] "WiFi is scaring the government not because it's a tool
] of terrorism but because it's a tool of unregulated
] political dissent. "

This article misses the giant economic impact of giving away free 802.11 access on the business models of the major carriers/service providers, some of whom have spent billions on G3 license purchases. But it's still a fun little rant.

What's behind the DoD's asinine reaction to WiFi 'Peril:?

] InFlow performs network analysis AND network
] visualization in one integrated product -- no passing
] files back and forth between different programs like
] other tools. Version 3.0 provides new metrics, new
] network layouts, new what-if analysis, and is designed to
] work with Microsoft Office and the WWW. We recommend
] Windows 2000 Professional, Pentium III or better, 256 MB
] RAM or better, and 8MB VRAM or better.

InFlow - Social Network Mapping & Measuring Software

This article, from the Associated Press, gives a good intro to Agile Radio, both in terms of what it is, and what political climate it faces, which is surprisingly promising. Overall, it is cast in a good light, with no reference to evil hackers, etc... author must have a clue. :-)

Mainstream Agile / Software Radio article

... I wish you peace.

[Update: The solstice was on Dec 21. Oops.]

He came, he saw, he lagged out.

Connection reset by peer

] Joe Strummer, former singer, guitarist and songwriter
] for legendary punk rockers the Clash, died Sunday at his
] home in Somerset, England of an apparent heart attack; he
] was fifty. An autopsy is pending.

RollingStone.com: News: Joe Strummer Dead at Fifty

] Originally released as a bootable CDROM called "MeshAP,"
] MeshBox is now implemented as an under-32MB system image
] which can fit within a small CompactFlash card. But
] despite its small size, MeshBox extends the basic access
] point and mesh routing functionality of the original
] MeshAP. MeshBox now provides the capabilities of a
] set-top box Internet Appliance, wireless mesh router,
] connection to remote windows terminal servers (or other
] PCs), web browsing, mp3 audio and mpeg video streaming,
] connection to multiple peer-to-peer networks, instant
] messaging network chat, and file exchange.

An introduction to the MeshBox - a Linux-powered wireless mesh repeater

These folks are linking me right now. I read this site every day, and I often recommend articles from it. However, I have never bothered to link it directly.

This is one of the best web logs on the internet. Much cooler then Slashdot. I highly recommend it.

Its an outcropping from a strange Austin cyberpunk zine that was around in the early 90's. A good source of art, technology, and futurism.

Boing Boing :: A Directory of Wonderful Things

If you are an ISP, big or small, you have dealt with issues tracking attacks. Its fustrating as hell. It usually takes hours to get talking to someone with clue sitting on top of the network the attack is coming from. Sometimes it takes hours for someone to talk to you.. :) When language barriers or large time differences come into play, it gets even harder. Attackers can use this to their advantage, especially if they are limiting themselves to a small time window for their attack. Everyone who has spent time working at ISPs has dealt with this, myself included.

A solution to this problem _is_ necessary. Its a "facilitation of communication" problem at its heart, not a "monitoring" problem. At the molment, I still have the taste in my mouth given by the Barlow articles I blogged earlier, so I have my doubts as to the intelligence community ability to solve this problem for us given their past record and methods of operations. The better route may be for the ISP/communication providers to come up with a cross-communication strategy themselves.

As long as the intelligence people have a way to request/demand information from the ISPs/comm providers (given some sort of thumbs up from a judge) about activity of a given user/ip/whatever, and get it fast, then they will most likely be happy. If they cannot achieve their end goals, they will create a solution for us. They would be very happy if the commercial sector solved the problem for them. It would remove their incentive to turn the screws.

If there was some central US NOC structure.. And it had a staff that rotated between people working in all the ISPs that parcticipated, the government had its folks there, and it was open for review.. And it acted as a communication center between ISPs and not just the ISPs and the TLAs. That would be sweet! Now, on the other hand, if there was some NOC in Langley connected to a bunch of sniffers sitting in every ISP, that was clouded in secrecy, that would not be nice. That would suck. If the latter would up happening, I picture people like Decius, Renka, and myself standing between racks of core/access routers and a bunch of spooks with black boxes going "No! No! Fuck you! This is bullshit!" and getting arrested cognitive dissident style, and being proud of it. I have no fear of that happening really. Not only would be be completely unconstutitional, but I am confident there are more then enough people in the ISP community willing to take a personal blow to keep it from happening.

So, while the users get pissed about this.. The ISPs should be communicating with each other, about how to communicate with each other. I'm sure there are a bunch of NANOG people coming to the same conclusions.

All the comments below are from Decius. They are in line with my views, and they point several things I don't, so I'm just going to leave them appended to this.

This is where I would normally put a page break.. :)... [ Read More (0.8k in body) ]

Draft of National Stratedy To Security Cyperspace (RE: Bush Administration Propose System for Monitoring Internet)

] Thursday's agreement was signed by the 14 companies that
] make most HDTV sets and the seven major cable operators
] that serve 75 percent of cable homes (Cable One,
] Cablevision Systems, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox
] Communications, Insight Communications and AOL Time
] Warner Cable).

HDTV has been talked about for longer then the Internet by most people. Its crawling. Could it be because of the . . . Content owners??

] Negotiations, however, didn't include content owners, who
] worry that individuals could make a perfect digital copy,
] transfer it to a computer hard drive, and then post it on
] a peer-to-peer file sharing service.

I don't think they want the screws on them. The cable companies and the hardware manfacturers have very different concerns then the content owners. Its in both their intrests to have HDTVs selling, and channels for its use open. The content folks are worried about their control over their product.

Its likely they didn't want the content owners involved because they wouldn't have gotten anything done otherwise. Its clear that if they have an attack plan for the nuts-and-bolts of digital cable interoperation, the next step is going to be sell the technologys existance to the content owners. Its going to be a fight for them. The content people really wish things would "slow down" for awhile, they need to catch their breath, things are tough for them right now.. :) They will use all their influence to cause that "slow down" to happen..

Picture wanting to discuss something like level two network addressing with a bunch of engineer types.. Would you want the MPAA sitting in the room? Would that be helpful? Or would you just have someone screaming "Lossless transmission! Ack! No no no! No Error correction! We need errors so people will go out and buy the pristine DVD!! It has to suck or supply will meet demand and the value of our IP will be fucked because that value is based on scarcity!! Oh, woe is me, everything has changed." in your ear.

] Nonetheless, the proposal included one aspect likely to
] meet resistance from Hollywood: It would ban content
] owners from purposely degrading HDTV signals out of fear
] that a consumer might make a perfect digital copy.

I like that. Yea, this was most likely setup to draw the line for the MPAA or something like that. Maybe then want to get the two sides of the conflict facing each other head on and the issues laied out. Going to have to check a few more articles about this, but that's the vibe I'm getting. They want HDTV ready to roll, they got about two years before the manfacturing costs of those nice flat panels will be trivial. They want to be ready to push volume and have compelling service available by then.

] But while the Home Recording Rights Coalition, an
] alliance of industry and consumer groups, lauded the
] agreement's copy-protection stance, Hollywood interests
] were more cautious on Thursday.

The message most likely was: "If it dosen't allow me to exercise my Fair Use rights, I don't want it. What you are doing looks Ok, don't let THEM fuck it up.."

] The Motion Picture Association of America said on
] Thursday that it needed more time to review the details
] of the agreement, but officials hinted that the proposed
] encoding rules may not suffice.

No shit. The MPAA will not be happy with anything that amounts to technological progress unless its removes freedom of information manipulation, or is strictly limited to the realm of cinema multiplexes and other areas where they have complete and total control of the distribution chain. Fuck em'

Wired News: HDTV Pact: Finally a Done Deal