Tag Archives: fcc

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…

Another weekend, another bunch of stuff to alleviate stress

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This entry is part 93 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Why, yes, you continue to get a proliferation of fluff in the feed. But it’s good fluff!

At least I think it is.

Creative. Witty. So wrong it’s awesome.

It’s the stuff that helps alleviate the stress that my life has been lately.

But have no fear! There are also some gems of real content in there.

Interesting bits of science. Some very insightful comments on items. Actual world happenings that we should all be aware of.

Check it out, enjoy what you can, maybe jump in and participate in a conversation (even if you’re coming across this months later… don’t hesitate to comment, I’ll see it and it may get things moving on that post again).

Here’s the feed.

Cultural Perspective, Political Wranglings, a Really Big Hole, and Some Humor

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This entry is part 63 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

My brain is feeling particularly fried and unfocused tonight… bit of a busier day at work than expected plus not enough sleep last night leads to that, I guess.

So the “additional content” part of the feed is going to be even more lame than it’s been lately.

Sorry ’bout that…

Awesomecon Flashback, Modified Mario, Elegance, Ramone-less, and Various Other Bits of Stuff from the Weekend

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This entry is part 61 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

The weekend wasn’t anywhere near as productive as it should have been.

Sure, I finished off another canceled series or two from my Hulu queue and finally got around to a couple of movies I’ve been meaning to watch for years. Even read things that weren’t being displayed on a screen (I think we call them “books”). But there was more I probably should have done.

There’s a big difference between “should” and “could”, though. I don’t think I legitimately could have been much more productive. I needed the break, as seems to be the case often. Life in the “regular” world by a “normal” schedule just grinds me down more now than it ever has before.

I know there are reasons for that. I’m working through them as best I can. But, well, it’s slow going.

So, instead of being as productive as I “should” be, I do what I can when I can and learn to live with that.

But, there were still a lot of fun links to be had over the past four days.

Here’s hoping you enjoy them.

 

Food, Real Heroes, Diversity in Comics, Movie Trailers, Net Neutrality, and some Randomness

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This entry is part 30 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

It was a busy weekend. One that probably should have been busier, as I still didn’t get everything accomplished that I wanted to. Almost caught up now… almost.

My college and my home town have both made the feed recently. The first for being named “geekiest” by (DC) local nerd mecca Think Geek. The second for being the host of a full on rave-type festival this coming weekend. That second one is kind of surreal… as that’s exactly the sort of thing that would have never even been considered before the performing arts center on the Woodstock site (Bethel Woods) was put in place by a “local boy who done good” (by making a few million dollars in the cable TV industry (he sold his local empire to Time Warner over a decade or so ago).

More important news has come up, of course. There’s still the ongoing net neutrality fight. But the FCC is also dealing with a spectrum auction for wireless space. It’s going to be all former TV broadcast spectrum–so it can mostly make it through concrete buildings–and is reported to open the door for better cell service because of it. The words “super wifi” were also thrown around in a few articles. Very interesting, indeed.

And, returning a little to geeky news, the new trailer for Marvel’s next blockbuster, Guardians of the Galaxy, dropped today. I think it’s looking pretty amazing. Every time I see something new about this film, I love it more. It’s going to have an full on action/comedy feel and (director) James Gunn is looking like he’s pulled it off perfectly. That’s not much of a surprise. The man has a great grasp of genre and how to twist it just right to add the perfect amount of humor (check out Slither to see what he did with horror and Google PG Porn to see what happened when he took all the sex out of porn film ideas).

There’s also a new version of Dungeons & Dragons on the way in July. It’ll be the fifth edition. I played about one and a half sessions of 2nd Edition AD&D in college (before we abandoned it for Cyberpunk and RIFTS) and a handful of sessions of 3.5 a few years back when a friend was running a custom world setting using those rules. I’ve dabbled in it a little (as the OGL) while looking at some other game settings, and I can firmly say I’ve never cared much for the D&D system. So I’m thoroughly unimpressed that we’re getting a new version (priced at about $50 per core rule book, at that!).

In the past few years, I’ve checked out over a dozen different role playing systems and I’ve liked most of them better than D&D. Of course, I’m more story and character oriented than a lot of the classic D&D stuff seems to be… and I’ve never been interested in fully optimizing a character to just kick ass like a lot of people I know who played D&D seem to (at least once upon a time) be into. I like flaws in characters and games where combat doesn’t necessarily happen every session.

Ah, well… guess we’ll see how that all plays out. I expect some mighty nerd rage (just like when 4th edition came out).