FCC’s AllVid STB Plan is 10 Years Too Late

cable card

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler proposes to end a ten year old inquiry into cable/satellite set-top boxes (STB) by requiring all TV providers to provide AllVid, a standards-based open STB interface…

January 28, 2016 6

Bringing Privacy into the Open

We don’t write about Internet privacy a great deal because it’s much more a matter of pure policy than one of technology. Privacy policy has more to do with consent,…

January 26, 2016 2

The Internet of Food

Food Computer

One of the 21st century’s major social problems is feeding a population that’s projected to grow to 9.6 billion mouths to feed by 2050. By most estimates, this will require doubling…

January 21, 2016 0

Wi-Fi Routers: Just How Bad Are They?

I’ve written about the sad state of Wi-Fi routers before, chiefly in FCC Clarifies the Ask for Wi-Fi Routers and Open Source Software and Regulatory Compliance chiefly. The open source community and…

January 19, 2016 2

SOTU Technology Messages

The president’s final SOTU included some interesting remarks about technology. Some were encouraging and aspirational, the thing he does best. These included touts for programs to teach young people to…

January 14, 2016 0

Chairman Wheeler’s Broadband Draft Falls Short

FCC Chairman Wheeler has circulated a draft of the broadband progress report he wants to present to Congress pursuant to Section 706 of the Communications Act. The draft is certainly…

January 12, 2016 0

Broadband Speed in America, 2015

On December 30th, while nobody was paying attention, the FCC released its long-delayed 2015 edition of its broadband speed test, the Measuring Broadband America Fixed Broadband Report. This is an annual report…

January 7, 2016 0

The Year of Virtual Reality

If consensus were a reliable predictor of the future, it would be wise to bet all your money on that Virtual Reality will be the killer app of 2016. Most…

January 5, 2016 0

2015 Download

2015 was a very active year for High Tech Forum because so much went down in Internet and mobile policy, with major developments in all the key policy areas and…

December 31, 2015 0

Evaluating Our Predictions for 2015

Last March, I wrote a post evaluating three of the most interesting technology predictions for 2015; one from Frog Design on fitness devices, one from Deloitte on “Software-Defined Everything,” and one of…

December 29, 2015 0