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Daily Archives: March 12, 2010

FCC Launches Broadband Consumer Tools

News release: “Today, the Federal Communications Commission launched new digital tools — the Consumer Broadband Test and the Broadband Dead Zone Report — that allow consumers to test their broadband service and report areas where broadband is not available. The Consumer Broadband Test measures broadband quality indicators such as speed and latency, and reports that information to consumers and the FCC. The mobile version — the FCC’s first mobile app — is available through the Apple and Android app stores. The fixed version is available at www.broadband.gov. Two popular broadband testing tools are used in this beta version — the Ookla, Inc. Speed Test and the Network Diagnostic Tool (NDT) running on the Measurement Lab (M-Lab) platform. In the future, the FCC anticipates making additional broadband testing applications available for consumer use. The Commission does not endorse any specific testing application.”

2010 Rosemary Award for Worst Open Government Performance Goes to Federal Chief Information Officers' Council

News release: “The Rosemary Award for worst open government performance, named after President Nixon’s secretary who erased 18½ minutes of a crucial Watergate tape, this year goes to the Federal Chief Information Officers Council, the senior federal officials (responsible for $71 billion a year of IT purchases) who have never addressed the failure of the… Continue Reading

Court Appointed Examiner Issues Extensive Report on Lehman Brothers Collapse

New York Times: “It is the Wall Street equivalent of a coroner’s report — a 2,200-page document that lays out, in new and startling detail, how Lehman Brothers used accounting sleight of hand to conceal the bad investments that led to its undoing. The report [divided into 9 volumes], compiled by an examiner for the… Continue Reading