Clerks II: Hilarious!

Well, last Friday night I and a few of my co-workers went to go see Clerks II. Granted, I believe half the sysadmins in the entire DC area were there, but that movie really does have a cultural following. It was chock full of one liners, insults to people of all races, religions, career choices, high-school experiences, even made a few good cracks at Lord of the Rings and its many followers. The classic elements of the original Clerks are there: talking about movies incessantly, ripping on any and all customers that make the foolish mistake of entering the store of note, Jay and Silent Bob (and the boombox) standing outside smoking, all of the good stuff. However, this movie actually has a plot and character development too, things not really existant (and not really missed by the general public) in the last one.

I will give you fair warning: it earns its R rating very well, and although it could have taken a few more steps in the mature direction, the weak-stomached should avert their eyes when 'Kelly' shows up (don't ask, please for the love of god don't ask).

The "Doughnut Hole": Not as Delicious as it Sounds

TomPaine.com - Medicare's Hollow Heart Written by my good friend (and former co-intern) Britt Cass, this speech brings out the main flaws about the new Medicare Part D plan, namely the "Doughnut Hole", a gap in coverage for citizens who have used up between $2,250 and $5,100 of medication on the plan. For the intervening period, they get NO coverage whatsoever, NONE! And you'd think, "well if I'm not getting any benefits, I shouldn't be paying the Medicare premiums, right?" You'd be wrong of course, as the beneficiaries of Medicare not only have to pay for all the drug costs in that hole, but they have to pay the Medicare insurance premiums all the while.

That's a pretty ugly hole to fall into. How many people will fall into it I wonder...

It’s hard to say for sure how many people will fall out into the doughnut hole. The best guess available comes from the Kaiser Family Foundation, whose conservative estimate is that almost 7 million people will reach the gap in 2006. Out of these, many will never be able to spend the $2,850 required to get out of it. And the doughnut hole is getting bigger every year: The law is written in such a way that the actual amount of money that people will have to spend to get out of the hole is going to increase annually.

Well, I suppose the new Medicare Plan is just going to leave that pit to hell wide open, and let more and more people drop in as they scrape to try to get out of the hole. So much for a golden retirement, huh?

It's a Series of Tubes!

YouTube - Jon Stewart on Net Neutrality All joking aside, it's kinda sad knowing that Ted Stevens, chairman of the Commerce Committee (the committee that the net neutrality bill goes through) has very little understanding of how the internet works. I'm sure you all can guess my stance on net neutrality, but the problem is we have telecoms and other ISPs wanting to prioritize data to Paying Buisnesses 'preferred members'. The problem with this, is that the internet is a web of networks. Once someone gets on the internet, you're just a part of the big network. Customers pay the ISP's to have access to the internet, period. They pay to access the 'big network'. A customer can pay more to have a quicker access to the network: the whole network.

When I pay for my 2mbps, that's what I get. Technologically, it doesn't matter where those 2mbps come from, be it YouTube, google, slashdot, this blog, whatever. Because of the structure of the internet, your ISP really gets all that traffic from someone else: the backbones. These are HUGE fiber-optic structures that are rediculously fast: think of your current 'broadband' connection as a snail. These backbones are forumla 1 cars. The ISPs pay the backbones to access THEIR network, which consists of simply the other backbones and other ISPs that connect to the backbones, and the customers that connect to the ISPs.

So you have a set of BIG tubes (backbones), connected to smaller tubes (ISPs), connected to various-sized straws (you). What the ISP wants to do is hold up the pipe, letting their preferred friend's water flow free, which means they hold up the other water from coming in to you, the paying customer. Of course, if you want to drink the other water, you get nothing, or the weak bottom-of-the-cup flow. That's not what you payed for! You payed for the whole pipe. By nature of availability, the only water that you can get is the 'special water'. Therefore, the whole purpose of the internet is dead. You can't get the water you want, only the water the ISP wants you to have. Perhaps the backbones should do the same things :)