The city of New Orleans announced it will offer “free” WiFi over a network it deploys and owns. Everyone knows that “free” is not really free, making this one more disaster to add to the city’s woes. Using taxpayer dollars to subsidize porn surfing whilst people starve and go homeless is unconscionable. [...]

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Now that Canada’s parliament has been dissolved and Canadians face yet another federal election, it will be fun to read Rick Mercer’s blog. In case you don’t know who Mercer is, he’s one of Canada’s best political satirists — highly recommended! Thanks to Chris for pointing this out.

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Mayor Gavin Newsom has been pushing the idea of “free WiFi” in San Francisco, but it would be anything but free. The Mayor’s play to grant special status to only one WiFi provider in San Francisco would essentially create a government-controlled WiFi monopoly in SF. There are so many reasons to oppose a [...]

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In a move that makes Jim Carrey’s character in “The Cable Guy” look angelic, the California Cable and Telecommunications Association (CCTA) recently circulated a letter to Sacramento lawmakers in an attempt to scare them into protecting cable’s dominant video market position
It’s now easy for cable companies and others that offer high-speed Internet services to get [...]

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Last night was the Pacific Research Institute’s annual gala dinner featuring Ambassador Howard Leach and satirist PJ O’Rourke. Around 450 people attended the event and listened to Ambassador Leach’s commentary on his time in France and what it will take to solve the social crisis that’s caused recent rioting. PJ O’Rourke was funny [...]

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Imagine a world where China argues for guaranteed freedom of speech and Cuba and Iran push for democracy. If that sounds like an episode of “The Twilight Zone,” then welcome to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s new show set to air again next week in Tunisia.
Before anyone starts to think that Chinese and Cuban [...]

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I met photographer Harry Benson today. He’s photographed a number of high profile people, including many politicians. He told me he liked Reagan b/c he was funny, Nixon b/c he was smart, and he thought Clinton was patronizing. He also talked about Hillary Clinton. He said she told him she learned [...]

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Should high-speed Internet access continue to develop in the marketplace, or should government bureaucrats take over?
In this national debate, Americans need to consider how political management of key services often results in disaster, as in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Read my Cnet column on this topic here.

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The imperative to fight diseases like AIDS and cervical cancer is a no-brainer, yet new technologies that help in this quest are under assault from bureaucrats and advocacy groups. As technology advances, questions surrounding its control and use will only get hotter. A key set of guiding principles is therefore of the utmost importance.
This [...]

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A new book by Carnegie Mellon University roboticist Daniel H. Wilson makes fun of all the silly scenarios people come up with about how robots could go bad. Apparently, it’s also being made into a hollywood film — this is something I can’t wait to see.

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