Archive for June, 2006
Hello, world! Just posting from…
29 June 2006Hello, world! Just posting from my cellphone.
Time to Move On?
29 June 2006I was one of the early adopters here at LiveJournal. September 12, 2000, I started this thing. I like that I’ve kept the same journal all this time. If you know me, you know I like consistency. But lately I’ve felt like it’s run its course. My LJ has, for the most part, been of a very personal nature, and lately, when I want to write, I have less personal things on my mind. Besides, I’ve also got my pretty-but-useless Mac.com home page and my thom.smart-popcorn.com subdomain… I’m just so partitioned. I’d rather have everything in one place.
So, I think I’m going to start looking for some good software to run. Run it on my own server. Put everything there, and board up the windows here. Dunno… We’ll see.
Inthomnia
20 June 2006Yes, that was a really lame subject. That’s what you all get for completely ignoring my very passionate post about Net Neutrality.
But anyhow… yes, instead of sleeping as I should, I decided to write an entry in my journal. Try to make it more personal, although not as in-depth as some people’s novellas this week. (Hey, you know I loved them.)
I’m so stoked about this trip, the trip to Ohio. Did I mention why? Largely because I want to travel with the new MacBook. Yeah, I’m very lame. But that’s a large part of it… also seeing an Indians game and the Rock Hall of Fame. I’m sure I’ll wind up enjoying just the general experience, hanging out with Kaleena and Kristen, being in another old-fashioned suburbia type of place. But as I don’t really know how all of that will be like, I can’t actively look forward to it just yet. I’ll also love just being out of this stupid valley, like I was talking to Genelle about the other day. Same as last year. Why the hell visit Bismarck, ND? Well, because it ain’t Phoenix that way. Tired of this place. My family is too… They’re actively looking for places to move, and I think if they weren’t playing it smart and making sure they’re financially sound before the move, they’d move right now. I’d move too.
Oh, I finally got to talk to Genelle this week, as I mentioned. As if there aren’t enough entries in this journal about her. :-P But damn, water under the bridge aside, it is still good just to talk to her. She remains one of the few people to consistently challenge me about anything, everything, and that’s something I mostly always need. (I suspect that’s one of the underlying reasons she got so many entries dedicated to her back in the day.) By now, even having that chat window open & knowing I’m going to be talking to her, it even gets me challenging myself. Which is good. Why the hell am I still in Phoenix? Why am I always posting entries about iTunes or politics and not about myself? I just so happen to know those answers, but it’s good to give them a further examination.
Been hanging out with Dante a lot again lately. We lame-out with our Macs together, play Halo… more lameness. But it’s kinda cool. Though he clearly maintains some of those classic Dante traits, he and I have grown more alike in our time apart. We’ve caught a bit of that premature “grumpy old man” scenario. He mentioned the other night that, next year, we’ll both be closer to 30 than to 20. Scary. If not just for the getting old part of it, also for a nagging question of my own. I think I posed a related question to G a while back. Is it getting time for me to, y’know, just get it over with? “It” in the Steve-Carrell-40-Year-Old-something sense of things? Twenty-five is just starting to seem like a point of no return, like if it doesn’t happen by then I might as well join the priesthood… (Wait, they probably get more play than I do, albeit not the type of play I’m looking for.)
Well… If I continue typing, I’m not going to get enough sleep, and my next entry will be “So I was five hours late for work…”, which I don’t really want to write about. So I’m outta here.
Read This… While You Still Can
14 June 2006Excuse me for being mildly dramatic. There’s something on my mind that I have to share. Have you heard the debate going on about Net Neutrality? Probably not. For as significant as this issue is, it’s been getting surprisingly little attention… Even among technologists.
Net Neutrality is that all types of data sent over the Internet is, shall we say, “created equal”, and endowed with the same rights as other data. Doesn’t matter if you’re sending a plain-text email or pictures of your trip to Disneyland or an MP3 of your amateur radio show… A kilobyte is a kilobyte, a megabyte is a megabyte. Quite a noble concept, really, and as with all noble concepts, the time has come when certain people have decided there is a less-noble, and far more profitable alternative.
Enter the telecoms. Yeah, those same companies that, for years, have already been getting away with extortion: roaming fees, overages, charging an arm and a leg for long distance (and always rounding up to the next minute). Cable companies have perhaps been the most notorious, not only charging consumers $50 for 200 channels of infomercials and Paris Hilton, but also charging the content providers for the “privilege” of being on cable TV. It sounds like a joke, but it’s true: they like to get you coming & going.
Then there is the Internet. (My god, it wasn’t a fad, after all.) For six years, give or take, these same telecoms have been making a killing on high-speed Internet–on bandwith that’s probably been used for pirating music and movies, more than anything else. Since there were no legal content providers, the telcos were content to charge the consumer, work with the RIAA for the occasional lawsuit against a 90-year-old granny, and that was that. But times, they have a-changed. Now there are completely legal online content providers: iTunes, Movielink, “Urge” (whatever that is) and more. Heck, some providers–like podcasters and video bloggers–even offer their content for free.
I consider this and think it’s inspirational. I think it’s a revolution, albeit not yet fully matured, in the fundamental nature of media and journalism.
What do the telecoms think? Yay, another opportunity to get their money coming & going.
Let me explain their argument a bit: they’ll tell you that Net Neutrality is equivalent to government regulation of the Internet. That the internet is already “tiered” because some people have high-speed and some are still on dial-up. (Show of hands, anyone?) That their approach, “Net Competition”, is business as usual. That Net Neutrality will let the terrorists win.*
(*Seriously, they want you to believe that Net Neutrality will “hinder public safety and homeland security“.)
The truth is, they want to be able to charge Internet content providers simply for the privilege of being content providers. Nevermind that those content providers already pay for hosting and domain fees and, especially, for their bandwidth. Nevermind that the consumers are already paying the telecoms for access to the content. Telecoms want to make you believe that a megabyte is no longer just a megabyte. That 2+2=5, or 6 or 10 or whatever they can get away with charging.
Make any sense to you?
Everyone’s selfishly motivated. The telecoms would have you believe they’re out for your best interests, though it’s pretty clear they just see dollar signs in their future. Allow me to take the honest approach. I am a content provider. I run SMART-POPCORN.com, and have a stake in a few other ventures. I host & produce a podcast. I’ve even dinked with video blogging a bit. So yes, obviously it’s in my best interest to keep the Net neutral. But my selfish motivations end there, and the issue is much, much bigger than I. (I wish I were even a blip on the radar, but I’m not.) The sad truth is that, when the time comes to pay their abitrarily determined cost, average joes like myself won’t be able to afford it. The Ted Turners and Rupert Murdochs can afford it. So, instead of new media usurping old media or forcing them to change, old media will be able to maintain their status quo. Meanwhile, the Internet as we’re getting to know it will break camp and leave us indefinitely.
As my favorite filmmaker once wrote, “The Internet has given [everybody] a voice.” Telecoms want to take that voice away. Do you want that to happen?
- Thom Stricklin
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If this issue concerns you, please pass this along. Post it on LiveJournal, MySpace, wherever. Check out: http://www.savetheinternet.com/ Check out Net Competition to see who’s really lobbying against neutrality. Google for “Net Neutrality” and see what comes up. Our best bet is to raise awareness and nag our representatives.