Archives for October 2004
RFID implants are not the “Mark of the Beast”
Implantable RFID chips have recently caused some privacy extremists to flip their wigs, but it’s not the privacy crisis they say. Find out why in my recent column at TechNewsWorld.
Wi-Fi as a Public Good
The New Deal-esque “chicken-in-every-pot” mentality continues to win converts in municipal government circles. Yesterday, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom said the city will now seek to provide free wireless Internet access for the entire public. “No San Franciscan should be without a computer and a broadband connection,” he said.
We’ve had numerous rants about this issue here before, so I won’t get into what’s wrong about this thinking. In fact, I think I’m just going to give up an get on the gravy train of high-tech entitlements. Toward that end, I’m starting a list of all the freebees that I think I have an inalienable right to FREE-OF-CHARGE from government. I think I’m entitled to:
* free broadband (both fiber and Wi-Max, thank you very much);
* a free computer (and a really fast one, damnit!);
* 3 free HDTVs for my home (including one of those sweet new DLP or LCOS projectors that usually cost about $10,000 bucks. And I’ll need you to pay for someone to help me install it.);
* 3 free new TiVO recorders;
* a free subscription to DirecTV (with all the premium channels and sports packages… and don’t forget the Playboy Channel!);
* a free lifetime subscription to NetFlix;
* free internal wi-fi for my home;
* free cell phone service; and,
* free tech support when all this crap breaks down.
Hey, it’s all FREE when the government provides it, right? So why not load up on tech entitlements and give the public all these gadgets and services that they are clearly entitled to under the plain language of the Constitution. Clearly there’s some language in there about all this stuff being a birthright entitlement. God I love Big Government.
National ID on the March - or Maybe the Stroll
I’ve ranted here before about the bad things that are in the intelligence reform legislation pending on Capitol Hill. As election day draws nearer without a final vote, it looks less likely that intelligence reform will pass during the pre-election posturing season.
One hopes that the lame-duck Congress will be hungry for turkey and return ever-so-briefly after the election to simply pass a resolution continuing appropriations until 2005. Kicking intelligence reform into the new Congress would be a boon.
On the national ID question, I spoke the other day at a Cato Institute event. The synopsis of what I said is: IDs provide accountability (e.g., the driver’s license) or they are issued based on risk assessment (e.g., the credit card). 1) Terrorists are willing to die so they are not accountable to worldly justice and 2) there is not a plausible risk assessment tool that can predict one-time acts of terrorism.
National IDs won’t work, but they will make Americans substantially less free, subject to far greater surveillance. (If the synopsis has failed you, watch the video.)
Spam and the Election
Will political spam have an impact on the election? I doubt it, but there’s a company called MailFrontier that says it could.
Bush & Kerry on Tech Issues
If you’re wondering where the Presidential candidates stand on tech issues, CompTIA interviewed both campaigns and the record is here. They don’t seem all that different from each other (mainly b/c Kerry is so vague it’s hard to tell what his positions are on some issues). On VoIP, though, Kerry’s response seems more regulatory in tone whereas Bush seems more free market. The Chronicle also did a comparison.
FCC’s Green Light for More Broadband
As Adam posted earlier, the FCC decided to not force incumbent companies to share their fiber to the curb networks with competitors. In my oped that appeared in the Washington Times last Sunday, I compare this decision to receiving a green light for speedier traffic. The FCC–the traffic cop of the communications industry–just raised the speed limits on broadband.
Wireless Substitution Continues
Here’s yet another another article documenting the growing substitution of wireless for wireline services in America and across the globe. A new Yankee Group report says that 6 percent of households have now “cut the wire” entirely and gone wireless for all their communications needs.
The Yankee report notes that the wireless-oriented households are skewed to urban, young and single users. That’s not surprising, but I’ve seen plenty of anecdotal evidence that people in rural communities are making the leap to wireless as well. As wireless systems become more robust and reliable in those rural communities, this revolution will really start to pick up steam.
Meanwhile, back in Washington, the regulators continue to regulate as if we all still live in a one-wire world dominated by monopolists. Just silly.
Again, it’s all “For the Children”–FCC Fines Stations for Kids’ Commercials
The FCC has just fined Nickelodeon and ABC Family for the heinous crime of showing too many commercials during kids’ programming.
Apparently FCC regulations say that children’s programming may contain no more than 10 1/2 minutes of advertising per hour on weekends and 12 minutes per hour on weekdays. And apparently Nickelodeon and ABC Family exceeded those limits quite a few times. In promulgating the new fines, the FCC gave them a tongue-lashing and warned all media outlets that the agency, “will continue to take swift and appropriate enforcement action to protect the interests of children.”
New Pro-censorship, er, Pro-”Fairness Doctrine” Website Launched
Just got word that a new website, “Fairnessdoctrine.com” has been launched in support of a bill by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. The site is co-sponsored by Andrew Jay Schwartzman of the Democracy Access Project, David Brock of Media Matters, and Tom Athens of Democracy Radio.
I’ll refrain from rehashing the debate over the Fairness Doctrine, which managed to suppress political debate on the airwaves for decades, and met a well-deserved death in 1987. I do, however, urge everyone to promptly contact fairnessdoctrine.com to claim equal time on their page for your opposing views. I think I’ll ask for a link to techliberation.org. It is, after all, only a matter of fairness.
Should Cities Own Broadband Networks? New Study Says “NO”
The Chicago-based Heartland Institute today released a new study on local government ownership of broadband networks, by Joseph Bast, the president of the Institute. Entitled “Municipally Owned Broadband Networks: A Critical Evaluation,” the paper focuses on the situation in three Chicago area suburbs, but is chock-full facts, figures, and logic that can apply to any city. Definitely a must-read if your friendly local city council members are considering a broadband scheme.
Induce Act event at Cato (video now online)
The video archive of yesterday’s Induce Act debate at the Cato Institute is now online here:
http://www.cato.org/event.php?eventid=1670
It was a great debate.
FCC & VoIP - Powergrabbing Preemption
“The Commission is not simply considering minor adjustments to specific regulations–the Commission is considering the future of electronic and optic communications for many years to come” - FCC Chairman Michael Powell.
Does this statement scare anyone?
Powell said this at the Fall Voice on the Net Conference 2004 in Boston yesterday. He said it in the context of streamlining regulations from the quilt of 51 different state regulatory bodies. One unified regulatory body for VoIP is good, right? (here’s an article on the speech)
Powell’s “patchwork” argument has benefits, but is also an excuse for FCC “oversight” and “involvement.” Shouldn’t this be handled by Congress, where there could be simple legislation banning states from interfering with VoIP. Whoops, there is - and it got hugely bloated.
Sinclair Backs Down; National Catastrophe Avoided
Our long national nightmare is over. Under intense pressure from many politicians and other groups, Sinclair Broadcasting has caved in to demands that they not air a documentary critical of presidential candidate John Kerry’s Vietnam War record.
Wheh! Thank God for that. I mean, can you imagine how awful it would have been if this film would have ever seen the light of day. We might have been forced to debate the merits of the film. We might have been forced to exchange passionate views about the issues raised in the film. We might have been forced to.. to… to think!
Thank God our benevolent censors in Congress have our best interests in mind and are protecting us from the airing of such controversial viewpoints. I hope they take steps to make sure that Michael Moore documentaries never get aired before the election either. Perhaps we can put a stop to further distribution of “Fahrenheit 9/11″ before anymore people see it and are forced to think about it’s message.
OK, now that this national catastrophe has been averted, I can go back to my easy chair and watch some legitimate, politician-approved programming that is certain to tell me everything I need to know about the candidates and the issues before election day. You know, like those remarkably informative campaign commercials. I saw one the other day in which Mr. Kerry said he believed in our future and wanted to make a better America for our children. That’s nice. Funny thing is, Mr. Bush appears to be airing the exact same ads right now too. They both REALLY love our children. And the future. Good things to love, I guess.
OK, perhaps I should instead go back and watch those exciting debates one more time. I’m sure there’s some really informative stuff in there right after both candidates get past the first 20 minutes of personally thanking every single member of the audience for coming and telling the moderator how much they love him. Boy, these candidates REALLY love people. That’s good, I guess.
Hey, I’m just looking for someone to tell me what to think here. I just want to be part of the “informed electorate.” But please don’t let me see any reports or documentaries critical of these two guys. That might lead me to think that there are alternative viewpoints out there. Or, worse yet, it might lead me and others to think that not everyone loves these guys as much as they supposedly love us. And from what they tell us or allow us to hear, we just know that can’t be true. Right?
“Huh” Moments and the Myth of Media Concentration
The fights over media this year just get more and more bizarre. I got an e-mail the other day from The Nation magazine that began:
“Among media watchdog groups, it’s an article of faith that concentration of power in the hands of massive media conglomerates is dangerous for the public interest. The fear is that these corporate giants could use that power to manipulate the nation’s political process. Sinclair Broadcasting Group is proving these fears well-founded.”
Huh? I repeat: huh? Only hours later, Sinclair bowed to public pressure and cancelled its plans to air an anti-Kerry documentary on its stations. But never mind that. Even if Sinclair had not reversed course, does anyone really that Sinclair or anyone else has undue power over what Americans hear and think? For gosh sakes, most people didn’t even know Sinclair had a news division until a few weeks ago.
Google v. Microsoft: Trustbusters Not Needed
Andrew Grossman, Heritage’s senior web editor, sent over the following on the just-released Google Desktop, and the looming battle between Google and MS. (To see more from Grossman, check out the Heritage policy weblog):
“Last week, Google, a company renowned for its search service, released the Google Desktop, a piece of software that lets users search through the materials stored on their own computers, from e-mail to Word files to Web pages that they have recently browsed. The Desktop is Google’s first major foray onto the desktop, and its release may mark the beginning of the end of Microsoft’s dominance of the desktop software market. Someone should tell the trustbusters in Washington and Brussels that their services are no longer needed, if they ever were.”
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