The State Journal editorial page takes Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager to task for joining with six other states and New York City to sue five of the country’s largest power producers to force them to cut carbon dioxide emissions. This is the same organization that, under Democrat Jim Doyle signed us up for the Matrix personal data mining project – then later withdrew.
Keeping the environment clean is certainly important, but the WSJ raises some useful issues on this topic. I believe that our state leadership is ignorning (for political reasons) the most important economic issues of our time, such as the construction of true high speed networks.
High speed data networks are the rails and roads of the future. Yet, today, we are saddled with slow services supported by local telco monopoly SBC.
Verizon just announced that fiber to the premises (“fttp” or to the home) will be available in Keller, Texas, parts of Southern California and Florida. Prices will range start at $40/month for 2 to 5mbps service; with optional speeds up to 30mbps. (Currently, many state residents can choose from 384kbps to 1.5mbps DSL or cable service – 1/10th the speed, or less of the fibre based products).
These speeds make high quality personal video conferencing a reality (family & friends), new small businesses from the home possible and most importantly, will reduce the cost of true high speed access for all residents.
Nice to see our politicians are paying attention.
David Isenberg has some useful examples of “value-subtracted” telco business models. Isenberg also discusses a May, 2004 study that shows a dramatic reduction in telco operating expenses after they switch from a copper wire based network to a fibre system.
Le Tour De France Daily Videos
OLNTV has a very useful daily Tour de France site, with video clips here.
Stunning Apollo 11 VR Scene
Kudos to Hans Nyberg. Nyberg put together a stunning Quicktime VR scene of Apollo 11’s moon landing from old NASA photographs.
Weblogs & Journalism – Where’s the money going?
Glenn Reynolds, Jay Rosen and Jon Lauck discuss monopoly newspapers, reduced reporter counts and journalism quality. The Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 and the general monopoly position of most papers has not done much, as far as I can see, other than insulated entrenched organizations from the market. Perhaps atrophy is starting to take its course.
I summarized my thoughts on Madison’s local newspaper monopoly here (along with some of the unintended consequences). There are some parallels to Microsoft’s tactics.
Checking Account Fraud
Caroline Mayer and Griff Witte cover a growing problem with checking account fraud (helped, in part by the growth of automated payments):
When Shereen Greene recently scanned her bank statement, she found a $139 charge from a company she had never heard of — Pharmacycards.com.
The Atlanta paralegal dug out her canceled check and easily saw it was fake. The name on it was her maiden name, which she had not used in seven years. The address was five years old and her signature was missing. In its place, was a brief message: “Authorized by your customer. No signature required.”
Still, the numbers at the bottom of the check belonged to Greene’s bank account, and in the increasingly automated world of check processing, that was all that mattered.
GE will see you now
Reed Abelson and Milt Freudenheim take a look at GE’s latest moves in the health care business. Their new services include
- Consulting
- Lending
- Software – via acquisitions
The article mentions several GE competitors, but does not include Madison based Epic Systems, a very successful health care software firm (and Madison’s tech star).
25lbs of King Crab
Travel can often be interesting. This evening, I sat next to a retired executive returning home from two weeks panning for gold in Nome, AK. He mentioned that he had 25lbs of king crab in the cargo hold ($4.99/lb) just off the boat….
Dining in Santa Fe
Dave Winer is in Santa Fe. The excellent India Palace restaurant features delicious East Indian cuisine. The Fodors says:
Even seasoned veterans of East Indian cuisine have been known to rate this deep-pink, art-filled restaurant among the best in the United States. The kitchen prepares fairly traditional recipes — tandoori chicken, lamb vindaloo, saag paneer (spinach with farmer’s cheese), shrimp biryani (tossed with cashews, raisins, almonds, and saffron rice) — but the presentation is always flawless and the ingredients fresh. Meals are cooked as hot or mild as requested. Try the Indian buffet at lunch. AE, D, MC, V.
-Fodors
Good Samaritan Tale
Doug Moe’s Saturday column: “Hope and Doom on I-26” reminded me of the well known Jesus Parable: The Good Samaritan. I wonder how many of us would do what Chuck Stiles and his son did last Sunday in South Carolina?
Local Sports Site wishoops.net makes a splash
Jason Kiley of wishoops.net reported Friday that Madison Memorial basketball player Wesley Matthews will attend Marquette. This is interesting in several ways:
- Local TV Station Channel 3 credited this site as the source for their Friday evening report
- Jon Masson, Wisconsin State Journal Sports columnist referred only to a “A state basketball Web site” in his article on the subject. If the subject is worth an article, it is certainly right to link to the site!
- The site provides a substantial amount of content, far more than the old media types. I wish them well!
- Interestingly, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is silent on the matter this Saturday morning.
This article, and the old media’s handling is a great example of what Jeff Jarvis refers to as the disintermediation of authority. Advertising revenues will follow over time. The Economist covered this recently (subscription required).