i should be working (but i'm fixing my computer).

The internet playground that we have known is coming to an end.  We live in times where public interest is repeatedly subordinated to corporate profit motives.  So, whatdyaexpect?

...

It's really the fault of "the public", of course.  So, I guess you would have to say it is "what the public wants."  Confusing ... but let me explain my thinking.

The internet has served those using it.  As it has become more "user friendly", the profile of "those using it" has changed drastically.

When I first logged onto the internet, I could not afford a computer powerful enough to run a web browser.  So, it was a text-only experience -- but there was a wealth of information and it was a huge step beyond the dialup bulletin boards I had been frequenting previously.

The first time I used a Netscape browser, the experience was so tedious and slow I couldn't understand how anyone at all found this useful.  But, a few years on ... well, it's fairly different, isn't it?

So, yesterday when I ran Jolicloud from my USB flash drive and found myself watching Hulu, I suddenly realized where the internet was going and why.  The reason the internet has been reflective of my uses and interests has been the effort required to access it.  Bit by bit, the effort to access the internet has been reduced, and the signal to noise ratio has worsened.  A web search seeking information used to be much easier and more successful than it is today.  Now, the first several pages of search results are dominated by commercial sites that have used SEO techniques to hijack my search.  There are computer generated pages that apparently generate in explicit response to my search, apparently for the sole purpose of obtaining my view of the page in order to generate advertising hits.  The spam to genuine email ratio is through the roof.

All of this degrades my internet experience.  Sometimes I wish we were back in the text-only days.   But, we do find corners of the internet of interest and ways to avoid the drek.

Nevertheless.

Google and Verizon pretend that their policy goal envisions preserving the existing hardwired internet and deregulating the cellular access.  hahahaha.

We know where the development money will go.  Already the phone companies have been accused of diverting public funds and/or tax credits that intended to maintain, upgrade and extend the landline phone system.  That system is regulated.  Guess where the money went?  Into the unregulated and highly profitable cellular system.

Now, development money spent on services no one uses won't last long.  Male enhancement spam exists because some percentage of the population responds to it and buys the products (less successful types of spam tend to fall by the wayside).

So, let's take a walk down technology memory lane.  I remember watching a retrospective about Sid Ceasar's "Show of Shows."  The lament of the talented people who worked on it was this:  In the early days, tv was the playground of intellectuals.  Few people had televisions.  There was vast quantities of unused airtime and for the most part, the viewers were early adapters.  But, as television became accessible to the public, it dumbed-down in response to the audience.

And there you have it.  The big money is in selling to the biggest pool of buyers, and the biggest pool of buyers does not include people like me.  I have never watched a reality tv show.  I have never purchased a cell phone ring tone.  I have never sent a photo of what I am doing to a friend via cell phone.

Of course, I am a big supporter of cell phone technology.  Why?  Because I have an unlimited tethering data plan but my data consumption rarely exceeds 200 mgb in a month.  My under-use of my data plan is supporting people who are watching reality tv on their cell phones.  I'm helping dumb-down the internet.

Or, as we say here ... arghhhh!

Technology always progresses in the same trajectory.  Remember the early days of FM radio?  You know, the era of very few commercials and extended album cuts?  (Well, probably you don't, but I do.)  I remember going to a presentation of a new cable company where they explained the wonderfulness of having 100 channels instead of three.  I left with the understanding that there would be 100 channels -- and still no programming that would interest me in the slightest.  Yes, I have ATT Uverse now.  Nothing worth watching, sorry.

But ... there is another aspect.  I've always wanted "internet in the car" because I spend a lot of time in the car.  My tethered cellphone has provided that, but it's cumbersome to hook up a computer and use it while driving down the road.  The interface isn't there yet -- and all of my cars have been at least a generation behind in technology.  The car with a built in phone?  I had bluetooth cellular.  I started burning MP3s, but my car had a multi-CD changer.  The next car had a CD player that would read MP3 CDs -- but I had an ipod, so I had to pay $200 to put a very limited connection into my car.  The next version of the same vehicle would have a hard drive for music -- and still no ipod or music player connection.

Well, we could have on-board internet via our cellphones, but we don't.  So, we carry around rube goldberg devices that fall on the floor when we hit the brakes.  My wife finally got Sirius radio, so she is happy.

But you know what?  Pandora and LastFM -- straight from my cell phone -- put Sirius to shame.  It's obsolete.

So is all radio, since any possible radio feed can be provided via cellular at much higher quality.

And so is all tv.  With my jolicloud netbook, I can watch any kind of tv programming via services such as Hulu.  And movies via Netflix.  Plug the netbook into a big screen tv, and why turn on the tv tuner ever again?

Which is why the cellular phone companies think they ought to be entitled to the broadcast tv radio spectrum.

The point is, the internet's real future is broadcast.  Google-Verizon (and every other media company) wants that future unregulated.  They will not be putting much resources into the aging hardwired internet once all the viewers and all the profit is on the broadcast band.  Oh, sure, you can if you want purchase a T1 or T3 connection, or whatever replaces it -- but the cost barrier will be severe.

Our internet is gone.  The future will be the equivalent of cable tv.  Lots of channels and nothing to watch.

And, governments will sign onto this future instantaneously.  Why?  Because they hate the fact that people without control of the media have access to the media.  Robert Gibbs, Obama spokesman, going postal about "professional leftists".  The mainstream media meltdown over disclosures on Wikileaks -- not the horrifying details found in the disclosures, but the fact that some "irresponsible" do-it-yourself media person can make these disclosures available to the public.

Unfortunately, the reason all this "works" is not entirely in the fault of the corporatists making the decisions.  The reality is that the real profits are to be made giving the public what they choose to watch.  And what they want is a no effort system where the decisions and surfing is already done for them.  They want reality tv and insta-internet, pre-filtered, unchallenging.

I guess fairly soon we won't be having these little discussions ...

Thank you for visiting and have a pleasant tomorrow.