Down 2 Earth Travel Link.

For those of you that like to travel, check out this link: Down 2 Earth Travel

He is a personal friend of mine and i wanted to pass this along to you!

I signed up for the Deals and Steals Newsletter at the bottom of the page.

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FlickR Stuff

I have been trying to get more and more of my photos on Flickr placed on the Google map that is provided. So far, i have gotten most all of my St Thomas, Duke University, Epcot and Universal Studios placed. I also have various other photos on a map from different sets. Another example would be the Baltimore Harbor pics that i took with my LGVX 8600 Cam Phone. It is a neat option to be able to do that. Feel free to go and look at some of them.

Enjoy!

How to use Firefox as Windows Explorer or File Manager?

Firefox
is the most commonly used browser among the bloggers and blog
followers. If you don’t like to clutter your windows experience by
opening lots of windows then you can use Firefox as Windows Explorer or
File Manager. As Firefox comes with tabbed interface, you can open all
the file locations in different tabs which otherwise would have come in
different windows.

So How to use Firefox as Windows Explorer or File Manager?

By default, Firefox can not be used as Windows Explorer. As Internet
Explorer can be used as Windows Explorer also, all that you have to do
is install the IE Tab plugin for your Firefox.

(Windows XP Theme used in the image: Micorsoft Zune XP Black Theme)

Now, open an IE Tab in the Firefox and use the file extension
“file:///” followed by local drive to use Firefox as Windows Explorer
(For example, “file:///D:/Lyte%20Byte”). These file locations can also
be bookmarked like a regular webpage, so the next time all you have to
do is just click a link in Firefox to open up a folder in your computer.

If you are looking for a Windows Explorer with a tabbed interface, you can also use IE7 in Windows Vista or XP. Also checkout “How to get a tabbed Windows Explorer or File Manager?”

This is for a good cause...

Many years ago i participated in SETI@Home. I just found out about a project called Folding@Home. Here is a description from their website:

What is protein folding and how is folding linked to disease?
Proteins are biology's workhorses -- its "nanomachines." Before proteins can carry out these important functions, they assemble themselves, or "fold." The process of protein folding, while critical and fundamental to virtually all of biology, in many ways remains a mystery.

Moreover, when proteins do not fold correctly (i.e. "misfold"), there can be serious consequences, including many well known diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers and cancer-related syndromes.

You can help by simply running a piece of software.
Folding@home is a distributed computing project -- people from throughout the world download and run software to band together to make one of the largest supercomputers in the world. Every computer takes the project closer to our goals. Folding@home uses novel computational methods coupled to distributed computing, to simulate problems millions of times more challenging than previously achieved.

What have we done so far?

We have had several successes. You can read about them on our Science page, on our Awards page, or go directly to our Results page.

Want to learn more?

Click on the links on the left for downloads or more information. You can also download our Executive Summary, which is a PDF suitable for distribution. Also, you can learn more by watching recent seminars (Stanford BMI ; Xerox PARC). One can also help by donating funds to the project, via Stanford University.

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FCC to Probe Comcast Data Discrimination

I was waiting for this to happen and i am GLAD that it is going to!

By PETER SVENSSON – 1 day ago

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Federal Communications Commission will investigate complaints that Comcast Corp. actively interferes with Internet traffic as its subscribers try to share files online, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said Tuesday.

A coalition of consumer groups and legal scholars asked the agency in November to stop Comcast from discriminating against certain types of data. Two groups also asked the FCC to fine the nation's No. 2 Internet provider $195,000 for every affected subscriber.

"Sure, we're going to investigate and make sure that no consumer is going to be blocked," Martin told an audience at the International Consumer Electronics Show.

In an investigation last year, The Associated Press found that Comcast in some cases hindered file sharing by subscribers who used BitTorrent, a popular file-sharing program. The findings, first reported Oct. 19, confirmed claims by users who also noticed interference with other file-sharing applications.

Comcast denies that it blocks file sharing, but acknowledged after the AP story that it was "delaying" some of the traffic between computers that share files. The company said the intervention was necessary to improve the surfing experience for the majority of its subscribers.

Peer-to-peer file sharing is a common way to illegally exchange copyright files, but companies are also rushing to utilize it for legal distribution of video and game content. If ISPs hinder or control that traffic, it makes them important gatekeepers of Internet content.

The FCC's response will be an important test of its willingness to enforce "Net Neutrality," the principle that Internet traffic be treated equally by carriers. The agency has a broadly stated policy supporting the concept, but its position hasn't been tested in a real-world case.

The FCC's policy statement makes an exception for "reasonable traffic management." Comcast has said its practices fall under that exception.

"The question is going to arise: Are they reasonable network practices?" Martin said Tuesday. "When they have reasonable network practices, they should disclose those and make those public."

Comcast subscribers who asked the company about interference on their connections before the AP story ran were met with flat denials.

A Comcast spokesman did not have an immediate comment.

Martin also said the commission was looking at complaints that wireless carriers denied text-messaging "short codes" to some applicants. The five-digit numbers are a popular way to sign up for updates on everything from sports to politics to entertainment news.

Verizon Wireless in late September denied a request by Naral Pro-Choice America, an abortion rights group, to use its mobile network for a sign-up text messaging program.

The company reversed course just a day later, calling it a mistake and an "isolated incident."

Verizon Wireless has also denied a short code to a Swedish company, Rebtel Networks AB, that operates a service similar to a virtual calling card, allowing users to avoid paying the carrier's international rates on their cell-phone calls. Verizon Wireless has stuck to that denial, saying it does want to provide an advertising venue to a competitor.

"I tell the staff that they should act on all of those complaints and investigate all of them," Martin said.

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Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Senators want probe on content blocking...

I figured that Comcast and Verizon would get their asses in a sling from their actions. I did several posts a few weeks ago about these issues.


By DIBYA SARKAR, AP Business Writer
WASHINGTON - Two Senators on Friday called for a congressional hearing to investigate reports that phone and cable companies are unfairly stifling communications over the Internet and on cell phones.

Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said the incidents involving several companies, including Comcast Corp., Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., have raised serious concerns over the companies' "power to discriminate against content."

They want the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee to investigate whether such incidents were based on legitimate business policies or unfair and anticompetitive practices and if more federal regulation is needed.

"The phone and cable companies have previously stated that they would never use their market power to operate as content gatekeepers and have called efforts to put rules in place to protect consumers 'a solution in search of a problem,'" they said in a letter to Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, the committee's chairman.

A committee spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter.
An Associated Press report on Oct. 19 detailed how Comcast Corp. was interfering with file sharing by some of its Internet subscribers. The AP found instances in some areas of the country where traffic was blocked or delayed significantly.

Comcast — the nation's No. 2 Internet provider — has acknowledged "delaying" some subscriber Internet data, but said the delays are temporary and intended to improve surfing for other users.

Verizon Wireless in late September denied a request by Naral Pro-Choice America, an abortion rights group, to use its mobile network for a sign-up text messaging program.

The company reversed course just a day later, calling it a mistake and an "isolated incident."
AT&T reportedly changed a service agreement that previously included language permitting the company to cancel accounts of Internet users who disparage the company.

Several lawmakers, including Dorgan, earlier this year introduced so-called legislation promoting "Net neutrality," which is the principle that all Internet traffic be treated equally by carriers.

Equal treatment of traffic is long-standing practice on the Internet. The legislation is a response to suggestions by phone companies that they would like charge Web sites extra for preferential treatment of their traffic.

Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and Britain-based Vodafone Group PLC.


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As clear as mud...

According to a recent post on GameDaily BIZ, Comcast had said what excessive is. Here is the article. There have been several posts about this on Slashdot and other sites. So even if I were the biggest spammer in the world, I might not get banned by Comcast as long as I do not reach the 13 million Email mark!! So, we are looking at somewhere in the 500+gig a month area. Not too shabby if you ask me. It looks like they are the most lenient out of all of the major carriers.

Earlier this week, we heard a radio report that talked about a few people who were losing their high-speed Internet access through Comcast. The company cited that these users went above and beyond the average use of most users and branded the former customers as "excessive users." In what appeared fishy, the report said that Comcast would not define how the company defined the term.

Now that the three current next gen consoles offer online connectivity for downloads, competition and system updates, we were worried that our own personal "download every demo that will fit on the Xbox 360 hard drive" might get us banned too.

Charlie Douglas, a spokesperson for Comcast Corporation, called back to clarify what "excessive usage" means and why the company's actions to end its relationship with these customers is good for gamers. First, Douglas defines Comcast's "excessive use" as any customer who downloads the equivalent of 30,000 songs, 250,000 pictures or 13 million emails in a month.

In short, even if you played a marathon World of Warcraft session for weeks while downloading the massive amount of demos on Xbox 360 and sprinkled with the not so massive amount of demos on the PlayStation Network, you are still not close to getting banned.

Douglas said that Comcast's actions to cut ties with excessive users is a "great benefit to games and helps protect gamers and their game experience" due to their overuse of the network and thus "degrading the experience."

Comcast has been a big supporter of gaming for years with its Game Invasion news, information and game purchasing web site and its well-known G4 TV network, which televises some of gaming's biggest events.

by Micheal Mullen


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Save The Internet.

This is an issue that will and can hurt everyone that uses the internet!! It will hurt everyone, not just people from America, but the whole world!!!




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Some Interesting Pics...

You know that i like to post some interesting pics that i find on the net every now and again. Here are some more for your viewing pleasure...

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Blog on the net...

It always seams that I am trying to generate new traffic for my Blog by singing up on new free services. You can see all the badges that I have on the left side of my blog. It is a personal thing that I like to do. I could go the route of Ad-sense from Google, but I do not want to sell out and place advertising on my site. I could also do the pay-per-click but that is not what I am about. I have had over 4300 hits since I started actively promoting my site sometimes last December. Not bad figures if you ask me. The picture is a map of where people all over the world read my blog. I just think that it is neat when someone from India leaves me a comment on my blog. The internet is a wonderful tool that all should be able to enjoy!!

I do not under any circumstances condon censorship in any way, shape, or form!!

The internet should be kept free and clear off any and all censorship because no single country owns the internet. I know that there is a lot of that going on around the world like in China where FlickR is being banned from viewing because some pics got on there of the Tiananmen Square student demonstrations of 1989 and the China government has blocked the site.

This is much like the on going issue here in the USA about Net Neutrality. I for one have signed up to help save the internet and stop censorship of the internet. If you value reading this blog in a different country, you should also want to do so as it might get banned. They could ban the whole www.blogger.com service for all we know. That would piss off a bunch of people including me. Lets all just play nice together and enjoy the internet like it is supposed to be used for, free and with no censorship.

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What is Net Neutrality?

I just made my voice heard on the net neutrality issue. IF you value the Internet, you should also.

"Net neutrality" is an issue that will shape the future of the Internet.

Save The Internet.

NetCompetition.org

Network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet. The Internet has operated according to this neutrality principle since its earliest days. Indeed, it is this neutrality that has allowed many companies, including Google, to launch, grow, and innovate. Fundamentally, net neutrality is about equal access to the Internet. In our view, the broadband carriers should not be permitted to use their market power to discriminate against competing applications or content. Just as telephone companies are not permitted to tell consumers who they can call or what they can say, broadband carriers should not be allowed to use their market power to control activity online. Today, the neutrality of the Internet is at stake as the broadband carriers want Congress's permission to determine what content gets to you first and fastest. Put simply, this would fundamentally alter the openness of the Internet.

What is the Current Status of Net Neutrality?

Net neutrality is a major issue as the U.S. considers new telecommunications laws. The U.S. House of Representatives passed its telecommunications bill, H.R. 5252, in May, without adequate net neutrality protections. Now the fight has moved to U.S. Senate. On June 28, the Senate Commerce Committee passed its own telecom bill, S. 2686. While an amendment to the bill that would have added meaningful net neutrality safeguards failed 11-11, this tie vote marks a significant political victory and gives the effort new momentum. The debate now shifts to the full Senate, where advocates will be working to get strong net neutrality language is any bill that the Senate considers.

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Copyright Royalty Board Releases Decision - Rates are Going Up Significantly

Well,
I wonder how and if this decision will affect people out there in cyberspace who every once and a while stream audio via Shoutcast or some other means. I have never done this, but at some times i have wanted to due to my large music collection.


Copyright Royalty Board Releases Decision - Rates are Going Up Significantly

The Copyright Royalty Board decision on the royalties for to be paid by Internet Radio stations for streaming music during the years 2006-2010 was released to the participants in the proceeding today. And the rates are going up significantly over the next few years. More importantly, especially for smaller entities, there are no royalty rates based on a percentage of revenue as were in effect for small webcasters under the Small Webcasters Settlement Act. Instead, all royalties are given as a per performance number, i.e. a payment for each song every time a listener hears that song

In a 100 page decision, the Board essentially adopted the royalty rate advanced by SoundExchange (the collective that receives the royalties and distributes the money to copyright holders and performers) in the litigation. It denied all proposals for a percentage of revenue royalty (including a proposal that SoundExchange itself advanced). The Board also rejected any premium for streams received by a wireless service, as SoundExchange had suggested.

The rates set by the Board for commercial webcasters, including broadcasters retransmitting their over-the-air signals on the Internet, are as follows:
2006 - $.0008 per performance
2007 - $.0011 per performance
2008 - $.0014 per performance
2009 - $.0018 per performance
2010 - $.0019 per performance
The minimum fee is $500 per channel per year. There is no clear definition of what a "channel" is for services that make up individualized playlists for listeners.

For noncommercial webcasters, the fee will be $500 per channel, for up to 159,140 Aggregate Tuning Hours (one listener listening for an hour) per month. Noncommercial webcasters who exceed that level pay at the commercial rate for all listening in excess of that limit.
The decision is subject to Motions that confidential information be redacted to the public, so it is not yet released for public review. A request for rehearing of this decision can be made by any party to the case within 15 days. The Board can also make technical corrections to the decision (not affecting the rate). The decision is to be published in the Federal Register within 60 days. Appeals may be filed with the US Court of AppeaIs in Washington, DC within 30 days of Federal Register publication. As this decision may well significantly impact webcasters, large and small, there is no doubt that more will be heard on this decision in coming months. We'll have more details on this decision in coming days.


Tell Me What You Think...

Be Red.com

While in Texas on our Christmas trip, we were in Houston and I saw these signs on the wall of a gas station. I thought that they were cool, so I took pics of them.They were on a wall off Westhimer down in Montrose...



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