Four short links: 30 July 2013

Transit and Peering, Quick Web Interfaces, Open Source Licensing, and RC Roach

  1. Why YouTube Buffers (ArsTechnica) — When asked if ISPs are degrading Netflix and YouTube traffic to steer users toward their own video services, Crawford told Ars that “the very powerful eyeball networks in the US (and particularly Comcast and Time Warner Cable) have ample incentive and ability to protect the IP services in which they have economic interests. Their real goal, however, is simpler and richer. They have enormous incentives to build a moat around their high-speed data networks and charge for entry because data is a very high-margin (north of 95 percent for the cable companies), addictive, utility product over which they have local monopoly control. They have told Wall Street they will do this. Yes, charging for entry serves the same purposes as discrimination in favor of their own VOD [video-on-demand], but it is a richer and blunter proposition for them.”
  2. Ink — MIT-licensed interface kit for quick development of web interfaces, simple to use and expand on.
  3. Licensing in a Post-Copyright WorldThis article is opening up a bit of the history of Open Source software licensing, how it seems to change and what we could do to improve it. Caught my eye: Oracle that relicensed Berkeley DB from BSD to APGLv3 [… effectively changing] the effective license for 106 other packages to AGPLv3 as well.
  4. RC Cockroaches (Vine) — video from Dale Dougherty of Backyard Brains Bluetooth RoboRoach. (via Dale Dougherty)
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