Geek News and Musings

Time Warner Expands Capped Broadband Plans
Time Warner has been testing broadband plans with traffic caps for several months, and apparently it likes what it’s seen, as it plans to soon expand the caps into four more markets. The company alleges it has to switch to capped plans in order to “support the infrastructure of the broadband business,” even though the supposed bandwidth crunch ISPs cite when talking about these plans is little more than a myth. As the company’s CEO notes, getting the cat back in the bag by getting consumers to switch from unlimited to capped plans is going to be very difficult. Previous studies have found that even light internet users would look to take their business elsewhere if their ISP introduced caps, mainly because they have absolutely no idea how much bandwidth they’re consuming. That’s a good thing, because the absence of mental transaction costs helped wired broadband take off, and laid the groundwork for all sorts of innovative internet services — not to mention lots of revenues for ISPs. Compare this to the mobile world, where per-KB or per-MB pricing helped stymie the growth of data services.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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British Goverment Wants To Know Who Your Facebook Friends Are
Law enforcement and security bodies around the world are on a massive push to expand data-retention laws, trying to force ISPs and lots of other companies to track and store data on their customers’ behavior in the name of public safety, crime prevention and investigation. While in some places, like Germany, there’s been some pushback, other places, like the UK are moving full speed ahead. Earlier this year, rules went into place forcing ISPs to keep records on all their users’ email, and now, the government wants to maintain a database of social networking site users’ contacts. As if that’s not bad enough, the BBC says it’s part of a plan to keep a central database of “of all phone calls, e-mails and websites visited.” As a spokesperson for a privacy group notes, it’s fine for law enforcement to monitor the online activity of criminal suspects, but keeping tabs on an entire country’s communications in a government database would, in effect, consider the entire British population suspects, and undermine some fairly fundamental freedoms of its society — and not to mention it’s probably illegal, like an estimated 25 percent of all British government databases. What’s particularly galling about these sorts of plans isn’t just that they’re anathema to the idea of freedom, but that if they’re put into place, they really won’t do any good. Law-enforcement types act as if having this data will be a magic bullet, but simply increasing the volume of retained data — then having to mine through it — will only make their jobs more difficult.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Verizon, Too, Turns To Subsidized Netbooks
We’ve wondered before why mobile operators say they hate the subsidies they pay to discount handset prices, but then expand their use of them to include laptops and netbooks. The trend looks like it’s here to stay, as Verizon Wireless has now confirmed it will start selling 3G-equipped netbooks by the end of June, so now, in addition to tying yourself into a 2-year contract where you’re paying back the cost of your cell phone, you’ll soon be able to tie yourself into a long-term data-service contract to pay back the price of a laptop, too. Of course, once that contract’s up, the device will still be locked to the operator from which you bought it, making it difficult (or impossible) to take your business elsewhere. Meanwhile, business is flowing the other direction, too: Dell is reportedly looking to set up a virtual operator in Japan, selling its customers network access on another operator’s mobile network to use with their mobile-equipped laptops. It’s an interesting contrast in models, because it’s unlikely Dell will subsidize the hardware like the operators. Part of the issue with handset subsidies is that consumers are used to paying the lower subsidized prices, and so any change that raises prices will be met with disdain. But people aren’t used to the benefit of subsidies for their PCs, so may be more open to paying a higher upfront cost for the hardware if it means they don’t have to sign a long-term contract with a high monthly service charge.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Twitter Finds Now It Has The Leverage On Mobile Operators
One issue that’s constantly popping up these days is friction between distributors and content or service providers. Companies on either side of the equation often overvalue their contribution, whether it’s movie studios thinking they have the leverage over Netflix, or ISPs thinking they’ve got the upper hand over the likes of Google when it comes to net neutrality because they “control” the pipe. The content or services are worthless without the distribution; without the content, the distribution is worthless. It’s not the case where one side always has the power, and often over time, the balance of power shifts. Such is the case with the news that Vodafone UK has enabled Twitter SMS services for its customers. Twitter irritated some of its international users last year when it stopped sending them SMS updates because of the costs. It’s a pretty typical story in mobile: if you have a service you want to offer to users via SMS, you’ve got to be prepared to pony up the cash to mobile operators to reach “their” customers. When Twitter was a nascent service used by web dorks and media types, somebody like Vodafone wouldn’t care about it. But as the service has gone mainstream, suddenly it behooves Vodafone to strike a deal with Twitter, make the costs workable, and be able to offer the service to its customers. The mobile industry has long engaged in these stupid battles over who “owns” the customer. Typically, the operator’s take has been that they own the pipe, so they own the customer. But maybe they’re finally figuring out that without any compelling services to travel through it, the pipe’s not such a big deal.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Ohio Legislator Wants To Criminalize Kids Taking Nude Pics Of Themselves
The uproar over “sexting” — kids taking nude pictures of themselves and sending them with their cameraphones — is in full swing, with lots of politicians looking to wring some publicity out of it. In our earlier post about the Pennsylvania prosecutor who threatened to bring child-porn charges against some kids for taking their own pictures, Steve L left a comment noting that a politician in Ohio plans to introduce legislation that would make sexting a misdemeanor offense. He says he wants to criminalize the activity to protect kids from the “extra burden” of being charged with felony sex offenses. It’s bizarre, though, as he says that teen sexters “did something stupid, but I don’t think anyone wants for them to be called sex offenders,” and “I think what these teens need is education about how this type of behavior could affect their lives.” So the way to educate them is to make them criminals?

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Latest Digital TV Transition Hiccup: Not Enough Converter Boxes
The transition from analog to digital TV has turned into a real mess, thanks to the bungled converter-box coupon program, but also because of the ham-fisted way in which the delay of the transition’s been handled. Earlier in the week, it seemed things might be getting back on track as the coupons started flowing again, but today we come to find out that officials are now worried about a shortage of boxes. You’d think somebody might have looked into the supply situation earlier, but hey, apparently it didn’t really matter as long as there weren’t any coupons. Once again, this illustrates how poorly the government has managed this situation. The coupon plan has been flawed from the outset, and if the government was so concerned about the supply of boxes, it should have taken steps to ensure it would be sufficient long ago. Stay tuned for another delay…

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Prosecutor Who Threatened Teens With Child Porn Charges For Taking Pics Of Themselves Gets Sued
Back in January, we got a tremendous response in the comments to a post about some teens in Pennsylvania who were facing the potential of child porn charges from an overzealous local prosecutor. Three girls had snapped nude and semi-nude pictures of themselves, and and faced charges of manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child pornography; the two boys they sent the photos faced possession raps. Now, the ACLU has sued the prosecutor on the girls’ behalf, saying he shouldn’t have threatened them with baseless charges — which haven’t yet been filed — if they wouldn’t agree to probation and a counseling program. The prosecutor says he was being “proactive” in offering them a choice, but the ACLU says he shouldn’t be using “heavy artillery” to make the threats. As its attorney points out, teaching kids that this sort of behavior can bring all sorts of unwanted and unforeseen ramifications is a good idea, but threatening them with child-porn charges isn’t the best way to do it. Of course, in neighboring New Jersey, it seems like prosecutors didn’t just stick to threats of such charges: a 14-year-old girl has now been arrested for child porn possession and distribution for posting nude photos of herself on MySpace for her boyfriend to see. At least in that case, they say they won’t charge friends who viewed the photos as well.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Prosecutor Who Threatened Teens With Child Porn Charges For Taking Pics Of Themselves Gets Sued
Back in January, we got a tremendous response in the comments to a post about some teens in Pennsylvania who were facing the potential of child porn charges from an overzealous local prosecutor. Three girls had snapped nude and semi-nude pictures of themselves, and and faced charges of manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child pornography; the two boys they sent the photos faced possession raps. Now, the ACLU has sued the prosecutor on the girls’ behalf, saying he shouldn’t have threatened them with baseless charges — which haven’t yet been filed — if they wouldn’t agree to probation and a counseling program. The prosecutor says he was being “proactive” in offering them a choice, but the ACLU says he shouldn’t be using “heavy artillery” to make the threats. As its attorney points out, teaching kids that this sort of behavior can bring all sorts of unwanted and unforeseen ramifications is a good idea, but threatening them with child-porn charges isn’t the best way to do it. Of course, in neighboring New Jersey, it seems like prosecutors didn’t just stick to threats of such charges: a 14-year-old girl has now been arrested for child porn possession and distribution for posting nude photos of herself on MySpace for her boyfriend to see. At least in that case, they say they won’t charge friends who viewed the photos as well.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

Prosecutor Who Threatened Teens With Child Porn Charges For Taking Pics Of Themselves Gets Sued
Back in January, we got a tremendous response in the comments to a post about some teens in Pennsylvania who were facing the potential of child porn charges from an overzealous local prosecutor. Three girls had snapped nude and semi-nude pictures of themselves, and and faced charges of manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child pornography; the two boys they sent the photos faced possession raps. Now, the ACLU has sued the prosecutor on the girls’ behalf, saying he shouldn’t have threatened them with baseless charges — which haven’t yet been filed — if they wouldn’t agree to probation and a counseling program. The prosecutor says he was being “proactive” in offering them a choice, but the ACLU says he shouldn’t be using “heavy artillery” to make the threats. As its attorney points out, teaching kids that this sort of behavior can bring all sorts of unwanted and unforeseen ramifications is a good idea, but threatening them with child-porn charges isn’t the best way to do it. Of course, in neighboring New Jersey, it seems like prosecutors didn’t just stick to threats of such charges: a 14-year-old girl has now been arrested for child porn possession and distribution for posting nude photos of herself on MySpace for her boyfriend to see. At least in that case, they say they won’t charge friends who viewed the photos as well.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Another Driver Chooses To Believe GPS Over The Reality Of A Cliff
Ah, yet another tale of a British driver turning on his GPS unit and turning off his brain: a guy in Yorkshire left his car teetering over the edge of a cliff after blindly following his GPS down a narrow, steep path. The GPS said it was a road, and the driver seems to have let that override his common sense, as plenty of people are wont to do. Drivers often like to blame the technology for taking them down some treacherous path, but it’s not as if the device simply suggested a suboptimal route, or drove the car itself. The infallibility some people see in technology is troubling, since they seem to see things like GPS units as perfectly acceptable replacements for their brains.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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