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Net Neutrality Rider

2010-12-18T17:54:00.008+01:00

The following post is an open letter which I submitted to Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison after she submitted a bill barring the FCC from protecting net neutrality.

Ma'am,

I'm concerned about a bill you submitted on December 16th, a "rider" that would 'prohibit the FCC from using any appropriated funds to adopt, implement or otherwise litigate any network neutrality based rules, protocols or standards'.

I'm concerned about this bill firstly because I am in the military, and I find it unbelievable that military spending is so often used as a vehicle for other political aims. If military spending bills are to be nothing more than a way of passing less popular legislation, that says a lot about both our legislative system's flaws and about our nation's feelings towards the military - namely, that we are just a budget item.

I'm concerned about this bill secondly because I am a computer enthusiast - I received my B.S. in Computer Science from the Military Academy. I firmly believe net neutrality is essential to free and open use of the internet, which is to say that the internet would not be the amazing communications platform that it is today without the principle of neutrality. At the beginning of the internet, America Online (AOL) tried to create a content network that would retain their customers within that network, so that customers would only use AOL's services. The colossal failure of that company stemmed directly from that effort. Consumers should be able to access whatever they want on the internet; that is, in a nutshell, the beauty of the technology. Allowing providers to restrict users to only that company's content defeats the entire purpose of the internet.

Please rethink your position on net neutrality.

Thank you for your consideration.

Any thoughts?

Oh, and here's why I think net neutrality is a good thing.

Update: Below is Senator Hutchison's response.

Dear Friend:
Thank you for contacting me regarding the Federal Communications Commission's actions relating to the openness of the Internet. I welcome your thoughts and comments.

The Internet is a valuable tool that facilitates business, education, and recreation for millions of Americans. In 2009, an estimated 198 million Americans had access to the Internet at home or work. I am committed to ensuring that consumers continue to benefit from the Internet as an open platform for innovation and commerce, supporting growth in content, devices, and applications.

Instrumental to the success of the Internet is the longstanding policy of keeping the Internet as free as possible from burdensome government regulations. Increased investment in upgrading and expanding America’s communications infrastructure, and, in particular, new broadband networks, will ensure that all Americans have access to affordable high-speed Internet. However, in my judgment, intensified regulation of the Internet, such as government-mandated treatment of data, would stifle competition and would decrease the incentive for network operators to invest in critical infrastructure.

The case for additional broadband regulatory authority, or “net neutrality,” has not effectively been made. Broadband investment began to truly flourish when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) made a decision in 2002 to remove advanced communications technologies from the antiquated common carrier regulatory framework. However, advocates of a larger regulatory footprint have continued to call for a net neutrality regime since 2006, resulting in the 2007 FCC decision to cite Comcast Corporation for a violation of the agency’s open Internet principles. Comcast appealed this decision. On April 6, 2010, the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled against the FCC, holding that the authority cited by the Commission was not sufficient to justify the Commission’s actions.

Unfortunately, the FCC chose to respond to this court decision by beginning a new proceeding that would reverse the 2002 decision to treat advanced communications services with a "light touch" regulatory approach. This proceeding could result in the application of monopoly-era phone rules to a vibrant marketplace, which will stifle innovation and investment. Congress is considering approaches to clarify FCC authority over broadband technologies that do not result in the return of out-dated rules.

Should legislation be brought for consideration before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, of which I am the Ranking Member, you may be certain I will keep your views in mind.

I appreciate hearing from you, and I hope that you will not hesitate to contact me on any issue that is important to you.

Sincerely,
Kay Bailey Hutchison
United States Senator

I Could Do Better

2010-01-26T23:36:00.006+01:00

With $5,725,813,591.00.

That's the total amount (thus far) spent on 100 interesting projects funded by the recent government stimulus bill. It includes such gems as $2.2 million spent to build water pipelines to a golf course in San Francisco and $350 million to build a map of America showing where broadband internet is and isn't available. Or $219,000 for a "Study on 'Hookup' Behavior of Female College Coeds."

No really, that last one didn't come from some college humor website or even Facebook - it's real (number 33). The Stimulus Checkup is Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Senator John McCain's (R-AZ) look at what's costing America so much money. I vote we fire some people.

For a real-time view of how bad it is, visit www.usdebtclock.org.

Web 2.0

2010-01-04T15:33:00.012+01:00

Back on 10 December, I urged you to quit Facebook after they changed their privacy policy (and I quit myself). During the holidays, I ended my brief Tumblr career, deciding that having an in-between step filling the space between Twitter and my blog* just didn't make sense. Why post things on a website that doesn't even allow comments? Anyway, after canceling Facebook and Tumblr, I started to wonder about some other social-media-Web-2.0 type sites where I had accounts.

When I saw an article on Slashdot this morning (which I didn't read) titled, "[Some Guy] Rants Against The World Of Web 2.0," and a blurb on Lifehacker about the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine, I thought, what am I doing with my life? My FriendFeed account was summarily terminated when I realized that it didn't do anything. RememberTheMilk was likewise eliminated, since I never actually used it.

I once asked (in a Tumblr post) what the difference was between Tumblr and Twitter. The best answer I got (ironically enough, through Facebook) was that Twitter had the venture capital to afford two vowels. But here's a quick breakdown of how things were working.

Scenario 1: I post to my blog. This is sucked into FriendFeed and Facebook, then TwitterFeed pushes it to Twitter. No one reads anything longer than two sentences on Facebook, and anyone who actually cared to read my blog already had it in an RSS reader and didn't need three other places to find it. People who follow me on Twitter are annoyed that I tweeted spam.**
Scenario 2: I post to Tumblr. This is also sucked into FriendFeed and Facebook, then Twitter Feed pushes it to Twitter. While many posts get comments on Facebook, those comments are no good to me since I'm not using Facebook anymore. Tumblr itself doesn't allow comments, and no one uses FriendFeed. People who follow me on Twitter are more annoyed that I tweeted more spam.

So a bunch of that is gone now. My Firefox bookmarks toolbar is much cleaner without Tumblr, FriendFeed, Facebook, TwitterFeed, or RememberTheMilk icons, and life feels so much simpler now that my social media binge is under control.***

* Twitter ≤ Tumblr < Blog. This holds true since anything that can be posted on Twitter can also be posted on Tumblr, and anything posted on Tumblr can also be posted on a blog. The main difference is that most blogging software or hosts include comments. Twitter and Tumblr do not. This means that anything worthy of commenting on should be blogged; otherwise, it should be Twittered. There is no in-between space.
** Self-Promoting Automatic Messages
*** This is meant to be half-joking/funny/ironic. Sheesh.

Quit Facebook

2009-12-10T18:59:00.003+01:00

BLUF: Delete your Facebook account.

I would like to make everyone aware of some interesting changes in Facebook's privacy policy:

You also have a set of publicly available information, which helps your friends find and connect with you. This includes your Name, Profile Picture, Current City, Gender, Networks, Friend List and Pages.

This is an unacceptable change to account privacy. If Facebook wants to publish that information, they need my consent and they do not have it. I have deactivated my account and I would urge you to do the same.

For more information:
CNN
EFF

Good Question

2009-12-05T11:44:00.001+01:00

No. No no no. NO.

2009-10-10T00:16:00.009+02:00

I have just become aware, via Slashdot, that President Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The BBC has this to say:

In awarding President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian committee is honouring his intentions more than his achievements.

For comparison, here's a list of my intentions:

I intend to cure cancer (all forms), HIV/AIDS, and every other disease. Looks like they better give me the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine.
I intend to end world hunger and poverty. I smell a Nobel Peace Prize!
It is among my long-term goals to discover, in a flash of brilliance, the Theory of Everything. Definitely an intention worthy of a Nobel Prize for Physics, no?
Also, I'm going to write a book which every person in the world will read and it will instantly become their favorite. Sounds like a Nobel Prize for Literature is coming my way!

I guess they can keep the prize for Chemistry, but I definitely deserve the other four for my achievements intentions, don't you think?

The Washington Post has a pretty good gathering of various reactions to the news... my favorite, marked 10:25 AM, is this:

A surprising unanimity of opinion is emerging online that the award has been given to Obama prematurely -- and that this both poses a potential danger to his presidency and will serve as a challenge to the credibility of the Nobel-awarding committee in Oslo.

Yeah. They are now giving people one point four million dollars and adding them to a list that includes such great figures as Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr., and Erwin Schrödinger, simply because they claim they want to make something happen.

I John 3:18 tells us to walk in deed and not only in word. I really hope Obama lives up to this ridiculous hype. In any case, I expect four Nobel Prizes (and the associated five point six million dollars) to arrive on my door when the 2010 prizes are awarded. With as watered down as the requirements have apparently gotten, it's a wonder they don't just offer us all Nobel Peace Prizes.

I'll leave you with this to remember (thanks Mom, and whoever said it first):

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

Drop the Phone!

2009-08-30T03:42:00.008+02:00

Look, I don't care who you are, there is no reason you should be texting while driving. Your life will not end if you put the message on hold long enough to pull over, but you might end someone else's life (or your own) if you take your eyes off the road! Texting is worse for you than alcohol, where driving is concerned, and I'm all for the legislative efforts to kill the combination. I'm tired of idiots on the road who are alternately speeding and dropping well below the speed limit, weaving erratically, and generally making life a (dangerous) pain because they think that the world revolves around their cellphone. DROP THE PHONE AND DRIVE!!!

Here's a list of resources to convince you if you disagree.

Useless Standards

2009-08-27T02:39:00.005+02:00

I am for standards in general, but tonight I've realized a list that I'm against. I am against them because they fail in their purpose, either having no positive effect or actually making things worse.

Daylight Savings Time. Who thought this up anyway? (No, it wasn't Benjamin Franklin - go read the linked Wiki). The whole point is that we're wasting free light from the sun - because we don't get up early enough. There's little to no effect (and often times that little effect is negative) on energy usage, and the demands of keeping up with daylight savings time and the various ways and points at which it is implemented are the cause of all kinds of headaches for computer programmers and people who commute, physically or via telepresence, across time zones. I'm with Benjamin Franklin - tell people to just get up earlier!
Time zones. I'm not going to argue this one a lot, but it seems to me that we're at the point where this whole idea is pretty moot. Yes, it makes a lot of sense for standardizing commerce in discrete geographical areas, but those lines are pretty blurred in places like Phenix City, GA. The military, the internet, and the airlines (indeed, all aviation) make use of standard time because it is standard. Not a random jumbly mess - if it's 3:00 pm here, what time is it in Bermuda again? Oh, that's in AST, so it's UTC-4 - oh wait, do they use daylight savings time? - I can't remember, so maybe it's UTC-4+1? - and we're CDT, so that's UTC-6+1, so.... I think you get my point.
The U.S. Customary System. SI (metric) is BASE 10. Whoever thought that base 2, 4, 16, 12, 2000, 5218, et cetera, was a good idea? Yes, I realize that it wasn't all done at once and that things just sort of happened. I also realize that there's no way to change it and have everything work out or even get everyone on board. That's not the point. It's a stupid standard and a better one exists.

Any other standards you like to bash? Think I'm an idiot for using GMT/Z/UT/UTC/WET or the metric system? Post a comment.

(Also) A Stickler For Handwriting

2009-08-24T22:07:00.002+02:00

This post was spawned by this article from Time Magazine, wherein a 15-year-old is allowed to use a computer on standardized test, since his handwriting is so bad. I say fail him. If he can't read and write, then he doesn't meet the standard. Especially considering that the reason he can't write is that he likes the attention of being "that kid with really bad handwriting."

An open letter to that kid's mom: Child-whacking sticks are on sale wherever wooden spoons are sold.

I'm A Stickler For Grammar

2009-08-18T14:45:00.005+02:00

I abhor lolspeak.

Seth Godin wrote a while back that he finds bad punctuation "distracting." I'd say that's entirely too kind a characterization. Maybe we blame the terrible American public schools, or maybe we blame mobile phones and the internet, or maybe the ubiquity of spell check. I don't really care. My hammer of judgment falls (figuratively) whenever I accidentally view comments on YouTube.

Anyone want to venture a guess as to why language developed? I'm going to claim that communication was up there on the list. Perhaps too much staring at computer code has wired me to be easily annoyed by deviation from the standard. But the communication that exists between a human programmer and a computer is the most demandingly (spell check says I made up that word) standardized interaction that comes to mind. Strongly typed programming languages - and I mean strongly typed like ADA - make this a little easier by checking at compile time that all the rules have been followed. Kind of like having an English teacher follow you around.

That doesn't happen in human language. There is no compiler... or is there? Every time someone speaks to me, or writes something that I read, my brain parses, compiles, and assembles their words (along with nonverbal cues or punctuation as appropriate). If I don't follow the same standards and use the same definitions as whoever I'm interacting with, I'm liable to misunderstand. Now imagine that they have no standard. I cannot possibly hope to understand them. At that point, language has failed its only purpose, and I gain nothing. New policy: failure to follow correct language standards (within a small margin of error) will result in being ignored since my time is too valuable to waste trying to puzzle out what "teh hizoase IZ burn!" means.

That may be a pretty severe example. I Corinthians 14:7-9 is Paul's charge to a church that they use language as it was meant to be used - for communication. Edifying others by passing on your own knowledge. (Now imagine if I'd written, "Edifying others buy passing on you're own knowledge." You have my permission to scream in rage.)

I could write many, many more pages on this, but I think you get the point.

You Must Be Kidding

2009-08-06T02:04:00.001+02:00

My wife sent me this article last night, after the two of us and a couple of our friends had a pretty long discussion of personal responsibility.

The article is about a woman who's suing her college because she can't find a job. A woman who graduated with a 2.7. A woman whose job search has lasted only three months. A woman whose excuse is, "It doesn't make any sense: They went to school for four years, and then they come out working at McDonald's and Payless. That's not what they planned."

It's not what you planned?! Was there anything in your plan about "Making Good Grades" or "Working To Get Ahead," or was it something along the lines of "I have a degree so surely I am owed a job?" What on earth makes you think you're entitled to a job? What makes you think that a school, which already put up with mediocre work from you for four years, owes you a job?

What did you expect to get out of college?