The ironic and sad circumstances of the Arab revolts

Wow, what an interesting time to live in.  The Internet has fostered pro-Democracy protests and revolutions in Bahrain, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Iran,

Just some inconsistent circumstances of some of these events.

1. In Egypt, the police tried to put down the protesters with American made teargas.
2. It's very hard for the Obama administration to "comment" consistently when we are allies with the very government that is about to be over thrown.  With friends like us they don't need enemies.
3. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a real piece of work.  He admonishes other countries governements to listen to the people and at the same time puts down protests in his own country

1.  "This is very grotesque. It is unimaginable that there is someone who kills and bombards his own people. I strongly advise them to let nations have their say and meet their nations' demands if they claim to be the officials of those nations,"
   
   Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/02/23/ahmadinejad-upheaval-reach-europe-america/#ixzz1EnhZ7vp2

Sharks with laser beams

I always wanted to write a post titled that.  For the geeks out there they understand that phrase came from a movie about a meglomaniac bent on world domination....  Dr. Evil.  But the laser beam due to it's linear quality can only be used defensively.  Let me explain.  Since the a beam of light is not affected by gravity that means I can only shoot line of sight at a target.  Deploying a large laser system like this one http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/unexpectedly-navys-superlaser-blasts-away-a-record/ will only allow us to shoot stuff out of the sky.  I can't even really shoot a ship 100 miles away because the curve of the Earth gets in the way.  This really reduces this application to a defensive one.  To be truly offensive (i.e. hit a target on the far side of the globe) you need a projectile on a ballistic trajectory.  However, if you can stuff all that hardware into a satellite then you could cover a much larger area and the laser becomes offensive in nature. So really Dr. Evil was just concerned with his own protection, after all his companies make substantially more than one miLLion dollars per day. ;-)

ATT CEO just does not get it

Randy Stephenson just does not get it.  He wants to move into more lucrative pastures than supplying bandwidth.  But supplying bandwidth is about all he does well.   I have ATT uverse and ATT wireless.  Uverse is a nice product.  ATT Wireless meh... it works.   ATT is trying to inject itself at a higher level than just a being carrier. He has made the case that apps should be universal.  So you buy Angry birds on your iPhone and then upgrade to Android, you should be able to get the same app on that Android.  (Really he wants to make his ATT bloatware universally available.)

On my new cell I get preloaded apps like the ATT Music Store.  Kind of cool concept. And it would get billed through my ATT bill which is fairly convenient. However, if you read the EULA you find that downloading songs will only occur over 3G even though wireless lan signal is available. huh?  When I read this, I instantly determined that I would not be using the ATT music store, and any other upsell service from ATT.  Uverse movies will not be at our house either.  Netflix rocks!

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/02/att-ceo-bloatware/

I'm close to rooting my cell so I can get rid of the ATT crapware.

Not that I like Steve Jobs much better.  His insistence on creating great hardware with a proprietary cable blows me away.  I refuse to pay big bucks for that awesome hardware because I have to pay $30 for a charger to charge it.  For my android phone I can purchase 2 batteries, an external charger and a USB cord for the same amount.  And that iTunes app?  Why do I have to have an app to drag tunes to my phone.  Why can't I just usb connect and drop'em in?

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB352LL/B?fnode=MTY1NDA0MQ&mco=MTA4Mzg5MDE

Steve... Android is going to eat your lunch.  It's open, its good, and it's everywhere.

Egyptian regieme falls to disruptive power of the internet.

Out founding fathers knew that our freedom was granted by access to firearms. That is why they put the right to bear arms in the constitution. The firearm is a double edged sword.  Both good and bad can come about from it's use. But this was 235 years ago, in a different age, a different technology and a different revolution.

This week we are seeing history being made. The Defense initiatives of the Cold War have yielded the biggest threat to dictators and despots ever devised.  We called it the Internet.  The free flow of information is what this is about.  In years past with out the information delivered by the Internet no one in Egypt would have heard about a man immolating himself in Tunisia.  Yet this simple news item along with free speech to discuss the event are what set Egypt on it's ear and sent Mubarak packing.

The Internet, like the right to bear arms, is a double edged sword.  There is much about the Internet that is undesirable.  It will be an interesting second decade to watch and see how the Internet will shape the world around us.  I'm sure other Middle East regimes are sweating a further chain reaction.  Will the next government of Egypt recognize the source of the peoples power and make Internet access a right?  Should it be a right?