tangent4ronpaul
03-23-2011, 03:11 PM
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2382500,00.asp
Four U.S. Senators want Apple to remove police checkpoint apps for public safety reasons, but really it's just a way to control what apps we can or cannot buy.
This looks like some well-meaning, do-gooder idea, but I can assure you that it's the camel sticking its head in a tent. I'm referring to the breaking news about how four U.S. Senators (who apparently have nothing better to do) want to control what apps you can or cannot buy. They began their effort by nearly demanding that Apple eliminate any iPhone apps that help consumers find police checkpoints, so they can avoid them.
The rationale behind removing these apps is the Senators say the only reason people would want to avoid a police checkpoint is because they're drunk. Thus, they've rationalized that the apps are a hazard to the public.
The four U.S. Senators, all Democrats, are Charles Schumer of New York, Harry Reid of Nevada, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Tom Udall of New Mexico, and they should be voted out of office as soon as possible. What's wrong with the voters?
...
This will eventually mean licensing. In the early 1900s, when the radio hobby was blossoming, you didn't need a license to broadcast anything. We thought free access was going to change the world. Then the government jumped in because things were supposedly getting too chaotic. The hobbyists were shoved into a few specific bands and the pros (commercial companies) were required to have a license. Soon the hobbyists (ham operators) were required to have a license too.
And where is all the real action in the radio spectrum? The unlicensed bands. Now, another Legislator, Peter King wants to ban the ham radio folks—the only people who manage to communicate during real emergencies—from operating. Again there is a bogus rationale. In this case, it's because of the idea that Muslim hams can plan terrorist attacks. This is our government at work.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/faster-forward/post/gay-cure-dui-checkpoint-apps-latest-tech-policy-football/2011/03/23/ABtuFHKB_blog.html
‘Gay cure,’ DUI-checkpoint apps latest tech-policy football
By Rob Pegoraro
One iPhone app has gotten the boot and another set looks endangered, but you can’t blame Apple for either of these moves. The Cupertino, Calif., company had willingly accepted these programs into the App Store, the only easy way to add third-party software to its mobile devices; the fuss didn’t happen until other people noticed.
Tuesday night, Apple complied with increasingly vocal requests to remove the “gay cure” app. The program, released by an Orlando religious group called Exodus International, provided links to Web postings, videos, events and other content related to the Exodus’s mission of “helping those struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction to live a life congruent with biblical teaching.” (Hence the nickname, notwithstanding the American Psychiatric Association’s long-standing assessment that homosexuality isn’t a disorder from which one could be cured.)
The next App Store evictees will probably be the DUI-checkpoint-warning apps that four Democratic senators have asked Apple--as well as Google and Research In Motion--to stop hosting. Sens. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) called those apps, which use a phone’s GPS to warn drivers when a sobriety check lies ahead, “harmful to public safety.”
RIM granted their request Wednesday afternoon and will yank the offending apps from its BlackBerry App World. I suspect that Apple won’t be long in following RIM’s lead, considering how it’s moved quickly in the past to delete such offending content as the Baby Shaker app it removed from the App Store in 2009. I’m less certain about Google, which doesn’t even screen Android programs for security, much less potential offensiveness, before accepting them into its Android Market.
...
Four U.S. Senators want Apple to remove police checkpoint apps for public safety reasons, but really it's just a way to control what apps we can or cannot buy.
This looks like some well-meaning, do-gooder idea, but I can assure you that it's the camel sticking its head in a tent. I'm referring to the breaking news about how four U.S. Senators (who apparently have nothing better to do) want to control what apps you can or cannot buy. They began their effort by nearly demanding that Apple eliminate any iPhone apps that help consumers find police checkpoints, so they can avoid them.
The rationale behind removing these apps is the Senators say the only reason people would want to avoid a police checkpoint is because they're drunk. Thus, they've rationalized that the apps are a hazard to the public.
The four U.S. Senators, all Democrats, are Charles Schumer of New York, Harry Reid of Nevada, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Tom Udall of New Mexico, and they should be voted out of office as soon as possible. What's wrong with the voters?
...
This will eventually mean licensing. In the early 1900s, when the radio hobby was blossoming, you didn't need a license to broadcast anything. We thought free access was going to change the world. Then the government jumped in because things were supposedly getting too chaotic. The hobbyists were shoved into a few specific bands and the pros (commercial companies) were required to have a license. Soon the hobbyists (ham operators) were required to have a license too.
And where is all the real action in the radio spectrum? The unlicensed bands. Now, another Legislator, Peter King wants to ban the ham radio folks—the only people who manage to communicate during real emergencies—from operating. Again there is a bogus rationale. In this case, it's because of the idea that Muslim hams can plan terrorist attacks. This is our government at work.
====
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/faster-forward/post/gay-cure-dui-checkpoint-apps-latest-tech-policy-football/2011/03/23/ABtuFHKB_blog.html
‘Gay cure,’ DUI-checkpoint apps latest tech-policy football
By Rob Pegoraro
One iPhone app has gotten the boot and another set looks endangered, but you can’t blame Apple for either of these moves. The Cupertino, Calif., company had willingly accepted these programs into the App Store, the only easy way to add third-party software to its mobile devices; the fuss didn’t happen until other people noticed.
Tuesday night, Apple complied with increasingly vocal requests to remove the “gay cure” app. The program, released by an Orlando religious group called Exodus International, provided links to Web postings, videos, events and other content related to the Exodus’s mission of “helping those struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction to live a life congruent with biblical teaching.” (Hence the nickname, notwithstanding the American Psychiatric Association’s long-standing assessment that homosexuality isn’t a disorder from which one could be cured.)
The next App Store evictees will probably be the DUI-checkpoint-warning apps that four Democratic senators have asked Apple--as well as Google and Research In Motion--to stop hosting. Sens. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) called those apps, which use a phone’s GPS to warn drivers when a sobriety check lies ahead, “harmful to public safety.”
RIM granted their request Wednesday afternoon and will yank the offending apps from its BlackBerry App World. I suspect that Apple won’t be long in following RIM’s lead, considering how it’s moved quickly in the past to delete such offending content as the Baby Shaker app it removed from the App Store in 2009. I’m less certain about Google, which doesn’t even screen Android programs for security, much less potential offensiveness, before accepting them into its Android Market.
...