Technology and The End Of Capitalism

The recent financial crisis brought back memories of ‘Black Monday’, October 19th, 1987, the day of the greatest financial crisis of the late 20th century and the day the concept and practice of automated trading entered the consciousness of millions of people around the world. “Imaginary Wealth”. In Search of An Ethical Justification The ethical […]

Talk about returning to Europe

1,000Mbits of transit over Gigabit Ethernet in Bucharest now costs no more than it does in London - and only a couple of dollars more than in San Francisco. That’s incredible, and impressive. Talk about returning to Europe.
[via AFoE] Impressive, indeed! Anyone knows what the price is in Athens?

Web 3.0™. The Latest in EU Buzzwords.

Absolute BullIt's not as if any government anywhere (let alone the European Commission) ever preempted technological innovation and successfully regulated it, before it even became reality. Take for example what happened with Biofuel in the EU. Or renewables. Or, as a matter of fact, the 'net itself. So it actually begs the question: What on earth were the (seemingly clueless) bureaucrats that drafted this press release thinking when they coined their own pointless buzzword (as if there aren't enough already) in 'Web 3.0' and proceeded in presenting their equally pointless milestones and grand vision, when the EU funding for broadband has rivalled Gore's Information Superhighway in waste, frivolousness and incoherence? In spite of the lack of substance in the press release, there are some good parts in the related Commission report, The Future Networks and the Internet. Nope, it's not the internet of 'things' or 'stimulating investment in high-speed broadband' or --- ironically --- 'building the net of the future'. Instead I found keeping the 'net open and guaranteeing availability to be the most useful (and realistic) of the themes presented in the report. In any case, thinking about the future is commendable and could prove extremely wise; the way the Commission attempts to achieve it seems completely wrong and betrays ignorance of how and why technology such as the 'net can have such a disruptive effect in society (hint: yep, lack of regulation definitely had something to do with it). A public consultation on the 'early challenges of the Internet of Things' is open until the 28th of November.

Data Only LLU ADSL από τη Forthnet

Η Forthnet ξεκίνησε τη παροχή ενός LLU πακέτου με μόνον απεριόριστη ADSL πρόσβαση στο διαδίκτυο (διατίθεται και τηλεφωνική γραμμή αλλά χωρίς πάγιο. Οι κλήσεις κοστίζουν.), ονόματι Forthnet ADSL Economy. Αν μετακόμιζα και έπαιρνα νεα γραμμή, εφ'όσον είχα εξασφαλίσει πως θα είχα σταθερό κύκλωμα ADSL*, μάλλον θα το επέλεγα, δεδομένου του ότι κάνω το 99% των κλήσεων μου μέσω VoIP ή/και κινητού. Ενδιαφέρον. * Σε πάρα πολλές περιπτώσεις τα κυκλώματα ADSL είναι αρκετά ασταθή λόγω α. απόστασης από το DSLAM, β. κακής καλωδίωσης εντός κτηρίου ή/και του ΟΤΕ και (δυστυχώς) γ. κακών ρυθμίσεων των DSLAM από τους παροχείς. Εαν κάποιος σκοπεύει να χρησιμοποιήσει μια γραμμή ADSL για VoIP τηλεφωνία είναι απαραίτητη η εξασφάλιση μιας σταθερής γραμμής πριν την επιλογή ενός data-only πακέτου.

Oh the Irony [2]

Time for a humorous break. Check this 1980s French Apple Computer Inc. television advertisement. It shows an old wealthy businessman showing his company's assets to his son (?) in their luxury automobile while explaining that all this will become his, but he should make the decisions alone because his workers should not think, but only execute as they cannot handle making decisions and should just stick to following orders. The ad ends with the narrator saying that "this is one way to run a company, but fortunately there are others", at which time the apple logo fades in. And this is why for so long so many people thought Apple was an elitist, out of touch company. For many years its products were mostly appealing (in terms of price and marketing strategy) to people exactly like the old man: elitist and wealthy. If the ad were from the late 1970s/early 1980s (before Jobs left), it'd probably be a snipe at IBM --- the 'evil' giant of the time that only had mainframes and micros and dismissed personal computers as toys. Or equally, those that didn't think personal computers could increase the productivity of their workers. In which case it'd make some sense, but still be be laughably ironic, for Jobs' own managerial style is probably more authoritative, selfish and hierarchical than any (based on what's been written about him in numerous books, articles etc.) and would probably make the old man look like an egalitarian-supporting socialist running a cooperative business and making as much as everyone else. But, according to Gruber, the ad came out after Jobs left. It makes little sense: the alternatives to the Mac in the mid to late 1980s, a time of so much competition and so many different architectures and offerings, were more affordable, generally equally productive (at least given the software that was out for a significant part of the tasks people performed at the time) and were definitely accompanied by less arrogant, more pragmatic marketing campaigns, while IBM was clearly far from the all-mighty player in the industry it was half a decade earlier. [via daringfireball.net]

Myspace sans Indie music? Dead.

Heh, if that article is even slightly accurate, I'd be very surprised if Myspace didn't try to do everything in its power to satisfy indie labels and bands. Without them it stands no chance of surviving. None at all, even if it had all four major music megacorps behind it. The competition is so much better and Myspace is mediocre if not poor an implementation.