Tag: internet

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Do you want bytes with that?

Mark Cathcart

US Internet continues to be a problem, especially for small businesses, it’s a total ripoff. First up you have to deal with the sales charlatans, reading from a script, clueless about the technology. Todays first email included this classic: “I wanted to clear something up before processing the order. The quote was is for 50M which is 50 megabit not megabyte as I had stated earlier. “ CenturyLink VAR. Typically though, retail/consumer internet is sold as Mb(megabits), while it’s uncommon for commercial internet to be sold as MB(megabytes), it can be. After all, they sell you on a different class of … Continue reading Do you want bytes with that?

automation, banking, technologyLeave a comment

Real Time Payments Network

Mark Cathcart

The clearing house has released business principles that outline the operation of the real time payments (RTP) Network. A full set of guidelines is here. These are important inasmuch as they set out key points, among them most importantly: TCH runs the RTP network as a utility for the benefit of the industry and RTP fees shall continue to be flat for all participants regardless of size, and shall not include volume discounts or minimum volume requirements. It does though, contains a super-clause, which is typical of the monopolistic “free market” here in America. In an effort to restrain competition, … Continue reading Real Time Payments Network

culture, Life, politics, Politics, technology2 Comments

‘Facebook can’t be trusted’

Mark Cathcart

New Zealand’s Privacy Commissioner John Edwards (@jce_pc), was interviewed this morning on NPR by Rachel Martin. Edwards criticized Facebook after last month’s attacks on two mosques in Christchurch were live-streamed on Facebook. It was a refreshing interview with a politician who doesn’t have all the answers, and knows it’s not his job to come up with them. He is also not beholden to big tech financing, as a New Zealand politician. Equally Edwards was clear where the blame and responsibility lay. The whole interview is well worth listening to, but Edwards rightly pointed out we have a platform that has … Continue reading ‘Facebook can’t be trusted’

banking, technologyLeave a comment

‘Why does a check take as long to clear today as it did in 1982?’

Mark Cathcart

The latest American Banker Podcast mirrors my recent post about Tech taking over the banks. Aaron Klein, a Brookings Institute fellow, makes a compelling argument for why the American banking system needs to be updated, unlike my general frustration, knowing that better is perfectly possible. Among other reasons, Klein points out that people who are unfortunate enough to have their bank account balance at or near zero, deserve better. They need to know how long a check will take to process, how long before the deposit is final, and when they can plan payments for bills based on availability of funds. … Continue reading ‘Why does a check take as long to clear today as it did in 1982?’

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Faster Payments – Will tech eat the banks?

Mark Cathcart

At last the big, big tech companies are driving the US Federal Reserve to sponsor and get behind a faster payments initiative. Amazon, Apple, Google, PayPal, Square, Stripe and Intuit, have all co-signed a letter supporting the the Fed being in charge of the development of a system that can connect all the banks and credit unions in the U.S. to speed up payments. I’ve long complained here that the US System is laughably out of date, and the system Automated Clearing House and its associated network is still loosely based on the delivery times of the Pony Express and … Continue reading Faster Payments – Will tech eat the banks?

technologyLeave a comment

Why we can’t have nice things

Mark Cathcart

Subtitle: How we get nice things and then they make them too expensive. Recently contractors for Comcast/Xfinity have been all over Louisville drilling holes along the utility easement to lay conduit for fiber optic cabling for Internet and cable. The city has a brief here on the project which is supposed to be complete by the end of October 2018. Bad news if you are a customer in the service area, the city release says: Comcast customers will experience an outage from 30 minutes to 6 hours with the typical outage being 2 ½ hours. Any outages for this kind … Continue reading Why we can’t have nice things

Life, Politics, politics, technologyLeave a comment

Legislating hacking/data exposure responses

Mark Cathcart

I don’t know enough about the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) but at least on basic reading it seems inadequate in meaningful individual action requirements and legislation that benefits the actual user/person whose information has been exposed. I’ve been signed up for haveibeenpwned an excellent website by Troy Hunt. You enter your email, and it tells you what breaches your personal information has been found in. I was going to say “if any”. But of course your data will be there, especially after breaches like the River City Media (RCM) “spammer gate” where 1.4 billion peoples’ email accounts, … Continue reading Legislating hacking/data exposure responses

Politics, politics, technologyLeave a comment

FCC and Net Neutrality – Fraud in your name?

Mark Cathcart

After this weeks hugely disappointing repeal of the net neutrality. The ACLU has their take on the repeal, here. I’m more concerned though with the claim that up to 2-million comments supporting the repeal were submitted to the FCC using fraudulent identities. I actually don’t don’t think it would have made any difference given what we know about the commission members who voted in favor of repeal. Still, I wanted to be sure my comment was actually the comment I submitted, and no one else had submitted a comment using my identity. You can check here. Simply add your name … Continue reading FCC and Net Neutrality – Fraud in your name?

automation, culture, Politics, politics, technology, workLeave a comment

Fear of Automation

Mark Cathcart

ZDNet has a good summary of a few recent reports on automation, a subject I’ve covered here more than once. The more interesting survey report is from a Harris Poll for ZipRecruiter, an online employment marketplace. ZipRecruiter’s nationwide data shows 60% of job seekers believe fears around robots taking away jobs are overhyped while 2 in 5 employed job seekers (41%) believe their current job will be automated within their lifetime. This is more than likely because workers asked, don’t see the big picture. They don’t get involved with decisions and discussions about how to cut cost and risk from … Continue reading Fear of Automation