Federal Government Archive

  • Bigelow Aerospace building first private space station

    Bigelow Aerospace building first private space station

    Posted on June 8, 2010 | No Comments
    The federal government can't be bothered with space exploration anymore (which is terribly disappointing, by the way), so private industry has to pick up the slack. A company by the name of Bigelow Aerospace plans to put an entire space station in orbit within the next four years.

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  • The U.S. Federal Government wants to take control of the Internet during ‘imminent cyber threat’

    The U.S. Federal Government wants to take control of the Internet during ‘imminent cyber threat’

    Posted on June 3, 2010 | No Comments
    The federal government wants to take control of the Internet in the event of an "imminent cyber threat," as declared by the president. What constitutes an "imminent cyber threat"? You'd need two things: a known, pretty darn big flaw in the network and knowledge that someone was planning on exploiting that flaw. So, if you received a tip that, say, hackers working for the government of Rival Country were planning to exploit some Internet flaw in the next few hours, you'd call the president and say, "Hola. We have an imminent cyber threat on our hands. You need to give is the signal to protocol into place." And the president does, and the federal government is now all up in your Internet, connecting your tubes, etc.

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  • President Obama wants hybrid limo, Secret Service says no

    President Obama wants hybrid limo, Secret Service says no

    Posted on April 8, 2010 | No Comments
    President Obama wanted his motorcade to be as environmentally friendly as possible. To that end, he requested his presidential limo be a hybrid. That's nice of him. Unfortunately, the Secret Service said, "Um, no. That's not going to happen, sorry."

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  • Let’s talk about: the broadband tax in the UK

    Let’s talk about: the broadband tax in the UK

    Posted on December 9, 2009 | No Comments
    They're trying to balance the books over in the UK, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer has proposed a tax that may interest you. The proposed budget for the next year includes a broadband tax! The name is a bit misleading in that it's not a tax on broadband, but a tax on telephone landlines (POTS), the money of which will go to making sure people in rural areas have sufficient access to broadband.

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  • Something about Web scams, and the sites that still support them

    Something about Web scams, and the sites that still support them

    Posted on November 24, 2009 | No Comments
    Truth be told, I have no idea why I'm about to write this post, other than the fact that it's in my little writing queue. You can't fight City Hall. Here's the deal: the Federal Government of the United States spent a bunch of money investigating various online marketing scams. How they work, what makes people fall for them, etc. Consumers lost some $1.4 billion to such scams.

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  • Proposed law would give White House ‘cybersecurity emergency’ powers over the Internet

    Proposed law would give White House ‘cybersecurity emergency’ powers over the Internet

    Posted on August 28, 2009 | No Comments
    Internet King and America's news editor Matt Drudge is freaking out right now, complete with his trademark scare quotes. (I swear, you could probably write a thesis about how Drudge influences the American media.) There's a bill that's currently floating around the U.S. Senate that would, in times of emergency, put the Internet, in a sense, in control of the White House. And then the government will make you eat fruits and vegetables! Tyranny!

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  • WTF: College student faces up to 10 years in prison for modding game consoles

    WTF: College student faces up to 10 years in prison for modding game consoles

    Posted on August 3, 2009 | No Comments
    This is just ridiculous. Doesn’t the federal government have better things to do than track down college kids who mod their game consoles? Seriously. Matt Crippen, a 27-year-old CSU-Fullerton student has been indicted on two counts of violating the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. He faces up to 10 years in prison for modding his (and [...]

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