Trying to post via my cell phone is a pain.
The Blazer browser that comes with Palm OS is kind of limited.
Anyone have any suggestions?
I’m looking for better Javascript support, the ability directly bookmark a link, and the ability to view a page’s HTML.
I’ve posted occasionally on the FCC’s rules process on white space, space between channels that is currently unused, or more accurately unallocated.
A number of people, including me, feel that if this bandwidth should be made available to unlicensed users, much in the same way that Wi-Fi is, because it promises better bandwidth, greater penetration, and better range.
The complicating factor is that it has been used, largely almost completely illegally by the wireless microphone industry.
As a result, I’ve attracted the attention of the above mentioned gentleman, who deals in said microphones, and we had a bit of discussion on the matter.
He mentioned that, “There are no handheld military RF communication devices that do what he [Telco Expert Harold Feld, who is a friend] claims.” (emphasis mine)
By what he claims, he means using “sense and avoid” to avoid interfering with other devices sharing the spectrum.
I find his argument complete bullsh^%, because I have personal knowledge of vehicle mounted communications systems in various stages of test and deployment, JTRS comes to mind because I had to package components when I worked a military contract, but he was insisting on “hand held.”
Well, Mr. Cohen, I have your handheld right here. It’s not just a handheld, they’ve got the system on a chip:
Researchers here are developing new, handheld, wireless radios fitted with a single processor chip that is embedded with algorithms for compressing as many as 5 simultaneous, stealthy conversations into the same time and frequency slot and then, on arrival, untangling them.
Equally importantly, while in transit messages and data packages are seemingly hopelessly mixed – to the point of sounding like static. The chance of intercepting even the digital gibberish is unlikely since foes or potential adversaries don’t have the receiver technology to sort through such high levels of interferences.
….
They also are working to discover what’s necessary and what’s not, allowing them to take computing short cuts and use new techniques to increase performance and efficiency. Such advances in signal processing have allowed researchers to reduce the amount of “overhead” or needless digital instruction in the protocol that is not voice traffic. “Protocol overhead” as part of the total message has decreased to 20% from 50%. That is a key strategy for freeing room for more transmissions. Phase three is to conclude in June with demonstration of up to a 20-radio network. By the end of 2010, researchers expect to have completed design and implementation of a full-waveform protocol and hardware for a brick-size radio.
It’s from the minds of DARPA, and it’s here, it’s real, and it’s on a chip, and here is a video: (4:24)
I’ve been thinking about the case of MyColo Corp., which got shut down, and about 2/3 of all spam stopped.
Think about this: one server farm, operated by one bad actor, was, at least in the short term, responsible for the majority of the spam on the internet.
In the world of internet spam, phishing, and other bits of the dark side, a remarkably small number of people, possibly fewer in number than the fingers on Rahm Emanuel’s hand, are responsible for most of it.
This problem is thus more manageable than I would have thought.
McColo Corp. has been pulled off the internet.
It’s connectivity providers have disconnected it.
So, you don’t know McColo Corp.?
The servers are operated by McColo Corp., which these experts say has emerged as a major U.S. hosting service for international firms and syndicates that are involved in everything from the remote management of millions of compromised computers to the sale of counterfeit pharmaceuticals and designer goods, fake security products and child pornography via email.
But the company’s web site was not accessible today, when two Internet providers cut off MoColo’s connectivity to the Internet, security experts said. Immediately after McColo was unplugged, security companies charted a precipitous drop in spam volumes worldwide. E-mail security firm IronPort said spam levels fell by roughly 66 percent as of Tuesday evening.
(emphasis mine)
I’ve written about efforts to allow free wireless connectivity access to what is called “White Spaces”, bits of spectrum allocated to over the air TV, but not used.
It has been proposed that these spaces be used for unlicensed devices, much in the same way that WiFi works now.
The difference is that the ranges and penetration of the signals are much greater.
Well, there are two groups lobbying very hard against this, the broadcasters, who have their channels allocated from this spectrum, and the wireless microphone industry, who use the white spaces illegally, and have done so for years.
Since the FCC tests showed that there was no problem with interference with TV stations, the prototypes did the necessary, “sense and avoid,” of occupied space, there isn’t a problem there, so my take is that their opposition is because they think that they “own” this space, and they think that there may be a way to monetize the space, so they have enlisted wireless microphone users: (quoting Harold Feld on
For a good background on all this, check out Harold Feld at Wetmachine.com):
I gotta admire the broadcasters (as represented by their trade orgs, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV)). Even with the facts completely against them, they never give up trying. Sadly, they all too often succeed through a combination of heavy duty lobbying power (what politician doesn’t suck up to his or her local broadcaster?) and the fact that most decision makers don’t know squat about engineering and regard the whole thing as black magic. Heck, it worked to hamstring low-power FM (LPFM) radio, despite a subsequent independent government report showing the broadcaster interference claims were unsubstantiated bologna.
But embracing radio pirates by proposing to expand the availability of wireless microphones in the broadcast white spaces for their political allies and tacitly agreeing to amnesty for illegal wireless microphone users? Even I never thought they would go that far.
He also notes that the US military uses the technology in question for protection of their troops in life threatening situations.
In any case, it looks like the broadcasters have brought in the big guns,† a Megachurch Preacher Rick Warren and Dolly Parton to claim that, white space devices will “will create an unnecessary interference in the worship services of hundreds of thousands of churches across the country,” according to the preacher man, and may have a, “direct negative impact” on Dollywood, the Grand Ole Opry, and “9 to 5: The Musical.”
You are illegally squatting on a public resource already, Ms. Parton.
*Pun most certainly intended.
†Yeah, this pun is intended too.
Here.
You can enter your data below:
I’ve also placed the tool on the right hand side of the page.
It also provides links to things like absentee and early voting information in the results.
Neat gadget.
Because the US Navy is setting up a Cyberwar Command too.
It’s budget grab stupidity.
Or perhaps is’s a disregard for reality. With her, it’s hard to tell.
In any case For what it’s worth, the Anchorage Daily News just cut her a new one* over her claims of vindication.
In any case, we now have her ordered to preserve her private emails from her Yahoo account, given that they are likely official records under the scope of Alaska’s law.
It also looks like the State Personnel Board’s investigation into Troopergate will be more aggressive than envisioned. It appears that the lead investigator, one Tim Petumenos, is a real pit bull, who has, “broadened to include other ethics complaints against the governor and examination of actions by other state employees.”
Then again the intent was not to cover up forever, it was to push it past election day, which it will.
In any case, in response to a request from the press for copies of emails to Todd “The First Dude” Palin from state officials, Palin is now saying that it will requre a payment of $15 million to process such a request, and that the records will not be turned over before the election.
What else is she hiding? This has gone from a standard Republican stonewall to something that would make Dick Cheney blush.
*Full discl
osure, I actually helped to design designed a tool to, “cut a carcass a new one”, the Jarvis Products bung dropper. You can see a video of it in action here.
He’s in Amarillo, Texas, not the guy in Ohio, and when he sees this month’s hosting bill, he will absolutely plotz.
It appears that Henry Perez and Suzanne Bartok, proprietors of AMP Dollar Savings, used a program called Bulk Mailing 4 Dummies, and sent 2.8 millionspam emails to CIS internet services, a small ISP with about 5000 subscribers, and the judge ordered them to pay $236 million in damages.
Note that the judge assessed the fine against them, and not just AMP Dollar Savings.
If you’ve seen Goatse, you know what I’ve been talking about. If you haven’t, please, for the love of God, don’t try to see it!
Yep, some of the whiz kids at the National Defense University are pitching the idea that they need funding to protect us all from terrorists who would use Wizard of Warcraft to rehearse attacks on all of us.
Yes, it’s real, see, they’ve got PowerPoints, and everything, complete with a conversation using code words, simulated, of course.
See how they simulate some seriously Kule d00dz haxor terrorists?
So they need to pay someone play Warcraft in order to look for this non-existent problem.
I want the job….I REALLY want the job.
In reality, if terrorists want to engage in virtual training, they will do it on a private server…Just like you see people do with Doom….
After all, who wants to be in the middle of planning to nuke the VP residence, when some n00b comes up and starts asking stupid questions?
If this is why my taxes are so fracking high, I’d rather pay for Sarah Palin’s bridge to nowhere.
This is why the best course of action is to mirror the anti-junk-fax legislation, which grants a private cause of action for people who get the junk.
Things are fracked up busy.
Still, you learn something new every day. I’m about 8 bucks from my first Adsense check, and according to the Maryland DOL, I have to declare it when I file for unemployment.
Comcast has filed suit in federal court, claiming that the FCC has no authority to require network neutrality.
Interestingly enough, one of their claims is that they had to institute their new hard bandwidth limitations because of the FCC ruling, which as Harold Feld notes, is another bald faced lie from them.
It turns out that the new 250 GB/month limit is as a result of a consent decree with the Florida Attorney General, who had taken action because Comcast was kicking off heavy users in an arbitrary and capricious manner.
As stipulated in the decree:
Comcast simply knocked off the highest 1000 users regardless of their actual bandwidth usage or geographic location.
While the top 1000 users out of 14.m million will doubtless be very high bandwidth users, the bell curve being what it is, this is a policy that is a complete mind f%$#.
Comcast is so evil that they make Verizon look nice.
In response to a spanking from the FCC regarding throttling users based on applications 24-7, Comcast will start throttling heavy internet users during times of high network utilization, which is what they should have done in the first place.
There now, that wasn’t so hard, was it.
Their real problem, of course, is an architecture that is inadequate, but we know what cable companies do when there is a choice between screwing the customer, and fixing the real problem.
Matt Stoller Reports that every major Senate Democratic challenger supports network neutrality:
| Candidate | State | Contributions fromTelecom/Cable | Position | |
| Allen | ME | $2500 | Favors | |
| Begich | AK | $0 | Favors | |
| Franken | MN | $62,650 | Favors | |
| Hagan | NC | $0 | Favors | |
| Kleeb | NE | $0 | Favors | |
| LaRocco | ID | $4,600 | Favors | |
| Lunsford | KY | $0 | Favors | |
| Merkley | OR | $0 | Favors | |
| Musgrove | MS (B) | $0 | Favors | |
| Noriega | TX | $0 | Favors | |
| Rice | OK | $0 | Favors | |
| Shaheen | NH | $0 | Favors | |
| Slattery | KS | $2,800 | Favors | |
| Udall | CO | $54,450 | Favors | |
| Udall | NM | $0 | Favors | |
| Warner | VA | $45,050 | Favors |
Cool.
They found the law uvague and an infringement on the first amendment and so declared the Child Online Protection Act unconstitutional:
“It is apparent that COPA, like the Communications Decency Act before it, ‘effectively suppresses a large amount of speech that adults have a constitutional right to receive and to address to one another,’ Reno, 521 U.S. at 874, 117 S.Ct. at 2346, and thus is overbroad. For this reason, COPA violates the First Amendment,” the judges wrote. “These burdens would chill protected speech.”
I expect an appeal, but the fact is that the mechanisms are more restrictive, and less effective than filters, and as such appear to be unconstitutional, though IANAL.