Constitution Schmonstitution

Thank you congress. Thank you very much for helping to further shred the Constitution of the United States.

If you do not know what I'm talking about then you should be ashamed of yourself. But, recently is came to light that Bush's administration had been authorizing illegal wiretaps behind the back of the Foreign Intelligence Security Act (FISA) courts. These courts were put in place after Nixon and the Watergate scandal where they were illegally wiretapping the Democratic National Committee. So Bush has been going around these courts so they did not have to get court orders, in a secret court, to wiretap Americans.

The telecommunications companies went along with these blatantly illegal requests. However, the legislation passed today, July 9th, 2008 and is expected to be signed into law quickly, will provide retroactive immunity to these telecommunication companies. Effectively ending what lawsuits are pending against them and sealing any information away from public scrutiny.

The vote passed the Senate by a vote of 69-28 with Democratic majority leader Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton, among others, voting against the measure. Much to many of Obama's followers dismay, he voted in favor of the legislation after vowing on more than one occasion that he would filibuster the measure if needed. This debated sparked the formation of the group "Get FISA Right" on his social network. This is the largest user-created group in his social network by a large margin and they plan to continue exerting lots of pressure on him in the coming months.

Apparently Obama's thoughts of change does not seem to be much different than Bush's direction. I think Obama, Bush and McCain all could benefit from reading Ron Paul's 'The Revolution: A Manifesto'. Heck, if they would read it I will lend them my copy.

Is Deregulation of the Cable Industry good for the consumer?

The Cable industry has argued that government regulation will hold them back from giving the customer better services. Deregulation has been very good for the cable companies. It has let to much, MUCH higher prices. Up until 1984, local governments kept cable prices in check. But their deregulation has led to price hike after price hike (excluding 1993-1996 when the rates were briefly regulated).

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 opened the doors to deregulation and yet more price hikes. Since the Act was passed, cable rates have increased by 59% which is nearly three times the rate of inflation. So we have the problem of high prices, low competition and horrid customer service. While smaller operators actually improved their scores, larger companies continued to lose ground according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index. In the words of Dr. Claes Fornell who heads the study, Comcast set "an all-time low for the largest cable provider in the country." She also said, "there seems to be an element of monopoly-like pricing in the cable industry."

After Congress' deregulation of the cable industry worked so well, is it not fair of them to call for the government to stay completely away from network management and any net neutrality issues? But to cable's credit, it at least provided a real alternative to DSL and also put pressure on telco companies with VoIP service.

Cable has built a broadband infrastructure that, while not cheap or particularly fast when compared to other leading countries, reaches many Americans and in most cases are capable of faster speeds than DSL (DOCSIS 3.0 upgrades which are beginning should see more significant speed gains over DSL in the next few years). All of this without government regulation.

But looking at some recent FCC oversight hearings on network management which focused on practices at Comcast. Its easy to see how important it is to have some sort of public-interest regulator looking over the shoulders of these companies. The internet has become a key resource quick to rival water, heat and electricity as a utility. So such issues are a bit more than some puny private sector dispute.

While new laws and increased regulation may not prove a necessity to keep the internet healthy in the US, it would still be a shame if Congress and regulators like the FCC were so company minded that oversight was a mere formality and enforcement was toothless. This is not a desire by some to involve government in every private sector dispute, but more of a recognition that internet access in a low-competition marketplace is a bit too important than to have total self-regulation.

Like I read, if you think of it as wolves and chicken coops. When the chickens in the chicken coop are the most innovative chickens in the world, where it is a place of near magical scope and a wide variety of egg shapes and colors are laid by the chickens. Any good farmer would at least pay someone to watch the coop with a shotgun to keep the wolves at bay.

ISP's trying to bring back bandwidth caps

On Monday, I saw an article on Yahoo! News about Time Warner Cable trying out metered internet usage in Beaumont, Texas. People in this area will have a monthly allowance for the amount of data they upload and download. If they go over this limit, they will be charged $1 per gigabyte.

They claim that this is an attempt to fairly deal out internet usage, which they claim is uneven among Time Warner Cable's subscribers. They also claim 'We think it's the fairest way to finance the needed investment in the infrastructure'. However, the investment should have came from all of the millions of dollars given to telco's by the government over the last several years.

The article also goes on to talk about how phone companies are less concerned about congestion and will be unlikely to impose metered usage on DSL customers since their networks are structured differently.

Time Warner Cable gave some info about their tiered service. One will be $29.95 a month for 768 kilobits per second and a 5 gigabyte monthly cap and another will be $54.90 for 15 megabits per second and a cap of 40 gigabytes per month. The price covers the internet portion of subscription bundles that include video (think video on demand) and phone services. Both of which the downloads and uploads count toward the monthly cap.

Comcast, which is the country's largest cable company, has suggested that it may cap usage at 250 gigabytes per month.

This is just a way for these companies to make more money to pad their bottom line. They see a trend where people are using the internet more and more and feel that its their best way to increase their profits. With iTunes, Amazon, Audible, NetFlix and many other services that use the internet for sales and delivery, these companies have set their sights on us users who use it for entertainment to increase their profit margins.

I have started watching TWiTLive.tv streaming broadcasts of Leo Laporte. The video and audio is 564 kilobits per second. If you multiply that out its in the neighborhood of 2 gigabytes per hour. He broadcast about 25 hours a week. If someone watched all 25 hrs per week and did nothing else, that would total over 100 gigabytes per month.

If you watch a movie from NetFlix, each one would be (roughly estimated) 2 gigabytes or 6-8 gigabytes for a high definition movie. This is completely ridiculous. It reminds me of 1995 when metered dial-up internet was around. Remember what happened to that?

Yahoo! News Article
CNet: The Digital Home Article

Random posting

I have been a bit too busy to post lately. I fought a bout with food poisoning and does that ever suck. Beware the ground beef :(

Saw plasticized human bodies at the Gulf Coast Exploreum. It was quite cool but I couldn't help but think 'where did the bodies come from and how were they obtained?' Anyway, no matter how it went down it was an educational trip. Now we want to plan another trip down to Museum of Mobile to see the World War II photo exhibit.

We missed seeing Doug and the rest of 'robbing Peter' perform during the Azalea Trail run. I was saddened by this but alas, sometimes a groupie cannot make every single gig.

I was working on planning a viewing of some Doctor Who for the weekend to get ready for the new series starting Saturday. But one of the invitees said he probably would not make it to watch Battlestar Galactica. So this sent my creative juices flowing. While possible not everyone will enjoy this, I had quite a long laugh with this. This is most of an email I sent to all of the invitees.

I'm going to spoil the last season of BSG for all of you. On top of that, I will even give you something from the future (I feel the shock and awe coming from the screen).

The Doctor and his companion is going to be battling the Sontarans but this rag-tag fleet of ships with one remaining battlestar is going to cross paths with them.

After much fighting between the humans and the cylons (or are they cybermen?) the Doctor, with the aid of his sonic screwdriver, will destroy the cylon robots (cybermen maybe) and base stars. Then in an act of compassion he will show that the humans can live with the 'skin-jobs' since they are a new race of beings (and he will point out how brilliant that is). But sadly, they cannot continue on to Earth since their civilization is too advanced and would upset Earths balance. So they will be sent back home, Earth will remain oblivious to the 12 colonies, and the Doctor will fly off, through time and space, to yet another exciting adventure.

Then in about two or three years time, Ron (creative mind behind BSG) will not have any luck with any other television (Caprica will flop) or movie ideas and will pitch a 'reinvention' of Battlestar Galactica 1980 as a new series for SciFi (with a funny bearded Almos just like the funny bearded Lorne Green).

Since the Earth is not at technologically advanced as the 12 colonies are, they will take it upon themselves to help to advance them to help fight the cylons (or cybermen). **Side note: doesn't this sound like Dalek's wanting to advance them to a higher advancement? Just maybe? End Side note**

This will lead to yet another visit from The Doctor and a different companion with a little help from U.N.I.T. to set the Earth straight again and protect its inhabitants from the evil cylons (probably called the cybermen...very close to cylon don't you think) and the 12 colonies (dalek's anyone?). Oh, don't forget the sonic screwdriver and maybe, just maybe, a tin dog.

Enjoy!

Paul questions Bernanke, the dollar, and fuel savings tips

Yesterday the dollar hit an all time low compared to the euro (about 1 euro to $1.50). The price of oil per barrel also hit an all time high getting to over $101. We all want lower fuel prices but are we really willing to change our ways to make this happen? Are other people willing to give up their fuel sucking SUV's for something else?

I'll give some tips on how to extend your fuel mileage right now, without having to do anything under the hood of your vehicle, without putting anything into your fuel tank, and even without anything drastic on your part.

1) This is obvious, minimize your driving. If you can walk somewhere, do it. If you want to go pick up a burger on the corner, maybe stay in and cook something at home or walk.

2) Car pool. Sometimes I count how many individuals I see driving a SUV alone. It doesn't take long for me to top 100 and quit.

3) Accelerate gently from a traffic light or stop sign. I have personally extended the mileage I get out of a tank of fuel by 50-70 miles just by doing this.

4) Be wary of your brakes. If a traffic light has changed up ahead, coast to a stop. Don't stay on the accelerator up to the light.

5) If you go to a fast food restaurant, go inside to order. You can save a good bit of fuel by going inside and restarting your engine.

6) Consider public transportation. Unfortunately, Mobile does not have the best public transportation, but other cities do and can be used to decongest the roads and save fuel.

7) Recycle. In 2006, Americans spent nearly $11 billion on over 8 billion gallons of bottled water, then tossed 22 billion empty plastic bottles into the trash. In bottle production alone, more than 70 million bottles of water consumed each day in the US uses 1.5 million barrels of oil over the course of one year.

Every ton of aluminum that is recycled saves about 37 barrels of oil. Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to power a 100 watt light bulb for 20 hours. Recycling one ton of glass saves 9 gallons of fuel (oil). Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, 2 barrels of oil, 7,000 gallons of water and 4,100 kilowatt hours of electricity - enough energy to power the average American home for 5 months. Recycling 1 ton of newspaper saves 15 mature trees. Every day, Americans buy 62 million newspapers and throw out 44 million. That's the equivalent of dumping 500,000 trees into a landfill every week. One ton of high-grade recyclable paper can substitute for approximately 3 tons of wood in making new paper products. Every year more than 900 million trees are cut down to provide raw materials for American paper and pulp mills. Recycling 1 ton of plastic can save 1-2 thousand gallons of gas. 1 ton of recycled steel saves the energy equivalent of 3.6 barrels of oil, and 1.49 tons of iron ore over the production of new steel.

New research shows that drinking a bottle of water has the same impact on the environment as driving a car for a kilometer. The production of a bottle of water generates up to 600 times more CO2 than a liter of tap water.

Water aside, the plastic used in both single-use and reusable bottles can pose more of a contamination threat than the water. A safe plastic if used only once, #1 polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE) is the most common resin used in disposable bottles. However, as #1 bottles are reused, which they commonly are, they can leach chemicals such as DEHA, a known carcinogen, and benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), a potential hormone disrupter. According to the January 2006 Journal of Environmental Monitoring, some PET bottled-water containers were found to leach antimony, an elemental metal that is an eye, skin, and lung irritant at high doses. Also, because the plastic is porous you'll likely get a swill of harmful bacteria with each gulp if you reuse #1 plastic bottles.

I know this is all idealistic, but maybe one day it will begin to become mainstream thought.


Anyway, here is the video of Paul questioning Bernanke on CNBC 2008-02-27:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yybFGh1sUcQ


Some links where research was pulled:
http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/121/bottle
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/02/17/eawater117.xml

Backward priorities

Well, if you have listened to any of the news stations, its pretty safe to say you heard about Jamie Lynn Spears announcing that she is pregnant at age 16. But what you probably did not hear anything much about was that congress passed a $70 Billion dollar spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan. Don't you just love it.

Congress gave Bush $70 billion for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan in a massive omnibus spending bill. The Consolidation Appropriations Act funds all federal departments, except for the defense department, for the fiscal year of 2008 to the sum of $516 billion. Obviously bush threatened to veto the bill if it lacked money for military operations. On Dec. 17 the omnibus bill was passed with $31 billion for military operations but no money for Iraq. The senate added $70 billion for war funding on Dec. 18 to avoid a possible veto.

In other news the fine senator from Alabama, Jeff Sessions, had the following thing to say about "civil libertarians":

"The civil libertarians among us would rather defend the constitution than protect our nation's security."

I thought these go hand in hand? Don't get me wrong, I like to have a safe and secure nation....but if we give up our civil liberties to do so, then what good is it? I like to reflect back to the writings of Benjamin Franklin for this little quote:

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Senator Sessions, I think you could rethink what you said, brush up on the Constitution, and maybe read some of what the founding fathers wrote about freedom and the constitution. Oh and maybe you should study the oath you take when you take office. I don't consider myself a genius, but I'm pretty sure part of your oath is to defend and follow the constitution.

The Iowa caucus is fast approaching as well as the New Hampshire primaries. On December 16th, also know as the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, grass roots supporters raised over $6 million to go toward Dr. Paul's campaign. A staggering number for sure. But please help spread his message far and wide.

Update: I should have said that while I support defending and protecting the nation, I do not feel that we are in any immediate danger from terrorist attacks. That guy from Law and Order would have you think that just because he played a hard nosed character on television that he would be the same way in the Oval Office. Plus he wants people to think that we are living a mere breath away from another attack and possible nuclear war. Freddie, stop the war mongering, keep the peace, and eat a plate of shut the heck up!!

The only immediate danger we are facing is our obsession with what celebrities are doing every minute of their lives, uncontrolled spending by our government officials, and most politicians.

No new battlestar until 2008...

Yeah thats right, no new Battlestar until 2008. But guess what, I don't care. So far every story in season 3 has pretty much sucked. What started out as a great series in seasons 1 and 2 has turned into crap. I think season 4 will be its last and by the look at its current writing level...none too soon. I think the only thing that was worse was 'who wants to be a superhero'. I also hate to say it but maybe something similar is happening to Lost. With some of the writers/producers being tapped for new stuff, the original vision for the show is being lost and its appeal is faltering.

But, The Riches is still going strong. Andy Barker PI seemed quite funny from the first episode. Raines also seems pretty good from the first episode. Jeff Goldblum was very good and the premise is somewhat funny. We'll have to see how the series goes from there.

Oh, my Ballmer hurts...

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has blamed all of the pirates out there for the low sales results for their new Operating System Windows Vista. Stevie boy, maybe you should put down the Microsoft Genuine Kool-Aid and drink something else. The pirates aren't the reason why your new OS isn't flying off the shelves. Its your companies stubborn resistance to listen to what your customers want and do not want. This coupled with the lack of drivers for prevalent hardware and incompatibility with lots of existing software and you've got yourself several good reasons not to buy it if you ask me.

I have LEGALLY downloaded my free copy from the MSDNAA partnership website my school has. I have not installed it yet and probably will not unless I am forced to. Hopefully, by then it will be a dual boot with Linux or maybe in VMWare.

I think the best thing I have heard lately was when they sponsored a programming contest at a nearby company. I think they had 3 copies of Vista Home Premium as prizes for the contestants. Obviously, the Xbox 360s went first. But team after team comes up to choose their prizes and skip over Vista. Finally, the last team comes up with a choice between Vista and wireless keyboards (which were meant to be given away as door prizes) and they choose the wireless keyboards. So, instead Vista is given away as door prizes to people who were less than enthused to receive them.

Finally, Mardi Gras 2007 comes to a close tomorrow with the Fat Tuesday celebration. I'll be downtown having fun.

What the heck

Ok, so the Mayor of Mobile Sam Jones and the city council decided that it would be best for downtown to turn certain roads back from one-way streets to two-way streets. Their reasoning was it would slow traffic down because vehicles would be traveling in both directions and not just one. Whereas, the one way streets allow for fast moving of traffic. The cost of this change for one street, Royal Street, was $800,000. Yes, eight-hundred thousand dollars.

Also, to enlighten those of you out there. A California state congressman has introduced a bill for consideration that would ban incandescent light bulbs forcing people to use the Compact Fluorescent bulbs. They are doing this to help conserve energy and improve the environment. The majority of pollution comes from power production. Most power production uses coal to produce power. It would depend on the wording of the bill but I think this would be good. There are certain bulbs which are not good for compact fluorescent. I placed a CF bulb outside and it took several minutes for it to warm up to produce full light. There are other examples but I will not bore you with them.

Recycling one can will save enough energy to power a television for three (3) hours. Thats your thought of the day.

B

unbelievable

I heard today that stores like Best Buy, Comp USA, and Staples were going to be open at midnight tonight for the release of Windows Crap.....I mean Windows Vista. Then I started thinking, who wants to be out there at midnight to get their copy of Vista? M$ claims its the most secure OS they have ever released, but this isn't saying much considering they are already working on Service Pack 1. Microsoft has already tipped their hat that Vista has some 'high impact issues.'

However, the Redmond clarion call declares that "regressions from Windows Vista and Windows XP, security, deployment blockers and other high impact issues as are the primary focus for the Service Pack."

But for you out there that are considering upgrading from Windows XP to Vista you may want to reconsider that notion.

If you choose to purchase an upgrade version of Windows Vista to upgrade XP, you will no longer be able to use that version of XP. Either on another system, or as a dual-boot option. The key will be invalidated, preventing activation.

Well, some digging through the EULA by Micheal Geist, found some interesting stuff like the following:

Vista's legal fine print includes extensive provisions granting Microsoft the right to regularly check the legitimacy of the software and holds the prospect of deleting certain programs without the user's knowledge.

Vista also incorporates Windows Defender, an anti-virus program that actively scans computers for "spyware, adware, and other potentially unwanted software." The agreement does not define any of these terms, leaving it to Microsoft to determine what constitutes unwanted software...

Vista intentionally degrades the picture quality of premium content when played on most computer monitors.

So, keep those keep this information in mind as possible problems if you decide to go to Vista. I guarantee you that I will not be out at midnight to get this slow piece of crap. Like I want to go out and get a huge piece of software that is going to make my favorite games (OpenGL based games) run up to 50% slower. Going to stuff DRM crap all up my junk and degrade my computing experience. Thanks M$, now I have more of a reason to learn to use Linux.

For those of you who might be interested, South Alabama Linux Users Group (SALUG) is going to be having an installfest. If you are interested in learning more about the linux or maybe you have an extra machine or even an extra hard drive, come on and join us. Information can be found at their website: www.salug.org

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Merry Christmas to all. I hope you have a great day with your family and for those of you who cannot be with your family then remember that they are thinking of you.

Now, it wouldn't be the same if I didn't gripe about something. So, here I go...

In a time of constant bickering between political factions, wars against terror, and nuclear uncertainty its good for us to sit back and enjoy a time to celebrate togetherness and family. While gifts are a tradition of this holiday, it isn't that necessary. Don't get me wrong, its good, but the extreme that some crazy people take it is insane.

Over the weekend, there were shootings a malls in the Carolinas. In Miami today, there was a shooting killing one person. Two people were arrested in this case have been charged with first degree murder and attempted first degree murder. Their ages? 21 and 20.

I just ask the crazy people to be considerate of others. If you are worked up into such a frenzy to get something, maybe just maybe you need to step back and think 'Is this really worth it?' Some people may not possess enough mental capacity or self control to do this.

Parents want to give their children the best things they can. It was evident when kc and I were waiting in line at GameStop to try and get a Wii a few weeks ago. We were fourth in line and hoping that maybe they will get a more than three. The longer we waited, the more crazy some people got. This one lady from Louisiana still stands out in my mind. They only got three in, thus we did not come away with one. We didn't get upset and thank goodness the other dozen people in there decided not to riot. She did get one later that same day, but if we didn't get one we were not going to be upset.

I also hold companies responsible for things like this. They want just about any kind of press they can get. Last year Microsoft released the xbox360 and the numbers were quite scarce until after Christmas. But after then they were pretty plentiful. This will probably be the same with the Wii and PS3. While it is capitalism and they are free to do just this, it doesn't make it right.

Have a great Christmas.
B