Running and Passing.

What is Net Neutrality? Net Neutrality is the guiding principle that preserves the free and open Internet. Net Neutrality simply means no discrimination. Net Neutrality prevents Internet providers from blocking, speeding up or slowing down Web content based on its source, ownership or destination.

Corporate interests aim to gain lawful control over the Internet access and bandwidth they provide to customers. Cable and phone company lobbyists are pushing to block legislation that would reinstate Net Neutrality. AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner Cable actively oppose the tenets of Net Neutrality. While content and service providers such as Google, Amazon, Yahoo, eBay, and Skype are all in favor of a neutral playing field for their services. The debate is controversial and complex.

Some analysts proclaim that non-interference (no neutrality) can be the best form of regulation. Arguing that ISP’s will have to be more upfront in informing customers about traffic management, data limits, etc. The argument is that competition, rather than technical regulation,  is the consumer’s best guardian against “bottlenecks and monopolistic gatekeepers” . However, broadband competition among ISPs is solely lacking in many major US markets and can be virtually non-existent in suburban or rural areas. I’ve also heard arguments that Net Neutrality will stifle job creation and hamper the efficiency of the market, but would a corporate net not present the possibility of closed networks with limited access and the potential for censorship?

This leads me to questions where the FCC’s recently announced National Broadband Plan will fit into the mix. If the government is coordinating and funding the expansion/upgrade of the national broadband infrastructure, how can we allow corporate interests to have control over that network?

On the flip side, is giving the FCC power to impose neutrality and thus micromanage the Internet a viable alternative? The private sector has built an expansive network and in the past decade per megabit broadband prices have fallen significantly. Broadband adoption rates continue to rise. Would a government takeover/control dissuade private investment? Do we risk entangling the Internet, technology, and communication companies in red tape and litigation?

What is the true spawn of a non-neutral net? Do the potential pitfalls of regulation warrant Government intervention? Corporate control or government control? Wag the dog?

For more information, I recommend checking out the EFF’s Net Neutrality page.

You have until Thursday, July 15th to file a comment with the FCC. Visit their Electronic Comment Filing System and leave a comment on Docket 09-191 (In the Matter of Preserving the Open Internet Broadband Industry Practices).

Stay vigilant.

Drum sounds by Portland Taiko @ Beach Elementary School - Portland, Oregon - May, 2010

The roof of a box truck - RISD Campus - Providence, Rhode Island. May, 2010

A plastic horse on the dash - NE Portland, Oregon - March, 2010

Surf @ Wonderland Point - Acadia National Park, Maine - May, 2010

Illumination Night in Tappan Square - Oberlin College - Oberlin, Ohio - May, 2010

Framed row of color and style (shoes) @ Baxter Tea Company + Sweet Love (a purveyor of fine wedding dresses and cupcakes) - Gardiner, Maine - May, 2010

Captives ; Lost in a heap near a window or why did he have to die like this or why don't I take a nap and you try to act sad. Boston, Massachusetts - May, 2010

View my entire Flickr Stream. (add me as a contact + make contact)

Much has been made of the effects of Internet use and how our brains are seemingly being reprogrammed to deal with this new wave of information. Nicholas Carr’s July/August 2008 Atlantic Magazine article, Is Google Making Us Stupid?, advanced a growing dialogue about our current to cognitive state and his new book, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, expands his criticism of our Internet overlord. While studies have yet to acquiesce the true effects of Internet usage on mental prowess,  but it’s important to recognize that new methods of mental processing have been introduced and we are indeed changing. Are we exercising the mental muscles that will make us smarter or rendering ourselves mere signal processing units?

Throughout history, detractors have lamented the advancement of everything from books and the telegraph, to  television and smart phones.  While we can underestimate the power of tools to reshape our minds, the fact that we possess re-mappable circuity is a feature that we should hold most dear.

I have noticed changes in my own thinking, but find simple procedures like consistent off-line reading, list making, pacing, and the achievement of pre-conceived goals to be as important as anything in maintaining awareness and focus. Oddly enough, this now brings us to running.

I recently read Haruki Murakami‘s memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About Running and found his journeying approach to running similar to the brain stretching exercises of long form reading/study. In the past few years have become a runner of sorts. I maintain a weekly schedule that has steadily increased as my stamina has grown. I continue to find new appreciation for the physical process and expanded mental state I receive from physical activity.

There is something about the mix of physical stimulation and mental solitude that allows for a quite concentration.  As I run (bike, kenpo-x) the way in which I remember, reason or even empathize seems to be drawn out into longer strings of thought. It is as if the run provides the ability for a deeper processing of information but the in-ability to immediately act on that processing. My whims are quelled as the physical process forces me to focus on the task at hand. I am free to think about everything or nothing allowing time and and pace to guide my journey. I’m not always pondering deep thoughts while I run, but I do believe the unwinding of my mental state, regardless of intentional direct processing, allows for a different form of thought.

Maybe this is a side effect of stress release? Could me imagination be playing a greater role? How are abstract thoughts related to physical sensation and exertion?

The Internet allows us to access information with hummingbird-like quickness, but our methods for processing that information are still tied to human memory and brain power.  Our mental facilities, regardless of Internet usage,  are constantly being reprogrammed. We must acknowledge that changes are taking place and maintain a purposeful (and personal) method of processing information and making thoughtful decisions.

** Anyone interested in a collaborative project? I’m open to a range of topics and production methods. Ideally, this collaboration would mimic the read/write ethos of the creative commons and the resulting work would be licensed under agreeable CC conditions. **

In January, I blogged about my interest in licensing work via the Creative Commons and ended up settling on a CC Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 license. I have since revised the terms and changed to a bit more open Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

The Commons are meant to expand distribution potential while maintaining a given level of control. This allows producers to publish work online while communicating to exactly what can and can’t done with the work. A large portion of my Flickr imagery is now under said license. For more info about the Creative Commons, I’d suggest examining their licensing conditions, case studies, and interviews.

Recently, I had the opportunity to do some documentary photography work in support of  The Right Brain Initiative (a RACC program). The images I captured will be used in organization’s annual report as well as their various social media outlets.

** Also, I have updated my portfolio to include my recently completed TARP(s) project and added a new section of photography featuring scenes/landscapes + people/portraits. **

Dan Saelinger reminds us why we should backup. Preferably off-site.

We should also remember Google’s study of hard drive failure trends and the fact that about half of all failures occur with no warning. S.M.A.R.T. is a good start and SSDs (Solid-state drives) are considerably less fragile than traditional hard disks, but in the end all devices will fail.  I have about a terabyte of data that I would hate to lose. From old school work to current assignments and projects, I try to keep everything reasonably managed and properly archived.

I have been using the Cobain Backup software, but have had past success with GFI backup. I recently switched to Cobain because it seems to offer a lower memory footprint and does no attempt to run as a service or hook itself into the OS.

Selected search terms that have visited my domain since October of 2009.

Having only sent lifeless or insentient bodies through different zones of Time, the inventors where now concentrating on men given to very strong mental images. If they were able to conceive or dream another time, perhaps they would be able to live in it.

I will be brief because there are no doubt much better writeups and critques that address this classic film. La Jetee is a French science fiction film directed by Chris Marker. Released in 1962, it is  constructed almost entirely of still photographs. Apart from some mutters in German, it features only the dialog of the narrator and a well composed+timed soundtrack.

The original French versions with subtitles is available on various bit torrent sites. It is not hard to find and I suggest you seek it out as it is much higher quality. I found it just as enjoyable to read the narrators text.