C-Span archives!

Yes, I'm a dork. I watch C-Span2. More specifically, I watch BookTV. (senate hearings are hella boring) Sometimes, though, they have panel discussions that you see and you just might never really get to see again. That sucks, especially when they're great discussions. Christopher Hitchens on the Religion and Culture panel at UCLA where he called 9/11 Truth member who was trying to interrupt the Q&A session a "crackpot fascist," comes to mind. Another is Joel Miller's speech at the CATO institute discussing his book, Size Matters: How Big Government Puts the Squeeze on America's Families, Finances, and Freedom.

Well, fortunately, C-Span has an archive. So, now you can go and see some of the older speeches that, unfortunately, never made their way to YouTube or elsewhere.

This debate is something that really everyone should see. If for nothing else, at least for when Miller shows the difference, literally, in size of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution versus the appendix of the 2006 budget for the federal government. (@ 7:00)

Joel Miller and Jonathan Rauch at the CATO Institute, Washington D.C.

nothing after the jump

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When games get meta. LotR Online jam session.

Some things manage to absolutely amaze me. Especially metagame. For example, Spore is entirely built around metagame. The entire Sims franchise, Sim City, Sim Ant, The Sims, etc. are all built around metagame. Metagaming has also gained a lot of popularity in MMOs, which only makes sense. No longer is the point to save Azeroth, but now it's to get rich through crafting, get fancy sets of armor, just to hang out and chat or try to add realism on roleplay servers. Guild Wars has titles as a form of metagame. You can just beat the campaign. But you can also instead strive for cartogropher titles by exploring all of the respected continent, collect minipets, etc.

What I stumbled upon for one of Lord of the Rings: Online's metagame content was pretty damn amazing. Playing instruments. Like lutes, flutes, and drums. You can battle the dastardly menaces of Middle Earth and then take a break and belt out a tune for some fellow players in a tavern. Who knows, maybe someone will join you?

nothing after the jump.

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HBO on Youtube!?

I've been busy lately, so I haven't been able to do many posts. But here is something that is cool. Like Bill Maher? Like Real Time With Bill Maher? Don't have HBO? Well, you obviously have an internet connection. Now you can watch Real Time With Bill Maher, the full fucking epidode, on Youtube! AND it's legal! Yep, it's uploaded officially by HBO. So, get your Real Time on!

Real Time With Bil Maher episode embedded after the jump

Check out an episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, featuring Esai Morales, fmr. Labor Secretary Robert Reich, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), and Real Time correspondent Amy Holmes. Plus, via satellite, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA). This episode premiered on 4/4/08 and will be featured until Monday April 21st.
- Source

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Free-to-play online FPS is the new black.

There seems to be a rash of online FPSes coming out. And not just regular games that you have to buy, but free online FPSes. These free FPSes are not the cheesy lame ones from no-name amateur softhouses. These are being developed by big-name industry heavyweights and promise to deliver a full package and well designed gameplay. It seems like the idea of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory's free-to-play experience is catching on.

It's been a while since we've heard anything about Quake Zero, id Software's free-to-play variation of Quake 3. For starters, it's not going by that old name anymore. From now on, you can call it Quake Live. Secondly, gone are any doubts about the financial efficacy of their business model: in-game advertising acronym addicts IGA Worldwide has announced a partnership with id Software to convert your roaming gaze into cold, hard cash.

Quake Live will be available, cleverly enough, at www.quakelive.com, along with an assortment of features like stats, matchmaking, and of course, the game itself.
- Source

Quake Zero was announced by id Software at QuakeCon '07 and at some point in time was renamed Quake Live. As mentioned in the quoted text, Quake Live is simply a free version of Quake 3: Arena. You download the client and when you want to play you connect to the Quake Live website, which acts as the front end. The service will include all the typical bells and whistles players are used to plus a few extras, such as buddy lists. Pretty cool for being free, eh? While it is supported through in-game advertising, how the advertising will be worked is unknown. Most likely it will consist of splash screens in between matches, which is fine by me. (expect lots of Mountain Dew commercials) You can currently sign up and hope to be selected for the Quake Live beta test at their Quakelive.com website.

Battlefield: Heroes is a big-name free online FPS that's being made by DICE. Battlefield: Heroes takes the elements of the Battlefield franchise and puts a spin on them. Bf:H is a WWII cartoon shooter. "Cartoon shooter" is just another way of saying that it looks like Team Fortress 2's cell-shaded characters. If you've never played any of the Battlefield games, they are class-based online FPS games that tend to lean towards the tactical side. Whether Bf:H will lean towards tactical is unknown, but somehow I doubt it. Bf:H will also be supported through in-game advertising and micro-payments. These micro-payments are for aesthetics only (meaning a new hat or a new uniform) and will not be used for weaponry. So you won't have to worry about players paying $10 for a kick-ass gun and unbalancing the gameplay.
(see trailer at the end of the article for more)

I don't know about anyone else, but this new development is pretty damn cool. It's a good way to get server support money, which I assume is the main idea behind these games. Asides from that, it is a good way to launch people into some of the for-pay products that these companies offer. Some astute observers might be thinking, "but Quake 3 came out years ago!" Yeah, it did. id, however, is working on a new Quake: Arena product that will be using id Tech 5, the engine behind their upcoming FPS driving/shooter, Rage.

I've actually tried some of the free-to-play games out there and many truly are lackluster. Gunz was fun, but is loaded with hackers which can easily ruin the fun. America's Army is actually pretty decent, but is extremely tactical (think Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear) and can be a bit hard to jump into. WarRock, to be blunt, sucked really, really, really hard. All of these were developed by very small softhouses, therefore the games typically lack a lot of what players have come to expect from games like Battlefield 2, Quake Wars, Quake Arena, Team Fortress and so on. With major developers releasing these free online shooters, those problems should be fixed. I'm hopeful for now. Maybe I'll see ya on the battlefield?


Battlefield: Heroes Trailer

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Sperm fight!

The title might seem a bit misleading, but it was the first thing I thought of. And i find it funny. Apparently a Georgia war widow was involved in a legal dispute over her husbands sperm. Some things you just can't make up.

The widow of a Georgia-based soldier killed in Iraq said on Monday that her mother-in-law has agreed not to stand in the way of her efforts to be artificially inseminated with her husband's sperm so she can have his baby.

Before he died March 31 of wounds suffered when an explosive detonated near his vehicle in Baghdad, Army Sgt. Dayne Darren Dhanoolal had talked often with his wife about having children.

Dhanoolal had signed a military form designating his mother as the person to handle disposition of his remains if he died while serving. After his death, however, a probate judge appointed his wife as temporary administrator of his estate. The wife maintained that gives her control of her husband's remains. He did not have a will.

A federal judge in Columbus granted a request Friday by the widow for a temporary restraining order preventing the military from embalming the soldier's body until after samples of his sperm were extracted from his body.

The samples were taken later that day and are in the custody of a medical representative for the widow.

The widow said Monday that there is no dispute anymore and her mother-in-law has acknowledged the couple's wishes regarding children.
- Source

Yep. Sucking sperm out of a dead dude. Maybe I'm the only one that finds that kind of strange. I didn't even think that sperm would last that long. I just hope that when i die, no one bothers to fight over my sperm and realizes that it is a wonderful to share. Share with anyone. Even random strangers. Preferably wiped on their backs or tousled into their hair.

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Cheers! Slainte Mhor! Prost!

Today marks a delightful milestone for Americans. The first step of the repeal of prohibition, being able to drink a damn beer. On April 7th, 1933 prohibition was sort of ended. FDR raised the alcohol minimum from 0.5% to 3.2%. True repeal of prohibition wasn't until the following December 5th. With that, the bootleggers and mob connections that profiteered so much from illegal booze soon had to find their dirty money elsewhere. So, today, tonight, raise a mug high and toast what was the first step of regaining your freedom from nitpicking religious fanatics to relax and enjoy a drink.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt had been president barely a month, having been sworn in on March 4 after a landslide victory the previous November. Sweeping into power with him was an anti-Prohibition majority in Congress known as "the wets."

Together they fulfilled their first campaign promise with passage of the Cullen-Harrison Act, which increased the amount of alcohol allowed in beverages from 0.5 percent to a discernible 3.2 percent by weight.

When the act took effect at 12:01 a.m. ET April 7, trucks and carriages burst out of brewery gates bearing cases and barrels of beer for a parched republic -- at least for the District of Columbia and the 20 states whose laws permitted it. Several breweries dispatched cases directly to the White House and the Capitol.

According to the Brewers Association, more than 1.5 million barrels were snapped up in the first 24 hours.

"It's a big deal. ... The whole industry of beer has gotten together to say this date is definitely historic," said Julia Herz, spokeswoman for the Brewers Association, which represents smaller "craft" brewers.

In St. Louis, Missouri, megabrewer Anheuser-Busch is throwing a big bash, complete with historical exhibits and an appearance by the company's famous Clydesdale horses.

Indeed it is a big day. It marks a major milestone in progressive and secular thinking. To some it may be just a semblance to get drunk. For others, such as myself, it represents freedom from oppressive religious fanatics bent on forcing the world to their dogmatic interpretations. Some might see that as a far stretch, but consider much of the fanatic Muslim world where alcohol is prohibited due to religious interpretation. Much of what drove the prohibition movement was, in fact, religious wrangling.

Remnants of Prohibition survive today in the form of state-owned liquor stores and local laws that, for example, prevent sales of alcohol on Sundays or in grocery stores. Some counties remain entirely dry, banning alcohol sales altogether, and 3.2 beer is still sold in six states (Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma and Utah), according to Modern Brewery Age magazine.
- Source

Well, obviously not everyone is going to be celebrating. All of this does make me wonder, though... How much longer until we will be celebrating the same with cannabis? It only took a scant 13 years for people to realize that prohibition didn't work with alcohol. How much longer will it take, how many more people will have their lives ruined from incarceration because of cannabis and other soft drugs before the federal government realizes it's the exact same thing? We have the largest number of inmates imprisoned in the world, and estimates are that 15% to as much as 30% of those are non-violent drug offenders.

Anyways, enough of that.

Cheers! Prost! Slainte Mhor! And may we be here for another beer next year and many, many more.






The Pogues
Repeal of The Licensing Laws

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Blu-ray combo TVs coming soon. All your fun belong to us.

Remember those TVs that had VCRs in them? Pretty nifty idea. Instead if having to deal with a separate box, plugging it in, and having wires frayed all over the place, it was conveniently put into the TV casing. That idea is now getting a next-gen (or is it finally just "now-gen"?) approach thanks to Sony.

Speaking at a conference in Taipei, Sony’s president and chief operating officer Ryoji Chubachi said he wanted to more than double Blu-Ray’s market share, and the solution is to put the discs in more products.

“Integrating an HD LCD TV with BD recording functionality” is one way of boosting Blu-Ray’s presence in the living room, the Sony boss said, adding that more IT products would see Blu-Ray functionality soon.
- Source

Pretty damn cool, if you ask me. Personally, I think HD-DVD is the better format for video playback where data size is not as important as read speed, but whatever. I also don't like LCD, as dead pixels (burnt out LEDs) are nearly impossible to fix unless you are willing to spend a small fortune. The burn-in problems with plasma are a thing of the past the color is just as good if not better than most LCD TVs and plasmas last a much longer time, but whatever. Blu-ray won and it's time to start getting those video player/TV combos rolling on out.

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Dear Microsoft. Thanks for showing us the future, and then shitting all over it.

I remember when I first heard about Games for Windows - Live. There was a lot of gnashing of teeth over the Gold membership and how this was ruining online PC gaming. Of course, the notion is complete rubbish, as Silver membership is free and gives you everything that online gaming has now. All that Gold membership did was enable cross-platform play (PC vs 360) and TruSkill matchmaking (assigns players to maps based on their skill to create a more balanced experience). The thing I was excited about, cross platform play. Microsoft opened the world to an idea of new possibilities by proclaiming to bridge the gap between consoles and PCs. The control scheme difference can be corrected through improved leading and auto-aim correction to make up for the joypad's lack of finesse, as they did in Shadowrun. Fuck it, I would have even been willing to go out and buy a damn 360 control pad for my PC if games used Unreal Tournament 3's method of hosting. (which I'll get into later)

Either way you viewed it, good or bad, many were excited about cross platform online play. Notice how I used past tense? That's because no one is excited about it anymore. Microsoft proclaimed to bridge the gap and usher in a new era of online gaming. Then they shat all over it and left it for dead. Believe it or not, but I would have been willing to pay the $49.99 for 12 months subscription. That is, I would have if their were any fucking games to play cross platform then or even now.

How many cross platform games are there, you might ask? Well, between PC and 360: two. Yes, two measly fucking game. The games? Universe At War: Earth Assualt and the aforementioned Shadowrun. Funny thing about Shadowrun... the developers went bankrupt and closed up shop. The PC servers have been teetering on the edge of deletion for several months and it's probably just a matter of time. Which is just dandy for anyone who got duped into buying a Gold account. What's the fucking point? You barely get anything worthwhile with the Games For Windows - Live account and the only reason many did it anyways was to play with their online counterparts. It's now blatantly obvious that Microsoft doesn't give a shit about the only real selling point for GfW - Live. Even with the upcoming rerelease of Lost Planet (dubbed Lost Planet: Colonies), GfW - Live's cross platform multiplayer support is still complete rubbish. With the new Lost Planet, that's now a whopping total of 3 games, 1 of which no one plays anymore and the other two that no one gives a shit about.

Recently it was announced that Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway will support cross platform multiplayer when it's released. The joke: cross platform multiplayer between Playstation 3 and PC ONLY. Yep, PS3 and PC players can go toe to toe fragging each other into historically based gibs, but the 360 is left out in the cold. Why? Who the fuck knows. It seems ludicrously idiotic that at least PC to 360 play isn't included considering Microsoft has the distribution model already in place to enable and promote cross platform. All of this is forgetting all about PS3 to 360 play, which do support similar control schemes, but that issue is more of a hardware one than anything else.

Most cross platform developed games routinely get the "will this have cross platform multiplayer?" question asked. And the answer is routinely, "no." Upcoming online horror/survival FPS Left 4 Dead was rumored to be looking into cross platform multiplayer. Will it have it when Left 4 Dead ships sometimes 3rd quarter of this year? Hell no. For all the hand-wringing that accompanies shouts of "mouse and keyboard gives players an unfair advantage", the argument falls really flat. The cries of disadvantages are real and warranted, however, these can be overcome using the scheme that Unreal Tournament 3 uses for the PS3, which is an option of sequestering PS3 m&k (mouse & keyboard) players from regular joypad players. The PS3 openly supports keyboard and mouse. There are k&m peripherals for the 360 (which would leverage the laying field for cross platform multiplayer), yet Microsoft seems to shit all over that, too, refusing to support any m&k peripherals for anything other than chatting and for interface use. They simply do not want people gaming on their console with m&k. The fact that Epic included m&k support for the PS3 proves that console users are interested in PC-style control schemes.

Speaking of Unreal 3, what a great idea. Now, Unreal 3 does not support cross-platform play. The reasoning was pretty damn weak. Epic said it was because patches for the PS3 require certification and approval , which would delay their release. Epic claims that they didn't want to upset their core PC-user base by requiring them to wait longer for patches due to the PS3. Yeah... whatever. I smell bullshit. But the method to handle m&k support for the PS3 is ingeniously simple and should be used with all games that plan to support cross-platform multiplayer. When hosting a game, you can choose to have only m&k players, only joypad players, or both. This is brilliant. Excpet, Microsoft refuses to support m&k gaming for their console. Still, this means that 360 players could join in on joypad servers. Or, here's a thought, make it so that if you want to play against 360 users on your PC you must use a joypad. Not necessarily the 360 joypad, but a joypad of some sort.

So, why are so few games being released with cross platform multiplayer? Why am I leveraging all of this on Microsoft? Because Microsoft was the one that said, "hey! Check this out! Huh!? Pretty, cool, right?" Then absolutely failed to deliver. If Sony was the one that came out saying cross platform was going to be big, hot, awesome shit, I'd be bitching about Sony. But they didn't, and so I won't. As to why so few games support cross platform multiplayer, it's not a secret. Licensing. There's all sorts of legal wrangling that must occur in order for this to happen. In essence, bureaucratic bullshit from pencil pushers is fucking up everyone's possibility to enjoy these games to their fullest potential. Some whisperings in darkened corners have even said that the big 3 require additional licensing fees if developers wish to enable cross platform. There has been no substantial evidence to support this, as no developer has actually said such a thing. It's all just pure speculation.

Some might wonder, "what's the point? Who cares if PS3, PC and 360 players can all play the same together. The servers are populated enough." Not really. One of the biggest killers for multiplayer console games is that everyone gets wrapped up in the latest game and jumps ship. This limited number of users can be easily alleviated by allowing other console and PC players join in as well. Instead of having a small number from X, Y, and Z only be able to play their respective counterparts (X to X, Y to Y, Z to Z) they can now all pool together and play against each other (Z + Y + Z = AWESOME). Sparse player population solved.

With all that said, it's a shame that cross platform multiplayer is basically regarded as dead. It shouldn't be and Microsoft's lackluster support on the issue is a travesty, especially after they promoted the idea so heavily. It's easy to blame the developers, but when Microsoft is unwilling to support a simple interface that would easily bridge the gap and eliminate such unfairness, you have to begin to wonder where the fault actually lies. Tying the hands of developers and forcing them to gimmick-up their control schemes is stupid and counterproductive. In short: Thank you, Microsoft, for showing us the future of online multiplayer, shitting all over it, abandoning it and leaving the idea to die in the dust.

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Blue Mountain Brewery on the Sunday Session.

If you like beer, especially if you like learning about beer, then you probably listen to The Brewing Network. If you don't, then you really should. It's a great podcast network, they have great guests, and you can really learn a lot. With the Sunday Session it's not just boring educational beer-snobbery either. There's a lot of cracking jokes, profanity, and drinking going on.


This particular show that I'm linking holds a very personal affinity for me. Why? Because they're chatting with Taylor Smack from Blue Mountain Brewery which I make a point to stop in every time I drive to Richmond. It's right along the way and gives me a good excuse to stop and walk about.

So, listen up.

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John Arbuckle is shizophrenic.

I read the comics in the paper every day. If I can. The only time I don't read the comics in the paper is if the paper, for some reason, is not available. As a kid I loved Garfield. I still have some of those Garfield books. However, Garfield, while still humorous, really isn't all that hilarious. By hilarious, I mean "laugh out loud funny." There are many comics like that and there are many that actually do elicit an audible chuckle. I have finally found Garfield funny again. "Laugh out loud" kind of funny, too. All it takes is a matter of perspective.

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb.
- Source

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George on Two Girls.

Yep. George on two girls. One cup. Not me, mind you, but George Clooney. If you haven't heard of Two "Girls, One Cup", then you've missed out. And count yourself fortunate for missing out. There are some things, my friend, that you simply cannot unwatch. Things that eternally burn images into your mind. "Two Girls, One Cup" is one of those things. I've seen people shot in the head. I'm sure many have seen the infamous Buddhist monk lighting himself afire in protest of the Vietnam war. It's pretty crazy, but it pales, fails, and falls horrendously short of the horrors that "Two Girls, One Cup" provides.

Postponing the inevitable, I will explain what "Two Girls, One Cup" (if you know of it) has to do with George Clooney. And why George Clooney? Because his new movie Leatherheads is released today.

Actually, and I'm not even going to get to the fucking point in this paragraph, this video is horrible. After this, you will never view things the same. For better or for worse. No, I don't mean that to be a double entendre. I actually do like For Better or For Worse, but I digress. No, "Two Girls, One Cup" will not enrich you. But neither does killing a man in Reno, whether to watch him die or just to steal his wallet. After watching aforementioned clip, you might actually feel as if you are dead or that you would rather be. It's a VERY real possibility.

Clooney's been pretty comfortable with all this so far. He's not easily thrown by his own fame or by the brutal assessments of the fame obsessed. But what about the larger dangers of the Web? I realize that I've spent a couple of hours showing Clooney sites about Clooney, but I haven't asked him, Does he ever go on the Internet?

"I go on YouTube when somebody says to look something up," he answers. "There was one a few years ago that killed me. Look up 'monkey smells butt.'"

I type it in. Up pops a video of a chimp sticking his finger up his butt, smelling it, then promptly passing out.

Clooney roars with laughter. "He just smells it and goes woooah and flops off the side. That always kills me."

At this point, I make a segue that seemed relevant at the time but in retrospect was probably a very bad idea. "You know," I tell him, "I asked the guy who does the Esquire Website what I should show George Clooney, and he said, 'Show him 2 Girls 1 Cup.' "

"What's that?"

"It's the most disturbing video in the history of videos."

"Show it to me."

"Really? I don't know."

"I can take it," Clooney says. "I'm a grown-up. We're all grown-ups."

"It's scarring. It'll scar you forever."

"Is it long?" he asks.

"No," I tell him, "but it's so disturbing. I saw it once and can never get it out of my mind. I can't watch it again."

"I want to see it."

Well, he asked. After a bit of searching, I find the link. I click it.

After several seconds: "It's not so bad," he says.

Three seconds later: "Oh."

Another two seconds: "Oh, my GOD! Oh, my God!! Oh, my God!"

Clooney puts his hand over his mouth like he's going to throw up. He bolts from his chair and walks out of the room.

Clooney's longtime PR guy, Stan Rosenfield, wants to know what the fuss is about. Clooney tells him he just watched the most repulsive video he's ever seen. Rosenfield wants to see it.

"I want to go at least one second more than George."

"I've got to watch Stan watch it," Clooney says, recomposing himself. "It's like the rodeo -- see how long you can last."
- Source

Honestly, truly, Two Girls One Cup is exactly like a rodeo. It's twisted, sick, fucked up, horrendous, revolting, disgusting, purely vile, immensely grotesque shit that no one should see, but if you can manage to hold on and watch all of it... you got balls of steel. Just like the BME Pain Olympics, and well... BME in general. I don't know if these kinds of things are bad or not. I'm not a psychology major, though I do know a few of them. I can't honestly say that this will alter an individuals mind frame, as I don't feel anywhere near qualified to offer an opinion on such matters. But when you see George Clooney and if you see Leatherheads... think about "Two Girls, Once Cup."



If you feel brave enough to ride the rodeo... here you go.

NOT SAFE FOR WORK

actually....

NOT SAFE FOR ANYWHERE

I warned you

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Penny Arcade discusess Army of Two, bro.

Man, I love Penny Arcade. They're geeky, awkward, but genuinely wonderful people. Child's Play is a wonderful idea, and has routinely raked in big bucks for the cause. PAX usually draws good crowds and typically has a rather diverse panel of speakers. It was at PAX that Wil Wheaton of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame issued his credo for online gaming: "don't be a dick."

So, when I found out that Penny Arcade has a podcast, I was ecstatic. Thirty minutes to an hour of Jerry and Mike cracking jokes, brainstorming, yakking about shit, all while trying to come up with the right idea for their comic? Oh yes, I was there. Totally there.

In this particular podcast, the discussion centered mainly around Army of Two. How pointless and weird that the characters' fascination around buying gold-plated guns and new mask designs were. About how it would have made more sense if they were gay. How incredibly dumb and unlikable the characters are. There was also lengthy discussion of and excessive the use of the word "bro", as well as random shouts by Mike of "laddies, lift your shirts!"

This might very well be beyond the scope of weird or geeky for those that may not know the Penny Arcade boys. Irregardless, it is rather interesting to listen to them brainstorming to come up with an idea for the comic and provides quite a few incredibly hilarious moments. (Jerry going to check Google to find out the proper name of the "fist pound" for one)

03/07/2008 Our Crucial Pamphlet

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State Radio - Keepsake

State Radio - Keepsake
(via last.fm)

State Radio – Keepsake

lyrics after the jump

One gonna heal my body another gonna heal my pain
One gonna settle me down then bring me back up again

I’m gonna put my family back together again

One gonna hold my woman another gonna hold my job
One gonna help me get up, another gonna help me stop

One gonna help me talk right, one gonna lay me down to sleep

One gonna hold my thoughts and another gonna hold my bones
One gonna keep me warm and another gonna keep me cold

One gonna bring religon, right from a Coleman stove
One gonna help me keep em’ another gonna help me tame

One gonna run me down (Hell a bullets in my way)

You’re gonna keep my soul it was yours to have long ago

I’m gonna buckle my belt around the ceiling pipe
I’m gonna buckle my knees and I’m gonna lock em’ up tight

I’m gonna hold a pen while you drag my arm across the page

One gonna hold my memories another gonna close the door
One gonna leave me restless another wanting more

You’re gonna keep my soul it was yours to have long ago

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Must... download... porn... faster...

This isn't really all that new. It's been an ongoing process for quite some time, and it seems to get dug up every few months whenever tech news is slow. But I'll address it anyways.

The process for a new internet protocol is something that needs to happen. As it is, the internet is not very safe. It's also not that fast. The code is enough to get the job done but is fairly clunky. Even the way in which the packets are sent is cumbersome. That's why some very smart people from a slew of universities are working on Internet2. Though, one would think they could have come up with a better name. Or at least given it a revision stamp, like Web 2.0 got.

Engineers are developing a new type of Internet connection called a dynamic-circuit network that could carry so much data so quickly it might startle even Net surfers in Japan or South Korea. If all goes to plan, the vast data speeds required for such a collaboration may soon be available to all. That might go a long way to solving the problem of how to handle the enormous growth in Internet traffic, which by some estimates is doubling each year.

When a digital photo, YouTube clip or live streaming video is sent over the Internet, the data is first divided into packets, which are routed to the destination and then reassembled. This method tends to break down when large amounts of information are sent along similar pathways at the same time—the different packets are prone to getting hung up on bottlenecks. The result is a Web page that crashes or an online videoconference that sputters and skips. As the Internet starts to stagger under the weight of more and more data, such problems are increasingly common.

This really is becoming a major problem, whether you notice it or not, as bandwidth for so much of out multimedia-rich web traffic is becoming an ever increasingly enormous strain. And that's not just in the US, where our internet connections (despite inventing the fucking thing) are considered by most of Asia to be laughably pathetic. For example, Youtube is said to use up 10% of all internet traffic. P2P (peer to peer filesharing) is estimated to use 36% of internet traffic. Now, this kind of traffic is vastly different from your normal HTTP traffic of simply browsing sites. This is streaming content that is roughly 3+MB in filesize, in the case of Youtube, and most P2P files are 200MB-8GB. That's a lot of fucking 1's and 0's.

Some ISPs have suggested that Youtube should pay for some of this bandwidth that their site is using so much of. The assertion is that it's unfair for ISPs to take the brunt while Youtube receives massive profits from advertising revenue, none of which goes back to the ISPs that are actually connecting the users to such sites to create revenue. This is what Net Neutrality was really about. ISPs trying to essentially shake down sites that use large amounts of their bandwidth to ensure good connectivity. It's like saying that since a hot spot of town draws a lot of vehicular traffic, the city is going to charge those businesses more in taxes due to higher needs for road repair in that area.

One can argue whether such actions are permissible or not, but the real underlying issue is this: Using the same car analogy, imagine that these roads to this hot spot are all one lane roads without stop lights or stop signs. It's creating massive traffic backup. That's the problem with the internet as it currently stands. We are creating massive connectivity problems, and this is where an estimated half to two-thirds of our country has online access. Of which 80% use some form of broadband.

The potential difference in data speed is staggering. Whereas a PC can now stream two simultaneous video channels, on a dynamic-circuit network it could send 4,000 channels at once. Downloading a high-definition movie over a cable Internet connection of 4.5 megabytes per second would take about three hours. Over a 10-gigabit-per-second dynamic-circuit network, the same movie would download in five seconds.

Sounds pretty awesome, doesn't it? However, one of the largest problems with fixing this issue is the fact that our communication infrastructure is old as shit and not built to reliably handle such data.

Dynamic-circuit network technology would solve the bottleneck problem by opening up a dedicated route from one point to another through which data can be sent without interruption, at speeds thousands of times faster than what's possible now. Just as quickly, the pathway can be closed and space made available for the next connection. The technology would require some new software and fiber-optic links right up to the PC, but otherwise no change in infrastructure.
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Oh, that's all we need? Just a few fiber optic cables strung across the entire USA, connecting into every house in every city and town? Yeah, that seems hella easy. Especially considering there are still towns in the USA that don't even have fucking telephones. Yeah, that's right. Not even fucking regular ring-a-ding landline telephones.

While Internet1 is open to pretty much anyone with a computer, access to Internet2 is limited to a select few, and its backbone is made up entirely of large-capacity fiber-optic cables.
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Not to shit on the idea behind Internet2, it sounds pretty great, but you must consider that in the USA fiber optics only account for 2% of all connections. Korea, on the other hand, is at a beefy 24% with Japan (of course) leading at 31%. Worldwide, fiber is 10% of all connections. (Source) Maybe it's just me, but it seems that trouncing Internet2 for the USA is putting the buggy before the horse.

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It's not D.B.'s.

The parachute that was thought to possibly have been used by D.B. Cooper during his escape from a hijacked 727.... was not one of the four parachutes provided. THe parachute that was found was made of silk. The parachute Cooper used was nylon.

The FBI, which at first responded Tuesday by saying the matter remained under investigation, late Tuesday afternoon confirmed that there was no connection between the parachute and Cooper.

Cossey, who sold parachutes at a skydiving operation in Issaquah in the 1970s, had provided the chutes Cooper used. He told The Columbian of Vancouver that the newly found chute "absolutely, for sure" could not have been one of the four that he provided.

"The D.B. Cooper parachute was made of nylon," he said. "This 1945 parachute was made of silk."
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Oh well. Not that confirming it actually was D.B.'s parachute would have made much difference. The guy has never been found or even remotely heard from. None of his money has been accounted for, asides from a $5,000 bundle that was found in the '80s. Did Cooper actually survive to enjoy his ill-gotten fortune? Who knows. And does it really matter anyways?

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