apple juice

This is a must read if you are concerned about free speech and the internet.

Dear Congress, It’s No Longer OK To Not Know How the Internet Works

So it was as proponents of the Hollywood-funded bill curmudgeonly shot down all but two amendments proposed by its opponents, who fought to dramatically alter the document to preserve security and free speech on the net. But the chilling takeaway of this whole debacle was the irrefutable air of anti-intellectualism; that inescapable absurdity that we have members of Congress voting on a technical bill who do not posses any technical knowledge on the subject and do not find it imperative to recognize those who do.

This used to be funny, but now it’s really just terrifying. We’re dealing with legislation that will completely change the face of the internet and free speech for years to come. Yet here we are, still at the mercy of underachieving Congressional know-nothings that have more in common with the slacker students sitting in the back of math class than elected representatives. The fact that some of the people charged with representing us must be dragged kicking and screaming out of their complacency on such matters is no longer endearing — it’s just pathetic and sad.

I’ve blogged about this before, but it bears repeating. America is suffering compared to other countries with regards to internet access. We pay more for slower connections with fewer options thanks to our “free markets”.

Great op-ed in the New York Times about this new digital divide:

It doesn’t have to be this way, as a growing number of countries demonstrate. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranks America 12th among developed nations for wired Internet access, and it is safe to assume that high prices have played a role in lowering our standing. So America, the country that invented the Internet and still leads the world in telecommunications innovation, is lagging far behind in actual use of that technology.

The answer to this puzzle is regulatory policy. Over the last 10 years, we have deregulated high-speed Internet access in the hope that competition among providers would protect consumers. The result? We now have neither a functioning competitive market for high-speed wired Internet access nor government oversight.

Our family has CenturyLink (was Qwest) for our internet. I pay $60/month for 20mbps down/ 896kbps up

Comcast’s package is $58/month for roughly the same speed.

CenturyLink does not offer me a higher speed – Comcast does: 30mpbs for $68/month, 50mbps for $115/month or 105mbps for $200/month.

That’s basically my options.

There is the Minneapolis wifi, 6mbps for $30/month. Not fast enough for me…

Just for comparison – I looked up British Telecom… Looks like I could get 100mbps down / 15 mpbs up for $70 / month

Yeah, less than half the cost of the Comcast.

BT’s 40mbps down / 10 mbps up is $54 /month

So, I could get twice as fast download speeds and 10 times faster uploads for less money in the UK.

“Not once have I ever been confronted by an individual who realized independently that I was raised by a gay couple. And you know why? Because the sexual orientation of my parents has had zero impact on the content of my character.”

we need to defeat the marriage amendment that will be on the ballot in 2012.

Dear Readers of my blog…

I copied this text after I emailed my representatives via the electronic frontier foundation. Easy and important for you to take action on this by doing the same. See https://eff.org/r.C8A for more info…

I just emailed Congress to urge them to oppose the Internet Blacklist Legislation, known as the PROTECT-IP Act in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House. This legislation seeks to give the executive branch power to conduct slash-and-burn campaigns against websites that allegedly host – or even link to – content that infringes on intellectual property rights. That would “disappear” whole domain names, fundamentally undermining Internet security, and/or choke off their financial support. The Internet Blacklist Legislation puts more sites than ever at risk, effectively upending the DMCA safe harbors that have been crucial to the growth of Internet innovation and creativity. 

Sadly, these short-sighted and dangerous bills won’t do much to stop online infringement – but they will jeopardize our ability to speak and read online with the kind of freedom we cherish in the offline world. Deep-pocketed Hollywood lobbyists are aggressively pushing to control and censor the open Internet, willing to sacrifice free speech and our Internet culture in hopes of controlling how people view their movies and products. 

We need to stop this bill before it goes any further. Will you contact your representatives in Congress and urge them to oppose the Internet Blacklist Legislation? Visit: https://eff.org/r.C8A

Behind the Bicycle Boom