If you’re paying attention to what Google’s CEO says and the company’s actions, it’s “do no evil” credo is getting to be a tough sell for it’s PR people. That is at least where the right to privacy is concerned. Google’s Schmidt has stated bluntly that this right does not exist. As mere commentary or a matter of corporate policy, that kind of talk will guarantee plenty of reaction like the video above.

After months spent gathering comments about preserving an open and competitive Internet, the F.C.C. requested more feedback on Wednesday about whether regulations should apply to wireless Internet service.

The agency is also asking for comments about one of the most hotly debated Internet regulatory issues: special services that offer to prioritize certain digital traffic for a fee. …

The F.C.C.’s decision to seek further comment during the next 55 days effectively precluded any commission actions until after the Congressional elections in November.

Source

With that single action the FCC buys time. The comment periods generally run 90 days or more depending on depth and technical complexity. But the singular act pushes any decision by the FCC till after the midterm elections. (Feld, if you are out there, I told you this was exactly what the FCC would do.) This is a no decision decision.

Now if you read this HotAir piece, one comes away with a position that the FCC will do a rule making in the dead of night kind of thing. Personally I don’t think it that way. Remember that the FCC is uniquely a device answerable to Congress not the Executive. So this is a move to, like a trapped animal, look for a way out of the trap they are in. The FCC realizes that they may have new masters come January. No since angering them during a lame duck session for any rule making along those lines could be dispatched in short order by reshuffling the Commission.

This is just another indication that the FCC is generally irrelevant to most matters associated with communications. Technology has nearly eliminated the general necessity for band allocation in all but a few distinct areas. And consumer protection, if its needed is the purview of the FTC not the FCC.

Remember the Internet kill switch that Senate leaders couldn’t get past enough of their cohorts to pass? It’s back! In the United States Senate, bad ideas don’t die, their proponents simply try a different ploy to sneak them into law. This time senate leadership is working to bury it in the bowels of another one of those 1500+ page bills that they never give members enough time to read.

The  culprits are Senators Thomas Carper, Joe Lieberman, Jay Rockefeller and Harry Reid. Lieberman recently provided a bit if insight into why the kill switch is “necessary”

Lieberman let slip his real thoughts on the Internet Kill Switch in an interview with CNN’s Candy Crowley when he said, “Right now China — the government — can disconnect parts of its Internet in a case of war. We need to have the ability to do that, too.” (Libertypulse)

Obviously Joe Lieberman has a strong case of commie envy. There are a number of things the Chinese government can do that even self important elites like Lieberman aren’t allowed to do in the still largely free nation of the United States. The biggest problem with giving the kill switch to the feds is that an out of control federal government can declare an emergency just about any time it wants to. So, if a rogue president, senator or any other power grabbing high level bureaucrat simply wanted to kill communication between the unwashed masses, all he or she would need to do is declare an emergency. In case you hadn’t noticed, just about every for of communication passes over the Internet now. For that reason, the kill switch is a tool no one in a free nation should have. Not even the almighty Senator Lieberman.

If you value your freedom it’s probably a good time to write to both of your senators.

We have witnessed several changes over the last decade. First ascendecy of wireless cellular over land line phones. Then it was Pay-per-View over B&M rentals. –

The Dallas-based company has been warning for almost two years that it might need bankruptcy court protection to reorganize its nearly $1 billion in debt, as it struggles with dwindling cash and a shrinking business hurt by competition and its own store closings.

A “pre-planned” bankruptcy filing in mid-September is now considered the most likely scenario for Blockbuster, according to unnamed sources quoted by the Los Angeles Times. That would require agreement from the company’s biggest creditors and suppliers, among others.

Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes recently visited all the major Hollywood movie studios with an entourage of senior secured-debt holders and restructuring consultants, the Times reported.

Source

So yes I am leading up to what I suspect is the ‘Next Middling Thing’. Its this –

vs this –

At first glance you might say ‘How’? The theater might have seem to have all the cards. Big screen experience with a professional sound system, night out plumage, food on demand, all the trappings of being part of a night out on the town. But hold on you also get to experience teenagers yacking through the whole movie. Several people not have the conviction to turn their cell phones off. Then to top it off be prepared to pay about $40 for a couple to see the viewing with ticket, drinks and popcorn. Its that cost vs say no more than $3 to do the same in the comfort of your home.

But here is the kicker, I don’t think any of the other tech blogs has caught on to the nature of this coming issue. LCD TVs have not been gaga tech for quite some time. Same with Pay-per-View. So this has been slipping by under the radar. But you can be assured that the Suits running the theaters certainly are considering it. Its not tech but a tipping point issue that is quietly giving the nod to In-Home viewing.

The tipping point is cost. You can walk into any Best Buy today an purchase a 50″ or larger LCD panel for around a $1000. Add a DVD player or Roku NetFlix box for another $100. That is a pricing level that is affordable to every middle income family in the nation. Home Theater is no longer the providence of well heeled households. Then just roll the numbers. If you figure that the average unit will last 5 years or more then consider many may go to the movies twice a month. It does not take long for the system to pay for itself in deferred expense. Its substitution. Another entertainment deflation.

The second tipping point is scale. Large screen LCD’s are now selling briskly even in this down economy. When a large segment of the population can do their viewing at home the theaters are toast. We are not even close yet, but give it 5 years as the conversion continues and theaters will be gone or greatly reduced in number.

Its no great shucks but it is something you can take to the bank from a business perspective.

Paul Allen made his billions as one of Microsoft’s founders. Since retiring from his post in Windersland, Allen has invested heavily in a  number of companies, with most ending in failure. Not to be dicouraged, Mr. Allen appears to be entering a new business built on roughly 300 patents owned by a venture he funded. Many of these patents are for features and functions that most of us would consider to be common as dirt on major commercial sites.

The complaint (PDF), filed in federal court in Washington state, asserts four patents that cover e-commerce and online functions that have been staples of most websites for years. Noticeably absent from the hit list is Microsoft, which Allen co-founded in 1975 and in which he remains a major shareholder. It was filed on behalf of Interval Licensing, the patent arm of Interval Research, the Silicon Valley technology incubator Allen bankrolled in 1992. (The Register)

There’s already so much new “innovation” coming from the abuse of the patent system and the courts. It’s troubling to see one of the world’s deepest sets of pockets joining the troll business. Responsible law makers would try to fix the patent mess. Unfortunately, most of them are lawyers and patent trolling is a lawyer’s business.

Rural North Carolina has been a battle ground between local residents who have pro actively worked to improve their internet connections and duopoly controlled state politicians who have blatantly tried to stop them. At least in Salisbury, it looks like to locals won. They managed to do it without help from federal stimulus or the masses of political blowhards who are supposed to work in the interest of the individual.

The lesson: Forget the empty promises from Washington and the State houses. Time to act locally.

It’s no secret politicians in general hate blogs. The great unwashed masses more likely to report unfavorable facts and rumors. Bloggers do not share the mainstream medias’ fear of losing access the political class since they don’t really have any to begin with. The city of brotherly love has no love for bloggers. It’s joined the growing list of government entities who are working to make life more difficult for the citizen publisher.

According to the Washington Examiner,  Philadelphia demanding bloggers pay a $300 licensing fee in addition to taxes on any income thya may generate. It would seem that blogs have been classified as a businesses without any provision for the average blogger. Most bloggers are hobbyists who may pick up enough revenue to offset only a portion of their costs. I wonder how that constitutes a business? And what of other casual online activities that may generate a little revenue from a hobby like arts and crafts, micro stock photography, or dare I say Ebay? While I’m sure this will result in fewer blog posts originating in Philadelphia, I doubt it will generate much revenue.

Online media magnate, Leo Laporte is usually right about trends. His foresight into the trend of online media earned him membership in the millionaire’s club. He’s also been wrong about a few things.

I think Leo’s been overly enthusiastic in the usefulness of social media. For a time he was constantly obsessed with the number of followers he had collected. Our experiment with Twitter last year  led me to the conclusion that  posting there was useless to this blog’s growth. Having millions of followers on Twitter doesn’t mean any of them will hear you. There’s just too much noise. It’s true in its early days Twitter could help content producers reach a new audience. A relevant message had a chance of being heard in social media until all of the pols, actors and celebs started using it. When the texting masses followed the noise floor became so high that it became impossible to engage any sort of audience. Add all of the other microblogging and friend me friend you platforms, and you have lots of platforms an little chance to be heard over even more noise.

Anyway, back to Leo Laporte. When Google’s over hyped Buzz left Leo standing in the rain, he saw the light:

It makes me feel like everything I’ve posted over the past four years on Twitter, Jaiku, Friendfeed, Plurk, Pownce, and, yes, Google Buzz, has been an immense waste of time. I was shouting into a vast echo chamber where no one could hear me because they were too busy shouting themselves. All this time I’ve been pumping content into the void like some chatterbox Onan. How humiliating. How demoralizing. (Leoville)

Social media has its place, but it’s short form content for the short form audience who will read you one day, and never read you again. Smart guys like Leo will always get it sooner or later. The Hollywierd types never will.That makes for even more noise and less intelligent content in social media as time goes on.

You’re making progress Leo! Now if we could just de-hoax you on Global Warming, Net Neutrality, and a few other over hyped ideas.

While there seems to be the order in the cartel controlled postpaid wireless space, things are a bit more unruly in the seamier prepaid side of the wireless shell game. The new floor for unlimited monthly voice data and text service will hover around $40/month for the rest of this year, It’s a safe bet next year’s number will be $30 or less. Proof: Sprint’s Virgin mobile unit has already lowered the bar to $40.

For the foreseeable future, postpaid wireless will rely of exclusive deals to sell the coolest new handsets as a tool to prop up ridiculous rates. Meanwhile back in Washington, the feds are distracted by another wave of “net neutrality” talks that are being happily papered over by lobby dollars that distract from the needs of real world users.

If we really want to shake up the wireless  market today, net neutrality is irrelevant. For the moment, wireless regulators need to focus on locked handsets. If handsets are unlocked, the best and brightest of them will be under $200 and usable wireless plans will head towards $20/ month. Even at those rates, there’s abundant profit potential for a lean and mean carrier.

Meanwhile, prepaid will continue to race t o zero even with mundane handsets that are locked and overpriced.

Both Dell and HP are reporting healthy gains due to a recent bump in IT spend. I’d love to paint a rosy picture about the end of the tech depression, but we’re still far from catching up to where we’ve already been. In fact, IT spend is yet to fully recover. It has been in free fall for the last 3 to 4 years, and many I know in the industry will argue budgets have been shrinking for a decade. If anything a bump had to come along soon just because stuff is wearing out or it’s become cheaper to replace  than maintain.

I don’t expect this will create a better job market the army of American IT workers who are unemployed and under employed. Much of the engineering, manufacture and support takes place elsewhere these days.  The current federal policy has been open hostile to all tech. That means new investment is likely to take place where policy, regulation and tax rates are friendlier.

While we’ve heard lots of rhetoric about new growth in “green tech jobs”. The reality is that they have been few and have only come with heavy government subsidies. In an of themselves, endless government subsidies are not sustainable.  Sustainable jobs are created by a competitive market and minimal government interference. We need to put some green back in peoples wallets with sustainable, non-subsidy dependent jobs, creating goods and services that have real market value and generate real profits. What we don’t need is more un-sustainable rhetoric.

Meanwhile, Dell and HP shareholders can rejoice. I’m betting many will take their profits this year before taxes go up.