Michelle Alexander, the author of The New Jim Crow, wrote an op-ed for the Times this week about the way algorithms will reinforce racist policing. Referencing Cathy O’Neil a few times, she claims that some of our recent systemic victories like Amendment 4 in Florida are only temporary fixes that disguise the new technology waiting in the wings of the mass-incarceration stage.
Alexander’s book, which was published in 2010, explains how the Jim Crow era never ended; only changed shapes. Through racist police policies, the war on drugs, and private prisons, a price has been put on the head of people of color (specifically black men) encouraging prosecutors to imprison them. Once they’ve been funneled into these private prisons – often for small drug charges – inmates will be given mandatory work for just pennies an hour. Many of our largest, name-recognized companies produce products through this wrangled labor force, including Victoria’s Secret.
She argues, alongside O’Neil, that by digitizing criminal enforcement, the US will be setting racism in mathematical stone that will be beyond reproach due to its opacity. She goes further, discussing e-carceration, a potential upcoming “Newest Jim Crow.”
Read the whole piece here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/08/opinion/sunday/criminal-justice-reforms-race-technology.html

An important question raised in “Fixed Flow” is that of timing. The average user does not have the opportunity to voice their opinions or preferences in terms of the paths their data takes. A more informed user would likely desire keeping all information on nearby servers or, if they are less concerned with privacy, would perhaps desire high speeds. But they will not experience either of these due to the media/tech companies that have control over the paths themselves. It is beneficial for them to move data as inexpensively as possible, regardless of effect on the user. One of the only exceptions may be financial companies that plan data routes so fast they can have a minscule head start in stock trades. The user is left out, at the whim of those whose names are on the cables and servers around the world. This is where the opacity of networks becomes relevant. Staroslieski recognizes that most people imagine the cloud as a magical, overhead ether. Thinking about some of our other readings this semester, there’s a strong argument to be made that this public perception of the cloud is no accident. But there is no magical ether – if you’re not storing your data on your own hard drive, you’re storing it on someone else’s.
The relationship that this particular undersea infrastructure has on the media passed through it is interesting. Cables are installed to prepare for an expected media influx while media is simultaneously expanded to get efficient use of of these systems. What are the secret impacts of a media infrastructure used by the masses but quietly controlled by the few? In a addition to superficial concerns like video game play there are huge security and privacy concerns. The user does not know to be concerned about their information passing through the servers of other countries or companies, but they probably should be.
There was one area where I disagreed with Starsolieski. She claims inequality to access will grow due to the high cost of cable networks. But most technology gets drastically less expensive over time due to the continued advancements in the field. So I would argue that it is unwise to draw predictions of future access based on current cost analyses.

Network latency, is an expression of how much time it takes for a packet of data to get from one designated point to another. It exists and varies by distance, media of data traffic runs by and on. The media includes optical fiber, copper cable, wireless electronic ware, etc. Generally, the longer distance, the more latency. That means it use more time to deliver a package of data and to receiver the response. We can try the demand of ping to test the latency between your pc and the pinged serve.

For example:
It takes 45/71 milleseconds and 274/337 milleseconds to finish the sending package and receive a response to/from amazon.com hosted at US and amazon.cn hosted at China.

C:\Users\pcadmin>ping amazon.com
Pinging amazon.com [176.32.103.205] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 176.32.103.205: bytes=32 time=45ms TTL=232
Reply from 176.32.103.205: bytes=32 time=71ms TTL=232
Reply from 176.32.103.205: bytes=32 time=70ms TTL=232
Reply from 176.32.103.205: bytes=32 time=62ms TTL=232

C:\Users\pcadmin>ping amazon.cn
Pinging amazon.cn [54.222.60.218] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 54.222.60.218: bytes=32 time=286ms TTL=225
Reply from 54.222.60.218: bytes=32 time=274ms TTL=225
Reply from 54.222.60.218: bytes=32 time=303ms TTL=225
Reply from 54.222.60.218: bytes=32 time=337ms TTL=225

Although the latency is at the level of decades of milleseconds within one country or continent, and at the level of hundreds of milleseconds between continents. It affects much the user’s experience of network-based application. Foe example, I can login the Chase APP within 2 seconds in USA. In contrast, it takes me 10 seconds to get into my Chase account when I travel to China. The difference of login speed lies in the variance of network latency between my cell phone located in USA and China and Chase APP server in USA. I can tolerate the 10 seconds of waiting for login my bank app, after all I do not use it too much every day.
However, In business area. Network latency bring much influences to business model, competitive force, especially to the operation with high reliance on time-efficient. In the book, Flash Boy, introduced the story of re-constructing a fiber between New York and Chicago. The new fiber is more straight and shorter, less nodes, decrease the network latency from 17 milleseconds to 13 milleseconds. This latency of 4 less milleseconds means faster communication between the two trade center in Chicago and New York.It creates much advantages for those high-frequency-trades who use this high-speed fiber over others.

http://5b0988e595225.cdn.sohucs.com/images/20171011/09988639262a4773835a9f62791b32ee.jpeg

https://gizmodo.com/getting-lost-down-the-rabbit-hole-of-private-infrastruc-1562782580

In wireless areas ,there is also much difference among different protocols, technologies. The standard of 5G was just formed and come to agreement and accepted by all the related associations. Just like what Nole Starosielski described in “Fixed Flow – Undersea Cables as Media Infrastructure”, the construction,investing, and maintenance of undersea cables were mixed with much impurely technical factors, such as political interference, inequality, inception, business competitiveness and chaotic, etc. These factors were also entangled inside process of forming the 5G standard. Anyway, 5G era is coming and let’s google, facebook, wechat more and faster…

Fake Cambridge Analytica Ad Hits Facebook – BBC News

In the introduction to Signal Traffic, Parks and Starosielski define media infrastructure.  They have identified that this is an important focus because the way media is transferred and stored does impact the media itself.  I was initially struck by the elegance of building new technological infrastructure over old industrial infrastructure.  It reminded me of old subway cars being dumped into the ocean to encourage coral reef growth.  One of the first examples discussed is a Google data center that used to be a paper mill.  The authors note that 100 employees work where 650 used to.  I wonder what their hours and wages are like.  There are some other serious downsides to building infrastructure that relies on old infrastructure.  I think about the NYC Subway; even the updated stations still, in part, rely on the old switches they’ve had in use since 1904.  The authors introduce the other pieces in the book, explaining the importance of scale and perspective.

In “Where the Internet Lives”, Holt and Vonderau discuss the physical data storage that occurs around the globe, focusing on Sweden.  Under the guise of transparency, Google releases information about what these places look like, the way the wiring works, and plans for temperature control.  But they do not go out of their way to give any details about the actual storage mechanisms used.  How safe is the private information being stored in Sweden?  Are there backups? Do the storage drives communicate with one another or are they each a separate black box?  After reading this chapter, I got the impression that these are the questions Google does not want us asking which explains why they overshare the more superficial information about their business.  Google’s treatment of their data centers reminds me of politicians who dump thousands of documents on investigators while concealing the important ones.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/16/tech/alexa-child-development/index.html

Some men are learning that their children aren’t necessarily their biological children.