Kansas City, as I said above, gets some mention this week from the Oval Office and President Obama, largely due to Google's internet speeds:
Because here's what the big internet providers and free market Capitalism are doing to us in America. They're doing the same thing to us on internet speeds and costs as the health care companies have done and are doing to us for our health care:
Although Google Fiber offers free Internet service (in exchange for a $300, one-time installation fee), it hasn’t done much to expand Internet access in Kansas City. A big part of the reason is that many poor people live in apartments and few landlords in poor areas have signed up for service. The green dots show apartments with Google Fiber in Kansas City. The darker areas have higher poverty rates. The red line is Troost Avenue,
Here, in the article, they have a terrific, detailed map of Kansas City showing where Google Fiber is, in what apartments and areas, with Troost as the dividing line.
Wiring a poor neighborhood for speed may be necessary to expand online access, but Kansas City's experience demonstrates it's not sufficient. Bringing more people online, at ever-faster speeds, will be somewhat harder and requires educating people one at a time on how to use computers and where to find access.
"The digital divide is not going to be closed digitally," said Michael Liimatta, president of Connecting for Good, a nonprofit working to expand online access in the Kansas City area.
Google has taken pains to reach out to a diverse section of Kansas City, running its fiber into low-income areas and sponsoring a "digital inclusion fund" to overcome gaps in connectivity. Its discount service – which offers modestly speedy connections at 5 megabits per second instead of its flagship "gigabit" service – seemed like it might broaden the web's reach to segments of the population yet to be connected.
Civic leaders and activists say it hasn't worked out that way, at least not yet.
A survey commissioned this fall by The Wall Street Journal found that just 15 percent of residents in low-income areas of Kansas City subscribe to Google Fiber, and just 5 percent are using the discount option. By comparison, more than half the homes in upper-income neighborhoods were taking Google Fiber.
It should be no surprise, really, I don't think. In the first place, it's a huge job, connecting all these people, this city. And then to try to be fair to a group, the poor, scattered all over the city? It's daunting, at least. Google doesn't exist as a charity, as a non-profit. It seems Google has made and is trying to make a good faith effort to bring truly high speed internet to those with less. I say again, hese results shouldn't be a big surprise. I give them credit for trying, first, but for more than just trying. They committed. They've done at least some of this getting the internet out to the less economicallly gifted.
It's a lot more than AT&T is doing or has ever done.
Kansas City, both the one in Missouri and the smaller one in Kansas, has an unusual Internet problem — the Google Fiber network they fought to get is too fast, and nobody is really sure what to do with all that power.
Neither city is considered a prime location for technology company start-ups, reports The New York Times, and the average household doesn't need online speeds that can run at one gigabit a second, or about 100 times faster than the average connection elsewhere in the United States.
The article goes on from there, of course, describing the situation and some ironies in all of this rather truthfully, however unfortunately but here's the really illuminating thing most people don't know and consider:
The company (Google) has expanded Fiber to Provo, Utah and Austin, Texas, and is discussing service with nine other metro areas, including Chattanooga, Atlanta, Phoenix, and Portland, Ore.
The network is already paying off. "When Volkswagen announced Chattanooga as its headquarters for North American manufacturing, and Amazon.com chose our city for their new distribution centers, it was a nice confirmation that we're on the right track," the network says on its website.
So Chattanooga, Tennessee has a lower cost internet, just as fast as the "big boys", the corporate internet that's so bloody, unreasonably and unnecessarily expensive (thank you, AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, etc.) and in addition to all that, THE PEOPLES'/USERS' INFORMATION ISN'T CAPTURED AND SOLD.
Tell me again why government running things is bad?
It seems owner, founder Michael Dell of the formerly huge and important Dell Computer has been trying to buy back and take back over his computer making company, in an effort to save it. With our turn away from desktop computers, world wide, the company has been in serious trouble lately.
What were some of the biggest, most powerful and seemingly forever-formidable companies in the computer business--this time, Microsoft--are simply not immune to the turn to tablets, "devices" and cell phones. It's a huge turn.
In this case, it seems big and, again, powerful Google, who knows just how to use information and advertising from desktops and laptops just can't translate that same power into income for itself on the cursed little cell phones.
What's it all mean, besides the obvious, besides the fact that the entire computer industry is very much changing, and rather quickly, to those same, smaller cell phones and tablets?
It seems to mean that not only is there big change on the horizon but that that very same change seems to be coming at us at ever faster rates. More and more big change at faster and faster rates.
It's tough to keep up with it all.
If you have or get a good idea, you'd better be on it fast, ladies and gentlemen.
You have likely heard of Google's developing technology, their glasses, that are computer-equipped and -enabled.
As bad as American's have proven to be already, what with our cell phones and the car accidents we have wherein people have been hurt and, of course, worse yet, killed, my cousin makes the following observation yesterday on Facebook post on my page:
"Prepare to die in a horrible head-on crash."
Seriously. Can you imagine?
Some idiot will buy a pair of these things and feel sure he (for it will most surely be a male) can "absolutely, positively drive with these things."
Watch for it.
Congress should move immediately to simply and quickly outlaw the operation of automobiles with these things, before anyone gets remotely close to having this happen.
Instead, what will happen is our legislators and laws will wait, do nothing and be behind time on this. Consequently, people will be hurt, people will be killed first.
And then and only then will anyone in government think to react.
It seems both Kansas Cities made it into The Wall Street Journal today:
Web Rivals Want What Google Got
To entice Google Inc. to build its ultra-high-speed fiber network there, Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo., offered the Internet company sweeteners including several free or discounted city services. Now, Time Warner Cable Inc. and AT&T Inc., the incumbent Internet and TV providers in town, are angling to get the same deal.
Among the sweeteners granted Google by both cities are free office space and free power for Google's equipment, according to the agreement on file with the cities. The company also gets the use of all the cities' 'assets and infrastructure'—including fiber, buildings, land and computer tools..."
Who knew?
Maybe this was in The Star at some point--who gets and reads all those papers? (Well, except maybe aged barbers in town or elderly citizens).
I had no idea the city gave them all that access.
Seems like a good idea, too, for once.
Both sides--the respective city and Google--benefit. And now we benefit even more, too, what with all the computer companies like Time Warner Cable and AT&T fighting over us. How great. Yet more benefits.
Kansas City--both sides of the state line--wins. Right here in good, old "flyover" country.
So, enjoy, Kansas City. It won't last long but for a while, we're top of the technology heap.
I be lovin' me some good, old-fashioned competition right about now.
This occurred to me some time ago, when there was only still just talk of Google Fiber coming to town. I mentioned it to a Google employee earlier today at the Plaza branch of the Kansas City Public Library.
Wouldn't it be great if the area cities in our Kansas City metropolitan area could use this technology to reduce their costs mightily and coordinate the traffic lights across the city from Blue Springs to at least Olathe and from Platte City to Harrisonville?
Wow.
We could do so much for the city:
--increase productivity;
--reduce traffic jams and congestion;
--cut down on pollution;
--reduce the amount of gasoline we waste;
--possibly cut down or "road rage"
That's a lot, right there.
The city's always looking for ways to cut down on the amount of pollution and ozone we collectively put into the air as it is and we all look for ways to cut time out of our commutes.
Hopeully Google Fiber could reduce greatly the expense and complications of making this happen.
The Google and Facebook and Pinterest and Socialcam and all kinds of computer organizations and people know all kinds of things about you, because of your computer and what you do and where you go on it.
Additionally, they sell that information.
Third, they can--and maybe sometimes do?--track you on it.
Sure, Google's coming to town and we fought to get them and it's supposed to bring ultra-fast data transmission to and for us but as The Star reported Sunday (and is still online now, see link below), they were fined for some of the data collection an engineer of theirs captured but just what he captured was far more revealing--and worse:
"A rogue engineer, not identified publicly by Google, wrote software aimed at tapping into transmissions known as captured payload data. That included passwords, addresses, phone numbers, medical records, emails and search history from consumers who had not sealed their private Wi-Fi networks behind some form of password protection or encryption."
A couple notes: First, they were only fined a paltry $25,000. For a firm as big and powerful--and rich--as Google, that's chicken feed. Much worse is getting caught and having this information become public.
Second is the fact that it makes me wonder if this engineer was really, in fact, "rogue." He did this of his own volition and not at the direction of his boss and the company? Right. I'm skeptical, at least.
"Google said it never intended to pile up that sort of information. Rather, Google has said it was simply logging the whereabouts of the nation’s sundry wireless Internet access locations."
Yeah, well, maybe. We'll see, huh?
More from the Star's article: "Asked Sunday about the nature of data that might be collected by its Internet service in Kansas City, a Google spokeswoman said in an email: 'We have nothing specific to announce right now about Google Fiber, but we build transparency, choice and security into our products because we believe that’s what matters to our users.'”
Right. "I love you" and "The check's in the mail", too, while we're at it.
"The FCC report, released Saturday with only names redacted, says the rogue engineer told a senior manager and one other engineer that the code he’d written was collecting the personal information."
The computer engineer wrote the program to collect the personal information for his own amusement and entertainment?
That seems suspect, at least.
Anyway, welcome to town, Google. Thanks for selecting us. We appreciate it greatly, we really do.
It reminds me of Tina Turner's song. So here, from the Kansas City metropolitan area to Google:
I hate how, by hook or by crook, Google wants to make sure that somehow, some way, with all the sites and services they have to offer, they're going to find some way--some way--to get all our phone numbers. It really chaps my hide. Bloodsuckers.
...I remember the original YouTube page. I remember when YouTube didn't have an advertisement at the bottom of each video. Heck, I remember when Google didn't own YouTube. THAT old.
There seems to be one hugely overlooked issue that needs to be addressed on Palestinian statehood and I don't see it mentioned in the conversations. It seems clear that the Palestinian statehood issue could possibly be considered IF, if they officially recognize Israel's right to exist and follow that up with no longer bombing Israel and Israelis. Then and only then, I think it's obvious, the possibility of a Palestinian state can be evaluated and considered. Link: http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&source=hp&q=new+york+times+palestinian+statehood&pbx=1&oq=new+york+times+palestinian+statehood&aq=f&aqi=g-v1&aql=1&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=3093l10488l0l10708l36l21l0l0l0l1l1075l6006l0.7.7.3.2.7-1l20l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=dc9b7cc97129edc0&biw=1440&bih=727
Facebook execs must be red-faced with embarrassment.
The social-networking giant Facebook has been caught red-handed in a secret smear campaign against industry rival Google, FoxNews.com has confirmed.
According to a report from The Daily Beast Wednesday night, Facebook hired leading public-relations firm Burson-Marsteller to “pitch anti-Google stories to newspapers, urging them to investigate claims that Google was invading people’s privacy.”
USA Today described the scandal as an undercover “whisper campaign” against the search giant, one leaving Silicon Valley insiders wondering who was playing dirty. Initial fingers pointed at perennial competitors and long-time industry behemoths Microsoft and Apple. Turns out it was the new kid on block instead -- Facebook.
When questioned early Thursday morning about these stunning allegations, Burson-Marsteller quickly backpedaled emphasizing that these kinds of campaigns go against its corporate code.
It seems the more we see of Mark Zuckerberg and his and his company's tactics, the more it looks as though his detractors may be correct in their disparaging descriptions of what he's capable of.
If it isn't true, he needs to start making it clear otherwise.
He's the Army Pfc who leaked the government documents to Wikileaks about what all our government has been doing abroad that created such an uproar some months ago? Remember?
Well, he's been arrested and thrown in jail (prison?) and he's being charged--with 22 counts as I understand it and it's said he may face the death penalty.
Sure, corporate banksters can steal billions of dollars from the country and not even get charged but this young guy leaks some easily-accessed government files and all of a sudden we get all self-righteous and want to kill somebody.
Anyway, news is out now that we are--no kidding--being told that his military jailers forced him to "sleep naked for several days last week."
Excuse me?
Why?
Is this the United States of freaking America where we treat people humanely or not?
First it was Abu Graib and the inhuman treatment we put those people through and now this?
Who are we as a country, anyway?
Who are we as a people?
Do we really believe and stand for what we used to think we stand for anymore?
I'd love to know.
And I'd love to know that we still stand for all that good stuff, too.
Remember?
All the "innocent until proven guilty" and the right of Habeus Corpus and human rights and "equal justice under the law" for everyone and everything like that?
I think there's plenty of us out here who recycle and try to live "green" and not waste but reuse, etc., right? And more and more of us realize, I think, too, that the way we live isn't sustainable. Finally, combine that desire for not wasting along with wanting to be fiscally, financially conservative and it seems like a "green" burial is a natural, don't you?
Think about it.
Either no coffin or a leaner, less expensive pine coffin. (You could be buried in a shroud). No chemicals. No ridiculous, absurd and unnecessary embalming. Just put you right in the Earth. What a beautiful way to go, I think.
And it's gone commercial, thankfully:
'Green' burials require no coffins or chemicals
By MANUEL VALDES (AP)
GOLDENDALE, Wash. — Steve Sall moved forward on uneven, rocky terrain in his motorized wheelchair and came to a stop at the edge of a sweeping vista of ponderosa pines and bright pockets of yellow wildflowers.
Before being stricken three years ago with Lou Gehrig's disease, the 61-year-old Oregon resident who was an avid hiker would have backpacked this canyon. Instead, he was there to pick out his grave site.
Three months later, Sall was laid to rest in the forest.
He would be among the small but growing number of Americans choosing environmentally friendly burials. The so-called "green burials" are a departure from the norm in that they don't use concrete vaults, metal coffins or any chemicals.
The Green Burial Council, an industry group that sets standards, now counts more than 300 approved providers in 40 states, while only a dozen existed as recently as the beginning of 2008.
So that's great news, I think. It saves money, it's much more natural and it both wastes and costs less. Additionally, you can be literally closer to nature. Sure you're dead but still, I think it only makes sense.
If there's bad news to this, it's that there's only one provider for this service registered on the link below for Missouri. So along with this bit of information is a possible business suggestion for you. That is, open up a "green" burial service company here in Kansas City.
It's a thought.
Enjoy that beautiful weather out there in the meantime, folks.
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