So Comcast got in trouble with the FCC not too long ago because they were singling out certain kinds of traffic and screwing around with it. So they changed the way they’re doing it to this:
For the last few months, Comcast has been transitioning how it monitors and throttles broadband traffic. DSLreports.com claims that this transition is now complete for all of Comcast’s markets, meaning that Comcast users might see their connection speeds drop if they use too much sustained downstream throughput and they can even potentially lose their service if they exceed Comcast’s monthly broadband cap.
The stereotypical nerd reaction, as evidenced in the Digg story is the gnashing of teeth and the taking up of pitchforks and torches. Here’s the thing… this new throttling is a GOOD thing.
First of all, for those celebrating: Merry Christmas. If you’re not celebrating . . . just drink some egg nog and shut up already. Nobody cares.
Today I pushed a number of changes to WP Sentry to the repository, so if you’re up with the times, you should be getting a notice in your dashboard to upgrade to version 0.6.5. Among the more notable changes that are new since I announced version 0.6 are a Dutch translation (no kidding!) and a Sentry-Aware tag cloud plugin replacement. Cool stuff. Go check it out.
I’ve noticed a disturbing trend, and I don’t know how to make it stop.
It seems that a disproportionate number of restaurants are starting to charge rather large fees for delivery. I ordered a pizza last night and there was a $2.00 delivery fee on $10.00 worth of pizza.
Now, this isn’t such a bad deal, really, except when you realize that you’re then going to have to turn around and tip the driver, too.
There should be some sort of universal rule that delivery fees come directly out of the tip. If you were going to tip $2.00 and the delivery fee is $1.50, the driver now gets fifty cents. This is especially annoying on pizza where you KNOW the overhead of delivery is already built into the price of the pizza itself.
If there were a way to express this new rule to the drivers without having to worry that your next order would have something horrible done to it, I’d be all over it.
Earlier this month, my alma mater, Indiana University School of Law1 announced that it was changing it’s name to the “Michael Maurer School of Law”. It turns out that this guy donated a large sum of money ($35 million) to the school and it was during a capital campaign so the university at large matched it (or, rather, is going to match the proceeds of it).
There was an awful lot of confusion and anger among current students and alumni. It took me a few weeks to really solidify my opinion on it all, and a conversation the other night with a fellow alum2 made me realize that I never really posted anything about this outside of facebook, and that I probably needed to, for posterity if nothing else.
The good one.
Hi, Holly!
Pretend, for a moment, that you’re spending $6,500 a semester to go to Morris Brown College and live on campus. Now pretend that you wake up one morning to find that your school had neglected to pay its $400,000 water bill, so you can’t take a shower.
Fortunately, that’s not quite how it went . . . since they’re between semesters, I don’t think that there was anyone actually on campus, but hearing that your school is so deeply in debt that it is going to cost them $1.5 million (that they don’t have) just to pay “bills and other operating costs” cannot be confidence inspiring.
One thing is for sure . . . if you got a piece of that $1.6 billion that went to the executives of failed banks, this would be a good time to start buying back some good-will, since you sure as hell didn’t earn your giant payday.
Tags: Bailout, Economy, Morris Brown College
So, I’m sure I’m not the only one who says this, literally, every single year, but I just can’t believe we’re half-way through December already.
I’ve been pretty boring lately, not doing a whole lot aside from working and trying to keep Scout entertained enough to keep him from chewing on things like cabinets and windows. No, I’m not kidding. I’m trying to figure out if it would be cheaper to hire a dog-walker or just buy another dog so they can keep each other company while I’m at work. It’s starting to look like the latter because, really, $15-$20 a day for a dog walker is a little crazy.
Yesterday Todd from Roll Bama Roll invited me onto his weekly football podcast to talk about the BCS vs. Playoffs issue . . . when we had exhausted that topic we got around to talking about Auburn’s ridiculous Gene Chizik hire some other assorted randomness. So if you haven’t heard my voice (enough) lately, you can check that out here.
I’m hoping to use this weekend (and the rest of the month) to get caught up on some personal stuff so I can start fresh in 2009. We’ll see how well that works.
Over the past three football seasons I have been writing for AOL’s sports blog, FanHouse. I compiled over 100,000 words on college football, and was a part of the initial group at kick-off. Last night, I got an email from Randy Kim, FanHouse’s Executive Producer, informing me that I was no longer on the team. Ostensibly, because I hadn’t been producing enough lately.
To understand what I believe to be the real reason for the firing, we’ll have to go back a few months.
Tags: AOL, FanHouse, Fantasy Girls
One of my pet projects, a private posting plugin for WordPress, has been accumulating minor fixes and major features for the last few months, and with the release of WordPress 2.7 imminent, I decided to go ahead and tie up the loose ends for a new release. There’s more on the new release below the fold.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about and you don’t blog using WordPress, now’s your chance to get out before I descend into pure nerdery. You’ve been warned.
Tags: Plugins, WordPress, WordPress 2.7, WP Sentry
I hate slow-pokes in the left-hand lane on the interstate. Seriously, one of my huge pet peeves. That said, I’m not sure I trust the police and traffic courts to strike a good balance between speed limits and left-lane camping legislation.
The basic gist of the article, people hate slow drivers and some states are starting to write tickets for it. Fine, fair enough, but the problem I have is this: we still have low speed limits on interstates.
Thanksgiving came and went, bringing with it my 28th birthday. It should be stated, and cannot be emphasized enough, that I don’t think birthdays are a big deal. In this regard, Dave Barry and I see eye to eye. I typically prefer not to have things bought for me and, truth be told, the 40 Facebook wall posts were more than enough. Nevertheless, 28 was pretty bland. That probably had something to do with the fact that I spent my entire 27th year having to remind myself that I wasn’t 28.
Since I haven’t updated in a while, I guess I should give a little run down.
Tags: Birthday, SEC Championship, Sugar Bowl