AT&T Isn’t Stupid with the iPhone

I want to talk about this. I want an honest answer.

” AT&T’s network sucks!”

” When will the Verizon iPhone come out?”

AT&T knows they have a terrible network in important areas. A lot of people are upset.

But AT&T isn’t stupid. They aren’t deaf. So my honest question is: what are they doing?

They can’t be sitting idle. No company with the potential of the iPhone and the complaints of AT&T would sit idle, but their apparent lack of confidence in the 3G market must be indicative of something. Is AT&T putting all their money in LTE, essentially telling Verizon they’ve won the battle but not the war? Is AT&T’s service just “not that bad” with the exception of a few important urban areas?

What the hell is going on?

Published:
February 11, 2010 – 10:06 am
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By Chris
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Highlights: Free Music Archive

Copyleft websites provide an amazing asortment of material licensed for liberal use; many, however, suffer from a lack of quality, or proper curator.

Enter the Free Music Archive (freemusicarchive.org): talented design meets talented musicians, all in the realm of the copyleft. The site is heavily curated and includes impressive collections by the Creative Commons (organization), WFMU (infamous freeform radio out of Jersey) and more.

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Published:
February 4, 2010 – 4:02 pm
Author:
By Chris
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An Open Letter to the FSF: ‘Defective by Design’ is Flawed

I’m a long-time supporter and enthusiast of the FSF but I’m taken aback by what looks to me to be dangerous misdirection on the part of the FSF and I would like a reply, even if short, to my concern:

Apple’s general use of DRM is a mixed bag. In being a company that strives to create computers “for the rest of us”, the decision to have an App Store with approved apps-only, while controversial, accomplishes that goal. I can see how the FSF would be offended at that. They really should have a free (as in libre) software platform.

But the remaining DRM, that which used to be found on music and is now found on movies and possibly e-books, is being attacked by the FSF in an entirely misguided effort.

Apple is in the business of selling hardware; a recent report revealed that while the iTunes store(s) are popular, they are not that profitable: they’re designed to help sell more hardware.

Apple is not the company demanding DRM on movies and books: it’s the content creators. The FSF should be targeting the large content creators over these issues, not Apple.

It worries me when the FSF, an organization I expect to stand above the crowd and intelligently ignore the pointless trends of the day, begins viewing the world as a black and white place. Worse, the recent attacks against Apple for DRM demanded by content providers, and not Apple, only proves that the FSF is looking for publicity, not truth.

I do understand your concerns; I worry about your methods.

Published:
January 28, 2010 – 11:53 am
Author:
By Chris
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4 Comments

Location-based websites via DNS

The DNS system maps names to IP addresses (and back again). A somewhat more mathematically complex mapping could link geometric shapes on a map with a URL via GPS. Think about it: go into a shopping center and instantly have a map of stores, locations of food, bathroom, and any other useful information. Mappings could overlay, so you could “zoom out” from the shopping center and simply view information about the city: know where the parks are, major roads, etc. This could also be done somewhat sloppier using a simple broadcast, though this would require additional infrastructure (new hardware everywhere).

It’s a bit like location-aware websites: location-dictated websites? Let’s build it!

Published:
September 5, 2009 – 9:49 pm
Author:
By Chris
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1 Comment

Nokia Should Try Maemo, Ignore Calls for Android For Now

David Coursey over at PC World has written of the recently revealed and much hyped Nokia N900 that he “[would like] to see … Nokia licensing Palm’s webOS, used on the Pre” for the device. I couldn’t disagree more.

While Palm’s WebOS is a promising and mature platform already familiar to Pre owners, Nokia’s N900 is slated to use the Maemo platform, used insofar on the lacklustre N770, N800 and N810 Internet tablets. Maemo 5, the new revision set to ship with the N900, is looking to be equivalent to WebOS and much more polished than its older brothers on the early N-series. In fact, there doesn’t seem to be much of a difference at all between Maemo and WebOS, except for one small but powerfully important characteristic: the libre.

For some like myself, it’s about free culture. It’s about free speech versus free beer; gratis versus libre. Palm’s WebOS may not cost you anything, but it’s licensed to you. You are not free to modify the device as you might your own house or your own car. You are not allowed to use the device to perform reasonable actions which the network carriers or phone makers may not want you to perform, such as revolutionary and inevitable features like streaming television or foregoing the ancient payment methods utilized by network carriers and instead employing VoIP solutions to get your phone calls made.

The free software movement and the free culture movement, though not large, look upon actions like this with immense gratuity, and indeed at least for some, that will be the deciding factor. It is not to say that having a truly open operating system matters on a smartphone: the average person doesn’t even know what an operating system is, but certainly the average person will benefit from such openness, in the same way we attempt to keep our markets reasonably open, or our various standards reasonably open.

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Published:
August 31, 2009 – 8:41 am
Author:
By Chris
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3 Comments

Religion as a Control Mechanism: Ayatollah Calls Rioters ‘Enemies of God’

In debating against the rationale of religion, one of the most powerful consequences of being faithful is groupthink. To identify yourself within a faith, you must at least adhere unconditionally to the particulars of that faith, and unconditional groupthink is never a good thing. (It is important to note the vast majority of religious individuals do not necessarily adhere to a faith in its entirety, nor do they suffer under unconditional groupthink.)

In Iran, the Ayatollah is calling the rioters ‘Enemies of God’, not because God has told him he disapproves of the rioting, but because as a religious leader, God is his control mechanism.

The reality of the situation is that people are rioting against their government, and should that be the true will of the people, then the government and Ayatollah deserve to lose the argument. Using God to combat otherwise is a despicable action, and most certainly not God-approved.

While I often debate individuals in their belief in God himself (e.g. “God created the universe? Then where did God come from?”), it’s important to step back and debate perhaps the more important issues, such as religious groupthink and religious-based oppression.

It is of little consequence what individuals think, until it starts to dictate the lives of others.

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Published:
June 27, 2009 – 12:26 pm
Author:
By Chris
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1 Comment