Tag Archives: Internet

In case you’d been nostalgic for Y2K…

Posted on July 20, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s CrowdStrike to remind you what could have been. A massive IT outage that disturbed Microsoft customers and businesses across the world on Friday caused flight delays and cancellations at Houston airports, led to the temporary closure of Port Houston … Continue reading →

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Other Beryl stuff

Posted on July 12, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

A mini-roundup, with mostly non-CenterPoint things. How’s your Internet service? An Xfinity spokesperson said Wednesday that service was restored to approximately 355,000 customers — or about 36% of those experiencing service outages — in the 36 hours after Hurricane Beryl … Continue reading →

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HISD kids still not getting the Internet access they lost

Posted on March 4, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Just another thing by the wayside. Houston ISD has not provided at-home internet service to the vast majority of students who relied on a free Verizon program that the district canceled three months ago, leaving some of Houston’s most vulnerable … Continue reading →

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Would you please fix that Verizon debacle, HISD?

Posted on December 10, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

It sure would be nice. Twelve state legislators representing the Houston ISD area sent a letter to Superintendent Mike Miles on Monday asking him to reconsider a decision to end a program that provided free Verizon internet access to tens … Continue reading →

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Another HISD threefer

Posted on October 29, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Once again, too much news and too little time… HISD special ed teachers say new instructional model under Miles is too rigid to support children. Brian Tucker started getting help for a speech impairment and learning disability in second grade … Continue reading →

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There will be a broadband referendum on your fall ballot

Posted on May 23, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

One more reasonable accomplishment amid the wreckage. Texas lawmakers took another step Thursday toward expanding internet availability in the state by passing a bill that invests $5 billion for broadband development. House Bill 9, filed by Republican state Rep. Trent … Continue reading →

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RIP, Texas Observer (maybe?)

Posted on March 28, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

A real shame, and a real loss. The Texas Observer, the storied progressive publication known for its feisty, combative and often humorous investigative journalism, is shutting down and will lay off its 17-person staff, including 13 journalists, several members of … Continue reading →

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The forced-birth zealots target the Internet

Posted on March 9, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

I hate to be an alarmist, but we live in a time and a place where stuff like this has to be taken seriously. A proposed state law in Texas would force Internet service providers to block websites containing information … Continue reading →

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HISD asks for virtual learning funds do-over

Posted on June 19, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

I can understand this. Thirty school districts, including Houston ISD, and two associations signed a letter to urge Gov. Greg Abbott to add legislation funding virtual learning to any special session for other proposed laws. A bill that would have ensured districts … Continue reading →

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Taking the STAAR online

Posted on January 10, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

If we’re going to have the thing, then this makes sense. Texas education officials want all public school students to take state-required standardized tests digitally by 2022, an effort that could cost school districts millions more collectively each year, according … Continue reading →

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A new way to deliver rural Internet access

Posted on September 27, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Pretty cool. From his 500-acre spread in Paige, just 50 miles east of Austin, Francisco Artes can send an email, check a website or two and conduct a chat session. But there are some days when streaming video or participating … Continue reading →

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HISD also spending more money on mobile technology

Posted on August 18, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Also good. Houston ISD officials anticipate receiving a chunk of the $32 million that Harris County leaders allocated this week for helping school districts buy sought-after computers and wireless Internet hotspots. HISD Chief Financial Officer Glenn Reed said early conversations … Continue reading →

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Harris County to buy digital devices for students

Posted on August 15, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

An excellent use of CARES money. Harris County commissioners on Tuesday voted to spend up to $32 million in federal COVID-19 funds on providing hundreds of thousands of WiFi hotspots and devices to children in school districts across the county. … Continue reading →

Posted in Local politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The digital divide

Posted on April 7, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Online learning is great, if you can get online. The lack of access to technology among students — commonly referred to as the “digital divide” — has come into sharper focus in recent weeks as school districts across Houston transition … Continue reading →

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Is it finally going to be Infrastructure Week?

Posted on April 5, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

I have three things to say about this: Lawmakers have been talking about striking a deal to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure for years. It might take a pandemic to finally get them to do it, and Texas officials are already … Continue reading →

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Schools could be closed for the rest of the academic year

Posted on March 17, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Lots of school-related news on Monday. Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath told school superintendents and lawmakers Sunday to be prepared for long-term school district closures, potentially through the end of the school year, especially in areas where the new coronavirus … Continue reading →

Posted in School days | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Instagram in space!

Posted on April 13, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Far out. Like, literally. Internet service can sometimes be spotty here on Earth. Just imagine checking email from the moon or searching Google from Mars. A Houston satellite and artificial intelligence company wants to make that possible through an “interplanetary … Continue reading →

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In the cloud

Posted on March 9, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Gotta say, this makes sense. What do a warehouse in North Austin and a building at Angelo State University have in common? They hold trillions of bytes of data about some of Texans’ most sensitive information, including health and education … Continue reading →

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Houston to get 5G service

Posted on July 28, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Nice. Verizon will soon launch 5G technology in Houston, though its initial focus won’t be on improving the performance of mobile devices. Rather, the wireless provider is positioning itself to compete with Comcast and AT&T for streaming television, playing video … Continue reading →

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MS Houston

Posted on May 10, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Meet our new technical overlords. Microsoft will provide STEM education at schools, teach computer literacy skills to adults and transform Houston into a “Smart City” as part of a new partnership announced Friday. “These sort of efforts become infectious and … Continue reading →

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Sports betting at SCOTUS

Posted on November 26, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

A case you might want to watch. Internet gambling in the United States has been limited to just three states since it began in 2013, but it could soon get a big boost from an unlikely source: the U.S. Supreme … Continue reading →

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Houston Press ceases print operations

Posted on November 4, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

End of an era. Voice Media Group announced today that the Houston Press ceased print publication with its November 2 edition, capping a 28-year run as one of the nation’s leading alternative weekly newspapers and concluding a wild ride as … Continue reading →

Posted in Other punditry | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Snopes’ world

Posted on December 30, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

These are busy times for fact checkers. The last line of defense against the torrent of half-truths, untruths and outright fakery that make up so much of the modern internet is in a downscale strip mall near the beach. Snopes, … Continue reading →

Posted in Websurfing | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Texas versus the feds: A Series Of Tubes edition

Posted on October 1, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Ken Paxton will never run out of reasons to sue the Obama administration. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is jumping into Ted Cruz’s fight to stop what the U.S. senator calls President Barack Obama’s illegal internet “giveaway.” Paxton and three … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters, Technology, science, and math | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Online voter registration bill appears to be dead

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Alas. A group of Harris County officials have succeeded in scuttling a bipartisan bill that would have made Texas the 27th state to let citizens register to vote online. The proposal was co-sponsored by a majority of the House, but … Continue reading →

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Trying again with online voter registration

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

My State Rep., Carol Alvarado, would like for you to be able to register to vote online. Can I just state the obvious? Why can’t we register to vote online? I manage my banking online, I do my taxes online, … Continue reading →

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Lawsuit filed against Comcast over residential WiFi hotspots

Posted on December 13, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

This ought to be interesting. Two San Francisco-area residents are suing Comcast for plugging their home’s wireless router into what they call a power-wasting, Internet-clogging, privacy threatening network of public WiFi hot spots. The class-action lawsuit, filed last week in … Continue reading →

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Comcast wants to use your routers

Posted on June 16, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

For a massive WiFi network. Comcast is expected to flip a switch Tuesday in Houston that will turn 50,000 of its customers’ home Wi-Fi routers into a massive network of public Wi-Fi hotspots. Comcast residential Internet subscribers with one of … Continue reading →

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Yik Yak

Posted on April 30, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

News flash: A new app that enables the posting of anonymous unfiltered thoughts can cause headaches for school administrators. Film at 11. A recent bomb threat alerted many Memorial High School parents and administrators to something that many Houston-area students … Continue reading →

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Annise Parker is in your Internets

Posted on October 26, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

She’s in mine, anyway. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but an awful lot of the websites I surf to now feature a familiar face looking back at me: Here’s another: Clearly, she’s seeking to dominate the liberal nerd humor … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2013 | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

The buried lede on sexism in the Legislature

Posted on August 9, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

PDiddie thinks that the real shocker in that Observer story on sexism in the Texas Legislature wasn’t given the prominence it deserved. Even the most powerful women in the Legislature experience it. When I started interviewing women lawmakers, they all—Republican … Continue reading →

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Amazon fulfills its end of the deal with Texas

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Good to see. Nine months after it struck a deal with the state to bring thousands of jobs and invest millions of dollars in Texas, online retail giant Amazon.com on Wednesday unveiled the first steps toward keeping its end of … Continue reading →

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When will we have truly electronic voting?

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

When will there be an app to cast a vote in a US election? So at a time when we can see video shot by a robot on Mars, when there are cars that can drive themselves, and when we … Continue reading →

Posted in Technology, science, and math | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Alan Rosen: A Call To Protect Our Children

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Charles Kuffner

The following is from a series of guest posts that I will be presenting over the next few weeks. Every day, the internet opens up new doors for communication, commerce, and the betterment of all our lives. But, with great … Continue reading →

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