SNL finally had something funny again!
mitch @ 9:02 am on March 27, 2007
Chris Rock opened for SNL a while back and well… just watch the clip from YouTube:
[ youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/1RlVtsAvKfs]
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March 27, 2007
March 12, 2007
Net Neutrality - what’s so hard to understand?
mitch @ 8:45 pm on March 12, 2007
Look, I’m not a fan of the government (just read my blog), and I’m definitely not a fan of more Government Regulation. However, Net Neutrality *IS* a good thing. Its purpose is to force the monopolistic powers that be, to play fair with their smaller and more innovative and dynamic competitors. Republicans are dead against it, (and why wouldn’t they be, the lobbyists that give them money/perks tell them to be) and then the far left Liberals are against it because they can’t see past this being more unnecessary government regulation. However, what they can’t seem to really understand is that the bill (S. 215) Internet Freedom Preservation Act doesn’t change much over what is currently going on (far as we/I know anyway). It calls for packets to be equally prioritized regardless of their destination. The exact verbage from the bill goes like this:
`(4) enable any content, application, or service made available via the Internet to be offered, provided, or posted on a basis that–
`(A) is reasonable and nondiscriminatory, including with respect to quality of service, access, speed, and bandwidth;
`(B) is at least equivalent to the access, speed, quality of service, and bandwidth that such broadband service provider offers to affiliated content, applications, or services made available via the public Internet into the network of such broadband service provider; and
`(C) does not impose a charge on the basis of the type of content, applications, or services made available via the Internet into the network of such broadband service provider;
Now, I’m not a Lawyer (INAL), but this is saying that if an Internat/Broadband Service Provider(ISP) were to also have a VoIP service (Like my provider, Comcast). This forbids them from giving their VoIP service preferential treatment to the VoIP service that could be offered by others (eg: Vonage[my provider], Packet8 and many others). This *DOES NOT* forbid them from performing Quality of Service (QoS) on VoIP traffic, but it *does forbid them from only performing QoS on their own VoIP service*. Now, this is exactly the type of agreement we can live with, as it treats all VoIP providers fairly. I also understand that ISP’s have been doing some forms of QoS on bittorrent traffic, as they say it would keep normal users from doing normal things if they didn’t. This is allowed under the proposed bill, as long as *ALL* bittorrent traffic is treated the same. However, I do believe these types of issues will become more important as time moves on. It will eventually become a selling point (or maybe a reason not to buy from one provider over another) depending on what type of traffic is or isn’t prioritized.
If anything this bill didn’t quite go far enough as I feel that ISP’s should have to properly and accurately make available to the public at large what type of prioritization they are doing. As then consumers could be fully informed as to what is going on behind the curtain and make their purchasing choices based on that. Not that they have alot of choices at the moment, but thats a whole other entry…. (see Utopia)
March 7, 2007
School Blocking everything but HTTP
mitch @ 5:15 pm on March 7, 2007
Wtf!?! Why is it that people think that only web traffic is needed? If they want to stop certain activities in various places, like keeping people from using IM and other various programs in the computer lab thats typically used for teaching “typing”, I can understand that. But I’m currently sitting in the computer lab, used for the computer science classes only. And still, EVERYTHING but http/https is block, and on top of that, there is some content filtering going on and I can’t get to my Gmail account. Google pulls up fine tho… hmmm. Believe me when I say I understand why its being done, but at the same time… I’m also now inspired to circumvent it… and I’m even tempted to figure out how its being filtered and really tax the damn thing and make it crash. I hate being blocked/filtered, and I only gives me motivation to get around it and cause havac… I also suspect I’m not the only one.
-UPDATE- They are also blocking ALL HTTPS!!!! so they could be watching me post this right now!!!! eat it!
March 2, 2007
Whats up with all the political crap?
mitch @ 4:26 pm on March 2, 2007
I don’t know why I typically only write about political stuff. I really would like to write about different stuff. However, whenever I sit down to actually write something, political crap is usually on my mind. I mean, like today, I’ve been looking over this awesome website OpenCongress. Which gives background info and breaks down all the crap that is constantly going on in our congress and at least for me, makes understanding it all A LOT easier.
Anyway, I will try to get some more content that is not politically motivated. Maybe more car stuff? As I actually read more about cars and computer/technology stuff than I do anything political. I guess the political stuff just strikes more nerves?
More on Global Warming
mitch @ 4:21 pm on March 2, 2007
I came across a speech done by the Author Michael Crichton about global warming, its called “Our environmental future”. I must admit that I personally haven’t done much really looking into things with regard to global warming. However, I did read his speech and I must say he says what I’ve been thinking for a while. I am now, more than ever, along the lines of getting rid of our fossil fuel dependence and developing alternative renewable energy sources. I will be buying a bunch of LED light bulb replacements(I honestly can’t stand florescent, they give me a headache) as the ones that came with our house burn out. My choice of vehicles has always leaned toward gas efficiency and will continue. If only Lotus would release their prototype electric I think I’d convert completely. I’m also hopeful solar panels will come down in price as right now they just don’t make economic sense(I’m not rich after all). As I would love to be able to cut my electric bill at least in half.
