Author: BrianR

NC House Public Utilities Committee Vote on HB1587

On June 6, 2006, the NC House Public Utilities Committee voted to move forward on House Bill 1587. HB1587 places severe restrictions on NC cities that work to provide superior broadband Internet, cable TV and phone service. The city of Wilson has had an all-fiber optic network in place since March, 2006. Wilson is expanding that network now to reach every home and business. This video shows the June 6 vote. DON’T SHUT THE G.A.T.E. Greater Access to Technology for Everyone

Live Blog Sports

Just after I posted my vlog entry about live blogging important local events I just saw this post by Romenesko. (Hat Tip to Ed Cone) Seems a reporter got kicked out of a NCAA basketball game for LIVE BLOGGING.

Courier-Journal sportswriter Brian Bennett, who was kicked out of the press box for live-blogging at a college baseball game, “wrote about what had already happened, something newspapers sort of, you know, do,” writes Troy Johnson. “He wrote about what had already become fact. Believe it or not, facts are not the exclusive property of ESPN or the NCAA.”

From Time To Recognize the Online Reporters

Something unusual took place in Louisville, Ky., on Sunday. Reporter Brian Bennett had his press credential pulled in the fifth inning of an NCAA baseball game for posting live updates at his blog. As you’d expect, this quickly became a minor cause célèbre. NCAA officials protested that they were just trying to enforce exclusivity terms of their broadcast contract; Bennett dryly noted that “someone watching ESPN across the street could have blogged every single pitch without a problem.”

All I can think is WTF! Can’t wait for Carolina Basketball season to start up.

Why live blogging is important Video

Here is a vlog post I made about live blogging events and why its important. Basically I discuss how sharing information about important events can increase local knowldege and get more people civically involved. More information is better. (I use OrangePolitics as an example. Their live blogging of Carolina North events has been very valuable.) Let me know what you think in the comments. Thanks.

Understanding A Bad Bill

LUX.ET.UMBRA has a blog post about the bad bill HB1587. I appreciate his post and a look at both sides who work for and against this bill. Please go read his post. Here is my response.

Right now many rural municipalities in North Carolina do not have high quality broadband. Despite several Cities and Towns trying to work with companies to provided it. If a for-profit company can not make a profit providing service in these communities then I agree they shouldn’t attempt it. The sad fact is people in these communities can not wait for telcos profitability to materialize. The world is moving way to fast too wait. This is where municipal networks can help. To fill gaping voids in access. The presence of cable modem and DSL speed is not enough. Not in this age of a multimedia Internet.
Continue reading “Understanding A Bad Bill” →

Town of Carrboro Opposes HB1587

Last night the Town of Carrboro passed a resolution opposing HB1587. They join the Cities of Wilson and Fayetteville plus the Town of Chapel Hill opposing hb1587 – The Local Government Fair Competition Act. Thank you Mayor and Alderman!

Town of Carrboro Resolution Opposing HB1587 PDF

Know any other counties or municipalities that have officially opposed hb1587? Please contact me. (ex. An Assistant Attorney in Greensboro spoke against it. But I don’t know if they passed a resolution.)

Town of Chapel Hill Opposes HB1587

The Town of Chapel Hill has passed a resolution to opposed NC House Bill 1587. (Memorandum about opposition) They join the Cities of Wilson and Fayetteville in sending a strong message to the NC House that the Local Government Fair Competition Act, HB 1587, is a bad idea. It is not fair to municipalities and its citizens. The vote was unanimous. Thank you Mayor and Council members!

Town of Chapel Hill Resolution Opposing HB1587 PDF

WWDC announcements

Lots of announcements at Apple WWDC 2007. They showed off Leopard. That was cool… Here are the parts that stood out to me.

4) Time Machine – Looks like this backup application may work magic for Apple users. Especially the non-geeky type that don’t back up but really should. Making it simple to find stuff is key. I can think of a few million academic users who will be ecstatic this exists. Does Time Machine save files in a proprietary compression scheme like other backup software?

3) iPhone Ships on June 29th at 6pm – We already knew Apple and AT&T were going to wait until the very end of the month to release the iPhone. Now we know when iPhone nerds have to camp out. Sometime 24 to 48 hours before 6pm on June 29. How much is the unlimited data and voice plan going to be for the iPhone?

2) Safari 3 Public Beta for Windows – This is a big deal. As a web developer I’m concerned that we’re headed for another browser war. This time with three real fronts instead of two. But its possible that Safari will still be marginalized and not pickup a big Windows user base. But if the number of iTunes for Windows installs is any indicator we’re in for some serious change. Maybe real web standards will win the day and developing for them will cause your sites to work on all browsers. Argggg… I am not looking forward to a return of the early Nineties when every browser responded to different code…. If Safari 3 isn’t strictly compliant to web standards then Flash/ActionScript *could* kick html/JavaScript in the ass!

1) iPhone Applications are really Web Standard Applications – Seems that developing for the iPhone may be as simple as writing AJAX and HTML. Will we be able to quickly port our web based apps to the iPhone? Will we be able to cut and paste apps like we can for Dashboard on leopard? This news seems to confirm my speculation about making iPhone application app development like Dashboard widget dev. Its so amazing to see the blurring of the lines between web app and desktop app. When will we realize that line is really gone? I think it’ll happen when anyone using the web can make a powerfull application for the planet in ten minutes.

How hb1587 has changed

MuniWireless has a post called Stop the North Carolina anti-muni broadband bill that describes the changes just made to hb1587.

In short, HB 1587 is bad for the communities of North Carolina and bad for United States as a whole. It is particularly offensive because it is touted as being necessary to achieve a “level playing field” for the incumbent communications providers, yet the incumbents do not, and could not, comply with HB 1587 themselves. To determine how bad a bill HB 1587 really is, the North Carolina legislature need only ask the incumbents whether they would be willing to abide by its restrictions themselves. HB 1587 should be defeated in its entirety.

Here is the new bad bill. HB1587_as_amended_June_6_2007.pdf

Second story from WRAL about HB1587

New peice from WRAL about hb1587 called Committee OKs Bill to Limit Municipal Telecom Plans. Check out the text here and the video here. This one was pretty factual with a good balance between the views. But I just don’t agree this is about any kind of fairness. No matter what big telecom says we need to have a democratically elected body providing infrastructure. Now and well into the future. Elected bodies will serve North Carolinians. If not we will elect someone else. Can the same be said about the telcom business? No. Not in this day and age where Ma Bell has returned from the dead.