November 6th, 2009
Human x-ray machines: Coming soon to an airport near you
In the movie Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger (Gov. of California) runs through a security check point corridor operating using X-Ray technology. That film was released in 1990. Today that technology is being installed around the world at airports, border check points, marine ports and high risk security environments such as court buildings. They are currently being assessed or used in Canada, the U.S., U.K., Russia, Japan, and Australia. Some countries, such as India, have outright rejected them based on privacy and considered too offensive to passengers. Significant concern is being raised as to the long term medical impacts to humans going through the devices.
In Canada, the Canadian Air Transport Security Agency (CATSA) organization has completed some field trials at smaller airports (Kelowna, B.C.) and is looking to purchase a half dozen of the machines to continue further assessment. There are approximately 18 airports in the U.S. using them. In the U.K. several airports now have them including Manchester. Testing in several countries has been going since 2004. In the U.S. the Transportation Security Administration began field trials in 2007. The technology offers security details to process passengers quickly and determine if weapons or other contraband is on a person without doing physical body search. Such technology would significantly improve the detection of hidden materials. Read the rest of this entry »
November 5th, 2009
FCC Chairman testifies on driving while texting
Last week I posted that the Government of Ontario has implemented a ban on driving while using a mobile phone or CB radio. U.S. Congress is now holding hearings on the issue.
Chairman Julius Genachowski of the Federal Communications Commission testified before the Subcommittees on Communications, Technology and the Internet, Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection, Committee on Energy and Commerce on the topic of Technological Devices and Vehicle Safety. Chairman Genachowski’s testimony brought out some interesting facts.
1995: approximately 34 million people had subscribed to a mobile phone.
2009: 276 million
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in 2008 that driver distraction is the cause of 16% of all fatal crashes - 5,800 people killed - and 21% of crashes resulting in an injury - 515,000 people wounded.
I posted last week that 6 U.S. states have banned driving while talking on a cell phone. 18 states now have some kind of law, primarily aimed at texting while driving.
President Obama signed an Executive Order banning all Federal employees (except in an emergency) from texting while driving any government vehicle or driving while on the job.
According to the Automobile Association of America (AAA), nearly 50% of teens admit to texting while driving.
Bluetooth and speech-to-text technology sales are likely to skyrocket, along with civilian versions of Heads Up Displays (HUD) in rear view mirrors.
November 5th, 2009
Flu pandemic disproportionately infects, kills young people; are some getting preferred treatment?
The Vancouver Sun reported that a study analyzing the first 1000 H1N1 cases in the State of California, reveals younger people were dying at a higher rate. This Flu season is one of the worst on record.
“If you’re under the age of 50, this is a bad flu. This might be the worst flu experienced in 50 to 100 years,” said Dr. Bela Matyas, acting chief of the emergency preparedness and response branch of the California Department of Public Health
“If you are a teenager or younger, the chances of dying from this flu are much, much higher than any other flu we’ve seen maybe since the 1918 flu.”
The Center for Disease Control website indicates that 2,025,700 doses of vaccine have been sent to California so far with more being shipped daily. Governments across all boundaries have ramped up to ensure everyone gets vaccinated. Web portals dedicated to Health in each region are plastered with information putting the H1N1 Flu as the #1 topic and primary focus ensuring that information is readily available.
Source of Graphic: Center for Disease Control
November 5th, 2009
Copyright associations want enforcement for free
The internet has opened the Pandora’s Box - that everything that can be duplicated - will be. This simple truth will drive up costs for you the consumer. You will pay one of three ways: through the government and the court system (taxes);through your monthly internet access fees paid to your ISP (network operations and infrastructure); or, finally, through higher product costs. More than likely, you will pay all three.
The first generation of technology, copyright protection was easy to target and manage. Organizations such as the MPAA, RIAA, and others lobbied and won governing laws and regulations that ‘taxed’ (in some countries it is defined as a levy) blank tape cassettes and eventually blank CD and DVD products to ‘pay’ for potential infringements of copyright materials. Products that were not taxed (so far) were hard drives, memory cards and Next Gen (NG) Personal Video Recorders (PVR’s) used to record television shows. The time has probably come in which artists and vendors will have to contribute funding for enforcement through sales of their products directly in each jurisdiction they wish to have copyright protection. That cost would then be passed onto consumers through increases in prices. Read the rest of this entry »
November 4th, 2009
European Parliament to revisit telecom regulations
The Members of the European Parliament (MEP) are to convene once more on November 4 to discuss Internet access, along with new rules that are currently being tabled and will be the sole topic up for discussion. At the last meeting on October 6, the Council of EU Telecommunications Ministers formally rejected Parliament’s second-reading amendment on internet access, which dealt with access freedom, indirectly pointed to file sharing and creating a law on disconnecting users that do so illegally.
In a press release by the European Parliament, the Council for EU telecommunications will be discussing a variety of legal issues that have caused a stir around the world on restricting internet access.
Alejo VIDAL-QUADRAS (EPP, Spain) who heads Parliament’s Conciliation Committee delegation, said after the last of these meetings on Thursday morning: “We go into the negotiations in a spirit of compromise, but determined to defend users’ rights and committed to the development of a regulatory framework that will incentivise investment and open up the market. We will do all we can to achieve a good solution, but Council has to understand that Parliament will defend without hesitation the freedom of the citizens it represents”.
The group is reviewing a complete package of innovation, safety and other reforms in respects to telecommunications, including traditional television and radio broadcast, security, privacy, email spam, cyberterrorism, phone number portability and those with disabilities accessing technology. Currently the council is at a significant cross roads on the Internet access and file sharing, copyright and this single issue could scrap the entire telecom package being tabled and given final reading for passage.
Looming larger is how European Parliament’s new regulations and Laws would affect sovereignty of each nation’s jurisdiction with respect to enforcement. One such example: if an individual is convicted of an infraction in Spain, would that country’s court decision (if based on this new set of Laws) be then applicable to all other nations inside the EU with respect to the individual’s conviction? If it is enforceable and agreed upon by all signing nations, this may indicate that Europe is beginning to eliminate the issue of sovereignty all together.
November 4th, 2009
U.S. Ethics Committee staffer file-shares sensitive document
Perhaps file sharing should be banned. The Washington Post reports that a (now) ex-employee of the U.S. House Ethics Committee put a sensitive report detailing 30+ current investigations on to a public accessible computer. Wired Magazine also reported on this story, saying it was put onto a personal computer, and then placed it into a file folder used for peer to peer file sharing to the Internet. No word on what file sharing application tool was used. If it was setup as anonymous FTP, it may have been from one specific computer or wound up on hundreds if not thousands of computers.
The Post reveals;
The ethics committee is one of the most secretive panels in Congress, and its members and staff members sign oaths not to disclose any activities related to its past or present investigations. Watchdog groups have accused the committee of not actively pursuing inquiries; the newly disclosed document indicates the panel is conducting far more investigations than it had revealed.
Washington Post staff reporters Ellen Nakashima and Paul Kane indicate that they did not receive the document directly from the employee personal computer, but through other sources.
The website for the Ethics Committee issued a release immediately following the story by the Post and stated that regardless of how much cyber security was put into place, it was impossible to avoid ‘individual error’.
Ironically, prominently placed on their website is a direct link of employee training & responsibilities on Ethics. What astounds me is how an employee would even think it’s necessary to put such sensitive information onto a personal computer at home. Surely there must be more to this story than just a whole whack of rules that a staffer on the Ethics Committee chose to ignore. Sounds like somebody escaped a plethora of federal charges. If not, there may be one more investigation to add to the list.
November 3rd, 2009
The taxman goes mainstream on YouTube
Multimedia offers several things that ordinary print doesn’t: Driving home a point in person is one of them. Press releases, bulletins, direct mail often are ignored, so what to do? But video, multimedia, regular TV news also have their limits. In an era of 200 TV stations offering a variety of specialty channels where “news” is ignored, how to reach the masses and offer an ability to go when you please to view important information? The government in the U.K. has started to post on YouTube. HM Revenues and Customs have put Dave Hartnett, HMRC’s Permanent Secretary for Tax, straight onto video about the deadline for off shore tax havens.
The challenge for most ministries or departments is costs. Constantly sending out direct mail or advertising in newspapers or phone calls is becoming expensive. Putting out a video that anyone can download for free, view it on their own time is becoming an attractive option. The government can stipulate that public notice was given and published in a medium that anyone can retrieve and thus fair warning was established.
YouTube has been the source for political and official government messages with mixed results until the 2008 U.S. presidential election, where President Obama’s campaign used it aggressively. There are more than 137,000 videos related to the President. He’s not alone in the use of YouTube. Search results for Senator John McCain displays 179,000 videos, Former Gov. Sarah Palin 88,000, and former President Bush shows a whopping 388,000 different video clips! Many of these videos are responses or unusual commentaries on the individual and is clearly an effective medium to get one’s message out. The regular evening news may find itself being replaced when it comes to political affairs. Whether you hear about it or not, the government is coming to collect.
Here’s the HM Revenue & Customs video:
November 2nd, 2009
Net Neutrality: You own the Internet - make sure it becomes Law
Last week I wrote about how Net Neutrality could be blown to pieces in satire and followed up with another piece suggesting that the Internet is not free from government monopolies and corporate service providers. An advocate of an open system that has choice and no boundaries barring access needs some ammunition to fight back with. It has plenty if used appropriately.
For the first time in the world, there’s a service that has a unique platform, allowing all free people to interact, demonstrate, express and bind together to resolve issues. The internet is the vehicle which has and will continue to drive change, innovation, and create an entirely new political landscape that does not have limitations. Could turn out to be a bad or good thing. But internet users will be decision makers on this point, not corporations. Read the rest of this entry »
October 30th, 2009
ZDNet Government version of Throw out the Trash Day
Friday is always an interesting day to report news. In the hit political drama series produced and written by Aaron Sorkin, The West Wing, he came up with how the White House Press Secretary got into a routine with staffers in the Communications office to gather up all the news that should be announced, but prayed nobody read about it. Well guess what, covering the news on Government issues can be the same! So every Friday, it will be Take out the Trash Day .
Here’s my take on some news that isn’t all that interesting but still made it online somewhere….
Throw out the trash day
From the New York Times - Governor of California sends secret code message (this too was a story line in one of the episode of The West Wing) - Arnold got some pretty good writers!
Wired Magazine says an ISP owner still under gag order by the FBI. Wonder if the ISP had any other news to report, like are customer connections still working?
The BBC found thieves who think copper is still worth stealing from British Telecom - an entire Kilometer ripped out from a conduit by truck!
Minister of Environment for Australia jumps onto the smart grid energy bandwagon. Soon the entire world will have governments and utility companies capable of remotely shutting off your electricity and you won’t have a choice.
Also included on the last Friday of each month, I will blog my take on the best and worst government websites. Send me an email if you find ones that I should rate. At the end of the year I’ll announce the ‘awards’ of each category.
Best Website for month of October for Content
Best Website - Organization of Content
Most innovative government website:
Worst website for Content
Worst website - Organization of content
October 29th, 2009
Start up cellular provider Globalive denied license to operate in Canada
In a stunning victory for Bell Canada, Telus and Rogers, the CRTC denied new start up Globalive a license to operate as a telecommunications (cellular) service provider in Canada. Over the past month the CRTC held hearings whether or not Globalive met ownership rules required to operate as a carrier. The commission’s hearings today determine that it did not. In a press release issued this afternoon:
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission today determined that Globalive Wireless Management (Globalive) does not meet the Canadian ownership requirements set out in the Telecommunications Act. Under the legislation, a telecommunications company is only eligible to operate in Canada if it is not at any time owned and controlled, in law and in fact, by non-Canadians.
Orascom is one the largest cellular players in the Middle East, Africa and parts of Europe and is based in Eygpt. Managed by CEO Naguib Sawiris, he and Canadian CEO of Globalive Tony Lacavera believed that majority financial investment did not translate into the mandatory Canadian ownership Laws.
Canadian Law requires majority control of the company be Canadian controlled. The CRTC stated:
The Commission found it particularly important that Orascom owns 65.1 per cent of the equity, has entered into a strategic technical arrangement with Globalive, controls and holds the “Wind” brand under which Globalive will operate, and holds the overwhelming majority of the outstanding debt.
Orascom has invested over 400 Million (Cdn) into the new company’s cellular operations which are to be called Wind, which is also Orascom’s European brand.
All three major incumbent players, Bell Canada, Telus, and Rogers, aggressively argued that Globalive was not a Canadian controlled entity, submitting strong evidence and regulatory requirements were being sidestepped under illegal pretenses. The CRTC commission agreed with just about every argument the three made during hearings in September.
No public announcement has yet been made by Globalive appealing the CRTC’s decision. Several options are possible including bringing in a majority Canadian financial interest into the company. The CRTC did not mandate Globalive to halt construction on any of the towers that they have currently being built.
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Recent Entries
- Human x-ray machines: Coming soon to an airport near you
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