Blog of Leonid Mamchenkov

I’m not usually very political.  I don’t care much about elections, campaigns, politics or policies, and things like that.  But that didn’t stop me from watching the USA presidency candidate talks at Google.  Here are the names and what I think  of them:

• Ron Paul.  This was the only video that I watched in full length.  This guy speaks good, and he has plenty of common sense in him.  He’s also pretty popular on the Web, but, somehow, I doubt that he will make it to the president.  He and his campaign contradict the interests of too many people.
• Hillary Clinton.  She speaks like a politician with a lot of experience.  That’s probably why I don’t understand much of her.  Watched the video for about 10 minutes.
• Barack Obama.  I don’t have much interest in hearing how he reads “I think” and “I believe” of the paper.  He looked very much like someone who haven’t written those notes…
• John Edwards.  This is the case of one picture being a thousand words. It’s much easier and faster to say “I don’t believe that guy” after taking half a second look at him, than listening to an hour of him talking.

Web Worker Daily quotes The New York Times:

But by 2006, according to data collected by the Dieringer Research Group, a marketing research company in Brookfield, Wis., more than 28 million Americans were working from home at least part time — an increase of 10 percent from just the year before, and 40 percent from 2002. The American Home Furnishings Alliance reports that 7 in 10 Americans now have offices or designated workstations in their homes, a 112 percent increase since 2000. And a recent survey by the National Association of Home Builders found that home offices ranked as the fourth most important feature in a new upscale home, just ahead of security.

It’s always nice to have some numbers, no matter how obvious the trend is.

In the last two years, the well-known fact of Google offering free WiFi Internet access in Mountain View, California has almost been forgotten (except, of course, by people living in Mountain View and Googlers themselves).  At the time of news many were wondering about why Google is doing such a thing.  Not it all suddenly became obvious…

Slashdot reports that Google is preparing for a bid in the upcoming auction set up by FCC for a 700 Mhz radio frequency.  There are a few interesting twists about the offer - “open access” and “nation-wide”.  With these news, it’s hard to see the Mountain View setup as something else rather than a test platform.  With the recently released Android open mobile platform, the connections seem obvious.

The stakes for the band are high, and Google is planning to bid at least $4.6 billion USD dollars.  And they are paying this all out of their own pocket (not sharing with another company, etc).   Wh?  Because there are quiet a few things on Google’s agenda.

If you are like me, and need more information on this whole thing, here are a few pointers:

• Wikipedia : 700 Mhz wireless spectrum auction
• Engadget Mobile : posts tagged with 700mhz
• GigaOm : 700 Mhz explained in 10 steps
• GigaOm : Inside the 700 MHz spectrum land grab
• Daily Wireless : 700MHZ Goes Live
• Daily Wireless : Consumers to FCC: 700MHz Democracy Now!

P.S. : Now those Indian telecoms have to re-think their position.

P.P.S. : In the completely unrelated news,  Ubiquiti Networks announced world’s first 700 MHz WiFi radio.  Here is the official press release.

Joe Rogan has an entertaining description of the real America - experiences he had while on a road trip for a new season of “Fear Factor“.

Like a stretch of West Virginia we went through, where every other building is a church or a strip club.

And I’m BARELY exaggerating here. I’m talking 4 or 5 strip clubs and 3 or 4 churches in a 2-mile area, and not much else. I guess the theme there is just keep ‘em on their knees, no matter how you go about it.

There were 20 people, 10 of them were wearing camouflage, 6 of them had NASCAR t-shirts on, and none of them had a full set of teeth.

After watching Michael Moore’s documentaries (”Bowling for Colombine” and “Farhenheit 9/11″) I got interested in his earlier work. “Canadian Bacon” is the only film so far I managed to get my hands on.

Directed by: Michael Moore
Genres: Comedy, War
Cast: John Candy, Alan Alda, Rhea Perlman, Kevin Pollak, Rip Torn, Kevin J. O’Connor, Bill Nunn, G.D. Spradlin, James Belushi, Steven Wright, Brad Sullivan, Stanley Anderson, Richard Council, Wallace Shawn, Michael Copeman
IMDB raintg: 5.5
My rating: 7.0

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