It's long past time to reclaim parts of the internet for public use. I propose a movement where various internet service providers (across the stack) pledge or contractually bind themselves to:

- Never assist third parties in tracking users or acquiring user information. This means no XSS, web bugs, cookies, or other trade of user tracking data
- Destroy personally identifying information on a regular basis
- Never allow the government to acquire or seize information without a public warrant
- Never sell-out to entities that break any of the above rules

This.

Power attracts people or entities who want to abuse that power and use it to exploit other people for their own benefit. Always.

Information of *any* kind is power, and large amounts of correlated and personalized information is *immense* power for any person or entity who has access to it.

The NY Times reports that people who read ebooks on tablets like the iPad are beginning to realize that while a book in print is straightforward and immersive, a tablet is more like a 21st-century cacophony than a traditional solitary activity

This article presents no sales figures, no trend graphs, and no statistics from actual book buyers. The only citation in the article that supports this assertion are the opinions of unspecified random publishers, an opinion survey - of publishers, and one random reader much perfers her tablet over paper books.

The entire article is yet another example of poorly supported screed from out-of-touch haters in the tree killing industry pining for the past where publishers, rather than e-book authors, controlled publishing.

You've gotta love this specious, narcissistic, antisocial line of argument. It's a specious form of false attribution that also conflates anecdote with data, similar to the refrain that, "I don't see my rights aren't being violated, so what's the problem?"

The initial outlay for wireless equipment and towers may be higher, but just like land lines, the costs are fixed and extremely low per MB. There is no more different necessity to meter wireless service than there is to meter fiber or copper service.

Canada and Saudi Arabia, unlike the United States, have a massive surplus, and like most people around the world, they really, really like money. Different strokes for different folks, ya'll.

And when those same companies are finished wringing your treasury dry with tax abatements, they'll flee overseas, leaving your state with astronomical bond payments.

Thanks China, seriously.