communicatoration

Court strikes down FCC’s indecency fines policy

Ryan — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 01:37:28 +0000

The second circuit court of appeals has ruled to strike down the FCC’s policy of fining television stations for transmitting indecent speech. The court found that “the FCC’s policy violates the First Amendment because it is unconstitutionally vague, creating a chilling effect that goes far beyond the fleeting expletives at issue here.”

Court of Appeals

White House wants 500MHz of “new” spectrum for wireless broadband

Ryan — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:12:52 +0000

The White House wants to add to the USA’s wireless broadband spectrum by offering up/re-allocating 500MHz of spectrum for new usage. The official press release spells out the President’s 4 point plan. The goals are to:

1. Identify and plan for the release of 500 MHz of spectrum
2. Provide the tools needed to effectively reallocate spectrum
3. Enable spectrum to be put to its highest value uses
4. Use the auction proceeds to promote public safety, job-creating infrastructure investment and deficit reduction.

More wireless broadband spectrum is largely a good thing. Expect some drama though if the feds start talking about using eminent domain as a way to “release” the spectrum in question.

Google’s Public Data Explorer

Ryan — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 23:20:28 +0000

Google labs added a promising app in March. Google Public Data Explorer lets users view and manipulate public data sets. By easing access to and graphing of data sets, apps like GPD offer the potential to greatly increase data analysis and research output. Hopefully the app will develop quickly and more and more data sets will be integrated. Go and have a play around with the data and you’ll see the potential.

Louisiana moves to increase penalties for “virtual map” crimes

Ryan — Thu, 27 May 2010 13:08:59 +0000

Providing an excellent example of a solution looking for a problem, the Louisiana House of Representatives has quickly approved a senate bill to add more stringent minimum sentencing requirements for crimes that utilize “virtual street level maps.”

From: NOLA.com

Larry Downes on a National Broadband Plan

Ryan — Tue, 11 May 2010 17:16:37 +0000

Larry Downes posted an interested in piece in defense of a coordinated national broadband plan featuring public-private cooperation. Using examples from prior national infrastructural development, Downes argues that the FCC should focus on network expansion and reduce its regulatory ambitions and net neutrality goals.

Larry Downes via Stanford CIS

Canada dishes out new funding for rural broadband

Ryan — Mon, 10 May 2010 03:17:28 +0000

Industry minister Tony Clement announced funding for 52 new projects aimed at increasing broadband penetration in rural Canada. Funding is set to come from the Economic Action Plan stimulus funds.

The projects to be funded can be seen here: Industry Canada Site.

Projects range from plans to connect a few hundred homes to plans to connect tens of thousands of homes. It is hard to assess how well-spent the over $75 million dollars is without information on what technologies are being used and exactly what degree of subsidization is taking place.

Redesign/refocus

Ryan — Mon, 10 May 2010 01:50:43 +0000

I’ve redesigned the site and changed my content management software. The change has been good in that I’ve moved away from MT, which offered more than I needed, and have adopted Wordpress, which seems to suit my requirements quite well. The downside is that – while I have kept archives of my old posts – many images are missing.

As part of the site re-tuning I hope to focus more on my research interests.

edit: I think I just took care of most of the broken images.

Back in the Saddle.

Ryan — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:03:23 +0000

I’ve been a bad bad blogger. Bad. However, having reached a psychically draining data analysis phase of thesis research I need all the non-thesis related outlets available to me. So, I’ve decided to get back in the writing saddle. More to come soon. As a stop-gap measure, here’s a photo from a recent trip to Hong Kong.

Blogs with Borders

Ryan — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:16:56 +0000

Out of personal interest I’ve decided to create a database of blogs which focus on a particular geographic area. This database will occasionally be converted to a kml file, which can be overlaid onto a google map as seen below. Those sites marked with a ‘C’ feature more cultural content, whereas those marked ‘P’ lean towards the political. The few blogs on there now were just part of my test run to make sure this was feasible. I will start collecting more blogs in earnest very soon. If anyone has links to top-notch geograhically oriented blogs send them my way and I’ll consider them for inclusion.

View Larger Map

85% Moral.

Ryan — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 05:24:16 +0000

I was going blind into the end of last semester. Feedback throughout the term was minimal, so I really had no idea what to expect grade-wise. Thus, I was mildly nervous last week when I logged onto the campus network to check my grades. To my initial surprise, although I had only taken three classes, I had managed to log four grades. Three of the class names were easily translatable from Chinese and I was happy enough with my grades. But the first grade on the list – 85% – was beside a class name I didn’t recognize. Curious, I cut and pasted the class name into my Chinese-English dictionary: Caoxing: Moral Conduct.
So I’m 85% moral? Does that make me 15% immoral? Amoral? What sort of metric was used to quantify my morality? With these questions in mind, I headed to the program secretary’s office.
- “So what’s the deal with that morality grade? I’m 85% moral?”
- “Oh, everyone gets 85% on that.”
- “Really? Well what’s the point?”
- “Well, it’s Chinese tradition.”
- “Is it possible to get a different grade?”
- “I suppose so. If you do something really bad, or really good.”
- “Like what?”
- “Oh, I dunno. Undergraduates all have to take a class in morality.”
- “So maybe I’m morally disadvantaged because I haven’t been taught how to be moral?”
- “haha”
- “Who graded me?”
- “Your mentor.”
- “Who’s my mentor?”
- “Dr. Zhu”
- “And he just gave everyone he graded 85%?”
- “Yeah, that’s how it works.”
- “So does this go on my transcript?”
- “Yep.”
- “So my grade point average is going to be pulled down by my morality?”
- “I suppose so.”
- “That’s screwy.”
So now that I know my morality is being graded I’ve made it my goal to break out of the 85% trend. Although apparently “everyone” gets 85%, I want a different grade. I’d even be happy with 86% just to know that its possible to log a different grade. The problem is I have absolutely no idea how the grade is assessed. What is ‘moral’ in this context? Is it a level of Confucian respect for my teachers? A helpful attitude in the classroom? Saving wild dogs? I’ve no idea.