Although socialist ideals dictate that the government should play a leading role in almost all aspects of a country and its citizens, the last century should have shown us by now the folly of such a proposition. No sane observer, however, would espouse a complete withdrawal of government oversight and judicious intervention. It is equally foolish to give the private sector a rules-free environment. It has the same tendency as with governments to acquire power, grow itself into bloat levels, and swallow everything in sight, after all.

In a utopian world, every country would successfully find the ideal mix of government control and free rein for private sector operations, where businesses can flourish doing their things, manufacturing products and offering services, which, while undoubtedly benefit consumers for real or imagined, also do wonders for the bottom line. At the same time, government presence is felt at a sufficient level to ensure that consumer interest and welfare are always kept in mind and honored by product and service providers and purveyors.

Governments anywhere could learn a lesson or two from the recent experiences of city governments in the United States that as recently as a couple of years ago announced their intentions to build citywide Wi-Fi networks. Envisioned to provide always-on wireless Internet connection, these pet network projects would have allowed residents, especially those in rural areas, to go online.

Lofty projects they sure would have been. Real-world economics, however, promptly showed how flawed those wireless network plans were. At the first sign of scarcity of probability of earning tidy profits from such endeavors, the projects’ private partners decided to scale down their participation, if not withdraw totally.

I hope these lessons are taken to heart by our leaders as they ponder the National Broadband Network and cyber-education issues.

This one is sure to convince a lot of people about that conspiracy theory thing. Puddingmedia, a business startup, proposes a business model involving software designed to listen to Voice over Internet Protocol or Internet-powered phone calls. Advertisements are then displayed on the callers’ computer screens depending on the topics being talked about by the parties.

Care to join Puddingmedia’s beta testing of its Big Brother-cum-marketing software? Head off to www.thepudding.com then.

While the software still has some kinks left to be ironed out, later versions would certainly be better in snooping on IP callers’ conversations. Why do I get goose bumps just thinking about it? And what’s that cursor on my screen doing? Why is it blinking?

Computer scientist Laura Beckwith, for her dissertation (http://eecs.oregonstate.edu/library/?call2007-22), tried to answer the question: Why too few women dare venture into the field of computer science? So she and her adviser, Margaret Burnett, studied how men and women differ in their approaches to using computer applications.

They found out that women’s computer use is influenced by their perceived levels of confidence in their computer skills. Women who see themselves ill-equipped to use a software’s advanced features would not do so.

Men, on the other hand, are ready to access software’s advanced features, such as those for creating formulas to shorten computing processes. Men’s confidence levels regarding their computer skills do not affect their use of software.

Lesson to be learned? For once, men’s tendency to be dumb asses is getting them ahead of women, the fairer and definitely more intelligent members of the species.

One Laptop Per Child’s 0 laptop project might have become the $ 188 quixotic dream, and could possibly turn into a public relations nightmare for its proponents. But the nonprofit group’s leaders are not to be cowed into retreating to their academe worlds. Instead, OLPC has come up with an idea that just might make the notion of giving laptops to poor children in developing countries turn into reality a lot faster.

The organization’s "Give One, Get One" (www.xogiving.com) promotion campaign will sell XO computers for $ 400 to residents in Canada and the United States. For every XO sold during the campaign period, one XO will be donated to countries participating in the OLPC mission.

I am sure there are lots of North Americans who believe that peace and security can be better achieved using means other than military presence in other countries. This corner wishes OLPC’s promotion campaign success.

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.