SpeedPlexer Blog

Ars Technica reports that Rodney Bradford, a 19-year-old Brooklyn resident, was arrested for robbing a man at gunpoint, despite his insistence that he was at his father’s Harlem apartment at the time. His defense lawyer discovered that an update was made to Bradford’s Facebook profile at the time of the robbery. When the district attorney verified the claims with Bradford’s father and stepmother and the IP information with Facebook, the charges against Bradford were dropped.

However, the Facebook posting could have been made by someone else, and there would be no way to truly verify who was sitting in front of the computer at the time. Bradford’s attorney brushes this technicality off as a “level of criminal genius that you would not expect from a young boy like this.”

Actually, as Ars Tecnhica’s Jacqui Cheng points out, “it doesn’t take much of a genius to leave yourself logged in on someone else’s machine (in fact, quite the opposite). A report circulated in September about a robber who decided to log into his own Facebook account at the victim’s house during the robbing and forgot to log out—given that level of stupidity, it’s not hard to imagine leaving yourself logged in at your own father’s apartment.”

Criminal Justice law instructor Joseph Pollini says, “Some of the brightest people on the Internet are teenagers. They know the Internet better than a lot of people. Why? Because they use it all the time.”

Law enforcement is facing this issue much more frequently these days. It’s not just about blaming your cat for downloading child porn anymore—anyone who wants to do so can easily create alibis online with the help of friends or family, and it doesn’t take an experienced hacker to figure out how to use internet speed to their advantage.

According to an ABC News report from late last week, a 23-year-old Minnesota woman will give birth to her child live on the Internet. For the past few months, the woman whose online user name is “Lynsee” has been sharing daily details about her pregnancy on the social network MomsLikeMe.

When she gives birth in the next few days, more than a thousand women who already follow her online — plus anyone else with a high-speed Internet connection — will be able to watch a live broadcast of her child’s birth from their computers.

When she gives birth, a cameraman will be in the hospital room, along with her husband, her mother and her midwife. A second camera will be mounted in the corner, with care taken that no graphic shots will be taken. In addition to the live broadcast, anyone registered with her group on MomsLikeMe will be able to *chat* with Lynsee while she’s in the delivery room. (But won’t she be busy?)

Julie Taylor, senior editorial producer for Los Angeles-based MomLogic.com and mother of two, said that when she first heard about Lynsee’s project she thought “Wow! I would never do that.” But she acknowledged that younger mothers have grown up in a very different technological landscape.

“They’ve lived more of their lives online,” she said. “For them, they’ve video-taped most of their lives anyway and they’ve grown up on reality TV. So maybe it’s an old-fashioned notion to think twice.”

Gwynn Cassidy, online director for the Internet resource HealthyWomen.org said that while not many women may choose to broadcast their child’s birth live, many more are turning to new media to share milestones and first-person stories.

TechCrunch’s Orli Yakuel did a big favor for anyone who likes their fonts with internet speed–she researched several sites that free-font-fans might like.  Here’s a brief overview of her review:

BetterFonts is an online font database where you can quickly preview and download thousands of fonts. You can instantly download most previewed fonts for free, but for certain quality ones you’ll need to pay. They do have a deal of a 500-font package for $2.77, but without previews.

FFonts has a huge font library and it allows you to navigate easily, and download any font for free. All the fonts on the site are listed on the left side menu for easy access, and clicking on a font gives you information plus a satisfying preview of the font. Overall, the site hosts more than 10,000 fonts!

Fawnt, one of the largest free font archives on the web today, has a pleasant design and an easy-to-use navigator. All the fonts have large and customizable previews, and character maps. Though all of the fonts in Fawnt are free, they might have some restrictions, so be sure to check.

Myfonts, with 62,000 fonts, has the world’s largest font database. Not only can you search and download the fonts to your computer, you can also find fonts based on a picture with their service WhatTheFont! Simply upload a file, or specify a URL, and myFonts will find the font used in the picture you uploaded (or at least, give you some close alternatives to this font).

Abstract Fonts has a very convenient interface, lets you type in text to view font examples, opens a summary of information you need to know about that font. Abstract also gives you the ability to see similar fonts–an absolutely brilliant addition.

Good news for those who are deeply attached to their internet connection!  Though it has been suspected that the internet might isolate us all and make us more likely to stay at home alone, rather than socializing, a new study from the Pew Research Center has found that this doesn’t seem to be the case.  Pew polled 2,512 adults and found that “the extent of social isolation has hardly changed since 1985, contrary to concerns”. CompuServe, America Online, and Prodigy started providing dial-up Internet access ten years later, in 1995. 

The study also found that mobile-phone use and active Web participation yields “larger and more diverse core discussion networks.” Social media is also helping people expand their social interaction, too. According to Pew, those who use the Internet frequently are more likely to discuss political topics with someone of a different party.

Frequent Web users are more likely to speak with neighbors in person than those who don’t use the Web as often. The study also found that bloggers are 72 percent “more likely to belong to a local voluntary association” than those who don’t blog.

Perhaps most important, Pew found that just because someone is a heavy Web user, that doesn’t mean they remove themselves from traditional social activities like visiting a restaurant or hanging out at a bar on a Friday night. According to the study, Web users are “45 percent more likely to visit a cafe, 52 percent more likely to visit a library, 34 percent more likely to visit a fast-food restaurant, 69 percent more likely to visit other restaurants, and 42 percent more likely to visit a public park.”

So there!

It’s hard to resist borrowing this play on words from the title of a TechCrunch article, but it’s true!  The mega-band U2 played live in Los Angeles on October 25th, simultaneously broadcasting on YouTube.  In fact, it was promoted as the first global concert webcast on “U2ube”.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t available live to the *entire* globe—out of the over 190 countries in the world only 16 countries saw it live: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, Spain, U.K., and of course, the U.S., where the concert took place.

During the show, YouTube also featured a Twitter widget below the video player that displayed tweets from people who used the #U2webcast hashtag.

“U2 and technology have long gone hand in hand,” writes MG Siegler of TechCruch. “Their ZooTV tour famously featured a massive amount of television monitors and live streaming video from all around the world.” Later, U2 got chummy with Apple, releasing their own branded iPod. Then after U2 lead singer Bono became a partner in a firm that purchased a huge stake in Palm, U2’s recent tour has been sponsored by Palm and BlackBerry.

10 million people viewed the live stream on YouTube that night, according to Variety—and it went impressively smoothly. Though 10 million is nothing compared to some of the most popular television shows, but we’re starting to see audience of comparable sizes from all over the world.

And, as our title declares, the recorded version of the full 2-1/2 hour concert is now officially being shown on YouTube, and it had over a million views in the first 3 days. A little over a week later, it has had 1,932,240 views.

It’s a brave, new, rockin’ world, made possible with internet speed.

When rural communities are connected to the rest of the world via high speed Internet, the community benefits, but so does the country. Speed Matters.org explains that because high speed Internet breaks down the barriers of distance and time, it allows residents of rural areas to participate in economic and civic life far beyond their geographic region. Communications made possible by broadband technology eliminates the logistical constraints of regionally-based business models, allowing businesses in isolated areas to compete with their big-city counterparts.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has found that rural residents are much less likely to subscribe to broadband than their urban counterparts. Another study by Connected Nation found that 19% of rural residents say they don’t subscribe to broadband because it’s not available in their area.

Many residents aren’t aware of the enormous benefits of high speed Internet, which is why nearly half of rural residents without a home broadband connection say they don’t need it. 22 percent of rural residents say they don’t subscribe to broadband because it’s too expensive. Infrastructure investment in sparsely populated rural areas is often seen as unsustainable by telecommunications companies.

Here are some more benefits:
• Broadband brings the opportunity for direct access to education and health care for rural residents who are otherwise forced to travel long distances for college courses and medical treatment.
• Rural libraries with high speed Internet often experience a resurgence of community interest and participation.
• High speed Internet provides rural residents access to global information and cultural resources.
• Farmers gain real-time access to vital information such as crop prices or weather forecasts, and marketing opportunities through high-speed networks.

So support rural broadband initiatives and help build a better America with Internet speed!

When libraries are connected to high speed Internet, the neighboring community benefits, Speed Matters.org tells us. Public libraries serve as gateways to information outside one’s own community, and in the Information Age this role has become even more important. Libraries give people without home computers free access to the Internet, helping America close the digital divide. As reliance upon public libraries to provide broadband telecommunications services for their community increases, it becomes essential to have universal high speed connectivity in libraries across the country.

Although the need for libraries to provide broadband access is increasing, many libraries are ill-equipped to meet this need. In 2006, 98% of public libraries indicated that they provided public access to the Internet, but in the same survey, 45% reported that they did not have sufficient bandwidth to satisfy their community’s needs. Libraries without enough bandwidth to quickly transfer data, images, and video put their communities at a serious disadvantage.

• Students use connected libraries to download educational videos, view course lectures, and access scholarly journals.
• Librarians use the Internet for business functions, such as running online catalogs, managing digitized content, and serving patrons through e-mail and online reference.
• Residents in underserved communities such as rural or low income areas where most homes lack access to high speed Internet rely on Internet connectivity from their local public library.
• As central public meeting spaces within communities, libraries connected to high speed Internet can serve as disaster response centers, such as during a flood, fire, or hurricane.
• Senior citizens, many of whom do not own home computers, find public libraries helpful for finding information on health issues or government programs, and maintaining connections with family and friends who live far away.
• Many libraries provide information literacy training that allows less tech-savvy individuals to engage the Internet in ways that otherwise wouldn’t.

So support your local library and national broadband initiatives!

High-speed internet can be used to improve the responses of our public safety agencies! Speed Matters.org tells us that from emergency services to homeland security, high speed Internet technology can save countless lives. This can be done by enabling police, fire and emergency medical personnel to react to crises more quickly while facilitating cooperation among multiple safety agencies—something that was lacking after Hurricane Katrina and September 11th, 2001.

Here are some examples of what nationwide broadband can do:

• People who capture a digital photo or video of a crime, or a suspected missing child, could transmit that information to authorities in a timely way.
• Faster internet connections would let first responders receive area maps, or view how-to videos and share the info with numerous agencies simultaneously.
• Better and faster data can be sent to emergency rooms to help them prepare and give newly developed treatments.
• Fire commanders can direct their units using voice, video and data-enhanced communications at an emergency scene or from a remote location.
• Law enforcement personnel can rapidly send video and data to police command centers to monitoring officers or suspects in high-risk situations.
• Broadband facilitates biometrics screening - the measurement of personally identifiable physical characteristics like fingerprints or retinas - at entry points into a country or a sensitive facility, and enhances remote surveillance of borders, airports, ports, train stations, and government buildings.
• In the event of damage or destruction to vital government office space, high speed Internet can restore government services by enabling public officials and their staff to work remotely.

School needs to teach kids how to live in the world, and having access to high-speed internet makes it possible—and better in so many ways.  Information from Speed Matters.org, told us how.

Having access to high speed internet has the power to enhance every level of education. Even kindergarteners need internet exposure these days, and all grade levels through high school to college to graduate school can make the most of the knowledge available to improve their education and schoolwork. With all the advances in information and communications technology since most of us were in school, education is no longer confined to the classroom. For example, virtual field trips take students on tours of faraway places such as to our nation’s capitol and the streets of foreign cities, or even to the depths of oceans and to the far reaches of outer space…with internet speed.
Imagine utilizing new broadband-enabled educational tools for remote collaboration among fellow students on projects, videoconferences with teachers, access to education specialists and access to resources school libraries remotely, including digital videos and high-volume data files. The educational advantages possible with high speed Internet are indispensable to students preparing to enter the 21st Century workforce. Students with limited or no access in their formative elementary school years are certain to fall behind. Computer skills must go beyond technical competency, to include higher-level skills such as critical thinking and problem solving as well as the creative use of technology. The earlier every student in America is connected to high speed Internet, the brighter our country’s future will be.

Students with little exposure to digital technologies translate to adults with limited career opportunities. Workers lacking technological versatility put the American workforce at a competitive disadvantage within the world economy.

It’s what you might call a “no-brainer”–and that’s not a medical term–to see how high-speed internet can help improve health care.  Information from Speed Matters.org, spelled it out for us thusly.

The potential for using high speed Internet technology to help expand access and improve the quality of health care in the United States is enormous. The use of advanced communications technology to transmit medical data and imaging in real-time, while linking patients to providers for direct consultation, can transcend geographic barriers to allow people to receive the medical care they need when and where it’s needed.

Especially in the face of rising medical costs and increasing gaps in insurance coverage, the cost-cutting efficiencies of telemedicine-–the delivery of quality health-related services and information using telecommunications technologies–are more valuable than ever. Universal high speed Internet access would help bring the prospect of affordable and quality health care for all Americans closer to reality.

Some of the benefits include:

• Real-time transmission of medical imagery–enabling the interpretation of MRI, ultrasound, X-rays, and other diagnostic procedures from afar.
• A reduction in the number of strenuous patient transfers, like from a nursing home to a doctor’s office, or for expectant mothers seeking prenatal care from a distant hospital. Remote monitoring and online consultations only possible through a high speed Internet connection can close the distance.
• A study from the University of Texas Medical Branch estimates that the U.S. health care system can save $4.28 billion from the elimination of patient transfers alone. This doesn’t even include potential savings from remote monitoring or interpretative services.
• Physicians can connect with distant specialists for real-time guidance in emergency situations—like during long ambulance rides when seconds count, or during a stroke or heart attack.