The real AT&T as I see it.

I had posted about Comcrap imposing a monthly 250GB cap for internet usage.  Now AT&T (American Telecommunications & Tapping) is following Comcast by doing the same.

I think we’ve reached a point where in today’s age, where there’s alot of content on the internet to explore, and with today’s society embracing high definition, this poses a big problem for users.   For starters, high definition content uses significantly more bandwidth then standard definition.  The higher the quality, the more bandwidth it takes to deliver that content to you.

When you have ISPs imposing broadband caps, essentially what they’re doing is kicking everybody in the balls.  This especially can impact several online services like iTunes, Amazon’s Video on Demand, and Netflix as it prevents them from being able to do business by placing obstacles in their paths.

The cost of bandwidth should be very cheap now compared to what it was 5 years ago.  Nearly every hosting company today offers packages that have unlimited bandwidth for your website(s), at a very reasonable price.

AT&T believes the caps are more than sufficient for average users, pointing out that a small subset of its customers — about 5 percent — uses a full 50 percent of the network’s bandwidth, slowing things down for the remaining majority.” ¹

If 5% of AT&T’s customer base is using 50% of their network, that number is only going to increase over time.  If ISPs cannot handle the current flow of data going in and out their networks, they should be investing in upgrading their infrastructure instead of slapping their customers in the face.  As technology evolves, you don’t see it slowing down, if anything it’s doing the exact opposite.  Those ISP’s need to do the same.

Source:

1. PC World: Broadband caps coming to AT&T

Related Links:

• DSL Reports: AT&T Starts Metered Billing Trial In Reno

Jessica Yellin talking about the presidential election.

Wolf Blitzer from CNN interviewed Jessica Yellin via a “hologram” to discuss the presidential election. (By the way, congrats Obama!)  I can’t help but feel very annoyed at the fact that CNN has to go through all this effort for a fucking interview…  I mean seriously… Are we watching the news here, or are we watching Star Wars?

I can appreciate the fact that CNN is trying to take part in the new technologies out there, like using Twitter, etc, but I think using this hologram technology is way over the top.  I watched this interview, and honestly I could give a shit what they were discussing.  I was so annoyed/distracted at what I was watching I’d had come here to bitch about it.  It’s just stupid, leave the special effects for the movies, your viewers have nothing to gain from watching a hologram of somebody.  We want news, not Star Wars. That stunt isn’t going to help your ratings honestly, if anything it’s going to freak alot of people out, especially those southern rednecks. (if they actually watch CNN)

I should note that obviously a hologram means it’s just a projected image of something being displayed, what Wolf Blitzer was looking at was a blue or red dot where Jessica is supposed to appear.

Just keep the interviews simplified?  There’s nothing wrong with having two boxes side by side on my screen.  I’m okay with that you know…

...Why?

EA:"Sorry bitch, just figure it out!"

You might remember awhile back I was talking about how EA was going to be linking their forums to users online EA accounts.  Apparently their latest game, Command & Conquer – Red Alert 3 had a misprint on (what they claimed) a small number of instruction booklets that contain this code.  The code itself if supposed to be 20 digits long, but some users were reporting that there were only 19 digits.

Lets pretend you didn’t know anything about I’ve talked about here.  You’re a gamer, and you head to your local Best Buy/GameStop store and purchase a copy of Red Alert 3.  You go home and open up the game and pop it in your DVD/CD drive, punch in the code provided in the instruction manual and find out the code doesn’t work.  What would you do?  Today’s laws prevent you from being able to return opened computer software because of piracy, so now you’re stuck with the game.   After just spending $50, I’d be pretty pissed off.

So lets just assume that is the case, how much time would you be willing to waste attempting to install this game?

I wanted to share with you what EA considers their workaround:

If you are trying to install Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 and the code is only 19 characters long, then it is missing the last letter or number. This was due to a misprint on a small number or manuals and we apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

There is currently a work around that may allow you to bypass this issue. Since you have the first 19 characters of the code already, you can basically try “guessing” the last character. To do this, simply enter your existing code, and then for the last character, try the letters A-Z, and then the numbers 0-9. You should eventually get the right combination, and be able to play the game.

So if you go that route, there’s a 1 in 36 chance you’ll get the combination right.  Now I personally haven’t tried this out for myself but I want to speculate what usually happens when you get codes wrong…  The boxes automatically clear themselves resulting in you having to type the whole damn code again.  And in most cases they divide the code up so that you have to 5 boxes containing 4 characters each, further complicating the process.

The other route you could go is to contact EA:

In order to get a replacement code, please click the “Contact Us” link on the left side of the page, and attach an image of your code to the incident.

If you do not have access to a digital camera or scanner, you can fax us a copy of the back of your instruction booklet, along with a copy of your receipt, to (512) 949-4994.  Please include with your fax your First and Last name as well as your incident number.

If you would like, once you have created your incident, you can also contact us by phone using the number found on page 28 of your manual.

I just find it sad in general that a major publisher like EA didn’t catch this problem before releasing the game.  I can understand, mistakes do happen.  But something like this that prevents the user from being able to even install the game is a pretty serious issue.

Way to go EA.

</sarcasm>

Sources:

• EA’s Help Center: If your code is 19 characters instead of 20

I usually try to stay away from discussing politics because I find when people disagree politically, these situations become very messy.  In any case, I couldn’t help but mention this because this is not only embarrassing to McCain’s campaign, it’s also kinda scary.

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A picture is worth a thousand words

What makes this scary is how easily these radio DJ’s got through to Palin.  The implications regarding the McCain campaign’s utter lack of ANY sort of security/screening measures is nothing short of amazing.  This mockery is exactly what the McCain campaign has been trying to avoid.  Why do you think after the Katie Couric interview she wouldn’t talk to the media?  Because McCain’s campaign couldn’t afford making her look like an idiot.  Well too late there.

It’s really surprising to me that Palin had no suspicion at all when “Nicolas Sarkozy” (French President) said the following to her:

I must say, Governor Palin, I love the documentary they made on your life, you know, Hustler’s “Nailin Palin.”

Is she that dumb?  Clearly.  I mean the guy mocked her so many different times… “we could go hunting in a helicopter but don’t bring Dick Cheney” “I can see Belgium from my house!” Making fun of Joe the Plumber, and of course, “Nailin Palin.”  On top of that I think the guy pulling the prank realized she was THAT DUMB that he finally had to come out and tell her “you’ve been pranked.”

As McCain would say: “My friends…” …This woman could very well end up being the President of the United States.   McCain is the oldest candidate to ever run for president, and he doesn’t have a very good track record in terms of health… We CANNOT have a woman like her representing this country.

Good god…

Sources:

• AP: Palin takes prank call from fake French president
• Daily Kos: Verbatim transcript of the prank phone call

I wanted to share with you my experience going down to Hollywood, CA at Sunset Boulevard.  I went down there with my friends Kyle, Becky & John.

Kyle went as Master Shake from Aqua Teen Hunter Force, John went as Frylock.  We had no Meatwad. DON’T ASK ME WHERE HE WAS EITHER!

Becky (Kyle’s wife) went as a Pirate Wench.

The pictures you see below were taken by me as I was walking around dressed as an Pimped out Agent from the Matrix.

Also I want to thank Kyle for the invite and for driving down there.  No other day will you see people dressed the way they were… Enjoy!

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