Disqus - Latest Comments for Tim Schneider

Re: Hollaar on the DMCA, WIPO, and Ed Felten

Tim Schneider — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 22:06:44 -0000

Here's another post where he addresses the revisionist history of the suit.

http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1010

Re: Templeton on Network Neutrality

Tim Schneider — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 17:49:43 -0000

Tim, I'm curious what you make of Templeton's fear of usage based pricing for consumers. One of the things I've been hearing is that last mile providers can't recoup their costs from end users because they're stuck in a flat fee pricing scheme, hence they need to find other ways to monetize their networks.

But doesn't the idea appeal to your libertarian instincts? If light users are in fact subsidizing heavy users, a switch to usage based pricing should result in vastly lower broadband costs for most users. It would also encourage efficient use of bandwidth.

The argument is that consumers wouldn't go along, but I'm not convinced of that. It seems like it's just cover for the fact that the vast majority of us overpay for the bandwidth we use. I don't think we're likely to see such a model absent serious competitive pressure.

Re: Speaking of Iron Triangles…

Tim Schneider — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 09:11:24 -0000

I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that the performance licenses that XM has are compulsory. As in, the music industry can't say no. But music licensing is an absolute morass, so I'm not positive about that. I think it's part of the AHRA.

For what it's worth, I wouldn't want the music industry to have absolute control over performance rights. The end of cover bands? Or maybe that would be a good thing.

Re: The Technology Liberation Front » Archive » Video Games & Innovation

Tim Schneider — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 14:08:22 -0000

I think part of the problem is that many people don't consider video games culture/art. There's not a sense that something vital is at stake in locking down video games as there is with music, video or text. The forward looking debates about video games impact on the public sphere tend to focus on the games themselves as public spaces, not on the status of the content within the games/of the games themselves.

I don't think the images are really the test, though they made for a beautiful post. They suggest a key difference between video games and other creative areas: the barriers to entry--the cost of the hardware and software necessarily to create/modify such environments--are much higher than for other media.

And don't you have to talk about the industry's relation to game mods at some point? Flexibility with IP rights can be useful--and financially beneficial--for game creators.

Re: The Technology Liberation Front » Archive » For Shame!

Tim Schneider — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 14:20:20 -0000

FWIW, I often don't agree with your stance Tim, but I always enjoy reading your posts. They are intelligent, thoughtful, and honest. It's too bad Stoller hasn't read any of your DMCA stuff . . . hardly doctrinaire corporate shill stuff. Anyway, keep up the great stuff.

Re: The Technology Liberation Front » Archive » For Shame!

Tim Schneider — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 14:22:34 -0000

Re: Is a Spectrum Commons Chimerical?

Tim Schneider — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 11:34:41 -0000

Tim, your description of the network architecture of municipal wireless networks isn't really accurate. Much of the backhaul on these networks is done using a mix of licensed and unlicensed spectrum, wirelessly, though they all eventually connect to fiber. I don't really know what you mean about people trying to solve the last mile problem directly using wifi. CuWin, Meraki's products, and other community networks are attempts to do just this. Peer production of long haul fiber is probably a ways off though, you're right.

By and large though, this is a limitation of the spectrum itself. Wifi is junk spectrum. Municipal wireless networks would be much different if spectrum with better properties (the ability to reliably pass through external walls, for example) was available as commons. The innovation (and competition) in the Wifi space is pretty compelling case for making more spectrum available as commons.

Re: Is a Spectrum Commons Chimerical?

Tim Schneider — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 19:05:03 -0000

donuts point about regulation is a key one, and it's something you never see really raised by parties who are often skeptical of government mandates in other contexts (see CALEA, broadcast flag). The FCC and standard setting organizations have a big role to play in a spectrum commons.

Benkler hopes that his stories about peer production scale to infrastructure, and to some extent they damn well better. It's not clear what happens to all this value created by powerful computers and lots of people doing a little for no money when it's running over networks owned by people who are emphatically driven by profit motives and maximizing shareholder value. The great fear of net neutrality advocates is that this value gets captured by the network owners, and it's not a crazy fear.

Also, MIT's roofnet is another example of attempts to use wifi to create the local loop (they left MIT to become Meraki).

For what it's worth, your response to this comments thread is one of the reasons this blog never leaves my RSS reader. Opinionated, knowledgeable, polite, and willing to learn . . .

Re: Your Productivity

Tim Schneider — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 13:38:31 -0000

It's funny how the rate of posts dropped off after that. I certainly stopped accomplishing anything.

Re: Finally, Muni WiFi done right

Tim Schneider — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 20:50:47 -0000

I'm sorry, I had high hopes with a title like that, but your post doesn't even make sense.

"the Mayor will ask City staff to work with the major cellular phone service providers to determine where coverage areas may be lacking and identify ways the City may be able to help expand their services within the City limits."

This sounds like an effort to identify coverage holes within the city of Anaheim, and then figure out what the city can do to help. Why should a city even be involved in this?

And how does opening up city assets to another potential broadband provider "stifle competition?"

Re: iPhone 2.0 cracked in hours… what was that Zittrain thesis again?

Tim Schneider — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:45:59 -0000

Doesn't the number of people who have access to generative technology matter for Zittrain's thesis. Defaults matter, and if only a small number of iPhone users are willing and able to crack their iPhones, then it remains closed and proprietary for the vast majority. At least part of Zittrain's argument is that the iPhone is the leading edge of people expecting their edge devices to give them less freedom. My parents aren't going to be cracking their iphones anytime soon . . .

Re: Some Shameless iPhone Gushing

Tim Schneider — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:20:01 -0000

Tim, just curious, but do you have any idea (I don't) to what extent the UI innovations--in particular those related to the touchscreen, flicking, resizing, etc.--are covered by patents.

It seems to me like they almost certainly are, and that these patents are likely expansive enough to hinder similar UI development based on touchscreens by competitors, to the detriment of us all.

Re: Cutting the (Video) Cord, Part 2

Tim Schneider — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:45:45 -0000

You're gradually convincing me, Adam. But what about sports? I don't have a TV, and this is the one thing I really miss. Even the few online packages I've pursued are no help: I can't watch the games because they are broadcast locally . . .

This is something that a la carte _could_ address.

Re: SF 2 NYC

Tim Schneider — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:48:13 -0000

Just wait until Iowa . . .

I wouldn't recommend it on this trip, but I drove across Nevada once on Highway 50 "the loneliest road in America." The landscape was like Afghanistan. Dead cattle on the side of the road, no gas for hours. And then, at the end, Reno! Awesome.

Re: Groceries

Tim Schneider — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:48:25 -0000

I've been looking around for a good wagon to tow my groceries back from Whole Foods to the East End. I walk about the same distance to work, so I don't think it would be a big deal. When I lived in NYC a lot of people had those wire frame collapsible wheelies to do the same. It turns out a good wagon is hard to find.

Walking and biking in winter is just a matter of appropriate clothing, for me.