2005 – Page 17 – Wetmachine

Customers totally ignore security issues

So, security has been hyped in the press and especially in ads over the past few years… various IT ads talk about security, keeping out hackers, etc. But is Joe Sixpack actually paying attention?

Recently, Paris Hilton (one of those people it seems is simply famous for being famous… oh and for having her knookie tape broadcast all over the Internet) recently had her T-Mobile smartphone hacked, with its phone list of celebrities (and even pictures of her breasts taken with the camera phone) posted all over the web. T-Mobile’s security (or lack thereof) was at fault. This is just one of several breeches of security that has hit T-Mobile.

So, of course, the free market being what it is, people are now leaving T-Mobile in droves, especially eschewing the products that have been so famously hacked, right? Apparently not, as T-Mobile is selling out of Sidekicks, the unit Hilton owned that was hacked.

So, I guess what we have is the confluence of “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” and “there’s a sucker born every minute.”

Tales of the Sausage Factory: In IL, Citizens 1, ILECs 0 (but it's just the first inning so keep your seats)

Harold March 1, 2005 - 6:24 pm February 24, 2013General, Tales of the Sausage Factory

The Chicago Independent Media Center reports that the Ilinois Bill containing the anti-muni provision, Senate Bill 499, was not called in the IL Senate as expected. Negative publicity and citizen protest have apparently caused supporters of the bill to reconsider introducing it.

Score another one for the good citizens of IL and citizens everywhere! But, as the IMC article notes, this could well get buried in the general effort to reform the telecom rules in IL. We have the momentum, but the incumbents are very well financed and very patient.

Stay tuned . . . .

Tales of the Sausage Factory: UPDATE on 3650-3700 MHz

Harold March 1, 2005 - 6:10 pm February 24, 2013General, Tales of the Sausage Factory

I have been making calls today. The situation is moving in a more favorable direction. The relevant decision makers are getting our emails and see broad popular support for mesh as well as high-power.

Key issues on which decisions have not yet been made and where comments may prove helpful:

1) Allowing low power mobile devices in the band is critical to expanding mesh.

2) Low power mesh requires non-exclusivity and cheap equipment. The Commission should not impose overly conservative interference protection criteria that drive up price. Flexibility has been critical to the success of unlicensed as a networking solution.

3) Mesh devices must be allowed to communicate with each other in a peer-to-peer fashion, rather than requiring mesh devices to communicate with a high power base station.

4) Any system of licensing or registration must be non-exclusive; the Commission must not create a “first in time, first in right” licensing systems.

Remember, things are turning our way, but your comments are still needed to build a record to counter Intel and others. The Proceeding Number is 04-151. You can file comments by going here.

Stay tuned . . .

Tales of the Sauasage Factory: My editorial on Muniwireless

Harold March 1, 2005 - 1:42 pm February 24, 2013General, Tales of the Sausage Factory

I’ve written an op ed that whether or not munies actually deploy systems, they need the option to keep the telco/cable duopoly from misbehaving. Available at:

http://www.muniwireless.com/archives/000601.html

stay tuned . . . .

Saying “I love you” with Science!

Gary March 1, 2005 - 1:18 pm February 24, 2013General Exception, I Fear These Things

Well, here’s a novel use for bioengineering: culture a bone sample to grow onto a toroidal scaffold, and you can give a loved one a ring made out of your own bone.

Of course, after you die, you could also have your cremated ashes made into a diamond, and then set in that ring.

Nothing like saying “I love you” in an extreamely creepy way. Makes Billy Bob Thornton and Angelina Jolie’s idea of matching tattoos and vials of each other’s blood seem Victorian in comparison.

Tales of the Sausage Factory: Last Gasp on Unlicensed Order

Harold February 28, 2005 - 4:40 pm February 24, 2013General, Tales of the Sausage Factory

As those who follow unlicensed proceedings at the FCC here know, the FCC has been considering opening up the 2650-3700 MHz band to unlicensed use. The rumor is that the FCC will vote on the item at its March 10 meeting. I have also heard that the item is not particularly friendly to mesh networks. We have until Wed. March 2, 2005, 5 p.m. Eastern Time to turn this around. Wanna help?

Inventing the Future: enchancing performance

Stearns February 26, 2005 - 3:16 pm February 24, 2013Inventing the Future, metaphysics

Like many people I’ve talked to, I tend to imagine using Croquet for automation. We envision physics and molecular chemistry simulations running on their own, while the people in the collaboration walk around among the ball and stick model forest and observe. Maybe we reach up and grab an atom or two and pull on it to see how that changes the path of the simulation. That’s my nature. I’m an engineer and I want to automate stuff so I don’t have to work so hard, even in visualization. I’m so lazy I even want to automate my imagination.

I worked for more than a dozen years creating some kind of automation or another. The biggest misconception I had to clear up with my clients was that you can’t automate what you don’t understand. You have to tell the computer exactly what to do. I learned this lesson in high school when we had a model bridge-building contest in physics class. Everyone assumed that I would design my bridge on a computer, and I sat down to try it.

Wetmachinery

John February 24, 2005 - 10:59 pm February 24, 2013General, My Thoughts Exactly

Wetmachine designer & webmaster Gary Gray and I met tonight to go over plans for tweaks to the site, coming Real Soon Now.

We have a couple of goals in mind. Firstly, we want to make “Tales of the Sausage Factory” and “Inventing the Future” more accessible to their readerships. So there will be separate RSS feeds for these series, and vectors into the archives by author/topic. There will be sign-ups for various Wetmachine mailing lists. It will be more obvious how to post comments and how to get in touch with the various Wetmachiners.

Below the fold: your chance to jump into the Gary-John brawl over the “feel” of the site.

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro

Stearns February 24, 2005 - 7:28 pm February 24, 2013Inventing the Future, Writing

When they make a movie of one of Johnny’s books, I hope they use this tune. It’s written by Warren Zevon and Hunter S. Thompson, and has a paranoid feel on a blues riff. Voices of the dead, I guess. Rest In Peace, guys.

Tales of the Sausage Factory: Fight to keep the muni option open!

Harold February 23, 2005 - 11:23 am February 24, 2013Tales of the Sausage Factory

I’m not saying that every municipality should have its own broadband network. I’m just saying every muni should have the _right_ to deploy the option. So Media Access Project and Free Press have put together a way for you to tell your state legislator and federal representative that they work for you, not their ILEC contributors, and that you, as a voter, don’t think you should have to kiss ILEC patootie to get broadband.