As Josh pointed out the other day, Time Warner is launching a test program where they will throttle down people's internet, enforce a bandwidth cap, and charge for overrages.

What does this mean to you?

This means that ISPs (Internet Service Providers) are planning on controlling what you can and cannot do on the internet. This means that they can choose what sites you can and cannot visit. This means they want to kill the fastest, greatest, most democratic form of communication the world has ever seen.

And this isn't the first time in history we've seen this happen.

When radio first came out, anyone and everyone be their own radio station. They could broadcast freely, speak their mind and do whatever the hell they want. Freedom of speech at its finest.

And then the FCC came along and said, "Alright, no more pirate radio. If you want a radio station, you have to pay us a shitload of cash." So what happened? All of the fun, off-the-wall, liberal-minded radio stations were shut out.

The same exact thing happened with television. Look at it now...the media controls the information that the public consumes.

FOX Television have a problem with Ron Paul? No problem! They just cut him out from debates and downplay anything significant he does.

George W. Bush wants to impose Martial Law? No problem! Just don't mention it in the news.

Does Ron Paul really know what he's talking about? Does Bush really want to impose Martial Law? Maybe, maybe not...but either way, we don't get to decide for ourselves because the media controls what we see and hear.

So back to Time Warner...let's say that this Time Warner experiment is profitable. If other ISPs buy into it, the internet you know and love today could become like cable television:

Facebook and Google? No problem! Just pay for the basic internet package and you're good.

Little sites like the577.com and www.melmyfinger.com? Sorry but by 2012, you might have to pay a premium to keep enjoying 'em...

While the RIAA tells you it's illegal to rip your music CDs to your iPod, proposes a $5/month Music Tax and an iPod Tax, Trent Reznor says "download it, remix it, share it, post it on your blog, play it on your podcast, give it to strangers, etc"

Here's what the official website says:

as a thank you to our fans for your continued support, we are giving away the new nine inch nails album one hundred percent free, exclusively via nin.com.

the music is available in a variety of formats including high-quality MP3, FLAC or M4A lossless at CD quality and even higher-than-CD quality 24/96 WAVE. your link will include all options - all free. all downloads include a PDF with artwork and credits.

for those of you interested in physical products, fear not. we plan to make a version of this release available on CD and vinyl in july. details coming soon.

I'm not a particular fan of Nine Inch Nails, but I'm a huge fan of people that stick up for the little guy.

Thank you, Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails. You guys fucking rock. :bigthumbup:

Record labels must be getting desperate. First the RIAA proposes a $5/month taxation to be added to internet connection bills because, apparently, everyone is a pirate. But now the UK music industry is demanding a tax on iPods and other Mp3 players.

Fuck that shit.

disappointed:

Don't worry, the design is stripped down just for the day. Here's the explaination by Lorelle:

This is the third year of the annual CSS Naked Day which honors web design and designers around the world who help make our websites and blogs look "pretty" to the eye while still being totally functional under the hood. Dustin Diaz wanted to give the web world an opportunity to remind everyone of the benefits of CSS web page design. By removing the stylesheet for the day, the world would see naked web pages, giving a little more appreciation for the skills of web page designers.

As explained yesterday in the Blog Herald announcement of CSS Naked Day, this is also an opportunity to showcase how usable and accessible your web page structure is even without the pretty, reminding the world that it is the law that your website must accessible by everyone using any method to access your blog.

Over 1814 blogs are participating! (I'm #974!)

Something bad happened at work the other day. A big folder for one of our projects was deleted. Nobody knows how, but it just magically disappeared. The backups we have of that folder also disappeared. Months of man-hours, by multiple coders, just went bye-bye.

Fuuuuuuck.

But wait, there's some good news and bad news.

Good news. There was one sole surviving backup, tucked away safely on an old server.

Bad news. The backup is over three months old.

We've employed the services of a data recovery specialist (the same kind of forensics that the CIA and FBI use). But that shit is hella expensive and can take a few days. Even then, 100% data recovery is not realistic.

Luckily, we have notes, bits and pieces of our work on our personal computers. It'll take a few days, but we'll be able to recover.

The point I'm trying to make here is the importance of backing up your shit. And no, I'm not just talking about your work, mp3s and porn. I'm talking about the important shit like your digital photos.

A few months ago I read someone's Facebook status message that said, "[I'm] depressed cuz my computer died and lost all my photos."

disappointed:

Work can be redone. Mp3s can be re-downloaded. And porn really isn't that important.

But those photos you've been taking on your digital camera of all your since high school -- shit like your graduation, your wedding and the birth of your first born -- are absolutely priceless. Photos are something that should last for the rest of your life. Something that you can show to your children and your children's children. Not backing up your stuff is just as bad as taking all of your parents old photo albums, putting them out on the sidewalk and hoping nothing bad happens to them. That's just retarded.

And to those of you who don't know, lemme tell you something about hard drives -- they will die on you. 100% guaranteed. The same way that a car engine will break down completely.

So please, do yourself a favor. Buy an external hard drive and use some kind of backup software. Or use an online backup service like Mozy.com (secure, unlimited space for just $5/month).

I use both. :bigthumbup:

AT&T and other phone companies want to control the internet. That means they make money from the big sites, but they can screw over the little sites.

Sites like melmyfinger.com and the577.com.

Sony has announced that its Sony Connect Music Store will be closing on March 31, 2008.

Another one bites the dust. And who gets bit the hardest? The legitimate customers who paid to legitimately download music.

What will happen to my library (content I own)? You will continue to be able to play, manage, and transfer the music in your SonicStage library and on your ATRAC player. For music purchased via CONNECT, this means you may continue to enjoy it as usual in your current PC configuration in accordance with our terms of use.

Translation: Your Sony music will work forever...as long as you never upgrade your computer or change to a non-Sony music player.

Oh and btw, Sony forbids you from converting your music to another format; doing so is illegal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Nice, huh?

The internet is evolving in a very, very cool way. And this past week, Yahoo! made a huuuuuge step by adopting a thing called OpenID.

What is OpenID?

So what does this mean? This means that if you have a Yahoo! account, you'll be able to sign into thousands of OpenID-enabled sites without having to register. Just log in with your OpenID and you're good to go.

The cool thing is Yahoo! isn't the only big company that's supporting this. Google and Microsoft are on board, and AOL already lets you use your AOL/AIM account as your OpenID login. There's no doubt you'll be seeing more sites that say "login with OpenID" in the future.

Another big announcement in the past couple weeks is Google and Facebook joining the DataPortability project.

What is Data Portability?

So what does this all mean? This means that websites will be easier to join and everything (in theory) will be able to work with each other. Example:

I have a shitload of pictures on my Flickr account. Problem is, many pictures are things that should be kept private (e.g. photos of us drinking back home). So one option I could do is set all of those photos as private and tell you, "hey, if you want to see these private photos, you'll have to register at Flickr and add me as a friend." It sucks having to say that, because I really want to share these photos with you guys but at the same time I want to respect everyone's privacy.

So someday (in theory) I'll be able to say "gimme your OpenID so I can add you as a friend, then log into Flickr with your OpenID" and you'll automagically be able to see my private, friends-only photos.

That's just one example that I can think of off the top of my head. The possibilities are beyond endless. If OpenID and DataPortability really take off, you'll be able to share whatever you want with whoever you want, anywhere and everywhere.

As an Apple Fanboy, this is the most wonderful time of the year, other than Christmas. Even three years before I made the switch to Mac, I paid close attention to Steve Jobs and his zen approach to introducing teh new hotness.

Last year, Stevie introduced the iPhone. That was absolutely huge. It was a five year project that was in the works ever since the launch of the original iPod back in 2002. If you pay close attention to all of the latest cellphones, it's clear everyone is stilling trying to play catch-up by adding multi-touch hotness and true mobile web browsing.

So what is Steve gonna unveil this year? Obviously we won't know until Tuesday morning because Apple is notoriously good at keeping their lips shut, and even more notorious at seeding false information to outsiders. But based on rumblings in the blogging community, their history in product cycles and a little melv-intuition, here is what I predict:

• iTunes Video Rentals — It's been leaked countless times that Fox, Disney and more studios are on board.
• Apple TV 2.0 / Mac nano — It's the only logical compliment for the new iTunes Video Rentals service. Added ability to download movies right from your TV.
• iPhone Updates — Definitely new software features. Possibility of a 12GB model and price cut on existing 8GB model. Definitely no 3G network support yet.
• MacBook Air — An all-new line of slim pro notebooks. Possibly the rumored sub-notebook, but I don't think so...not just yet.
• New Cinema Displays — They're overdue for new form factors and screen sizes.
• No iPod Updates — Too soon. They were just updated before the holiday season.

Those are my more probable predictions. But there's one more thing...my ultra crazy pipe-dream prediction:

• Google Integration with .Mac — With the CEO of Google on Apple's Board of Directors, I think the two companies will try to double team on Microsoft and Microsoft Office. Someday I see a tight integration between Apple iWork and Google Docs. That is, the ability to work on Word documents on your Mac, and have it all save onto your Google account. You'll be able to edit your Word & Excel documents anywhere you want, whether it's on your computer, in your web browser or on your iPhone.

That's all my predictions for this year's expo. Whatever they announce, it should be awesome...just as long as it's not an all-new iPhone. In which case I will have to shoot myself.

// inspired by sherwin at properscoundrels.com