Gizmodo: legislation

FCC Asked to Get Carriers to Hurry Up Local Number Portability Already

Elaine Chow — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:30:00 EDT

With all the advances in technology we've had over the last couple of decades, you'd think that something as simple as changing your land line number into a cellular one would take hours at most. At least Congress does, and its now urging the FCC to put rules in place that will speed up local number portability processing.

Congress says the rules, which would give a 48-hour time limit for carriers to transfer numbers between each other, are necessary since carriers have been known to delay processing in a bid to throw as many retention offers as they can at customers trying to switch. The FCC seems to agree that it's a good idea, but was ambivalent as always about when it'd get around to implementing new regulations. [DSLreports]

Should Congress Ban Cellphone Calls on US Flights?

Sean Fallon — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:30:00 EDT

Europe may be ok with passengers making in-flight calls on their cellphones, but at least a few members of Congress have the foresight to see how this situation could become problematic in the US. A new bill has been introduced that promises to ban cellphone calls on US flights, but not text messaging and web surfing. The bill has yet to be passed, but the question is: Do you support a ban?

[PC Mag]

Biometric Social Security Cards Proposed to Combat ID Theft

Sean Fallon — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:50:00 EST

Two Illinois congressmen are introducing legislation with the goal of upgrading that flimsy paper piece of crap we call a social security card to include a photo, fingerprint and computer ID chip. Recent data shows that nearly $45 billion is lost each year due to identity theft, which makes it increasingly necessary to safeguard our important documents from fraud. The only drawback is that the new cards will cost around $8 to make as opposed to the current 50 cent price tag. Damn...we've been paying 50 cents for those things? [Chicago Tribune]

Super V-Chip Aims to Block Content on Everything, Will Probably Fail

Matt Buchanan — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 09:00:27 EDT

The Senate Commerce Committee has approved legislation that would enjoin the FCC to oversee the development of a "super V-chip" that would block content on cellphones, TVs, the internet—anywhere tender young eyes could land upon "inappropriate" content. Unfortunately for its proponents, the Child Safe Viewing Act's initiative will probably bomb even harder than the 1996 Telecommunications Act's V-chip provision—sure there's a V-chip in all of our TVs, but who actually uses them? Hell, when was the last time you even thought about it until just now?

As sponsoring Sen. Mark Pryor correctly surmises, content is increasingly slippery, sliding from device to device with relative ease—if you want to strap blinders on children, you have to think outside of the box in your living room. But his goal is wholly unrealistic. The reason he wants a super V-chip—the infinitude of content that needs to be managed across a vast array of devices—is the very reason why any kind of super V-chip would fail. It's like trying to hold back an ocean with a fishing net.

Beyond that, forcing manufacturers to shove chips into TVs is relatively easy compared to equipping essentially every consumer electronics device with one, which is what would be necessary to filter content at the absolute end user level. And there's no point in worrying about that until every piece of content itself is tagged in a way for the chip to identify it. Finally, there's that little problem the first V-chip ran into: no one used it.

It would probably be easer to make a super-duper V-chip that's implanted at birth which would screen everything a kid sees and hears, not just TV or the internet. Real life probably has the most inappropriate content of any medium, so it's high time we started screening it, too—we don't want kids exposed to any of that dirty business. [Yahoo!/Reuters, Image via Flickr]

Fujifilm FinePix S3 Pro UVIR Digital SLR: Infrared and Ultraviolet Camera Sees the Unseen

Charlie White — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 10:31:22 EDT

Fujifilm introduced its FinePix S3 Pro UVIR digital SLR camera, which the company calls the world's first production DSLR that can take photos in the ultraviolet and infrared light spectrum. Fujifilm is marketing the 12.3-megapixel camera to law enforcement agencies, who can use ultraviolet and infrared photography to visualize evidence that's hard to see with the human eye, such as bloodstains and gunshot residue. The S3 Pro UVIR lets those cops and detectives preview all this stuff live in its smallish two-inch viewscreen.

Fujifilm is also targeting science, medical and fine art disciplines with the camera, but doesn't mention that infrared photography gives you the ability to see through people's clothes. Available next month, it'll cost you $1800 to become a private eye, or perhaps find your way into the poky for taking high-tech up-skirt shots. It's the first digital SLR camera that may require new legislation to be introduced along with its rollout. – Charlie White

Product Page [Fujifilm]