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31 Mar 2010 11:07

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Tech: Want fast internet access? Move to South Korea, kids

  • $45.50 cost of your average interweb connection in the U.S.
  • $28.50 cost of a much-faster interweb connection in South Korea source

20 Jan 2010 10:03

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Biz: Learning to love the bomb: Why we don’t mind the NYT’s pay wall

  • The gray lady’s change from free to pay makes sense. Simply put, if there’s one newspaper in the U.S. that can blaze the trail for online pay walls and get it right, it’s the New York Times. Here’s why:
  • one They’re big enough to take the kind of risks that smaller papers can’t.
  • two They understand the Web better than most papers – there’s no tired cynicism here.
  • three They get the sharing nature of the Web, and so does their planned model.
  • four They’ve had a long history of online innovation already, such as Times Skimmer.
  • five They have content that’s good enough that people will pay for it. Duh. source

17 Dec 2009 22:23

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Tech, U.S.: One place the stimulus is helping: More broadband in more places

  • $7.2
    billion
    in funds is headed for communities in need of better broadband Internet access
  • $183 million is headed to 17 different states starting right about now (hooray rural states!) source

10 Nov 2009 11:10

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Tech: Google has a great gift for weary tech-savvy travelers

  • 47 airports will offer free holiday Wi-Fi access. Whoa, thanks! source

02 Jul 2009 22:18

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Biz, U.S.: Pay-for-play journalism with the Washington Post? No way, Jose!

  • We will not participate in events where promises are made that in exchange for money The Post will offer access to newsroom personnel or will refrain from confrontational questioning. Our independence from advertisers or sponsors is inviolable.
  • Marcus W. Brauchli • Executive editor of The Washington Post, talking about a report in Politico about a series of “salons” to offered lobbyists access to Washington Post journalists in exchange for their soul … er, money. The first meeting was reported to be at the publisher’s house July 21, and was going to have Post reporters, Obama administration officials and Congressmen. Word is that the flyer for the event leaked early and without proper vetting, and it was likely a marketing person’s vision. In other words, someone’s getting yelled at in a boardroom right now. (Disclosure: ShortFormBlog editor Ernie Smith is affiliated with The Washington Post’s Express, but the blog itself has no ties to The Post, nor does it express the opinions of the company.) • source

25 Feb 2009 11:00

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Tech: The Internet in 1996 vs. 2008: My, how times have changed.

  • 30 minutes Amount of time people with Internet access spent online in 1996. (We were playing Quake, ourselves.) source

17 Jan 2009 09:07

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Tech, U.S.: Another perk of being President Barack Obama

  • *272 Obama’s key to never-jammed cell phone calls source