May 14, 2008 Episode

Paul Fischer, Information Technology professional and one of podcasting's pioneers, is our guest today. The team of Paul Fischer and Martha Holloway are widely known for their Balticon Podcast and A.D.D. Podcast.In this interview Paul describes:How cellular phone companies manage to charge $3 for only part of a song when the entire song can be bought on Amazon.com for under a dollar. And why this eight billion dollar ringtone business in the US is even worse in Europe where ringtones cost individual users about $30 per year, every year, because they are rented.How the F.C.C. has failed the American public in their assigned mission, and why they do not care that they have failed. Ways the American cell phone companies have perverted the rules that are supposed to govern their operations.The sad fact that Police and Fire Department cellular systems all take a back seat to commercial cellular systems in terms of quality, bandwidth, priority and deployment. And which cities are taking serious steps to fix this problem.Why the Japanese all have better cell phone service and bandwidth than Americans, so much so that watching live streaming internet TV on their cell phones has lost its novelty.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the May 14, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 58 minutes]Paul Fischer also talks about his involvement with Balticon, and how this led him and Martha Holloway to create the Balticon Podcast. He mentions that Neil Gaiman was one of his favorite guests, and describes Neil Gaiman as a joy to interview, a genuinely nice guy, as well as a modern renaissance man who seems to do everything well. Paul also talks about his interviews with others including the brilliant artist Joe Bergeron.