Today, the LA Times is running a piece on how poorly customers’ transition is being handled: loss of channels, dead internet connection, hateful customer service…

What really takes the cake is yet another dangerous use of bad analogies:
“I would urge customers to consider this like remodeling the kitchen”, (Time Warner spokeswoman) Rockenwagner said.

Of course, a more accurate analogy would be:
“Consider this like sitting quietly in your home, when suddenly a group of contractors comes into your house and, without a word, starts tearing your kitchen down. You’ve never talked to these people, your kitchen was perfectly nice and did not need any remodeling. But it’s ok, quit complaining. You’re getting a new kitchen! It may even be as good as the old one…”

Here is a glaring example.

These people are suing Google because Google’s spiders caught in their net information that had to be out in the open. And said information is names and social security numbers of more than 600 of their students.

Now, to cover for their ineptitude, they decided that attack is the best defense. And boy are they mouthy:

“We have very secure systems here,” Markley said. “There are other private businesses and companies that don’t, so parents should be watching those as well.”

Wow. Balls. Big ones.
I would normally give you guys benefit of a doubt but come on, I’m an engineer so I really cannot do that in this instance.

According to Bob Parson’s blog (GoDaddy’s founder), they managed to convince ICANN to give them the keys to the .COM TLD for the next few years.

Fortunately, when their contract runs out, they…oh, wait, it will be automatically renewed without so much as an attempt to check what the competition has to offer.

Among other reasons to be worried: Verisign will, again, be the de facto monopoly and can RAISE registration fees, rather than following the natural trend, which is that everything Internet has to get cheaper as more people use it.

As a -very minor- member of the Internet Society and the Free Software Foundation, I am very concerned by this turn of events. Not to mention that my wallet is looking quite depressed as well.

I invite you to jump to Bob’s site and follow his instructions to write a letter to your representative.

Oh, I almost forgot: in this blog, Bob mentions a 28% price hike, based on a yearly 7% increase.

Of course, the actual number is:

x + x*7/100 + (x+x*7/100)*7/100 + ((x+x*7/100)*7/100)*7/100) + (((x+x*7/100)*7/100)*7/100))*7/100

which gives us: 31.07%

Professionally:

First of all, I work for a Telecom company. We design and sell smart switches and routers. Our company is very innovative and was the first one to come up with the concept of layer 2 VLANs and ports mobility.

Personnally, I am a “Manager of Software Development”, which means that I oversee a group that creates Network Management Software.

Open-Source:

I have also been part of the open source movement for many years.

My latest projects are:

• NextBBS, a feature-laden and performant Message Board System.
• nWizard, an online installation and helper wizard for programers, regardless of their level of expertise.

My Web Sites:

• Well, there are many of them.I used to be a web host, but that activity got absorbed by a bigger fish. You can still take a look: ReadySetHost, formerly known as Hosting Group
• Free Message Boards Hosting: Clic!Dev
• An Anime and Video Games Online Community: Militate
• …and many more!

Well that’s it for now. Cheers.