Verizon makes a sadly hilarious response to the FCC’s “Throwback Thursday” decision to apply steam-engine-and-telegraph standards to the Internet. Get another laugh by clicking on the translation. Prove your identity to Microsoft or they won’t “allow” you to use their products that you’ve paid for? (H/T cat) The author’s claims about U.S. tech losses thanks to snoopery are right on. Will now be interesting to see how U.S. residents and companies route around the new FCC regulations. Beware of being neighborly without a permit. Nice infographics show what’s allowed and what’s not in the four places that have now legalized…
Author: Claire
(Source.) So if you haven’t heard by now (and there’s been surprisingly little coverage), the FCC is about to v*te to regulate the Internet. ‘Cause, you know, the ‘Net is just precisely like the telephone system in the 1930s and now there are all these terrible, terrible unfair things going on like people not being allowed to express their opinions big traditional media companies triumphing over blogs and social media … well, like something. Whatever it is, the fedgov MUST save us from it! Not only that, but tomorrow’s big v*te will be on a 300+-page secret plan that you…
Oh, those witty Canadians. The Syrup Trap sends up someone’s (not naming any names) notion of a proper earthquake survival kit. (H/T MJR) Seems Mr. Gottlieb may be forbidding anyone to post Mike Vanderboegh’s views on KABA. Snoozing hound dreams big dreams in magical scenes. Though I continue to watch the Elio with anticipation, I’ve long been suspicious of their seemingly ironclad claims: $6,800 price, 84-mpg highway, and engineered for a 5-star crash rating. They keep making these claims despite production delays, despite not even having an engine yet, and despite the fact that 5-stars is a very difficult achievement.…
I’m going offline for a few days. The Internet is just too full of stupid right now. I can’t handle it. It’s also full of cute (H/T MJR), so enjoy yourself. I’ll be back.
Apparently, in linking to all those “Mountains of MIT” snowpix of New England in my last links post, I did a disservice to eastern Canada. Why, in Canada, houses are not only buried to their rooftops and cars driving around with icebergs on top, but in some places the snow is 11 beers* high! Tip o’ hat to MJR, who’s probably right there “enjoying it all.” Here’s hoping he’s a little too far inland to haven’t gotten 11 beers worth. —– *Molson, of course.
Over at TZP, I Make An Official Statement then muse on assassinations, revolutions and other generally bad ideas. Don’t miss the latest by Nicki Kenyon (on the most recent hoplophobic idiocy out of New York) and Y.B. ben Avraham (on the revival of a sadly stubborn European tradition) while you’re there.
Was up all night feeling creaky. Not actually ill; just too sour, achy, and generally uncomfortable to sleep. Useless today. But no doubt I’ll be brilliant (or at least brilliant-er) tomorrow. Would be hard to be less brilliant. Lucy and Ethel speak for the U.S. Department of State A letter concerning Muslim toleration. Ronald Ritchie, felony murderer of two, still thinks his primary victim deserved what he got. Oscar odds. Being mostly stuck with DVDs that aren’t out yet, I’ve seen very few of these films yet; probably soon. Looking forward to The Imitation Game, Foxcatcher, Birdman, and Kill the…
The Lt. Gov. of Texas asked the Chancellor of the Texas A&M University System to weigh in on campus carry of firearms. Pretty good response (pdf) for a bureaucrat. He nails the central issue: trust. (H/T LarryA) The legalization of pot and “drugged” drivers who aren’t. The rich and the poor. Which in this case also seems to extend to the powerful and the powerless. They both cheat but from very different motives. Bovard on Obama’s rosy belief that the U.S. can squander its way to prosperity. The Freedom Feens say that effective libertarians (blush) study Claire Wolfe. (That one…
On the lighter side: Michelle Combs writes the definitive guide to what not to wear after you turn 50. You guys of the male persuasion probably imagine there’s nothing here for you, but you might want to have a look, anyhow. Language is NSFW. Thoughts are more than safe for anybody. Cheers. 🙂
Dear Internet,
I loved you from the moment I laid eyes on you. I saw your potential when you were just a raw young thing, before you even knew yourself.
I was wowed by your intellectual promise as early as 1987, when you helped me upload an article to a magazine editor (oh, that 300 baud brainpower!). You seduced me with your charm when a single funny FidoNet remark about “being in Claire’s shoes” led to a long romance. I remember my first glimpse of the real, mature you, when a client said, “Hey, you’ve got to see this. It’s this thing called Netscape that gets you on to something called the Worldwide Web.”
Oh, those were the days!
You and I were destined for each other. It was clear.
You were so gallant at first. Without you, my first book would have disappeared into underground press obscurity. You kept that from happening. You introduced me to entire new communities of friends. And what friends they were! Bright, committed, liberty-loving people who would never have found each other — if not for you. You were the great personality who drew us all together. You were the charismatic leader, the spark that lit the bonfire, the grand beating heart of something new and awesome. You made it possible for us all to experience and explore things we’d never dreamed.
You were the center of the world. You still are. But something’s changed.