Google and Verizon have made a public policy proposal (no business arrangements) and have asked for it to be enforced by FCC with power for fines (up to 2 million dollars). The proposal requires wired broadband like cable and DSL to be strictly neutral but it allows for additional, differentiated online services. In other words things like services to hospitals, or Verizon’s FIOS service, neither of which would go out on the open Internet. It leaves wireless broadband largely unregulated.

A key point in the wired broadband part of the agreement is that there would be no selling of priority traffic slots over the public Internet. In other words no company can pay to get their videos sent more reliably or faster than others. But dedicated capacity could be sold to customers over a dedicated network. That means you can buy a VPN or a private service of some kind. But nothing that would be available openly on the Net.

I wasn’t irrationally angry.

And I think I know the reason. In the past while cloning and swapping, all my data was essentially unavailable. The stress of fearing I might fail in the process and have to spend countless hours restoring from other backups or even lose some data made me wig.

I remember one evening when Windows 95 wouldn’t boot for me and I actually asked friends who were over at the time to leave until I got it fixed. I knew myself. I was not going to be pleasant to be around.

So what changed?

This time around I had my iPhone and iPad. I was able to access almost all the data I needed while my cloning churned away. I answered email, I edited documents, I read books and comics.

The few things not comfortably done on these devices could have easily been done on one of the other computers in our house too, just by using Mozilla Weave to get all my settings in my browser.

The cloud is what eased my mind. Having my data accessible in useful applications in ways I was familiar with meant I didn’t really sweat the swap. I know ‘terminal’ computing and other variants on the cloud have been predicted for years. I’m not saying we’ll all move to dumb terminals. But I think we really have ventured down a new road in how we interact and rely on our data. We’re going to think less about where it is in the future.

Do you name your gadgets? Tell me the names int he comments? Here are some of mine.

MacBook Pro (Unibody) – Martha Jones
Old MacBook Pro (Silver keyboard) – Lois
Old ThinkPad T42 – Starbuck
Dell Windows XP machine – HAL
iPod – BobPod
iPhone – FredPhone
iPad – JeffPad
Apple TV – Teeves (like Jeeves)
Slingbox – Sam

I don’t name things like the TiVo, PS3, Wii Xbox, etc… because they’re so easy to refer to anyway.

This strikes a chord with me, especially in the tech space. Bloggers, Podcasters, Startups, etc… are good example of distributed property owners. Certainly they have investors in many cases, but not always. And they own their own means of production. I find the idea of encouraging wide property acquisition, but discouraging oligopoly, quite fascinating.

If you take away the prospect of owning your own property, then you undermine many motivations for industry. However, if you take away the prospect of owning everyone else’s property, or owning large disproportionate amounts of property, you do little to discourage personal industry.

Let’s say I want to be rich. I do not want to be megalomaniacal rich necessarily. If I think I can be rich, but not ridiculously rich, I will continue to work hard.

But what happens if I become rich? Will I still be motivated to industry? Human nature testifies against this. Most who have the motivation to become rich maintain the motivation to keep it. And most who become rich agree that the money no longer matters after a point. It becomes a game they can win. That’s what motivates them. Money is just a convenient scorekeeper.

There are other ways to keep this score than money. And the money number once irrelevant can be lower and still motivate.

This is not a defense of Dsitributism, nor do I think the philosophy is without flaws. But I think we could benefit quite a bit from an injection of this perspective into our current debates, and our ways of doing business.

Finally this week I grabbed Volume 1: Phreak on my way out the door and read it on the bus. I tore through the novel in no time. I’m sorry waited. Wizzywig rocks. It’s a well-done tale touching on the highlights of hacker culture woven into the life of the fictional Kevin Phenicle, but recognizable to anyone familiar with the history. You’ll definitely be able to figure out which chraacter is Emmanuel Goldstein, Captain Crunch, and probably the most recognizable, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

At the end of the book Piskor includes notes, referenced by page number and panel, that give some of the background of the real events behind the parts of Phenicle’s story. With the notes, the book becomes an accessible and well-rounded introduction to hacker history. Not just that but Piskor really does a good job explaining the hacker ethos and how it’s not about vandalism, but exploration.

The illustrations are great. They reminded my very not-expert eyes of R. Crumb, but with Piskor’s own stamp. For instance, Phenicle has Little Orphan Annie eyes (he being an orphan). And backgrounds have some nice hidden gems if you’re looking close.

Overall I really enjoyed reading volume 1 and can’t wait to dive into the next two. You can pick up the first two as a free PDF from EdPiskor.com. Or just head right into his store and purchase a paperbound copy. I recommend at least trying out the PDF. Piskor obviously is steeped in hacker history and is a talented artist and storyteller to boot.

ESP – Daniel Cohen (Paranormal)
Fly you stupid kite fly – Charles Schulz (Comics)
Summers fly, winters walk – Schulz (Comics)
It’s hard work being bitter – Schulz (Comics)
The roller skating book – La vada wier (?)
Walter Cronkite – Paul Westman (Bio, Media)
Hank Aaron – George Sullivan (Bio, Sports)
It’s Arbor Day, Charlie Brown – Charles Schulz (Comics)
Prehistoric Animals – Bruno Frost (Science)
Outer Space – Robin Kerrod (Science)
International Race Car Drivers – Mark Dillon (Sports)
Danny Dunn and the Universal Globe – Jay Williams (Mystery)
The abominable Snowman – Barbara Antonopoulos (Paranormal)
Nathan Hale – Virginia Francis Voight (Bio, History)
Sam Houston – Paul Hollander (Bio, History)
Coretta Scott King – Willie Patterson (Bio, History)
Games – Alida Thacher (Geeky)
The Challenge of Space – Robin Kerrod (Science)
Chess is an easy game – Fred Rienfield (Geeky)
Chess Victory – Fred Rienfield (Geeky)
The Harlem Globetrotters – Frank Gualt (Sports)
Knock Knock Jokes – Joseph Rosenbloom (Humor, Geeky)
Danny Dunn – Jay Williams (Mystery)
Card Tricks – Geoffrey Lamb (Paranormal)
Telescopes and Observatories – Patrick Moore (Science)
Alabama – Carpenter (Love of the south???, History?)
The Moon – Herbert Kondo (Science)
Quasars – Melvin Berger (Science)
Secret Mesages – Margaret Jerian (Spy)

1. Accepted explanation of how things work
(Expert opinions from a small group are needed to make decisions. Popular opinion is unreliable.)

2. Observe that changing conditions reveal unexpected way things work
(When large groups provide aggregate decision-making they can sometimes be as or more accurate than experts.)

3. Explain some of the things it could mean to society. Produce careful defensible but revolutionary explanations of how we can use this observation to improve humanity.
(When properly used, allowing large crowds to have input on decion-making can improve results.)

4. Exaggerate importance and affect of this change. Create a simplified explanation and draw spurious conclusions. Commodify, repeat and spread the oversimplification. Catch phrases are important in this phase.
(The Wisdom of the Crowds will revolutionize how we make decisions and conduct business. This crowdsourcing is invaluable. Just ask the crowd!)

5. Misunderstand yet passionately defend simplified explanation of the change. Treat spurious conclusions as unquestionable dogma that all must follow. Convince important people they must follow or be left behind, but provide no real understanding of the actual observation of change.
(You must trust the crowds. The Web 2.0 universe will always outperform experts. There is no limit to what the bazaar can achieve over the cathedral! If you’re not crowdsourcing you’re being left behind!)

6. Choose sides and militantly attack/defend the oversimplified explanation.
(This crowdsourcing crap is dumbing down our culture! The wisdom of the crowds will prevail over all and leave you in the dust! Fanboy! Reactionary!)

7. Begin backlash against the oversimplified. Claim it is unimportant, never existed. Claim it is just a fashionable trend that’s being forced down everyone’s throats.
(This crowdsourcing trend is starting to show itself for what it is, a load of hokum. No successful business has significantly changed what they do because of some great crowd wisdom project. It’s always been baloney, and now people are waking up and seeing it for what it is)

8. Mock, decry, and denounce the first observers of the change as idiots. However, only use the later oversimplified version of their observations and any unfounded conclusions as evidence of their idiocy.
(These crowdsourcing advocates promised us an idealistic world without mistakes as we relied on the crowd to accurately decide our every move.)

9. Declare the idea dead, its proponents discredited, its effects almost all negative.
(Crowdsourcing was all the rage ten years ago but now the idea is dead. Only those fringe proponents who cannot let go of a failed idea, still attempt to defend it.)

10. DO NOT observe that the original moderate observation of the change has proven mostly accurate and that only the exaggerations and oversimplifications have proven false. If you must acknowledge any part as real, treat it as a self-evident fact that is almost not worth noting.
(Of course, popular opinion must be accounted for. Everyone knows that. It’s always been valuable. There’s nothing new there.)

11. If no part of the original observation remains in public discourse after a few years, revive the idea with new nomenclature and rhetoric. Repeat from step 3.
(My new theory of audience engagement suggest that some aggregate opinions, may inform certain decisions, and improve overall accuracy and effectiveness.)

Movies – Mostly Sci/Fi or Fantasy with some occasional thrillers or experimental stuff. Recent examples are 2012, Star Trek, Avatar, etc.. Some of my favorite geeky movie podcasts are The Movielicious and Film Sack.

TV – Again SciFi/Fantasy or Geeky is the rule here. My lineup right now includes Flash Forward, Heroes, Dollhouse, V, Stargate Universe, Sanctuary, Fringe and Doctor Who. I don’t listen to a good podcast about this stuff, though we do tend to talk about it a lot on East Meets West.

Books – A little broader here than just SciFi/Fantasy though dominated by it. I also include geekier off-the-beaten-path interests. That could be non-fiction like anything by Evelyn Wauugh that’s not Brideshead Revisited. Or non-fiction geeking out on things like Guns, Germs, and Steel. I do Sword and Laser to cover Sci/Fi/Fantasy. I wish I liked a good general book podcast. Suggestions?

Comics – I’m not the biggest comics geek in the world by far, but I do enjoy them quite a bit, and go through phases of buying them. I’ve always been a Superman fan, but that doesn’t mean I’m loyal to DC. I also cut my teeth on the Love and Rockets series. I also dearly love online comics like XKCD, Extra Life, WonderMark and the classic grandaddy of them all for me User Friendly. One podcast that covers a lot of these topics, and is done by Web comic artists is Extra Life Radio.

Video Games – I’m also just a dabbler in video games. In the past year I’ve really been enjoying playing World Of Warcraft. I know some cool people who play, but I also agreatly admire the world they’ve created. That said, when I get time I also love playing a good console game. RPGs and driving games are my favorites. I have a rich history in video games though, dating back to my days of Hunting the Wumpus on the TI 99/4A and so am a big fan of classic gaming. Hands down the best World of Warcraft podcast I know of is The Instance.

Tech – This is my job at CNET TV, so I’m probably best at talking tech. I do Buzz Out Loud every day which I think is one of the best daily tech news roundup shows you can get, if I do say so myself. It’s the amazingly smart audience that makes it so. I’m also a great admirer of This Week in Tech, both the show and Leo Laporte’s whole network. But I would remiss if I didn’t also mention Tekzilla with two of the most awesome hosts in Web video, Patrick Norton and Veronica Belmont.

Science – I am and always have been a huge huge fan of science. I’m especially a physics (particle and quantum) and astronomy fanboy. I read Scientific American cover to cover every month. My absolute favorite science show is This Week in Science.

Toys – Another one I was more involved in when I was younger and am now rediscovering an appreciation for. I have a working Doctor Who sonic screwdriver and a Mr. Pink doll from Reservoir Dogs. But I pale in comparison to the real toy collectors out there. I’ve been brushing up on my toy knowledge with the most excellent Toy Break show. You should too. If you like toys, that is.

Fringeware – This is my catch all for oddities, weird stuff, esoterica, pretty much anything covered by Boing Boing. I’ll make an anarchic jumble of examples out of Umberto Eco, RE/Search, Church of the SubGenius and Mashups. One excellent example of a good show on the Net in this category is the incredible Scam School, wherein one Brian Brushwood teaches you how to do tricks in order to scam free drinks. Yes, it is produced by my wife, so you can call me biased, but watch it anyway and you’ll see it’s a damn great show.

World events – This one I struggle with including here. But I think all geeks and nerds are consumed with knowing a little more, or having inside knowledge of, how the world works. I take in The Economist, which gives you a free complete audio edition of every magazine as part of the subscription price. In other words they read the magazine to you. They also have a good free podcast for non-subscribers that they use as a teaser. I also listen to The World Next Week from the Council on Foreign Relations. And I recommend The Phileas Club, a monthly discussion show between people from all parts of the world.

Subatomic Girl is from the album “Decade of Moral Fumbles: 1990-1999“

Some things such as taxation without representation, quartering of troops in private residence and such is far far gone. Other points, such as the interference with justices, or control of trade, may not be literally true today, but has a parallel. But I still found seven counts I think could be argued to apply.

So to demonstrate, I have altered the declaration to be against the federal government, changing the “Him” that referred to King George, to an “it” referring to the government, all three branches mind you. And the final section declaring independence was altered to reflect an imaginary state where the individual states severed ties with eh federal government. It’s not a call to arms, but merely an exercise in identifying how tyranny can creep back into any system if we are not vigilant.

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. –Such has been the patient sufferance of these states; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present US Government is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

It has refused its assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

Here I refer to constant illegal behaviour by representatives and judges. I mean the kind found at trial, not just accusations. Also implied here is the assertion of multiple previous Presidents that laws do not apply to them.

It has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

Not one many people complain about anymore, but the government has pursued policy of limiting even legal emigration. See the H1B visa controversy with the tech companies as an example. When Microsoft talks of moving a plant to Canada to get around immigration laws, it’s this grievance they’re stating.

It has made judges dependent on its will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

A bit of a stretch here, but there has been a disconcerting movement to express the will of executive and legislature in the justice system. These assertion of activist judges, pushes to impeach judges you don’t agree with. And lots of talk about limiting compensation. I suppose much of it is just talk, but it’s a concern. The judiciary is less independent than it used to be and much more politicized. It began with FDR and has just gotten worse.

It has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

Need I explain?

It has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

Mostly only the first half is true. It has kept standing armies now for decades. The national guards are often used only to the irritation of their state governments, rather than entirely without their willing consent.

It has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

All but true. The government has isolated the military from civilian oversight more and more with the justification that it would weaken the military to do otherwise. Exactly the same argument made by the crown in the 1700s.

It has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving its assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

Two parts here. one is the United Nations movement and foreign treaties that are unpopular in the US could qualify for this grievance. Another is the US citizens being accused and tried in Guantanamo and in the secret European camps. We always think of those as only foreigners but a bare scrap have been Americans, decreed to be treasonous and therefore stripped of their rights.

For abolishing the free system of US laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

Another stretch, though without much stretching, Gunatanamo, Iraq and Afghanistan could all qualify. None are nearly as democratic as the US currently is. The rest is just the paragraphs justifying independence. I’m not sure if the 7 articles above would justify the rhetoric below, but I kept it in for completion.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A government, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our Federal brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these states, solemnly publish and declare, that these united states are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the US government, and that all political connection between them and the Federal government, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.