December 2004 Archives

Tonight Christina and I saw Ocean's 12, which I thought was a fair movie, but anyways... as soon as the movie lets out Christina has to use the restroom (who can blame her with all of the water she just drank). So I assume the position and wait for her in the hallway outside of the lady's room. While waiting I couldn't help noticing all of the other men in the "waiting room" all waiting for our significant others. It's little nuances in life like this that when you "see" and take notice that you can't help but laugh to yourself.

Argh... so the other night the unthinkable happened. I had nothing to watch in my Tivo. Zero, zip, zilch. The playlist was completely empty, and of course there was nothing to watch on TV. Good thing for plan B, I went upstairs and read my book.

The OpenBSD project is at times misunderstood by the population at large. A project driven by passionate people, OpenBSD bas contributed many things to the world that are sometimes taken for granted. If you have ever used SSH most likely you were using OpenSSH. Were would we be today if it wasn't for this fantastic piece of software. Most recently the team at OpenBSD have introduced OpenNTPD:

OpenNTPD is a FREE, easy to use implementation of the Network Time Protocol. It provides the ability to sync the local clock to remote NTP servers and can act as NTP server itself, redistributing the local clock.

OpenBGPD:

OpenBGPD is a FREE implementation of the Border Gateway Protocol, Version 4. It allows ordinary machines to be used as routers exchanging routes with other systems speaking the BGP protocol. Started out of dissatisfaction with other implementations, OpenBGPD nowadays is a fairly complete BGP implementation, powering many sites. Users often praise its ease of use and high performance, as well as its reliability.

and now OpenCVS:

OpenCVS is a FREE implementation of the Concurrent Versions System, the most popular open source revision control software. It can be used as both client and server for repositories and provides granular access control over data stored in the repository. It aims to be as compatible as possible with other CVS implementations, except when particular features reduce the overall security of the system.

Even if you feel there are good tools available today, and that re-coding the wheel brings zero benefit, understand that OpenBSD provides very important pieces to your favorite operating system, web site, and ISP. Funding is running short, go to their site and help the world by donating $10 dollars http://www.openbsd.org/goals.html#funding.

A lot of noise has been raised recently from this article (Activists Dominate Content Complaints) on Media Week. (See Slashdot: Lone Activist Group Submits 99.8% of FCC Complaints and ArsTechnica: Activist organization responsible for 99% of FCC complaints.) The summary on Slashdot:

"Mediaweek is reporting that complaints to the FCC are rising. Powell spoke before congress, detailing that the complaints are up from 14,000 in 2002, to nearly 240,000 in 2003. There were only 350 complaints during 2000 and 2001. Powell failed to mention however that 99.8% of those complaints came from PTC (Parents Television Council). The article does mention he may have been unaware of this fact. Jonathan Rintels (president of the Center for Creative Voices in Media) commented, 'It means that really a tiny minority with a very focused political agenda is trying to censor American television and radio.'"

While the current focus seems to be an outrage that such a small minority is having such a large influence on the majority... I would argue the exact opposite. It is fantastic that the minority is protected and can make such large changes. There is a certain element of complacency in this country. People want to complain that their life sucks, or the government sucks and yet not take any action to make changes or even to participate. I think it is awesome that a group of people a) care, b) came together, and c) are making a change. It just proves that you can create change if you want to and are committed to it.