[geeks] Google announces Google Chrome OS

[wa2egp at att.net]

-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: gsm at mendelson.com
>
> On Wed, Jul 08, 2009 at 07:46:39PM +0100, Mike Meredith wrote:
> 
> >Maybe Google are 'good people' right now, but what happens if they have
> >a change of management and want to exploit all that information they
> >have on you ? A quick change of their policy and it's theirs. You might
> >think that if they do that, you'll stop using Google, but by that time
> >it will be too late ... they'll already have your information, and
> >you'll probably be hooked on Google by then anyway.
> 
> Google are good people? Search the web for information about BPL (broadband
> over powerlines) and Google's $150 millon investment in it. 
> 
> <rant>
> 
> Their attitude when confronted was "we're big, you're small, we can do
> whatever we want".
> 
> One operator of a ham radio web site told me that BPL was an Internet 
> technology and not a radio technology and therefore it was not his concern.
> Besides, without the revenue from Google ads, he could not keep his website
> in business.

IMHO he's an idiot and probably doesn't have BPL near him.  

> Note that except for the US, and now the UK, BPL was banned due to the radio
> interference it creates. In the US, the technology was promised to not
> affect ham bands, so most hams decided not to fight it. One of the frequencies
> they used instead was for ship to shore communications, and in Austrailia the
> marine radio operators sued to stop it. 

Well, the ARRL was pushing for BPL to be filtered so it doesn't radiate in the ham bands which I thought was a little stupid because some one else will still get the interference and all the users of the spectrum banded together, they may have a larger voice.  At least they took the FCC to court to prove the FCC ignored evidence that BPL did interfere (and won).  Of course no one seemed to be concerned about the ham who turns on his 1 kW amp, gets on the air with his directional antenna which happens to be pointing to the power lines and screws up the BPL signal.  Just when I thought interference problems would go away with digital TV on the UHF band......  oh well.

> 
> </end rant>

aw...that was fun.

Bob