How does one post material on the Cuban "sneaker net?"

Warhol P has written a Havana Times post on the Cuban "sneaker net" -- the circulation of movies, TV shows, software, etc. on flash and hard disk drives.

He reports prices of 50 Cuban Pesos (around $2) for 80 to 500 gigabytes of material and 10 Cuban Pesos for 8 to 16 gigabytes. (These days one can get 64GB USB-2 flash drives for under $30 and 128 GB drives for under $50).

Warhol P says home delivery service is available and some consumers go to the home of the supplier to put together a package in accordance with their preferences. Other suppliers rent out hard drives for three to four days for a little over 4.00 Cuban Convertible Pesos (around $4).

But I have a question -- how does one gain access to the sneaker net? For example, I have developed some Spanish language tech teaching material for young people. It is under Creative Commons license and I'd be happy to see it distributed in Cuba. I'd also like to see the Khan Academy teaching material distributed in Cuba using KA Lite, a packaging of the Khan Academy content for use off line.

Are the sneaker net distributions put together in the US? Are they pretty much only entertainment and software or are they open to other types of material? Is there a way to submit material for inclusion?
,

Cuban mobile Internet prices

Cuban authorities have announced that mobile Internet services will be available on the island soon at a maximum rate of 1 Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC) per megabyte of data transferred. (1 CUC = 1.14 USD).

As far as I know, they have said nothing about the technology (3G or 4G?) or the locations in which it will be available.

But, they did announce the cost, and in case you imagined Cubans streaming Netflix movies or Pandora songs to their mobile phones. let's look at the cost of doing so at the published rate:

These are Apple's conservative file size estimates.

(Lest you consider the Cuban costs outrageous, consider that, if Apple had charged the same rate for song downloads as your friendly US phone company was charging for text message bits a few years ago, a song would have cost you $5,486).

Mobile Internet access at these prices are well beyond the means of ordinary Cubans even if they only do a little Web browsing and email. In the past, the Cuban government has justified high Internet prices by saying they were needed to ration scarce international satellite bandwidth, but, now that the ALBA 1 undersea cable is operating, what is the justification for these prices?

Venezuela cracks down on the Internet

The tension between the benefits of the Internet and it's power as a political communication tool has been with us since the early days of the Internet. When the Internet came to Cuba, the government debated this Dictator's Dilemma and decided to limit and monitor access. The Venezuelan government took a more liberal stance and, today, the Internet is more advanced and ubiquitous there than in in Cuba.

The current political protests have led the Venezuelan government to crack down on the Internet -- see these posts from the Electronic Froteir Foundation, the Associated Press and Aljazeera America.

Perhaps President Maduro wishes Venezuela had adopted the Cuban policy. How, if at all, does this affect Cuba?

Cuban mobile access prices

Cubansocial gives us a back-of-the-envelope calculation of the monthly cost of mobile Internet activity in Cuba. The estimate for email and a bit of Web browsing is 2-300 megabytes per month. That would cost 1,000 to 1,500 CUC if one paid the following "maximum" rates rates.

Who pays less than the maximum rate? Who uses mobile Internet?

Note the WAP tarif -- a reminder that Cuba is not using current technology.

It’s time to reform government surveillance laws

Posted by Susan Molinari, VP Public Policy 

The revelations about government surveillance practices—both in the U.S. and globally—over the past eight months have sparked a serious and overdue debate about the nature and scope of existing laws and programs. Today, many organizations and companies are participating in “The Day We Fight Back,” a series of events and awareness campaigns highlighting the urgent need for surveillance reform around the world.

Google recognizes the very real threats that the U.S. and other countries face, but we strongly believe that government surveillance programs should operate under a legal framework that is rule-bound, narrowly tailored, transparent, and subject to oversight.

In December, along with other technology companies, we unveiled a set of government surveillance reform principles that address many of the recent concerns around government surveillance. In Congress, Representative Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Senator Leahy (D-Vt.) have introduced legislation—the USA Freedom Act—that would codify many of these principles. As they both noted when introducing this bill, government surveillance programs “have come at a high cost to Americans’ privacy rights, business interests and standing in the international community.”

The USA Freedom Act reflects some of the key recommendations made by the President’s Review Group on Intelligence Communications and Technologies as well as the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. We support this legislation and we urge Congress to enact it into law.

But there’s more that can be done as we consider appropriate reforms to government surveillance laws. Congress should update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) to require governmental entities to obtain a warrant before they can compel online companies to disclose the content of users’ communications. Legislation introduced by Senators Leahy and Lee (R-Utah) in the Senate and Representatives Yoder (R-Kan.), Graves (R-Ga.), and Polis (D-Colo.) in the House would achieve that goal. More than 100 companies, trade associations, and consumer groups—and more than 100,000 Americans—have signed on to support this important update to ECPA, which no longer reflects users’ reasonable expectations of privacy.

We will continue to press Congress to adopt these important measures, which would represent significant progress in the broader effort to reform government surveillance laws. If you want to receive updates from us, please visit google.com/takeaction and sign up.

The Bit-l list server

This is an unusual post -- it is an email message from the Bit-l list server, which has been edited by Ing. Jorge Espresate X. since the very early days of the Internet in Cuba.

As you see, it is a system for retrieving articles by sending an email message. I am posting it now, because email-based retrieval systems were shown at the Hackathon for Cuba last weekend in Miami.

BIT-L is a terrific service, but its limitations are testimony to the price Cubans have paid for their antiquated Internet.

Here is the Bit-l subscriber information and current article list:

Envíe los mensajes para la lista Bit-l a
 bit-l@listas.sld.cu

Para subscribirse o anular su subscripción a través de la WEB
 http://listas.red.sld.cu/mailman/listinfo/bit-l

O por correo electrónico, enviando un mensaje con el texto "help" en
el asunto (subject) o en el cuerpo a:
 bit-l-request@listas.sld.cu

Puede contactar con el responsable de la lista escribiendo a:
 bit-l-owner@listas.sld.cu

Si responde a algún contenido de este mensaje, por favor, edite la
linea del asunto (subject) para que el texto sea mas especifico que:
"Re: Contents of Bit-l digest...". Además, por favor, incluya en la
respuesta sólo aquellas partes del mensaje a las que está
respondiendo.


Asuntos del día:

   1. Nuevos BITs, 4376 a 4380 (jespres@infomed.sld.cu)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 22:24:03 +0100
From: jespres@infomed.sld.cu
To: bit-l@listas.sld.cu
Subject: [Bit-l] Nuevos BITs, 4376 a 4380
Message-ID: <52EEC583.1413.1AB96E@jespres.infomed.sld.cu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

La Habana, CUBA, 

DOMINGO 2 de FEBRERO, 2014, DOMINGO

Estimad@s suscriptor@s y amig@s:

MAS BITs

ATENCION ATENCION ATENCION
Los que utilizan Outlook Express en alguna de
las variantes de Windows deben leer este mensaje
hasta el final... les ayuda.

BIT-4376    2014/02/03 (3 pags.)
            HARDWERiando
 MEMORIAS FLASH USB MIENTRAS
 MAS MODERNAS MENOS CONFIABLES
 por Arnaldo Coro A.
 de GiGA, No. 2 - 2013
   
BIT-4377 -- 2014/02/04 (4 pags. y figs.)
 PRACTICO * MONTALO TU MISMO
 MONTA TU PC EN 7 PASOS (y 3)
 INSTALAR DISCOS, FUENTE 
 (pide las figuras a: jespres@... )
 PC World, Especial, No. 4
   
BIT-4378 -- 2014/02/05 (5 pags.)
 DOSSIER
 EL IMPERIO DE LOS VIDEOJUEGOS
 SI QUIERE GANAR PUNTOS, LEA ESTE ARTICULO
 por Benoit Breville y Pierre Rimbert
 de Le Monde Diplomatique No. 218, 12/2013
        
BIT-4379 -- 2014/02/06 (6 pags. y figs.)
           PC PRACTICO * SEGURIDAD
 LOCALIZA TU MOVIL ROBADO
 (pide las figuras a: jespres@... )
 NIVEL BASICO
 por Alberto Castro G.
           de PC Actual, No. 255 
                    
BIT-4380 -- 2014/02/07 (3 pags.)
 TENDENCIAS
 CRISIS, TECNOLOGIA Y SEGURIDAD
 por Alain Karioty
 de BYTE TI, No. 212 Ene/2014
   
los BITs donde se anuncian figuras o tablas, cuando te interese 
verlas, debes pedirlas con un mensaje a: jespres@infomed.sld.cu
indicando siempre el numero del BIT donde se anuncian 

Recuerden que la lista de suscriptores ya estA en Mailman y para 
suscribirse o borrarse de la lista, hay que entrar a:

http://listas.red.sld.cu/mailman/admindb/bit-l   

o puedes pedirla directamente a: jespres@infomed.sld.cu 

Los BITs tienen que pediros a: 

listproc@listas.sld.cu  

LES PIDO POR FAVOR, A LOS NUEVOS SUSCRIPTORES, LEAN 
ESTE MENSAJE HASTA EL FINAL. SE EXPLICA TODO.

Son Boletines tecleados en Courier New 12 ptos. convertidos 
a ASCII sin compactar ni codificar y con acentos y otras 
peculiaridades del espanol, con la letra correspondiente y 
el signo ~. (a~, e~, n~... etc.) 

Para recuperar todos los BITs o el que te interese, debes 
enviar un mensaje escrito en ASCII a: 

To: listproc@listas.sld.cu

dejando el asunto en blanco o lo que es lo mismo, en el
Subject: no pongas nada 

y en el cuerpo del mensaje (donde este se escribe) con 
letras minusculas empezando a partir de la esquina superior 
izquierda de la pantalla y poniendo una solicitud en cada 
linea. tampoco le pongan firma a su mensaje.

Si hacen copia y pega, el mensaje puede ser:
get bit bit-4376
get bit bit-4377
get bit bit-4378  
get bit bit-4379
get bit bit-4380

(si quieres recuperar todos los BITs de este anuncio).

(si quieres saber que se ha publicado en los BITs
sobre eu tema que te interese, p.ej. "memoria") en otra linea pones

search bit "memoria" [YA FUNCIONA]

(si quieres recibir el indice de todos los BITs publicados)

index bit [NO FUNCIONA]

y finalmente

end

y lo 
<e>nvias> o <s>end>, y recuerda... sin firma.

ATENCION: LO QUE PONGO ENTRE PARENTESIS ( ) O ENTRE < >
SON ACLARACIONES O COMANDOS Y NO DEBEN ESCRIBIRSE EN EL
MENSAJE QUE ENVIEN AL listproc.

Para los suscriptores que utilizan el software OUTLOOK 
EXPRESS que han de ser muchos...

ATENCION!!!    ATENCION!!!    ATENCION!!!
Si trabajas con el OUTLOOK EXPRESS o el WINDOWS LIVE MAIL
debes tener presente que este software de manera predeterminada 
envia los mensajes en formato HTML y el Listproc de listas no los 
entiende y te los devuelve.
Siempre, antes de enviar un mensaje al listproc de listas, con 
el Outlook, debes entrar al menu FORMATO de la ventana MENSAJE 
de ese software y marcar la opcion: TEXTO SIN FORMATO o PLAIN 
TEXT... al utilizar esta opcion, el mensaje que vas a enviar, 
se escribe en ASCII y asi, no tendras problemas para recuperar 
los BITs, los search o el index que te interese!!!  

Recuerden que si no les llega el aviso con el anuncio de los 
nuevos BITs deben enviar un mensaje a: jespres@infomed.sld.cu

        chirrin chirran... ya se acabo!!!

        hasta la semana que viene...!!!

Suscribete a BIT... es gratuito! y... te actualizas! 
Avisale a tus amigos que estudian o trabajan la Informatica

Ing. Jorge Espresate X.
Editor de BIT
Boletin Gratuito
Moderador bit-l
e-correo: jespres@infomed.sld.cu      



--

Este mensaje le ha llegado mediante el servicio de correo electronico que ofrece Infomed para respaldar el cumplimiento de las misiones del Sistema Nacional de Salud. La persona que envia este correo asume el compromiso de usar el servicio a tales fines y cumplir con las regulaciones establecidas

Infomed: http://www.sld.cu/




------------------------------

Subject: Pié de página del digest

_______________________________________________
Bit-l mailing list
Bit-l@listas.sld.cu
http://listas.red.sld.cu/mailman/listinfo/bit-l


------------------------------

Fin de Resumen de Bit-l, Vol 119, Envío 1
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