Walt demands answers! Source: Asa Mathat / AllThingsD.com

Well, Walt Mossberg sure let Kevin Martin have it last night at the D: All Things Digital conference, blasting the FCC chairman over the glacial pace of broadband rollout in the U.S.

"Not only do we have pathetic rates, but we pay more than most of these other countries for it," Mossberg said.

"You're the head of the FCC -- how have you allowed this to happen?"

Martin responded with a typical counterargument: The difficulty in reducing costs and increasing speeds is due to the effort involved in wiring remote areas.

"I think you do have to put into context the demographics of the United States and some of the countries you're competing against," he said.

"If you actually look at some of those countries that are ahead of us on the charts, and look at their population density, and look at some of our states with similar population densities, you actually see that we have very comparable or actually higher broadband penetration."

Broadband speeds globally Sources: Highlight reel from AllThingsD.com / OECD and ITIF

But Walt wasn't letting him off so easily.

"This is not a penetration chart," Mossberg corrected. "This is an average speed chart ... Of the people who have what we call broadband, we are very slow."

Martin responded lamely: "We proposed ... saying that we need to change our definition of what broadband is."

To his credit, Martin later admitted that industry subsidies have been focused on encouraging development in "voice-grade" service, rather than broadband.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin Source: FCC

On one hand, you have to give it to Martin, who seems concerned about fostering innovation despite an entrenched, highly charged politicized environment in D.C. that typically demonstrates only the dimmest understanding of tech issues.

His task is made even more difficult thanks to the insanely deep pockets and shrill voices of the telecom lobby, though in some cases Martin has done a reasonable job of shrugging off their complaints about efforts like the recent spectrum auction.

(Though if Google hadn't been involved, it's unclear whether the auction would have been anything less than a disaster -- and it really won't be until we see Verizon Wireless' new open network that we can truly claim the auction was a success.)

On the other hand, one has to wonder how focused the FCC is on solving the issue of consumer broadband speeds and costs, given its other perennial areas of concern.

You can watch video highlights from the talk here.

...Or, "You CAN Get IM Working for You in the Workplace."

"r u there?"...

Gaaah!

Few things frustrate me more than someone who blissfully wastes my time when I'm trying to get work done. So I empathize with Chris Nerney, the capo over at our IT Management channel, who last week detailed the rationale behind his continuing avoidance of instant messaging.

In general, his reasons come down to that fact that Chris seems to have people IMing him who are deficient in either tact, considerateness, or any real knowledge of how business operates today (read: busily).

This is a huge pity, and maddeningly, all too common. I admit that I'm biased after having covered instant messaging and real-time collaboration in a previous gig. But I'll forever maintain that when used properly, IM can be faster and more efficient than the telephone or e-mail. (Frequent readers will note that the issue of mismanaged workplace IM is managing to become a favorite topic of mine.)

Despite its benefits, it's exasperating that folks out there still can't grasp how to use IM in a business context, where in the wrong hands -- as Chris experiences firsthand -- the potential for annoyance and disruption is sky-high.

It's been 12 years since ICQ debuted, folks, and it's time some of our business contacts got with the program.

So: How best are we to deal with those who would abuse our tools for enterprise collaboration? The same way we deal with those who would stroll by our offices, desks and cubicles to while away the hours, obvious to the actual work we're trying to accomplish: with initial politeness, and then, with gradually mounting disdain.

Source: Google

Esquire magazine, not really known as a bastion of IT and Internet news, has a brief, intriguing interview with Vint Cerf, one of the pioneering luminaries in our industry and a hero of mine.

Cerf (full name: Dr. Vinton G. Cerf) is, of course, the co-originator of the TCP/IP protocols and by extension, a great deal of what makes the Internet work.

Along with Robert Kahn, Cerf developed two technologies at the heart of the Internet protocol suite, creating an internetworking (a real word) design so robust that proponents say it be supported between any sorts of network, including the venerable (and oft-cited) tin-cans-and-string model (and the less-often-cited pigeon-based model).

Cerf, who currently holds the position of Chief Internet Evangelist at Google, is also known to history as the man who, at the height of an early IETF technical discussion, stepped to the podium and stripped off his trademark three-piece suit to reveal his famous "IP on Everything" T-shirt -- pacifying for the moment a heated debate over fundamental Internet design.

In retrospect, Cerf's T-shirt also hinted at possibilities we're only beginning to realize today, in the form of VoIP, IP-enabled automobiles, Internet-linked home entertainment systems and the long-discussed IP-enabled refrigerator (and thank heavens for that one, eh?)

When not pictured ripping open his dress shirt, Superman-style, to show off his famous T-shirt (it appears on his private Facebook profile, for the interested), Cerf is almost always seen wearing a three-piece suit; in the Esquire piece, he expounds a bit on its merits (which, if I had my druthers, would be required reading for today's predominantly shorts-and-T-shirt set... although I suppose anyone wearing a three-piece suit would be hard-pressed to look anything but sweat-drenched and disheveled while slaving away in a hot datacenter. Hmm.)

More to the point, the Esquire interview also includes a couple of telling moments of reminiscence and insight from the "Father of the Internet":

There was no one "Ah-ha!" moment. Not in the sense that many people want to hear. They see the Internet now and think, Well, thirty-six years ago someone imagined what it would look like in 2008, and that is what drove the process. It wasn't like that at all.

There was a first "Oh, no!" moment. That was the first time I saw spam pop up. It could have been as early as '79. A digital-equipment corporation sent a note around announcing a job opening, and we all blew up, saying, This is not for advertising! This is for serious work!

Link: Esquire: "What I've Learned: Vint Cerf"

More info about TCP/IP and its component TCP and IP protocols.)