Do you ever feel like you just Didn't Get The Memo?
That's what happened today when I spotted an email from MoveOn, encouraging me to sign their petition on Internet freedom. Huh? I thought the Internet was already free (to a good home). Well, okay .. free if you have an account with an ISP and can afford a computer, or live within moseying distance of someone who does (or even a public liberry).
Anyhoo, MoveOn pointed me to a video of Moby; an audio clip of Moby; an Air America interview with Moby; a CNN highlight of Moby; and an Associated Press story on Moby. Supposedly the Gun Owners of America (who?), some Hollywood musicians (REM, Moby, others), and a Stack of Librarians are all in agreement about this legislation.
I haven't given much thought to Net Neutrality, although it's stirring considerable attention (see Hardware firms oppose Net neutrality laws for one side to the story). Then again, after hearing some of the sleazy things BellSouth was trying to do, followed by last week's bombshell about AT&T and Verizon turning over our phone records to the NSA, and now they and Comcast and Time Warner are all trying to get this "internet gatekeeper" legislation passed. Hmm .. if they're for it, I should probably be against it, right?
I'm not so sure there's something broken, and that new laws are needed. Maybe I oughta Read Up Some More about this? The opposing sides appear to be lining up behind HandsOff.org and Save the Internet.com. Hmm .. time to install an Internet Terminal in The Latrine(tm).
Thursday, May 18
Sunday, May 14
view from ground level
A few days ago, I noticed a fast-growing mushroom in my front yard. Needless to say, the lawnmower had already shaved the cap (I assume it had a cap!) but this one had an unusually thick stalk, and made for an entertaining close-up (left).
I tried to dodge it the next time, to allow it to grow into whatever nature intended, but .. the mower got a bit close and turned it into mold spores.
Saturday, May 13
Cousin Ray
I wonder if Ray McGovern is one of my relatives. I hope so; I'd like to have him as a cousin. My maternal grandmother was a McGovern, so .. maybe it's possible.
Ray McGovern is the one who stood up to Donald Rumsfeld last week (4 May 2006), and was mentioned in 2004 in a Mother Jones' article titled The Skeptical Spy.
Ray McGovern is the one who stood up to Donald Rumsfeld last week (4 May 2006), and was mentioned in 2004 in a Mother Jones' article titled The Skeptical Spy.
Wednesday, May 10
a solid F
Yesterday, HayJax' DSL was down. Today, it was my turn for a DSL outage.
SBCat&t's Tech Support ["ATS"] was less than perfect; when they asked what model modem I was using, I told him "Zoom X6".
After hanging up, I muttered (to No One In Particular), "Thanks for Nothing."
I give them a solid F for the day.
The link came back online a few hours later, no thanks to ATS. Now, I notice that my contract expires in the next few days, and they're running a $17.99 promo for new subscribers only. I'd give Verizon a call, but they're one of the trio of phone companies that handed over my phone records to the NSA, so I'm not in the mood to give them my business, either. I wonder who else would like my DSL business?
This is not the modem SBC supplied when I signed up, years ago. When i upgraded to the faster "DSL Pro" package, the SBC modem (a SpeedStream 5360 from Efficient Networks) couldn't take the higher speed of ADSL 2/2+, so I bought the Zoom from CompUSA rather than pay SBC's inflated price.Almost immediately, ATS said my modem was at fault, and I'd have to buy one of their (overpriced) modems if I wanted support. At the end of the call, I thanked ATS, and assured him it wasn't the modem. Being more perturbed than usual (!), I said something like "well, I guess i'll just have to wait until the DSL link magically reappears" and he said "yes, that's correct".
After hanging up, I muttered (to No One In Particular), "Thanks for Nothing."
I give them a solid F for the day.
The link came back online a few hours later, no thanks to ATS. Now, I notice that my contract expires in the next few days, and they're running a $17.99 promo for new subscribers only. I'd give Verizon a call, but they're one of the trio of phone companies that handed over my phone records to the NSA, so I'm not in the mood to give them my business, either. I wonder who else would like my DSL business?
Sunday, May 7
Watts Up?
Karl was in town for The Derby, and we rendezvoused at Poor Richard's Cafe in Plano. I've heard about this Fine Dining Establishment for several years; Eric (the Redneck) was the first one to Clue Me In. They only seat 260 (so says the sign) so I was amused that there was no waiting for our party of six. And we even scored a jumbo-booth: woo hoo.
After feeding on Ranch Eggs (Huevos Rancheros), I moseyed over to Fry's. And I do mean Mosey in the real connotation. That's often dangerous for me, as I often Shop Like A Guy: go straight for The Thing and then aim straight for The Register. So, I suppose I got off light .. $156 later I strolled out with a 3-pack of air, a replacement spotlight (for locating Beta the Wonder Dog at 3am) and a power meter called a watts up? PRO.
Naturally, once I got the power meter home, I discovered it used an oh-so-quaint DB9 connector, instead of USB. So, it was back to the store for a converter. You'd think by now my Closet Of Horrors would have every adapter known to man, but .. no.
I'm sure I'll blog on this in gory detail Real Soon Now, but playing with the watts up? has already taught me:
1- my reading light uses more watts (100) than my TV (65) and TiVo (11) combined;
2- the old Pentium laptop uses 3 watts while charging; 23 when in use; and 35 when the CPU is maxed out (UD Agent). If I disable the Wireless-G adapter it saves a mere 1.3 watts.
More fascinating observations as I continue playing ...
After feeding on Ranch Eggs (Huevos Rancheros), I moseyed over to Fry's. And I do mean Mosey in the real connotation. That's often dangerous for me, as I often Shop Like A Guy: go straight for The Thing and then aim straight for The Register. So, I suppose I got off light .. $156 later I strolled out with a 3-pack of air, a replacement spotlight (for locating Beta the Wonder Dog at 3am) and a power meter called a watts up? PRO.
Naturally, once I got the power meter home, I discovered it used an oh-so-quaint DB9 connector, instead of USB. So, it was back to the store for a converter. You'd think by now my Closet Of Horrors would have every adapter known to man, but .. no.
I'm sure I'll blog on this in gory detail Real Soon Now, but playing with the watts up? has already taught me:
1- my reading light uses more watts (100) than my TV (65) and TiVo (11) combined;
2- the old Pentium laptop uses 3 watts while charging; 23 when in use; and 35 when the CPU is maxed out (UD Agent). If I disable the Wireless-G adapter it saves a mere 1.3 watts.
More fascinating observations as I continue playing ...
Tuesday, May 2
musical minorities
If you paid attention, you could see the impact of yesterday's "Day of Action". I noticed a dearth of "gardener carts" (pulled by ubiquitous F250s). Fiesta Mart's parking lot was only 75% full.
Of the five (5) people who were working at the car wash, three were Hispanic (and hence obviously illegal); a fourth was African and the greeter appeared Irish. I stopped by another grocery and noticed that today's checkers were African instead of Mexican, while the guys stocking the shelves and tending the produce were Guatemalan.
The worst experience was when I used the drive-thru at a QSR (fast food) and noticed the (Pakistani? Indian?) owners (probably) were manning the cash register. They were more incompetent than the usual Salvadorans-behind-the-register. The owners operated serially: take the order, prepare the order, take cash, make change, deliver product. Then (and only then) take an order from the next vehicle. There has to be a better way.
Yesterday, the order of the day was substitutions: one minority for another. Today, it'll be Business As Usual.
Memo to the INS (or whatever they're called, post 9/11): I was able to spot several dozen illegals within a few minutes yesterday. Can't you just put them all on boxcars and ship them back, south of the Rio Grande? I look forward to more Pakistani managers at the drive-thru.
Unrelated (?): whatever happened to The Frito Bandito?
Of the five (5) people who were working at the car wash, three were Hispanic (and hence obviously illegal); a fourth was African and the greeter appeared Irish. I stopped by another grocery and noticed that today's checkers were African instead of Mexican, while the guys stocking the shelves and tending the produce were Guatemalan.
The worst experience was when I used the drive-thru at a QSR (fast food) and noticed the (Pakistani? Indian?) owners (probably) were manning the cash register. They were more incompetent than the usual Salvadorans-behind-the-register. The owners operated serially: take the order, prepare the order, take cash, make change, deliver product. Then (and only then) take an order from the next vehicle. There has to be a better way.
Yesterday, the order of the day was substitutions: one minority for another. Today, it'll be Business As Usual.
Memo to the INS (or whatever they're called, post 9/11): I was able to spot several dozen illegals within a few minutes yesterday. Can't you just put them all on boxcars and ship them back, south of the Rio Grande? I look forward to more Pakistani managers at the drive-thru.
Unrelated (?): whatever happened to The Frito Bandito?
Monday, May 1
Día del Trabajo
Looking at my calendar, I see that today is "Día del Trabajo", which is Mexican Labor Day. That's somewhat funny, since about 11.5 million of their citizens, now permanently evicted AWOL from Mexico, want to go on strike today in the US. Maybe I'll try to get a car wash, or order a Happy Meal(tm) at McDonald's, just to see whether they have any impact at all.
Maybe this symbolic "boycott" will have an effect in some of the low-rent districts where the illegals live, but I'm guessing it'll be hard to tell the difference in my part of town. I'm expecting about zero economic impact, since stores catering to that community stayed opened late yesterday and did a brisk business in anticipation of today's holiday.
The way I see it, many of these illegals want it both ways; they want money here by doing unskilled labor (nannies, car washers, restaurant help, cleaning crews, fast food workers) but don't want to renounce their Mexican citizenship, don't want to Learn The Language, and certainly don't want taxes withheld from their (mostly cash) wages.
The result -- they send $US billions back to their families in the (even more) politically corrupt*, poverty-stricken nation to our south, so that even more of them can Escape. Eventually, the old immigrants will retaliate against the new immigrants, whose increasing numbers will drive the oldsters' wages down.
Maybe this symbolic "boycott" will have an effect in some of the low-rent districts where the illegals live, but I'm guessing it'll be hard to tell the difference in my part of town. I'm expecting about zero economic impact, since stores catering to that community stayed opened late yesterday and did a brisk business in anticipation of today's holiday.
The way I see it, many of these illegals want it both ways; they want money here by doing unskilled labor (nannies, car washers, restaurant help, cleaning crews, fast food workers) but don't want to renounce their Mexican citizenship, don't want to Learn The Language, and certainly don't want taxes withheld from their (mostly cash) wages.
The result -- they send $US billions back to their families in the (even more) politically corrupt*, poverty-stricken nation to our south, so that even more of them can Escape. Eventually, the old immigrants will retaliate against the new immigrants, whose increasing numbers will drive the oldsters' wages down.
*Corruption is widespread in Mexico, where they make Karl Rove's manipulation of US laws look like a stroll in the park.By Friday ("Cinco de Mayo"), most Americans will have forgotten about today's Event. May 5th is a bigger celebration here than in Mexico. Many stoopid Americans think Cinco de Mayo is Mexican Independence Day, which it ain't (that's September 16th). The official holiday is "Aniversario de la Batalla de Puebla" which has become an equivalent to the Irish' St. Patrick's Day, where the goal is for Americans to get drunk. Big woop.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
