While the internets have been abuzz about Jason’s latest plans to compensate content creators at Netscape, another initiative of his seems to have gone somewhat unnoticed: he’s planning to beef up DownloadSquad to compete more directly with Lifehacker. As a big fan of both sites (and one of the founding bloggers on DownloadSquad), I wish him luck. Even if he’s unable to topple Gina & Co. from their perch at the top of the productivity blogging heap, the competition will be good for both sites. Oh, and about that compensation thing—anyone who has worked in online community/social networking for a while knows that there’s nothing new about paying community leaders. AOL —which owns Netscape—has been doing so for ages, and pioneered the practice over 10 years ago, when the service compensated CLs with free accounts (which were worth quite a bit at the time, since AOL charged by the hour back then). So, while Jason’s move may be derided as a bit of grandstanding (which it, no doubt, is), the practice of paying for community content is neither novel nor heretical. It’s simply good business, which is something Jason is quite savvy about.

Much fun has been had at the expense of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, who recently referred to the Internet as a “series of tubes.” And, while it is fun to mock the Senator for his awkward metaphor and curious use of the term “Internet” as a proxy for email (“an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o’clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday”), Stevens’ real lack of understanding comes elsewhere in his remarks. The fact is, the Internet has been called a collection of “pipes” for years, and no one is chastised for that usage. “Tube,” as Webster’s points out, is an acceptable synonym for pipe. As far as I’m concerned, the troubling thing about Stevens’ speech isn’t his clumsy attempt at allegory, but rather his total lack of understanding of how TCP/IP networks function. No, the Internet isn’t like a big truck, as the Senator pointed out. But as a collection of tubes, or pipes, it relies on an ingenious architecture and series of protocols designed to split data into packets that travel independently along the network. So, yes, extensive use of multimedia may slow things down (try using a corporate network right after someone has sent a mass email directing everyone in the office to the latest Mentos video), but your message isn’t going to have to “get in line” behind other material and wait for it to be finished before you can receive it. Packet switching networks are designed specifically to avoid that sort of delay, and the Internet (and its predecessors) have been doing so successfully since the early 1970s. So, let’s cut Stevens some slack on “tubes,” but not for his failure to understand the basic architecture of the network he’s in charge of regulating. And let’s continue to fight for Net Neutrality, even if we have to stuff every tube with Internets of protest to get the concept enshrined in law.

Kudos to Jordan for tracking down Dark Room, a full-screen text editor for Windows. Such editors are all the rage in the Mac world, but are a rarity on Windows machines. I suspect this has something to do with the novelty of working in a non-WYSIWYG environment for Mac developers and users. Many Windows developers and users, on the other hand, still have lingering bad memories of DOS, and can’t see why such a program would be useful. However, uncluttering the screen to provide a clean space where you can focus solely on your words isn’t a bad thing, and the old school feel is an added bonus. The first computer I ever used was a Wang VS, so working with green text on a black background brings back some memories—not all of them fond. Still, I can see myself using Dark Room for those times when I just need to clear the screen and do nothing but write. Either that, or I’ll reboot into DOS and run Word 5.5.

Ah, where would we be without Spinal Tap? Too bad Rob Reiner never trademarked “goes to 11.”