burning-man — Today Burning Man, Tomorrow Three Billion Poor

Phi Beta Iota: We have noticed with irritation the number of beltway bandits and think tanks claiming to have OpenBTS well in hand, and vying for the declining government dollar. There is only one company that has a legitimate claim to offering OpenBTS, and that company's name is Range Networks, featured at DEMO 2010 and a spin-off from Kestrel Signal Processing.

The technical minds behind OpenBTS in its current and rapidly maturing form are David A. Burgess, now Chief Technical Officer of Range Networks, and Dr. Harvind S. Samra, a pioneer of novel signal processing algorithms for exploiting packet transmissions. We posted information earlier about their stunning success at Burning Man 2010, where Brother Dave Warner of MindTel was again scouting for follow-ons to STRONG ANGEL III and TOOZL.

To create Range Networks, profitable in year one, they recruited as Chief Executive Officer Glenn Edens, whose background at ZeroOne, Sun Microsystems, and Hewlett Packard is extraordinary–he is a peer of John Gage, who showed off the first hand-held Internet server at OSS '92.

Learn more below the line….

Continue reading “Range Networks: The ONLY OpenBTS Real Deal”

2011/02/222011/02/22

Search: algeria yemen somalia tribal maps

Searches, Uncategorized

Google Search (Images) works just fine. The US Government has never been serious about anthropology or ethnic-religious or “peoples” instead of artificial states (the simpleton's approach to international relations).

Below are images for Algeria, Yemen, and Somalia, with source credits. As Panarchy becomes the primary mode of global self-organization, we should see a diminuition of “state” boundaries (most of them are failed states anyway) and a resurrection of traditional tribal-natural “zones of influence.” That is a good thing, but stupid governments replete with hubris and the arrogance of ignorance will no doubt fight it. Open Borders, Open Money, Open Everything. Coming soon.

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2011/02/222011/02/22

Tim Geithner: Con Man, Dupe, Idiot? Dangerous!

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Government

Geithner’s Gamble

Simon Johnson

Geithner’s Gamble

LOS ANGELES – In a recent interview, United States Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner laid out his view of the nature of world economic growth and the role of the US financial sector. It is a deeply disturbing vision, one that amounts to a huge, uninformed gamble with the future of the American economy – and that suggests that Geithner remains the senior public official worldwide who is most in thrall to the self-serving ideology of big banks.

Geithner argues that the world will now experience a major “financial deepening,” owing to growing demand in emerging markets for financial products and services. He is thinking, of course, of “middle-income” countries like India, China, and Brazil. And he is right to emphasize that all have made terrific progress and now offer great opportunities for the rising middle class, which wants to accumulate savings, borrow more easily (for productive investment, home purchases, education, etc), and, more generally, smooth out consumption.

Read detailed critique….

Phi Beta Iota: The persistent idiocy of the Administration can only be understood if one recognizes that the White House and Congress have been bought and paid for. They are NOT representing the American public interest, and they are a danger to the rest of the world. The silence of the goats in senior positions is reprehensible. Foreign countries should be banning US banks [and expelling US forces] entirely–the US has taken legalized corruption to extraordinary heights, and as Matt Taibbi has documented so well, “no one goes to jail“–the US Government and Wall Street have merged to become GRIFTOPIA.

2011/02/21

What are the fundamental requirements and building blocks of a distributed internet?

Autonomous Internet

220px-Michel_Bauwens_crop — Michel Bauwens

What are the fundamental requirements and building blocks of a distributed internet?

In preparation for the Contact summit in NYC 20 October 2011, we want to understand the current landscape of projects/initiatives building a distributed internet and the fundamental requirements so we can better coordinate efforts.

ANSWER ONE: Michel Bauwens

Here is a proposed definition of conditions, in non-technical language:

What is a p2p infrastructure:

1) A P2P communications and cooperation infrastructure is a technological and social infrastructure which allows any individual to voluntarily aggregate with others for purposes of communication or the creation of common value

2) A P2P technological infrastructure allows any agent to initiate actions from any point within the network, on the basis of equality of communication (network neutrality) and without any censorship impeding free speech and the freedom of association and cooperation. It is a distributed infrastructure in which elements of decentralisation and centralisation can only serve the efficiency of the network, and not issues of control or profit.

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2011/02/212011/02/21

21st Century Magic? Or 1950’s Idiocy on Steroids?

07 Other Atrocities, Advanced Cyber/IO, Corruption, Government, Law Enforcement, Methods & Process, Military, Officers Call, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Technologies

This is a follow up to that 13 February Spinney piece on predicting the future, DARPA as Poster Child for Out of Control Budget. It belongs to the category of “we don't make this stuff up.” Speaking of this category, I think this latest incident in Pakistan (CIA contractor shoots two Pakistanis in broad daylight, CIA SUV going to his aid runs down a Pakistani motorcyclist) ought to be a signal to disestablish CIA.

Phi Beta Iota: FATAL FARCE just keeps on growing.

Algorithm: in computer terms, a finite set of coded instructions directing a computer to solve a specific problem or execute a specific process.

The term ‘algorithm’ is a prosaic word that has taken on an almost occult meaning to hosts of middle and senior managers in the intelligence and military sectors of the U.S. National Security Establishment.

It appears that anyone claiming to have developed an ‘algorithm’ to solve any of the many issues facing those sectors will find a receptive audience and usually a wad of cash to pursue development of that program.

Continue reading “21st Century Magic? Or 1950's Idiocy on Steroids?”

2011/02/212011/02/21

Search: multisource intelligence

Searches

This is a provocative search that yields nothing by machine response. It is an interesting question at multiple levels.

1) Within the intelligence profession, multisource generally is called “all source” except that secret communities are simply not serious about the most fundamental source of all, Open Source Intelligence (OSINT); they denigrate the Human Intelligence (HUMINT) by doing lip service (liaison from official cover, not real spying); and they don't process what they collect via the technical disciplines that are “out of control” (Imagery Intelligence or IMINT, Signals Intelligence or SIGINT, and Measurements and Signatures Intelligence or MASINT).

From a collection and processing and analytic standpoint, properly done “all source” intelligence demands competence at requirements definition (what do we need to know), collection management (how best to triage among possible sources), processing (machine speed and competent human translation and cultural nuance understanding), and analytics (deep contextual knowledge on the shelf, enhanced intuition, skilled blending and extrapolation). The US Intelligence Community does none of these. It is instead an archipelago in which everyone fights over inputs and no one is held accountable for outputs or a process that optimizes the timeliness and utility of outputs.

2) Outside the secret world, multisource intelligence could be, should be, concerned with assuring the collection and understanding of all possible points of view, what is called 360 degree analytics. To take the Spratley Islands as an example, a good understanding would require multi-lingual access to Chinese, Vietnamese, Philippine, and other sources, including external parties such as the US and Australia, and it should ideally also go back in time to study the consistency or inconsistency of policy and informal statements over the past 50-100 years.

Below are a few graphics (direct ones in bold):

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2011/02/212011/02/21

Senator (D-MD): Leaks Should Be a Felony + RECAP

07 Other Atrocities, Misinformation & Propaganda

Marcus-Aurelius-150x150 — Marcus Aurelius Recommends

[Congressional Record: February 15, 2011 (Senate)]

[Page S753-S754]

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

By Mr. CARDIN:
S. 355. A bill to improve, modernize, and clarify the espionage statutes contained in chapter 37 of title 18, United States Code, to promote Federal whistleblower protection statutes and regulations, to
deter unauthorized disclosures of classified information, and for other purposes; to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Full Text at Federation of American Scientists

Phi Beta Iota: The Senator from Maryland would benefit from greater moral and intellectual reflection. Were the greatest Senator from New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, still living, he would be the first to point out that our current path is toward unbridaled tyranny, rule by secrecy, and the death of the Republic. Maryland is home to the National Security Agency (NSA), which continues to process less than 2% of its total collection, and which continues to be largely irrelevant to the security and prosperity of the United States of America–it is a pork trough for contractors based in Maryland and elsewhere. Leaks occur because of cognitive dissonance: ethical employees confronted with BOTH unethical employers AND the absence of an internal trusted vehicle for reporting grotesque violations against the public interest. What the Senator is doing is adding protection to the fraud, waste, and abuse that is virtually synonymous with NSA contracting (and CIA, NRO, and DIA contracting, but who's counting….). We recollect that the US crew of the USS Liberty was threatened with dishonoable discharges and prisons if they talked about the FACT that Israeli forces attacked their ship, clearly identified as a US naval vessel, murdering and wounding many of the crew. When secrecy is used to protect high crimes and misdemeanors, and against the public interest, it is tyranny. When secrecy is used to protect fraud, waste, and abuse, and truth is not an allowable defense, it is fascism.