Blog Moving

Blog Moving to geekspeak.cepheus.us

Ma Bell coming back together piece by piece

AT&T to Buy BellSouth, Creating Telecom Giant - New York Times

SBC, er now AT&T, is going to purchase the 3rd largest baby bell - Bell South. This is going to be a massive telecom giant, spanning most of the areas of the country. It had been rumored for some time when the 2 companies came together to create Cingular Wireless, which will now become AT&T Wireless, which Cingular happened to buy from the original AT&T a couple of years ago.

Next move will be taken by Verizon in response, but I don't know what could be left. Nobody wants Qwest (and for a good reason).

Big Brother is watching you.

Houston eyes cameras at apartment complexes

This might be a case of security going to the extreme. The police chief of Houston, TX is proposing placing police surveillance cameras on private property to help combat crime with a shortage of police officers. The quote from the police chief is rather scary - "I know a lot of people are concerned about Big Brother, but my response to that is, if you are not doing anything wrong, why should you worry about it?"

Whatever happened to a man's home is his castle?

A real fat cat

Fat Cat Listed in Good Health

If you think you have a tubby feline....look at this tub of goo.

Government requesting Search Engine Data

Court Documents & Summary Of United States Versus Google Over Search Data

As a means of "protecting the children" (through the Children's Online Protection Act), the US government had requested from Google, MSN, and Yahoo URL and search information in order to find "harmful-to-minors" material. MSN has supposedly complied fully, Yahoo has complied in a modified form, but Google has continued to fight this in the courts.

I have a great problem with this. No government "owns" the internet. This generation of the internet that was designed with the free flow of information (sometimes too free a flow). The genie is already out of the bottle and there is nothing the governments can realistically do to keep it in.

If the US government wants the google search information, maybe they should learn on how to put the queries into the search engines itself. It should not request the search engine habits of its citizens.

ABC News: Stupid in America

ABC News: Stupid in America

John Stossel from ABC News takes a hard look at the American Education system and examines the quality of education our children are receiving.

RealClearPolitics - Commentary - Myth: Schools Need More Money by John Stossel

RealClearPolitics - Commentary - Myth: Schools Need More Money by John Stossel

John Stossel writes a response to the firestorm he had created from the ABC News report on 20/20 about the American education system. The previous week, he gave a synopsis of his report here.

Ruling Puts BlackBerry Maker at Crossroads

Ruling Puts BlackBerry Maker at Crossroads

It appears that the ongoing patent dispute between RIM (who makes Blackberries) and NTP (who has a patent for some of the services that are used) might be coming to a head. If you are a Blackberry user, you may want to keep a real close eye on these proceedings.

Microsoft Live

Microsoft is apparently beta testing many new programs in their Microsoft Live site. It may be interesting to see where they go with this.