NWS meteorologists are working without pay. This makes the Commerce Secretary’s remarks particularly ironic. via Tumblr The Art Of ‘Tone Deaf’ – Wilbur Ross And His Weather Service Meteorologists
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Ever since Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez floated the idea of having the richest people in the US pay a 70 percent marginal tax rate, there’s been a lot of lame, uninformed commentary about the idea. I came across one such example of lame, uninformed commentary during my morning commute on public transit, as I mentally did the budgetary math and decided against buying myself a coffee—it came from Michael Dell, the founder of Dell, who has a net worth of more than $30 billion according to Forbes. During a Davos panel on tech and inequality on Wednesday, moderator Heather Long asked Dell if he supported Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal. The audience erupted into laughter, and Dell—who, again, is worth more than $30 billion dollars—responded that no, he is not supportive of the proposal, and then said something hilariously uninformed. Or, it would be hilarious, if he wasn’t worth as much as the GDP of some nations. “Name a country where that’s worked—ever,” Dell said confidently, apparently completely unaware that the top marginal tax rate in the US was 70 percent in the 1960s, and was as high as 94 percent during World War II. Thankfully, another panelist corrected him immediately. “The United States,” Erik Brynjalfsson, director of MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy, quipped. “Those were actually pretty good years for growth,” Brynjalfsson added. Owned, yes, but not as much as the rest of us trudging to our jobs in the dead of winter to support people like Michael Dell. Get six of our favorite Motherboard stories every day by signing up for our newsletter. Davos Erupts in Laughter at the Notion of Tech Billionaire Paying More Taxes syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/ via Tumblr Davos Erupts in Laughter at the Notion of Tech Billionaire Paying More Taxes “IT IS FUCKING OVER. I AM GOD. GOOD FUCKING NIGHT” reads the description of YouTuber DarklyInDarkness’s latest video, which he posted on Wednesday night. The video shows the streamer accomplishing what no Guitar Hero player before him has ever done: not missing a single note (known as a Full Combo or FC) on “Soulless 4,” one of the most ridiculously difficult Guitar Hero tracks ever created. “Soulless 4” is one of a series of notoriously challenging, user-created tracks by player ExileLord. The tracks have never been released commercially with Guitar Hero, and are modded into the game by diehard players who want an extra challenge. PCGamer once described “Soulless 4” as being “like a ROM hack designed specifically to break the hearts (or fingers) of anyone who comes near it.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, a perfect run of the song has never been completed, until now. “I’ve been playing for around nine years or so”, DarklyInDarkess told Motherboard over Discord. “I’ve been on and off trying to get ‘Soulless 4’ since around the song actually released, back around 2015 when taps were just modded into Guitar Hero 3. Songs like ‘Soulless 4’ were mind-blowing to everyone in the community. It’s been a 3 year effort for me.” “Soulless 4” is 12 minutes long and requires different playing techniques to complete, such as tapping, rake strumming, and rake tapping. It’s been the subject of much anguish in the Guitar Hero community. Many of the near-impossible elements of “Soulless 4” only exist to show off modifications that ExileLord built into his Guitar Hero mod, such as tap notes that require two hands to hit. The pursuit to conquer the Soulless tracks has been ongoing for years, but it was only last year that DarklyInDarkness completed the first ever full combo run of Soulless 2, which was also assumed to be impossible at the time. Acai, another Guitar Hero YouTuber who gained virality for his amusing run of Travis Scott’’s “Sicko Mode,” published a video in January 2018 explaining exactly why he thought, at the time, that “Soulless 4” wasis impossible and would never be FC’d. His video showed that certain segments and transitions of the song require near-impossible feats of luck and skill that would be hard enough to do in isolation, let alone in sequence. Darkly and Acai’s very public competition for the first Soulless 2 FC run generated a lot of traction on YouTube and Twitch. The buzz helped to reignite the Guitar Hero online community and get people interested in the Soulless songs again, 8 years after the release of Soulless 2. “ I don’t think you can say that about many other Guitar Hero customs, if any at all. The Soulless series has had that effect on the community.” “The significance of a feat like FCing ‘Soulless 4’ is something that has revived the [ Guitar Hero][Guitar Hero] community in a way.” DarklyInDarkness told us. “The score battles between [other players] and myself are one of the most active periods of the community I’ve seen in a very long while. People get very invested over’ Soulless 4’ and it shows.” Now that “Soulless 4” has been beaten, there is yet another mountain for diehard Guitar Hero players to climb. In July, ExileLord released “Soulless 5,” a longer and more difficult addition to the Soulless track series. DarklyInDarkness said he’s going to lay off it for now, though. “I myself personally do not like playing that song, nor do the people who really have the skill to do it,” he told me. “I don’t think we’ll be seeing ‘Soulless 5 done’ in the near future.” Get six of our favorite Motherboard stories every day by signing up for our newsletter. ‘Guitar Hero’ Streamer Conquers Track Previously Thought to Be Impossible syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/ via Tumblr ‘Guitar Hero’ Streamer Conquers Track Previously Thought to Be Impossible The launch will take place on an Electron rocket in late February from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 on the Māhia Peninsula of New Zealand. via Tumblr Rocket Lab’s First Launch Of 2019 Will Be A Mission For DARPA From poker, to chess, to Counter-Strike, there have always been unscrupulous players looking to cheat in games. The only thing that’s changed is the method. Now, cheaters in online shooters such as Rainbow Six: Siege and Battlefield V are tweaking their graphics settings to gain an unfair advantage over other players. It’s called level of detail (LOD) bias tweaking, and it involves adjusting the graphics settings at the hardware level so that games looks shitty, but advantageous. When a beautiful game like Battlefield V suddenly looks like Minecraft, the visual field becomes less cluttered. When there’s no grass or shadows in Battlefield V, it’s much easier to see and kill opponents across the map. A player may think they’re hiding in a patch of long grass, but to the the player on the other end who tweaked the game to show less details, they’re lying out in the open. This is different than simply playing a game on low graphics settings, which some competitive players do. There are a few advantages to this—the less graphically intense a game is, the better it will run, improving reaction time. Reducing the level of detail also removes some visual clutter, which could make it easier to spot the enemy. Tweaking a game’s settings below what the software allows is another matter entirely. As explained in a recent video by YouTuber jackfrags, cheaters are using simple text editors and, for players using NVIDIA graphics cards, programs like NVIDIA Inspector to tweak graphics beyond what the game would normally allow. NVIDIA Inspector allows in-depth tweaks to the settings of specific programs that are running on a graphics card. There’s plenty of legitimate reasons to use NVIDIA Inspector—a gamer may want to adjust power consumption and fan speed for individual games, for example. But cheaters can also use the program to tank their LOD settings. Some players are reportedly receiving bans for exploiting LOD bias in Battlefield V. Redditor Gudboiharvester streamed themselves playing Battlefield V on Twitch with an LOD bias and claims to have received a permanent ban from the game. “What. Did I get banned for cheating finally?” they said when the game logged them out, according to a video that Gudboiharvester allegedly deleted from their Twitch page, but not before a Redditor uploaded it to Streamable. When Gudboiharvester took to the Battlefield V subreddit to complain about the ban, a verified producer (meaning a DICE employee) going by Merson316 called them out on their behaviour. “So I’m not allowed to publicly state why you were banned,” Merson316 said. “What I will say though, I think you know why you were banned. So much so you deleted the Twitch VOD showing it happening live on your stream. Afterall, I was watching it at the time.” When another Redditor asked if messing around with NVIDIA Inspector was a bannable offense, Merson316 replied, “Using it to abuse LOD bias can land you in trouble,” adding, “We’re investigating potential fixes.” The visual elements of Battlefield V are a huge part of the game. There’s places to hide in the shadows on the expansive maps, the terrain provides cover, and camouflage can help players blend into their surroundings. LOD bias tweaking circumvents all that and turns the game into a cel-shaded shooting gallery. Where’s the fun in that? ‘Battlefield V’ Players Are Using Shitty Graphics for a Competitive Edge syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/ via Tumblr ‘Battlefield V’ Players Are Using Shitty Graphics for a Competitive Edge The polar vortex is making winter interesting again in 2019, five years after it first made headlines. via Tumblr 2019 Polar Vortex Cold Snap Arrives Tonight For A Long Winter Visit At a time when the right wing media can pore over viral videos to extract narratives of its choosing, and the White House itself shares deceptively edited clips on official feeds to support its policies, so-called information warfare is entering a new theater. This speculative short story imagines what could be the final battle. Enjoy. -the ed. “I hope America is ready—ready for holy war.” There was a taunting, almost impish smile beneath the glaring black eyes, which was what worried him most. Collins squinted at the live newscast of his terrorist, frowning, his pulse quickening. Why would he be smiling. Most of these militants were kids, right, indoctrinated and pushed to this stuff at an impressionable age. Wouldn’t he be nervous, at least, on some level? “The infidels must pay. And they will.” The muscled figure slung what looked like a Kalishnakov over his shoulder with one arm and pointed into the camera with the other. “You will pay.” Collins’ breath quickened, and he could feel his armpits moisten under his polo. He thought he was going to be sick. It was too much. A short chorus of “Allahu Ackbar” rose from the airport screen’s tinny speakers. The image was grainy, that always helped, but not enough this time. It was clear that there were at least six of them, faces hidden to varying degrees by masks and keffiyehs. Only the leader’s visage was obvious; angular cheekbones accentuated by a black turtleneck atop desert-tone camo pants. The clothes were too clean; the whole thing was too much Che, not enough Laden. The militants were standing in front of the bed of a rusted truck, a tarp draped over its ominous cargo, as the reporter turned away, leaving the group angrily hoisting their weapons to the sky. “There you have it,” the reporter said, stepping forward. A chyron flashed below. – EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: TERRORIST CELL FOUND IN REFUGEE CONVOY HEADED TO BORDER – A small crowd was looking at the oled screen at the airport gate, but most passengers only glanced up idly between other devices and distractions. Collins fidgeted, started to pace the terminal. Wasn’t anyone scared of this shit anymore? It was too far, too much. His nostrils stung with the pale smell of humanity in transit. Anxiety pricked at his pores, and he could hear his own heartbeat in his convex chest. Too much. * Mohammed pried his eyes open, rubbed his throbbing head. The cacophony was unbearable. The electric crackle of the refrigerator down the hallway of the one-bedroom apartment, the thin whine of the alarm clock next to him, the soft drone of cable news, the whooping churn of passing cars on the elevated highway out the window. Sounds he’d barely noticed before crushed his senses now. There was a timbre to being alone, he had learned, and it was not a quiet one, but the opposite. It was incredible how much work one voice, or the movement of one body, had done to obscure the bombardment of meaningless noise. Without her, the sinister trivial sounds invaded everything. They announced themselves aggressively as exactly what they marked: the voided substance of pointless routine. At least he could turn the TV off. He was fumbling for the off button when he turned his bleary gaze directly at an image of what appeared to be himself, filling the news. * It wasn’t, of course. It never was. His terrorist was a hit. Turlock’s laugh was hearty and merciless. “Jesus, Ed. The only reason you’re not running this fucking place is you’ve got less faith than a spoon-fed atheist.” The thick flap of skin that dangled underneath the old man’s chin was starting to accumulate a wispy clump of peach fuzz, Collins noticed, and the strands shifted as he spoke, like weeds on a windy hill. Turlock threw back the last of his rye rocks, shaking his head, savoring the bemusement. “Too much,” he laughed. Collins allowed himself to smile. The segment was playing again, it’d been playing all day, wiping that scandal clean out of the cycle, and this was the part where the chyron flashed. Convoy Headed to the Border. Convoy. Those were easier times. It had been his suggestion that they retire the ancient ‘caravan’ terminology—its star and threat level had hopelessly dimmed over the years, how could nobody have seen that—and upgrade to ‘convoy,’ that had probably sealed up that first promotion. Easier times. “It’s fucking hilarious, really,” Turlock nearly yelled, “the Times is down there interviewing the whole wetback parade, and you’ll appreciate this—they’re quoting people, actual immigrants, who aren’t sure they’ve seen them themselves, but have ‘oh si’ heard about this Middle Eastern crew joining up.” “Amazing,” Collins said. He’d seen the headline, Rumors of Terror Rack Convoy, Despite Absence of Evidence, and it was perfect. It was nothing. Turlock changed the channel, and again. CNN, local, MSNBC, even the gods-honest BBC were airing truncated snippets of the interview. “This is it, Ed,” Turlock said, a skewed note of sweetness in his voice. “This is the one.” They watched the terrorist point, the allahus roll, the unease of the various anchors introducing the story, as if movements in a symphony. Finally, the older man shut off the stream, and looked down at his desk. “There is, however minor, one issue.” * Mohammed had made the call first thing in the morning, a single minute past eight. He had not slept well, though he had not slept well since the day. “Mohammed,” Art said, picking up after a single ring. “I have meant to call you so many times, I assure you. I am so very sorry for-” “It is quite alright,” Mohammed said softly, with empathy. “To be honest, those calls rarely help, despite any intention.” He watched the numbers flash on the microwave across the counter from his seat on a stool in his kitchen. “I am sure.” Art was perhaps his father’s oldest friend, and thus perhaps his oldest link to whatever it was that came before whatever this was now, and a former prosecutor of some renown. He had represented his father before the business went under years ago. “I am still sorry.” Mohammed allowed a pause. “Thank you,” he said, swallowing. “This call, however, is in regards to a matter entirely unrelated,” Mohammed said evenly. Circumstance had long attuned him to a mode in which even his starkest fury was processed through dulcet conveyance. “It seems rather urgent. I did not know who else to call.” “Anything, Mo.” “Have you by any chance been watching the news.” * The watchdogs scanned, the journalists dug, the timelines ran like livewire. They were all still raw from a couple years ago, when someone from InfoWars spliced a local newscast with a CGI deepfake render of a dead ISIS militant, so everyone cross-checked the crosschecks and did it again—scanning news backlogs, meme archives, reddit and 4chan, Youtube freecasts, everything—Collins could feel the panic in the posts as the Media Matters bloggers pointed out discrepancies in fade and contrast, grasping, knowing too well they sounded too much like the conspiracy theorists they spent their days dressing down. Nothing. A day went by, then two. Not a single mainstream outlet attacked their story. The analyses came back, and it was verified—it was, the results determined, live footage, in the field, captured on location. Collins sat in his cluttered first-floor suite, surrounded by dark wood and walls lined with books by the foot. Takeout steak sat half-eaten at his desk. The TV was on, and Collins stared into it, letting his eyes unfocus, letting his right knee bounce. The president had called the troops to the border, 70,000 this time. Some outlet noted that it was the largest deployment of troops on domestic soil in modern history and CNN was there, watching the first division arrive, the anchor saying something about climate refugees and increased migration that pitched tensions higher than ever et cetera. Collins smiled, changed the channel. They were riding along. Images of troops, surecut determination creasing their brows, animating their locksteps. Collins nodded as if to a beat, keeping the minor issue back of mind. The lawyers said not to be worried, it was all perfectly legal, and was simply the product of a little misunderstanding. And nothing could dampen the sturdy elation he felt as Turlock had handed him the phone with the welcoming nod, and nothing could strike from memory the president’s tone as he’d said, curtly but invitingly, ‘Call me Eric,’ before offering his thanks. Nothing. The segment threw to the candidate, who was sweating even more obviously and profusely than the liberal blogs. Microphone in his face, he stammered something about needing more information but also the need to be strong but also a need to be careful, when pressed for comment. Collins grinned giddily when that clip ran, that was his new favorite. Perfect. Aliquid pulchritudinis. His tongue worked a ligament of beef stuck in his teeth, by the right canine. Then the primetime panel cut to what looked like a press conference. Somewhere in LA. The room felt cramped, ridiculous. The entire morning had unfolded like a parody of a prestige business show, beginning with the ostentatious limousine that had been sent to his door. Mohammed now sat far away, at end of a nondescript, beige-hued room that felt like the belly of a file folder. “Thank you for taking the time to meet with us, Mr. Aboukir,” Collins said, extending a hand, quickly retracting it. “We are well aware the situation we have put you in must be inconvenient, and we just want to say, believe it or not, this was never our intent.” Mohammed said nothing. One of the four lawyers sitting next to the thin, ashen executive cleared his throat. “Given the amount of stress this unfortunate development has no doubt added to your life, we are prepared to offer a generous additional fee in the form of a bonus,” the second lawyer from the right said. The third one passed a paper across the black oval conference table. “Please look at the document. We are prepared to offer a preemptive settlement of a value tenfold the original agreement.” “And again, please accept our apologies,” Collins said, though no one had yet apologized. Mohammed still said nothing. “Of course,” another lawyer continued, “because of the sensitive nature of this work, we are going to ask that you recant your public denial, and that you decline the invitation to testify before Congress next week that I understand has been extended.” Mohammed looked Collins in the eye for the first time since they’d been seated. “This is an abomination,” Mohammed said quietly. He looked at this blank man, these wavering bodies, these conduits. “You have not heard the number yet,” Collins said, as winningly as he could, an amateur imitating a television negotiation. Mohammed gave the faintest shake of his head. Collins said the number. “You had no right,” Mohammed said. “You have sullied my name and reputation, and you have delivered me a disgrace at a time when,” he trailed off. “You have exploited my person and my situation, and I admit I am ashamed I allowed it to happen.” “Yes, we are also sorry to hear about your-” A swift hand and pure black eyebeams halted the words with a force unknown to the easy. “Do not speak my wife’s name,” Mohammed spat in a burst, “or reference her again in any way.” He let the mad pulse feed his words. “This is an abomination. What you have done. At first I did not understand, it seemed too much to be true. It overwhelmed. But of course it was true.” He shook his head. “The hate you are capable of.” Collins grit his teeth and squinted into the man, as if he were trying to make something out through static. Mohammed did not notice him. “I do not care about your figures, and of course I will testify,” he continued. “I do not, would not, live with your money, and I will not be intimidated.” With that, he stood, and Art and his agent and his growing entourage of aides did the same. “The worst of this, perhaps, is you have knowingly and willfully perpetrated a hoax on the American people,” Mohammed said. “You should be ashamed of yourselves.” It had the sound of a line that was going to be used more than once. Collins flinched. Mohammed looked down at him with detached malignance, and walked in a clumsy daze to the door. Four sighs let out, in unison. * Collins paced the network’s largest conference room, with eyes on what else. Outside, in the streets, the annual climate march, a faint din somewhat less disruptive than adfill. He had not slept. The hour had begun with the protests outside the central military encampment north of the border. There were as many protestors as soldiers, maybe more, despite the barren locale. The network framed the shots with the soldiers in the foreground, the mob behind them faceless and menacingly kinetic, with sharp angles and implied anger. The soldiers looked heroic, American, underdogs. The official line was the Army was still preparing to neutralize a terrorist attack. Then the throw. Mohammed, clad in a crisp black suit, stood silently behind the table in the packed chamber as oaken chaos eddied around him. Across from him, the senator began. “You are here today to testify that that was not you in the video segment that has been circulating widely, that you have no affiliation with any terrorist organization, and that this video was created wholesale, as some kind of newfangled hoax? Remember, be clear and honest in your answers—you are under oath—as this is a matter of utmost national security.” Mohammed nodded and sat down, drawing the mic closer to him. “Yes, that is correct.” “You may begin.” “I will begin by clarifying that is indeed my likeness pictured in that video, but I recorded that scene as part of what I understood at the time to be a fictional piece of entertainment.” “How, then—” In New York, Collins braced himself, eyes wide to the screen. Above the flowing chyron, the doors to the congressional chamber burst open, and a booming call thundered from beyond. Framed perfectly against the side panel of bullet point factoids and the running text, another figure, one that appeared for all intents and purposes identical to Mohammed, suddenly stood defiantly in the aisle. “Hello, brother,” the newcomer snarled, and turned first towards the congressmen, then the crowd. “Know this: My brother is not lying. My brother thinks I am dead. Yes. Brother. Why did he never mention that he had a twin brother? Was he embarrassed perhaps, that his brother was doing what he never could—and leading a jihad to the very doorstep of America? Perhaps.” So far, so far. Collins pressed the palms of his hands together. The hardest part, if he was being honest, was simply finding the workable source material. Since their archive had no trace of Mohammed uttering the word ‘brother,’ for instance, they had to splice it together—from ‘broken,’ and ‘bother,’ words Collins had recalled he’d spoken in his little press conference. Now the ballet would begin, the gamble. Mohammed, jerky with nerves, had leapt to his feet to look towards the noise. On screen, it really did look as if the security detail were restraining him. Out of earshot of the feeds, one was whispering in his ear. “Excuse me?” Mohammed could be heard stammering, confused. It would do. “And get your hands-” Another bellow, from inside the courtroom. “You don’t know your own twin brother? Unlikely. But I know one thing: You hate America as much as I do. As you can see, we have arrived. In fact, if I know you at all, merely seeing me, your blood, your truth, will inspire you to join me, even here. If you need inspiration, how’s this?” The twin-Mohammed cast off his jacket to reveal a duct-taped bomb strapped to his vest. A loud stomp echoed in the hall. Collins squinted, looking for giveaways. The second hardest part was choreographing the real-life soundtrack cues, which was currently being carried out by a small team of able interns and Project Veritas vets. Collins was sweating again. “Join me,” the new terrorist said. Apparently without hesitation, the Mohammed behind the table turned and punched his security detail, a white man in his early forties, squarely in the jaw. The presiding senator was yelling “order.” Art was calling Mohammed’s name, wheeling, hands on his cheeks. Only Collins knew what the man he’d installed as security detail had just now whispered in Mohammed’s ear, melodramatically, as per instruction: Face it. You let Katie die, her and your son both, for nothing, in childbirth. You were not man enough to take her to a hospital. You are a coward and it is your fault they are dead. As the rest of the detail tackled Mohammed, Collins sighed with relief. There were of course contingencies in place, alternate forks to the preferred storyline, but none as convincing. The feeds confirmed his satisfaction, rendered his relief a substrate of pure pleasure. -Fukcing knew it -Who could’ve seen *that* coming? Oh, maybe anyone who took five minutes to look at any of the facts outside the MSM’s preferred PC bullshit narrative. -loll they droped that towel head like itwas nothing lol -This is huge. This is what you get with Dem border policy. Everyone will see that now. Hope a sniper gets the other one before we have to pay any more for liberal ignorance. -Pigfucker got pigfucked Every stream, feed, and talk show, every right pundit left, they were blazing with a purity of purpose absent for months, maybe years; coalescing around the shared power of having known all along. In DC, the puzzled faces in the room, swinging towards each cue, now fixated on the scrum at the witness table. On the screens, the doppleganger looked at it too, expressing something between cartoon rage and the having of second thoughts, yelled ‘Allahu Ackbar’ and fled the room. Cameramen and anyone running a livestream on mobile checked and double-checked their monitors and screens, the impossible discrepancy, a sense of dumbfounded incomprehension falling like blackout curtains. They were the first and last to see this bifurcated view; the dramatic and robust scene through the screens, the confounding half-absent reality behind it, at once. Mostly, Collins was tired now. There was little adrenaline left. He found himself watching one freckled, fair-skinned cameraman in particular, the one with the long reddish ponytail shooting for CSPAN, who was glancing between screens and the fray with such pained incomprehension that his head seemed to somehow physically contort and cave under the pressure. In coming days, he and the journalists and the Democratic congressmen and half the other eyewitnesses who had been in the room would loudly say to whoever would listen that there was no twin brother there, no suicide bomb, no nothing, and that the feeds must have been hacked, that there must be some mistake, some other reason why Mohammed punched that security guard. Mohammed will be in solitary at a black site for the foreseeable future, under questioning about his terrorist ties, and thus unable to comment. This time, it wasn’t an epiphany Collins felt as he watched the red-haired videographer alternate realities, inflating his chest as best he could, imagining for a second the room free of context and finding it pointless; what was forming felt more like a premonition. This will be, it goes without saying, the highest rated story in the network’s history. Collins leaves the broken gaze of the pale man and re-enters the stream, where, as the troops begin to move, as the alert for armed and dangerous jihadi in Washington goes red, as the martial laws enter into motion, there can only ever be more for the just enough rapt. The Convoy syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/ via Tumblr The Convoy Earlier this month Motherboard revealed that AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint had been selling real-time location of customers’ cell phones that ultimately ended up in the hands of bounty hunters and people unauthorized to handle the data. To verify this, Motherboard paid a bounty hunter source $300 to locate a T-Mobile phone, which successfully pinpointed the device to a specific part of Queens, New York. Now, a group of 15 senators is calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate how telecommunications companies share their customers’ location data. “A recent investigation published by Motherboard […] demonstrated not only that the wireless carriers are still failing to protect their customers’ private information, but also that location data can be purchased by stalkers, domestic abusers, and others,” the senators wrote in a letter today published by the office of Senator Ron Wyden. The other Senators are Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Ed Markey, D-Mass., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Ben Cardin, D-Md., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Cory Booker, D-N.J., Jack Reed, D-R.I., Tina Smith, D-Minn., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. “It is clear that these wireless carriers have failed to regulate themselves or police the practices of its business partners, and, in failing to do so, have needlessly exposed American consumers to serious harm,” the letter added. Got a tip? You can contact Joseph Cox securely on Signal on +44 20 8133 5190, OTR chat on [email protected], or email [email protected]. When Motherboard purchased the location of a T-Mobile phone on the black market, that data access had trickled through a complex network of resellers and middlemen companies. T-Mobile sold the access to a so-called location aggregator called Zumigo. Zumigo then provided it to a company called Microbilt, which caters to property owners, used car salesmen, and the bail bondsman industry. Microbilt sold the location of the phone to a particular bounty hunter company, who then sold it to our source. The source then provided a Google Maps style interface of the phone’s location, accurate to a range of around 500m. Wyden, Harris, and Senator Mark Warner previously called on the FCC to investigate the issue. After Motherboard’s investigation, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint all said they were stopping the sale of phone location data to third parties and data aggregators, including Zumigo. The group of Senators’ letter added “To that end, we urge the FTC and the FCC to conduct broad investigations, as appropriate, into the business partnerships between wireless carriers and location aggregators, including resellers and all downstream buyers of location data.” Ajit Pai, the chairman of the FCC, told Motherboard in an email that “The FCC already has been investigating this issue. Unfortunately, the investigation had to be suspended because of the partial government shutdown. It will resume once the shutdown has ended.” That investigation, however, is likely to be focused on a previous case of cell phone location data sharing. Last year The New York Times and Wyden revealed that telcos had been selling data that landed in the hands of abusive, low level enforcement who located phones without a warrant. The FTC press office said it was unable to provide a statement due to the government shutdown. “Americans expect that their location data will be protected. The wireless industry has repeatedly demonstrated a blatant disregard for its customers’ privacy. It is therefore vital that regulators take swift action to ensure that consumers are protected,” the letter added. Update: This piece has been updated to include comment from Ajit Pai, chairman of the FCC, as well as the FTC’s response to a request for comment. Subscribe to our new cybersecurity podcast, CYBER. 15 Senators Call on FCC and FTC to Investigate How AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint Sold Phone Locations to Bounty Hunters syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/ via Tumblr 15 Senators Call on FCC and FTC to Investigate How AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint Sold Phone Locations to Bounty Hunters In the months leading up to the FCC assault on net neutrality, big telecom and FCC boss Ajit Pai told anybody who’d listen that killing net neutrality would boost broadband industry investment, spark job creation, and drive broadband into underserved areas at an unprecedented rate. As it turns out, none of those promises were actually true. Despite the FCC voting to kill the popular consumer protections late last year, Comcast’s latest earnings report indicates that the cable giant’s capital expenditures (CAPEX) for 2018 actually decreased 3 percent. The revelation comes on the heels by similar statements by Verizon and Charter Spectrum that they’d also be seeing lower network investment numbers in 2018. It’s not expected to get any better in 2019. According to analysis this week by Wall Street research firm MoffettNathanson, capital spending among the nation’s four biggest cable providers (Altice, Comcast, Charter Spectrum, CableONE) is expected to decline upwards of 5.8 percent this year. Phone companies (AT&T, Verizon) are similarly expected to see their wireline capex fall from $20.3 billion in 2018 to $19.6 billion this year, notes the firm. And while investment in wireless is expected to jump slightly thanks to fifth generation (5G) investment, there too analysts have noted that overall investment is notably more sluggish than many had predicted. The FCC did not respond to a request for comment on why its predictions have been so decidedly inaccurate. Meanwhile, none of this comes as much of a surprise to those well versed in the net neutrality fight. While the FCC and telecom sector repeatedly tried to claim that net neutrality rules stifled network investment, SEC filings, earnings reports, and even dozens of public statements made by countless CEOs easily disproved those claims. That didn’t stop either Pai or the telecom sector from repeating the claims countless times over a two-year span. Gigi Sohn, a former FCC lawyer who helped craft the agency’s net neutrality rules, told Motherboard that the repeal of net neutrality (and the Title II classification of ISPs that legally underpinned the protections) was based on little more than fluff and nonsense. “The cornerstone of Ajit Pai’s net neutrality repeal order has quickly crumbled,” Sohn told me in an email. “The broadband industry’s reduction in investment and CAPEX in the wake of Ajit Pai’s repeal of the net neutrality rules proves what advocates for Internet openness have known all along—neither the rules nor Title II authority had any effect on broadband investment.” Sohn told me telecom investment decisions are based on a wide variety of factors including technological advancement, the economy, and the level of competition an ISP sees in its market. Given huge swaths of America only have the choice of one ISP to choose from, there’s little pressuring them to put soaring profits back into the network or customer service. And that’s the problem. Net neutrality violations and other bad behaviors by big telecom are just a symptom of a lack of vibrant competition. But the Pai FCC has routinely worked to downplay this problem, even to the point of trying to weaken the very definition of the word “competition” to the exclusive benefit of entrenched ISPs. Instead, the focus for the Trump administration has been to dole out billions in tax cuts, subsidies, and regulatory favors to giant telecom operators, who in turn routinely promise job growth, network investment, and better service that never actually materializes. Motherboard has exclusively reported how AT&T is prepping another major round of layoffs despite netting nearly $20 billion from the Trump tax cuts. And Verizon this week said it would be cutting 7 Percent of its media staff—on the heels of a 10,000 employee “voluntary” severance package—despite its own mammoth windfall of government favors. Other ISPs, like Frontier Communications, have been literally letting their networks fall apart in many states, despite millions in taxpayer subsidies and repeated allegations of fraud. These are problems that were never going to be solved by killing popular consumer protections. While this kind of pay to play dysfunction is widespread in telecom, the assault on net neutrality was among the most obvious examples of government kowtowing to natural monopolies, say consumer groups. “Dismantling the basic principle that prevents companies like Comcast and Verizon from controlling what we see and do online helps no one other than telecom lobbyists and executives,” Evan Greer, Deputy Director of Fight For the Future, told Motherboard. The repeal of net neutrality “will go down in history as one of the most blatant examples of corruption in our nation’s history,” Greer said. “It’s not helping workers at these companies. It’s not helping people in rural communities. It’s not closing the digital divide,” Greer added. “The repeal of net neutrality is nothing but a massive government handout to some of the most unscrupulous, and least popular, corporations in the United States.” And while big telecom has been understandably thrilled at its good fortune in the Trump era, there’s every indication that a looming backlash could spoil the sector’s fun as the pendulum inevitably swings back the other direction. Next month sees the opening arguments in a lawsuit against the FCC over it’s net neutrality repeal, where the agency’s false claims (not to mention its decision to make up a DDOS and turn a blind eye to fraud during the public comment period) will take center stage. If the FCC loses that case, there’s a good chance that the FCC’s 2015 net neutrality rules could be restored. And even if the FCC and its telecom sector allies win, they still have to find a way to prevent lawmakers from passing a real net neutrality law, no easy task given the shifting political climate and the persistent, bipartisan public anger over the repeal. It’s Now Clear None of the Supposed Benefits of Killing Net Neutrality Are Real syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/ via Tumblr It’s Now Clear None of the Supposed Benefits of Killing Net Neutrality Are Real If you freak out when your Wi-Fi goes down for 10 minutes, welcome to your nightmare. The entire nation of Tonga is currently experiencing a near-total internet blackout thanks to damage to the sole underwater cable that supplies internet to the island. The blackout began on January 20 after a nasty storm and suspected lightning strike knocked out the underwater cable that provides internet connection to Tonga from Fiji. While there is some very limited connectivity available through satellite internet, it’s nowhere near sufficient to provide the normal access that the island of 100,000 is used to. “Submarine cables are expensive endeavors,” said Doug Madory, Director of Internet Analysis at for Oracle Internet Intelligence. “Cable builds for island nations are referred to as ‘thin routes; in the business because of the small amount of revenue they would potentially generate. Therefore, it becomes difficult to build a business case for [multiple cables to] thin routes like Tonga and the cables can’t be built without financial assistance from organizations like the Asian Development Bank and World Bank.” To repair the damage, a cable repair ship—of which there are only a couple dozen globally, Madory said—will need to sail over to Tonga and start work, which could take weeks. In the meantime, the island’s economy is greatly strained by the lack of connectivity and officials are considering blocking access to nonessential sites, like Facebook, the island’s cable company said. “We’ve been informed that 80% of our international traffic is from social media,” Tonga Cable director Paula Piukala told Radio New Zealand. “We may block Facebook, YouTube and stuff like that in the meantime so that we can maximise the small bandwidth that we have from satellite on what is important to the country.” Damaged Undersea Cable Causes Near-Total Internet Blackout in Island Nation Tonga syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/ via Tumblr Damaged Undersea Cable Causes Near-Total Internet Blackout in Island Nation Tonga |
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