Gizmodo: uncle sam

Everyone Will Be a Walking Nuclear Weapon Detector

matt buchanan — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 18:00:00 EDT

Researchers at Purdue University are working on tech that will turn every cellphone into a roaming nuclear weapon sniffer and are lobbying Congress to legally require cellphone users and carriers to participate. The Distributed Nuclear Detection by Ubiquitous Cellphone project would be kind of like the massive cellphone dragnet in The Dark Knight, but it would look for terrorists sneaking dirty bombs and nuclear weapons instead of the Joker.

Like the Batman system, the more phones on the ground, the better, since it would be able to triangulate the source of radiation more accurately. Phones closest to the deadly stuff as they pass by would give off stronger signals, pinpointing where it's at, or how it's moving in real time. Also, the larger the scale of the project, the less the system would cost per phone—right now it's around $50-$100 a phone. Blown up to a hundred million phones, the price would plummet.

Obviously, there are some major civil rights issues here, especially if you're legally required to be a constantly lo-jacked, walking bomb detector for the Man. Newsweek suggests a more diplomatic and less creepy solution, where government agencies would pay you to opt-in. I think that's one paycheck I'd have to pass on. [Newsweek]

Digital TV Converter Coupons From Uncle Sam Available Now, Old People Rejoice

matt buchanan — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:40:19 EST

Old people love coupons, especially ones worth 40 bucks, which buys a lot of Metamucil. They're also the people most likely to need digital converter boxes for analog sets to receive digital over-the-air broadcasts after Feb. 2009. So I'm happy to report that ~~your gramps~~ you can pick up his $40 coupon for the box here. Or you could just take him down to Best Buy to get a new TV and forego this silliness. [Detroit Free Press]

Senate Passes Seven-Year Extension of Net Access Tax Ban

Matt Buchanan — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 11:40:01 EDT

Showing the House who's in the lower chamber of the bicameral setup, the Senate passed a seven-year extension on the net tax ban, three years longer than the four-year ban that passed the House. Better deal for us, right? Well, since they didn't match up exactly, they'll have to work together to hammer out the differences, hopefully before the current moratorium goes rotten on Nov. 1. Republicans continued to advocate for a permanent ban, but apparently Dems blocked a vote on it. Boooo taxes. [Yahoo!/Reuters]

House Judiciary Votes to Extend Ban on Net Access Tax by Four More Years

Matt Buchanan — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 19:20:37 EDT

The ban on taxing your intertube access is set to drop dead next month, but signs are looking decent it's taxation you won't have to worry about for at least another few years—the House Judiciary Committee voted 38 to zip passing an amendment to the Internet Tax Freedom Act that stretches the tax-freeness out another four years.

For once, lobbying groups and ISPs are on our side, actually arguing to make the ban permanent, though cities and states undoubtedly wouldn't mind the free drink of water a broadband tax dangles in front of them. The bill hits the House next term, probably (hopefully) before the current ban expires, though the Senate's taking its sweet time. [Ars]