This week we talk about:

Robin Williams tribute

AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile are being sued for Net Neutrality violations

Why are we not replacing our aged weather satellites?

The latest health related app from Nextshark coming in 2015

Ed and I discuss his favorite health and fitness apps.

Robin Williams

THIS WAS PREVIOUSLY RECORDED:  The world became a less funny place yesterday with the passing of Robin Williams.  I have admired and closely followed the successes and the failures of Robin Williams throughout his career since he captivated a young college student (that would be me) as Mork in the ‘70’s TV show  Mork and Mindy.  My favorite movie was 1998’s “What Dreams May Comeâ€, and 1999’s “Bicentennial Manâ€, and also 1998’s “Patch Adamsâ€.

The space shuttle Discovery was the first flight after the ill-fated Challenger. I believe it was only up for 4 days but during that time….in fact on Sept 30, 1980 Robin Williams woke the crew of Discovery with this wake-up call….here is the call….PLAY THE RECORDING…. We have the link to the page where you can listen and watch the accompanying video for yourself.

The world may seem a little emptier today, a little less fun but at least we have so much of his work recorded.  So whenever we feel the need for a smile all we have to do is go to YouTube and play one of his videos. It will make you smile.  If a tear comes with it that’s ok.  We will never forget you Robin, we miss you already.

Business News:  FCC’s recent ruling concerning Verizon’s throttling of their 4G networks

AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile face Net neutrality complaint

Digital rights group Public Knowledge plans to file mobile traffic-throttling complaints against big four U.S. carriers

By Grant Gross | IDG News Service

According to this article, a digital rights group named Public Knowledge will file Net neutrality complaints against each of the four largest mobile carriers in the United States over their practice of throttling some traffic, in some cases on so-called unlimited data plans.

The complaint focuses on practices at AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint of throttling mobile data subscribers who pay for unlimited data plans and T-Mobiles practice of exempting network-speed-test app Ookla from throttling after subscribers reach their data cap, thus disguising their throttled speeds.

Apparently these Telcos violate at least some parts of the Net Neutrality rules as set by the FCC that survived a court challenge earlier this year.  It is said that Sprint and Verizon violate the FCC’s transparency rule by failing to “meaningfully disclose which subscribers will be eligible for throttlingâ€.

AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint violate this rule by failing to disclose which areas of the network are congested and are subject to throttling.  Public Knowledge also says that T-Mobile violates the transparency rule by preventing subscribers from determining the actual network speed available to them.

From <http://www.infoworld.com/t/net-neutrality/att-verizon-sprint-t-mobile-face-net-neutrality-complaint-247837?source=IFWNLE_nlt_mobilehdwr_2014-08-11>

weather forecasting is at risk because of old satellites

Let’s start this news item this way:

On October 12, 2012 The New York Times ran an article entitled:  “U.S. Satellite Plans Falter, Imperiling Data on Stormsâ€.  This article states that within a few years the US will be facing “a year or two†without the crucial satellites that provide invaluable data of storm tracks (hurricanes).  Why?  This article lists years of mismanagement, a lack of financing and delays in launching replacements.  These satellites follow a pole-to-pole orbit.  This article also states that without these satellites, the US Weather Service would not have been able to correctly forecast Hurricane Sandy or the massive blizzard that hit Washington in 2010.  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/27/us/dying-satellites-could-lead-to-shaky-weather-forecasts.html

Next let’s talk about an article titled, “GAO Report Urges Action On Weather Satellite Gapâ€, from February 15, 2013.  A GAO report cites what they called “potential gaps in weather satellite data beginning as early as 2014 and lasting as long as 53 months.  GAO reports state that NOAA’s fleet of polar-orbiting satellites is likely to stop functioning a year or more before the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS)-1 can begin to provide data for weather and climate forecasts.  http://www.spacenews.com/article/civil-space/33705gao-report-urges-action-on-weather-satellite-gap

Then finally, an article on E&E Publishing, LLC, entitled: “NOAA: With satellite on death watch, forecasts face uncertain futureâ€.  The date on this article is July 14, 2014.  This article says that the newest satellite in NOAA’s constellation will be reaching it’s end of life sometime in 2016.  But yet, the article goes on to say, the soonest NOAA can get a new satellite in orbit will be in 2017.  http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060002814/print

I guess the question here is what gives?  Do we not consider this weather data to be important?  Who’s fault is this?  Ya know, this subject could/should be the subject of an entire podcast.  We just can’t do it justice but I had to include it in our news.

Considering our subject line tonight, I just had to include this article in today’s podcast.

The Latest Health related App from Nextshark

New “Fitbit†For Your Pxxxx Tracks How Well You Have Sex

It’s called the SexFit, and a guy wears it on his penis to track how well he is having sex.

As with every tracking device these days, its Wifi enabled, links to your smart phone, it tracks how many calories you burn, average rhythm and thrusts per minute. Oh yeah, and it tracks you in real time on the iPhone app and tells you whether to slow down or speed up your thrusting.

The SexFit won’t be available until Spring of 2015, when conversation during sex will include “What are you doing??†and “Hold on, I got to put my Sexfit on,†but the whole checking your phone during sex thing will probably remain the same. Even worse, according to their website:

“Much like other similar fitness tracker innovations, the SexFit allows the most dedicated users to share and compare their favourite sessions and impressive individual milestones with their peers on social media.â€

Because this is exactly what we want to see on our Facebook feeds.

From <http://nextshark.com/new-fitbit-for-your-penis-tracks-how-well-you-have-sex/?utm_source=gottabemobile.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pubexchange_module>

Let’s get on with the show….