Tech at Night Like A Barrel of Fish

I stumbled onto a blog called Tech at Night hosted by RedState. That’s right, you heard me, it’s a tech blog - let that sink in - by the hyper-partisan right-wing blog RedState.

Talk about a gold mine of writing material.

The first post I saw from this blog came up in my Flipboard news and had the innocuously non-inflammatory title of As usual, Republicans are right and Democrats have an alternate agenda in the Senate. Of course, how could you not read something with that title from something called Tech at Night. The very first paragraph made my jaw drop.

“A lot of conservatives seem to be getting behind a Hatch-Rubio bill to increase immigration for skilled individuals. No wonder Harry Reid wants to block it for partisan reasons. Have to put politics over anything else. Can’t let Republicans do a good thing.”

What the what?! I can’t make sense of this. Conservatives championing an increase in immigration? Did I read that right? Conservatives want to increase the immigration of skilled individuals? Is this really a conservative position or did he just make this up to get to a punchline about Harry Reid?

Because it sounds like the pro-America, we-did-it-all-on-our-own party position is that Americans are too dumb to work in our tech startups, so we better get more skilled people from other countries in here quick! You know, before America falls behind in tech.

Hey I have an idea. How about put something in our educational system about all this new-fangled high tech stuff.

“Jay Rockefeller is talking about workforce standards in the context of cybersecurity legislation. Talk about using any excuse to grow government. At least guys like John Thune recognize the need for the government and private business to work together against foreign Internet threats.”

There are no links there so I have no idea who these people are or anything about workforce standards. But let’s talk about the government and private business working together against foreign Internet threats. I have some experience with federal government IT departments, and I don’t think it’s going to be so much “working together” as it will be “doing what the contractor says.” Because the current crop of IT workers in government have barely advanced beyond COBOL. Maybe after the glut of IT retirements hits it will be different. (Of course, then there won’t be any government workers in IT, because really, what college graduate is going to take a government position in IT? Guess that’s when we’ll need all the foreign workers.)

“Here’s the right position on Pandora: not yet more regulation, but deregulation of music licensing. Time we ended irrelevant regulations based in an era when terrestrial radio was king, regulations hearkening back before 8 track, before cassettes, CDs, iPods, and Sirius.”

I’m not really sure what “irrelevant regulations” he is referring to or what “deregulation of music licensing” means in this context, but following the chain of links leads to this staggering display of ignorance on a blog ironically called Reason.com: “Pandora streams Metallica whether the band likes it or not—something that should give pause to Republicans who believe copyright protects property rights.” Um. Metallica probably doesn’t own their sound recordings, because record companies almost always own those. I agree that copyright needs some work, but Republicans, you guys should refrain from charging ahead with any new copyright laws until you learn some basics about how the existing system works, otherwise you’ll probably come up with something that screws over smaller artists.

“Remember when two of the top wireless competitors merging was supposed to be the worst thing in the world? I guess the Obamanauts changed their minds on T-Mobile/MetroPCS. Or maybe it was about sticking it to AT&T all along, since AT&T is hated by the Net Neuties.”

Wait, wait. This guy is saying that the previously shut-down merger of AT&T and Sprint (2nd and 3rd largest) is comparable to the potential merger of T-Mobile and MetroPCS (4th and 400th-ish largest)? A merger with epic thundering ramifications to consumers everywhere is the same as one that is barely a blip on anyone’s radar? I just want to make sure I read that right. And really? We’re supposed to feel sorry for poor underdog AT&T because that merger didn’t go through? My heart bleeds for their suffering.

And… “Net Neuties?” Really? I can’t wait to see what this guy writes about net neutrality. I mean because why wouldn’t we want large corporations controlling the Internet? What could possibly go wrong there? *cough* usage limits on unlimited service *cough*

“No, phone SIM unlocking isn’t rightfully about DMCA issues or circumvention of copyright, but it is about people trying to evade their contractual obligations when buying a subsidized phone. To regulate this would be unfair.”

Hold on, he might have a point on this one. I can understand carriers not wanting to unlock a phone until the contract is over. The contract is outrageously rapacious, but you still signed it. If you want a phone that you can move to any carrier whenever you want, get an unsubsidized phone. (Assuming they’re not trying to lock in those phones.)