ideas, instincts, and intuitions: Obama Admin creates 'secret' internet for dissidents abroad.
The effort includes secretive projects to create independent cellphone networks inside foreign countries, as well as one operation out of a spy novel in a fifth-floor shop on L Street in Washington, where a group of young entrepreneurs who look as if they could be in a garage band are fitting…
Fascinating. The question that occurred to me as most pressing is What happens if such a device is deployed within the borders of the United States? Then what?
Source: MSNBC
How fast is the Internet at Google? Mind blowing.
For those of us who live in parts of the world where high speed Internet is still a luxury, there’s a massive amount of jealousy that happens when we see huge numbers. In a thread over on Reddit where members of Google’s Chrome team are answering questions, we’ve just gotten a peek at Google’s Internet connection.
Yes, please.
(via infoneer-pulse)
Source: thenextweb.com
I passed through a condensed Kübler-Ross model upon seeing the above greet me at Facebook. It went a little something like this:
- WTF?
- You’re 25 years too late.
- Damn, I’m old.
Good for a laugh, and yet this was the the effective state of affairs not so long ago. Indistinguishable from magic, indeed.
(via suzannexie)
Source: tightlipshardheart
Better in a world with file-sharing?
The Times Online asked “Do music artists fare better in a world with illegal file-sharing?”
Short answer: yes, unless you’re a record label.
Source: labs.timesonline.co.uk
The ACTA Threat
If you create digital content or simply value digital rights and freedoms, watch this talk on ACTA by Michael Geist, then share it.
Source: michaelgeist.ca
No one thought people would want to follow strangers, or that celebrities would use Twitter to apprise fans of their activities, or that businesses would use Twitter to launch new products… Essentially, Twitter left a ball and a stick in a field and lurked around as its users invented baseball.
Stephen Levy
(via binkythedoormat)
Source: binkythedoormat
Source: chrbutler
Facing the (Free) Music
For 10 years, music execs have waged a war against digital file sharing — and software like Napster and websites like The Pirate Bay — which have decimated the industry’s profits. But recently, there are signs from Europe that the battle over free music may be changing.
If you’re interested in how and why the music industry has come to be what it is, you’ll want to listen to this program from NPR’s On the Media. They’ve done a wonderful job making sense of a decade of fear, missteps, willful ignorance and even a few glimmers of hope.
McCain Moves To Block the FCC's Net-Neutrality Rule
The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday approved a proposal for an open Internet. Proponents such as Google, eBay and more than a dozen others have voiced support, while opponents, including Comcast, Verizon Communications, and AT&T, say the government needs to take a close look its involvement.
Just hours after the FCC moved to create the new rules, U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) introduced legislation to block the rules. His Internet Freedom Act would bar the FCC from implementing rules stopping broadband providers from selectively blocking or slowing Internet content and applications.
Isn’t it interesting that with regard to matters of the United States legislature “freedom” means precisely the opposite?
Source: infoneer-pulse
