Empire of Geek

Sorry for the protracted posting times, but life has caught up to me in a big way. I did want to express my dismay at a new law here in Tennessee. Gov. Phil Bredesen, whom I’ve voted for twice, signed a law that forces state funded universities to implement file sharing monitoring software at a cost of $9.5 million. 

At a time when our state, as well as most others, are facing unprecedented budget crunches, we are spending money on something that likely won’t work. Seeing as how we have a ton of music industry lobbyists in our state, it’s no surprise this got passed. This reeks of lobbying from the idiots at the RIAA.

I would love for our state to lead the country in something like green technology, not privacy violations.

This is an entry from one of my other sites, SandersMedia.net. Note that I usually don’t touch on hot-button topics in that forum:

I usually try to keep this space free of hot button topics. Here I like to discuss things that help you understand how the web works in a practical way. However, the more the web expands into our lives, the more these issues come to the forefront. I’ll touch on a couple.

One such hot button topic that has been bantered about is internet filtering. Certain sections of the US government, as well as a large portion of the telecommunications industry, want the ability to force an ISP (Internet Service Provider) to divulge our internet habits. They say this can help them root out terrorists, stop child pornography and stop sharing of copyrighted materials.

These seem like noble ideals, and they are in their simplest form. My fear, however, is there will be a compromise of our privacy. The right to privacy is a very American one, and a right we must defend rigorously. I fear the temptation to use this information in ways we can’t comprehend and wouldn’t approve of will be too great. I cannot condone large organizations (governments, corporations, etc.) with seemingly endless resources being able to spy on me.

Another big issue recently in the news is internet throttling. Internet throttling is the practice of slowing down the connection speeds of users taking up a lot of bandwidth. An example would be people who upload large amounts of video to the web.

The ISP’s call this practice reasonable network maintenance. They claim these users are slowing down connections for everyone else and are overloading the network. Whether or not this is true is up for debate. Comcast just received a stinging rebuke from the FCC for throttling users without their knowledge. Instead of stopping internet throttling altogether, they are now just being upfront about it.

This is a Pandora’s Box. Once we allow some content to be blocked or inhibited, where do we draw the line? Deregulation has put the power in fewer and fewer hands. The FCC rebuke aside, there has been very little in the form of accountability. The telecommunications industry is a very powerful lobby, and has large resources available to petition our government. We need checks and balances to make sure our rights and freedoms are observed.

Wherever you stand in the political realm, these are issues that have and will continue to affect you. I encourage you to contact your US and state representatives. Ask them where they stand on these issues, and if they plan to protect your privacy.

Well, just when you thought Apple might be getting stale with their I’m a Mac, I’m a PC campaign, they release these. I must say I find them hilarious. What do you think?

I’m sure many of you use Google or the customizable iGoogle as your home page. I’m curious to see how many of you hate the new update as much as I do. First of all, my widgets are no longer above the fold. Second, Gmail launches into some half-assed version of itself from iGoogle. Worse, I can’t see a place to turn it off in any kind of preferences. Wired.com’s Webmonkey posted this entry about the mess. Post your reactions on our site as well as Webmonkey. Hopefully, Google will fix it.

Apple has released new editions of their MacBook and MacBook Pro lines. As you can see, they’ve taken on the iMac look with the black edging around the display. They’ve also done away with the latch on the Pro for the easier magnetic closure. One big thing is the absence of a button under the trackpad. Instead, the trackpad has been given the ability to act as the button.

One curious omission is the the Firewire 400 port. Apple has elected to not include it at all. Check out their website for more details. 

Even though it’s been on the market for 4 years, the Razr is still outselling the iPhone in the US. This news comes with an ocean of caveats. First, the Razr is on almost every major and minor carrier in the country. Also, it usually is free with a contract.

I remember how revolutionary this phone was. Now it seems very “basic”. With the release of the iPhone, people really see how clunky it’s interface is. My wife has one because she “just wanted the free phone”.

For some reason, Motorola has not been able to come up with a suitable followup. Now that smartphones are starting to take over the cell phone market, it would be a good idea for them to find a way to compete with Apple and Research In Motion.

Wow! Sorry we’ve been AWOL for a little while. You know, life happens. 

Anyway, what did you all think of the false rumors regarding a supposed heart attack suffered by Steve Jobs. They caused Apple’s stock to drop a bit before recovering after Apple issued a denial. Apparently even the SEC is investigating. 

The rumor started on CNN’s citizen journalism site. Some fear this will have implications for bloggers and other news hounds not associated with a big outfit. CNN bears some responsibility for not posting an obvious disclaimer on the site.

Well, not in those words exactly. A federal judge in Minnesota has declared a mistrial in the civil suit that resulted in single mother Jammie Thomas being dinged for $222,000 for file sharing. While no one excuses pirating of any intellectual property, the RIAA’s draconian policy of lawsuits goes too far. I found this story first on Threat Level, and then found more details on the EFF website. Thank God a judge finally has some good sense. The reason for declining music sales aren’t illegal downloads. It’s shitty music.

Apparently Microsoft can’t stop embarrassing itself. Metadata pulled from a creative copy of their new “I’m a PC” ad campaign shows they used a Macintosh as well as Adobe CS3. CS3 was used instead of their own Expressions Studio, which they say ”takes your creative possibilities to a new level.” The discovery was made by Flickr user LuisDS, and posted on Flickr. I must say, this does make me chuckle.

For anyone who’s seen the Bill Gates-Jerry Seinfeld Microsoft ads, you won’t be surprised. Microsoft has decided to switch ad campaigns to more directly take on Apple’s Mac vs. PC commercials. The official line is the Seinfeld ads were an “appetizer” to the new ones. Now seriously, does anyone really believe Microsoft paid Seinfeld $10 million to star in 2 commercials. Those commercials were rather bizarre, weren’t they?