Blessed by the Potato

I’ve talked about the throttling issue before, and now it’s in the news again. This is just getting insane: while I think the internet providers have some right to restrict use on their networks, the combination of severe throttling and caps is getting out of hand. One or the other, and maybe open up the torrent restriction beyond <5 kB/s. It’s particularly galling that they’re doing this to the reseller ISPs who pay more for unfettered access, who can choose to sell high usage plans to those people who’ve been shafted by Bell/Rogers.

In fact, Rogers recently sent out a mailing announcing their long-planned charges for going over the monthly allotment (60 GB for “express”, $2/GB over; as much as $5/GB for going over on the ultra light plan). That alone should be plenty of control over the volume of traffic on the network. If they want to restrict torrents, then changing that allotment to a separate upload and download portion would also be a fix. Preferentially killing one protocol (at all times, not just peak times to boot) is really overkill. (And, as I’ve said before, if the throttling was to go down to say 1/10th the speed offered, people would never even know they were being throttled).

So, I hope the independent ISPs win their suit against Bell.

As you might expect, Michael Geist has a number of columns related to the issue up, and talks about it more sensibly than I can.

Good idea: Set up a battery deposit-return system to ensure that the ubiquitous toxic devils are returned and recycled properly, rather than going into a landfill. Particularly handy when properly recycling them is a major pain in the ass (no blue box collection; return depot is not technically in the city where I live, nor open at convenient times) — thankfully some retailers (e.g.: Best Buy) are starting to accept batteries and electronics for recycling. While we’re at it, let’s bump that beer bottle deposit up by an order of magnitude.

Bad idea: Set up a battery deposit-return system for Toronto only. This isn’t like driving hours to take your giant load of pop cans to Quebec for a nickel each: there are a lot of people who live really close to Toronto. And while Toronto is a big city, I don’t think it’s quite big enough to warrant making the battery manufacturers stamp “return for refund in Toronto” on the batteries destined for the Toronto market, but not the 905 market. As if Toronto didn’t have enough budget troubles…

Dawn is a funny, unreal sort of time. The sun comes over the horizon, and on warm summer mornings, you can sometimes watch the terminator race across the fields, or see the light slowly change colour as the sun, somewhere hidden and close to the unseen horizon, begins to shine in the winter. It’s a quiet time, a still time — nearly supernaturally so. Everyone is usually still asleep, or at least still in their own homes, while the night owls are finally off to bed. No matter what the weather seems to be doing through the night, or planning for the day, it always seems to take pause at dawn.

The dawn often brings feelings of peace, tranquility, of sharing in something special and quiet and private. For me though, I often find two other strong emotions at day break. Anger, for one, is easy to explain: I’m often up all through the night, whether it be frantically working, or losing myself in another world through books or video games. Dawn is the undeniable signal that I’ve been ignoring my watch for too long, and it’s really getting to be time for bed (or, time to finish my work). I feel angry and cheated by the sun, that the night is not long enough, that I’m not finished yet. Sadness too sometimes takes me at dawn, though I seldom know why. Whether a lament for the lack of sleep that finds me awake for the sun (often, in this case, when the lack of sleep is less voluntary), or a nostalgic longing for those times when seeing the sun rise was truly a fun event: playing poker all night at Shubh’s, or goofing off at the cottage. Or perhaps the odd, unpleasant memories of past stumblings through insomnia, like the time I couldn’t sleep when high school ended. The night before exams were released I stayed awake. There was a thunderstorm in the wee hours of the morning, and I went for a walk in the rain, and just kept walking. Dawn broke through the clouds, and by the time I was done walking it was shaping up to be a hot, muggy June day. I stopped by the school on my way home, looking silly with my rain jacket in hand since it had been bright and sunny for nearly 3 hours. I did well on the exams that I collected, but for some reason the memory of that day always makes me sad.

It’s been said so many times that so many people are just way too aggressive in winter driving conditions. Last night’s storm was particularly nasty: dropping a thick layer of ice on everything, followed by heavy snow. So this article in the London Free Press (I know, I said I’d stop reading it!) about a man caught going 127 km/h and flashing his high beams at slower traffic, and then even after getting his ticket and being warned by police ending up spinning off the road in the slippery conditions. Thankfully, he didn’t take anyone else with him, though from the sounds of it he and his car escaped pretty much unscathed. I think true poetic justice might have required the car to be totalled and him to be found at-fault by his insurance :)

Speaking as a visitor from another planet, contagious human behaviours can be really interesting to watch. Everyone already knows that yawns can spread, but I was surprised to see how contagious fear can be.

I can be a little high-strung sometimes. I can also zone out and go into complete introspection (or a visit to my nothing box). I can be both at once, and then someone can come up and snap me out of it, and I won’t expect in the slightest. To me, it’s like they snuck up on me out of nowhere, and I startle. Now, my startle response is towards the “extremely surprised” end of the spectrum. This isn’t a little hand on my chest, an intake of breath and a hushed “oh my, you startled me.” No, this is a hands in the air, jump halfway off the ground “BWAAAAAAA!!!!” In fact, I can startle people who sneak up on me with my startle response.

It was funny at curling the other night. I was watching the rock go down the ice, lost in my own thoughts, and our lead comes up from behind to stand beside me, hitting my broom as she did. I think it was the combination of popping up from behind into my peripheral vision along with the unexpected tactile feedback of someone hitting my broom that made my startle particularly bad. “BWAAA!!” I yelped. “Ah!!” She exclaimed, startled by my startle. Then she hit me. “What are you doing that for? You are surprised when you’re in an arena full of people and someone comes up beside you? What’s wrong with you?!”

I could get deep at this point and draw parallels to stock market psychology and sell-offs, but I think I’ll get some sleep instead and let the obvious remarks write themselves in your minds.