Under a Gibbous Moon

An article by Ars Technica relates how Monticello, Minnesota finally got a fiber optic upgrade to their internet service from their local provide TDS Telecommunications: threaten to build you own. Imagine that the threat of competition would get them to finally cut through the crap and improve their service.

While I live no where near Minnesota, I have experienced this in my neck of the woods in eastern Pennsylvania. The broadband internet for my apartment building was provided by RCN, the local cable company. The only type of cable offered was the ancient one way system. This is where data streams down via the cable by is sent upstream by a good old fashioned modem.

Seriously, my building still had this as its only option up until about a year ago. When I asked RCN, they told me that the wiring in the building was not capable of supporting dublex and that that it was up to the property owners to upgrade it.

So things remained until one fine day when we all received a piece of junk in our mail informing us that Verizon was now offering DSL at our location. Within the week, we received similar communications about how RCN was coming out to upgrade our so that we could be on the cutting edge that, before, wasn’t their problem.

In case you’re curious, I am now with Verizon, their service is cheaper, faster, and even after RCN’s promised upgrades many of the new services (i.e. Video On Demand) still did not work.

If you havn’t seen this movie, there’ll be some mild spoilers

In honor of Halloween, I’d figure I’d review a movie that punishes you for now honoring Halloween :)

The movie itself has a long and sorted history, I remember seeing a trailer for it a couple of years ago, but then it just disappeared into Movie Limbo. I have read various reason as to why this movie was never given a theatrical release, but regardless, they did finally release it.

The stories, together, encompass about every Halloween theme that there is: curses, serial killers, werewolves, vampires, zombies and demons. (continue reading…)

Rrrrrrrrrr

Best wishes for a safe, scary and treat filled Halloween!

A new Pew poll has found that Fox News is considered my most Americans to be the most “idealogical” network. That in and of itself is not surprising, but the details of the poll are downright startling.

Overall, 14% of poll respondents view Fox News as “liberal”. Ok, sit down and take a moment to let that sink in before I hit you with the next one. Among respondents who identify as “regular” Fox News viewers, 17% view it as a liberal news network. I have no idea what network these people have been watching. I can see someone believing that Fox News is “fair and balanced”, but to watch it regularly and to believe that what you are seeing is full of liberal bias is shocking enough to restart someone’s heart.

Coming from the Discovery.com, comes an article detailing 5 scary (but true) space facts. While some of the entries are not particularly scary (space sex was funny with the line “Then you can fasten the whole two-person sex pod to a stable object — like Captain Pike or a Guild Navigator.”) The first entry was definitely high on the creep factor:

Space exploration research has claimed a number of animal lives, and while the idea of sacrificing monkeys and dogs on the altar of science is rather disheartening, the notion that there are dead simian and canine space explorers in orbit RIGHT NOW just adds to the creepiness.

Several early space missions involved re-entry procedures, but not every spacecraft was recovered. This leads many to theorize that perhaps dozens of mummified animals are still making the orbital rounds up there. Think about that the next time you wish upon a star.

Just something to keep in mind when you look up to the skies this Halloween.