My OperaOver the last week - give or take a couple of days
Monday, November 28, 2005 3:40:51 AM
Things have been all over the place as of late. I was having problems with Outpost firewall and my torrent and eMule downloads. I tried everything - I even read all the user manuals form beginners to advanced - and got no where. So, I uninstalled it. Go figure, right after I uninstalled it and reinstalled ZoneAlarm I learned that my ISP (Shaw cable) has started throttling traffic speeds to stop torrent downloading. So it wasn't Outpost at all. Turns out, from what I've read, that it's a financially based decision due to bandwidth consumption - perhaps. This whole move by Shaw makes me question the marketing of faster internet. I understand providing faster speeds allows the ISP to charge more - it's a simple rational - but how fast do people really need to be? Sure people want faster, better, newer but do we use it. Right now my connection is stated as being 5 megabits. Of course, reality is I only get 500kb/s or so when download say updates from Microsoft or trailers form Apple (etc...). Seed test label me as 1.5 megabit plus and when downloading torrents I have never exceeded 400kb/s. For the people out there who have high speed and do not use file sharing apps what are they using the bandwidth on? It seems to me that the 'sell' is directly aimed at people who are doing file sharing (and other bandwidth intensive actions). It makes me question the actions of ISPs who sell high speed then cap what you do. I find myself that situation where I know the downloading is 'illegal'(Canada not entirely illegal) so I can't really complain. But the question still remains - is it wrong to sell high speed and then not give you high speed.
Another question, now that I'm thinking of it. Should ISPs be responsible for what users download? I've read a lot of opinions on this and I've concluded - quite simply - no, they should not be. With that logic, one could claim that every part of the system is at fault; the monitor for letting me see the illegal things, the mouse for letting me chose the illegal actions, the har dive makers for making it easy for me to store the illegal files. It is not so cut and dry. Anyway, I digress.
I got my dry cleaning back.... woo hoo!
My partner is a member of Calgary new comers, a resource for people new to the city who want to meet new people - a friends making club. We have met some great people thought this and have participated in some great parties too. Well, the other day we went to a wine tasting. Lots of fun. The organizer was a little skimpy with the wine, only giving us an ounce at a time. But the food was great. This is a boring story so that's all I have to say about it.
My thesis supervisor wants to meet with me. This is good and bad. Things are slow moving with my thesis so the meeting is bad. Meeting with her will allow me to sort out directions, get questions answered and force me to produce something - so meeting with her will be good. I'm torn, you can tell. I need to develop a thesis proposal and start working on my ethics application. If I am using people for testing at any part in the process I will need to go though ethics. Cross my fingers.
I thin the main problem is too much information. I don’t know where to end. I feel thin I need to know everything in order to be somewhat coherent about the topic. It is sometimes like I need a degree in every tangential area in my thesis, which is wrong - I keep telling myself, but I don't believe it.
One of the reasons I started this blog was as a resource for idea jotting. That's slow goin'.
Anyway, let’s close this off. I'll make more posts about my thesis proposal so you'll all know what I am doing. Comments are always welcome of course.
Later days
Another question, now that I'm thinking of it. Should ISPs be responsible for what users download? I've read a lot of opinions on this and I've concluded - quite simply - no, they should not be. With that logic, one could claim that every part of the system is at fault; the monitor for letting me see the illegal things, the mouse for letting me chose the illegal actions, the har dive makers for making it easy for me to store the illegal files. It is not so cut and dry. Anyway, I digress.
I got my dry cleaning back.... woo hoo!
My partner is a member of Calgary new comers, a resource for people new to the city who want to meet new people - a friends making club. We have met some great people thought this and have participated in some great parties too. Well, the other day we went to a wine tasting. Lots of fun. The organizer was a little skimpy with the wine, only giving us an ounce at a time. But the food was great. This is a boring story so that's all I have to say about it.
My thesis supervisor wants to meet with me. This is good and bad. Things are slow moving with my thesis so the meeting is bad. Meeting with her will allow me to sort out directions, get questions answered and force me to produce something - so meeting with her will be good. I'm torn, you can tell. I need to develop a thesis proposal and start working on my ethics application. If I am using people for testing at any part in the process I will need to go though ethics. Cross my fingers.
I thin the main problem is too much information. I don’t know where to end. I feel thin I need to know everything in order to be somewhat coherent about the topic. It is sometimes like I need a degree in every tangential area in my thesis, which is wrong - I keep telling myself, but I don't believe it.
One of the reasons I started this blog was as a resource for idea jotting. That's slow goin'.
Anyway, let’s close this off. I'll make more posts about my thesis proposal so you'll all know what I am doing. Comments are always welcome of course.
Later days
