Tag Archives: Technology

Feb 20 2009

Bill Would Require ISPs, Wi-Fi Users To Keep Logs

From Slashdot:

Bill Would Require ISPs, Wi-Fi Users To Keep Logs: suraj.sun notes CNet reporting on bills filed in the US House and Senate that would require all ISPs and operators of Wi-Fi hotspots — including home users — to maintain access logs for 2 years to aid in law enforcement. The bills were filed by Republicans, but the article notes that the idea of forcing data retention has been popular on both sides of the aisle over the years. “Republican politicians on Thursday called for a sweeping new federal law that… would impose unprecedented data retention requirements on a broad swath of Internet access providers and is certain to draw fire from businesses and privacy advocates. … Each [bill] contains the same language: ‘A provider of an electronic communication service or remote computing service shall retain for a period of at least two years all records or other information pertaining to the identity of a user of a temporarily assigned network address the service assigns to that user [i.e., DHCP].'”

That means that I would have to keep logs of my wireless router at home, which I use only for personal internet connectivity (i.e. I don’t provide a service)??? What drugs are they taking, and did they bring enough for everybody?? This is what happens when you have people that don’t have a clue about tech trying to make laws about how the tech should be used and controlled.

Jan 28 2009

US House Kills Digital TV Transition Delay

From Slashdot:

US House Kills Proposed Delay For Digital TV Transition: An anonymous reader writes “The Digital TV transition delay bill has failed to pass the United States House of Representatives. By a vote 258 to 168 in favor of changing the date, the bill has failed as two-thirds of the votes are required for it to pass. The delay bill was once perceived as inevitable, [but the House] has now apparently made February 17th the date of transition once again. Now the question remains, will they attempt to pass it again by the deadline?”

Yesss!! Nicely done! We need to just take the pain and move on. There’s no reason to delay.

Jan 28 2009

“Do Not Call” Violators Fined $1.2M

From Slashdot:

"Do Not Call" Violators Fined $1.2M: coondoggie writes "A federal court today spanked two telemarketers with some $1.2 million in civil penalties for violating the Federal Trade Commission’s Do Not Call Rule. According to the FTC, the companies called consumers whose phone numbers were on the Do Not Call Registry without having obtained their express written agreement or having an ‘established business relationship’ with them. One group’s telemarketers also allegedly abandoned many calls, by failing to connect the calls to a sales representative within two seconds after consumers answered, as required by law, the FTC stated. The cases were filed by the Department of Justice on behalf of the FTC."

Yeah baby! These guys have been a huge problem for a very long time. Please stop calling! I signed up for the do not call list as soon as it was available, and the number of calls has dropped. But the fact that I still get ANY, when I’ve made it clear by signing up for the list that I’m not interested at all is criminal, and thankfully, the courts agree with me 🙂

Jan 27 2009

Senate OKs delay of digital TV transition

From CNN.com:

Senate OKs delay of digital TV transition: Overcoming partisan divisions, the Senate on Monday night unanimously voted to delay the digital television transition until June 12

This is a mistake, and is the same reason that we’re still not on the metric system. Everyone is ready, the die is cast, it’s a done deal. We’re only 3 weeks away from completing the transition. Why do politicians do things like this?

Jan 22 2009

Obama Keeps His Blackberry

From Slashdot:

Obama Keeps His Blackberry (And Gets a Sectera): InternetVoting writes “After all the controversy surrounding Obama’s Blackberry, word has come that he will get to keep it. Few details are available and neither the National Security Agency nor the White House are talking. The current rumor is that the Blackberry will be used exclusively for personal use and a Sectera Edge will be used for official communications.”

Of course he will. If the most powerful man on the planet can’t get his tech crew to figure out how to secure his phone, then we have some truly serious technological problems!

Now, if we could just get him an iPhone… he’d be truly happy!

Jan 21 2009

Obama Looking At Open Source?

From Slashdot:

Obama Looking At Open Source?: An anonymous reader writes “‘The secret to a more secure and cost effective government is through Open Source technologies and products.’ The claim comes from one of Silicon Valley’s most respected business leaders Scott McNealy, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems. He revealed he has been asked to prepare a paper on the subject for the new administration.”

This could be huge. I hope it’s true. If so, it could signal the end of the de facto Microsoft monopoly on office software, which can only be a good thing.

Jan 21 2009

Pandora is Adding Commercials?

From Slashdot:

Pandora Trying Out Invasive Commercial Breaks: Nathan Halverson writes “The popular online radio service Pandora.com has added brief commercial interruptions to its service. Pandora says this is a trial and is targeted to a subset of listeners at this point. In one case, a brief ad for the Fox TV show ‘Lie To Me’ interrupted the music stream for about 15 seconds after ten songs had initially played, and the same commercial interrupted 22 songs later. ‘But [Pandora’s] founder promised the site will never carry as many audio ads as broadcast radio, despite the fact it pays substantially higher royalty fees to the recording industry.'”

Please, God, **NO**.

I have no problem with the adverts that show up on the web pages or on my iPhone, but please do not interrupt my music. Pandora is **PERFECT*’ as it is. In understand the desire to increase revenue… but not at the expense of customer satisfaction. Please, ‘*DO NOT DO THIS**.