Free Republic

The FCC is currently seeking public comments on whether or not it is appropriate and feasible to grant local police forces the power to shut down mobile phone networks.The request for the public’s input comes after BATR officials in San Fransisco shut down cell towers in an attempt to stop a first amendment protected protest for “public safety” reasons.An article published by CFO World broke down the FCC request in an easy to understand fashion: The FCC asks several questions in its request for comments. Among them:– When have government agencies in the U.S. considered interrupting mobile service?– When would...

NOTE The following news release is a quote: www.ice.gov/news/releases/1202/120206denver.htm FEBRUARY 6, 2012 DENVER, CO Chinese national indicted in Colorado for trying to illegally export to China radiation-hardened computer circuits used in satellite communications DENVER – Philip Chaohui He, aka Philip Hope, a Chinese national, made his initial appearance in U.S. district court on Thursday after he was named in a three-count indictment charging him with attempting to export defense articles without U.S. State Department authorization. The indictment was announced by U.S. Attorney John Walsh, District of Colorado and Michael A. Holt, special agent in charge of the Denver office of...

When the Obama administration announced on Saturday its opposition to major elements of two Congressional bills intended to curtail copyright violations on the Internet, the technology industry, which has been loudly fighting the proposed legislation, could declare victory. But few people in Silicon Valley or Hollywood consider the battle over. The Motion Picture Association of America, which represents Hollywood studios and is a principal proponent of the antipiracy legislation, suggested that it would continue to push the administration to approve a modified version of the bills, known as the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act. “Look...

SEOUL (Reuters) - Secretive North Korea is expected to register the one millionth cellphone user on its new 3G network by the end of the year, barely four years after people were thrown into prison camps, or possibly even executed, for owning one. Most of the users are in the capital of Pyongyang, home to the impoverished country's elite and powerful who have the cash to splash out for a device and the calling fees. "There has been an astronomical increase since even two years ago," said Michael Hay, a lawyer and business consultant based in the capital for the...

Email correspondence and handwritten notes obtained today by Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars and this correspondent provide details on information and strategy being shared between top level officials of the Department of Justice and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, including between Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer and then-ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson. A total of seven documents are presented herein, including: A Feb. 4, 2011 letter from Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Weich denying the walking of guns, itself the subject of a Feb. 8 Gun Rights Examiner column. Email correspondence between Breuer and Melson. The assignment of...

Cue the outrage button. A South Florida woman got a shock when she opened a recent cell phone bill: she owed $201,000. Say what! It was no mistake. Celina Aarons has her two deaf-mute brothers on her plan. They communicate by texting and use their phones to watch videos. Normally, that's not a problem. Aarons has the appropriate data plan, and her bill is about $175. But her brothers spent two weeks in Canada and Aarons never changed to an international plan. Her brothers sent over 2,000 texts and also downloaded videos, sometimes racking up $2,000 in data charges. T-Mobile...

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, and one of the largest manufacturers of computer memory, Samsung, have created a new kind of flash memory that uses graphene—atom-thick sheets of pure carbon—along with silicon to store information. Incorporating graphene could help extend the viability of flash memory technology for years to come, and allow future portable electronics to store far more data. Chipmakers pack increasing amounts of data in the same physical area by miniaturizing the memory cells used to store individual bits. Inside today's flash drives, these cells are nanoscale "floating gate" transistors. Recent years have seen the...

Tips for Communicating in an Emergency by: Jamie Barnett, Chief, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau August 27th, 2011 I want to share some important emergency information to you for during the storm so that you and your family stay safe.Recommended Practices for All Users It is important for consumers to keep in mind that during an emergency, many more people are trying to use their wireless and wireline telephones at the same time when compared to normal calling activity. When more people try to call at the same time, the increased calling volume may create network congestion. Limit...

The decision by Bay Area Rapid Transit officials to cut off cellphone service Thursday evening – to forestall a planned protest – raises a fundamental question: Do Americans have a basic right to digital free speech or to digitally organized assembly? Because July protests against BART police shootings had turned violent, BART officials took the unusual step to protect public safety, they said. The tactic may have worked: No protests took place Thursday night at BART stations. Temporarily shutting down cell service and beefing up police patrols were "great tool[s] to utilize for this specific purpose," BART police Lt. Andy...

BART officials acknowledged this afternoon that they shut down cell phone and wireless data service in its downtown San Francisco stations to disrupt a planned protest. Their announcement sparked denunciations from civil libertarians and the apparent threat of a cyber-attack on the BART website. A statement posted on the transit agency's website said the communications blackout was ordered in the interest of public safety: "Organizers planning to disrupt BART service on August 11, 2011 stated they would use mobile devices to coordinate their disruptive activities and communicate about the location and number of BART Police," the statement reads. "A civil...

The DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) today announced a major step toward creating one of the world's fastest scientific networks to accelerate research in fields ranging from advanced energy solutions to particle physics. Known as the Advanced Networking Initiative (ANI), the effort represents a $62 million multi-year investment by the DOE Office of Science in next-generation networking technology. "As science becomes increasingly data-driven and global in scale, it's critical that we create an infrastructure that will enable our scientists to collaborate and compete successfully in the search for solutions to some of the world's biggest challenges in energy,"...

Al Qaeda's online communications disrupted by electronic attack on its sites - NBC News Just a headline for now. More to follow.

ARRL Field Day Overview ARRL Field Day is the single most popular on-the-air event held annually in the US and Canada.  Each year over 35,000 amateurs gather with their clubs, friends or simply by themselves to operate. ARRL Field Day is not a fully adjudicated contest, which explains much of its popularity.  It is a time where many aspects of Amateur Radio come together to highlight our many roles. While some will treat it as a contest, most groups use the opportunity to practice their emergency response capabilities.  It is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate Amateur Radio to local elected community...

The Netherlands on Wednesday became the first country in Europe, and only the second in the world, to enshrine the concept of network neutrality into national law by banning its mobile telephone operators from blocking or charging consumers extra for using Internet-based communications services like Skype or WhatsApp, a free text service. snip Analysts said that the legal restrictions imposed in the Netherlands could shape Europe’s broader, evolving debate over network neutrality, pushing more countries on the Continent to limit operators from acting as self-appointed toll collectors of the mobile Internet. snip “We support network neutrality,” said Sandra de Jong,...

Questions have been raised about the social impact of widespread use of social networking sites (SNS) like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter. Do these technologies isolate people and truncate their relationships? Or are there benefits associated with being connected to others in this way? The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project decided to examine SNS in a survey that explored people’s overall social networks and how use of these technologies is related to trust, tolerance, social support, and community and political engagement. The findings presented here paint a rich and complex picture of the role that digital technology...

Diskeeper Corp developed "ExpressCache," software that enhances operating speed of personal computers (PCs) by using a small-capacity SSD as a cache for HDD, and demonstrated it at Computex Taipei 2011. In the demonstration, operations such as booting Windows 7 and launching applications were compared between a PC equipped with a 500-Gbyte HDD (5,400rpm) and a PC using the same hardware in addition to an 8-Gbyte SSD for a cache (made by SanDisk Corp, connected via mSATA). As a result, the software and the SDD halved the time it takes to perform those operations. ExpressCache is software that monitors the read/write...

WITH a tin can, some copper wire and a few dollars’ worth of nuts, bolts and other hardware, a do-it-yourselfer can build a makeshift directional antenna. A mobile phone, souped-up with such an antenna, can talk to a network tower that is dozens of kilometres beyond its normal range (about 5km, or 3 miles). As Gregory Rehm, the author of an online assembly guide for such things, puts it, homemade antennae are “as cool as the other side of the pillow on a hot night”. Of late, however, such antennae have proved much more than simply cool. According to Jeff...

BEIJING — If anyone wonders whether the Chinese government has tightened its grip on electronic communications since protests began engulfing the Arab world, Shakespeare may prove instructive. A Beijing entrepreneur, discussing restaurant choices with his fiancée over their cellphones last week, quoted Queen Gertrude’s response to Hamlet: “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” The second time he said the word “protest,” her phone cut off. He spoke English, but another caller, repeating the same phrase on Monday in Chinese over a different phone, was also cut off in midsentence. A host of evidence over the past several weeks shows...

NOBODY calls me anymore — and that’s just fine. With the exception of immediate family members, who mostly phone to discuss medical symptoms and arrange child care, and the Roundabout Theater fund-raising team, which takes a diabolical delight in phoning me every few weeks at precisely the moment I am tucking in my children, people just don’t call. It’s at the point where when the phone does ring — and it’s not my mom, dad, husband or baby sitter — my first thought is: “What’s happened? What’s wrong?” My second thought is: “Isn’t it weird to just call like that?...

China is training 10,000 messenger pigeons to deliver vital military communications in the event of the country's communication systems breaking down. According to the Chinese state media, the pigeons are being trained by a special unit of the People's Liberation Army in the central city of Chengdu. "They will be primarily called upon to conduct special military missions between troops stationed at our borders," said Chen Hong, an air force expert, to China Central Television (CCTV), the state broadcaster. "In modern warfare, the pigeon is indispensable," he added. "There are as many military pigeons as there are soldiers in the...

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) -- EchoStar Corp. will buy satellite Internet services company Hughes Communications Inc. for about $1.34 billion so it can boost its ability to transport data and video via broadband, the company said Monday. The value is based on Hughes' 22 million outstanding shares. EchoStar, which makes equipment for cable, telecom and satellite TV providers, said the deal is worth $2 billion including debt, which the company said it will refinance.

The FCC has made it official. It has released an order that requires participants in the Emergency Alert System EAS, namely broadcasters, cable operators, and certain satellite providers, to participate in the first-ever national test of EAS. This test will differ starkly from the monthly EAS tests the public is familiar with. In this instance, the White House will actually activate the test as if the President wanted to take over the air waves to address the nation. No specific date for the test was set, although as it stands, a two-month notice will be provided.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- About a half-hour past midnight Friday morning in Egypt, the Internet went dead. Almost simultaneously, the handful of companies that pipe the Internet into and out of Egypt went dark as protesters were gearing up for a fresh round of demonstrations calling for the end of President Hosni Mubarak's nearly 30-year rule, experts said. Egypt has apparently done what many technologists thought was unthinkable for any country with a major Internet economy: It unplugged itself entirely from the Internet to try and silence dissent.

I realize this has been posted several times over the past few days. However, this blog notes the six "principles" today's order covers. And all of us here at FRee Republic know that what is WRITTEN in federal rule means nothing. It's what the FCC's lawyers SAYS it means is all that counts. 1) Transparency. Consumers and innovators have a right to know the basic performance characteristics of their Internet access and how their network is being managed. 2) No Blocking. A right to send and receive lawful traffic. This prohibits blocking of lawful content, apps, services, and the connection...

It's possible that someone could listen to your conversations -- even when you're not on the phone.

My friends oldest daughter Annaka is studying journalism/communications at Texas State and is trying to break into the news/tv media profession. The short video (15 secs) of her below is linked to a program that counts how many times it is viewed. She's auditioning for a public relations job with the Texas Stars hockey team in Austin (she was a cheerleader for them last year) that could be a launching pad into tv and radio. Help me get her a REAL JOB. Please view the video and pass it on to as many people as you can; the person that...

BEIJING: Pakistan is closely collaborating with China to launch a joint space communications satellite next year that will be a milestone in their friendship, the country's envoy here said today. The new satellite called Paksat-1R will bring immense economic benefits to Pakistan, Pakistani Ambassador to China, Masood Khan, said. He made the remarks while addressing an official function here to mark the anniversary of the establishment of the China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC). The agreement to launch the satellite and set up a joint communications project was reached during Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari's visit to China in 2008....

The Federal Communications Commission Thursday suspended its weeks-long series of talks with Internet providers on Net neutrality, dealing a blow to efforts to produce a deal that the agency could take to Congress. The decision to cut off negotiations marks a major political setback for Chairman Julius Genachowski, whose office reached out to stakeholders six weeks ago to strike an agreement and avoid a public battle over rules that would treat all users’ Web traffic equally. But the end to industry discussions — which a source close to the FCC talks blamed entirely on news that Google and Verizon separately...

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said Thursday that he believed it was “unacceptable” for Internet service providers to offer faster Internet transmission to content providers willing to pay higher fees. “Any outcome, any deal that doesn’t preserve the freedom and openness of the Internet for consumers and entrepreneurs will be unacceptable,” Julius Genachowski, the F.C.C. chairman, told reporters on Thursday. His remarks came in response to press reports that Google and Verizon were nearing an agreement about broadband management that could clear the way for Verizon to consider offering such a service. The two companies declined to comment...

By the time I met Frank Luntz over coffee (for me) and a large serving of vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce (for him) one recent Jerusalem evening, he was plainly exhausted. One can only empathize. It’s tough work when you’re advising Israeli political leaders on how to craft their English sentences. He had been in the country for two days, and reeled off a list of the local notables he’d seen that was fit for a visiting monarch. Which I suppose is what he is. Frank Luntz, communications king. The tubby Jewish kid – well, he makes incessant jokes...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-president-national-broadband-plan Home • Briefing Room • Statements & Releases The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release March 16, 2010 Statement from the President on the National Broadband Plan America today is on the verge of a broadband-driven Internet era that will unleash innovation, create new jobs and industries, provide consumers with new powerful sources of information, enhance American safety and security, and connect communities in ways that strengthen our democracy. Just as past generations of Americans met the great infrastructure challenges of the day, such as building the Transcontinental...

The Boeing Company today announced the start of flight tests for a B-1 Lancer bomber upgraded with new digital avionics for the aft cockpit, including a line-of-sight Link 16 data link. The B-1 Fully Integrated Data Link (FIDL) made its first flight test on June 4 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The four-hour flight was conducted by the U.S. Air Force around the local Edwards test ranges. The crew successfully tested the Link 16 data link by sending and receiving text messages and receiving virtual mission assignment data such as target coordinates for a weapon. Link 16 adds line-of-sight...

The U.S. Air Force is moving rapidly in developing and testing smaller reconnaissance and communications satellites. These birds weigh a ton or less (down to 100 kg/220 pounds). The smallest ones have limited usefulness and endurance. But when you get to half a ton or more, you have a very useful bird. It is believed these smaller satellites will be needed to replace wartime losses. Usually, the U.S. has four KH-11s and four Lacrosse radar satellites in orbit, plus several smaller, and more secret birds. Often, these satellites last longer than their design life of eight years (some have gone...

SNIPPET: "ARRL Field Day is June 26-27, 2010 ARRL Field Day is the largest on-the-air operating event in Amateur Radio. It draws tens of thousands to the airwaves each year, bringing new and experienced hams together for a weekend of fun!" SNIPPET: "ARRL Field Day Overview ARRL Field Day is the single most popular on-the-air event held annually in the US and Canada. Each year over 35,000 amateurs gather with their clubs, friends or simply by themselves to operate. ARRL Field Day is not a fully adjudicated contest, which explains much of its popularity. It is a time where many...

Satellite systems in space keyed to detect nuclear events and environmental gasses currently face a kind of data logjam because their increasingly powerful sensors produce more information than their available bandwidth can easily transmit. Experiments conducted by Sandia National Laboratories at the International Space Station preliminarily indicate that the problem could be remedied by orbiting more complex computer chips to pre-reduce the large data stream. While increased satellite on-board computing capabilities ideally would mean that only the most useful information would be transmitted to Earth, an unresolved question had been how well the latest in computing electronics would fare in...

One flip of a bit in the memory of an onboard computer appears to have caused the change in the science data pattern returning from Voyager 2, engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said Monday, May 17. A value in a single memory location was changed from a 0 to a 1. On May 12, engineers received a full memory readout from the flight data system computer, which formats the data to send back to Earth. They isolated the one bit in the memory that had changed, and they recreated the effect on a computer at JPL. They found the...

The recent crash of a Polish military transport that killed most of Warsaw's senior civilian and military leaders was not only a human catastrophe for a key U.S. ally. NATO sources said that, in addition to the loss of nearly 100 pro-U.S. Polish leaders, the crash provided Moscow with a windfall of secrets. The crash killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski in western Russia on April 10 and decapitated Poland's military, killing two service chiefs, key military aides and several national security officials, many of whom were carrying computers and pocket memory sticks that contained sensitive NATO data. Perhaps the most...

Don't be alarmed. High above your heads, a zombie satellite is on the loose. OK, actually, it won't really be a bother to us earthlings. Or at least to most of us. (More on that later.) But the rogue communications satellite is wreaking havoc in Earth's orbit and does threaten to interfere with signals coming from other satellites. === Why on earth we should care: The "zombiesat" (as its known in space talk) could steal a working sat signal, and interrupt programming for its customers. Yes, that means our television programs. The horror. As the blog Boing Boing points out,...

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency wants an organization that develops spacecraft to join its System F6 satellite demonstration to show that a third-party payload can plug into an on-orbit network and share communications, processing and other functions across several spacecraft, reports Graham Warwick at Aviation Week’s Ares blog. A request for information for the third-party payload spacecraft module of the System Future, Fast, Flexible, Fractionated, Free-Flying (F6) Spacecraft project was issued April 26. Responses are due by May 17. Having a non-DARPA satellite successfully connect to the network on orbit will be a key test of the System F6...

In the years since the Cold War ended, the U.S. military has become heavily dependent upon satellite communications to maintain its global connectivity. Without such links, it would be difficult for the military to operate in a coordinated fashion or exchange information critical to situational awareness. Defense experts have repeatedly warned that the availability of space-based communications could be compromised in future conflicts by the fact that 80-90% of all military traffic is transmitted on vulnerable commercial satcom channels. However, there is a related problem that far fewer military observers have noticed: only about 1% of defense communications today are...

A massive national broadband plan the Federal Communications Commission released last month proposes creating a national framework for the taxation of digital goods and services and imposing a fee to establish and maintain a national public safety wireless broadband network. The Obama administration has a plan to expand online innovation and boost national public safety. And it wants to do it with more taxes and higher fees. The massive national broadband plan the Federal Communications Commission released last month proposes creating a national framework for the taxation of digital goods and services and imposing a fee to establish and maintain...

The U.S. Army is getting very tight with the Apple Corporation, mainly because soldiers have long been enthusiastic users of Apple products (iPod and iPhone, and probably iPad as well). But Apple has tight control over what software can be used on these devices, so the military needs a close relationship with Apple just to get their custom military software on the iPods, iPhones and iPads the troops are so enthusiastic about. This relationship enabled the army to recently run a programming contest for troops and civilian employees. The goal was to create the most effective smart phone software for...

3/15/2010 - CAMP TAJI, Iraq (AFNS) -- U.S. officials are working to rebuild Iraq and create a modern military that has the capability of defending its people and borders from enemies foreign and domestic. The Iraqi Training and Advisory Mission-Air Force has Airmen assigned to teach Iraqis how to create a self sufficient and sustaining military. One such class is the cable and antenna maintenance course, taught by Airmen from the 821st Expeditionary Training Squadron. During this 42-day course, Iraqi military students learn about communication theories, splicing cable and the improved capabilities that fiber optics can bring. "This is the...

ALBANY -- In yet another blow to his teetering administration, Gov. David Paterson has lost his communications director. "As a former officer in the United States Navy, integrity and commitment to public service are values I take seriously," Peter Kauffmann said in a statement. "Unfortunately, as recent developments have come to light, I cannot in good conscience continue in my current position."Kauffmann was scheduled to testify today to investigators from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office, which is conducting a fast-moving probe into allegations that the governor and the State Police contacted a Sherr-una Booker, a woman who had brought...

The trouble with hope and change is that it only works for the unelected. After you get the job you have to provide more than hope, and change is suddenly defined as "not you". Since President Obama took office, each time American voters have gotten the opportunity they have voted for a different kind of change. Yet the president and his fellow Democrats continue to believe that if they just change the wrapping paper, we'll suddenly want what they're offering.

Boeing announced that a B-52H upgraded with new communication technology successfully accomplished its first test flight at Edwards Air Force Base on Jan. 17. The Combat Network Communications Technology (CONECT) upgrade allows B-52H crews to receive and send real-time digital information during their missions. The more than three-hour flight around the Edwards area included an initial system build-up test, interphone test and communication test. The test process included power-on of each system in flight to determine that there were no adverse effects on flight-essential systems.

The first IP router on a commercial satellite has successfully passed its in-orbit test, moving the military and commercial customers closer to an era of faster satellite communications. The Internet Routing in Space (IRIS) technology is expected to reduce latency and increase efficiency, said Steven Boutelle, vice president of Cisco Global Government Solutions Group. Boutelle, who served as the U.S. Army’s chief information officer prior to joining Cisco, said IRIS can route data to multiple ground receivers in a single step, eliminating the need to double-hop to a teleport, reducing latency and increasing transponder utilization. The router and modem software...

Facing a looming gap in its mobile satellite communications coverage, the U.S. Navy plans to tap a new service developed by commercial provider Iridium Communications LLC as it waits for its next-generation constellation to come on line. The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), which buys commercial satellite capacity on behalf of Pentagon users, plans to spend about $20 million this year on the Netted Iridium service, Bruce Bennett, DISA’s director of satellite communications, teleports and services, said in a Dec. 14 interview. DISA spent about $70 million on Iridium mobile satellite services in 2009, and the total amount should increase...

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER, Iraq, Dec. 16, 2009 – The morale of troops here and success of their missions depends upon communication, whether it’s within Iraq or calling back home. Army Spc. Jason Jackson, Army Sgt. Jeryll Delmar and Army Sgt. Jacob Horning attempt to save their equipment from flood waters at Contingency Operating Site Garryowen, Iraq, Oct. 31, 2009. Their efforts were successful. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Charles Bagot  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Keeping communications open for the 1st Armored Division’s 4th Brigade is the responsibility of “signaleers” -- technicians who enable the commander to send...

Air Force officials successfully launched a new-generation military communications satellite from here at 8:47 p.m. EST Dec. 5 when a Delta IV rocket carried a Wideband Global SATCOM into space. WGS satellites are designed to provide high-capacity communications to U.S. military forces and the satellites will augment and eventually replace the Defense Satellite Communication System that has been the Department of Defense's backbone for satellite communications over the last two decades. Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley, who had planned to witness the launch from the Morrell Operations Center at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station prior to a...