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North Korea and Net Neutrality

Im sure that many people would consider the new freedom of ‘internet’ issue at hand, to be very similar to North Korea, and the Berlin Wall.  North Korea is a place where people are trapped inside, and are to be shot if they are caught trying to leave.  Which I would correlate with *going to the site you really want to be at*.  Where as, people on the outside are able to freely come into North Korea.  This is what I would consider, the internet providers way of getting people to go where they want.

Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea for more information on North Korea.  I watched a video on it a couple of months ago and it’s really quite interesting what goes on there.  The problem is, it’s not the kind of interesting that I’d like to see in my country.  But, this sort of thing could start to affect the way we browse the internet.

Net neutrality is important for anyone who enjoys browsing the internet, watching videos, and playing online games.  The fact that internet providers are now trying to start charging people based on how much files they transfer, is ridiculous.  Eventually it is believed that internet providers will start to charge money for the ability to go on specific websites.

This would mean, if the internet provider cut a deal with Yahoo, that they wouldn’t allow you to access google.  Or if they did allow you to access google, it would take an extremely long load.  The only reason for the internet providers to do this is because they want more money.  It seems to me like they’re making plenty of money the way it is.

I would consider this situation to be just like that of the Berlin Wall.  When there are things inside of the walls that the people outside the walls can’t get.  The inside being democratic/capitalist, and the outside of the walls being a communist environment.  Where people or ‘forced’ to share and use things they don’t particularly want to.  In other words, freedom lies inside of the walls, and the walls are heavily guarded with gunman ordered to shoot you on site.

Internet providers seem to be planning somewhat of the same thing.  Installing huge firewalls, and blocks so that you can’t access the sites you really want to.  While in doing this, getting you to go to other sites that ‘they’ want you to go to.  Of course you’re not going to get shot if you ‘try’ to get into the sites you don’t have access to any more, but they’ll make it pretty damn inconvenient.

I’m hoping, that if the internet providers ever grouped together and decided to do something like this.  Someone would come out and make a new internet provider that supported internet neutrality.  I know, that if no other internet providers formed, than I would try to start one.  I’m absolutely desparate for freedom on the internet.

With all of the new rules and internet laws being put into place though, this doesn’t seem like to far fetched of an idea.  I read that providers like Verizon, and Time Warner Cable are leaning towards making the switch by 2012.  I’m not sure what kind of boycotts and protests are already being planned for this, but I’d probably only be able to hold out a little while without my precious internet.

If you want to help do something to stop internet providers from breaking the rules of net neutrality, then you can google ’save the internet’, and/or ‘net neutrality’.  Good look saving the internet, and enjoy it while you still have it…

Tags: berlin, berlin wall, block, censorship, firewall, internet, internet provider, net neutrality, north korea, provider, time warner, time warner cable, verizon, wall

When will Computing Plunge into Virtual Reality?

Ok, since I was a kid I imagined being able to put on some glasses and then pretend like i was inside of my video game.  I’m pretty sure everybody has imagined doing that at some point in their life.  With technology becoming more and more advanced each day, this may be possible in the near future.  If fact, it seems like in some cases, it’s already starting to be implemented.  I was searching around the internet for cool things to write and read about, when I found Virtusphere.

Ok, so don’t laugh, most of you have probably already heard about the latest virtual reality technology.  For me though, this is the first time I’ve seen it as a realistic possibility.  Virtual reality may never work out to be completely practical, to the point where all you have to do is put on a pair of Virtual Reality Sunglasses and your in game.  But I know that it will eventually become a popular form of gaming, in arcades, and Cyber Cafes.

Think of being able to step onto a virtual reality beach, where the girls don’t look away in disgust.  Because they’re programmed to like you.  Or maybe, imagine going to a live concert via a sort of mmorpg platform virtual reality system.

Bionics, robotics, virtual reality, nano technology…
What will they come up with next!?

Tags: bionics, nano, robotics, virtual reality

Juicy Campus

Apparently another guy was arrested over making an obviously fake threat on the internet today.  The threat was Made on JuicyCampus, which is a site where kids/teens can gossip about their schools I guess.  Something I would never use, but I guess it’s pretty popular (It is now! lol).  I know threats are wrong, and you shouldn’t do it in real life, nor on the internet… but I definitely think that the people should be given a little more slack when it comes to the internet.

Despite school shootings being horrible, I’m certain mosts teens have made some wise crack about pulling a VT, and even elaborated on that.

This person was arrested for writing:

“I wonder if i could shut down the school by saying I’m going to shoot as many people as i can in my second class tomorrow.I hope I get more than 50,”

George So says, and then goes on to add

“For liability reasons and IP tracking I won’t leave it at that. But seriously, this site is rediculous [sic], if it got big, and someone put the effort into writing a big long serious suicide note informing all readers that he would kill over 100 kids, they could shut down the school. Nice.”

To me that doesn’t even sound like a threat, but the police thought that it had to be taken seriously.  Obviously with all of the recent school shootings, they needed to be careful.  George So’s colleague told the campus police about the post, and the campus police then told the city police.  George So ended up being arrested, and his apartment was searched (where no weapons were found).

So… long story short, much adieu about nothing.

Tags: Add new tag, campus, juicy, juicy gossip, juicycampus.com, school, shooting, site, social, threat, virginia tech, vt

Lulz at North Korea

Wikipedia:

North Korea is the commonly used short form name for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (or DPRK^[4]), a state located in East Asia, in the northern half of the Korean Peninsula, with its capital in the city of Pyongyang.

To the south, separated by the Korean Demilitarized Zone, lies South Korea, with which it formed one nation until division following World War II. At its northern Amnok River border are China and, separated by the Tumen River in the extreme north-east, Russia.

I just watched a video on North Korea today, and it got me to thinking how much I want them gone.  Not to sound mean or anything, but they have nuclear weapons and they hate Americans.  The documentary I watched showed a mother walking to kindergarten with her young daughter, and singing some song about crushing the Americans.  “We will bring them to there knees”  (not an exact quote, but something about bringing them to their knees and then killing them).

Of course lots of people hate Americans, but the decision to go to war with American lies with one man.  Not the entire country of people.  What their leader Kim Jong-Il says, goes.  So if he says he wants to go and attack us, then the rest of the country will follow his will.

Anyways I don’t want to go on and on about it, I just thought North Korea was weird as hell… so I wanted to share.  You can find out more about the Korea in the North at the Wik~

7.8 Earthquake in China

First of all, a 7.8 earthquake is extremely large. I think the largest recorded earthquake is somewhere around 8.0. This quake didn’t last for a couple seconds like many that almost everyone has experienced. It shook with quite a large intensity, and didn’t let up for a while. Huge buildings and small buildings alike were completely demolished by the forces of nature, and there was many casualties.

During the Earthquake, a school collapsed and around 900 students were trapped inside. Chinese soldiers tried to find survivors, but there was hardly any. Actually, there has only been one survivor found, out of hundreds of students. Needless to say, there was a lot of grief among the parents as they stood watching the soldiers find dead bodies, and the time drew on.

I found a video on youtube that helps to show how intense the earthquake really was. Hard to believe the Cloverfield film quality was worse than this even when their was no earthquake right?

Tags: 1, 900, china, dead, earthquake, school, students, survivor, trapped