Lance is the man
The Tour de France starts Saturday, I believe. Fitting that I rode my bike in to work today then.
The ride home wasn't too bad either, but the hills kicked my butt. I rode it about 2 minutes faster than this morning, but I'm definitely feeling the effects already. It's rough going up and down the stairs. And it was much hotter on the way home too. I don't think I could do it every day, that's for sure. I'd either have to get in better shape first, or else just start slow and work my way up. And boy, I don't know how Lance Armstrong does it day in, day out, for over two weeks, in much steeper and longer mountains than the little hills I went up today. I'm off to take a shower and try to cool off.
Rode the bike
Finally rode my bike in to work today. Over a month since the actual "Ride Your Bike to Work Day." Better late than never.
This time it was out of necessity. Lisa has a quack doctor (chiropractor, allergist, etc) appointment today and the Intrepid blew out a tire a week or so ago, and we haven't had the chance or the money to get new tires yet. So I rode.
It wasn't as bad as I expected, but I am definitely out of shape for doing something like that. It took about 45 minutes when driving usually takes around 25-30. Not bad, especially considering my bike route took me pretty far out of the way to avoid the main roads that I normally drive on. And luckily I avoided any rain. Last night was a nasty thunderstorm that knocked out the power around the area. Would have sucked riding in in that.
I feeling good right now, but we'll see how I feel when I have to ride back home tonight!
MSU draftee
I know what you're thinking. MSU didn't have any players drafted last night. No Alan Anderson, no Chris Hill, no Kelvin Torbert, nobody. You'd be wrong. Indiana took former MSU player Erazem Lorbek with the #46 pick. Sportsline's analysis of the pick: Lorbek was sensational in Europe this past season, but was only marginal in his one season at Michigan State. Has he grown or is he simply more comfortable playing the European style? Probably both.
One week to go
A week from now, I'll be going under the laser (not the knife!) to get Lasik. And yes, I am still very excited!!!
Geoblogging
Check out GeoBloggers. One of my new favorite tools.
You can browse a version of Google Maps to get to your neighborhood (for example), then click to find out which pictures have been tagged in Flickr with coordinates that match. I think they have a version that you can use with Google Earth too (but Google Earth crashed my computer yesterday).
Anyway, here are step-by-step instructions on how to do this to your Flickr images (using Firefox of course). I just started on mine and did the Yankee game and the Nationals game I went to. I'm gonna do the Vegas ones next, and maybe our Miami trip. Pretty interesting use of some cool technology.
Come Sail Away
I've been daydreaming at work lately. Maybe it's the summer slowdown, or maybe it's just that I've been at this job long enough that it's natural to think about moving on. With Lisa encouraging me to read her latest fantasy
I don't talk about sailing much on this blog. I don't own a boat (except for the model sailboat), I've only taken one weekend class on how to sail. But man, the thought of being out there on the open seas on my own boat just thrills me. And to get paid for it? Unbeatable.
It would be a lot of work, of course. Taking care of maintenance on a boat I currently know nothing about. Learning how to plot a course. How to get the most out of the boat. Just plain learning how to be a sailor. You have to take some risks if you want to follow your dreams.
So what's your dream job/retirement?
Song of Susannah (The Dark Tower, Book 6) Review
Song of Susannah by Stephen King
My review
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Yep, a review already. I tend to devour my Stephen King books when I'm able to devote some time to them and they don't gross me out so much that I can't eat my lunch. I picked this one up at the library last Wednesday and finished it last night.
There's not much to really review here. I'll probably save a more substantial review of the whole series for when I finish The Dark Tower 7. This book was mostly a bridge from the "Wolves of the Calla" ending to the final book in the series. Of interest though is the fact that King inserts himself as a character in the book! It's a bit contrived, but when you look at the "ad-card" (the list of books by the author) and see how many of his books are Dark Tower-related, you can see why he did it. It's consumed his literary life to the point that it was a theme in the majority of his books. He probably could have written the book without putting himself in it, but I'll reserve judgment until I've finished the series.
Aside from that, it was a lot of typical King/Gunslinger stuff. The group of gunslingers gets split up (a device too commonly used, see the review of "Eye of The World"), and go on separate missions in their quest to save (?) the Dark Tower. It concludes with a fully expected cliffhanger, which is fortunately made easier by the fact that the final book was published only a few months after this one. Luckily for me, I should be able to go right into the library and get the final book and finish off the Dark Tower.
Next up, duh, The Dark Tower 7.
No Comment
I sure as hell ain't gonna say nothin' about the Yankees winning a single game over the Orioles last night. Seems like every time I think they're turning it around, they drop back down to .500. So I'm not doing it.
WSOP updates
Spoilers ahead. Don't click if you don't want to read!
All Supreme Court, all the time
I'm risking making this a Supreme Court blog, but what can I say, the cases are interesting to me. I'm not going to get into the Ten Commandments cases (although it is interesting watching the legal fancy footwork required to make some displays illegal while keeping their own legal). I'll stick with cases that I actually think I know something about (a dangerous thing, a little knowledge).
In MGM v Grokster, the court ruled unanimously that file-sharing companies can be held liable for the trading of copyright infringing files taking place on its networks. The catch is that it has to be shown that the company has done something to encourage the illegal activity, or, hasn't done enough to stop it. The technology itself isn't illegal (so the Sony Betamax ruling still stands), but it has to actually be used for the so-called "substantial non-infringing uses" prescribed by Sony.
This ruling makes total sense to me. Face it, file swappers. You know that there is very little activity on these networks that's not illegal. This ruling now forces you to face the facts. There's no such thing as a free lunch. So get yourself iTunes and start paying for your music.
In National Cable and Telecommunications Association v Brand X (I love that name by the way, Brand X), the court ruled 6-3 that cable companies do not have to open up their networks to competition from other ISPs. The ruling itself delves into incomprehensible legal definitions set forth by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, but essentially comes to the conclusion that Internet service is an information service, not a telecommunications service. They accepted the FCC's judgment that high-speed Internet access is not just the wiring and equipment (which would have made it a telecom service), but an information service, seemingly based solely on the fact that it offers access to the Internet.
It pains me to agree with Justice Antonin Scalia (and not just on this case), but I think his dissent explains things pretty well. (Read the PDF of the decision here) The FCC couldn't make up its mind about classifying broadband internet as telecommunications or information. With DSL, it was telecom. With cable, information. So now we have "competition" on DSL lines (phone companies are forced to lease equipment in their central offices to competitors at wholesale rates, which, contrary to what they say, do generate profit for them), but not on cable modems. The Court bought the industry argument that their "service" is not just a line with networking equipment, but a package of software and access that makes it an information service. This is clearly false, since they are in fact able to allow competitors access to their lines, and lo, said competitors can provide customers with access to the Internet too.
This ruling seems like it will embolden phone companies to revisit the FCC's judgment on DSL, thereby affecting my own personal Internet access (full disclosure: I receive DSL from Cavalier Telephone, a Verizon competitor, because Verizon claims they cannot provide DSL to me). Indeed, they are already rapidly expanding their new fiber-optic-to-the-home networks to provide broadband Internet, since the FCC ruled that it is not subject to competition as DSL is. This ruling, along with recent efforts by Verizon and the like to squash municipal broadband efforts, means that you will soon have fewer choices for broadband access at your home. In the end, you'll have the (one) phone company, the (one) cable company, and that hack that DirecTV calls broadband (and then, only "if you have a clear view of the Southern sky"). The Court seems to think that if these companies (which still have local monopoly access to homes in a given area) build out their networks on their coin, they shouldn't have to give access to it to anyone who wants it. Fair enough, but the reason they have local monopolies in the first place is because we don't want every Tom, Dick, and Harry stringing up wires on the utility poles, or worse yet, digging up our yards to run their wires. Justice Scalia sums this up best when he says, "Broadband Internet service provided by cable companies is one of the three most common forms of Internet service, the other two being dial-up access and broadband Digital Subscriber Line(DSL) service. In each of the other two, the physical transmission pathway to the Internet is sold - indeed, is legally required to be sold - separately from the Internet functionality." All I need the cable company, or the phone company, for is the line into my house. Aside from that, I'll get my ISP elsewhere, thanks.
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