Rhymes with Di-Fi

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: October 9, 2005 7:31:28 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Rhymes with Di-Fi
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com


Rhymes with Di-Fi
- Debra J. Saunders
Thursday, October 6, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO truly is The Special City. Not only has Mayor Gavin  
Newsom announced his plan for the city to provide free or cheap  
access to high-speed wireless Internet for all San Franciscans, he  
also has proclaimed Wi-Fi access a "fundamental right."

A fundamental right? I'm impressed. About one-quarter of the students  
in San Francisco Unified School District score at "below basic" or  
"far below basic" on state reading and writing tests. Those poor kids  
may not be able to read a book, they might not be able to afford a  
computer, but Newsom thinks they have a fundamental right to Wi-Fi.  
At least they can access free porn.

I presume a "fundamental right" to Wi-Fi means every San Franciscan  
has a right to a laptop computer and the chip that hooks laptops up  
to Wi-Fi.

Credit His Slickness with having the gift of the good stunt. Same-sex  
marriage? Ignore the law and tell everyone at City Hall to approve  
them. The marriages won't be legal and the courts will be bound to  
invalidate them, but newlyweds won't blame the love-boat mayor.

Besides, I must admit, the Right to Wi-Fi isn't as embarrassing as  
other San Francisco political fiascos, such as:

-- The supervisors' vote to reject bringing the battleship Iowa to  
San Francisco. Then the wacko idea of making the battleship  
acceptable by turning it into a museum to the "don't ask/don't tell"  
policy on gays in the military.

-- Or the city ordinance that bans smoking outdoors on city property,  
including parks -- with a kindly exemption for golf courses (a sop to  
country-club Democrats who smoke)?

-- Or the attempt by then-Supervisor Matt Gonzalez to allow  
noncitizens to vote in school-board elections.

-- Or the resolution by Supervisor Tom Ammiano praising protesters of  
a 2004 biotech conference "for their concern for the health, safety  
and well- being of the public and the environment."

-- Or the vote to redesignate pet owners as "guardians."

At least this stunt puts San Francisco, not in the '50s or '60s or  
Stone Age, but in the future-looking pro-technology camp.

As Tim Cavanaugh, editor of the libertarian online voice Reason.com,  
noted, not too long ago city pols rejected adding new antennas to  
improve cell-phone reception "out of hysterical concerns that cell- 
phone towers would give brain cancer to children." In a sense, you  
could say the Wi-Fi scheme is progress in Luddite-town.

[snip]

E-mail: dsaunders () sfchronicle com.

Page B - 9
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/06/ 
EDGUNF2JUS1.DTL

Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>



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