iPhone and Verizon sitting in a tree

Verizon LTE iPhone4V
[Via I, Cringely]

No insider info here, no leaked secrets, just an aging but wily geek putting himself in the place of Verizon Wireless and guessing how that mobile carrier will handle next year’s rumored iPhone introduction on its U. S. network. I’d go for a knockout punch and I think Verizon will, too.

Apple’s iPhone is coming to Verizon sometime early next year as AT&T loses its exclusive deal for the iconic smartphone. It could be as soon as January. Verizon will want to use this opportunity to grab disaffected iPhone users from AT&T because surveys have shown American iPhone users love their handsets, but not their carrier. So Verizon, which already appears to have the better network, will have to emphasize that advantage. I expect they’ll do so by making the iPhone their first Long-Term Evolution (LTE) 4G handset.

It’s the network, stupid. To get a big win from whatever huge amount Verizon is no-doubt paying Apple, the company has to steal customers from other carriers, not just get existing Verizon users to buy subsidized iPhones. AT&T’s weakness is its perceived network quality and unwillingness to allow iPhones to act as WiFi hotspots, called tethering. That’s why I think Verizon will make its iPhone LTE capable and allow it to do tethering with the goal of getting AT&T iPhone users to defect in droves.

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This would be a really smart thing to do. It would skyrocket acceptance of Verizon LTE access. It would drive huge expansion of iPhone sales. It would drive competition in all manner of forms.

It would put ATT in a tough spot while giving Verizon a chance to show off its new network. Such a win-win for all of us. And according to Verizon, I have access to LTE. Same with my parents.

My contract with ATT has been up for a while, as I have been waiting to see what would happen with Verizon. If this is it, I’ll be moving my service.

Which probably means it won’t happen. Jobs is smart enough to see the benefits but I think few other corporate leaders get it.

The TSA retaliates against a mother carrying breast milk

TSA Agents Harass and Threaten Mother, Force Her to Miss Flight
Via Daring Fireball]

Stacey Armato:

TSA rules allow for alternate screening (no x-ray) for breast milk and I almost never had a problem… until the week before this screening. I was held for 30 minutes that week while the TSA manager called to find out the rules. I was told to “pump and dump,” and asked why the milk wasn’t clear, also asked where my baby was and if it was really milk (uh traveling, working mom pumping doesn’t usually have the baby with her).

After begging him to figure it out, they finally let me through. I called and complained to TSA and was instructed to travel with the TSA breast milk rules printed out and present them whenever there is a problem.

A week later, she traveled through the same airport and this time, the TSA agents recognized her and retaliated, detaining her in a special screening area for an hour, purposefully making her miss her flight unless she relented and allowed her milk to be X-rayed. She showed them the printed TSA regulations allowing alternative screening for breast milk and they told her those rules don’t apply.

And she got the security tape to prove her story. Minus, curiously, 20 minutes of footage.

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This is how the brown shirts get started. Only thugs would really be happy in a job that requires them to demean other Americans. And this is how they treat anyone who stands up for their rights.

This is the direction security has been going in this country since 9/11. It will continue to go further unless we decide freedom is more important than security. As so many of the comments wanted to know why she didi not simply do what she was asked to to, why she was so confrontational with the authorities, I hold out little real hope this will change.

I expect we may cease to be the land of the free in my lifetime, regardless of which party is in control. Neither one really wants to make the fundamental changes needed. They both are more concerned with making sure the plutocracy keeps on growing.

Looking at the effects of Deepwater using the submersible, Alvin

from GulfBlog

Dive and Discover : Expedition 13 : Gulf of Mexico
[Via Dive and Discover]

Our Mission: December 6-14, 2010
On April 20, 2010, the oil-drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico. The well it was drilling continued to gush oil for nearly three months, eventually causing one of the worst oil spills in history. When it was finally stopped, the well had poured millions of gallons of oil into the water.

Dive and Discover’s Expedition 13 will take you beneath the surface of the Gulf to investigate life on the bottom of the ocean and to look for signs of impact by the oil on deep-sea ecosystems. In addition to fouling beaches, threatening wildlife, and shutting down fisheries, scientists are concerned that there could also be damage to the little-known animals and the communities in the deep ocean

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Starting today we will be able to follow this expedition.It will very likely be showing us more of just what the oil did to the floor of the Gulf.

But we already know what they will find, as this ABC report details from an earlier trip in Alvin – a desert. You can read more and see what the expected life on the seafloor should look like. I the area around the blowout, the animals that could move are gone and those that could not are dead.

A final note – the White House will be featuring seafood from the Gulf this month.

[Listening to: Voodoo Child (Live) from the album "Live At Montreux 1982 & 1985 (Disc 2)" by Stevie Ray Vaughan]

Almost all the major accidents are avoidable, we just seldom avoid them

by uscglantareapa

12.5.2010 “Macondo was an avoidable accident”
[Via Deep Sea News]

The headline says it all. That was one of the main points delivered on Thursday/Friday at Meeting #6 of the US National Oil Spill Commission. This was the last meeting of the year, and the final public installment before the panel delivers its much-anticipated report on the BP Disaster (slated to be released on January 11).  

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Poor communication, arrogant assumptions and over confident approaches to failure seem to also be part of all these types of accidents. Bhopal. Challenger, New Orleans, Macondo. The lessons are there for each of these. Yet some organizations never seem to learn.

With Macondo, there were only 2 possible approaches to failure of the drilling – blow out preventer and relief well – but no real focus on what would happen if the blow out preventer did not work.

There was no capacity to deal with an accident of this magnitude but then the people working here never thought it would happen. Just as the operators in almost every other accident on this scale did not think it would happen. Mainly because doing it right cost too much money.

Real-time tracking of your credit card transactions by the government

Once Again, Feds Found To Be Abusing Surveillance Procedures With Little Oversight
[Via Techdirt]

Every few months it seems that yet another report comes out saying that the various intelligence agencies have abused their powers to spy on people with little (or no) oversight. The latest such report, released thanks to a court battle by the ACLU explains (in heavily redacted terms) that there are still widespread abuses of the process of wiretapping people under the FISA law (though, it may not be quite as bad as in the past). Of course, the specific details are all redacted.

Separately, a Freedom of Information request by Chris Soghoian has turned up how the feds now regularly are tracking real-time info such as credit card transactions (as you make them) without first getting a court order. Apparently, the Justice Department is allowing agents to write their own subpoenas, and the only role a judge plays is in ordering that the surveillance not be disclosed. Once that happens, credit card companies, mobile operators, rental car companies and even retail stores with loyalty cards end up giving the government a direct, real-time feed. So, yes, the government may know about that giant bag of nacho chips you bought at Costco before you even make it home. Obviously, there may be good reasons for the government to want real-time info on certain people that they’re watching but doesn’t it seem a bit strange to avoid having to go to a judge and proving probable cause before being allowed to get that kind of info?

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How long before this is abused? An agent gets to write their own subpoenas? No real judicial oversight. Yep, that will end well.

They can wiretap without a warrant. They can get credit card records without a warrant. I sure am glad we live in such an exceptional country. We have the Bill of Rights which the government appears to have been ignoring for quite some time. We have just stood by as the government just takes away more and more of our rights.

And we just stand for it. I imagine there will come a tipping point and we begin to take back out rights. There had better be.

Arrogance is often in the eye of the beholder

by jurvetson

The level of humility in scientific discourse
[Via Butterflies and Wheels]

An observation by Sam Harris in The Moral Landscape:

“while it is a standard rhetorical move in such debates to accuse scientists of being ‘arrogant,’ the level of humility in scientific discourse is, in fact, one of its most striking characteristics. In my experience, arrogance is about as common at a scientific conference as nudity. At any scientific meeting you will find presenter after presenter couching his or her remarks with caveats and apologies. When asked to comment on something that lies to either side of the very knife edge of their special expertise, even Nobel laureates will say things like, “Well, this isn’t really my area, but I would suspect that X is…” or “I’m sure there are several people in this room who know more about this than I do, but as far as I know, X is…” The totality of scientific knowledge now doubles every few years. Given how much there is to know, all scientists live with the constant awareness that whenever they open their mouths in the presence of other scientists, they are guaranteed to be speaking to someone who knows more about a specific topic than they do.” [p 124]

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People you agree with are seldom arrogant. Those that you disagree with are almost always arrogant. I wonder that is?

It is very hard to be arrogant when the person talking may know more and has asked a question designed to trip you up, as often happens at presentations dealing with cutting edge subjects. Humility works best, especially since it makes it easier to state “Why don’t we talk about this later and let someone else ask a question?” without people thinking you are purposefully evading the question, which, of course, you are.

There are many, many researchers who are unbelievably arrogant even at meetings. And almost all the other scientists act in very human fashion – we all secretly hope they get their come-uppance – knowing that in many, many cases their arrogance is well deserved and they really are smarter than everyone else.

However, in my experience, the best and smartest of scientists have that rare ability to engage people at all levels with very little sense of entitlement or arrogance. I loved Feynman because I always felt that way when listening to him. It was like he was so brilliant he was on a different level.

[Listening to: Monkberry Moon Delight from the album "Ram (Remastered)" by Paul & Linda McCartney]