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	<title></title>
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	<link>http://thirdpipe.com</link>
	<description>defiantly reclaiming our internet!</description>
	<pubDate>Sat, 04 Jul 2009 07:30:55 +0000</pubDate>
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		<copyright>&#xA9; </copyright>
		<managingEditor>thirdpipe@gmail.com ()</managingEditor>
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		<category>technology</category>
		<ttl>1440</ttl>
		<itunes:keywords></itunes:keywords>
		<itunes:subtitle></itunes:subtitle>
		<itunes:summary>the future of broadband</itunes:summary>
		<itunes:author></itunes:author>
		<itunes:category text="Technology"/>
<itunes:category text="Technology">
  <itunes:category text="Tech News"/>
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<itunes:category text="Business">
  <itunes:category text="Business News"/>
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			<itunes:name></itunes:name>
			<itunes:email>thirdpipe@gmail.com</itunes:email>
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		<itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
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		<item>
		<title>Happy 4th of July</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/07/03/happy-4th-of-july/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/07/03/happy-4th-of-july/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 04 Jul 2009 04:15:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Editorial]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Fourth of July]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5729</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[While you&#8217;re enjoying the day and celebrating the birth our nation, I&#8217;d like to take a moment to remind you of the more solemn nature of the events today commemorates.
A group of common men decided to break away from their king when their currency was destroyed, and thier freedom to trade had been restricted by [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[While you&#8217;re enjoying the day and celebrating the birth our nation, I&#8217;d like to take a moment to remind you of the more solemn nature of the events today commemorates.
A group of common men decided to break away from their king when their currency was destroyed, and thier freedom to trade had been restricted by endless rules and regulations. They were taxed without open debate and rulers from far way meddled in their daily lives while ignoring their protest. These men struggled terribly with their loyalties to come to this decision. Most were well regarded by the crown that had condescended to and betrayed them.
These founders were well off at the time they signed the Declaration of Independence. Doing so singled them out as traitors who were relentlessly persecuted. Of those who survived the revolution, most died paupers, but not one expressed any regrets. They created something unique from a world of tyranny - a place where people from every station in life were equally free to pursue their dreams.
Many of the freedoms that these founding fathers risked everything to leave us still remain. Sadly, many have been taken away by well meaning persons that lack the founders wisdom. Those freedoms enabled the creation of the internet and the information economy. While the world has embraced it, there was no other place in the world where it could take root and flourish. Our current political environment has spawned an openly aggressive assault on our freedoms. I&#8217;m saddened and alarmed that the regulatory and economic state of our nation would not so easily permit the development and growth of the Internet today.
We at Third Pipe wish you and yours the best of holidays. May we all have the vigilance to protect our remaining freedom and reclaim what we have lost.
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Would You Believe?</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/07/03/would-you-believe/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/07/03/would-you-believe/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:29:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[CPE]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Courts]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Intellectual Property]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Litigation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[carriers]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[EFF]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[intellectual property]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Telecom]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5726</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The asshats at ASCAP are now making waves that ringtones are derivative works of commercial art and therefore due an payable. Why this is a scam after the jump &#8211;
Internet watchdog Electronic Frontier Foundation has hit out at a US music royalties collector, accusing it of making outlandish copyright claims about mobile phone ringtones.
The American [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[The asshats at ASCAP are now making waves that ringtones are derivative works of commercial art and therefore due an payable. Why this is a scam after the jump &#8211;
Internet watchdog Electronic Frontier Foundation has hit out at a US music royalties collector, accusing it of making outlandish copyright claims about mobile phone ringtones.
The American Society of Composer, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) filed a lawsuit against telecoms giant AT&#038;T, in which it told a federal court that ringtones fell under the public perfomance Copyright Act.
ASCAP collects royalties and licences on behalf of 350,000 members in the US.
In effect, the organisation is gunning for additional payments from mobile firms, and if they dont cough up the royalties ASCAP could claim copyright infringement against mobile users, according to the EFF.
The lobby group responded by filing an amicus brief* for the case earlier this week in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The brief, which was also joined by the Center for Democracy and Technology and Public Knowledge, urged the federal court to reject what the EFF described as bogus copyright claims that could raise costs for consumers, jeopardise consumer rights, and curtail new technological innovation.
Here&#8217;s the clue this is a con job. The threat that ASCAP is throwing around is that they will go after the carriers customers. BUT, they won&#8217;t if the likes of AT&#038;T, Verizon and Sprint pay up for them. This is the typical lawyer trick. Don&#8217;t go after the violator, go after the peripheral player in the affair that possess deep pockets. Always go after the deep pockets is the lawyers choice. That is the tip off this is a legal scam.
Linky.
]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>New data shows the tech sector suffering more than most</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/07/02/new-data-shows-the-tech-sector-suffering-more-than-most/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/07/02/new-data-shows-the-tech-sector-suffering-more-than-most/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:16:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[IT Business]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Employment]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[outsourcing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5720</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In my small circle of acquaintances, most are tech workers and most are struggling. I&#8217;ve heard of taking third world pay rates. With more western workers accepting less, it&#8217;s also impacting the outsourcing market. Data showing up today affirms that tech has taken a major hit, not just here but world wide.
Tom Silver, senior vice [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[In my small circle of acquaintances, most are tech workers and most are struggling. I&#8217;ve heard of taking third world pay rates. With more western workers accepting less, it&#8217;s also impacting the outsourcing market. Data showing up today affirms that tech has taken a major hit, not just here but world wide.
Tom Silver, senior vice president of Dice.com, told us this morning that Dice.com is reporting a 44% year-over-year drop in job listings for the month of June. Mays year-over-year decline hovered around 45%. And Silver also points to a rise in the Department of Labors unemployment rate for the Computer and Mathematics sector, (the area best associated with the tech sector). Junes unemployment rate for the tech sector almost tripled year-over year, from 1.9% in June of 2008, to 5.4% in June of 2009. While Silver says that the tech job market is certainly better than during the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009, the number of job opportunities have remained stagnant over the course of the past few months. (Tech Crunch)
According to the Times of India, the big outsourcing firms are marking down their bills by 35 to 40 per cent.
Apparently it is now possible to hire an IT specialist in India for about $16 per hour, which analysts say is the lowest rate for human labour since Kunta Kinte was imported into the Southern US to pick cotton.
Siddhartha Pai, MD, at the India offices of TPI told the Times that such rates will continue at least until the first quarter next year. (The Inquirer)
This could mean we&#8217;re in for an even bumpier road ahead. It also means what the politicians have been doing isn&#8217;t working. Maybe they should stop meddling for a while.
]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Welcome ITT Tech Institute!</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/07/01/welcome-itt-tech-institute/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/07/01/welcome-itt-tech-institute/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Jul 2009 02:11:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[new sponsor announcement]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5718</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We&#8217;re pleased to add ITT Tech insititute to our select list of advertisers. If you&#8217;re lucky enough to be employed, upgrading you skills or adding a new one can certainly improve your security, and could improve your income. If you&#8217;re less fortunate, there are skills that can be learned quickly that are in demand. ITT [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[We&#8217;re pleased to add ITT Tech insititute to our select list of advertisers. If you&#8217;re lucky enough to be employed, upgrading you skills or adding a new one can certainly improve your security, and could improve your income. If you&#8217;re less fortunate, there are skills that can be learned quickly that are in demand. ITT Tech is a well recognized institution offering online classes that can be fit into even the craziest schedule. Either way you owe it to yourself to take a look at the variety of programs ITT offers. The informational brochure  is free and is sent by mail.
]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Is free the new price for most intellectual property?</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/07/01/is-free-the-new-price-for-most-intellectual-property/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/07/01/is-free-the-new-price-for-most-intellectual-property/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:03:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Intellectual Property]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[big government]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Big Media]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[intellectual property]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5708</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We living in strange times. In our new Third Pipe world small and decentralized is the rule. Information moves freely and big is on life support demanding a tribute and a toll on its motion. Unfortunately big won&#8217;t go away without a fight. Big has an ally in government, and laws are being made to [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[We living in strange times. In our new Third Pipe world small and decentralized is the rule. Information moves freely and big is on life support demanding a tribute and a toll on its motion. Unfortunately big won&#8217;t go away without a fight. Big has an ally in government, and laws are being made to protect big even though, it has become antiquated and inefficient. It can even be argued that the forces of big won the last round of elections for federal offices. For the last several months, we&#8217;ve seen government getting bigger at an unsustainable rate, spending unthinkable sums of money to extend the lives of equally big and unsustainable enterprises. We&#8217;ve also seen big extending it&#8217;s reach into our lives hoping to control us, because it&#8217;s the only way that it can remain big in this new world. One of the biggest enemies of big is free. Big creates nothing. Big has gotten big and rich from distribution. Now that distribution is largely free, big is in trouble.
There&#8217;s plenty of benefit to giving things away in a business. In fact, many businesses are already giving away or losing money on some products, just to have a chance to sell something else. There are also plenty of us who freely contribute what we produce into the commons, supported by individuals that value our work. Chris Anderson, best know for editing Wired and popularizing the concept of the long tail recently released a new book called Free, the future of a radical price in which he contends that the value of most intellectual property is in a race to zero.
Free is essentially an extended elaboration of Stewart Brands famous declaration that information wants to be free. The digital age, Anderson argues, is exerting an inexorable downward pressure on the prices of all things made of ideas. Anderson does not consider this a passing trend. Rather, he seems to think of it as an iron law: In the digital realm you can try to keep Free at bay with laws and locks, but eventually the force of economic gravity will win. To musicians who believe that their music is being pirated, Anderson is blunt. They should stop complaining, and capitalize on the added exposure that piracy provides by making money through touring, merchandise sales, and yes, the sale of some of [their] music to people who still want CDs or prefer to buy their music online. To the Dallas Morning News, he would say the same thing. Newspapers need to accept that content is never again going to be worth what they want it to be worth, and reinvent their business. Out of the bloodbath will come a new role for professional journalists, (The New Yorker)
]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>RIAA guns for Usenet providers</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/07/01/riaa-guns-for-usenet-providers/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/07/01/riaa-guns-for-usenet-providers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:58:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[FCC]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Legislation / Regulation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Litigation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[DMCA]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[RIAA]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Usenet.com]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5704</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The lawyers at the RIAA are having a field day with seemingly any business the could enable the sharing of files. I have no doubt that plenty of illicit files are shared on the Usenet. It&#8217;s also true that most burglar&#8217;s access their victims via public streets. No one is suggesting we should rip up [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[The lawyers at the RIAA are having a field day with seemingly any business the could enable the sharing of files. I have no doubt that plenty of illicit files are shared on the Usenet. It&#8217;s also true that most burglar&#8217;s access their victims via public streets. No one is suggesting we should rip up the streets to stop burglaries. For now, the low hanging fruit for litigation seems to be enterprises who were foolish enough to advertise that illicit files are shared on their systems: IE Pirate Bay and now Usenet.com.
In a decision that hands the RIAA an overwhelming victory, U.S. District Judge Harold Baer of the Southern District of New York ruled in favor of the music industry on all its main theories: that Usenet.com is guilty of direct, contributory, and vicarious infringement. In addition, and perhaps most important for future cases, Baer said that Usenet.com can&#8217;t claim protection under the Sony Betamax decision. That ruling says companies can&#8217;t be held liable for contributory infringement if the device they create is &#8220;capable of significant non-infringing uses.&#8221; (Cnet)
As we have mentioned in earlier posts, there is no major US ISP that offers usenet service with their access accounts - from fear of lawsuit. As long as the lawyering sticks to those who openly invite using thier services to break the law, we&#8217;re OK. Unfortunately, I think we&#8217;ve only seen the tip of the iceberg. This will certainly send a chillng effect through the industry, and we can expect smaller usenet providers who have done nothing wrong to close up shop even if the RIAA lawyers don&#8217;t attack them next. Actually, with it&#8217;s lawyers working the current laws that were authored by big media, it&#8217;s not a question of if but when.
]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Amazon vs the taxman round three</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/07/01/amazon-vs-the-taxman-round-three/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/07/01/amazon-vs-the-taxman-round-three/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:14:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[ecommerce]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[taxation]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5701</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Update. Now Hawaii is in play as well. Looks like there is a whole series of States wanting to play this game. Does Amazon have the guts to keep cutting? I hope they do. &#8211;
Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) has informed its marketing affiliates in Hawaii and Rhode Island that their business relationship with the online firm [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Update. Now Hawaii is in play as well. Looks like there is a whole series of States wanting to play this game. Does Amazon have the guts to keep cutting? I hope they do. &#8211;
Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) has informed its marketing affiliates in Hawaii and Rhode Island that their business relationship with the online firm has been ended. Amazon has been dropping its affiliates in states that approve the collection of sales taxes for online transactions. 
It is a massive game of chicken. The only people getting hurt are the citizens affiliates in these States. Thanks Legislators. You are screwing your own citizens and not gathering any taxes.
Linky.
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		<item>
		<title>IT spend contraction worse than the dot bomb crash</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/30/it-spend-contraction-worse-than-the-dot-bomb-crash/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/30/it-spend-contraction-worse-than-the-dot-bomb-crash/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:42:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[IT crash]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5699</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In 2001 the combination of an over invested stock market combined with a terror attack on American soil caused the greatest IT spending crash in the industry&#8217;s short history. The need to cut costs made the industry more global and the US centric spending never fully recovered.
New data ranks the current world IT spending shrink [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[In 2001 the combination of an over invested stock market combined with a terror attack on American soil caused the greatest IT spending crash in the industry&#8217;s short history. The need to cut costs made the industry more global and the US centric spending never fully recovered.
New data ranks the current world IT spending shrink as worse than what we suffered in 2001.
Based on current economic conditions and the word that Forrester is getting from the IT departments, Forrester is now saying that global IT spending for hardware, software, and services by companies and governments will drop by 10.6 percent to $1.53 trillion. In 2008, Forrester reckons that IT spending rose by 8 per cent to just over $1.7 trillion globally, and this year was slated to be bad, but not as bad as the IT budget downdraft in the wake of the dot-com, Y2K, and ERP booms in 2001 and 2002, when IT spending fell 6 per cent in both years. (The Register)
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Amazon vs the taxman round two</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/30/amazon-vs-the-taxman-round-two/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/30/amazon-vs-the-taxman-round-two/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:35:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Legislation / Regulation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Afilliate taxes]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5697</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[While most Americans suffering from the hard times cut their expenses and take second jobs, the insatiable appetite of pols grows. One possible benefit from the recession is it forces most of individuals and business to re-evaluate spending and priorities. That makes for a leaner and more efficient household or company as things improve. Politicians [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[While most Americans suffering from the hard times cut their expenses and take second jobs, the insatiable appetite of pols grows. One possible benefit from the recession is it forces most of individuals and business to re-evaluate spending and priorities. That makes for a leaner and more efficient household or company as things improve. Politicians seem to be incapable of cutting anything and are too quick to blame that sales tax boogyman, the Internet. First it was North Carolina, next it&#8217;s Rhode Island. At issue are sales that were not shipped from either state, nor delivered there in most cases. In both cases, the states are now to lose more than they could have possible gained, because Amazon has pulled the plug on affiliates operating from both of those states. It&#8217;s time for state governments to get efficient, and maybe help get some bigger pipes built if they want to improve thier lagging revenues. Killing a small income stream for bloggers who are unfortunate enough to live in their states helps no one.
Amazon.com Inc. cut ties today with its business affiliates in Rhode Island to protest a provision in the draft state budget that would force the company to collect sales tax, Providence Business News has confirmed.
Rhode Island is now the second state where affiliates in the program, known as Amazon Associates, have been cut off over the sales tax issue. Earlier this month the Seattle-based online retailer also closed its affiliates accounts in North Carolina. (Providence Business News)
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Pirate Bay Sells for $7.7m, Sucker Born Every Minute</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/30/pirate-bay-sells-for-77m-sucker-born-every-minute/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/30/pirate-bay-sells-for-77m-sucker-born-every-minute/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:13:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Content]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Intellectual Property]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[ecommerce]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[marketplaces]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[carriers]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[intellectual property]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Overseas]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[pirate bay]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5694</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It has been announced that Pirate Bay, the audio/video/mp3/ogg/flac source site for things not paid for has itself been sold. Why a sucker? Well I will get to that after the jump &#8211;
The Pirate Bay has agreed to be sold for $7.7 million, a deal with a Swedish software maker that would ultimately turn the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[It has been announced that Pirate Bay, the audio/video/mp3/ogg/flac source site for things not paid for has itself been sold. Why a sucker? Well I will get to that after the jump &#8211;
The Pirate Bay has agreed to be sold for $7.7 million, a deal with a Swedish software maker that would ultimately turn the worlds most notorious BitTorrent tracker into a legitimate player.
The move by Global Gaming Factory X AB comes nearly three months after the four co-founders of The Pirate Bay were found guilty of facilitating copyright infringement, and face a year each in prison pending appeals in addition to a $3.6 million fine.
While the site is to discontinue pointing the way to free movies, music, games and software, Global Gaming Factory thinks it can turn The Pirate Bay into a money-making venture.
We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site, Hans Pandeya, Global Gamings chief executive, said in a statement.
Eh, Hans, you are the sucker. 
This is not an issue about Pirate Bay going legit. I hope they do, I also hope they are successful at it. For if they are, they will be positioned to offer deep discounts on media, if the sources get a clue. If I could get a copy of &#8216;The Day the Earth Stood Still&#8217; legit for $2.99 vs $19.95 off the storefront I would do so. 
But that is not Pirate Bay&#8217;s draw. Bay&#8217;s draw was something for nothing. That and the &#8216;Tee Hee&#8230;.&#8217; mindset of ripping off The Man. I dare not call it counter-culture. Not quite that but almost. When the chic is off the rose then so goes the audience. That happened to Napster to a certain extent. The other fact is it is too easy to set up another site like it in Pakistan and have free competition vs paid service. Its the mindset in play here.
Possibly Pirate Bay will need to be renamed to Rum&#8217;s Cay and Media Emporium when the dust settles.
Linky.
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		<item>
		<title>Comcast starts pushing WiMAX</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/30/comcast-starts-pushing-wimax/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/30/comcast-starts-pushing-wimax/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:11:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Wimax]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[clear]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Clearwire]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Comcast]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Sprint]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5690</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[OK this isn&#8217;t big news, but it does introduce some interesting possibilities. As part owner of the Clear service build that began as a partnership between Clearwire and Sprint, Comcast could add quite a bit of muscle to the marketing push for the new service.It&#8217;s beginning to look like a service that will be sold [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[OK this isn&#8217;t big news, but it does introduce some interesting possibilities. As part owner of the Clear service build that began as a partnership between Clearwire and Sprint, Comcast could add quite a bit of muscle to the marketing push for the new service.It&#8217;s beginning to look like a service that will be sold under many brands. One service with many brands, outlets and potentially different service levels is something we haven;t seen before in the wireless or broadband space
The so-called fourth-generation (4G) wireless service, is the first execution of a partnership between Comcast, Clearwire Corp and other companies that use the emerging WiMax high-speed mobile technology.
Many consumers already update their blogs and watch videos using their mobile phones. Cable companies such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable Inc do not want to become irrelevant by restricting subscriber access to the home.
The new service, called &#8220;Comcast High-Speed 2go,&#8221; is expected to deliver data to laptops, netbooks and other devices over a wireless network at faster speeds than has been commonly available to date.
Comcast said it will offer download speeds of up to 4 megabits per second. Existing 3G wireless networks typically offer download speeds between 1 and 1.5 megabits a second. (Reuters)
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		<item>
		<title>Was Meg Whitman THAT Stupid?</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/30/was-meg-whitman-that-stupid/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/30/was-meg-whitman-that-stupid/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:37:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Courts]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Litigation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[VoIP]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[skype]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Whitman]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5678</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
eBay&#8217;s plan to spin off Skype with an initial public offering in 2010 is being threatened by a dispute with the VoIP service&#8217;s co-founders, who still own a key part of the software.
Bloomberg reports Skype&#8217;s founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis have accused eBay of breaching a licensing deal and are threatening to yank the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[
eBay&#8217;s plan to spin off Skype with an initial public offering in 2010 is being threatened by a dispute with the VoIP service&#8217;s co-founders, who still own a key part of the software.
Bloomberg reports Skype&#8217;s founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis have accused eBay of breaching a licensing deal and are threatening to yank the technology, which would disable the popular voice over internet service.
In return, eBay is suing Joltid, the company operated by Skype&#8217;s founders, in a London court to prevent the shutdown.
The Skype founders apparently retained the service&#8217;s peer-to-peer sharing technology when they sold to eBay for $2.6bn in 2005. (Which, of course, begs the question why eBay would pay all that money without ensuring they own the entire platform).
Well smart business people always work to sell the cow but license the right to the milk it produces. That appears to be what is happening here with a legal scuffle between Skype founders and eBay. So when Meg Whitman, who was the CEO that brokered that deal, plunk down the money she did not read the fine print on what she was really buying? Certainly appears that way regardless of the outcome of the lawsuit. 
Would be a real blow to eBay if they lose. The value of the Skype property that they are trying to spin off would be worth less if the buyer has to pay royalities to the two gents owning the technology. Any buyer worth their salt would know this and only pay accordingly. For what they would really be buying is just the customer accounts and IT infrastructure. 
There are still some fun things to watch in the IT biz.
Linky.
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		<item>
		<title>Boycott Brewing Over Nokia-Siemens Iran Deal</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/29/boycott-brewing-over-nokia-siemens-iran-deal/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/29/boycott-brewing-over-nokia-siemens-iran-deal/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:56:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Nokia]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Wireless]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[ecommerce]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[carriers]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[CPE]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Overseas]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Siemens]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[WSJ]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5667</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Consumers are calling for a boycott of telecom equipment makers Nokia and Siemens after the Wall Street Journal reported that the companies joint networking firm sold sophisticated internet surveillance equipment to Iran " a story that the company says is false.
Despite the denial, boycotters have written Nokia saying theyve destroyed their Nokia phones, and are [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[
Consumers are calling for a boycott of telecom equipment makers Nokia and Siemens after the Wall Street Journal reported that the companies joint networking firm sold sophisticated internet surveillance equipment to Iran " a story that the company says is false.
Despite the denial, boycotters have written Nokia saying theyve destroyed their Nokia phones, and are telling friends and family to avoid Nokia products until the company can make the right ethical choices.
According to the Journal, a system installed in Iran by Nokia Siemens Networks " a Finland-based joint venture between Nokia and Seimens " provides Iranian authorities with the ability to conduct deep-packet inspection of online communications to monitor the contents and track the source of e-mail, VoIP calls, and posts to social networking sites such as Twitter, MySpace and Facebook. The newspaper also said authorities had the ability to alter content as it intercepted the traffic from a state-owned internet choke point.
Will have to delve into this more. But it brings up a interesting phenomenon. Individuals as using the power of the purse, by not buying or not using products from a company based on their relationships with other entities. It may very well be the Achilles heel of the multinational corporation. With the world becoming more and more interconnected, the ability of persons to act locally for global impact. There are not many Corporations that can afford 1-2 quarters of lost revenue. 
Linky.
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		<item>
		<title>The Dutch Have Gone Mad?</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/29/the-dutch-have-gone-mad/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/29/the-dutch-have-gone-mad/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:41:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Big Media]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Third Pipe World]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[news in brief]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[competition]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[rip offs]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5664</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Dutch government is mulling over a tax on ISP&#8217;s so that the funds may be allocated to existing pulp print media. I kid you not. Here is the Google translation &#8212; 
The committee Brinkman, who had to see whether the Dutch government financially ailing newspaper industry needs support, advises an Internet tax. This enables [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[The Dutch government is mulling over a tax on ISP&#8217;s so that the funds may be allocated to existing pulp print media. I kid you not. Here is the Google translation &#8212; 
The committee Brinkman, who had to see whether the Dutch government financially ailing newspaper industry needs support, advises an Internet tax. This enables innovative online initiatives funded.
The advice for setting up an internet supplement is now presented to the Board by Minister Ronald Plasterk of Education, as reported daily newspaper Setting a surcharge on each Internet would be levied, the consumer aware that news and news not free.
In the opinion of the committee Brinkman is also calling for the proceeds of a levy in Internet online initiatives with the regional media stabbing. Moreover, publishers want to invest in Internet projects, on the low VAT rate of 6 percent to pay.
The opinion also states that the program of public service broadcasting for all media available to come. This would for example, self-publishing TV guides can spend. The committee does not decide on the partial funding of public broadcasting from advertising, a thorn in the eye of publishers, who argue that the market distorts STER.
The Brinkman committee was established at the request of the Second Chamber. Previously the government did know that the annual 4 percent of STAR revenues in the Stimulation Press will collapse, and that these funds are intended for Internet initiatives. 
Can you imagine? Tax one line of business to maintain the status quo in another line of business. Of course it makes sense if you are a politician. You now get cart blanche on the editorial positions of the papers as you control the purse strings of those entities. Pravda anyone?
linky.
HT: Slashdot
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		<item>
		<title>VodaFone Prepares to Launch Femtocell</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/29/vodafone-prepares-to-launch-femtocell/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/29/vodafone-prepares-to-launch-femtocell/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:05:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[3g]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[4g]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[backbone]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[carriers]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Femtocell]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[VodaFone]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5674</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why I don&#8217;t know. But anyway it is going to happen in about two weeks. &#8211;
With Europe&#8217;s first femtocell deployment due in two weeks, it&#8217;s worth taking a moment to consider why you might want to spend your money on extending your operator&#8217;s coverage, if not just from general goodwill.
On Tuesday Vodafone announced that from [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Why I don&#8217;t know. But anyway it is going to happen in about two weeks. &#8211;
With Europe&#8217;s first femtocell deployment due in two weeks, it&#8217;s worth taking a moment to consider why you might want to spend your money on extending your operator&#8217;s coverage, if not just from general goodwill.
On Tuesday Vodafone announced that from 1 July UK punters will be able to buy their very own base station to extend Vodafone&#8217;s coverage, at their own expense and without so much as a discounted call or free data package to make up for the fact that punters could end up paying for the bandwidth twice.
So lets lay this out. Somebody will have to plunk down about $300 for the unit. They also have to provide a 1mb/s connection. They get no rebate from the carrier for doing so. And so why do I want this?
Its that wireless-wired interconnect that is the problem. The way things are here in the US as marginal areas morph to exurban homesites the wireless carriers follow right along. They are not stupid, and take note of traffic patterns. The problem is that on the wired side the cablecos and FIOS/uVerse guys don&#8217;t plant cable in the ground till a certain population density is reached. That is usually long after several cell towers have gone up. See the problem? The chances of having bad cell reception AND a cable connection is not going to be a plentiful situation for most areas. Maybe West Virginia, Western PA, some of the area of the Rockies. Femtocell is just not going to be a big seller. 
More here.
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		<item>
		<title>Central planning is no way to do broadband</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/28/central-planning-is-no-way-to-do-broadband/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/28/central-planning-is-no-way-to-do-broadband/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:59:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[FCC]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Legislation / Regulation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[FCC broadband study]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[universal broadband]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5681</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As we prepare to unload a bunch of federally created funny money to extend the reach of broadband, it&#8217;s important to remember that government has a terrible track record of creating universal coverage. Much like the execution of Stalin&#8217;s famous central planning, the books were cooked to show great progress, while in reality there was [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[As we prepare to unload a bunch of federally created funny money to extend the reach of broadband, it&#8217;s important to remember that government has a terrible track record of creating universal coverage. Much like the execution of Stalin&#8217;s famous central planning, the books were cooked to show great progress, while in reality there was little or none.
Need evidence? Here&#8217;s a compelling argument from Tech News World&#8217;s &#8216;Sonia Arrison:
A new public fund to subsidize Internet access for poor and rural residents is not likely to be effective. Consider the case of  E-Rate, a US$2.25 billion FCC fund created in 1997 to connect all children to the Information Age by underwriting up to 90 percent of the costs of hard-wiring classrooms and libraries. Since its conception, however, E-Rate has been a bust. Public and private reports detail the regulatory loopholes, rubber-stamped &#8220;gold plated&#8221; networks, and criminal abuse.
After disbursing more than $20 billion in funds &#8212; collected, ironically, from fees that raise the cost of monthly phone bills &#8212; the FCC has still failed to establish basic accountability measures for E-Rate, and according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) this March, excessive rules and paperwork keep thousands of schools from seeking reimbursements for legitimate costs. If the FCC is too inept to structure and manage our broadband funds properly today, what will make tomorrow any different? (Tech News World)
Millions in Soviet Russia lived their entire lives waiting for apartment flats to be built while they remained stacked in the existing units, for public transportation to reach outlying areas that still have none, and more. It&#8217;s better to open the right of ways and let that market or individual communities fill the void. Career Washington bureaucrats only know that rural America looks pretty from 8 miles above. No one knows how to get something done at ground level better than someone who is actually there.
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		<item>
		<title>YaVast Me Pirates, We Bed in Jail ToNite!</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/28/yavast-me-pirates-we-bed-in-jail-tonite/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/28/yavast-me-pirates-we-bed-in-jail-tonite/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 28 Jun 2009 06:02:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Courts]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Intellectual Property]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Litigation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[ecommerce]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[intellectual property]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[pirate bay]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5658</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In what has to be the biggest Hail Mary on record, the defendants in the Pirate Bay case will NOT be retried. As you may recall, a mistrial was requested after discovery that the judge in the case had dealings/relationships with entitles that the defendants had supposedly defrauded. But it is not all good either [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[In what has to be the biggest Hail Mary on record, the defendants in the Pirate Bay case will NOT be retried. As you may recall, a mistrial was requested after discovery that the judge in the case had dealings/relationships with entitles that the defendants had supposedly defrauded. But it is not all good either &#8211;
A Swedish appellate court ruled Thursday there would be no retrial in the Pirate Bay case, despite accusations the trial judge was biased against the four founders of the worlds most notorious BitTorrent tracker.
We have reached the conclusion that we do not agree with the conflict of interest claim, Sweden Court of Appeal Judge Anders Eka told Swedish media. In the appellate courts written opinion, the three-judge panel said that backing the principles of copyright law cannot be considered bias.
In denying the appeal the original finding stands and the defendants must cough up the dough and face the jailer. Course in the end, they probably win again. With the right greasing of the palms Pirate Bay could be running in Khakistan in weeks.
Linky.
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		<item>
		<title>Obama sends more career bureacrats to head the FCC</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/27/obama-sends-more-career-bureacrats-to-head-the-fcc/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/27/obama-sends-more-career-bureacrats-to-head-the-fcc/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:29:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5670</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Here&#8217;s some of that so called &#8220;change you can believe in&#8221;. Doing anything but breaking with tradition, the president elected to bring change is appointing more career bureaucrats to head yet another fed agency that desperately needs some new blood from the world outside. The appointments that are clearly political and supportive of the status [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Here&#8217;s some of that so called &#8220;change you can believe in&#8221;. Doing anything but breaking with tradition, the president elected to bring change is appointing more career bureaucrats to head yet another fed agency that desperately needs some new blood from the world outside. The appointments that are clearly political and supportive of the status quo duopoly, big media universe that wants to enslave rather than serve us. I for one wonder when if ever we&#8217;ll really see any positive change. We&#8217;ve certainly seen plenty of change that is hostile towards an open competitive net and tech in general.
President Barack Obama announced Thursday that he plans to nominate Meredith Attwell Baker, a former Commerce Department official, to fill the open Republican slot on the Federal Communications Commission. Most recently Baker led the Commerce Department&#8217;s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, or NTIA. This is the agency within the Commerce Department that was responsible for distributing the $40 coupons to consumers to convert their older analog TVs to receive digital TV signals. (Cnet)
With Baker&#8217;s nomination to the FCC, President Obama has named his final nominee for the five member commission. Obama has already nominated Julius Genachowski to be FCC chairman. And he has also nominated Mignon Clyburn to fill a Democratic slot at the FCC. Clyburn is a member of South Carolina&#8217;s public service commission. Commissioner Robert McDowell, who is a Republican, has been nominated for a second term on the commission. (Cnet)
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		<item>
		<title>End of Spectrum Scarcity?</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/27/end-of-spectrum-scarcity/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/27/end-of-spectrum-scarcity/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:39:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Content]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[marketplaces]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[new technology]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Legislation / Regulation]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5661</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Opportunistic Access to the Airwaves
As the FCC begins its year-long process to recommend a National Broadband Plan, one starting point is to unlock publicly-owned assets that can facilitate ubiquitous, affordable broadband access. Wireless spectrum remains the most cost-effective and rapid means to deliver broadband access to rural and unserved urban residents. But as mobile broadband [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[
Opportunistic Access to the Airwaves
As the FCC begins its year-long process to recommend a National Broadband Plan, one starting point is to unlock publicly-owned assets that can facilitate ubiquitous, affordable broadband access. Wireless spectrum remains the most cost-effective and rapid means to deliver broadband access to rural and unserved urban residents. But as mobile broadband use continues to increase exponentially, demand for spectrum will rapidly outpace availability under current spectrum management policies.
Public policy seems stymied by the myth that spectrum is scarce. In reality, only government permission to access the airwaves (licenses) is scarce " spectrum capacity itself is barely used in most locations and at most times. This underutilized spectrum represents enormous, untapped, public capacity for high-speed and pervasive broadband connectivity. It is vital to a national broadband plan to consider policies that will encourage more intensive and efficient use of the nations spectrum resources.
Not quite as far fetched as it sounds. Consider &#8211;

The DoD already does a fair level of spectrum reuse/reallocation in their day to day operations. Bands not in use even in the same operational theater routinely are reallocated on the fly as the equipment has the smarts to look for an oper frequency and do the proper handshaking  to permit a conversation of data stream to occur. Fact the military fosters such frequency hopping antics as it makes it harder for some opponent to intercept the information.
Even for civilian use, bands are reallocated as needed in a static fashion. The former analog UHF, VHF bands were only good for line of sight. So, the FCC, by properly spacing frequency allocations based on distance can have 300 TV stations using the same band. Same with high power AM. But with spread spectrum (aka your WiFi router and 900mhz wireless phone) It would be literally possible to allocate all the bands that are not in use in a particular geographic area.

So imagine. Many TV stations even today, sign off at 2 or 3 in the morning and don&#8217;t come on again till 6 or 7am. So for roughly 5-6 hours we have several GBits of bandwidth available not being used. But what if WiFi towers polled the frequency and saw it open? They could hop on and up their backhaul capabilities for pennies. Fact I could see a very nice business for high speed backhaul for scheduled traffic. Not all data is interactive, but batched and this would match nicely. 
The next step up which is what the presentation above was about is the development of CPE that is intelligent enough to query a very large swath of bandwidth and utilize an open frequency and bandwidth sufficient for the job at hand. Then hop off once the traffic is complete. Another words a MIMO Wifi like device that does frequency interrogation. 
I would have love to have gone. Would have been interesting. 
Linky.
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		<item>
		<title>They Tax But Gather Not</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/27/they-tax-but-gather-not/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/27/they-tax-but-gather-not/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:59:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Bills]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Legislation / Regulation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[ecommerce]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5655</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Boss had a piece on NC attempting to tax associate income in the State here. Well they passed the legislation and so Amazon is pulling out. They are ending their association with anyone who is a partner in NC. &#8211;
We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to notify you that your Associates account [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[The Boss had a piece on NC attempting to tax associate income in the State here. Well they passed the legislation and so Amazon is pulling out. They are ending their association with anyone who is a partner in NC. &#8211;
We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to notify you that your Associates account has been closed as of June 26, 2009. This is a direct result of the unconstitutional tax collection scheme expected to be passed any day now by the North Carolina state legislature (the General Assembly) and signed by the governor. As a result, we will no longer pay any referral fees for customers referred to Amazon.com or Endless.com after June 26. We were forced to take this unfortunate action in anticipation of actual enactment because of uncertainties surrounding the legislation&#8217;s effective date.
Please be assured that all qualifying referral fees earned prior to June 26, 2009 will be processed and paid in full in accordance with our regular referral fee schedule. Based on your account closure date of June 26, 2009, any final payments will be paid by September 1, 2009.
In the event that North Carolina repeals this tax collection scheme, we would certainly be happy to re-open our Associates program to North Carolina residents.
The North Carolina General Assemblys website is http://www.ncleg.net/, and additional information may be obtained from the Performance Marketing Alliance at http://www.performancemarketingalliance.com/.
We have enjoyed working with you and other North Carolina-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program, and wish you all the best in your future.
Best Regards,
The Amazon Associates Team
I would not be surprised if Google follows suit. Were I a online merchant that was making serious money from the affiliates program I would move. Not me, my servers and my business address. Say Texas or South Dakota. Open up a bank account there and contract with a mail forwarding service. (Talk to any full time RV&#8217;er they will fill you in.) Be back in business in a week. 
But it does not solve the core problem. The NC legislature does not understand the Internet. It is not like a physical business presence. Mobility is almost second nature on the internet. And of course even if NC tried to go after Amazon proper, Amazon could just say &#8212; &#8220;hold on a second.&#8221; Few taps of the keyboard and they could be servicing NC clients from Ireland where they have Cloudfront data centers. &#8220;Tax what?&#8221;, says the datacenter manager.
Linky.
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Beast from 20,000 Leagues</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/27/the-beast-from-20000-leagues/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/27/the-beast-from-20000-leagues/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:38:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Persons of Interest]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[person of interest]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Verizon]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5650</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Or should I say, Ivan Seidenberg, CEO of Verizon Corp. The man does have one saving grace. He is the last of the CEO&#8217;s who have ever climbed a telephone pole and worked his way up. That being said, he is just one of about 4 that are delaying our broadband futures. Just VZ does [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[
Or should I say, Ivan Seidenberg, CEO of Verizon Corp. The man does have one saving grace. He is the last of the CEO&#8217;s who have ever climbed a telephone pole and worked his way up. That being said, he is just one of about 4 that are delaying our broadband futures. Just VZ does it better than their competition. 
Source: Charlie Rose show.
HT: Consumerist
]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Self Twitting Home?</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/25/self-twitting-home/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/25/self-twitting-home/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:49:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Overseas]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Third Pipe World]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[new technology]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Automation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[CPE]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5646</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
A computer engineer has connected his home to social networking service Twitter, enabling it to Tweet him with updates about his residences electricity and water consumption.
Andy Stanford-Clark, 43, has fitted wireless sensors onto household items scattered around his 16th Century thatched cottage on the Isle of Wight, according to various online reports.
The sensors feed information [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[
A computer engineer has connected his home to social networking service Twitter, enabling it to Tweet him with updates about his residences electricity and water consumption.
Andy Stanford-Clark, 43, has fitted wireless sensors onto household items scattered around his 16th Century thatched cottage on the Isle of Wight, according to various online reports.
The sensors feed information to a central hub that, with the help of some specially written software, translates into words a sensor notification that, say, the bathroom heater has been turned on.
[source]
This is the best use I have seen for the Twitter service yet. Most readers know I think Twetters to humans turns all into Twits. Nor do I mean that in a flattering manner. But as a machine based protocol for sending/receiving queries it rocks. 
I already have several client&#8217;s servers that send me critical messages as to they had to switch over battery power, cooling etc. So the question would be how hard is it to develop an API that handles the Twitter-X10 interface? If that was in place one could possibly build a remote control interface to the home right from a Twit enabled handheld. Possibly a two message format. First message with the intended action. Second with the security code to add that activates it to the hub&#8217;s queue. 
Twitter really needs to up the message limit to say 2048 characters. 
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Yo Pixin&#8217; with A Cell?</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/25/yo-pixin-with-a-cell/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/25/yo-pixin-with-a-cell/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:32:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[3g]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[4g]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[CPE]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[camera]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[comparisons]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5642</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Well if you are taking snapshots with a cellphone camera you might want to take a look at this little article from The Register &#8212; 
My findings can be summarized as follows:

Upgrading an iPhone 3G from iPhone Software 2.2.1 to 3.0 provides a welcome improvement in image quality. Essentially, image quality takes a step up [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Well if you are taking snapshots with a cellphone camera you might want to take a look at this little article from The Register &#8212; 
My findings can be summarized as follows:

Upgrading an iPhone 3G from iPhone Software 2.2.1 to 3.0 provides a welcome improvement in image quality. Essentially, image quality takes a step up from &#8220;sucks&#8221; to &#8220;sucks less.&#8221;
The iPhone 3GS&#8217;s three-megapixel camera is a noticeable improvement over the two megapixel camera in the iPhone 3G - and the differences are much more than mere megapixelage.
The Palm Pre&#8217;s three-megapixel camera takes crisp, well-focused images, but it&#8217;s a finicky little fellow with maddeningly inconsistent white balance.
And here&#8217;s my &#8220;Well duh!&#8221; finding: even a five-year-old six-megapixel DSLR could easily out-image any of its phone-based competition, not only in detail but also in overall exposure and color balance.


Doubtful that the camera function in a cell phone will ever improve too much. There is an upper limit that the carriers would want to see a burst of pixel traffic on their network. Especially if someone was downloading a lot of pictures. They just don&#8217;t want the hold times even if they would like the cash the traffic represents. The little screen makes framing an issue. Finally the fixed focal length lens makes cropping impossible. 
That being said if I was in an auto accident I would whip out the cell and start taking snaps in an instant. The true camera buff has gone to packing a slim Nikon Coolpix with them where ever they go. 
Read the whole article here.
]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Time Warner and Comcast plan on demand on the web, and get it wrong</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/24/tiem-warner-and-comcast-plan-on-deamnd-onthe-web-and-get-it-worng/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/24/tiem-warner-and-comcast-plan-on-deamnd-onthe-web-and-get-it-worng/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:50:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Content]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Comcast]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[streaming content]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Time Warner]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5633</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In a much ballyhooed joint announcement, Time Warner Cable and Comcast have tried to thrill consumers with the possibility of getting their favorite cable programming on demand, on the web. Before you get out the party hats and disconnect the cable box, it&#8217;s not quite as cool as it could be. It took some real [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[In a much ballyhooed joint announcement, Time Warner Cable and Comcast have tried to thrill consumers with the possibility of getting their favorite cable programming on demand, on the web. Before you get out the party hats and disconnect the cable box, it&#8217;s not quite as cool as it could be. It took some real talent to make what could be a breakthrough into a non-event.
The companies agreed to the following principles:

Bring more TV content, more easily to more people across platforms.
Video subscribers can watch programming from their favorite TV networks online for no additional charge.
Video subscribers can access this content using any broadband connection.
Programmers should make their best and highest-rated programming available online.
Both networks and video distributors should provide high-quality, consumer-friendly sites for viewing broadband content with easy authentication.
A new process should be created to measure ratings for online viewing. The goal should be to extend the current viewer measurement system to include advertiser ratings for TV content viewed on all platforms.
TV Everywhere is open and non-exclusive; cable, satellite or telco video distributors can enter into similar agreements with other programmers.

Time Warner Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bewkes said: &#8220;TV Everywhere is no longer just a concept, but a working model to deliver consumers more television content over broadband than ever before. We consistently look to make our popular, branded content more accessible to consumers in order to grow our business. This progressive approach to delivering television content online will enable the continued vibrancy and growth of distribution outlets, their content partners and advertising clients.&#8221;
So in other words, these two cable guys have agreed in principle to begin giving subscribers an online on demand option to some of the programming that they already subscribe to&#8230;&#8230;&#8230; online&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;.sometime. Herein we have proof that the cable suits remain totally clueless. The new generation of viewer wants a la carte, on demand and online from any connection. Maybe they will pay for a channel or two. Maybe they will pay more per channel than they would on a per channel basis in a package. What is not a maybe is that they don&#8217;t want any more stinking packages on a closed system. And by the way, the new generation of viewer is not an age, it&#8217;s an attitude. Need help with working out the details? Memo to cable guys: The Dr. and I are available to help you set this up right at a fair price.
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Better Late Than Never I Guess</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/24/better-late-than-never-i-guess/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/24/better-late-than-never-i-guess/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:20:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[FCC]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[LTE]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[carriers]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[competition]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[marketplaces]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[CPE]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Legislation / Regulation]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5630</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Exclusive deals that lock cool handsets to a single carrier will soon get scrutiny from federal regulators, the acting head of the FCC announced Thursday.
The announcement (.pdf) comes just a day after a Senate subcommittee heard competing arguments over whether deals like Sprints six-month lock on the Palm Pre and AT&#038;Ts long-running U.S. monopoly on [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[
Exclusive deals that lock cool handsets to a single carrier will soon get scrutiny from federal regulators, the acting head of the FCC announced Thursday.
The announcement (.pdf) comes just a day after a Senate subcommittee heard competing arguments over whether deals like Sprints six-month lock on the Palm Pre and AT&#038;Ts long-running U.S. monopoly on the iPhone stifle competition and hurt consumers. Earlier this week, three Senate Democrats Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), John Kerry (Mass.), Byron Dorgan (North Dakota), along with  Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) sent a letter to Copps urging the agency to take a close look at the deals competitive impact.
Federal Communications Commission Acting Chairman Michael Copps said today (.pdf) that the FCC will open a formal proceeding to determine whether some of these arrangements adversely restrict consumer choice or harm the development of innovative devices .
In a Senate hearing yesterday, Penn State professor Robert M. Frieden said 9 of the 10 top selling phones were under exclusive deals with one or more of the nations big four carriers, save for the most popular phone the Blackberry Curve.
The wheels of government really do grind ever so slowly. Here at Thirdpipe we have been railing against this cozy relationship for years. It is anticompetitive at the minimum.It hides the true value of the phone, etc. That the FCC is actually looking at the situation I guess is a good thing. But then again they have turned an opportunity into a bad dream in the past too. 
Linky.
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		<item>
		<title>Palm Pre Codebase Available</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/24/palm-pre-codebase-available/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/24/palm-pre-codebase-available/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:07:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[CPE]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Open Source]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[marketplaces]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Content]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5627</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For those that are of a geeky sort and want to play with the code that is the base for the Palm it is now available. &#8211;
To comply with the GPL, Palm has released the source code packages for its Linux-based WebOS used by the new Palm Pre, which has been on sale in the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[For those that are of a geeky sort and want to play with the code that is the base for the Palm it is now available. &#8211;
To comply with the GPL, Palm has released the source code packages for its Linux-based WebOS used by the new Palm Pre, which has been on sale in the US since the beginning of June. The company has also set up its own open source site.
For its WebOS, Palm uses version 2.6.24 of the Linux kernel with nearly 1,000 patches, most of which relate either to the Pre&#8217;s ARM processor architecture or to platform-specific drivers. Some Palm developed new drivers are also included in the source code, such as a driver for the acceleration sensor in the Pre.
The Pre is already in the stores and seems to have developed a decent following. With but a few exceptions (eg no X11) any linux developer would feel right at home with the Pre. 
Linky.
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		<item>
		<title>MySpace Axe Falls</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/23/myspace-axe-falls/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/23/myspace-axe-falls/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:10:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Social networks]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[ecommerce]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[MySpace]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[social networking]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5622</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[MySpace will axe 2/3rds of its international workforce. Some 300 employees to get the pink slip. They say it gets darkest right before everything goes black. &#8211;
The social networking site, which is a division of News Corporation, parent company of The Times, will close offices in at least four countries and cut 300 jobs. The [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[MySpace will axe 2/3rds of its international workforce. Some 300 employees to get the pink slip. They say it gets darkest right before everything goes black. &#8211;
The social networking site, which is a division of News Corporation, parent company of The Times, will close offices in at least four countries and cut 300 jobs. The UK is the company&#8217;s biggest base out side of the US. Though dozens of British jobs may be at risk, it is thought most of the cuts will be made elsewhere.
The move comes a week after the social networking site cut more than 400 jobs in the US " or 30 per cent of its American workforce.
Owen Van Natta, the chief executive, said: &#8220;As we conducted our review of the company, it was clear that internationally, just as in the US, MySpace&#8217;s staffing had become too big and cumbersome to be sustainable in current market conditions.&#8221;
The former Facebook executive became the chief executive of MySpace when Chris DeWolfe, the former chief executive and co-founder, stepped down two months ago. 
Linky.
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		<item>
		<title>Here comes the LTE Kool Aid. Drink at your own peril</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/22/here-comes-the-lte-kooil-aid-drink-at-your-own-peril/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/22/here-comes-the-lte-kooil-aid-drink-at-your-own-peril/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:59:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[4g]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[disinforamtion]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[FUD]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[telco spin]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5612</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ Now that analog TV has officially been retires, get ready for the FUD onslaught to come from the two big telco players long before they begin to slowly dribble out LTE bandwidth. Never the less. press releases are already feeding the media with lots of propaganda about the brave new world we will have [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[ Now that analog TV has officially been retires, get ready for the FUD onslaught to come from the two big telco players long before they begin to slowly dribble out LTE bandwidth. Never the less. press releases are already feeding the media with lots of propaganda about the brave new world we will have in a very short time.

If the claims are to be believed, LTE subscribers will get speeds rivaling those of DOCSIS 3.0 cable or advanced DSL " or faster &#8212; but given that the LTE standard has been recently formalized, carriers are just starting to figure out exactly what they might be able to do with it.
Using two antennas for transmission and two antennas for reception (2&#215;2 MIMO if you are looking for buzz words to throw around),Ericsson(News - Alert) " and most likely Verizon Wireless using its equipment" will deliver an &#8220;optimum&#8221; 100 Mbps download and 50 Mbps upload speeds.

Carriers and equipment vendors have demonstrated data rates between 144 Mbps to 200 Mbps standing still and speeds of up to 50 Mbps while traveling in a moving vehicle. (TMC net)

There&#8217;s plenty of truth to the healthy speeds being possible when LTE is at its theoretical limits. They may even be exceeded in the lab. In the real world, wireless never has the advantage of optimal conditions. Then there&#8217;s the back haul issue. With majority of operational towers are using ADSL for the back haul, with many active locations breathing hard to consistently provide lackluster 3G speeds. That leaves an awful lot of infrastructure to complete before LTE will have any chance to provide even DSL level bandwidth, let alone DOCSIS 3. If we look at how AT&amp;T and Verizon have deployed fixed broadband, there&#8217;s no reason to expect much better from 4G for a very long time.
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Desperation or Smart Marketing?</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/22/desperation-or-smart-marketing/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/22/desperation-or-smart-marketing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 22 Jun 2009 06:09:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Microsoft]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[competition]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[marketplaces]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Browsers]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5608</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you live in the land where Crocs are man eaters and certain jellyfish can kill a man in 20 min you might like to enter a geocaching game cooked up by Microsoft. Here&#8217;s some of the rules &#8211;
Microsoft&#8217;s four steps to finding the buried loot:

        * Ditch [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[If you live in the land where Crocs are man eaters and certain jellyfish can kill a man in 20 min you might like to enter a geocaching game cooked up by Microsoft. Here&#8217;s some of the rules &#8211;
Microsoft&#8217;s four steps to finding the buried loot:

        * Ditch the web browser you&#8217;re using. If you try to find the $10,000 with Firefox, you&#8217;ll get nowhere.
        * Download Microsoft&#8217;s best ever browser, Internet Explorer 8. It&#8217;s the only browser capable of cracking the clues.
        * Follow @tengrand_IE8on Twitter for the daily clues. Clues will be released at random times from Friday 19th June.
        * Use the clues and your brilliance to deduce where the $10,000 is hidden.
If you&#8217;re the first Microsoft whore to find the dough, you get to keep it. Or at least part of it. Microsoft says &#8220;Tell your friends. It&#8217;s not as stupid as it sounds. With all the stuff you have on, you won&#8217;t be able to keep an eye out for all clues 24/7. So team with your friends to catch all the clues on Twitter.&#8221;
Now I will grant it is a novel idea to do a treasure hunt using IE and Twitter. As far as I know it has never been done before. So as novel marketing its an ace. 
But one has to ask, if IE8 is so great why do you have to BRIBE your potential customer base to use it? I would hever have thought that it took that kind of effort to get somebody to use IE. The other question that I am sure has been raised &#8212; what happens afterwards? Won&#8217;t the base go back to using their Opera or Firefox browser? The other competing browsers were point of personal choice so habits are hard to change. We shall see.
Linky.
]]></content:encoded>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Snark, Oracle Doesn&#8217;t Like Hardware</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/21/snark-oracle-doesnt-like-hardware/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/21/snark-oracle-doesnt-like-hardware/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:57:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Sun]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[news]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Divesture]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Oracle]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5605</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Now, it seems Oracle remains no more committed to Sun&#8217;s hardware business than it was before the acquisition news broke - when we originally reported Oracle only wanted Sun for its software.
A source close to Oracle has told The Reg that Oracle has continued to shop Sun&#8217;s hardware business around to potential buyers after the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[
Now, it seems Oracle remains no more committed to Sun&#8217;s hardware business than it was before the acquisition news broke - when we originally reported Oracle only wanted Sun for its software.
A source close to Oracle has told The Reg that Oracle has continued to shop Sun&#8217;s hardware business around to potential buyers after the official announcement of its intention to buy the whole of Sun - and after it moved to re-assure Sun employees of its love for their hardware.
The Register&#8217;s source qualified the price Oracle was asking for Sun&#8217;s hardware business as &#8220;unrealistic.&#8221; Oracle declined to comment for this article.
Oracle and Sun announced the planned $5.6bn acquisition on April 20, and two days later Oracle president Charles Phillips and chief corporate architect Edward Screven played up Oracle&#8217;s experience in hardware and interest in continuing to develop and sell Sun&#8217;s processor lines.
&#8220;We needed to be comfortable with the fact these were hardware platforms, systems, that we were going to keep selling and developing&#8230;we are very comfortable,&#8221; Screven said during a Sun-employee town-hall meeting.
It is unclear whether Oracle is actively trying to sell Sun&#8217;s hardware business after lowering the asking price. It may have given up.
Trying to sell off the hardware component. We alluded that this might be a happening. That&#8217;s why we thought the IBM-HP consortium was a better fit. HP has a reasonable midrange business so they could correctly absorb the Sun Solaris component without too much problem. IBM already a big player in FOSS would continue that tradition with the software side. 
It gets rather disturbing to see corporations make all sorts of announcements about &#8216;fit&#8217; only to be lying through their teeth. That is how they view their customer base as well. 
Linky.
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>NC wants sales tax revenue from online affiliates?</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/21/nc-wants-sales-tax-revenue-from-online-affiliates/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/21/nc-wants-sales-tax-revenue-from-online-affiliates/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:10:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Legislation / Regulation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[ecommerce]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[affiliate marketing]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[taxes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5592</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[First, if you&#8217;re new to the concept of affiliate advertising, here&#8217;s a brief tutorial:
You have a really great web site or blog like Third Pipe. You have server bills, and you spend several hours every week putting up content. To help pay the bills, you put a little Amazon banner somewhere on the site and [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[First, if you&#8217;re new to the concept of affiliate advertising, here&#8217;s a brief tutorial:
You have a really great web site or blog like Third Pipe. You have server bills, and you spend several hours every week putting up content. To help pay the bills, you put a little Amazon banner somewhere on the site and maybe promote individual items from time to time. If you&#8217;re a fairly busy site like Third Pipe, Amazon may get sales of $40 or $50 a month from your referrals and it will pay you a whopping 4% commission on them.
Let me continue by telling you of the greatest single act of stupidity by state pols in recent history. It may even be worthy of a Darwin award:
Amazon.com&#8217;s affiliates in North Carolina are reporting that the company will shut them off if legislation passes that would force online retailers to collect the state&#8217;s 4.5% sales tax from marketing affiliates. The News &amp; Record newspaper reports that the tax law change is part of an effort to close a $4.7 billion hole in the state budget. &#8220;To help bridge that gap, House lawmakers proposed a bevy of tax increases and new taxes to raise about $784 million.&#8221;  (Auctionbytes)
No doubt feeling like they are being excluded from the internet boom, North Carlina pols think it&#8217;&#8217;s time for their state&#8217;s bloggers to pay a little more for the privilege of toiling from inside that proud state&#8217;s boundaries. Since the NC sales tax is 4.5%, and there is no system in place to pass that tax along to people from anywhere in the world who click on an ad on a NC based site, then the blogger will end up .5% in the hole if they are fortunate enough to get an occasional sale. If not stupidity, then this is evidence of extreme arrogance for not bothering to do the research on how much affiliate programs actually pay before proposing the tax.
Will this new tax earn a single penny for North Carolina? I don&#8217;t see how it can. Small bloggers will be forced to drop affiliate ads and many will simply disappear when they lose the subsidy the ads provide. Workarounds will be found. Larger oprations like the struggling local newspaper will simply pack up and move. As a result. less tax will be collected.
The current economic malaise we are in is largely due to the meddling of politicians and the special interests who lobby them. To survive in these unfortunate conditions the pols created, most of of us are spending less because we have no choice. It&#8217;s high time the politicians learn to do the same.
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		<title>Yeah Right, Verizon You Need a Better Blame Board</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/21/yeah-right-verizon-you-need-a-better-blame-board/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/21/yeah-right-verizon-you-need-a-better-blame-board/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:10:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[POTS]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Verizon]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[service outage]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5589</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Our phone was out of service beginning last Saturday. We checked the line into the house and it didn&#8217;t work so we knew it was an outside line problem. I called Verizon customer service for repairs and I explained the situation. I also told customer service that this was 2nd time within a month that [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[
Our phone was out of service beginning last Saturday. We checked the line into the house and it didn&#8217;t work so we knew it was an outside line problem. I called Verizon customer service for repairs and I explained the situation. I also told customer service that this was 2nd time within a month that this line had not worked. I was told by Verizon that they are updating all of their lines and that their lines are old and are eaten through by squirrels and that they are in the process of updating their lines with FIOS - so if I wanted to be guaranteed having phone service I should call their business office and order FIOS. I asked the service person if what I was hearing was accurate that unless I upgraded to FIOS Verizon was telling me they could not say that I would have working phone service on a regular basis and she replied if I wanted to be sure to have a working phone I should upgrade to FIOS.
 &#8212; From a Verizon customer
First of all squirrels have better taste. They do have a habit of wanting to chew on stuff so it is not out of the realm of possibility. But I bet the more likely cause is Verizon has decided to skimp on POTS outside plant. When I left it was a known fact that VZ was cutting back on COE. They also informed the VP on the PSTN side his budget was being cut. I have heard nothing to contradict that view.
It might be squirrels, but more likely in some one&#8217;s head.
HT: Consumerist.
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		<item>
		<title>WalMart Too?</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/20/walmart-too/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/20/walmart-too/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 20 Jun 2009 17:44:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[competition]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[new technology]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[WalMart]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5586</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Well not to be left out of the Kiosk sweepstakes, WalMart is trialling the sale/resale of video games up in the Northeast US. &#8211;
Does it sounds so strange? Not really when you think about it, this is Wal-Mart after all. Most people are unaware at the moment, but Wal-Mart is now accepting used games to [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Well not to be left out of the Kiosk sweepstakes, WalMart is trialling the sale/resale of video games up in the Northeast US. &#8211;
Does it sounds so strange? Not really when you think about it, this is Wal-Mart after all. Most people are unaware at the moment, but Wal-Mart is now accepting used games to trade for credit.
Just a few hours ago, I went to the one near my house and was quite surprised at what I saw. Apparently they had a installed a new vending machine less than a day ago which allows you to trade in your used PS2, PS3, X-Box, Xbox 360, and Wii games.
The machine looks extremely similiar to the Redbox DVD rental machines. When I went to use the machine, however, it still had more than a few bugs that need fixing. The first issue occurs right after you login. When logging in, you are asked to scan your games. However once you do so, there is a glitch that logs you out immidiately entering your information. After you log back in, the issue seems to repeats itself. 
Just another step in the self service economy.
Linky.
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		<item>
		<title>Music Labels Reading the Tea Leaves?</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/20/music-labels-reading-the-tea-leaves/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/20/music-labels-reading-the-tea-leaves/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 20 Jun 2009 06:19:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Big Media]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[RIAA]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[competition]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[ecommerce]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[eMusic]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5550</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We have been very vocal about the music labels. Especially the tactics of their RIAA industry team. But there is a glimmer that some of the labels are starting to understand that they can&#8217;t fill an inside straight holding 2 of diamonds and the ace of spades. &#8211;
Although eMusic is a great service"for a flat [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[We have been very vocal about the music labels. Especially the tactics of their RIAA industry team. But there is a glimmer that some of the labels are starting to understand that they can&#8217;t fill an inside straight holding 2 of diamonds and the ace of spades. &#8211;
Although eMusic is a great service"for a flat monthly fee, you get a set number of downloads per month of DRM-free music tracks"it&#8217;s about to get better. Or maybe worse, depending on the breadth of your musical tastes. Today eMusic will announce that Sony is adding its back catalog of songs to eMusic&#8217;s library. The bad news is that eMusic also plans to slightly raise prices and/or drop the number of downloads per month. Even if it works out to between 50-60 cents per track, though, that&#8217;s still far less than iTunes Music Store or Amazon, and probably the cheapest way to grab music from Sony artists without resorting to piracy.
Even at the new pricing that eMusic is proposing the cost per track hovers around .50&cent; per. Sony adding their back catalog to the mix is just icing on the cake. Which is kudos to Sony. Hopefully this will be the trend that continues with the other labels as well. We can all back out of the DRM/RIAA debacle in a graceful manner and act like adults. 
iTunes take note. Your pricing is out of whack.
LInky.
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		<title>The beast that will not die: Metered Billing</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/19/the-beast-that-will-not-die-metered-billing/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/19/the-beast-that-will-not-die-metered-billing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:04:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Duopoly Follies]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Legislation / Regulation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[competition]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Congress]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[FCC]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[metered billing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5577</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[They&#8217;re baaack! That nasty duopoly and its army of lobbyists are back trying to convince the feds that metered billing is a good thing. I would agree - if the marketplace were competitive. And that&#8217;s the rub, because it&#8217;s not. Investors are pushing duopoly managements to grow profits, and the profit engine expected from pay [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[They&#8217;re baaack! That nasty duopoly and its army of lobbyists are back trying to convince the feds that metered billing is a good thing. I would agree - if the marketplace were competitive. And that&#8217;s the rub, because it&#8217;s not. Investors are pushing duopoly managements to grow profits, and the profit engine expected from pay TV isn&#8217;t there. In fact pay TV has probably already hit its peak to be followed by a steady decline. The gravy train the telcos rode of POTS and even wireless voice is coming to an end as well.
The cost of delivering a megabit of broadband has been in free fall for years. In fact, if all other costs had remained constant, duopoly margins should have doubled in the last couple of years. Unfortunately those costs have ballooned, almost entirely from bad decisions and/or heavy investment outside of the core business. In a competitive environment, bad decision&#8217;s bankrupt companies. In a duopoly, bad decisions mean price increases for rate payers.
So, let me explain what&#8217;s really going on. Metered billing, caps and more tiers are all about increasing prices for the same level of service. Period. When there&#8217;s going to be a pulbic outcry over price increases, you try to hide it in a &#8220;better deal&#8221;. Fortunately, only a corrupt government is eager to beleive that better deal story. If we are forced to accept metered billing, it should only come accompanied to unbundling the local loop and forcing an open market. In an open market, metered billing could be a good thing. Instead of paying rates that reflect a 1000-2000% margin, we&#8217;re more likely to pay based on a 100% margin. That would dramatically decrease the amount most of us pay. But giving consumers a break is not what the current metered billing debate is about.
This next push for metered billing will be a multi-million dollar effort, utilizing the full arsenal of incumbent public policy relations. That of course means heavy use of lobbyists, paid PR flaks, pseudo-scientific think tanks and even artificial consumer advocacy groups. Collectively, they&#8217;ll spend the next year or two trying to convince the public and daft lawmakers that metered billing is patriotic, good for children and puppies, and results in vast oceans of innovation pouring out wistfully upon a dreamy sea of competitive innovation.
As Phillip Dampier of Stop The Cap notes, the push began in earnest this week, with a flood of astroturfers and paid policy goofs flooding Internet message boards with the gospel of their handlers. PR departments fired up their engines as well, AT&amp;T insisting to us that their metered billing trials in Reno and Beaumont, Texas are really about making sure that &#8220;grandma&#8221; gets a fair shake. (DSL Reports)
If you care about this (and you should). It&#8217;s time to phone your elected representatives. Let them know you&#8217;re not being fooled by the retoric, and that you are watching them.
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		<title>Small wireless carriers cry foul at Senate hearings</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/17/small-wireless-carriers-cry-foul-at-senate-hearings/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/17/small-wireless-carriers-cry-foul-at-senate-hearings/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:26:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Wireless]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Congress]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[FCC]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Wireless Cartel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5571</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A well lobbied Congress and FCC have allowed four companies to control the vast majority of America&#8217;s wireless frequency allocations. Our government actually helped those companies to grow operate closed networks without requiring fair peering/roaming agreements with smaller carriers. The feds entrusted with maintaining an open market have allowed a cartel to enter into exclusive [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[A well lobbied Congress and FCC have allowed four companies to control the vast majority of America&#8217;s wireless frequency allocations. Our government actually helped those companies to grow operate closed networks without requiring fair peering/roaming agreements with smaller carriers. The feds entrusted with maintaining an open market have allowed a cartel to enter into exclusive agreements with handset manufacturers.
The Senate, laugably, is listening to small carriers as if the majority of the body is not already ware of the problems they have created by allowing the wireless cartel to exist.
The smaller competitors argue that exclusivity agreements prevent other carriers from acquiring these devices, hurting competition for wireless customers.
Victor Meena, president of Mississippi-based Cellular South Inc, said that AT&amp;T Wireless, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile dominate 90 percent of the U.S. wireless market.
&#8220;The largest carriers use their market power to prevent competitors from having access to devices and roaming,&#8221; Meena said. &#8220;If this trend continues, and I believe it will without intervention from Congress, then there will once again be a duopoly in the wireless industry.&#8221;
John Rooney, president of Chicago-based U.S. Cellular Corp, which provides services in regional pockets throughout the United States, urged the committee to act to allow customers the ability to chose both the handset and the network. (Yahoo)
Sadly, I think the small operators are wasting their time and energy. The big four are also speaking at the hearings, and they claim the market is robust and competitive. While it&#8217;s true that prices are falling for plain old voice service, using it as your benchmark is misguided. Misguiding a willing parliament should be easy for the cartel. The current senate is always eager to partake of the benefits only the biggest players in the lobby can provide. If you think there&#8217;s a chance of help fromthe White house. Let me remind you that the current occupant is a former Senator.
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		<item>
		<title>You Have to be Freaking Kidding Me!</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/17/you-have-to-be-freaking-kidding-me/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/17/you-have-to-be-freaking-kidding-me/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:03:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Legislation / Regulation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Security]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Stupid]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5547</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you live in Florida and you want to sell or trade a video game, you have to provide a thumb print now. Since Oct the Florida Legislature has criminalized you for being a gamer and selling your own property. &#8211;
I called back and talked to Gamestop manager Carlos Rivera, who said every video game [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[If you live in Florida and you want to sell or trade a video game, you have to provide a thumb print now. Since Oct the Florida Legislature has criminalized you for being a gamer and selling your own property. &#8211;
I called back and talked to Gamestop manager Carlos Rivera, who said every video game store in Broward County got a visit from a deputy back in October. The deputy told them to start collecting thumb prints from people who return games.
So what did the good folks at Gamestop do? Break out a BFG9000?
&#8220;They have guns,&#8221; Rivera said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t argue with people with guns.&#8221;
Broward County Sheriff&#8217;s Office spokeswoman Kayla Concepcion said the new requirement comes straight from the Florida Legislature, which enacted a law on October 1 of last year that treated video games like second-hand goods sold at pawn shops. Now any store buying used video games has to collect the thumb prints, along with a bunch of other personal info about the seller.
Rivera told me most video-game-returning customers don&#8217;t really care, he said, but a few have turned around and walked out. &#8220;Haven&#8217;t had any fights over it yet,&#8221; Rivera said.
Next thing you know they will be asking for thumbprints when you buy groceries at the store. 
Linky.
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		<item>
		<title>Did a wake up call ring at Google?</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/16/did-a-wake-up-call-ring-at-google/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/16/did-a-wake-up-call-ring-at-google/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:19:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[FTTH]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Microsoft]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Bing]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[spin wars]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5564</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When I first read that Google&#8217;s Sergey Brin is leading a tiger team to improve search in response to the launch of Microsoft&#8217;s Bing, I discounted it as a logical move to maintain technical advantage over the latest MS effort. After all, competition is a good thing, and Bing will certainly cause Google to raise [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[When I first read that Google&#8217;s Sergey Brin is leading a tiger team to improve search in response to the launch of Microsoft&#8217;s Bing, I discounted it as a logical move to maintain technical advantage over the latest MS effort. After all, competition is a good thing, and Bing will certainly cause Google to raise it&#8217;s own bar a bit. But there&#8217;s more to this story than who does search better.

Love him or hate him, you&#8217;ve got to repect Microsoft&#8217;s Steve Ballmer as a worthy and formidable competitor. When he&#8217;s decided to do battle for a business, he typically fights to the death. He&#8217;s set his sights on search and the lucrative ad business that Google built, and Google&#8217;s finally heard the wake up call in the releaseof Microsoft&#8217;s Bing. Why? Many in the tech media think that Bing may have what it takes to win a few battles. Even if Google management and most of its users do not agree, perception is reality in the marketplace. The perception for many is that Bing is a serious threat to Google&#8217;s dominance.
The biggest threat to Google is a change in the behavior of the public; people will expect the search engine to do some of the work for them and to anticipate their needs. Bings decision engine does provide better search results than Google when it comes to its ability to help searchers narrow down what they are actually looking for. Search for cell phone on Bing, and it spits out a list on the left-hand side of deeper results related to cell phones: Shopping; Brands; Buying Guide; Providers; Plans; Accessories; etc. This makes it easy for searchers to find exactly what they are looking for in fewer clicks. The same search on Google leaves users to find their own way " not quite search overload as Bings ads suggest, but nonetheless Bing provides a stronger search experience for the user. (GigaOM)
Microsoft is a masterful organization when it comes to spinning the perception of the masses in its favor. It&#8217;s repeatedly dominated markets with inferior products through skillful manipulation of perception. I see nothing terribly revolutionary or compelling enough in Bing to break my Google habit. Having said that, Ballmer will work tirelessly to change my mind. While Google will probably maintain technical superiority, it&#8217;s not been that good at the obligatory snake oil salesman&#8217;s spin. If Ballmer gets his way, the next battle will be over perception rather than actual product quality. In that arena, Microsoft tends to win.
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		<item>
		<title>Clearwire quietly lauches in Las Vegas and Atlanta</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/16/clearwire-quietly-lauches-in-las-vegas-and-atlanta/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/16/clearwire-quietly-lauches-in-las-vegas-and-atlanta/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:35:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Wimax]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Clearwire]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5561</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Clearwire officially announced it&#8217;s WiMAX service is open for buisness in Atlanta today. Las Vegas has been up for a while now. The service has scaled back from it&#8217;s original offereing of 4MBPS down speed to a max of 2MBPS. I suspect that provviding adequate backhaul continues to be the challense. Never the less, prices [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Clearwire officially announced it&#8217;s WiMAX service is open for buisness in Atlanta today. Las Vegas has been up for a while now. The service has scaled back from it&#8217;s original offereing of 4MBPS down speed to a max of 2MBPS. I suspect that provviding adequate backhaul continues to be the challense. Never the less, prices are fairly competitive, particularly when you compare with 3G wireless.
Cograts to Lost Wages and Hotlanata. We had heard Dallas Fort Worth was slated to be next. We&#8217;re waiting with money in hand.
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		<item>
		<title>Are They Nuts?</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/16/are-they-nuts/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/16/are-they-nuts/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:43:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Big Media]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Cable Operators]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Content]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[AOL]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Bundling]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[carriers]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[competition]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Stupid]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5541</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Just when free tv on the internet was starting to get good, Hulu board member Jon Miller had to go and talk about subscription fees. Miller, an AOL refugee who&#8217;s now squeezing cash out of consumers for News Corp, said last week of subscription fees: &#8220;in my opinion the answer could be yes. I don&#8217;t [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[
Just when free tv on the internet was starting to get good, Hulu board member Jon Miller had to go and talk about subscription fees. Miller, an AOL refugee who&#8217;s now squeezing cash out of consumers for News Corp, said last week of subscription fees: &#8220;in my opinion the answer could be yes. I don&#8217;t see why that shouldn&#8217;t happen over time&#8230; it seems to me that over time that could be a logical thing.&#8221; Charging for content isn&#8217;t his only big idea&#8230;
&#8220;I think what works for consumers most likely-and this has to be tested, frankly-is bundles,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I think you have to figure out what are the right bundles that people buy and what&#8217;s contained in that bundle. For example, you could have-and I&#8217;m making this up entirely-you could have a New York bundle, and that could consist of various papers or publications that are relevant to the audience in New York, and you could make that all, potentially, a bundle to a consumer at one price.&#8221;

This is a Suit with a one track mind. He&#8217;s talking AOL trash and we know where AOL is headed &#8212; in the dustbin. Look Hulu could do a couple of models &#8211;

Free, supported by ads.
subscription, for ad free content
premium for content that is not on the free venue.

Every one of those, as a group can be utilized. Pay some of the $ to the carriers to defray the costs to them (and shut them up.) But dump the bundle idea. That is a disaster. One of the attractions of Hulu is that it is bundleless. You start looking like another cable co you will lose all attraction to the consumer as a service. 
Linky.
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		<title>Open Source &#8212; The Spread</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/16/open-source-the-spread/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/16/open-source-the-spread/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:05:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Open Source]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Overseas]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5544</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ever wondered which countries use Open Source? Well wonder no more. Head over here for a look at what is happening with Open Source.
Any surprises? Not really. If you looked at the individual Euro countries count as the EU they surprass the US in usage. Which I would have expected. That Russia is so far [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Ever wondered which countries use Open Source? Well wonder no more. Head over here for a look at what is happening with Open Source.
Any surprises? Not really. If you looked at the individual Euro countries count as the EU they surprass the US in usage. Which I would have expected. That Russia is so far down on the list is a minor surprise. But their lesser population tends to drive them that way. Its an interesting read.
]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Is Codd&#8217;s Invention Dead?</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/15/is-codds-invention-dead/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/15/is-codds-invention-dead/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:57:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Cloud Computing]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[competition]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[ecommerce]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[new technology]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA['Fusion Tables']]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5558</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ted Codd, that is, father of the relational database concept. The concept that made DB2 possible and Oracle a company. The concept is still a great one. The thing is tho, Codd&#8217;s idea was two dimensional &#8212; rows and columns. You could  select what those two spatial entities meant but no more. But our [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Ted Codd, that is, father of the relational database concept. The concept that made DB2 possible and Oracle a company. The concept is still a great one. The thing is tho, Codd&#8217;s idea was two dimensional &#8212; rows and columns. You could  select what those two spatial entities meant but no more. But our world today is multidimensional in scope. Enter Google &#8211;
Under the hood of Fusion Tables is data-spaces technology, which will make conventional databases go the way of the rotary phone, according to Stephen E. Arnold, a technology and financial analyst who is president of Arnold Information Technology.
Data spaces as a concept has been around since the early 1990s, and Google, realizing its potential, has been developing it since it acquired Transformic, a pioneer of the technology, in 2005, Arnold said.
Data-spaces technology seeks to solve the problem of the multiple data types and data formats that reside in organizations, which have to scrub the data and make it uniform, often at great cost and effort, in order to store and analyze it in conventional databases.
Data spaces envisions a system that creates an index that provides access to data in its disparate formats and types, solving what Arnold calls the &#8220;Tower of Babel&#8221; problem.
In the case of Fusion Tables, the technology should allow Google to add to the conventional two-dimensional database tables a third coordinate with elements like product reviews, blog posts, Twitter messages and the like, as well as a fourth dimension of real-time updates, he said.
So one could build a multiarray database that factors in names, geography, Twitter conversation and time period in a slice and dice fashion with simple system calls. A far cry from what one would have to do in a N+1 relational database to get to the data. Good bet this is what is driving the backend of Google&#8217;s Wave. 
This has some impacts on corporate futures. As data becomes multidimensional the needs to provide this functionality will increase. For the likes of Google/Amazon who can provide these level of services they expand their futures. For the likes of Oracle/IBM if they do not respond, will be left behind. And there is a future for non-cloud N dimensional databases, for many companies that operate in a &#8217;secure at all costs&#8217; environment. (eg. NYSE, any company with a HIPPA requirement)
One other thing to consider. Google owns the company that came up with idea. So it would not be beyond the realm of possibility that they could be very aggressive on the whack-a-mole in the courts against other entrants. It also indicates that the cloud business has entered a new phase &#8212; kill the competition.  
Linky.
Fusion Labs.
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Unlimited DRM free downloads coming soon across the pond</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/15/unlimited-drm-free-downloads-coming-soon-across-the-pond/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/15/unlimited-drm-free-downloads-coming-soon-across-the-pond/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:16:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Content]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[bit torrent]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[downloadable media]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[DRM]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[itunes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5554</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A serious threat to iTunesand bit torrent could be in its way in the UK. Virgin plans a monthly subscription service with unlimited DRM free downloads. While its success depends on quantitiy and quality, it could signal the end for the $1 - $1.50 per song download.
Virgin Media is to launch the world&#8217;s first unlimited, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[A serious threat to iTunesand bit torrent could be in its way in the UK. Virgin plans a monthly subscription service with unlimited DRM free downloads. While its success depends on quantitiy and quality, it could signal the end for the $1 - $1.50 per song download.
Virgin Media is to launch the world&#8217;s first unlimited, DRM-free music download service in the UK by Christmas. It&#8217;s signed the world&#8217;s biggest label - the Vivendi-owned Universal Music Group - for the launch, and says it&#8217;s talking to publishers and other labels.
The service will be priced at &#8220;a couple of albums per month&#8221;, sources suggest. Ahead of tomorrow&#8217;s Carter Report, it&#8217;s also hinted at stiffer sanctions for downloaders. (The Register)
]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Android Scripting</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/15/android-scripting/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/15/android-scripting/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:20:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Android]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Google]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Apple]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[ASE]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[CPE]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Open Source]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5536</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In the last two weeks there has been a lot of buzz on the RSS and Twitter feeds about the new Android Scripting Environment. If its a lot of volume, and this is, its usually one of two things &#8212; either this is a &#8216;Big Thing&#8217; or its from Google. Well it is from Google. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[In the last two weeks there has been a lot of buzz on the RSS and Twitter feeds about the new Android Scripting Environment. If its a lot of volume, and this is, its usually one of two things &#8212; either this is a &#8216;Big Thing&#8217; or its from Google. Well it is from Google. But it could also be a &#8216;Big Thing&#8217; &#8211;
The Android Scripting Environment (ASE) brings scripting languages to Android by allowing you to edit and execute scripts and interactive interpreters directly on the Android device. These scripts have access to many of the APIs available to full-fledged Android applications, but with a greatly simplified interface that makes it easy to:

Handle intents
Start activities
Make phone calls
Send text messages
Scan bar codes
Poll location and sensor data
Use text-to-speech (TTS)
And more

Scripts can be run interactively in a terminal, started as a long running service, or started via Locale. Python, Lua and BeanShell are currently supported, and we&#8217;re planning to add Ruby and JavaScript support, as well.
Here&#8217;s the deal. If you wanted to do development on Android you set up a box to do the development on. Wrote your apps, did the integration, cloned it then put the result to your target platform. Not impossible stuff but involved and required more assets to do the job. With ASE you are liberated from that. 
For an application developer that means they can write a python app in ASE. So long as they keep in mind the limitations of each of the intended target platforms (not all platforms are required to maintain the same suite of APIs) then their code can run on all of them! So the flash app you saw on the coke machine could be downloaded and be running on your ASE enabled HTC handheld or netbook of the future. That is the &#8216;Big Thing&#8217; about ASE. 
But it also brings the world of Legacy Python, LUA and BeanShell to the Android world. Were I Apple, this announcement (June 8 ) would make me extremely nervous. This is a platform environment with no lock-in. We know how that battle usually ends up don&#8217;t we?
Read the announcement here.
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		<title>What Should Have Been&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/14/what-should-have-been/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/14/what-should-have-been/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:24:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[700 mHz]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[802.xx]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Open Source]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Overseas]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[4g]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Wireless]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5531</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8230; and could still be if we got our heads out of the sand. All those large muni installs that never happened still could. But the muni itself has to give up the idea of WiFi as an income source. &#8211;
&#8230;just wanted to share the joy. This week we successfully completed the first 802.11n long [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[&#8230; and could still be if we got our heads out of the sand. All those large muni installs that never happened still could. But the muni itself has to give up the idea of WiFi as an income source. &#8211;
&#8230;just wanted to share the joy. This week we successfully completed the first 802.11n long range link in the network. Its not very far (only 4KM) but it is very promising. 80 to almost 100Mbit TCP Traffic with 20MHz channels and ~150Mbit with 40MHz. Currently we are dealing with the redesign of our feeders and trying to find an optimal soft/hardware set. We are all really excited to see what AWMN V3 will bring to us. The first link has been routing traffic successfully at 80Mbit since the 11th of June 2009.
That&#8217;s right, 80-100Mbit data rates on N channel commercial hardware and open source software. Happening here in the USA? Nope. Athens, Greece. They just happen to have one of the largest Muni WiFi installations on the planet. Web Page here. (Brush up on your Greek)
The logic here by many in the Muni world here is that WiFi should be like a toll road and everybody pays. The reality is they should be treating it like a freeway and charge nothing. Why? Same reason as the freeways &#8212; access. A Muni should not look at WiFi as a revenue source but a revenue enabler. 
The reason Muni&#8217;s support freeways is that the improved access increases business interest in relocating there. The Muni benefits indirectly by increase in revenue volume and revenue velocity by those who relocate businesses there. That gets reflected in the increased sales tax revenues. 
The same can be said for Muni WiFi. The WiFi presence increases the sales velocity of product. Need a restraunt? Geolocate one using the Muni system. Pablos Mexican restraunt business improves he pays more to the city. Its the same game. Of course you can play the tiered game as well. Open free base service at a given base rate. Become a subscriber and your base rate is raised. The subscriptions going to pay for the electric bill. 
That model with a few exceptions is being deployed everywhere else but here. Why?
HT: saschameinrath.com
]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Cable Co&#8217;s Target&#8230; ESPN?</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/14/cable-cos-target-espn/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/14/cable-cos-target-espn/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:55:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Cable Operators]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Content]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[carriers]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[competition]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Litigation]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5528</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
In a round about way, yes. The deal is many cable co&#8217;s pay a fee to carry something like ESPN360 then ESPN also charges a fee to the subscriber. What&#8217;s wrong with this after the jump &#8211;
To enable consumers to have reasonable access to all web-based content and services, the Commission must prohibit content providers [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[
In a round about way, yes. The deal is many cable co&#8217;s pay a fee to carry something like ESPN360 then ESPN also charges a fee to the subscriber. What&#8217;s wrong with this after the jump &#8211;
To enable consumers to have reasonable access to all web-based content and services, the Commission must prohibit content providers from mandating wholesale access fees from broadband providers at discriminatory rates, terms and conditions.
Denying access to content is not a new phenomenon. For cable operators, video programmers have long denied subscribers access to their content unless the distributor agrees to pay an access fee, dedicate bandwidth for the content, and distribute it to a set percentage of the operators customers. This obligates all of the operators customers to pay for content regardless of whether each customer wants it.
Rural customers are especially affected. The independent operators who often serve smaller markets and rural areas are often forced to pay higher fees and accept more onerous terms and conditions than larger distributors. As a result, many rural customers are either unable to access content they desire, or are forced to pay higher monthly fees than they wish.
The above is a missive from an ACA filing to the FCC on the nature of services like ESPN360 on behalf of its rural carrier members. Full PDF is here. 
Here&#8217;s the problem with something like ESPN&#8217;s model. Cable Co&#8217;s typically contract with a HBO to be able to provide content on its cable channels. Another words a cable version of the network affiliate model. Along comes ESPN asking for a fee. One would assume that its the same model as we just described. Unfortunately it is not.
The ESPN service is a IP based service like Hulu. So the fee is a charge not a subscription to the cable co. What&#8217;s even odder is that ESPN won&#8217;t provide the service to an IP customer unless their carrier has paid the fee! In that kind of arrangement I can see the angst ACA has. Under those circumstances the table ought to be turned. ESPN should be PAYING a fee to offset the data traffice created by their service. 
Telecom get weirder every day.  
HT: Wired
]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Difference of Profit or Loss?</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/14/difference-of-profit-or-loss/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/14/difference-of-profit-or-loss/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 14 Jun 2009 13:59:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[P2P]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[marketplaces]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[competition]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Dell]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[ecommerce]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Markets]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5517</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Readers probably know I am not a big fan of the Twitter. Its the Western Union of the electronic age. But I am also not blind to the fact that if Twitter is working for someone it&#8217;s not to be discouraged &#8212; 
It wasnt an overnight thing; Dells been on Twitter for two years. But [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Readers probably know I am not a big fan of the Twitter. Its the Western Union of the electronic age. But I am also not blind to the fact that if Twitter is working for someone it&#8217;s not to be discouraged &#8212; 
It wasnt an overnight thing; Dells been on Twitter for two years. But Dell blogger Stephanie Nelson says theyve managed to steadily grow followers for their outlet store via @DellOutlet, earning $2 million via Twitter referrals for their certified refurbs, scratch and dent and previously ordered new Dell products. They took in another $1 million from people who went from the outlet store to Dell proper for new stuff.
The account " unmistakeably commercial, no celebrities " now has 600k followers, close to the top 50 most followed Twitter users according to TwitterCounter, sharing the stage with brands like @Zappos  , @JetBlue and @WholeFoods.
Their strategy? You wont need to write this down:  by offering a mix of Twitter-exclusive offers, Dell Outlet deals and Outlet-specific updates and information.
This is Dell. So $3m for them is their electric bill for the Round Rock plant for half a year. But as a tool for daily marketing I can see the merit. Technically the channels are opt-in so a local bakery can&#8217;t be accused of spamming. The customer asked for it. It also does keep enterprise front and center in the customer&#8217;s mind. So for a local firm, using Twitter could be the difference between having a profit or not. 
More here.
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Tim O&#8217;Reilly on the future of the web and open source everything</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/13/tim-oreilly-on-the-future-of-the-web-and-open-source-everything/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/13/tim-oreilly-on-the-future-of-the-web-and-open-source-everything/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 13 Jun 2009 23:27:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[podcast]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[the road ahead]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5520</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Tim O&#8217;Reilly has been one of the visionary forces in the shaping of net based services and open source software. While he&#8217;s not right 100% of the time, he has been uncannily accurate in his forecasts. Tim&#8217;s also something of a futurist who has a very optimistic view of what is coming on the road [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Tim O&#8217;Reilly has been one of the visionary forces in the shaping of net based services and open source software. While he&#8217;s not right 100% of the time, he has been uncannily accurate in his forecasts. Tim&#8217;s also something of a futurist who has a very optimistic view of what is coming on the road ahead.
Tim&#8217;s recent interview on Floss weekly  is both informative and entertaining. You can listen at the site link or on our handy player below.
<br/><a href="http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/twit.cachefly.net/FLOSS-073.mp3">Download Floss Weekly 73</a><br/>]]></content:encoded>
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			<enclosure url="http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/twit.cachefly.net/FLOSS-073.mp3" length="55197742" type="audio/mpeg"/>
<itunes:duration>00:01:01</itunes:duration>
		<itunes:subtitle>Tim O'Reilly has been one of the visionary forces in the shaping of net based services and open source software. While he's not right 100% ...</itunes:subtitle>
		<itunes:summary>Tim O'Reilly has been one of the visionary forces in the shaping of net based services and open source software. While he's not right 100% of the time, he has been uncannily accurate in his forecasts. Tim's also something of a futurist who has a very optimistic view of what is coming on the road ahead.

Tim's recent interview on Floss weekly  is both informative and entertaining. You can listen at the site link or on our handy player below.Download Floss Weekly 73</itunes:summary>
		<itunes:keywords>podcast</itunes:keywords>
		<itunes:author>thirdpipe@gmail.com</itunes:author>
		<itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
		<itunes:block>No</itunes:block>
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		<title>The Company You Keep</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/12/the-company-you-keep/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/12/the-company-you-keep/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:10:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[3g]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[4g]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Overseas]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[carriers]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[OFCom]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[privacy]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[rip offs]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Telecom]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5514</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;Associate yourself with Men of good Quality if you Esteem your own Reputation; for &#8217;tis better to be alone than in bad Company&#8221;. &#8212; Geo. Washington, axiom #56 
Never truer than today when many who provide you products and services are but a what appears to be a faceless corporation or a virtual host service. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[&#8220;Associate yourself with Men of good Quality if you Esteem your own Reputation; for &#8217;tis better to be alone than in bad Company&#8221;. &#8212; Geo. Washington, axiom #56 
Never truer than today when many who provide you products and services are but a what appears to be a faceless corporation or a virtual host service. Well priced you may wish for, but it is best to know whom you deal with and their attitudes towards those things you hold dear; like privacy &#8211;
Start up firm Connectivity, which will launch its 118800 service next week, approached O2 18 months ago for access to its customer database. The operator refused and argued that only an opt-in approach was appropriate because people typically consider their mobile number very private.
In response, Connectivity told O2 it was legally required to hand over the data as landline companies are required to give data to home phone directories.
A spokeswoman for O2 said: &#8220;Connectivity approached O2 some time ago to request customers&#8217; details and we declined to participate, despite the threat of litigation.
And why would an opt-in approach not be acceptable to Connectivity? &#8211;
&#8220;We began briefly to exercise this right and Ofcom was in the process of resolving the debate and carrying out a consultation. But this would have slowed down the delivery of the service so, having found alternative reliable sources of data, we decided not to pursue legal action.&#8221;
O2 said that Ofcom, the communications regulator, had informally agreed with it that an opt-in approach was appropriate. But according to privacy campaigner Simon Davies, who worked as a consultant to Connectivity, the company had calculated that for the business to be viable it would have to use an opt-out consent model.
There in lies the tale, It was not that Connectivity felt that it was being discriminated against to gather the data by other suppliers. No. It was that their business model REQUIRED them to have the data by hook or crook. 
The most assured way to have privacy is not to share.
Linky.
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		<title>Tax Man Cometh &#8212; For Cell Phone Usage</title>
		<link>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/11/tax-man-cometh-for-cell-phone-usage/</link>
		<comments>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/11/tax-man-cometh-for-cell-phone-usage/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Jun 2009 03:42:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Dog</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[4g]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[700 mHz]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Wireless]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[news]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[3g]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Big Media]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[taxation]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thirdpipe.com/?p=5511</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Its been a requirement for years, just like requirement for logging personal vs business use of automobiles. But now it looks like the IRS is really getting serious about the whole idea of taxing employer provided cells that are used for personal calls. To the IRS it represents a funded benefit &#8211;
The Internal Revenue Service [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Its been a requirement for years, just like requirement for logging personal vs business use of automobiles. But now it looks like the IRS is really getting serious about the whole idea of taxing employer provided cells that are used for personal calls. To the IRS it represents a funded benefit &#8211;
The Internal Revenue Service proposed employers assign 25% of an employee&#8217;s annual phone expenses as a taxable benefit. Under that scenario, a worker in the 28% tax bracket, whose wireless device costs the company $1,500 a year, could see $105 in additional federal income tax.
The IRS, in a notice issued this week, said employees could avoid tax liability if they showed proof they used personal cellphones for nonbusiness calls during work hours. The agency also could decide on a set number of phone minutes as &#8220;minimal personal use&#8221; that would be untaxed.
In a third option proposed by the IRS, employers could use a statistical sampling to determine what portion of workers&#8217; cellphone use is personal and how much is work-related. Workers would be taxed on the difference.
The IRS move, which is spurring efforts by the wireless industry and others to kill the idea, would mark a stricter enforcement of an existing rule that classifies employer-provided cellphones as a taxable benefit, rather than a 24-hour-a-day work tool.
Sounds all nefarious and that the tax man will get tons of new revenue right? Not so fast. There is a very quick and painless way to resolve this problem and give the IRS the finger at the same time.
Get a prepaid phone. You can go down to WallyWorld and pick one up for $50. Use it strictly for personal calls and treat it like a twit message via voice. You would be surprised how far $50 goes when you don&#8217;t talk all the way to your home on the commute. The phone your employer gives you? Use it just for that. Its 100% business. The tax man can&#8217;t come after you. 
Two phones? Well yeah, but they are so small these days most people would not even notice they are lugging two phones around. Especially if you are using a computer bag. 
Linky.
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://thirdpipe.com/2009/06/11/tax-man-cometh-for-cell-phone-usage/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>
