"Undermining my electoral viability since 2001."

Outlandish Josh

Published on Fri, 2006-03-24 11:19

Skype!

Holy shit. It's been around for a bit but...

This shit really works.

I have about 1000 minutes of biz-related talking a month. That'll cost me $24 with skype. I can keep my cellphone restrained to when I'm actually on the go and not in front of my lappy, and for weekends and evenings.

And skype-to-skype calls are free, with up to 5-person conferences free also.

This is going to seriously fuck some shit up.

This is also why PHONE COMPANIES want to put toll-booths on your internet. Because they (or the cable companies that are all pushing their own digital phone service) don't want a competitive marketplace for these sorts of services. They feel that because they "own" the last mile network they should be able to extort a premium from other service providers. I say that all these networks were massively publicly financed and, hello!, I already give Time Warner $60 a month to have the internet on. I should be able to do whatever the fuck I want with that bandwidth, bitches.

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nerding out
Published on Thu, 2006-03-23 21:39

Dem Realists

This is the last post, from July of 2005, on a now-dormant blog called Dem Realists:

Thinking Things Over

One of the great things about being young, a student, someone hungry to understand how this world operates, and, of course, honest, is that I'm allowed to question myself, ask myself the difficult questions, and re-think how I consider the issue of our time. That issue is our present war. During my time at the Claremont Institute this summer, I've been exposed to an approach for America's approach to the world that does not jive with what I've written for public consumption in columns for two daily papers at Penn State, what I've written (or linked to) on this blog, and what I've argued over with whomever, everywhere else. I've come to really consider - and even agree with - this new (new, in that it's new to me) approach. Don't worry, though. I haven't become a lefty, I haven't become a blame-America-first type. I'm still a hawk. I still - and will always - believe in defending the United States. And I'm still - and will always - believe in the U.S. military as the gaurantor of our freedom.

However, I'm not going to get into what this new view on foreign policy right now because it is going on 2:30 in the morning (and I have to be up in five hours for work). So I'll get into that at a later time. But, tonight was one of those nights where I just may have come full circle. But then I think, maybe I haven't. I haven't read everything yet, I tell myself. I can't come to a new conclusion on things just yet. Maybe what I've thought all along was and is the way to go. I don't know. Now I'm just rambling. But what I do know is that I'm not done trying to figure everything out. And really, I don't think anyone has it totally figured out. And that's why I can change my mind - or at least be open to accept something new. That's not easy, especially when that's all I've written about and all I've believed.

So before I lose any more precious minutes of sleep, I'm going to leave it at that.

That's the sound of an awakening. The kids are all right, man.

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General
Published on Thu, 2006-03-23 20:41

On The Daily Show Now

This hepcat wonk, who's kind of a lovable dork -- author of the book In Defense of Goliath -- out there explaining how the US provides global services like creating a currency and the necessary security for trade, and that this is something most other nations appreciate, and in fact that would be impossible if they didn't.

This is true (and in fact non-state actors may have their say too), but he says the great threat to Pax Americana isn't China. Rather it's Medicaid. At some point we may be tempted trade in our global military empire for better services for our population.

The implication is that this is a bad deal. I disagree. Government works for the people, and as such health care really is more important than the far reaches of empire. Letting our national infrastructure (social and physical) degrade while bankrupting our treasury with foreign occupations and a global military footprint serves the interests of no one.

It's the great challenge of this leadership generation to manage this transition. A single nation-state policing the world is unsustainable. If we reduced our military budget by 25% we could have health care and energy independence. Sounds good to me.

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General
Published on Thu, 2006-03-23 18:23

FCC Chief Wants Tolls Online

The FCC has been a problem for a while:

FCC Chief Kevin Martin yesterday gave his support to AT&T and other telcos who want to be able to limit bandwidth to sites like Google, unless those sites pay extortion fees. Martin made it clear in a speech yesterday that he supports such a a "tiered" Internet.
...
By siding with telcos who want to be able to offer adequate bandwidth to sites that pay up, and to limit bandwidth to sites that don't, he'll help kill off new sites that can't afford to fork over the money.

That could help end Internet and network innovation, and we simply can't afford that.

This is really what it comes down to. Established players want to consolidate the internet. Sometimes -- as in the case of Billionaire Basketball Team Owner Marc Cuban -- by pedalling fantasy applications such as "home diagnostic tools for senior citizens." The reality is, we're highly unlikely to see those types of applications anytime soon in a consolodated marketplace.

The rapid pace of innovation online really comes from it being an open end-to-end system. Lock in a tiered structure that favors those who can pay, and watch the net turn into a mechanism for corporat content providers to pipe crap to your Xbox. The internet becomes TV with chat rooms.

That's one possible future. It's not as dark as the 1984 internet-as-panopticon possibility that's still out there, but it's not what I want to happen. The new kids on the block (google, yahoo, microsoft, et al) will fight this, but it's going to be a close call.

I tend to think the "inter" part of the internet might be another way out -- other nations or regions (or even municipalities) could get it right and outperform the fatbacks. Hopefully it won't come to that.

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