Painting the Town from megamayd on Vimeo.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Bill upsets amateur radio operators
Great Falls Tribune-
WASHINGTON — When a tornado or wildfire hits Montana, the firsthand reports often come from ham radio enthusiasts, who provide crucial and timely information for the National Weather Service or local emergency responders.
"They're just a group of people that we can depend on to help us out in the communications end whenever we need them," said Vince Kolar, who heads Disaster and Emergency Services for Cascade County. "Definitely out here, we need 'em. (They're) knowledgeable, available and they've got those radio communication skills that you need."
There are nearly 5,000 amateur radio volunteers in Montana, and many of them provide a backup communication system that emergency responders in the Treasure State and across the country depend on if or when cellphones, satellite phones or other radio systems don't work.
"That's how we plan to communicate between hospitals and the Red Cross in the event of an emergency," said Ryan Nicholls, director of the Office of Emergency in Springfield, Mo. "We have it written into our emergency operations plan."
But this service, currently provided for free by amateur ham radio operators, could be in jeopardy under a measure Congress is considering.
The House bill, introduced by Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., would strengthen the communications capabilities of America's first responders by reallocating certain frequencies — 758-763 MHz and 788-793 MHz — to public safety.
"Allocation of the D Block (of frequencies) to public safety will ensure that our nation's first responders have sufficient spectrum to develop a wireless broadband network," King said in a statement.
The 9/11 Commission, when investigating the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, cited the need for improved emergency communications among jurisdictions and agencies, and the issue has broad support from both parties, including from President Barack Obama.
It's a tiny clause deeper down in the legislation that has ham radio enthusiasts and emergency responders all worked up.
Under the bill, in the next 10 years the government would sell the 420-440 MHz frequencies, which is currently used by amateur radio operators, for commercial use. Selling the block of frequencies would raise money to offset the cost of setting aside the D Block of frequencies for first responders.
The 420-440 MHz band is not used only by hobbyists. It's also used by hundreds of thousands of Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) volunteers, severe-weather spotters working with the National Weather Service, weak-signal operations, thousands of repeater systems, mobile operators, amateur radio satellite communications, radio location beacons, amateur radio's nationwide system of digital and text communications, and more.
Amateur-radio enthusiasts, for the most part, spend their own money, use their own equipment, and spend hours of their time training and volunteering during emergencies. They say losing this frequency band would require costly changes to their infrastructure and equipment, and could jeopardize their ability to assist during emergencies.
"It would make it difficult in a lot of areas for our emergency communications, which are vital during any disaster, flood or heavy weather events — anything where we have to get out and help people," said Doug Dunn, the National Association for Amateur Radio's section chief for Montana. "We're usually there first. We fill a lot of slots."
On Father's Day 2010, as a tornado bore down on the eastern edge of Billings, amateur radio operators were there to spot the system, track it, relay the information to the National Weather Service so it could alert the public and help with the response after the tornado tore through the area, Dunn said.
It's a "boots-on-the-ground sort of a thing where we can describe damage and places to stay away from," he said. "It's important to us — and, I'm going to say, vital."
Kolar said ham radio operators provide another layer of assistance.
"During large wildland fires, we have them run our mobile communications van. They're used to running radio, so we have them operate the county radios and the command post, and it takes the pressure off the sheriff's office, off my office and we don't have to supply that manpower," he said. "It frees us up to do other things."
The American Radio Relay League — the national association for amateur radio — has lobbied members of Congress over the provision, which it calls "unacceptable."
"It is ... completely unnecessary to the creation of a nationwide public safety broadband network," ARRL spokesman Dan Henderson wrote in an email. "To be sure, ARRL will vigorously oppose this legislation in its present form."
The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC), which is a federation of more than a dozen public safety communications organizations, also has spoken out against the commercial sale provision in the bill.
In a letter, NPSTC Chairman Ralph Haller said the provision "needs to be amended to address the concerns of public safety and the amateur radio users."
Both groups said they support the underlying objective of the legislation.
The bill, which was introduced last month, is pending in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
ONI Releases Special Report on the Use of Western Technologies by Middle East Censors
By rebekah Heacock of ONI
The recent political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa has thrown into focus the information shaping, events-based blocking, and counter-control activities undertaken by governments throughout the region. New research by the OpenNet Initiative shows that many of these activities are supported by Western filtering tools and services.
The OpenNet Initiative is pleased to release its new special report, "West Censoring East: The Use of Western Technologies by Middle East Censors, 2010-2011" by Helmi Noman and Jillian C. York.
The report analyzes the use of American and Canadian-made tools Websense, McAfee SmartFilter, and Netsweeper for the purpose of government-level filtering in the Middle East and North Africa. The investigation found that nine countries in the region utilize Western-made tools.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Steadman and Thompson: A Lovers Quarrel
Oct20'96
Owl Farm
Dear Ralph,
It never occurred to me that Jann was going to publish those ugly, denigrating cartoons you spit out a few months ago about my internal organs. I thought you had sent them to me as just another one of our shared hideous jokes. How the fuck did Jann get his hands on them?
In any case, I'm about to sever all relationship(s) with him -- and with You, if necessary -- if he prints that pasty bag of insults in RS. You might enjoy that Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas "celebration" in New York next month, but you'll enjoy it without me. Maybe you can do a cute cartoon about vultures feeding on my (absent) carcass.
Well.... your FAX isn't working tonight, so I can't send this stuff thru to you. Very clever, Ralph. But if yr. (admittedly) artistic cartoons of me appear in RS this week, you and I have had our last Scotch together.
Thanx for the laughs. Yrs,
Hunter
-----------------------
Dear Hunter
Before I even get into my ART let me ask you a question. Did you or did you not speak into a tape recorder and say those words which have been transcribed and accredited to YOU. Never agree to speak into a tape recorder if you know that those very words will be used as the ARTICLE. You, of all people know that the spoken word is not writing, never was, never will be, but it has its place on the stage of audio verite. You have used the tape recorder as long as I have known you. I even bought you a decent SONY once because I knew how much the specific quote meant to you, and the actuality of it being said, but the creativity lay in its use. Unfortunately, as a total creative contribution it is worthless and merely lets the writer off the hook of having to actually do some work - like write a few impressions maybe of how he or she feels about their subject - the interviewee.
I am not a writer, as you keep reminding me, but at least I could make a few decent observations, from the heart too, about how I was feeling, how I reacted and what you may or may not be to me as a fellow human being. It would be, at least, a common courtesy, if not the kind of current popular trend of merely repeating everything one said verbatim as though the subject was nothing less than a guru whose every word was holy wisdom.
You fucked up, and your vanity won't allow it. There is a great deal of fascinating stuff in what you have said, but not all of it. Like all conversations, 90% is gibberish, but I suspect that in a case like this, the writer with you should become involved, artfully expressing the nuance, a passing thought, moving the scenery around, and generally making himself useful., He should be the conduit to convey to others, the readers perhaps, who were not privileged to be in your presence, what it was you were doing your best to express one to one into a fucking microphone, which as you know picks up everything, even the bad grammar.
Which brings me to the ART. You have always applauded my ability to perceive. I am not an illustrator but I may be a cartoonist, and I may not always behave as a responsible citizen towards my chosen targets any more than you do. But I do get to it, under the skin as it were, to the real work, or don't bother. I don't think you taught me that but you made me aware of its importance. And it never ceases to amaze me just how irrational you become when somebody does it to you, like you have done it to me, and to everyone else you have ever bothered to write about.
So don't get pompous with me. I am not one of your goddamn sychophants or acolytes. I am the one you needed when you needed someone to say what cannot be said in words. That too is new and rare. I will take at random a few words from an old mentor of yours, Robert S. de ROPP. You read 'The Master Game' and this is from his last book, 'Self Completion'. Some of it is bullshit. Aint that the way, eh?
(Signed, 'Ralph')
Monday, March 21, 2011
Buffett on Apple
Warren Buffett, the world's third-richest man, is still "wary" of investing in companies like Apple, according to a Bloomberg article about the billionaire.
Buffett isn't swayed by Steve Jobs' "magical" iPad and "revolutionary" iPhone 4. As far as investments go, Buffett said he is more likely to keep away from consumer electronics, as he has in the past, in favor of companies like Coca-Cola.
"Even though Apple may have the most wonderful future in the world, I'm not capable of bringing any drink to that particular party and evaluating that future," Buffett said during a visit to South Korea. "I simply look at businesses where I think I have some understanding of what they might look like in five or 10 years."
"We held very few in the past and we're likely to hold very few in the future," Buffett said of electronics makers. He noted that a company like Coca-Cola, on the other hand, is "very easy for me to come to a conclusion as to what it will look like economically in five or 10 years, and it's not easy for me to come to a conclusion about Apple."
Though Buffett may not be a techie, the Oracle of Omaha said in an interview last year that he actually spends more time at his computer than Bill Gates, passing over 12 hours a week playing bridge online.
See Buffett discuss his tech habits in the video below.
From Huffpost
Amateur Radio Sleuths intercept US Pysops Message to Libya
Check this out John, sounds like it applies to that project we were talking about.
The U.S. military has dispatched one of its secret propaganda planes to the skies around Libya. And that “Commando Solo” aircraft is telling Libyan ships to remain in port – or risk NATO retaliation.
We know this, not because some Pentagon official said so, but because one Dutch radio geek is monitoring the airwaves for information about Operation Odyssey Dawn — and tweeting the surprisingly-detailed results. On Sunday alone, “Huub” has identified the tail numbers, call signs, and movements of dozens of NATO aircraft: Italian fighter jets, American tankers, British aerial spies, U.S. bombers, and the Commando Solo psyops plane (pictured).
“If you attempt to leave port, you will be attacked and destroyed immediately,” the aircraft broadcasted late Sunday night.
It’s the kind of information that the American military typically tries to obscure, at least until a mission is over. But Huub is just a single node in a sprawling online network that trawls the airwaves for clues to military operations.
Huub, also known online as “BlackBox” and @FMCNL, has been monitoring longer than most — more than a quarter-century. A former member of the Dutch military, he says that he’s captured the sounds of everything from Air Force One to CIA rendition flights to the travels of Yugoslavian war criminal Slobodan Mlosevic.
“I just combine the global and free information on the Internet with my local received information from the ether,” Huub e-mails Danger Room. “[My] main goal to listen to this communication is to listen to ‘the truth,’ without any military or political propaganda.”
Military aircraft have to provide basic information about their position over unencrypted, unclassified UHF and VHF radio networks; otherwise, they’d risk slamming into civilian jets in mid-air. That allows savvy listeners like Huub to use radio frequency scanners, amplifiers, and antennas to capture the communications. Some spend thousands of dollars homebrewing their own DIY listening stations. Many others – Huub included – rely on handheld gear, much of which can be ordered through Radio Shack. Huub uses the ICOM R20 receiver and the Uniden UBC-785XLT scanner, both of which retail for a little more than $500.
But the type of gear is almost secondary, Huub writes. “I do not simply listen to ATC [air traffic control] or NATO frequencies,” he says. Instead, he monitors everything from aircraft transponder data to IRC chatrooms to pinpoint his planes. “I use a combination of live listening with local equipment, audio streaming, video streaming, datamining, intelligence, analyzing and the general knowledge of ATC procedures, communication, encryption, call signs, frequencies and a lot of experience on this!”
Huub, who ordinarily spends his days as a digital forensics manager in the town of Hilversum, has lately spent up to 16 hours a day, scanning for clues about the attack on Libya. Some of his Twitter followers aren’t so sure Huub should be devoting that much time to plucking military data from the sky.
“If you are not delaying your tweets by a WIDE margin, you are putting the pilots in harms way!!!!” tweets@Joe_Taxi. “When the sounds of the #operationoddesydawn aircraft are heard in #Libya it should be a complete surprise.”
Huub is hardly the only one eavesdropping on this operation, however. At least two others recorded the Commando Solo in action on Sunday, for instance.
And that shows just how easily average folks can now gather intelligence in ways once reserved for the best-funded spy agencies. Online sleuths now use Google Earth to find everything from North Korea’slaunch facilities to Pakistan’s drone bases. Plane-spotters scoured tail numbers to uncover the CIA’s torture flights. So it’s no wonder that the sounds of this newest air war are being broadcast online — even before the planes return to their airstrips.
From Wired.com
Friday, March 11, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Politician Sues Facebook Over Election Loss
(NEWSER) – Majed Moughni lost Michigan’s Republican primary against incumbent Rep. John Dingell, who just so happens to be the longest-serving member of Congress. Even so, Moughni blames just one entity for his loss: Facebook. And now the attorney is suing the social networking site—not for money, but for an injunction that would halt premature account closing. Moughni, who came in fourth in the August primary, wants to know why Facebook shut down his page, cutting him off from his 1,600 friends, in June.
Moughni believes it was shut down because he criticized one of his opponent’s views (related to a ... baseball game), but a Facebook spokesperson tells the Detroit News it was shut down for suspicious behavior, and adds that Moughni would have been warned before the account was closed. Moughni had been adding 20 to 100 new friends a day at the time. He says he “had no chance without Facebook. They disorganized us in the middle of our campaign and we lost.” Then why, AllFacebookwonders, did did Moughni wait more than six months before filing a suit?
REMAP UCLA
Here is a link to a cool project at UCLA. The project is REMAP and it explores media, technology, and community among other things. Fabian Wagmister, Professor at UCLA, wants to make attempts to follow and aid the transition from personal computer to community computer.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
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