​California’s smartphone kill-switch bill flops in the state senate

US carriers can all collectively breathe a sigh of relief today: California’s mobile kill-switch bill is dead, at least for now. The would have required all smartphones sold in the state to include a remote-kill feature designed to render stolen phones useless. The bill was designed to curb phone robberies by making the crime less lucrative. If carriers didn’t comply, the state would have been able to fine them $2,500 for every unsupported device sold.

Although the fine would have only been enforceable in California, the bill could have put the remote-kill feature in phones nationwide. In fact, it still might: though the bill failed to garner enough votes to move on to the state assembly, it still has the option to return to the senate in the future.

Filed under: Cellphones

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Source: PC World

FTC: State bans on Tesla’s direct sales model are hurting competition

Tesla has just gained a valuable ally in its battle to sell cars directly to customers: the Federal Trade Commission. The regulator now argues that state bans on direct sales are “protectionist,” propping up the traditional dealership business model rather than protecting companies from unfair abuses by automakers. It’s the “competitive process” that should decide which sales model is better, not the law. The FTC also doesn’t buy the notion that Tesla’s modest US sales (22,500 in 2013) are a threat to the wider industry (15 million). It believes that the only thing at risk is the old way of buying cars, which might not be necessary now that customers can skip the sales pitch and do most of their research online.

Not surprisingly, Tesla agrees “wholeheartedly” that state rules need to change. The National Automobile Dealers Association is less than enthusiastic, however. It maintains that customers “lose virtually all bargaining power” in a middleman-free environment, since they couldn’t simply go to an independent store to haggle for a better deal.

The FTC’s criticism stops short of announcing any formal action, and it’s not clear that anything will change. The Commission exists primarily to regulate companies, and it may have a tough time pressuring individual states; right now, it’s just hoping that legislators will see the bans as anti-competitive and reject them accordingly. Still, it’s clear that dealers shouldn’t expect much FTC sympathy if the dispute over Tesla’s sales strategy ever reaches the federal level.

Filed under: Transportation

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Source: FTC

Crowdfunding project aims to bring a forgotten space probe back to life

The International Sun/Earth Explorer 3 probe is slated to come home in August after 36 years in space, but a group of engineers wants to use it as a platform for citizen science before it does. Sadly, NASA doesn’t have the budget to reactivate a probe’s that been decommissioned since 1999 — so, the team has turned to crowdfunding to get the ball rolling. For those who’ve never heard of the ISEE-3 before, it was originally sent to space to study how the Earth’s magnetic field and solar winds interact. Thus, it has 13 different scientific instruments on board (for measuring plasma, magnetic fields, waves and particles) that students or just about anyone can use if the group manages to recapture it.

Good news is, the team is led by Dennis Wingo and Keith Cowing, who have some serious credentials under their belt. These long-time collaborators head the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project, which digitizes analog data tapes from unmanned lunar orbiters sent to space in the 1960′s. Also, Wingo is the founder of Skycorp, which has developed equipment for NASA and DARPA in the past, while Cowing is former NASA employee.

These two and their team need to gain control of the ISEE-3 before mid-June 2014, else all their efforts will be wasted. In order to do so, they plan to use a dish to beam radio signals and establish contact with the probe, though it won’t be that easy — hence, the need to raise $125,000 via crowdfunding. How can ordinary people tap into the probe’s onboard lab, you ask? Well, if the mission’s successful, then the team will have software devs build apps, so the scientifically curious can access the probe’s instruments from the ground.

We just passed $21,000 – every donation helps us try to make #ISEE-3 do science again http://t.co/K2MOmF1aw2

– ISEE3 Reboot Project (@ISEE3Reboot) April 24, 2014

[Image credit: NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center]

[Thanks, Tim]

Filed under: Misc

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Via: Makezine

Source: Rockethub

Russia orders bloggers to register with government in attempt to control the internet

Russia: the home shirtless autocrats, vodka and a love of free speech rivaled by only China. The Kremlin is taking another step to squash people speaking their mind online. After building out an infrastructure that allows the government to more easily block sites it finds objectionable, now it’s building a registry of bloggers. A newly approved law requires anyone who authors a blog in the country to “declare their family name and initials and e-mail address.” To make matters worse, if someone’s personal blog has more than 3,000 visitors per-day, they’ll have to put their names on a special list and abide by a particularly onerous set of restrictions — the same set of restrictions that many mass media outlets must obey. If they violate those laws, they’ll be subject to fines or even have their site suspended for a period of time.

So what sort of stuff is off limits for bloggers? Well, first and foremost, they’ll be expected to confirm the authenticity of any information they publish and avoid disclosing people’s personal data. Those rules in particular are aimed at protecting politicians from controversy and smear campaigns. Beyond that there are prohibitions against posting violent or pornographic content and even using obscene language (complete horse shit). And anything the government deems “extremist” or related to terrorism is also off limits.

The obvious goal is to scare bloggers into avoiding posting controversial opinions or information — especially about government authorities. But there is every chance that the new law could fall before Russia’s Constitutional Court, where many expect it will face a stiff challenge. Failing that, there’s a relatively obvious loophole since the legislation only applies to bloggers within the country. Dissidents writing from overseas would be safe from prosecution. However, the government would likely just end up blocking such sites.

Filed under: Internet

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Via: TechDirt, The Verge

Source: Itar Tass, RT

Netflix gets specific about its battle with Comcast and opposition to the TWC merger

In the months since announcing a “mutually beneficial” interconnection agreement, Netflix and Comcast have seen eye to eye on very little. Throw in Comcast’s attempt to swallow up Time Warner Cable and grow even larger, and you have a battleground for the two to air their disagreements. Netflix put its opposition to the merger in writing with its most recent earnings report earlier this week, spurring a response from Comcast, and now a pair of more detailed rebuttals from the streaming company (update: and yet another response from Comcast). One is in a blog post by Vice President of Content Delivery Ken Florance, and another is a letter (PDF) by Vice President of Global Public Policy Christopher Libertelli in response to questions from Senator Al Franken. Both argue that Comcast’s stance that it deserves payment is flawed because, among other reasons Netflix is still the one that must transmit its data to Comcast’s network, where it stops without passing anywhere else.

In Comcast’s version of the events, it’s Netflix that approached it for the deal, cutting out wholesalers and exercising its market power. The cable giant says Netflix could always go back to working with partners that connect their networks to its backbone instead, and that any issues it has with the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger apply to the industry, not that deal. To close things out, its position is that Netflix’s opposition to the merger is all about enhancing its own negotiating power, and has nothing to do with protecting customers.

From the other side of things, it’s completely different, as Florance sees Netflix’s payments to middlemen like Cogent, Level3, XO or Tata is necessary because they actually carry its data over long distances to “every network” on the global internet. In connecting to Comcast, Netflix still has to shoulder the load of moving its data to the various endpoints where their networks connect. That, aside from the fact that Comcast serves as sole gatekeeper to the ability to reach customers using its services. In his letter, Libertelli says “Netflix purchased all available transit capacity into Comcast’s networks from multiple transit providers” and still experienced continually degrading services because Comcast wouldn’t upgrade the connections used by those providers as they requested. Once Netflix paid up, its quality increased, and seeing this as Comcast exercising its market leverage, Netflix opposes expanding that power by letting it combine with TWC.

So what’s next? So far, Netflix is still pushing other ISPs to join its OpenConnect program to connect networks or provide caching for its content without payment, and it could be some time before the government gives us a decision on the merger. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings referenced the possibility of allowing the merger with “significant settlements in there” during the earnings call on Tuesday, but what those could include is unclear. The FCC’s current net neutrality conundrum doesn’t extend to the peering agreements discussed here, but the nature of its trust problem over whether ISPs are responsibly managing their traffic is unquestionably entangled in the same conversation. Right now, Netflix customers on Comcast are definitely experiencing a boost in streaming quality and speeds, but that does little for users on other providers facing congestion and if these two stay at odds, who knows how long their deal will last.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD

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Source: Netflix Blog, Netflix Response to Senator Franken

​Having trouble spending your digital currency? Get a Bitcoin debit card

For all its advantages, Bitcoin has one major drawback: it’s rather hard to spend. While the digital currency has legs in online marketplaces like Overstock and Square Market, few brick and mortar stores are equipped to trade in Bitcoin. Special ATMs help a little, but there has to be a better way. Xapo, a crypto coin storage vault, thinks it’s found one: the Bitcoin debit card. Xapo’s card promises to work exactly like your bank’s plastic — authorizing transactions by checking the requested charge against your account balance in real time. If the sale is approved, Xapo automatically sells a comparable amount of Bitcoin from the user’s wallet to cover the purchase. Xapo says the card should be an improvement on the Bitcoin pre-paid cards that already exist, which require the user to manually refill their plastic before hitting the town.

“You can use it anywhere you would pay with MasterCard,” Xapo founder Wences Casares told CoinDesk. “It makes it very, very easy for you to access your coins.” The card will be available in two versions: a free, digital card for use at online retailers that don’t normally accept Bitcoin and a $15 (one time fee) physical card that can be used anywhere. The company is offering sign ups now, with card shipping this summer. Interested? Check out the company’s pre-order page at the source link below.

Filed under: Misc

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Via: CoinDesk

Source: Xapo