Shouzer

Apparently the Church of Scientology has been editing Wikipedia articles in a self-serving manner, so Wikipedia has responded by banning all edits coming from their IPs.  Honestly, I know very little about Scientology.  The few things I’ve heard sound nuts, and Tom Cruise seems crazy*.

Frankly, though, all this does for their reputation is enforce it, in my mind.  Really, Wikipedia is fairly “neutral” from the things I’ve read.  Given that, if you really need to edit articles to make yourself sound better, you must be doing something wrong to begin with.

* Crazy funny…  Have you seen Tropic Thunder?  The man is surprisingly funny.

Since Scott posted about joining Facebook recently, I figured I’d link this article.  Basically, it’s a study that says Facebook users tend not to do as well in school.  Admittedly, the researcher herself admits that it might be some other third variable, but there is definitely a correlation.

I have no clue whatsoever how Twitter stays afloat.  They’re basically like, “Hey, everybody!  Why don’t you come use our bandwidth?!  w00t!”

Now sure, as a user, I love the business model–I just don’t understand how it’s going to last, especially as it gains more and more attention from the media. Quake Live just went into public beta, and as they’ve been adjusting to the demand, they’ve frequently gone offline with only a link to their Twitter page available. Basically, they get crushed for bandwidth, can’t handle it, and send it all to Twitter. And Twitter doesn’t have ads, so what do they get from it besides a bill? Oh well, that’s not my problem.

Apparently, the RIAA is going to stop suing individual consumers for illegally downloading/uploading music from their computers, and instead go solely after the service providers. Would this be considered a sign of the apocalypse?

Engadget via WSJ

Mark Cuban has a good take on the economics of the internet video giants. The point of this post, though, is just to point you in the direction of Hulu.com because I think it’s gaining steam and getting better. You can say that you were a user before the fanboys come along. I was a beta-user. Booyah.

Just about thirteen months ago I shared here that I had been mentioned by name on a story done by an espn.com writer. Today, I have similar news to share. A question that I sent to Jaguars.com senior editor Vic Ketchman was answered in his latest column. I am “Kyle from Carbondale, IL” because I was at work while typing. Great success!

It was a long weekend, that is for sure. We began moving things to Carterville Friday evening, but the bulk of the work was done Saturday. There isn’t much to say about moving furniture, clothes, and things from one location to another, except that it makes one tired.

I put myself in charge of all Mediacom dealings, which was as much a curse as it was a blessing. So let me count the cable jacks for you in this house. (3) Living Room, (1) Formal Living Room, (1) Dining Room, (1) Master Bedroom, (1) Bedroom #2, (1) Bedroom #3. That makes 8. That’s entirely too many, but I figure, hey, if the guy who built the house thought that was necessary, so be it. The people we bought the house from (they were the second owners of the house) used a satellite dish and had no cable. But I never considered the possibility that the house was never equipped for cable, considering the 8 jacks throughout the house. That was the case, though. So when the Mediacom guy gets here, he has to run a new line from the closest box in the neighborhood (luckily, it was situated between our house and the neighbors in the backyard). So now I’ve got this bright orange eyesore running all the way across my lawn because Mediacom subcontracts a company to bury the cable, and I’m informed that might take 2-3 months. Go figure. Now, you would think that after connecting the orange eyesore main line to the line running into my house that the myriad of cable jacks would all be hot (ie. working). Again, that would be too easy. Three of them worked stupendously; five were nonresponsive. I’m going to leave out the next part of the story, because I don’t want to make this post into a novella, but if I did tell you this story, it would include two trips to the attic, 1 cable split into 4 cables, those 4 cables split into 8, a hole in the sheetrock, and a hidden compartment in my garage.

After about 3 hours, though, we did have working Mediacom cable TV and internet. The internet has been touchy, though. It seems (after talking with 2 different tech support guys) that the computer that processes change orders (when we changed addresses, they changed our account number) was failing to complete the order. So sometimes the internet was here just isn’t working because the modem doesn’t understand what account to work for. At least I think that’s the problem. Anyways, I think it is working for good now.

Also, since moving to Carterville would require a new phone number, I decided to check out Mediacom’s cable phone service. Turns out, that they are running a special on their VIP package. We only pay $0.01 on phone service per month through December, and then it’s $30. Plus, no installation fee. And that $30 is still cheaper than the $50 we payed for phone in Herrin with Verizon. Even better, the VIP package bumps internet speeds from max 8mbps to 15mbps. Very nice.

The only problem left right now is that I’m getting good speeds when I’m directly connected to my router (~6.5mbps), but on wireless it diminishes greatly, even though I’m connected at 54mpbs (and the router is in my room). Surely, I’ll figure it out soon, though.