Wednesday, March 05, 2003

It's Called Content Management at Microsoft: Blog Sounds Too Open Source A list of "known blogs authored by known (or suspected) Microsoft employees." [Scripting News] 8:17:42 AM    comment []

Can this be integrated into a GPS system? A national WiFi map from Don Park. [Scripting News] 8:11:39 AM    comment []

Unlimited WIFI on MOUStech.NET Cruise Seminars is Part of Common Cents Market Trend: MOUStech.NET has been trying to create a cruise seminar pricing structure that includes unlimited WIFI for the entire cruise that is not purchased seperate from the total package. The shift from Royal Caribbean to Norwegian Cruise Line in 2002 was motivated by WIFI access policy negotiations. Doc Searls weblog has been a primary posting platform for this type of discourse.   Glenn Reynolds weighs in on the side of Free Fi:   I think he¹s right. The university where I teach, the University of Tennessee, has a high-speed wireless network that covers the entire campus. Now some of the bars and restaurants and coffeeshops nearby are catching on — one even has a big sign advertising ³Fast Free Wireless Internet² as a way of luring customers. Right now it¹s a big lure — sort of the way air-conditioning was fifty years ago. But soon it will be ubiquitous...   Wireless Internet access is cheap and easy to provide (I have it at home, and so do countless other Americans), and as people get more and more used to it, spaces that don¹t have it seem less and less appealing. I think that Doc is right, and that customers will come to expect it over the next few years. In some places, they already do. Kind of like toilets.   LameList disagrees:   As a consumer, I think this would be great. But it is lame-fully short-sighted and naïve for several reasons. First, wi-fi is cheap and easy at the home level — once you have the broadband installed. But providing wi-fi means first the coffeeshop has to upgrade from their twisted-pair POTS dial-up used by their point-of-sale system to broadband access. Then they install wi-fi as a means of access. Saying "it's cheap, I have it at home" is a grossly lame simplification that forgets the need to install broadband in the first place. Starbucks is installing some nifty fat data pipes for their wi-fi. Perhaps if they installed a skinnier DSL line, their costs would not be so high, but then level of service would be reduced.   Lame or not, it'll still happen. Plenty of hotels, coffee shops, libraries, universities and whole cities are already providing free wi-fi for the same reason they provide street lights and public restrooms. None of those are free either — except to the users who expect them for exactly that price.   So here's your take-away quote: Think of pay-fi as the Net's equivalent of the pay toilet. [Doc Searls Weblog] 8:08:02 AM    comment []

Dave Speaks Dave Winer: How to get audblog to work with Userland [bOing bOing] 8:00:19 AM    comment []

MSN on OS X: Read that "BSD UNIX Today, LINUX NeXT Week" MSN Software Coming To OS X "Soon" : MacNN via MyAppleMenu [MyAppleMenu] Look at the Microsoft and OS X alliance as Microsoft's way of facing off with Linux: shift the end-user focus to using the MAC instead of Linux. 7:56:32 AM    comment []

Microsoft Acknowledges Linux as "the" Other Platform Microsoft has been sending out a great deal of TechNet and Partner Readiness Kit info on how to face the Linux challenge, including marketing materials, and migration kits for porting customers over to Microsoft servers. It is obvious that Microsoft has a dynamic strategic plan for facing off with Linux in the marketplace. Having worked in IT since the early 80's I know a few maxims about platforms: everything has a life cycle,  everything changes, and every system needs to communicate with other systems. MS aims at Linux with $399 Server 2003, Web Edition.. The Register: MS aims at Linux with $399 Server 2003, Web Edition. [Hack the Planet] 7:52:34 AM    comment []