Archive for the ‘ media ’ Category
So, I was working on some homework tonight and decided that perhaps I should re-arrange my room. I blame this impulse entirely on Brittany, she has a habit of re-arranging and/or cleaning (which isn’t entirely a bad thing). Also, the arrangement I picked happened to be what she suggested during Isaac’s visit last week. Here’s a brief tour video.
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So, even if you never get to see me, you can still see me in my natural habitat.
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Canoe Music by Brett Jones preformed by the UW Superior Percussion Ensemble
I have previously written about Charter and its new bandwidth caps and it looks like the bandwagon is starting to roll.
This is about the new ‘fad’ that is happening with Big Media companies and their attempt to thwart piracy of their content. Since big media can’t directly go after pirates, they’ve decided to go after to after the group of people who they think can’t do a thing about it: anyone using an Internet connection.
You, me, us.
If you haven’t heard, the big issue on net neutrality is about ISPs creating tiers of net connections for both businesses and consumers. Tiers allow companies to effectively charge you more for your downloading habits rather than the speed you’re after. Net connection services have always been mainly about speed for the consumer. Want to subscribe to a faster service? Pay more. It was simple and effective. Without net neutrality, ISPs not only charges for speed packages but also for how much you download.
What is net neutrality? Let’s hear it from Google:
Network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet. The Internet has operated according to this neutrality principle since its earliest days… Fundamentally, net neutrality is about equal access to the Internet. In our view, the broadband carriers should not be permitted to use their market power to discriminate against competing applications or content. Just as telephone companies are not permitted to tell consumers who they can call or what they can say, broadband carriers should not be allowed to use their market power to control activity online.
Here’s some more logical math for your consumption: consider TWC’s 40 GB tier. It costs a whopping $54.90 per month. If you only watch 7.25 hours a video per week, via Netflix, your Xbox 360, or any other service, you will be slapped with a bill of $200 at the end of the month. Worried? “Don’t worry,” says TWC’s COO Landel Hobbs.
“Overage charges will be capped at $75 per month. That means that for $150 per month customers could have virtually unlimited usage at Turbo speeds,” says Hobbs.
That’s an incredible deal if I ever saw one. Right? (sarcasm).
YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, and many other online video services are becoming more and more popular. Arguably, Netflix is putting Blockbuster out of business. Hulu, iTunes, and others like it are a major threat as well. Tiered plans however, ensure that you only get to watch a limited number of videos per month as well keep your downloading of videos to a minimum. Why have a really fast net connection to enjoy online media services and downloading when in reality, you can’t?
What will this new capping do?
It ensures several things:
Big media and ISPs can’t effectively eliminate piracy by going after pirates directly or stop online video and music streaming services. So they have a better plan now: go after everyone.
Don’t watch streaming video and just a serious gamer? This will affect you too. If you like downloading demos, or have to update your favorite games with big updates and patches, prepare to have those eat a big chunk of your monthly download allowance. This is something every gamer has essentially been doing for free, but not for much longer. Any gamer here using Steam? Oh boy…
If you purchase say, Call of Duty: World at War off of Steam, it’s over 6 GB. If you’re paying $29.95 for TWC’s 5 GB connection, expect to pay an overage fee for hitting your cap and for the extra gigabyte.
What can you do? A for-consumer organization called FreePress is over 500,000 people strong and offers an online petition you can send to your representative. It can be as easy as typing your name and address (It uses that to find your representative) and adding some text of your own. I encourage you to to send a letter. (You can view mine by clicking “More)
Thanks to Why Cable ISP Capping is the New DRM, and Suck [http://www.tomshardware.com]