Tag Archives: net neutrality

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…

Celebrity Death and Dying, A Metal Morning, Throwback Thursday, and Some Bad News for Freedom

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This entry is part 92 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Bunches of things in the feed.

A fantastic little article about Betty White and how she dyes.

The sad news that Joan Rivers won’t be dying any more… or getting any more plastic surgery… or telling any more snarky jokes.

I was in a totally metal mood this morning, so there’s a selection of tunes to rock out to. Some are more metal than others.

Some memories of making a movie and the celebration of my grandparents’ anniversary fill in the “Throwback Thursday” meme spot in today’s feed.

And then there’s the news out of New York State about how free speech is being beaten on with some campaign “reforms” that have been put in place temporarily (unless people fight to get them repealed before the end of this month… because then they become permanent… which strikes me as kind of a dirty trick). That’s not a good thing at all.

We’ve got a new War on Terror starting up as both the President and VP have said we’re going to go after this ISIS group like nobody’s business now that they’ve beheaded two reporters. Can’t say I’m happy about any of that.

And, finally, there’s the competition-killing laws that are on the books in 20 states (with more on the way) that forbid municipalities from creating public broadband networks. We all know I’m of the opinion that Internet connectivity should be treated like a public utility… so, obviously, I’ve got issues with this revelation. (Though it’s not a surprise… I’ve been following the cable business for nearly two decades now, on and off… they’ve done–and will likely do–worse.)

Anyway, here’s the full feed. I should’ve been asleep an hour ago…

Life Imitating Art, Remixing Art, Art Imitating Life, and Remixing Life

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This entry is part 72 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Aside from the sad (but expected) death of Dick Smith, one of the greatest special effects makeup artists of all time, there’s a lot of creative stuff going on in the feed today. Not all of it is what I’d call “good” creative–that new Sprint plan that kind of steps all over the idea of Net Neutrality is definitely creative–but all of it does show some very different ways of thinking and how much really buying into those patterns can change things.

For better or worse.

On the “better” side are “The Four Agreements.” If you’re not familiar, they’re four relatively simple precepts to live one’s life by. They focus on understanding the power we can let others have over us and just how much autonomy we can assert over ourselves. I first heard about them decades ago, when the book first came out (even though I never bought it or read it).

Good stuff, highly recommended for anyone seeking to feel a bit more fulfilled.

On the “questionable but probably awesome” side, we have a group of fans who’ve taken it upon themselves to remix Akira by redrawing all six volumes of the original manga using Simpsons characters. It’s… odd. Especially since each artist (there are hundreds) is only doing five pages and there’s not a lot of coordination going on–so motorcycles and bicycles keep switching back and forth in the beginning and art style varies wildly. It is, however, utterly creative and wild.

And then, on the “bad” side (other than that Sprint thing) there’s the continued consolidation and homogenization of media outlets. In particular the demise of FearNET as its assets are folded into NBC/Universal (which already has a horror-themed outlet in Chiller). FearNET was a bit of a wild and spunky upstart–a bunch of horror fans who really wanted to give their fandom somewhere to thrive. Through tenacity and a lot of hard work, they built a nice little niche that grew into a cable channel, a website, and some pretty solid original content. I haven’t been anywhere near as impressed with what I’ve seen from Chiller. And it doesn’t look like that’s going to change, as most of the creative staff from FearNET appears to be free to pursue other career options.

Even though it has Chiller and SyFy, NBC/Universal seems determined to make this once vibrant and different channels into the most generic things possible. All the creativity is being applied to figuring out how to appeal to the lowest common denominator so the most money can be pulled in as quickly as possible. This leads to low-quality (but annoyingly popular) fare like Sharknado.

Such is life, I guess.

Thankfully, for now, we still have the wild and brilliant denizens of the Internet to keep things interesting and disruptive.

Here’s hoping that keeps up for a long time.

On with the feed…

Affordable Housing, Role Playing Games, Legal Wranglings, Inspiration, Tragedy, and Everything Since Friday

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This entry is part 65 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Yeah, apparently I’m skipping Friday updates more often than not. I should stop that. Actually stick to my own schedule.

One of the big topics that ended up being discussed today in the stream was the whole rich/poor divide and the idea of affordable housing… spawned by an article about a new building in NYC that’s going to have a separate entrance for it’s less privileged residents (who they agreed to take in so they could get a tax break, mind you).

The topic of “affordable housing” comes up frequently here in Maryland. Particular in Silver Spring. The issue is a little different than it is in places like NYC.

Here we have the problem of people building a lot of expensive housing that is then bought/rented by people who mostly work and play in DC. This leaves people who work in Silver Spring (which has a wide diversity of jobs and pay rates) unable to afford to live there (in some cases), pushing them farther out where public transportation is less viable, leading to a bit of a traffic problem and a bit of a parking problem (which leads to all sorts of other problems… like local businesses being able to do solid business because people can’t get to/part at them easily or actual residents not being able to find parking/get around easily during the day).

A number of members of the community here are very interested in trying to build and maintain an actual community. One that’s vibrant at all times during the day…. not just during rush hour. What’s been in place has been slowly slipping away as development has boomed and busted a few times. (Most of what’s being built are one or two bedroom apartments/condos… not conducive to people with families, encouraging more transient people who go elsewhere to put down actual roots.)

It’s an interesting situation. A problematic one. And one I know I haven’t come up with a good solution to (mainly because I’ve got some very mixed feelings about all the affordable housing solutions I have seen–some of which were laid out in the article that Nancy shared–but some of those concerns are at odds with my desire to have poor people actually treated as people, since I’ve seen that be one of the best ways to help someone get back on their feet).

Needless to say, a number of people disagree with me on a lot of those points.

I’m okay with that.

Like I said, I don’t have an answer, so the discussion obviously needs to keep going on somewhere.

Here’s the extra long feed (which contains a few interesting discussions or starting points, so you should check it out)…

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…