The free market of Internet access, driven by constantly improving technology and heightening competition, is a driver of job creation and economic growth. Even Julius Genachowski, Obama’s FCC Chairman, has to admit that. This is just one reason we fight FCC power grabs.
So when the government starts talking about new regulations in emerging fields such as “cloud computing”, just say no.
And when Steve Chabot makes silly comments about wireless competition without daring to take an actual stand on the issue of the day, just sigh and ignore him. It’s a simple question, Steve. Government action, or free market. Pick a side or hush.
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I remember when the Digital Millennium Copyright Act passed. It created a boatload of new rules and restrictions on Americans, in the name of tightening copyright online. One of the key provisions of the DMCA is the “safe harbor” rule, which effectively turns ISPs into agents of copyright, by making them honor so-called DMCA takedown notices in exchange for not being held responsible for what’s put by their customers on their public servers.
We were supposed to accept harsh limitations on basic practices like reverse engineering, in order to get what we were told were strong and effective copyright protections. So when I see new copyright criminalization proposed, I have to ask: Did the DMCA fail? Should we repeal it then? Or are we just throwing a bone to the RIAA and MPAA who don’t want to have to bother enforcing their own rights anymore, and get a subsidy from the DoJ to enforce it for them? Come on.
Sure, Some are saying it’s not as bad as it sounded, but if one policy failed, we can’t just keep adding new ones. Repeal and replace, don’t just create an ever-greater web of problems. Or better: just tweak the DMCA instead of adding whole new criminal provisions! Let’s not grow government more than we have to just because big business asks for it. I’m not anti-business, but I’m always wary when big business and big government work together.
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I really can’t wait until the Lulzsec crew learns about the joys of frogmarching. These arrogant punks need to have some sense smacked into them, and felony charges would be a great way to do that.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you improve domestic cybersecurity: find the people breaking into servers and take away their liberties under existing US law.
More in security news: Darrell Issa is tracking a Gmail-related attack that hit government officials. But, instead of going after the perpetrators, he too is interrogating the victim. This is unfortunate. We need to round up these criminals and lock them up.
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Lots to cover tonight, thanks in part to skipping Monday for Memorial Day. But of course I’ll start with my own post on the AT&T/T-Mobile deal, explaining from the ground up why the George Soros/Sprint arguments contradict themselves. Government should get out of the way, especially state governments like California’s getting too big for their britches. It’ll be better for all of us who buy wireless services.
Speaking of states running amok, here’s the bill that tax-and-spend Texans have put the Amazon tax into. Unless I’m mistaken, which is possible since I’m not particularly familiar with Texas inside baseball, SB 1 is being considered in the special session of the legislature. Let’s hope Texas can strip that tax out, after Governor Perry already vetoed it once. Texas needs to be America’s example of small government. Texans: get loud and back up the Governor! Give the Governor a harrumph!
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I was asked today on a forum why I am unhappy with Xcode as an IDE, and how exactly it forces me to do things in a certain way in order to use it. Here was my reply, with minimal editing done.
I’d rather be able to pick and choose what parts of an IDE I’d like to use, and which I’d rather not use. I’m going to use Xcode here as my example since it’s the first IDE I’ve tolerated in years.
What does an IDE do, at core? It integrates different tools. It integrates your core text editor (that if you’re like me you’re going to spend more time in than everything else combined) with your build tool, your debugger, your profiler, your interface designer, your documentation, and even source control.
A good IDE isn’t going to make you use any one particular flavor of any of those tools. The more poorly designed the IDE, the more you’re wedded to one or another.
Xcode 4 just happened to take the one thing I use the most, the text editor, and mandates you use its flavor of that to be able to use any of the other integration. I have to have it bring up things in its text editor to make use of its build logs, and I have to bring up things it its text editor to make use of its debugger, etc, so Xcode 4 has no value to me. Its integration is counterproductive. Ideally I could just close the window… but you can’t close its text editor window even! It’s all one giant, poorly-designed clutter of an interface.
There are other simple but practical reasons this ruins it for me. I like to have many editor windows open. At times I like to have several docs windows open.
So Xcode has been reduced to me to being a way of generating xcodebuild configurations, and a way of uploading iPhone and iPad test builds onto the hardware. I can use nothing else it does without having its single text editor window shoved in my face, with its editor that isn’t the mature, sophisticated one I use for everything else.
So, I blew a lot of my spare development time last week not actually making progress, but rather figuring out how to get by without loading Xcode. I’ve done that now fortunately. For iOS dev I’ve even gotten an xcodebuild + Makefile process going to run things in the simulator. I now only need to load Xcode when I make changes to the build, because Xcode projects are not really written for human readability. [insert rant against XML]
Integration is great when you want to use every single tool that’s integrated together. But just like some people wanted to use MS Windows without MS Internet Explorer, so too do I want to use some of the Xcode tools without its text editor.
This week I already called upon Rick Perry to veto the Texas Amazon Tax, and now I’m left to hope that California Democrats will be less stupid than Joe Straus. Sigh.
Meanwhile the posturing around the AT&T/T-Mobile deal continues. We find from a press conference with COMPTEL CEO Jerry James that the Rural Cellular Alliance is joining with radical left, George Soros/OSI-funded group Public Knowledge to favor government intervention. If only they realized Soros will turn on them as soon as they’re no longer needed to pursue their socialist agenda.
The Wall Street Journal has also looked into the unholy alliance against AT&T. The leading members are of course direct competitors: Leap Wireless, MetroPCS, Sprint. Verizon is also mentioned, but the WSJ lists good reasons Verizon really wouldn’t mind either way. I also see one good reason for Verizon to want to see AT&T and T-Mobile win this: Anything that happens to AT&T now can also happen to Verizon, and Verizon becomes public enemy number one if it’s the undisputed leader of the industry. Sprint, meanwhile, doesn’t have to worry about being #1 because Sprint these days literally has to mooch off its competitors with things like the FCC Data Roaming order just to service its customers, so relatively little does it invest in its network anymore.
John Conyers and Edward Markey are also pressing for big government here. Look, even if you’re the biggest T-Mobile fan, the writing is on the wall regarding the fans of government intervention here. Everyone who is opposing this deal is self-interested, socialist, or both.
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My development laptop is out of date. 802.11g (which gets increasingly annoying when transferring files), old Windows Vista (which will be critical when the new MSIE comes out and is 7-only). I went to the store looking to get a new one.
None of the ones at Best Buy came with dual band 802.11n. Well. all but one. So I went to the store expecting to buy some generic low-mid Windows laptop, and instead bought the one that supported that full up wireless networking: a Macbook Air 13″ and Windows 7 Home Premium to Boot Camp.
Hello. So, the big rumor that just started going around is that Microsoft will buy out Skype. This worries me. I’m a paying customer, I’m happy with the service (though not with recent client releases), and I rely on it. If Microsoft ruins it, it will be a problem for me.
Anyway, can somebody please explain to Joe Barton that you can’t take data off of the Internet once it’s on there? The concept of an “eraser button” for the Internet is absurd and shows a fundamental lack of understanding here. The UK tried and failed miserably.
Parents need to take control of their kids, and not expect Government to try to work magic to cover for their own ineptitude in keeping their kids from sharing information. Especially when the proposed solution sounds lifted from Ren and Stimpy.
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In case you missed the great news Friday, Net Neutrality was repealed in the House. The resolution now must go to the Senate, where under the Congressional Review Act it cannot be filibustered, so it only needs 51 votes.
And while I do hope that the House will follow up by attempting to repeal the redistributionist data roaming regulations passed last week, other work must be done. On Tuesday, Greg Walden’s subcommittee will hold a hearing on spectrum allocation. I hope they will support allocating the D block to public safety.
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As I began work on tonight’s late Tech at Night, reports came out of an explosion at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture, Japan. As Japan continues to deal with an unimaginably strong earthquake and then a devastating tsunami caused by that quake, I hope nobody takes those special circumstances and tries to argue against clean, effective power generation technology in the general case. Let them bury the dead first, clean up, and examine the causes of the problems before we then pause and make intelligent decisions.
Though as much as the earthquake causes me to woolgather about my own earthquake history, life does continue to go on here in America. And in fact, Republicans are getting so aggressive on tech policy issues. Mike Lee in particular has gotten much attention for calling for antitrust hearings against Google in the course of greater Senate committee efforts toward possible Search Neutrality laws. In fact I suspect he’d get even more if not for the Sendai earthquake.
I’m sure it’s infuriating the daylights out of the radicals that one of America’s most prominent TEA Party Senators is in favor of strong government action here, and I don’t know if I agree with it myself, but if Microsoft was vulnerable to years of government harassment despite the fact that anyone, at any time, could easily acquire high-quality competing products, so will Google be despite the existence of major search competitors.
Though if Senator Lee is making this move because of the juicy political effects, more than an actual desire to be a trustbuster, then his move gets two thumbs up from this observer. Ditto Joe Barton’s rumblings of going after Google for the children and their privacy.
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