I had a little experience with the transience of the internet today. This AP article discusses President Bush's call for a ban on broadband taxes. Oh by the way, it also includes the following single sentence paragraph.
Bush also signed an executive memo on Monday that makes it easier for technology companies to run high-speed lines across federal lands.
There are two interesting things here. The first is the internet transience thing. Early this morning, the paragraph was in future tense and had a couple of other sentences. I don't know if the original article was edited in place, or if the in going link was changed to point to a slightly different article. I suppose it is OK to update the story after the signing. Just be careful what you link to, because it could vaporise in hours.
The second interesting point is/was the two extra sentences. They pointed out that high speed lines are not the problem keeping the USA from wide scale deployment of broadband. We already have plenty of dark fiber lying about. By some estimates, only 5% of our existing network is currently in use. The real problem is phone and cable companies not getting their act together on the last mile connections to homes and offices. We really don't need to go tearing up our precious wilderness to promote broadband.
I tend to believe broadband is a good thing, so I don't have a problem with Bush supporting it. In this case, however, it appears he is just making an opportunistic attack on our federal lands. If he really wants to help broadband, he should change the regulatory environment for phone and cable companies operating in the cities. Leave the wilderness alone until the fiber is used up and we can show more cable is actually needed.
12:33:17 PM 
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