InfoWorld is running a long article all about how we’re running out of bandwidth, and that’s leading broadband providers to need to implement broadband caps and tiered pricing. The article mentions that some critics don’t believe we’re really running out of bandwidth, but then brushes them off by saying: “But assuming a looming bandwidth shortage — whether widespread or local to certain areas — analysts agree that two things must change….” And then the article does just that: it assumes that there must be a bandwidth shortage, and only talks to analysts who agree.

Except, as we’ve seen repeatedly, there’s almost no evidence of an actual bandwidth shortage.

A recent study by Richard Clayton at Cambridge University determined that the first letter of a someone's email address directly affects how much spam they receive. As shown in the graph (see PDF link above), email addresses with numbers as their first characters receive even fewer spam emails. The corpus used in the study was 8 weeks' worth of email with just over half a billion messages, of which 56% was deemed to be spam.

Here are some great quotes from three of the great minds of the tech world.

Steve Jobs
Let’s start with the man who co-founded Apple in 1976, left the company in 1985, then came back and saved the day in 1997.

1991:
What a computer is to me is the most remarkable tool that we have ever come up with. It’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.

1994, while he was obviously not working at Apple:
If I were running Apple, I would milk the Macintosh for all it’s worth — and get busy on the next great thing. The PC wars are over. Done. Microsoft won a long time ago.

1996, on Bill Gates:
I wish him the best, I really do. I just think he and Microsoft are a bit narrow. He’d be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.

1997, on Apple products:
The products suck! There’s no sex in them anymore!

2003, a modest comment on the iPod and iTunes:

In Japan, they have replaced the impersonal and unhelpful Microsoft error messages with Haiku poetry messages.

Your file was so big.
It might have been very useful.
But now it is gone.
------------------------------
The Web site you seek
Cannot be located, but
Countless more exist.
------------------------------
Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.
--------------------------------
Program aborting:
Close all that you have worked on.
You ask far too much.
-------------------------------
Windows has crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.
----------------------------------
Yesterday it worked.
Today it is not working.
Windows is like that.
-----------------------------------
First snow, then silence.
This thousand-dollar screen dies
So beautifully.
------------------------------------
With searching comes loss
And the presence of absence:
"My Novel" not found.

Gravity Internet has signed up to Ofcom's Voluntary Code of Practice for Broadband Speeds. We fully support the Code and welcome the notion that customers should be given a realistic expectation of the speed of their Broadband.

We will be reviewing, and amending where necessary, our own processes over the course of the next six months to ensure we comply fully with the Principles set out in the Code. We will also continue to work with Ofcom with regards the further development of the Code.

Further updates will be provided on our website over the coming weeks.

Details can be found on Ofcom's website here:
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/ioi/copbb/

With its adaptable applications that allow users to post video clips and interact with friends, it might seem to some that Facebook offers little more than a souped-up version of standard email.

Many CEOs are becoming hot under the collar as employees spend more time “poking” than working. The reaction is often draconian, with businesses issuing guidelines for use – or worse, total bans during working hours. This seems odd, seeing as the whole world is apparently going Web 2.0.

A quick Google News search shows there have been more than 16,000 news stories written about Facebook in the past month. More to the point, digital natives: the next generation of workers to enter the workplace, have grown up using social networking technologies and will expect to be able to use Facebook, Bebo and others.

Business and E-Commerce: from the Past to the Future

What do increasingly more owners of small and medium businesses know about having a Web presence? Enough to know that they need one.

According to a recent survey, only 55% of small business owners found having a website to be cost-effective. Their optimism showed, however 65% considered the Internet important to the future of their business. Those 65% were right. In a 2005 survey, almost 86% of respondents said that their websites were cost-effective. Almost all participants (94.7 %) considered their websites useful in contributing to their business's development.

Website and web hosting costs have decreased over the last 5 years and during the same time, more people have come online. The future of e-commerce has arrived.

Today is a special time in the calendar - it's leap year day, when girlfriends propose to their boyfriends, when 29 February babies get to celebrate their actual birthday and when hamburgers eat people. OK, maybe not the last one.

Be warned, Queen Margaret declared in Scotland back in 1288 that on 29 February a woman had the right to propose to any man she liked the look of. Naturally this sent many men running for the nearest hiding place, not necessarily for fear of being proposed to, but to avoid the penalty for saying no. Men who rebuffed the offer of marriage were hit with a fine in the form of a kiss, a silk dress, or a pair of gloves, to be given to the rebuffed proposer.

History records that it was the ancient Egyptians that figured out the solar year and the man-made calendar year don't quite sync up. Annoyingly, the variance between the two is not a metric that can easily be inserted into a standard year.