Category: Politics

Verizon’s 100mbps Broadband service

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This would be funny if it weren’t so sad – at least those of us stuck with very slow telco service:

The Actiontec router’s 100 Mbps capability allows Verizon to continue to provide higher data speeds to the customer, as they become available in the future, without having to install a new router or other equipment in the customer’s home. Verizon’s FTTP network is capable of providing such speeds. In addition, the new router allows Verizon to remotely assist customers in configuring it to meet specific needs within the home. Verizon also provides customers a business-class Internet firewall on the router.

“The ability to remotely diagnose problems and help the customer configure the router was a key goal for us,” Wimsatt said. “In-home networking can be complex, but we have the right people — and now the right equipment — to help the customer.”

Verizon is the only major telecom company building fiber-optics directly into customers’ homes, paving the way for an array of advanced and reliable voice, data and video services. The company is currently building the network in parts of 16 states. By the end of last year, Verizon had passed some 3 million homes with the new technology and expects to pass 3 million more this year. The company began building the network in 2004.

Where’s SBC/AT&T in all of this? They don’t seem to be spending their money on infrastructure….

Judge Rules That Prosecutors Violated the rights of 16 KPMG Partners

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Peter Lattman:

Those who commit crimes – regardless of whether they wear white or blue collars – must be brought to justice. The government, however, has let its zeal get in the way of its judgment. It has violated the Constitution it is sworn to defend.

That’s the money quote in Judge Kaplan’s stunning 88-page opinion, in which he found that prosecutors violated the constitutional rights of a group of former KPMG partners by pressuring the firm not to pay their legal bills. We’re going to take the liberty of reprinting the opinion’s entire preamble, which contains remarkably clear, riveting writing:

More here, here and here.

Lattman further posts his views on the winners and losers via this ruling along with a roundup of other commentary.

Law Professor Linda Beale has a few words as well.

Pelli’s Minneapolis Public Library

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Photo by
Sopheava

Overture Center Architect Cesar Pelli’s Minneapolis Public Library recently opened. Check out the Flickr photo set for a number of perspectives. More on the Library:

The new Central Library features 25 community meeting and study rooms, a state-of-the-art auditorium, an updated children’s library, a center for new Americans, a space especially for teens, and 353,000 square feet of additional access to knowledge-enhancing resources.

With one-of-a-kind architecture, design and resources, the new Central Library is a destination spot for residents, the downtown workforce and visitors interested in experiencing the library’s extensive collection; attending special events, performances and author readings; or simply relaxing with a cup of coffee in a warm, welcoming place.

Well worth checking out as Madison considers a new downtown library (please keep Kenton Peter’s metallic designs away…)

Buy American & Build in Mexico – Ford’s Mark Fields

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Frank Williams:

So a Mexican-built car is Ford’s hedge in the American market against Japanese-branded cars built on US soil. This is getting more and more confusing. But wait – there’s more.

Fields bragged that Ford’s new hybrids are “posting record sales of late” and their “innovations led to more than 130 patents,” with more pending. The Ford exec conveniently omitted the fact that Ford’s hybrid technology depends on technology licensed from Toyota. Nor did he mention the Japanese-made transaxles and battery packs and German-built regenerative braking systems which make Ford’s hybrids possible.

Net Neutrality

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Larry Lessig:

Apparent there are now allegations that SBC and Verizon forced the deals through DoJ when the designee for head of antitrust was on Senatorial hold for too activist an enforcement bent. DoJ cleared the deals and the hold was lifted. DoJ then ignored the amended Tunney Act and let the companies close the deals even before the judge did the Tunney Act review.

This is sleazy stuff, and it forms the real basis for being concerned about the games the network owners would play if free to play games. The really striking part of this (to me, a constitutionalist) is how the legislative branch keeps passing laws that the executive branch just ignores. And why ignore the laws? Corporate influence. That’s what this case reeks of.

Cities Shop for Free WiFi Services

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Bobby White:

Under the agreement, Sacramento residents would pay monthly subscription fees of about $20 to use MobilePro’s wireless service, local businesses would pay $90 to $250, and Sacramento’s city agencies would be able to use the service free. The agreement resembled that of many other municipal wireless deals across the country. For MobilePro, based in Bethesda, Md., a full year of service would bring in $2 million to $4 million in revenue, analysts estimate.


But earlier this month, the deal fell apart. The reason: Sacramento city officials had noticed new municipal wireless deals inked in San Francisco and Portland, Ore. The Portland rollout, sponsored by Silicon Valley startup MetroFi Inc., and the San Francisco deployment from Google Inc. and Earthlink Inc., both offered wireless service to those cities with expanded free access for some businesses and residents. Instead of relying on user subscription fees, MetroFi, Google and Earthlink planned to make money off local advertising that would be embedded in their wireless service.

If It’s Good for Philip Morris, Can It Also Be Good for Public Health?

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Joe Nocera:

“We don’t make widgets,” Steve Parrish likes to say, and that acknowledgment strikes me as a good place to start this story. Parrish, whose title is senior vice president for corporate affairs, is a highly paid executive at Altria Group, a New York-based holding company that is the 10th-most-profitable corporation in America. If the name of the company doesn’t strike you as terribly familiar, that’s because a few years ago the company changed its name. It used to be called Philip Morris, a name that still attaches to two of its holdings, Philip Morris USA and Philip Morris International. (Altria also owns Kraft Foods.) So, yes, let’s stipulate right up front: Steve Parrish represents the country’s leading tobacco company, whose best-known brand, Marlboro, is so dominant it accounts for 4 out of every 10 cigarettes smoked in the United States. Last year, Philip Morris USA alone made $4.6 billion in profits. What was it that Warren Buffett once said? “You make a product for a penny, you sell it for a dollar and you sell it to addicts.” They most certainly don’t make widgets.

Kraft is parent of Madison based Oscar Meyer Foods.

FBI’s Preliminary 2005 US “Uniform Crime Report”

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The FBI: PDF File. Madison’s results:

Violent Crime, 2004: 841 2005: 839

Murder, 2004: 2 2005: 2

Forcible Rape, 2004: 94 2005: 80

Robbery, 2004: 292 2005: 329

Aggravated Assault, 2004: 453 2005: 428

Property Crime, 2004: 7,279 2005: 7,739

Burglary, 2004: 1450 2005: 1449

Larceny-theft, 2004: 5268 2005: 5682

Motor Vehicle theft, 2004: 561 2005: 606

Arson, 2004: 83 2005: 65

I had the opportunity to speak with Madison Police Lt. Joe Balles a month or so ago regarding local crime data. He mentioned that the City of Madison Police department responds to 157,000 calls annually and that 1 out of every 3 has additional data (“crime”). The data is generally stored and reported following the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting standards.

Joe mentioned that the community does not report simple theft to them as they did in the past; bike thefts are an example of this. Finally, Joe noted that the FBI’s data model does not include some types, such as ID or credit card data theft.