The Nature of Money

Changing the Nature of the Economy from Scarcity to Abundance

I strongly recommend Stirling's article on Open Left.

Ian Welsh and Stirling Newberry are writing brilliantly about the crisis.

I've been writing on the now arrived crisis for over a year. Including...

• I'm Top of the Food Chain. You're Dinner.
• Stocks Continue Fall; Bonds Rise.
• The Great Depression (v2.0) Starts Now
• Three Raids on the U.S. Economy

Again, I strongly urge you to start by jumping to Stirling's article before continuing.

My takeaway from Stirling is, THE NATURE OF MONEY IS BROKEN.

Obama screwed up in backing the bailout. Once he's in office -- maybe before if the market doesn't stop crashing -- we (Obama) need to change the very nature of money.

This has happened before.

Back in the days before the Great Depression, money was Gold based. Then it became Asset based, that is, money is now based on how much "stuff" you have, how many buildings, how many factories, cars, computers, and real estate. This is the "book value" of what you own. Some of it appreciates. Some of it depreciates. Put together everything you've got at "book value", take away everything you owe, and that is your net worth.

Before the Great Depression the key to all of this was Gold and other minerals, dug out of the ground. Now it is how much "stuff" a nation (or you) can make/create. Ultimately, because we take stuff from where it doesn't cost much, and ship it to where it costs a lot, where we then make it into something else, this manufacturing economy I will say -- Newberry doesn't precisely say this -- is an economy of scarcity. There is a limit on how much stuff we can make. There is a limit on how much real estate there is. There is a limit on how many cars people need. There is a limit on how much oil we can drill out of the earth. Because we've reached those limits, just as roughly 80 years ago -- a lifetime ago -- we reached the limits of Gold, we now have to change.

In more ways than one, that is why this election, we have a candidate of change. This is a generational candidate, the kind we see roughly every 22 years between generations. The wipeout of LBJ over Goldwater with 44 states + DC and 61% of the vote showing the rise of the GI Generation, and the switch the other way in 1984 with Reagan winning every state but one plus D.C. with 58.8%. This is FDR wiping out Hoover 42 states to 6 with 57% of the vote in 1932, (that's 32 years after FDR... the wartime leaders really hung in there for a while before the generational POP.)

But Obama is more than the generational change candidate that falls between generations, in this case between the Boomers and the Xers. He is the candidate who comes once a life-time, at the start of a crisis. He will not still be president when the crisis ends, some 20-25 years from now, as FDR was, as Lincoln was. But he is here at the start of the crisis and how he sets us up will determine our options in large part for the next 80 years, the next lifetime. Just as we are now living out the options which FDR set us up with in 1933 with the New Deal as he came to power.

The old money is broken, Newberry tells us. As Gold was in the Great Depression.

WE MUST CHANGE THE FUNDAMENTAL NATURE OF THE ECONOMY, FROM SCARCITY TO ABUNDANCE. (I do not mean this in some woo-woo California airy-fairy way.)

FDR took people's Gold away, shifting the economy from Gold to oil/dollar/scarcity-assets.

"If you build it, they will come" and your book value will increase.

That was appropriate then.

We'd reached the limit of how much Gold could be dug from the ground in order to keep the world moving forward, and here was all this OIL, much of it in great big reserves under the United States.

Now, we've reached the limits of all this OIL, as well as real estate (more or less), so we need to shift the fundamental nature of money once again.

The new economy -- since the old one was SCARCE OIL/ELECTRICITY -- will likely be based on ABUNDANT GREEN ENERGY, although it could be based on other stuff (but it won't. Pay attention. School's in session.)

ABUNDANT X, where X is something which can be monetized throughout the world, but still (because the U.S. will be setting the standard, as we control the dollar and the rest of the world owns gad-Zillons of dollars) gives the U.S. an edge. Thus X will be technological in nature, in a field where X is something the

• U.S. truly needs, and the
  
• entire world is going to need.

By creating the fundamental market and tech on X, we will lead the world for another century as we do in

• software
• music, movies, and
  
• high-speed pizza delivery.

(Yeah, I stole the line. Want to make something of it?)

Also X must have inherent war-making potential, i.e.: the energies must be HUGE.

The point is, it has been roughly 80 years since the Great Depression started, and almost that long since the world switched from Gold to Oil, as Stirling explains.

Open Left

What is to be done? The answer is not found in the equations of macro-economics. Economics can optimize for the problems we set it, but it cannot decide them. What is necessary is to recapitalize the financial system. This means not an infusion of money, but expanding the basis of what money is. It is simplest to argue by analogy.

In the late 19th century the global financial system came to be based on gold. Gold worked because it was easy enough to transport between distant places, and the amount of gold was organically related to the basic activities that drove the economy. It was not money itself, but it was a good proxy for the things that people did that created capital concentrations. However, with the internal combustion engine, this proxy nature was broken. Capital could produce more than gold could value, and the scramble for resources, which gold encouraged, was at it's limits.

What replaced gold based money was asset based money. Banks could lend if they could show that there were good assets, the "book" value of what they were lending for, involved. A mortgage, a business loan. The assets, such as factories and houses, were what the economy could produce. This encouraged people to make assets, such as houses and factories. As the pool of assets expanded, so could the amount of money.

However, in the present hard assets are failing in a number of ways. First, they do not address the basic scarcity. Just as gold encouraged state actors to invade, and private actors to concentrate capital and dig for resources, at a time when there were no more Africas to conquer, and wealth was no longer mined, asset money encourages people to burn oil, at the very moment when the limits of oil are being reached. Second, the hard assets we can create are increasingly not making people in the developed world happy. We have reached the point of diminishing returns on what internal combustion engines can do for our lives, as much as the coal economy reached the point where ships could not be built larger economically. It is possible to add any number of other points, but they amount to the same thing: macroëconomics is about how fast or slow to run the engine that converts scarcity into goods that make people happy. However, if that engine is already running as hot as it can, running it faster does not help.

To recapitalize is to convert asset money into some other kind. Since both the scarcity part, and the happiness part are, empirically, broken, it also means that we need to look at the engine itself. That engine is the analog petroleum-electrical economy, and running that engine faster or slower does not fix either the scarcity of energy, or the fact that people don't need more internal combustion engines in their lives.

This means that the future must reset on the creation of other kinds of basic capital, to change what is scarce, to change what is produced, and to change the engine that converts them.

The temporary step has always been to replace the old basis with fiat. The government promises that it can tax, grants itself powers over the economy to change the shape of output, and then guarantees that money will be worth something on the other side. Then it must produce the actual proxy, silver, gold, assets or whatever else. The challenge for the present it is to get rid of the function of derivatives, that is stabilizing the rates of return, and replace it with a government based insurance and regulation regime, as was done during the New Deal, and in fact during the Civil War in the US, and, to reach back to a different place, the Napoleonic Wars in Great Britain.

What we have now is paper money, whose objective, as in 1925, is to allow the global economy to be suspended in the air, and hope that time will allow an eventual collection of debts in the form contracted. To ignore that there isn't enough housing asset base now to collect in the event of default, and but keep mortgage debts at the inflated numbers so as to collect back the money loaned. With interest. Real above inflation interest.

The alternative is not just a different policy regime, but to announce that the objective of the temporary suspension of the asset base is not to reassert the old one, but to establish a new one. Once this is done, and the immediate crisis stabilized, the new basis for revenues can be asserted, and a new banking system built on the ashes of the old. The manifest failure of the bail out, politically and economically, means this moment will come soon. The political landscape indicates that there will be a very brief tide for the Democratic party to be the instrument of this change.

There's more...

Again, I strongly urge you to read the entire article if you have not done so already. Stirling and Ian Welsh have been doing amazing work.

Ian points out the historical basis for the DOW under these circumstances could be as low as 6,000. Ouch.

On January 23, 2008 I wrote this. (Bold added):

Group News Blog

Stocks Continue Fall; Bonds Rise.

In Europe, the Central Banks refused to join the Fed in cutting rates, and markets continue to fall.

AP News via MyWay

NEW YORK (AP) - Stocks fell in another rocky opening Wednesday, with investors uneasy about the health of the economy and corporate earnings after disappointing reports from big names like Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Motorola Inc. (MOT) In the first minutes of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 261.10, or 2.18 percent, to 11,710.09.

Broader stock indicators also declined. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 28.97, or 2.21 percent, to 1,281.53, and the Nasdaq composite index slid 53.19, or 2.32 percent, to 2,239.08.

I'm fully out of the market, as of the end of trading yesterday.

Everything is liquid, cash, money-market accounts, certificates of deposit. All backed up with the full faith and force of the U.S. Government. Could I get hurt? Yeah. Inflation could hurt. I might move 10-15% to physical gold, but I should have done that two years ago. I knew it then too, when I saw this coming. I just didn't have the cash then to buy gold in any real volume. I still don't, actually.

Here's what I predict. TAKE THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK. I am not a broker or a licensed professional of any kind. It's your money, not mine.

Oh... and if you are going to read one person, read this guy, The Bonddad Blog, who not only has his own blog but publishes at Huffington Post as well. Bonddad isn't saying what I am saying. (I am responsible for my analysis.) But I like his thinking.

I believe China is way over-extended. They have been keeping their economy over-heated and will try to keep it up and looking good through the Olympics. At some point, for sure after the Summer 2008 Olympic games, possibly before, China's economy is going to melt down. When that happens, they won't be positioned to keep loaning the United States $2 billion dollars a day in the bond market.

China will go into their equivalent of the U.S. Great Depression, and take the rest of the world with it, including the U.S. I believe this will happen about mid-2009, roughly 18 months from now. Lots of people will be out of work, everywhere. Could it happen sooner? Sure. Later? Yep. Could I be wrong? You bet.

Do I think I'm wrong? No. And I'm putting my money and actions behind what I'm telling you. But take my analysis at YOUR OWN RISK. I don't back anything I'm telling you up with a damn thing. It's all on you to check this out for yourself, and make up your own mind what to do.

The most important thing will be to have a six-month supply of food and clean water (or better, a good water filter) stocked up. I'm not kidding. Then have gold and silver, which have real value which will hold, even as paper money inflates away. Physical tools of good value. A good bicycle you can get to work on. An adequate supply of medicines. If your home mortgage is underwater, make sure you've sold it before spring a year from now. Hard times are a-coming. Prepare for them. If you're going to ride things out where you're currently living, a wood stove to heat the place wouldn't be a bad idea, and make sure it had enough room on top for you to cook, maybe even including an oven.

Do I know this is going to happen. Of course not. No one knows the future to a certainty. But just as we can be sure that earthquakes will happen along known fault-lines at some point in the future, I look at what the Fed is doing, the over-heated economy in China, the defaulting mortgages all across the land, and even someone as ignorant about money as I am, can say, hard times they are a coming. We've been living in a bubble for a while, and it's going to burst in a big way.

If I'm wrong, well, you'll miss out on some upside appreciation in the market. Oh well. If I'm right, you just saved yourself possibly losing a third or more of your life savings which you have in the market, plus made sure your family has enough to eat, tools to make a living with, and a warm house during the cold months, a year or two from now when it gets tough.

That's what I'm doing. And that's what I'm advising those close to me to do.

I wrote the above last January. The day after I pulled all my money out of the market.

If you are still in the market, well, I have different recommendations today.

I recommend you go to The Bonddad Blog and pay attention. There will be buying opportunities on the way down. And obviously you want to dump your crap as the market unwinds. If it's true crap, dump it now. Don't wait, just go. You're going to take a loss so take it.

You're in the U.S. probably, so take advantage of that. You can see opportunites folks not here won't.

Energy stocks are going to be worth a lot, especially green energy. What will be the winners? Can't tell you. But ten years from now, we're going to be off foreign oil. Energy is going to be huge. So is infrastructure and supporting components for energy. All the way down to some small bio-tech thingy that lets us move from silicon to biogel and go faster and better. Comes the revolution it will overthrow lots of stuff. GREEN doesn't just mean tech. It means bio as well.

ABUNDANT GREEN ENERGY IS A NEW ECONOMIC BASIS FOR MONEY.

Our money right now is OIL DOLLARS or PETRO DOLLARS. If our money ten years from now is Solar dollars, Wind dollars, Hydro dollars, Tidal dollars, and Carbon-offset dollars, then we have an ABUNDANT GREEN ENERGY ECONOMY. With the United States having invented and controlling the key patents behind the new dollar, and having relegated the entire Arab world to third-world status overnight.

Oil will mean... NOTHING. Think about THAT. Oh, it will still be used in some industrial processes as a lubricant, and it may still be used as fertilizer, but with enough energy, we can convert other goods to fertilizer and to hell with oil. It gets us out of the Arab world and won't that be nice for national security?

In fact, people in many parts of the world may be FINED for using oil for fuel because of the damage burning carbon does to the environment. Which leads me to...

The WAR at the end of this crisis -- 2025-2030 -- will likely be fought between THIRD WORLD and FIRST WORLD nations over enforcement of environmental laws. We will insist they stop using oil and oil-based pollution and convert to the new green tech. They will say they can't afford the upgrade. Instead of fighting a war in 20th century style, the new President will simply shower their countries with free cars running on free energy from the sun, and unlimited free energy, medicines, crops. This will destroy their Third World governments and the old ways of doing things.

Near the end of this coming ten years oil will reverse course and be worth less and less, as fuel replacements are put into place, and abundant endless, NEXT TO FREE ENERGY comes into play.

Think about this....

Every economy, every unit of exchange -- dollar, yen, yuan, pound, euro, Gold, Salt, pelts -- the world has ever known, has been based on there being a fixed, limited supply which the Government can control.

What happens to the Economy (Capital E "Economy") when a ten year old girl can set up a solar panel and a windmill with her brother in their backyard, and make ENERGY, which they sell into the GRID? Enough energy to pay for all of their basic cost of living and I do mean ALL. And then some.

This coming economy is an economy of ABUNDANCE... unless folks artificially cap it in order to control it for the benefit of the Owning Class.

How about them apples?

There's more...

Old Bug Resurfaces With Internet Explorer

Photo Downloaded from The Dark Wraith Forums

The Dark Wraith Explains

In an email last night, Dark Wraith, an economics professor and HTML coder of no small talent, gave me the low down on the problem Blogger has been having with certain sites. I reprint it here verbatum.

Someone has brought back from the dead an old problem that Internet Explorer used to have with certain javascripts. The culprit right now is Site Meter. Many Websites are not loading tonight in Internet Explorer. This has come out of nowhere, but the problem is easy enough to fix if your site is not loading in IE.

In the old days, certain javascripts that were set at certain places in a Website would trigger a false error in Internet Explorer; now, all of a sudden, that little bug has come back from the dead. The easiest way to solve the problem, if you’re having it, is to get Site Meter off your site; the problem should vanish.

This, by the way, may not Microsoft’s doing. The conspiracy theory version of what’s going on is that it would really, really be to the snoops’ advantage if everyone were using Mozilla-based browsers: way too many “Get Firefox” fans do not know the connection between W3C and Total Information Awareness in that those rigid, school-marm standards of W3C Strict 1.0 are exactly what mass data aggregators need to put everything into databases.

That’s the conspiracy theory overview.

The benign explanation for what happened is that Microsoft’s recent updates have triggered the return of this old, IE bug. A variation on this benign explanation is that the code jocks at Site Meter tried to get fancy and rewrite the calling script, but made a boo-boo that brought the old IE bug back from the dead.

Take your choice of explanations.

The Dark Wraith will keep to himself which one he thinks is pretty much on target.

Once again in a world of spaghetti code and competing platforms, old problems, long thought solved resurface.

Just like the Taliban.

I heartily recommend his site for intelligent discussion, video lectures on basic economics, HTML For Bloggers, and some of the finest political ranting, amusing graphics. . .well, just go take a look for yourself.

There's more...

Flock You, Flock Me

I am having a ton of fun test driving the new Flock Browser. Anyone else try it yet? Thoughts? I especially like the facebook, feeds, and blogging features. Fun.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

There's more...

Public Service is NOT Charity Work

The Crucible with Daniel Day Lewis and Winona Ryder.
February 4, 2002. photo Barry Wetcher/Twentieth Century Fox.

“You Must SUFFER in the NAME of His HOLINESS”
“But I wanted a BLACK iPod. Frack!”

I dunno. You're buying the lastest gadgets, but then asking for money.
Bollox Ref

I'm not picking on Bollox Ref. This is one of those “attack the idea, not the person” moments. The above idea is about to be taken out. Bollox Ref on the other hand... no problem. *smiles*

Let's understood, then kill off this concept. It is an ENORMOUSLY destructive line of thinking and an ongoing barrier to raising funds for progressive causes.

The concept, said simply is this:

"Public service is charity work."

It sounds silly, but when you cut down to it, that's how many people think.

Call it the "Mother Theresa" VOW OF POVERTY life of public service model.

The penitent one takes a vow of poverty, turns over any and all income from all sources to charity, and works around the clock ceaselessly in a life of selfless service dedicating oneself to that which is being served. But it's okay, because of God.

In the Mother Theresa model, nothing is allowed but service. No money, no belongings (other than simple gifts made on potting wheels from Mother Earth, lovingly presented at a ceremony while school-children sing a song composed especially in honor of the occasion.) Of course, if the gift has genuine monetary value from a serious artist, one would naturally auction it at Sothebys and contribute the funds to “the cause.” If one suffered a little and wrote a short but heart-felt poem on tree-bark which was then posted on your blog to inspire your followers, so much the better.

Oh. My. Gods.

THAT IS NOT A FUCKING LIFE. (That is not a fucking life.)

No wonder the Republicans have been kicking our ass.

They have institutions, research grants, scholarships, third-party offers, 501C3s, 501C4s, and so goddamn many different institutes, universities and colleges, it isn't even funny.

From the moment Republican kids walk into college they are taken care of. An entire HOST of institutional choices are available to Young Republicans, all designed to make certain of two things:

1. Republicans get paid.

Got that? Republicans get paid.

Let me say it again. If there is one thing Republicans always make damn sure happens, it is this: they get fracking paid.

We could learn from them.

2. Republicans have careers.

I didn't say jobs. I said careers.

Upward fucking mobility. With benefits. Mentors. Fully-paid conferences, retreats and education. All designed to make certain they STAY REPUBLICANS (because that is where they get paid) and that they have Republicans all around them all the time, telling them how great it is to be a Republican.

Damn. Sounds sweet.

Furthermore... (and this is really a third point.)

3. Republicans get quoted.

Where? By other Republicans. It's a damn echo chamber. Hello, 'lo, 'lo...

But Republicans also get quoted by the traditional media, which is lazy enough to fail to mention such-and-such an institute is being funded by Adolph Coors who coincidently gives x million a year to hard right-wing causes.

Which gives the Republicans cred when they apply for the research position. Which gives them status when it's time for that University appointment. Fellowships. Book deals. Editorial appearances on radio and television.

Round and around and around.

Republicans take care of each other, always. They have each other's backs.

* * * * * * * * * *

Progressives?

We?

Don't make me laugh; it hurts.

We have bloggers who hold fundraisers to pay some blogging bills, yet even though it's our own damn money get looked at funny if we buy a fucking iPhone!

Let's get a few things clear.

Professional work requires professionals.

It requires hiring pros. It requires being professional.

I used to cringe when Steve - a fucking pro if there ever was one -- felt he had to justify himself every time he bought Jen something nice. While with his enormous talent and big donor base, he still lacked the funds to buy a world-class health care policy.

My dear friend Melanie died in part due to lack of health care.

No damn well-known Republican ever died because their job didn't have full benefits. And a 401K. And stock options with a golden-parachute kicker.

We have fundraisers. And people questioning our commitment.

STOP IT.

It's ugly and it's mean and it is wrong.

Donate, don't donate, it's your call. But be clear... We are not Mother Teresa and we don't follow that model.

We will use the money you give us wisely and carefully. We are using it overwhelming for items such as:

• hotels (probably)
• travel (maybe)
• basic business expenses
• back end blog costs
• stuff you'll find out about Tuesday

I wish we had more money so we could pay for more. As it is we're all having to pay too much of our own expenses to suit me. But we do that and don't complain. Because we all believe in public service and we believe in America.

That the four of us, er, six of us now with Evan and TLG are able to afford to pay for our own expenses (and buy iPhones if we want) is what has kept Group News Blog up and running. We've been up for a year and this is the first time we've ever asked anyone for a nickel.

Why? Because I respect you too much to do this any other way.

Let us be blunt. Jen put the keys to the kingdom in my hands. Before I'm going to ask y'all to give us money, I had to be sure you thought what we were giving you was worth it. That takes time and trust. Traditionally it takes a year.

So here we are.

From the donations pouring in, you trust us.

You've read our posts. You know we're the real deal. You know we're not nuns or monks. If we get the chance to have a good time, we will. Probably not with GNB funds simply because there aren't enough of them to use them that way. But if there was, I wouldn't feel even slightly guilty having a good meal and buying the gang a nice bottle of wine on the company nickel. (I don't drink; with my meds it could kill me.)

So...

My point is, each of your bloggers contribute enormously to Group News Blog:

• financially with actual money in various forms and ways,
• editorially by writing posts and comments as well as emails,
• technically each within our own specialties, and
• physically through giving hundreds or even thousands of hours of time and energy.

What we do with your financial donations is... We use them wisely.

We have great lives which we're happy to live. We ask you to contribute financially because we can not afford to fund -- nor frankly, should we -- the expenses of a serious journalism business which is growing and expanding.

Mother Theresa was a Saint and she practiced holy orders.

Group News Blog is a business and we practice journalism.

Being a progressive liberal and a journalist doesn't foreclose owning cool toys.

Please continue donating -- $100, $75, and $50 dollars.

Thank you for your support.

There's more...

OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!

So after arising at 6am, lining up at 6:45am, getting into the store at 10am, returning to the store at 3pm, returning to the store the next day at 1pm, returning to the store at 5pm, we got our iPhone 3Gs.

I was fifth in line at our store, which was sent a total of 10 phones: 1 Black 16 GB, 1 White 16 GB, and 8 8 GB. After some discussion with Sara [who: 1) had to be present to get our phones because she's the primary account member on our Telus phones, which we want numbers ported from; and 2) had an appointment "over town" and had to leave], we figured on getting two 8 GB phones. Sara left, and I filled out paperwork to guarantee that we'd get the phones and left, since activation wasn't working. Problem: all their 8 GB phones are White. Sara is not going to be happy. I console myself with the fact that these phones will be well covered in protective cases and don't mention it. I left about 10:30/10:45. Elapsed time: 4:30; Time at store: 4:00.

We came back mid-afternoon, and finished some more paperwork, but left after about 45 minutes when it was clear that activation was still going very slowly. Elapsed time: 9:00; Time at store: 4:45.

Next morning I fielded a couple of calls from the store and stopped by on my way home from a team meeting, after getting two cases from the Apple Store. The phones are activated, but will probably have temporary numbers for at least a while. On the plus side, they are both Black! But there are two critical numbers associated with them and somehow each phone got one number assigned of their own and the other number of the other phone. Oops. I'll come back later on our way out the VPOE event. Elapsed time: 31:00; Time at store: 5:15.

We swing by on the way to dinner and the VPOE to pick up the phones. I know they are active, because my old Telus phone stopped working a couple of hours ago. Elapsed time: 35:00; Time at store: 5:16.

However, the phones don't actually work yet. They require access to iTunes and the activation servers. No one has mentioned this to us. So we spend the evening with two bricks.

After the VPOE event, we arrive home about 11:30, and spend the next 2 1/2 hours playing with the iPhones. These are extremely cool devices. I almost had to threaten Sara to get her to stop playing with hers and go to sleep.

First off, they are nicely functional phones, which include a number of features that now seem obvious, but which I've never had on a phone before:

• A "be silent now" switch. Instead of having to maneuver through the phone's UI, you just flick a switch on the side, and it now only vibrates (or doesn't even do that if you want, but that feature you must set in the UI);
• Browsing that actually works. Whether on WiFi or 3G, Safari works just about like you'd expect it to;
• Maps & GPS;
• Integration with the desktop. Mail, Contacts, Bookmarks, Calendars all just jump over. I have had this before with a Palm phone, but this works better.

And the AppStore. It's not all great, but there are some nice things there. Bejeweled looks like Bejeweled, for instance :-). There's Remote, which makes using iTunes for your house sound system very possible and will, I think, drive sales of Apple TV. Lots of news feed apps, note-taking apss, recording appes, etc. There's even a decent eBook reader (BookShelf), although there's no MobiPocket reader yet.

Mostly, though, this device is something new. It's between a phone and a laptop, with much of the usefulness of a laptop for quick data access (where's a restaurant, what are the movie times, can I just see if someone has emailed me about X, ...) without the pain of carrying a laptop. You can't (or at least you'd be crazy to) write long documents on an iPhone. But you can quickly respond to an email or SMS, use AIM (but only with one account -- I use Adium to get a bunch of accounts all together), get directions to where you need to be, and so on.

It's not that this capability didn't exist before, it's that it wasn't easy and convenient and in the hands of people (like Sara) who aren't geeks or didn't grow up with SMS.

It's like GPS means you're never lost again. Now you're connected whenever you need to be.

So now you need the discipline to disconnect once in a while. Good luck with that one :-)

There's more...

“They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway”

“They say there's always magic in the air”
- On Broadway, George Benson

All That Jazz was nominated for nine Academy Awards in 1980; it won four. The late, wonderful Roy Scheider was among the nominated. George Benson's brilliant performance of On Broadway opened the 1979 movie as the dancers auditioned, leaping across stage.

Broadway.

Time Square in 1979 was the home of hookers and addicts. Some of the best live peep shows in New York City were between 7th and 8th Ave on W 42nd St. On the south side of the street, to be specific, not that I'd know. Certainly not in 1979 when I was still in the Army. I didn't move to New York till 1984.

Times Square. The peep shows are gone; the tourists are safe. The last time I was in New York -- it's been years -- I had to walk all the way over to 57th and Madison to find a hooker working the streets. In the mid-80s, you couldn't walk down 42nd St without being propositioned three, four times in a block. I liked it better then. (Not the hookers; the mood.)

Change.

Speaking of, what's behind those neon lights on One Times Square?

For starters, they're no longer neon. They're LCD's. Millions of 'em.

One Times Square is empty. No tenements. Why bother, when a single sign pulls in $300,000 a month? A veritable fortuna.

h/t Make and Gothamist.

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Oh My Goosh.org

goosh.org -- A Command Shell for Google

I use Google hours a day.

Now, here is a command shell/web page, which not only dumps the ads, but lets me do search strings on sites, images, blogs, the entire Google dataset, as fast as I can edit my command string. And my command string stays in memory to be called back and reused, modified.

*does happy dance*

Why the hell hasn't Google already given us this?

Welcome to goosh.org - the unofficial google shell.

This google-interface behaves similar to a unix-shell.
You type commands and the results are shown on this page.

goosh is written by Stefan Grothkopp <grothkopp@gmail.com>
it is NOT an official google product!

Your language has been set to: en (use lang to change it)

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Google junkies rejoice.

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h/t Boing Boing.

There's more...

Google Takes it to the Cloud

Developers Get Access to the Google Cloud

Yesterday, Google announced that Developers could Beta new services from Google. Specifically, that web applications could be developed taking advantage of all of Google's internal structures, from Google Bigtable to the Google File System.

This is a BIG FRACKING DEAL.

'Course, the catch is, as a developer, as other's have said, you're tied in tight to Google, and it would be nice if they gave you more than just Python to hack in. Sure, if you wanted to migrate away, you probably could write abstractions and move out, but still. On the other hand, for those who want to live in Google's world, this is the way to go. Everything from authentication to mail is handled.

May a million startups bloom. The age of needing your own hardware to run a startup is damn near over. Thrown everything up in the cloud, even if you're video intense. You'll still own it. Just run it on someone else's stuff. Focus on what you do best, which is hacking code, and getting customers. Managing infrastructure is no longer a core competency for a startup. Or at least, it doesn't have to be.

Matt Cutts

This is pretty cool. Google launched App Engine, which lets you write code for a web application, then Google takes care of the scaling/failover/logistics-type issues. You can store your data in a Google Bigtable using the Google File System. There’s a bunch of App Engine APIs to simplify things like sending email and fetching urls. Your application can authenticate users that are using Google Accounts, so you can avoid the whole “ask your users to create a new account” issue if you want.

The official blog post makes it clear that this is a preview release, so Google will be adding more functionality over time but they’re opening the program up now to start to allow real-world applications and to get real-world feedback. The first 10,000 developers to sign up get to play with it now.

My favorite part is that the usage model looks pretty solid:

During this preview period, applications are limited to 500MB of storage, 200M megacycles of CPU per day, and 10GB bandwidth per day. We expect most applications will be able to serve around 5 million pageviews per month. In the future, these limited quotas will remain free, and developers will be able to purchase additional resources as needed.

ReadWriteWeb

Let's firstly review what this is - and what it is not. Google App Engine is similar to the Amazon Web Services stack, which rolled out at the end of 2006 and has since gone on to be utilised by many startups for their infrastructure needs. But it is not a set of standalone services like Amazon's - which includes S3 for storage, EC2 for hosting and the SimpleDB database. Google App Engine is an end-to-end service and bundles everything into one package.

In that respect Google App Engine is more like the so-called "Platform-as-a-Service" (PaaS) apps like Bungee Labs, which we profiled firstly in April 2007 and then more recently in February when it launched a new version. Other PaaS contenders include Salesforce.com's Force.com platform (nicely summarised by Dan Farber) and Morfik's Ajax platform.

There are many compelling reasons for startups to use Google App Engine; and Alex Iskold summed them up in his post Reaching for the Sky Through The Compute Clouds. Alex explained why the likes of Amazon, and now Google, are providing a valuable service to startups:

"We are witnessing a fundamental shift in our ability to compute and this is just the beginning. Amazon is at the forefront of making massively parallel, web scale compute services available to the world. Free from the need to solve the scalability problems, startups are able to focus on the specific problems that their product or service is trying to solve. All of this is happening while the cost of hardware, bandwidth and services overall keep dropping."
(emphasis mine)

However, there are a few downsides to the Google approach. For one thing, it means developers must use Python as their programming language - PHP and Ruby are two other popular languages today. But looking at the bigger picture, startups which use Google App Engine are essentially tying themselves into Google's technology. They'll need to host with Google, do their processing with Google, store their data with Google, etc. And as some people have already speculated, having a web app built and deployed with Google App Engine makes it much easier for Google to eventually acquire that web app.

It does make you wonder: would you want Google to control your entire end-to-end development environment? Isn't that what developers used to be afraid of Microsoft for?

I'm not as afraid -- yet -- of Google as I am of Microsoft. Mostly I guess because Google is riding the historical wave, and Microsoft still is fighting the tide of history.

Cloud computing is here. It isn't getting here. It is here.

GNB routinely serves almost all of our data from the cloud. From Google's Blogger cloud (mostly), HaloScan's cloud (mostly), and from Amazon's S3 cloud (a little.) Plus other clouds we call to frequently such as Google's YouTube. In addition, we have a datacenter in Tokyo where we serve our "We Fight On" graphic. We run daily backups to our Tokyo datacenter and our Seattle headquarters. Not to mention some of us routinely back up our work to little flashdrives and aways have backups with us, where ever we go.

The point is, having our data live in the cloud and not on our own servers (except for local backup) means we don't have to concentrate on infrastructure. We don't have to pay for infrastructure either (which again, is a big fracking deal.) We just have to concentrate on what we do best, which is journalism and taking care of listening to our readers. This lets us increase our customer base.

This is precisely what Cloud computing is about. Off load startup infrastructure (and costs) to the Cloud, allows startup companies (such as GNB) to focus on their core competencies and see if they have a viable business. How you know you have a viable business, by the way, is if customers show up. If they do, you've got one. If they don't, you don't. Cloud computing lets startups test out ideas without having to make enormous infrastructure investments.

GNB (and The News Blog before us) wouldn't exist today without Cloud computing.

Bring on the Cloud.

There's more...

Twittering

Follow me on Twitter.

We never ask anyone to link their blog to ours.

If folks find our content worth it, we figure they'll link.

Twitter's different.

The value lies in people following Twitter feeds, and twittering themselves.

Feel free to "follow" my Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/JesseWendel

I've only been updating here and there, but as more of you start following, I'll update more and more, including from my phone and by email.

Also, while it's fairly unlikely, if GNB should ever have an outage, we'll provide updates on my Twitter feed.

Twitter: It's what's for dinner.

There's more...

Blu-ray Wins!

Warner Brothers Backs Blu-ray.
Universal No Longer Exclusive to HD DVD.

The fight is over. Hooray hooray hooray.

Last week Warner Brothers picked sides. Blu-ray.

There are alternate stories going around why.

Warner Brothers blamed gas prices and the economy:

Reuters

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Fears of a deteriorating U.S. economy and falling DVD industry sales helped drive Warner Bros's decision to back Sony's Blu-ray next generation DVD format exclusively, a top executive told Reuters on Monday.

Hollywood's biggest seller of home movies tipped the balance of power on Friday in favor of Sony (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) in a fight for the next generation of DVDs between the electronics giant and Toshiba Corp. (6502.T: Quote, Profile, Research), developers of the HD DVD format.

"We've typically been recession proof," Warner Bros Entertainment Group President Kevin Tsujihara said in an interview at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

"But the thing that we saw in the fourth quarter...was gas prices beginning to affect sales. And since we're considered an impulse purchase, it's beginning to impact us," he said.

Tsujihara said the company needed to quickly erase consumer and retailer confusion over dueling DVD formats before economic conditions deteriorated.

Warner executives said the consortium of companies backing Blu-ray, including five of the seven big Hollywood Studios, could spend more than $50 million in 2008 to convince consumers to upgrade, or more than the amount spent by the backers of both HD DVD and Blu-ray in the 2007 holiday season.

That's the official word.

Here's the unofficial word...

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

by Don Lindich

Warner Bros. publishes on both HD DVD and Blu-ray and found the "format war" was not only slowing the adoption of high-definition discs, but also hurting their regular DVD sales -- clearly an untenable situation for them. They wanted to bring the format war to a quick close by picking a side.

If they chose HD DVD, studio support would be roughly equal but would likely go HD DVD's way eventually, as Warner is the biggest producer of high-definition discs. If they chose Blu-ray, studio support for Blu-ray would be lopsided and the war would end more quickly.

When rumors started flying publicly, I e-mailed Jim Noonan, a Warner Bros. vice president, who immediately replied that they had not decided to change their policy. A WB executive in New Zealand issued an even stronger public statement denying imminent changes.

Obviously, they had decided to change -- they just didn't know the direction. Given their long partnership, Warner gave Toshiba an opportunity to lure a Blu-ray studio to HD DVD, in which case they would go HD DVD exclusive and give HD DVD a clear studio advantage. A deal was nearly secured with Fox, which had been having trouble with Blu-ray disc production due to the lack of manufacturing infrastructure. At the 11th hour, Fox went to Sony with its concerns and received a reported $120 million payout to stay with Blu-ray.

With no studio joining them on the HD DVD side, Warner's hand was forced and it went with Blu-ray, receiving a reported $500 million for doing so.

Now add that to Variety's story.

Variety

Daily Variety has confirmed that Universal's commitment to backing HD DVD exclusively has ended. And Paramount has an escape clause in its HD DVD contract allowing it to release pics on Blu-ray after Warner Bros.' decision to back that format exclusively.

Neither studio is ready to throw in the towel immediately, however. On Thursday, Universal broke its silence about the matter to say that it plans to keep supporting the format for the time being, a pledge Par made earlier in the week. And in any case, U is committed to a series of HD DVD promotions in coming months.

Should Toshiba concede defeat on the format, the decision to drop HD DVD would be made for both studios. But Toshiba doesn't appear ready to do that. At the Consumer Electronics Show, the manufacturer reaffirmed its commitment to the format, noting strong sales during the fourth quarter and indicating it would continue marketing its hardware through 2008.

But retailers may force the HD DVD camp's hand: They're unlikely to keep devoting premium shelf space to a dying format, and at this point, the odds are not in HD DVD's favor. With Warners' defection, only Par and U remain in the HD DVD camp; Sony, Disney, Fox, Lionsgate remain ardent Blu-ray backers. Warner sister companies New Line and HBO are also shifting allegiance to Blu-ray.

Last summer, Blockbuster also threw its weight behind Blu-ray, though some HD DVD discs remain in stores.

Bottom line?

It's over. As fast as Universal can finish up its contracted commitment, it's all Blu-ray, all the time.

If you've been waiting to see what kind of DVD player to buy, you need wait no longer. (Just don't forget to buy a Region-Free player, so you can can get a DVD which is released only in England, or in Australia.)

There's more...

Toshiba's Neighborhood Nuke

Westinghouse AP1000 Nuclear Plant (Jan 25, 2006) drawing The News and Observer.
Click to Enlarge.

Micro-Nuke in Blogs; Not in Paper of Record.

All you have to do is google Toshiba micro nuclear and up come a bunch of links. Slashdot went freaking nuts on this, although the paper of record remains silent. (On this. Much to say on other issues. For example, it likes Sweeney Todd and Charlie Wilson's War. I may go see one of these myself this weekend. But I digress.)

Hmmmm.

Examining further, it certainly isn't the AP1000 I have the diagram of up top. That's massively too big. (Toshiba purchased Westinghouse last year.)

Engadget

It does seem like the company is well on its way to commercializing the design.

Toshiba's Micro Nuclear reactors are designed to power a single apartment building or city block, and measure a mere 20-feet by 6-feet. The 200 kilowatt reactor is fully automatic and fail-safe, and is completely self-sustaining. It uses special liquid lithium-6 reservoirs instead of traditional control rods, and can last up to 40 years, making energy for about 5 cents per kilowatt hour.

One of these with their ability to power just -- as Engadget points out -- an apartment building or a city block, would be perfect for a small data center, a call center, or a few of them for communities off the grid.

The key is regulatory approval.

Let me give you that again...

The key is regulatory approval AND dealing with NIMBY -- Not In My Back Yard.

I know this isn't the great progressive position to take, but I'm not reactionary about these things. I'd want to see the science, before rejecting it out of hand. Energy is the issue these days, and I'm interested in any solution which doesn't include a one-third to two-thirds die-off of the human race back to our normal pre-petroleum planet-wide carrying capacity. If nuclear is part of that solution, even for a hundred years, well, so be it.

Or shall we line up your family and have you watch one or two out of three die of starvation or worse as you sit there while we run out of oil? In the next fifteen to thirty years? Okay then. Moving on... (And yes, of course I'm open to rebuttals in comments. Please be polite, provide evidence to support your positions, and use a name, even if it's pseudonymous.)

I did a bunch of digging around and I think -- key word think -- that what they're talking about is a kind of Liquid Metal cooled Fast Reactor called the Rapid-L. This is not the 4S design (also talked about below.)

Encyclopedia of Earth

Liquid Metal cooled Fast Reactors

Fast neutron reactors have no moderator, a higher neutron flux and are normally cooled by liquid metal such as sodium, lead, or lead-bismuth, with high conductivity and boiling point. They operate at or near atmospheric pressure and have passive safety features (most have convection circulating the primary coolant). Automatic load following is achieved due to the reactivity feedback—constrained coolant flow leads to higher core temperature which slows the reaction. Primary coolant flow is by convection. They typically use boron carbide control rods.

A small-scale design developed by Toshiba Corporation in cooperation with Japan's Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI) and funded by the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) is the 5 MWt, 200 kWe Rapid-L, using lithium-6 (a liquid neutron poison) as a control medium. It would have 2700 fuel pins of 40-50% enriched uranium nitride with 2600°C melting point integrated into a disposable cartridge. The reactivity control system is passive, using lithium expansion modules (LEM) which give burnup compensation, partial load operation as well as negative reactivity feedback. As the reactor temperature rises, the lithium expands into the core, displacing an inert gas. Other kinds of lithium modules, also integrated into the fuel cartridge, shut down and start up the nuclear reactor. Cooling is by molten sodium, and with the LEM control system, reactor power is proportional to primary coolant flow rate. Refuelling would be every 10 years in an inert gas environment. Operation would require no skill, due to the inherent safety design features. The whole plant would be about 6.5 meters high and 2 meters in diameter.

The Super-Safe, Small & Simple (4S) 'nuclear battery' system is being developed by Toshiba and CRIEPI in Japan in collaboration with STAR work in USA. It uses sodium as coolant (with electromagnetic pumps) and has passive safety features, notably negative temperature and void reactivity. The whole unit would be factory-built, transported to site, installed below ground level, and would drive a steam cycle. It is capable of three decades of continuous operation without refuelling. Metallic fuel (169 pins 10mm in diameter) is uranium-zirconium or uranium-plutonium-zirconium alloy enriched to less than 20%. Steady power output over the core lifetime is achieved by progressively moving upwards an annular reflector around the slender core (0.68m diameter, 2m high). After 14 years, a neutron absorber at the center of the core is removed and the reflector repeats its slow movement up the core for 16 more years. In the event of power loss, the reflector falls to the bottom of the reactor vessel, slowing the reaction, and external air circulation gives decay heat removal.

Both 10 MWe and 50 MWe versions of 4S are designed to automatically maintain an outlet coolant temperature of 510°C—suitable for power generation with high temperature electrolytic hydrogen production. Plant cost is projected at US$2500/kW and power cost 5-7 cents/kWh for the small unit—very competitive with diesel in many locations. The design has gained considerable support in Alaska and toward the end of 2004 the town of Galena granted initial approval for Toshiba to build a 4S reactor in the remote location. A pre-application review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is being sought with a view to a demonstration unit operating by 2012. Its design is sufficiently similar to PRISM—GE's modular 150 MWe liquid metal-cooled inherently-safe reactor that went part-way through US NRC approval process, giving it favorable prospects for licensing.

There's more...

Well the thing looks real.

I wonder why all the sudden drama? Who is pushing to get this hyped?

We just got a significantly more friendly nuclear regulatory environment *waves to Vice President Cheney* so I wonder...

What the hell is going on?

There's more...

USA Today Firing News Room Staff, Bets on Online

USA Today is letting go 45 news room staff. Voluntary buyouts of employees with more than 15 years experience (and less than 5 years of online experience) are first. Circulation has been growing at USAToday.com, not so the revenue of the print edition.

Do not ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee, bitches!

There's more...

If When They Did It...

And How! (Click on the pic to enlarge for extra added fun)

We've all got our bugaboos—our pet peeves.

I've got quite a few m'self.

I hate seeing expensive, professionally-done, misspelled signs on stores.

I cringe when I hear a song's producer name-check his “work” at the beginning of a song (Teddy, Diddy, Kanyé...please, shut the hell up).

Movies where I can sniff out the next plot turn three minutes away make me want to run down the aisle and hack at the screen with a dull linoleum knife.

I have another deep-in-my-soul pet peeve—one that I share with a great many Americans these days, and it's a lot more serious than the ones noted above because this one goes like a “Pulp Fiction” needle full of adrenaline to the heart of our rights as citizens.

That issue...is unauthorized government wiretapping.

As I said, it's practically in our water insofar as the breadth of its reaching into our lives...but for me, it resonates very, very deeply on a personal level.

Here and at the old News Blog I've commented on how the FBI's wiretapping of citizens allied with “radical” groups in the sixties and seventies touched my family and our friends:

Bluntly, no one in my family will hold public office for quite a few years due to the activity–and in some cases, hyperactivity of family members one generation older than mine–those aforementioned “DFHs” (”Dirty Fucking Hippies”). They marched. They protested. They organized. And yeah, some of ‘em were down with people who blew shit up. Two family members did time for their involvement in EXTREME shit back in the day. And that information was kept from us kids, that next generation, for years because they didn’t want any of us emulating them, and secondly, out of shame over the damage it wrought on our family.

Damage? We were placed under government surveillance. Phones bugged. My father hired a family friend to check our phones–a real Gene Hackman/”The Conversation”-type. And he hit a motherlode. Every phone at Dad’s restaurant–bugged. Our home phones–bugged. Pay phones outside the restaurant–bugged. IRS audits in consecutive years. Audits even involving me, a ten year old signpainter making a little money here and there doing signs for a few local shops. Two other family members who suddenly found themselves the victims of a vendetta by their bosses at the Government jobs they would soon be fired from. Mystery vandalism–low level (shop window breaking), and high (delivery trucks set ablaze). It got so that we had to very much lay low as far as any activism, and how we spoke about activism to people—even changed the magazines we subscribed to. Dad wouldn’t talk to certain people on the phone anymore–he’d go to the amusement park to meet ‘em. Open air, lotsa noise–that kinda shit.

---------------------------------------------

I remember the day the Rodney King riots broke out. Folks all over the city were let go from work early as businesses closed in fear of riot-driven destruction. I got home just in time to receive a call from the radio station I worked for to come in for a special “let’s try to keep a lid on this town by putting some level-headed Black folks on the air” broadcast. I sat down to have a stiff drink when my phone rang.

“Hello?”, I said.

“Yeah, what’s up.”

“M_____? (My radio co-worker’s name)

“Yeah. Whasssup? You goin’ to the station?”

“Yep.”

“So what’d you call me for?

“Um. You called me.”

“No I didn’t. My phone just rang. You called me.”

“Uh…I was sittin’ here having a drink. I didn’t call you. I was thinking about it.”

“Really?”

“Yep.”

“Ohhh-kay”, he said knowingly. “I’ll uh…talk to you at the station.”

When I got off the phone, I knew what’d happened. I was still under surveillance, and considering the station I was working for, I wasn’t surprised. But I was surprised by whoever was listening's screwing up so badly in their surveillance that they exposed it by connecting the two parties they were listening to—but had yet to actually speak. I found myself, a generation removed, contacting my own surveillance expert to check for bugging. Describing what happened, and with some cursory checking, he confirmed my suspicions, but of course, thanks to technological advances, could not remove said surveillance. The sins of the father shall be visited upon the son. Damn.

I wrote that in January of this year at the old place. We (my mom) still has some of the old equipment that old family friend got for us to check from time to time if we were being tapped. I look at it whenever I'm in the attic, nervously chuckling at the odd assemblage of what are now low-tech curios of a sinister time.

Nervously chuckling don'tchaknow. Because I know, just as my new family electronic surveillance friend told me—It's still happening, but the new technology makes it almost impossible to stop.

And then, then while gleefully pissing off Bill O'Reilly as I do every weeknight, I tuned into Keith Olbermann's “Countdown” on Wednesday night and saw...a report from a present day telecom worker who diagrammed EXACTLY HOW THE GOVERNMENT WAS ABUSING ITS POWER BY TAPPING INTO THE COMMUNICATIONS OF MILLIONS OF AMERICANS with help from those telecom companies. The fella broke it down into little nuts, bolts and chromed erector set pieces we could all understand.

And it was chilling.

OLBERMANN: In our third story tonight, an AT&T whistle-blower today told members of Congress much more than that is at stake with the secret crimes that took place at Room 641A of AT&T‘s Fulsome Street facility in San Francisco, and potentially at others throughout country.  Specifically, retired 22 year AT&T technician Mark Klein says that despite Mr. Bush‘s claims, the U.S. government used AT&T‘s cooperation to spy not only on overseas communications, but to vacuum up virtually all of America‘s use of the Internet for years, email, Googling, web surfing, you name it, thanks to AT&T‘s secure rooms, like 641A in San Francisco, accessible only to those cleared by the NSA.

Klein, obtaining AT&T schematics showing how the company used splitters to send secure room 641A a duplicate of every fiber-optic signal routed through its facilities. It involved not just AT&T customers, but virtually every Internet and telecommunications company, and virtually all email and web traffic in the country, without a warrant, without any mechanism for separating domestic from overseas, without separating suspect from citizen. 

-------------------------------

OLBERMANN: We welcome now former AT&T technician Mark Klein, whose documentation and claims are now part of a class action lawsuit against AT&T, one of 38 telecom spy lawsuits.  AT&T so far declining to comment on the specifics of the allegations.  Mr. Klein, great thanks for speaking out tonight. 

MARK KLEIN, GOVERNMENT SPYING WHISTLE BLOWER: Thanks for inviting me. 

OLBERMANN:  The Senate is considering granting the telecom executives immunity.  You lobbied Congress today not to do so.  How come? 

KLEIN:  Well, if they give them immunity, it would probably shut down the lawsuit that I‘m a witness for, and then the American people won‘t find out what‘s really going on.  And so that‘s why I‘m here to stop immunity.  Congress should let the judicial process go forward. 

OLBERMANN: Two parts here; first, can you explain to those of us that could use the Internet, but would not be able to tell the difference between its physical form and a box full of guitar strings, exactly what happened in that secure room or secret room 641A? 

KLEIN: I don‘t know what goes on in the secret room, because I didn‘t have security clearance. But I know what went on outside, because my job - - I worked in the Internet room.  My job was to connect circuits into the splitter device which was hard wired to the secret room.  And effectively the splitter copied the entire data stream of those Internet cables into the secret room. 

We are talking about phone conversations, email, web browsing, everything that goes across the Internet.  And that device, the splitters, is a dumb device. It doesn‘t do any selection at all.

OLBERMANN:  And the follow-up to that, as you mentioned, you didn‘t have the security, the NSA clearance. So give us an idea how you know all of this, in addition to your expertise as a technician. 

KLEIN:  As a technician, I had the engineering wiring documents, which told me how the splitter was wired to the secret room.  So I had to know that in order to do my job.  So I know that whatever went across those cables was copied.  The entire data stream was copied into the secret room.  The splitte