22 USC 1461 sec 501 Why the proposed changes could be awesome
The US Government wants to modify 22 USC 1461 sec 501 so that they can put propaganda on the internet. There is a risk of people being exposed to said propaganda, but wouldn’t you really like to know what the US Government is saying to other countries, and specifically to the citizens of those other [...]
Canada is mulling over the idea that customers pay for their own phone surveillance
Canadian Bill C-30 proposes a tax on people purchasing internet and phone services so that the cost of paying for surveillance equipment or responding to Law Enforcement lookups will not burden either the government or the ISP/Phone Company. Canada plans on taxing users of systems so that they can be monitored by the government. There [...]
Why SOPA is going to be unenforceable
I would lay odds that SOPA is going to pass, and pass by a majority in the house and senate; it is debatable if the president will sign it. If you have been involved in Bittorrent or P2P systems for a long time, you know that the minute something passes like a law against something, [...]
Does Twitter Censor hashtags?
There is an interesting hash tag for #occupywallstreet this morning with a protest going on in New York City about the crimes of banks and the rest of wall street. So far estimates are that there are thousands of people in the streets in New York protesting the entire banking system. What is of interest [...]
From Arab Spring to UK Summer putting the brakes on Social Networking
First World meets Social Media and attempts to curtail it much like their third world counterparts – too late the cat is so far out of the bag we can’t even catch a whiff of what things were like before social media communications to coordinate groups for good, or bad. It is interesting that the [...]
Come On Silicon Valley, We Can Provide a Better Rx for Jobs!
Fortune magazine has an article running that Techmemed about some advice Barrack Obama is getting about jobs from Silicon Valley Heavyweights like Kleiner VC John Doerr and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. They’re all about Education and Immigration Visa Reform as the path to creating jobs, along with plugs along the way for their own ventures. Here [...]
Spying on Students is Not a Crime. Neither is Political Corruption.
<quick rant> Remember the school district that spied on students (and their families) in their home, using remotely controlled laptop cameras? The Feds found it was OK…or at least not criminal. The AP reports: U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger says investigators have found no evidence of criminal intent by Lower Merion School District employees who [...]
Microsoft Should Donate PowerPoint to the Taliban
I don’t pretend to be a military strategist, but I’ve figured out how to win the war in Afghanistan. OK, not on my own – The New York Times helped, with an article titled: We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint: Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the leader of American and NATO forces in [...]
I think we forgot something on the way to the future
Our future was supposed to be bright and shiny. I think we messed up somewhere along the line. I do not normally write about politics, and I try to keep this blog generally upbeat. While I am busy building out my company and seeing good growth and support from the people we serve, there are [...]
Old media, new media and presentation skills changing the face of British Politics
A complex equation of old media influence, new media influence, and plain old fashioned presentation skills are in the process of changing British Politics forever. I don’t usually get in to political issues here (and please note my disclosure at the end), but there are some important lessons to learn from the UK’s first General [...]
The @TWTFelipe Story – A Tale of US Visa Policy Gone Awry (#startupvisa)
“Staple green cards to the diplomas of foreign students who graduate from any U.S. university in math or science” (Thomas Friedman) I’ve been meaning to write this post since September of last year when Brad Feld first wrote about the The Founders Visa Movement. I commented briefly on his blog and made a mental note [...]
Who controls what happens in your browser
Interesting tidbit over at Techdirt this morning about a Grease Monkey script called Fluff Busting Purity formerly known as Facebook Purity. While the Techdirt article is good, there are some interesting side issues here that should be noted. Many people run scripts within their browser that kills data coming in from web sites, most popular [...]
Amazon sees renewed pressure to collect State Sales Tax
Amazon and other online retailers like EBay might not be able to dodge the tax collection business for much longer as States try increasingly to find new areas of revenue. Over the last couple of weeks, both Colorado and California have started passing legislation in one form or another that will mean that Amazon will [...]
Jesse Stay hits the Copyright Wall
Jesse Stay is one of the better people to follow on the internet and his writing is always interesting to read, plus he also owns Social Too and has written two books as well. Jesse is no stranger to generating content, startups, and some generally interesting reading on his blog. What has apparently happened is [...]
Social Media as Storytelling
The more I look at social media, the more it reminds me of storytelling. A person can be telling stories around a camp fire with a small audience, or telling stories around the world in mass releases of information. The better the story the more people that will engage with the subject and the better [...]
