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U.S. authorities have seized two accounts linked to a major operator in the booming Bitcoin digital currency market, Tokyo-based exchange Mt. Gox. The move may prevent the firm from facilitating the purchase and sale of Bitcoins in U.S. dollars at a time when use of the currency and its value has mushroomed. Bitcoin, which unlike conventional money is bought and sold on a peer-to-peer network independent of any central authority, has grown popular among users who lack faith in the established banking system. The price of the volatile currency ballooned in March as a result of the Cyprus bank crisis. Authorities worry that a lack of regulation has left the currency vulnerable to money launderers and other criminals. A seizure warrant obtained Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security froze an account that an Iowa-based online payment processor, Dwolla Inc, held at Veridian Credit Union in the name of Mutum Sigillum LLC. An affidavit filed by an agent with the department's investigations unit states that Mutum Sigillum, a Mt. Gox subsidiary incorporated in Delaware, was operating as an unlicensed money transmitter, in violation of federal law. Treasury's anti-money laundering unit, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), in March issued guidance that dubbed digital currency exchanges money transmitters, a finding that obliged such businesses to register with FinCEN and obtain any mandated state licenses. A search of FinCEN's online registration database Friday morning suggested that neither Mt. Gox nor Mutum Sigillum had registered. The affidavit cited Mutum Sigillum's failure to register with FinCEN as sufficient grounds to seize its accounts. Both Mutum Sigillum and Mt. Gox, which says it handles 80 percent of Bitcoin trading, are owned by Mark Karpeles, the affidavit states. It adds that Karpeles opened an account in Mutum Sigillum's name at Wells Fargo in May 2011, and that when doing so completed a form in which he said it was not a money transmitter. Click headline to read more--
In part one and part two of our three-part series, we discussed attempts to regulate the Internet both nationally and globally. Though the future of internet governance is unknown, as regulatory agencies and governments clamp down, cooperation between Internet advoacy groups and regulatory agencies could help avoid increased Internet censorship or possible balkanization. If the Internet were a movie, it would fall into the genre of films following the general plot of King Kong. What begins as a gentle giant, peaceful and safe in its natural habitat, eventually gets scared, terrorizes the public with a destructive rampage, and ends up shot with a tranquilizer dart and made to perform in the circus, or similar. Sometimes the movie ends at this point, the protagonist misunderstood and with no real chance of redemption, and the ending is sad (The Elephant Man). In other stories, the monster is rescued or even redeemed in the eyes of the once-angry public (The Iron Giant). The Internet is just one cyber-9/11 away from being shackled, upsetting the Web’s so-far rosy childhood that the public has enjoyed so much. Even barring an emergency, with federal lawmakers and restrictive foreign nations pushing for increased regulation, it’s possible that the Internet could become less free, less open and less useful than it is today, making for quite the sad ending. Click headline to read more--
The Connect America Fund is the FCC’s 21st Century solution to expanding broadband to unserved areas of rural America. One reason why the Connect America Fund can stay within a budget as it accomplishes this task – while continuing to support traditional voice service as its 20th Century predecessor program did – is because we are targeting the right amount of subsidies to the right places: places where help is needed the most. The old universal service fund did little to protect against unneeded subsidies. Developing ways to stop this fiscal waste was a major focus of our 2011 Connect America reforms. We are well on the way to implementing these reforms, including making initial decisions on a Cost Model that will calculate what level of support is needed, down to the Census tract level. Today, we’re adopting another set of policies to make sure that we don’t support providers in Census tracts where another provider is delivering service without subsidies. It’s fiscally prudent to reserve the Fund for areas where there’s no business case to serve consumers. And it’s common sense that in areas where a provider delivers voice and broadband without subsidies, a business case has been made. Moreover, giving subsidies to one provider and not the other is unfair. So accounting for unsubsidized providers is critical as we distribute support for rural voice and broadband in this phase, Phase II, of the Connect America Fund. Here’s how we are going to do it. Click headline to read more--
MetroPCS dropped its lawsuit challenging the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality regulations on Friday, leaving Verizon to continue the legal battle against the rules on its own. T-Mobile, which was not challenging the rules, acquired MetroPCS earlier this month. The FCC's rules require wireline broadband providers to treat all Internet traffic equally. Cellphone carriers are prohibited from blocking any apps or services. Supporters of the rules argue they are critical for ensuring an open Internet and promoting competition, but critics claim the rules unnecessarily restrict businesses and amount to government control of the Internet. Putting the regulations into place was one of the signature accomplishments by Chairman Julius Genachowski, who will step down at the end of the day. In a statement, Genachowski applauded T-Mobile for withdrawing the MetroPCS suit. “The FCC’s widely supported open Internet framework has contributed to healthy growth in innovation and investment across the U.S. broadband economy. Since 2010, our strong and balanced rules have been protecting entrepreneurs and consumers, and have increased certainty and predictability for investors in Internet services as well as networks," he said. "The ongoing litigation – now pursued by a single company – only serves to reduce that certainty and predictability," Genachowski added. Verizon declined to comment. Click headline to read more--
Yahoo's board of directors has approved a deal to buy the popular blogging platform Tumblr, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to the WSJ, it will pay $1.1 billion in cash for the site. The potential purchase was originally reported by the technology blog AllThingsD on Thursday, which also cited the same cash figure. AllThingsD also confirmed the board's approval on Sunday. Yahoo is holding a press conference in New York, Tumblr's hometown, on Monday where the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Internet company is widely expected to announce the acquisition. Forbes reported on Saturday that Tumblr's board also approved the purchase. The deal to buy the blogging website popular with young people, a demographic that Yahoo has had trouble reaching, will be the largest acquisition of CEO Marissa Mayer's tenure. The former Google executive took over the reins of the struggling Internet company in 2012 and hasn't been afraid to make splashy acquisitions. In March, Yahoo bought Summly, a news-summarization app created by a 17-year-old, for a rumored $30 million. Click headline to read more--
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) today announced approval of the Apple iOS 6 Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG). Approval of the STIG means that government-issued iOS6 mobile devices are approved for use when connecting to DOD networks within current mobility pilots or the future mobile device management framework. DISA is responsible for establishment of the Mobility Device Management (MDM) system, which is in source selection now, and anticipated for award in early summer. The DOD mobility strategy includes mobile devices configured to the STIG, in combination with an actively managed and defended MDM system. The MDM provides a process for managing and distributing mobile applications and an enhanced cyber defense infrastructure. “All of these pieces must be in place to allow the secure use of commercial mobile devices on department networks,” said Mark Orndorff, DISA Information Assurance Executive & Program Executive Officer for Mission Assurance and Network Ops. “DISA is running a pilot program today where we bring this all together.” The release of the Apple iOS 6 STIG is a major stride in building a multi-vendor environment, supporting a diverse selection of devices and operating systems. This STIG and the recently-approved STIGs for the BlackBerry and Samsung Knox operating systems demonstrate DISA’s commitment to validate a range of devices that meet DoD security standards so the best technology is available to achieve DoD mission requirements. Click headline to read more--
The Texas House of Representatives today passed legislation by state Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, and Rep. Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, to modernize the state Universal Service Fund (USF) and bring much needed parity to telecommunications policy in Texas. The bill was approved by an overwhelming margin of 146-0. “As I’ve said, enacting common sense USF modernization legislation that takes need into account was one of my top priorities this year,” said Carona, who chairs the Senate Business Commerce Committee. “I believe this bill strikes the appropriate balance between saving money and ensuring rural Texans continue to have access to landline phone service at affordable rates.” “There has been a lot of discussion and debate from all across the state about the need to bring the USF program into the 21st Century,” said Cook, chairman of the House State Affairs Committee. “I am confident Senate Bill 583 will stabilize the program and deliver the reliable and affordable wireline telecommunications infrastructure that is so critical for continued job creation and economic prosperity in rural Texas.” Senate Bill 583 right sizes the Texas Universal Service Fund (USF) by guaranteeing $96 million in savings in accordance with previous rulings by the Public Utility Commission. Further, medium-size providers – those with more than 31,000 customers – would be required to meet a “Needs Test” developed and supervised by the PUC. Otherwise, support will be cut by 25 percent annually for three years beginning in 2017. Small providers with fewer than 31,000 customers would continue to receive a predictable level of support until the end of 2017. While wireless and broadband service continues to expand throughout the state, there are still large areas of rural Texas that are not served. Without the network of poles, buried cables and other infrastructure, there would be no wireline, broadband, or wireless service available to any metropolitan, suburban or rural area of the state. “This bill ensures every rural Texan will be treated equitably, just like all of their neighbors, regardless of where they live, work or travel or regardless of who provides their telephone service,” said state Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, who was instrumental in helping craft the legislation. Click headline to read more--
ViaSat announced May 16 that Boeing will build ViaSat-2, a landmark deal for ViaSat that has been eagerly anticipated after years of delay. Company officials, however, say it will be worth the wait. On the final day of SATELLITE 2013 in Washington, D.C. last March, Mark Dankberg, ViaSat’s CEO hinted that the company wanted to order ViaSat-2 soon, but company economics proved to be challenging. And according to Chris Quilty, senior vice president at Raymond James, Boeing was actually a “surprise” winner of the deal. “With Space Systems/Loral eliminated from the competition due to an ongoing patent litigation dispute, the competition to build ViaSat-2 essentially boiled down to a two-horse race between Lockheed and Boeing, with Lockheed the presumptive favorite. Boeing, however, emerged as the surprise winner, due most likely to a combination of price, technology, and a willingness to engage in aftermarket partnering activities,” Quilty said in a research note. With Hughes and ViaSat both launching new satellites, what impact will this have on the overall industry? Jay Gullish, director of space & telecommunications at Futron Corporation said he believes this is good news for the satellite industry. “I think what we are seeing is a really important migration,” he said. “Satellites are going to drive some of the competitive balance in the telecommunications community.”
The deal is also a major win for Boeing. The new satellite's design will be based on Boeing’s 702HP satellite bus.
“The Boeing 702HP is our most powerful satellite platform,” said Craig Cooning, chief executive officer of Boeing Satellite Systems International and vice president and general manager of Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems. "We and Boeing believe it to be unlike anything else in the satellite industry," said Mark Dankberg ViaSat's chairman and CEO during a conference call May 16. ViaSat-2 is scheduled for deployment in mid-2016, and is expected to achieve an unparalleled mix of capacity and coverage. Cooning says ViaSat-2 will result in what the company expects to be the world’s highest-capacity satellite, and will prove to be a major contributor to the expansion of ViaSat’s complete portfolio of broadband services.
Click headline to read more--
Think your network is fast? Getting a gigabyte-sized movie over your local wireless network to your hard drive in a few seconds is old hat. Now there’s a network that can push a 2-hour, high-definition movie to a computer a mile away in less time than it takes to read a single word. At the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, a new record has been set: 40GB per second over a distance of about .6 of a mile. That’s like sending 10 high-def feature films. What makes this possible is a combination of better hardware and the use of higher radio frequencies, in this case, 240 gigahertz.That hardware is a set of chips developed at Karlsruhe that can process signals at higher frequencies. Higher frequencies mean smaller components, since a shorter wavelength can be picked up by a smaller antenna (which is why FM and AM radios need relatively large antennas, while Wi-Fi receivers can use small ones). These chips were only a few millimeters on a side. The high frequencies are necessary for moving lots of data — the number of bits that can travel over the airwaves is inversely proportional to the wavelength. The shorter the wavelength, the more data that can go in a given time. Click headline to read more--
Underground construction on the Digital 395 Middle Mile digital network commenced in Inyokern Friday, according to the CEO of Praxis Associates. "What we're doing is we're working back toward Ridgecreset," Mike Ort, the Praxis CEO, said Friday by phone. Praxis is the lead company in charge of overseeing construction efforts, using local subcontractors where applicable. Ort said underground construction would move throughout the area, including along Inyokern Road and to Inyokern Airport. Nicole Hale, assistant manager of the Indian Wells Valley Airport District, said Friday there is expected to be planned construction in the near future, but could not confirm a date. The Digital 395 project is a 600-plus mile digital network designed to vastly upgrade the digital broadband and communications network in the Eastern Sierra region from Barstow to Reno, Nev., most of which has been underserved or unserved for decades. The network runs parallel to U.S. Highway 395 and Highway 58. While the project will focus primarily on "middle mile" or government, educational and public safety institutions, the project will allow "last-mile," or private service providers, to hook into the system as well. Digital 395 is being funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the California Public Utilities Commission's California Advanced Services Fund for a tidy sum of $101 million, making it one of the largest public broadband projects in history. Ort said progress was already being made on approximately 250 "anchors," or connection sites along the network. Click headline to read more--
Plenty of people rightly mocked the news a few years ago that the Associated Press was working on a plan to "DRM the news." The idea was to put some sort of licensing mechanism together to get news aggregators to pay to promote their news. This seemed incredibly dumb for a whole host of reasons. It added no value. Its only purpose was to limit the value for everyone in the system by putting a tollbooth where none needed to exist. When it finally launched last year to great fanfare in the newspaper world, under the name "NewsRight," we pointed out that, once again, it made no sense. Basically, the whole focus appeared to be on getting bloggers and aggregators to pay for a license they legally did not need.
Since the launch... we heard absolutely nothing about NewsRight. There was a launch, with its newspaper backers claiming it was some huge moment for newspapers, and then nothing.
Well, until now, when we find out that NewsRight quietly shut down. Click headline to read more--
Marlene Castro knew the tall blonde woman only as Laurene, her mentor. They met every few weeks in a rough Silicon Valley neighborhood the year that Ms. Castro was applying to college, and they e-mailed often, bonding over conversations about Ms. Castro’s difficult childhood. Without Laurene’s help, Ms. Castro said, she might not have become the first person in her family to graduate from college. It was only later, when she was a freshman at University of California, Berkeley, that Ms. Castro read a news article and realized that Laurene was Silicon Valley royalty, the wife of Apple’s co-founder, Steven P. Jobs. “I just became 10 times more appreciative of her humility and how humble she was in working with us in East Palo Alto,” Ms. Castro said. The story, friends and colleagues say, is classic Laurene Powell Jobs. Famous because of her last name and fortune, she has always been private and publicity-averse. Her philanthropic work, especially on education causes like College Track, the college prep organization she helped found and through which she was Ms. Castro’s mentor, has been her priority and focus. Now, less than two years after Mr. Jobs’s death, Ms. Powell Jobs is becoming somewhat less private. She has tiptoed into the public sphere, pushing her agenda in education as well as global conservation, nutrition and immigration policy. Just last month, for example, she sat down for a rare television interview, discussing the immigration bill before Congress. She has also taken on new issues, like gun control. “She’s been mourning for a year and was grieving for five years before that,” said Larry Brilliant, president of the Skoll Global Threats Fund who is an old friend of Mr. Jobs. “Her life was about her family and Steve, but she is now emerging as a potent force on the world stage, and this is only the beginning.” But she is doing it her way. Click headline to read more--
There has been some tension in the marketplace regarding broadband and voice service, particularly in rural markets. It stems from growing consumer demand for standalone broadband – that is subscribing to broadband without the requirement for an accompanying voice line (sometimes referred to as naked DSL). Regulated rate-of-return rural carriers are challenged with this marketplace desire, given the regulatory requirement for an underlying voice line with DSL, for cost recovery purposes. As a result, rural telcos have been implementing creative ways to package DSL with home phone service, even as more and more customers look for a broadband only option. Why Force a Landline?
To some rural telecom outsiders, the practice of forcing customers to take a landline with DSL may seem quite odd. Why force customers to buy something they don’t want (telephone line) just to get the one thing they do (broadband)?
This dilemma flows from regulatory requirements, which tie Universal Service Funding and other cost recovery mechanisms to traditional phone service, not broadband. In other words, if the telco delivers a circuit to a home, it must include home phone service to qualify to receive cost recovery, in the form of High Cost Loop Support (“HCLS”) and Interstate Common Line Support (“ICLS”). A broadband-only circuit is considered special access in this context, which is not eligible for USF support. Cost recovery is crucial in high cost rural markets. Without it, phone service and broadband would be too costly for end customers. FCC Opens the Door
NTCA and others have brought this marketplace reality to the attention of the FCC and have pushed to change the rules to allow cost recovery for broadband-only lines. The FCC is finally starting to listen and issued a public notice requesting comments about how and if cost recovery should be extended for standalone broadband services offered by rate-of-return rural carriers. This debate is part of a broader debate on how to implement the next generation of USF, the Connect America Fund.
“It’s an intriguing idea as consumers increasingly subscribe to fiber, DSL or cable broadband Internet access service and use a mobile phone to talk. So we’re soliciting specific proposals for carrying out this idea,” says Julie Veach, Chief, FCC Wireline Competition Bureau in an FCC blog post. Click headline to read more--
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Canada’s Competition Bureau is gearing up to launch a formal inquiry into the business practices of Google Inc.’s Canadian operations. Google was recently notified by the Competition Bureau of the watchdog organization’s intentions to investigate the Silicon Valley giant’s business in Canada. The agency has so far informed Google of its plans to open a formal inquiry, but has not asked for specific information or documents from Google Canada. “We will work co-operatively with the Competition Bureau to answer any questions they may have,” Leslie Church, Google Canada’s head of communications and public affairs, told the Financial Post on Friday. The full scope of the investigation remains unknown. But Google’s search and advertising practices have faced investigations from competition watchdogs in other countries in the past. For many businesses, ranking high in Google’s search engine is vital to success, since appearing higher increases a site’s chances of being visited by a user, which improves traffic and revenue potential. While Google has maintained that its search query algorithms are neutral, some businesses contend that Google prioritizes its own services — such as Google Maps or restaurant reviews — over those of its competitors. A spokesperson for the Competition Bureau declined to comment on the scope of any inquiry. “By law, the bureau is obliged to conduct its investigations confidentially,” Alexa Keating, senior communications advisor for the Competition Bureau, said in an email. Click headline to read more--
Google's Hangouts messaging app has been receiving generally positive reviews since it was launched Wednesday, but when it comes to Android users on AT&T's network, it's hit a bit of a snag: The carrier isn't allowing users to make cellular video calls. Google introduced the new Android and iOS app during the keynote at its annual developers conference. The app is designed to make it easier for users to communicate with their friends through Google by sending messages or making video calls, whether from their smartphone, tablet or computer. When the app is used on a smartphone or a cellular-connected tablet, Hangouts can also send messages using an individual's data plan. Making video calls over cellular networks is also allowed by most major carriers, but when Android AT&T users try the feature, they are getting a message telling them they must be on a Wi-Fi network to make a video call. When asked why this is happening, AT&T blamed Google and the smartphone makers. In a statement, AT&T said apps downloaded from the Internet can be used to make video calls over its cellular network. But when it comes to apps that are pre-installed, the software developers and the phone makers have to work with AT&T to enable the ability to make cellular video calling. Click headline to read more and watch video clip--
FCC commissioner Mignon Clyburn will become acting chair of the agency effective Monday, May 20, according to an FCC spokesperson. She will be the first woman to hold that post.
Chairman Julius Genachowski's and Republican commissioner Robert McDowell's last day is Friday, May 17, with both headed to think tanks, at least temporarily, Genachowski to the Aspen Institute, where he will rejoin his former National Broadband Plan czar Blair Levin, and McDowell to the Hudson Institute.
The FCC will be at the bare minimum needed for a quorum -- three members -- until FCC chair nominee Tom Wheeler can receive his nomination hearing -- no earlier than the beginning of June said a Senate Commerce Committee spokesman -- and a Republican replacement for McDowell's seat has been vetted and nominated by the White House.
That could take from several weeks to several months. Two weeks ago, the FCC's June 6 meeting was pushed back to June 27, which will give new chair Clyburn more time to tee up her first public meeting atop the agency.
In February 2012, USTelecom filed a petition asking the Federal Communications Commission to eliminate 17 categories of antiquated rules and reporting requirements that are no longer relevant to today’s marketplace for voice communications. Some of these rules date back to the telegraph era, and others are rooted in a regulatory system set up decades ago when competition to provide voice service was prohibited and long distance and local phone services were sold separately. While the FCC agreed to do some de-cluttering in response to our petition , it missed the opportunity for the thorough spring cleaning that has long been needed – one that would have been a meaningful fulfillment of the commitment by President Obama and Chairman Genechowski to eliminate unnecessary regulation – and instead left in place a variety of legacy rules and paperwork requirements that t produce – and now will keep producing – reams of information that the Commission no longer looks at – and has not looked at – for the last five years. This is the regulatory equivalent of “extreme hoarding” – like stacks of old Life magazines that gather dust in the basement. USTelecom won partial relief with its petition two months ago on three of the 17 categories and today, 15 months after filing and to meet the deadline established by Congress, the commission has granted relief on 10 additional sets of rules or reporting requirements. Click headline to read more--
Bernanke told a college graduating class Saturday that the long-range practical consequences of innovations such as faster computers and the Internet are hard to predict. But he said inventors have only scratched the surface of the commercial applications that can be obtained in such fields as medicine (personal genomics, life extension) and clean energy. He also indicated that having two to four times as many engineers and scientists with China and India and other countries contributing to technological innovation will drive development forward at a faster pace. He was specifically addressing the debate around technological stagnation put forward by Tyler Cowan and Peter Thiel.
The entire text of the speech is at the Federal reserve website.
Click headline to read more--
I had the privilege of attending the International Telecoms Week (ITW) conference and the i3 Forum Conference this week in Chicago.The major theme of both events was IPX! Born from the phrase “IP-Packet Exchange”, IPX is a model for mobile and fixed network operators, as well as Internet service providers to follow that will enable them to exchange voice, video and data traffic via Internet protocol (IP) technologies, without traversing the public Internet. The IPX framework paves the way for global service providers to exchange network traffic vis IP and accelerate the IP migration from legacy TDM networks. The i3 Forum in turn, is a non-profit, global organization that formulates technical-network recommendations for the purpose of transitioning today's networks from TDM to IP communications, as soon as possible. Former Vice President Al Gore, opened the ITW conference by discussing the “democratization” and the disruptive forces of IP technologies that challenge the traditional telecom services and their providers. The ITW conference brought about numerous commercial agreements that centered around the exchange of traffic using the IPX model and the use of IPX to further advance the global transition from TDM to IP. iBasis and Tata Communications, AMS-IX and Hutchison Communications, signed IPX traffic peering agreements. The GSM Association (GSMA) and the i3 Forum announced an IPX agreement that kicks off joint IPX pilots, using both fixed and mobile commercial traffic. Companies like KPN International and PCCW respectively, announced their new IPX network platforms that are now available for interconnection. Click headline to read more--
"IT is an idea that creates money, not money that creates an idea,” says Secelela Balisidya when she was recounting on tremendous challenges that she and her friend Christopher Kidanka went through in setting up a media business company. The Company, Regalia Media Limited, now enjoying great respect from government institutions, higher learning institutions, diplomatic missions and international community in Tanzania, takes communication Consultancy, news and books publication works. The two journalists, now directors of the company, came up with an idea to set up the firm in 2003 joining hands with two big dreams - both looking forward to graduate from employees in reputable media houses to owners of media businesses. “By then I was working for national official broadcaster Radio Tanzania Dar es Salaam (RTD) while my friend was writing for Majira - an independent newspaper,” she recounts. The duo was doubling as independent consultants after long working hours in the media houses. Things began to change when a client denied giving Christopher, as an individual, a handsome contract to produce ads for his company’s new products, saying that he would only do that with a corporate entity. Christopher says he took that as a challenge to hasten his long-cherished dream. After sharing the same with Secelela, they decided in unison that it was high time they registered a media company and record the beginning. They mobilised the resources they had to make 6000/- (around US$ 6 by the time) to register the business name ‘Regalia PR Consultancy & Services.’ Secelela says: “The day we decided to register a company, we had no money at all. But we said that this mission must be accomplished today,” she says and adds: “After we consulted an Assistant Registrar of Companies, he told us that it costs at least 20,000/- to register a company as a limited liability entity. All we had was not more than 10,000/-.” “There was an option which he gave us, that we could register as a business name. We decided that we register it as a business name and later we can revert to a limited liability company. We spent 6,000/- remaining with 4,000/-.” Because both of them were salaried scribes, this did not spell doom for their living. They could re-organise themselves and move ahead. “This was,” recalls Christopher, “the beginning of an end as employees to media houses. We knew that we had a daunting task ahead of us.” They began soliciting for jobs as a ‘company’ without even having the tiniest office space in town. Click headline to read more--
The Obama administration has supposedly been "considering" the latest version of the DOJ's plan to require backdoor wiretapping abilities in any form of digital communication. If you don't recall, the FBI asks for this basically every year. The latest version would lead to fines for any company that doesn't build in a backdoor wiretapping ability. We've been pointing out for quite some time that putting in such backdoors only makes us all less safe, because those with malicious intent will find and use those backdoors.
A new report has been released, put together by some of the best known technologists and security experts out there, saying that the plan, as being considered would effectively undermine any cybersecurity regime. At a time when the administration and Congress keep insisting that we need better cybersecurity, to undermine it all with wiretapping backdoors would be ridiculous. And let's not even begin discussing how this would play out if it passed and number one CISPA backer Mike Rogers then became head of the FBI.
Among the report's authors are names you might recognize, like Ed Felten, Peter Neumann, Bruce Schneier and Phil Zimmerman. You can read the full report (pdf) to see all the details. As Ed Felten told the NY Times: Click headline to read more--
We look forward to the next issue of Broadband Communities magazine, due on June 15th. This upcoming edition is titled "Fiber Nation: Are We At The Tipping Point?" and focuses completely on local communities that created their own networks. Broadband Communities puts on the annual Broadband Communities Summit, which we just attended in Dallas in April. The magazine is free and features a lot of information useful to those thinking about building networks. According to the announcement, you can subscribe now and have the issue delivered to your door and/or your inbox. The issue will include: Click headline to read more--
In every shift of technology, new companies emerge to dominate new spaces while incumbents falter (and sometimes fade away). Today’s epic shift to mobile, big data and real-time analytics will certainly change the corporate landscape. But the emergence of these new technologies is also inspiring major change in the C-level suite, and the biggest beneficiary will be the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Traditionally, CMOs have dealt with the “soft skills” of marketing. They headed up cost centers filled with branding, advertising and campaigns that were expensive endeavors, producing benefits that were often difficult to measure. In this current shift, CMOs might not bring CIOs to their knees, but if corporate budgets could talk they would certainly favor the CMO. To wit: Gartner predicts that by 2017 the CMO will spend more on IT than the CIO. Why? Mobile, big data and real-time analytics are transforming the modern CMO’s organization from a cost center to a critical revenue-driving arm to reach and engage the customer base. Realizing that CIOs and CMOs probably hate stories of a battle raging between them, there is actually a peaceful, and logical, middle ground in which the two work together to harness the vastness of big data to create real-time – and importantly, actionable – analytics. While the CMO brings the marketing skills to the table, the CIO has the technical chops to deal with capturing, processing and integrating data to make it useful. Click headline to read more--
It's sad to note how collective humanity has done an ostrich on the warnings about the machines. Still the NFL exists, robbing us of our best and brightest, who will no longer be available for the coming war with SkyNET. Conferences on what to do about the surely coming robot horde have produced little in the way of a path forward and have gone relatively unreported in any case. Due to this, we know very little about what form the non-existent threat of terminator-like metal monsters will take. Will they simply wage war against us? Will they syphon our body heat for energy? Will they farm our skin and dance around in it to Goodbye Horses, like some kind of graphite Buffalo Bill?
Not according to Rice University professor Moshe Vardi, who claims that they have a far more terrifying plan in store: displacing the human workforce. According to Vardi, sometime around the year 2045, you won't have a job any longer because the robots will have taken it away from you. Click headline to read more--
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has done a highly detailed analysis of broadband deployment in the U.S. -– looking at broadband availability by speed, by technology, by state, by county, and by various combinations of these factors. The upshot, the NTIA said, is that although the U.S. continues to make progress on broadband deployment and speeds, gaps between rural and metro areas persist. The report notes, for example, that almost 100% of urban residents have access to download speeds of at least 6 Mbps but only 82% of rural communities can access these speeds. And while almost 88% of urban residents have access to speeds of 25 Mbps, only 41% of rural residents have the same access. One of the most interesting charts in the report was one showing the percentage of counties where people can get broadband at various speeds ranging from basic 3 Mbps downstream service to high-speed 100 Mbps downstream service. In the chart, reproduced here, each speed level has a low and a high mark. The high mark shows the percentage of counties where 25% of the population can get broadband at a certain speed, while the low mark shows the percentage of counties where 95% of the population can get service at that speed. Click headline to read more--
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