Honda will soon add Google Earth to its ‘internavi Premium Club’ navigation service in Japan. The advanced navigation system was first launched in 2003, offering a wireless connection to the internet to download the latest traffic information to the built-in computer.
When the Little Guy Helped the Wealthy Keep Their Tax Secret
The problem came to light during a Senate investigation of the 1929 stock-market crash: Some of America’s wealthiest citizens, including the banker J.P. Morgan and his partners, were legally paying nothing in federal income taxes.
The solution, endorsed by majorities of both parties in Congress: Make individuals’ income-tax information public, and shame the evaders into paying their fair share.
Under the Revenue Act of 1934, anyone who filed a federal tax return would also complete another — pink — form, with his or her name, address, income, deductions and total taxes paid. Everything on the pink slips was public information, available to reporters, nosy neighbors or former spouses alike.
Powell Warns Net Neutrologists Not to Be Naive
Former FCC chairman Michael Powell is up on the stage at the Freedom to Connect conference right now, and he warns the tech elite crowd here not to
be naive about the dangers of asking Congress for legislation on Net
Neutrality. As he explains:The legislative process does not work well when it has a weak understanding
of innovation and tech policy. You are talking about 535 members who need
to to get this. They have a very shallow understanding [of Net Neutrality].
If you go give them a quiz about the seven layers of the Internet, good
luck.
David Lazurus has more on the proposed legislation.
Dealer Activism for GM’s Embattled Chairman
Lee Hawkins, Jr., Monica Langley and Joe White:
Besides Mr. Fisher’s statement, Mr. Wagoner recently has won the backing of two prominent GM dealers. John Bergstrom, chairman of Wisconsin-based GM dealership chain Bergstrom Automotive, sent a letter to the board late last week to “share with you my total support and respect for Rick Wagoner…who has earned the respect of all of us in the retail network.”
Another dealer, Carl Sewell, who has 15 GM franchises in the Dallas area, recently began talking to other dealers to say, “We need to come to our company’s and Rick’s defense.” GM is providing his dealerships with “the best product we’ve ever had,” he said, adding that Mr. Wagoner is “a wonderful human being of intellect and integrity.”
US on Wrong Side of Technology Gap?
By several measures, the US appears to be less “connected” than many other countries.
Long Term Rates Creep Higher
Mark Whitehouse and Serena Ng:
After stubbornly resisting nearly two years of prodding by the Federal Reserve, long-term interest rates are on the rise, a trend that could eventually slow the nation’s expansion.
Yesterday, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note — the foundation for long-term interest rates — rose as high as 4.905%, matching a two-year peak set in May 2004. Some analysts believe the yield is on a run that will take it above 5%.
The upturn, spurred by deepening economic growth in the U.S. and abroad, is pushing up the cost of a widening range of consumer and business loans — including 30-year mortgages and corporate bonds — from extraordinarily low levels.
Paradox of the Worse Network – AT&T: “15Mbps Internet Connections Irrelevant”
At this week’s Media, Entertainment and Telecommunications conference, AT&T COO Randall Stephenson told his listeners that increased bandwidth was no longer of great importance to consumers.
“In the foreseeable future, having a 15 Mbps Internet capability is irrelevant because the backbone doesn’t transport at those speeds,” he told the conference attendees. Stephenson said that AT&T’s field tests have shown “no discernable difference” between AT&T’s 1.5 Mbps service and Comcast’s 6 Mbps because the problem is not in the last mile but in the backbone.
AT&T, formerly SBC is the dominant internet provider in Wisconsin…… Stephenson completely misses the point that bidirectional fast networks to the home will open up many, many small business opportunities.
Internet Injects Sweeping Change into Politics
The transformation of American politics by the Internet is accelerating with the approach of the 2006 Congressional and 2008 White House elections, prompting the rewriting of rules on advertising, fund-raising, mobilizing supporters and even the spreading of negative information.
Democrats and Republicans are sharply increasing their use of e-mail, interactive Web sites, candidate and party blogs, and text-messaging to raise money, organize get-out-the-vote efforts and assemble crowds for a rallies. The Internet, they said, appears to be far more efficient, and less costly, than the traditional tools of politics, notably door knocking and telephone banks.
Analysts say the campaign television advertisement, already diminishing in influence with the proliferation of cable stations, faces new challenges as campaigns experiment with technology that allows direct messaging to more specific audiences, and through unconventional means.
Those include Podcasts featuring a daily downloaded message from a candidate and so-called viral attack videos, designed to trigger peer-to-peer distribution by e-mail chains, without being associated with any candidate or campaign. Campaigns are now studying popular Internet social networks, like Friendster and Facebook, as ways to reaching groups of potential supporters with similar political views or cultural interests.
No Doubt.
Korea – The World’s Most Wired Country
Reeling from the Asian financial crisis of 1997, South Korea decided that becoming a high-tech nation was the only way to secure its future.
The government deregulated the telecommunications and Internet service industries and made investments as companies laid out cables in cities and into the countryside. The government offered information technology courses to homemakers, subsidized computers for low-income families and made the country the first in the world to have high-speed Internet in every primary, junior and high school.
French Protest VR Scenes
Gilles Vidal has posted some great panoramic news scenes.