I have come across a few gift cards and thought I would pass it along to you the readers.  Post a comment.  Make sure to put in your email in the form so I can send you the code.  I will send codes to the 1st, 5th, and 10th users to post comments.

Post

• Your in game name.
• Favorite quest/etc in the game
• Why you like DDO.

P.S. I reserve the right to removed asshat comments.

Alienware Agents. I tried taking a picture of one without the sunglasses and the image came out blurred. Some sort of anti-image technology maybe?!

Squirrel showing us how UT3 should be played

 http://picasaweb.google.com/archeiousthelibrarian/PAX09GerneralExpo?feat=directlink

In an age when people wonder why the number of sceintist and engineers are dwindling I propose the reason is lack of wonder. In the 50’s and 60’s we had the lunar mission to inspire student. Even in the 80’s we had a new space shuttle. The future looked bright and full of hope. In today climate we are about to retire the space shuttle without a suitable replacement. The International Space Station will be /deorbited/ in 2016.

Many people deride the space program because of the astronomical cost (no pun intended). There are very few direct financial gain by having a space program. The intangibles from such work are tremendous. Technologies developed for the space program make their way into our life. Items such the ear thermometer, smoke detector, and everyone’s favorite drink Tang are spin off of the space program.

I would encourage everyone to take a moment and think about the beauty and wonder of space. Reignite the wonder you had as a child when you first heard of the brave men and woman who roared into space. Math and Science are fundamental to our society. I can think of few ways to inspire more children to because scientist and engineers than the space program.

The “Broadband Internet Fairness Act” is a bill being prepared by Eric Massa, a congressman from New York that aims at turning the internet into a government regulated utility. 

As the bill states it purpose…

To Authorize the Federal Trade Commission, in consultation with the Federal Communications Commission, to review volume usage service plans of major broadband Internet service providers to ensure that such plans are fairly based on cost.

It sounds fair and reasonable.  There are five finding that this bill revolves around.

1. Increased deployment and adoption of broadband, including high-bandwidth uses of broadband, is key to allow broadband stimulus funds to produce maximal economic recovery and growth, and is key to the network effects of economic benefit associated with the Internet. [Jeff : Government money, government control]
2. No volume usage service plan for broadband Internet access can be just and reasonable unless charges are fairly based on the cost of the usage.  [Jeff: If it costs more to deliver more than they can charge more.  If it costs less than they have to charge less.   Regardless the government says which way.]
3. Volume usage charges for broadband Internet access that are substantially above cost in a market without sufficient competition constitute an unfair and unconscionable proactive, as substantially above-cost pricing has anti-competitive and anti-consumer effects on Internet use, including in particular Internet use for online video delivery. [Jeff:  Making ludicrous amount of money is not anti-competitive.  Regulating how much a company can make is anti-competitive.   The more a company makes in a market the more others will want to be in the market.]
4. The market for video delivery is effectively controlled by companies operating both traditional cable delivery and broadband Internet access services, increasing incentives to raise prices for Internet use in high volumes, to discourage consumers who may wish no longer to subscribe to traditional cable services.  [Jeff: It is true that many content producers are also Internet service providers but they are far from only players in the market.  When cable companies act this way they are opening the door for other Internet service providers.]
5. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and remedy consumer pricing practice that in determines to be unfair or anti-competitive, including pricing practices by Internet service providers, as Internet services are not provided on a common carriers basis and therefore are not subject to the common carrier limitation on Federal Trade Commission Jurisdiction. [Jeff: The FTC already has jurisdiction so why do they need a new law?] 

This bill only serves one purpose.  It bring government control of the Internet.  There is a romantic view that Internet is a generic blob of information.  When in fact it is collection of networks.  Most of these networks are private while other are ran by public institutions. 

The proponents of the bill think this will eliminate download caps.  The opposite will happen.  This will be the end of flat rate Internet.  Instead metered Internet will be the norm.  With regulation anytime an ISP wants to change their rate they will need to get permission from the commission.  All ISP will be forced to charge the same rate.  Why would an ISP innovate to improve speed when they cannot charge a premium.

Definitions

Broadband Internet Service:An Internet protocol-based transmission service that enables users to send and receive voice, data, graphics, or a combination thereof.

Major Broadband Internet Service Provider: A broadband Internet service provider that, either directly or through affiliate, provides broadband Internet service to 2,000,000 or more subscribers, as further defined by the rules prescribed by the Commission pursuant to Section 5.

Volume Usage Service Plan: Any choice of broadband Internet service offerings to a residential consumer that includes two or more different sets of rates, terms, or conditions that are directly or indirectly based upon the amount of data actually transmitted to or from the consumer witin a fixed period of time. ]]> http://www.geek-online.com/2009/06/22/house-bill-to-turn-the-internet-into-a-utility/feed/ http://www.geek-online.com/2009/06/18/twitter-diplomacy/ http://www.geek-online.com/2009/06/18/twitter-diplomacy/#comments Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:04:46 +0000 Jeff Smith http://www.geek-online.com/2009/06/18/twitter-diplomacy/ It looks like Twitter is jumping to a whole new level of social media.  Recently Iran held an election.  President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came out as a clear winner.  When the legitimacy of the election was called into question protests and riots ensued.  So how does the election of a middle eastern country relate to Twitter?  The government in Iran controls the media so the current administration can control the message to the people, or do they.  May people have setup private twitter relays so tech savvy Iranians can Tweet.  Twitter has become so integrated to the independent new cycle in Iran that Reuters is reporting

The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday it had contacted the social networking service Twitter to urge it to delay a planned upgrade that would have cut daytime service to Iranians who are disputing their election.

I consider this one of the first true indicators that the “new media” has moved from a toy used by the technoratti to a truly powerful media.

One of the features requested the most on the iPhone is Cut and Paste.  I took 3 generations of the iPhone software before Apple finally added this simple feature.  I doesn’t work quite the way I thought it would but it does work.   To Cut|Copy you double tap the text you want to Cut|Copy.  This will bring up the Cut|Copy menu and the highlighting handles.  Chances are it has not highlighted all the text you would like.  To highlight more text just drag the handles over the text you need.   Tap the Cut or Copy command once the text has been selected to move the text into a temporary buffer.

To Paste is just as simple.  Once the text has been moved to a buffer you can navigate to the location you want to paste.  Double tap and selected Paste.

You will also notice when you double tap an area with no text you get the option to Select All.  Use this feature to select all available text.

It was the early ’90s and the internet was still young.  The common folk, the riff raff, the normal people of the world didn’t know about the internet.  Even the computer geeks still used modems to dial into bulletin board systems or BBS for short.  BBSes functioned much like a bulletin board at the grocery store or student center at a university.  Users would post notes and other users could respond.  Unlike physical bullet boards BBSes did not have a size limit.  You could post a note that contained the entire script to Monty Python sketch or schematics of a device to make free long distance calls.

As a young geek this was my first real exposure to a community.  These were my people.  They enjoyed the same topics and suffered the persecutions.  I need to thank BBSes for my fascination in networking.  I quickly learned to harness the power of the masses.  If one user had a problem, technical or personal another user would have the answer.  Beyond that we discovered that it was extremely easy to share information.  I could upload my research on a topic and hundred of other geek could access that information.  It didn’t matter what their gender, race, or location was.

I was a very enlightening time in my life.  I could literally learn about any subject.  If I wanted to find the specs for a new processor then I could get it.  If I wanted to learn about nuclear explosive I could find out about that as well.  Armed with this knowledge we realized that it wasn’t just information that could be shared but anything that was stored electronically.  This meant we no longer had to pay for our software.  We could share the cost over the entire collective.

Everyone knew it was wrong but nobody cared.  You could sign on to several local BBSes and find pirated software.  Sure it wasn’t blatantly obvious where the good stuff was hidden.  A lot of times you had to know where to look or be invited to the secret areas.  The process to gain access usually involved the user filling out a form saying anything they uploaded was “only for educational purposes” and that they were not a member of a software company or a law enforcement agency.  The user would also re required to upload  software to the BBS to prove they are not part of any law enforcement agency.

It was at this time that I took a leadership type role.  Not only did I participate in these bulletin boards but I run one.  It was a hive of piracy.  I took pride in my 0 days warez.  The quality of the BBS was measured in the speed they made new products available.  Releasing software on a board the same day it was released i store was the gold standard.

All was good and life continued.  I had traded access to my board for access to other BBSes in the area and a few across the country.  I was then that my life almost crumbled.  It was then when I received that fateful phone call.  I remember the day vividly.  I was working in the illustrious fast food industry.  It was around 10:30a.  The breakfast crowd had cleared out and it was too early for the lunch crowd.  My boss came back and said my brother was on the phone and there was an emergency.  I rushed to the phone and to my surprise it wasn’t my brother but one of my best friends.  He explained that he tried to logon to one of the local  bulletin boards.  He was greeted by a sign saying the BBS had been shut down and was n ow under control of a major software company based not too far away.  the stickler was this BBS only had one of their products and that product came from me.

I told my boss there was a family emergency and I needed to go home.   This of course was true.  If  was arrested that would constitute a family emergency.  I ran home, grabbed the hard drives and all my illicit  floppy disks, and then quickly proceeded to my friends house.  When I arrived I was greeting by a strange buzzing sound.  I walked down the stair to a very strange sight.  My friends had piles of floppies and a devices that looks like a small clothes iron.  When I walked in they told me it was a bulk video tape eraser and to stack anything I wanted wiped next the the rest.  We spent the rest of the afternoon paranoid we would get busted.  Hours went by, then days, then weeks and nothing happened.  The sysop of the BBS even showed up to school* but he wouldn’t talk about it.

I would like to say I didn’t pirate any software or media after that point.  That would be a lie.  I was a poor technologist.  I needed to feed my craze for everything computer related.  It wasn’t until I started producing content of my own that I found a new respect for software, music, and videos.  It is true that pirating doesn’t take money directly out of the content producers pockets.  It is not like I was steals CDs or DVDs, items that took resources to produce.  Instead I was stealing the incentive to create.  I wasn’t taking money away but I wasn’t contributing either.  It is this sort of attitude that causes media mogul to only produce artists that will sell millions of albums.  They cannot afford to take risks on unknowns.

Luckily, today I can say I am a hundred percent legal.  I do not pirate software, music, or videos.  I take every opportunity I can to tell others of the evils of piracy.  Sure the super-mega-companies survive regardless of piracy but it is the little guy that gets hurt in the end.

It is either and industry rating the games with government backing in the enforcement role or government rating and enforcement.  Lets face it there is no way the industry can enforce the rating system.  Anyhoo that is why I am in favor of Utah House Bill 353.