Posts published in “Politics”

Here’s how Andy Hertzfeld, an eyewitness, recounted it: NO FAIR: I BROKE IN FIRST “You’re ripping us off!” Steve [Jobs] shouted, raising his voice even higher. “I trusted you, and now you’re stealing from us!” But Bill Gates just stood there coolly, looking Steve directly in the eye, before starting to speak in his squeaky voice. “Well, Steve, I think there’s more than one way of looking at it. I think it’s more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it.”…

The Turtle, Net Neutrality, and Title II PHOTO BY DENNIS BURGER Two primal forces are colliding in Washington in reaction to the Federal Communications Commission’s attempts to enforce net neutrality. Net neutrality is the idea that internet service providers ought to treat all forms and sources of data equally. In other words, the companies that operate the pipes should not be allowed to block, censor, degrade, or otherwise discriminate against some kinds of data traffic. The two forces are as old as government itself. Governments lean toward regulation as a way to protect consumers and to maintain stability. Businesses…

It’s official: Big Brother is watching and listening, with help from Little Brothers in the tech industry. Here’s something new we just learned, courtesy of Edward Snowdon: The United States government has for years pressed major technology companies – including the companies that facilitate our email, telephone calls, online banking and financial services – to deliberately introduce security flaws into their systems to make spying easier. Using bribes, legal threats, secret orders from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and political pressure, the government demanded secret access to the supposedly private, confidential data and communications of untold millions of people…