The price of free conversation

I choose to keep my online lives segmented in such a way that it becomes difficult to gather enough info to fully target me with advertising that will actually reach me, and more to attract the ads that will amuse me. I do this by slipping in random items in profiles, titles, postings, etc. The goal is to have these red herrings come back to me as adverts that I can then see the connection. While this is a seemingly innocuous hobby of mine, occasionally it happens (as so many wonderful things in life), completely by accident.

The culprit: Facebook Chat
Topic: Female Mormon Blogs
Ad: Female Mormon Blog

It was innocent enough, a friend and I were chatting on Facebook chat about how fascinating she was finding these female Mormon blogs, and my sick fascination with her being fascinated by them. This was not a full in depth conversation, we’ll say it took up 4 sentences, tops. Within about 15min, I sure enough had an ad on Facebook about Female Mormon blogs. We have grown accustomed to seeing targeted ads based on emails, surfing habits, ip address locations, etc. but what about live, real time communication?

This could easily have been going on for years, be the reason ICQ and AIM have always been free, etc, etc. who knows.

If you started to receive ads on your phone based on the texts you were sending/receiving, would you care?
If after talking about how great a nice honey baked ham would be for Thanksgiving you received a coupon from the Honey Baked Ham store, would you care?
What if after breaking up with someone, being alerted to a death in the family, or calling in sick to work, you were to receive coupons for chocolates, a call from a florist, and have a Doctor email asking if you would like to make an appt, would you care then?

We place such high standards on instant telephone commnications, yet nothing on instant textual conversations, but why? What is it about the written word that we seem to hold in less esteem than the voice of another? Think of the technology that exists with visual voicemail and what that technology could do if we were tapping everyones calls and marketing to them directly based upon their conversations.

I hear your gears moving already, you’re thinking “well data is the price we pay for free services we depend on”, and you’re right, you do pay. So let us imagine for a moment a cell phone company giving you a free phone, and severely discounted service as long as you allowed them to data mine your phone calls, would you do it? What would it take for you to give someone that control? Where do you draw the line between interpersonal private conversation and a target for data mines?

Do we even care?
Will it ever get “this bad”?
Rhode Island is neither a road, nor an island… discuss.

The discrimination of Wikraffiti

So a little while ago I “made-up” the word “Wikraffiti“. I assume it is fairly obvious to all what the word means, and while I never truly proceeded to push it into the sphere of consciousness that is the internet meme world, I did make a Wikipedia article about it to address the very issues it was meant to encompass.

The results were nothing less than savage.

First the word description was “deleted” from Wikipedia by technocratic elitists who would rather spend their time squashing what they do not understand, or feel is Neologism and self-reference.  I will not speculate as to which they feel it was, but they did tend to make reference to the Neologism and self-reference more than them being technocratic elitists. This prejudice essentially means that I have no way of referencing this word in future discussions as no one will be able to find out it’s true meaning. At any rate, this happened almost 3 years ago, I am not sure how it took me this long to actually find out, something to do with work apparently. I would however like to take the time to say that now more than ever my “made-up” “neologinistic” “self-referencing” word is truly needed.

It would seem that on an almost daily basis that whilst surfing Wikipedia I often see posts that have been vandalized, and since surfaces that are often able to handle “posts” or “changes” from others have become ubiquitous as “walls” (ala Facebook etc.) then I see not why something like the word “Wikraffiti” is not only valid, but captures the truest sense of what the act of defiling someones (or somethings) Wikipedia page is all about. It is like graffiti that while easily removed, does in fact need to be “scrubbed” off the virtual “wall”.

I therefore move to have this word returned to it’s rightful place as a reasonable reference to this type of vandalism, and if you feel the need to dispute it’s truthiness, then do so on your own grounds.

Explaining Twitter over christmas dinner…

So it’s holiday time! … and I am sure that if like me, you will be on twitter (or insert similar) and inevitably you will be asked “what is twitter?”

Why do they ask you this? Because you are their “smart friend”, and the family member they always turn to when they go for tech advice is you! So… here ya go:

Twitter is like being in a public (unless you make private) room with friends, and people you know. When you think of something witty, interesting, or want to share a picture, link, or info, you shout it out to the whole room. Everyone is able to hear it (sent to their phone and shows up on website), and it goes to all that are in the room with you (following you). It is also able to be heard by anyone that wants to hear (those that lurk, or look at your page).  If someone wants to respond to what you said, they can either shout it across the room, or whisper it to you.

Now when someone asks you “what are you doing on your phone all the time?”… you can explain it to them, in terms they will not only understand, but possibly want to get involved with!

if they tell you to steal this film… isn’t it really just sharing?

www.stealthisfilm.com

Go watch…

and if you have… what did you think?  

oh… and I still don’t like using mac’s… I don’t know what it is, but I’m just not a fan. I guess I’ll have to start using some programs to see how well I like it.

I also would be annoyed because I couldn’t use my super di$counted version of CS3… this would cause me grief.

I shall be testing it with installing on Vista later, as we just got a new PC at the office, which means I have my own comp there, something Im very happy about.

When is it really ‘Cruel to be Kind?’… how being cute can kill.

You’re walking around town, and suddenly people jump out of the bushes with guns, and they start shooting your entire group, your best friend from playground days, your cousin, and even your girlfriend. People around you scream in fear almost instantly, but then either laugh, or get pissed that they were given such a shock.

Wait

What about all the people who were just shot in the street?
Why aren’t these bystanders calling 911, or rushing to help?

Because the guns were water guns, and you were involved in a game called, “Assassin“
But what about those people around you that were legitimatly scared? Do they have the right to call the police, and file a complaint of a public mennace?

With the way the current social climate is, telling a joke about a bomb in an airport will get you arrested, if you put up little colored lights of cartoon characters you’re a terrorist plot, and making fun of religion in a comic can start riots, one can see easily the fragile waters to be tread when in public spaces.Enter “Cruel 2 be kind“.

This is a game very similar to  assassin in the sense that you have to kill or be killed, but at the same time completely different. To kill someone in this game, you literally have to be kind, nice, or helpful. Simply telling someone they are gorgeous is enough to kill them dead.

CLICK TO SEE VIDEO
It wouldn’t let me embed… sorry

I personally like assassin better, but at the same time, when watching the video of 200 people playing ‘Cruel 2 b kind’, it did seem like fun, in a completely mob oriented way. I liked the idea of the large groups of people, and the walking up to strangers, it all made for a very interesting concept, and to see it practiced was at the very least highly entertaining.

Also, if I may say… since you’ve been reading this… you do look particularly gorgeous today!

*<OneShotOneKill>*

Underwater Screendoors Vs. Dark Fiber

One is a blonde joke, the other is a cruel reality.

It’s no laughing matter… much in the same way that Enron would flip the grid off and on to control black outs and power outages, and thus artificially control the price of power via scarcity, telco’s are doing the same thing.

The big argument is that there simply isn’t enough bandwidth to go around.. that there has to be some regulation, or control of how much people use because there isn’t enough capacity to support all the downloading that goes on.

Previously you will note the idea of changing the way we communicate, and thus speeding the process of packet transfer up. (don’t know what packets are?.. check the bullet point!) I guess to understand dark fiber you should know what fiber is and does… here’s the short end of the long pole: You have a glass “wire” that you pass light through… the light carries information, and since it’s light, it moves fast (lets imagine lightspeed and Hans Solo).. now since you need light to use fiber optics, it makes ironic sense to have massive amounts of ‘dark fiber’ laying around. Fiber optic carriers laid the equivilant of 100 lane highways through the middle of the UTD campus… thinking that UTD would suddenly have the entire country of china driving to campus daily… the problem is that it never happened. Lets call it bad planning, or short sightedness, or better yet, lets call it the government spent billions of tax dollars funding these telco’s because they were “developing new infastructure”. Ooops.. I think that hit it… the government paid these companies billions of dollars to build a network that you’ll never get! Why?… because it made those companies money, and grew their size… which helped them donate money to campaigns, and get those officials elected that voted to pay for them, it’s a circle of life that would extinct the entire cast of Lion King.

All in all… we’ve got the lanes, and we’ve even got a way to produce less traffic over existing networks… but doing all this doesn’t make the powers that be any money, if anything they lose money because Verizon, ATT, and Comcast all provide television, and as we all know… you don’t need a TV to watch TV when you stream TV from the PC.

So the next time you hear a blonde joke like “yea thats about as smart as a solar powered flashlight!”… just respond with “still not as dumb as dark fiber!”

I’d like a side of faster internet please…

FAST… no it’s not just something we all wish the internet was, it’s actually a way to get it there.

Currently technology is not up to the digital snuff when it comes to the speed demands of it’s most influential users. We are downloading full length movies, music video, streaming new casts, and wanting more everyday. Eventually we’re going to want HD video streaming wirelessly… but will it be possible with todays current tech?

This is similar to the production and fabrication process in the original assembly lines. We used to produce, and assemble all products by hand, as demand rose, we had to produce more, in shorter time spans. We figured out ways to integrate machines into the production side, and using them for the assembly side also. Eventually we had automatic production machines that produced the parts for us, and we then assembled them. Now we are at a point where machine produce the parts, and robots put them together. Currently with the internet, one could easily argue that we have machines that assist us in the production and we still assemble by hand, this needs to change.

With the advent of networks that are able to handle the traffic (see fiber to home) we are entering an age where we become our own networks, and we become content pullers, rather than receivers. We need to start implementing faster networks, and faster forms of communication. All to often we find ourselves fighting battles that don’t need to be fought. If we had a faster way to communicate through the currently used infrastructure, we wouldn’t have to worry about bottlenecks, and bandwidth hogs. Sure people will be getting more content, but in effect using less resources because it will take them less time to achive their end goals.  So lets get things moving FASTer (wiki link)

Have fun storming the castle!

What makes a castle? Sure, you could go on about the logistics of what makes a castle, but then you take the analogy out of everything. Lets just say that to have a castle, you need a gate.

Gate?

Where else have we discussed gates?
University systems.

So when we look at the crisis facing our internet system, we should also think about gates, castles, universities. Let us not forget that with castles come kings, queens, and jesters. The kings come in as the bandwidth bandits in Verizon, Comcast, and ATT, traditionally these places would have been your first choice for TV, long distance, and cell phones, but times they are-a changin.

FFWD to now, from back then, when those companies still held their traditional status. These companies realized they all own the wires, they own the fibers, they own the networks. Why on earth rent space to a company like AOL, Netscape, or MSN when you already OWN those networks, and you can hire people just as good to design platforms that work just as fast. Let’s face it… people shop at Sams Club because of the price, not because it looks pretty. Sure grandma likes starting up the internet and hearing “you’ve got mail”… but most of us don’t even like the idea of ‘starting up’ the internet. It needs to be fast, always on, and unrestricted.

Unrestricted

That’s the problem, unrestricted doesn’t make money. Unrestricted doesn’t allow people to have control over you, The Man doesn’t like that. The Man gets what The Man wants, and The Man wants to make sure you’re not doing anything that keeps money out of The Mans pocket. This is where gatekeepers come into play. Your broadband providers are currently working on deals with congress to control your access. They want to auction off speeds to the highest bidder, and block those that cut into their profits. Is it fair? Why stop there?

“You may have missed it in the fine print of your agreement. Phone companies like Verizon and AT&T reserve the right to block your free speech and terminate your cell phone services “without prior notice and for any reason or no reason.”

Yea.. you didn’t read your TOS (terms of service) did you? You felt that freedom of speech was a given… but these are private companies, private property, and apparently they are not held to the same standards as the government.

Gatekeepers rule the web, they control what goes down the pipe, and out the floodgates into your home. Comcast cutting access to downloading for bittorent is nothing new, they’ve been cutting high bandwidth users for years. Bandwidth throttling is something that has gone on for years, but this is getting press since they singled out a website, instead of the EU (end user).

We’ll see more of this story, but only if you look for it. You have to take stand against these gatekeepers, and send them a message that you won’t allow them to control something they don’t own. They may own the pipeline, but they shouldn’t be allowed to control others content. This situation will affect all users, not just bandwidth hogs. One day you may not be able to access an independant news site, instead being directed to go to CNN.com… all because CNN paid Verizon money to be the only news provider… in fact, you may not even be able to search for topics like ‘Net Neutrality’, simply because they control the flow of information.

All your base are belong to wiki..

So you sit around thinking about what to edit on wikipedia. Sure there are plenty of things, and sure there are mounds of interesting topics, but what are you an expert on?

Fancy yourself the biggest fan of a band?… wiki will own you.
Think you’re a buff on cars?… wiki smokes you.

Oh.. I know… maybe you’re a serious authority on Ninja Gaiden! This should be interesting, because hours and hours of gameplay, surely you know more than most… right?

Again, owned by the Wiki…

So what do you do when you realize you don’t authority to be the authority on anything?
You  find new info not on the wiki, and you add it. That’s the beauty, you don’t have to so much be the authority to write the wiki as such. All you have to do is be able to find the facts, and marry them to the wiki page. So I went hunting for my old HS, and it didn’t say much. At least, not on the surface, looking at the history I saw something that made me smile. If you search for Field High School, you’ll get a page that just gives you the basics, so I added some other info I found from the education dept.

The actual page made me realize that it wasn’t really supposed to be about opinions of the school, or impressions as an alum, it was strictly about information. When I looked at the previous history of the page, it was amusing to see that highschool is always highschool, and kids will be kids.
The kids had taken it over in the begining and wrote humorous slander, wasn’t anything malicious, but it did show a highly juvenile slant. It was funny to see that they were able to write themselves in as the principle, and other such positions. To see them make up stats about people, and all in all do nothing more than Wikraffiti(c) <–( that’s my word feel free to use it).

Obviously I wasn’t just going to add simple stats… had to create a new word.

Homage to a banana man

So a banana walks into a bar

and these two other bananas are sitting at the bar and say “who’s this banana”
and this other banana walks over to group of lady banana’s and says something quiet
The girls go bananas!
So these other two banana’s get to talking, and they can’t figure out what in the banana this guy could have said… and just as they are about to ask him… he says to everyone
“It’s been great guys.. but I gotta split!”

The one banana looks at the other banana and says “what a banana!”