Good news, everyone! Kay Bailey Hutchison and Senate Republicans were able to help defeat the Lieberman-Collins Cybersecurity Act once again.
Bad news, everyone! We lost the Presidential election, so President Obama is almost sure to try to defy the Congress, which won’t even pass the idea through one house, let alone both to make it a law. He’s going to try to implement this through executive order!
Meanwhile it falls to the Congress to investigate actual foreign threats in the digital theater.
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Long week, so long I forgot to post this Friday night. Oops. Well, better late than never.
The race for the IP revolution is on. The benefits of a modern phone system are still getting explored, even as we see AT&T go first in this direction, but of course naturally the forces of regulation oppose innovation.
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Rough week, huh? Me too. I’ll make this quick, since the overriding story here is we’re going to have a rough four years fighting Obama regulators.
Though we’re lucky out of touch Susan Crawford isn’t on FCC.
We begin to see the full scope of the corrupt deal going on in New Zealand: Seems that the (German) Kim Dotcom bought escape from the authorities by promising free Intertubes for New Zealanders, even as he plans a new copyright infringement service.
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It’s technically Tuesday morning on the east coast, not Monday night, as I write this. So, happy Election Day. Remember to Vote. Vote, and get five friends and family members to vote.
So, let’s remember that the Obama administration is still pushing its scheme to solve cybersecurity by expanding government. Now, experts in the field are scoffing at the word ‘solve’ there, but think about it: They’re telling us that we’ll have a ‘Cyber Pearl Harbor” if we don’t pass their bill/accept their Executive Order. That implies that with the bill, the danger is gone. So they’re entirely unrealistic about this.
Meanwhile, what are they actually doing with their current tools? The Russians are on the move, Anonymous still has functioning elements. At least Canada may be seeing a way forward.
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Surprise:Obama’s cybersecurity plans don’t actually fix anything, they just expand government. And yet the administration shamelessly attempts to use the crisis of storm Sandy to try to achieve this end.
At this point the administration’s cybersecurity efforts are as delusional and straw-grasping as its global warming efforts. Though what’s sad is that unlike global warming, there actually is a kernel of truth there that we as a nation could be acting on, but Obama is distracting us with his attempts to expand government.
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This post will contain spoilers. Be warned.
Spoiler space.
More spoiler space.
Enough spoiler space.
So, as I’ve said in my first two posts about the Hunger Games, I’m just not going to read the rest of the books. I can’t. I won’t. So I’m reading about what happens, and an interesting thread has developed. And I’m in an interesting spot to evaluate whether or not it makes sense to suggest the entire thing was a set up by the Rebellion against the Capitol.
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This post will contain spoilers. Be warned.
Spoiler space.
More spoiler space.
Enough spoiler space.
One reason I had so much trouble with the Hunger Games is that the book gave me no relief from tension. I don’t ask for a Jar Jar Binks or something so stupid, but I’m human and I can’t sustain fear and sadness for an entire book.
As I thought about this on the way to, at, and on the way home from the grocery store tonight (buying replacements for food I had to chuck after Sandy), I figured it out: the tension relief was there all along. I just didn’t get it because I’m not a teenage girl.
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Hello all. I was without power for 25 hours after Sandy, and so I’m a bit behind. So tonight’s edition of Tech at Night is going to be put together a bit quickly. Sorry about that. By the way, while obviously a hurricane can take out wireless towers, wireless was vital for keeping me in touch with the world when I was without power at home. It was great. I’m not sure exactly what good FCC monitoring could do though, except to use a crisis to expand the role of the state.
Watch as the administration plays games: on one hand it tries to use Iranian attacks on banks as an excuse to legislate cybersecurity mandates, instead of attacking Iran back, while on the other hand it opposes cybersecurity mandates at the ITU! How about we oppose all cybersecurity mandates, guys?
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This review will avoid spoilers. Though I know I’m late to the Hunger Games series, I doubt I’m the only one.
So, some background before I begin properly. I’m no stranger to ‘young adult’ fiction. I’ve been reading it since before I was a young adult, and know full well that Fantasy and Science Fiction have always been lumped in there since the themes seemed to inappropriate for actual adults. I grew up on (contrary to Martin Prince) Asimov, Herbert, and Tolkien, with dalliances with Anthony and LeGuin. In college I got into Clarke and Heinlein, and in adulthood I’ve branched into Turtledove. This stuff is my pleasure reading home territory.
So, I wasn’t afraid to try the Hunger Games. It was an impulse buy at Costco a few months ago. I just hardly read anymore, so I only picked it up last night thanks to having no power for 25 hours after the passing by of Hurricane Sandy.
That said, I’ve had mixed feelings about it, and while at first I came way feeling badly about it, I think in the end I came into it with the wrong expectations. Contrary to the above, this is a book for teenagers. Go in expecting otherwise and you face disappointment.
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Regulation must keep up with the needs of modernization. That’s a point new FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai came to RedState to make, particularly with respect to the Internet transformation going on in telecommunications. As the world “goes IP,” and puts everything on the Internet, regulators must adapt. Make sure to read it. Ajit Pai would have a particularly important role as a reformist regulator should Mitt Romney win.
Regulation today just doesn’t make much sense sometimes, a point Broadband for America makes. The point about ‘edge’ vs ‘core’ of the Internet is important. The firm that sits between you and Google is as important to you as Google. They’re all pieces of the puzzle.
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