Broadband providers! They love to make noise about how dedicated they are to improving your service, rolling out new features and generally adhering to both the law and their own code of ethics. So how can it be that Charter has so badly failed the terms imposed on its purchase of Time-Warner Cable in 2016 that the state of New York is showing them (specifically their subsidiary Spectrum) the door? Could all these promises be only so many words? Say it ain’t so!
Yes, to the surprise of no one but to the continued detriment of New York’s broadband customers, Charter has failed to meet various obligations, lied about compliance and performance and apparently has even been operating unsafely out in the field.
New York’s Public Service Commission approved the merger at the state level in 2016 on condition that the company expand broadband offerings in both quality and quantity; at a national level the FCC set its own conditions.
Unfortunately, Charter has failed repeatedly and publicly to meet the NY PSC’s requirements. The latter wrote in a press release (PDF):
Charter, doing business as Spectrum, has — through word and deed — made clear that it has no intention of providing the public benefits upon which the Commission’s earlier approval was conditioned.
These recurring failures led the Commission to the broader conclusion that the company was not interested in being a good corporate citizen and that the Commission could no longer in good faith and conscience allow it to operate in New York.
Charter is the largest cable provider in the state, serving some 2 million people in a variety of urban communities, so this isn’t a matter of swapping out a couple of neighborhoods. The company has 60 days to provide a plan for “an orderly transition to a successor provider(s).” Difficulty level: “Charter must ensure no interruption in service is experienced by customers.”
The PSC has clearly had it with the company and gladly recounts its sins:
By its own admission, Charter has failed to meet its commitment to expand its service network that was specifically called for as part of the Commission’s decision to approve the merger between Charter and Time Warner Cable. Its failure to meet its June 18, 2018 target by more than 40 percent is only the most recent example. Rather than accept responsibility Charter has tried to pass the blame for its failure on other companies, such as utility pole owners, which have processed tens of thousands of pole applications submitted by Charter.
Despite missing every network expansion target since the merger was approved in 2016, Charter has falsely claimed in advertisements it is exceeding its commitments to the State and is on track to deliver its network expansion. This led to the Commission’s general counsel referring a false advertising claim to the Attorney General’s office for enforcement.
Not only has Charter’s performance been wholly deficient and its behavior before the Commission contrary to the laws of New York State and regulations of the Commission, but it has also repeatedly claimed not to be bound by the terms of the Commission’s approval. Such egregious conduct cannot be condoned and the only reasonable remedy that remains is for the Commission to revoke the 2016 merger approval…
…and its subsequent removal from the state. It has also been ordered to pay $3 million in fines.
The company would not be able to operate in New York, but it could continue to do business in other states. That said, a string of failures this prominent is sure to draw federal attention; the FCC requirements included some broadband deployment ones, and Charter’s negligence in such a major market will not go unnoticed.
Charter told Ars Technica that it will fight the PSC’s order, and in a statement said that election season had caused the “rhetoric” to become “politically charged,” and that it had expanded to 86,000 new homes since 2016.
(Disclosure: Verizon, another ISP that serves New York, owns Oath, which owns TechCrunch. This doesn’t affect our coverage.)
Source: TechCrunch
Spoiler warning for anyone who hasn’t seen The Last Jedi, though, if you still haven’t at this point, what are you even doing reading casting announcements for the next one?
No one ever really dies in the Star Wars universe. The official cast list for Star Wars: Episode IX has been posted, and it features some familiar, intriguing names. Along with the long-awaited return of Billy Dee Williams as Lando, Carrie Fisher is listed among the names.
Fisher sadly passed away in late-2016, of course, but Princess Leia Organa will be returning for one last film. Rather than recreating the character with CGI, however, director/co-writer J.J. Abrams will be resurfacing unseen footage from The Force Awakens.
“We desperately loved Carrie Fisher,” Abrams said in a press release tied to the announcement. “Finding a truly satisfying conclusion to the Skywalker saga without her eluded us. We were never going to recast, or use a CG character. With the support and blessing from her daughter, [Billie Lourd], we have found a way to honor Carrie’s legacy and role as Leia in Episode IX by using unseen footage we shot together in Episode VII.”
Rogue One, of course, took a slightly uncanny valley approach to recreating a young Leia with actress Ingvild Deila and a little bit of the old Industrial Light & Magic.
Also returning is Mark Hamill. Given how things worked out for him during The Last Jedi, however, it’s hard to say if he’ll be doing so as a translucent blue ghost. We’ll have to wait until December 2019 to know for sure.
Cast members Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran and Joonas Suotamo will be returning, as well.
Source: TechCrunch
During a filmic celebration of a legendary startup, and Silicon Valley’s past, tech VIPs reflect on the current climate of uncertainty in the industry, and where things might be headed.
Source: CNET
The social network says its community standards are also effective.
Source: CNET
Intel chief engineering officer Venkata Renduchintala said the company’s 10mn processors won’t appear in products until the 2019 holiday season. He revealed the new launch window during Intel’s second quarter 2018 conference call.
The post Intel’s 10nm ‘Cannon Lake’ processors won’t arrive until the 2019 holiday season appeared first on Digital Trends.
Source: Digital trends
The suit covered four IBM patents.
Source: CNET
You have until the end of September to take advantage of the service.
Source: CNET
Researchers at the Graz University of Technology reveals a new attack called NetSpectre. Unlike the internet-based Spectre attack that requires code running locally on the target PC, this version doesn’t need to run local code.
The post New Spectre attack lets hackers steal data without having to run local code on PCs appeared first on Digital Trends.
Source: Digital trends
Best Buy’s Black Friday in July 2018 sale is a little underwhelming. As usual, many of the best deals are on Apple products.
Source: CNET
A multi-year NASA contest to design a 3D-printable Mars habitat using on-planet materials has just hit another milestone — and a handful of teams have taken home some cold hard cash. This more laid-back phase had contestants designing their proposed habitat using architectural tools, with the five winners set to build scale models next year.
Technically this is the first phase of the third phase — the (actual) second phase took place last year and teams took home quite a bit of money.
The teams had to put together realistic 3D models of their proposed habitats, and not just in Blender or something. They used Building Information Modeling software that would require these things to be functional structures designed down to a particular level of detail — so you can’t just have 2D walls made of “material TBD,” and you have to take into account thickness from pressure sealing, air filtering elements, heating, etc.
The habitats had to have at least a thousand square feet of space, enough for four people to live for a year, along with room for the machinery and paraphernalia associated with, you know, living on Mars. They must be largely assembled autonomously, at least enough that humans can occupy them as soon as they land. They were judged on completeness, layout, 3D-printing viability, and aesthetics.
So although the images you see here look rather sci-fi, keep in mind they were also designed using industrial tools and vetted by experts with “a broad range of experience from Disney to NASA.” These are going to Mars, not paperback. And they’ll have to be built in miniature for real next year, so they better be realistic.
The five winning designs embody a variety of approaches. Honestly all these videos are worth a watch; you’ll probably learn something cool, and they really give an idea of how much thought goes into these designs.
Zopherus has the whole print taking place inside the body of a large lander, which brings its own high-strength printing mix to reinforce the “Martian concrete” that will make up the bulk of the structure. When it’s done printing and embedding the pre-built items like airlocks, it lifts itself up, moves over a few feet, and does it again, creating a series of small rooms. (They took first place and essentially tied the next team for take-home case, a little under $21K.)
AI SpaceFactory focuses on the basic shape of the vertical cylinder as both the most efficient use of space and also one of the most suitable for printing. They go deep on the accommodations for thermal expansion and insulation, but also have thought deeply about how to make the space safe, functional, and interesting. This one is definitely my favorite.
Kahn-Yates has a striking design, with a printed structural layer giving way to a high-strength plastic layer that lets the light in. Their design is extremely spacious but in my eyes not very efficiently allocated. Who’s going to bring apple trees to Mars? Why have a spiral staircase with such a huge footprint? Still, if they could pull it off, this would allow for a lot of breathing room, something that will surely be of great value during year or multi-year stay on the planet.
SEArch+/Apis Cor has carefully considered the positioning and shape of its design to maximize light and minimize radiation exposure. There are two independent pressurized areas — everyone likes redundancy — and it’s built using a sloped site, which may expand the possible locations. It looks a little claustrophobic, though.
Northwestern University has a design that aims for simplicity of construction: an inflatable vessel provides the base for the printer to create a simple dome with reinforcing cross-beams. This practical approach no doubt won them points, and the inside, while not exactly roomy, is also practical in its layout. As AI SpaceFactory pointed out, a dome isn’t really the best shape (lots of wasted space) but it is easy and strong. A couple of these connected at the ends wouldn’t be so bad.
The teams split a total of $100K for this phase, and are now moving on to the hard part: actually building these things. In spring of 2019 they’ll be expected to have a working custom 3D printer that can create a 1:3 scale model of their habitat. It’s difficult to say who will have the worst time of it, but I’m thinking Kahn-Yates (that holey structure will be a pain to print) and SEArch+/Apis (slope, complex eaves and structures).
The purse for the real-world construction is an eye-popping $2 million, so you can bet the competition will be fierce. In the meantime seriously watch those videos above, they’re really interesting.
Source: TechCrunch