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…
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…
I’ve really got get back on track to do posts on Fridays… or any of the times over the weekend that I think “Gee, I should probably post something to my actual blog…”
Because by the time Monday night rolls around, I’m usually doing so many other things that I put this off until the last minute and then find myself at a loss for something even vaguely meaningful to yammer on about. (Which is likely why I don’t do videos.)
Instead, as usual, I’ll just say there’s a lot that went into the feed since Friday morning. Some of it sparked some really good discussions, some of it is just really awesome in and of itself, and some of it has likely gone completely unseen–so you could be the first to discover it! (Or, uh, something like that.)
Anyway… here’s the feed…
https://www.facebook.com/kierduros/activity/10152191008695981