Is Your ISP actively and illegally throttling Your connection?

If you have Comcast the answer is a resounding Yes, but its still nice to see the proof. You can now test to see if your ISP is including itself in the dirty dealings becoming all too prolific among american ISP's.

chck_it

Check me out on Myspace !!!!!

It seems I either have a large mob of people waiting to lynch me, or I'm seen as the second coming of Christ.

I really don't know what to think of this.

Youtube high quality

To upgrade from the standard shitty ass horrible resolution of Youtube to their improved "High Quality" codec (its really just standard quality and default is plain crap), simply put this at the end of the url of whatever video you are watching,

#

that or upload your content to a much better HD streaming service, Vimeo.

EDIT: Youtube changed their method, post changed to reflect the recent changes.

Bureaucracy 2.0

It would seem Microsoft finally yanked its bid for Yahoo after the two software giants were unable to see eye to eye on the proposed multibillion dollar buyout. Microsoft offered Yahoo $50 billion or $31 per share, an offer which Yahoo refused. This was an attempt by Microsoft to do a bit more of about the only thing it is good at nowadays and that is absolving its competition instead of providing some.

Since neither bureaucracy has had so much as one innovative product in the past few years, they’ve simply settled to buying out all the smaller software geniuses who’ve been making them look old and outdated. The only thing innovative about Yahoo is the quick and speedy way with which they purchase these web 2.0 brainiacs. If you can’t create success, buy it!

As for the whole acquisition; who cares? Two dilapidated companies, neither of which has released even one mediocre product for computer users in the past few years are planning to merge into an even larger pile of shit? Let’s move on shall we.

Nope sorry we can’t. It seems after Microsoft was shut down by Yahoo they put out their feelers to Facebook. Facebook could arguably be one of the most sought after companies on the internet today. After Microsoft invested $240 million in the small company, its value grew to more than $15 billion; a far cry from the original $1 billion offered by Yahoo back in 2006.

It is safe to say Microsoft is feeling a bit threatened at the moment; after the failure of Vista, the Xbox running up a deficit and their online content in need of some serious clicks, can we safely say that the software behemoth is in trouble? I’m not sure, lets Google it.

Creative, makers of popular X-Fi line of soundcards recently became unsettled when a user by the name of “Daniel_K,” fixed their drivers. For those who don’t know Creative has labeled their soundcards as “Vista Ready” since the operating system came out. The unfortunate fact is that after you install your X-Fi and put in the cd to install the drivers, it becomes apparent the included driver cd is really “Not Vista Ready”. That’s OK, they have updated drivers on their website right? Sort of. Creative to this day has not released fully compatible drivers for Windows Vista (which came out over a year ago). Vista-0, Xp-1.

The releasing of crimped drivers continues despite the enormous outcry from users; evidence of which can be found in the obscenities strewn across their customer support forums and website. “Daniel_K,” took matters into his own hands and modded Creative’s drivers to enable full Vista compatibility. Creative accused him of “stealing our goods”. The token amongst this smoldering ruin would be that Creative purposefully hindered their own drivers as a business strategy. The strat which seems to be a desire to thoroughly test their customer support centers, has so far worked flawlessly.

In more uplifting news, Facebook is now supporting online predators. Husbands giving wives the run around and women cheating on their boyfriends will need to get real creative, real quick as a new application was just released that will undoubtedly be regarding by stalkers as the Holy Grail of Creeping.

Using Facebook, the “Social Network Integrated Friend Finder” (sniff) application will allow users to “sniff” out their friends locations utilizing text messages. With this service you will be able to pay to receive a text message containing the geographical location of your friend (or victim). Unfortunately, there is still no news on blocking your cell phone from these triangulation services. Good for employers, bad for employees. Lawsuits? This is America. "I seeee youuuuu ; )"

It is truly great to see bright new minds creating the must-have gadgets of tomorrow and leading the web 2.0 charge through social, user driven sites such as Facebook. It is equally sad to see the Giants who had it so right, fall from their thrown as a few nerdy guys in their 20’s toss together sites like YouTube; all of which capitalize on the former kings absent minded traditional mode of thought. Wait, it’s sad to see Yahoo fronted by a sub 50 man company? What am I smoking, It’s ****cking hilarious. Shift happens.

As the World Wages War on P2P

I've always downloaded music and movies, who the hell hasn’t? Well right now times suck because the legal system is blitzing my pastime. The inundation of Limewire with faux music files and porn viruses has forced me to turn to my BitTorrent client for even individual songs. I could always trust uTorrent to get the job done even if it took a few days, but now with Comcast throttling my bandwidth illegally and torrent sites being forced to shut down seemingly every month, methods of online distribution are under serious attack.

The legislation behind downloading music seems to change damn near everyday. The RIAA has been changing its stance on ripping cd’s sporadically throughout the past few years; one month ripping a cd is ok and the next its illegal. Unsuprisingly the RIAA didn’t even have a policy on ripping cd’s until years after it first became available as a means of copying your cd’s to your computer.

No governing body has ever seemed to care about a phenomenon until the mainstream skews it into moral panic, so this doesn’t surprise me.

During an interview with Fox News, el presidente Bush described how he had some Beetles songs on his iPod. At the time, the Beetles had refused to put their music online, meaning that even our president had attained music through a means that is NOT in accordance with the “fair use” policy outlined by the RIAA. The lawmaker becomes the lawbreaker. Every one citizen is treated equally under the law, right?

Unfortunately for most, they are not the president of the US and A. Mary Lindor, a single mother living on disability payments in Brooklyn N.Y. was sued by the RIAA for a minimum of $750 per song she supposedly downloaded.

The RIAA is known to have sued for up to $30,000 per song “distributed”, so I guess you could say she was lucky. In this ironic turn of events it would seem her disability payments from the government would now be spent paying off her legal fees, despite the fact she had absolutely no music on her computer. This situation is so full of win I simply can’t describe it.

Scott Hinds was sued for allegedly sharing a whopping total of five songs; some of which included "Don't Know Why" by Norah Jones and "Automobile" by NWA. He was told to pay $3,750 for the songs or be summoned to court.

So the gang that yelled “F*ck the police” are having the authorities track down fans downloading their music? I only wish it was this hilarious; sadly NWA likely has zero knowledge that Scott is being subpoenaed for sharing their music, oops I mean their labels music.

The “pay up or else” tactic is commonly used by the RIAA to intimidate their not so wealthy targets, namely college students. As listed in a previous article however, the RIAA CANNOT sue college students unless the University illegally divulges confidential information. It is simply a scare tactic to try and make college students voluntarily reveal their identity which then provide the RIAA with all it needs to promptly bankrupt you.

The RIAA has also sued a homeless man, a 12 year old, a 10 year old and a women inflicted with sever multiple sclerosis. Tell your grandpa to be on the lookout.

Of course these court happy millionaires are only doing what is best for the artist. I mean if the artists were ok with users downloading their music then the labels would all back off, right?

Tommy Wirkola, the director of a popular Kill Bill spoof named “Kill Buljo” found his movie circulating through torrent sites. He openly stated “it’s flattering that people are making copies of the movie and releasing it on the Internet. Besides, all movies today are released onto the web. It would have been worse if no one wanted to share the movie.”

Nonetheless the distributor of the movie, CCV and their lawyer Espen Tøndel, are taking legal action against the fans sharing the movie. Their going through all this despite the fact the movies director was not only complacent with, but honored by the fact that people are downloading his movie. Can you say conflict of interest? Sadly this is not the only case.

The EFPI, yet another music industry association claiming to uphold and champion the rights of artists, is in quite the arduous legal battle with one of the most notorious torrent sites, The Pirate Bay. The EFPI is suing the Pirate Bay to the tune of $2.5 million for allegedly assisting in copyright infringement and violating other laws that contain more holes then a pair of Abercrombie jeans.

One of the artists the EFPI claimed damages for is the Swedish Hip-Hop artist Max Peezay. Unfortunately the EFPI of Sweden CEO Lars Gustafsson didn’t ask Max if he wanted to be involved in the lawsuit beforehand and Max has since demanded that his name be removed and all involvement withdrawn. Unfortunately this will only bring down the $2.5 million asking price by $19,000.

The flippin sweet part about all this is that the EFPI doesn’t even own the rights to Max’s music. You gotta love how the creative geniuses don’t have control over their own creations.

So the RIAA sues the pants of everyone in sight, receives its wad of cash and redistributes it to the artists whose rights were supposedly infringed upon? No, they never gave back ANY of the $400 million they received from Kazaa, Napster and Bolt. This debacle is still raging between artists and their labels despite Napster having been shutdown hmmm let’s see, seven years ago.

After learning about all this bullshit it makes sense that torrent sites such as the Pirate Bay have moved all of their servers to private islands off Sweden and Egypt. Out there the laws surrounding file sharing are even less thorough then in America. Now if the RIAA wants to shut down the Pirate Bay they have to do so according to Swedish and Egyptian law, both of which have very lax to no laws surrounding online content distribution.

We shall see if these groups have the balls to come after these Pirates off the coast of their island in what may well become, a real life Pirate Bay.

BitTorrent is fast becoming the only remaining free peer-to-peer protocol left that isn’t oozing with viruses and malware. I recommend you take advantage of it before the laws become clear-cut in favor of ISP’s, record labels and movie studios.

McCain 101

and ppl were flipping over Obamas pastor?? no you will not come across this anywhere near Fox News. you will see a lot of stories about Obama taking pins off his suit tho, :0

I just can't figure out why the world hates our freedoms :(

Checklist 2.0

A substitute teacher finds his job in jeopardy after being accused of "wizardry", RIAA has been told to shut their pie hole and John McCain admits the war in Iraq is over oil.

Super Mario World Custom Music

...uses the sound effects from those switch-hits and Koopa Troopa stomps to make beautiful music. My untrained ears can pick out but a few recognizable tunes—Mega Man 2 and Super Mario World..

The free time some people have is amazing.........................ly well spent : D

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You have a Voice too, let's hear it.

Everyone enjoys watching the viral videos that websites like YouTube and eBaums World put up. They offer hours of senseless fun as well as an escape for the common procrastinator. Some also like perusing the latest blog entries full of original content and underground news. But why restrict yourself to only being a viewer and reader? You have thoughts and ideas of your own, why not tell people about them in posts and videos of your very own? With web 2.0 in full swing, it is now easier and simpler than ever before to share with people who you are and what you stand for. Literally anyone can think, create and upload. It’s really that easy.

Originally, I had never really seen much importance in creating an online journal of any sort. I flat out didn’t think people would care to read about my life and what was going on, what I had for breakfast, what I was thinking about and all that other ‘who gives a shit’ type of stuff I had seen posted on so many blogs already. I had always viewed blogs as a sort of digital, dear diary for anyone to read and frankly I didn’t find it appealing in the least.

This changed once I started writing for the newspaper. I wanted to receive feedback on my articles. Although I was given good feedback from the campus community, I needed a way to send my articles to people outside the area. I wanted to have a place for readers to access the articles I wrote presented in a style of my choosing. I wanted them to view the articles in a full, uncensored context, so I created a blog.

After I started uploading articles to my blog some strange things began happening. I found myself compelled to upload more and more content. I would find a news story nobody had heard about, a picture that was too good to pass up, or even a video that I knew would go viral in the weeks to come. I found myself posting my discoveries and ideas more often than even my articles. I wanted to share what I had learned with people so they could be informed and hopefully enjoy it as much as I did.

This is the fundamental reason people make their YouTube accounts and update them. This is why people write in blogs. To share. If you keep a diary and although this is the 21^st century, I know many of you still do, I would suggest starting an online journal of sorts. A blog, a YouTube account, a Twitter account, something. Don’t try to justify it or spend time wondering what you would post, just create it. Once you find yourself yearning to tell people about something; information nobody knows about or an original idea that no one has thought of, post it. Develop your thoughts, compose your voice and share it all.

If writing in a diary can bring realization and meaning to a person’s life, then why can’t a blog? Post what interests you, post what makes you angry, post what makes you happy. The pride you’ll feel from being original and producing something which others enjoy is priceless. The world is your audience, what do you have to say?

Both worth your time

So while procrastinating a 100 point assignment due tomorrow in POLS, I found these two gems.

Bits: Wine, Beer and a Little AC/DC

A rather interesting article about gaming with... no gamers?

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