Net Neutrality: It Rages On

Sorry about the delay of this Friday post guys, but after I played some soccer with some co-ops yesterday, I ended up doing a couple of other things with some of them and then didn't get back until like 11:00, by which time I was tired and wanted to play guitar and shower and stuff. Work is starting to get a little better though, and I actually have a todo list for Monday morning. Anyway, today (by which, as in all other references in this post, I mean Friday) is a sad day because the House of Representatives have foolishly voted down a bill (269-152) that would protect the neutrality of the Internet. Though the vote largely split the Republicans, who of course have mostly allied themselves with the telcoms, against the minority Democrats, the majority of whom are fighting for what makes sense here. I can't believe that these people can actually say out loud that they think that the government should be allowed to dictate who gets to live life in the fast lane on the Internet. I think that it would largely be governed by the telcoms and ISPs, but you know that the Republicans are going to want to create some new bureaucratic body to maintain their control over this thing. This is the point at which people need to start marching on the Capitol and stuff. This war isn't near over yet, but that was still a pretty bad blow. It's time to regroup and fight for our future and our children's future or we could see a very different Internet very soon and totally averse to the principles set forth by Vincent Cerf.

Now that I've switched to Furl for my bookmark management, Google has decided to release Google Browser Sync to all you to put your Firefox history, bookmarks, and cache on their server for retrieval over multiple machines via your Google account. How well does it work? Desktop Linux seems to like it, but they warn that it could be potentially compromising since if someone were to steal your laptop and acquire your Google password (say, if you were to have it saved on that machine) then they may be able to get into your password-protected sites, so just be wary of that danger. Speaking of security, maybe it's time for an e-mail 2.0 revolution that could correct common security woes? Also, it could incorporate IMing, much like Google Chat so effortlessly does in Gmail, but the catch is trying to free people from the system they're currently so well entrenched in. I think that support could be drummed up though, theoretically, now that people see how good change could be. I have a couple of gadget articles today, the first being from Popular Science showcasing the coolest gadgets coming out next month, which is one of the reasons it's my favorite magazine. The one to the right here can locate your personal items within 600 feet via a little tag you place on them, but there's also a cell phone backup, a device to spread good cell phone signal in one spot to 2,500 square feet around it, and audio books that are portable audio players themselves to play just those books. The other article is regarding the Institute for the Future, which has decided on 5 hot products for the future based on trendspotting. I personally liked the social networking movie ticket that tells you how close by your friends are and if they're seeing the same movie and such. Lastly, if you're skeptical about how well the Wii will fare for FPS games, then Game Daily has some optimistic impressions from Red Steel, which initially had sounded more gimmicky than immersive. Let's hope that Nintendo didn't pay them off to say that and it actually is going to be a great game.

We have some pretty good new trailers today, the most impressive one coming from Pixar in the form of a teaser for Ratatoille, which is much more impressive than any other Pixar teaser in recent memory and really grabs your interest. The other trailers are also for kids' movies, as well. The first one is for Charlotte's Web, which I think could be really great, but I"m afraid that they may try too hard to make it some monumental feel-good family movie to tell the story it's supposed to tell. The other one is for The Ant Bully, which I have absolutely no interest in after seeing that trailer. It just screams horrible movie to me, even by kids movie standards. Oh, and Yahoo! Movies has a video interview with Adam Sandler and Kate Beckinsdale about Click in case you're interested. Kate Beckinsdale actually going to go into a spy movie called April 23rd right after Click, and it'll actually make use of that degree she got from Oxford. AICN has a rather representative review of Superman Returns claiming that it's pretty good, but it's not as great as we had hoped for. I'll probably try to catch it in IMAX anyone, and I really hope they're wrong (though unlikely). Speaking of super hero movies though, do you remember that Hulk sequel? Well, it's actually a redux because Avi Arad thinks that it wasn't true enough to the comic, but I don't think he's in any position to posit what's true to the original and what isn't.

I might as well go for the Saturday Six meme since it's technically a Saturday and I haven't played in a little while:

1. Have you made any plans for summer vacation? Will rising gas prices have any direct impact on your plans?
That would be this internship I'm in. I try to have as much fun as I can on the weekends, but they never seem to be long enough.

2. What quality do you hope most readers will observe in you through your primary blog?
My interest in new technologies and movies as well as my dedication to keeping on what I've started.

3. What quality do you think you possess that comes through the least effectively through your primary blog?
That sometimes I really feel lost, and I'm not sure what to do.

4. Take the quiz: Who were you in high school?

All American Kid

Popular but not plastic. Athletic but not a jock. Smart but not a brain. You were well rounded and well liked in high school.

Who Were You In High School?

5. What logo or message is on the last container you drank from?
That would be the Albertson's brand milk I had for breakfast. The water I had since then was at the water fountains at the gym.

6. You find out that a co-worker you consider a close friend is stealing supplies from work. You know that if you tell your boss, your friend will likely be fired. If you began to think that your boss suspected that you might be the person stealing the supplies, would you tell on your friend?
No, I would probably just talk to him about it instead. If it really got down to it though, I probably would. If it's a job that I enjoy, then why take the fall for someone else? What are the odds that I'd find another job that would be such a good fir for me? Of course, if I didn't care much about the job, I probably would just let whatever happens happen.