] Just in time for today's New Hampshire primary, here's a
] candidate scorecard. It rates members of Congress on how they voted
] on technology-related legislation and awarded them a score
] of 0 to 100.

This is interesting, but also lacking. There is hole here that needs to be filled.

[Politech] Where Democratic presidential candidates stand on tech

] Unlike companies that use the PSTN, providers of VoIP are
] not required to provide universal telephone service, 911
] emergency services or access for the hearing-impaired.
] VoIP companies do not have to pay the taxes and tariffs
] that provide these government services. Only companies
] that use the older telephone network are required to
] provide these services and thus pass on the costs of
] these government-mandated services to their customers.

There in lies the real problem with VoIP. Various critical services that require funding can wind up being left out in the cold.. However, unless I'm mistaken these were issues with cellular phone service also. That time around, they were easier to solve because it was still generally the phone company (*.*) in the driver's seat. This time around, its not going to be as easy. The phone company (*.*) has very little control over what happens on the Open Internet.

This is another situation where there may be a leadership vacuum. If no one is working on finding a way to fund these services in a way that protects the Open Internet, then someone will create a way that has no regard for the Open Internet at all.

Powell's earlier comments were very clear.. They are looking for someone to present them with an answer. The VoIP industry needs to come up with a solution to the problem, or the phone company (*.*) will.

There is another article on News.com where Declan is throwing bombs. I agree with that article in spirit, but it blows right over the issue.. There are services that need to be funded which are important. 911 emergency service, universal access, services for the hearing impaired, etc. VoIP isn't going to be free of that..

There is reason for concern that over charging VoIP its share is a phone company (*.*) ploy to make the services less attractive. Duh. Don't let that polarize the issue, or the circuit networks win, if you catch my drift..

Update: Just noticed the AT&T is adding 911 service to their VoIP offering..

Hey Michael Powell, you're too late! | CNET News.com

DJ Spooky's Magazine. Jaron Lanier, Barabasi, Coldcut, Hackers, Remix culture, Big Brother, Islam, Drugs and, of course, Genesis P-Orridge... This is it...

21C Magazine

The San Francisco local government is wired up. Every city meeting you could be interested in seeing, is available on demand via this page.. However, the one I went to today is not up yet. When it is, I'll link to it. Or at the very least, the part of it I'm most interested in. I'll get back to that.

This is one of those things I had been meaning to do for awhile. The last time I lived in San Francisco, I am 100% positive I was everything this city hated. Like, really hated. I was a dot-commie who lived in the city, commuted to the valley, owned an SUV, had the died hair, and the easy disposable income. Maybe this time around, I still suck. That remains to be seen. I still have the SUV, but in every other way I'm pretty minimal these days.

After loosing my job, I hung around till what money I had ran out, and the unemployment stopped. Then I went to Jersey with my tail between my legs. Two steps back.. I came here from Tennessee previously.

That was sooo stupid. I should have just found a way to say. It couldn't have been much harder then it was getting back out here. In hind sight, that's obvious. Although, I am glad that I got to spend some significant time with my parents. I'm thankful for that. I have some good friends back in Jersey also. Previously I've moved/lived where ever I've had the best reason to go. Now, I live here for reasons other then a carrot dangled under my nose. I really like the place.

This time out, I need to give a little more back to this place then I take out of it. I'm not exactly sure what the hell I'm going to do exactly, but a good place to start is my back yard.. err.. Front yard. Otherwise currently know as the Octavia Redevelopment Zone.

As has been covered here at one point or another, the people voted to knock down the Central Skyway, and so it was.. No more big overpass. My first reaction to this was "gee, that was dumb".. However, I am sure now that was the wrong reaction. Just that thing being gone has improved the area. The real good news is that the plan the city has for the rest of the redevelopment looks pretty good. I spent some time looking into it today. Its got a few problems, but it appears both the time and the willingness exists to fix them. Some problems with bicycle traffic onto Page street were the biggest issue raised.. Could just be me, but that looks like a good sign.

This project will likely be going on for quite awhile. From the sound of it today, it was at least a year until the bulk of the work is to start. I'm not sure how long it will take to complete.. There are a number of things I'm not sure of yet. I'm going to follow this story as it develops.

I have a bunch of information about the development plans, however I have not had a chance to compile it into something worth reading yet. I'm still lacking maps, which are critical to understanding what's going on. When the video goes up on sfgov, I'll be able to capture some stills of the maps. If it doesn't go up tomorrow, I'll go down to City Hall and see if I can get copies. You don't want me to attempt drawing my own maps, trust me. :)

The entire meeting ran exactly two hours. That's shorter then the any of the LOTR movies, possibly even less boring. I'll stay tuned to what's happening in the hood, and post it here. People complain too much about government without getting involved, or even paying attention..

SFGTV: Video on Demand

] A mass-mailing virus quickly spread through the Internet
] on Monday, compromising computers so that they attack the
] SCO Group's Web server with a flood of data on Feb. 1,
] according to antivirus companies.

I'm seeing many of these..

I need to think about this some more before I comment. This is interesting. Its all about the bounces.

Update(2): Congrads. Someone has written a virus that has gotten me confused.. I'm not sure if what I think is happening, is happening. And I'm not receiving enough of the spams anymore to tell. This virus was doing a few odd things. Either that, or some additional weird emails that are completely unrelated to this are hitting me.. [shrug]

This is the _wrong_ type of remix culture. This shows the dangerous edge of everything I ranted about in the post below. Taking viruses, modifying them, and passing them around is helping the evolutionary process of problems, that's all. We want to evolve culture, not threats.

New virus infects PCs, whacks SCO | CNET News.com

Immediately after I saw that Drudge had posted up an MP3 of Dean's yelp, I yelped myself. Only this is me, so its IRC:

Jan 20 08:18:01 [rattle] Common remix culture.. I wanna here a techno track featuring Dean's yelp by the end of the day!

And I did.. Lots of people yelped.

Now, having seen this page.. Less then a week out.. Umm.. Hot damn!

You know, this is a pretty interesting time to be alive. In many respects. None of this should surprise me anymore.

See, there in lies the both the danger and the power. The danger is that group think can become so misguided. I asked for techno. I consider myself "in the know". I should not have to detail this any further. The power, lies in the eye of the beholder of this page.

Net Goes Nuts, Just Add Reason

] In a ruling handed down late Friday and made available
] Monday, U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins said the ban
] on providing "expert advice or assistance" is
] impermissibly vague, in violation of the First and Fifth
] Amendments.

Nothing but good news here..

The court system, at the very least, is responding to attacks on itself. And yes, that provision was an attack on the courts.

] [David] Cole declared the ruling "a victory for everyone
] who believes the war on terrorism ought to be fought
] consistent with constitutional principles."

Those principles being the foundation of the open and free society.. Law, order, due process, etc.

Federal Judge Rules Part of Patriot Act Unconstitutional (washingtonpost.com)

] "I really had been putting it off long enough; it was
] just that time," Frankel wrote Monday. "Launching Winamp
] 5 was a big goal of mine for the last nine months, and
] having it out in the wild made it that much easier to
] move on."

It sounded like he made his decision to leave right after AOL canned Waste on him.. His .plan at the time sounded like someone who's mind was already made up and wasn't going to change. One bitten, twice fuck you.. Or something like that.. However, much to his credit, Frankel followed through on Winamp 5 before leaving.

Frankel resigns from AOL, finally | CNET News.com

] PalJunction is a professionally designed website with the
] cocept of six degree of separation for social networking.
] This website allows you to meet the friends of your
] friend's! Allow users to extend and grow a huge network
] of people from the people they already know. Why meet a
] stranger on the net? Well use paljunction and meet a
] friend of your friend of your friend!

This is just too funny.. The market for Social Network sites really is maturing! No longer do we have to look to how much money Friendster or Tribe.net is getting to determine valuation. Nor do we have to wait for a few of them to make it public.. We are already in an oversupply situation, they are showing up on Ebay.

Hmm.. I'm getting pretty damn confident that I know some of what needs to happen here. I need to lurk a little bit less . . .

Ebay | UNIQUE ESTABLISHED WEB SITE wt 15000 Members

What we demanded of Iraq was that they account for all of this and they prove the negative of our hypothesis."

Just listen.

Earlier this page was not working, complaining about too much bandwidth usage. Its working now. I assume this is getting downloaded a fair amount.

Digging for Weapons