sep 02 2008I find it much easier to believe the first part of this statement than the second part.
"So why are we launching Google Chrome? Because we believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web." [From Official Google Blog: A fresh take on the browser]
I'm guessing that it's mostly about the money.
Climate Debate Daily
Thu, Jan 24 2008Dennis Dutton does it again with a new site that logs current contributions from both sides of the debate on human-forcing of global warming. Enormously good value.