This is not a prediction merely a wish. A vision that I believe will be the best solution to the communication infrastructure and market. This is not it.

Currently I buy electricity from Central Hudson. They are a government regulated monopoly that maintains the local electric grid. They buy power from anybody who wants to start a power plant. They sell to anyone who wants the power, or people can pay the power plant directly to try for a cheaper rate. The state decides what the prices are. Central Hudson has to ask to change the rates, and they need to have thorough documentation to support the request. The system works. The whole national power grid works this way. My contention is that the national Data Grid should work similarly.

Verizon is currently running all purpose fiber optic data lines, directly to people's homes and business (FiOS). It is capable of carrying massive amounts of data. Enough to bring superbroadband internet, HD video on demand, HD video phone even! With this they transcend the concept of a phone company, they become the data company.

The job of the Data Company is simple. Give people access to any data they want. as fast as they want, anytime they want. Just like you can pay the power company for giving you access to electricity, you pay the data company for access to data. And just like the power company, it needs to be a government regulated monopoly.

The rules would be pretty simple. People pay for bandwidth, not bits. All bits are equal, none get any preferential treatment. People pay for two things, guaranteed bandwidth, and possible bandwidth. Guaranteed bandwidth is exactly what it sounds like. You are always guaranteed at least this level. Flexible bandwidth is possible, but if used too much, may be temporarily limited. The rules for exactly how much guaranteed and possible bandwidth would cost, and how they would be regulated, would probably best be decided by others. But I would imagine that if your flexible bandwidth is maximized for more than a two hours, you may be throttled down until its no longer maximized for six hours. The price should probably be something like 10 to 1. As in $10/month if X bandwidth is guaranteed and only $1/month if it's flexible. Oh yah and one more rule. The direction of bandwidth doesn't mater. Both directions would be the same.

This would work because the data company doesn't care about what data they are delivering. Their only concern is that it gets delivered well. As technology evolves people will want more bandwidth, and so the Data Company has incentive to upgrade their network to supply it. The local or state government would dictate the profits allowed. So the consumer demand for bandwidth would balance with the amount spent on infrastructure.

Sorry this post was so long.

This is it. A slightly disturbing percentage of my posts in tha last months are about Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor. But that's only because it's pretty important.

So the go to www.nin.com on may 5 suggestion was not about the new site. It was in fact the release date for a new album The Slip.

Year Zero was released on April 16th 2007. Prior to that it was not uncommon for a span of many (5+) years between major studio albums. This time just under 13 months. And if you count Ghosts I-VI (all instrumental) only 2 months. I'm sure a large part of that is the fact that NIN and Trent Reznor are no longer tied to any label. The first released single from The Slip was released online and to radio within 24 hours of it being mastered.

Tech Dirt has a quick write up on the model that The Slip has been released with. Trent Reznor will cut the path that the rest of the music industry will follow in the future. I have no doubt of that.

As far as the album it's self goes. While the style may be far from the days of The Downward Spiral, I really like it. It’s built with very thick and heavy industrial dance beats, making a couple of great radio songs. The album as a whole, track, by track, fades into more experimental, and thus interesting stuff later. It absolutely brings back the overall form of the album as a whole, as something more that just a collection of random singles. Which I love.

Grab a copy yourself, it's completely free.

Right now there seems to be a sudden growth of stories about how the internet is killing traditional newspapers. It's true. In fact it is true of all media. The internet has gifted every individual with the ability to mass distribute ideas, information, and art... by themselves.

A paper is no longer needed for people to get news. It's expensive to produce. And today, growing ever more expensive to deliver. But people still want news. Possibly more now, than ever before. So unsurprisingly people turn away from the paper, to the internet instead. Why pay for paper delivery when you already pay for internet delivery. They both provide news. And then the internet has so much more on top of that.

But the internet isn't without problems. When everybody has an equal voice, rumor and speculation can sound just as credible as actual knowledge and incite. In fact, that is largely what news on the net is right now. There are a relative few number of sources doing actual research and reporting. The other 90+% is all people rehashing the original research into something that fits their opinion, or even worse, something more sensational to drive page views.

So good news is still very much needed. And the paper of newspapers is too expensive to survive. The solution seems simple. Newspapers need to think of themselves as news reporting services. A service that finds and generates real trustworthy information, and distributes it through any form people desire. Whether it's paper, online, or even audio. Yes even audio! I would love it if somebody would read me the days top stories during my commute, the same as a Podcast, or audio book.

But as with most people who have been doing something a certain way for a long time, they have difficulty seeing any other possibilities. But as so much is susceptible to evolution, so is this. If the traditional news organizations don't figure it out, somebody else will. Even though general news on the net isn't as good as it could be, it will eventually mature, and I have no doubt that it will be even better than the news papers it replaced.

For examples of online news done right, look at Ars Technica and Tech Dirt. You can think of them as the NY Times and NY Daily News respectively. They are both technology focused, but everything outside of the news content, is right on target. They should be seen as an example for traditional news organizations to strive for.

Today I was rear-ended by a Pontiac GTO. Thankfully the damage was pretty minor as far as car accidents go. I would give it only half a star. However the guy who hit me was not nearly so calm. He was very pissed at himself. Apparently he thrashed his motorcycle as well, just last week. I have been in too many of these to be upset. Waiting around over half an hour, for a cop to arrive and right up a report, was a little annoying.

When I got home I filed my claim GEICO online. It was nothing different than all the standard questions a person would ask me over the phone, nothing special. The cool part of doing it online is, they let you upload photos, and any other files you want them to have. That I thought was very cool.

When they called me back a few minuets later, offered me two options. They could get me fixed right away less my $500 deposit, and have me refunded later. Or I could just deal with his company directly. I don't have the $500 on hand, and my damage is merely cosmetic, nothing functionally wrong, so now I'm dealing with State Farm. For the record, so far they have been pretty decent. Once they get their client lined up they will contact me about my repairs.

South Carolina has never been the brightest of states. We all know that. Their latest legislative endeavor tries to verify that a minor signing up for an account on Myspace has parents that know about it.

Nobody can effectively legislate the internet. Because it crosses all boarders. If you make a law against something within yours, all those doing it, must simply move. They can do whatever you may call bad, from 9000 miles away, and legally there is nothing you can do to stop them.

This kind of stuff fries my brain.