The Death Of Tech: Metered Internet

With meters on gas, electricity, and water usage, what's wrong with metering the Internet? Not to oversimplify the differences, but creating a de facto constriction of Internet usage the same way utility companies do with their services is the moral equivalent of banning new books from ever being written. The Internet is an open forum for ideas, a place where all people are connected for better or for worse. Slap a meter on bandwidth, and you not only stifle the growth of ideas, but also suffocate the innovation of new technology.

Let me address that last point for a second; it's the expansion of new online technology that created this issue. With limitless online mailboxes, digital video streaming (and the potential for widespread high definition streaming in the near future), and Voice Over IP, shouldn't the bandwidth be increasing, not the regulations on how we use it?

It is a simple fact that technology will always grow and get better (unless our next President happens to have the family name Bolshevik), and if the FCC or legislators ever allow company policies that create bandwidth restrictions we'll see a grave economic impact as well. Companies like Microsoft who have invested a great deal of time and resources to moving office 2007 and other applications online will see a huge drop in profits, and the entire prospect of a virtual desktop may never be realized. YouTube, already hurt by the latest court decisions in favor of Viacom, will cease to exist as users start doing the math on how much bandwidth dollars it will cost to watch Batman spoofs. That of course will affect Google whose entire pay-per-click advertising model is based on the amount of traffic visiting a site. And the list goes on...

Here are some interesting links for the week, check them out before it starts costing you.

eWindows
In an attempt to take the PC out of the box and into the cloud, Engadget.com is reporting that Windows is building a new operating system called Windows Midori, which will operate entirely online. While this is a very interesting potential leap into the next generation of software platforming designed to create a virtual desktop, shareholders may want to ask themselves; what does Microsoft stand to lose if the Internet becomes a metered service?

Internet (virus) 2.0
Researchers with nothing better to do than create ingenious ways to shatter Internet user confidence have created a hybrid file called a "GIFAR" which allows malicious files to enter your browser undetected by concealing themselves as a changing file type that circumvents a website host's security protocols. When a user logs into their website and tries to do something otherwise benign, like upload photos, the Java-based bug then infects that person's computer and operates in their browser under the guise of a normal function of the website. If anything this presents a new age of Internet 2.0 "client-side" threats.

No Rest for the Weary
If you're the kind of businessperson who loathes downtime and needs to stay connected to the office during every waking moment of the day, then Delta has a special treat for you. The 3rd largest American airliner is partnering up with AirCell to offer Wi-Fi service on 330 planes- almost their entire domestic fleat. People will be able to use their laptops as well as wireless enabled smartphones and PDAs. My guess is that people will be flying Southwest and American in record numbers from now on.