Month: March 2010

My View of The FCC National Broadband Plan

There has been a lot of talk in the tech community as of late about the FCC’s recent National Broadband Plan. People who don’t understand how government and taxes work are proclaiming this as a great idea since it means FREE INTERNETZ!!!!!!!!!111oneonetwo OMG!!. That’s now how things work. In fact the FCC’s plan also includes a plan for an additional tax.

No thanks. I’m more than happy to give the money that would go to paying even more taxes to a private entity who has a reason for keeping me happy (That being my money.). Economics 101 states you can’t get something for nothing (Unless you are challenge at math and actually believe in Keynesian economics.). When the government provides a service they pay for it with your tax money. Look at the breakdown of your pay check next time. Notice your gross pay is MUCH higher than your actual take home pay? Yeah that’s all tax money taken by your federal and state government to pay for fuck ups services like social security and medicare.

This situation is far more dangerous when it involves free and open communications that the Internet provides. Government is not benevolent, it does not have your best interests in mind. Government is made up by people with power and power corrupts. A private company can not compete with government programs because unlike a company a government doesn’t have to actually make money to continue existing (Look at our deficit.). The scary thing with government provided broadband (Which this National Broadband Plan would eventually turn into.) is it would most likely shut down broadband provided by private industry. At that point our Internet access, like China’s, becomes the whim of our government. This is where censorship and filtering start coming into play ladies and gentlemen.

People shouldn’t be clamoring for free* government provided Internet. Government can’t manage money. Show me a single government program that has succeeded monetarily. Instead people should be demanding the government stay as far away from Internet access as possible. We don’t need to deal with what China has and Australia is getting.

A private company has a reason to ensure its customers are happy, money. You can simply refuse to pay a company money if you don’t like their service. On the other hand you can not simply refuse to pay taxes if you don’t like the government’s service. I wish people would think about that part for a moment before trying to get free* Internet access (Which the FCC plan won’t even initially provide, they call it “affordable” so it’ll probably be a subsidized item.).

* Free until you notice your take home pay becomes even less.

Kindle Reader Software for Mac Available

For those of you with a Kindle Amazon just released their reader software for Mac OS. This software allows you to read books purchased on the Kindle store on your laptop. I find the reason to get a Kindle and thus purchase books on the Kindle store is because of the glorious e-ink display. But I have begun wanting the ability to read some technical books on my computer screen. This should solve that niche need pretty well.

GunPal CEO Charges Dismissed

Good news has been brought to my attention by Everyday, No Days Off. The CEO of GunPal, Ben Cannon, had all charges against him dismissed.

For those of you who hadn’t heard Mr. Cannon was charged with impersonating a police officer after he was accused of pulling a woman over. The accusation made was he used a red light and badge but the police found no such evidence at his domicile.

And People Want This Stuff in Their Cars

One thing people seem to clamber for more and more are methods of tracking and disabling cars remotely. Usually people talk about wanting to be able to track their car and disable it if it gets stolen. There are various methods of implementing such a device allowing for these things to be done via SMS or a web page. Of course companies that make these devices promote them as enhanced security and peace of mind. Parents love the idea of being able to track their teenager’s every move. The problem made apparent by Bruce Schneier is such devices are double-edged swords:

More than 100 drivers in Austin, Texas found their cars disabled or the horns honking out of control, after an intruder ran amok in a web-based vehicle-immobilization system normally used to get the attention of consumers delinquent in their auto payments.

Oh yeah and the part to concern yourself with:

Ramos-Lopez’s account had been closed when he was terminated from Texas Auto Center in a workforce reduction last month, but he allegedly got in through another employee’s account, Garcia says. At first, the intruder targeted vehicles by searching on the names of specific customers. Then he discovered he could pull up a database of all 1,100 Auto Center customers whose cars were equipped with the device. He started going down the list in alphabetical order, vandalizing the records, disabling the cars and setting off the horns.

Any device that you can use to remotely disable your vehicle can be used by somebody else as well. In this case the devices were put into place by banks since the people buying the cars had been delinquent on payments. But after the WAY over-blown Toyota fiasco there is a lot of talk by government officials about requiring automobiles to be equipped with black boxes. If the government does that you can bet money they will also put in a remote kill switch.

A Proper Response For Disagreeing With a Company

OK before I tell one one store I must tell another so here goes.

For my job I sometimes find myself traveling to strange and interesting locations. I have software on my phone so I can tether it to my laptop and use the data connection. It’s an OK solution but there are two major issues with it. First I have a Treo 755p which is not capable of using full 3G speeds. The second problem is my phone is CDMA meaning when I’m using the data connection I can’t use the actual talking function of my phone.

I figured I’d alleviate both of these issues by picking up one of those wonderful wireless access points that connect the the 3G cellular towers. They’re kind of spendy but I figured I’d get enough use out of it to justify the cost.

So I go to the store and ensure the device has several features I require (Good security on the Wi-Fi part of the device for starters). After that I finally asked what the device would cost without a contract. I understand these companies subsidize their devices and make up the money in locking you into a two-year contract. That’s not a bad thing really and I do understand the early termination fee because of that.

But I don’t like the idea of being locking into a contract for two years. Hence I came up with this crazy idea. I’m willing to pay full price for the device. Simple enough huh? The problem is you can’t do it. Apparently the two-year contract isn’t really for recouping the cost of subsidized devices as I was willing to forgo the subsidized cost and pay the full price. They simply will not sell you the device and service unless you sign the contract.

I told you that so I could get to the point of this post.

The point I want to make here is the proper response. Many people not willing to agree to the cell phone company’s terms would start saying it’s not fair and demand something be done. This something of course would be for the government to get involved and make these two-year lock-in agreements illegal. It would be a very long and fancy crusade about how unfair it is for the big evil cell phone companies to lock poor innocent Americans into these contract.

Obviously that wasn’t my response. So what did I do? I decided not to give the company my money. Unlike so many in the world I don’t feel I’m entitled to make companies play by my rules. If I don’t like the conditions set forth to obtain their product or service I simply don’t purchase their product or service.

It’s an effective solution. I’m dumbfounded by the fact people simply refuse to acknowledge this option. So many clamor to the government to fight the big evil corporations meanwhile not seeing the clear fact that the government itself is a big corporation.

We are not entitled to jack shit. Nobody is entitled to Internet access, health care, a car, or a contract free cellular device. Because I realize that I decided to leave this post here to let people who think differently understand there is an option open, take your money elsewhere.

That is all.

Imitation is The Sincerest Form of Flattery

That’s always been Microsoft’s policy. Unfortunately the parts Microsoft usually imitate are the parts that suck. Take for instance Windows Series 7 Phone 7 Series Phone Phone Series 7 Phone 7 Series. Microsoft it taking some queues from Apple but they’re the bad ones.

Apparently Windows Phone 7 Series will not allow multi-tasking, installation of application not provided by Microsoft’s market place, and will not accept removable storage. These have always been the weak points of Apple’s iPhone in my opinion. I like being able to multi-task. Sure it can drain battery life but hey I’ll deal with that to gain added functionality. So it still looks like I’ll be moving to WebOS or Android when I decide to change out my phone.

End Of An Era

Well I knew this day would come eventually but alas it’s still rather sad. I received the following e-mail today:

Dear Developers,

For more than a year, Palm’s primary focus has been on webOS devices and
development. As development for legacy Palm devices has transitioned to new
development under webOS, we have made the decision to put all of our
resources into webOS development support. To this end, the Palm Developer
Network site (https://pdnet.palm.com), which supported legacy PalmOS and
Windows Mobile development for past-generation Palm devices, will be taken
offline effective April 30th. The PDN developer forums will be taken offline on
March 31st.

If you would like to continue development on a platform similar to PalmOS and
would like assistance, we suggest that you contact ACCESS CO., LTD. at
http://www.access-company.com. ACCESS currently supports its own proprietary
Garnet OS platform, which is a variant of PalmOS 5. ACCESS may be able to
provide you with assistance under one of ACCESS’ own support or developer
programs. Please note, that ACCESS CO., LTD and Palm, Inc. are not related or
affiliated companies, and any assistance you may receive from ACCESS shall be
subject solely to ACCESS’ own terms and conditions.

If you have development support issues for Windows Mobile applications, please
visit the Microsoft Developer Network for Windows Mobile at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsmobile/default.aspx.

We thank all of you for your support of PalmOS devices over the years, and hope
that you are all enjoying developing for webOS. If you haven’t started developing
for webOS, please visit http://developer.palm.com to learn more! We think you’ll
love the new platform.

Best regards,

The Palm Developer Team.

It appears as though Palm OS is officially dead (No longer supported). I’m glad I already have copies of everything I’ve used while developing on Palm OS. I really wish Access (The owners of Palm OS) would open source the aging system but I doubt that will ever happen.

On the upside they are also dropping support for Windows Mobile. Good riddance!

Fun With The Census

I’m sure those of you reading this site regularly realize I like to mess with people. I also recognize the census as an enumeration of the population only. On the other hand you get fined major change for not answering questions and fined even more if you answer untruthfully. So here is my guide to messing with the Census Bureau while filling out every answer and doing so truthfully.

If something requires a number remember Roman numerals are fun. This site has a hand decimal to Roman numeral converter you can use.

Filling out your phone number is different than you wages of course. Phone numbers usually appear 555-555-5555 but we never use the numbers as a value. Instead we use the numbers positionally saying the number is “five, five, five,” etc. So feel free to fill out the phone number as VVV-VVV-VVVV.

Gender is pretty straight forward unless of course your a hermaphrodite. I believe in that case you need to check both boxes. Also if you’re transgender it’s unclear if you are supposed to put down your genetic gender or your identified gender. So for those of you this applies to have fun with that.

You’ll notice the census is really keen on race. Well my race is human. I think that applies to everybody filling out the form.

I didn’t get any extended portion so I don’t know what fun you could have with that. But those are some fun games you can play with the Census Bureau. Also note this isn’t legal advice, it’s advice on how to fuck with people. If you fuck with somebody they are likely to fuck with you back so remember that.

Poroposed Assembler Opcodes

Obviously this is only going to apply to the truly geeky watching this and most of those people have already seen this but it’s still funny. Some of the opcodes I really like and would find useful:

BAC – BRANCH TO ALPHA CENTAURI

You never know when you’ll have to branch to data on Alpha Centauri. Heck I’d use this all the time.

CH – CREATE HAVOC

Regardless of what some people believe this instruction doesn’t actually exist in your computer.

CMD – COMPARE MEANINGLESS DATA

Hey look it’s Al Gore’s opcode!

DBZ – DIVIDE BY ZERO

This would solve a lot of crashes created by new programmers.

ECO – ELECTROCUTE COMPUTER OPERATOR

Oh if only I had this instruction available when people called me for computer help.

HCF – HALT AND CATCH FIRE

Good instruction for the truly paranoid out there.

MWAG – MAKE WILD-ASSED GUESS

Al Gore’s other beloved instruction.

UP – UNDERSTAND PROGRAM

If only that existed.

For those of you who aren’t computer geeks realize this is the type of humor that some of use laugh at. Yet I know it’s sad.