Archives for the 'Uncategorized' Category
Bandwidth prices fall sharply
A new report from TeleGeography finds that bandwidth prices for backbone transit continue to decline rapidly across the globe. In San Francisco, for instance, the price per mbps of Gigabit Ethernet transit has dropped 38 % in the past 12 months. Developing countries are also enjoying substantial price cuts in 15 to 20% range.
But if the Internet’s core is controlled by an oligopolistic cartel—as Tim Wu argued in a recent New York Times essay—then why does bandwidth keep getting cheaper?
Perhaps it’s because the fourteen or so firms which offer backbone IP transit are competing fiercely to win over business from smaller carriers and enterprises. And as businesses of all sizes demand faster connectivity, more dark fiber is being lit, creating an expansion in network capacity. In DC, for instance, a price war has made high-speed commercial data services much more affordable, with one communications provider offering converged 10mbps full-duplex dedicated Ethernet over copper for less than the market price of four bonded T1 lines.
Why are some providers moving towards data transfer caps if bandwidth prices are dropping ? In part, it’s because backbone transit is not the only usage-variable expense that residential ISPs face. Last-mile bandwidth remains a highly contested resource in many neighborhoods, and the cost per megabit of bringing faster speeds to the doorstep far exceeds the cost of adding more wavelengths to a long-distance fiber optic line. As consumers demand greater speeds, providers are investing heavily in network upgrades—these costs are adding up, and there’s a strong case to be made that heavy users ought to shoulder a larger portion of the burden than light users.
Hank Paulson’s Phishing Scheme
From ACU’s new issue of Battleline. ACU board member Joe Morris contributes an email from our new economic Czar:
My Dear American Friend
Issue 117 - October 8, 2008
MY DEAR AMERICAN FRIEND:
I AM NEEDING TO ASK YOU TO SUPPORT AN URGENT SECRET BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH A TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF GREAT MAGNITUDE.
I AM MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY OF THE REPUBLIC OF AMERICA. MY COUNTRY HAS HAD CRISIS THAT HAS CAUSED NEED FOR LARGE TRANSFER OF FUNDS OF 700 BILLION OF YOUR DOLLARS ( US). IF YOU WOULD ASSIST ME IN THIS TRANSFER IT WOULD BE MOST PROFITABLE TO YOU.
I AM WORKING WITH HIGHLY REPUTABLE MR. PHIL GRAM, LOBBYIST FOR UBS, WHO WILL BE MY REPLACEMENT AS MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY IN JANUARY IF MY POLITICAL PARTY WINS UPCOMING ELECTION, WHICH WE CERTAINLY WILL BECAUSE WE ARE IN CONTROLING OF THE HIGHEST SUPREME COURT. YOU MAY REMEMBER HIM AS A SENATOR AS LEADER OF THE AMERICAN BANKING DEREGULATION MOVEMENT IN THE 1990S.
I AM ALSO WORKING WITH HIGHLY REPUTABLE MR. BARNEY FRANK, MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF MASSACHUSETTS, WHO WILL BE MY REPLACEMENT AS MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY IN JANUARY IF OTHER POLITICAL PARTY, LED BY MR. BARACK OBAMA, WIN UPCOMING ELECTION, WHICH HE CERTAINLY WILL BECAUSE HE IS IN CONTROLLING OF VOTING IN ILLINOIS, OHIO, FLORIDA, AND MANY OTHER STATES. MR. BARNEY FRANK IS VERY KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS OF ALL KINDS, FROM WHOREHOUSE ADMINISTRATION TO HOME LOAN BUSINESS, AND FAITHFULLY TEACHES PRECEPTS OF MR. BARACK OBAMA (”FROM TINY A.C.O.R.N. GROWS GIANT FORECLOSURE OAK!”).
DTV Transition Humor
Let’s hope things don’t turn out this badly!
Network Theory Can Explain US Credit Crunch
The financial crisis currently consuming the U.S. has led tech industry leaders, such as Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, to speak out in favor of quick Congressional action. Tech stocks, as well as general stocks, have plummeted, and there is confusion over why this crisis is happening and spreading so fast. One explanation that makes a lot of sense draws on network and information theory.
“[The U.S.] market economy is nothing more than a vast, parallel-processing information network,” explains noted economist John Rutledge in his new book Lessons From a Road Warrior. Network theory, the examination of interconnected systems, can help us understand the current market crisis, because it can aid in identifying and understanding cascading information network failures.
When a “super node” in a network goes down, for example, it has the potential to take down the whole system, since these key nodes are connected to many others. Perhaps the most familiar crash of this sort is a power blackout. If a storm or accident takes down a single power line, it can lead to a power loss for a whole city. That type of crash, Rutledge explains, is exactly what is happening now.
[...]
Read more here.
The List of Votes on the Financial Services Bailout
. . . is here.
Security
Amanda got to go to the debate and has a report:
On my way through the security checkpoint, I asked the Secret Service officer if I should remove my belt before passing through the metal detector. He responded, very pleasantly: “Ma’am, this isn’t an airport.” We all got to keep our shoes, too.
Digital lies & the future of America
This is a good article by Harvard professor Harry Lewis. He worries that the ease of spreading lies on the Net puts us at risk of losing “a thoughtful, analytical, educated citizenry, capable of sharing responsibility for the long-term welfare of the nation.” Here’s a excerpt from his piece:
“If he wins, Barack Obama is going to be sworn in on a Koran instead of the Bible. Trig isn’t Sarah Palin’s baby, it’s her daughter Bristol’s. Obama refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Here’s the list of books Palin wanted to ban from the library …
All these claims — none of them true — turned up in the e-mail inboxes of millions of Americans this summer. In spite of both campaigns’ efforts to correct the record about their candidates, the rumors linger on and spread.”
Celebrating 51 Years of the Space Age: Sputnik’s Launch
I recently took over as Chairman of the Space Frontier Foundation, 
a citizens’ advocacy group dedicated to the opening the space frontier to human settlement. Established in 1988 to preserve the ideas of Dr. Gerard O’Neill, author of The High Frontier, the Foundation has worked to enable the fulfillment of O’Neill’s vision of humans living and working in space to the benefit of all humanity through:
- Cultural change—spreading awareness of the vast, untapped potential of space to make humanity richer, safer, healthier and freer;
- Supporting the growth of the entrepreneurial NewSpace industry; and
- Promoting government policies supports NewSpace.
I’m hosting an anniversary bash for Sputnik at my home, so if you’re interested in space—as a place, not just a government program—and happen to be in DC on October 4, please consider joining us. Just email me to RSVP and I’ll add you to the evite (berin dot szoka at gmail dot com).
(In case you were wondering: We’re working now to upgrade our rather outdated website. If you’d like to help, just let me know!)
A Handy Guide to Computing Privacy Online & Offline
Lately the good folks at Bureaucrash have really been giving us a lot of cool tech related podcasts. Last week they brought us an interview with Cory Doctorow. This week a guide to online privacy. Topics include:
- Email Encryption
- The Onion Router (TOR)
- KeePassX
- TrueCrypt
- Pidgin & OTR Plugin for Pidgin
- Adium
- Incognito
Listen to it at Bureaucrash.com.
Why Calling Google a Monopoly is Silly
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: def. monopoly
Exclusive possession of a market by a supplier of a product or service for which there is no substitute. In the absence of competition, the supplier usually restricts output and increases price in order to maximize profits.
How does this possibly apply to Google? Google hasn’t decreased output, prices have not skyrocketed, and clearly there are plenty of substitutes. Yet groups like the Association of National Advertisers are attacking Google, claiming Google has a monopoly because it “controls” 90% of search.
Okay. Google gets the lion’s share of search engine traffic. But controlling search doesn’t amount to controlling online advertising, not by a long shot.
We haven’t seen prices go up because the time people spend on search engines every day is minimal, amounting to only a handful of minutes. Google has successfully turned these few minutes a day into a machine that generates billions of dollars a year. Yet despite its powerful position in the search market, competition from outside of search is forcing Google to keep its rates low.
Comcast v. FCC: Now what?
A divided FCC recently issued an order concluding that Comcast acted discriminatorily and arbitrarily to squelch the dynamic benefits of an open and accessible Internet, and that its failure to disclose its practices to its customers has compounded the harm. The commission does get a bit excited sometimes. Anyway, the FCC required Comcast to end its network management practices and submit a compliance plan.
Richard Bennett reviews the Comcast “protocol agnostic” network management plan requested by the FCC:
[T]he new system will not look at any headers, and will simply be triggered by the volume of traffic each user puts on the network and the overall congestion state of the network segment. If the segment goes over 70% utilization in the upload direction for a fifteen-minute sample period, congestion management will take effect.
In the management state, traffic volume measurement will determine which users are causing the near-congestion, and only those using high amounts of bandwidth will be managed. The way they’re going to be managed is going to raise some eyebrows, but it’s perfectly consistent with the FCC’s order. High-traffic users - those who’ve used over 70% of their account’s limit for the last fifteen minutes - will have all of their traffic de-prioritized for the next fifteen minutes. While de-prioritized, they still have access to the network, but only after the conforming users have transmitted their packets. So instead of bidding on the first 70% of network bandwidth, they’ll essentially bid on the 30% that remains. This will be a bummer for people who are banging out files as fast as they can only to have a Skype call come in. Even if they stop BitTorrent, the first fifteen minutes of Skyping are going to be rough.
Aside from filing a compliance plan, Comcast is also filing suit. For one thing, Commissioner Robert McDowell claims that “the FCC does not know what Comcast did or did not do. The evidence in the record is thin and conflicting.” Ouch.
Yes, there could be years of litigation. Continue reading this post »
Jones Day Lawyers Apparently Don’t Know the Law
[The following post discusses a matter of public interest and people who have brought public attention upon themselves. It contains only expressions of opinion and recitations of facts that I believe in good faith to be true. It should be clear, and I urge you to be clear, that the only service provider discussed in the post, involved in authoring the post, or involved in publishing the post is the law firm Jones Day and its attorneys. Let there be no confusing that this is all about Jones Day. Since it's a post critical of Jones Day, there should be no implication to anyone that Jones Day could possibly endorse the content of this post or this blog. I say all this so that any nitwit attorney who thinks this blog post gives him or her a cause of action will be on notice that nothing said here violates trademark law, everything here is protected speech under the First Amendment, and that no cause of action can possibly lie against any person for this publication.]
It’s fascinating sometimes to see lawyers with an abundance of power and no sense of judgment - especially big-firm lawyers who shouldn’t exhibit their poor judgment and ignorance of basic legal doctrine to current and prospective clients.
But the law firm of Jones Day has some lawyers working for it who really don’t seem to have a clue about trademark law. I never practiced trademark law, and I seem to know more about it than they do.
The case is well described on the Citizen Media Law Project Web site.
Continue reading this post »
The ‘D’ Word?
Barack Obama argues that John McCain “hurt everyday workers with his longtime support for deregulation,” according to Politico.
Thomas Frank adds,
There is simply no way to blame [the failure of several large financial institutions], as Republicans used to do, on labor unions or over-regulation. No, this is the conservatives’ beloved financial system doing what comes naturally. Freed from the intrusive meddling of government, just as generations of supply-siders and entrepreneurial exuberants demanded it be, the American financial establishment has proceeded to cheat and deceive and beggar itself — and us — to the edge of Armageddon. It is as though Wall Street was run by a troupe of historical re-enactors determined to stage all the classic panics of the 19th century.
But as Steve Forbes points out, the “easy-money” policy of the Federal Reserve helped financial institutions pile up debt and bad assets.
According to former FDIC Chairman William M. Isaac,
The biggest culprit is a change in our accounting rules that the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the SEC put into place over the past 15 years: Fair Value Accounting. Fair Value Accounting dictates that financial institutions holding financial instruments available for sale (such as mortgage-backed securities) must mark those assets to market. That sounds reasonable. But what do we do when the already thin market for those assets freezes up and only a handful of transactions occur at extremely depressed prices?
The answer to date from the SEC, FASB, bank regulators and the Treasury has been (more or less) “mark the assets to market even though there is no meaningful market.” The accounting profession, scarred by decades of costly litigation, just keeps marking down the assets as fast as it can.
This is contrary to everything we know about bank regulation. When there are temporary impairments of asset values due to economic and marketplace events, regulators must give institutions an opportunity to survive the temporary impairment. Assets should not be marked to unrealistic fire-sale prices. Regulators must evaluate the assets on the basis of their true economic value (a discounted cash-flow analysis).
If we had followed today’s approach during the 1980s, we would have nationalized all of the major banks in the country and thousands of additional banks and thrifts would have failed. I have little doubt that the country would have gone from a serious recession into a depression.
Easy money and mark-to-market are not deregulatory policies. They are examples of government intervention with unfortunate consequences.
The nature of unfortunate consequences is always unpredictable; the inevitability of unfortunate consequences, never so.
Easy money was supposed speed the transition from the dotcom and telecom bubbles to prosperity, and mark-to-market was so we would not have to suffer from similar speculative bubbles in the future. Yet here we have another burst speculative bubble.
According to Frank,
Thanks to the party of Romney and McCain, federal work is today so financially unattractive to top talent that it might as well be charity work. It’s one of the main reasons — other than outright conquest by the industries they’re supposed to be overseeing — that our regulatory agencies can’t seem to get out of bed in the morning.
France attracts its best and brightest to government service, but most of us don’t want to be like France — at least not in all respects. Although it is hard to fail in France, it is also hard to succeed.
Maybe blaming the regulators is like the blame the messenger proverb. Perhaps the problem isn’t the regulators; it is regulation itself.
Although regulation always seems brilliant in theory, it usually fails in practice. Either it doesn’t work, it spawns corruption or both. Or it backfires, as it did here.
Broadband Prices Drop
I expected to see more reaction to the Wall Street Journal’s recent observation of a surprising shakeup in the broadband industry. Vishesh Kumar reported that
Verizon Communications Inc., which last quarter became the first company ever to see a drop in DSL subscribers — some of whom went to its faster FiOS service — is now offering customers six months of DSL service free if they sign up for the company’s phone and Internet package. That makes the bundled package $45 a month, vs. $65 prior to the offer. AT&T Inc., meanwhile, is now guaranteeing its current prices, ranging from $20 to $55 a month, for two years.
I cite this because I always claim that less regulation of a highly-regulated industry promotes competition, consumer choice and ultimately lower prices. Occasionally someone claims that prices do not appear to be falling. And depending on the point in time they may be right. Of course, if you don’t have to lower prices to attract and retain customers you won’t. But good times never last forever.
Until the second quarter of this year, the cable and telephone industries were adding roughly equal numbers of broadband accounts. Then something changed, and the cable companies are now signing up three-quarters of new customers. Maybe the marketing efforts of some of the companies are better than others, or maybe the phone companies’ main broadband product, DSL, can no longer compete on speed, quality and/or features.
In any event, when all else fails, you have to slash your prices.
Cory Doctorow on the Bureacrash Podcrash
None other than Sci-Fi author, civil libertarian, blogger, activist, and TLF commenter Cory Doctorow drops in at the Bureaucrash Podcrash (that’s a podcast for “crashers”) to discuss his new book Little Brother.
Austin Grossman’s review of the book for the New York Times remarks:
An entertaining thriller and a thoughtful polemic on Internet-era civil rights, “Little Brother” is also a practical handbook of digital self-defense. Marcus’s guided tour through RFID cloners, cryptography and Bayesian math is one of the book’s principal delights. He spreads his message through a secure network engineered out of Xbox gaming consoles, to a tech-savvy youth underground (we are now post-nerd, I learned — hipsters and social networking experts have replaced the unwashed coders of yore).
We at TLF may disagree with Mr. Doctorow on a number of policy issues, but I must admit that he’s a talented writer. I bought Cory’s Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present, a collection of short stories, at Capital Books here in DC and read it cover to cover by the end of that weekend. A great read available free in digital form at Cory’s Craphound.
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