The current buzz on the Internet is Comcast's formal policy about capping customer's Internet bandwidth at 250 GB/month (Comcast calls this excessive use). Customers who exceed this monthly bandwidth will get a warning notice and those that exceed it twice within a six month period will have their account canceled and banned from the Comcast service for one year. This policy goes into effect October 1, 2008.

I have heard stories in the past few months about users having their Comcast service suddenly stop, forcing them to call customer service to hear that they exceeded their monthly bandwidth. I'm a Comcast user and have read through my customer agreements and didn't see anything about bandwidth limits. It does state that they can change the "terms of service" but that's it. Frank, who has @ComCastCares on Twitter, says that this policy has been in effect for a while now and Comcast is just making the number public after getting requests from Comcast users. Comcast is also saying that if you haven't received a warning under the current policy, you have nothing to worry about.

Well, I'm worried for the following reasons:

1. They are telling you that you can't exceed 250 GB/month but don't give you any way to tell what your current usage is. They did give some guidelines about what this limit means but that doesn't cut it in my book. It's like your electrical company saying you can't exceed a certain amount of electricity per month but not telling you how much you consume per month. Instead, they tell you how many lights, TVs, radios, and computers you could use that may exceed the limit. Comcast's answer is to search the Internet for bandwidth meters. I'm sure the general public is going to do this and install some unknown software on their system that has the potential to be a major spyware/virus source.
   
   
2. "If you haven't received a warning under the current policy, don't worry." This doesn't mean that my usage will not change in the future. Content is moving more and more to the Internet. Streaming video, streaming audio, movies, photo sharing all consume lots of bandwidth. Multiply this by the number of people in a household, and I could see you getting close to, or even exceeding the 250 GB cap. It goes back to the first point of Comcast not telling you what's you're consuming.
   
   
3. Is there a conflict of interest here? Who are the users that are consuming high bandwidth? They are the ones who are consuming content on the Internet instead of Television. These users are also using the Internet to replace their telephone service through services like Skype and Vontage. What other services does Comcast offer: Television and Telephone.
   
   
4. The last issue deals with shutting down your service if you exceed the cap. If I exceed the number of cell phone minutes, I get charged for the excess minutes. They don't threaten to shut off my service (or shut it off and force me to call customer service). Comcast has stated that there is no tiered service and users who exceed the cap twice in a six month period, will have their service terminated. What about moving these users to a higher data plan? Maybe they don't want the additional Internet revenue, but instead want to reverse the downward trend in their Television and Telephone business.

In many areas of the country Internet users have very few choices for Internet providers and I'm afraid if Comcast is allowed to continue this policy, it will push back technology explosion we are seeing now. I'm involved in what some are calling "new media" and that would not be possible without the Internet and the ability to consume/deliver high bandwidth content.

If you are not on Comcast you may think this doesn't affect you, but you're wrong. I'm sure other Internet providers are looking at this very closely and will follow suit if Comcast is able to make this stick.

Todd Cochran, of GeekNewsCentral, has called for a Comcast boycott and you should call your Internet provider NOW and let them know this is not acceptable!

Welcome to the Fogview Podcast

In this show I talk about the Olympics, my Half Marathon run, New Media Expo and an update on my failing iMac.

As always I update you with technical news and tips and play some great podsafe music.

Try GoToMeeting for 30 days! Visit www.GoToMeeting.com/podcast to start your free trial today.

Download Podcast FV-045.mp3

On Today's Show (length: 39:15)

• Intro music : "Fogview Intro" by Geoff Smith
• Half Marathon Run in San Francisco Earlier this month I ran one half of the SF Marathon. I woke up at 3 am and headed to SF for a 6:05 run. Runners were grouped in waves to avoid traffic jams and to control the flow over the Golden Gate Bridge. The run was great and the highlight (as always) is running over the Golden Gate Bridge. Next up is the Silicon Valley Marathon at the end of October.
• Summer Olympics — pictures Opening ceremonies were great and I was amazed at the technology used: underwater cameras; super imposed images showing world record timing.
• GoToMeeting Ad (06:45)

• Running can slow aging process This research study followed a group of 500 runners (starting at age 50) for 20 years and found that running allowed them to live longer and reduced the risk of disease.  The study didn’t find any increase in total knee replacements as scientists originally feared.

• New Media Expo  — review The show was held in Las Vegas this year and some said it was smaller and lacked the excitement of previous shows. I went last year but didn’t go this year because I was afraid the show would be lost in the big city and limit the ability to network and see the people that are important to the podcasting community. Leo Laporte did go and did two days of streaming live on TwitLive.TV with great interviews with podcasters.

• Music: “My Monkey” by Jonathan Coulton Jonathan is know for his song “Code Monkey” and was a database programmer before doing his music full-time. He quit his job and set a goal to write one new song a week.

• Microsoft Hires Seinfeld for Ads Microsoft is losing in the “ad wars” with Apple so it’s going to start it’s own series of ad starting with Jerry Seinfeld. So, is this going to be a commercial about nothing? Seinfeld will team up with Bill Gates in some of the commercials. If they are trying to improve their image, why have Bill in the commercials?

• iMac Shut Down Problem — update I’ve been having problems with my almost-a-year-old iMac shutting down without warning. It generally happens when I’m editing in iMovie or in iDVD burning a disk. I took the computer into the local Apple store twice now. They couldn’t duplicate the problem but they changed out the power supply and logic board on the last visit. I have my fingers crossed that it fixed the problem. The machine gets so hot and I’m afraid that is causing the problem. I purchased Apple Care as additional insurance.
• Tech tip: Get rid of your (old) USB card readers!  Older USB card readers are slow (USB 1.1 vs. 2.0): 12 mb/sec vs 480 mb/sec. (1.5 MB/sec vs. 60 MB/sec). If you are using older USB card readers on a newer computer, you’re wasting a lot of time waiting for your transfers to finish. My suggestion is to get rid of your old USB card readers and purchase a USB 2.0 reader.
• This Week in Photography TWIPPHOTO.com  This is a great podcast about photography from Alex Lindsay and Scott Bourne. Show #44 has an interview with David Griffin, Director of photography at National Geographic and has some great insights to how they made the switch from film to digital and what they look for in photographers. As a disclaimer, I’m currently helping out with the show notes for the TWIP podcast.

• VidBlaster Pro Video Demo (on my website) Mike released Version 0.33, which added 16:9 display. The Home version now includes Streaming and supports up to 2 cameras (with screen capture as one of the camera sources).

• This podcast was recorded with a beta version of StudioRack V.02 (I normally use CastBlaster)

• Check out the Blubrry.com network

• Outro music : "Fogview Outro" by Geoff Smith

Additional Links for Today's Show

• My Flickr Picture site
• My Zooomr Picture Site
• My Videos
• My blog on Vox
• My Twitter
• My FriendFeed site
• Podsafe Music Network.

GoDaddy promotion: You can save 10% on web hosting services by entering promo code pod24 and an additional 10% on other orders using promo code blu24.

You can email me comments at MyFogView AT Gmail.com. Please let me know why you listen to my podcast and what you enjoy or don't enjoy about the show. Thanks, Tom

Tags: marathon vidblaster imac usb photography running

Here is a screencast demo I did for VidBlaster Pro. VidBlaster is a great way to create a short video or stream your video live on Ustream and other live streaming sites. VidBlaster supports multiple cameras and allows you to intermix live video with pre-recorded video and audio clips.

Take a few minutes and check out demo. You can find more information at www.vidblaster.com

One additional note. You can download the trial version of VidBlaster and try it out for free. You can create unlimited length videos and the only difference from the registered version is a small “trial” bug in the upper corner of the video output.

-Tom

Tags: vidblaster ustream screencast streaming

Welcome to the Fogview Podcast

In this show I give you an update about my upcoming marathon, my iPod Touch upgrade and talk about a sudden shut-down problem with my iMac.

As always I update you with technical news and tips and play some great podsafe music.

Try GoToMeeting for 30 days! Visit www.GoToMeeting.com/podcast to start your free trial today.

Download Podcast FV-044.mp3

On Today's Show (length: 52:17)

• Intro music : "Fogview Intro" by Geoff Smith
• Has the Stock market bottom?
• GoToMeeting Ad (07:20)
• iPhone 3g and iPod Touch Upgrade
• Music: “Come down with me” by Beatrice Ericsson
• Story about Short Stop — “cough switch”
• My iMac Shut Down Problem
• What about the trend of no manuals with software/hardware products?
• Tech tip #1: 20 Google Tips and Tricks from PC Magazine
• Tech tip #2: Add drop-down date box to Google searches (from Lifehacker.com)
• Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing – Quick fix of grammar tips (pdf)
• My Friendfeed account: friendfeed.com/fogview
• Check out the Blubrry.com network
• Outro music : "Fogview Outro" by Geoff Smith

Additional Links for Today's Show

• My Flickr Picture site
• My Zooomr Picture Site
• My Videos
• My blog on Vox
• My Twitter
• My FriendFeed site
• Podsafe Music Network.

GoDaddy promotion: You can save 10% on web hosting services by entering promo code pod24 and an additional 10% on other orders using promo code blu24.

You can email me comments at MyFogView AT Gmail.com. Please let me know why you listen to my podcast and what you enjoy or don't enjoy about the show. Thanks, Tom

Tags: itouch iphone imac marathon running