Googlers on Street View

Google recently updated its Street View feature on Maps to include more US cities, Australia, and Japan. In addition, Google employees lined up outside their California headquarters to have their pictures taken by the Street View car. Take a look at these Googlers.

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FCC Stops Comcast

As expected, the FCC ordered Comcast to stop controlling Internet usage of broadband subscribers. Again, as expected, lawmakers are already speaking out against the FCC's action.

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FCC Punishes Comcast, More is Needed

The FCC has voted to punish Comcast for blocking Internet traffic to certain subscribers. Comcast has been limiting the Internet traffic to users of file-sharing networks; they did this in order to prevent those users from hogging all the bandwidth. The punishment, according to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, will not include fines but will require Comcast to "stop its practice of blocking; provide details to the commission on the extent and manner in which the practice has been used; and to disclose to consumers details on future plans for managing its network going forward."

This disciplinary action is resulting from a FCC policy instituted in 2005 that requires all broadband networks to be "widely deployed, open, affordable and accessible to all consumers." This makes US broadband providers be more in line with the principles of net neutrality (support the Save the Internet campaign here).

I certainly applaud the FCC for their actions; Congress, however, has a duty to the American public. If we are to have a truly open and accessible Internet, Congress needs to step up and providing funding that will greatly improve our national broadband infrastructure. Nations around the world continue to surpass us in availability to the Internet. I really doubt that Internet providers can continue to meet the increase in demand of broadband networks with current pricing schemes. This is why they are seeking to limit users. If the government would step in and help build a national broadband network, this problem would be greatly alleviated. Please, Congress, give us a national strategy for deploying broadband Internet.

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A Good Day for Tennessee Voters

Today, Governor Phil Bredesen signed a new law requiring that counties adopt new voting machines that create a paper trail in case a need arises for a recount or audit. As of now, only two counties out of 95 produce so-called "paper trails."

In the wake of the 2000 election fiasco, the country rushed to buy new electronic voting machines that would making voting "easier." No one bothered to consider the security implications with such equipment; America (or should I really say Congress) wanted the old machines replaced as soon as possible. Electronic voting machines, indeed, are easy to use. The only problem, however is that these machines can be easily manipulated without anyone ever knowing. There are no papers to tell election officials how each ballot was cast. This opened the door wide for potential fraud.

This law, hopefully, will create assurance in terms of voting results in Tennessee. It will be much more difficult for a candidate or party to manipulate the results of an election. A mandated paper trail will help ensure a secure and fair election. Hopefully, other states will follow.

Here is what the Electronic Frontier Foundation has to say about electronic voting machines.

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Web Pages Attacked Every 5 Seconds

Attacks on webpages have increased dramatically over the past few months. According to security firm Sophos, 15,000 pages on average were attacked daily between January and March (about every 5 seconds); this contrasts to the 2007 average of 6,000. Here is something even more alarming:

About 79 percent of compromised Web pages tracked this year belong to legitimate Web sites, Sophos reported. The company noted that the Web sites of Fortune 500 companies, government agencies and even security vendors, have fallen prey to malware attacks.

They're getting closer and closer to our personal data. I hope this serves as a wake-up call to those corporations and the government. Of course, it won't.

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