Government Gone Wild

The U.S. House of Representatives pushed through a new bill which on the surface sounds like a good thing. Unfortunately, it's a slippery slope on our way to a "nanny state".

Why is it necessary to legislate requirements to turn what are ethical and moral imperatives into legal requirements?

Why is it necessary for ISPs to begin cataloging and monitoring Internet traffic and transmissions?

Obviously, I have a number of issues about this. The House put this bill through without requiring open comment or visibility into what they are voting on, Democrats used a process to speed this through without review, the bill would be redundant since it's covered by other laws AND obviously went without technical review. The more you attempt to monitor unsavory activity, the more you drive them to use new technologies such as encryption which prevent any visibility.

Click here to read a summary of the SAFE Act of 2007.

Global Insecurity

Mac users beware! Your false sense of security is soon to be ripped away by the misfortune of Apple's success.

In other words: prepare for mainstream virus and malware attacks!

Comcastic - Not All It's Cracked Up To Be

$52.95 + taxes for high speed Internet...? I'll pass. The 8 Mbps service I was paying for was never really delivered. Additionally, the "PowerBoost" function never worked so where exactly was the value for me as a consumer?

I've switched back to Verizon DSL service. Sure, it's slower - about 1/3 the speed - but it's also about 1/2 the cost and at the end of the day, I'm not home enough to warrant paying as much as I was for Internet access.

Pogue: Windows Doesn't Steal from Mac OS

We report, you decide.

NOTE: His video was meant to be 100% sarcastic!

Post 700...

Yeehaw! It's taken a long time and I've had an on-again / 0ff-again relationship with you but I finally made it to the magical 700th post.

Bring On The Music!

I've decided to try something new... Rhapsody offers $15 a month for "unlimited" music. Basically, you can download and listen to their collection of millions of songs on your Windows PC. Included in the monthly fee is the ability to download that music and take it with you.

Now, I have the choice of thousands of artists, records and playlists and can take it with me any time.

Internet Service Update

CNET has a write-up that I haven't read yet that discusses the differences between cable and DSL. Here's what it boils down to from my perspective.

DSL is reasonably fast provided that you are close to the phone company's central office where your phone line terminates into their network. When I lived in downtown Baltimore, I had a great 3 Mbps line that was $30 a month. When I moved out into the 'burbs, my speed was cut into half because of the distance between my house and the CO. That was adequate until I discovered that cable had made some significant improvements to their network and speeds.

So when my promotional $30 per month DSL rate expired earlier this year, I signed up for cable Internet service for just a couple dollars more a month, I have a significantly faster connection. Is it all that it's cracked up to be? Yes and no... For my needs, however, the need for speed was enough to pull me back over to the dark side and, yes, I've even cancelled my "backup" DSL line to save that $40 per month.

Today's Productivity Site Of The Day

Will Farrell is incredibly funny... I don't know whether it's his timing, his natural ability or whether he's had really good writers.

Regardless, you should check out his latest venture: the Funny or Die website. At the very least, check out The Landlord!

Ever Wonder...?

Ever wondered what goes on underneath the cursor on your screen? Click here to find out!

The Internet Is Used For Porn?

What's next? I'm going to find out that that moon landings were faked and that The A-Team wasn't a documentary!?

Back In Business

Well, the new Internet connection is online and everything appears to be working nominally.

It's Comcastic?

I wonder if I should have just left well enough alone... My new high speed Internet connection is now installed but the service isn't letting me online. I'm trying to figure out why I paid $29.95 for installation when I did most of the work.

Anyway, it's a good thing that I haven't shut off the DSL connection yet. If I had and this had been the case with the service, I would be one very unhappy camper.

Slow Internet Connections

I don't want to get off on a rant or anything but... I've had DSL in Baltimore for 3 years and been mostly happy with it. At my old place, it was 3 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up. At this place, I didn't do all of my due diligence and the connection is 1.8 Mbps down and 448 Kbps up which just isn't getting the job done. To add insult to injury, the promotional rate I signed up for ($29.99 per month) has expired and I'm paying about $40 a month for this connection.

So... I'd like to share that I'm switching ISPs and during that time, my availability and connectivity may be impacted. My new connection will be 8 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up and should offer a significantly improved experience over DSL for only a couple more dollars a month. That's all for now... We should be back online some time this weekend!

Productivity App of the Day

I'd like to introduce you to a new office productivity app called Boomshine.