This letter made Maddie cry and Ben upset…
… so I guess the only people that can be with the new baby are me, her mom, and her grandmother. In other words, Jolene and her two coaches. It’s sad that everyone can’t come, but at the same time… we’re not going to let it interrupt the happiness we feel.
John McCain has recently introduced a law called the “Internet Freedom Act”. This will stop the Federal Communications Commission from regulating anything that runs over IP (Internet Protocol). It’s intent is to stop so-called ‘net neutrality’.
So what is net neutrality? It’s the idea that if I pay for my network connection, and you pay for your network connection, we should be able to communicate over our connections without hindrance by our ISP’s. Specifically, the FCC has proposed the following:
* Consumers are entitled to access the lawful Internet content of their choice
* Consumers are entitled to run applications and use services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement
* Consumers are entitled to connect their choice of legal devices that do not harm the network
In other words, the providers that run the pipes such as AT&T, Charter, and Verizon should not block lawful internet content, they should be able to use whatever devices they wish so long as they do not harm the internet
* Consumers are entitled to competition among network providers, application and service providers, and content providers.
There should be capitalism in the marketplace that will allow consumers to determine what applications, services, and content they desire
* A provider of broadband Internet access service must treat lawful content, applications, and services in a nondiscriminatory manner
This means that an ISP customer can access all content on the internet in the same way, without allowing the ISP to extort money from content providers for ‘premium’ access to their users.
* A provider of broadband Internet access service must disclose such information concerning network management and other practices as is reasonably required for users and content, application, and service providers to enjoy the protections specified in this rulemaking
ISPs cannot operate in secret, in other words, to get around these issues
Essentially, Net Neutrality is a codification into law of the principles that have been the basis for the internet and its innovations. It’s core belief is one that allows me to remain in business. I run web services, and the neutrality of the internet is what allows me to provide internet connectivity. If large backbone providers started charging extra tariffs for access to their customers above and beyond the network access fees I already pay, I would simply go out of business.
AT&Ts CEO Ed Whitacre has made comments about his desires to charge Google more for allowing access to the AT&T pipelines. Google already pays for it’s network connections, and peers directly with some ISPs, but AT&T basically wants more money for providing no further network access. Specifically, when asked about upstarts such as Google, he had this to say:
“How do you think they’re going to get to customers? Through a broadband pipe. Cable companies have them. We have them. Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain’t going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it. So there’s going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they’re using. Why should they be allowed to use my pipes?
The Internet can’t be free in that sense, because we and the cable companies have made an investment and for a Google or Yahoo! (YHOO ) or Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes [for] free is nuts!”
If the AT&T CEO had his wish, tariffs to reach AT&T clients would essentially put me out of business. He doesn’t acknowledge that Google has already paid for their network connection, as well as the customers that are trying to reach it. He is advocating for further fees to be placed on those who would innovate.
This has nothing to do with Republicans, Democrats, Liberals, or Conservatives. It is a technical issue, that lawmakers are now stumbling into blindly. What really spurned me into writing this is the following video, by the Fox News commentator Glenn Beck:
This politicization of this issue is disgusting, and the arguments that Beck makes are not really worth debating. To Beck, this is just another thing used to demonize the Obama administration. To me, and many other people making their living on the internet, this vitriolic spew is dangerous.
Finally, John McCain is a strange person to be submitting any sort of internet bill. McCain has been quoted in the past as acknowledging that he doesn’t even use the internet: his wife does it for him when he needs something. And it’s no secret that one of McCain’s top financiers is AT&T – the very same company that advocates against net neutrality to bolster their bottom line.
I’ll finish this post up with a list of people and companies that support net neutrality – these are large companies and innovative individuals that support the basic tenets of net neutrality:
Google
American Library Association
Association of Research Libraries
Microsoft
Amazon.com
American Association of Law Libraries
Vonage
Verizon
Tim Berners-Lee (creator of the internet)
Vinton Cerf (creator of the world wide web)
Intel
Facebook
Skype
Ebay
Earthlink
Paypal
Sony
and many many more
Week 37. We went in to get a final ultrasound done, and she’s flipped almost into the right position. She’s working on it. Some quick pictures, with labels on the first one for clarity Yes, that’s her face:
It’s always so much clearer on the ultrasound machine, as there’s a sort of continuity of the image that you don’t get with stills. You can’t see her eyes in this one like you could on the screen, and you of course can’t see the movement of her mouth. Someday technology will give us video, I’m certain. That day is not today.
Another face shot. Today we looked into her growth, as well. She has a largeish head, I guess. That could mean she’s a little further along than we thought, or perhaps just that she has a large melon. We double-verified she’s a she, and were presented with unmistakable evidence that she is in fact a she-beastie. No pictures of that because, well, a girl has to have her dignity.
A random foot shot, pointing skyward. I liked this ultrasound tech better than the one we had last time. She’s more personable, and Jolene worked with her in the past as well.
Jolene has had a complication in the pregnancy. Nothing to do with the baby, really, but side effects that are common when a baby is there. Her gall bladder has a stone, and she will be having surgery 4 weeks after birth. Not a huge deal, but definitely very scary. They’re going to do it laparoscopically, which is the way to go. There’s no great emergency at this time – it’s not infected or anything, but it’s something that needs to be fixed.
I have every intention of keeping on posting here. I really do. I’m finding between work, baby preparations, and school that I’m lacking in time to do much of anything. Some of the things that have been keeping me busy are…
I’m set to register for my next semester, and am planning on taking:
Intermediate accounting – A logical extension to the first two accounting classes, I’m planning on going through my whole accounting book over winter vacation to prepare myself. It’s been a while since I took my accounting courses and want to brush up.
Managerial cost accounting – Standard cost systems for processes, basically budgeting and costs for systems used in business. I’m pretty sure this focuses on the internal users of accounting info, rather than public documents.
Federal Tax Accounting I – Required for the CPA exam, should I choose to take it. This one I’m not really thrilled by, but I want to make sure I’m prepared just in case I want to go down that road.
SAP in Business – I’m an accounting information systems major, so I think I should concentrate on, well, accounting information systems. This is optional but I would think it would be mandatory for this major.
Visual Basic Programming – I’m taking python, have taken java, dabbled in php and perl, so this should be fairly straightforward. This language lets you make quickie applications to handle a wide variety of needs on the windows platform, and I have no experience in it.
We went to baby school! Last weekend we got to go and sit in the womens health center at Bay Medical Center. I got to learn about all sorts of things, such as:
Afterward, we went on a tour of the birthing facilities. It’s on the third floor of the hospital, and is actually very nice. They have a fridge, hardwood floors, and a general ‘apartment-but-not-really’ vibe. Basically as ‘homey’ as they could get in a hospital. More excitingly, they have WiFi throughout! Might be nice during some downtime, if there is any.
At the end we got our prize:
We sure are certifiable!
I do feel better now that I’ve seen the hospital. I was a bit anxiety ridden beforehand.
Jolene is doing well, but feeling ‘very pregnant’. She has developed a ‘pregnant waddle’ as she walks now. We’re coping, but the whole thing tires her out. The baby feels neat when she moves, but you can tell she’s getting more and more cramped in there. She doesn’t ‘hit the walls’ as much as she did, since she has little room to do so. She does shift around a lot. It’s pretty neat to feel her feet or whatever sliding around in there. All that’s really happening is that the baby is fattening up.
As an aside, I had a bit of an issue, but am now fully vaccinated against all flu viruses. The CDC wants the families of newborns to form a ‘cocoon’ around the newborn. The people at the CMU health department didn’t understand at first, but after repeated visits they gave in.