JetLib News

gollum123 writes “US regulators may dedicate spectrum to free wireless Internet service for some Americans to increase affordable broadband service nationwide, the Federal Communications Commission said on Tuesday. The FCC provided few details about how it would carry out such a plan and who would qualify, but will make a recommendation under the National Broadband Plan set for release next week. The agency will determine details later. One way of making broadband more affordable is to ‘consider use of spectrum for a free or a very low-cost wireless broadband service,’ the FCC said in a statement.” Nobody has more than a couple of paragraphs on this story. None of the press coverage mentions the obvious likelihood that any such free network would be heavily filtered, censored, and monitored.

Source: US Considers Some Free Wireless Broadband Service

Spamresource.com has up a piece describing a new service that could be useful in evaluating the reputation of sites you deal with — anonwhois.org returns information on domains registered anonymously. It provides a DNSBL-style service that “is not a blacklist and wasn’t meant to be used for outright rejection of mail.” Only 619,000 domains are listed so far, but more are added as they are queried, so the database will grow more complete. Anonwhois.org seems to be a sister site to Spam Eating Monkey.

Source: Detecting Anonymously Registered Domains

PCM2 writes “ABC News is reporting that the US Secret Service is in dire need of server upgrades. ‘Currently, 42 mission-oriented applications run on a 1980s IBM mainframe with a 68 percent performance reliability rating,’ says one leaked memo. That finding was the result of an NSA study commissioned by the Secret Service to evaluate the severity of their computer problems. Curiously, upgrades to the Service’s computers are being championed by Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who says he’s had ‘concern for a while’ about the issue.”

Source: Secret Service Runs At “Six Sixes” Availability

A pneumatic subway opens in Lower Manhattan. And you thought your transit service sucks?

Source: Feb. 26, 1870: New York City Blows Subway Opportunity

Google is set to ask early users of its new social networking service to make sure they really want to make their networks public. The move aims to give privacy-enhancing changes to those who signed on immediately.

Source: Google Will Ask Buzz’s Early Adopters to Confirm Privacy Choices

Google may have lost to Apple in its bid to acquire Lala, a music service that grabs users’ digital music collections and hosts them in the cloud, allowing them to add to those collections for a mere 10 cents per song. But it would be nuts to count out Google in the race to replace iTunes’ pay-per-download model with a cloud-based music service that is easy and attractive enough to convince non-music-buyers to open their wallets.

Source: Google’s Music Strategy: Past, Present and Future

Guvera’s upcoming music service will offer free streams and downloads using a novel approach: funneling music into branded areas using a complex algorithm that obviates the need for users to sit through ads. The catch: a velvet-rope policy limiting the service to the first 100,000 users.

Source: Free, Ad-Supported Music … With a Twist

The all-seeing search company tweaks its overactive new social service to address privacy concerns. A little.

Source: Alt Text: Google Knows You’re Buzzing About Buzz

Verizon has announced that it is on track to roll out their new 4G LTE service using the 700 MHz band that it acquired in the recent FCC auction. Targeted first towards USB air cards for laptop customers, the service will be extended to cell phones and other mobile devices with embedded LTE eventually. Testing in Boston and Seattle should conclude in the next couple of months and commercial deployments should follow soon thereafter. “Lynch said getting voice to work over LTE has been particularly challenging. But that challenge is getting resolved as Verizon and other members of the GSMA announced Monday they are supporting a standard that uses IMS technology to deliver voice services over LTE. Still, more work needs to be done. Until a solution is complete, Verizon will use its CDMA network to provide voice services. And the LTE network will be used for data. Eventually, when voice over LTE becomes a reality, Verizon will use that technology. Verizon will also have to integrate EV-DO into its LTE offering to ensure that customers can switch to the 3G EV-DO network when the 4G LTE network is not available. Even though Verizon is being aggressive in building its network, it won’t happen overnight.”

Source: Verizon CTO Says 4G Service Is On Track

Standing Bear writes “NPR reports that 140 years after the creation of the National Weather Service, the US government is proposing the creation of a similar service that will provide long-term projections of how climate will change. ‘We are actually getting millions of requests a year already about: How should coastal cities plan for sea-level rise? How should various other agencies in the federal government or in state governments make plans for everything from roads to managing water supplies?’ says NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco. ‘And a lot of that is going to be changing as the climate changes.’ Under the plan, the new NOAA Climate Service would incorporate some of the agency’s existing laboratories and research programs, including the National Climatic Data Center, the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory and the National Weather Service’s Historical Climate Network. Meanwhile, as plans for the new climate service shape up, NOAA launched a new Web site, climate.gov, designed to provide access to a wide range of climate information.”

Source: Gov’t Proposes “National Climate Service” For the US