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This is from the Better Late Than Never Department.

The Federal Communications Commission, following years of criticism and threats of Congressional action, yesterday finally issued an order scrapping its previous definition of “broadband” as any service delivering of at least 200 KB/s. The order, to be implemented by new rules to be issued within 120 days, sets 768 KB/s as the minimum speed for what the FCC is now calling “basic” broadband, which extends up to 1.5 MB/s. Slower speeds, from the old 200 KB/s definition of broadband up to 768 KB/s are redefined as “first generation data.” (Read more)

I hate to admit it, but there exists some radio station promotional material that contains a photo of me resembling the dork on the right side of the middle row of the`70s shot. No, it will not be posted here any time soon.

Classic! Everyone has seen that awful 1970’s era Microsoft photo, well, Newsweek has got everyone from that picture to come back for a new group shot. Predictably, they’re a lot less … um … unattractive than they used to be.

That photo of 11 weirdos in ’70s clothes you may have seen on the Internet really is the original Microsoft team, snapped Dec. 7, 1978, on the eve of the company’s move from Albuquerque, N.M., to Seattle. Almost 30 years later, a few weeks before Bill Gates’s departure from Microsoft, the group (looking better) reconvened.

SOURCE: SuperSite Blog

The reason the FISA Amendments Act is so important is that it is at the heart of the struggle to maintain a democracy in the face of, at times, overwhelming pressure to scuttle the rule of law for expediency, self-interest, or just plain old stupidity. A law does not cease to exist just because the president says it does. Please, let us remember that there are still two other branches of our government to be dealt with first. It is a good system. It is what has kept the US from becoming a monarchy. There is no reason to change it. One King George was enough.

The comments after the original Slashdot post are also worth reading.

ivantheshifty writes with news of a delayed vote (failed filibuster attempt aside) on the updated FISA bill which has been discussed here recently, in particular because it would grant telecom companies immunity (under certain conditions) from suits for wiretapping conducted at government request. According to the Associated Press story carried by the Washington Post,

"Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and more than a dozen other senators who oppose telecom immunity threw up procedural delays that threatened to force the Senate into a midnight or weekend session. The prospect of further delays was enough to cause Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to postpone the vote until after the weeklong July 4 vacation."  (Read more)

SOURCE: Shashdot

No, this is not a satire. Unfortunately, it is what passes for reality at the RIAA.

It would appear that the recording industry now likes to call any sort of business model it doesn’t like “piracy.” At least that’s the only explanation I can come up with in its latest battle, where it has referred to traditional radio as “a form of piracy.” It’s almost too bizarre to be true, and that’s before we even explain how this involves a (literal) can of herring.

It’s difficult to pick a side to cheer for in a dispute between the RIAA and the NAB — as we’re talking about two organizations with a history of saying the most outrageously incorrect things in misguided attempts to “protect” the industries they represent (which almost always ends up backfiring and hurting the industry). However, in the latest battle between the two, it seems pretty clear that it’s the RIAA that’s being more ridiculous. This is the latest skirmish in the battle that the RIAA started last year, in trying to get radio stations to pay royalties to musicians. If you’re not familiar with the details, as it stands now, radio stations have to pay royalties only to songwriters and publishers for the music they play. The musicians themselves don’t get royalties, with the (very reasonable) explanation that having songs on the radio acts as a strong promotion for the musicians. This explanation is supported by the history of radio, in which “payola” has almost always played a large role. The record labels have always paid the radio stations to play their bands — a rather overt admission that radio helps promote new artists. (Read more)

SOURCE: TechDirt

When military command is the voice of reason in a debate about a new war, you know our democracy is in trouble.

 — Chris Hedges, Pulitzer prize-winning reporter
and Senior Fellow at the Nation Institute

This coming weekend is the date for Amateur Radio Field Day 2008. stormspotterkwp posted a great Field Day video to youTube.

You can find a Field Day location near you using the ARRL’s Field Day Station Locator.

Amateur Radio is where you find it. In this case, it was about 20 miles straight up as these engineering students used GPS and Amateur Radio to keep track of a new record-setting balloon.

Early-career engineers at Lockheed Martin who are also earning engineering degrees at Cornell broke the world amateur high-altitude balloon record in a recent near-space flight that exceeded 125,000 feet.

The 19 graduate students are part of Lockheed Martin’s Engineering Leadership Development Program. The balloon launch was the capstone effort of Project Blue Horizon (PBH), an educational component of the three-year program. The students are employed at Lockheed Martin Systems Integration in Owego, N.Y., while completing their systems engineering master’s degrees at Cornell. (Read more)

SOURCE: Science Daily

It was a pleasure to see this positive ham radio piece in MSN Technology.

Ham radios bring people from different countries, class and creed together

What is common between the Gujarat earthquake, tsunami, and Mumbai floods?

Ham radios! When all means of communication was cut off between Andamans and the mainland during the tsunami, and again when thousands of people were stranded on flooded Mumbai streets due to heavy rain and flood on that fateful day, it was the ham radios that came to their rescue. Ham radios are always at hand in times of disaster — natural or man made. Ham radios work on batteries and therefore do not require a mains power which makes it ideal for work in areas where basic amenities are scarce or unavailable. (Read more)

SOURCE: MSN Technology

This tweak is worth hacking Firefox 3’s configuration file for.

Firefox 3 introduced a new coloring scheme and design for secure websites. You might remember that Firefox 2 displayed a yellow URL bar when the user was accessing a https site. This changed drastically in Firefox 3 which is now displaying blue, yellow and green colors in the favicon area on the left side of the URL. (Read more)

SOURCE: ghacks

Firefox 3 was downloaded more than eight million times in a 24-hour period last Tuesday. It is as yet unverified by Guinness, but should be more than enough to secure the all time download record.

Those of us who participated were rewarded with a personalized Download Day certificate.