Big Brother’s Big Win

Salon’s covererage of the USA Patriot Act and Total Information Awareness Program AKA The Department of Pre-Crime…

Big Brother’s big win: “This week’s closed-door ruling by a secretive court will give the feds unprecedented domestic spying powers, a constitutional expert says.” Source: Salon

The next big thing…

I actually caught this last week on 60 Minutes II and was seriously impressed. Dean Kamen showed that he is well on the way to be able to build a Stirling engine. What is so amazing about his thinking is that the device would be able to provide enough power to: enable computing devices; recharge a Segway HT and clean water that may have been collected. This could all happen simply by burning wood chips or any other readily available resource. Dean sees and it is hard to debate on this one, that the world could forever change with this device. Third world countries depending on water for survival would be able to have a quicker way to get the water (segway) to and from the source, plus a way to clean it for safety. Clean energy and clean water, not bad for a guy who dropped out of school…

Big Segway News? (Aaron Swartz: The Weblog)

Spectrum battles are chronic at the FCC

Such spectrum battles are chronic at the FCC. Each of them will give the government a choice: to promote Wi-Fi or to restrain it. Even if the FCC sided with Wi-Fi on all issues of competing use, consumers would still have to reckon with the possibility that the government might protect existing communications services by forcing Wi-Fi to meet regulatory requirements for the security of signals and the quality of service. Actually, meeting these standards would be a laudable goal, but it should be achieved through competition and innovation, not government mandates. Imposing such requirements is a time-tested regulatory way of deterring competition and delaying change.

Source: The McKinsey Quarterly

China’s Big Brother

According to this AP report, a province in China is requiring Internet Cafe users to purchase a card which registers them with the authorities and monitors their online usage…

They get an access card, which is swiped on an identifying machine when they go online. That sends a signal to police who continuously monitor the Web for people attempting to reach barred sites. Police can also block access to selected cardholders.

If their Broadband partner is scaling back…

If their Broadband partner is scaling back and Yahoo just launched… can’t be good. I guess the premium services they are looking to launch will be based around some other core offering…only time will tell.

Something doesn’t add up: “San Jose Mercury News: “‘We have dramatically scaled down any further deployment of DSL,’ said SBC Senior Vice President Jim Smith. ‘We couldn’t make a good business case to go forward.'”

Two years ago, SBC loudly promoted the billions of dollars it would invest in rolling out DSL. What changed? All of the regulatory restrictions on the local phone companies were in place by 1996 or shortly thereafter in the rules implementing the Telecommunications Act.

What’s new is that competitors can use use deeply discounted “UNE-P” wholesale rates in many states. If SBC’s argument is that they can’t compete against the cut-rate DSL resellers, where are all those competitors? All I see is Earthlink and a few others offering broadband at rates similar to the incumbents, and a bunch of smaller players targeting business customers. There’s something that just doesn’t add up in the Bells’ arguments about broadband.” Source: Werblog

What Looms for Satellite

What Looms for Satellite Big-Wig?

Charlie Ergen’s not the only one with money, ambition and an eye on the sky. Rupert Murdoch, who previously had designs on buying DirecTV, and whose NDS company has been accused of helping hackers pirate digital TV access smartcards, may well return to the fray.

No love has been lost between Ergen and Murdoch in the past. If a new battle erupts between these billionaires, the scorched TV landscape that could result might make the sorts of merger battles we’ve seen up to now look like weekend picnics.

Source: Wired News

Blog To Court: Check your Facts

Blog To Court: Check your Facts

When attorney Howard Bashman noticed a small error in the footnote of a 5th Circuit appellate court opinion, he quickly noted it on his weblog.

The next day, Judge Jerry Smith, who wrote the opinion and also happens to be a reader of Bashman’s blog (PDF), fixed the error in an amended version. The judge e-mailed Bashman, personally thanking him for bringing the mistake to his attention.

“It’s the first time that I’ve noticed a weblog credited for pointing out an error and causing a correction (in a court decision),” Bashman said. “This example is noteworthy because it’s the first time that something like this has come to light.” Source: Wired News