Patriot Act - Gag Orders Ruled Unconstitutional

From an article on TechNewsWorld.com

The ruling focused on the National Security Letter (NSL) provisions of the amended Patriot Act. The FBI and other agencies use NSLs to gather information about U.S. residents without a search warrant. The NSLs include gag orders prohibiting those who receive the letters from discussing them.

I am not a friend of the Patriot Act and the, seemingly, unlimited amount of power it extends to those who have the privilege to use it. The problem with arguing against it is, "if you have nothing to hide, what's the problem?". Well, the problem is everyone has something to hide and it is our right to have a personal life, as long as we aren't breaking any laws. Liberty is an essential part of our nation, it isn't simply a privilege that can be turned on or off because of a whim. It should not be easy to get a warrant without probable cause, but the Patriot Act goes beyond that and makes a warrant unneeded at all.

It still irks me they named it the Patriot Act. Patriots fight for our nation, which is the people, not the government. They may as well have named it the Constitution, because we can't have the Constitution, which ensures our freedoms, standing alongside the Patriot Act, which denies our freedoms. It's good to see a judge using the Constitution as a reference and not trying to rewrite its interpretation so we can remain footstools for a heavy government.

In case you were wondering anything about me... I'm a Republican, Conservative, and in the military. That should at least give you a clue I'm not just some anti-Bush Liberal trying to make a name for myself.

Yahoo! vs. ?

Since before Google launched its IPO, it was kicking some serious tail in the search/ad business. It then preceded to snap up billions of dollars worth of web services/code/gurus and well, hasn't looked back since. Yahoo invented the ad model on the web, or at least perfected it beyond any scope any once else had until Google came along. Now the only thing you hear out of Yahoo! is they aren't doing as well as Google. Yahoo!, what happened to ya man?

So, what did happen? It's the same thing that happens to most pioneers when a new guy comes to town and starting whipping ass. They curled up in the fetal position and preceded to give every excuse in the book as to why they aren't so bad ass anymore. It's the CEO, it's the model, it's the budget, it's all these companies we snapped up and had no idea how to capitalize on them, etc., blah blah, etc., blah. Well, in a lot ways it was all of that, but more than anything, Google just beat them being Google. Google is beating them, just being Google. When are companies going to get it?

When? or What? We'll go with the What? first. It's called envy. Remember that word, guys? Envy? How about a little wikipedia to clear it up:

Envy is an emotion that "occurs when a person lacks another’s superior quality, achievement, or possession and desires it."^[1] They also feel that it is not possible (or not easy) for them to have what they want. Otherwise they would simply go get what the other person had, and they would be satisfied.

Envy is one of the seven deadly sins.

At the core of envy seems to be an upward social comparison that threatens a person's self-esteem: another person has something that the envier considers to be important to have. A comparison is often rooted in the envier feeling low self-confidence, and they feel that they need to be or have the same things as others. If they don't have it, or they can't have it, they feel envy. This can be seen with money and power struggles.

The What? is Google Envy. Google Envy is like accidentally receiving Bill Gates' bank statement and spending the rest of your days staring at it and pretending it is all your's. It will never fix anything, ever. What happened to the innovative Yahoo!? What happened to the Yahoo! that did what it did and that was all it was worried about? Yahoo!, seriously man, Google's kicking your ass with search ads? Pick up something else and take some of that money back! They aren't going to just lay down for you...you are gonna have to knock their lights out. Rope that dope. Go Samuel L. on those moth... well, you get the idea. Or do you?!

Seriously, it isn't Yahoo! vs. Google for the title, it's Yahoo! vs itself for second place and, to be honest, those aren't very good odds either. Until they can get past the What?, there will never be a When?.

Future Mobile Phones: "Would you like to connect using Wi-Fi or Digital?"

Anyone with any sense will tell you VoIP is the future of land line telephones, but it won't stop there. Companies like Vonage and Skype are putting the pressure on telephone and cable companies to offer a technology they have had for years. Want the proof? See the law suit filed against Vonage by Verizon for VoIP patent infringement. They've had the technology, they just knew they couldn't charge as much for it as they do for conventional, land line, telephone service.

It actually doesn't make a lot of sense for them to not have implemented the technology sooner, but they waited and now they are playing catch up to start ups. Not only are they competing with start ups, now they have to compete against cable television and soon, possibly, satellite television companies as well. A little greed beat them at their own business. If telcos hold the phone too long, they may miss out on one of the most beneficial customer services to hit the public, since the introduction of the Internet.

I'm not talking about VoIP replacing the land line, I'm speaking of the end to the modern day Cellular Phone. Think about our current situation for a moment. We have a declining number of mobile phone companies over charging and cheating their customers every day. With a Goliath like AT&T, once again, becoming the telco monopoly it was of the past, it's only a matter of time before a major price war breaks out between the five remaining larger mobile phone carriers, Verizon, Sprint, ALLTEL, T-Mobile, and AT&T. That should distract them for a while.

Meanwhile, cities and ISP corporations are setting up huge WiFi networks all across the U.S. Some telcos are pushing Wi-Fi as well. In a few years time, much of the nation will be connected by a huge Wi-Fi network. The only places you won't be able to connect to the Internet on your iPhone via Wi-Fi will mostly consist of the places you wouldn't have a digital signal on that phone today. With a network like that, why would we even need a cellular phone?

Mark my words, in the not so distant future, Wi-Fi amplifiers will be on your car, maybe even in your house, and VoIP will be on your mobile phone.

What is This?

Well, this is my blog...for now at least. I'm building a software suite that will do this for me, one day, but for now...I just wanna blog :/

I like blogging, writing, and sometimes I just like to ramble. This is my outlet for that. Eventually I plan to move to my own site, but for now this will have to do. I'll try to write something at least a little interesting...but I doubt that will always happen. I also doubt anyone will find this place or even care to read most of my ramblings, but I don't care. So, there ya go.