Blog.org from David Brake
Daily updates on the Internet and its social and public policy implications, useful websites, political/cultural musings and more from a UK-based academic (PhD researcher at Media@LSE), Internet consultant and journalist
11 November, 2006
How the other half live
Filed under:Broadband infrastructure, Digital divide (developed countries), Personal at23:03 this text spoken posts linked to this

Thanks to a house move I have been trapped on dialup at home - at least for the next week or so - and I have been reminded about just how painful using the Internet is when you have to do it at less than 10Kb/s. All Internet users are definitely not equal in their ability to get things done. It has taken me 20 minutes just to check my email and read a minimal number of pages very slowly. By contrast once my broadband is installed, £5/$10 a month will get me a scorching fast (up to) 8Mbps (because it is bundled with my satellite TV). I can hardly wait!

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Media (Daily)
BBC News Online bookforum
(Weekly)
lifehacker - but I only look at their top these days. The Economist (I listen to the audio edition)
Arts & Letters Daily
The New Yorker & its cartoons

(Monthly or more infrequently)
Wired magazine
Prospect magazine (if you think The Economist is dumbed down)
Maisonneuve magazine
The Walrus
First Monday - an Internet-only peer reviewed journal of Internet studies
Gnovis - peer-reviewed journal of Communication, Culture and Technology
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
...and various other journals you can't access for free.

Virtual Communities I belong to
The Well
Brainstorms from Howard Rheingold
CIX the UK's "Well" for over 15 years
I'm also on Facebook

Comics
Doonesbury
Dilbert

Multimedia
US Public Radio
Day to Day NPR daily topical feature show inc. Slate content
BBC Radio 4 - archived for a week after broadcast
BBC Radio Drama original drama and serialised books
BBC7 radio dramas and comedy from BBC archives
The News Quiz

BBC World Service
Analysis
Assignment
Off the Shelf (serialised books)
Other non-podcast multimedia
The Daily Show biting American political satire.
Odd Todd periodically updated amusing Flash cartoons
Tales of Mere Existence excellent Quicktime animated short vignettes.
Guardian - monthly Cybercinema roundup
OneWord Radio audiobooks and author interviews

Podcasts

News/Current Affairs/Factual Thinking Allowed weekly interviews with academics
This American Life superb storytelling
LSE public lectures The University Channel guest lectures at major US universities
The Guardian's Podcasts
Slate's podcasts
From Our Own Correspondent

Fiction/drama
Escape Pod - SF short stories
Librivox - volunteer readers read classic fiction.
Craphound - Cory Doctorow reads his works
NPR book reviews

Digital Planet tech radio programme with emphasis on the developing world (now being podcast)
(also see the Go Digital special Digital Destinations) and Bill Thompson's thoughts about recent Digital Planets
IT Conversations: Blogging (broadcasts from conferences - other topics available)
NPR has a weekly tech roundup

Useful stuff
Various handy free/cheap Mac apps (updated regularly)
Online virus scanner
Free anti-virus software
Dave's Quick Search Toolbar Google taskbar on steroids
Workrave Free RSI prevention software
Powermarks Superb Windows bookmark manager ($25)
Netvouz This may be the most full-featured web bookmark manager around.
Endnote ($239 ) Great software for managing academic citations (or try one of these)
snipurl lets you share long urls easily
Mailwasher Lets you choose between several blacklists and other filtering tools to get rid of spam from multiple POP3 mailboxes - and it is free!
SpamMotel - Free disposable email addresses that let you see who is misusing the one you gave them
DigiGuide - a fast, powerful TV guide for your PC, covering the UK, US or Ireland
TotalRecorder - a powerful, inexpensive way to record streaming audio into MP3 files to take away.
QuestionPro survey software Lots of features and free for academic use.

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The WeatherPixie

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