Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Today's technology and tech policy news  •  Thu., Oct. 23, 2014 View in your Web browser

Three House Dems, three proposals for net neutrality. Here’s what they look like. Rep. Anna Eshoo is urging federal regulators to oversee Internet providers using Title II of the Communications Act — a move that would give the Federal Communications Commission more latitude to prevent the sort of traffic discrimination net neutrality advocates say would hurt the open Internet. Read full article >>

Snowden filmmaker Laura Poitras: ‘Facebook is a gift to intelligence agencies’

In January 2013, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Laura Poitras received an e-mail that would eventually change what the world knew about government surveillance. The e-mail came from Edward Snowden, using the alias Citizenfour. That alias is the title of Poitras's latest documentary, an intimate portrait of the eight days she spent in Hong Kong with the former National Security Agency contractor as the first of his revelations made headlines around the world. Citizenfour will open with a limited release in New York, Washington and Los Angeles on Friday.  Read full article >>

The cable bundle may be weakening, but Comcast is poised to be stronger than ever A curious thing happened to the cable television industry after HBO and CBS announced streaming services that deeply threaten the lucrative cable bundle: the companies’ stocks have been climbing higher. Read full article >>

Fighting with aliens, saving humanity and more in “Civilization: Beyond Earth”

What's the contingency plan for the human race if we destroy this planet? If you've ever wondered that, then Firaxis has got a game for you. In "Civilization: Beyond Earth" human settlers are chased off Earth by a catastrophe known only as the "Great Mistake" and plunked down on a planet with often-unfriendly aliens, unknown human neighbors and an entire race to rebuild. Read full article >>

Meet ‘forbearance,’ the obscure governing tool that just might resolve the net neutrality debate The net neutrality debate might soon, mercifully, be wrapping up, as the Federal Communications Commission prepares to issue a new round of rules. And as the FCC does so, it's exceptionally likely that we'll hear one word again and again:forbearance. Read full article >>

A brief history of white dudes wowing people with Mandarin

Mark Zuckerberg is blowing everyone away with his rudimentary but incredibly brave Chinese. There's a lot of business maneuvering involved here — Facebook is conspicuously absent from China, and Zuckerberg's Internet.org initiative is all about tapping into developing markets' growing demand for broadband access. But that didn't stop the Chinese audience at Tsinghua University from gasping in delight as Zuck described how a desire to communicate with his Chinese grandmother-in-law motivated him to pick up the language. Read full article >>