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Comment Great time for an experient, America (Score 1) 341

This is perhaps a fertile and opportune time for an engineering solution. We should open up a chunk of the airways to the public and let everyone hack at it until something is found that works for everyone. People always talk about interference but I'm not aware of any limitations in physics on information density other than quantum bits. Other than the normal FCC power restrictions anyone should be able to use the airways. The current system doesn't innovate when it comes to interference because it doesn't have to. There's no incentive. There's no reason why every wireless device can't talk to every other wireless device in a mesh network other than FCC restrictions. Currently your iPhone or Android can talk to a tower but it can't talk to others around it on the same frequencies. Why not? The current system is inefficient. Is it not? Here is a list of ingredients for an experiment.
  1. 1. Some bandwidth. Get this at the next FCC auction. Crowdfund it.
  2. 2. A way to modify out phones s they can talk to each other.
  3. 3. Some mesh protocols so people can form networks.

If the tragedy of the commons applies only to finite resources then the above network should be a lot more efficient than the current one. Remember now, Verizon, et al. It's just an experiment. You guys are engineers too, right?

Comment What does this mean for the data center? (Score 1) 316

Why hasn't the price of data centers come way down with new storage technology? For example, why not keep a few terabytes of offline storage in your desk drawer instead of paying $$$ for tapes? If tapes are more reliable then what level of duplication is needed for disks to be as reliable? This combined with the multiplier effects of no_AC_necessary solid-state ... why not big data center in small closet? If the data center is inefficient, why is it still around? Latin me that, my trinity scholard.

Comment Free speech but not trade (Score 2) 92

You think you are free because you can say what you want but you are not free. You cannot trade with anyone, anywhere, anytime. For some reason freedom to trade was never considered a basic human right. From a functionalist perspective trade is to the modern state what speech was to the church. Both affect revenue.

Comment Can we opt out? (Score 1) 233

How free are we if the state can take control of our electronic devices and we have no option to opt out? What does freedom mean if the state can tell manufactures what features phones must have? Can I build my own phone that doesn't have this feature? Can I sell it to you? Will they put me in jail if I do? Will they put _you_ in jail for being in possession of a non-government phone? When things like this happen in countries like China everyone jumps on the bandwagon and says how great America because we are free but when it happens in America for some reason it gets justified.

Comment Stockholm Syndrome (Score 2) 140

I first heard about regulatory capture in an economics class where it was referred to a the Stockholm Syndrome for regulators. It's a well documented phenomenon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R... It also doesn't help when regulators are guaranteed well paid future jobs within the industries they are currently supposed to be regulating.

Submission + - Planes disappearing from radar in Europe !? (deredactie.be)

thygate writes: Early this month, on several occasions, several planes disappeared from radar for several seconds to 25 minutes. Incidents have been reported in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland and Germany. Authorities report that at no time were there any problems with the planes and radio communication was available at all times during these radar blackouts.
Eurocontrol and the EASA have started an investigation, there is a global concern about safety since the MH370 disappearance.
There are speculations about NATO military exercises involving radio equipment tests, but the alliance has refused to comment. The Hungarian ministry of defense refuses this explanation, stating the technology used is not powerful enough to cause these blackouts.
According to an Australian newspaper it could of even been hackers, but it is unclear if this is even possible.

Submission + - TweetDeck hacked, vulnerability spreads across internet (cnn.com)

mpicpp writes: TweetDeck, a popular Twitter app for desktops, has been hacked — because a 19-year-old computer geek in Austria wanted to use cute, little hearts.

Firo let Twitter know about the vulnerability as soon as he found it. But it was too late. Others in the hacker community noticed, and shortly thereafter, a mass TweetDeck hijacking ensued.

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