Patrick Beja is on the show and we’ll talk about the FCC’s proposed Open Internet rules. Are they good, bad or irrelevant? How worried should you be?

MP3

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

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A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Patrick Beja! And we all rejoice! 

Headlines

The FCC’s Chairman Tom Wheeler posted on the FCC website that a draft Open Internet Notice of Proposed Rulemaking will circulate today to the commission. The notice will be discussed at a meeting May 15th, then opened for public comment. The notice tries to re-craft Open Internet guidelines after being struck down in court. It preserves the transparency requirement and prohibition against blocking. However it changes the non-discrimination rules from reasonable to “commercially reasonable” opening the way for paid prioritization of traffic to ISP customers. 

The Verge reports that Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff signed the “Marco Civil da Internet” the so-called “internet constitution” into law yesterday before speaking at a conference on web governance in Sao Paulo. The law protects Internet privacy and guarantees open access to the Web. 

TechCrunch reports Vic Gundotra announced he is leaving Google. Gundotra did not say where he is going next, merely that he is “looking forward to the journey yet to come.” Gundotra started the Google I/O developers conference and was its host. He also started Google +. CEO Larry Page told Recode that Google will continue to invest in Google +.

GigaOm reports Facebook plans to acquire Finnish company ProtoGeo which makes the fitness tracking app Moves. The app records a wide range of activities including walking, biking, and running and can tell when you’re riding public transit. Moves will continue to operate independently after the acquisition is complete.

TechCrunch reports Facebook also launched FB Newswire, in partnership with News Corp’s Storyful. Storyful verifies news stories arising from social networks so journalists can avoid fakes and exaggerations. FB Newswire will collect “newsworthy content” that Facebook users share and that has been verified by Storyful.

One of our top subreddit stories today submitted by tekkyn00b comes from Ars Technica. We knew Hector Xavier Monsegur, AKA “Sabu,” became a confidential FBI informant following his 2011 arrest. What we didn’t know was that FBI agents supervising Sabu knew he was directing attacks against websites operated by Iranian, Syrian and Brazilian governments, among tothers, and data from the attacks was passed to US intelligence agencies. The attacks toook advantage of the Plesk bug, meaning the FBI was aware of the bug for a month before its disclosure. The information comes from documents obtained by the New York Times.

TechCrunch reports that French Assembly member Thomas Thévenoud announced his report on an agreement between transportation startups like Uber and traditional French taxi companies. One of the 30 points in particular has caused outrage. Companies like SnapCar will not be able to show you how close their cars are to you via their apps. But taxi companies will be allowed to use geolocation. The report will become law in the coming weeks. 

Microsoft announced it’s Quarterly earnings with $20.40 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $0.68 Analysts expected $20.39 billion in revenue and $0.63 per share. Devices and Consumer revenue grew 12% to $8.30 billion, while Commercial revenue at the firm grew 7% to $12.23 billion

Amazon announced it’s Quarterly earnings Amazon reported net sales up 23 percent to $19.74 billion and earnings of 23 cents a share. Analysts expected $19.43 billion in revenue and $0.23 per share.

 

News From You

Draconos submitted the Ars Technica story that the Linux Foundation has announced a three-year initiative to pool at least $3.9 million to help underfunded open source projects, starting with OpenSLL. Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Dell, Facebook, Fujitsu, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NetApp, Qualcomm, Rackspace, and VMware have all pledged to commit at least $100,000 a year. OpenSSL won’t be the only project getting money, so it won’t get all of that, but it should end up with significantly more than the $2,000 a year it was getting. 

KAPT_Kipper posted the CNET story that ARM says the shift to 64-bit mobile devices is happening faster than it expected. ARM expected 64-bit chip to be mostly needed for servers at first. TSMC made similar comments last week. ARM’s executive vice president of corporate strategy, Tom Lantzsch, said even 32-bit code runs better on a 64-bit processor which may be one reason. He also said he though the capability for 64-bit Android phones should arrive by Christmas.

Tekkyn00b submitted the Gizmodo story about Amazon Prime Pantry, a service that allows you to have up to 45 pounds worth of household items shipped to your door for $6. Of course you have to pay for the items too. 45-pounds of cheese puffs, on its way!

And KAPT_Kipper posted the Boing Boing story that previously unknown digital artwork created by Andy Warhol has been recovered from old Amiga floppy disks, circa 1985. Warhol created the works with Graphicraft on a commission from Commodore to demonstrate the graphic capabilities of the Amiga. A documentary film about the file recovery called “Trapped” will premiere on May 10 at the Carnegie Library Lecture Hall in Pittsburgh.

Discussion Section Links: FCC U

http://www.fcc.gov/blog/setting-record-straight-fcc-s-open-internet-rules

http://www.dailytechnewsshow.com/the-fcc-puts-the-internet-on-life-support/

http://gigaom.com/2014/04/24/the-fcc-doesnt-want-a-pay-to-play-internet-but-it-may-not-be-able-to-stop-it/

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/04/the-fccs-fast-lane-rule-is-awful-for-the-internet-just-ask-the-fcc/

http://boingboing.net/2014/04/24/a-musical-letter-to-the-fcc-by.html

http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/24/5646500/brazil-looks-to-protect-privacy-and-net-neutrality-with-internet-bill

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/u-s-plan-for-internet-fast-lanes-contrasts-with-european-rules/

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20140331IPR41232/html/Ensure-open-access-for-internet-service-suppliers-and-ban-roaming-fees-say-MEPs

http://gigaom.com/2014/04/24/when-it-comes-to-net-neutrality-either-the-fcc-thinks-were-idiots-or-it-just-doesnt-care/

Pick of the Day: Unroll.me

Hey both, here’s a daily pick for ya: Unroll.me.

It’s a very useful “email decluttering” service. It gives you the option to gather all the “semi-unwanted” emails in a daily summary. You decide which ones go in the summary, and which ones you actually never see again. They all get stored in a specific folder, so you never really lose them.
It’s a great way to deal with “bacn”, and has become an indispensable tool in my endless quest for Inbox Zero (which I actually achieve every once in a while).
PS: I believe it only works with Gmail (of course), but seriously, who doesn’t use gmail nowadays?

Give it a try! Hugs, Patrick Beja

Meetup! If you live in the Los Angeles area, come by our meetup this Saturday! Jennie and I will be hanging out Saturday, April 26th, starting at 6pm, at the 326 Bar at The Original Farmers Market at 3rd at Fairfax. 6333 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90036 

Friday’s guest:  Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta

The magic of the Internet has been that anybody with the skills can make a service that looks and works just as well as a large company.

Are you a good writer? Your blog can compete with the New York Times because the platform is the same. Good at video? You can deliver it to a worldwide audience right alongside Hollywood. Talent and promotional acumen become more critical deciding factors than wealth.

What the FCC seems to be considering would change that. New entrants to a market would face a cost barrier. A Netflix or a YouTube will be fine, because they can’t be outright blocked under this proposal and they can afford to pay for the smooth access their product needs.

This is a solution designed to make sure big businesses get a fair break. Not you.

A new video company that wants to compete with Netflix? Now they need to gather even more venture capital. The cost of innovation gets higher, meaning fewer attempts at innovation, meaning a greater trend towards oligopoly and a resulting stagnation.

The FCC seems to be constructing their approach to look for immediate harm, which they will not find. You can’t prove that a company that never entered the market because it was too expensive was harmed. This is insidiously dangerous whether it is intentional or not.

This isn’t about “neutrality” or packet prioritization or even peering. Small innovators don’t start out big enough to need peering agreements like Netflix does. When they get that big, they can afford to negotiate them, like Netflix is.

However what seems to be on the table is allowing ISPs to charge for traffic coming to the individual consumer as well as charging that consumer to access it. That would be fine if customers could make a choice. If a competing ISP could market themselves as an open Internet provider where ALL sites perform well not just the big ones. Since we do not have ISP competition in the US, that won’t happen. ISPs can do what they want, with no market recourse for the consumer.

And that’s what gives the lie to Chairman Wheeler’s statement.

He writes, “The Notice does not change the underlying goals of transparency.” However transparency is almost useless when you have no choice of provider.

He also writes, “behavior harmful to consumers or competition by limiting the openness of the Internet will not be permitted.” That seems to be aimed at content providers, but wouldn’t it be great if that applied to ISPs? Except there is almost no competition on the ISP level, which hurts consumers and the FCC does nothing about that fundamental root problem.

This entire procedure of developing Open Internet Guidelines seems to be a practice in misdirection. Rather than treat the problem, lack of ISP choice, the commission, and the public are arguing over the symptoms.

If the Internet was a patient and the FCC its doctor, that doctor would seem to be saying, “We will not allow this nose to get unreasonably runny and we will let you know every symptom of the illness. But we won’t worry about trying to cure the disease. No lobbyist has paid for that.”

Rich DeMuro is on and we’ll talk about the gorgeous and extremely affordable One PlusOne and whether Rich has any invites for us since you have to be invited to purchase one. Also prior art for monkey math and why 3D printers will never print your spare parts.

MP3

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
Today’s guest: Rich DeMuro, technology reporter at KTLA News

Headlines

OnePlus unveiled the OnePlus One smartphone today with a 5.5-inch 1080p 401 ppi dislpay,a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801, 3 GB of RAM and a 3,100 mAh battery. A 13-megapixel Sony Exmor camera can shoot 4K video. The internaional version runs CyanagenMod’s 11S version of Android 4.4 the Chinese version will run Color OS. The 16GB version with a silk white backplate will run you $299 and the 64GB in sandstone black costs $349. Yep. those are unsubsidized prices. It supports LTE and will be available initially in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, the UK and the US. When? Who knows the first 100 come out April 25 as part of a competition and you have to get invited to buy one after that.

Reuters reports Facebook received antitrust approval for their acquisition of Oculus VR according to a list published by the US Federal Trade Commission Wednesday. Facebook announced the deal March 25th, planning to pay $2 billion for Oculus.

The New York Times reports IBM has opened up its Power microprocessors for third parties to modify and manufacture under the supervision of the OpenPower Foundation, incorporated by IBM in December. The foundation includes two dozen members including its founder, IBM as well as Google, Samsung, and Nvidia. IBM’s first sever computers based on the Power8 chip technology were announced Wednesday as well. IBM’s ARM-like approach is meant to battle against Intel which dominates the server chip market. 

Hot on the heels of launching MI.com, The Next Web reports Xiaomi revealed it will expand into 10 more countries this year tarting with Malaysia, the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, followed by Russia, Turkey, Brazil and Mexico. The company also announced a new dual-band 2.4GHz/5GHz router called the Mi Router Mini for CNY129 ($21) and a full-sized router the Mi Router, which comes with a Terrabyre hard disk CNY699 ($112).

Recode reports US FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Wednesday that the agency would consider draft “Open Internet,” or net neutrality, rules at an agency meeting May 15. Wheeler is expected to propose the same guidelines as before but with different legal justification. A recent court case indicated the FCC had the right to regulate the Internet, just not with the justification it used for its last set of guidelines.

Facebook announced it’s Quarterly earnings with $2.00 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $0.34 Analysts expected $2.36 billion in revenue and $0.24 per share. It now has 1.28 billion total monthly users, 802 million daily users, and 609 million daily mobile users. with 59% of ad revenue coming from mobile. Also, David Ebersman — the CFO who took Facebook public is departing the company later this year.

Apple announced its quarterly earnings with $45.6 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $11.62. Analysts expected $43.6 billion in revenue and $10.16 per share. Apple also announced an increase in its share buyback and dividend as well as a 7-for-1 stock split.  iPhones: 43.7 million versus 37.7 million expected
iPads: 16.35 million versus 19.7 million units expected

News From You

spsheridan submitted the Recode story that Google is including a time machine feature in its street view imagery in the Web version of Google Maps. Users can move a slider in many street view images to see what the scene looked like in any other images taken by Google over the past eight years. Some of the most dramatic views come in Onagawa, Japan where the GPS-locked images show you how the ground shifted 3 degrees after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. 

KAPT_Kipper posted the Gizmodo story that Amazon has struck a deal to add some back-catalog shows from HBO to its Amazon Prime Instant Streaming service. Prime members will get access to every episode of The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Six Feet Under, Rome, Eastbown & Down, Enlightened, and Flight of the Conchords; and select seasons of Boardwalk Empire, True Blood, and Treme. Early seasons of Girls, The Newsroom, and Veep will be included as they pass the three-year mark from original airing.

Beatmaster80 pointed out Paul Thurott’s posting about Google offering to help Samung mount its defense against Apple. A deposition of Google attorney James Maccoun played for jurors in the Apple-Samsung patent case described email messages in which Google offered to help cover Samsung’s legal expenses and possible damages payments, and offered indemnity on some of the patent infringements. Samsung has said it did not seek help from Google and the deposition makes it clear Google approcahed Samsung.

Tahras pointed us to the Roku blog where the company announced that YouTube is now available in the Roku Channel store for all current-generation Roku devices in the US Canada, UK and Ireland. Current generation players refers to those introduced after July 2011

Discussion Section Links:  OnePlus One = Phone

http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/23/5642810/oneplus-one-smartphone-official

http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/23/oneplus-one-launch-ceo-pete-lau-interview/

http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2014/04/23/oneplus-unveils-one-powerhouse-android-smartphone-cyanogenmod-starting-299/
http://oneplus.net/

Pick of the Day:  PFsense 

My pick is PFsense , if you like DDWRT as a router firmware you will LOVE PFsense it is a opensource free router software that runs on old hardware AOK. Loaded FULL of enterprise level features and easy configuration. It is able to keep up with my 100 MB internet and high user demands with logging, multiple network segments, Guest network capture portal with vouchers, and so much more. It is overkill for any residential router but that’s how use geeks role!

Also +1 for Plex!

Harrison,  Flower Mound, TX USA

Meetup! If you live in the Los Angeles area, come by our meetup this Saturday! Jennie and I will be hanging out Saturday, April 26th, starting at 6pm, at the 326 Bar at The Original Farmers Market at 3rd at Fairfax. 6333 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90036 

Thursday’s guest:  Patrick Beja! And we all rejoice!