Chris Hill - Dr. Blip's PC-Doctor Blog

Why I'm Waiting to Upgrade to the iPhone 3G

nospam@example.com (Chris Hill) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:13:38 -0400

If you haven't read about the newest iPhone 3G (meaning you live in a remote location without access to a phone, television, or computer with internet), it launched this morning at 8:00 AM, in the U.S. I've been very excited about this launch for quite some time, following the blogosphere about every leak, real or not, in regards to this highly anticipated and probably overblown release. I mean, it is one of the most beautifully designed devices I've ever seen and I'm an iPhone 2G lover, err...owner, and severely addicted to technology in general.

At first, I was gung-ho about purchasing this new little jewel and passing off my iPhone 2G to my wife (she was equally excited about this). But, now I'm not so sure. Why you ask?
Continue reading "Why I'm Waiting to Upgrade to the iPhone 3G"

Yahoo + Indextools = Microsoft Acquisition?

nospam@example.com (Chris Hill) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:03:00 -0400

Upon arriving to work this morning, sitting in my Inbox was the following email from a one Dennis R. Mortensen, COO at IndexTools:

Hi there,

I hope this email finds you well.

It gives me great pleasure to inform you that IndexTools has positively agreed to be acquired by Yahoo! today. We firmly believe that our technology platform combined with Yahoo!’s extensive offering of on-line marketing services will provide our partners and clients with an unsurpassed marketing tool set.

So how does this affect you?

We would ask you to give us the opportunity to present this in more detail on Tuesday 15th April 2008. In the meantime, it is very much business as usual! Please be assured that, for the time being, our services will continue as normal and there will be no disruptions to your account.

We appreciate that you’ll have many questions and we look forward to providing you with answers to these early next week.

Until then, have a good week and look forward to speaking to you soon.

Kind regards

Dennis R. Mortensen, COO at IndexTools

Continue reading "Yahoo + Indextools = Microsoft Acquisition?"

Simple Machines Forum (SMF) Review

nospam@example.com (Chris Hill) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:14:20 -0500

What is SMF? According to simplemachines.org, Simple Machines Forum, or SMF, is a free, professional-grade software package that allows you to set up your own online community within minutes -- aka, it's forum software.

SMF is written in the popular language PHP (Andy may disagree) and uses a MySQL database.

This is an extremely powerful and easy-to-use forum, probably one of the more robust systems I've come across. Considering the price -- FREE -- you can't beat it.

Here's a list of some general features:

Advanced permission and user management

Supports multiple languages at once

Open and well-documented source code

Tracking of new and old unread topics, not just from your last visit

Designed for optimal performance and scalability

Multi-media output (XHTML, XML, RSS, WAP)

Multi-language support from a large community

Package manager that automatically installs or uninstalls mods (also known as hacks) as well as product updates

For an exhaustive list of features, visit the SMF features list here.

The minimum system requirements are as follows (most hosts will easily meet these requirements. If not, reconsider who you're hosting with) :

Any webserver that properly supports PHP, such as Apache or Internet Information Services (IIS).

PHP 4.1.0 or higher. The following directives are required to be set correctly in php.ini:
- the engine directive must be ON
- the magic_quotes_sybase directive must be set to OFF
- the session.save_path directive must be set to a valid directory
- the file_uploads directive must be On
- the upload_tmp_dir must be set to a valid directory

MySQL 3.23.4 or higher

At least 512 kilobytes of storage space in the database, although more is highly recommended

About two and a half megabytes of storage space on the web server, although more is recommended

Our forum, located here, currently has over 100 members, and more than 300 posts and continues to run as smoothly as the day we launched. Granted, I'll come back to you when we get into the tens of thousands, as that will be the true test of scalability. The update/package manager works like a charm and I'm surprised at how compatible my heavily modified theme has been with each update. An update has yet to break my theme. knock on wood The system notifies you when an update is available for SMF itself and any mods that you might have installed. Click the link for the update, and via FTP, SMF automagically downloads the update. Then visit the Package Manager, click the "Apply Mod" link and you're set.

Free themes are available to customize the look and feel of the forum and install with ease. Modifying a theme is also a breeze if you have any working knowledge of HTML and CSS. Knowledge of PHP is also a great benefit, but not required.

The Simple Machines website offers a ton of mods to make the forum fit your needs. They offer mods for New Features, Feature Enhancements, Themes, Buttons and Avatars, Administrative Functions, BBC, Attachments, Permissions, Postings, and Profiles. They one area that SMF currently seems to lack is the ability to monitor posts easily. As an admin you can subscribe to a board, but that will only notify you of "new" posts, not comments to existing posts. Apparently this is an issue that is to be addressed in the 2.0 version. The first beta release of 2.0 was delivered last August. According to the forums over at Simple Machines, the following is a summary of some of the new features:

Database abstraction - with support for PostgreSQL and SQLite planned alongside that of MySQL

Automatic installation of packages into themes other than just the default

Email templates to simplify customization of forum emails

Moderation center including post, topic and attachment moderation - to allow approving of user content before it is made public *WOOHOO*

User warning system

Additional group functionally including group moderators and requestable/free assignable groups

WYSIWYG editor to provide an intuitive user interface to those users not familiar with BBC

Permission improvements such as group inheritance and permission profiles to further reduce the complexity of the permissions system

File based caching for a performance increase on all forums regardless of whether an accelerator is installed

Mail queuing system to stagger the sending of emails to improve performance on large forums

Advanced signature settings to allow the administrator of a forum to more tightly control the contents of users signatures

Personal messaging improvements including ability to automatically sort incoming messages and a variety of display options

Improved upgrade script with better timeout protection and simpler user interface

Custom profile fields to enable administrators to add additional member fields from the administration center

User configurable posts and topics per page; an improved calendar interface

Option to allow guests to vote in polls

Apparently, version 2.0 has been in the works for quite some time. As you can tell, the team is very committed to the success of this open source project and their goal is to provide the next generation of forum software. They are well on their way.

Our forum is currently running on a shared host -- iPower. I did need the assistance of the host to get the application installed as it's not one of the standard apps they natively support. And, as you may well know, shared hosts typically grant very little access to the system. They are apparently upgrading to a new server platform, which will hopefully include Fantastico, giving the user a little more freedom to install software. After the system was installed we did run into an issue where, on certain systems/networks, accessing the forum would result in the index.php not being recognized as a web page, but rather a file -- a download dialog would be presented instead of the file being rendered in the browser window. In the end it was a server configuration error of "unknown" somewhere in the PHP installation. Sorry I couldn't pry more information out of the lovely techs at iPower. However, other individuals experienced this issue and it's fairly well documented throughout the forums over at simplemachines.org.

Since the forum launched, we have had very few cases of users experiencing usability problems with the forum -- partly due to the wonderful theme, maybe? It works like any other forum available on the market. This is my first undertaking in administering a forum, and SMF has made life easy for me. As new requirements arise, the mods have been more than helpful in addressing those new requirements. The admin section of the forum provides an abundance of features to organize, monitor, and optimize your forum.

One other bit of functionality worth noting is that of the integration of SMF into various CMS systems. They've developed four bridges to help integrate SMF into e107 CMS, Mambo, Xoops, and iGamingCMS. To further entice you to make the switch from your current CMS/forum software, they've answered the question, "What about my current content?" They've also been nice enough to develop converters, to convert your other forum software into SMF. They offer 35+ different converters.

If you're looking for an easy-to-use, powerful forum application, consider SMF.

It's Simple, Effective, Powerful, and Free!

17" Toshiba Satellite Review

nospam@example.com (Chris Hill) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 07:55:04 -0500

It's been six months since my purchase of a 17" Toshiba Satellite P100. Before purchasing this laptop I spent many months researching the different manufacturers and quizzing the guys in our QA lab. They get to see lots of hardware, as well as complete systems, and are a great resource for info when purchasing a new system and/or hardware. I looked at all the major players (in no particular order); Lenovo, Dell, Gateway, HP, IBM, Sony, and Compaq. I even looked at a few of the smaller manufacturers like Acer and Alienware.
Continue reading "17" Toshiba Satellite Review"

Tech Race 2008 - Part II

nospam@example.com (Chris Hill) — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:01:51 -0400

This is the second part of a series analyzing the leading candidates' use of technology in their bid for the White House in 2008. In the first part of this series we examined Rudy Giuliani. This second part will focus on Hillary Clinton.

The 2008 Candidates - in order of recent rankings within each party by RealClearPolitics (data collected on September 21, 2007)

Republicans

Rudy Giuliani - 28.2%

Fred Thompson - 22.9%

John McCain - 15.2%

Mitt Romney - 9.1%

Democrats

Hillary Clinton - 41.8%

Barack Obama - 23.0%

John Edwards - 141.3%

Al Gore - < 3%

Hillary Clinton - Democrat

Hillary Clinton's website is not so different from that of other presidential candidate websites that I've seen, particularly when considering color scheme and basic layout. They all naturally trend towards patriotic red/white/blue color schemes. The layout is eerily similar to Rudy Giuliani's website; navigation links in boxes across the top, a large YouTube style video on the left side of the page, and the "action" items are listed down the right side. My initial impression to the site was that it was a bit cartoony using older XP-style icons throughout. It didn't have the same "presidential" feel to it as I got when viewing the Giuliani site.

I was pleasantly surprised when I was introduced with two features that I could not find on the Giuliani site, a blog and cell phone updates! Great, a candidate using the available technology and something us younger generations can relate with. But -- yes there's alway a but -- I find myself once again disappointed. Upon visiting the blog I found that it's not Hillary's blog, but a blog of multiple, pre-approved authors, much like the blog you're reading now. Not exactly the voice of Hillary. Nevertheless, I'm still excited about the use of the cell phone updates form located directly on the home page. Enter your cell number, hit Join, and you're off and running receiving those breaking campaign moments right on your cell phone. I'm not sure how many people actually use this, or if I would use a feature like this for the candidate that I support (to remain unknown at this time, sorry no breaking news here ), but it's a cool feature nonetheless.

There are a few other observations to be made. First, the site is informative, more than that of the Giuliani counterpart. Second, there is no use of social bookmarking links other than on the blog page and more shockingly, no Live Feed is available.

Another advantage for Hillary is that she has an accessible MySpace page. Her MySpace page's design is nothing fancy, but has been modified from the default MySpace look which is a huge plus when compared to Giuliani's MySpace page. Located on the page are two cut and paste HTML snippets for adding Hillary banners on your site.

Other sites Hillary takes advantage of are Facebook, YouTube, and Eons. All advantages over Giuliani.

I also cannot help but notice the use of the term "Hillraiser" on the Hillary campaign website. The first thing that comes to mind are the movies directed by Clive Barker, "Hellraiser". It is intended to be a program that allows users to sign up and raise money on behalf of Hillary. This system will track how much money is raised by your efforts and talks about giving "credit" for those efforts. This is a very novel idea and really personalizes the individual effort. Hillraising is a great example of melding technology with grass-roots efforts and could prove to be an effective fundraising mechanism, assuming we can all remove the images of Pinhead himself from our mind.

The Good:

A blog

Cell phone updates

Informative

Accessible, custom MySpace page

HTML snippets for support banners

Facebook site

YouTube site

Eons site

Hillraiser program

The Bad:

Site has cartoony feel

The blog (it's not personal)

Lack of social bookmarking links

No live feed

Hillraiser (negative connotations are heavy)

Lack of participation in other blogs

No AJAX

Tech Race 2008 - Part I

nospam@example.com (Chris Hill) — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 08:30:28 -0400

[display_podcast]

This series will discuss the use (or lack thereof) of technology by the leading candidates for the 2008 race for the White House. I'll spend time on each of the leading candidates and analyze what technologies they're using and their implementation of each. The final part in this series will be an attempt to grade each candidate, ranking them one against the other.

The 2008 Candidates - in order of recent rankings within each party by RealClearPolitics (data collected on September 7, 2007)

Republicans

Rudy Giuliani - 28.0%

Fred Thompson - 17.0%

Mitt Romney - 13.8%

John McCain - 10.4%

Democrats

Hillary Clinton - 38.3%

Barack Obama - 21.5%

Al Gore - 13.3%

John Edwards - 10.3%

Let's get started, shall we?

Rudy Giuliani - Republican

The first, and most obvious segment of any modern campaign is the candidate's official website. Giuliani's website design is clean and all things important are available from the home page and easily found. There is a live feed accessible from the home page and appears to be updated regularly each day. The site also offers blog widgets that integrate Giuliani content into your blog. The widgets include a Contribution Form, Live Feed, and Badgets (support banners & images). The site effectively integrates videos in a YouTube style focusing on the latest Giuliani speeches and also incorporates Podcasts directly into the home page called the Rudy Media Center.

After browsing the site for some time I expected to find an "official" blog link. Much to my disappointment I did not find one. I did stumble upon a talk radio show locater which is a novel idea. You choose a state, city, and then a local radio show and it presents you with the contact number for the show. Since conservatives tend to dominate talk radio, this is probably a useful function for Giuliani's site users.

The site also provides The Buzz which appears to be a feed of news stories related to Rudy and the campaign including a badge that displays the number of views for the particular article showing popularity. There are many other typical functions that you'd expect to find including a Donate Now button, Get Involved, and the Rudy Store. Most pages present the common social bookmarking buttons for Digg, Del.icio.us, RSS, Facebook, etc. near the bottom.

From what I can tell, the official Giuliani MySpace page is located here: http://www.myspace.com/joinrudy2008. Strangely, the MySpace page is set to private. I've added Giuliani to my Friends list but have yet to hear a response. The design of this page is also the default MySpace design. It is questionable whether this is the official MySpace page for the Giuliani campaign. If it is, it's a huge disappointment. If it isn't, where the heck is it? Does one exist?

The Good:

Social bookmarking links available

YouTube style videos

Podcasts

Live Feeds

Radio talk show locator

Nifty blog widgets

Effective use of AJAX

The Buzz feed

Clean site

The Bad:

No official blog

Lack of participation in other blogs

Questionable MySpace presence at best

No text messaging updates

Rudy Giuliani's website is effective and has some pretty novel functionality, but is lacking in a few areas. There are two glaring issues with his campaign's web presence, the lack of an official blog and the oddly private MySpace page. Let's see how he stacks up against the other candidates.

Stay tuned...

Update

Since writing this article it appears that Rudy has addressed the MySpace issues. His MySpace page is no longer private, has a custom design and provides a few videos. We'll see how his MySpace page stacks up against the competition, as next week we'll review Hillary Clinton.

Comprehensive Protection from Identity Thieves

nospam@example.com (Chris Hill) — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 06:59:17 -0400

A few months ago Chris Hansen of NBC's Dateline decided to "Catch an ID Thief". It was amazing at how complex the network of identity thieves became as they dug deeper into this black market. This particular show was a year in the making. They created a fake ecommerce website to sell goods to track the use of credit card fraud and get face to face with the people purchasing the goods. They were introduced to an online black market of selling and buying credit information through IRC-like mediums. Entire credit files could be purchased within minutes for less than $100, including credit card numbers along with expiration date and the 3-digit CVV number. This network was found to span the globe, using numerous middlemen and even unsuspecting innocent people. These middlemen would receive the packages and re-ship the items overseas. One unsuspecting man believed himself to be working for a South American supermodel whom he was in love with.

With a network of fraud as advanced and widespread as this, how can you prevent identity theft? Much of it is common sense practices and being aware of your surroundings. I've compiled a comprehensive list of ways to help you protect yourself from identity theft.

ALWAYS burn/shred/blow up/destroy anything that goes into the trash with your personal info on it!

Use initials on your checks instead of your full name, banks know how you sign and the thieves do not.

Identity thieves love those "pre-approved" credit offers you receive in the mail. To op-out from receiving these in the mail call 1-888-5OPTOUT.

This doesn't always help, but it might: don't sign the back of your cards and put SEE ID instead.

If you ever receive convenience checks from your credit card company, tell them to stop sending them.

Did you know you're entitled to one free credit report each year, USE IT! Visit www.annualcreditreport.com to get yours.

There are numerous credit monitoring services out there, find one and use it! I use Bank of America's Privacy Assist Premiere service. It's only $12.99/month and well worth the piece of mind.

Use card companies that allow you to create temporary card numbers with preset expiration dates and limited amounts that can be charged on them. Bank of America offers this service free with online banking. It creates a temporary card number that is only good for a user-specified time and can only be charged up to the amount the user specifies. This is great for shopping online.

If planning on big-ticket credit purchases, always check your credit report a month or two in advance. This will prevent embarrassment and allow time to resolve inconsistencies in your report.

When paying credit card payments with checks, use only the last four digits of your account number. The card issuing company knows the rest.

Keep all of your 1-800 numbers for you credit cards in a safe, accessible place. If the cards are lost or stolen, you need to quickly cancel them before the damage is inflicted.

File police reports immediately if your cards are stolen. This proves to your card companies that you're serious.

Watch for phishing emails and websites! Read Anti-Phishing Working Group's Consumer Advice: How to Avoid Phishing Scams for more information. Be sure to read Zhiro's blog, Phishing: Catch them before they catch you.

Use the government's Do Not Call Registry, it works most of the time.

If the Do Not Call Registry fails, hang up on every telemarketing call you receive and do not give out ANY information, not even your birth date.

Limit the number of open accounts you hold and always go over you statements with a fine-toothed comb.

If your information is compromised, immediately freeze your accounts with ALL 3 reporting agencies.
1. Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
2. Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742
3. Trans Union: 1-800-680-7289

Remember, be cautious and always aware of your surroundings even when in your favorite restaurants. Thieves are everywhere, waiting for the right opportunity to strike. It's not a matter of if, but when. Will you be ready?

Staying Connected: Ford Sync.

nospam@example.com (Chris Hill) — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 06:00:34 -0400

[display_podcast]

Microsoft Auto + Ford Sync = Sweet Innovation OR Highway Blue Screens of Death?

According to Microsoft.com, Microsoft Windows Automotive 5.0 is an automotive-grade open software platform that provides OEMs, suppliers, and developers with the building blocks they need to quickly and reliably create a broad range of advanced in-vehicle solutions that meet the growing needs of automotive consumers.

Ford Sync is Ford's exclusive new fully integrated, voice-activated, in-car communications and entertainment system for mobile phones and digital music players. This system is said to be one of the most advanced systems available today. Ford's banking on the notion that others will feel the same as it will initially be available in 12 Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury vehicles this year. The great thing about the system is that it can be operated using voice alone, controlling cell phones, iPods, Zunes, USB storage devices, and more. Alternatively, devices can be controlled using the vehicle's steering wheel mounted controls.

The system is flash memory-based and provides two methods of connectivity, Bluetooth and USB 2.0. Supported media formats include MP3, WAV, AAC, WMA, and PCM. It's comprised of an ARM 11 processor, 64MB of DRAM and 256MB of flash memory. An informational display is provided on a small screen on the face of the stereo console or embedded in the instrument cluster.

Ford Sync will first be seen on these vehicles: 2008 Ford Focus, Fusion, Five Hundred, Edge, Freestyle, Explorer and Sport Trac; Mercury Milan, Montego and Mountaineer; and Lincoln MKX and MKZ. It will be included in all Ford vehicles in the near future.

Listed below are the initial features according to Ford's press release. Since the system is entirely software based, it's easily upgradeable via it's USB port -- Ford Sync Service Pack 1, Service Pack 2, Service Pack 3 -- you get the picture.

Voice-activated, hands-free calling: Simply press the Ã¢Â?Â?Push to TalkÃ¢Â?Â? button on the steering wheel, and then say the name of the person you wish to call. Sync will automatically connect with the names in the mobile phoneÃ¢Â?Â?s contact list.

Uninterrupted connections: No need to hang up in the middle of a cell phone call as you enter your vehicle. Simply touch the Telephone button on the steering wheel, and Sync will instantly connect to a Bluetooth phone.

Audible text messages: Sync will convert text messages from your phone to audio and read them out loud. The system is even smart enough to translate such commonly used text messaging expressions as Ã¢Â?Â?LOLÃ¢Â?Â? and J. You can choose to reply from any of 20 predefined responses.

Advanced calling features: Sync includes the same features offered on mobile phones, including caller ID, call waiting, conference calling, a caller log, a list of contacts, a signal strength icon, and a phone battery charge icon Ã¢Â?Â? all conveniently located on the radioÃ¢Â?Â?s display screen.

Voice-activated music: Browse the music collection on your digital media player, mobile phone or USB drive by genre, album, artist and song title using simple voice commands, such as Ã¢Â?Â?Play genre Rock,Ã¢Â?Â? Ã¢Â?Â?Play ,Ã¢Â?Â? or Ã¢Â?Â?Play Track .Ã¢Â?Â?

Instant voice recognition: SyncÃ¢Â?Â?s advanced voice recognition technology means when youÃ¢Â?Â?re ready to use your phone or digital music player, just speak simple voice commands.

Ring tone support: For supported phones, Sync will play personal ring tones. If youÃ¢Â?Â?ve configured unique ring tones to identify specific callers, Sync will automatically play those, too.

Automatic phonebook transfer: Sync will automatically and wirelessly transfer all the names and numbers in a mobile phonebook.

Multilingual intelligence: Sync is fluent in English, French and Spanish.

Wow! If this system performs as promised, Ford might have a winner on their hands. Sync, in conjunction with their new vehicle lineup, is exactly what Ford needs to stay on track with their restructuring plan. The voice recognition software, provide by Microsoft, is a similar system to those provided in numerous Honda and Acura vehicles, all of which received high marks for intelligence. Obviously within the next few years all vehicles will offer similar systems as drivers demand they stay connected with their expensive hand held devices. I also think this is great for those people (you know who you are) that like to dodge and weave through rush hour traffic, all while carrying on that important conversation on their cellphone. Now you can dodge and weave with two hands on the wheel instead of one!

I am surprised that Ford didn't offer a large hard drive for storage. Hopefully, Ford was smart enough to separate the vehicle systems. If Microsoft Auto decides to blue screen am I going to lose my entire entertainment/audio system? Will the stereo/CD player continue to work? More importantly, will the vehicle continue to operate? This may give a whole new meaning to the infamous Windows blue screen of death. We'll have to wait and see.

It might be a while for me, I'm looking at the new F-150 for my next vehicle and it most likely won't be available until 2009 .

The "Wave" of the Future

nospam@example.com (Chris Hill) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:10:12 -0400

Wristband access linking families with their children, wired trash cans, Wi-Fi on the sand, radio-frequency identification chips (RFID), parking spot monitors and reporting, all coming to a beach in Ocean City, New Jersey at the cost of $3 million.

The beach will require ALL visitors to wear a wristband, costing $5/day, $10/week, or $20/summer. These wristbands can be linked with each other which might prove popular for parents. If the wristbands leave the beach without the parent wristband a text message is sent to the parent's cell phone. This is the type of scenario where I can agree with tracking your children. Read my previous post, "Keeping them safe or making them vulnerable."It's temporary and in a crowded, relatively dangerous, public place. It would also be nice if a text message was sent when children got near the water. This might help prevent accidental drownings.

The wristbands will also automatically debit their bank accounts when using food, parking, and other paid amenities on the beach. Not sure of the security behind this, but this might worry me a bit. Hopefully, it's optional.

The beach will have Wi-Fi internet access so you can carry on those important Skype conversations with the execs back in the office while enjoying the crashing waves and sun beating down on your face. In fact, the entire beach community is going to be wired. The trash bins will send email alerts when they need to be emptied and the parking lots will display how many parking spots are available and where they're located (that's a cool feature!). City officials will know how many people are on the beach at any given time. And of course, they're using solar power to deliver energy to the trash cans and signs.

The same privacy concerns that are always an issue come into question here. I'm sure the city will track your every move, including the purchases you make, how many beers you drink, and how often you frequent the restroom. I guess we have to ask ourselves, when out in public, our we ever really private? What information should remain private and what information is fair game, if any? Regardless, I fear that we'll have to get used to this. Next, our shopping malls, employers, and the roads we drive on will all be tracking our every move. After all, it is the Wave of the future.

Isn't technology great...

Net Neutrality in the Spotlight

nospam@example.com (Chris Hill) — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 06:55:06 -0400

You might be asking yourself, what's this net neutrality thing I keep hearing about? Well, I asked myself the same question and decided to educate myself on the topic so that I could form my own opinions on the matter. So, what is net neutrality?

Network neutrality is a principle of internet regulation with particular relevance to the regulation of broadband. It suggests that (1) to maximize human welfare, information networks ought be as neutral as possible between various uses or applications, and (2) if necessary, government ought intervene to promote or preserve the neutrality of the network. - Wikipedia

Let's dig deeper into net neutrality. See, we've come to expect that what's delivered to us on the internet, regardless of provider, comes unaltered. This means the cable and phone companies providing us our internet access are "neutral" when it comes to the information we request using our leased internet connection through them. However, the telecom giants want to begin charging the companies that provide us information via the web, stating that it's "just offering another tier of service". Right! Do we buy that? If you ask me, had the forefathers known about the coming technological revolution and birth of the internet, unfettered internet access would be a God-given right scribed directly into the United States Bill of Rights, as part of the first amendment.

Currently, there are no legal restrictions placed on the telecoms when it comes to neutrality. However, our current system is that of full network neutrality, but due to some of the ramblings by some of the largest telecom companies (AT&T!), many are getting worried. AT&T Chairman Edward E. Whitacre Jr. recently complained stating "They don't have any fiber out there. They don't have any wires. . . . They use my lines for free -- and that's bull,...For a Google or a Yahoo or a Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes for free is nuts!''

As you can imagine, Google, Yahoo, Ebay, Amazon, and many other large internet companies don't like the rhetoric spewing from Whitacre. Proving my point, Google has created a Google Help Center page dedicated to this topic alone. There's even a link to an open letter from Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, Inc., on the page. Due to the importance of this issue, and the fact that congressional hearings are ongoing in this matter, I've decided to include Eric Schmidt's open letter in this blog.

A Note to Google Users on Net Neutrality:

The Internet as we know it is facing a serious threat. There's a debate heating up in Washington, DC on something called "net neutrality" Ã¢Â?Â? and it's a debate that's so important Google is asking you to get involved. We're asking you to take action to protect Internet freedom.

In the next few days, the House of Representatives is going to vote on a bill that would fundamentally alter the Internet. That bill, and one that may come up for a key vote in the Senate in the next few weeks, would give the big phone and cable companies the power to pick and choose what you will be able to see and do on the Internet.

Today the Internet is an information highway where anybody Ã¢Â?Â? no matter how large or small, how traditional or unconventional Ã¢Â?Â? has equal access. But the phone and cable monopolies, who control almost all Internet access, want the power to choose who gets access to high-speed lanes and whose content gets seen first and fastest. They want to build a two-tiered system and block the on-ramps for those who can't pay.

Creativity, innovation and a free and open marketplace are all at stake in this fight. Please call your representative (202-224-3121) and let your voice be heard.

Thanks for your time, your concern and your support.

Eric Schmidt

Do you now understand the importance of this issue? The lack of net neutrality will not only stop innovation in its tracks, but change the face of the internet as we know it. In order to get to the top, a companies' primary goal will not be to provide a great service, but how to negotiate with the telecoms for that top spot. The internet is an integral part of not only the U.S. infrastructure and economy, but is partly responsible for the hyper world economy we've experienced the past 10 or more years. Changing the way we access the information on the net could have a devastating ripple effect throughout the world economy.

Further evidence that net neutrality is becoming more of a critical issue is a recent article, one that landed on the home page of Digg, from Ars Technica titled Pearl Jam censored by AT&T, calls for a neutral 'Net. The article is in response to another open letter, from Pearl Jam to their fansÃ¢Â?Â?a letter in which Pearl Jam railed against media and ISP consolidation and called for readers to support network neutrality. You can read the letter here.

There's only one way to protect the internet and force net neutrality, and unfortunately that's through effective governmental legislation. I cringe at the thought of government control, but the telecoms leave us no choice. When an issue relates to infrastructure that's depended upon by hundreds of millions and is an integral part of the world as we know it, action must be taken. What action can you take? Contact your elected representatives and send them a message telling them that this is an issue you care about. Congress.org's Congressional Directory is a great place to start.