I think my college professors always thought it was a bit odd when I would hand in papers done on a typewriter in mid 2000s.
Debating My Internet Options.
I am debating my Internet options 💻🗃📶 🔌
With winter upon us, the pandemic raging towards us, it seems unlikely I’ll be working downtown full-time any time soon again. From spring to autumn, working at the library and using my phone for internet has worked, okay but I’m starting to think I’m going to need a better solution come December into January. It’s just going to be too cold to work at the library sitting in my truck plus it gets dark out early.
I can try to continue to use my phone for Internet but I’m not sure how well that will work, as I might run up into data caps and the fact that it’s small screen and limited processing power doesn’t work that great on all websites. This might particularly be an issue when I have to watch videos or do Zoom sessions. For editing documents, I can always transfer documents to my laptop using a USB cable. Plus I kind of wish I could participate in various Zoom community events that I am currently missing and other events that have been moved exclusively online.
The obvious answer would be to get my apartment wired and set up either with Spectrum Cable Internet or FIOS Internet. The benefit of that service is its virtually unlimited, no data caps to worry about. It’s not cheap though, although it looks like I could get FIOS basic service for $40 month for a minimum of 12 months after paying the installation charge which is probably a couple hundred bucks and for a $300 router. The FIOS service is probably cheaper and more reliable than the cable service especially because I don’t own a television and have no interest in watching any of that commercial programming.
That said, I’ve been very resistant to having Internet at home, because I enjoy walking down to the park or the library after work. If you are going to sit for a few hours and surf the web, then it’s good to stretch your legs for a few minutes of walking first. Prior to the pandemic, I would walk to the library several times a week, even when it was cold and snowy. I’d bundle up to fight the wind chill. I don’t like having a lot of commerical advertising in my apartment, and I worry if I had Internet at home, I’d spend all this time watching stupid Youtube videos or playing on social media. Not that I don’t do that already with my phone.
I started researching Wi-Fi Hotspots and found that I could upgrade my phone plan in mid December to add 10 gigabytes of Hotspot data for $10 extra bucks a month or 20 gigabytes of data for $20 extra a month. I conformed that my phone has that capability to serve as a hot spot for my laptop, so that’s the route I’ll probably take. Looking through my logs on my computer if I am careful – and don’t do much video streaming – I should be good with certainly the 20 gig plan. As it’s month to month, once the pandemic is over and I’m back working downtown and the library is a open again, I can drop the Hotspot plan.
While I’m sure it’s nice to not have a data cap and the speed and reliability of a wired connection, it sure is a lot cheaper in the short run and flexible to use my phone as a hot spot. If I decide to winter camp I could even work remotely from a heated tent and my laptop. If I upgrade my phone plan to include the extra Hotspot service it will be unlimited cellphone data (up to 60 GB), which would mean that I can do Zooms and watch videos on my phone without having to worry about too much data.
Honestly, I don’t like subscription fees. But I think I have found a solution that will work well enough for remote work during these cold months. The pandemic will be around for a while longer – maybe months but not years. There are two almost approved vaccines and come next spring into summer it will be warm enough to work in the park or library and then I can reevaluate each month what data plan I need going forward. I’m hopeful that by spring I’ll be working back downtown full-time again and the library re-opened so I won’t need the hot spot add on package anymore.
Right now I have a little more than a month left on my current phone service so I probably won’t upgrade the package until December. But that’s only a little over a month and if I end up needing it before then I’ll loose a little bit of my previously purchased service but it’s not a big deal. Still cheaper than getting a permanent wired connection at home.
youtube-dl is back – The GitHub Blog
Today we reinstated youtube-dl, a popular project on GitHub, after we received additional information about the project that enabled us to reverse a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown.
At GitHub, our priority is supporting open source and the developer community. And so we share developers’ frustration with this takedown—especially since this project has many legitimate purposes. Our actions were driven by processes required to comply with laws like the DMCA that put platforms like GitHub and developers in a difficult spot. And our reinstatement, based on new information that showed the project was not circumventing a technical protection measure (TPM), was inline with our values of putting developers first. We know developers want to understand what happened here, and want to know how GitHub will stand up for developers and refine our processes on these issues.
In this post, we provide answers to common questions about the DMCA and why GitHub handled this case the way we did, describe why circumvention claims deserve special treatment, and share how we’re updating our policies and fighting to improve the law.
The Dictatorship of Data
Big data is poised to transform society, from how we diagnose illness to how we educate children, even making it possible for a car to drive itself. Information is emerging as a new economic input, a vital resource. Companies, governments, and even individuals will be measuring and optimizing everything possible.
But there is a dark side. Big data erodes privacy. And when it is used to make predictions about what we are likely to do but haven’t yet done, it threatens freedom as well. Yet big data also exacerbates a very old problem: relying on the numbers when they are far more fallible than we think. Nothing underscores the consequences of data analysis gone awry more than the story of Robert McNamara.
ASCII – Wikipedia
ASCII was developed from telegraph code. Its first commercial use was as a seven-bit teleprinter code promoted by Bell data services. Work on the ASCII standard began on October 6, 1960, with the first meeting of the American Standards Association's (ASA) (now the American National Standards Institute or ANSI) X3.2 subcommittee.
The first edition of the standard was published in 1963, underwent a major revision during 1967, and experienced its most recent update during 1986. Compared to earlier telegraph codes, the proposed Bell code and ASCII were both ordered for more convenient sorting (i.e., alphabetization) of lists, and added features for devices other than teleprinters.
Still Happy With No Internet at Home
It seemed after about seven or eight years that the Time Warner Cable and Verizon had given up on trying to get me to sign up for Cable Television and Internet. And then I got another advertisement in the mail just this week. I chucked it in the paper recycling bin. And sighed. I am quite happy not having Internet at home, especially because with my new 4G Smartphone that can do about 90% of the stuff I need to do on the Internet. When I need larger files or something I can only do on my laptop, I walk down to the library or the park, which both have fast, free Internet which I can use. I also bring my laptop to work, and can connect to the wireless guest network they have there.
I don’t plan on ever having Internet at home. It just seems like an unnecessary expense, not to mention an unnecessary distraction. By walking or driving down to the library, it is a good way to limit your time on the ethers of the World Wide Web, although, honestly, most of that same stuff can be done with a modern smartphone. I don’t want a connected home or the ability of hackers to enter my living space, I’m quite happy building my own dream cabin with 12 volt power, LED lighting, controlled by automotive relays and maybe an Andruino. Don’t get me wrong, I like technology. I blog, I like the Internet. It would be cool to have the LED lights come on in my home at 6:30 with a bright blue colors to wake me up on a cold winter morning. With cellphone service in more and more places, and the StraightTalk data service cap ever growing, it seems like I have all the connection I need to our modern society, without the wires tying everything on in.