William Gibson: Penises have higher bandwidth than cable modems. Hey, he did the math (as you would), so who am I to argue?
7:16:11 PM  #   your two cents []

Long Sigh of Relief Dept: Salon.com secures substantial funding, an announcement I missed last Friday. I used to do some writing for Salon (I'm in the archives!) and am delighted to hear they'll be staying online, adding to the quality and variety of news/entertainment sources on the web: "Salon Media Group, an Internet media company, announced today the successful completion of an additional round of financing, providing the company with necessary capital to continue operations as it works towards achieving profitability. The current round represents an investment of $800,000, bringing the entire investment in Salon since July, 2002, to $2,100,000. This current round was led by existing Salon investors Bill Hambrecht and John Warnock, a Salon board member."
3:58:21 PM  #   your two cents []

Eircom will introduce its new €45/month (ex VAT) 'iStream Starter' DSL service on April 11th so start your engines, ladies and gentlemen. I read through the comparison and Eircom seems to be offering the Starter service, with same features, for less than the existing 'Solo' service, and gives an extra 1G download capacity to the cheaper service!! This can't be right (I'm about to put a call through). I'll be eager to make the switch and nearly halve my monthly internet costs. This new service finally pulls Eircom down into the price range of American DSL offerings. Eircom needs to move the iStream Starter service into the consumer rather than just business listings on its website, though, because this price point makes sense for consumers, too -- especially if you work from home.

If you opt for the self-starter package, you can buy a much cheaper modem than what Eircom is offering for ethernet DSL (€200 from Eircom). I got the D-Link 300G plus a Syslink ethernet card for my Dell for exactly €140 (including shipping!) from Amazon UK. But be aware that -- if you don't understand how to set it up -- you'll need help from a very knowledgeable friend to configure the modem, because Eircom won't give you tech support with modems that aren't their official offerings.

UPDATE: OK, I rang Eircom and here are some clarifications, which will shortly be made to the website as well. iStream Starter will give you speeds UP to 512 down/128 up, depending on demand for the lines on the network. Solo guarantees 512 down/128 up. Starter gives only one email address; Solo gives multiple addresses. Starter has a 4GB monthly download limit then extra charges thereafter; Solo has 6GB. That makes a lot more sense than what I was reading before.

3:17:03 PM  #   your two cents []

News.com: "As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 180,000 people had registered on this site,  which lets California residents add their names and numbers to a national "do not call" list being compiled by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Unsolicited telemarketers that call verboten numbers will be subject to a fine of up to $11,000 per violation starting in October under the Amended Telemarketing Sales Rule." Great idea. Now let's do the same globally for spam.
2:57:32 PM  #   your two cents []

Jonathan Freedland: Emperor George. Comment: American values and idealism have been swept away in this un-American war, writes Jonathan Freedland. [Guardian Unlimited]
12:41:03 PM  #   your two cents []

Group says piracy controls help economies. An antipiracy group is hoping to convince international governments, trade associations and companies that copy protections can generate jobs and tax revenue. [CNET News.com]
12:40:11 PM  #   your two cents []

Star Trek: The Condo.  "An apartment meticulously decorated to resemble a set from Star Trek is up for auction on eBay, starting at $2MM.  [Boing Boing Blog]
10:44:49 AM  #   your two cents []

Mac OS X Tech Talk Tour: UNIX on the Desktop. "On a bright clear day on the outskirts of London, I sat in a lush hotel seemingly staffed exclusively by beautiful people with exotic accents, waiting for my sandwich. I am surrounded by businessmen in expensive looking suits, and hippies with expensive looking Apple notebooks." [kuro5hin.org]
10:41:34 AM  #   your two cents []

HP to pair Mozilla with its OS. Hewlett-Packard will sidestep a Netscape-branded browser for its open-source original browser, a move the company calls a vote of confidence for the open-source model. [CNET News.com]
10:40:41 AM  #   your two cents []

Rick Klau gets into virtual PR and announces... Movable Bloggerland! Heh!!:

A press release from Google explained the motives behind the purchases. "Since these companies are decidedly not evil," said Google founder Sergey Brain, "it seemed an appropriate next step. We are folding the Movable Bloggerland operation into a new division within Google, the Axis of Non-evIL apps." Sources close to Brain indicate that Google's ANIL group will be headed by none other than well-known blogger (and presumably non-evil) Anil Dash. "With Anil on board, we'll be even less evil," continued Brain. "Evil evil evil."

10:39:58 AM  #   your two cents []

Franklin P. Jones. "Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again." [Quotes of the Day]
10:35:20 AM  #   your two cents []

Ellison: Linux will wipe Microsoft out of data center. Dramatic predictions highlight meeting of Oracle ISVs [InfoWorld: Top News]
10:34:13 AM  #   your two cents []

Big bang project sparks cosmic response. Tech companies line up to lend their technologies in the billion-dollar project attempting to prove or disprove the theory of how the universe began. [CNET News.com]
10:33:04 AM  #   your two cents []