02.29.08
Posted in Digital Divide at 6:12 pm by Travis
Civil rights groups: FCC should allow network management | InfoWorld | News | 2008-02-29 | By Grant Gross, IDG News Service
“Civil rights groups: FCC should allow network management
A coalition of seven civil rights groups believes that net neutrality laws would only serve to protect bandwidth higs at the expense of other users”
Shame, shame,shame. These organizations need to listen to my podcast and read my blog. They lack sufficient information to make informed decisions. This is the abortion/gay rights debacle of technology. Ask the telcoms, when was the last time they provided any major innovation in the way of broadband adoption? The Japanese who run blinding broadband speeds that make ours look like we are using tin cups and string, just launched a satellite to provide true broadband (1.2 Gbs), that’s right gigabits. 150 times faster than our blazing DSL service of 8Mbs, that’s megabits and 12 times faster than those shiny new FTTP (Fiber To The Premise) lines being laid down by the telcos. Where is the love? Ya’ll need to go and educate yourselves and try again. A mind is a terrible thang.
Look for a new podcast real soon!!!
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02.23.08
Posted in Digital Divide at 5:48 pm by Travis
AFP: Japan successfully launches high-speed Internet satellite
“The 342 million dollar-Kizuna will allow super-high speed data communications of up to 1.2 Gbps, which would make it the fastest in the world, the agency said.
That rate would translate to 150 times that of the average high-speed ADSL connection rate of 8 Mbps, or 12 times the speed of a fibre-optic communication delivery to a person’s premises (FTTP).”
Why does it seem that Asia just has the right idea about broadband access?
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02.20.08
Posted in security at 10:13 pm by Travis
RIAA Training Video Leaked onto Torrent Sites Updated | Listening Post from Wired.com
“But it also includes some choice lines, such as this one, about how piracy accusations can help take down people who are skirting other laws think Al Capone:
Jim Dedman, National District Attorneys Association: “If I have my drug officers out there, and they see what seems like a nice music collection, this may be something you could help me out with.”
Deborah Robinson, Regional Counsel, Anti-Piracy Div., RIAA: “Exactly, exactly. And sometimes drug officers call us and say, we know theyre selling music, can you help us?… Were trying to arrest this drug dealer, what should I look for, what should I put in that affidavit?”
I have said it over and over again. The telcos relationship with the feds will produce disastrous effects. The RIAA is now making a case that their pursuit of piracy will lead to other criminal activities such as drugs and you guessed it, terrorism. This is will give them the excuse to search all digital content as they have been doing since 9/11 until last weekend.
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02.12.08
Posted in security at 10:22 pm by Travis
Blog Posts related to NSA Spying | Electronic Frontier Foundation
“Sixty-seven senators chose to side with corporate interests rather than uphold the Constitution today, passing the FISA Amendments Act FAA and voting to reject every amendment that would have improved the bill and protected American civil liberties.”
What so sad is that Arkansas’ two senators voted for the telecommunication companies. I can’t quite see why Sen. Mark Pryor did. I mean he has only gotten a total $108, 000 in donations from the telecommunications industry since 1989. Even though this sounds like a lot, this industry is number 18 out of the top 20 industries that donated to him. AT$T barely made the top 20 contributors with a total of $18, 250 since 1989.
Now Blanche Lincoln is a different story. Although the telecommunications industry is 16 out of the top 20 industries at $180,268.00, AT$T is the largest contributor of $74,000 since 1989. (source: opensecrets.org)
(special note:The organizations themselves did not donate, rather the money came from the organization’s PAC, its individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals’ immediate families.) opensecrets.org
Now what exactly did the telecoms do? Contrary to popular belief, they were not going through pages and pages of phone bills. They split the fiber optic data that was coming through the telcos and ran into their equipment and copied it. Sophisticated search algorithms sifted through the emails, voice and computer data to find the terrorist electronic communications , or at least that’s what we were led to believe. They now have to ability to listen and see everything that comes across their network, and I mean everything. This will not stop with just terrorism. I believe that the telcoms will use this to further their efforts to put up the gates on the internet to remove the innovation, free speech and overall freedom that the internet has given us. They will partner even more with the media companies to destroy Google and Apple. Music and movies companies have just won a small victory in helping them continue pushing out shiggity and calling it art. Who needs DRM when you got control of the net which is the world’s largest and most open distribution channel. We must make our last stand in the House before its too late. Check out this chart. (Source: http://eff.org)
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02.02.08
Posted in black history at 10:16 pm by Travis
Thumper Hopper
Tell Tom Cruise to get somewhere and “sa’down”. This sister is the for real Top Gun.
“Captain Christina Hopper has logged over 800 hours as a F-16 “Fighting Falcon” pilot. She logged over 50 combat and combat support missions during the Iraq War. She now instructs young rookies how to fly this mean machine.
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