Philadelphia was a particularly interesting choice because it's the corporate home of Comcast. Here in San Francisco, the plan to build a citywide wireless network was initially opposed by the telco giant, along with AT&T, as the two companies feared it threatened their duopoly. Turned out they had little to be afraid of — between Comcast's influence in City Hall and villainously-coiffed God-mayor Gavin Newsom's inability to understand the political process beyond publicity, the combined powers of Google and Earthlink couldn't get anything done (and publicly mocking political opposition certainly didn't help).

Wi-Fi is simply bad technology for large-scale wireless connectivity. The microwave spectrum the technology uses can't cover large distances omni-directionally, and everything from humidity to trees interrupt the signal. And those problems are compounded by the difficulty in building a network infrastructure to feed all those access points with enough bandwidth to satsify thousands of users at any given time. Again, expanding fiber optic networks makes much more sense, because a bunch of wireless routers in a mesh network does you no good unless they can actually connect to an Internet backbone at dozens if not hundreds of points.

Having lived in the Bay Area since the turn of the century, I've actually noticed a decrease in Wi-Fi availability, mostly thanks to individuals who've started to lock down their access points and businesses that have tired of freeloaders. By the time Philadelphia and San Francisco were busy trying to build out citywide systems, the 802.11n Wi-Fi standard was already getting old, while cell network provides were introducing 3G data connections. Politics doomed such projects from the start, and now obsolescence will finish them.

What was once the technological pride of Phildelphia is now a failed dream on its last legs. Meanwhile, I can't get a fiber optic connection if I wanted one (and I do, desperately). Had we been listening to San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano instead of mayor Newsom years ago, maybe San Franciscans would be getting the true broadband speeds countries in Asia and Europe enjoy. (Photo by Bob Jagendorf)

It wasn't the interview with now-former CIO Douglas Merrill, which served to convince me that the Canadian-nice Merrill will get eaten alive by the music industry. It wasn't the moment when Jim Killeen of Cobe, Ireland, a Catholic priest, argues the Pope's position on human sexuality with Jim Killeen of Denver, Colorado, the swinger and self-described "tranny chaser."

It was a few minutes into the film when noted Scientologist and Earthlink founder Sky Dayton makes an incongruous appearance to muse on the business of moving bits. Later on, the filmmaker Killeen intereviews his schizophrenic brother and sister about their experiences with psychiatrists and the medications they're currently taking, proclaiming that he feels they'd be better off without psychiatric care. Finally he declares on camera that he's a Scientologist, confirming my suspicions based on Dayton's appearance and the anti-psychiatry agitprop.

But that's just a side note in a watchable and somewhat entertaining but otherwise forgettable documentary. The best moments are the man-on-the-street interviews where people from around the world describe their own experiences running a vanity search for their name on Google. But it doesn't succeed on the same, earnest level that 24 Hours on Craigslist did, probably because what it has in geographic scope it lacks in range of characters as subjects.

Yet the cost of dial-up continues to shrink, which means EarthLink can continue to squeeze its current customers for healthy profits, possibly for some time to come. It's not innovative, not sexy. It's not why founder Sky Dayton started the company; it's not a business plan anyone from the Valley would propose, or a job an engineer here would sign up for. SoMa Web designers are offended by the notion that anyone's still accessing their sites through a 56-Kbps modem. EarthLink is not following the set pattern: Set the world on fire, or flame out fast. For the Valley's groupthinkers, the fact that EarthLink still exists, collecting monthly checks, is an idea that must burn.

The secret? Piggybacking on the existing, municipally owned fiber-optic infrastructure and connecting to the Internet backbone through the Internet Archive's switches. Yes, the same municipal infrastructure that Google openly mocked last April. Three cheers for actual altruism, and not profit-seeking self-interest marketed as altruism! (Photo by AP/Ben Margot)

A company spokesperson says EarthLink remains behind Helio. But it only makes sense that EarthLink, having just laid off 900 employees of its own, might be looking to cash out its stake in Helio by finding a buyer. That would give EarthLink some immediate cash to shore up its operations, and spare it from making further investments in Helio; having put $220 million into Helio, its expected to sink another $100 million into the wireless carrier this year.

The only problem with this rumor: Having cut back on its municipal Wi-Fi efforts, if EarthLink pulls out of Helio, too, it will have precious few growth businesses with which to tantalize investors. Dayton, of course, will have a much more pressing problem: 600 mouths to feed.

This agreement to bring free universal wireless internet access to San Francisco is a critical step in bridging the digital divide that separates too many communities from the enormous benefits of technology.

San Francisco finalizes Wi-Fi deal with EarthLink, Google [SF Gate]

Say what you want about the Google hegemony, I'd trust them before San Franciscan landlords and neighborhood overlords any day. Reader Davis Freeberg saw San Francisco nutjobs shanghai a town meeting with Google and Earthlink, meant to bring the city one step closer to city-wide free and cheap wifi plans. He reports below, and adds more at his blog.

So I'm not really into all of the BS politics and normally stay clear of these sorts of issues, but last night I attended a town hall meeting hosted by Google and Earthlink and saw an angry mob rip apart Google and EarthLink over their proposed free WiFi initive.

Maybe I should have known that SF politics could get dirty, but for 2 hours Chris Sacca, Google's Director of Special Initives faced angry angry SF political gadflies who somehow think that Google giving away free internet access to the city will harm them.

After the jump, violence!

One crazy guy, at one point, actually started making threatening moves towards Sacca and had to be restrained when Sacca tried to tell him that his renters wouldn't need to sign special contracts if they want to plug their wireless access card into their home computers. When the guy threatened to block the wifi signals for his renters, Sacca pointed out that he couldn't block the air and the crowd went ballistic.

Political theater or political circus, I'll let you be the judge, but my money says that Google and Earthlink pull out of this deal in a year when the city still won't negotiate a reasonable agreement letting them give away free internet access to their citizens. If the deal does go through maybe the local SF nuts can use Tin Foil to help keep the free wifi signals from communicating with the microchips installed in their fillings.

More from Davis: San Francisco Local Politics Derail Free WiFi Project [Davis Freeberg]
Picture: No Wifi for you [Blaugh]

AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft, Earthlink, and the owner of NetZero and Juno pledged $1 million toward building the database — to hunt out child porn among their users. AOL, for example, plans to scan e-mails for child porn. If they find a match, they'll report the user to the authorities without a warning.

By the way, AOL's researching ways to do this with Instant Messenger.

There are four guaranteed outcomes here:

• These four companies are about to get some padded resumes from sex offenders.
• If the program works, the danger of owning recognizable images will create a demand for fresh kiddie porn.
• If the Fed ever needs to shut down half the Internet, it can just arrest these companies for possession.
• Biggest. Hacker bait. Ever.

Top Internet Providers Hope to Combat Child Porn With Image Database [Fox News]