Chairman of the FCC Kevin Martin

Eh…. Not really. Wow that was by far the longest title yet. Well so it happened today, we all new it was going to happen, the 700mhz frequency was approved today by the FCC . The 700mhzland has been long sought after frequency for the great distances it can reach. Since Google wants to melt there doughy little hands into every aspect of every market they said, “Hey lets buy a Radio frequency”. Don’t quote them on that, they probably said something a lot more sophisticated and in-depth.
Now all in all this approval really isn’t that bad, but only if the FCC keeps to its “Open Access” plan. But the FCC being a part of our government we never know who’s hand might get greased to push a vote or favor through. A total of 60 megahertz will be auctioned off, with twenty-two of them “open,” and another 10 set aside for a “national public safety” network. The auctioning off of the frequency is expected to raise as much as $15 billion for the federal treasury.

The auction begins sometime early next year, and so it begins…..

I wanted to give a little info out about Chairman Kevin Martin, and who he has worked for, and what he did in the past. Here is the excerpt about him from the official FCC website:

“Chairman Martin was nominated by President George W. Bush to a Republican seat on the Commission, and was sworn in on July 3, 2001. He was designated chairman by President Bush on March 18, 2005. Chairman Martin was re-nominated for a second term as commissioner and chairman by President George W. Bush on April 25, 2006.

Before joining the FCC, Martin was a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. He served on the Bush-Cheney Transition Team and was Deputy General Counsel for the Bush campaign. Prior to joining the campaign, Martin was an advisor to FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth. He has also served in the Office of the Independent Counsel and worked as an associate at the Washington, DC law firm of Wiley, Rein & Fielding. Before joining Wiley, Rein & Fielding, Martin was a judicial clerk for U.S. District Court Judge William M. Hoeveler, Miami, FL.

Martin received a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Masters in Public Policy from Duke University, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Federal Communications Bar Association.”

Now Chairman Martin is no virgin when it comes to ethic scandals, does anyone remember the Bellsouth & AT&T merger?

I never try to mix politics with technology but sometimes they just mix , and a lot of the time it ends up in a negative manner. So that is why I am so skeptical of this “Open Access” plan. Now I am not saying Google even has the cash flow to play the game, if it stays open I hope they have the cash on hand. I just hope the FCC plays nice with everyone and does not play favors.

Can anyone give me a reason to not think like this?

The question I have for you all is, what works for the ladies these days? I have always hated buying flowers or candy and things that really can never be used ever again. So my question to YOU the female gender of today, what do women like these days? Well Phillips and Swarokvski’s think that women now want blinged out gadgets. Yes I just wrote blinged, not even sure that’s a word, or really what it means other then just stuff that shines and sparkles.

What I have done here is compiled a group of gadgets that I might think the ladies might like. I for see a future of women that no longer need flowers to feel loved, but gadgets, lots of gadgets.

Phillips and Swarokvski’s USB jewel encrusted pendant $79-$200. 

Color Motorola Pebl : $ depend on contract

Clique Hue HD webcam: $79.99 

ColorWare pre-painted IPhone: $649

One thing I think many men would agree on would be that if a women were into gadgets that the man would spend far, far more on her then he would if he bought flowers. You see I would feel better about buying a $200 jewel encrusted USB drive rather then $50 on some flowers that will die in 5 days. Plus you could throw in a dope ass mix tape on that jump drive.

So if the ladies could make some comments about these gadgets, and if any of these would actually interest you that would be great. So ladies lets make a push for gadgets, no more killing the earth with your greedy flower plucking, lets start a new gift giving trend…..GADGETS!!!

Well the “genius’s” at MIT have came up with another “Idea” on sustainable energy. They want to harness your energy and create power. You are probably wondering how in the world they got Captain Planet to sign on to this project, since to this day he is the only one being that I know of that can harness the power of others. But no, no, the high top fade superhero is not helping out on this one.

Here is how they want to do it.

“A Crowd Farm in Boston’s South Station railway terminal would work like this: A responsive sub-flooring system made up of blocks that depress slightly under the force of human steps would be installed beneath the station’s main lobby. The slippage of the blocks against one another as people walked would generate power through the principle of the dynamo, a device that converts the energy of motion into that of an electric current.” Huh?

I’m not the smartest bloak in the pub but what they are saying they want to do is lay down squishy mats that you walk on that create friction through IC’s and are centrally connected to one hub, thus creating a electrical current that can be moderated through a power station and delegated through the central hub. Seems like a good idea. But lets break it the whole human power element down. According to Graham and Jusczy the MIT students that developed this idea says, a single human step can only power two 60W light bulbs for one flickering second. But get a crowd in motion, multiply that single step by 28,527 steps, for example, and the result is enough energy to power a moving train for one second. So whenever the Stones roll into town will be the day our trains will run on time??

I know I am going a bit overboard and being overly sarcastic in my judgement, but honestly I really enjoy these types of “Ideas”, but the thing that really gets under my skin are guys like these two. They likely are in the higher echelon for IQ, and they come up with ideas that most likely will never happen in our lifespan. Why not convert all that energy and time into something we can use today. The whole plan they have is great, getting people to generate power, getting people out and about, its all great.

But I am so tired of people coming up with ideas for sustainable energy that could never be adapted in out lifetime. The only way for any of us to see this in our country or really any country would have to start with the politicians, we would have to abolish them. 2nd, corporations would have to stop being greedy, and so many people would go against the grain, not for any reason just because.

I commend them on the cool idea, but now take your ideas and transform them to something we can use today.

With United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAUA) finally clocking in a steady stream of profits in this second quarter they decided to give some of it back to its customers in the way of some really, really nice amenities. They call this new program The International United Business Experience. They will be the first US carrier to offer full blown lay flat beds in business class. As well as getting the new nifty seats you will be immersed into a world of gadgetry. Each seat offers on-demand audio and video with more then 150 hours of movies and TV, they will be supplied with a 15.4 LCD. They will offer up to 2o channels of stored XM audio. You even get an area to charge your IPOD (What no Zune support :x), all of these services will be offered in up to 14 languages as well.

International United Business seat amenities will include:

• Forward- and rear-facing seats configured to allow customers to completely recline 180º to a full 6-foot, 4-inch bed
• Four-way lumbar support and six-way adjustable headrest
• An ottoman providing additional storage for a laptop or other personal items
• Ergonomically designed tray table that comfortably accommodates a laptop and other items
• iPod adapter that enables customers to play their own music and videos on the seat’s entertainment unit while recharging the iPod
• Universal Serial Bus (USB) port to charge personal electronic devices, such as personal digital assistants, mobile phones and digital cameras
• Standard 110v power outlets requiring no adapter
• Adjustable LED reading light with dimmer
• Noise cancelling headphones

Expect to start seeing these changes done early fall on all of the international fleet of 97 wide-body B767’s, B747 and the B777 (mmmm triple 7) aircraft’s.

I know who I will be flying with when I fly international.

More info at UAL’s site . Rumors are flying around that Apple and UAL are working on some slick amenities as for the futur.

I say full steam United, its great to see a US airline back in the running internationally and out of chapter 11.

Well kind of lame first post but who cares, we are slowly churning out info. Graphics should be up soon. But your here for the info.

So about a week ago at work I noticed someone was running a phishy “Free public wifi” ad hoc wireless signal over my air. You see if I worked in the middle of a city or suburban area I would not think twice about it, but you see I work out in the boonies, way way out in the middle of no where. I have a pretty large network out in the country, its about a 450 node network with 7 wireless bridges granted they are all locked down very very tight. But the problem arose when I saw this SSID come across my office, you see we have outside sales reps come in with there laptops and they see a couple SSID’s and they try to connect to anything that has a signal.

So to end this long story quickly I ordered a very mild spectrum analyzer. It is the WiSPY 2.0 with external antenna from METAGEEK, it just came today so I have not even had a chance to use it at work, but I am having a ton of fun with it at home. The channalyzer software built into it is great, its a very cool little tool to have for anyone interested in the hidden world of RF frequency. On a side note this only works with the 2.4ghz range.

You can attach any SMA compatible antenna to the device making it even more versatile.

The Channalyzer software is easy to use and very effective.

Overall this is a great product, kind of on the high side for pricing coming in around $399.99 but at the same time most spectrum analyzers run about $2500-3000.

I cant wait to use it at work.

-thegeek out