Tech at Night: AT&T, T-Mobile, Unions, FCC

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  March 21st at 11:30 PM  | 

So, read any good Tech posts lately? OK, I couldn’t think of a better way than that tonight to introduce a pair of RedState posts on the top story of the moment: AT&T’s announced plans to acquire T-Mobile USA from the Germans. It seems that there are two major conservative perspectives on this deal. One was described by LaborUnionReport on Sunday: if the non-union T-Mobile | Read More »

There is no need to block an AT&T acquisition of T-Mobile

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  March 21st at 09:00 AM  | 

In the fast-paced, highly-competitive market of wireless phone and Internet access, this announcement stands out. The wireless carrier with the second-most subscribers, AT&T, is to acquire the number four carrier, T-Mobile USA. Some would say that this is a grave threat to competitiveness, risks reducing competition and increasing prices on everyone, and so should be stopped by the benevolent masters of the Obama administration. I | Read More »

Tech at Night: Welcome to Net Neutrality

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  March 15th at 03:00 AM  | 

Good evening. I’m going to start tonight with a clarification from Friday. While I identified last week’s Net Neutrality push poll with Consumer Reports, the poll was actually signed on by CR’s publisher, Consumers Union, and conducted by the Consumer Federation of America. As that one television network says, I have now made a report, and you can decide for yourself what to make of | Read More »

Tech at Night: FCC, Net Neutrality, Amazon Tax Hypocrisy

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  March 10th at 02:30 AM  | 

I know nobody wants to talk about Net Neutrality right now when unions are the issue giving everyone warm feelings right now, but there were important hearings held Wednesday. Greg Walden’s House subcommittee held hearings on HJ Res 37, which disapproves of Net Neutrality to invoke the Congressional Review act and overrule the FCC’s power grab. On top of that, the FCC responded to the | Read More »

Tech at Night: Net Neutrality, FCC, iPad

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  March 5th at 12:30 AM  | 

Good evening, I wrote in my best Alfred Hitchcock impression. Top story as we go into the weekend: our friendly neighborhood House Republicans are pressing on with their oversight of the FCC and Net Neutrality in particular. The resolution disapproving of Net Neutrality is postponed, but instead we’re getting pressure on the FCC to justify its actions economically. Good on Greg Walden, Fred Upton, and | Read More »

Tech at night: Net Neutrality, ICANN, Basic security

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  March 2nd at 11:00 PM  | 

Welcome to the remarkably early Tech at Night tonight. When I have my initial preparation done by 6pm, I’m not going to stay up until midnight to do the actual writing. Not gonna do it. Wouldn’t be prudent. We start with some mild bad news: the resolution disapproving of Net Neutrality has been delayed. Fred Upton is getting recognition for his active work challenging the | Read More »

Tech at Night: Internet Tax, Copyright, Security, Net Neutrality

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  February 26th at 05:30 AM  | 

And now I really push the definition of Tech at Night, starting to write this at 2am. I’d originally planned to skip tonight’s edition, and instead just sleep. But I woke up, and sleep isn’t returning anytime soon, so let’s make the rounds of tech and policy. Some Democrats still haven’t learned the lesson of the PCCC. The far left alternative to the DCCC published | Read More »

Tech at Night: Copyright, COICA, Google, Net Neturality, Internet Kill Switch

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  February 24th at 03:30 AM  | 

On Monday I did the first half of my catchup work. Now we’ll do the second half. And one of the big issues coming up is copyright. Over the last thirty years, copyright in America has been radically reformed. While traditionally it worked as patents still do work, as a temporary grant of monopoly enforceable in civil courts, we’ve gradually moved them into the realm | Read More »

The Return of Tech at Night: Net Neutrality, Internet Kill Switch

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  February 22nd at 01:30 AM  | 

I’m back. CPAC week came and went. Then another week came and went after the horrible cold I got at CPAC. But now I’m healthy again and it’s time to start catching up. Though there’s no way I’m going to post on every tidbit I’ve run across in the last two weeks, I can try to hit the highlights. And let’s start with the fact | Read More »

Tech at Night: The return of the Internet Tax

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  February 8th at 03:00 AM  | 

Remember when the Communication Workers of America backed Net Neutrality in the mildest way possible, despite the fact that it risked killing CWA jobs? Well here’s their payoff: CWA is all-in for the Internet Tax. Of course, the left isn’t calling it the Internet Tax. Instead it’s “Universal Service Fund reform,” by which they mean finding a way to get more money into the so-called | Read More »

Tech at Night: Net Neutrality, FCC, Republicans charge ahead

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  February 5th at 02:00 AM  | 

Forgive me if I’m not as engaging as usual tonight. Firefox robbed me of a good 20 minutes of time tonight. Firefox 3, what was supposed to be faster and better than ever, had taken up so much memory it was slowing my whole system, and then it took forever to restart. Of course, now they’re saying Firefox 4 will be better this time. Really. | Read More »

The FCC goes fishing for an excuse to regulate

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  February 4th at 07:00 PM  | 

So the FCC is having another open meeting on Tuesday, February 8. A tentative agenda for that meeting has been published, and part of it looks dangerous. It’s written in conservative-friendly language, talking about streamlining processes and minimizing the burdens on the private sector, but there could be much more to it than that. The agenda says the FCC is issuing “A Notice of Proposed | Read More »

Tech at Night: Net Neutrality, FCC, Bing vs Google

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  February 3rd at 12:45 AM  | 

Net Neutrality is taking a real pounding this week. The Heritage Foundation has come out shooting, calling for a major rollback in the FCC’s authority, including repealing Net Neutrality legislatively. Also, The US Chamber of Commerce is calling upon the FCC to be held to the President’s standards for regulatory review, which would certainly put Net Neutrality at risk. But its supporters press on. Even | Read More »

Tech at Night: Susan Collins, Queen of Denial

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  January 31st at 11:30 PM  | 

Wow, my Tech at Night graphic is now out of date. I was already late to the iPhone 4 party because of the iPad and because I had waited for the legendary White iPhone 4. But now that I have an iPhone 4, having the 3GS in the graphic seems wrong somehow. Time for a new one if I get a good idea. Comments welcome. | Read More »

Tech at Night: Rapping at ya about the FCC and Google

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  January 28th at 11:30 PM  | 

I don’t want to go the full Jim Anchower on you all, but the end of the week has been a bit rough on my end. My Internet connection is going full on Neutral on me, by which I mean it’s been going offline as much as it’s online, including a big 8 hours of full downtime at one point. If it weren’t for my | Read More »