LOS ANGELES (AP) — In a move that heightens the growing tension between Silicon Valley and Hollywood, Wikipedia and other websites went dark Wednesday in protest of two congressional proposals intended to thwart the online piracy of copyrighted movies and TV programs. Source: Protest exposes Silicon Valley-Hollywood rivalry – Yahoo! News.
I wrote the following on the PopVOX website.
I oppose H.R. 3261: Stop Online Piracy Act because…it will punish every Internet consumer. First, everyone should know that the Internet removed barriers to both legitimate and illegitimate business around the globe. Second, America is a large part of the global economy and the Internet. If Hollywood or US pharmacies want to fight piracy and fraud they need to do that on their own terms and not punish the global economy. I can sympathize that they loose billions, but every industry looses to global competition – that is a consequence of globalization. America can no longer put up barriers to global commerce.
There is a link at the bottom of the Huffington Post article, “SOPA, PIPA Headed For Major Makeover“, that goes to PopVOX.
Starting tomorrow you can register your own top-level domain (TLD) name, e.g. http://chris.siems
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the organization that manages website domain suffixes, opened up top-level domains to be whatever the domain owner wants – for a price of course. They will accept applications for these new custom TLDs between January 12 and April 12. ICANN expects that the first batch of new gTLDs will be operational at the beginning of 2013.
The non-refundable price to apply is $185,000. If your domain is accepted you can expect to pay a $25,000 annual maintenance fee.
Like everything new and shiny and expensive, I’ll wait for the price to drop before I register chris.siems.
Source: ICANN Approves Custom Generic Top Level Domains – eWeek.com.
Looking back over 2011, my blogs were certainly more active than previous years. Here is the top 9 on teamsiems.com:
It’s worth noting that only 1 of these posts was written in 2011 and in December none the less.
My adventures in flying blog saw a lot of traffic looking for reference information about FSX airplanes. Here is the top 9 of aif.teamsiems.com
This year we also added the Noms For The Win blog at http://nomsftw.teamsiems.com/ It’s still new and doesn’t get a lot of traffic yet.
My other blog at http://tweets.teamsiems.com/ isn’t really a blog but more of a tweet catcher. It gets some traffic, mainly from Google.
Like SOPA, people are going nuts over what they think this bill means to their freedoms – or loss of freedoms. I had to react. They think S.1867 (PDF) will give the government the power to lock you away forever, without trial. I beg to differ. Read it for yourself then you can complain to your congressman. I’ve re-printed the most controversial section below, Sec. 1031, for your perusal:
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (S.1867)
Title X, Subtitle D, SEC 1031
Subtitle D – Detainee Matters
SEC. 1031. AFFIRMATION OF AUTHORITY OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES TO DETAIN COVERED PERSONS PURSUANT TO THE AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF MILITARY FORCE.
(a) IN GENERAL. – Congress affirms that the authority of the President to use all necessary and appropriate force pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107–40) includes the authority for the Armed Forces of the United States to detain covered persons (as defined in subsection (b)) pending disposition under the law of war.
(b) COVERED PERSONS. – A covered person under this section is any person as follows:
(1) A person who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored those responsible for those attacks.
(2) A person who was a part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners, including any person who has committed a belligerent act or has directly supported such hostilities in aid of such enemy forces.(c) DISPOSITION UNDER LAW OF WAR. – The disposition of a person under the law of war as described in subsection (a) may include the following:
(1) Detention under the law of war without trial until the end of the hostilities authorized by the Authorization for Use of Military Force. (2) Trial under chapter 47A of title 10, United States Code (as amended by the Military Commissions Act of 2009 (title XVIII of Public Law 111–84)).
(3) Transfer for trial by an alternative court or competent tribunal having lawful jurisdiction.
(4) Transfer to the custody or control of the person's country of origin, any other foreign country, or any other foreign entity.(d) CONSTRUCTION. – Nothing in this section is intended to limit or expand the authority of the President or the scope of the Authorization for Use of Military Force.
(e) AUTHORITIES. – Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect existing law or authorities, relating to the detention of United States citizens, lawful resident aliens of the United States or any other persons who are captured or arrested in the United States.
(f) REQUIREMENT FOR BRIEFINGS OF CONGRESS. – The Secretary of Defense shall regularly brief Congress regarding the application of the authority described in this section, including the organizations, entities, and individuals considered to be ''covered persons'' for purposes of subsection (b)(2).
One section in particular, 1031(e), has people running for the hills. To me that paragraph means this bill does not preclude other laws.
With the new YouTube interface, some of the screens/options have changed.
This page shows you where to change the services you share videos, favorites, likes, comments, etc.
First, log in to your YouTube account and then go to
http://www.youtube.com/account_sharing
or click on the Settings under your account menu (top right). Then click on Sharing on the left menu. This should be the Sharing and Connected Accounts page.
Click on “Connect” next to the the accounts you want to connect such as Facebook, Twitter, orkut, or MySpace. Ofcourse connecting accounts requires you to have, and log in to, the accounts.
Click the checkboxes next to items you want to share like Comment on a video.
Click Save Changes.
That’s it.
Here’s a copy of the letter I sent from http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa/
| To | Bill Flores, Kay Hutchison, John Cornyn |
| NOTE: Each recipient will only see his/her own email address. | |
| Subject | Please stop S. 968 and the PROTECT IP Act! |
| Message | Dear [Recipient],
I am writing to you as a voter in your district. I urge you to oppose the House version of S. 968, the PROTECT IP Act. The PROTECT IP Act is dangerous, ineffective, and short-sighted. The House version — introduced by Rep. Goodlatte — is far worse. Over the coming days you’ll be hearing from the many businesses, advocacy organizations, and ordinary Americans who oppose this legislation because of the myriad ways in which it will stifle free speech and innovation. We hope you’ll take our concerns to heart and oppose this legislation. Sincerely, |
This is to stop H.R.3261 – Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and S.968 – PROTECT IP Act of 2011.
The Texas Senators are Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn.
The District 17 representative is Bill Flores.
I urge you to contact your congressmen and tell them these bills are bad. They are the first step toward eliminating online freedom of speech and innovation.
I call this the 4 by 4 oven-baked spare ribs. The recipe takes 4 hours and cooks 4 pounds of spare ribs (and probably uses 4 feet of tin foil).
Step 1: prepare your rub mixture of spices. Wash the ribs and remove the membrane from bone-side. Cut off “the skirt” – a small piece of meat on one side that sticks out – this makes the rack of ribs look more rectangular. Sprinkle both sides of the ribs with your rub mixture. Place in a baking dish, bone-side down. Wrap the dish with tin foil. Let it sit at room temperature for 1 hour. (Towards the end of the hour heat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.)
Step 2: bake ribs for 1 hour. Remove foil from baking dish and drain any fat from the pan. Slather both sides with barbecue sauce. Place ribs back in the baking dish, bone-side down. Leave the tin-foil off.
Step 3: bake ribs for 1 hour or until meat separates from bone. Remove from oven and wrap the rack of ribs in tin-foil. Place the ribs in a paper bag, and fold the top of the bag closed.
Step 4: let sit at room temperature for 1 hour. Enjoy your tender, fall-off-the-bone spare ribs.
Inspiration: TheMeatSource.com Oven Baked Ribs Spare Ribs.
Two great movies every one should see. Although Easy Rider (1969) received more acclaim, Vanishing Point (1971) is the film people can’t seem to forget. They are driving films going in opposite directions: Easy Rider is Los Angeles going to New Orleans (hippies meet voodoo), and Vanishing Point is Denver going to San Francisco (mile-high meet hippies). Easy Rider is chock-full of stars. Vanishing Point has relatively unknown actors.
The Art of Shaving and Movember.com have teamed up to sponsor Movember:
During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in the US and around the world. With their Mo’s, these men raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.
I joined as teamsiems, and I’ll take a picture of my mustache once a week to show my progress. You should join my team, donate to men’s health, and follow this Mo Bro as I help by growing some facial hair.