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Government

Submission + - Bill would mean free WiFi in all federal buildings (thehill.com)

Submitted by GovTechGuy
GovTechGuy writes: Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) introduced legislation on Friday that would require all public federal buildings to install WiFi base stations in order to free up cell phone networks.

The Federal Wi-Net Act would mandate the installation of small WiFi base stations in all publicly accessible federal buildings in order to increase wireless coverage and free up mobile networks. The bill would require all new buildings under construction to comply and all older buildings to be retrofitted by 2014. It also orders $15 million from the Federal Buildings Fund be allocated to fund the installations.
Businesses

Submission + - FCC to vote on net neutrality on December 21 (thehill.com)

Submitted by GovTechGuy
GovTechGuy writes: The FCC just released its tentative agenda for the December 21st open meeting, where the Commission will vote on whether to adopt rules to preserve net neutrality. According to the agenda the FCC will consider "adopting basic rules of the road to preserve the open Internet as a platform for innovation, investment, competition, and free expression." House Republicans have already promised to oppose any solution put forth by FCC chairman Julius Genachowski.
Crime

Submission + - Palin e-mail hacker sentenced to a year in halfway (thehill.com)

Submitted by GovTechGuy
GovTechGuy writes: The former University of Tennessee student that hacked into Sarah Palin's e-mail account has been sentenced to a year and a day in custody. Federal Judge Thomas Phillips recommended that David Kernell, who was 20 years old when he guessed the correct answers to security questions and breached Palin's e-mail account, be allowed to serve his time in a halfway house rather than prison.
The Internet

Submission + - Tea Party win spells doom for net neutrality (thehill.com)

Submitted by GovTechGuy
GovTechGuy writes: Experts say the Republican takeover of the House means a likely end to the campaign for rules to enforce net neutrality. FCC chairman Julius Genachowski could still reclassify broadband as a telecom service, but doing so may cost his agency now that the GOP is holding the purse strings.
Television

Submission + - Lawmakers divided over whether NBC-Comcast merger (thehill.com)

Submitted by GovTechGuy
GovTechGuy writes: Lawmakers are increasingly divided on whether Comcast's proposed acquisition of NBC Universal would help or harm the amount of diversity in the media. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) recently added his name to the list of minority lawmakers backing the transaction, but only after pocketing $5,500 from Comcast for his re-election efforts. Most of the minority lawmakers and groups that have backed the merger have received some form of financial support from Comcast.
Government

Submission + - FCC wants free gadgets - The Hill's Hillicon Valle (thehill.com)

Submitted by GovTechGuy
GovTechGuy writes: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced on Tuesday that it is accepting donations for its "technology experience center" where staff and invited guested will gain "hand-on experience with technology." The FCC sounds woefully out of touch with the industries it regulates or like its building a massive game room.

Submission + - Ray Ozzie of Microsoft retires

Submitted by techfilz
techfilz writes: Ray Ozzie succeeded Bill Gates at the Chief Software Architect of Microsoft in 2005. Prior to that he was known as the creator of Lotus Notes. In his last memo to the Company entitled "The Dawn of a New Day" he shares his vision for the future : ... "It’s the dawn of a new day – the sun having now arisen on a world of continuous services and connected devices." The memo is on his blog : http://ozzie.net/docs/dawn-of-a-new-day/
Facebook

Submission + - Rockefeller questions Facebook, MySpace on privacy (thehill.com)

Submitted by GovTechGuy
GovTechGuy writes: Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) on Tuesday questioned whether Facebook and other social networking sites are protecting their users' privacy.

In a letter Tuesday to the leaders of MySpace and Facebook, Rockefeller said he was concerned about reporting in the Wall Street Journal alleging privacy leaks on Facebook and MySpace. Recent reports by the newspaper said third-party app companies provided some user data from the sites to advertisers, violating official policies of MySpace and Facebook.
Television

Submission + - FCC demands answers in Fox-Cablevision dispute - T (thehill.com)

Submitted by GovTechGuy
GovTechGuy writes: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has stepped up the agency's involvement in an ongoing dispute between Cablevision and Fox Broadcasting that has left about 3 million people in the New York area without access to Fox channels, meaning they are missing major sports events and other entertainment. In a letter to the the presidents of the two companies, FCC media bureau chief William Lake gave the two companies the weekend to submit information detailing exactly what their negotiating efforts have entailed.
NASA

Submission + - NASA astronaut 'checks in' on Foursquare from spac (thehill.com)

Submitted by GovTechGuy
GovTechGuy writes: NASA astronaut and International Space Station Commander Doug Wheelock became the first person to "check in" on Foursquare from space on Friday when he registered his location at the International Space Station.
Crime

Submission + - Hackers target Teap Party website (thehill.com) 3

Submitted by GovTechGuy
GovTechGuy writes: A sophisticated hacker attack took down the website of the pro-Tea Party group Freedomworks just as Fox News Glenn Beck was promoting a fund-raising "money bomb" for the site. The group estimates the attack cost them $80,000 in potential donations.
“It’s like the tea party movement’s been hacked,” Freedomworks spokesman Adam Brandon said.
Republicans

Submission + - Tea Party born to oppose net neutrality? (thehill.com) 1

Submitted by GovTechGuy
GovTechGuy writes: Tea Party activists should oppose net neutrality rules because their movement has strongly benefited from the Internet, said Seton Motley, president of the free-market group Less Government, in a recent interview. The democratizing nature of the Internet, which gives unknown activists a voice, has been crucial in helping the movement organize, according to Motley.
"Everything the Tea Party has done — virtually everything — all the conversations, all the meetings, all the organizing, has been online," he said, calling the the Web "their No. 1 weapon."
Image

Australian Visitors Must Declare Illegal Porn To Customs Officers 361

Posted by samzenpus from the don't-blunder-down-under dept.
Australian Justice Minister Brendan O'Connor has advised visitors to take a better safe than sorry policy when it comes to their porn stashes, and declare all porn that they think might be illegal with customs officers. From the article: "The government said it changed the wording on passenger arrival cards after becoming aware of confusion among travellers about what pornography to declare. 'People have a right to privacy and while some pornography is legal and does not need to be disclosed, all travellers should be aware that certain types of pornography are illegal and must be declared to customs,' Mr O'Connor said."
Government

Submission + - IG: FBI's Sentinel program still off-track, over b (thehill.com)

Submitted by GovTechGuy
GovTechGuy writes: The FBI's new system for managing case files is $100 million over budget and two years behind schedule, according to a new inspector general's report. Sentinel is the successor to the FBI's troubled Virtual Case File system, which was canceled in 2005 after the agency invested $170 million into its development. Lawmakers blasted the news, while an independent estimate by The Mitre Corp. predicted that completing Sentinel using the FBI's current approach would cost an additional $351 million and take six more years.
Television

Submission + - FCC's Copps: Fox threatened net neutrality (thehill.com)

Submitted by GovTechGuy
GovTechGuy writes: FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said Wednesday that Fox Networks threatened the openness of the Internet when the company reportedly blocked Cablevision subscribers from accessing websites, including Hulu. com, that it partially owns.

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