By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  May 26th at 06:30 AM  | 

By my records this is the 382nd edition of Tech at Night. This is however the one that was prepared on my 35th birthday (though sorry, I didn’t get it written until Sunday morning).

If they try to ban 3D printers in the name of gun control, remember that they’re killing children if they do it. 3D printing is an important technology and the fascists must not be allowed to use gun control to gut it. But they will try. Just watch.

Oh look, fugitive at large in New Zealand (and I mean large) Kim Dotcom has become a patent troll. Remember: he’s a convicted felon and fraudster, having stolen money and embezzled money. He ran a large copyright infringement ring, which he now has restarted in New Zealand, having paid off the government through promises of ‘investment’ to avoid being deported despite indictments in the US and convictions in Germany and Hong Kong.

Anyone who buys a ‘patent’ from him should himself be investigated for money laundering.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  May 19th at 05:30 AM  | 

Had some work to do Friday night, so this this became Tech at Sunday Morning!

I still don’t see it passing the House after Mike Enzi’s winners and losers talk poisoned the well, but conservative governors want MFA passed for good reason. Ask Scott Walker.

Remember when the T-Mobile/MetroPCS deal flew through the Obama administration without a hitch? I think we now know why: it meant the end of the MetroPCS challenge to Net Neutrality. How convenient.

Stealth recording technology. What could go wrong? Of course, if you don’t like Google Glass, the real thing to do is to let property owners ban it on their own property. Problem solved.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  May 16th at 02:30 AM  | 

Some fascinating Bitcoin developments: As I predicted, Mt. Gox just got trouble with its US dollar processor, Dwolla. Meanwhile it comes out that a cabal of developers has de facto control over the Bitcoin network and is devaluing very small wallets. The net effect of this is to reduce the money supply, deflating Bitcoin to benefit those with large holdings.

So even as Bitcoin is revealed to have its own central bankers, the new Megaupload is getting censored per New Zealand law, as Kim Dotcom weighs (heavily) in against Obama to attempt to distract from this censorship.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  April 22nd at 11:30 PM  | 

Some legislative action still ongoing: the Senate looking to fix the ECPA, an email search law that was written to the technology of the time, and now defies the expectations of its framers.

I was told Amazon and eBay would like the sales tax compact, but eBay is coming out against it, spamming its users. But the Senate continues to support it.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  February 24th at 12:00 PM  | 

I can’t agree with Jerry Brito on cybersecurity legisiation. That the President did the wrong thing, the wrong way, doesn’t mean we don’t need the right thing done the right way. It’s time we stopped playing blame the victim.

How about more Free Press? Mike Wendy thinks they need to man up, a fair point. Instead of trying to silence opponents, debate. Then Jonathan Lee makes another great point: Free Press trying to silent AT&T isn’t exactly advocacy for a free press, is it?

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  January 31st at 03:58 AM  | 

Justice is impeding the Sprint/Softbank merger. Gee, whoever could have predicted that if Sprint funded the left-wing effort to embolden Obama antitrust action, then Sprint itself could suffer bad consequences? I wonder. It wasn’t me, was it? I didn’t point out that Sprint Nextel itself had a history of mergers, such as the Sprint-Nextel merger, did I? Hmm.

Hey Chuck Grassley: The first amendment is not a suggestion any more than the second amendment is. There is no Video Game exception that I saw. You’d have to be as special as the Vice President to think think citing the words of a crazed murderer as an authority helps you make a point, anyway.

Besides, it is not your job to dictate ‘artistic value’ to others, nor does your own job have ‘artistic value.’ So if you would silence others who do not have ‘artistic value,’ then that do we conclude about your right to speech? Everybody knows you never go full Biden, Senator.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  January 19th at 02:30 AM  | 

Remember when they told you Net Neutrality was needed? Remember when we said it was really about favoring online firms over telecoms? Told you so, told you so, told you so. Netflix now blocking select ISPs, trying to use market power in order to bully their way to sweetheart bandwidth deals, knowing ISPs can’t fight back under Net Neut regs, aka the Open Internet order.

PS Told you so.

It remains ridiculous that the Aaron Swarz suicide continues be politicized to the point that we’re putting innocent prosecutors under pressure, pressure that defies cross-examination due to the death of the key witness.

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  December 20th at 11:30 AM  | 

It was just last week when Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi came up with the perfect method of morale-conditioning that would prevent unfaithful or disloyal behavior among Egyptians. He banned songs from the radio that weren’t suitably patriotic and morally upright. Mayor Bloomberg, Senator Schumer and Congressman Nadler (HT: Streiff) turn their animus against fire arms instead of Romantic Music. However, each would agree with President Morsi that having too much free will running around loose allows sick people to make iniquitous choices and visit the misery of their inner demons on the rest of us.

By: Repair_Man_Jack (Diary)  |  December 14th at 12:41 PM  | 

The dystopian Science Fiction novel A Canticle For Liebowitz featured one of the best and most articulate examples of what happens when a society rejects modernity en masse. The “Simplication” involved the destruction of all things part and parcel to modern society. This element of destructive rejection resonated amongst the Egyptian grassroots that propelled Muhammad Morsi and The Muslim Brotherhood to power during the tragically misnamed Arab Spring. I predicted this would not be a Renaissance but rather a Bonfire of The Vanities.

And so here goes your proof. The same people who actually debate whether or not to blow up those idolatrous pyramids at Luxor, are now banning all music from Egyptian State Radio accept “patriotic” tunes. Details of Egypt’s “Day The Music Died” followed below.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  September 29th at 01:30 AM  | 

Top story: the FCC is moving forward with spectrum auctions, providing incentives for television stations to auction off their spectrum for wireless Internet use. We could see the auctions completed by the end of 2014.

Everyone admits there’s a spectrum crunch, and on the right and left of the FCC they say it’s a difficult question of how to transfer spectrum to alleviate it. Greg Walden is right though that this is good “if implemented well.” Bruce Mehlman of iia calls it “a terrific start” and that’s also true.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  September 15th at 02:00 AM  | 

Look, 11,000 pages of regulations have been added under Barack Obama. Consider that the Federal Register only needed 71,000 pages total in 1975. These regulations are being added without transparency, as well.

This is too much, and he wants to grow government further with an executive order on Cybersecurity, which is rightly opposed by a group of Senators in the Wall Street Journal. Enough is enough.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  August 23rd at 12:30 AM  | 

So, the FCC put out another report (the “706 report”) that just pushes an agenda rather than reporting the true facts about high speed Internet in America. Commissioners McDowell and Pai tell it like it is. We’ve also got Broadband for America telling the story. I’m not even worried about the details: the FCC is saying what they feel they must say to justify expanding | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  June 26th at 01:30 AM  | 

Hey, digital libertarians? Hope you’re ready to move on from Barack Obama, His administration thinks the First Amendment is an obstacle to greater government on the Internet, and not something that must be respected or protected by the courts when it gets in the way. This of course turns the First Amendment on its head. I guess in the Democrat parallel world Tim Wu and | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  May 24th at 03:00 AM  | 

Quick hits night. Enjoy! Google beats Oracle on the matter of patent infringement in the big Java/Android case. So the only question left is how the copyright matters will be resolved. New York legislators want to censor the Internet? Come on guys, come on.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  May 3rd at 01:30 AM  | 

CISPA’s proponents bent over backward to respond to reasonable complaints, but the extremists are still complaining. Anonymous and Mozilla (much of which is foreign, no?) are whining, but nobody ever points to any specific, offending verbiage of the bill. Am I the only one who reads tech bills before complaining about them? Even Democrats are having to start acknowledging Republican expertise in tech leadership, though. | Read More »