Sleepycatz

Hunters - Gatherers

Johannes Ullrich over at SANS, reminded me of an increasing threat to the telecommunications and power infrastructure: copper and fiber theft. Odd as it seems, we have arrived at a point where people are robbing both construction sites and critical infrastructure of copper in order make a few bucks. Over the past few months several people have been hurt or killed while trying to harvest copper wire from live electrical lines. There is, of course, some kind of sad darwinian justice to these injuries, but the overall success of these thieves seems to be quite high.

Recent copper thefts have caused major phone, Internet, and video outages for Time Warner, AT&T, Verizion, and other carriers. It has gotten so bad, that at the beginning of this month AT&T and Time Warner have started offering rewards for information regarding the thefts, and Pennsylvania and other states are working to pass new metallic theft laws.

Copper prices have been at their highest levels for the past couple of years and scrap copper has been hanging around $3.40/lbs. The high prices are primarily due to the construction boom in the US, and infrastructure modernization in China and throughout Asia. Yes, this is the global trading village where one can pillage copper phone lines from one country, re-mold it to new wire, and sell it to another.

There is something both frightening and sad about people ripping apart their own infrastructure for a few dollars a pound. This problem seems much more prevalent then one would imagine and I wonder if it is a sign of the times, or simple a new avenue of common thievery.

New Domain

Every few years I go through old domain names and get rid of some. When you have been working on the Internet for a number of years, you tend to collect domain names like old clothes. At one point, I had some 50+ domains, but, as I am not a squatter, I let them go over time. I have discovered that it takes about a year to clean out a domain; so I have begun with auroraliberty.com. The domain name and previous links will be redirected to this domain. Thanks

The Wall Lengthens

A few days ago, I wrote about how AT&T censored anti-administration lyrics from Pearl Jam’s webcast. The Chicago Sun Times is now reporting that this was not the first instance of AT&T’s squelching of music questioning the Bush administration:

AT&T’s Blue Room Webcast also had silenced comments during two performances at the Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee last June, cutting remarks by the John Butler Trio bemoaning the lack of federal response to Hurricane Katrina and comments about Bush and the war in Iraq by singer Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips.

“The sound did not cut out at any other time — only when someone was talking about George Bush or the government in a negative way…” AT&T did confirm that other, unspecified political comments have been cut from its Webcasts.

The Daily Swarm is also collecting anecdotes and evidence of further AT&T censorship. A number of the comments suggest that the practice is even wider spread then first thought.

As Jon Stokes pointed out, AT&T’s argument against Net Neutrality legislation has been simply “trust us.” AT&T’s actions have shown, many many times, that they cannot be trusted. It should concern all of us that AT&T — with the encouragement of the FCC — continues its unregulated, monopolistic, expansion. They have shown that they are more then willing to censor political content. Whether the censorship is done for either business or ideological reasons is still unclear, but AT&T has greatly benefited from the administration’s FCC board members. As I said previously, AT&T has completed most of the wall to censor content on the Internet, it is now simply beginning to filter at the gates now.

The Wall

Last weekend during the Lollapalooza webcast AT&T decided that some improvisation by Pearl Jam was just too questionable to be sent out over the Internets. AT&T decided that when Eddie Vedder sang out, to tune of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, “George Bush, leave this world alone;” “George Bush, find yourself another home.” it would offend some listeners and simply cut the audio.

To anyone who is familiar with AT&T, or with the debates on Net Neutrality, the only surprise should be that AT&T choose this moment and this event to exercise its authority. AT&T has been notorious in aiding the government in it’s wiretapping efforts and has received unparalleled support from the FCC to create a content carrier monopoly. In fact, one is hard pressed to think of a major FCC decision in the past five years which was not in AT&T’s favor. I am not suggesting that there is overt collusion between the two parties; simply, that AT&T knows which side it’s better off supporting in order to expand its business and eliminate competition.

AT&T’s decision to censor Vedder was probably a mistake, at this time. The result of a content manager overly eager to begin his new job as Internet supervisor. To their credit, Pearl Jam issued a strongly worded press release condemning AT&T and calling for greater support for Network Neutrality legislation and greater competition. Of course, the irony that AT&T choose to censor improvised lyrics to The Wall should not be lost on any of us. The album’s themes are ripe with overtones of fascism and repression. As Gerald Scarfe, the great illustrator, said of the album: “In the shadow of the wall, flowers turn into barbed wire; men turn into monsters.”

Make no mistake, AT&T will continue to use their facilities to control content in order to censor any type of speech which could be seen as detrimental to their business aspirations. For them, it is not a political issue, or a free speech issue but simply one of business growth and market control. For those of us who see the Internet as the new hope of free speech AT&T’s actions should strike terror into our hearts. At this time they have nearly every right to control and monitor any content delivered on their network; there is no law preventing them from simply discarding any traffic which delivers content critical of them, or the government whose support they so need. A wall of censorship has already been erected by the lack of action by our government — we are only awaiting the closure of the gates. It is time we demanded that the wall be torn down.

of Beasts and Priests

Recently proto virtual-world Second Life banned in-world gambling using it’s native currency, Linden Dollars. This really shouldn’t have come as a shock to anyone, given the government’s recent war against online gambling. Linden Labs, who administers Second Life, could not take the chance that the feds would come and seize their business. States have lobbied hard to eliminate online gambling, as it undermines their total control of the industry: an arrangement which is ripe with enormousness state revenues and corruption.

Now comes word that Second Life may ban bestiality among avatars. Controversy over alternative sex practices are nothing new in the virtual world. There has been, and remains, a long standing controversy over age-play, in which adults maintain avatars which appear significantly younger than themselves, and occasionally engage in sex acts with each other or with older appearing avatars.

Technology and sex have been intertwined since man first developed civilization. Some of the erotic pottery and writings of ancient Greece and Rome are still with us to, The great Print Culture of 17th century Europe gave us not only Shakespeare and Dunne , but also”Sodom” by John Wilmot, the first printed pornography. In the 19th century the new technology of photography was quickly adapted to nudes and erotic imagery. The first truly erotic and fetish films began appearing around 1910, less than tens years after the equipment became readily available. The availability of consumer computers in the 1980s spurred sex related bulletin board systems (BBS): there were Gay BBS’, Straight BBS’, Fetish BBS’, and a huge host of others that were simply a potpourri of sexual desire. With the first coherent Internet nodes came sex - alt.sex newsgroups, sex.* IRC channels, sex.stories ftp reservoirs, etc . . .

Technological sophistication does seem to bring to light more unusual sexual practices then seen in lower forms of technology. No doubt, Freud would argue that anonymity coupled with our unease with new technology is a breeding ground for perversity. However, human sexual imagination is not limited by technology. The various fetishes encountered in Second Life, or online in general, would not disappear if the technology to act them out ceased to be. At this point, the technology is simply a tool which allows human sexuality to be explored — it does not engender the desires it reflects. Thus it seems particularly silly, and perhaps overbearingly paternalistic, to suggest that certain sexual acts — virtual acts at that — between consenting players be limited in Second Life. Even in areas which are legally abhorred, such as age-play, there is adult consent, and therefore no law is, or should be considered, broken. Some elements in all societies are always preoccupied with the sexual practices of others. There is always a great wringing of hands and cries of sin and damnation. But these acts are never eliminated. The questionable acts are simply further hidden from the hand wringers. Advanced networking has allowed humans to explore their sexual desires and identities. The purpose of technology must include the furthering any understanding of ourselves and each other; otherwise, it serves no real purpose.

Given the amount of apparent sinning and perversity occurring in Second Life, it should come as no surprise that Catholics have taken a strong interest in the world. Recently, the Jesuits have decided to pursue an evangelical mission into the virtual world. There really is no better choice to journey to this badly rendered 3D wilderness then the Jesuits. They have missions in nearly every country in the world, and though the order contains many great scholars and thinkers, they are fanatical in their beliefs: as their founder Ignatius Loyola said, “I will believe that the white that I see is black if the hierarchical Church so defines it.”

Of course, theology in Second Life raises far more questions then issues of sexuality. For instance, does an avatar have a soul? Is that soul an equal extension of the player’s soul, or is it a minor or lesser extension? Does praying in Second Life carry equal weight as prayer in real life? Can one receive virtual communion? Can one commit virtual sin? All of this should generate a great theological debate, not unlike the age old stercorarian debates in the church — which argue about the nature of the transubstantiated host during digestion.

Of course one must wonder what a good religious man will do when confronted by a twenty-something year old man, appearing as a 15 year old girl asking her parish priest for a spanking. . . . .

Red, White, and Tubes

This week the Communications Workers of America released its report on broadband speeds across America. It’s a sobering document which should serve as an indictment of the entire American telecommunications model. However because their methodology relied upon users running their own speed test, the defenders of the status quo will claim the findings are unreliable. If anything the findings in the report paint a significantly brighter picture then what’s actually occurring.

For nine months the CWA collected bandwidth statistics at speedmatters.org. The results were broken down geographically, first by country:

Then by state:

CWA’s statistics are actually skewed in favor of higher connectivity rates then most people have. Approximately 30% of all Internet subscribers in the US continue to use dialup which is not recorded by this survey. Additionally, the survey relies upon a sophisticated user to participate — this alone skews the sample to broadband adopters.

Overall, the US continues to remain outside of the top 10 industrialized nations in broadband penetration. This statistic is further degraded by the FCC’s definition of broadband service as data transfer services exceeding 200 Kb/s in a single direction — significantly less then the 10 Mb/s - 20 Mb/s symmetrical connectivity becoming the standard throughout Europe and Asia. Furthermore, Americans pay more for their Internet then those in other wired countries: American’s pay about a dollar per 92.4 Kb/s where that some dollar in Europe and Asia averages 1.97 Mb/s - this does not take into account the additional voice and television services provided by the European model.

So why does any of this matter? It is no coincidence that America has dropped in global technology innovation to number two, behind Denmark. Denmark is currently ranked, by the ITU, among the top three countries in broadband adoption. Future and even current economies will depend upon high speed Internet access for growth and innovation. The current US model relies upon major carriers seeking high profit for minor deployments. There is presently no national plan to create a broadband infrastructure; in fact, states which have pursued such plans have been sued and heavily lobbied by large carriers to abandon their ideas.

High speed Internet access has the potential to revolutionize our economy — creating new media and advertising markets and competition. It has the potential tore-invent our entire entertainment industry and change the way in which companies and employees relate to one another. It is, in essence, akin to the industrial revolution in scope and force. Whether or not America chooses to participate in the revolution from the outset, or be left behind, is really a matter of governmental policy and not one of ‘market regulation’ (as corporate supporters would argue). High speed Internet infrastructure needs to be understood as similar to the national highway system. A system which facilitates transportation and commerce. It cannot, and should not, be viewed as a private toll road which benefits the few at the expense of national growth and innovation.

A New Hope

Today two FCC commissioners, Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps, refused to rubber stamp the DoJ’s unconditional approval of AT&T’s acquisition of BellSouth. This could be a landmark event. As FCC chairman Martin, who has never seen a consolidation he didn’t love, finds himself with a split board. Commissioners Martin and Tate are pushing hard to approve the acquisition without any stipulations; while Commissioners Adelstein and Copps have expressed realistic concerns about the DoJ’s approval, and what effect the consolidation would have on competition. Commissioner McDowell has to abstain, under FCC regulations — due to previous employment with both AT&T and BellSouth. Without support from one of the Democrats, the merger is dead. Martin, of course, won’t allow this to happen, and he is, no doubt, more then willing to trade off conditions to allow the merger to proceed — he has already proposed allowing competitors access to 30 commercial buildings in Bellsouth territory; a facile concession at best.

There can be little doubt that enormous pressures are being applied to Adelstein and Copps tonight, as the commission is scheduled to meet again tomorrow to deal with the two most important items from today’s agenda: the acquisition, and Net Neutrality.

There is some, small chance, that Copps and Adelstein will hold out for a enforced Net Neutrality stipulation to allow the merger to proceed. It is critical that the commissioners be contacted about these issues:

Commissioner Michael J. Copps

Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein

Update:
Apparently, not enough arm twisting was applied to Copps and Adelstein last night. Commissioner Martin canceled today’s special meeting — meaning he was unable to get the one of the two holdouts on board. Martin has rescheduled the vote for November 3rd. This gives every one plenty of time to contact Comissioners Copps and Adelstein, and inform them of our concerns regarding the future of both the Internet and telecommunications in the US.