Wanderings of the Mind

The potential benefits of this discovery are just amazing to think about, I mean seriously. Readily available around the world and renewable. All this time we've been burning fossil fuels for energy and we just needed to figure out how to burn salt water.

This is a youtube video montage of various news clips covering this story.

There is no emotion; there is peace.
There is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no passion; there is serenity.
There is no death; there is _________.

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R2D2 was behind the whole rebel alliance.

Also I finally got around to playing KotoR (the first) Proof below...

Started on KotoR II yesterday.

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Since my last post people have asked questions...

I didn't care what they did to phone services in the 70/80s and my cable tv works fine now, whats the problem?

what makes you think the telco's will take over the internet?

There was a reason they busted up the phone monopoly you know.

I only use the internet to check my mail and myspace so how does this affect me.

Well as long as your mail provider (google/hotmail/yahoo/etc) pays the extra money that will no doubt be charged to give them the same speeds as your local service providers email service you shouldn't have a problem. Of course if you use Xanga or Live Journal, and your ISP partners up with Myspace then I guess you're fucked. Gosh I bet Microsoft jumps on this to edge out other mail providers also. Never mind people like me who host their own blog and mail server.

I don't even have the internet and people spend to much time on it anyway.

Just because your tv comes from bunny ears doesn't mean the rest of us don't enjoy our unlimited access to information and free exchange of ideas. Allowing the service providers to prioritize internet service based on who pays more will put an end to home internet businesses, free educational sites, likely any sites that aren't local to your service provider, all of us little independent people.

In June 2006 NextGenTel, one of the biggest broadband providers in Norway decided to deliberately limit the bandwidth from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). Meaning that customers of NextGenTel in Norway will experience a lower quality of service on content from the NRK compared to content from the providers that want to pay NextGenTel for distribution.

...Due to bad publicity and reactions from customers NextGenTel have removed the limit and NRK is now back on full speed in their network. What should I say? Thanks to the people contacting NextGenTel and to the blogs and media that understand how this was a serious violation to network neutrality..

Guess what most of us in the US can't do? That's right switch providers. Only recently have we became able to switch telephone service providers, now we have affordable long distance and an expansion of new services to go along with the competitive pricing. We unfortunately are still locked in to our regional cable tv and broadband internet providers. Guess what communication services raise rates every few months and cut back services as often as they can. Personally I'm grateful that satellite is as affordable as it is in my area since it keeps the cable tv company on their toes. Don't you all wish you had an option other than your local cable company?

Thankfully someone else has written a very easy to read piece that should answer all your questions and the ones I didn't post. It also includes reference sources too. Less work for me, easy for you to read. Win-Win.

Read It Here!

Dear America,

Unless you want the internet to be controlled regulated like your cable tv and telephone services, I suggest you let the FCC know that you support Net Neutrality. Do you really want the telco monopoly controlling regulating what you see on the internet?

I didn't think so.

What is Net Neutrality you say, lets ask a ninja.

How to screw the little guy, a quote from the internet -

Here's what I'd do if I was an "evil" ISP:

- Start cracking down on protocols only nerds use. BitTorrent for sure, NNTP, and any obscure streaming protocols that don't run over HTTP (like sctp). Kill any and all multicasting that people might once have been doing (though I've never heard of anyone using the MBONE).

- Drop access speeds on anything that's sufficiently far away. Australia, Russia, China, and anything in that general direction. Keep the traffic local to avoid paying whatever horrible fees the telcos will begin charging each other soon.

- Next, drop the speed on all HTTPS connections. This is where you'll first start to see sites paying the telcos for 'special treatment' - when you want to buy something from Amazon and it's taking forever, but you know Barnes and Noble is always fast because they pay TWC's fees for full-speed HTTPS, you'll take your business over there.

- At the same time, drop the speeds for HTTP POST uploads of large files (i.e. let the first ~100K upload normally, but shape it down aggressively after that). That lets you fuck over webmail and hosting services that rely on it, 'encouraging' users to use your ISP-based mail services that suck unless you pony up some more cash; and also encouraging Hotmail and Gmail and Yahoo Mail to pay fees to keep their speeds normal.

- Wait a bit, and then start eroding FTP speeds.

- Finally, start killing speed on normal sites now that people are used to the idea that some services are slower unless you pay more. Make the slowdown gradual - perhaps start with a bandwidth cap that's really high, 500KB/sec, and then work it down 1KB/sec a day until you hit ~50KB/sec. It's still fast enough to be workable and most people won't complain, but it enables you to sell a Premium Package that "boosts" the speed of normal, non-paying sites to their previous uncapped status. Of course, the sites providing payola won't be affected by the cap.

I could see this entire strategy taking about four or five years to put into practice. Watch thou for the warning signs....