Shaw Cable SECRETLY limits internet bandwidth

On April 6, 2007 By Rick McIn internet, product complaintsLeave a comment

It must be true. I read it on Digg.

Shaw Cable, a Western-Canadian ISP has begun to roll out technology that will limit the bandwidth given to BitTorrent users and P2P alike. Considered I was guaranteed up & down speed as well as “unlimited” Data transfer, I find this a tad ridiculous.

Shaw Cable secretly limits BitTorrent Bandwidth

Something is wrong with my bittorrent downloads of entirely legal and wholesome videos

Sounds like this is inevitable. UNTIL a competitor offers true Net Neutrality high speed. When that happens people will cancel Shaw overnight.

Until then, here are are 270+user reviews. Some people no problems getting full speed bittorent.

Others say it is not secret. Shaw admits they throttle.

Robert X. Cringely says Net Neutrality is toast

On April 6, 2007 By Rick McIn bad news, internetLeave a comment

Bad news.

Meanwhile a LOT of gas has been and will continue to be spewed about network neutrality, which is the idea that ISPs should treat all packets equally. For the record, I am strongly in favor of network neutrality even if I see it as a fading hope. For the moment most ISPs have signed on to this notion, but I am here to tell you that’s not going to be the case long-term. The big ISP’s have long planned for the end of net neutrality and, whether it is next year or five years from now, most ISPs are ready.

In the end the ISPs are going to win this battle, you know. The only thing that will keep them from doing that is competition, something it is difficult to see coming along anytime soon …

I, Cringely | PBS

By the way, Cringely is a pen name. Many have written under the name for Infoworld.

The Cringely I like is brilliant tech journalist Mark Stephens.

After a financial disagreement in 1995, Stephens was dismissed from Infoworld, and was promptly sued by IDG to prevent him from continuing to use the Cringely trademark. A settlement was reached out of court that allowed him to use the name, so long as he did not contribute to competing technology magazines. As a result, Stephens’ writing as Robert X. Cringely regularly appears in publications such as The New York Times, Newsweek, Forbes, Upside, Success, and Worth. Stephens has also appeared as Cringely in two documentaries based on his writings: Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires and Nerds 2.0.1.

Stephens’ Cringely currently writes an online column for the PBS website called I, Cringely: The Pulpit, and has launched a new internet television show NerdTV, also for PBS.

Wikipedia

PrezVid rates Presidential candidates

On April 4, 2007 By Rick McIn government, internetLeave a comment

Will the 2008 American election be won or lost on-line?

I’m not sure.

Initially I felt Obama might be swept to power by the internet. But he still has plenty of time to blow it.

In this week’s PrezVid Show, I grade the latest YouTube videos from each of the candidates. It’s a sorry lot. As a group, they are still blowing the opportunity to use YouTube to connect with voters in new ways: more personal, direct, informative, fun. The grades:

John Edwards — Best of the bunch. He, like Barack Obama, posts a speech to a labor convention and I expect them both to pull out hard hats and lunch pails. But he’s passionate and the video is well-organized, giving us his stump-speech stands on Iraq, the environment, and health care. And he even snarks at Barack Obama. Grade: B

Barack Obama — He keeps making Sally Field videos: They love him, they really love him. At another union confab, Obama shouts to the choir but still says little. Grade: C

Hillary Clinton — She was the teacher’s pet with her early videos. But lately, Clinton has been sloughing it off. He latest show just hauls out the hubby to beg for money (and considering her record-blasting take so far, money is the least of her concerns. Grade: C-

Dennis Kucinich — Grade: B

Chris Dodd — Grade: C-

Joe Biden — Grade: C

John McCain — Grade: C

Mitt Romney — Grade: D

Rudy Giuliani — Grade: D-

Ron Paul — Grade: F

Bill Richardson — Grade: C-

Duncan Hunter — Grade: D

Tommy Thompson — Grade: F

Chuck Hagel — Grade: D-

Sam Brownback — Grade: F

PrezVid

how newspapers could be SAVED

On April 3, 2007 By Rick McIn internet, product complaints, product endorsementsLeave a comment

Oliver Reichenstein is on the right track. He feels newspapers need reinvent themselves as Wikis.

Right now I love Wikipedia. I hate my local paper’s website.

The San Francisco Chronicle is in financial trouble, InfoWorld stops printing, Time Magazine redesigns its print edition and fires 50 people. Old media is in trouble. …

The big question is: Do newspapers have a future at all? – Change or die is the media’s new watchword. Here are the 10 major misconceptions than hinder newspapers to join the new media party …

Information Architects Japan » iA Notebook » 10 Newspaper Myths Deconstructed

Reichenstein posted a model of how the Washington Post could be redesigned as a Wiki.

John McCain – get some better TECH support !

On March 27, 2007 By Rick McIn humour, internetLeave a comment

Oops.

MySpace has not been good to this presidential candidate.

Someone on Presidential hopeful John McCain’s staff is going to be in trouble today. They used a well known template to create his Myspace page. The template was designed by Newsvine Founder and CEO Mike Davidson …. Davidson gave the template code away to anyone who wanted to use it, but asked that he be given credit when it was used, and told users to host their own image files.

McCain’s staff used his template, but didn’t give Davidson credit. Worse, he says, they use images that are on his server, meaning he has to pay for the bandwidth used from page views on McCain’s site.

Davidson decided to play a small prank on the campaign this morning as retribution. Since he’s in control of some of the images on the site, he replaced one that shows contact information with a statement:

Today I announce that I have reversed my position and come out in full support of gay marriage…particularly marriage between two passionate females.

John McCain’s MySpace Page “Enhanced”

complaints.com – actually pretty lame

On March 26, 2007 By Rick McIn blogs, internet, product complaintsLeave a comment

If you are looking for a great internet niche business, start-up a consumer complaints aggregater.

Pick up RSS feeds from the 50 million plus blogs out there. And summarize the lack of love for businesses in a funny, easy-to-read form.

You need a good domain name. Something like: Complaints.com

Actually that one is already taken. I recommended it on Boxing Day 2006.

Taking a sober second look at it today, it’s actually a terrible website. The submission process is email. And the browsing / search interface looks like a porn site from 1997.

I am still waiting for my first free email newsletter.

Almost ANYTHING would be better than this. Leave a comment below if you have another consumer complaints site you like.

Robert Scoble slaps Microsoft

On March 21, 2007 By Rick McIn Google, internet, product complaintsLeave a comment

The Scobleizer got famous as the “Microsoft tech evangelist”.

He was the human face of the inhuman company.

Scoble has defended Microsoft as much as anyone on the internet. A lot of his friends work there.

But this time, he is calling a spade a spade:

Microsoft executives are bragging to MVPs that “we’re in it to win.”

I don’t think Microsoft is. The words are empty. Microsoft’s Internet execution sucks (on whole). Its search sucks. Its advertising sucks …

Microsoft isn’t going away. Don’t get me wrong. They have record profits, record sales, all that. But on the Internet? Come on. This isn’t winning. Microsoft: stop the talk.

Ship a better search, a better advertising system than Google, a better hosting service than Amazon, a better cross-platform Web development ecosystem than Adobe, and get some services out there that are innovative (where’s the video RSS reader? Blog search? Something like Yahoo’s Pipes? A real blog service? A way to look up people?) That’s how you win.

This isn’t Netscape you’re talking trash to, Steve. Have you really studied Google? It doesn’t sound like you have.

Again, Microsofties, you’d be better served not to talk trash until you have something YOU CAN SHIP!

Microsoft tells MVPs “we’re in it to win” — Really? « Scobleizer – Tech Geek Blogger

Fact is Microsoft does very few things well. Especially on the internet.