Blog of Billy

First off, all those who are pleased by the local music scene, and those who find ear-filling rock to be a good way to spend some time, give a listen to Fist of Five.

I'm done at the Worx. The guy I was replacing has come back, and now there's nothing to do but bill for my time.

After reading a bit at a friend's suggestion, I've come to the conclusion that net neutrality is a genuinely good thing. The argument for it is that it is antithetical to both the spirit and practice of the Internet to try and create a "higher tier" of netizens. I can still remember a speech I got from Clayton Liabraaten at an old OKCPCUG meeting. He pointed out that the real power of the Internet is that it is the great equalizer. Your bits are treated exactly as well as anyone else's bits. That's part of the power, and how such lowly sites as the Drudge Report and the old Google can compete with the likes of The New York Times and Microsoft. I think this has been an incredibly powerful and useful model that is the base for all the wonderful things the Internet has given us. Stripping out that base prevents new forms of powerful equality (blogs? webcasts?) and gets us dangerously close to the "short haul-long haul" problems of the last century. The arguments against it are basically two-fold. First, there's the claim that this will slow down development of certain broadband services, like VoIP and broadband video. Not only is this not true (proper use of QoS and faster compression mechanisms make both eminently useable even now), but there's something that kind of hurts my little Communist/Christian heart about starting the "forget the rest of the world, I want nice things for me" mantra already. The rest of the (reasonable) arguments I've seen are all in the generic vein of government regulation bad. Even if you think the free market is a good idea, keep in mind that cable companies are a monopoly, so there are no market forces at work if they start to do sketchy things. In Oklahoma, I can't get cable Internet access from Comcast if I get mad at Cox, and companies acting on their own generally can't be trusted. Besides, if Barak Obama agrees, I can't be too far from correct.

I found my black rimmed sunglasses. Yay!

It's always hard to disappoint, especially when the disappointee is someone who you honestly do care for. Luckily, the nights always get better.

Don't ask me how I know.