Elderly man scared of technology, News at 11
State Rep John Binienda makes news today with a plan to track who’s buying pre-paid cell phones in an effort to show criminals we’re tough on crime. Apparently by showing criminals we really don’t understand technology.
“There has always been a concern that prepaid services in general enable anonymity in wireless usage and that’s in part a concern because it lends to its use by criminals,” said Fedor Smith, an analyst who monitors the prepaid cellphone industry for Boston-based consulting and research firm Atlantic-ACM. “If you’re calling other prepaid wireless costumers, there’s a completely anonymous network of people.”
Government has officially become your mom, searching through your sock drawer every day after you leave for school because Phil Donahue convinced her you were smoking dope.
link
This comes only a week after Governor Patrick signed into law H. 4811, Massachusetts version of Jessicas Law, which along the way picked up this amendment (which has nothing to do with protecting kids) while nobody was looking:
SECTION 3. Chapter 271 of the General Laws is hereby amended by striking out section 17B, as so appearing, and inserting in place thereof following section:-
Section 17B. Except as otherwise prohibited under section 2703 of Title 18 of the United States Code, whenever the attorney general or a district attorney has reasonable grounds to believe that records in the possession of (i) a common carrier subject to the jurisdiction of the department of telecommunications and energy, as defined in paragraph (d) of section 12 of chapter 159; or (ii) a provider of electronic communication service as defined in subparagraph (15) of section 2510 of Title 18 of the United States Code; or (iii) a provider of remote computing service as defined in section 2711 of Title 18 of the United States Code, are relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation, the attorney general or district attorney may issue an administrative subpoena demanding all such records in the possession of such common carrier or service, and such records shall be delivered to the attorney general or district attorney within 14 days of receipt of the subpoena. No such common carrier or service, or employee thereof shall be civilly or criminally responsible for furnishing any records or information in compliance with such demand. Nothing in this section shall limit the right of the attorney general or a district attorney otherwise to obtain records from such a common carrier or service pursuant to a search warrant, a court order or a grand jury or trial subpoena.
Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, a subpoena issued pursuant to this section shall not be used to obtain records disclosing the content of electronic communications, or subscriber account records disclosing internet locations which have been accessed including, but not limited to, websites, chat channels and newsgroups, but excluding servers used to initially access the internet. Nor shall the recipient of such a subpoena provide any such records accessed, in response to such a subpoena.
For those of you whose legalese is a little shaky, let me translate ‘In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the AG and DA can get your phone, internet and email records with nothing more than a hunch and a strongly worded letter‘. No really, that’s what it says.
A good week for freedom and capitalism all around. Surely now, with these exciting new tools, we’ll capture that pesky Emmanuel Goldstein!
The smartest dumbphone in town
Dumbphone probably shouldn’t be a word, but it seems to be picking up usage with people dumping their smartphones (Blackberys, iphones, Windows Mobile devices, ect) in favor of a ‘less is more’ device. I became one of those people a few weeks back.
My love affair with smartphones has progressed through a SMT5600
Treo 650
and most recently a Tmobile Dash
Now I’m using a Motorola F3 that was designed for developing nations, cost under $40 with no contracts to get locked into and isn’t much more advanced than the Motorola MicroTac Elite I bought in 1994.
I’m in love. The battery lasts a week, its one of the smallest and lightest phones I’ve used and most importantly, I’m not getting pinged 24hrs a day with email that 99% of the time can wait till I get to a computer. It’s a phone, that’s it. No camera, no calendar, no media player and no web browser, just a phone that makes phone calls, remember those? Dumbphones, stupid word but I’m sold.
Massachusetts still the most tech savvy state
Congratulations, Massachusetts.
Massachusetts remains the “gold standard” for other states thanks to its institutions, cutting-edge firms, and ability to retain a skilled work force.
1. Massachusetts
2. Maryland
3. Colorado
4. California
5. Washington
6. Virginia
7. Connecticut
8. Utah
9. New Hampshire
10. Rhode Island
Is Charter Communications violating MA state law?
Over the last few weeks on 508, Mike Benedetti and I have been discussing Charter Communications plans to begin monitoring customer web traffic to better target advertising. And examining the process used by the company they’ve contracted with on this, NebuAd, has raised more questions than it’s answered. After reading Ryan Singels take on the opt-out process over at WIREDs Threat Level, another question seems to be floating out there. Is any of this even legal? Now, Singel is talking about federal wiretap law, but for those of you who have been following this story on a local level here’s the language in the MGL regarding wire taps. I’d love to hear people’s thoughts as to how Charters plan would or would not be a violation of MGL Chapter 272: Section 99 which reads in part:
D. Exemptions.
1. Permitted interception of wire or oral communications.
It shall not be a violation of this section—
a. for an operator of a switchboard, or an officer, employee, or agent of any communication common carrier, whose facilities are used in the transmission of a wire communication, to intercept, disclose, or use that communication in the normal course of his employment while engaged in any activity which is a necessary incident to the rendition of service or to the protection of the rights or property of the carrier of such communication, or which is necessary to prevent the use of such facilities in violation of section fourteen A of chapter two hundred and sixty-nine of the general laws; provided, that said communication common carriers shall not utilize service observing or random monitoring except for mechanical or service quality control checks.
What am I missing here? Can an opt-out system that you can’t really opt out of satisfy that final clause? And can anyone recommend a solid high speed internet provider? I think it’s time for me to cut loose from Charter.
For those of you who haven’t been following this story (like the entirety of the Worcester media) and have no idea what I’m talking about, here’s a nice overview from the NYT.
link
Sirius/XM Merger approval
I can’t express how excited I am by this. Since I first subscribed to Sirius two years ago it’s been my primary source of entertainment, I’ve written about it briefly here in the past. So lets just say I was thrilled to see that the year long merger with XM satellite radio has cleared the federal approval process. This really is a great thing for any entertainment fan, the quality of programing one can have for relatively short money remains pretty staggering.
But this isn’t about the rather boring process of federal antitrust clearance. It’s about the cost of a congressman. I’m always shocked to see just how inexpensively one can purchase a congressman of his/her own. You would think with inflation, owning a lawmaker in the worlds greatest superpower would be quite an expensive proposition. Not so. Congressman Edward Markey of the Massachusetts 7th, who was one of the many roadblocks for this merger in his role as head of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee, was purchased by the National Association of Broadcasters for about 30k since 1989. Fifteen thousand since 2006 alone. That’s pretty astounding, to think that for the price of a very inexpensive car you can literally own a Congressman who will take completely anti-consumor stands on your behalf. But what really makes his role as lackey for the NAB amazing is the irony in this great quote from the Bloomberg piece regarding the merger:
Representative Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who heads the House telecommunications subcommittee, said, “the Bush administration has apparently never seen a telecommunications merger it doesn’t like.”
Now, I look forward to hearing news that GWB has colon cancer as much as the next patriot. But some things you just can’t blame on that particular douche bag. I mean lets be honest with ourselves here, these being some of Ed’s top contributors:
AT&T Inc - $91,600
Time Warner - $68,000
Viacom Inc - $66,350
News Corp - $56,500
Walt Disney Co - $50,850
Comcast Corp - $43,500
Sprint Nextel - $41,750
General Electric - $41,000
Paloma Partners - $36,500
Qualcomm Inc - $32,204
MCI Inc - $31,150
National Assn of Broadcasters - $30,300
He’s even on the RIAA payroll having received 2k in the 2006 cycle. This clown has overseen the kind of media consolidation that has Judge Harold Green doing backflips in his grave and he has the audacity to insinuate the Sirius/XM merger is some sort of Neo-Con inside job? Does that look like the resume of a guy who’s interested in consumer protection? A member of the Progressive caucus taking 56k from News Corp? That must be what ‘Progressives’ consider equal time.
link (Bloomberg merger story)
Congressman Markey receipts at OpenSecrets.org
Markey Press Release on the merger
Free online writing courses
Here’s a great list of 10 universities offering writing courses for free, online.
Vertical Farming and my brush with genius
Two weeks ago I was driving down the pike and the idea of converting large, multi-level commercial buildings into indoor farms hit me like an all too obvious ton of bricks. Apparently, I must have fallen asleep during some obscure discovery channel documentary and picked up the idea in a half daze, since the BBC just ran a story on the idea and there is a formal project underway at Columbia University to make this a reality. The whole concept is fascinating; totally worth the read.
link (BBC)
link (Vertical Farming Project)
FCC rules against MassPort Wi-fi Ban
The FCC ruled against the Massachusetts Port Authority, or Massport, which ordered airlines in 2005 to unplug their wireless and wireline high-speed Internet services in their lounges and instead use the airport’s fee-based system.
“Today’s decision ensures that the Wi-Fi bands remain free and open to travelers, who can make productive use of their time while waiting to catch their next flight in an airport,” FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said in a statement.
I told you so. (RB, one year ago)
digg this, Mihos
As of this writing Christy Mihos is on the front page of digg.com for his little cartoon advertisement. With over 815 digg’s so far one could easily make a case for this being the most viewed ad spot of the election cycle. Of-course there is little 14 year old kids from Idaho can do for Christys chances of winning the governors race, but his name just went national via one of the most heavily trafficked sites on the web.
Here’s the link to the digg page with all sorts of meaningless commentary.
And if you haven’t see it yet, here’s the ad getting the attention.
edit: Don’t know how I missed it, but the Mihos spot was also covered last week on MetaFilter.
Winding back up after a week of winding down
I’m not quite back into the right state of mind to be pretending to care about much of anything right now, after a week in the Dominican Republic which looked a lot like this.
While I figure out how to wrap up the last week, here’s a great article titled ‘How Municipal WiFi Works’ from howstuffworks.com. A good read even if you’re already familiar with the field.
