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The Federal Trade Commission has weighed in on Net Neutrality and it doesn’t look good.  Net Neutrality is an idea that does not give any user with the same type of connection to the internet any higher priority than another.  The FTCs Internet Access Task Force has issued a report called “Broadband Connectivity Competition Policy”.  One of the items mentioned in this 170 page report is that policy makers may cause harm if enact laws that set a level playing ground for consumers.
“In the absence of significant market failure or demonstrated consumer harm, policy makers should be particularly hesitant to enact new regulation in this area,” FTC Chair Deborah Platt Majoras wrote.  She goes on,  “The primary reason for caution is simply that we do not know what the net effects of potential conduct by broadband providers will be on all consumers, including, among other things, the prices that consumers may pay for Internet access, the quality of Internet access and other services that will be offered, and the choices of content and applications that may be available to consumers in the marketplace,” Majoras said.

It seems that the agency set out to protect us from big business may be protecting big business.  That may not be all true.  The FTC warns of the pitfalls of setting a law that mandates all connections equal.  It does not make those rules, lawmakers do.  It also does not mention that big business will increase costs for a better connection…but BB is who thought of this idea in the first place.

Enjoy this while you can. Who knows where this is going.

Microsoft announced Tuesday that they are in the beta testing phase of a new online storage service.  The service will include storage of up to 500 MB of storage for users.

This is in an effort to keep up with sites like Google, who offer 2gb of e-mail storage, and AOL, who offer 5gb of storage for its users.

Later this summer the beta testing will include 5,000 people.  ALthough earlier called “Live Drive” the software giant may decide upon “Windows Live Folders” a much lamer name.

There is no indication now that Microsoft will limit intergrated access to Windows users like Apple does for it’s .Mac account.  Apple’s offering costs $99 a year.  Google offers their service for free.  No word on pricing from Microsoft.

It is pretty much common knowledge that the US is well behind first place when it comes to education and health care.  The Communications Workers of America (CWA) have released a report that will add broadband to that list.  The US ranks 16th in connectivity of industrialized nations.

The average download speed in the US is about 1.9Mbps (megabytes per second).  In Japan that number is 61Mbps.  In South Korea they have an average speed of 45Mbps. Our neighbor to the north, Canada, with its expansive country with rural areas has speeds, on average, of 7Mpbs.

We may also be ranked low in price per Mbps too.  Japan, the highest ranking in speed has package of about $30 per month for 50Mps.  We pay about $20 for 1Mbps and from $30 - $40 a month for 4Mbps speeds.
You can check to see how your speed checks out compared to other nations at speedmatters.org.

Samsung has announced that they plan on making a 64GB solid-state hard drive.  The drive will be 1.8″ by 1.8″ and be one of the first larger solid state drive (SSD) put into mass production.  What does this all mean?

Geek talk aside, SSD is great for the average consumer.  In a normal hard drive platters, which hold your data, are spinning around and around all the time when the computer is turned on.  All of this motion is powered by your battery.   This makes battery life…short.  With solid state technology there are no moving parts so the battery life is much longer.  In Samsung’s case the new drive will increase battery life by 20%.

I’m sure the first line of these drives will be terribly expensive, but over time they will start showing up in laptops and cell phones with a price everyone can afford.

The FBI is reported to have gone to some major research colleges in New England.  Although I’m sure the federal government could learn a thing or two from such places like MIT, Boston College, and UMASS they instead are warning faculty and staff that students are vulnerable to espionage.

The FBI is warning that college students and faculty could make some extra money by selling research to the “evil doers”.   To help the spread of terror agents are handing out “espionage indicators” that are meant to smoke foreign agents out of there holes.
Those indicators include; unusual work hours, attempts to gain new access without a need, unsual interest in information outside of their job scope, and unexplained oversees travel.  Faculty, students, and staff have been asked to monitor colleagues for these signs and report them to the FBI and military.

Remember kids: It’s all for the sake of our freedom.

CNN reported yesterday that the Pentagon’s e-mail system was broken into.  A Pentagon spokesman confirmed that systems that is attached to email was penetrated.  The Pentagon announced they took e-mail servers offline to protect the system.  the attack was targeted at Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ 3,000 employees.  It appears about half of those users lost e-mail service during that time.

The system controlled unclassified information, so it is said. They also said that “the system carries “routine email” involving administrative manners but not classified information related to military operations.”

There was no information put out there that alluded to whether the person(s) attacking the system had access to the e-mails and could read them.

Perhaps this was done as a political protest, perhaps not.  I’m sure that these evil-doers will see justice.  The Pentagon will smoke them out of their holes.  Or maybe they’ll never find them and invaded another country.

A federal judge in New Mexico has put a halt to the RIAA alleging that “John Doe” is illegally downloading files.  In this particular case, the RIAA has named “Does 1-16″ in the lawsuit in an attempt to  get the names of students at the University of New Mexico.

The RIAA uses this John Doe approach to gain subpoenas from the courts.  They then use those subpoenas to force ISPs to identify the people infringing on copyright infringement/illegal downloading.  Sometimes the ISP settles with RIAA before a single person can be named.  Either way the RIAA wins.  This may not be the case for this lawsuit in New Mexico.
The judge has ordered the record labels and UNM to work an “appropriate process” outside of the courts.  The RIAA claims that this will hinder their lawsuit, but they will continue with the process.  The RIAA will have to contact the head lawyer at UNM and agree on a “fair and reasonable process that would allow Plaintiffs to identify limited information about the subscribers.”  If they cannot, the courts will have to step in.

Google, who Monday announced plans for a new electric car, has also announced that they will promise $10 million to help jump start the electric car market.

The development of an electric car can be terribly expensive, considering the price of the advanced electronics and parts involved with a plug-in hybrid.  It is estimated that the big car companies can be spending tens of millions of dollars for their plug-in cars. General Motors is the only big car maker that has announced plans for a plug-in.  The GM car will arrive around 2010.
“Google is not going to get into the business of building and selling hybrid electrics. Our focus is on accelerating their developing through research, testing and investment,” says Google.org’s Dan Reicher.

The federal government has pledged $28 million in plug-in development in FY 2008.

Experts say that the technology is here for the plug-in electric car, it’s just up to auto makers to step up development.  Google’s new commitment along with the fed’s funding may be the jump-start needed to get the electric car running.

Yesterday Google.org (related to google.com) launched a new project for a new kind of car.  The smart energy vehicle would plug in to the electric grid and be powered by solar energy.  While plugged into the grid the car would send power it doesn’t need back to the grid, making the owner some money or credit on their bill.  This process is called vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology.  You can read more about V2G here. The car would get about 70-100 miles per gallon.

One of Google.org’s core missions is to address climate change.  Transportation in the US contributes to about a third of all of the greenhouse gas emissions.  Right now Google engineers will be running a small fleet of these cars.  They will also add an extra battery for longer drives and possible run the car on biofuel instead of gasoline.