Kenosis is a “fully-distributed peer-to-peer RPC system built on top of XML-RPC.” Their first app is a decentralized BitTorrent. Permanent link to this item in the archive.
Very cool! It’ll be interesting to see how it works, but I like the idea, the architecture sounds good (to me, based on a quick read, and what do I know anyway), and I applaud their choice for the demo application.
Last week, I took Dave Winer to task for suggesting that RF spectrum didn’t matter in a world of things like iPodder helped people route around the traditional broadcast media. Such a view was, I thought, shortsighted, because without open spectrum and cheap transparent internet access, innovative new applications like iPodder are dead on arrival. Without it, the big companies who control DSL and Cable net access are likely to seek to restrict our choices, both for how we access the net, and what we do with it.
To highlight that fact, I want to call your attention to this appeal from the independent ISP I buy net access from.
The River Report: January 2005
Almost 30 million people connect to the Internet through an independent Internet Service Provider (ISP). An Independent ISP is any business (such as The River) outside the largest providers such as AOL, MSN, Cox and Qwest. We need you to take action to preserve your ability to choose how you connect to the Internet.
The time to act is now, whether or not you use an independent ISP, whether or not you have DSL or cable net access, this matters to you. The remaining baby bells are trying to garner FCC support for limiting choice in most markets in the US, this will decrease competition, which will almost certainly lead to increased prices and/or decreased quality of service. It’s also a step closer to giving to putting these big companies in a position to control what you can use the net for by blocking or otherwise degrading your ability to use third party communications tools and services, like instant messenger based video and audio conferencing, and cheap feature rich net telephony services like Skype and Vonage. And don’t even think about multi-player Halo2 without kicking in an extra $20 month for their “gamers package.”
Please, don’t wait. People in Qwest territory only have the remainder of the day to comment. People in other territories don’t have much longer. It will only take a few minutes.
For all the info and links you need to comment and help framing what you should say, please see the link above and a copy of the comment text I submitted below.
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Dave tells Doc Searls to “forget about spectrum” saying that its “such a 20th Centurey concept, that in the age of podcasting, spectrum is infinite and costs $35 a year from Network Solutions.”
Dave seems to be forgetting that transit for those podcasts, especially the last mile, isn’t necessarily a sure thing. Companies are jockying for control of the internet infrastructure, and they aren’t all believers in transparent networks. Some of them want to set rates depending on the value of the payload, rather than just its size, just as the railroads set different rates for iron ore vs finished goods.
The mobile phone companies already do it. The rates they charge for SMS is much higher per bit than they charge for voice, and they are already working to control the endpoints by making it difficult to access any content or applications that they don’t get a kickback on.
More open spectrum makes it practical for people to continue to route around such damaged pieces of the Internet infrastructure and can only help insure vital grassroots movements like Podcasting.
Allocating more open spectrum, and encouraging technologies and policies that treat spectrum use as something other than a zero-sum game should be paid attention to, and can only help us get away from bottlenecks on expression.
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Site Map of Nuclear Power Sites in USA
Classic!
This morning NPR and the TV News carried a story that Federal authorities in the United States are concerned that terrorists might be planning to use lasers crash airliners by blinding their crews during landings. The stories mention a case where a Delta pilot reported eye damage while being exposed to a laser beam while landing in Salt Lake City.
More distressing is what the reports dont contain. It’s well known in some circles that terrors have designs on using weather control to wreak havoc on our nation. Others are working on animal mind control to turn our pets against us.
However the greatest risk during the Christmas season, when most God-fearing households in the nation bring pine and fir trees into their homes, is plant control.
In the early 1990s, Ben Edlund produced a documentary showing successful efforts of a shadowy figure he called El Seed, to corrupt vegetation into a ruthless army of destruction.
The documentary ended with the defeat of the plant army at the hands of US friendly forces, but El Seed’s whereabouts were unknown. Now, US officials now believe that El Seed is traveling under the name of Al Sayed, and has been mentioned in numerous Al Qaeda intercepts. They believe he has been perfecting a new, more robust, technique of plant control in the desert climate of the Middle East, and is now prepared to unleash the lush vegetation we’ve invited into our living rooms upon us.
Administration officials are at loose ends on how to thwart the attack without causing a widespread panic which could ruin the Christmas shopping season and wreak catastrophe among major Republican contributors like Hallmark, Wall Mart, Target, Circuit City, and 3M, who makes the Scotch-brand tape used to seal the wrappings on 89% of Christmas presents during the holiday season.
Noting that the Congress cut funding for the National Science Foundation at the same time it increased funding for abstinence education, and found more money for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Anthony comments that “the next Einstein is not likely to be an American.”
Of course, the last Einstein wasn’t exactly an American either. But that only illustrates a larger point: Not only did the US benefit from providing the support necessary to train the best and brightest of our native born to be the scientific, technical and industrial leaders of tomorrow. We also benefitted greatly by attracting the best and brightest from other countries fleeing mediocre institutions and oppressive governments.
How much longer is that going to last with Bush and his kind diverting money from programs like the NSF, which among other things, really helped make the Internet mainstream by funding internet availability to all undergrads in the early 90s, in order to fund mis-guided and mis-managed wars, and in order to pour tax dollars into the coffers of fundamentalist pig-brained religious organizations?