Tag Archives: Television

Members of the press or citizens are not welcome at library board? —George Boston Rhynes

Received today. To quote a VDT editorial of 3 March 2012:

When officials act like they have something to hide, they often do….

Here’s George’s Open Records Request. -jsq

George Boston Rhynes February 7, 2013

George Boston Rhynes (229-251-8645)
5004 Oak Drive
Valdosta, Georgia 31605

TO: Valdosta-Lowndes County; South Georgia Regional Library Director/Chair person along with Board Members Respectively, Georgia News Media Outlets concerned about open government and the sunshine brightness…

SUBJECT: An open records request on behalf of the general public right to know…

Continue reading →

Gretchen LCDP v. Austin Scott GA-08 on WCTV

Gretchen with LAKE video camera Hearing a representative was in town, Gretchen took the LAKE video camera down to the Chamber of Commerce. Greg Gullberg of WCTV invited her to rebut Rep. Austin Scott (R GA-08) in her role as Chair of the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP). After some back and forth, the WCTV story shows transparency winning, and Gretchen with the last word.

Rep. Scott GA-08 Gretchen as LCDP Chair

But their [sic] is one thing they both agree on.

“I quite honestly think both sides ought to put their budgets on C-Span and maybe we ought to have those negotiations on C-Span,” said Scott.

“So I’m all for having everything all out on the table for all citizens to see,” said Quarterman.

Scott speaking Gretchen speaking

Hey, what if the Lowndes County Commission put its board packets and budgets out on the web for all us taxpayers to see?

Here’s the WCTV video. The video Gretchen took will follow.

Continue reading →

Vote No on Amendment 1 —LAKE WALB Ad

John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange The WCTV news report didn’t mention something else LAKE has done about the Tim Golden use of a LAKE video without the required attribution: LAKE paid for a TV ad on the same WALB market as Golden’s ad. That LAKE ad is still playing today: watch the news and football on WALB in Valdosta and Hahira.

Bikram Mohanty is a man of integrity running for Georgia state Senate.

Creative Commons Attribution license The incumbent Tim Golden’s attack ad misuses a video I took of Bikram Mohanty, without the credit its YouTube license requires.

Tim Golden voted to put on the ballot an amendment that could siphon off your local tax dollars for charter schools, even if your school board doesn’t want them.

Vote for integrity; vote for Bikram Mohanty for Georgia state Senate, Vote No on Amendment 1 on Nov. 6th and vote No for Amendment 1.

This WALB ad, like the WCTV news interview, is another rare instance of the LAKE politburo deciding LAKE would go on record as an organization, so I was speaking for LAKE.

TL;DR: If you want to use LAKE materials, cite the source.

-jsq

Tim Golden campaign admits using LAKE video without attribution —WCTV

Greg Gullberg WCTV WCTV got Tim Golden’s campaign on record admitting it used a LAKE video without attribution. Golden’s spokesperson claimed (erroneously) that they didn’t need to cite the source. As you can see below, that’s not what the license says.

Greg Gullberg wrote for WCTV last night, Valdosta Man Takes Legal Action Against GA Senator Over Use Of Video,

John Quarterman, Lowndes Videographer A videographer in Valdosta is taking legal action against Georgia District 8 State Senator Tim Golden.

John Quarterman says video he shot was used in an “Attack Ad” against Senate candidate Bikram Mohanty without his permission.

“A video posted on Youtube that clearly says that attribution is required. And there’s no attribution, no sources sighted, and he didn’t ask permission. That’s mis-use of our material,” Quarterman said.

Continue reading →

Japan’s Softbank buys Sprint because CEO Son says U.S. networks too slow

U.S. car manufacturers decades ago milked profits out of poor technology and got outcompeted by Japan on both quality and price. The same thing is happening right now with fast Internet service. We may not have to wait for Verizon and AT&T to get around to offering affordable fast 4G LTE Internet service: Sprint may do it first, now that Japan’s Softbank is stepping in.

Roger Chang wrote for CNET News 15 October 2012, Japan’s Softbank poised to supercharge Sprint network: Softbank CEO complains that U.S. networks are too slow, and with his $20 billion bid for Sprint, he aims to do something about that.

Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son isn’t impressed with the high-speed wireless networks in the United States.

“Everytime I come to the U.S., I say ‘Oh my God, the mobile phone network is so slow,'” Son said during a conference call with analysts today.

Now, Son is in a position to change things to his liking after Softbank and Sprint Nextel agreed on a deal in which Softbank would take a 70 percent stake in the U.S. carrier.

Sprint, which has struggled as a distant No. 3 carrier behind AT&T and Verizon Wireless, could get a boost from the deal, in which Softbank spends $12.1 billion to buy the controlling stake and another $8 billion in investment into the company.

What’s he aiming at improving?

Continue reading →

4G LTE Internet services costs too much, can come down

More people would buy 4G LTE if the price was lower, which we know is possible because it is 2 to 10 times lower in Europe. And then a lot more people around here would have fast Internet service.

Kevin J. O’Brien wrote for the NYTimes 15 October 2012, Americans Paying More for LTE Service

Vodafone LTE A comparison by Wireless Intelligence, a unit of the GSM Association, suggests that being in the biggest LTE market has not brought low prices to U.S. consumers.

According to the study, Verizon Wireless, which is a joint venture of Verizon and Vodafone, charges $7.50 for each gigabyte of data downloaded over its LTE network. That is three times the European average of $2.50 and more than 10 times what consumers pay in Sweden, where a gigabyte costs as little as 63 cents.

Standard business practice: sell a new service for as much as the market will bear, and come down in price over time. Except in the U.S. there isn’t much of a market, with only 2 or 3 wireless carriers offering 4G LTE, as the article notes:

Continue reading →

VZ 4G vs. AT&T DSL, Lowndes County, Georgia, 2012-09-08

It turns out you can’t yet buy Verizon’s HomeFusion Broadband 4G wireless Internet service

in Georgia. (You can buy it in Tennessee.) However, in Georgia, you can buy one of several 4G LTE devices that have most of the same capabilities. For example, I have here a Verizon Jetpack™ 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot MiFi©, which is about the size of a pack of cards. A few minutes ago I compared its speeds directly with AT&T 3Mbps DSL. Here are the results.

The MiFi I’ve got is a slightly older model of the one pictured above, because for years

AT&T DSL: 2.66Mbps down 0.31Mbps up
AT&T DSL
VZ 4G: 10.88Mbps down 7.14Mbps up
Verizon 4G
I’ve been using it and its predecessors on road trips, for Skype, web browsing, blog posting, etc. It’s also come in very handy as a plan B home Internet access method on the many occassions when AT&T’s DSL has flaked out. Mostly I did not use it for uploading videos or watching them much, because until recently it was relatively slow, using EVDO technology at about 1Mbps down and 0.7Mbps up. Suddenly, the MiFi has gotten much much faster, ten times faster, because Verizon has turned on their 4G LTE service in Lowndes County, at least for mobile access.

The tables show results using SpeakEasy Speedtest a few minutes ago.

Megabytes/secMegabits/sec
downup downup
AT&T DSL 2.66Mbps 0.31Mbps 322KB/sec 38KB/sec
Verizon 4G 10.88Mbps 7.14Mbps 1360KB/sec 893KB/sec

Verizon’s 4G LTE is way faster, as in Continue reading →

4G data caps and prices

It may be fast, but there are some drawbacks to 4G wireless Internet access, namely data limits and significant prices. Here’s Verizon’s table for their HomeFusion Broadband.

Monthly Data Allowance Monthly Access
10GB $60
20GB $90
30GB $120

I would bet the other companies’ caps and prices are pretty much the same. For web browsing, you’ll probably never run over that lowest 10GB/month limit. So if you want to tweet or facebook or tumblr or email with your friends, 4G probably will work fine for you.

If you do a lot of Skype or listening to music over the net, you might run over. If you watch a lot of videos, or you want to do video conferencing, you can definitely run over. Here’s Verizon’s table of estimates, and they have a calculator along with that:

Email (Text Only) = 10 KB
Typical Web Page Lookup* = 1MB
Audio Streaming = 51 MB/hr
Video Streaming (Standard Def) = 500MB/hr
Video Streaming (HIgh Def) = 1.6GB/hr
Digital Photo Download/Upload (Hi-Res) = 5 MB
4G VoIP = 67MB/hr
4G VoIP with Video = 254MB/hr

1 MB = 1,024KB
1 GB = 1,024MB

Videos of a single VLCIA meeting can run 2 gigabytes, and there are lots of other meetings going on around here. Not every local elected or appointed board has 5 minute meetings like the Lowndes County Commission. Many run for an hour or more.

Even though I’m a pretty intensive Internet user, I’m considering getting 4G home service. Someday AT&T may get around to running fiber for their uverse service out here in my sparsely populated area of the county, and then we might be able to get 3-24Mbps down (and unknown speeds up) for $38 to $63/month. Some year. Or never, if wireless speeds continue to leapfrog even fiber speeds. OK, real fiber speeds such as in Finland, Japan, France, Korea, or dozens of other countries are 100Mbps or up, but U.S. telcos and cablecos are not going to offer speeds like that until they’ve milked every penny they can get out of slower speeds first. Not to mention what the U.S. carriers are really selling with fiber is TV, which is a dying broadcast medium, fast being left in the dust by the participatory social Internet. Who do you know under 30 who gets their news from TV anymore?

Anyway, I don’t know whether 4G Internet service would work for you, but at least it’s another option.

-jsq

Mayor starts walking back gay pride comments on WALB

Rainbow flagsValdosta Mayor John Gayle starts practicing the non-apology apology by saying he’s sorry people aren’t happy while complimenting the content of the anti-bullying proclamation he wouldn’t sign. He continues to provide earned media for the South Georgia Pride Festival.

Lydia Jennings reported for WALB yesterday, Valdosta Mayor denies Gay Pride event proclamation,

Raynae Williams Asst. Director South Georgia Pride “I’m not asking him to proclaim that he’s for gay marriage, I’m not asking any of that. It’s just simply stating that we’re here and we’re apart of the community,” said Williams.

Valdosta Mayor John Gayle “Too many times we give up our strong beliefs to make people happy, and I’m sorry that my decision didn’t make a lot of people happy,” said Gayle.

The Mayor says he compliments the organization for bringing awareness and education to bullying and hate crimes against the gay community. The event will be September 15 at the John W. Saunders Park in Valdosta.

Well, he looks apologetic, and he said he’s sorry, Valdosta banner but he for sure ain’t signin’ that proclamation, which was against bullying and hate crimes not just for the gay community, but “for all sexual orientations, races and religions.” Is he not against bullying other races and religions?

Those rainbow flags seem quite festive, as do those Valdosta banners.

-jsq

Valdosta Mayor provides more earned media for group he doesn’t like

Valdosta Mayor Gayle continues to provide earned media to a group he doesn’t agree with, South Georgia Pride. He says people support him ten to 1 in refusing to issue a proclamation against bullying. Yet a local TV online poll is running 2 to 1 against his position. In addition to the obvious cultural issues, there are also economic issues involved.

Dean Poling wrote for the VDT today, Pride denied: Valdosta mayor denies LGBT event proclamation,

Gayle said responses are running 10-1 in agreement with his decision.

WTXL.tv (ABC 27) asks in a poll attached to a story by Jade Bulecza yesterday, Mayor turns down proclamation request from gay community,

Do you agree with Mayor Gayle’s decision not to sign the P.R.I.D.E. Proclamation?
Yes (32.4%)
No (67.6%)

That looks to me like 2 to 1 against the mayor’s position. Bulecza’s story included:

“Most of them (proclamations) are for the cancer society, the heart fund, you know things like this or either a pastor at a church for so many years and everything and this is the first one I get like this where my beliefs interfere with it,” said Mayor Gayle.

The mayor says he recognizes all the group does for the community. He says he welcomes everyone to Valdosta.

Since Mayor Gayle took office in January this is the only proclamation he turned down. The south Georgia group says they had a proclamation signed last year.

In less than a year in office the mayor has already found difficulty separating his personal beliefs from his office as mayor.

What was he asked to sign, anyway? The VDT story has the details:

The requested proclamation does not include an endorsement of gay marriage nor does it officially endorse the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender lifestyle.

“The proclamation opposes bullying and hate crimes based on sexual orientation,” Williams said. “It says the city recognizes we’re here and we’re part of the community.”

In essence, the submitted proclamation would have noted that the South Georgia Pride Committee:

Continue reading →