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Re: [colorforth] /. and the new bios

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On Sunday 20 June 2004 07:22 am, Kurt B. Kaiser wrote:
> becomes illegal for ISPs of any stripe to pass uncertified packets,
> then the only solution is an entirely separate wireless net, or go
> back to dailup BB :-(

And there is something wrong with this?  Aside from speed issues, there 
was a distinctly higher sense of community back in the BBS days.  The 
wild success of things like Yahoo! Groups and competitors clearly 
suggests the need for BBSes aren't over.  They merely became somewhat 
easier to access.

> a real problem.  The spectrum will continue to be used, but illegally,
> and with today's surveillance capabilities you could expect continuous
> enforcement and strife.  The RF spectrum has been locked up since the
> 20's and it's only recently that shared, unlicensed spectrum has been
> permitted.

As an amateur radio licensee, I am closely involved with FCC happenings.  
The FCC has supported "part 15" devices since at least before I was 
born.  It had to, in fact, because all electronic gear produces some 
form of radio wave emissions.  Part 15 "devices" are merely pieces of 
equipment that exploit part 15 power level limitations to achieve "space 
division multiplexing", which permits more units to be sold and not 
interfere with each other.  It also completely circumvents expensive FCC 
type approval processes (they get it approved for part 15 only, instead 
of part 15 + whatever other FCC parts they normally would require).  

It will be nearly impossible to regulate the illegal use of 802.11b 
however.  The frequencies are so high that point-to-point antennae with 
high gain characteristics can fit in a briefcase.  The point-to-point 
nature of such a link makes RFDF (Radio Frequency Direction Finding) 
incredibly difficult, if even possible.  Multipath may result in 
multiple dead-ends.

> If usage becomes problematic in the eyes of government,
> you can expect additional regulation.  Look at the situation with
> satellite tv reception, or micropower FM stations.

There are no laws preventing satellite TV reception.  Where did you get 
this idea from?  What happened was that the TV broadcasters started 
encoding their video streams using more and more complex scrambling 
methods.  When TV stations went digital, that's when the hobby fell out 
of common practice, since digital modes permits ghastly scrambling 
methods to be used without sacrificing video quality.  Heck, just 
encrypt a simple text file with GPG with a moderate key length, and just 
think of how long it'd take to crack it.  While certainly possible to 
do, at least with video, the program you're trying to watch would be 
over long before the proper decryption key was found.

Also, the FCC has fairly recently opened up for comments a notice for 
proposed rulemaking that would re-enable "community FM" stations.  I 
don't know what happened since, as I'm not really a participant in that 
community.

> It could happen.  Judging from recent events related to SW patents in
> Europe, even massive and apparently successful citizen resistance
> against the bureau-industrial(C) establishment is futile, so far.

Yup, which is why flagrant disregard for authority is the only concrete 
expression of protest we can use now.  The days of civilized means of 
issue resolution, voting, are over.  This is war.

- --
Samuel A. Falvo II
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