FCC to introduce Net Neutrality rules

The rules would keep Internet providers from discriminating against, or acting as gatekeepers of, content on the Web.

The rule could upset wireless, telecom and cable operators who have fought against regulations that would give them less control over traffic that runs on their networks. They argue that they need to maintain flexibility to manage traffic to ensure some applications don't take up too much bandwidth and make Web access slower for some users.

But the rule, which is expected to come in the form of a fifth principal to existing guidelines for network operators, would clearly spell out that carriers can't discriminate what applications run on their networks, according to a source at the FCC who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the announcement was still pending.

The debate encompasses a wide variety of technology companies. Some -- like Google -- create applications for the Web and want customers to have easy access to their wares. Network owners, however, find themselves increasing on the defensive; their traditional business of providing phone and television has been challenged by upstarts providing much of the same content on the Web.

McCain and The Internet

What I find most revealing about McCain's statement about "learning to get online" himself, is what it says about his engagement with the world.

Obviously, prior to being asked about it, McCain had absolutely no curiosity about, or interest in, this Internet thing that everybody has been talking about since the early 1990s. But, how can that be?

Long before I ever owned a computer, I remember the early-adopter types chattering excitedly about all the cool things they were doing "online."

One acqaintance couldn't get over the fact that there was a site that allowed him to look at an image of a coffee cup in England. Others spent all their time at work talking about the stuff they "chatted" about the night before while they were online.

These were the days when an e-mail address was a randomly-assigned series of numbers and letters, and you had to pay for your time online by the minute. Does anybody reading this even remember that? That's how long ago it was.

McCain has had time to learn about the Internet over the last 15 years, is my point.

Yet this man, the Republican Party's nominee for president of the United States, has just become aware of this technology that influences the lives of everybody on earth, even if they, like he, have never operated a computer.

How uninterested must you be in the world around you to end up in such a state of ignorance?

One of George W. Bush's greatest handicaps has always been his lack of curiosity, and look where that got us.

Compared to McCain, however, Bush is Descartes.

Can we really afford to go there?

R.I.P, Netscape Navigator

The first commercial web browser is going the way of... well, pretty much everything else from the 1990s that had anything to do with computers.

Netscape Navigator, now owned by AOL, will no longer be supported after 1 March 2008, the company has said.

In the mid-1990s, as the commercial web began to take off, the browser was used by more than 90% of people online.

Its market share has since slipped to just 0.6% as other browsers such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) and Firefox have eroded its user base.

The company recommends that users upgrade their browser to either Firefox or Flock, which are both built on the same underlying technologies as Navigator.

I never used Netscape Navigator. I didn't really become an Internet user until the late 1990s, after Internet Explorer became ubiquitous. Frankly, I didn't even know Navigator still existed.

Still, it's interesting to note the imminent passing of this truly groundbreaking application that helped to make the Internet a fact of life.

Internet; Democrats; GOP

The Washington Post just noticed that liberals are better than conservatives at using the Internets.

One reason for the disparity between the parties, political insiders say, is that the top Republican candidates are not exciting voters the way the Democratic front-runners are. Another is that it takes a certain level of technical skill and understanding to be an online strategist, and Republicans admit that "the pool of talent in the Democrats' side is much bigger than ours."

But an underlying cause may be the nature of the Republican Party and its traditional discipline -- the antithesis of the often chaotic, bottom-up, user-generated atmosphere of the Internet.

"We've always been a party of staying on message," All said. "It's the Rush Limbaugh model. What Tony Snow says in the White House filters down to talk radio, which makes its way to the blogs."

Yes, it's amazing what you can accomplish when you're seen as something more than an echo chamber for the Official Talking Point of the Day. The word is "credibility." Liberals have it. Conservatives don't.