Senior Citizens Online, Ctd.
Add comment February 8, 2010
Improving Password Security
Think up a relatively long sentence. Then take the first letters of the individual words — and you’ve got an instant password that even clever hackers will be hard pressed to crack, experts advise.
Add comment February 5, 2010
Checking the Details
Two excerpts from his analysis. First …
[The] survey points out something that’s been known for some time: Customers who take bundled service are happier with their provider. Since cable first rolled out Internet access and then telephone service – as well as services such as DVRs, HD and digital cable – we have seen the take rates increase dramatically for the new services. Consumers are getting more out of their cable subscriptions, and by bundling Internet access and phone with their video service, they’ve also been able to see savings.
And second …
The article lumps together the services provided by the phone companies (AT&T’s U-verse & Verizon’s FiOS) as “fiber-optic service.” In fact, while Verizon has widely deployed fiber, AT&T is still using twisted copper pair. You may recall that cable has a hybrid fiber-coaxial infrastructure.
Add comment February 3, 2010
Study Estimates P2P Copyright Infringement
1 comment February 2, 2010
Top 10 Cable Network Owners
According to this data, the Comcast-GE joint venture, if approved, would become the United States’ fourth largest national cable network owner, behind Walt Disney, Time Warner, and Viacom.
Add comment February 1, 2010
Reasonable Network Management
The EFF is concerned about a particular pair of clauses in the current draft rules (PDF) for network neutrality. Those clauses impose no obligation on ISPs to permit “the transfer of unlawful content” or the “unlawful transfer of content.” In other words, ISPs don’t have to be “neutral” about illegal content, and those trafficking in it can’t complain to the FCC is their content is slowed, blocked, throttled, folded, spindled, or mutilated.
If there was any doubt about this, another section of the draft rules make it clear: “Furthermore, we have no intention of protecting unlawful activities in these rules.”
Fred von Lohmann, an EFF copyright lawyer, sees danger here. “That means that so long as your ISP claims that it’s trying to prevent copyright infringement, it’s exempted from the net neutrality principles and can interfere with your ability to access lawful content, use lawful devices, run lawful applications, or access lawful services,” he said last week.
Here’s how the same basic argument was stated at the EFF’s “Deeplinks” blog …
… now that the FCC has formally issued draft net neutrality regulations, they have a huge copyright loophole in them — a loophole that would theoretically permit Comcast to block BitTorrent just like it did in 2007 — simply by claiming that it was “reasonable network management” intended to “prevent the unlawful transfer of content.”
If you’re confused after reading those passages, join the crowd. EFF’s leap from unlawful to lawful content — and its seeming opposition to “reasonable network management” practices — is, in a word, baffling.
Apparently even the ability for ISPs to reasonably manage their network — based on a clause in the draft rules — doesn’t go far enough in the view of the … EFF.
Unfortunately if groups like the [EFF] got their way with network neutrality regulations, freedom would be the last thing that many ISP users would experience.
Reasonable network management serves the purpose of allowing all users to have fair access to the network resources. Without it, a small minority of users would dominate the use of shared resources, degrading the Internet experience of nearly all network users.
2 comments January 30, 2010
Generational Media Habits
Add comment January 28, 2010
Paying for YouTube Content
Add comment January 27, 2010
No Texting for Truck and Bus Drivers
The Department of Transportation plans to announce new rules Tuesday that will prohibit interstate commercial truckers and bus drivers from sending text messages while they are operating moving vehicles.
Add comment January 26, 2010
