Geeky Stuff, Voting with One's Feet, and Cars

A good read… “The Story of Sergey Brin…How the Moscow-Born entrepreneur cofounded and changed the way the world searches.” If you’re not familiar with the name, Mr. Brin, son of Russian immigrants, is a co-founder of Google. A lengthy (i.e., about a 10 minute read) biographical sketch with lots of detail. Good stuff.

Got broadband? Frequent readers know I bemoan the state of my ‘net connection, in terms of both reliability and speed, but most particularly speed. I pay for a 384 Kbps connection but only rarely do I actually get close to 384 Kbps. There have been times when my connection speed, as measured by CNet, is down around dial-up speeds. I was getting 263.8 Kbps when I wrote this post, which isn’t all that bad, but insufficient to support streaming video (think: YouTube; and see the graphic on the right). And, now that the digression has passed, I don’t consider 384 Kbps to be “broadband.” But, it looks like I’m wrong:

The July, 2005, FCC report that he was citing, which promoted and defended the state of broadband access in the U.S., has received pointed criticism for defining a "high-speed" line as one delivering service of at least 200 Kbps in at least one direction, and for defining a ZIP code as "covered" by broadband access even if just a single broadband line is active in that region. It is true that 200 Kbps was, even in 2005, a minimal definition of "broadband," but it's a level that's largely inadequate for delivering much of what is commonly accepted as "broadband-level service," such as streaming video and swift downloads of large files. It seems clear that measuring "broadband access" by even the relatively modest speeds of 1Mbps or higher would drastically cut the estimate of U.S. broadband penetration.

And that’s the thrust of this article: When It Comes To Broadband, U.S. Plays Follow The Leader. Aside from “dumbing down” the definition of broadband, it turns out that the US isn’t in the same league as South Korea, Japan, and many countries in Northern Europe when it comes to the numbers of broadband access lines (relative to population), connection speed, and, believe it or not, price. That’s a sorry state of affairs for a country that prides itself on being a technological leader.

Hey Yucca Telecom!! Where’s my fiber connection?

A little fall-out from the William “Obscene Amenities for Mercenaries” Arkin flap: retired Army Col. Ken Allard severs his ten-year relationship with NBC.

But has anyone else noticed the network's precipitous retreat from journalistic and ethical standards? Not only were no apologies given and no pink slips issued for Arkin's outburst, but on his MSNBC show last week, Keith Olberman went out of his way to defend this "valid criticism" of our military.

[…]

But sometimes the only way to show where you really stand is to vote with your feet. And so with great reluctance and best wishes to my former colleagues, with this column I am severing my 10-year relationship with NBC News.

Good on ya, Colonel! Col. Allard mentions the odious Olbermann in passing…he of the recently-renewed contract with MS-NBC and apparent Arkin apologist. I didn’t know ol’ Keith was going to bat for Arkin, but Hey! …they’re two peas in a pod, as far as I’m concerned. In the press release about Olbermann’s contract renewal, NBC had this to say:

"Keith Olbermann is a tremendous talent and a superb broadcaster," said NBC News President Steve Capus. "He is an asset to NBC News and the timing of this announcement couldn't be better given the momentum Keith's program is enjoying right now."

Good luck with your new tired old Left-wing liberal strategy, NBC. I suppose it does sell.

“What’s for dinner?” That perennially vexing question of the day, everyday, was solved quite nicely last evening. Granddaughter Felicity and her boyfriend René were in P-Town yesterday and took me out to dinner in Felicity’s brand new GMC Acadia. Dinner was a “thank-you” for the GM employee discount Felicity used to take a couple of thousand dollars off the Acadia’s purchase price. Felicity remarked she thought it odd that everyone in SN1’s family drive GM products, yet I do not…and I’m the source of that employee discount. Yeah, it is passing strange. And likely to remain that way, too. Although I really, really want to buy GM, I can’t bring myself to select the Solstice/Sky over the Miata. And there’s gonna be a new Miata in El Casa Móvil De Pennington’s driveway sometime later this year.

The Acadia is nice, though. So was dinner…a nice rib-eye washed down with a couple of pints of Fat Tire. And good conversation, too!