Cellphone Tracking: Secret warrants are being granted without probable cause.
Federal officials are routinely asking courts to order cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data so they can pinpoint the whereabouts of drug traffickers, fugitives and other criminal suspects, according to judges and industry lawyers.
In some cases, judges have granted the requests without requiring the government to demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that a crime is taking place or that the inquiry will yield evidence of a crime. Privacy advocates fear such a practice may expose average Americans to a new level of government scrutiny of their daily lives
To make it less likely to be tracked via the cellphone signal, power it down completely. Otherwise the cellphone remains in constant communication with the nearest base station to adjust transmission power levels and to receive hand-off signals when the cellphone travels between cells.
A very thorough description can be found here. The frequency hopping pattern can skip frequencies that have interference. Also there is a synchronous mode for real-time data streams such as speech, as well as an asynchronous mode for traffic that can tolerate delays.
Who can predict the changes that will follow universal Internet access? Citizens will be able to post and access information from anywhere. Emergency response teams will have redundant communication systems. The physical channel may be well outside the 2-5 GHz range. Cable access to simplex television has freed a lot of UHF frequencies. Read about what’s up.
John Batelle is setting up a debate between telecoms and those who want open Internet access through WiFi.
“This coming week at Web 2 I am leading a discussion on the wireless market. This is not my area of expertise, but I am fascinated by the ongoing fight between Google and its allies, on the one side, and the telecommunication companies on the other. (Background here and here).”
For educational reasons alone, we cannot afford to let the telecoms squeeze every last dime for access to information.
Apparently it is hard to make money hanging 802.11 access points off of light posts.
Earthlink… said it would not take on any new municipal Wi-Fi projects until it’s confident of a reasonable return.”
City-wide 802.11 would allow everyone to make phone calls and download mp3 files directly to mobile computers. The dinosaurs (Clear Channel, Verizon, AT&T) are chomping.
Congress is going to allow expansion of low power FM into big radio markets instead of marginalizing them to rural regions. I just noticed in my local suburban newspaper, that Bexley has been running a low power FM station since March 2007.
Michele Gutierrez, an organizer with the Bay Area-based Youth Media Council, which focuses on media as a tool for social change, says LPFM is only the start. “We must continue to challenge a media system controlled by the privileged few,” she says. “The power to communicate, and therefore the power to transform society, belongs to everyone.”
For experience in installing 802.11 in Mountain View, CA, listen to this episode of IT Conversations entitle Unlicensed Spectrum: Tales from the Lamppost. The dinosaurs will try to block it, but the benefits of free Internet access go way beyond narrow business interests of a handful of Internet service providers. Related story: First year of google WiFi in Mountain View, CA.
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Ready to give up your day job and start a public access FM radio station? Get ready to file an FCC application during the week of October 12-19. Amy Goodman describes it here.
Software radio is a technique that gets code as close to the antenna as possible.
“Perhaps most exciting of all is the potential to build decentralized communication systems. If you look at today’s systems, the vast majority are infrastructure-based. Broadcast radio and TV provide a one-way channel, are tightly regulated and the content is controlled by a handful of organizations. Cell phones are a great convenience, but the features your phone supports are determined by the operator’s interests, not yours.
A centralized system limits the rate of innovation. We could take some lessons from the Internet and push the smarts out to the edges. Instead of cell phones being second-class citizens, usable only if infrastructure is in place and limited to the capabilities determined worthwhile by the operator, we could build smarter devices. These user-owned devices would generate the network. They’d create a mesh among themselves, negotiate for backhaul and be free to evolve new solutions, features and applications.”
Hardware for Software radios:
RX-320D “PC RADIO” SHORTWAVE RECEIVER
Universal Software Radio Peripheral
Flex Radio Systems
Soft Rock-40 V5
