I can’t explain it to you, but it has a powerful deja vu. When I got up this morning and read the USA Today headline, I thought the future had been a little more evenly distributed. Now we’ve all got some…
The interesting thing about meta-projects in the sense in which I used them [in the NYT editorial] is that I don’t think species know what they’re about. I don’t think humanity knows why we do any of this stuff. A couple hundred years down the road, when people look back at what the NSA has done, the significance of it won’t be about terrorism or Iraq or the Bush administration or the American Constitution, it will be about how we’re driven by emerging technologies and how we struggle to keep up with them…
Large Telco Liability based on USA Today Facts?
This morning, USA Today reported that three telecommunications companies – AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth – provided “phone call records of tens of millions of Americans” to the National Security Agency. Such conduct appears to be illegal and could make the telco firms liable for tens of billions of dollars. Here’s why:
On Flint
B. Myrkle discusses growing up in Flint and General Motors.
The Problems With Massively Automated Domestic Spying
Noah, at DefenseTech, tapped Valdis Krebs for his analysis of the problems with the slowly leaked details on the NSAs domestic surveillance efforts. Valdis makes the absolutely correct observation that:
Bruce Schneier has more, as does David Isenberg.
Kristian Knutsen takes a useful look at the issue from a local perspective.
A Day in the Life of US Air Traffic Control
NASA, via Edward Tufte.
The Patent Trolls
Judy Newman takes a very useful look at the numerous and growing problems with our patent system.
How To Increase Broadband Competition
David Isenberg points to some ideas.
TBL on Neutrality of the Net
Tim Berners Lee (Father of the web):
Net Neutrality is an international issue. In some countries it is addressed better than others. (In France, for example, I understand that the layers are separated, and my colleague in Paris attributes getting 24Mb/s net, a phone with free international dialing and digital TV for 30euros/month to the resulting competition.) In the US, there have been threats to the concept, and a wide discussion about what to do. That is why, though I have written and spoken on this many times, I blog about it now.
Twenty-seven years ago, the inventors of the Internet[1] designed an architecture[2] which was simple and general. Any computer could send a packet to any other computer. The network did not look inside packets. It is the cleanness of that design, and the strict independence of the layers, which allowed the Internet to grow and be useful. It allowed the hardware and transmission technology supporting the Internet to evolve through a thousandfold increase in speed, yet still run the same applications. It allowed new Internet applications to be introduced and to evolve independently.
Pull Over Harley, Looks like Honda’s on Your Tail
n fact, police in the United States have been using motorcycles since about 1912 when the nascent Harley-Davidson Co. started outfitting a few departments with them. The cycles turned out to be a godsend for traffic enforcement — they could chase speeders through traffic, and they could get to the scene of an accident far faster than a patrol car. This basic principle still holds true.
For nearly 100 years, Harley has dominated the U.S. market — the company said last year that its motorcycles “are presently in service with some 2,800 law enforcement agencies nationwide.”
Now, however, Honda, the world’s most successful maker of motorcycles, is testing the law enforcement waters here. Honda has the largest share of the U.S. civilian motorcycle market, with 26.9 percent of all new bikes sold in the United States, followed by Harley with 23.7 percent and then a handful of other manufacturers, according to figures for 2004 provided by the Motorcycle Industry Council.
WiFi at Madison’s Airport
Waiting for a flight recently at MSN, I popped open my laptop and, for the first time (for me) ever, a WiFi signal was available. Unfortunately, Madison is years behind other airports in offering wireless internet access. Worse, many flyers now have other types of high speed access, such as Verizon’s EVDO, which means given a choice between paid WiFi access (which Madison’s airport offers – $6.95/day) or a service that can be used in many places, the pool of paying users is likely not all that large. In my case, I fired up my EVDO access and avoided the 6.95 fee.
Albuquerque’s enlightened Sunport, along with many others, offers free WiFi. Madison would do well to simply make it free, perhaps supported by an advertising based splash screen when users logon.