Wednesday, April 24, 2002

Monopoly In Waiting Four months after announcing plans to combine their massive cable operations, executives of AT&T Broadband and Comcast faced a grilling on Capitol Hill regarding how the mega-merger will affect cable industry competition. In a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing Tuesday, legislators considered placing conditions on the consummation of the proposed multibillion-dollar marriage in areas ranging from television programming to broadband service to cable set-top boxes. iSay - Without an even playing field you'll never have successful competition. These companies need to compete on service, quality, and price for their customers. AT&T has an unfair advantage by continued ownership of the infrastructure, cables, poles, switches, etc. Unless the delivery system is a separate business company from the content and ISP company the consumer is going to lose. Wired   9:58:41 AM  Google It!  comment

Interview: Robert Young Pelton Northern Alliance general Abdul Rashid Dostum and his troops were working in conjunction with a Green Beret unit to liberate Mazar-e-Sharif when Pelton arrived on the scene. His story of that endeavor ran in National Geographic Adventure magazine and provided a firsthand glimpse of the war and the soldiers fighting it. In fact, Pelton had the kind of access that seems to have eluded many other reporters covering the conflict; his up-close and personal portrayal of a Special Forces unit in both moments of reflection and acts of bravery harks back to the days when journalists were actually among the fighting troops, not relegated to the briefing room at base camp. Salon   9:25:57 AM  Google It!  comment

Phallocentric Trophy Kiss Golf anyone?   8:54:50 AM  Google It!  comment

Musician to Napster judge: Let my music go A 1960s-era recording artist says he can't get Sony to pay royalties, so his psychedelic pop might as well be free. Salon   8:29:37 AM  Google It!  comment