Network Neutrality

Tollbooths on the Internet Highway
When you use the Internet today, your browser glides from one Web site to another, accessing all destinations with equal ease. That could change dramatically, however, if Internet service providers are allowed to tilt the playing field, giving preference to sites that pay them extra and penalizing those that don’t.

The Senate held hearings last week on “network neutrality,” the principle that I.S.P.’s — the businesses like Verizon or Roadrunner that deliver the Internet to your computer — should not be able to stack the deck in this way. If the Internet is to remain free, and freely evolving, it is important that neutrality legislation be passed.

Add comment Datestamp: February 20th, 2006

When Resetting your Password Mean Surgery…

Demo: Cloning a Verichip
In Brief: Verichip markets their product for access control. This means that you could have a chip implanted, and then your front door would unlock when your shoulder got close to the reader. Let us imagine that you did this; then, I could sit next to you on the subway, and read your chip’s ID. At this point I can break in to your house, by replaying that ID. So now you have to change your ID; but as far as I know, you cannot do this without surgery.

Add comment Datestamp: February 10th, 2006

Cell Predictions

Wired News: When Cell Phones Become Oracles
Given enough data, Eagle’s algorithms were able to predict what people — especially professors and Media Lab employees — would do next and be right up to 85 percent of the time.

Add comment Datestamp: February 10th, 2006

The Nation: Pay to Surf

The End of the Internet?
The nation’s largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online.

Add comment Datestamp: February 5th, 2006

American Civil Liberties Union: Mapping Surveillance

American Civil Liberties Union : NSA Spying Technology

The ACLU has prepared a map illustrating how the NSA spying technology is believed to work. It shows how the military spying agency has extended its tentacles into much of the U.S. civilian communications infrastructure, including, it appears, the “switches” through which international and some domestic communications are routed, Internet exchange points, individual telephone company central facilities, and Internet Service Providers (ISPs). While we cannot be certain about these secretive links, this chart shows a representation of what is, according to recent reports, the most likely picture of what is going on.

Add comment Datestamp: February 5th, 2006

Coal Mines Reopening

NPR : Coal Mines Reopening to Meet U.S. Energy Demands
Thompson says mines are under growing pressure to produce coal, because of strong demand and high prices West Virginia’s coal production grew more than 5 percent last year, despite a shortage of skilled workers, equipment, and even mine inspectors.

Add comment Datestamp: February 4th, 2006

AP National News–EPA

Judge Slams Ex-EPA Chief Over Sept. 11
A federal judge blasted former Environmental Protection Agency chief Christine Todd Whitman on Thursday for reassuring New Yorkers soon after the Sept. 11 attacks that it was safe to return to their homes and offices while toxic dust was polluting the neighborhood.

U.S. District Judge Deborah A. Batts refused to grant Whitman immunity against a class-action lawsuit brought in 2004 by residents, students and workers in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn who said they were exposed to hazardous materials from the destruction of the World Trade Center.

Add comment Datestamp: February 2nd, 2006