Save the Internet: Big vote today

The House Judiciary Committee is going to “mark up” Representatives Sensenbrenner and Conyers’ good Net Neutrality bill this morning (watch the Committee vote via the Web). Many in the committee have been pressured by the big telcos to vote down the net neutrality provisions.

These are the members to contact on the bipartisan bill. Urge them to support the Sensenbrenner-Conyers “Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2006″ (HR 5417) in the Judiciary Committee today — and to support it without amendment. Saying without amendment is key.

Coming soon: The Web toll | Net Neutrality: Part IX

By Tim Folger
Popular Science

"What if the Internet were like cable television, with Web sites grouped like channels into either basic or premium offerings? What if a few big companies decided which sites loaded quickly and which ones slowly, or not at all, on your computer?

Welcome to the brave new Web, brought to you by Verizon, Bell South, AT&T and the other telecommunications giants (including PopSci and CNN.com's parent company, Time Warner) that are now lobbying Congress to block laws that would prevent a two-tiered Internet, with a fast lane for Web sites able to afford it and a slow lane for everyone else.

Google and Amazon and Yahoo are not going to slice those payments out of their profit margins and eat them," says Ben Scott, policy director for Free Press, a nonprofit group that monitors media-related legislation. "They're going to pass them on to the consumer. So I'll end up paying twice. I'm going to pay my $29.99 a month for access, and then I'm going to pay higher prices for consumer goods all across the economy because these Internet companies will charge more for online advertising."

Pure Pwnage at E3 2006

Google's emerging Web Office

Posted by Dan Farber of CNET

"Writely, a Web word processor Google acquired in March 2006, could be included in Google’s Web office suite. “It’s quite possible to be part of that. Once we have a hosted service it’s logical to add other components.” In addition, Google’s Blogger application is a natural extension, he said. I asked about a Google number crunching application, and Girouard said, “It’s important…I can’t comment beyond that." Of course, with its open APIs, Web services and mashups, a Google Web office could further extend its capabilities and ecosytem as Salesforce.com has done with its platform."

800 Gbps Internet 2?

By Barry Levine of Newsfactor

"Much of the research for Internet2 is based around its high-performance backbone, called Abilene, that currently runs at up to 10 Gbps. But the Internet2 group is planning to upgrade Abilene to 80 separate channels of 10 Gbps each, using different wavelengths transmitted over fiber-optic cable. These channels could produce a mind-boggling 800 Gbps of bandwidth."

Net Neutrality: Part VIII

From ArsTecnica:

"Should the 'Net be neutral? There's more than two positions in this debate, but the core issue is quite binary indeed: should 'Net neutrality be a regulatory issue? That is, should the FCC be given the authority to regulate principles of 'Net neutrality, or should they stay out of it? Former White House spokesman-cum-Telecom lobbyist Mike McCurry and Craigslist founder Craig Newmark recently squared off on this issue for the Wall Street Journal."

"For the telecommunications companies, one thing is absolutely clear: it doesn't help when their CEOs start talking about how X company (commonly Google, but increasingly Skype and others) is profiting from using their infrastructure, as they have done from time to time. When the discussion becomes one of who gets to get rich off of Joe Consumer's 'Net usage, you can expect Joe and his pals to think about how such a battle could ultimately affect his monthly bills. And Joe doesn't necessarily think he's getting a great deal from his ISP to begin with. Oh, and Joe tells me his throughput stinks already."

Crowning the newest Lego master

Jason Poland, a recent college graduate from Houston, grabbed first place in the master model builder competition. Here, Poland gets started on his winning fire-breathing snowman. Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com
Winner Poland's model of a snowman breathing fire. Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com

Free Nationwide Wireless?

by Dave Burstein

One company has applied to the FCC for 20 MHz of spectrum in return for providing 95 percent of U.S. customers free coverage (after CPE purchase).

M2Z's goal is … provide free high speed connections to 95 percent of U.S. consumers without any recurring fees. This is a grand undertaking."
—M2Z FCC request

Kleiner Perkins, history's most successful venture capital firm, is backing John Muleta and Milo Medin's offer to unwire the entire United States. 384/128 will be free while they'll sell higher speeds, ads, voice and much else. In return for 20 megahertz of spectrum, M2Z will pay a 5 percent royalty to the U.S. We give 19 megahertz to a TV network that mostly plays infomercials, so this is a no-brainer. "Affordable broadband for all Americans," anyone.

VIDEO: Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano test

From Autoblog:
"Auto Motor und Sport taped itself terrorizing an unidentified countryside with the very new Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano. The first part of the video sees the mud-spattered Ferrari being deftly piloted on a wet and winding road by a driver who knows how to handle his oversteer. The 599 GTB Fiorano, which replaces the 575M Maranello, looks like a Playmate posing for the camera and its 620-hp, 6.0L V12 engine not only looks like art but sounds like a symphony stuck on fast-forward."

Ex-McLaren Engineers Working up a Street-Legal F1 Car

From Jalopnik:

"Oh Margaret. A couple of former-McLaren F1 engineers are working up a street-legal rod based on the 2006 Formula One car specs. That means a 2.4-liter V8 pushing 480 bhp, carbon-fiber construction, full aerodynamic workup and a weight of only 1025 pounds (that’s a power-to-weight ratio of 1,000hp per ton). Founders Ben Scott-Geddes and Graham Halstead expect to launch the car, dubbed Freestream T1 later this year at the equivalent of around $262,000. They only plan to build 25 per year, so European viscounts and bank presidents’ spoilt offspring had better get on the horn stat."

From LuxuryLaunches

Caparo Freestream T1 - The Street Legal F1 Car

"The Freestream T1 supercar project created by two former McLaren engineers has been bought out by automotive consultancy Caparo. Founders Ben Scott-Geddes and Graham Halstead, who worked on the famous McLaren F1 supercar and the Mercedes-Benz SLR, will stay with the project and if all goes well the quarter-million-dollar racer Caparo T1 might hit the roads by December. This two-seater is powered by a 2006-regulations style 2.4-litre V8 engine.Weighing almost 465Kg (the light weight conferred by its carbon-fibre construction), it is said to result in a power-to-weight ratio of over 1,000bhp per tonne. Developed for road and track, the ultra lightweight, 480bhp two-seater will offer a near F1 performance by shooting from zero to 100 mph in 5.0 seconds and boasts a top speed of 200 mph.It is predicted to be capable of 3g acceleration in cornering and braking. A few interesting design features include rear-view mirrors built into the front fenders, LED taillights incorporated into the rear wing endplates, a data acquisition system display in the steering wheel and center-mounted coil-over shock absorbers in clear view of the driver. The team had planned to build just 25 cars per year but 20 of it have already been pre-sold, priced at around $250,000. Rumor has it that Stefan Eriksson is first on the waiting list."

AMD's New Socket AM2 CPU

From [H] Enthusiast:

"Today AMD is announcing its socket AM2 processors. AMD will be officially launching these parts on June 1, 2006 although we expect to see them turning up for sale before then."

"A fair expectation for performance gain from 939-pin to AM2 is about 1% or more across various application-based benchmarks. That assumes equal model numbers for processors and an equal configuration. This also assumes premium memory is used for each configuration. This is a rough estimate, and of course FX-62 and 5000+ come with additional frequency that will improve performance beyond that platform benefit."

The Bottom Line

"AMD is doing the right thing with their move to DDR2 and AM2. If you are the kind of person that buys a full built system, really at this time, don’t be worried if you have DDR or DDR2. You will likely never know the difference and adding more DDR memory will not be an issue for a while to come. If you are building a system now, I would suggest you go ahead and make the move to DDR2, unless of course you possibly just invested in a 2GB of quality DDR. If you are the guy that is building a base system but is constantly upgrading, you will hate yourself later if you don’t move to DDR2 now as we are likely to see some great overclocking out of it this year.

I would keep in mind that AMD has not let all their cats out of the bag just quite yet. I would expect to see at least one more hardcore enthusiast trick up their sleeve before year’s end. Then again, you have Intel’s Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme processors on their way as well and things are looking very good for Intel from a performance and power perspective.

I personally am going to wait it out a bit with my 4800+ and 2GB of DDR-400. I will build another system this year but I am not sure whether it will be Blue or Green. I do know for sure that if I am building an AMD system here next month, I would very much embrace AMD and DDR2 and move forward with their AM2 processor inside.

And I almost forgot. Big kudos to AMD for getting so many of their core voltages down. These new energy efficient processors are likely going to kick ass for those enthusiasts out there that are always looking for higher clocks or smaller enclosures."

Inventor of the Web calls for Net neutrality: Net Neutrality Part VII

Good article.

By Jonathan Bennett from CNET:

"Net neutrality is the concept that all Internet content should be treated equally by broadband providers without any kind of discrimination. It has become a hot political topic this year, especially in the U.S., amid fears that telephone companies may start blocking some Web sites or charge users extra to access them"

"It's better and more efficient for us all if we have a separate market where we get our connectivity, and a separate market where we get our content. Information is what I use to make all my decisions. Not just what to buy, but how to vote," Berners-Lee told journalists.

"There is an effort by some companies in the U.S. to change this. There's an attempt to get to a situation where if I want to watch a TV station across the Internet, that TV station must have paid to transmit to me."

Full story here.

Coolest Mosaic. Check this out.

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