Defeat ripped from the jaws of victory or what do you call two ex monopolists?

After last night's triumph I was musing about BT's ability to support their Hub and my suspicions that there is a DHCP bug on the home hub and how large organisations really need to understand the software they use and how open source products make skills acquisition easier; although BT have no excuse, since the hub is a Linux derivative, hence open source but they outsourced the development, and for months have denied any knowledge or responsibility for its functionality.

I'd also add I think their support has got better over the last six months. They guy I spoke to yesterday was excellent, although finding the phone number was harder than I'd like. Once upon-a-time, you couldn't do anything but talk to BT, or at least listen to a voice mail menu.

My biggest frustration has been the instability of Vista's connection with the BT Home Hub's Wifi Channels. (see BT Home Hub here on this site.) I shared this with my colleague Tim Reczek who pointed me at the network card's control panel applet, which has an alternate IP configuration panel. He advised me that

if an XP or Vista system can't get an IP address it uses the alternative but the default automatic alternate IP address it uses is not very common, it might be best to configure the alternate address manually to maximise the chance it is a valid IP address

and you can do this in the knowledge of your home router's configuration parameters. The error message I have trapped on my Vista machine suggests this might be the case, Why has it taken so long to discover what a friend had in his head; he does admit he knows too much about the registry.

I find it disgraceful that BT & Microsoft can't get their act together to support joint customers, but its back to what you need to know to make this stuff work. They're both using last century strategies of dumping cost on their customers.

See more at this thread at file save us

Short URL: http://is.gd/a4m6t

The first comment below notes that Dell's ContolPoint Connection Manager might be a factor and that blaming BT and Microsoft as the sole culprits, can you have sole culprits, might be a bit unfair.

Perhaps its not so bad

Paul Carr in his column on TechCrunch, wrote an interesting and balanced article on the DE Bill. He argues that, the law is not that bad but that

• businesses should not be disconnected, only fined and only if it can be proved they have colluded,
• site filtering should be replaced by borrowing from the US DMCA by implementing take down notices and rights holders and their agents should be fined for vexatious behaviour
• there isn't a rush, speedy law is usually bad, this can wait 'till after the election but most importantly 'till after a proper debate

He has attracted a number of comments, some of them lucid and pertinent and some just stupid.

I have commented a couple of times, you can make your mind up which category mine are in, but I said,

I agree with those who thank you for your research and congratulate you on your balance. I also agree with you that if you accept copyright is a legitimate defence of time invested in production then the law may not be so bad, but if copyright and its enforcement create all these problems and costs identified by your more lucid correspondents, then I agree with Tom Watson, its time for new copyright law, not better enforcement of the one we have.

BTW it true there is no fair use in UK law? Will the provisions of the DE Bill as they currently stand open wifi providers to jeopardy? What’ll happen to BT Fon and commercial wifi offerings from the like of T-Mobile? Are we really going to threaten Universities with disconnection?

The fair use question is important in the light of Paul's proposals to implement take down notices. In the US, one has a "fair use" defence; it would seem not here. In reply to a comment on criminal punishment , I said

Its not a crime, its a civil infringement, the DE Bill seeks to make it a crime so the police will chase copyright infringers.

Copyright creates monopoly, monpolists restrict supply, increase prices and earn super profits. Super profits are the theft not copying digital content. Musicians are free to sell their time like the rest of us. For some there’s a good living to be made playing music, they need to get back to earning wages like the rest of us.

There’s no such thing as intellectual property merely people with time to sell and good ideas.

Its a bad law, and shouldn’t be passed.

and I also added to a thread on the industrial policy dimensions.

I think I stand by that. If copyright and its enforcement create all these problems and costs..., then I agree with Tom Watson, its time for new copyright law, not better enforcement of the one we have. Its a bad law, and shouldn’t be passed.

One BT Home Hub down, one to go?

I have just replaced my BT Home Hub in London with a 3rd Party Router. I have documented the parameter changes at http://is.gd/9ZhMH, at filesaveus.co.uk. Lets see if its any better than the PoS its replacing.

Fast User Switching

I finally got round to installing User Switching on my Mac. Sue's started to use it, and so we need "Fast User Switching". This is quite well hidden until you know that it's called "Fast User Switching". Then both Google and the Mac's Help tool become quite usefull. There's a switch in System Preferences, Accounts that turns it on, and a new widget appears on the top panel documenting the current user and permitting a quick switch to another user, if you have the password or to the login screen.

The DE Bill, Mark Thomas and BBC Balance

Mark Thomas is a well known campaigner against corporate lawlessness, greed and against capitalism's consumption of humanity. He recently made a TV article for the culture show on the Digital Economy Bill. He interviewed a number of people on both sides of the debate. Frankly, I think he was pretty tame, and balanced; I know I'd have given Timms & Sharkey a much harder time, and Andrew Heaney, of Talk Talk, made a real pig's ear of answering the question, "Why not enforce the law?".

However, the music industry seem deeply unhappy as reported by among others the Guardian and have formally complained to the BBC about their breach of their duty to impartiality. So not only do these companies supported by the Labour Government threaten our freedom of speech, access to culture and right to a fair trial, they are also threatening the publicly owned BBC. It doesn't surprise me, because one of the hidden arguments in the copyright wars is that the private sector have a right to make money by 'alienating' creative workers. Public sector and co-operative organisations have a much better chance to build business models around a no-copyright world. The BBC is probably the largest and most successful publicly owned content company in the world and as such is hated by all those rapacious profiteers who seek to monetise the distribution of content.

I for one have used the BBC's web site, https://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/, to praise them for this article, and make the point that their duty of balance is across the whole of their output, and not applicable to just one show. I feel there were some inaccuracies in the show, but whenever you know a story well, you find this. What UK Music need to understand, in the words from "The Wire",

"A lie ain't a side of a story. It's just a lie."

and the fact is that this is not about the wages of, or entry into the creative industries. Billy Bragg, among others, made it clear, and has elsewhere that this is about industrialised music's profits. Its not even the case that despiteBono's whinging and suggestion we adopt China's approach to freedom of expression that high earning artists get more from royalties than from earnings at concerts. They earn more by charging for their time, just as the most of the rest of us do. Its the lawyers and suits, like Simon Cowell who'll loose out if we abolished copyright, or even restricted it to five years. This is what makes Sharkey's comments that poor musicians are

"earning less than last year"

moronic, the DE bill will boost the profitability of the music industry and the wages of their lawyers, it'll do very little for the average musician, who of course doesn't have a recording contract. Sharkey stated that the average earnings of, I assume, british musicians was under £15K. What's the average wage of the copyright lawyers at the UK Music companies?. You only have to look at who' supporting this to see the truth, its about protecting privilidge, not enhancing creativity.

Thomas asked Andrew Heaney,

"why not enforce the law?"

and as an executive of a PLC, he has to answer that he does and will. However, since the charities commission definition of a political organisation is one that seeks to change the law, the DE Bill is a matter of politics and we as citizens and voters need to consider the moral right and wrong. Copyright is a human artifact, not moral statement. Those who advocate the free copying of knowledge and culture don't deny the right of musicians, lawyers and business people to sell their time or charge for tickets. Breaking copyright law is not theft, nor is it piracy. Why is it morally wrong? I personally haven't a clue and no one that supports the DE bill has presented me with a reason for changing my mind. Its only illegal because its against the law, once we talk about changing the law, maybe we should abolish copyright, not strengthen it. The DE Bill's clauses on so called illegal file sharing clauses threaten internet users freedom of speech, freedom of expression, access to culture and innocent until proven guilty, all basic human rights established by the European Convention on Human Rights or the United Nations Human Rights Charter. Copyright and industrial music's profits aren't worth the price.

The TV Tax

The TV Licensing dunning letters are a bit scary and very unclear. I rang them today and have been told that the test applied to computers, (and it seems mobile phones) is if they have a TV tuner card. Since the computers I use in my new flat don't have this technology, I don't need a licence for this address, which is good; I didn't want to pay a second licence fee. I was told I have been registered as that odd minority, a notv household, and they'll make an appointment to come round and check up on me.

Total wirelessness

The availabilty of wireless connectectivity in the UK can be a bit sporadic as I have learnt over the week I didn't have it in the house, and I relied on my phones for internet connectivity. A lesson this need has taught me is that

Handset designers need to remember that the goal of wifi is wirelessness. Its pointless to replace the need for an RJ45 with the need for powerlead.

i.e. energy efficiency and battery size and life become noticable if you use a modern mobile the way it was intended. HTC...I am talking to you.

Arghh! Snipsnap

Finding old blog posts is not easy on Snipsnap; it creates a snip named on the basis of a date/serial concatenation, and does not/cannot index the date against any title specified, or at least not as far as I can see. (I have created a Tag aka Category label of Blog but this will only listed manually tagged articles, and it seems, attribute the serial to it. Not too useful.)

Internet on the move

I moved into a rented flat last weekend, it was all a bit exciting because our original plan had been to drive to London with our stuff on the Saturday and drive home on Sunday. We wisely decided not to; the journey to the station, normally 20 minutes took two hours because of the snow. Anyway we got there and moved in. Rented accomodation doesn't include either phone or broadband so I spoke to BT to get the phones in and since they have lead times it meant that I was without a wifi LAN at home for the week. It hasn't been that long since we first got broadband at home but its been very noticable not having it.

I have turned to my mobile phones, mainly my personal mobile phone. I have an Orange contract, a Nokia handset and have downloaded Joikuspot onto it, so can use the Nokia as a wifi/internet gateway. This worked well until I discovered that Orange have a quite aggressive view of adult content. I had left their safeguard on. This hadn't been a problem mainly because I don't use the Orange internet access point that much so I hadn't discovered the alacrity with which Orange declare content to be 'Adult'. For instance I discovered that a news article on the digital economy bill and the plazes login page are both considered 'Adult', although interestingly an article about racism on Millwall FC's fan forum, with quotes is not. I had not discovered Orange Safeguard's foibles because like most people who use the phone to browse the web and pay their own bills, I use a wifi lan wherever there is one. I have asked them to remove the safeguard so we'll see.

The week has also made me consider if I have spent enough time making the phones do what I want. Certainly I shall be downloading some more applications onto the phones so I won't suffer such withdrawl symptoms again. I shall use my Nokia x5800 page here to plan and record my progress.

Around and about in London

Back at work after our first weekend in our newly rented flat in London. We took a turn about Docklands, visiting the London Ice Sculpture festival, and on Sunday, we went out to the London Boat Show, which is at the ExCel Centre on Victoria Dock. While I had to look at some of the boats, and couldn't avoid looking over a somewhat excessive Sunseeker, I also visited a couple of training exhibitions and several of the holiday companies, which has given me some ideas as to what I might do this summer. Sail Ionian is offering passage from Gibralter to Greece via Sardinia, which might be fun, depending on the personality of the skipper and rest of the crew, although it takes a while and I may not have the leave. Sailing Holidays might be another way to do the Ionian or even the Saronic Gulf on the east coast of the Peloponese and both Nisos Yachts, another greek charter company & Moonfleet Sailing, a training company had stands. We also looked over a couple of J boats, although I can't imagine buying any of them.

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