Lessig has made a submission to the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee about Net neutrality. If you have read Lessig’s books most of the information is not new. If you haven’t read his books, this submission provides a nice short version.
Doing HTTP Caching Right: Introducing httplib2 provides a really nice overview of the HTTP caching model before introducing a new Python HTTP library.
The key design feature of the Internet is the end-to-end principle. In short, the end-to-end principle says that as much work as possible should be done at the ends of the network. This results in a very simple network core. The simplicity of the core allows it to scale. See World of Ends for more implications of the end-to-end principle.
If you ask most network people exactly where the “end” is they will probably say it is the device at the edge of the network. Some may even go as far as to say it is the operating system on the edge device. At present this is indeed the case. For example, the processing necessary to make TCP a reliable protocol happens within the operating system.
At LCA 2006, Van Jacobson recently weighed in on the network protocol processing overhead that is becoming a big problem as link data rates increase. Current operating systems are having a hard time keeping up with 10 gigabit links, especially when using TCP. In his presentation, Van Jacobson says that the placement of the TCP stack in the operating system kernel is a historical accident. This design was chosen because it was necessary to ensure Multics did not page out the TCP stack. Further, TCP in the kernel violates the end-to-end principle because the kernel is not the end, the application is. Van Jacobson offers Net channels as a possible solution to this problem. Net channels provide a simple, cache friendly way to manage network packets within a system.
The presentation discusses several ways that Net channels can improve TCP performance. The first is to use Net channels between the NIC and the current in-kernel TCP stack. The more interesting use of Net channels is to push all TCP processing into userspace. Essentially, each application would have their own TCP stack. This removes the bottleneck that the single, system-wide TCP stack creates. Amazingly, Van Jacobson presents statistics which show that this modification results in TCP processing overhead dropping by 80%. Other benefits would include a simpler kernel and the ability to have a TCP stack tuned for each application. Applying TCP bug fixes and adding new features would also become easier with TCP moved outside of the kernel.
For more information on this really amazing idea see the following resources.
The most dangerous liars can be the kids’ own parents. If you take a boring job to give your family a high standard of living, as so many people do, you risk infecting your kids with the idea that work is boring.
Most people are doomed in childhood by accepting the axiom that work = pain.
All parents tend to be more conservative for their kids than they would for themselves, simply because, as parents, they share risks more than rewards. If your eight year old son decides to climb a tall tree, or your teenage daughter decides to date the local bad boy, you won’t get a share in the excitement, but if your son falls, or your daughter gets pregnant, you’ll have to deal with the consequences.
The Problem with Webcasting provides a nice overview of the new webcaster’s (copy) right that is being pushed by the U.S. WIPO delegation.
There’s a new restriction on content waiting in the wings–a “webcaster’s right” that allows websites to control the dissemination of content they put up. With this new privilege, they’ll be able to prevent retransmission even if the copyright on that content is owned by somebody else–even, in fact, if that content was in the public domain.
I don’t do much gaming these days so maybe Second Life is well known and I just missed it. It certainly is an interesting concept. Instead of paying a service fee, users pay what essentially amounts to a land tax on the virtual land they own.
Become a part of history by purchasing land and developing your own piece of Second Life. The Pricing and Fees are simple; you pay $9.95 a month plus a Land Use Fee proportional to the amount of land you own.
Linden Lab’s Terms of Service agreement recognizes Residents right to retain full intellectual property protection for the digital content they create in Second Life …
The Marketplace currently supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions. This commerce is handled with the in-world currency, the Linden dollar, which can be converted to US dollars at several thriving online currency exchanges.
What is your dangerous idea? from the Edge.
Answers to that question from 120 thinkers. Warning, it is quite long but very interesting.
The Conservative party of Canada has been making a big deal out of accountability during this election campaign. The following quote is from Harper Makes Commitment to Clean Up Government.
Stephen Harper said today his first piece of legislation as Prime Minister will be to introduce a new Federal Accountability Act designed to end the influence of big money in Ottawa and crack down on a lobbying culture that has thrived under Paul Martin.
To their credit, the Conservatives do outline some good ideas for dealing with this problem in the quoted article.
However, it would appear that at least one current Conservative MP is not a stranger to accepting money from lobby groups. From The Sad Reality of Copyright Policy in Canada:
In fact, notwithstanding the Conservatives’ claims of accountability, new research indicates that Oda is no stranger to funding support. According to her 2004 riding association data, she accepted thousands of dollars in contributions from the broadcast lobby. Corporate supporters included Alliance Atlantis, Astral Media, Canwest, and CHUM.