Keeping Net Neutrality

From Slate:

What we're ultimately asking is a question that Adam Smith struggled with. Is there something special about "carriers" and infrastructure—roads, canals, electric grids, trains, the Internet—that mandates special treatment? Since about the 17^th century, there's been a strong sense that basic transport networks should serve the public interest without discrimination.This might be because so much depends on them: They catalyze entire industries, meaning that gratuitous discrimination can have ripple effects across the nation. By this logic, so long as you think the Internet is more like a highway than a fried-chicken outlet, it should be neutral in what it carries.

I'm a fairly free-market minded sort of guy. But, I think the proposals that the phone and cable companies have before the FCC to allow them to "prioritize" internet traffic are a step in the wrong direction. There are not 2 or 3 internets for me to choose from if I don't like the way AT&T makes me wait 10 minutes to bring up Google and Yahoo comes up instantly because Yahoo pays an AT&T mandated fee. I see it more like a highway and should be open to all and unprioritized until someone can show a good reason that prioritizing traffic would serve more people (like delivering TV or movies for instance).

 

DVD Fun - Walk the Line

Walk the Line. Loved it, just loved it. Now, I am a Johnny Cash fan I must admit. And I wanted to see this when it was in the theater, but GF's aversion to all things Cash steered us away from going. She'd say, "We can go if you really, really want to....", and of course we would see something else. Anyway, we dropped by Hollywood Video and I just walked over and grabbed it and proclaimed this was the movie for the evening, and having just been dinnered-up, she did not protest.

First let me say that Joaquin Phoenix is incredible in this role. He does Johnny Cash, but it's his own very believable version of the man. Different, but the difference is excellent - hard to explain exactly (not being a professional movie critic - har har). And the singing is startlingly good. And I loved all the Cash mannerisms like the way he played the guitar. Reese Witherspoon as June Carter was a winner I would not have expected. And I didn't question the dynamic between them - it works. Her slow, slow belief in the man that swore his love and swore off the booze and drugs after so many years was cool and I liked the way the movie focused on those early years.

And.... halfway through the movie I looked down and saw, to my astonishment, GF's feet tapping away to the music. I gave her a questioning look and she just grinned and shrugged her shoulders and said, "I know, I know, I can't help it." Whether you like Johnny Cash or not, you'll probably like the movie.

 

Listening To - American Beauty

American Beauty. I like the movie, but I like this score even better and it stands all by itself as a classic. It's fun and interesting and instantly recognizable if you did see the movie.

 

Stretched Thin

Do you ever have one of those months where every single solitary day is filled from sun up to sun set, weekends included? That's me right now. Crank that streching machine up.

 

DVD Fun - Best in Show

Do you have movies you watch like you listen to CDs? You know, watch them over and over for whatever reason. I don't have too many. Most movies I see I don't need to see again. But, Best in Show is one of the few movies I do watch again and again. It's got the quirky Christopher Guest mockumentary comedy thing going and the dogs and, well, I just love Parker Posey. The movie takes the absurdly serious world of competitive dog showing and follows a group of eccentric dog owners and their dogs through the big Mayflower dog show. Guest himself plays the owner of a championship bloodhound who practices his ventriloquism on the side. Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock play a uber-yuppie couple in therapy with a Weimaraner they believe they have traumatized because it saw them having sex, and Catherine O'Hara is a girl with championship terrier and a long history who keeps running into past lovers that none-too-delicately recount their intimate past with her in front of her current husband (Eugene Levy). And if you like dogs at all, you should see this one just for the wonderful dogs, comedy aside. A good one - check it out.

 

May (Murder) Day

May Day has always been a big celebration for winners such as the communist Chinese, the Nazis, and the old Soviet Union. Ostensibly, it's a celebration of workers and worker's rights. But, under these regimes worker's "rights" were and are, shall we say, more limited than in the West today. And considering that the three combined account for over 100 million killed under heel in the 20th century alone, I'm thinking May Day red might have a bit more to do with blood than with worker's rights. But, hey, who's counting?

 

Listening To - Everything But The Girl

Acoustic. This is a simple, but gorgeous album that highlights Tracy Thorn's lovely voice. Half covers, half original tunes, but the covers are well picked to make the album feel whole and right. In fact, I think the best song on this album is the cover of Bruce Springsteen's Tougher Than The Rest. Simply wonderful.

 

Just Finished - The Curious Incident

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. A simply written but interesting story of an autistic boy in his quest to solve the mystery of a dog murder in his neighborhood. This is not my usually fare in fiction, and I expected it to be sort of sappy, but it wasn't. Yes, it's endearing to follow young Christopher with his more limited metal capacity as he plugs away to find the murderer and tackles some of his fears in the process, but more than that it was just an interesting look into the mind of an autistic child (the book chapter numbers are are prime numbers because that makes more sense to Christopher). A very creative tale and worth a few hours if you are looking for something different - whatever you normally read, this is different. He "catches" the murderer, but I won't spoil it.

 

 

Spreadsheet in a Web Page

Alright, this may be a little more techi than usual, but have you ever thought it would be neat to be able to put a functioning spreadsheet into a web page? Dan Bricklin, the visi-calc guy, has developed just such an animal. Actually, it's called wikicalc and he bills it as a sort of hybrid wiki and spreadsheet. Best, of coarse, is that it's free. I have not tried it yet, but I'm going to get it and install it in the next several days (maybe this weekend). And this is just the alpha version, so it's not ready for prime-time yet. I looks very interesting and useful though.

If you're interested, you can read about it and download it.

 

Listening To - Alien Vs Predator

Alien Vs. Predator. I know, I know, you are probably saying, "Why on earth would anyone be listening to such a thing." Well, because it's a pretty good Harald Kloser soundtrack. I didn't think Alien Vs. Predator movie was as bad as some did - I liked it. Probably partly because of the music. At least listen the the Main Theme if you doubt me.

 

Sexy Ride

What? My 2002 Mazda B3000 pickup didn't make the Forbes list of sexiest cars? How could they have overlooked such a sleek and sexy contender? Oh well. If I had to pick one of the Forbes' choices for sexiest car, I guess I'd have to take the Saturn Sky roadster. Sure, a Rolls-Royce or a Lamborghini would be fun, but the Saturn is more my style - convertable, sporty, and the one in the picture has a girl already in it! As Stewie would say..."Excellent."

 

Googly Calendar

I've just started playing with setting up a Google calendar. I really don't have a need for it, I have Outlook and Exchange for work and they operate acceptably, but I like gmail so much I thought I'd take a look at this latest Google tool. My first impression is that it's pretty neat. I like the ability to type out in words a date range and have it plug the scheduled item in. I also like how fast it is. But, will people use this for more than a personal calendar or hobby group calendar (for instance), or would you actually run your company off this thing? I think that's the market Google would be after (the money is there). Anyway, on first blush, it looks like a well thought-out and useful tool.

 

Boobs win

Anna Nicole Smith wins:

"Dressed in all black, she wept in the courtroom in late February as justices discussed Marshall and whether he had intended to provide for his young wife in death. When Smith arrived at the court, several photographers were knocked to the ground in a scuffle to photograph her. "

Ahhhhh, so this is what love is all about. Poor girl, she clearly misses her deceased husband terribly and only want his money to remember him by. But, maybe she should get back to "acting" to take her mind off of her loss.

 

On DVD - Walk the Line

Walk the Line. Loved it, just loved it. Now, I am a Johnny Cash fan I must admit. And I wanted to see this when it was in the theater, but GF's aversion to all things Cash steered us away from going. She'd say, "We can go if you really, really want to....", and of course we would see something else. Anyway, we dropped by Hollywood Video and I just walked over and grabbed it and proclaimed this was the movie for the evening, and having just been dinnered-up, she did not protest.

First let me say that Joaquin Phoenix is incredible in this role. He does Johnny Cash, but it's his own very believable version of the man. Different, but the difference is excellent - hard to explain exactly (not being a professional movie critic - har har). And the singing is startlingly good. And I loved all the Cash mannerisms like the way he played the guitar. Reese Witherspoon as June Carter was a winner I would not have expected. And I didn't question the dynamic between them - it works. Her slow, slow belief in the man that swore his love and swore off the booze and drugs after so many years was cool and I liked the way the movie focused on those early years.

And.... halfway through the movie I looked down and saw, to my astonishment, GF's feet tapping away to the music. I gave her a questioning look and she just grinned and shrugged her shoulders and said, "I know, I know, I can't help it." Whether you like Johnny Cash or not, you'll probably like the movie.

 

Reading the Blogs

Who reads blogs? Apparently most of us are 41-50, male, and make 60-90 thousand a year. Well, one out of three for me, and that certainly doesn't jive with the folks that are leaving me comments, but I've only been at it a short while. Then again, maybe I just pander to a different group. I see more of a 50-50 male/female split. How about you?