RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech - EP52

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech
Episode 52 - download now - subscribe now

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Solo show today... I talked a bit about this:

Bill calls for better tracking of faster broadband
How fast is U.S. "broadband" service, anyway? The FCC says 200 kbps is good enough to count, which sets the bar kind of low. Then again, it lets the government claim that broadband service is available in 99 percent of all ZIP codes (another fairly useless measure). A bill introduced in the Senate last week requires broadband providers to use smaller geographic areas than ZIP codes to report statistics, and force the FCC to think again about whether a 200 kbps pipe is all that broad. The Broadband Data Improvement Act was introduced by Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye, chair of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

For more about S.1492:
- read this article from InfoWorld
- see the legislation from the Library of Congress

Related Articles:
FCC head says broadband is top priority. Report
VoIP lets hotels charge extra for true broadband. Report

And everyone seems to be jumping on this story... my analysis... Google probably has little to worry about:

FTC to Investigate Google-DoubleClick Acquisition
Steve Lohr writes in The New York Times:

The Federal Trade Commission has opened a preliminary antitrust investigation into Google’s planned $3.1 billion purchase of the online advertising company DoubleClick, an industry executive briefed on the agency’s plans said yesterday.

The inquiry began at the end of last week, after it was decided that the Federal Trade Commission instead of the Justice Department would conduct the review, said the executive, who asked not to be identified because he had not been authorized to speak. The two agencies split the duties of antitrust enforcement.

An F.T.C. spokesman said yesterday that the agency did not comment on pending inquiries.

More here.

And in other Google news, something else Google might not need to worry about:

Look Out Google - Here Come the Aussies
The only word that describes what happened to our inbox tonight was “spammed” - no less than eleven links were sent to this Australian article which talks about new stealth startup MyLiveSearch.

Dubbing itself the “world’s first live search engine” it promises to show us the 4/5 of the web that Google doesn’t index - this includes the grey web of dynamically created web pages as well as real time indexing of more traditional pages.

The article says “Google is keeping a close eye on a small, suburban Melbourne start-up that claims to be developing a search engine that improves on the world leader” and goes on to quote founder Rob Gabriel as saying his startup “gives better, more relevant results” than Google and “this technology could be snapped onto any of the major search engines and improve them.”

Those are big words for a startup that is yet to launch into private beta. We’ll be taking a look at MyLiveSearch at the end of June when they launch, and looking for a little backup to their website claim of “searching the internet will never be the same…” It’s certainly true that Google isn’t perfect, but it will take more than words to take them down. These guys are feisty, though, and I like that.

In dumb engineering news:

Nissan Warns Drivers: Don't Put Mobile Phones Near Our Keys

Nissan is going around warning a bunch of US drivers of either the Nissan Altima or the Infiniti G35 to be careful with their mobile phones. However, it's not, as you might expect, about driving while using those mobile phones. Nope. It's about keeping those mobile phones away from the car keys that open and start the cars. Like many newer cars, these cars use a wireless key system. Unfortunately, they're discovering that mobile phones receiving calls while in contact with the keys can scramble the electronic code on the keys... making them into useless paperweights. This would seem like a pretty big problem -- and simply telling drivers to keep their phones away from their keys isn't likely to work very well, considering phones and keys very often end up together in people's pockets or purses.

A good alternative to Joost, for those without invites:

Joox: Another Illegal Video Site?

Joox.net is an online repository for videos–mostly television shows and movies that seemingly elude copyright agreements.

You can find quite a few episodes of The Simpsons, or Grey’s Anatomy, and the second half of Pirates of the Carribean 3: At World’s End. Content is added by Joox users, in what looks to be a somewhat complicated process. You’ll have to first play your video in the provided player, and add it to Joox directly from the player. The clip will need to be confirmed before becoming part of the Joox library, but you can still watch these upcoming videos. As Joox is probably not based in the U.S. (the domain is reportedly registered in Sweden), Joox may manage to avoid a few copyright infringement suits for a while. Also to keep in mind, you’ll need to download a divx file as Joox does not operate in flash, and doesn’t have the best quality either.

Others in this space include Pirate Bay, which has confirmed its upcoming streaming service, and front runner Joost, the Internet television provider that has landed copyright agreements with nearly every major network, studio and brand in creation, BitTorrent, which has recently launched a video store, and Jalipo, which could be considered a paid version of Joost.

Google's slow pace contributes to this more than anything else, in my opinion:

Google's Slow Shift to Social Unification?

One of the aspects largely overlooked in Google's recently unveiled Hot Trends is the prominent link on a topic's page to 'Discuss with others'. While the feature is currently flawed, and as such is basically useless, it could signal a move by Google towards unifying their services with a more social approach.

Clicking on the 'Discuss with others' link (found immediately below the Hot Trends 'Peak' information), takes you to a Google Group entitled 'Google Trends Hot Trends'. Despite being prominently displayed, this link garners little in the way of actual discussion on the Google Groups page - a total of 34 messages, 20 total members, and an activity rating of 'Low' for a group that is linked to on every single Hot Trend item.

Instead of this rather pointless broad group, Google should create a Google Group for each individual topic found in the Hot Trends. Furthermore they should make it so that at least some of the discussions will load right within the Hot Trends Topic page itself rather than redirecting you to the Google Groups page. This would show that there are others who are actively participating in discussions and entice more readers to contribute as well.

If Google could get this very basic social feature working in the Hot Trends area, they could expand the idea to their other services as well. This could particularly be interesting in Google News, where a single discussion thread on an article might be preferable to some over multiple discussion threads on sites like Digg, Netscape, Reddit, and the like.

Google Groups already keeps track of users posts and gives the option to have an avatar and profile just like the social news sites. Why Google isn't making any moves to utilize these tools already in place is a bit baffling to me. It reminds me a bit of the Google Toolbar/Dice situation with StumbleUpon. In that situation, Google had the elements in place to create a service that would have been very much like StumbleUpon before it was popular, yet they lacked the foresight to do so. Here again, they have just about everything in place to unify some of their services into a more social network, but they still have yet to act upon it.

A really neat link (pay attention to this, could be a possible ARG (alternate reality game) alert):
Batman Dark Knight viral campaign.

Want to be part of the Rizzn-ite army? Indoctrination instructions here.

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech - EP36

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech
Episode 36 - download now - subscribe now - iTunes subscribe

• A member of the TechPodcast Network @ techpodcast.com. If it's Tech, it's here.
  
• Remember, if you're listening on the podcast recording, you can call into the show live if you tune in through TalkShoe.com at 2:30 PM EST every weekday.
• If you like the podcast (and you haven't already given us a rating), head over and do so, and don't forget to sign up for the discussion list.
• Other Podcast Plugs:
  
• TalkGirls comes on Tuesday nights. Check out the TalkGirls Podcast ... it's good times!
• Cotolo Chronicles: Frank is a good friend of the show, and an associate of the late great Wolfman Jack. Check out his podcast.
• NewsReal: Good friend to Art and I - has one of the best hours of news podcast each week.
  
• Sponsors:
  
• Try GoToMeeting for 45 days! Visit www.GoToMeeting.com/podcast to start your free trial today.
  
• AACS - Guaranteed improved credit - http://aacsnet.com/ - Mention RizWords and get $50 off your entry to the program.
  

We had a lot of news to cover today, and no co-host to slow me down. Make sure you tune in to Monday's show, when I'll be accompanied by Bill Grady of You Are the Guest Podcast. But now... the news! This from our ongoing coverage of the Vonage Crap....:

1. Vonage asks for a new trial
Last issue, I alluded to an upcoming Supreme Court case that might have an impact on the Vonage/Verizon appeal. Sure enough, the court on Monday handed down a ruling in KSR vs. Teleflex, finding that the combination of two commonly known elements into something obvious is not patentable. Vonage has seized on the ruling, asking an appellate court to throw out the verdict against it and order a new trial. Verizon, of course, is opposed. Vonage is already appealing its loss at trial; the appellate court has set a June 25 hearing on that appeal. Vonage wants the appeal to be put on hold pending the results of the new trial. If it loses that second trial, Vonage wants the existing appeals process to resume. Even though Vonage was convicted of infringing three patents, the courts are letting the company operate pretty much as normal while the appeals are being heard. If this gets any more complicated, they'll have to hand out copies of Dickens' Bleak House with the appellate briefs.

For more about the Supreme Court, Vonage, Verizon, and the rest of it:

- read this from Internet News
- check out this DailyTechRag report

I tried out Joost this morning. I wasn't incredibly impressed. I'll give it a fairer shake later this weekend and talk about it again on Monday. Meanwhile, Joost should be available for everyone. Want an invite? Anyone present at Friday's TalkCast will get one!.

Joost (almost) Launches
Updated: It won't be for another few days before anyone can join Joost, but the company has officially announced that it is launching commercially. Starting today, existing beta testers can now invite anyone to join Joost. Beta testers visit the "Invite Friends"

In "should-this-really-be-criminal" news:

Student Arrested for Writing Essay
mcgrew writes "The Chicago Tribune reports that an eighteen year old straight-A High School student was arrested for writing an essay that 'disturbed' his teacher. Even though no threats were made to a specific person, 18 year-old Allen Lee's English teacher convened a panel to discuss the work. As a result of that discussion, the police were called in. 'The youth's father said his son was not suspended or expelled but was forced to attend classes elsewhere for now. Today, Cary-Grove students rallied behind the arrested teen by organizing a petition drive to let him back in their school. They posted on walls quotes from the English teacher in which she had encouraged students to express their emotions through writing.'"

No one is really talking about this story, which is amazing considering this is probably the second largest e-currency provider for the American markets:

e-gold® Founder Denies Criminal Charges

In an interview with Kim Zetter of the Wired Blog Network, E-Gold owner Dr. Douglas Jackson stated this morning that the Federal indictments announced by the US Department of Justice last Friday are a "farce".

Associated Content first released the news of the indictments on Saturday in this news story.

Dr. Jackson, E-Gold, and the other owners were charged with:

1. conspiracy to launder monetary instruments,
2. conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business,
3. operating an unlicensed money transmitting business under federal law,
4. money transmission without a license under D.C. law.

According to Jackson, E-Gold is one of the good guys in this crime-fighting saga and its ensuing fiasco. Not only did they cooperate with law enforcement officials regarding suspicious E-Gold accounts, but they also developed software which effectively tracks criminals trying to launder money through E-Gold, and prevents use of the E-Gold system to aid and abet their criminal activities. They were waging their own war against the very things they have been accused of aiding: terrorism, child exploitation, and more.

This is a story that KenRadio has been talking about for a few days. I worked for 5Tribe Marketing as a consulting for more than a year, so I'm more than familiar with these numbers, and have been for a while:

Newspaper circulation continues to fall
Newspaper circulation continued to decline nationwide but many individual publications and a trade group countered with figures showing that the papers' audiences were growing online. Weekday circulation at 745 daily newspapers dropped 2.1% to 45.9 million, and Sunday circulation at 601 newspapers fell 3.1% to 48.1 million, according to the Newspaper Assn. of America. The figures compared the six-month period that ended March 31 with the same period a year earlier. The trade association sought to counter those figures by re- releasing recent research that showed use of newspaper websites increased 5.3%, to 59 million people, in the first quarter of 2007 compared with the same period a year ago. Newspaper owners are so intent on including the broader view of their total audience that they have helped persuade the organization that tracks newspaper performance — the Audit Bureau of Circulations — to incorporate online usage into its figures next year. The Los Angeles Times was like many of its big-city counterparts in continuing to experience circulation losses. The newspaper's daily circulation fell to an average of 815,723, a 4.2% decline, compared with the same period a year earlier. Its Sunday circulation dropped 4.7% to 1,173,000. The Times attributed much of the decline to the continued scaling back of programs that distributed free papers in schools and at hotels. Executives at the paper said they were encouraged that "individually paid" daily circulation — papers delivered at homes and sold at newsstands — increased fractionally to 779,256. The Times hit its print circulation highs in 1991, with more than 1.2 million copies of the paper sold each weekday and nearly 1.6 million on Sundays. The use of latimes.com increased 15%, to 65 million page views, in January over the year before. "Even as we are rapidly growing our online audience, it's clear that great print journalism still plays a big part in the 24/7 multimedia world our advertisers, readers and users want," Times Publisher David D. Hiller said in a statement. Other papers in Southern California suffered even sharper losses. Daily circulation of the San Diego Union-Tribune slumped 6.6% to 296,000. The Orange County Register fell 5.1% to 285,000, the Riverside Press-Enterprise was off 6.7% to 173,000 and the San Fernando Valley-based Daily News dropped 7.3% to 146,000. One of the biggest declines in the region was experienced by the Santa Barbara News-Press, where owner Wendy McCaw and some of her employees have been feuding. They have accused her of meddling in news decisions. News-Press circulation during the week dropped 9.5% to 38,000.

These are amazing statistics... look for similar numbers in America soon:

45% of Europeans watch TV online
A new study from Motorola has found that an amazing 45% of Europeans now watch television online. — The survey covering the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain found that the French lead Europe in terms of online television consumption …

The sociological backlash against positive Google press continues:

Google's Evil NDA
An anonymous reader writes "Google's motto is "Don't Be Evil" — but they sure have an evil non-disclosure agreement! In order to be considered for employment there, you must sign an agreement that forbids you to 'mention or imply the name of Google' in public ever again. Further, you can't tell anyone you interviewed there, or what they offered you, and you possibly sign away your rights to reverse-engineer any of Google's code, ever. And this NDA never expires. Luckily, someone has posted excerpts from the NDA before he signed it and had to say silent forever." At the bottom of the posting are links to a few other comments on the Web about Google's NDA, including a ValleyWag post that reproduces it in its entirety.

One word: Proxies.

Pandora To Shut Out Non-U.S. Users Thursday Evening

If you live outside of the U.S. and enjoy listening to customized radio stations on Pandora, brace yourself for some bad news. The site will be shutting you out starting Thursday evening. Registered users who access the service from outside the U.S. received a warning email yesterday letting them know that this will be happening.

Pandora operates under Section 114 of the DMCA, which gives them a clear process for paying rights holders in the U.S. There is no international equivalent of the DMCA, and so to operate legally in other countries, Pandora must sign deals with rights holders directly. That means separate deals with labels and publishers for each song, an extremely difficult and time consuming task.

Pandora has always made it clear on the site that it is for U.S. users only, and requires a U.S. zip code for registration. That didn’t stop many international users from registering anyway, using “90210″ or another famous zip code to get access to the service. Now, with IP-based filtering, users will be forced to go through proxy servers or other complicated mechanisms for getting to the music.

I spoke with CTO Tom Conrad this evening about the change. He says Pandora has been working on international rights deals for nearly two years now, and they hope to have enough deals done in the UK and Canada to launch in those countries soon. Other markets will take longer, he says.

The email sent to users is below.

This isn’t the only bad news recently for Pandora. Along with other Internet radio companies, they have also been fighting the RIAA over revisions to the fee structure they must pay for playing music online. The rates they pay are significantly more than satellite providers pay, and terrestrial radio stations pay nothing to play music. Two very brave congressmen, Representatives Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Donald Manzullo (R-IL), have proposed legislation that would require Internet radio startups to pay no more than satellite providers, which should allow many Internet radio startups to stay in business. Read more about the legislation on the Pandora blog and SaveNetRadio.

We’ve covered Pandora since their launch in the summer of 2005. Our coverage is here.

In "0wn3d" news:

Internet2 Knocked Out By Homeless Man?

The original purpose of the internet was supposed to be a network that the government could continue to use even after a nuclear attack. The whole point is that it's supposed to figure out ways to route around damage. However, when it came to Internet2, apparently designers didn't pay as much attention to that kind of stability. The news today is that a homeless man in Boston tossed a cigarette on a mattress, setting off a two-alarm fire that happened to knock out the Internet2 connection between New York and Boston. It's true that Internet2 is supposed to be experimenting with different methods of building network infrastructure, but you would think that redundancy would have been considered a feature worth keeping.