Xmas Vacation

I'm currently on vacation in San Diego and I haven't had my computer until today. Bear showed up and brought the Mac Book Pro with him. Thank God because I wasn't sure if I was going to make it on my parents computer. I wish they would have purchased a Mac but they didn't.  Oh, yeah, we're staying with my parents, fun!  I was reading on Google Reader via the iPhone over at Study Hacks  - How to Avoid Fighting with Your Parents While Home for Christmas Break. Unfortunately, that doesn't apply because the last thing that my parents and I are arguing about is school. 

But at least were talking. I have to cut this short because Bear just called and I have to run him downtown.

Global Warming is One of the Greatest Scams in History

If you actually want to believe the TV personality John Coleman I feel sorry for you. Noted as the founder of the Weather Channel and the weather reporter on KUSI in San Diego (my home town). He rants on his blog but exactly what is his research. Not the research of every person who states that it is a myth. I'm tired of politicians scaring us and I'm tired of people trying to debunk this. The Climate changes, yes it does, the problem is that the news media is not really asking those that are researching what the climate is. All they do is fudge statistics on both sides. 

The climate is changing it always has. The planet has gone from extreme highs to extreme lows but what is amazing is that we, the human race, do affect our environment where ever we go. If a person truly studies civilization and the climate you will see how the human race has changed the climate. The question is how much are we changing it right now and can we reverse it one way or the other?

 I remember that 20 years ago there was a program that stated that every year the fires in Southern California will be worse and worse. And growing up I remember that there would be fires every year but for the most part it was not all that bad. In the 21st century, family and friends now say that the fires are becoming worse. Global warming or bad forest management? One you can blame the human race for.

We need to stop bickering over who is right and figure out what is happening. Personally, I think that limiting the amount of pollution and reducing it as much as possible to zero is only a positive thing. Recycling should be mandatory rather than filling up landfills with crap that makes valuable land useless. If no one can stand behind that then they are idiots. 

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The First Lady Of Star Trek Passes Away

"Majel Barrett Roddenberry, the most ubiquitous actor in Star Trek, died today at age 76. The wife of Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, she also provided the computer voices on every version of Trek. And she played three pivotal characters: Number One in the pilot, Nurse Chapel in the original series, and Lwaxana Troi in TNG and DS9."

This is a sad day indeed. I will miss Luxana Troi and my favorite, Nurse Chapel. Rest in Peace.

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FCC Pushing for Free Internet Plan

This is something that I can definitely support. The Telcos have had the opportunity to expand broadband Internet access. Some have even gone to court to stop local governments from creating free WiFi access. Why? Because they will lose money. They can make a ton of money if they really thought about and they could even create a huge WiFi network with access to the Internet that would be easier to administrate then fiber or WiFi methods. How? My view that WiFi routers be deployed with a DNS server, a web server, even an email server. Create a router with this is and a secure method for the DNS server to route network traffic. Consumers use their own routers to route the information just like the Telcos do with their current servers. It needs to be secure and so of the services should not be turned on. But if I want to allow traffic to view my web site then I turn on the Web Server, plug in my domain information (after registering my domain name), and now I have complete control.  

What a great PR campaign for the Telcos? They sell these routers but allow the service free access to the WiFi network. I think that they can reduce the costs of Internet access via the wired method because less people would need them. The idea is creating a free WiFi Internet. People that can afford for wired access would have reduced bills if their routers allowed the access to that wire. I have to research the plan in a little more detail but I really think that free WiFi access would put America in the lead.  

If the FCC can push it then I'm for it, as for blocking access to porn. I think the government could use filters but it should be voluntary. If I don't want to filter that information, because I want access to porn, then I should be the one to determine that, not the United States Government. Again, I believe that access to Internet for children should be carefully monitored by the parents.


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World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day and User Friendly is asking for your spare CPU cycles. Check it out because the goal is provide cheaper drugs for everyone by finding better alternatives.

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Techdirt: Do We Really Want An Internet Run By Lynch Mobs?

There is an interesting article questioning the recent actions of some sysadmins who, with evidence, cut access of to McColo and Intercage because they were viewed as the ones sending out spam. Interesting article, but who will police these types of practices if not the ISP? What do you think?

Personally, what is out there to help protect people? If not for the sysadmins then who? Should we rely on Governments to protect the individuals of the Internet. Considering the nature of the Internet why should the UK help protect citizens in Russia? Right now, sysadmins seem to be the only ones helping to keep piece, consider them the Sheriffs of the new Frontier that is the Internet.

But is that concentrating too much power in the hands of a few individuals. Read the article and tell me what you think.

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Netflix for Macs - Freeing the Net

Okay, I downloaded the Microsoft (eww) Silverlight Video plugin and I finally can watch Heroes Season 1. In fact now I can watch all three seasons on Netflix. With school, watching TV has become a lower priority for me, I've increased my cable bill (wrong move) in order to have  a DVR (should have gone to Tivo). I'm learning my lesson. I've never subscribed to HBO, Showtime, or Skinemax, because I never cared to have them. I did want a DVR so I increased my bill because at the time I couldn't afford to purchase one. Again that was a bad move on my part. Now with Netflix partnering up with Tivo I need to stop paying for digital cable it's too costly and I don't need all those channels. Considering that I watch pretty much everything else on the net. I just need a device (Tivo) to hook up to the Internet to get at all the video being streamed there. It is interesting is that this is exactly what Hollywood didn't want to happen. That they would lose control over content and it would be streamed via the Internet. They can thank the cable companies and the government sponsored duopolies that has been created for them. Because they won't charge a fair price for channels and allow ala carte purchasing of channels people are deciding that they don't need the cable companies and Hollywood's schedule of you watch it when they say to with stupid commercials that have nothing to do with what I do buy or watch on TV. Hollywood brought back Knightrider, why? What is it about a car that fights crime that make people want to watch it? The science is bogus and doesn't make any sense. At least when Sci-Fi brought back Battlestar Galactica, it was completely retooled and not the same show. Knightrider added more people but it's the same stupid show. Now Sascha Segan has the right idea. He was able to cut his cable bill and I'm looking to do the same. I can't leave cable because I like my Broadband Internet Connection more than DSL. I won't change that anytime soon. Not until the FCC and United States get off their ass and come up with a plan to create free or low-cost wireless Internet access. I've stated it before in this article . Here is a highlight: 

The solution to all of this is very simple. WiFi - not the kind that other companies are putting into place but the ones the consumer do. Think on this, you have a wireless router, most people are buying them because they like their Internet in any room. The range on them is always increasing. How about a router with a firewall, web server, e-mail server, and DNS server built in. Then open those routers to each other but have the firewall deny access from and external source to the home computer that is connected to the router. Protect the consumer but allow the routers to route information between themselves. If the Internet is nothing more then a series of interconnected computer systems so that bits of information can be routed in any direction through the computers to reach a destination then why were backbones created, speed, by creating more centralized and larger backbones it increased the speed but limited the transmission of those bits. With a consumer WiFi system that is fast the bits are freed and the individual routers will route the bits not through the telecoms backbones but through the neighbors system. This way you recreate the original Internet of interconnected systems. If you can have a neighborhood of consumers to interconnect this way then the back bones are only needed for distances between the neighborhoods but with metered access. Consumers would then start pushing for and hardware vendors creating products with a wider range so that consumers don't have to depend on the back bones. In fact it why would we need ISPs at all?

I still believe that eventually this is going to happen. People are going to become fed up with Cable/Phone companies and revert back to an earlier time of the Internet. Call it the DIY Internet.