Never been one to let the carrier drop

According to this article, the house is going to vote on a bill from CA rep Sanchez which will allow people to be placed in prison for up to two years for writing blog entries that “harass” public figures by criticizing them in a “severe, repeated, and hostile” manner.*

Look, basically, you have power over our lives, we write about the bad things you do in our blogs – which you don’t have to read – and you send us to prison? I’m sorry, but that’s just awful. Also kind of puts a dent in the 1st amendment. Sadly, I don’t live in Orange County any more, so I can’t write Sanchez and tell her how nuts I think she is. Well, I can, but she wouldn’t pay any attention because I don’t get to vote her out. Pity. But I can write my reps and tell them I disapprove, and I will.

I don’t like hate speech.. I pretty much hate Encyclopedia Dramatica, for example.. but I believe everyone should be free to post whatever they want on the interwebz. You don’t like it? Don’t visit the page. Censorship is bad, mmkay?

*** Update ***

Actually, apparently it applies to everyone – it’s a reaction to this – and a attempt to prevent cyberbullying. I don’t think laws are the right solution, I think educating people about the wonders of not browsing to a site where people are flaming them, educating people about how horrible/assish other people can be, and encouraging depressed 13 year olds to spend time with real people instead of myspace ones is probably the right solution. Anyway, I still don’t like the bill, but it also doesn’t look like it’s going to pass, hence, I’m not going to worry about it.

Well, looks like I survived another year. I think the probability of that probably goes downhill a little bit each time from now on. 😉

I’m going to repost something someone commented on:

telnet nonmundane.com 23

😉

(And if you do it from Telemate running in DosBox, I’ll give you a cookie!)

This is a list of songs and bands that I have been introduced to by my friends. It’s by no means complete, and I have no particular reason for writing it other than I’m waiting for a really huge file to download. To qualify for the list, you have to have introduced me to something that I still listen to at least once a year

Kayti: Sisters of Mercy “Temple Of Love”, Big Audio Dynamite “Medicine Show”, Tom Smith, Whimsical Tricycle, Beach Boys, Was (Not Was)

J.L. AKA curious: Bela Legousi’s dead, the cranberries, 4 non blondes, Redemption Song (Moodswings), C.W. McCall ‘Convoy’, Type O Negative, Mathew Sweet , Jesus Jones, Harry CHapin, Muppet Movie Soundtrack, Information Society

Nicka: Yes, Styx, Talking Heads, Manhattan Transfer, Tears for Fears, Emmit Swimming, the divine comedy “gin soaked boy”, Violent Femmes

R.F.Burns: Phil Collins as a solo artist, a whole lot of 80s songs I’d have never heard, and introducing me how to play mp3s on windows

Vinnie: Metallica

John Goings: Boston

Chris M: VNV Nation

Hector: Pink Floyd

Nina: The Cure, Tori Amos ? (might have been JL)

Amy (who almost certainly doesn’t read this :-): Janet Jackson, Extreme, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Depeche Mode

Tavian: Eagles, the Doors,

Loha: The Police

Manticore (who probably still hates me): NIN, Steve Taylor

Carolyn/Vicky/Jay (I don’t remember which one): Poison [Yes, I still love them. Yes, I’m duly embarrassed]

Vicky/Coughdrop: Too much joy

Alexa Madrivious: Phantom of the opera (well, I’d heard it before, but I’d never really *heard* it)

Joan & Lucas: Anthem trance, techno **

My dad: Mozart, Switched on Bach

Lara: Psytrance

Gayle: Abba

Shawn: Steely dan, Aphex Twin

Tory: Faithless

Jen: Bare Naked Ladies

Madrory: Coldplay

Esen: Oceanlab

Deadman: Oingo Boingo

Chief/Ryan: Weem

Kamran: Sound tracker mods!

Okay, that’s probably enough for now.  I notice the number of new bands I’m picking up has dropped dramatically recently.. I guess I’m getting old and set in my ways ;-(

So, recently I was helping a friend port their web site to Apache 2.0 and came across a link to NetAddiction’s internet addiction quiz. Now, I don’t think this quiz really applies to me – after all, you’re not an addict unless you *want* to stop (and I only seem to when I’m at my least sane), but I did start to think about the irony of delivering a web site – or a blog – on internet addiction.

No other addiction that I know of lets you do this. This is like your drug dealer taking you to a NA meeting, and passing you some of your drug-o-choice while *e talks to you about recovery. It’s just *funny*.  What’s more, I’m not sure what total abstinance from the internet would look like. The only time recently I’ve been seperated from the net, I had the conpensating factor of being in interactive discussion with people, face to face, all the time – so I didn’t really miss the communication aspect of it.

If civilization falls, I’m certain the ham radio people are determined to keep the internet up anyway. They’ll probably succeed, too – I mean, we’re talking about people who managed to write a full-fledged telnet & ftp server and client, plus router, that fits on a floppy disk and runs on a 8088. Nicely. One can imagine what a solar-powered KAQ9 node might look like, pretty easily.

Ah well. Back to work.

So, we discovered that Harry Potter is printed & bound in a much higher-quality way in the U.K., and naturally we wanted to buy book seven in the less cumbersome, more lasting U.K. edition. We tried to buy it in Oxford while we were there going ice skating, but we left it in a café. So, we ended up buying it in Kings Cross station on our way back from Edinburgh, which I thought was just the coolest thing ever.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=BSA-00001&cat=UFL

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=PMP-GAMEKING-III&cat=MP3

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/games/ba5a/?cpg=ab

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/9a7e/

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/a570/

http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/keyboards-mice/a85c/ <– Unbeleivably pretty

http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/accessories/b2c6/ <– cute

Also possibilities: large RC remote control vehicles with treads for dismembering for Allie’s Cat-Carrier-On-Wheels

Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon.. a game I’ve always wanted to try out.. runs just peachily. My old copies of Heros Quest run. Everything that I ever ran on a 8088/286 that will no longer speak to me now that I’m on a quad-core 80whoknowswhat86 works beautifully.

Once I get out of my current low-on-cash predicament, I am definitely donating to these people.

It occurs to me to wonder if windows 3.11 would run inside dosbox. Then it occurs to me that trying would be a good sign of a diseased mind. I also had a flicker of wondering if the very obsolete version of Cakewalk – for DOS – that me and Nicka used in our impromptu electronic music class at the New School would run under this – then I could go back and listen to all the music I wrote while I was at the New School.

Um, yah. I don’t think I really want to do that.

Then there’s the Software Toolworks word processer that I used to write so many documents while I was in high school. Let’s see, what other interesting things might be lurking.. I’m not not not going to play Castle Wolfinstien again. I don’t know which would be scarier.. if it completely terrified me *again* or if I was now totally immune to it. Hm. Scorched Earth in it’s original glory! And, of course, I could try and get C&C – the original – to work. Or the original GTA. Hm.. let me go wander into my disks from those years..

Okay, enough slacking, back to work.

I managed to get telemate to work correctly under dosbox.

This, among other things, gives me a very real simulation of what communicating 9600 baud to a unix machine was like. What’s sick and wrong is that I’m *happy* about this. I mean, like, literally, it’s bringing me actual joy. I can’t explain it.  I type commands and I can *watch* them being drawn. Shortly I may try out pine.. right now I’m logged into brig. There are a lot less people logged in than there were on the talker circuit the last time I talked to one at 9600 baud. I idly wonder if I will actually ever do this again. Still.. it’s good to see that old telemate squished font again.. perhaps I should go fullscreen for the total experience..

oh, wow.. that’s trippy.

Now if only there were a WWiV BBS I could telnet to..

OMG.. I just realized.. and yes, I know the rest of you were there already.. any bbs software would work with dosbox set up in incoming telnet mode. Of course, if it weren’t multi-line, it’d be really annoying to be limited to one user, after the internet we’ve experienced.. but.

I wonder if the backup copies of RoTDS are still any good after all these years? They’re on 1.4 meg floppies, stored in a airtight container.. there’s probably some chance of it..