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Submission + - Massive Immigration in process of destroying IT industry jobs. (powerlineblog.com)

Submitted by bricko
bricko writes: Just a reminder on Tuesday’s Judiciary Committee oversight hearing investigating the endemic abuse of the H-1B, L-1 and B-1 visas. Southern California Edison recently laid off approximately 500 American workers and forced them to train their H-1B replacements; this practice is widespread – whether it’s the recent Walt Disney layoffs or the Northeast Utility scandal in Connecticut. There are now more than 11 million Americans with STEM degrees but no STEM jobs. As one displaced worked communicated to us: “As long time employees we loved the work we were doing and the people we were working with. We did a great job. Our work mattered. It’s as if we no longer matter or have value as human beings or American Citizens.”

Submission + - IT'S NOT RACE, IT'S NOT SEX, the tech world's real discrimination problem is age (linkedin.com)

Submitted by bricko
bricko writes: IT’S NOT RACE, IT’S NOT SEX, the tech world’s real discrimination problem is age.

The Tech Industry’s Darkest Secret: It’s All About Age
They don’t prepare you for this in college or admit it in job interviews. The harsh reality is that if you are middle-aged, write computer code for a living, and earn a six-figure salary, you’re headed for the unemployment lines. Your market value declines as you age and it becomes harder and harder to get a job.

What the tech industry often forgets is that with age comes wisdom. Older workers are usually better at following direction, mentoring, and leading. They tend to be more pragmatic and loyal, and to know the importance of being team players. And ego and arrogance usually fade with age.

Submission + - Major Video Game Companies Agree to Share Customer Data with the US Government (vice.com)

Submitted by bricko
bricko writes: Major Video Game Companies Agree to Share Customer Data with the US Government

On Friday, the president issued a cybersecurity executive order that creates a new framework for “expanded information sharing designed to help companies work together, and work with the federal government, to quickly identify and protect against cyber threats,” according to an emailed fact sheet from the White House.

  So far, Apple, Intel, Bank of America, US Bank, Pacific Gas & Electric, AIG, QVC, Walgreens, and Kaiser Permanente have all signed up to use a new cybersecurity framework that could facilitate future information sharing (but doesn’t appear to include that provision now), according to the White House.

But some groups are signing on for full information sharing, starting now. They include the Cyber Threat Alliance, which includes Palo Alto Networks, Symantec, Intel Security and Fortinet; the Entertainment Software Association, which represents Sony and Microsoft’s video game divisions, as well as many more of the largest video game companies in the country; Crowdstrike, a security firm; Box, a cloud storage company; and FireEye, a cybersecurity firm.

Submission + - Southern California Edison IT workers 'beyond furious' over H-1B replacements (computerworld.com)

Submitted by bricko
bricko writes: The IT employees at SCE are "beyond furious," said a second IT worker.

The H-1B program "was supposed to be for projects and jobs that American workers could not fill," this worker said. "But we're doing our job. It's not like they are bringing in these guys for new positions that nobody can fill.

"Not one of these jobs being filled by India was a job that an Edison employee wasn't already performing," he said.

Submission + - MORE FOREIGN WORKERS LEGALIZED THAN JOBS CREATED (nytimes.com)

Submitted by bricko
bricko writes: MORE FOREIGN WORKERS LEGALIZED THAN JOBS CREATED

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11...

President Barack Obama’s unilateral amnesty will quickly add as many foreign workers to the nation’s legal labor force as the total number of new jobs created by his economy since 2009.

The plans, expected to be announced late Nov. 20, will distribute five million work permits to illegal immigrants, and also create a new inflow of foreign college graduates for prestigious salaried jobs, according to press reports.

Obama has already provided or promised almost one million extra work permits to foreigners, while his economy has only added six million jobs since 2009.

http://dailycaller.com/2014/11...

Submission + - SAVE act removes Sec. 230 protection from sites (techdirt.com)

Submitted by bricko
bricko writes: SAVE act removes Sec. 230 protection from sites

Human Rights Groups Ask Senate To Reject Proposed Sex Trafficking Law That Strips Long-Held Protections For Website Owners

https://www.techdirt.com/artic...

Stop S 2536

Now, the Senate is considering the "SAVE Act" (Stop Advertising Victims of Exploitation Act)[pdf link], which was passed out of the House by a 392-19 vote earlier this year. The bill expands the definition of "trafficking" to include "advertising," amending the definition of this federal crime.

Worse, it strips away protections website owners who host third-party content have enjoyed for years. The summary provided by Congress.gov highlights proposed changes that will do damage to many more entities than its intended targets.

Shields from liability under such prohibition an Internet access service provider, browser provider, common carrier, telecommunications carrier, or other generic search or utility provider solely based on providing generic search or utility services.

Notably, website owners are excluded from these liability protections, basically eliminating Section 230 immunity for anything the government considers to be an "adult advertisement."

Requires anyone selling, commercially promoting, or placing an adult advertisement to: (1) verify the identity of each person purchasing advertisement space for, and each person depicted in, such advertisement; (2) verify that each person whose goods or services are advertised is not under age 18; (3) create and maintain individually identifiable records pertaining to each such person for at least seven years; and (4) affix to each adult advertisement a statement describing where such records may be located.

Not only will website owners now be held accountable for third-party content, they'll also be expected to police it to ensure nothing runs afoul of this broadly-worded law. Failure to do so could result in a five-year prison sentence.

Submission + - Calls to use Kelo Emnent Doman decision to seize all cable and fiber for public (weeklystandard.com)

Submitted by bricko
bricko writes: Calls from conservative Weekly Standard magazine to use Eminent Domain to seize all fibers, cables etc for use as public utility for net. Turn over to neutral party company to be solely a cable, fiber management company and let anyone have access to all for any service that can be foreseen or invented.

From 2006 article....but just now becoming pertinent via posting on Drudge to get attention from conservatives.

Submission + - Brazil Is Keeping Its Promise to Avoid the U.S. Internet - US to lose 35 Billion (gizmodo.com) 1

Submitted by bricko
bricko writes: Brazil Is Keeping Its Promise to Avoid the U.S. Internet

http://gizmodo.com/brazils-kee...

Brazil was not bluffing last year, when it said that it wanted to disconnect from the United States-controlled internet due to the NSA's obscenely invasive surveillance tactics. The country is about to stretch a cable from the northern city of Fortaleza all the way to Portugal, and they've vowed not to use a single U.S. vendor to do it.

Brazil made a bunch of bold promises, ranging in severity from forcing companies like Facebook and Google to move their servers inside Brazilian borders, to building a new all-Brazilian email system—which they've already done. But the first actionable opportunity the country was presented with is this transatlantic cable, which had been in the works since 2012 but is only just now seeing construction begin. And with news that the cable plan will not include American vendors, it looks like Brazil is serious; it's investing $185 million on the cable project alone. And not a penny of that sum will go to an American company.

The implications of Brazil distancing itself from the US internet are huge. It's not necessarily a big deal politically, but the economic consequences could be tremendously destructive. Brazil has the seventh largest economy in the world, and it continues to grow. So when Brazil finally does divorce Uncle Sam—assuming things continue at this rate—a huge number of contracts between American companies and Brazil will simply disappear.

On the whole, researchers estimate that the United States could lose about $35 billion due to security fears. That's a lot of money.

Submission + - 255Tbps: World's fastest network could carry all of the internet's traffic (extremetech.com)

Submitted by bricko
bricko writes: 255Tbps: World’s fastest network could carry all of the internet’s traffic on a single fiber

A joint group of researchers from the Netherlands and the US have smashed the world speed record for a fiber network, pushing 255 terabits per second down a single strand of glass fiber. This is equivalent to around 32 terabytes per second — enough to transfer a 1GB movie in 31.25 microseconds (0.03 milliseconds), or alternatively, the entire contents of your 1TB hard drive in about 31 milliseconds.

To put 255Tbps into perspective, the fastest single-fiber links in commercial operation top out at 100Gbps, or 2,550 times slower. 255Tbps is mindbogglingly quick; it’s greater, by far, than the total capacity of every cable — hundreds of glass fibers — currently spanning the Atlantic Ocean. In fact, 255 terabits per second is similar to — or maybe even more than — the total sum of all traffic flowing across the internet at peak time.

How — How did the researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and University of Central Florida (CREOL) do it? Multi-core fiber, of course! As it stands, the entire internet backbone consists of single-mode glass and plastic fiber. These fibers can only carry one mode of light — which, in essence, means they can only carry the light from a single laser. (It’s a bit more complex than that, but it’s beyond the scope of this story to explain it any further.) You can still use wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) to push insane amounts of data down a single fiber (a few terabits), but we will eventually run up against the laws of physics.

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