Tech at Night

Even though repeated losses in court are making the Net Neutrality folks have to compromise with reality, the fact is they’re still freaking out about the ability to charge more for better service, which is a good thing to have. The facts are though that we don’t need new laws, and the laws they do want would just pick winners and losers, which is why Netflix is pushing so hard. If the roles are reversed they’d be screaming that I was being paid by Netflix.

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Tech at Night

So a continuing look at the NetMundial meeting to argue why American stewardship of the Internet is bad. It got hijacked by the Net Neutrality folks and the anti-American folks (with NSA as the word the Orwellian sheep are bleating), which tells you all about the orientation of this movement. Fortunately our adversaries have all the efficiency of the UN: “There were so many welcome speeches, and they went so much over time, that we did not even begin the substantive work of the conference until 5:30pm.”

Even as Putin calls the Internet a CIA project, Obama wants to hand over the Internet to these guys? Insane. Of course, it’s insane that he’s trying again on Net Neturality, though amusingly some Democrats are complaining this third attempt compromises too much.

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Tech at Night

While Bitcoin is traceable, that process can be made very difficult by a determined attacker, because of the existence of sophisticated money laundering operations in the Bitcoin community, operations designed specifically to aid criminals. So I think it makes sense for the FEC to place cash-like restrictions on Bitcoin. As long as we’re stuck with these laws, it doesn’t make sense to give Bitcoin a special exception.

The quest to deliver the Internet from American-guaranteed liberty and into Russo-Sino-tyranny is on, down in Brazil. They call it NetMundial, but’s really a one country thing. It’s just an anti-American hate fest.

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Tech at Night

As the rest of the world attacks us every day, people just keep looking to demonize NSA. And it’s foreign threats we need to worry about, and that link doesn’t even talk about the state-sponsored threats out there.

Troubling news, as Democrats want to apply speech codes online, using a shooting to push for online censorship. Never let a crisis go to waste, so say the progressives.

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Tech at Night: A message to Mike Lee about Comcast.

On April 9, 2014, in General, by Neil Stevens
Tech at Night

Mike Lee, we’re your friends here at RedState. We backed you in the primary, and we’re sure to back you going forward. But please, lay off on his Comcast/Time Warner deal. The arguments you’re making, at least as portrayed by The Hill, are the same arguments that were used falsely to fool conservatives into backing the Net Neutrality power grab. Now they’re being used to trick us into backing an antitrust power grab.

First off, even if Net Neutrality wasn’t fixing an imaginary threat, the kind of discrimination you’re talking about is already banned by consent decree from the Comcast – NBC Universal deal. So your fears are doubly unfounded. But don’t take my word for it. Let the market work. Markets are how all of us speak, and we know better than government.

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Tech at Night

Funny how Bitcoin ATM installations get all that hype, but their later flops and removals get much less attention.

They’ve got to be so desperate for good news in the Bitcoin community. Imagine being one of those suckers who bought in at $1000 or even $800, only to get hit with the steady drumbeat of Bitcoin criminality and government attacks.

And don’t forget: Bitcoin mining is getting harder all the time. As time goes on, mining is going to get so hard that the pool will thin, making it easier for a well-off team to take over 51% of the network and hijack the whole thing. If that hasn’t already happened yet. Because if you had 51% of Bitcoin, wouldn’t you… hide some of your resources under an alias so as not to scare people off?

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Tech at Night

This is one of those nights. I did some work looking into just how foolish the idea of state-run Internet is, and now I’m out of time to do this, sorry to say. Quick links time!

The Senate is taking up STELA. Let’s hope the Democrats now don’t inject something into this virtually must-pass legislation, after House Republicans were kind enough to hold back.

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Tech at Night

Even as Bitcoin crime and deception continue, the government has decided that yup, Bitcoin investors have to pay taxes just like everyone else. The anarchists have deemed taxation to be “unacceptable”. I’m sure the IRS will take that as an answer, right guys? Pass the popcorn.

Even if the Obama administration’s data use is way up, the answer is not to abolish NSA, or start shutting down programs entirely. Marco Rubio is right that it would amount to unilateral disarmament. I wonder if he reads RedState!

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Tech at Night

At this point, anyone claiming Edward Snowden is anything but a spy against America is being willfully blind. Snowden now attacking alleged US operations against Communist China, an act that there is no legitimate pro-American interest in. It makes us just have to wonder what else he gave them as he gives them information and propaganda material now.

It’s kinda funny how Democrats screech like harpies about a “clean” bill for STELA, trying to block meaningful retransmission consent reform, but they’re trying to tack the IMF onto unrelated bills in the Senate.

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Tech at Night

DOJ is coming after human trafficking coordinated online. But don’t worry guys, all the drug dealers on Silk Road who get people hooked aren’t to blame at all, except that a lot of the victims of human trafficking get sucked into it via drug addiction. Let alone all the direct human trafficking done via Tor with Bitcoin.

In 1997 I attended a speech by Warren Buffett. One thing I’ve always remembered from it, was how he explained he prefers to invest in businesses he understands, like Coca Cola. Buffett staying away from Bitcoin doesn’t surprise me a bit. I doubt he does understand it, but at the same time the outrage by the Bitcoin ideologues is delicious. I guess it beats continued sobbing over all the exchanges that keep dying.

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Nima Jooyandeh facts.