Category Archives: Daily Life

Music, Free Broadband in KC, and Stuffed Animals

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This entry is part 99 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Yeah… very, very busy day today. Likely a very very busy day tomorrow, too.

So busy that the feed is really sparse.

And, it seems, has ended up being mostly music-related.

But there is that bit about Kansas City, MO, setting it up so that, aside from a $300 setup fee, a whole bunch of their residents can get gigbit broadband free for the next decade (at least). That’s kind of cool.

I know I’ll be very interested to see how that plays out over the next couple of years. Hopefully, it will go well and other places will stop fighting against setups like KC has.

Anyway, here’s the feed…

Unintended Consequences Strike Again, Entertainment Both Classic and New, A Bit of Cute, and a Return to Space

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This entry is part 98 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

The big news today (for me, at least) was the announcement of the U.S. return to manned space missions.

NASA will once again be shooting humans into orbit (with some help form Boeing and SpaceX)!

Now, that’s not quite the manned exploration mission style I’d prefer to see… but it’s better than nothing.

I’d love for us to set foot on the moon again. To build something permanent there and then use it as a jumping off point for Mars and beyond.

Don’t get me wrong, I totally dig what all the rovers and satellites and probes are doing. Heck, most of them are performing well beyond expectations and gathering great images and data. It’s pretty exciting from a pure science perspective.

But it’s not the same as an intrepid adventurer risking life and limb to go there (wherever “there” may be) just because they can.

Again, that’s not to take away from the utter bravery it takes to step up and sit on top of what’s effectively a giant bomb (that you’re hoping projects all that force in the right direction)… but the whole up and down trip really pales in comparison to that months-long journey to a brand new planet. Or the homesteader heartiness required to set up shop on the moon, setting the groundwork for the entire next chapter of space exploration–a chapter that doesn’t even really start on Earth.

We’ll get there, eventually, I guess.

But I’l really like to see it in my lifetime.

Anyway… here’s the feed.

It Was a Busy Weekend, Full of Stuff and Work

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This entry is part 97 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

The past week or so at the day job has been ridiculous. Huge deadlines on a huge project that’s really too huge for the timeline it was scheduled for.

Of course, it does look like we’ll be close enough.

It also looks like it’s driving me utterly mad with stress.

So, the feed is a bit… odd. Because that’s how my brain is working (when my brain is working).

I’ll let you see for yourself.

Here’s the feed…

The Blackest Burger, The Sun is Trying to Kill Us, Congress Sells Out, and Remembering 9-11

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This entry is part 96 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Today was a very long day at work.

There are another couple of days like that looming in the near future.

It really didn’t help that there was a lot more on my mind today than work.

I would have rather spent the day reading about politics and how Congress just dropped the ball on real campaign finance reform.

I would have rather had the time to really read and listen to all the personal stories of how lives changed 13 years ago.

I would have much rather gotten a nap at some point.

But, that’s not what was.

So, instead, I read a couple of articles, watched a couple of videos, and did the minimum non-work stuff needed to keep from going absolutely batty today.

Pretty much all of that is in the feed.

So, here you go.

A Whole Lot on Net Neutrality, A View of the End of Civilization, and Some Happier Things

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This entry is part 95 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Today was a big day in the fight for Net Neutrality.

It was another big push to fill the public comment boxes at the FCC with our very solid desire that the Internet remain open and accessible, regardless of what company gets it to your screen.

Cable companies and phone companies (like Comcast and Verizon) have been fighting tooth and nail–mostly by throwing tons of money at lobbyists and campaign funds–to make sure they can squeeze profit out of both sides of the transaction without providing any better (and, if the content producers don’t pay, considerably worse) service to their customers. Their customers who are already paying more for less than a lot of other countries that are wired.

This goes along with the impending decision on the merger of Comcast and Time Warner, the number one and number two cable broadband providers in the U.S. (Their main argument for the merger is: “No, really, it won’t change anything… it’s not like we’re in competition with one another anywhere.” Yeah. I think I see the problem.)

Legislated net neutrality isn’t a perfect solution. But, right now, it’s the only thing that will stop the current business practices that Netflix has been loudly fighting. Their traffic was more or less (unofficially) held for ransom. Users, who had paid both Netflix and Comcast already for access, were finding their films buffering or not loading at all. Fingers got pointed all over the place, but the facts have shown that the slowdown happened at the connection between Netflix and Comcast. A spot where, mysteriously, no other data streams were having any real problems.

Ultimately, Netflix paid. And then Verizon and Time Warner, seeing that the gambit worked, did exactly the same thing.

You can only imagine how much power that gives these transmission companies.

Especially if they, say, have a competing product. Like, maybe, OnDemand… which lets people (people who pay more to the cable company) to stream movies and television shows.

Anyway, there are a few stories in the feed that really lay things out well. Don’t just take my word for it… give them a read.

Speaking of the feed… here it is…