Is the AT&T-DIRECTV Deal a Precursor to Increased FCC Control of the Internet?

On July 28, 2015, the FCC granted permission for AT&T to acquire DIRECTV and merge the two companies into one combined entity (see FCC Memorandum Opinion and Order in Docket 14-90, released July 28, 2015). We will leave it to others to discuss the merits of the deal. However, there are certain aspects that could have significant implications for broadband Internet service providers specifically and Internet regulation in general. That is the issue of whether the Commission, now that it has seized Title II authority over the Internet, will begin to control the pricing of Internet services and, in fact, all Internet behavior?

In its Open Internet Order that became effective on June 12, 2015, the Commission asserted that it would forebear from using its Title II pricing authority and would not mandate specific Internet prices. Critics of the Order did not buy this and argued that it was just a matter of time before the Commission would use its section 201 and 202 regulatory authority (which it refused to forebear from) to prescribe “just and reasonable” prices as a backdoor way to control Internet prices.

Unfortunately for those who were hoping that the Commission would stay out of Internet pricing, the AT&T-DIRECTV merger includes a requirement that will be in effect for four years that is a clear instance of the FCC prescribing ISP pricing. Here is the relevant condition imposed by the FCC:

Read more here.... 

Woodstock & Wany - 10 Years In The Making

Living and working in paradise: the rise of the 'digital nomad'

Fed up with spending the 9 to 5 in a stuffy office? Anna Hart packs her Mac and follows the trend for extreme remote working - in Bali

Typing these words, my forefinger sticks sweatily to the trackpad. When I glance up from the screen, I see steam rising from the neighbouring paddy field. As with all workplaces, there’s a steady hum of white noise: coffee being brewed, group meetings peppered with jargon such as “touch base”, “reach out”, “loop back” and “incentivise”.

But Hubud, AKA “Hub-in-Ubud”, Bali, isn’t a conventional office. It is a bamboo and wood building with an outdoor organic café and a pretty garden dotted with beanbags – and monkeys, as it is just 100m from Ubud’s famous Monkey Forest. For everyone who has ever come back from holiday and wished they could have stayed, I am living the dream – and working in paradise.

• Five reasons why everyone should live abroad at least once

 

This is one of a rapidly increasing number of co-working spaces, where freelancers, sole traders and small companies rent desks and share printers and coffee machines. But even within that hip, fast-evolving realm, Hubud is an outlier – and its 250-strong community believes that this highly covetable office environment is the workplace of the future. The diversity of this group also signals another change: that more and more jobs are becoming portable, possible to do at a digital distance – not just web designers and freelance writers but fashion designers, photographers, models, marketers and even a remote-working GP.

As a freelance journalist, I have long been a convert to co-working spaces. I work from Netil House in Hackney, east London, where I share a studio with a jewellery designer, an arts curator and a photographer. Cycling to work, choosing my working hours and studio mates, I feel like I have got it pretty good, particularly compared to the years I spent working long, inflexible hours in a staff job. Or I felt good until I heard about Hubud. Because if going it alone in a co-working space is the first step towards freedom for the growing number of frustrated, ambitious young professionals, phase two is complete “location independence”; also known as “digital nomadism”. 

Read More Here...

A Radio Station About Food Reports From A Recycled Shipping Container In Brooklyn

You may have heard them on iTunes: a group of food reporters, commentators, constantly talking about all things food.

The Heritage Radio Network reports out of recycled shipping containers in Bushwick. To be more specific, their offices are in shipping containers in the middle of a pizza restaurant in hipster Brooklyn.

They crank out 40 shows a week, hitting all topics related to food. To date, they’ve compiled a log of 7,000 episodes. This covers the gamut from sustainable agriculture to food tech to eating disorders to the culinary history of Vietnam.

Patrick Martins, founder of Slow Food USA and Heritage Foods USA, started the program in 2009.  Since then, he’s drawn in the superstars of slow food like Alice Waters and Michael Pollan to his eco-friendly office, hosting conversations on and off-the-air with such food activists.

 Martins (far right) hosts a conversation with Alice Waters.

To get younger voices in the mix, Martins and his crew started a scholarship program, getting students from nearby schools to contribute their own food stories.

While they’ve got a strong following of listeners, they’re having growing pains.  So, they’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign, which reads:

“As a scrappy non-profit, we did our best to repair the cracks with the equivalent of internet duct-tape along the way.  But now we’re at a critical point.”

 “The website is our storefront,” Martins says in the new Kickstarter video.  But the website is outdated — in need of new coding and organization.

 Heritage Radio Network’s offices are housed in these recycled shipping containers.

“We want to be the planet for food,” Martins iterates.  To do that, they need a revamping.  So, the largely volunteer-based crew is seeking $35,000 on Kickstarter to support their thriving non-profit.  

Most, if not all, the shows are made by unpaid individuals — an issue in many independent media outlets. Despite the recent renaissance of radio and podcasts, the business models have stayed largely the same.

Martins isn’t a novice entrepreneur, though.  While this might be his first media venture, he started Heritage Foods USA, an online marketplace for family farmers to sell their poultry, beef, pigs, and other artisanal meats directly to chefs and customers.  Working with the Slow Food movement, he had developed a network of farmers around the country, who were looking for markets for their product.  Martins played that missing link, connecting them to premier restaurants, farm-to-table chefs, and American households.  

That online shop now has a retail storefront in New York City: The Heritage Meat Shop, reportedly the “first all Heritage breed meat shop” in America — not far from Martins’ recording studio in Brooklyn.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/eshachhabra/2015/04/28/a-radio-station-about-food-reports-from-a-recycled-shipping-container-in-brooklyn/

CDR-Data Corporation adds even more features to provide call data.

 

 For Immediate Release 

2015

Pasadena, CA

CDR-Data Corporation adds even more features to provide call data.

CDR-Data, the oldest SaaS call accounting solution, is announcing yet another new enhancement for eCDR®. This exciting new feature allows organizations to receive the analytics and call center tools needed to govern personnel resources and allocate expense more effectively.

These enhances are more of the CDR-Data’s promises to their client’s in providing improvements to reduce resources and increase revenue. 

This version now provides their clients with the ability to give their users the tools to extract data, create reports and update extension or cost center information.

The updated system user will provide a pop-up of the Cost Center that will allow the super user to assign multiple cost centers to a user.  

Reports may be printed, emailed or down-loaded to an Excel file.

About CDR-Data Corporation

CDR-Data Corporation, based in Pasadena CA, www.cdrdata.com consists of a group of professionals with decades of experience in the telemanagement, call accounting and IT industry. By using an ASP environment, this team has consistently delivered proven products and services that provide answers to management's questions of telecommunications usage and billing. CDR-Data has gained its market share by consistently delivering high quality and flexible solutions to each and every CDR-Data client.

For More information:

CDR-Data Corporation               Kevin Young                626-791-9700

CDR-Data Corporation add feature in Security

For Immediate Release

2015

Pasadena, CA

CDR-Data Corporation add feature in Security

CDR-Data is announcing the new enhancements for eCDR© from the oldest call accounting ASP company. Security is critical for organizations and businesses. There are hundreds and thousands web attacks daily. To fight against this CDR-Data has developed new features in the username and password login. Here is a white paper from the FCC’s standards for security and login protection. 

http://transition.fcc.gov/cyber/cyberplanner.pdf

These attacks can make a successful business go out of business in days. 

Here are some of the enhancements developed that our clients requested and/or needed. 

• An account will be locked out if more the six failed logon attempts.
• User session expires after fifteen minutes of inactivity.
• Contain at least 3/4: Upper, lower case, alphanumeric, and special characters
• Password will expire after ninety days, if not used.
• The system/application prevents the last 6 passwords to be reused.

Not every employee needs access to all of your information. Keep your login information to yourself.

About CDR-Data Corporation

CDR-Data Corporation, based in Pasadena CA, www.cdrdata.com consists of a group of professionals with decades of experience in the telemanagement, call accounting and IT industry. By using an ASP environment, this team has consistently delivered proven products and services that provide answers to management's questions of telecommunications usage and billing. CDR-Data has gained its market share by consistently delivering high quality and flexible solutions to each and every CDR-Data client.

For More information:

CDR-Data Corporation              Kevin Young                         626-791-9700

####

General Motors may 'kick the tires' on Google's self-driving car

Automaker says it'd be open to talking to Google about teaming up on driverless-car tech.

General Motors says it would consider the possibility of partnering with Google to build self-driving cars, according to the automaker's chief technology officer.

Speaking to Reuters in an interview published Monday, CTO Jon Lauckner says his company would "certainly be open to having a discussion" with Google about partnering to build a self-driving car.

"You have to figure out how would something like that actually work," Lauckner told Reuters. "Would it be something where it would be an opportunity to work together in a joint development agreement? I'd say probably anybody who's interested ought to at least go over and kick the tires," he added.

Google has been logging thousands of miles of road time on its driverless car since it revealed in 2010 it was working on the technology. Over the past several years, the Internet giant has unveiled incremental improvements. In December, Google showed off its first complete working prototype. (That compares with a previous version that didn't have a steering wheel or real headlights.) The technology uses a series of sensors to detect objects, analyze what they are and respond accordingly.

In a statement to The Wall Street Journal last month, Chris Urmson, the head of Google's autonomous vehicle project, said that the prototype relies on 64 lasers that scan across 360 degrees, a camera and GPS map data to generate a map of its surroundings and drive safely. Google uses software and algorithms to make the car react to predictable and unpredictable scenarios.

That GM is at least considering working with Google on a self-driving car is good news for the search giant. Last month, Urmson told the Journal that Google does not "particularly want to become a car maker," adding that his company was in talks with automakers.

Urmson is scheduled to speak Wednesday at the Automotive World News Congress in Detroit, where he could announce plans for partnering with automakers, according to Reuters. 

Google has been flirting with car partnerships for at least the past couple of years. In 2013, Elon Musk, founder and CEO of electric-car maker Tesla, said he held "some technical discussions with Google." However, he went on to say that it was unlikely he would ink a deal with Google because the company's laser technology is too expensive. Musk also said that he would likely build his own autopilot system.

At the Consumer Electronics Show last week, Mercedes-Benz showed off its own self-driving concept car, called the F 015, that looks more like a living room inside than an actual vehicle. That car does not rely on Google's auto-driving technology.

Still, Google has formed relationships in the car industry, announcing last year that it had inked deals with Honda, Audi and GM to deliver cars that include its Android operating system. 

Whatever technology companies use, it appears self-driving cars will be hitting roadways in increasing numbers in the coming years. The trouble for all of the players is getting the go-ahead to put autonomous cars on the road. As of this writing, in the US just a handful of states allow self-driving cars, including Florida and California. 

Neither Google nor GM immediately responded to a request for comment.

http://www.cnet.com/news/general-motors-may-kick-the-tires-on-googles-self-driving-car/