Senate challenges Martin over media ownership
FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin got a bruising on Capitol Hill today over his plan to loosen media ownership rules.
FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin got a bruising on Capitol Hill today over his plan to loosen media ownership rules.
DARPA has chosen 36 finalists for its Urban Challenge, a close-in city version of its "grand challenge" for robotic car designers, The San Francisco Chronicle reports. The defense agency isn't quite ready to unleash robocars on a real city; this contest will take place at a former Air Force base in Victorville, Calif.
The battle over telecommunications immunity continued Monday with a Senate vote, 76-10, to advance for a floor vote a bill protecting the companies from lawsuits relating to cooperation with national surveillance efforts.The Times reports that most Democrats voted to move forward, as a bid by Sen.
Michigan Republicans don't like the liberal blog Blogging for Michigan and so Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop's chief of staff had the website blocked from Senate computers, the Detroit Free Press reports.The move was greeted with howls of "censorship.
Now that everyone realizes what a very bad idea electronic voting machines are, Diebold would like nothing more than to get out of the business. Alas, reports InfoWorld, it has been unable to sell Diebold Election Systems.
Not that long ago, municipal Wi-Fi was the talk of the town, so to speak. These days the latest rendition of the information superhighway is getting a bumpy ride, or plenty of static (choose your metaphor), as ISPs and telecoms are walking away from the business of partnering with local government to build free or cheap public networks, Business Week says.
Computer forensic scientists are intrigued and dismayed by the iPhone, Wired reports. The article cites Derrick Donnelly, chief technology officer of Blackbag Technologies, which specializes in Apple forensic solutions.
The Federal Communications Commission violated rules by tipping off some corporations and trade groups about when commissioners planned to vote on important issues, a Government Accountability Office report has found. Consumer and public interest groups did not get such useful information, The Los Angeles Times reports.
Yahoo wants a federal court to dismiss Chinese dissident Shi Tao's complaint against the company for allegedly facilitating his arrest by Chinese authorities. Yahoo Monday filed a 51-page motion to dismiss, claiming that Shi's problem is with Chinese authorities and that the case has "no place in American courts.
WiMax got a big vote of confidence Friday as the UN's International Telecommunication Union voted to include the long-range wireless technology as part of its third-generation family of mobile standards, The New York Times reported.That means that member countries of the ITU can devote part of the radio spectrum to WiMax - and we may start to see WiMax receivers in computers, phones and portable devices.