I admit it, I’m addicted to Facebook. I spend way too much time on it. The biggest problem, of course, is that I don’t actually like Facebook. It has privacy concerns, yes, but more importantly it just doesn’t run the way I want it to run. Furthermore, if it did run the way I wanted it to, other people wouldn’t like it. As a closed product, Facebook is a compromise designed to appeal to as many people as possible. As a result, it’s a perfect product for nobody.

My goal is to develop a set of standards that would allow anyone to develop interoperable social networking servers and clients. This would provide choice to users, both in terms of interface and usability, but also in terms of privacy and security models on the server. By not storing all the personal information on a single server but rather having each user store their own information on their own servers, each user is able to use the privacy model of their own choice. And by making a single protocol that all clients and servers can speak, you don’t need to know (or care) what service your friends use; you’ll still see their updates.

I recognize that it’s a difficult path to develop a standard, create applications, then reach a large enough userbase to go mainstream. While it seems impossible now, it’s been done many times before. Facebook supplanted MySpace, which largely replaced LiveJournal. The history of social networking sites shows that a superior product can replace the market leader, no matter how large the market share may be.

Right now I need a lot of help developing concepts, and I’ll need a lot of help in many areas going forward. The best way to help out right now, however, is to visit my RSSN website (Really Simple Social Networking) at http://rssn.hedgie.com and create an account. Whether you want to develop the protocols, program an application, or just help me beautify the website, all support is appreciated!

What’s the difference between an iPad and a tablet? Besides one being very expensive and giving you bragging rights if you own it, of course? Any Apple owner will tell you the iPad is easy to use, and its true. And simplicity is a good thing. Or, at least, simplicity is a good thing until it stops you from doing what you want to get done. And the iPad, like the iPhone, will only run applications pre-approved by Apple. Do you think Apple will approve every application out there? Of course not.

I understand that not everybody is a computer programmer. Not everyone cares about the Open Source Movement. But if you own a computer that you can’t control, do you really own it? Or is Apple just letting you use their tablet?

The Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act provides a lot of protections for military servicemembers. One of the most commonly used provision of the Act is the right of servicemembers to, should they desire, retain their residency in their old state as they move around in the military. This protects servicemembers from paying taxes in other states, or having to get a new drivers license each time they move, and allows them to vote in their home state, and many other advantages.

Unfortunately, the Act said absolutely nothing about spouses.

Under the law, a spouse who follows a servicemember to a new state must follow the same rules as someone who just voluntarily moves to a new state. For this reason, I’ve always advised servicemembers to register their cars in their name, rather than joint, to avoid import taxes when registering vehicles in a new state. Some problems can’t be easily overcome, however, like income taxes and voting.

To be honest, the majority of states have ignored the law’s provisions and given spouses equal protection under the law, but not all. And even if the state chooses not to enforce the law, it can put a spouse in the uncomfortable position of ignoring the law.

November 11th, Veteran’s Day, Barack Obama signed Military Spouses Residency Relief Act into law, giving spouses equal protection under the law. In a nutshell, a military spouse can retain residency in their home state, vote in their hometown, pay income taxes in their home state, This change is long overdue, and it’s a great move to help military families!

The latest firmware update, which enables Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm support on the XBox 360, also cripples XBox 360 functionality for no reason other than to attempt to gouge customers. Microsoft XBox 360 hard drives are priced well above reasonable; a standard terabyte hard drive sells for the same price as a Microsoft 60GB XBox 360 drive. The same problem exists for memory units; Amazon carries a 512mb XBox 360 memory unit for $24.99. No explanation for why you can’t use a standard thumb drive that sells for the same price has 16GB capacity. This is especially disturbing when you realize they both use a USB interface, and it was only a business decision to disable standard thumb drives from working.

So Datel figured they could make a memory unit that works better than the Microsoft units – they sell a 4GB memory unit for $39.99. Moreover, the Datel units are expandable with MicroSD cards, so you could basically have a 16GB SSD in your XBox 360 if you wanted it. Many people bought these, and many people use them to have a large amount of portable storage. Microsoft should embrace the concept of other companies improving their product. If they make a great console, they’ll make plenty of money through game licensing fees. On the other hand, if you “improve” your product to disable functionality that customers have paid for, you’re just going to alienate your own customers.

I love to criticize Microsoft, but there are many companies that get this wrong. Make your product as good as it can be. If people find ways to improve it, embrace it. Ensure your profit model relies on delivering the best possible service to your customers. If you structure your business in such a way that you need to purposely cripple your customers in order to make money, you are hurting your long-term profitability to temporarily raise revenue.

There are fundamentally two business models a company can pursue. The first is to provide the best possible experience to the customer. By providing the best possible experience to the customer, you will grow a large loyal customer base who will not hesitate to pay a fair market price for your products or services. This model is followed by the majority of small locally owned businesses, although some large corporations have been credited with following this model. Note that virtually all large corporations claim to put the customer first, but most follow a second model.

The second model is to lock in customers as much as possible, then squeeze as much money as you can from each customer. This could very well be referred to as the airline business model, although you don’t need to look far at all to find examples in any industry. When Apple applies a patch to iTunes that prevents you from syncing your Palm, they aren’t doing anything any customer would have ever asked for. Rather, they’re hoping you’ll throw up your arms in frustration and buy an iPhone because “it just works.” This “bleed them until they die” model works surprisingly well when customers believe they don’t really have a choice. Fortunately, we always have a choice.

Now that I’ve waxed philosophic for too long, why am I leaving Clearwire, the ISP whom I’ve recommended to so many friends over the years? A couple of months ago I was online playing QuadRadius when I lost my connection (meaning I lost my game). This is a little upsetting, but we all remember the 2400 days and, well, line noise happens. I wanted to know if the entire Internet was down or not, so I pinged a few servers. None of my pings were successful, but the results were odd. Normally I ping a few servers by domain name and a few by IP address, which lets me know if my connection is broke or just my DNS server (always carry a spare DNS server!). I saw none of my pings succeeded, but all the domains resolved … to the same IP address.

At this point I fired up Wireshark, and sure enough all my packets were being dropped except DNS resolutions, which all resolved to the same IP address. On a hunch, I fired up the browser and pointed it towards Google, where I was greeted by a Clearwire page telling me they would be willing to reduce my monthly service fee by $10 per month if I agreed to sign a two year contract. That’s right, my Internet had been cut off in order that I could be served an advertisement.

There is nothing in the Clearwire Terms of Service that allows this, or at least there wasn’t when this occurred. The obvious analogy would be if an AT&T operator cut into your phone call to your aunt to offer you a reduced rate on long distance. You might want the service offered, but when they interrupt your communications to do it, well that’s just rude. It could be dangerous as well; if I had a VOIP phone I would have effectively lost the ability to send or receive phone calls until I tried to browse the web. I am not a lawyer, but I believe disconnecting a paid customer’s Internet connection to provide advertising in violation of your own terms of service is breech of contract.

Naturally, I was pretty annoyed. All this from a company that had never done me wrong before. So I called them up, and demanded two things. First, I asked for an apology. I was told, and I quote, “I’m sorry you didn’t appreciate our offer.” Despite failing to receive an apology, I gave my second demand: a promise to never perform a “network capture” (their term) on me again. I was told that since I declined that offer, I would never be given that offer again. I asked if I would receive other offers, and was told they didn’t know.

So I wrote a letter repeating my two demands, and stating that I would cancel service if they weren’t met. Not only were my demands not met, but I received no response. So today I followed through with my threat, and disconnected Clearwire (after twenty minutes of on-hold time).

I’m not particularly mad at Clearwire, and I don’t think they’re more evil that most ISPs. However, like many small companies that have grown into large companies, they’ve stopped following the “provide the best service possible” business model. Clearwire exists as an ISP, and they are contracted to transfer bits back and forth between customers and other people in the world. In cutting off my Internet they did a less than optimal job at their primary mission in order to lock me into a two year contract. As a customer for the last two years, I can honestly say that had Clearwire continued to provide excellent Internet service, you wouldn’t need a contract to keep me signed up for another two years. But if you’re going to provide less reliable service than my local ISP, then I’m not signing any contract at any price.