> Of course, one these "indie" labels get big enough, they won't be "indie" anymore.
I hear that often enough and I doubt that its true. Most indie labels can't scale because they focus on one or two specific types of music, usually a sub-genre or two. If they do start releasing everything from rap to classical then the core consumers would move on to a better label with that, "we actually care and listen to the music we sell" touch which helps seperate the wheat from the chaff.
Not to mention that if one indie label moves toward Sony-ism then there's a brand new niche for some up and comers to take, thus starting the cycle over again. The problem with the RIAA is its so consolidated and people simply buy the PR that they are relevant and releasing the best music out there when in reality they are marketing a product and are more often than not engineering a product from well-know successful elements. Think Britney, think Spice Girls, think boy bands. These things don't happen in a real music scene, they happen in offices.
>. Entertainment is an industry, they produce what sells.
I wouldn't say that, even though, objectively its correct, but let's face it - we are obsessed with Hollywood. We complain when a bad movie gets released. Doesn't that seem a little odd? Its just taking up space at the local 20-screen cinema, its not like we're forced to watch them at gunpoint.
A movie critic is a respected international job. Why? The TV and the internet are constantly telling us who Julia Roberts is dating or what Heidi Clum wore last week in Paris.
I've divested in Hollywood long ago. I catch the occasional movie and am stunned at how many commercials I have to watch, how much I have to pay, and the how "movie people" simply act like little children when they don't get that perfect movie they were hoping for.
The best thing I did in a long time was buy a Tivo. I now have almost no connection to pop-America, have no idea who "hot" actors are, don't see commercials for crap like "Celebrity Justice," etc. Yeah, I sound like one of those, "I dont have a TV" people, but you know what, they make excellent points. You simply can't see the forest from the trees if you grew up watching TV like I did.
It would be nice if Hollywood would just make art, but it collectively decided long ago that the celebrity star system serves it well and people don't seem to complain much. Heaven forbid we see actors, musicians, and TV-people as our peers and not saints we hope someday will sign our chest with a sharpie at Barnes and Noble.
I love how concerns over real events that affect us, politics, the war, etc made the oscars look like the cheap industry backscratching it truly is. Who wore what? Who cares. Take your little statue and go home.
The nice thing about the internet is that media people have suddenly become real. Reporters have blogs and *gasp* they're trying to make their way through life too, even though they can occasionally get a quote or two from someone holding a powerful office in government. The most common thing I heard when Wil Wheaton's blog hit critical mass was, "Oh, he's just like an ordinary person. We were so mean to him." Or "I'm a dude who wrote some software, enjoy" compared to "Mega-corp announces its newest proactive and innovative product for PC consumers, this revolutionary...."
I think Hollywood's celebrity system is more or less destined to collapse due to the egalitarian aspects of cheap/free information. I'm not going to bother to provide supporting links: (im sure you've read these stories) TV time has been interrupted by internet time, the RIAA is losing sales and indie labels are experiencing a small boom, linux is in the enterprise and kicking ass, fans petition or even pay for quality TV episodes, access to lots of different news brings balance to national tunnel vision, etc.
I really hope my kids grow up in a society in which the self-important PR and other celebrity BS are seen plainly as lies. I hope they don't go crazy over the latest fads because J-Lo was seen wearing something similiar at Spago. Or even how to explain to them why adults can pay 9 dollars to see something like "Kangaroo Jack." I hope my generation looks crazy to them, because we probably are.
Or zip the site and put up a bittorrent link (hosted elsewhere) along with the web site. Maybe the submission page should be changed to suggest this. At the very least it'll show off how damn handy bittorrent is.
>there has been progress reverse-engineering brain regions like some auditory or visiual
I think that is the best argument for AI or Simulated intelligence or whatever you'd call the final results.
Sure, knowing what kind of atom at what location and reproducing those results exactly is probably impossible, but the black-box approach to reverse engineering doesn't have to be that exact. A reasonable facsimile of what a human, or more realistic right now, an animal brain would be pretty impressive. It could even be emulated as software, but it's just as possible that it will start as custom hardware first.
Look at the recent articles about the artificial hippocampus developed at the university of southern California. They used a black box reverse engineering approach; they didn't punch out a bunch of algorithms all day and simulate neurons on a supercomputer first. Imagine other reversed engineer brain parts acting in concert. That's probably your best bet for classic sci-fi-like AI right there, plus it has applications in helping people with brain disease and mind-blowing possibilities regarding brain customization.
Maybe AI is like manned flight and massive and cheap computing power. One day it's a big deal if not a fraud and then a couple decades later we're sick of all the talking doors and think the refrigerator has a crush on the robot dog.
> Block all ports except 80 if you have to... just don't take away my free access!
I would if I could. I wouldn't mind sharing some of my connection with the people in my neighborhood, but security and just the nature of tcp/ip to go as fast as it can means it just ain't gonna happen. Not am I willing to set up more network equipment, VPN, etc.
I'd love to see a built in DMZ with port 80 open and bandwidth thortling if I choose to share. Heck, this would probably solve half your security issues right there. Inept users would have a working link (just web/webmail) and a much more secure home network if they didn't bother to read the instructions and just plugged the thing in. Techies and free information types would have an easy way to share access to strangers.
I live two doors away from a coffeeshop and with a second AP placed strategically near the window I should be able to get on the net from there.
It would be nice if the next Linksys or whomever's firmware update had a "share a fraction of your connection for web users" option.
So? GPRS is here today and you pay through the nose and sometimes through other orifices I'm too polite to mention.
Cell carriers have a huge incentive to bill per megabyte (or kilobyte). It may be the only way they're going to turn a profit. Wireless designed for a MAN has a huge incentive not to pay per byte, but to give it away and bill as a "last mile" carrier a la DSL, Cable, etc.
Heh, I can't wait to see my 3G bill after getting those new Mandrake ISOs.
"Honey, did you download that new microsoft patch?"
"Oh yes, I always patch."
"That damn thing cost us $59.24 in transfer fees plus a $40.00 surchage for using that much bandwidth during peak business hours."
"You're the one that wanted the wireless not me!"
"So? I told you to only use it between 2 and 4:30 am CST!"
"That's it, I'm spending the night at my sister's."
How many people really need color? The ones that I know that do need a nice color printer, not some rickety HP revenue generator.
The Samsung personal laser printers sell for under $200. The cheapest inkjet at Best Buy is $99 and on top of it all black & white laser blows away inkjet any day of the week in regards to performance and quality. Toner which lasts a year must be mindblowing to those who know nothing else but buying ink every three weeks.
We've certainly reached the point where the PC is now a needed appliance and the printer market has been living high on the hog for too long. We're all techies here, use your status as the "neighborhood computer guy/gal" to start letting people know about the benefits of laser, especially when they call complaning about their "free" inkjets.
Perhaps the above comment is a little harsh, afterall inkjet technology definitely has its benefits, but for everyday printing its just the wrong tool for the job.
>can you imagine the cost if Slashdot had to pay for all that bandwidth themselves?
Yes and no. Slashdot has already posted bittorrent files before. If the editor thinks the site might fail he could zip it and torrent it. Put it up on a some server and let the slashdot community swarm.
Slashdot could do a lot to raise awareness for the bittorrent project.
I've contributed lots of cycles to many DC projects. A little while ago the people from UD and SETI were talking about making one screensaver that allows you to pick and choose what projects you want to contribute to.
Some of the proposed features were switching to another project after finishing a WU, auto updates, ad hoc teams, simultaneous DC use with custom priority, etc.
I wonder what ever happened to that idea. It sounded great. It would also give not so famous groups a chance to write their screensaver using the API, script, or however the one-screensaver-to-rule-them-all DC client works.
It would be nice to be able to see a list of projects from students asking for a group to do the math for them. How cool would offering your team's PC power to the local high school doing a simple DC experiment?
In the meantime the big boys rule. That's not bad, but it could be better.
>Only Win2Kers are cool enough to join my OS!". Asshole. Shut the fuck up.
Why isn't this guy modded down as a troll?
Anyway, these people complaining about her Win95 machine have a point regardless. She's (or whoever, the name is an obviously a pseudonym, say it out loud, and probably a clever troll) has an old machine and most of her problems are driver/hardware problems.
Linux for the masses means the same thing Windows for the maasses means: preinstalled OS. An equivalant review would be someone taking an old Linux PC and trying to put windows on it only to find that she's missing the proper drivers. Now add the industy's lack of Linux support and she has no one to hand her drivers.
Linux on the desktop != supported hardware. It would be nice if there were drivers for everything, but that just isn't the case.
I'm curious. When she bought that PC from dell, or whomever, did they just ship a box with a bunch of drivers on a bunch of floppies with a sticker saying, "Good luck!" Yeah, I don't think so either.
No, she, like 99.999% of PC buyers got a PC with a working OS installed and working components because the manufacturer had to provide a working machine. Whether they installed drivers after the OS install or just got them to MS on time, is besides the point.
All this review is telling us is that installation is especially hard with her hardware. Fine, but that isn't saying much. We all know Linux's driver support is limited.
>The quest for perpetual motion has been going on since at least the 11th century
>Without ever stopping!
By harnessing the kinetic and thermal energies of perpetual motion researchers who will be working in perpetuity trying to create a perpetual motion machine we have in fact created a perpetual motion machine.
How about those of us who record shows via a capture card and end up compressing them into divx? I dont even have a VCR anymore, but its essentially the same deal. Unless you consider that "piracy" too.
Just because its digital and easier to share doesn't mean its illegal or should be made illegal.
Ideally, I'd like to converge my Tivo/PC/DVD player into something simple and usable and this device is a step in the right direction.
I'm sure the device will be used for copyright infringment somehow, but it does have legitimate uses. Not to mention just about ANY video device can be used for CI.
I really liked the look of the new toshiba robot, it looks like it can do more than interact with a doll house, which seems to be the design criteria behind these tiny humanoid bots.
802.11, LCD screen, and voice recognition could make it a very cool extension of your PC. It can find you, show (or read) your email, let you send replies via voice, etc. If your PC is connected to your entertainment system if could be a rolling video jukebox. Have it display your divx collection and send a signal to the PC to play the video on the TV.
There's a lot a "PC on wheels" can do now with 802.11b and broadband. I think the "ethernet everwhere" crowd would be better served by a central and movable programmable device than putting an ethernet card in the fridge and in the toaster.
A real usable robot will not look like a man, it will look like an appliance. Preferably with a cup holder and magazine rack. Oh, and a vaccum attachment would be nice too.
When these bots are able to do something other than be bots for the sake of being bots then we'll be seeing some real innovation.
It better not. I don't want my $60,000 investment thinking its a superhero because of law number one.
Screw law number two. If I want it to poke you in the eye with a stick it should.
We can change law number three to, "Do your master's bidding, and try not to break yourself. If you can, beat up other robots for parts. Your master isn't the richest man in the world and you're moving out when you turn 18!"
Considering Earthlink is already on the offensive regarding pop-ups why not go one step further and provide some decent banner ad blocking. If I'm using a dial-up a simple ad-blocking hosts file turns most pages from long annoying downloads to snappy content-only page views AND I get to keep the non-ad graphics.
Earthlink has nothing to lose by creating a firewall list of ad servers and making it optional for its users. It can brand itself as the anti-AOL and really get some market-share, especially now that so many AOL old-timers are looking to switch to a real ISP or broadband.
The pricing is kind of wacky too. $30 per month for marginal increases in speed which may or may not be noticeable and it still ties up the phone line? I don't see how simple compression can be that good. This isn't a scam per se, but its more than slightly exaggerated. Not to mention $30 is near broadband pricing. Perhaps it will be a psychological effect. "Dude, I have fast dial-up, check this shit out!" IE loads up something from its cache and everyone says, "Wow!"
We all know the last mile is a bitch, but this is just not a real solution. Stick to the local $10 dial-up ISP in your neighborhood and block ads.
No offense, but it blows my mind how relatively small the ACLU membership is. They address issues like this all the time and have a new action alert about CAPPS II which is related to this. Expect something from them about this soon.
After 9/11 it was interesting to predict what would go up more: votes for Republicans or ACLU membership. Both did, but one group is truly in need of smart, passionate people to fight crap like this. The democrats don't seem like they want to do anything critical of Bush (at least as a group) and SCOTUS just turned down a review of the secret wiretap court. (to their credit it may come before them after more appeals)
Slashdot Mirror
>That degraded into a place of seeing countless people jerking off, flashing and other lude acts.
And where may I find these 'meetings?'
> Of course, one these "indie" labels get big enough, they won't be "indie" anymore.
I hear that often enough and I doubt that its true. Most indie labels can't scale because they focus on one or two specific types of music, usually a sub-genre or two. If they do start releasing everything from rap to classical then the core consumers would move on to a better label with that, "we actually care and listen to the music we sell" touch which helps seperate the wheat from the chaff.
Not to mention that if one indie label moves toward Sony-ism then there's a brand new niche for some up and comers to take, thus starting the cycle over again. The problem with the RIAA is its so consolidated and people simply buy the PR that they are relevant and releasing the best music out there when in reality they are marketing a product and are more often than not engineering a product from well-know successful elements. Think Britney, think Spice Girls, think boy bands. These things don't happen in a real music scene, they happen in offices.
>. Entertainment is an industry, they produce what sells.
I wouldn't say that, even though, objectively its correct, but let's face it - we are obsessed with Hollywood. We complain when a bad movie gets released. Doesn't that seem a little odd? Its just taking up space at the local 20-screen cinema, its not like we're forced to watch them at gunpoint.
A movie critic is a respected international job. Why? The TV and the internet are constantly telling us who Julia Roberts is dating or what Heidi Clum wore last week in Paris.
I've divested in Hollywood long ago. I catch the occasional movie and am stunned at how many commercials I have to watch, how much I have to pay, and the how "movie people" simply act like little children when they don't get that perfect movie they were hoping for.
The best thing I did in a long time was buy a Tivo. I now have almost no connection to pop-America, have no idea who "hot" actors are, don't see commercials for crap like "Celebrity Justice," etc. Yeah, I sound like one of those, "I dont have a TV" people, but you know what, they make excellent points. You simply can't see the forest from the trees if you grew up watching TV like I did.
It would be nice if Hollywood would just make art, but it collectively decided long ago that the celebrity star system serves it well and people don't seem to complain much. Heaven forbid we see actors, musicians, and TV-people as our peers and not saints we hope someday will sign our chest with a sharpie at Barnes and Noble.
I love how concerns over real events that affect us, politics, the war, etc made the oscars look like the cheap industry backscratching it truly is. Who wore what? Who cares. Take your little statue and go home.
The nice thing about the internet is that media people have suddenly become real. Reporters have blogs and *gasp* they're trying to make their way through life too, even though they can occasionally get a quote or two from someone holding a powerful office in government. The most common thing I heard when Wil Wheaton's blog hit critical mass was, "Oh, he's just like an ordinary person. We were so mean to him." Or "I'm a dude who wrote some software, enjoy" compared to "Mega-corp announces its newest proactive and innovative product for PC consumers, this revolutionary...."
I think Hollywood's celebrity system is more or less destined to collapse due to the egalitarian aspects of cheap/free information. I'm not going to bother to provide supporting links: (im sure you've read these stories) TV time has been interrupted by internet time, the RIAA is losing sales and indie labels are experiencing a small boom, linux is in the enterprise and kicking ass, fans petition or even pay for quality TV episodes, access to lots of different news brings balance to national tunnel vision, etc.
I really hope my kids grow up in a society in which the self-important PR and other celebrity BS are seen plainly as lies. I hope they don't go crazy over the latest fads because J-Lo was seen wearing something similiar at Spago. Or even how to explain to them why adults can pay 9 dollars to see something like "Kangaroo Jack." I hope my generation looks crazy to them, because we probably are.
Or zip the site and put up a bittorrent link (hosted elsewhere) along with the web site. Maybe the submission page should be changed to suggest this. At the very least it'll show off how damn handy bittorrent is.
>there has been progress reverse-engineering brain regions like some auditory or visiual
I think that is the best argument for AI or Simulated intelligence or whatever you'd call the final results.
Sure, knowing what kind of atom at what location and reproducing those results exactly is probably impossible, but the black-box approach to reverse engineering doesn't have to be that exact. A reasonable facsimile of what a human, or more realistic right now, an animal brain would be pretty impressive. It could even be emulated as software, but it's just as possible that it will start as custom hardware first.
Look at the recent articles about the artificial hippocampus developed at the university of southern California. They used a black box reverse engineering approach; they didn't punch out a bunch of algorithms all day and simulate neurons on a supercomputer first. Imagine other reversed engineer brain parts acting in concert. That's probably your best bet for classic sci-fi-like AI right there, plus it has applications in helping people with brain disease and mind-blowing possibilities regarding brain customization.
Maybe AI is like manned flight and massive and cheap computing power. One day it's a big deal if not a fraud and then a couple decades later we're sick of all the talking doors and think the refrigerator has a crush on the robot dog.
> Block all ports except 80 if you have to... just don't take away my free access!
I would if I could. I wouldn't mind sharing some of my connection with the people in my neighborhood, but security and just the nature of tcp/ip to go as fast as it can means it just ain't gonna happen. Not am I willing to set up more network equipment, VPN, etc.
I'd love to see a built in DMZ with port 80 open and bandwidth thortling if I choose to share. Heck, this would probably solve half your security issues right there. Inept users would have a working link (just web/webmail) and a much more secure home network if they didn't bother to read the instructions and just plugged the thing in. Techies and free information types would have an easy way to share access to strangers.
I live two doors away from a coffeeshop and with a second AP placed strategically near the window I should be able to get on the net from there.
It would be nice if the next Linksys or whomever's firmware update had a "share a fraction of your connection for web users" option.
>...the CDMA carriers
So? GPRS is here today and you pay through the nose and sometimes through other orifices I'm too polite to mention.
Cell carriers have a huge incentive to bill per megabyte (or kilobyte). It may be the only way they're going to turn a profit. Wireless designed for a MAN has a huge incentive not to pay per byte, but to give it away and bill as a "last mile" carrier a la DSL, Cable, etc.
Heh, I can't wait to see my 3G bill after getting those new Mandrake ISOs.
"Honey, did you download that new microsoft patch?"
"Oh yes, I always patch."
"That damn thing cost us $59.24 in transfer fees plus a $40.00 surchage for using that much bandwidth during peak business hours."
"You're the one that wanted the wireless not me!"
"So? I told you to only use it between 2 and 4:30 am CST!"
"That's it, I'm spending the night at my sister's."
How many people really need color? The ones that I know that do need a nice color printer, not some rickety HP revenue generator.
The Samsung personal laser printers sell for under $200. The cheapest inkjet at Best Buy is $99 and on top of it all black & white laser blows away inkjet any day of the week in regards to performance and quality. Toner which lasts a year must be mindblowing to those who know nothing else but buying ink every three weeks.
We've certainly reached the point where the PC is now a needed appliance and the printer market has been living high on the hog for too long. We're all techies here, use your status as the "neighborhood computer guy/gal" to start letting people know about the benefits of laser, especially when they call complaning about their "free" inkjets.
Perhaps the above comment is a little harsh, afterall inkjet technology definitely has its benefits, but for everyday printing its just the wrong tool for the job.
Toshiba's ApriAlpha can already use their laptop methanol fuel cell.
Also, tons more pictures linked at boingboing.net. I'm too lazy to post all the links so just go there and click.
There's even a photo of that exoskeleton for nurses that was mentioned a while ago.
>First of all, Google does not have ADS as far as I know.
Oh man, lets at least pretend text ads work. Anything to keep the gifs and flash away.
Try:
"Oh yes, text ads are great! I click on them all the time!"
>can you imagine the cost if Slashdot had to pay for all that bandwidth themselves?
Yes and no. Slashdot has already posted bittorrent files before. If the editor thinks the site might fail he could zip it and torrent it. Put it up on a some server and let the slashdot community swarm.
Slashdot could do a lot to raise awareness for the bittorrent project.
Easy to navigate webpages, especially those dealing with contests.
I've contributed lots of cycles to many DC projects. A little while ago the people from UD and SETI were talking about making one screensaver that allows you to pick and choose what projects you want to contribute to.
Some of the proposed features were switching to another project after finishing a WU, auto updates, ad hoc teams, simultaneous DC use with custom priority, etc.
I wonder what ever happened to that idea. It sounded great. It would also give not so famous groups a chance to write their screensaver using the API, script, or however the one-screensaver-to-rule-them-all DC client works.
It would be nice to be able to see a list of projects from students asking for a group to do the math for them. How cool would offering your team's PC power to the local high school doing a simple DC experiment?
In the meantime the big boys rule. That's not bad, but it could be better.
>Only Win2Kers are cool enough to join my OS!". Asshole. Shut the fuck up.
Why isn't this guy modded down as a troll?
Anyway, these people complaining about her Win95 machine have a point regardless. She's (or whoever, the name is an obviously a pseudonym, say it out loud, and probably a clever troll) has an old machine and most of her problems are driver/hardware problems.
Linux for the masses means the same thing Windows for the maasses means: preinstalled OS. An equivalant review would be someone taking an old Linux PC and trying to put windows on it only to find that she's missing the proper drivers. Now add the industy's lack of Linux support and she has no one to hand her drivers.
Linux on the desktop != supported hardware. It would be nice if there were drivers for everything, but that just isn't the case.
I'm curious. When she bought that PC from dell, or whomever, did they just ship a box with a bunch of drivers on a bunch of floppies with a sticker saying, "Good luck!" Yeah, I don't think so either.
No, she, like 99.999% of PC buyers got a PC with a working OS installed and working components because the manufacturer had to provide a working machine. Whether they installed drivers after the OS install or just got them to MS on time, is besides the point.
All this review is telling us is that installation is especially hard with her hardware. Fine, but that isn't saying much. We all know Linux's driver support is limited.
1. Plead guilty
2. Go bankrupt
3. ????????
4. Profit!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-62825 8,00.html
reg: cpunks/cpunks
>The quest for perpetual motion has been going on since at least the 11th century
>Without ever stopping!
By harnessing the kinetic and thermal energies of perpetual motion researchers who will be working in perpetuity trying to create a perpetual motion machine we have in fact created a perpetual motion machine.
I bet I could patent that.
How about those of us who record shows via a capture card and end up compressing them into divx? I dont even have a VCR anymore, but its essentially the same deal. Unless you consider that "piracy" too.
Just because its digital and easier to share doesn't mean its illegal or should be made illegal.
Ideally, I'd like to converge my Tivo/PC/DVD player into something simple and usable and this device is a step in the right direction.
I'm sure the device will be used for copyright infringment somehow, but it does have legitimate uses. Not to mention just about ANY video device can be used for CI.
I really liked the look of the new toshiba robot, it looks like it can do more than interact with a doll house, which seems to be the design criteria behind these tiny humanoid bots.
802.11, LCD screen, and voice recognition could make it a very cool extension of your PC. It can find you, show (or read) your email, let you send replies via voice, etc. If your PC is connected to your entertainment system if could be a rolling video jukebox. Have it display your divx collection and send a signal to the PC to play the video on the TV.
There's a lot a "PC on wheels" can do now with 802.11b and broadband. I think the "ethernet everwhere" crowd would be better served by a central and movable programmable device than putting an ethernet card in the fridge and in the toaster.
A real usable robot will not look like a man, it will look like an appliance. Preferably with a cup holder and magazine rack. Oh, and a vaccum attachment would be nice too.
When these bots are able to do something other than be bots for the sake of being bots then we'll be seeing some real innovation.
It better not. I don't want my $60,000 investment thinking its a superhero because of law number one.
Screw law number two. If I want it to poke you in the eye with a stick it should.
We can change law number three to, "Do your master's bidding, and try not to break yourself. If you can, beat up other robots for parts. Your master isn't the richest man in the world and you're moving out when you turn 18!"
Do a search for the program called edexter.
Yes! The other day it took me a minute to think of the titleof this movie. This is how you make an action movie, plain and simple.
>So now we have two CNNs dueling for the plaque-congested hearts and couch-deadened minds of the people!
Oh crap, that reminds me I need to go work out!
>Most banner ads
Considering Earthlink is already on the offensive regarding pop-ups why not go one step further and provide some decent banner ad blocking. If I'm using a dial-up a simple ad-blocking hosts file turns most pages from long annoying downloads to snappy content-only page views AND I get to keep the non-ad graphics.
Earthlink has nothing to lose by creating a firewall list of ad servers and making it optional for its users. It can brand itself as the anti-AOL and really get some market-share, especially now that so many AOL old-timers are looking to switch to a real ISP or broadband.
The pricing is kind of wacky too. $30 per month for marginal increases in speed which may or may not be noticeable and it still ties up the phone line? I don't see how simple compression can be that good. This isn't a scam per se, but its more than slightly exaggerated. Not to mention $30 is near broadband pricing. Perhaps it will be a psychological effect. "Dude, I have fast dial-up, check this shit out!" IE loads up something from its cache and everyone says, "Wow!"
We all know the last mile is a bitch, but this is just not a real solution. Stick to the local $10 dial-up ISP in your neighborhood and block ads.
>including jpeg and gif images
How much more compressed can these things get?
No offense, but it blows my mind how relatively small the ACLU membership is. They address issues like this all the time and have a new action alert about CAPPS II which is related to this. Expect something from them about this soon.
After 9/11 it was interesting to predict what would go up more: votes for Republicans or ACLU membership. Both did, but one group is truly in need of smart, passionate people to fight crap like this. The democrats don't seem like they want to do anything critical of Bush (at least as a group) and SCOTUS just turned down a review of the secret wiretap court. (to their credit it may come before them after more appeals)
Related and thought-provoking salon editorial here.