The end of the world is coming!!!!!

At least, that's the way people make it sound every time they bring up ISP's fighting against net neutrality. They're going to carve up the internet and only let subscribers access certain sites, or use certain services...unless you pony up the big bucks and pay for "ultimate broadband" at outrageous rates. Is this really happening though, could it really come down to this?

I suppose realistically it could and might. The thing people need to keep in mind though is that the true power is in OUR hands. That's right, we've ultimately got the power to dictate how open the internet is or isn't. The only catch is though that we can only exercise that power by being willing to, "let go". That's right, let go. If ISP's put a stranglehold on a free and affordable internet, we've just got to be willing to disconnect, pull the plug, cancel our service.

Let's look at a possible scenario. All the broadband internet providers start blocking content from providers that have ties to another internet provider. Like for instance Comcast buys NBC and they block NBC content from being streamed over any other internet providers lines. So, in retaliation, every other internet provider starts blocking the content of their partners from being streamed over Comcast and all the other ISP's...cause let's face it, once something like this goes down, it's a cascade effect, sort of like a nuclear meltdown. A horrible scenario for internet users...suddenly your world-wide spanning internet has been cut down to something more akin to being on AOL....ewwwww!

The thing is, there's an easy way out of this predicament. The power truly is in our hands, the only hard part is, we'll have to be willing to let go of our addiction to do it. Just cancel your service and stop paying them for something that you don't want, and don't go crawling to some other ISP. Just learn to get along without the internet. All it would take would be about 30-40% of internet subscribers from any ISP cutting their service and it would bring the ISP's to their knees. Just imagine you're the CEO of Comcast and suddenly over a month or two your customer base shrinks by 30-40%! No business, let alone the bloated ISP's of this nation could withstand a drop like that in their bottom line. They'd cave in weeks and open everything back up again, after all, what they really want is your money, and if you deny them that, they'll do whatever it takes to get it back.

I'm not just talking here, because I've started the fight myself. I've been a customer of Verizon Fios, now Frontier Fios. Since Verizon sold Fios to Frontier, my bill has been steadily getting bigger and bigger. Now, Frontier has had the temerity to send out their latest ultimatum that the "television" portion of my bill would next month be increased by $30, to cover "increasing costs". I've been a subscriber to the ubiquitous "triple package", television, internet and phone. My bill would have reached a whopping $190 a month! I decided that I'm finally fed up with being sucked dry by these people. I called up Frontier and told them that I wouldn't pay them any more just to watch twenty or so channels out of the 150/180/225 channels I supposedly received...every time you turn around they're claiming a different number of total channels they provide...but let's face it, we all only watch a very small portion of those channels...C-SPAN anyone? Now all I'm getting from FIOS is internet and phone. I'll watch FREE over-the-air television from now on. And you know what? If they start bloating my bill for internet or phone, or try cutting my services down for either and think they're going to charge me the same or more...I'll cut those out of my life too.

I love the internet, but if I can't have it my way, I'll learn to do without it. You see, I have the power to just keep my money if I'm not getting what I want for it. Comcast, Frontier, Time Warner etc... don't have an inalienable right to my money, or yours for that matter. If we want to have our internet, or our TV or phone our way, all we have to do is let it go, and if enough of us do this, it will send a message more powerful than any legislation ever could.

Something people need to think about…

Technorati Tags: wikileaks,government,secrets,Forcemaster2000

It seems like lately, a lot of people, and organizations are coming down hard on the secret sharing website “wikileaks”, and it’s creator Julian Assange. (apologies if I’ve gotten his name wrong).

A lot of this is coming on the heels of wikileaks publishing 250,000+ cables which have a lot to do with U.S. embassies from around the world. What people need to think about is, it’s not like wikileaks stole these cables and published them, people who work within the U.S. government have uploaded these cables to wikileaks, feeling apparently that there are things in these missives that needs to be made public. The same goes for everything else on wikileaks. All of it was put there by someone in that government’s or corporation’s organization because they feel that the public needs to have access to these documents.

Wikileaks is simply making themselves a conduit through which the world can access these documents. If documents are being made public which could genuinely cause someone harm (who doesn’t deserve it), the government or corporation involved should be looking towards their own employees to stop these leaks rather than blaming Wikileaks and trying to shut them down.

Enjoying my new laptop

I’ve recently decided to upgrade from my netbook (which I’ve been using for two years now), to a Dell Inspiron 1545.  While I still love my netbook, and will be keeping it, I have to admit that it’s getting harder and harder on my eyes trying to look at the much smaller screen.  Dragging around this Inspiron with a 15” widescreen though is much more labor intensive. The bigger, Truelife screen is great though, I’m able to do more on this without my glasses than I could with the netbook. 

 

I’d still recommend a netbook for on-the-go computing, but if you need something other than a desktop for your everyday computing needs, a larger screen and more processing power is the best way to go.

Technorati Tags: Forcemaster2000,tech,Dell,Inspiron,netbook

Getting older is going to suck!

My wife and I were just arguing. Somehow, one channel, and only one channel on our television turned into a small box in the center of the screen. My wife wasn't sure if it was already that way, or if somehow she'd done it with the remote. I made the mistake of going in and trying to "fix" it. Somehow, between the television remote and the cable box remote, I managed to turn everything into a weird, small aspect and couldn't figure out how to get it back.

About that time, our son and his girlfriend came downstairs on their way to their evening college classes and I asked my son to try and figure out what I'd screwed up. He eventually got everything back to the way it was before I "fixed" it, with just the one channel looking weird. When my son left is when my wife and I started arguing. She was upset because she said I made us look like "old people" who didn't know how to work the remote. We argued for a little bit, then I left the room.

That was when it hit me and I couldn't stop laughing. I went back and told her that I am the old man who can't work the remote, and that she's the old woman who's so afraid of the remote, that she'd rather sit there and watch the TV even though it's all weird and screwed up! She didn't think it was funny or insightful, and so I left the room and put this up on the internet for the world to read...she's gonna love me for this one!

Minecraft!

I've finally managed to make my first "slipgate" in Minecraft! It took forever, and once I finally got it finished, it only took me about two minutes to die in the the "Nether"! I lost a crap-ton of stuff in there too, so I kept re-spawning and going back in trying to get it back. I had pig-men attacking me and killing me, fire killing me and about the sixth or seventh time of going back in there were at least five "Ghasts" hanging around the area shooting fireballs at me! I did eventually get most of my stuff back, though certainly not all of it. I'm going to have to stay away from the Nether now for a few "game days" and hope that things will quiet down on the other side of the gate so that I'll eventually be able to go back.

Damn! I love Minecraft! LOL

On blogging and Minecraft