Brandon's Blog » internet

SOPA and the Protect IP Act.

Brandon — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:22:47 +0000

I’ve censored the following, in protest of a bill that gives any corporation and the US government the power to censor the internet–a bill that could pass THIS WEEK. To see the uncensored text, and to stop internet censorship, visit: http://americancensorship.org/posts/12088/uncensor

DO NOT LET THE ████, ████ OR THE GOV ██████ OUR ████████.!

Quora asks and Asa Dotzler Answers

Brandon — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 06:14:12 +0000

Below is Asa’s answer to a question posted at Quora about WebM and H.264 media codecs.

Why are Opera & Mozilla/Firefox against implementing the H.264 codec in their browsers? If it’s a question of licensing H.264 or losing the HTML5 tag, you would think they’d choose to save HTML5. What am I missing?

Since the beginning of the Web, individuals and companies, commercial and non-commercial, have been able to produce and distribute content in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, and text on the Web without paying licensing fees for the use of any of those amazing technologies.

Since the beginning of the Web, individuals and companies, commercial and non-commercial, have been able to create tools that helped content producers make and distribute HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, and text on the Web without paying licensing fees for the use of those amazing technologies.

Since the beginning of the Web, individuals and companies, commercial and non-commercial, have been able to make clients (like Web browsers) that display HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, and text on the Web without paying licensing fees for the use of those amazing technologies.

This is the critical feature of the Web that makes it different from all other media and communication tools that have come before it. This is what makes it possible for tiny little start-ups to become a Facebook or a Google or a Mozilla.

Simply put, this freedom from licensing requirements is what makes the Web great. We, the community of people who make the Web what it is, should not be so quick to toss that all important foundation aside just because some hardware or OS vendors think it’s the easy or most profitable path.

Asa’s blog post can be found here.

Julian Assange Interrupts SNL

Brandon — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 18:03:59 +0000

I fully understand how serious the situation is regarding freedom and Wikileaks. However, I can not help myself laughing at this SNL skit! The satire made some points about privacy and sharing information.

I love the muahahas between sentences.
Read the whole article at MEDIAite

I am worried.

Brandon — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 20:06:11 +0000

I am worried about the future of the Internet. I would like to think that the Internet is an indestructible force. We the people are the power behind the Internet and our power comes from the ability to connect freely. I know the tech community understands my concerns but, what about those non-techies that do not understand how vital the open web is to democracy? I hope that they do not out number the tech community because I want us to have as loud of a voice as possible. I am also concerned that the United States Government will use Wikileaks as an excuse to establish control over the Internet. I also wonder if the politicians that have spoken out against Wikileaks fear what may be revealed about them.

Social Media

The Internet has enjoyed the benefits of Social Media like Facebook and Twitter. There are accusations that Twitter is blocking free speech. Facebook stated that they will not block the Wikileaks page for now. These examples are why if you want a presence on the web you should get your own domain and set up a website that YOU control.
I think Richard Stallman made a great point in the article “Who Does That Server Really Serve?”
I also think this comic from xkcd illustrates the point further.

Do you share my concerns?

Barcamp Jonesboro 2010

Brandon — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 04:56:40 +0000

I will be attending Barcamp Jonesboro 2010! I am very excited to participate in the many discussions about the web and social media.

What is Barcamp?

A BarCamp is an “unconference” – an open, participatory event where the attendees are the presenters. The first BarCamp was held in Palo Alto, Ca., in 2005. Since then more than 350 cities on six continents have hosted BarCamps. The first BarCamps focused on early-stage web applications, open-source technologies, and open data formats; but the format has been adapted to serve a variety of other industries and issues, including public transit, health care, real estate and political organizing.

If you are in the Jonesboro Arkansas area get registered and I will see you there!

The Future of News

Brandon — Mon, 17 May 2010 04:52:27 +0000

A discussion of the future of news with Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine, Steve Coll of the New America Foundation (ex of the Washington Post) and John Sturm of the Newspaper Association of America:

Read the full story on the BuzzMachine

My Christmas Present: The Roku XR

Brandon — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 05:28:28 +0000

I have been a Netflix subscriber for some time now. I have the plan where I get 3 DVDs at a time, unlimited DVDs a month and unlimited Instant Play. I love the DVDs by mail but I was not taking advantage of the Instant Play. For those of you who don’t know Instant Play is a service Netflix offers that allows you to stream movies over the Internet instantly to your computer or a device that supports this service.

I could easily sit in my chair and watch the movies on our Macbook. The problem is what if I wanted to watch a movie with my family or friends? We couldn’t all huddle around the Macbook’s 15″ display. I wanted the movies streamed to the living room tv. Before some of you get ahead of me I know very well I could use a computer to stream these movies to my tv and I happen to have a late model dell that would do it well. But, I do not have a new tv with a PC/RGB input. Our tv is a 27″ CRT with composite and component inputs. We have bought our first house this year and have had our first child so more important things need to be purchased before a $500 televison.

However, I wanted to take advantage of the streaming movies so I put the Roku XR in my amazon.com wish-list. A $129.00 device that can save you money on entertainment is a justifiable purchase to us. More so than a $500 tv.

The Roku XR is small and has component, composite, s-video and HDMI outputs. So when we finally get that glorious HD TV the Roku will be ready for it. The XR has 802.11n networking so when the day comes that I can upgrade the trusty Linksys WRT54G to an N-router of some sort it will be ready for that as well. I have an 8Mb download speed from my Internet Service Provider so the movies are of quality resolution and play smoothly. I like the additional channels that are available through the device such as Revision3 and Twit. I am sure the few channels they have are just the beginning of what is to come.

I give the device two thumbs up. It works, gets the job done, low power consumption (6 watts) and it’s small form factor is a big plus. Need a Netflix device? Check out the Roku.