Computer Science Professor, Former FCC Official Warns Against Net Neutrality

<http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2009/09/computer_science_professor_for.html>

There are too many lawyers talking about net neutrality and not enough engineers; this was the message by a panel of computer science experts, a law professor and an economist Friday morning. They mostly warned against the potential constraints that net neutrality rules would have on network engineering.

David Farber, a professor of computer science and policy at Carnegie Mellon, said the FCC’s proposal for new net neutrality rules could hamper innovation on the Web. Farber, who runs a popular e-mail list on technology issues and is a former chief technology officer for the FCC, said that Internet networks have always prioritized certain traffic and that new rules proposed by the Federal Communication Commission to try to stop discrimination on cable, DSL and wireless networks could constrain operators and tech companies from properly managing their networks.

Farber, who spoke on a panel about net neutrality at the think tank Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, called the discussions around net neutrality “religious debates” that haven’t taken into consideration the technological challenges faced by engineers, particularly those building the next generation of services for mobile broadband. Farber co-penned a piece in 2007 that criticized net neutrality.

[snip]

Once Again, Entertainment Industry Looks To Force Massive Copyright Changes Via Int’l Treaties

from the how-the-game-is-played dept
<http://techdirt.com/articles/20090925/0128446320.shtml>

By now you should know that one of the entertainment industry’s favorite tools for forcing ever more draconian copyright laws around the world is to use international treaties. Such treaties are not put together by elected officials, but appointed diplomats, often with tremendous input (to the point of allowing them to write the details) from industries that are protected. Then, once those treaties are in place, copyright maximalists just get to sit back and say “but we must make our copyright laws stronger if we ever expect to live up to our international obligations…” The latest such attempt is the infamous ACTA bill, which the entertainment industry has had a heavy hand in crafting — but the public is told that the treaty negotiations are matters of national security and cannot be revealed. Uh huh.

[snip]

September 24, 2009

Phone Smart
A Wi-Fi Alternative When the Network Gets Clogged
By BOB TEDESCHI
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/24/technology/personaltech/24smart.html?_r=2&ref=technology>

Talk about falling short of expectations.

In the last year, millions of people have snapped up new smartphones, filled them with apps and promptly found out that they couldn’t actually use them.

The problem? Either the much-hyped 3G pipeline was clogged with other users, or the cell connection wasn’t even good enough to ring the 3G bell in the first place. AT&T users have had it the worst, thanks to the network’s iPhone data hogs.

Carriers are quickly adding high-speed network capacity, but in the meantime, AT&T and T-Mobile are throwing another lifeline to customers in the form of Wi-Fi. Both are making it easier to connect to wireless hot spots with their phones, in an effort to deliver fast data and clear calls in areas where neither might be possible.

In this respect, AT&T has been the most aggressive of any carrier. The company said this month that customers with a Windows Mobile phone could now connect freely at any of the company’s roughly 20,000 hot spots.

AT&T claims to sell more Windows Mobile phones than any other carrier, and with the introduction of Windows Mobile version 6.5 next month and new Windows phones like the HTC Touch Pro2, it stands to sell more. Now all Windows Mobile users can duck into a Starbucks, among the many other locations with AT&T Wi-Fi, and the phone will automatically route data and calls over a high-speed Internet connection.

Many people with iPhones and AT&T BlackBerrys don’t know it, but this perk has been available to them for months. The difficulty, of course, is finding a free hot spot when you need it.

Rather than roaming around and hoping to stumble into a Starbucks or an unlocked Wi-Fi signal, you can download one of the many hot-spot locating apps.

I found JiWire’s free Wi-Fi Finder iPhone app particularly useful. The software sniffs out your location and offers a list of nearby hot spots, free and paid. If you’re a customer of one of the big Wi-Fi networks, like iPass, Boingo or AT&T, the app will tell you where to find those.

Unfortunately, no comparable app exists for BlackBerrys or Windows Mobile phones. Users of those devices can download apps that help find free hot spots (like Free Wi-Fi Cafe Spots, for $3 on BlackBerry’s App World). Otherwise, you need to get online before leaving home, and make a list of hot spots you can use while on the road.

AT&T says its free Wi-Fi initiative isn’t a response to a recent avalanche of complaints from iPhone users that they cannot connect via 3G. Still, Jeff Bradley, the company’s senior vice president of devices, said that if more AT&T users shifted to Wi-Fi, the performance of the 3G network should improve.

T-Mobile, too, has put significant emphasis on Wi-Fi, which is good for users, because T-Mobile’s coverage quality trails that of its competitors in most regions.

[snip]

[Note: This item comes from reader Randall. DLH]

From: Randall <rvh40@insightbb.com>
Date: September 19, 2009 6:56:38 PM PDT
To: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@warpspeed.com>, David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Subject: DNA

Walter Ellis + 12,000 Missing Wisconsin DNA Samples
By Caleb Groos on September 17, 2009 11:57 AM

The man charged with a string of murders in Milwaukee, whose DNA should have been on file since 2001, appears to be amongst 12,000 current and former inmates whose DNA samples got lost in Milwaukee’s system.

Previously, we discussed the missing DNA sample of alleged Milwaukee serial killer Walter Ellis. In keeping with the state’s policy, in 2001 Wisconsin Department of Corrections purportedly sent a sample of his DNA to the state’s Department of Justice. This was and is the case for many convicted of a felony in Wisconsin. Their DNA goes into the state database.

Wisconsin’s Department of Defense claimed, however, never to have received Ellis’ DNA. One of Ellis’ alleged victims was murdered in 2007, and law enforcement officials have expressed regret that they may had focused on him earlier if he’d been in the database..

According to a statement yesterday by Wisconsin’s Attorney General, the state Department of Justice received a sample, it just wasn’t from Walter Ellis. It was DNA from another inmate. The Department of Justice noticed it as a duplicate from the other inmates, but did not report anything to the Department of Corrections about not getting DNA from Ellis. As Wisconsin’s Attorney General put it, “[t]here were no protocols in place for addressing this set of facts…”.

Apparently, “this set of facts” may not have been so rare. Internal analysis by Wisconsin’s DOJ found about 12,000 individuals for whom DNA sample should, but are not in the database — claiming most to have been in custody of the Department of Corrections.

[snip]

<http://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/2009/09/walter-ellis-12000-missing-wisconsin-dna-samples.html>

September 15, 2009

Darwin’s “Molecular Machines” : New Proof of Evolution at Cellular Level
<http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/09/darwins-molecular-machines-new-proof-of-origins-of-the-species.html>

An international team of biochemists have discovered evidence at the molecular level in support of one of the key tenets of Darwin’s theory of evolution that provides a blueprint for a general understanding of the evolution of the “machinery” of our cells.

“Our cells, and the cells of all organisms, are composed of molecular machines. These machines are built of component parts, each of which contributes a partial function or structural element to the machine. How such sophisticated, multi-component machines could evolve has been somewhat mysterious, and highly controversial,” Trevor Lithgow Lithgow of Australia’s Monash University said.

“Our research shows that these machines although complete and complex, were a result of evolution. Simple ”core” machines were established in the first eukaryotes by drawing on pre-existing proteins that had previously provided distinct, simplistic functions” -proof that Darwin’s theory of evolution is valid at the molecular level, Professor Lithgow added refuting non-Darwinian explanations of Intelligent Design that propose that these complex machines to be so “irreducibly complex” that they must have been designed by an intelligent entity.

As a model system, the research focussed on one specific molecular machine, the TIM complex, which transports proteins into mitochondria. Mitochondria are a compartment of human cells that serve as the energy-producing ‘powerhouses’. At a very early stage in evolution, mitochondria were derived from bacteria that lived within the first eukaryotic cells.

[snip]

[Note: This item comes from reader Steve Crandall. DLH]

Subject: any current studies on bandwidth requirements for teleworkers
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:42:15 -0400
To: “David S. Isenberg (isen)” <isen@isen.com>, dewayne-net <dewayne-net@warpspeed.com>
From: steve crandall <esc@mac.com>

I have seen some dated material. Are either of you aware of current
studies that give a nod to large Office document transfer and use of
pc video?

Someone from a certain telco told me the requirement is about 53kbps -
I remember that number from a study in 2000 that mostly involved
screen entry and voice. The same person was pretty terrified by the
thought of averages approaching 500kbps (erg — that would be 36 GB a
month which exceeds their cap)

[Note: This item comes from Dave Farber's IP list. DLH]

From: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Date: September 9, 2009 5:47:00 AM PDT
Subject: [IP] Priceless: How The Federal Reserve Bought The Economics Profession

<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/07/priceless-how-the-federal_n_278805.html>

[Note: This item comes from reader Randall. DLH]

From: Randall Webmail <rvh40@insightbb.com>
Date: September 9, 2009 7:44:08 AM PDT
To: johnmacsgroup@yahoogroups.com, dewayne@warpspeed.com
Subject: Actions do have consequences

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/09/anonymous_backfire/>

Scientology seeks to squash anonymity

Anonymous attacks could backfire with tighter Aussie laws

By John Ozimek • Get more from this author

Posted in Law, 9th September 2009 11:40 GMT

A little local controversy involving the Church of Scientology and its
critics could lead to curbs on the right to anonymity of anyone using the
web.

The argument is currently raging in Australia, following the launch last
November by the Australian Human Rights Commission (HREOC) of a report
entitled Freedom of Religion and Belief in the 21st Century. The theory
behind this report was that it would provide a good base from which Australia
could take stock of its progress in these areas over the last decade, as well
as coming up with proposals to move forward.

While the impetus behind this project would appear to be mostly positive, it
was always likely that calls for individual religious groups to submit
proposals around protection of faiths and their own view of religious freedom
could have unintended consequences.

One such consequence arrived in the shape of submission no 1931, from the
Church of Scientology, protesting strongly at attacks on their faith by
protest group Anonymous, and running an online campaign from a site called
Whyweprotest.

According to the Church of Scientology, these attacks have reached the point
where some members have been physically threatened, and slanderous attacks
have been made online: however, the police have found it difficult to
intervene, simply because of the anonymous nature of the attacks.

The organisation claims that since January 2008, they have been subjected to
a continuing campaign of violence and abuse from a hate group calling
themselves ‘Anonymous’. It adds: “In the last 13 months they have also (ie as
well as their internet based assaults) committed acts of harassment and
criminal offences ‘in real life’ against the Church, its members and Church
property.”

[snip]

“Chimerica”: Niall Fergunson on the Rise of China/USA (VIDEO)

<http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/09/chimerica-niall-fergunson-on-the-rise-of-the-chinaamerica-century.html>

“Chimerica is a fantasy country that I dreamt up a couple of years ago. It’s the economy you get when you add together China plus America.” Niall Ferguson -professor of history at Harvard University, author most recently of The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World

Ferguson writes that at the heart of the world’s current economic crisis “is the huge imbalance between the United States, with its current account deficit in excess of 1 percent of world gross domestic product, and the surplus countries that finance it: the oil exporters, Japan and emerging Asia. Of these, the relationship between China and America has become the crucial one.

More than anything else, it has been China’s strategy of dollar reserve accumulation that has financed America’s debt habit. Chinese savings were a key reason U.S. long-term interest rates stayed low and the borrowing binge kept going. Now that the age of leverage is over, “Chimerica” — the partnership between the big saver and the big spender — is key.”

[Note: This item comes from friend John McMullen. DLH]

From: “John F. McMullen” <johnmac13@gmail.com>
Date: September 5, 2009 9:32:25 PM PDT
To: “John F. McMullen” <johnmacsgroup@yahoogroups.com>
Cc: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@warpspeed.com>, Commonweal Mailing List <commonweal@yahoogroups.com>, Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>
Subject: State Secret Privilege (and Sibel Edmonds)

Sibel is one of my Facebook friends. This is her “About Me” statement on Facebook. More of her story may be found at http://www.justacitizen.com/ (including a comment by Senator Patrick Leahy) and http://www.123realchange.blogspot.com/

“Sibel Edmonds worked as a language specialist for the FBI’s Washington Field Office. During her work with the bureau, she discovered and reported serious acts of security breaches, cover-ups, and intentional blocking of intelligence that had national security implications. After she reported these acts to FBI management, she was retaliated against by the FBI and ultimately fired in March 2002. Since that time, court proceedings on her issues have been blocked by the assertion of “State Secret Privilege” by Attorney General Ashcroft; the Congress of the United States has been gagged and prevented from any discussion of her case through retroactive re-classification by the Department of Justice. Ms. Edmonds is fluent in Turkish, Farsi and Azerbaijani; and has a MA in Public Policy and International Commerce from George Mason University, and a BA in Criminal Justice and Psychology from George Washington University. PEN American Center awarded Ms. Edmonds the 2006 PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award for her “commitment to preserving the free flow of information in the United States in a time of growing international isolation and increasing government secrecy”.”