NeoMenlo blogs

Epiphany

Jillene — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:23:54 +0000

(11:11:03 PM) Evan: i just had one of those deja future vu moments like in v for vendetta
(11:11:17 PM) Evan: where for a split second, you could see everything that has been and has yet to be
(11:11:22 PM) Evan: but it's just a feeling
(11:11:27 PM) Evan: but i can guess
(11:11:43 PM) Me: are you on something? XD
(11:11:57 PM) Evan: idk.... i think music is crack
(11:13:26 PM) Evan: i'm pretty sure that one of my early creative ideas about deja vu was accurate
(11:13:47 PM) Evan: the human mind over it's entire life only uses 1% of what it is capable of using at any moment
(11:14:15 PM) Evan: i think about people and computers very similarly, because they are
(11:15:46 PM) Evan: what if for that one 'cycle' (processor term), the brain suddenly used all of it's power, computed all the probabilities based on knowledge and observations you may not even be aware of, and planned the future. for that split second you know everything that was and will be, but it's too much to handle for a long term, so the memory gets cleared only leaving a few residual incomplete memories

Just a Web of Tubes

spazmire11 — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 06:22:45 +0000

The internet changes the lives of millions of people a day, possibly making it the biggest influence in the world, over that of television networks. People use the network to share information, chat with friends, manage business contracts and any other activity you can imagine. The audience of this communication network is not static or unresponsive like previous networks of newspapers or television broadcasts has commonly been. Unlike all previous networks, the internet allows for one great innovation: feedback. This property of allowing users to respond and converse about a subject, in that subject's own community has had a great impact on how people get information and news in their daily lives.

People have the idea that their access to this information is unlimited, that nobody can change or alter it for another individuals benefit. This is where people coin the term Net Neutrality. It is the practice of treating information on a network neutrally, regardless of intent, content or accuracy. The intent of this posting is to explain the advantages to enforcing strict network neutrality. Failure to enforce it will lead to oppression of minorities, suspension of basic communicative rights and potentially spread corruption in the leadership of broadcast systems.

The internet lacks infinite resources some people have come to believe it has. There are vast systems dedicated to directing traffic on it. This is where Alaskan senator Ted Stevens came up with a popular analogy, a "series of tubes". Stevens created this analogy from the simple fact that when a person sends information to another person through the internet. It uses a virtual data pipe to send the information. This in turn sends the information through a true data system that as the analogy implies has limits.

It is important to realize the relevance this had to the senator, this idea is why he rejected a bill amendment that would have prohibited Internet Service Providers (ISP's) from charging to give customers higher priority access to information websites. This senator's plan backfired though, the term "a series of tubes" is being used by the community that is for network neutrality. Not without reason either, the idea that the "tubes" could be blocked up with information is a fallacy.

In common network implementations, a sudden load of information does not commonly lead to data loss, only an information delay. This delay is commonly misinterpreted, the extra load will not lead to an errant email to be forgotten nor will it lose a blog post. The only area were this delay is severely problematic is in Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP), in these situations network load does have an effect but its discussion exceeds the point this post has to make.

The delay network load produces is not as problematic as the United States Senate believes it may be, and that it definitely does not have the authority to control information flow on a national scale.

The series of tubes analogy is great if you want to consider the internet on an international scale, but that is not really what net neutrality is about. Net Neutrality, to the extent covered in this post, only concerns the United States of America. So why does the series of tubes analogy even apply if we do not control the whole network? The application lies in the fact that even if we do not control the entire internet, there is still the one part of it that matters, what people have come to term the last mile.

The progress & freedom foundation published a great paper on this topic. The concision of this paper is that even though one corporation cannot regulate or maintain the network consumers should be allowed to specialize their connections to suit their needs. Their support for this argument was that people only use certain services like VOIP exclusively, cutting down their bandwidth usage in other areas of network usage.

The problem with this idea is that people can just use many services at once, downloading movies talking to people on VOIP even online video games. All of these have one common property: they use the same data network. Some would argue that VOIP is different from a file transfer but when you really get down to the hardware level, it is all just bits and bytes. The specialization that would improve the internet would create a system where users are required to pay more for what comes out to be a service that would not have really cost the company more to provide. The average consumer is most likely already familiar with this kind of a billing system.

Anyone who text messages others is participating in such a system, according to Crunch Gear on a basic texting plan a consumer will end up paying around $1,310.72 comparing this to even the most basic of data plans shows how much of a rip off consumers are receiving because of data specialization.

People who text message are not the only ones who are getting bad run through with distribution companies. Comcast has recently started imposing a hard limit upon customers' bandwidth usage. at first glance this seems like a good and pro-consumer idea on Comcast's part, we have to look further into situation to realize why it is bad. The limit Comcast has chosen is 250 Gigabytes, a fairly large amount of data. The reason they chose this number they say is that only 1 percent of their subscribers use over this much data a month.

The reason hard barriers on how much data a internet subscriber are a bad idea is very simple: times change. In 1995 when computer hard drives were rarely, greater than five Gigabytes in size customers would not have cared if they could download only a specific amount of data like 250 Gigabytes. Now only thirteen years later, you can buy a hard drive that stores 1.5 Terabytes for less than half the cost of that five-gig drive would have cost. markets have also changed, instead of a majority of internet users connecting with dial up, we now use broadband or cable that can transfer at potentially thousands of times more data.

There are many actions customers need to take to prevent the ultimate freedom the internet provides from being destroyed. An easy way is to post messages on forums and other blogging networks about this message. You can also call your state senator or representative and tell them that you support network neutrality. Join in with other supporters to spread the message through rallies and other public meetings. Anyone can spread the message with the help of websites such as savetheinternet.com/. If you would like to find more information on net neutrality, these websites can be strongly recommend for you to visit and participate in the following websites:

http://www.wearetheweb.org/

http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/internet/26816res20060925.html

http://www.handsoff.org/

http://www.savenetneutrality.com/

Roar

Jillene — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 01:28:10 +0000

I think it's time for a new blog. School has started out pretty good.. I guess. However the one thing I DREAD for some reason... PRESENTATIONS. Of course there aren't any scheduled yet but a few of my teachers mentioned them. Ugh. Those things kill me for some reason. Right when you get up there and start talking you'd think that you'd get comfortable. Well.. it's the opposite for me. I freeze up and start shaking. Even if it's the simplist task. If words start coming out of my mouth while eyes are looking right at me I feel like dying. I'm not even the slightest bit shy with my friends. In fact I'm even sometimes the dominant member of the group.. but when it's in front of a class.. shoot me D:

Also, I'm just starting to realize some things about Rhonny.

Last year, he was the best. I never would've expected he was gay OR bi. In fact everytime someone suspected it, I defended him.. saying that he was just nice because he was foreign! He was quiet, sweet, intelligent, and he was himself (or so I thought).

This year, he's become in all accessorized and shit like a freaking scene kid. His hair is down almost in his field of vision, rather than slightly gelled up in the front. He has these new glasses with carved flames on the sides (which are cute none-the-less but it all adds up). He's wearing BRIGHTLY colored shirts and tight jeans. And he likes the look of his belt hanging out for some reason. Last year he'd wear lose jeans, and just plain T shirts. Also tennis shoes (not preppy converse).

He's also a LOT more talkative (which isn't a bad thing.. just not really the Rhonny I thought I knew). He likes to talk about all his guy-friends a lot. :/ Like whats going on with them and how he's DYING to make out with a guy. UGH.

Todau he did said jokingly "It seems like everyone excepts me but you." D: I esxcept him completely and all.. I'm just not used to it... I'm always a little uncomfortable when guys like eachother... like that. And all of a sudden it's my best friend x_x

I assured him that I was happy that he's open with me now... which I am

He's actually calling pretty much every night now and inviting me places and hanging out with me all the time and stuff... I assume it's because he's got this off his back...

The reason I'm writing this now is because today he said that he was always quiet because he was keeping that secret. ): Now he talks like... me D:

Project Aurora

alitabuger7 — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:14:00 +0000

Firefox 3 was downloaded 8,000,000 times in the first day. It's not unreasonable to believe it could break 12,000,000 next time.

With such explosive growth and popularity, it may take down Internet Explorer as the most popular browser.

What if in the next release, it practically replaced the operating system? Being able to run on any of the popular systems, but being able to replace all of its features. Already Web 2.0 has started to make the OS less important. Nearly everything can be done on the internet with just a browser. However, it is still not as easy to access Google Docs, as Microsoft Office.

One mockup for Mozilla Aurora seems to do just that. It integrates everything seamlessly in a futuristic interface that could be practical on modern hardware. If they pull it off, it could eliminate Windows too.

About a week ago this preview video made headlines. The scenario they use is a bit cheesy. Some of the interface features like the radial menu that doesn't have any sort of labeling does not make sense either. They also have some nonsensical hardware like a weird mouse and a white brick that is supposed to be a computer.

Just put all that aside because about 2 minutes it starts to be amazing. Go ahead and skip to it.

Aurora (Part 1) from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

The history view reminds me of the "scale" feature in Compiz Fusion/Beryl. The effects would require hardware acceleration, which could be done with OpenGL on all Operating Systems. This also suggests that it could be its own Linux Distro.

Of course, all of this, even the video, is just theory. Mozilla may take it in a totally different direction, but I have a feeling that something big is on the way.

Ubuntu Book Idea

alitabuger7 — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 23:46:59 +0000

I got this idea when I saw a post on some random forum, where someone had said that they would consider dual booting into Ubuntu, if there were a 'Ubuntu/Linux for beginners' book that wasn't for 30$.

He was looking on amazon at the time, and probably did not even look at the Ubuntu documentation. I haven't either until now. It's not easy to read and certainly not designed for beginners.

So, what I'm thinking is to provide exactly what he was thinking. A "Ubuntu for beginners" virtual book that can be easily printed and distributed with an open source licenses, Similar to the "wikipedia" physical books. The book may be sold for the cost of materials, or could easily be printed from home.

It could be featured somehow on Ubuntu's "shipit", as an option for new users.

Since it is specifically designed for beginners, it should not be deeper than necessary, and explain everything someone new to Linux needs to know to install and use Ubuntu.

The actual website for constructing should be Drupal with the "books" module. Many of the Ubuntu website's are already using Drupal (Including Ubuntu QA), and the books module provides the best and easiest features for both writers and readers. The pages can be easily ordered and structured in the book. The pages can be individually viewed, individually printed, or printed as a book.

Since Ubuntu QA already uses Drupal framework, it makes sense to use it on this "site" but give it it's own subdomain. Users of Ubuntu QA will not need a new account and Drupal will not need to be re-themed as much.

Others have said:

"I think that this is a brilliant idea. This would very much help the many new users that have just ventured out of Windows for the first time."

"Yes, it would be nice with a free .pdf Ubuntu book. The guy is just making excuses though. Or do did he buy a "Computer for beginners" and "Windows for beginners" book, too"

Contribute your own thoughts and vote on my idea on Ubuntu Brainstorm.

If the idea reaches 200 votes, I'll make the framework for it myself and host it (maybe temporarily) on a neomenlo subdomain. Ubuntu Brainstorm uses drupal, which I am very familiar with.

Pancake bunny rabbit

Jillene — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:22:09 +0000

I need to post a new blog... I got 3 hours of sleep last night because I couldn't sleep >_>
spent 40$ of my money on video games ;-;

I had so much fun with Evan and I've been extremely happy lately. Also I seem to weigh less than I did before I left for the trip >_> however I think this may be because I haven't eaten too much today =/

I think that one of my favorite things I did was play Elebits and have a water gun fight. A FEW of my favorite things. The whole trip was fun ^_^

I also only cried like a few tears while getting on the plane to go home as opposed to intense crying like he's going to war or something )=

I guess it's because I know it won't be so bad and I do have to go home eventually.

Also... this isn't going to be a very long blog entry. Gotta go eat stir fry (nom nom) :> and TRY to watch a shitty bootleg of Get Smart =/

The End

Peach tea

Jillene — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:03:47 +0000

I've been having really crazy dreams lately and I'm bored waiting for Evan to wake up so I'm going to explain the one I had last night the best that I can...
Also I think Evan is getting bothered by it...

I dreamt that I was in a thrift store, looking for a dress. I brought a dress that I made with me that smelt like peach tea. While I was there, I must've accidentally hung up the dress that I brought, so I had to convince the employee's that it was mine and I wasn't trying to steal it. I convinced them because it smelt like peach tea, and remember trying to figure out what I was going to do for this poster I had to make for this song I also had to make. All I really had on the song were a few sounds, and most people had the entire song already done so I was freaking out. I remember drawing anime characters and thinking that my art teachers would get mad at me for doing that, so I tried to make them more realistic.

Then I got my friend (who's not really my friend anymore in real life), Cassandra, to come home with me. I asked her to help me carry a ton of books and it was really hard for her and I remember feeling really bad. We waited forever for my Dad to come pick us up and I think my Mom eventually did.

We went to the Publix and I got milk, peach tea, and raspberry syrup.

I went home and me and Cassandra made a really good drink with these 3 ingredients.

I'm having a hard time putting together what else happened but I remember trying to get these evil things that were attacking my house to drink the concoction... but then having to throw spear's at them instead because they refused to cooperate....? =/

Then I woke up because I thought Evan was up but he wasn't. ;(

Colorful AT&T Experience

alitabuger7 — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 03:53:30 +0000

So I got to the AT&T store at 7:40 in the morning expecting a line, but not a 30 foot line with 50 people in it. Some had been camped there since 9 PM the previous night.

Before the store even opened, a police car showed up. The officer was not the typical clean cut officer that you would trust. This one was a scruffy, older, out of shape man with sunglasses and almost never took his hand more than 2 inches away from his holster. Even though he was nice to those waiting in line, and felt unnecessary, his presence was an omen that shifted the mood.

The doors opened at 8:01 according to my phone, followed by a weirdly silent cheer. The AT&T employees seemed to have plenty of time to hang out with us outside. They gave us some free stuff. Water bottles, a foam can insulator (which I'm still using), a clip thing that I still haven't figured out, and a stress ball.

A half hour passed. The first batch was still in there.

Another half hour, and another group was in there. The chairs the all nighters had brought were still outside with us because their owners were inside or at the front of the line when the manager came out. He told us there was a good probability that the rest of us would not get a 16 GB black iPhone. He explained that we could be put on a waiting list, and have it shipped to the AT&T store in a couple of days. This was explained to me before he had said it at that moment, when someone pointed out "Why couldn't we just pre-order it online." A simple question that nobody at AT&T had an answer they were willing to give. The most obvious reason, which had occured to me at that moment was that since AT&T is requiring activation in store, they do not want it to be shipped to your house. They're sick of people unlocking the iPhone and using it with a different provider.

It wasn't long before they told us that they were out of 16 Blacks. I had come to terms with that already, and was mostly unphased.

As the sun was rising, it started to get a lot hotter. One of the employees that was routinely coming out to hang out with us explained that the servers were backed up. I found this to be almost inexcusable knowing all that I know about computers. There is an entire industry that rents servers for companies who expect short spike in traffic. Even worse, AT&T, one of the larger Internet Service Providers around, should be more than capable of finding enough bandwidth.

Another hot hour passed.

Near 11 AM, I was just a few people back in line, when UPS truck showed up and brought several boxes into the AT&T store. Of course, we couldn't be that fortunate. Nonetheless, it successfully got my hopes up, and crushed them once again.

The water cooler that originally held water bottles was now empty, and the trash cans overlowing. The ice was dumped onto the hot pavement and quickly disappeared.

Finally it was my turn to go in. I was expecting the air conditioning to be a relief. It wasn't. Somehow it felt almost as hot in the store as it was outside. In my experience, the AT&T store was always fridged compared to the outside on a hot summer day. As I walked to the counter, an employee with a clipboard started taking names and letting customers in. Probably to avoid the liability of a heat related injury like a heat stroke. Still, it did not quite sit well with me that I had to wait in line in the heat, while they could have done that a long time before I had to come in.

The worst part about having to wait 15 - 30 minutes while people walked out with iPhones was about to hit me. As I looked at the circle of workstations and employees, I noticed none of them were engaged in their workstation. It seemed as if all of them were staring at each other in a calm panic, not sure of what to do. Our female representative went over to talk to a male representative, and nothing about the body language of their interaction made it seem important. None of them looked like they were. I looked over at the computer screens, which were all visible from my angle, and the seldom clicks that were made loaded instantly.

I was able to watch as I guided my representative through a straight forward pre-order of a 16 GB Black 3G iPhone. I refused the 70$ insurance rip-off that doesn't cover anything. The time I spent going over exactly which plan I wanted was wasted since I wasn't activating anything. All she had to do was put in a drivers licsense number, a name, and what model I want; something I could have easily done from the comfort of my own house. It took 10 - 15 minutes for those 3 things to be entered as she through a sales pitch. When that was done, I saw the transaction go through instantly, and left the Apple store with nothing related to an iPhone. Just a can holder, a clip, and a stress ball.

Dreaming of Dogs?

Jillene — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:32:46 +0000

So I had the weirdest dream last night and I haven't really been updating my blog lately so I figured it'd be interesting enough =P

I don't remember every detail but I'll do my best.

Me and my family were going to the movies or something... but the movie that my Dad chose to see was in black and white and there were lot's of intermissions in which we had to go down the street and kill these dogs or something? And then when we came back, while waiting in line for the rest of the movie, you got to eat a few things. Some things were free and some things weren't.

First of all lemme explain the movie arrangment a little better..

It looked kind of like an airplane. The windows were the screens and there were allowed 3 people per window. I always got the window seat and Cindy was sitting next to me and always struggling to see because her hair was in the way or something.

And despite the movie being old and black and white, I remember being very interested in whatever was happening.

Anyway, back to the food. I supposedly was only allowed to get peanut butter crackers but instead I got chocolate, and got in trouble when I went to sit down. But instead of saying "You stole that.", the women said something like "Let's just say that I didn't see." and walked away.

Then, in order to let Cindy see better, I got up and went to the bathroom... however was distracted by the outdoors. Something was going on out there. It turned out that all those dogs that were being killed were the first step to some evil project in order to take over the world. And the long-very interesting movie was on for everyone in the entire world to distract them from knowing.

Well, once I figured this all out, I said "I WON'T HAVE IT!" and ran out of the airplane/theater.

I do not remember anything past this point D=

My Mom called and woke me up.

And I had an extremely crazy dream yesterday night too... it had something to do with me trying to steal this movie.. and then getting caught and taken to this huge shower and Evan was in there too. Everyone in there was lying down watching a big screen and I was bored but everyone else was so into it. I got up and took a shower, and then sat down like 5 feet away from Evan, and reached out my hand. He started to take it but then said that people might be watching. So I got sad and went into the corner of the shower and looked at these two glass dogs that I stole from the store that were in my pocket. He shortly came to where I was and attempted to apologize but I just wouldn't have it.

I ended up looking up at the movie screen and getting really into the movie.

I don't remember anything past that really. But I wasn't woken up by anything so that might've been the end of the dream?

Weird.

Shocking Biology - Radiation Fungus

alitabuger7 — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:45:16 +0000

Maybe you forgot the city, but I'm sure that you've all heard about the meltdown of the Russian nuclear reactor in Chernobyl. Well, there's an amazing fungus that not only survives radiation guaranteed to kill any other living thing, but gets its food from it. I actually have my brother, Ethan, to thank for this story. He has been into, Russia, the Russian language, and the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R., featuring Chernobyl. He found this article with stumbleupon.

From WTNR

"There has been an exciting new biological discovery inside the tomb of the Chernobyl reactor. Like out of some B-grade sci fi movie, a robot sent into the reactor discovered a thick coat of black slime growing on the walls."

"Since it is highly radioactive in there, scientists didn't expect to find anything living, let alone thriving. The robot was instructed to obtain samples of the slime, which it did, and upon examination the slime was even more amazing than was thought at first glance."

"This slime, a collection of several fungi actually, was more than just surviving in a radioactive environment, it was actually using gamma radiation as a food source."

It's shocking that a fungus has found a way to both survive radiation, and survive off radiation.