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I agree that offering the choice to each customer is the Right Thing, but there's nothing in the bill that allows it. Either you censor the connection of every customer or you don't get the rating.

Very minor, but... the bill was revised twice after the original, although the Slashdot article link only points to the original. The latest version is here. Minor differences.

Quoting from the actual bill:

(2) The attorney general shall award the Community Conscious Internet Provider designation to an Internet service provider that:

• (a) completes an application created by the attorney general; and
• (b) agrees to:
  • (i) prohibit its customers by contract from publishing any prohibited communication;
  • (ii) remove or prevent access to any prohibited communication published by or accessed using the Internet service provider's service within a reasonable time after the Internet service provider learns of the prohibited communication;
  • (iii) comply with any court order concerning the removal of a prohibited communication;
  • (iv) maintain a record for two years following its allocation of an IP address of the IP address, the date and time of the allocation, and the customer to whom the IP address is allocated;
  • (v) cooperate with any law enforcement agency by providing records sufficient to identify a customer if the law enforcement agency requests the information and supplies reasonable proof that a crime has been committed using the Internet service provider's service;
  • (vi) respond to the attorney general, other law enforcement agency, or customer who complains of a prohibited communication published by or accessible using the Internet service provider's service; and
  • (vii) provide information concerning the Internet service provider's compliance with this section promptly upon request by the attorney general.

(3) An Internet service provider that is awarded the Community Conscious Internet Provider designation shall require its customers to enter into an agreement providing that:

• (a) publishing a prohibited communication is prohibited; and
• (b) the Internet service provider will:
  • (i) remove or prevent access to a prohibited communication of which it is aware;
  • (ii) comply with a court order ordering the removal of a prohibited communication;
  • (iii) maintain a record for two years following its allocation of an IP address of the IP address, the date and time of the allocation, and the customer to whom the IP address is allocated;
  • (iv) cooperate with any law enforcement agency by providing records sufficient to identify a customer if the law enforcement agency requests the information and supplies reasonable proof that a crime has been committed using the Internet service provider's service; and
  • (v) respond to the attorney general, other law enforcement agency, or customer who complains of a prohibited communication published by or accessible using the Internet service provider's service.

Emphasis added. This is partially about filtering "objectionable" content (though the ISP can wait until after it's been reported to them), but they also have to track IP numbers for specific customers and store that information for up to two years. This is about law enforcement....

I found a website they need to censor. It has gross pictures, pictures of dead people, and a giant phallus! There are even naked breasts. Would someone think of the children?!

I found a website they need to censor. It has gross pictures, pictures of dead people, and a giant phallus! There are even naked breasts. Would someone think of the children?!

I found a website they need to censor. It has gross pictures, pictures of dead people, and a giant phallus! There are even naked breasts. Would someone think of the children?!

I found a website they need to censor. It has gross pictures, pictures of dead people, and a giant phallus! There are even naked breasts. Would someone think of the children?!

Nice! Utah's ID Theft site has a nice spam/ad loaded h4x0r page!

http://www.idtheft.utah.gov/pn/modules/pagesetter/pntemplates/plugins/function.str.php?/viagra/viagra.html

hahaha, that's great.

This idea is great. Here are some more:

1. I think a general copyright of 14 years is the optimum from the time of publication. This study previously appeared on slashdot.
http://www.rufuspollock.org/economics/papers/optimal_copyright.pdf

2. Solve the problem of people using copyright to prevent reproduction especially in small independent films.
If companies use copyright to deny reproduction at any price or at a price that is so high its absurd, enable people to pay some fixed fee and ignore the wishes of the copyright holder. Copyright shouldn't be a tool to prevent reproduction just a tool to make some money from artistic creativity.

3. If companies abuse the position by engaging in fraud or anti trust behavior to manipulate prices they lose their copyright.
http://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/PrRel/prfeb192004.htm
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl-cd-settlement.htm

4. Expand fair use. If I want to use a small portion of a book eg 1000 words from a 50,000 word book its ok even if its for profit. I just can't reproduce lots of 1000 word bit to reproduce the book. If its educational I get to use it unless it literally causes major loss to the company. Eg in a classroom I can make 200 copies of a newspaper article for all the students. I just can't do that for a whole textbook. But I can use it for a figure from a textbook.

5. No automatic copyright for photos. There has to be some artistic quality to them.

6. In the U.S., buildings built on or after December 1, 1990 are also eligible for copyright. This is pathetic. Given that creativity was not stifled beforehand this is totally unnecessary. No copyright on buildings.

7. No frivolous copyright either like on restaurants. Yes someone was sued and lost because one restaurant was too similar to another.

8. No copyright on 'happy birthday'. If you sing happy birthday in a restaurant you gotta pay a fee to the so called rights holder. The movie 'The Corporation' claims that Warner/Chappell charge up to US$10,000 for the song to appear in a film.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Birthday_to_You

1. Buy a scale precise to at least the nearest 10 grams.

2. Download an energy density table for food. http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/alt_formats/hpfb-dgpsa/pdf/nutrition/nvscf-vnqau_e.pdf

3. Every time you eat something, calculate the total calories.

4. Do that for a week, eating as per normal, so that you can calculate your equilibrium daily calorie requirement.

5. Eat to lower your daily caloric by 10%, check scales/mirror after 1 week.

6. If that doesn't work, lower it again.

The most important thing is to MEASURE calories. Otherwise you will ASSUME, which as all good engineers know, makes an ASS out of U and ME.

In the short term, there is water and muscle weight (including water involved with glycogen storage, bowel contents etc) that will throw you out, which is why you should only pay attention to weight/mirror over longer intervals.

There are a few tricks. Protein has an appetite suppressing effect, so increasing protein makes dieting easier. Also take a look at a table of exercise calorie burn rates.
http://health.utah.gov/lhd/tooele/Community_Health/CVD/Calories_Burned.html

Note that the MOST caloric intensive activity is 850 calories per hour, which is more than most people do when they exercise, and is difficult to maintain. Jogging is 600, and that's enough of a PITA.

Contrast that with the calorie intake side of the equation. I could easily eat 3 snickers bars in 5 minutes when I'm hungry, and that's restraining myself. That's 900 calories, very enjoyable, and more than 12 times the rate at which the body can burn energy over a reasonable length of time. Which is why attention to exercise alone is never a sufficient requirement to lose weight but attention to diet is, since you need at least 60 calories per hour to "idle", i.e. sleep or rest. Maybe less in starvation mode, but it's still sure as heck greater than zero.

YAY, I have a tiny chance of receiving $7.32 off my comcast bill in 6 years time!

I was just thinking how much I don't miss Comcast. Even though DSL isn't 6 or 60 Megs up/down like I would expect from a Utopia connection, at least I don't have to deal with Comcast's Frankenstein behaviour.

Personally I hope as a nation we consider the Internet "Important" to our economic future. If so then why are we not building a National Infrastructure as proposed by Clinton/Gore int he 90's? I'm talking about NII. From what I'm reading, we already paid for it in taxes over the last decade plus.

And don't get me started over Comcast terminating it's customers for "Using the Internet too much". That's just plain stupid. No limits but don't over use the service you are paying for. And how much is acceptable and what is not?

Yeah, I've read their AUP/TOS and you know what. Even the two lawyers I've spoken to couldn't make heads/tails of it. It's that screwed up.

Anyway, we need to contact our local city council, Mayors, State and Federal politicians about this problem. Either the internet is important or it isn't.

I'm taking a vacation day this Thursday to attend a subcommittee meeting discussing building the Utopia Infrastructure here in Utah. I sure hope comcast sends someone there. I'd love to hear and respond to his bull.

The height of the dust bowl. Drought. Pestilence. Ecological disaster. Glad everything is back to normal now.

"Stores are prohibited from selling Playboy magazine to minors for example."

It'll be good to hear you cite the specific law on this one. Hint: there isn't any. ..."

Put learning to use google on your list of things to do. ;-)

... Stores don't sell Playboy to minors because they don't want to be confronted by torch-wielding zealots the next day. Your reasoning is precisely analogous to that of the probably-90% of the population who think that it's "illegal" to let kids into an R- or X-rated movie. There is absolutely no legislation of this nature in place. The MPAA was formed under the same threats as the ESRB.

I did a quick google: "The Supreme Court of the United States has stated many times that children can be protected from adult material and such protection does not violate the minor's First Amendment rights. Material that is inappropriate for children can be regulated but it cannot be completely outlawed."
http://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/pornography/protec tchild.htm

"Rather than ridiculing the EU Theorists, people should put serious effort into debunking them if they feel that they are wrong because what they are saying is very important"

It's actually pretty hard to debunk these claims without ridiculing them, because they are so poorly informed. You want "serious debunking"? Okay, I'll try.

Just as an example, the article about the "blueberries" doesn't make any sense, because it is founded on the mistaken impression that geologists think concretions form as isolated rocks on the sea floor that roll around for a while and then get incorporated into sediments. It's bizarre nonsense that even a casual glance at the literature (or a wikipedia page) would reveal. It reads like something out of the 19th century. Everything about concretions is inconsistent with such a scenario. For example, many concretions have sedimentary layers (bedding or laminations) that pass right through the concretion. Some of the "blueberries" also show hints of laminations on their surface, and they don't show the features typical of separate rocks (clasts) that are deposited.

Concretions are thought to form after deposition of the sediments by minerals being precipitated in the tiny spaces between the sediment grains, cementing the grains together as the minerals precipitate. It is usually fairly easy to tell if a particular structure formed separately and was incorporated into the sediment versus forming post-depositionally, and the "blueberries" are pretty clearly post-depositional.

Sometimes the growth of the precipitating minerals also causes expansion of the spaces, causing the concretion to displace surrounding sediments outward. This can create spaces within the interior of a concretion if the cementation and expansion is happening mostly on the outer surface (imagine the outer shell expanding in volume), resulting in some types of geodes (some types, because other geodes have nothing to do with concretion formation, and form by infilling of pre-existing cavities, such as bubbles (vesicles) in lava flows, but I digress...).

There is a fair amount of variation to the way concretions form, but there are probably hundreds of papers about them, including some good papers on the "Moqui marbles" that have been compared to the Martian "blueberries". There are some alternative interpretations for the "blueberries" (e.g., as condensate from impacts), but I don't think these are consistent with the bedding surrounding the structures, and they are quite different from anything "electrical".

Anyway, if "Electric Universe Theorists" can't even keep the very basics of the conventional theories straight, why should people take anything the "Electric Universe" people say seriously? And I don't know what is so "alarming" about supposed electrical effects -- the rovers seem to be driving around just fine without getting zapped, and they've got exposed electrical connections on their surfaces (i.e. the solar panels, as can be seen in the pictures).

I'm not 100% certain, but it looks like it is this bill: http://le.utah.gov/~2007/bills/hbillint/hb0402.htm

It basically redefines all "secondhand merchandise dealers" as pawnbrokers and holds them to all the usual restrictions and requirements that pawnbrokers must follow.

I searched the Utah website, and didn't find anything. I called the Utah state legislature, and they didn't know what I was talking about. So I called John Mitchell, who was a source for the article.

He kindly pointed me to Utah House Bill 402 which seems to cover any second hand store.

I am a Utah resident who believes in freedom! I also believe the voice of the people should be heard, and since my state's elected officials have seen fit (had the audacity) to try and legislate how the global Internet works, I believe they need to hear from all of its (the Internet's) users. (They always say, if you don't like what's happening, let them know about it.) Well, may I suggest we take them up on this offer.

Below are links to Utah's Representatives ("the new fathers of Internet law"):

Utah State Senate Roster (Email & Phone)

Utah State House Roster (Email--Click on individual for additional contact info)

Utah Office of Legislative Research & General Counsel

Utah Governor (Office Contact Info & Link to Online Feedback Forms)

Utah Lieutenant Governor (Office & online form)

Utah Attorney General

Just for fun, Dan Eastman's website (Bill's sponsor)

Crazy Utah Lawmaker

I am a Utah resident who believes in freedom! I also believe the voice of the people should be heard, and since my state's elected officials have seen fit (had the audacity) to try and legislate how the global Internet works, I believe they need to hear from all of its (the Internet's) users. (They always say, if you don't like what's happening, let them know about it.) Well, may I suggest we take them up on this offer.

Below are links to Utah's Representatives ("the new fathers of Internet law"):

Utah State Senate Roster (Email & Phone)

Utah State House Roster (Email--Click on individual for additional contact info)

Utah Office of Legislative Research & General Counsel

Utah Governor (Office Contact Info & Link to Online Feedback Forms)

Utah Lieutenant Governor (Office & online form)

Utah Attorney General

Just for fun, Dan Eastman's website (Bill's sponsor)

Crazy Utah Lawmaker

I am a Utah resident who believes in freedom! I also believe the voice of the people should be heard, and since my state's elected officials have seen fit (had the audacity) to try and legislate how the global Internet works, I believe they need to hear from all of its (the Internet's) users. (They always say, if you don't like what's happening, let them know about it.) Well, may I suggest we take them up on this offer.

Below are links to Utah's Representatives ("the new fathers of Internet law"):

Utah State Senate Roster (Email & Phone)

Utah State House Roster (Email--Click on individual for additional contact info)

Utah Office of Legislative Research & General Counsel

Utah Governor (Office Contact Info & Link to Online Feedback Forms)

Utah Lieutenant Governor (Office & online form)

Utah Attorney General

Just for fun, Dan Eastman's website (Bill's sponsor)

Crazy Utah Lawmaker

I am a Utah resident who believes in freedom! I also believe the voice of the people should be heard, and since my state's elected officials have seen fit (had the audacity) to try and legislate how the global Internet works, I believe they need to hear from all of its (the Internet's) users. (They always say, if you don't like what's happening, let them know about it.) Well, may I suggest we take them up on this offer.

Below are links to Utah's Representatives ("the new fathers of Internet law"):

Utah State Senate Roster (Email & Phone)

Utah State House Roster (Email--Click on individual for additional contact info)

Utah Office of Legislative Research & General Counsel

Utah Governor (Office Contact Info & Link to Online Feedback Forms)

Utah Lieutenant Governor (Office & online form)

Utah Attorney General

Just for fun, Dan Eastman's website (Bill's sponsor)

Crazy Utah Lawmaker

I am a Utah resident who believes in freedom! I also believe the voice of the people should be heard, and since my state's elected officials have seen fit (had the audacity) to try and legislate how the global Internet works, I believe they need to hear from all of its (the Internet's) users. (They always say, if you don't like what's happening, let them know about it.) Well, may I suggest we take them up on this offer.

Below are links to Utah's Representatives ("the new fathers of Internet law"):

Utah State Senate Roster (Email & Phone)

Utah State House Roster (Email--Click on individual for additional contact info)

Utah Office of Legislative Research & General Counsel

Utah Governor (Office Contact Info & Link to Online Feedback Forms)

Utah Lieutenant Governor (Office & online form)

Utah Attorney General

Just for fun, Dan Eastman's website (Bill's sponsor)

Crazy Utah Lawmaker

The only reason to keep Netscape alive is brand recognition. Look at how many websites are still "best viewed"/"tested" or have bookmark or printing directions for only Netscape and IE, or just haven't been updated to say anything different: NOAA, part of NASA, NIH sites, govts of Utah and Minnesota, the IOC, a Consumer Reports site and college after college after college. If people keep seeing these notices, especially on government sites, there's no way they'll switch to some "other" browser, and keeping Netscape as a brand will be worthwhile. I mean, do I really have to mention AOL?

TurboTax online

I think it's the same service (provided by Intuit), but other students or such like myself who have an AGI of $27,000 or less can go to taxfreedom.com and do their federal taxes online for free. The program this year is actually quite good from both a technical and interface point of view.

For state income, some states let you do free filing online via their own websites (like UT), but AL, AR, AZ, GA, ID, IA, KY, MA, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NY, ND, NC, OK, OR, RI, VT, and WV are all members of the Free File Alliance, and you can usually file taxes in these states for free online.

I'm a poor student, so my only goal is to get my refund back as fast as possible. Granted, my return is simple, but it took only 6 days last year from submission to direct deposit. In any case, I've found that there's no reason not to file online, especially if it's free.

The amount of mercury released into the air because of burning coal to make electricity is far larger (about a ton per year in Oregon) than the amount of mercury in the compact fluorescent bulbs. The bulbs use 1/4 the electricity, which means 1/4 the mercury released because of providing electricity for lighting.

Free speech? I do not see them slapping fines on people for unsolicited snail mail. And trust me, you can get a lot of that crap and getting addresses is really damn easy.

You do not have to receive an offensive mailing before you have the right to tell adult businesses that you do not want to receive their advertisements. Federal law 39 U.S.C. 3010 specifically gives you the right to prevent all unsolicited sexually oriented mailings from being sent to you and to your children that are under 19 years of age and living in your home.

For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile. - 2 Nephi 26:33

You've also got:

they did not send away any who were bnaked, or that were hungry, or that were athirst, or that were sick, or that had not been nourished; and they did not set their hearts upon criches; therefore they were dliberal to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, whether out of the church or in the church, having no erespect to persons as to those who stood in need. - Alma 1:30

There are those who say the Mormon faith oppresses women, that it oppresses gays, or that it oppresses blacks. These things are not true. We believe that men and women have different roles. Historically, we've allowed social prejudices to bleed into our church - that is true. But Utah was also at the forefront of the suffrage movement:

With no dissenting votes, the territorial legislature passed an act giving the vote (but not the right to hold office) to women on 10 February 1869. The act was signed two days later by the acting governor, S. A. Mann, and on 14 February, the first woman voter in the municipal election reportedly was Sarah Young, grandniece of Brigham Young. Utah thus became the second territory to give the vote to women; Wyoming had passed a women's suffrage act in 1869. No states permitted women to vote at the time. http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/statehoo d_and_the_progressive_era/womenssuffrageinutah.htm l

There's nothing sexist about Mormon theology. We're one of the only Christian religions to view Eve not as a screw-up, but as the instrument for putting God's plan into action. (That's not just a minor theological scrap - that's the source of most Christan misogony throughout history.) The theology is often misunderstood by those who see only that men hold the priesthood and women do not, but that is because they do not understand that according to Mormon theology the priesthood is to serve - and never to command - and that men are not given the priesthood because they are superior (if anything - because they are inferior). As my mother put it: "If Christ had suffered and died for our sins as a woman - no one would have noticed! Women are always putting others ahead of themselves. That Christ - a man - was willing to do so was what made the story so remarkable".

Regarding blacks, I'm sure you're referencing the fact that until 1978 the priesthood was given only to white men. This does look very damning. Either the leadership was tainted with genuine racism, or the church was merely enacting God's will: for which there is precedent. When Christ was on earth, he restricted his teachings by race at first, and

Too bad they don't have a US Gov Image Google search as well, would have loved to see what "porn" would have returned. However a text search on "porn" returns almost only stuff about "child porn".

It also teaches you about interesting things, such as Dial-a-Porn, that porn will damage you and your whole family, that PORN can be a bad disease, that Porn can be a last name, or even that P2P actually means Porn-to-Porn (notice the name of the poster btw)

Google taught me new things again today!

Figured I'd dig up a means of communicating with Utah's Lt. Gov. Office in case anybody wants to let them know how misguided they are: Lieutenant Governor's Office

The only freedom that can be affected on the internet is that of speech, and the US definitely has a better record of that than most European countries.

Does it?
* All critic officially labeled "anti-american"
* Our military censoring critical blogs written by military personnel
* Journalists imprisoned for not using right to speak names of sources
* Our military and CIA capturing critical journalists, if not killing
That doesn even sound like "satisfying free speech".

Now, tell me a single abuse in Sweden? Danmark, Netherlands? Finland, Belgium, Estonia?

As of 2005, the United States is 44th of 167 countries in the annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders.

France had tiffs with auction websites over the sale of Nazi memoribilia, and I believe many laws concerning holocaust deniers exist in Germany.

As some US states have laws concerning pornography and people are federally fined for even just flashing boobs in public. I think denying female beauty is much more serious restriction, don't you?

And I didn't even say a word about those DMCA laws!

I think we can both agree that the goal of the internet should be for it to be as free as possible, and at the moment, no filters or blockages occur over the content of websites.

As I think we can agree that nuclear weapons should not be in hands of mentally insane doctor Evils, and at the moment, no nuclear weapons are possessed by such parties. Does that mean we should not go and improve the system to make wmd abuses more difficult?

I don't think that would remain the case if control changed hands.

Fortunately nobody cares about your opinion.

I believe this because I research, and find stats that support my position. You find a possible reason and take it as definitive, without taking the time to find out it can't be.

Utah? A grand 1% of the U.S. population. Mormons? 1.9%. Not enough to make a dent in U.S. statistics. Moreover, my cousin just married a Mormon, in her thirties, no kids and no plans to have one -- they're not a coven of rapid breeders.

http://www.parenthelpcenter.org/teen_problems/teen pregnancy
"The United States has the highest rates of teen pregnancy and births in the western industrialized world. Teen pregnancy costs the United States at least $7 billion annually.

Nearly four in 10 young women become pregnant at least once before they reach the age of 20--nearly one million a year. Eight in ten of these pregnancies are unintended and 79 percent are to unmarried teens."

79% is very low?

Oh, but what about Utah? Read http://health.utah.gov/rhp/pdf/1997report.pdf
"Twenty years ago, in Utah, most teen births were to married couples. Today, over half of births to
women ages 15-19 occur outside of marriage, a figure reflecting national trends."

And hell, how many of those 18-19 year old married people got married because they got pregnant? I don't consider that "evil," I do consider it a recipe for divorce. Moreover, again from the Utah gov't report:

"Fathers in cases of teen pregnancy are generally not themselves teens. Infants' fathers were 20
years of age or older for 42% of births to mothers ages 15-17 and 72% of fathers were 20 years of
age or older for births to mothers ages 18-19 between 1995 and 1997."

So we've got older men taking advantage of teenage women. That is getting closer to evil...

And what sane Utah politician, running against the incumbents who passed this law, would keep quiet about it? How about Rob Bishop, Chris Cannon and Jim Matheson losing their seats in the House next year? Hatch and Bennett are secure in the Senate until their 2008 and 2010 expirations, respectively. But the actual culprits who passed this law are in the crosshairs. And all their email addresses, and their challengers, are available for P2P politics.

Hahaha. Troll. But I'm afraid someone is actually going to believe you, so I bite.

Utah has lower than average teen pregnancy rates

At least based on one interpretation of Bin Laden's last video taped speech.

How is this for a target?

I can say, bring it on, too.

On a more serious tone, I really hope that the vicious attacks that occured over the course of this campaign can be left alone now. In 2008, there will be a new President, regardless of what Bush does now, and I don't think it will be Dick Cheeny either... I don't think the VP will even run, but who knows.

I also hope that this shows clearly to Al-Queida that the USA will not be intimidated by threats. I would also like to be a bug on the wall of the FBI anti-terrorism center to see what was done to keep this election incident-free. That there wasn't even a single bomb or even mugging at any polling locations shows just how powerless Al-Queida has become. I mean, for the state of Utah alone (from the link above) there were almost 2,000 different places they could have targeted, and Utah is a very small state. And most of these voting places didn't even have a police officer present, much less any other security at all.

Anyone who doesn't vote, because they think it doesn't make a difference where they live is shooting themselves in the ass. The only way things change is by making your voice heard (even if it is only a little bit at first). This is like a team ranked 50th deciding not to show up for the game against the number 1 ranked team. There is zero chance of victory if you don't even try.

I live in Utah. Utah "always votes for a Republican President." Tell that to the over 33% of voters who chose someone other than Bush/Cheney in 2000. 67% to 33% may be a statistical landslide, but what if all the Gore supporters with the "stay at home it doesn't matter" attitude would have voted? Full disclosure: I am voting for Bush, but it pisses me off when people have such a defeatist attitude that they don't want to even try.

How about Incentives instead. I live deep in the rural back country of Utah. I have 768kDSL for $35/month.
Why? Out state govt had the foresight to offer massive tax incentives for the rural phone companies to upgrage their infrastructures and get broadband into rural Utah. This was done in part to help stimulate the rural economies out here, which are primarily based in agriculture and tourism. However, now with broadband available in just about every little town over 700 people, we are seeing a great many other industries pop up.
Utah continues to develop rural technology businesses through their SmartSite program http://smartsites.utah.gov/ and have graciously provided my little upstart company with over $10,000 in grants and equipment, only because I am a geek working to create more geek jobs in rural Utah.
I don't believe that we need more government, just turn those funds into incentive programs instead of red tape nightmares.

Tree of Utah

Sun Tunnels

The UTOPIA optical-fiber-to-home plan for Utah seems to be a sensible business plan for using public bonds to bring fiber to 18 cities, but it is (surprise) getting hammered by representatives from the local phone and cable companies, Qwest and Comcast. While their representatives don't seem to mind driving to legislative hearings on public roads, they do seem set against letting this project go ahead.

One of the two area papers, the nominally non-LDS, liberal-ish one that is dominant in the affected metro area, doesn't like UTOPIA either, and thus covers it from that perspective.

In another current, pressing theme, local politicians and newspapers fret over how to best bring high-paying high-tech (back) into the state.

Does anyone have good examples of good high speed networks that bring in or otherwise enable the formation and growth of new industry? I would like to have these to forward to the UTOPIA folks and key legislative offices. (Disclosure: I am an ECE prof. at a U in the UTOPIA footprint.) The Utah legislature is in session for another couple of weeks.

Governor Imposes Stay on MATRIX

Governor ends Utah's roles in database

Matrix FOIA Request to Utah State Police

The MATRIX

Privacy Watch: Matrix

Matrix Updates

Matrix Raises a Stir

Well, the Utah state bird is the seagull...

Linkage

Appropriate, considering that the seagull is Utah's State Bird.

Ah, well. Raymond was worked up. His insult to the state, in my opinion, was unwarranted. But then again, why hasn't Utah's AG gone after McBride and gang. These guys are doing more damage to the tourist industry than they can imagine.

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Robert

Today, the biggest leader in translating Bibles into other languages is the Church of the Latter Day Saints, I guess when Mormon Elders take two or three wives, the younger academic men have lots of time to learn strange languages.

That's funny....last time I checked, the majority of mormons in utah aren't polygamist. I grew up there, I should know! And no, I'm not mormon. Polygamy was made illegal when Utah was applying for statehood (Utah History to Go). And as far as I know, you can be excommunicated from the Mormon church for practicing polygamy.

As far as their missionaries (Elders) even having a wife, that is absurd. They don't get married until they return from their mission. Only the older missionaries (60+) are married, and both husband and wife go...

Don't propagate lies.

Actually, before reading this article, I hadn't even thought about applying this type of technology to myself. Thanks for the eye opener MrIcee. But it is true. As we get older, this type of technology is going to become all to personal. I should really have considered it before, since I'm near sighted with over 13 points of loss so far. (If my glasses weren't this new carbon stuff, my glasses would be a little short of a 1/2 inch thick on the edges.)

Anyway, the first thing that came to mind was a vision of Sneakers, a movie from 1992, that included David Strathairn as Whistler, who was visually impaired. He read Playboy in Braille, and had a great box that let him read what was on the computer screen. It's not quite the same but I found something that can do the same thing. http://www.deafblind.com/display.html Unfortunately, these refreshable Braille displays are EXTREMELY expensive. I've been finding prices of about $5,000 to $12,000. They are also prone to breaking down.

By the way, does anyone know how hard it is to learn Braille? I've never tried. Is it something I should do now, while younger, or is it easy enough that I shouldn't worry until I go blind?

I also found a couple of solutions.. There is a company that sells both large print keyboards, http://hooleon.com/prod-vis.htm and Braile keyboards http://hooleon.com/prod-braille.htm. (Or you can get them both.)

I also found a couple of software packages that seem to be pretty common for reading text out loud off computer screens.

IBM Home Page Reader http://www-3.ibm.com/able/hpr.html
pwWebSpeak http://www.soundlinks.com/pwgen.htm
Jaws http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_downloads/jaws .asp

And last, but not least, since I am a bibliophile, I had to find some Braille e-books for download. http://library.utah.gov/web-braille.html But you have to be blind to sign up for the service.

Utah Commuter Link, Salt Lake City and surrounding area