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Today’s Cool Video

I really like the music in this video by Graffiti Researd Lab showing LED Throwies. Well composed!

A Throwie consists of a lithium battery, a 10mm diffused LED and a rare-earth magnet taped together.

From the Make:Blog comments. One commenter questions the environmental impact:

what do you think the ecological impact of peppering the landscape with a handful of lithium batteries is?

And another bemoans the waste of good electronics:

It seems a shame to have the still good magnet and still good LED slaved to a dead battery halfway up a wall.

Source [Instructions to make your own]

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Father of the Year

This morning I send Noah to the bus stop in -.5°C weather with no coat. This is not my fault. I provide my 9 year old son with nice, warm coats. He just wants to make sure that if there is a sudden drop in temperature that wherever he is he can quickly put on a coat. So, he makes sure to leave a coat at school, at the grandparents, at a friend’s house and so forth. I just can’t seem to purchase them fast enough so I suppose it is my fault.

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Saving the Internet

Alright! Let’s hear it for Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.)! A politician that understands with the telcos are doing. Earlier I posted "Large Telcos Want To Kill The Internet". Rep. Rick Boucher explains:

Essentially, what these executives are proposing is the creation of a two-lane Internet where larger, more established websites with financial resources could squeeze out smaller, emerging websites. …

Internet2, a nonprofit partnership of universities, companies and affiliate organizations, including federal agencies and laboratories, has been studying this matter and has demonstrated that a multitrack Internet model is unnecessary to assure quality of service. Internet2 has for the past seven years deployed an advanced broadband network to more than 5 million users and has learned that in a network with enough bandwidth there is no congestion and no bits need preferential treatment because all of them arrive quickly enough to assure excellent quality, even if intermingled.

I find it somewhat sad that our speed over the last mile, that is from the switch to the house, is so slow.

In countries such as Japan and Korea, network speeds over the last mile of 100 megabits per second (mbps) are common. In the United States, our typical speed is less than 1 mbps.

Special thanks to Tom Maszerowski of My Likes and Dislikes for pointing out Rep. Rick Boucher!

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Large Telcos (Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, etc) Want to Kill The Internet

If you aren’t following, haven’t heard, or don’t understand the news about the large telecommunications companies wanting a “tiered Internet,”

“We don’t want to replicate the cable model on broadband Internet,” Gigi Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge, a Washington-based advocacy group focused on digital rightssaid. “We don’t want the Internet to turn into cable whereby the pipe owners decide on content and services.”

then this hypothetical conversation from 2019 should help.

Consumers should, and do, want Internet Freedom.

Net Neutrality is also supported by FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, considering it (Net neutrality) one of the most pressing technological issues:

“Our open and vibrant and free-wheeling Internet is the last place where we should allow toll bridges to be erected. Every American has a stake in how this turns out.”

Ben Scott, policy director of the media reform group Free Press:

“These pricing schemes are simply poorly disguised discrimination. Requiring Internet companies to pay for high-speed access to the Internet when they’re already charging consumers for the same service means consumers will ultimately pay twice.”

“The scheme will stifle innovation and competition by effectively denying access to start-ups that can’t afford to pay for access to high speeds.”

Get ready to contact your representative!