By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  December 9th at 08:00 PM  | 

Marsha Blackburn says the White House just isn’t credible on privacy. Is she right? Probably. I also think people really don’t care about privacy. Note the lack of an exodus from Google services even now.

I agree that it’s a very smart idea for FCC to eliminate rules that no longer make sense. Having a law, as opposed to the free market, ban phone use on planes, is a pointless power grab. We must defeat all GOP attempts to pass these laws which would have silenced 9/11 victims on the planes. I’d even suggest both Bill Shuster and Lamar Alexander need primary opponents, as they are exposing their big-government tendencies over this.

See, this is smart. We shouldn’t totally rewrite large bills like the Communications Act. We should implement targeted reform, one step at a time. FCC process reform is surely needed, and can be tackled in a standalone way.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  December 7th at 07:00 AM  | 

The argument for the ECPA (email warrant law) reform in a nutshell: because a lot of people store important data on other people’s servers, we need to tighten warrant laws for that data. I don’t buy the necessity, especially with FISA also under attack. If terrorists have data on Google’s servers, I want Google to be able to hand over that data. But this idea is popular and I expect it to pass eventually.

I called it: China cut Bitcoin’s access to the Chinese banking system, just as the US cut online gambling access to the US banking system (and like the US did after the freezing of Mt. Gox’s Dwolla account. Result: Bitcoin prices are tumbling, even if firms like Bank of America can’t assume it’s going to go away.

I wish it would though, since Bitcoin continues to be a magnet for crime.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  December 5th at 03:15 AM  | 

Two reminders I usually make here. Use good passwords, and make sure not to run software you don’t trust. Keep your software updated. If you use it, consider switching away from the leading target online, Microsoft Windows. Government is trying to catch these guys, but you have to lock your own door at night.

Teenagers need to be monitored online. It’s for their protection against bad elements. Most parents would be disturbed to see their kids making videos like this, but without somebody watching, how would parents ever even know their kids were making video responses to requests by predators?

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  December 3rd at 05:00 AM  | 

Seems like I’m always coming up with excuses not to post, but I knew nobody would read if I posted over Thanksgiving, so I just ate ham instead. I’m now at risk of turning into bacon, I’ve had so much.

Oops. The Department of Defense signed a deal with Apprticity to buy 500 user licenses and a number of server licenses of its software. But after the Army let slip during a presentation that “thousands” of users were in the system, the government’s large-scale copyright infringement exposed. Apptricity and the Obama administration settled for $50 million.

This is your periodic reminder that kids don’t belong on the Internet. The Internet is every sex predator on Earth, all hiding in your kid’s computer or phone. Be careful out there.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  November 26th at 03:30 AM  | 

It’s been a week, hasn’t it? It turns out the night I last did Tech, I pushed it way too hard, and my illness stuck with me another week. But we’re better now.

For what it’s worth, Steny Hoyer doesn’t see the Trans-Pacific Partnership passing anytime soon. I’m all for free trade, but TPP seems to be going far beyond trade, and becoming a grab bag of special interest provisions, and so I’m fine with giving it a lot of scrutiny.

As I’ve said before, the key to fixing patents is to remove the incentive the USPTO has to give out too many. So I’m glad the House rejected Democrat plans to reinforce USPTO getting funding that way. We must not let the office keep the feeas it collects anymore.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  November 19th at 03:00 AM  | 

Think the FAA is so great for making a slight loosening of its ridiculous regulations on phones on planes? Think again: The Euros are making us look bad by getting way ahead of us, and allowing full use of LTE at any time.

Anonymous is trying to go to war with America. Cells must start coming out denouncing this behavior I believe, or be considered anti-American and a threat to liberty until proven otherwise. Can we please go back to barring anarchists from the country, and expelling those we find?

Then again, the dope fiends among them are giving us plenty of reason to arrest them as it is through gangs like Silk Road, so… maybe that’s redundant.

I know it’s likely that the courts will toss out Net Neutrality again, but it still makes me smile to read predictions like that.

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

I do apologize if I don’t go as in-depth tonight as I should. I think I’m coming down with something.

There goes Pandora. They appear to be giving up on getting their law passed that would give them a sweetheart regulatory deal, stomping on any need they’d have to negotiate in the marketplace. They don’t want competition or a marketplace. They want a command economy for music expanded beyond the insane system we already have in place for terrestrial radio. It’s good we’ve defeated their legal aims.

Speaking of picking winners and losers in regulation, here’s why they’re trying to kill Aereo. Broadcasters and cable companies are feeling threatened by the loss of revenues that are threatened by the push to go back to free terrestrial broadcasts, and we can’t let them get away with using government to prop themselves up.

MSNBC commentators don’t understand the law, surprise surprise.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  November 12th at 08:00 AM  | 

Much like WMATA, I took Veteran’s Day half-off. I did the reading but not the writing.

You know how I’m already throwing words like ‘anarchoterrorist’ around groups like Anonymous? Well now they’re siding with Hamas in Gaza against Israel and all doubt is removed. It’s amazing that the blood libel exists in some form in the 21st century, but I guess anarchists are just that terrible.

Bitcoin is still a tool for criminals including Silk Road Gangster Ross Ulbricht, who tried to contract a murder to keep his racket going.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  November 9th at 01:30 AM  | 

Rooting for injuries watch: Anonymous Australia takes on Anonymous Indonesia. And then Singapore is after their own Anonymous cell. The blackshirts will be rooted out wherever they are, around the world*.

Cognitive dissonance watch: Google paints themselves as the Hobbits against Sauron that the NSA is supposed to be, even as they try to simultaneously goad people onto Google+ via Youtube comments, and then broadcast Google+ information to Android users, opting you in by default. I’m sorry, but these hobbits aren’t being taken to Isengard. They’re ruling Isengard.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  November 7th at 06:00 PM  | 

The push continues for US firms to be able to release stats about what the US Government asks of them. I support this. I’m in favor of the NSA doing its job but oversight is important, too.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  November 4th at 11:00 PM  | 

I skipped Tech at Night on Friday because I was preparing for the Extra Life event. Saturday I broadcast video games live for 25 straight hours (one day with the time change, you see), raising over $230 (above my goal!) for the Children’s Hospital of Orange County. Clearly to do that I needed my sleep, so I went to bed early Friday. Sorry, but it was for a good cause.

Anyway, catching up. NSA listening in on foreigners using Google is part of their job, folks. So if the Germans or anyone else don’t like it, even if they get the traitor Edward Snowden to help them censor and regulate their own Internet, my answer to those nations who don’t like the NSA is still: “Come and take it.”

Though it’s still apparent that the ‘leaks’ coming out such as this about Pope Francis are being crafted (not chosen, crafted) to sound plausible, attempting to push our buttons and play to our prejudices. Snowden’s accusations and ‘documents’ surely include the best fabrications Snowden’s Russian paymasters’ money can buy.

Don’t forget, though: metadata is harmless to collect, as it involves collecting only that data which is already public.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  October 30th at 04:30 PM  | 

Tech at Night is coming when it’s plenty light out this afternoon, because I need to start getting some sleep in preparation for my 25 hour broadcast as part of the Extra Life children’s hospital charity event.

The FCC got two new commissioners this week, a good one in Michael O’Rielly, and a likely bad one in Tom Wheeler. This came only after Ted Cruz got the answers he was looking for. Then again, under Barack Obama that’s the best we could hope for.

It’s very rare that I agree with a gun grabber like Dianne Feinstein but come on, she’s annoying the right people by calling out Snowden as the traitor he is.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  October 29th at 02:30 AM  | 

How busy and important is FCC? They have time to worry about fluorescent lights in every small business in America, it seems.

More proof kids don’t belong on the Internet: the anarchoterrorists of Anonymous are now recruiting 12 year old elementary school students to commit crimes for them. Please take note, everyone. The Internet is a dangerous place that is not safe for kids.

That said, beware ideas for government-directed national cybersecurity plans or regulations, such as those proposed often by Democrats. They can’t even secure the Obamacare website, let alone tell you how to secure yours. Share information only. Pass CISPA, not new mandates.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  October 26th at 04:00 AM  | 

Crime in Bitcoin is big money. $28.5 million more worth if Bitcoins have been taken from the Silk Road racket. Other things are big money in Bitcoin too, such as those on Reddit who are paying young women to take their clothes off and put the video on the Internet, a great personal risk to themselves.

It’s no wonder Bitcoin people are trying to run offshore to countries like China hostile to liberty and the rule of law, even as they try to hide their tracks accessing US markets with conspiracies like Tor.

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It’s also no wonder the anarchists have seized upon recent events to try to demonize the NSA.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  October 24th at 02:30 AM  | 

Sorry I missed Monday. That night it just slipped my mind and I went to bed!

The purpose of patents is to encourage useful works. That’s not just my idea. It’s in the Constitution. That’s why anti-patent troll legislation makes sense. Apparently more and patent trolls are starting to lobby against it. Though I still say the best way to fight patent trolls is to stop issuing so many bad patents to begin with, by taking away that source of funding from USPTO that gives them an incentive to give too many patents. Give them a fixed budget.

Look, I’m fine with the kind of non-specific transparency of FISA warrants Google is loking for but ACLU trying to help terrorists isn’t interesting to me at all.