Toner Mishap: att

Showing posts with label att. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Corporate Greed and the Need for Regulation

Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive pronouncement. Economic wounds must be healed by the action of the cells of the economic body - the producers and consumers themselves.”
Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) Last Republican president to lead the country into depression

Why do we need government regulation? Because we cannot count on companies to have the best interest of the consumers in mind, ever! It’s all about CEOs and management bonuses, stock options and enriching the executive branch or to use corporate jargon, enriching the C-suite.

The latest news is that shipping companies (FedEx, UPS, etc.) and wireless (AT&T, Verizon, etc.) providers all round up charges to their customers. As the article in the Sunday LATimes points out your butcher does not round up and the technology is there to install the precise measurements to determine cell phone usage to one-millionth of a second or weigh your package to the microgram or even on-millionth of a gram.

Unfortunately if all the companies are doing the same thing there is no incentive for the marketplace to change the practice, which is why government regulation is needed.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Feeling Secure?

I did send to you
For certain sums of gold, which you denied me
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) dramatist, poet

Speaking of Big Brother, who exactly is in charge here? Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff is not making me feel secure or confident about who is in charge. How secure we should feel in this country, especially when the FBI has carte blanche to wire tap most anyone at any time under this administration, but then they get cut off in the middle of surveillances for lack of payment, according to the Wall Street Journal:

A Justice Department audit released today revealed telecom companies recently cut off some FBI wiretaps on suspected criminals because of the bureau's repeated inability to pay bills on time. The audit blamed the FBI's lax oversight, ironically, of money used for undercover jobs. A wiretap in at least one Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act investigation was "halted due to untimely payment," the audit found. The report offered recommendations to improve tracking and management of the funding system, including telecommunication costs.

Why is it that FBI interruptus apparently okay if our country is always in imminent danger of attack?

AT&T doesn't care what your higher mission is if you have not paid your bill, the country be damned

Friday, August 10, 2007

Sorry Your Broadcast was Censored

One of the least pleasant aspects of life in America these days is the militarization of city life. The infrastructure is there, there are controllable cameras everywhere, the helicopters are constantly overhead.
William Gibson, science fiction author. Interview in i-D (London) Oct. 1993

The below post was borrowed/stolen from theBhc at Anything They Say, hook, lines and link.

If you want to really understand what Net Neutrality means and how it will disappear in the hands of telecom companies, look no further:

In a prominent nod to one of the festival's lead sponsors, the logo for this year's Lollapalooza concerts in Chicago includes the tag line, "delivered by AT&T." But Sunday's headliner Pearl Jam complained that AT&T delivered less than the band's full performance during its Lollapalooza webcast. The powerhouse telco turned off the audio during the song "Daughter" while singer Eddie Vedder was railing against President George Bush. That bit of censorship -- which AT&T says was a mistake -- gave a bit of fuel to the forces arguing for "Net neutrality" regulations....

AT&T spokeswoman Tiffany Nels said the company goofed. Its Blue Room website is open to Internet users of all ages, so it tries to block "excessive profanity" from the broadcasts. It hires contractors to monitor the performances, and the broadcasts are delayed slightly to enable monitors to bleep off-color material. But those monitors aren't supposed to edit songs, just the stage patter between them, Nels said. "It's not our policy" to censor performances, Nels said, "and we regret the error." She added, "There was no profanity. It was a mistake."

What, exactly, did this "mistake" cause to be cut out of the broadcast?

"George Bush, leave this world alone"
"George Bush find yourself another home"

What I expect Tiffany actually meant was that it was not their policy to publicly admit AT&T would censor songs.

These are the corporate toads that want to control the internet but also want you to believe they won't do anything like they just did. Nothing about these people is to be trusted. Nothing.