It was an Internet blackout.  Not all sites participated, but the fact that major sites, like Google, Reddit, Craigslist, and Wikipedia coordinated on one day to pull this blackout off, and make the public aware of the SOPA and PIPA legislation was a first, and amazing, considering the independent nature of web site owners. One estimate stated over 10,000 web sites participated in the protest. This is not confirmed, but given the Internet has over 100 Million active sites, the number does not seem that far off.

It is estimated that over 300,000 people sent emails, or called, their Congressman protesting SOPA and PIPA in the last 24 hour period, and over 4.5 Million people signed a Google petition protesting the Bills according to the protest organizers.

What is the aftermath of this one day shut-down-your-site protest, and send emails to Congress?

The Seatle Times reports that Florida Sen Marco Rubio, a bill sponsor, went on Facebook to renounce PIPA, and Texas Senator John Coryn used Facebook to urge colleagues to slow down and reconsider the Bills. South Carolina Senator and Tea Party member, Jim DiMint, used Twitter to announce his opposition.

Congressman are rapidly distancing themselves from the Bills as fast as they can. According to Ars Technica count and the Atlantic Wire 18 Senators, mostly Republican, have backed away from the PIPA and SOPA bills in the last 24 hours. Seven of them co-sponsored the Bill. The Seatle Times reports over 20 House members have reversed their positions. On Tuesday this group supported the Bill, on Wednesday they said that the SOPA and PIPA legislation was flawed and unsupportable.

Congress for the first time realized that the Internet is not just a bunch of web sites to be regulated like a bunch of unruly grade school kids, but that the Internet is a political force, and has considerable more power than the media and movie industry, a supporter of SOPA and PIPA. The end result was that Congress suddenly realized that the Internet can stand up and defend itself.

The Motion Picture industries, a sponsor of SOPA and PIPA, called the blackout "a gimmick" and "business interests are resorting to stunts to punish their users or turn them into corporate pawns."

Hollywood has a powerful lobby in Washington. They just found out that they have a very powerful opponent that they didn't know was there. Hollywood and Congress learned today that the Internet community has a say. Anyone who can get millions of people to take action is a political force that Congress will have to consider in the future.

The Internet and technical community have established that they have a say in the politics of our country. That was not quite as evident before yesterday. Let's hope Congress listens in the future, and that the big players in the Internet community realize, and take advantage, of their suddenly acquired power to push for legislation that helps, not hinders, the development of the Internet worldwide.

Let me give you some examples of the power governments have over the Internet that they are just beginning to realize.  I'm a poker player, and yes, I use to play on-line. Admittedly, I don't consider myself that good a poker player, but I still enjoyed the online game.  Note the past tense there.  Back in 2006, on the last day before Congress adjourned, Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).  The Bill was attached to a bill that had been passed, the SAFE Port Act(HR4954).  UIGEA was added in conference, and the reading of the bill was waived, in order for Congress to adjourn more quickly.  How the two relate, I don't know.  The bill does not ban online poker, it prohibits exchanging funds related to Internet gambling by banks.  Of course, the bill was so hastily written that Internet gambling is not defined.

The Justice Department decided to enforce this bill in April 2011, on a day known as "Black Friday" in the poker world.  They accused, not the banks, but three prominent poker sites, with bank fraud and illegal gambling.  By the way, no where does it say poker is gambling, and it is called a game of skill by poker aficionados.  The Justice Department effectively turned off the poker sites for US players only. And they've been shut down to US players ever since.

Let's take a look at government Internet censorship.  China is the most stringent Internet censor.  It does more than block sites like other countries.  It also bans a list of key words. If a site contains a banned word anywhere on the site, the site is banned.  China monitors all incoming searches against a list of keywords and sites.  China also crippled VPN's (Virtual Private Networks), the mobile Internet, and phone calls.  Since 2010 the word "freedom" has been banned.  In March 2011, Google complained that the Chinese government was censoring its Gmail service, and making it look like a technical problem at Google.  As a result, Google closed its China offices, and moved to Hong Kong.  Other countries, especially in the Middle East, ban certain type of sites in their countries.

From these past events, it has become increasingly clear to Congress that they can control the Internet.  That's power, and once power is realized, you have created a political football for special interest groups to push laws through that benefit their interests.

What do SOPA and PIPA mean to the use of the Internet?  SOPA and PIPA are two bills currently in Congress.  SOPA stands for "Stop Online Piracy Act",Bill HR112-3261 IH, and PIPA is "Protect IP (Intellectual Property) Act," Bill S112-968 RS.  We're talking copyrighted material: software, pictures, and written articles.  The bills are attempting to stop foreign sites from stealing copyright material from US sites and the Internet.  Sounds like a good idea, but the problem is in the implementation, as in the UIGEA Poker bill.

SOPA pushes enforcement on web site owners.  The way the SOPA bill is set up every site Google, or Wikipedia, with links would need to be monitor those links to make sure no copyrighted material was on the linked to site, an impossible task.  The Bill calls for the site who is in violation, to be subject to seizure, and action can be brought against the owner.  The web site owners must police their site to make sure no copyright infringement takes place.

Anyone who believes that a site is using their copyrighted material, can shut down that site, and you would have to go to court to reopen the site.  A lot of small site owners would not be able to afford lawyer and court costs.  In addition, big sites like Google would be shut down as their is no way the can police their links to the entire Internet.  If one person filed to shut down the site, it would be shut down.  Can you imagine the Internet without Google, or Yahoo, or Wikipedia.

You can help.  As Wikipedia suggests on their site today. You can help by writing your congressman and letting them know that SOPA and PIPA are not good bills for the Internet.  They will kill creativity, jobs, and a lot of Internet sites.  Here's a page that will help you find your congressman .  Send them an email.  Doesn't have to be a long message.  Just say you don't support SOPA or PIPA.  If enough people do this, they'll get the message.

Happy Holidays

I was in the process of writing a technical article, and all of a sudden the Christmas spirit came upon me.  I had to stop.  My wife usually does the Christmas shopping for the family and kids.  I buy for her.  I've been doing a lot of shopping at Amazon.  Times are changing.  Usually, I don't get the bug until a couple of weeks before the holidays. On-line shopping seems to delay catching the spirit.  It seems a little sterile.  But when I do get the spirit, I let it roll over me, and I sit back and take another look at my life.  I'm going to ramble a little, bear with me.

I'm thankful I am living, and relatively healthy.  There are many folks out there that have a much harder life, because of their health.  My son had a concert given at an assisted living home.  I took away from the concert that I am thankful that I don't need a wheelchair.  Although it made me conscious that I might, when I get older.  Those people who have lost limbs, because they were involved in political conflicts, or wars, surely have a harder life than I.  I am thankful for their sacrifice for the betterment of us all, and thankful that I have been blessed enough not to come in harms way myself.

Christmas Cat

I am thankful I am living, because this truly is a marvelous planet we live on that has a multitude of wonders.  I marvel at the beautiful sunsets, the ocean, and the mountains.  I marvel at our animals.  I like watching them move and respond to their surroundings.  I love their defensive natures and wonder what has caused them to be that way their genes or their childhood.  I wonder about their lives.  From watching my pets, and the nature channel, I am aware that they too have feelings.  That they care for their family.   I wonder if God has truly abandoned them at death, or if they have a heaven of their own.

Yes, we have free will, and can decide whether we believe, or not, which supposedly means for those that make that choice, their spirit will go on beyond death, but what about all of God's creatures.  What a diversity of animals we have on this planet.  Beautiful animals, vicious animals looking for food to stay alive.  All the animals and plants on this earth live in the moment.  They live in the now.  We humans live in the past, present, and future, and what a mess that creates.  I strive to live in the now and take one day at a time, one moment at a time.  It makes life so much more pleasant.  "What if" doesn't worry me any longer, or at least, I like to believe that.  It's tough to maintain that Buddha nature.

Even though I strive to live in the moment, I am keenly aware that we only go through life once.  You're only in 6th grade once, only 15 once, only 21 once, only 35 once, and only 65 once.  Each year of my life seems like my surroundings, my reaction to those surroundings, my goals, and my desires of the moment will go on forever.  It's an illusion.  A dream we foist on ourselves.  The man at 65 has different priorities then the boy at 21.  We can't go back.  I can't go back and date my dream of my high school sweetheart, when I'm 55.  Our memories trick us.  What we forget is our high school sweetheart is 55 now also, and probably has a family, and an entirely different life, and different desires than she had when you were slobbering all over her.  Your memory pictures her at 16, not 55. You can take solace in that, hopefully, you're a memory for her too, and then lament you never did get it together.

What would our lives have been if we had married some one else?  Well, you didn't, and it best to acknowledge the pleasure in your fantasy, and at the same time come back to earth, and tell your wife, or husband, you appreciate and love her.  You married her, because you wanted her as your life partner, honor that, it's Christmas.

My own limitations come to mind.  I was a late bloomer, it made me feel not equal through out my life.  That I somehow wasn't equal to those that were blessed with their families love throughout their childhood.  That I wasn't equal to the kids that went out for high school football, or for you girls, the kids that were high school cheerleaders.  This is a cross that we bear from our childhood environment and upbringing.  We may never be released from these crosses during our lives, until our deaths.  It's a cross we carry, like baggage, through out our lives.  That makes it important for me to tell my kids that I love them every day, and I do.

Family

We believe we will be better parents than our parents, but we too find that having and raising kids is a first time experience for us all.  Each of us has to figure out how to raise kids without an instruction manual. Some are better, than others.  In the end, it isn't all your doing.  Every kid, like every pet is different.  They have different personalities and quirks.  For those, who have kids that you wish were different, that they were good, instead of bad, that they didn't do drugs, or get in trouble with the law.  Take a moment, and forgive yourself.  Its not all your doing.  You walked through life, and did your best, or not, when you were raising your kids.  Yes, you want it back, you want to do it all over, but you can't.  And so that's baggage you carry, I hope you can find a way to lighten your load.  Forgive yourself, and then forgive your kids.

Knowing that you only go through life once, I wish you well, and hope that you find your passion.  What do you like to do, what do you find yourself doing when your not working.  If you truly love doing something, you should go toward it.  Work in a job where you do something your passionate about.  I love computers, and I am blessed that I can make a living working with computers.  I've loved them since I was young.  It makes coming to work, not work.  I don't mind staying late at times, when I get interested in what I'm doing.  You can't do that if you don't follow your passion.

Don't just work to earn a living.  It will make life so much less enjoyable and harder for you.  Get the degrees you need to be a full fledged member of a select group of people that have the same passion that you do, and then strive to be the best you can be at your passion.  Making a living will come from that passion.  Don't settle, have the life you want, not the life that was determined by chance.  Care about how you spend your time on earth, you are only here once.

I wish you and your family a nice holiday of enjoying each other, enjoy the food, enjoy the spirit.  Realize that we all have dysfunctional families and dysfunctional family members.  Rather than condemn the wayward son, instead accept him and realize that he, or she, is also living their life, the way they want to live it.  Every one of us has chosen our lives.  We have made the choices that put us right where we are at this moment.  Honor each others life, and allow it to be OK.

In closing, I want to thank my readers.  Your coming back to the site time and time again is what keeps me writing and caring.  It's my small way of giving back to others what has made my life so enjoyable.  Thank you.  Come back often.  Enjoy your family.  Enjoy the holidays.

Welcome to our blog.  This blog, as our name implies, is a potpourri of information, tutorials, news, and generally anything we want to write about concerning the world of geeks, that is, computers, computer software, applications, reviews, and  tutorials.

Our authors all have spent at least 10 years in the world of computer hardware, computer networking, and computer software development.   We hope to be informative, brief, and solve some problems that we have encountered in our day-to-day use of computers.

Enjoy!