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I Hate SOPA/PIPA

I was going to write a long and drawn out post explaining what SOPA and PIPA are, why enacting them into law would fundamentally change the internet for Americans in a distressingly negative way, and what you could do to make your opposition heard AND counted. However, this infographic combined with this one-sheet breakdown from EFF and this easily digestible website from Google do the job much better than I could have on my own.

So, here's what you can do right now to stop these two poorly written and ultimately draconian bills from becoming law.

The Simple, Fast and Easy method:
Go to Google's Anti-SOPA/PIPA site, fill out the form on the right and click "Sign the Petition".

The Slightly More Involved Method:
1) Look up your senator to find out if he/she supports or opposes.

2) Click on your appropriate representative's photo or name to get their contact information.

3) Print out the following on a piece of actual paper, sign it and physically mail it to your Senator.

I am writing to you as a voter in your district. I urge you to oppose S. 968, the PROTECT IP Act. The PROTECT IP Act is dangerous, ineffective, and short-sighted. It does not deserve floor consideration. I also urge my representative to vote "no" on SOPA, the corresponding House bill.

Over the coming days you'll be hearing from the many businesses, advocacy organizations, and ordinary Americans who oppose this legislation because of the myriad ways in which it will stifle free speech and innovation. We hope you'll take our concerns to heart and oppose this legislation by voting "no" on cloture.

4) Share this post with EVERYONE you know so they can add their voice to the opposition of SOPA/PIPA.

Political Anger Management

I am sick and tired of politics in my country.

Over the last 12 or so years, something's been bothering me about the political system in America and I’m finally at the point that I can’t keep silent anymore. You see, I've been wondering why We The People keep electing self-selected, career politicians into office instead of searching for and electing the people who are best suited for the job of actually running the country. The politicians have made it VERY clear via their actions and history that the only thing that can possibly motivate them to actually do their jobs is the threat of losing power, or the promise of acquiring MORE power. In the rare instances that an elected official has a clear and workable plan for doing something that the majority of the country wants done (whatever that thing might be) other elected officials will do their very best to thwart that plan for the sole purpose of pandering to a tiny but vocal select minority of people to whom they are beholden, or from whom they wish to curry favor.

Why do We The People stand for this?

Where does it state that We The People can only elect someone to office from the pool of choices handed to us by those ALREADY in power? Isn't there a write-in candidate section on the ballot? Why can't We The People, who now have nearly unfettered and unregulated access to the great knowledge dispenser known as the internet, find someone the majority of us can agree would actually do their job and write that name in on the ballot? A single website, where anyone can be nominated by anyone, followed by a Wikipedia-like vetting of those candidates, and a constant online poll to narrow the pool down to a manageable number, seems like a FAR better way to discover viable candidates than the current method of… Well, of what? How, exactly are the current crop of candidates selected? Does anyone know? As far as I can tell, people simply declare their intention to run and wait for whichever party they’re a part of to bless their campaign. If no blessing is forthcoming, the self-proclaimed candidate just vanishes in a network news cycle.

Or worse, they become a political commentator on basic cable.

Look, it is my personal opinion that ANYONE who actively seeks an elected position in a capacity higher than that of Mayor is someone that should NOT be elected into office. I believe that term limits should be implemented across ALL facets of the government and that Senators and Representatives should be forced to relinquish control of their cushy jobs every set number of years, never to return to that post as long as they shall live. And I also believe that We The People need to change our government because it is a sure bet that our government will not change on its own. I’m not saying I have any answers; I’m not that smart, savvy or intelligent. What I am though is angry. Angry about the economy, angry about jobs and angry about taxes. In fact, where it concerns politics, I’m angry about just about everything. And, based on everything I’ve been reading and hearing out there for the last 12 years, I don’t think I’m alone.

So, isn’t it about time We The People did something constructive with all our anger?

Why can’t We The People create a political revolution whereby ALL current elected officials are removed from office and we hold another election where ANYONE, regardless of political party affiliation, can run? Technology should have made vetting political candidates easier, it should have made the entire political process more transparent and accessible, but it hasn’t. The internet should have made it possible for ANYONE to run for office, yet we are still faced with the same two political parties who keep propping up candidates who will be beholden to their party and the special interest lobbyists who cater to their party. The parties themselves are becoming more and more polarized, more and more vitriolic and extreme and just plain crazy. They pander to the extremist fringe of their constituents, the foaming-at-the-mouth, die-hard, take-no-prisoner believers which is leaving more and more people in the middle, who are level-headed and willing to make concessions or compromises in order to do what is best for the country as a whole, disenfranchised and without a political voice. To some, what I’m suggesting sounds like a new political party, but to even mention introducing a new party into the political process would mean ridicule and derision, because that would be a “waste of a vote.”

Well, why the hell is that?

Who says We The People can't nominate people from completely OUTSIDE the current political system who are willing to do what needs to be done to fix our broken country, rather than a career, party-line patsy who is only willing to do whatever it takes to keep their job? There are economists, scientists, philosophers, educators, Nobel Peace Prize laureates and a multitude of others who would be far better suited to steer the U.S. out of the hole our two party system has put us in than the career politicians we currently have running the country. If you’re being hired to do a certain job then it shouldn’t matter what political party you belong to as long as you’re qualified to do the job. Does it matter if your mechanic is a Democrat or a Republican as long as he can fix your car? I know it seems radical, but with the current Occupy Wall Street demonstrations taking place around the country, how hard would it REALLY be to get write-in candidates onto the ballot for 2012? What are the REAL barriers stopping We The People from finding a single person to run for President that 52% of the 99% can stand behind and actually believe in? Why can’t We The People ignore the noise and blustered posturing of the talking heads on TV and elect a write-in candidate of our own choosing who DOESN’T have any ties to the broken, caustic, polarized and self-serving political machines in Washington?

And what the hell is stopping us from doing all this RIGHT NOW?!

ebook Rant #7

I want an ebook reader.

In an average week I read 2 books, 5 magazines and about 100,000 words on various websites, blogs and message boards. I like reading but I really hate carrying around all the books I want to read, especially when I'm traveling. With all the weight restrictions on planes nowadays, I'm lucky to fit a hardcover book into my carry-on for each business trip I take. And if the trip is cross country or overseas, I have to force myself to read slowly so I don't finish the book before I land and be forced to listen to my seatmate snore in her sleep.

Note to lady in 32F, next time get a nasal strip or I will shove Cheetos up your nose.

Now, you may be wondering why I don't just buy an ebook reader like the Kindle and be done with my Geekish whining. Well, I'll tell you why I haven't bought one yet; cost. Not the cost of the ebook reader, but the cost of the ebooks that I'd put onto the reader. Most ebooks cost anywhere from $5 to $15 each, which might seem reasonable at first glance, but I beg to differ. You see, where a physical book has inherent costs associated with its design, construction and distribution, an ebook has none of those same costs. There's no reason why an ebook should cost as much as a physical paperback other than to prop up an outdated publishing business model that, due to the advent of the internet, is no longer relevant. If there's no longer a physical book that needs to be designed, created, warehoused, shipped, stored and displayed then why are we still being asked to pay for those costs?

I don't know.

What I do know is that at some point in the near future the current cost structure of contemporary publishing will fail, and a new structure will rise in its place. Hopefully one that is far more consumer oriented, perhaps similar to the iTunes structure of $.99 per song. Imagine how many more books you'd be willing to buy if they cost $.99 each. How often has someone said, "There's this book I'm reading that I know you'd love." But you never buy it because at $24.99 it's not worth your money to find out if your friend was right? If you could buy the book for a dollar, right then and there when your friend mentioned it, would you hesitate?

I know I wouldn't.

Or, how about a club-like, subscription structure? Imagine if Amazon opened up an iBrary where, for $14.99 a month ($100 a year), you could download and read all the books in their entire ebook catalog. If you let your subscription lapse then all the books are removed from your device. However, for an added fee of say $5, you could "own" that ebook and even if your subscription lapses it would remain on your ebook reader and/or backed up on your computer.

That sounds pretty good to me.

Unfortunately, right now ebooks are being treated like the proverbial red-headed step-child of the publishing world. I truly believe the publishing world is scared out of their collective minds about what ebooks might do to their businesses. Just last week Macmillan strong-armed Amazon into hiking the price of their e-books from around $10 to between $13 and $15 depending on the title. Why they think this is a good idea is beyond me, but it does make me hesitant to buy a Kindle or any ebook reader right now. Why spend the money on the reader and ebooks when buying paperbacks and/or used costs less? In fact, I defy any representative of any publishing house to explain to me why the cost of an ebook appears to need to be higher than the cost of a brand new physical hardcopy of a paperback book. How can it possibly cost more to upload a single file to a central database than it does to design, create and bind a physical book, store it in a warehouse, ship it and display it in a bookstore?

Until I have an answer, or until the price of ebooks become more realistic, I'm think I'm going to have to stick with paper.

Kindle Lust

I want one.

I'm a voracious reader. I love reading and when I'm not otherwise busy I can easily read two or three books a week. I also read a lot of magazines, blogs, news sites and the like. All of which is just to explain why I'm so much in lust with the idea of having hundreds or thousands of books avaibale at my fingertips in a single, light and portable device like the Amazon Kindle. It would be so awesome for someone who is constantly traveling to have all the books they want to read for the next few months in such a portable device. And if something came out that you wanted to read you can buy it and start reading it in minutes! Want to read the latest best seller? buy it and in 2 minutes you're reading it!

Awesome!

But i can't justify owning it because of the way I would want to use it. You see, I read a lot when I travel. The problem is that I want to be able to read on airplanes during takeoff and landings... which is exactly the times that I'm not allowed to use any electronic devices! Once the plane is airborn I usually take out my Archos 605 and watch a couple of movies so reading during the flight isn't something I normally do. But the 20 minutes before takeoff and landing when I can't use the Archos and would love to read something...? That's exactly when the Kindle would be most welcome, and is precisely the time the airlines refuse to allow me to use it.

But still, I want one!

Cell Phone Phever

I need a new cell phone.

Not that there's anything wrong with my current phone. It still makes and receives calls fine, but that's really ALL it does. And since it doesn't do anything else it's just not... what's the word? Oh yeah, cool. Actually, my phone is the antithesis of cool. It's anti-cool. If I were single, my cell phone would be one of the top three things that would frighten the ladies away and keep me single forever. The other two things being my face and whatever that sixth sense is women have that warns them when a desperate loser is approaching so they can fire up their snide remark generators and cut men down to size before they can even say hello. It's like some crazy superpower. In fact, I believe most women should be wearing tights under their party dresses and have alter-egos called "Soul Crusher" or "The Crimson Slasher" so, when they unknowingly destroy some poor schmo who idolizes them, that guy could don tights of his own and become her arch-nemesis. That way when she punched his lights out during another one of his failed attempts to take over the world he could pretend she liked him enough to make skin-on-skin contact, which would make his stay in the super villain jail more enjoyable.

Why are you looking at me like that?

Anywaste, back to my phone issues. I've been holding out on getting a new phone because I've never been impressed with any phone enough to use it as more than a phone. I mean, honestly. In the past, cell phones with extra "features" like web browsing or email or video have sucked. No, I take that back. Saying they sucked is a harsh insult to the term "suck". The hyped up, media- and web-enabled cell phones of old were some of the worst pieces of consumer junk ever foisted upon the general public by the uncaring wireless cartels. None of them really did what they claimed to be able to do and most of them managed to fail at the most important aspect of being a cell phone; making and receiving calls.

But then the JesusPhone was born.

I don't think I need to pontificate about the iPhone, enough people out there already do that and better than I would, but the point I'm trying to make is that the iPhone put all the other established players to shame. It did everything people wanted their tiny, portable communications devices to do (except copy and paste) and even made decent phone calls. But, just to prove that even the mighty Apple wasn't immune to the idiocy of corporate greed, they went and screwed everything up by signing an exclusive distribution deal with AT&T.

Bastards.

If Apple had had the gonads to simply sell the iPhone, unlocked and available for any network to use, then nearly everyone and their mother would have one by now. As it is, they chose to partner with a single wireless provider, albeit the one with the largest customer base in the U.S., which automatically means those without AT&T service can't use the JesusPhone to make a call. And in case you aren't getting my little hints, I'm not on AT&T. I don't want to be on AT&T. In fact, I might even go so far as to say I hate AT&T.

And I suspect the feeling is mutual.

So, for me, the iPhone isn't an option as a replacement for my aging, crappy JudasPhone which means I need to look elsewhere for a new phone. Being the Geek that I am, I did a ton of research last year and came to the conclusion that the right phone for me would be the then forthcoming Blackberry Bold which according to rumors would be available soon to the dreaded AT&T but then loosed upon the rest of the carriers by the beginning of 2009. When the Bold was released the reviews were fantastic, people declared it to be on par with the iPhone, and my lust for it grew ever more profound. I waited patiently for it's imminent release on my carrier of choice, checking all the cell phone sites at least once a week for updates and through all this I was assured that the Bold was coming soon. For three months now I've been patiently waiting to discover the release date of the Bold for Verizon and now, finally, I have a somewhat reliable date from a mostly reliable source. And that date is, "Sometime in May. Maybe even June."

Oh cruel fate, how I do loathe you.