By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  August 16th at 03:30 AM  | 

Hello again to those I saw in Charleston over the weekend, and hope to see you next time to those who weren’t able to make it! While I return to California and get settled in again, it seems that some are leaving the state for good, and the hostile business climate is why. This includes the punitive Amazon Tax which has made it impossible for | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  August 11th at 03:00 AM  | 

Hello everyone! I hope people have plants to get out to Charleston this weekend for the third annual Gathering. I will be there, which is why there will be no Tech at Night on Friday. Having also missed Monday due to Gathering preparations, I have much to cover tonight. I’ll start with a wrap up of everyone’s favorite online terrorist group, Anonymous. I don’t use | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  August 6th at 03:00 AM  | 

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 | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  August 2nd at 02:30 AM  | 

Frogmarch watch continues. Even as Anonymous has desperately tried to enlist unions into its anti-Paypal Jihad, Paypal funnels information to law enforcement to help catch the terrorists. I don’s use that word lightly, either. But when the gang is attempting to intimidate law enforcement, possibly as an answer to another high-profile arrest, I believe Anonymous and its subsidiaries like Lulzsec and Antisec have leapt far | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  July 30th at 02:30 AM  | 

I’ve been warning for ages that Universal Service Fund reform was coming, and that it would end up as an Internet tax. Well here we go: Plans are afoot. Oddly enough though, people seem fine with the America’s Broadband Connectivity Plan, which so far seems to be a plan to redirect funding toward greater Internet access. Free State Foundation is fine with the plans so | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  July 28th at 02:00 AM  | 

Anonymous and its associated online criminal organizations continue to face losses. A top Lulzsec leader was arrested in Scotland. Remember, this guy is no “activist.” He stole from people who happened to have Visas or MasterCards. Vigilante action against Anonymous and its online criminal wings continues, as well. Anonymous is in such trouble, they’re now desperate for allies, begging unions to join their cause. Note | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  July 26th at 12:00 AM  | 

It was mentioned in the previous Tech at Night’s comments, but here it is directly: the NAB has come out against incentive auctions to free up spectrum for wireless Internet. I say we should dismiss their concerns. Incentive auctions are voluntary and compensate the original spectrum holders. Rights are respected, as we get a superior spectrum allocation for American needs. For once, the FCC has | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  July 23rd at 02:00 AM  | 

Anonymous is starting to lose more than it wins. As I already mentioned on Wednesday, the FBI is racking up names to arrest, and moving on them. Anonymous responded by claiming to have broken into NATO systems. The world responded by trashing Anonymous’s AnonPlus website. Of course, when they’re in jail, that won’t matter much, but it’s fun to see. Good news: Early polling suggests | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  July 20th at 11:00 PM  | 

Twitter has a credibility problem on its hands, all of a sudden. Even as I’m getting blind link spam sent to me every single day on the site, Twitter has singled out a conservative activist group to have its accounts wiped out. Not only was the Empower Texans feed shut down, but every single employee’s personal feed was targeted as well. Twitter’s response has been | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  July 18th at 11:30 PM  | 

Short Tech at Night tonight, and boy do I need it. Unsurprisingly, when you’re running a massive calorie deficit to lose weight, exercise gets harder! I’m going to put two stories out here. If people are inspired to a course of vigilante action, well, then that’s not my fault. Anonymous’s Antisec is picking on the troops. Anonymous is launching a Google+ competitor for its members | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  July 16th at 12:00 AM  | 

Wednesday I told you guys to look for two posts of mine. One is still pending, but I at least got my post on the California Amazon tax, and possible referendum shenanigans posted yesterday. At least I’m halfway there. Beyond self promotion, we still do have other matters, like the pending AT&T/T-Mobile deal. Despite being left out of the Sprint coalition, Free Press is still | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  July 14th at 03:30 AM  | 

Sorry if you’ve been missing Tech at Night this week. Monday I just ran out of time as I had to do a whole bunch of housekeeping*, and tonight I’m running late. So let’s go. In classic Tech at Night style, let’s talk about the FCC. They took forever to get the ball rolling on Net Neutrality, but it’s coming now and it’s a vehicle | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  July 7th at 03:30 AM  | 

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 | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  June 30th at 02:00 AM  | 

Amazon’s not kidding one bit about punishing states that attempt to punish it. After Amazon sent a last ditch warning to Associates that all California Associates would be terminated in the event Governor Brown signed the budget with the Amazon Tax in it, the Governor went ahead and did it. So, every Amazon Associate in California just got terminated, including countless small businesses scraping by | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  June 28th at 02:00 AM  | 

And we truly are back. Friday night was a night off thanks to some maintenance at RedState. It was nice because I could rest on a Friday night… but it’s not so nice now when I have a whopping 20 Firefox windows to sort through tonight. So here we go. With so many big stories going on, it’s hard to pick which one to start | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  June 23rd at 01:30 AM  | 

Can we just start shooting the hackers? It seems like it’s war on the Internet these days, and the more there is for me to cover, the more work it is churning out Tech at Night! Lulzsec denies the allies are in Baghdad the leader is arrested despite an earlier claim on Twitter that it was true. Anyway, Shame on the Daily Mail for trying | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  June 22nd at 08:00 AM  | 

I’ve said before that the case against the AT&T/T-Mobile deal makes no sense. Not only does the historical record suggest that the merger will increase competition, but the actions of key players are the opposite of what we’d predict if the merger were expected to reduce competition and raise margins. There’s something more to it, though. That something is astroturf pushing a basic agenda of | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  June 20th at 11:45 PM  | 

I’ve been treating Lulzsec, one of the online gangs attacking websites including the CIA’s, as an offshoot of 4chan and Anonymous. So I’m not surprised to find out that Lulzsec and Anonymous are joining up to attack the US Government. It’s like Hamas and Fatah merging; nobody is surprised. But attacking the government? Handcuffs hurt, boys. It’ll be fun when y’all find that out. It’ll | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  June 18th at 02:30 AM  | 

So while there have been a number of genuine online attacks lately against the Senate, the CIA, PBS, Bioware, and more, the headlines have been full of reports of aftershocks. What seems to be going on is that existing account credentials leaked from previous attacks are being plugged into other sites, including Paypal. Anyone who reuses passwords is vulnerable to these secondary attacks. Be careful | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  June 16th at 03:00 AM  | 

Even as Mary Bono Mack and Republicans fiddle with the pointless SAFE Data act that won’t actually do anything to prevent or even to deter online crime, the Internet burns with a string of further attacks. The Senate was hit twice, and the CIA was hit as well. I thought we were the party that likes to solve crime by putting the criminals in jail? | Read More »