Internet Kill Switch

Senator Joseph Lieberman proposed a bill that would give president Obama the authority to shut down the internet for fear of cyber-terrorism. The bill which is called Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act (PCNAA), has been dubbed the name "Internet Kill Switch." The bill will require that broadband providers, software firms, and search engines will need to immediately shut down and comply with emergency measure or action, which will be put in place by the Department of Homeland Security, or else face a fine. So shut down for some silly cyber-terrorism or pay a ton of money to prison guards aka Homeland Security.

Of course with creating such a "switch" there will be yet another department added within Homeland Security, they will be known as non other than National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications (NCCC). More ways for the government to get our money, to fund a branch that seems quite useless and highly unneeded. So if you make money off of the internet you are subject to command by the NCCC. Some of you that make money off of the internet might also have to engage in information sharing with this new agency.

Liberman says it's imperative that the president has this ability to shut down the internet "say to an electric company or to say to Verizon, in the national interest, 'There's an attack about to come, and I hereby order you to put a patch on this, or put your network down on this part, or stop accepting any incoming from country A."

The Senate Committee of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs has approved the cybersecurity bill on June 25th. So I'm guessing that this means they can shut us down whenever they'd like.

Usually I don't sign or point people towards an internet petitions, they don't usually do much but it's the only thing I can think of doing at the moment. So if you disagree with the kill switch and would like to sign a petition against it click here for the "Stop the Internet Kill Switch Bill." And don't forget to check out the "Stop The Internet Kill Switch Bill" Forum.

So how do you feel about this? Leave your comment below, and don't forget to check out the two links for the Petition and the Forum. I didn't create them but am spreading the word.

Jasmine's Back From The Vet

Thursday I took my dog to the vet due to a very swollen ear. I couldn't even see the ear canal and I was supposed to be inserting an anti yeast medication into her ear once a day. This was nearly impossible to do with her ear as swollen as it was. I would have to pour it into her ear, and rub it in and hope that some made it in. After a week of doing that and there being absolutely no sign of it getting better, I finally got her to the vet to tell them about this. They kept her over night on Thursday so they could put her under and irrigate her ears. They saw how swollen and sore her right ear was and noticed her left ear also getting swollen. While they had her they found an ear polyp and zapped it out with a laser. While she was there they also trimmed her long nails for me.

Let me just say, Thursday night without Jasmine around was very odd. It felt weird, and I felt a bit lost. I missed letting her outside, telling her to quit begging while I'm eating food. I missed getting her food for her at night, and I missed her laying on the bed. Yeah I'm a bit obsessed with my dog, I'll admit it. Friday when we got her back was awesome! I know it was only one day, but she's never gone so it's just strange when she's not around. I have some antibiotics that I have to give her once a day for the next few days for her ears. The antibiotics came as a chew, why don't they make more dog pills and medication in chew form? It'd be so much easier than trying to hide the medication in a piece of food.

At the vet they did some blood work, and just about everything came back normal except her liver was on the low end of high, so she's going to need medication to help with it. The medication isn't a cure but it should help. We are still waiting on some X-ray's to come back, they had to send them out to a specialist to have them double check a possible build-up in the lungs. Kind of expected with her cough/gag/hack thing that she does. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that it's nothing too bad.

Well, all in all for an 11 year old Black Labrador I'd have to say she's in overall good health. I'll probably be updating about her again when the X-ray's come in and we get the results.

Click the picture above for the full size image of Jasmine if you'd like.

Fishing Time

Well it's that time of year for me. Get a fishing license, grab some lures, make sure the pole is all set to go out to the lake and catch some fish. I'm not much of a keeper of fish but sometimes I do, nothing like catching your own dinner.

Well I went to Gander Mountain the other day and I bought me one of these Blue Fox Vibrax Shallow Lures (which I can't find on the Gander Mountain online store), because most of the time when I go fishing it's right off the shore and it's not as good to fish with a deep diving lure if I'm going to be constantly scraping it along the bottom of the lake and snagging it on rocks. So I went with one of these. I get to the fishing spot with a few lures I had just bought, but decided to try this one first because it looked the most pleasing and appetizing to me, thinking like a fish. So I put this shallow lure on my line (I had bought the one that is all the way to the right in the picture), cast it out into the water, had some good distance. I start to reel in the lure and within a couple turns of the crank BAM! "HOLY SHIT I GOT ONE ALREADY!!" I said, wow this is a big fish, holy crap, I'm thinking to myself. Just as the excitement is getting to me and I'm getting him closer, my line comes flying all the way up to the shore, no swivel no lure and worse of all, no fish. Had no luck getting any other bites that night, so I know what I must do. I must go back and get another one of these lures and hopefully land the next fish that decides it wants to eat it.

Can't give a full review since I've used it only once and didn't even get to cast it more than once. Wish I could have landed that fish... if I can find another one of these at Gander Mountain I'll be buying it. It might be my next favorite lure next to the Phoebe Lure.

My Birthday

Well it's not actually my birthday today, I'm a few days late. Honestly I didn't feel like sitting on my computer at all on my birthday so I avoided it. My birthday was on June 8th. Not a whole lot to write about just wanted to mention a few things about birthdays.

First, why do so many people get so upset over their birthday? It has never made any sense to me at all. Every year on my birthday I'd have to say it is the best day of the year. I always wake up in a great mood, all types of energy and usually pretty damn happy with the day and the majority of what happens during the day. Even if it's not all about celebrating me. I don't even require that, although I do enjoy hearing people tell me to have a happy birthday.

Second, what's everyone so upset about at their birthday where they don't want people to know what day it is? Let people know, they'll be nice to you and appreciate you, do you not like that? Do you hate people liking you? If so why do you have friends and have contact with other humans if you hate being appreciated. Get over it, it's just a day, and it just so happens on that day friends and loved ones will appreciate you a little more than usually. Wow that sounds pretty horrible.

Third, why does getting a year older depress so many people? Were you not expecting this to happen? You've been on this earth quite a few years now, you should know what happens on that day. It happens every year. Plus you're not one age then magically another age on that one day. You're progressively getting older as the seconds tick, if getting old really depresses you, you should be in a constant state of depression.

Fourth, I had a great birthday. Worked, that was a great day at work. I don't know if you'll ever hear me say that about my job other than for that one day. Yes that's right I don't mind working on my birthday. Things actually went well. After work I met up with a few friends and went fishing. I didn't catch anything, except a slight buzz from a few beers. After fishing I came home to spend time with my amazing girlfriend, where we sat and watched TV and a movie in the comfort of our living room. All in all I couldn't have asked for a better 27th birthday. It's not about the gifts, it's about how you make it for yourself. People that despise birthdays need to cheer up a bit and learn to loosen up and relax a little, enjoy it. It could be your last. Seriously, how would you feel if you were moping around on your birthday and woke up the next morning dead and you didn't even get to spend your last day happy. Not only was it your last day, but it was also your birthday. Think about it. haha.

Cleaning my HDD

Blank DVD's are the biggest pain in the ass product to use as your backup, backup device. Trying to clean off and save 300gb of files you have stored on a spare hdd is not an easy or fast task. The disc says it holds 4.7gb, which would be nice if it did but I can only fit 4.5gb on the disc before it says "There is not enough room on this disc. Insert a larger disc." I'd love to insert something larger (that's what she said) but this is all I've got (that's what he said). Blu-ray discs are too expensive to use as a backup plus I'd have to spend a crap ton of money on the player/burner for them. So here I am cleaning up my hdd with these tiny ass disks making data dvd's to get the most out of them.

So let's do the math, I have 300gb filled (well pretty close to that much), and I have a stack of blank DVD's which say they hold 4.7gb but they actually only hold 4.5gb without it bitching that it's not big enough. So in order to clean my 300gb completely I will need to use 66.66666666666 discs... holy fuck, nope some shit will be deleted and/or moved to different locations. Or I just wont clean it off completely and get atleast 200gb free... which is still 44.4444444444444 discs.... yeah that's a lot of burning and a lot of discs.

One of these days I will learn that I need to back things up instantly to save myself this trouble in the future. Sure I tell myself this every time I get a hdd for backups but this time I mean it. Oh I can't forget about all the music I have, I need to back it up also but will not be removing it from said HDD, but it would be nice to have it for the day I turn on this computer and I hear a weird noise that sounds like little green plastic army men got thrown into a blender, only to find out the HDD has shit all over itself.

The moral of this story, back your data up early enough so you don't have to go through this hell. If you wait too long you may find that you have lost EVERYTHING you have.