Your Computer Minute with Peter Kay

I wrote an editorial “DSL vs. cable: Those misleading ads are the last straw” that was published in the Star Bulletin this weekend.

I’ve been getting a good response from people who mostly have been saying that it was informative, and accurate writeup. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the week pans out on this.

Copy of article below:

YOU’VE SEEN the commercial: cable broadband Internet subscribers sharing a fat straw with some guy who has a cold. It’s making me sick.

Not because I’m catching the cold, mind you, but because the commercial implies sharing straws is something that happens only with cable Internet service. If you really want to gag a geek, just create misleading technology advertisements, like my DSL friends are doing over at Hawaiian Telcom.

The truth is, everyone “shares straws” on the Internet, no matter which technology they use. Any time you access a Web site, or any other public site on the Internet, you’re sharing bandwidth. It doesn’t matter if you’re using DSL, cable, dialup, wireless, satellite or mental telepathy (well, maybe the last one is dedicated if you’re at home by yourself).

In the interest of complete disclosure, you should know that the Roadrunner cable people sponsor “Your Computer Minute,” my computer advice spots on the radio. That being said, I’m not here to sell you on cable modems. It’s just high time a geek stepped up and put the facts forward on this whole “share the straw” outbreak.

What’s my beef? Simply put, the Hawaiian Telcom folks are making it sound like their users don’t share bandwidth. They use words like “your dedicated Internet access” and “stop sharing Internet” that I believe are misleading and confusing people. That ain’t right.

It’s time to set the record straight with some facts. Feel free to show them to your favorite geek for validation. See, what’s cool about geeks is that we can’t lie. In fact, our biggest problem is we keep yakking the truth when the marketing guys want us to shut up.

» What’s fastest, cable or DSL?

That depends. Roadrunner’s cable system is designed for significantly faster speeds than Hawaiian Telcom’s DSL can offer. Roadrunner’s maximum download speed is 5 million bits per second (referred to as “megabits per second,” or “mbps”). In contrast, DSL’s maximum download speed is 3 mbps, according to their own Web site.

One little detail our friends somehow forgot to mention is that with Hawaiian Telcom’s DSL technology, the farther away you are from the telephone exchange, the slower your service will be. Funny how those little detrimental details get left out of the cute ads, huh?

The actual speed you experience online will depend on a number of factors, including where you live, the computer hardware you use and the amount of spyware, viruses and other useless software that’s been installed behind your back.

» Does “sharing bandwidth” on a cable system raise special speed or security concerns?

No. All Internet users share bandwidth.

The Internet is a network of networks, shared by millions of users. DSL provides a dedicated line only to the nearest telephone exchange, after which DSL users share connections just like everyone else to enter and move around the Internet, which is where most slowdowns occur.

As for security, local cable traffic is encrypted and filtered to make it virtually impossible to eavesdrop on an individual data stream within the Roadrunner system.

» Which is a better value, DSL or cable?

It depends. DSL is generally a little cheaper, but the price of cable Internet service can be comparable when purchased in a package with TV and/or telephone service.

Contrary to what the DSL commercials say, Roadrunner subscribers can hook up multiple computers to a single cable connection at no extra charge by using an inexpensive wireless router, just as DSL users can.

» Which technology gets better ratings from consumers?

In PC World’s most recent survey of its readers, published in June, Roadrunner had better satisfaction ratings than any DSL provider. Roadrunner got a score of 78. DSL providers received scores ranging from 56 to 72. (Hawaiian Telcom Online DSL service was not in the survey.)

Similarly, Roadrunner got the highest marks of any Internet service in J.D. Power’s 2005 Major Provider Business Data Telecommunications Services Study. According to J.D. Power, “Roadrunner Business Class … ranks highest in customer satisfaction among broadband data business customers, earning high marks in all six factor areas,” which included performance and reliability, billing, cost of service and customer service.

» What’s the bottom line?

Advertising is all about hype. Ask any geek what they think about advertising or salespeople and you’ll instantly hear, “Liars!” Most of us understand and take the hype into account when we see commercials.

Personally, I don’t mind a good mud-slinging against brand “X” every once in a while. But I’m going to draw the line in this case because Hawaiian Telcom is guilty of the exact same thing — sharing an Internet connection — it is dissing the cable guys on. I’m going to draw the line because I believe the advertising is misleading and appears to be designed to confuse.

I can’t tell you whether DSL or cable is better for you. You will have to make that decision based on sound research and solid facts. I’m just here to point out the shibai, geek style.

I guess where there are kids, there are bullies. And where there are bullies, there’s a nonprofit organization funded by your tax dollars that’s telling us the obvious: it’s wrong.

Apparently 1 in 5 kids gets bullied electronically and text messaging is the most popular. A report by NCH gives you an idea of what kids are saying to each other, which sounds very much like what we used to say to each other back when I was a kid (except the “we’ll burn your house down” part):

“You’ve got ‘you’re big, you’re fat, you smell and nobody likes you’ right through to ‘we know where you live and we’re going to burn down your house and you’re going to die’”

In fact, there’s even a Web site: http://stoptextbully.com/.

Need more info? Cnet has a good article on it.

So what’s the solution? It’s the same one today that is used to be a long time ago: beat the crap out of the bully. Except now instead of fists, it’s hacking geeks to the rescue! Shut ‘em down, boyz!

I just found out about an interesting new service YubNub that allows you to use and create “command line” stuff for the Web.

So for example, if you do Google image searches, you simply type in “gim flower” into YubNub and you’ll get it.

What’s neat-o about YubNub is that it’s a “social” command line which lets you create commands that get added to YubNub’s dictionary.

In fact, I created a command too:

Google has this neat feature where you can search for the definition of a word by searching for “define:word”. So, I created a YubNub command for it, “gdef”. So if you want a definition of say, podcasting, you type in “gdef podcasting” and voila!

I don’t know if this will catch on or if it’s just a Geek Toy. For now it’s a Geek toy to me.

I just listened to this well thought-out presentation by Kim Polese of SpikeSource talking about what her company does, which is to put a smart IT-management layer atop open source components and I walk away with a couple of thoughts:

• Very cool idea.
• What will OSS developers who are doing this for free start feeling when they see SpikeSource start earning money on the free code they wrote?
• How long will important software continue to be free once somebody is sitting on top of it and making money?

This will be interesting to watch. If the OSS community was based on all the developers doing it for free and being broke all as a group, then the insertion of profit taking might spoil the soup for all.

If, however, OSS was built on the faith that “code it and we’ll figure out how to make money one day” and if SpikeSource can figure out a way to help all those volunteer developers, there could be something huge here.

I just caught this Infoworld article that Apple and Nokia have opened up a browser partnership.

Nokia has announced that it using open source software in developing a new mobile Web browser for its Series 60 SmartPhone — and that this has been developed in cooperation with Apple.

What does this mean?

First, some obvious facts:

• Apple knows there’s a company called Nokia.
• Apple knows that Nokia is developing mp3 functionality.
• Apple wants to expand iPod functionality.
• Apple knows that pretty soon every competitor is going to get medieval on the iPod.

And now, the obvious conclusion:

• Apple and Nokia will soon be delivering jointly-labled iPod uberphones.

(Don’t let the smoke screen of this Browser Partnersshp announcement fool you).