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Democratic and Republican members of Congress announce the Global Internet Freedom Caucus and a
bill to spend federal dollars on research to "defeat Internet suppression and censorship."
Attached here
is a video from Mobile World Congress 2010Â with Freescale’s product manager of
software development explaining that Freescale’s sub-$200 ARM (i.MX51 Cortex-A8) tablets will
be compatible with just about any Linux distribution that supports ARM processors like Ubuntu,
Chromium OS, and Android. And not only that… Freescale’s tablets are able to play
Flash [...]
Cisco has unveiled a new routing system that it claims can handle 12 times the traffic capacity
of the nearest competing system. And it’s all about the video. The company in a much-hyped
announcement this morning introduced the CRS-3, a router that can move up to 322 terabits per
second — enough to download the entire printed collection of the Library of
Congress in one second, Cisco said, or deliver all movies ever made in about four minutes. Check
out GigaOM for the full
story.
CWmike writes "Today Cisco Systems introduced its next-generation Internet core router, the CRS-3,
with about three times the capacity of its current platform. 'The Internet will scale faster than
any of us anticipate,' Cisco's John Chambers said while announcing the product. At full scale, the
CRS-3 has a capacity of 322Tbit/sec., roughly three times that of the CRS-1, introduced in 2004. It
also has more than 12 times the capacity of its nearest competitor, Chambers said. The CRS-3 will
help the Internet evolve from a messaging to an entertainment and media platform, with video
emerging as the 'killer app,' Chambers said. Using a CRS-3, every person in China, which has a
population just over 1.3 billion, could participate in a video phone call at the same time. (Or you
could pump nearly one Library of Congress per second through the device, or give everyone in San
Fransisco a 1Gbps internet connection.) AT&T said it has been using the CRS-3 to test
100Gbit/sec. data links in tests on a commercial fiber route in Florida and Louisiana."
CWmike writes "Today Cisco Systems introduced its next-generation Internet core router, the CRS-3,
with about three times the capacity of its current platform. 'The Internet will scale faster than
any of us anticipate,' Cisco's John Chambers said while announcing the product. At full scale, the
CRS-3 has a capacity of 322Tbit/sec., roughly three times that of the CRS-1, introduced in 2004. It
also has more than 12 times the capacity of its nearest competitor, Chambers said. The CRS-3 will
help the Internet evolve from a messaging to an entertainment and media platform, with video
emerging as the 'killer app,' Chambers said. Using a CRS-3, every person in China, which has a
population just over 1.3 billion, could participate in a video phone call at the same time. (Or you
could pump nearly one Library of Congress per second through the device, or give everyone in San
Fransisco a 1Gbps internet connection.) AT&T said it has been using the CRS-3 to test
100Gbit/sec. data links in tests on a commercial fiber route in Florida and Louisiana."
Cisco is back with a bang, rolling out a new router packed with technology that they claim will
"serve as the foundation of the next generation Internet." This new release pays attention to the
growing demands of video traffic on the Web as well as the need for more robust networking gear.
Knonw as the CRS-3 Carrier Routing System, Cisco claims that this new device possesses at least a
dozen times the traffic capacity of the nearest competing system, while triping the capacity of
its predecessor, the Cisco CRS-1. In layman's terms, this allows one to download the entire
printed collection of the Library of Congress within a second. Now how about that!
Cisco has unveiled a new routing system that it claims can handle 12 times the traffic capacity
of the nearest competing system. And it’s all about the video.
The company in a much-hyped announcement this morning introduced the CRS-3, a router that can
move up to 322 terabits per second — enough to download the entire printed collection of
the Library of Congress in one second, Cisco said, or deliver all movies ever made in about four
minutes. The router has been
tested by AT&T (s t) in a successful trial of 100-Gigabit backbone network technology.
Cisco said it has invested $1.6 billion to develop the hardware, which starts at $90,000 and is
slated to be available in the third quarter of this year.
“This is about laying the foundation for the next generation internet,” said Pankaj
Patel, SVP and general manager of Cisco’s Service Provider Group, during a webcast.
“It’s about scale.”
Cisco believes that kind of muscle will be necessary to support a dramatic surge in data
consumption on fixed-line and mobile networks over the next several years. And the company is
betting heavily that both consumer and enterprise video will drive a huge amount of that growth,
as its $3 billion
acquisition of Tandberg illustrates.
“Video is not just the killer app,” Cisco CEO John Chambers said. “It enables
new business models, new health care models, new productivity models.”
Chambers also said Cisco is expanding beyond its role as “a plumber” to become a
business partner and consultant for businesses looking to leverage new technologies. That’s
a strategy that could pay big dividends as vertical markets such as health care and education
increasingly look for ways to use technology to connect with their customers and with each other.
And the move is likely to help Cisco maintain its edge in its two core businesses — routers
and switches — that appears to have slipped
slightly.
Cisco has announced a new routing system that they say is going to speed up
the Internet in a big way. Dubbed the Cisco CRS-3, the company claimed that the new system
– currently being tested by AT&T – is three times
faster than its predecessor, which was introduced in 2004.
The entire printed collection of the Library of Congress to be downloaded in just over one second
Every man, woman and child in China to make a video call, simultaneously
Every motion picture ever created to be streamed in less than four minutes.
Of course, that’s not for end users, but ultimately allows the telecom companies
(Cisco’s customers) to route traffic around the Internet faster. Speaking to the reasoning
behind the new speed push, Cisco CEO John Chambers says in the video below that he expects
Internet traffic to grow at “200-500 percent per year” as bandwidth-intensive
activities like downloading and streaming video continue to explode.
At the same time, Google has its own ideas for speeding up the Internet, and is currently
looking to test its own fiber network to deliver 1 gigabit per second Internet connections (and
Topeka, Kansas wants in!). One way or
another, it looks like the Internet is only going to continue to get faster.
Here’s Chambers’ video and another with more of the nitty-gritty details of CRS-3:
The DMCA has been in place for a dozen years now, and the harm done by its provisions has become
quite clear. The framers of the DMCA did not take into account the unintended consequences of the
law -- and even one of the main authors of the law, Bruce Lehman, now admits it was a mistake (though, as
far as we know, he still hasn't apologized to James Boyle, who accurately predicted many of
unintended consequences of the DMCA, only to have Lehman threaten to "rip his throat out" and to
get Boyle denied tenure). So, twelve years in, the EFF has put out a document highlighting all of the dangerous
unintended consequences of the DMCA:
The DMCA Chills Free Expression and Scientific Research.
Experience with section 1201 demonstrates that it is being used to stifle free speech and
scientific research. The lawsuit against 2600 magazine, threats against Princeton Professor
Edward Felten's team of researchers, and prosecution of Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov have
chilled the legitimate activities of journalists, publishers, scientists, students,
programmers, and members of the public.
The DMCA Jeopardizes Fair Use.
By banning all acts of circumvention, and all technologies and tools that can be used for
circumvention, the DMCA grants to copyright owners the power to unilaterally eliminate the
public's fair use rights. Already, the movie industry's use of encryption on DVDs has curtailed
consumers' ability to make legitimate, personal-use copies of movies they have purchased.
The DMCA Impedes Competition and Innovation.
Rather than focusing on pirates, some have wielded the DMCA to hinder legitimate competitors.
For example, the DMCA has been used to block aftermarket competition in laser printer toner
cartridges, garage door openers, and computer maintenance services. Similarly, Apple has used
the DMCA to tie its iPhone and iPod devices to Apple's own software and services.
The DMCA Interferes with Computer Intrusion Laws.
Further, the DMCA has been misused as a general-purpose prohibition on computer network access,
a task for which it was not designed and to which it is ill-suited. For example, a disgruntled
employer used the DMCA against a former contractor for simply connecting to the company's
computer system through a virtual private network ("VPN").
Clearly, it's long been time to rethink the entire premise of the DMCA, but it seems like
there's little appetite for Congress to actually do this. Hell, the EFF put out a similar document
two years ago,
highlighting the unintended consequences and calling for a rethink.
And what's happening instead? Via ACTA, the US isn't just doubling down on the worst of the DMCA,
it's trying to spread it around the world and to make sure that the US cannot fix
the problems of the DMCA by creating an agreement that will allow DMCA defenders to say that we
can't fix the DMCA or we'll violate our "international obligations."
Facebook a
safe harbor for hate groups? "Fast-forming, often created by people who post false profiles
just to gain the ability to create their hate group, anti-gay hate groups on Facebook are filled
with claims of religiosity, or just plain unadulterated ignorance, bigotry, and hate. Facebook
management has been criticized for their slow response and poor monitoring of new groups and
content..."
Extremely rare camellia
blooms in London: "It is thought to be one of only two examples of the variety in the world.
Admirers would need to travel to Waitangi, New Zealand to see its sister plant."
Czech union leader causes furor over
remarks about gays: "In an interview for Saturday’s Lidové Noviny, Mr.
Dušek said Czech Railways was run by a clique of incompetent gays who had links to
homosexuals in the cabinet and the Office of the Government. The controversial trade union leader
has now been barred from speaking for the umbrella trade unions organization and is likely to
face charges of slander."
Illinois anti-gay bill killed in committee: "An
anti-gay bill authored by Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady is dead, thanks to the
efforts of Illinois gay activists. Equality Illinois just announced that Senate bill 3447, which
aimed to allow certain tax-exempt organizations to discriminate on the basis of sexual
orientation, gender identity and religion, is dead. The bill never made it out of a Senate
Judiciary committee."
D.C.
Agenda talks to the
first openly gay U.S. House Clerk Joe Novotny: “I’m tremendously proud. I
feel like it’s an opportunity to represent the community. When you think about the
diversity in this House now — and the fact that we have the first woman
speaker and we have the first African-American clerk of the House — this is
sort of a Congress of firsts, so to be a part of that is a tremendous honor.”
Folks living on the continent of North America will be able to get hold of the Motorola
QUENCH - particularly folks living in Canada as long as they're happy with Rogers' terms and
conditions. First announced at the Mobile World Congress last month, the Motorola QUENCH will be
released in the US as the Motorola CLIQ XT. Released Stateside this month on T-Mobile, it will
also arrive in Europe later this year going by the Canadian moniker.
John Bresnahan / The Politico: Massa & mdash; New
conservative media hero — He's spent only 431 days in Congress,
has never seen any of his bills pass out of subcommittee and was best known for voting against
major pieces of legislation because they weren't liberal enough for him — at least until he
was accused of sexually harassing a male staffer.
We frequently worry (or point out the negative consequences) of technologically illiterate
politicians passing laws that impact technology. It goes beyond just laws, however, into other
investigations. Frank Ahrens, at the Washington Post, highlights what happens when you have
technologically illiterate politicians trying to investigate the Toyota acceleration problem, highlighting a troubling
exchange between Toyota's boss, Akio Toyoda, and Eleanor Holmes Norton, the Congresswoman from DC:
Toyoda said that when his company gets a complaint about a mechanical problem, engineers set to
work trying to duplicate the problem in their labs to find out what went wrong.
Norton said: "Your answer -- we'll wait to see if this is duplicated -- is very troublesome."
Norton asked Toyoda why his company waited until a problem recurred to try to diagnose it, which is
exactly what he was not saying.
Members of Congress are generally lawyers and politicians, not engineers. But they are launching
investigations and creating policies that have a direct impact on the designers and builders of
incredibly complex vehicles -- there are 20,000 parts in a modern car -- so there are some basics
they should understand. Chief among them: The only way to credibly figure out why something fails
is to attempt to duplicate the failure under observable conditions. This is the engineering
method. But, of course, understanding how engineering and technology works doesn't get you
(re-)elected. Grandstanding does.
Au World Mobile Congress, Acer, lance une nouvelle édition de son netbook Aspire One 532G,
premier modèle doté d'une mémoire graphique dédiée suffisante
pour afficher des images en HD. Acer a par ailleurs dévoilé le dual boot netbook,
qui dispose de deux systèmes d'exploitation, Android et Windows.
Au World Mobile Congress, Acer, lance une nouvelle édition de son netbook Aspire One 532G,
premier modèle doté d'une mémoire graphique dédiée suffisante
pour afficher des images en HD. Acer a par ailleurs dévoilé le dual boot netbook,
qui dispose de deux systèmes d'exploitation, Android et Windows.
Karl Rove's forthcoming memoir Courage and Consequence purports to respond to critics by
"putting the record straight," but Media Matters has found that Rove's book is full of
falsehoods. Below is an ongoing list of Rove's misinformation in the book, which Media
Matters obtained in advance of its scheduled release.
1. Rove distorts Senate report to claim Bush didn't "lie us into
war"
Rove claims Senate report said Bush statements were backed up by intelligence.
From Pages 340-341 of Courage and Consequence:
So, then, did Bush lie us into war? Absolutely not.
[...]
From my perch inside the West Wing -- but outside the frantic activity in the Situation Room -- I
could see the care everyone was taking to not overstate the case or exaggerate the danger. The
president emphasized this when we reviewed his speeches, and this care was reflected everywhere
else in the administration.
[...]
And what about Bush's claims about Saddam Hussein's ties to terrorism? Statements that Iraq
provided safe haven for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and other terrorists with ties to al-Qaeda and about
Iraq's support for terrorist groups other than al-Qaeda "were substantiated by intelligence
information," according to the Senate Intelligence Committee 2004 report.
Senate report actually found that Bush made some statements that were not substantiated
-- or were "contradicted" -- by intelligence. Rove is presumably referring to a
June 5, 2008, Senate Intelligence Committee report
examining government officials' pre-war statements about Iraq. (Rove identifies it as a "2004"
report in the excerpt above, but he cites the 2008 report in the relevant endnote.) Rove is
correct that the committee found that some Bush claims -- specifically, "[s]tatements
that Iraq provided safe haven for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and other terrorists with ties to al-Qaeda
and about Iraq's support for terrorist groups other than al-Qaeda" -- were substantiated by the
intelligence at the time. But the committee also concluded that Bush's allegations suggesting
"that Iraq and al-Qa'ida had a partnership" were "not substantiated by the intelligence"; and
that Bush's statements indicating Saddam was prepared to give WMD to terrorists were
"contradicted by available intelligence."
2. Rove falsehood: Obama claims "Obamacare would not add to the deficit
... evidence shows just the opposite"
From Page 513 of Courage and Consequence:
Another thing that has badly hurt President Obama is that his claims -- especially on health care
-- are simply at odds with reality. He said ObamaCare would not add to the deficit, would bend
the cost curve down, and would reduce premiums, while the evidence shows just the opposite.
CBO: Senate bill yields "a net reduction in federal deficits of $132 billion" over 10
years. On December 19, 2009, the Congressional Budget Office reported of the
Senate bill incorporating the manager's amendment: "CBO and JCT [Joint Committee on Taxation]
estimate that the direct spending and revenue effects of enacting the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act incorporating the manager's amendment would yield a net reduction in federal
deficits of $132 billion over the 2010-2019 period."
CBO also estimated on
December 20, 2009, that the bill will continue to reduce the deficit beyond the 10-year budget
window that ends in 2019 "with a total effect during that decade that is in a broad range between
one-quarter percent and one-half percent of GDP."
CBO estimated the House bill will result in $138 billion in deficit reduction through
2019. On November 20, 2009, CBO reported of the
House health care reform legislation, "CBO and JCT now estimate that the legislation would yield
a net reduction in deficits of $138 billion over the 10-year period." CBO also stated in its
November 6, 2009,
estimate that "[i]n the subsequent decade, the collective effect of its provisions would
probably be slight reductions in federal budget deficits. Those estimates are all subject to
substantial uncertainty."
3. Rove revives tired smear that Gore wrongly said "he had created the
Internet"
From Pages 161-162 of Courage and Consequence:
Over the past few decades, Gore had said that he had created the Internet, been the model for
Love Story, led a crusade against tobacco, discovered the Love Canal chemical disaster,
lived on a farm while vice president, never grew tobacco on his farm, didn't know that his visit
to a Buddhist temple was a fund-raiser, faced enemy fire in Vietnam, and sent people to jail as a
reporter. It was a compelling life story; unfortunately, none of it was true.
In fact, Gore said he "took the initiative in creating the Internet" while in
Congress. During the March 9, 1999,
interview on CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer that gave rise to the myth -- Rove
sources his false claim to the CNN interview -- Gore said, "During my service in the United
States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." Blitzer set the record straight
on the July 6, 2008,
edition of CNN's Reliable Sources, stating that Gore "never said, 'I invented the
Internet.' "
Gingrich also said Gore "most systematically worked to make sure that we got to an
Internet.' " In a September 22, 2000,
article, the Los Angeles Times reported: "Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the
House and a Republican who is no friend of the Gore campaign, said earlier this month, 'Gore is
the person who, in the Congress, most systematically worked to make sure that we got to an
Internet.' "
"Father of the Internet" Cerf wrote that Gore "deserves significant credit" for his
efforts. On September 28, 2000, Vinton Cerf, considered to be a "father
of the Internet," submitted an essay he and Robert
Kahn wrote about Gore's contributions to the creation of the Internet. Cerf and Kahn, who
received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bush for their work designing the
TCP/IP internet protocol, wrote that
they "would like to we would like to acknowledge VP Gore's contributions as a Congressman,
Senator and as Vice President. No other elected official, to our knowledge, has made a greater
contribution over a longer period of time." They added that "there is no question in our minds
that while serving as Senator, Gore's initiatives had a significant and beneficial effect on the
still-evolving Internet."
4. Rove revives Gore-Love Story smear
From Pages 161-162 of Courage and Consequence:
Over the past few decades, Gore had said that he had created the Internet, been the model for
Love Story, led a crusade against tobacco, discovered the Love Canal chemical disaster,
lived on a farm while vice president, never grew tobacco on his farm, didn't know that his visit
to a Buddhist temple was a fund-raiser, faced enemy fire in Vietnam, and sent people to jail as a
reporter. It was a compelling life story; unfortunately, none of it was true.
In fact, Gore attributed the claim to a newspaper article he had read, and was
misquoted. In a November 30, 2002, The American Prospect
article about political "pseudo-scandals," Princeton history professor Sean Wilentz wrote
that Gore "never made the claim." According to a December 14, 1997, New York Times
article, [Love Story author Erich] Segal "knocked down" a report in Time
magazine that asserted that Gore, while on the campaign trail, "spent two hours swapping opinions
about movies and telling stories about old chums like Erich Segal, who, Gore said, used Al and
Tipper as models for the uptight preppy and his free-spirited girlfriend in 'Love Story.' '' From
the article:
The Time magazine article about the Vice President included this passage: ''Around midnight,
after a three-city tour of Texas last month, the Vice President came wandering back to the press
compartment of Air Force Two. Sliding behind a table with the two reporters covering him that
day, he picked slices of fruit from their plates and spent two hours swapping opinions about
movies and telling stories about old chums like Erich Segal, who, Gore said, used Al and Tipper
as models for the uptight preppy and his free-spirited girlfriend in 'Love Story.' ''
[...]
In their phone conversation a few days ago, Mr. Gore reminded Mr. Segal that while Mr. Segal was
on his book tour for ''Love Story,'' a reporter for The Nashville Tennessean who knew that Mr.
Gore and the author were friends had asked if there was not a little bit of Al Gore in Oliver
Barrett. Mr. Segal said yes, there was, but the reporter ''just exaggerated,'' Mr. Segal said.
''He made it to be the local-hero angle.''
Mr. Segal said the Vice President told him that all he had said on the plane was that the article
had made the connection -- and got it wrong.
''Al said, 'I didn't say that' about being the model,'' Mr. Segal said.
''Al attributed it to the newspaper, he talked about the newspaper,'' Mr. Segal said at another
point in the interview. ''They conveniently omitted that part. Time thought it was more piquant
to leave that out. He was talking on the plane off the record, a drink with the boys after a
tiring day. I don't think he will be reminiscing much anymore.''
5. Rove falsehood: Gore said he had "discovered the Love Canal chemical
disaster"
From Pages 161-162 of Courage and Consequence:
Over the past few decades, Gore had said that he had created the Internet, been the model for
Love Story, led a crusade against tobacco, discovered the Love Canal chemical disaster,
lived on a farm while vice president, never grew tobacco on his farm, didn't know that his visit
to a Buddhist temple was a fund-raiser, faced enemy fire in Vietnam, and sent people to jail as a
reporter. It was a compelling life story; unfortunately, none of it was true.
In fact, Gore was misqoted by Wash. Post, NY Times. As
Media Matters for Americanoted, Slate.com editor-at-large Jack Shafer
wrote on February 17,
2000, that New York Times reporter Katharine Q. "Kit" Seelye and Washington
Post staff writer Ceci Connolly were responsible for creating the false Love Canal story:
"[I]t's Seelye's fault -- and the Washington Post's Ceci Connolly's -- that folks think
Gore claimed credit for Love Canal in the first place. Which he didn't"
[emphasis in original]. Indeed, in December 1 and December 2, 1999, Postarticles, Connolly quoted Gore as saying of
the Love Canal disaster, "I was the one that started it all." In fact, as a December 7, 1999,
correction made clear, Gore actually said " 'That was the one that started it all,' referring to
the congressional hearings on the subject that he called." Additionally, the Post's
obmbudman wrote in a March 5, 2000, column that what Gore actually said about Love Canal was "a
whole lot different from The Post's version ... which fits the role The Post seems to have
assigned him in Campaign 2000." Similarly, Seelye quoted Gore as saying "I was the one that
started it all" on a December 1, 1999, Times article, which was corrected by the Times on December
10, 1999.
6. Rove pals around with falsehood that Ayers was "Obama's great
friend"
From Pages 515-516 of Courage and Consequence:
Though we didn't discuss it in our West Wing encounter, Obama also went on in his book to
describe me and other conservatives as "eerily reminiscent of some of the New Left's leaders
during the sixties," who "viewed politics as a contest not just between competing policy visions,
but between good and evil." Now that's rich, isn't it? The last time I checked, I hadn't bombed
any government buildings (like, say, Obama's great friend William Ayers); or asked that God
"damn" America (like, say, Obama's former pastor and close friend Jeremiah Wright); or declared
that I was proud of my country for the first time in my life only when I was in my forties (like,
say, Obama's wife, Michelle).
NY Times: Obama and Ayers "do not appear to have been close." The
New York Times
reported on October 4, 2008, that Obama and Ayers "do not appear to have been close. Nor has
Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers, whom he has
called 'somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.' "
McClatchy: "There is no evidence that Ayers is a close friend or an adviser to [Obama's]
campaign." McClatchy reported on October 9, 2008, that "Obama has
condemned the violent 1960s activities of the Weather Underground. There is no evidence that
Ayers is a close friend or an adviser to his campaign." [accessed via the Nexis databse]
The AP: "[T]here is no evidence that they ever palled around." Reporting on
then-Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's claim that Obama sees America as so imperfect
"that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country," the Associated
Press reported on
October 5, 2008 that "there is no evidence that they [Obama and Ayers] ever palled around," and
"it's simply wrong to suggest that they were associated while Ayers was committing terrorist
acts."
FactCheck.org: Obama and Ayers were "never very close." In an October 10, 2008,
article, FactCheck.org wrote of the 2008 presidential campaign: "What we object to are the
McCain-Palin campaign's attempts to sway voters -- in ads and on the stump -- with false and
misleading statements about the relationship [between Obama and Ayers], which was never very
close.
7. Rove wrong on number of presidents who left office by "assassination
or resignation"
Rove: Eight presidents "gained the Oval Office as a result of the assassination or
resignation of their predecessor." From Page 518 of Courage and Consequence:
But others find themselves forced to face the unknowable. Eight presidents -- from John Tyler to
Gerald Ford -- gained the Oval Office as a result of the assassination or resignation of their
predecessor.
Five presidents have left office via "assassination or resignation." As detailed
by Stanford University history professor
David M. Kennedy, four presidents have been assassinated: Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield,
William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy. The only president to resign from office was Richard
Nixon. Four others -- William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Warren Harding, and Franklin
Roosevelt -- died of natural causes while in office.
from Gujrat 2010date Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 8:09 PMsubject People tired of Congress creating a ruckus
over irrelevant issuesAn Indian Express news reporting the Congress party's questioning of Gujarat
CM Shri Narendra Modi's meeting with Swami Nityananda has received flak and sharp retaliation from
readers. The public comments on this news highlight people's agitation towards Congress for raising
They know where you sleep, and now they know where you get coffee.
That was the message driven home by the
recently created website PleaseRobMe.com. The site
aggregates Twitter posts sent when a person uses Foursquare to check in at a location
-- meaning they're basically telling the world that they're not at home at the moment.
The site is a commentary
on the downside of overusing location-based services like Foursquare and Loopt. These
services allow users to "check-in" at different locations around the globe using smartphones or
laptops. Once checked-in, a user can choose to publicly share where they happen to be by using
services like Twitter.
"The site allows people to meet and is a way to find out what is going on in your area,"
said Dennis Crowley, CEO and co-founder of Foursquare. Recently, Crowley checked-in at an airport
and was surprised to discover a friend he hadn't seen in months was just two terminals away.
"That's the benefit," Crowley said.
While one of PleaseRobMe's founders insists the site is not really an attempt to aid
cat burglars, it could be just one step away from walking outside the First Amendment's
protection of free speech.
Is PleaseRobMe Aiding Burglars?
While the First
Amendment's guarantee that "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech"
seems absolute, not every form of speech is guarded by the Constitution. Rather, the Supreme
Court has held
that some forms of speech are not entitled to full protection.
According to several lower courts, speech that
aids and abets illegal acts are not shielded by the First Amendment. So, if a website were to aid
in the commission of a crime and was sued for its part in the offense, the First Amendment would
not offer the publisher any protection.
In an influential Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals case, Rice v. Paladin Enterprises,
Paladin published a book titled, "Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors." The
book provided "detailed instructions about how to...execute and cover up a murder." In 1993, a
man named James Perry followed the author's instructions, killing three people. Subsequently,
relatives of the deceased successfully sued Paladin for aiding Perry in the murders.
The Fourth Circuit stated that in order to charge a publisher with aiding and abetting a crime,
the publisher must intend for people to use the article to commit an illegal act. In coming to
its decision, the court noted that Paladin's book was "so comprehensive and detailed that it is
as if the [author] were literally present with the would-be murderer" during the crime.
The founders of PleaseRobMe have consistently stated that they do not want people
to use the site to rob a house. Instead, the site is a commentary on the amount of personal
information people are making publicly available. In fact, a burglar would have a difficult time
using PleaseRobMe to commit a crime, since the site does not provide anyone's home address unless
it too has been posted to Twitter.
Section 230 Defense
Be that as it may, PleaseRobMe begs a particularly important question. What if someone designed a
site that was intended, and could be used, to aid burglars using publicly available information?
Could they be sued after someone's house was robbed?
While such a site may lack constitutional protection since its intended use would be to aid the
commission of a crime, it could be protected by Congress. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act gives
immunity to any "interactive computer service," such as a website, against civil lawsuits (but
not criminal sanctions) that arise from third party publications.
Section 230 was passed in 1996, just as the Internet was just beginning to make headway with the
American public. As many
courts have stated, the history behind Section 230 made it clear that Congress did not want
websites to be liable for the statements of others. The legislature felt that imposing such a
burden would hamper the Internet's development.
Normally, Section 230 is invoked when a website is sued for publishing a defamatory statement
that was written by a guest poster or independent commenter. In these cases, "Section 230 is
often considered to be a very strong protection against defamation suits," said Robert Richards,
co-founder of the Pennsylvania Center for the First Amendment.
The question currently facing courts is how far to "define the bounds of Section 230 immunity,"
Richards said.
Although Section 230 is often applied to defamation lawsuits, it has also been employed in
invasion of privacy, negligence
and misappropriation claims. As a result of this expansion, it is not unthinkable that a court
would extend Section 230 to protect a website against civil claims of aiding and abetting a
burglary.
Of course, there is a question of whether such a website could be understood as merely
facilitating third party publications. Nonetheless, in the wake of the PleaseRobMe controversy,
the legal question posed here seems relevant, and is far from answered.
Do Location-Based Services Invade Privacy?
As location-based networks become more popular, the risk of sharing sensitive information
increases as well. Though many lament the fact that so much personal information is available
online, Foursquare's Crowley said his service isn't invasive.
"We've been working on the project since 2001 and have checked in almost every day for the last
10 years, and the only bad thing that's happened is an ex-girlfriend will sometimes show up where
I am," Crowley said.
He emphatically noted that "Foursquare is not tracking you. You have to check in and voluntarily
choose to make your location publicly available."
"At the end of the day, you have to be aware of what you're doing online and the consequences of
your acts," said Kurt Opsahl, senior attorney at the Electronic
Frontier Foundation. "It's a matter of expectations. People want to tell their friends where
they are,but, as PleaseRobMe points out, other actors may see personal information as well."
Although Foursquare users must volunteer to divulge their whereabouts with the general public,
the site's editors may share some information with local businesses when offering various
promotions, according to Foursquare's privacy
policy.
This has caught the attention of Congress, which is set to hold a
hearing titled, "The Collection and Use of Location Information for Commercial Purposes." The
hearing will discuss
the privacy concerns that have arisen due to location-based services.
"The key issue with these types of sites is disclosure. If people are agreeing that information
can be shared in this manner, then that's a service that a company can provide," said Opsahl.
While the notion of sharing personal information with businesses may make some people uneasy,
there are potential benefits. For instance, Foursquare's "mayor" promotion offers free products
to the user who checks in at a location the most often.
"In Texas, there is a restaurant that will give away a free steak dinner to the person who checks
in the most," Crowley said.
Rob Arcamona is a second-year law student at the George Washington University Law School.
Prior to attending law school, Rob worked at the Student Press Law Center and also helped
establish ComRadio, the Pennsylvania State University's student-run Internet-based radio station.
He writes the Protecting the Source
blog.
He has long been concerned with how explanation is “under-emphasized in the modern
newsroom” and offers excellent examples of how explaining should work, as well as ideas
about how to institutionalize it. For example, “The goal is to surface the hidden demand
for explanation and create a kind of user-driven assignment desk for the explainer genre, which
is itself under-developed in pro journalism”. He adds, “Are there other ways to
surface this kind of demand?”
I’d call attention to the imperatives of stories, and the role that might
be played by new sets of well-explained facts that can help frame or re-frame a story.
See, stories are what assignment editors want. They’re also what readers want. And stories
are different to some degree from the current vogue-word narrative. They do overlap, but
they are different.
A few months back I visited the subject of story in What’s right with
Wikipedia? — a piece I wrote in response to a What’s Wrong With Wikipedia
story that had run in the Wall Steet Journal. I don’t know if that story was part of
the WSJ’s GOP-aligned “What’s Wrong With Everything Liberals Do”
narrative, but in any case I felt the matter needed explaining. Some Wikipedians did a good job
of showing how there wasn’t much of a story there (read the piece to see how). For my part,
I felt the need to explain what stories are actually about, which is problems, or
struggles. Said I,
Three elements make stories interesting: 1) a protagonist we know, or is at
least interesting; 2) a struggle of some kind; and 3) movement
(or possible movement) toward a resolution. Struggle is at the heart of a story. There has to be
a problem (what to do with Afghanistan), a conflict (a game between good teams, going to the
final seconds), a mystery (wtf was Tiger Woods’ accident all about?), a wealth of
complications (Brad and Angelina), a crazy success (the iPhone), failings of the mighty (Nixon
and Watergate). The Journal’s Wikipedia story is of the Mighty Falling variety.
In his piece Jay mentions what a good Job the Giant Pool
of Money episode of This American Life did of bringing sense to the country’s financial
crisis. This gave rise to the PlanetMoney podcast,
which is also terrific at explaining things. PlanetMoney feeds some of its best stuff to
NPR’s news flow as well. One good example is Accidents of History Created
U.S. Health System, which made it clear how we got to our wacky employer-supported health
insurance system. Go listen to it and see if you don’t have a much better grasp on the
challenge, if not of the solutions, currently on the table.
My point here, or one of them, is that the real story isn’t Obama vs. Intransigent
Republicans (the Dems’ narrative) or Sensible Americans against Government Takeover (the
Reps narrartive), but that we’ve got a health care system that burdens employers almost
exclusively, rather than individuals, government (save for VA, Medicare and Medicaid), or other
institutions. It’s an open quetion whether or not that’s screwed up, but at least
it’s a question that ought to be at the center of the table, or the “debate”
that been both boring and appalling.
This is consistent with what Matt Thompson says in The three
key parts of news stories you usually don’t get, # 2 of which is WHAT WE MISS (1):
The longstanding facts. But we also miss seeing the role that longstanding overlooked facts
might play amongst the three story elements: protagonist, problem and
movement. Take the problem of employer responsibility as a structural premise for health
care. By itself, the problem just sits there. We need a protagonist and a sense that the story
has movement. In the absence of either, we look for other defaults. Thus we cast Obama and his
opponents as the protagonists, or to get into characterization as the issue if the topic gets
logjammed, which it has been for awhile. So we hear about problems with the president’s
charactrer. He’s not leading. Or … whatever. You can fill in the blanks
Meanwhile, we live in a world where employers are almost nothing like they were when the current
health care system solidified at the end of World War II. In many towns (Santa Barbara, for
example) the (or at least a) leading employer is “self”. Tried to get insurance for
your self-employed butt lately? How about if you’re older than a child and have a medical
history that’s other than perfect? Scary shit. Does the Obama plan make things better for
you? According to this story in CNN,
“Health insurance exchanges would be created to make it easier for small businesses, the
self-employed and unemployed to pool resources and purchase less expensive coverage.” Hmm.
“Easier” doesn’t sound like much relief. But doing nothing doesn’t sound
good either.
So the easy thing is to go back to covering the compromise bill’s chances in Congress, and
the politics surrounding it. That at least makes some kind of sense. We have all our story
elements in place. It’s all politics from here on. Bring in the sports and war metaphors
and let automated processes carry the rest. Don’t dig, just dine. The sausage-machine rocks
on.
As Matt says, “… rarely do we acknowledge what we’re pursuing. When our
questions make it into the coverage at all, they have to appear in the mouths of our sources,
resulting in paltry, contorted pieces like this one,
from the AP. Or they’re attributed to no one, weaseled into a headline that says only,
‘[Such-and-such] raises
questions.’ Whose questions? Not ours, certainly.”
I also wonder if we’re barking up the wrong tree (or down the wrong hole) when we obsess
about “curation” of news — a favorite topic of mainstream media
preservationists. Maybe what we need is to see explainers as advocates of our curiosity about the
deep questions, or deep facts, such that they might become unavoidable in news coverage.
This, of course, begs the creation of whole new institutions. Which is the job that Jay has taken
up here. Let’s help him out with it.
Reacting to progress on health care reform legislation, conservative media figures have
repeatedly referred to President Obama and Democratic officials as "health care suicide bombers"
and characterized their efforts to pass a bill as "a kamizake mission" and "political suicide
missions."
Limbaugh portrays Dems as "kamikaze party" and suicide bombers
Rush: "Mullah Nancy Bin Pelosi ... is no different" than those who "convince all these
people to put bombs on their kids." On his radio show, Rush Limbaugh said: "Here's the
way we have to start looking at Nancy Pelosi: Mullah Nancy Bin Pelosi. She's no different than
these mullahs and these imams who convince all these people to put bombs on their kids and send
them out there to blow up. ... That's exactly what she's doing to the Democrat Party. The only
thing she can't do is promise them 73 virgins or whatever it is." [The Rush Limbaugh
Show, 3/1/10]
Limbaugh: Dems are "the kamikaze party." In November 2009, Limbaugh said: "We're
going to have to call the Democrat Party the 'kamikaze party.' " He also said that "Bill Clinton
went up to the Senate yesterday and personally gave these guys instructions on how to fly their
Zeros into our aircraft carriers." [The Rush Limbaugh Show, 11/11/09]
Limbaugh: Democrats "are martyring themselves politically." Limbaugh
subsequently repeated his comments that the "Democrats are a kamikaze party" and added: "They
just don't know it yet. In fact, they may know it and some of them not care. They are martyring
themselves politically." Later, Limbaugh said: "Democrats are the equivalent of political suicide
bombers. They have strapped political bombs to themselves. They are hell-bent on taking out as
many Americans as they can with them." [The Rush Limbaugh Show, 11/20/09]
Other right-wing media figures follow suit
Carlson: Obama is telling Democrats to "go on a kamikaze mission." On Fox
& Friends, co-host Gretchen Carlson commented that Obama's position on health care was,
"If you're a moderate Democrat, go on a kamikaze mission. Subject yourself to potential failure
at the polls in the midterm elections, because you have to do this for the presidency." [Fox
& Friends, 3/8/10]
Breitbart's Big Journalism calls Obama is the "suicide-bomber-in-chief." In a
post on Andrew Breitbart's Big Journalism website, Frank Ross wrote: "Mark Steyn is always right,
whether he's writing about Andrew Lloyd Webber or,
in this case, the suicide-bomber-in-chief, Barack Obama, who doesn't much care how many
Democrats get sent to the electoral Elysian Fields -- or even
whether he gets a second term -- as long as he can blow up the capitalist system from
within." [Big Journalism, 3/6/10]
Wash. Times' Pruden compares Democrats to suicide bombers. In his
Washington Times column, editor emeritus Wesley Pruden wrote: "You have to be a true
believer in Barack Obama's radical agenda to be a Democrat in Congress, and believe with the
intensity of a suicide bomber. Mr. Obama can't even promise a harem of virgins in paradise."
[The Washington Times, 1/19/10]
Erickson: "Dorgan and Dodd are healthcare suicide bombers." In a post on his
Twitter account, RedState's Erick Erickson commented: "[Sens. Byron] Dorgan and [Chris] Dodd are
healthcare suicide bombers. Instead of 72 virgins, they'll get ambassadorships." [1/6/10]
Crowley: Health care reform is Democrats' "suicide mission." Guest-hosting on
Fox News' O'Reilly Factor, Fox News contributor Monica Crowley said: "Well, the
Democrats intent on flying a suicide mission, and some Democrats already bailing out of the
plane." [The O'Reilly Factor, 12/23/09]
Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) resigns from Congress this evening at 5pm, which is good news to ISPs that
serve more than two million customers apiece.
In the wake of last year's monthly data cap trials by Time Warner Cable, Massa announced publicly
that he would
introduce a bill that would limit such caps, and he did so in June 2009.
The "Broadband Internet Fairness Act" was simple; it would make it illegal for "major broadband
Internet service providers to offer volume usage service plans imposing rates, terms, and
conditions that are unjust, unreasonable, or unreasonably discriminatory." ISPs of more than two
million subscribers would need to file a "service plan analysis" with the federal government any
time they proposed or altered "volume usage service plans." The Federal Trade Commission would
then weigh in on these plans, which would need to justify the "economic reasonableness and
necessity for imposing such tiers."
The bill has been stuck in committee since then and does not appear to have any traction; Massa's
decision to resign from Congress will probably put an end to it.
As for why a freshman Congressman like Massa is resigning at all... it's an odd story.
Massa said that it was due to health concerns, but it soon emerged that he was also the subject
on an ethics complaint from a male staffer. On his radio show this weekend (Roll
Call listened so you don't have to), Massa gave his version of the story, which took
place at a holiday party late last year. After dancing with a bridesmaid, Massa returned to a
table of his staffers—all apparently single men.
One of them looked at me and as they would do after, I don’t know, 15 gin and tonics, and
goodness only knows how many bottles of champagne, a staff member made an intonation to me that
maybe I should be chasing after the bridesmaid and his points were clear and his words were far
more colorful than that. And I grabbed the staff member sitting next to me and said, 'Well, what
I really ought to be doing is fracking you.' And then [I] tousled the guy’s hair and left,
went to my room, because I knew the party was getting to a point where it wasn't right for me to
be there. Now was that inappropriate of me? Absolutely. Am I guilty? Yes.
Massa now faces a Congressional ethics complaint over the incident, though he says he was unaware
of this until after his health issues resurfaced.
The result is that New Yorkers lose a representative willing to say things like this: "Cable
providers want to stifle the Internet so they can rake in advertiser dollars by keeping consumers
from watching video on the Internet. But so long as Americans can't choose which cable channels
they want to pay for, I don't think cable operators should be able to determine consumers'
monthly Internet usage. Additionally, charging based on a bandwidth usage is a flawed model when
the cost of usage is totally out of line with the price. Consumers are much better served by
plans based on the speed of the connection rather than amount of bandwidth used. Competition is
crucial to our economy and I refuse to let monopolistic corporations dominate the market and
gouge my constituents."
Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) resigns from Congress this evening at 5pm, which is good news to ISPs that
serve more than two million customers apiece.
In the wake of last year's monthly data cap trials by Time Warner Cable, Massa announced publicly
that he would
introduce a bill that would limit such caps, and he did so in June 2009.
The "Broadband Internet Fairness Act" was simple; it would make it illegal for "major broadband
Internet service providers to offer volume usage service plans imposing rates, terms, and
conditions that are unjust, unreasonable, or unreasonably discriminatory." ISPs of more than two
million subscribers would need to file a "service plan analysis" with the federal government any
time they proposed or altered "volume usage service plans." The Federal Trade Commission would
then weigh in on these plans, which would need to justify the "economic reasonableness and
necessity for imposing such tiers."
The bill has been stuck in committee since then and does not appear to have any traction; Massa's
decision to resign from Congress will probably put an end to it.
As for why a freshman Congressman like Massa is resigning at all... it's an odd story.
Massa said that it was due to health concerns, but it soon emerged that he was also the subject
on an ethics complaint from a male staffer. On his radio show this weekend (Roll
Call listened so you don't have to), Massa gave his version of the story, which took
place at a holiday party late last year. After dancing with a bridesmaid, Massa returned to a
table of his staffers—all apparently single men.
One of them looked at me and as they would do after, I don’t know, 15 gin and tonics, and
goodness only knows how many bottles of champagne, a staff member made an intonation to me that
maybe I should be chasing after the bridesmaid and his points were clear and his words were far
more colorful than that. And I grabbed the staff member sitting next to me and said, 'Well, what
I really ought to be doing is fracking you.' And then [I] tousled the guy’s hair and left,
went to my room, because I knew the party was getting to a point where it wasn't right for me to
be there. Now was that inappropriate of me? Absolutely. Am I guilty? Yes.
Massa now faces a Congressional ethics complaint over the incident, though he says he was unaware
of this until after his health issues resurfaced.
The result is that New Yorkers lose a representative willing to say things like this: "Cable
providers want to stifle the Internet so they can rake in advertiser dollars by keeping consumers
from watching video on the Internet. But so long as Americans can't choose which cable channels
they want to pay for, I don't think cable operators should be able to determine consumers'
monthly Internet usage. Additionally, charging based on a bandwidth usage is a flawed model when
the cost of usage is totally out of line with the price. Consumers are much better served by
plans based on the speed of the connection rather than amount of bandwidth used. Competition is
crucial to our economy and I refuse to let monopolistic corporations dominate the market and
gouge my constituents."
The U.S. National Wildlife Refuge System, which fuels the economic engine of local communities in
all 50 states, is under threat from an Obama Administration proposal to significantly cut the
system’s budget. A report to be released to Congress today by the Cooperative Alliance for
Refuge Enhancement (CARE) warns that unless Congress acts to restore funding for the Refuge
System, the economic benefits that refuges provide could be in jeopardy at the very time
they’re needed most. Also at risk are the lands, waters, wildlife, birds and recreation
opportunities that the more than 550 refuges in the 150-million-acre Refuge System were
established to protect. (PRWeb Mar 8, 2010)
Mobile Tablets! is pleased to present this interview with Peter Schneider, head of the
global marketing team for Maemo Devices at Nokia. For those who have not seen Peter in person
- suffice it to say that he is a passionate and charismatic individual, and is a true champion of
the Maemo platform. Some have likened him to a rock star. As head of marketing for
Maemo Devices, he is also very busy. Therefore, his participation in this interview is
greatly appreciated.
This is Part 1 of a 2-part interview, and focuses on Peter's background, and the development of
Maemo 5 and the N900. 1. Peter. can you give us an overview of your educational
background?
PS: Sure. I do have a BSc. in Computer Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences in
Frankfurt/Germany and a MBA in General Management from the Helsinki School of Economics in
Finland.
2. How long have you been with Nokia, and how long with Maemo, in
particular?PS: I'm working now almost for 10 years at Nokia. After several product
management and software marketing jobs at Nokia, I started to head the Maemo marketing team in
November 2007.
3. Can you tell us what your role is within Maemo Devices is? We know that
you are the head of Marketing, but what does that exactly entail?PS: The Maemo marketing
team is responsible for reaching out to platform developers, to application developers, to
operators, to service and apps partners such as Skype, lead users, and industry analysts in regards
to Maemo. We built the core messages and work together with other Nokia teams such as Forum Nokia
to reach a global audience. You might know people from my team such as Quim Gil, our voice to the
open source community in maemo.org and Jussi
Mäkinen, the man that got famous in the "N900 user experience" video on YouTube and who is
responsible for maemo.nokia.com. Personally,
I try to orchestrate the messaging to all audiences and help out where it is needed.
4. Would you be able to share with us an overview of the Maemo Devices
organization? It would be valuable for the community to have an idea of the total manpower,
number of countries you are dispersed across, and the split between hardware and software
sides.PS: Maemo Devices has been since July last summer responsible for all R&D work
including hardware and software to build Maemo-based devices (or MeeGo-based devices in the
future). Maemo Devices is part of Nokia's Devices R&D organization with some 12.000 employees
globally. Maemo Devices has a global development setup with work in open source projects all over
the globe including our own engineers in the US, India, and Europe. Ari Jaaksi heads Maemo Devices
and is a pioneer in taking open source to mainstream consumer electronics.
5. Maemo 5 is an exciting development within Nokia. How long was the
development from start to finish?
PS: It's hard to determine a single starting day of the Nokia N900 development because open source
project work is continuous and precedes the work on actual products with just a vision in mind.
When did we publish the pre-alpha SDK of Maemo 5? Was it in the first ever Maemo Summit in
September 2008? Maybe, that got the work on the Nokia N900 really going in the community. And in
regards to finishing the work on the Nokia N900, I can't put down a day either because we are not
done yet either but still work on further improvements and enhancements. 6. The Nokia N900 is a truly remarkable device. Now that I have one, I just do not
know how I have managed for so long without a device of this type.
One of the capstone achievements in my opinion is the melding of Nokia's tablet line with cellular
data connectivity. At the first Maemo Summit, Nokia announced data connectivity by HSPA.
Many thought that we would be seeing a data connected tablet as a direct descendant of the
770/N8X0 devices. Instead, in mid-2009, we learned that RX-51was indeed a phone. How hard was
it to contain something like that internally? Were you surprised at all by the response from
the community? PS: Yes, to keep the work on the voice telephony under wraps was a
challenge that I can say we managed surprisingly well. We knew that a lot of Linux kernel
developers, especially those working on the OMAP3430 software stack, would see ahead of the product
announcement that we are integrating a cellular modem to the software stack. The way to disguise
the work was to communicate that we are building cellular data connectivity for Maemo 5. Which was
naturally true but wasn't the whole scope of the work. Working in open source projects without
giving away business-related information is always are careful balance that my team tries to
find. 7. Many of us community members at maemo.org are what I would call "back-seat drivers". Meaning that we have strong
opinions on what Nokia 'should have done' with the N900. Obviously, product definition is an
iterative process, and must be justified from a business perspective. At what point in that
definition cycle are inputs from pure end users solicited?
PS: Nokia develops products always based on extensive consumer research. And technology enthusiasts
discussing on talk.maemo.org and conversations.nokia.com are one input channel
for consumer feedback once a product is available to average consumers. Lead user workshops and
extensive usability and design research with consumers from around the globe before the product
announcement are just basics of any consumer electronics product development. In regards to the
Nokia N900, we did decide to go the extra mile to hand out 300 pre-production models in the
beginning of October to get feedback from the community and use that feedback in building the first
commercial software release and then PR1.1.
8. The N900 is a real killer in the hardware department! Hats off to the
Maemo Devices team for packing so much into a pocketable device. It is understandable that
Nokia may have intended to look to 3rd party applications to fully take advantage of some of the
hardware (e.g. FM Radio, IR port). However, one hardware feature stands out as clearly
lacking Nokia support at this time - the forward facing camera. Can you give us a glimpse
into the plans for that camera, and when we can expect official OS support for it?
PS: At this point of time, I don't have anything to share on an application making use of
forward-facing camera. I wouldn't like to speculate on things we have not announced yet.
9. Portrait mode. With PR 1.0, only the phone application, and the photo
viewer officially supported it. With PR1.1, the browser has the ability to switch to portrait mode,
but seems to be a work in progress. Do you see ubiquitous portrait mode in the future of the
N900 for all official applications, or is this something that will be treated on a case-by case
basis? For some of us that evolved from tablets, portrait mode in all applications may feel
unnatural, whereas the opposite is true for those Maemo-newcomers who have gravitated here from
other phone platforms.PS: Nokia N900 was designed with focus on use as mobile computer
with the telephony as a feature. Hence, the wide support of landscape orientation. Based on
consumer feedback, we are adding portrait support in the browser of the Nokia N900, but only our
MeeGo 1 software (formerly known as Maemo 6) will have full support of portrait and landscape
orientations of all applications.
10. The sales start to the N900 was slightly delayed. Can you give us an
idea of what issues this delayed centred upon?
PS: Yes, we wanted to take feedback from the pre-production models into account and fine-tune the
user experience.
11. Maemo is striving to be as open as possible, both in terms of the software,
and communication back to the community. Maemo Devices should be commended for that.
Ironically, locked N900's appear to be coming out of some wireless carriers. Obviously
this is a business decision on both ends. Reports have come in about warranty issues with respect
to 'unofficial' firmware updates. What is your take on this - does this not fly in the face
of all this openness you are creating around this device?PS: Maemo-based devices are
comparable to Linux-based computers based on Ubuntu or KDE. Product warranty covers,
unsurprisingly, only the official software packages provided by Nokia. There is always the
possibility to fully flash the device back to the official software but if the device software has
been modified by the user then naturally this is not in the scope of warranty. Innovation on all
levels of the user experience are important to us. We see a lot of consumer benefit through
plug-ins to the operating system such as the flashlight app integrating to the Status Area or
Hermes integrating to the contacts application of the Nokia N900.
12. OVI. The N900 shipped with limited support for OVI. That is
increasing, with the release of updated OVI Maps with PR1.1. Still, not all the OVI services
are supported at this time (e.g. contacts, calendar). For your existing Nokia user-base
coming from Symbian phones, this may be a show stopper, as they will lose functionality by
switching to Maemo 5. Can you comment on why OVI support is so limited at sales start, and
when we can expect Maemo 5 to be fully 'OVI capable'?PS: Nokia N900 supports a range of
Ovi services including Ovi Store, Contacts on Ovi, Ovi Share, Nokia Messaging, and Ovi Maps. Comes
with Music and other services that require platform-wide support of DRM will be supported in our
MeeGo-based devices which we intend to provide with Microsoft PlayReady-based DRM technology.
Naturally, we'll be working to increase support for all Ovi services as we go forward with
MeeGo.
13. North Americans are at a slight disadvantage due to the fact that the N900
uses the 1700/2100 MHz UMTS bands for data connectivity. In the USA, T-Mobile is the only
carrier that can utilize the N900 as it was intended. In Canada, Wind Mobile (an AWS
start-up) just launched in December of 2009, and is expected to add the N900 to its phone lineup.
Other Nokia phones have more than one variant, to deal with regional differences. Is
this something that is under consideration for the the N900? From a customer viewpoint, it
would offer more flexibility, and from Nokia's viewpoint, it would open the device to a larger user
and carrier base.PS: The North America market is very important for Nokia and we are
continuously considering how we can extend our market reach in North America. I hope you understand
that I cannot speculate on products or product variants which are not announced. 14. The maemo.org community is getting
larger day by day. How frequently do you visit the forums?
PS: I visit talk.maemo.org and conversations.nokia.com several times a
week, sometimes several times a day. Depends a bit on how much time I find and whether we just make
some new announcements that need more discussion.
15. Do you file and monitor the bug situation over at the maemo.org Bugzilla?
PS: To be honest; I tried but I didn't get very far on the maemo.org bugzilla. However, I did file a good dozen bugs in our internal bugzilla
before the Nokia N900 hit the shelves as I used the device extensively in many different
networks while helping our sales teams across the world. 16. The previous Maemo Summits were great venues for information exchange. Is there a
Summit in your budget again this year? If you could chose a location for it, where would that
be? PS: The direct face-to-face time with the community remains an important part of
reaching out to the community. I'm rather confident that we will have at least one get-together
this year for the community. It's going to be a MeeGo community get-together and everybody is
invited. I'd rather let the community decide the location than putting my own two cents into the
discussion. Both locations picked by the community in 2008 and 2009 were superb. You can also meet
us in the next months in the Linux Collaboration Summit and the Nokia Developer Summit.
17. What is your favourite Maemo application? PS: That's a tough one. The Nokia
apps I use the most are for sure the browser, conversations, and email as I use it for business
inside out. My favourite community apps are the 3G/2G/Dual Mode Selection and the Flashlight
plug-in. The first use is just very useful, the second one is something great to use in all kinds
of demos to highlight the power of open software.
18. Anything you would like to say to the Maemo Community?
Yes, keep the feedback coming. As part of a product management team within Maemo Devices R&D
instead being part of a sales and marketing organization, taking feedback back to product
management makes my living. Keep it coming.
----------------------------------------'Post'-Mortem by EIPI:Maemo 5 and
the N900 are, in my eyes, an exciting product offering in the highly competitive world of mobile
computing. To get a glimpse into the development of these game changing products is a real
privilege. For that, I am grateful to Peter for taking the time to participate.I first
contacted Peter for an interview at the end of January. Although he immediately agreed to
participate, a few upcoming events required his immediate attention, delaying the interview until
now. In that time period, the "Maemo+Moblin=MeeGo" news broke at Mobile
World Congress. Some of the initial interview questions I had sent him were related to Maemo
6, and wouldn't fit well in the current MeeGo reality. Peter graciously agreed to a 2-part
interview, with the second part dealing exclusively with the Maemo to MeeGo shift. I will be
posting news of that upcoming interview on talk.maemo.org as it becomes ready. Stay tuned...2 0
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is a video from Mobile World Congress 2010Â with Freescale’s product manager of
software development explaining that Freescale’s sub-$200 ARM (i.MX51 Cortex-A8) tablets will
be compatible with just about any Linux distribution that supports ARM processors like Ubuntu,
Chromium OS, and Android. And not only that… Freescale’s tablets are able to play
Flash [...]
Cisco has announced a new routing system that they say is going to speed up
the Internet in a big way. Dubbed the Cisco CRS-3, the company claimed that the new system
– currently being tested by AT&T – is three times
faster than its predecessor, which was introduced in 2004.
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