Category Archives: Internet

Charlottesville, Internet

Watch UVA on ESPN360.com, Thoughts on Steaming Television

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Well it appears that Comcast struck a deal with ESPN360.com to open the streaming up to their customers.  I happened to notice this by luck, checking the 360 site for today’s Clemson game.  How happy was I to discover full access to the site, no logins, and all the steaming goodness of college football

A side thought, I am running an old Pentium 4 into the TV that I picked up from work.   Working with an ATI Remote Wonder, I am able to navigate Hulu’s desktop app and control the ESPN360 nearly seamlessly.  Cable and the TiVo’s collection of my favorite programs will be missed, but on demand Internet steaming is definitely the future. Hopefully local television and their parent companies will realize the future and offer web based steaming of their local broadcast.  Being able to queue up your own program is nice, but sometimes I enjoy letting the pros figure out the schedule.  How about some XML based broadcast exchange.  You want a program, you submit a request for the steam, and different companies compete to fill the request.  Queuing for each section of programming is on half hour increments to all help with bidding and some standard of which commercials may be inserted.  You choose your broadcast company.  They know what you like, sorta how Netflicks knows how you like your movies, they the multiplex steams of your taste.  Some steams are traditional scheduled based broadcast while others are a dynamic blend based off of your preferences.  Broadcasters are paid off of the value of their steam, just like normal television, and the multiplexers sell their audience. Everyone wins.

General News, Internet, Outback Lodge, Politics, Privacy, Real Life, Virginia, War

Word of the day: Fascism

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Republican Fascism

Fascism is an authoritarian political ideology (generally tied to a mass movement) that considers individual and other societal interests subordinate to the interests of the state. Fascists seek to forge a type of national unity, usually based on (but not limited to) ethnic, cultural, or racial attributes. Various scholars attribute different characteristics to fascism, but the following elements are usually seen as its integral parts: nationalism, statism, militarism, totalitarianism, anti-communism, corporatism, populism, collectivism, and opposition to economic and political liberalism.

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“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” – The 4th Amendment of the United States Constitution

As congress continues to have no backbone. We are seeing the erosion of our civil liberties as well as having atrocities committed in our name. We have illegal search and seizure of information through phones and through the internet. Congress is passing bills which allow for “blanket wiretapping.” Such wiretaps could allow for all people with the last name “Smith” to be tapped. How do you find only Smith? You apply a filter that says, read everything that says Smith. However to do this, they read EVERYTHING. Every single thing you send over the internet. And face it people, for most, a vast majority might be porn. Oh, Mr. Smith, I see you like going to kinkycrazyness dot com. Telecommunications over the internet! It is the future they say. Oh, well you see Mr. Smith, we were filtering for certain words on your voice packets and we would like to talk to your private conversation with..

The NSA is reading all of our internet communications and congress keeps saying this is OK! It is a direct violation of our 4th Amendment Rights.
NSA Wiretap Methods

Pick out an article from bigbrother over at slashdot. They all point towards an over reach of power.

Images Pulled From:
http://www.bushflash.com/14.html
http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm
http://www.spamdailynews.com/publish/ATT_tech_outs_NSA_spy_room.asp

General News, Internet, Politics, Real Life

Network Neutrality

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The following is a letter which I have sent to my representatives in Washington.

I am writing you today about an alarming DOJ press release #07-682. This release relates to “Network Neutrality” of the Internet. Please allow me to elaborate how the DOJ views such as, “precluding broadband providers from charging content and application providers directly for faster or more reliable service ‘could shift the entire burden of implementing costly network expansions and improvements onto consumers'” are flawed and misunderstand the very nature of the Internet.

The Internet was built for easy, redundant distribution of information from one computer to another. Taken another way, “content and application providers” are actually every user on the Internet, not just Google or Amazon. Each user has the ability to use their computer to provide “content” or host an “application”. This is inherently the great power of the Internet. No longer is the ability to provide information to anyone in the world restricted to the very powerful or wealthy. Each person’s PC, no matter who they are or where their connection is, is able to communicate with anyone else’s PC with the understanding that the information will reach the other as soon as possible. The DOJ mentions “differentiating service levels” as if these service levels do not exist, but they are present with connection speed pricing. I can currently sign up for AT&T’s broadband Internet service at two different levels 1.5Mbps for $19.99 and 3.0Mbps for $29.99. Comcast also offers different levels of service, one cost $19.99 for 4.0Mbps and $49.99 for 6.0Mbps. This pricing method is simple and fair for all. If I wanted even more speed, I can contact business providers.

Please protect the open and extremely valuable resource that our great country has created. Large corporations understand that if they are given permission to shape Internet traffic as they please, they stand to make extremely large amounts of money. However, this traffic shaping would be at the cost of the very freedom that the Internet has created. No longer would one person be allowed to share their digital creation with everyone else freely. For example, AT&T has a service called which streams live concerts to users on the Internet. If AT&T, controlling one of the largest networks within the Internet, were given permission to shape content and application traffic, they could immediately degrade the transmission speed of any competitor that offered similar content. Eliminating competition with the throw of a switch would be very convenient for large corporations that maintain vast parts of the Internet.

All users of the Internet already pay for their connection. Please do not allow the DOJ or anyone else to persuade you otherwise. The freedom of information and communication at maximum speed is imperative for the USA to remain competitive in this new high speed world. I invite you to visit the website http://www.speedmatters.org (which I am not affiliated with at all) for more reasons why the DOJ’s opinion is wrong and anticompetitive in itself.