I apparently like writing short novels

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The Saints Go Dying is a pretty short novel, roughly 204 pages or so. The Marinara Murders, if the first draft is anything to judge by, is only 20 pages longer. Unless I find some major major issue, as I did with the first draft of The Saints Go Dying, I doubt it will grow very much. Maybe 10 pages at the most. I worry that these are just a little too much on the short side. As a published book, they’d either have thin spines, or big fonts. (On the flip side, I have heard that debut novels are Read more…

Pedestrians are not hood ornaments

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This is a good campaign from Rusty George Design. In 2004, Mary found herself on the hood of car from a driver who wasn't looking. Fortunately, the driver was going fairly slowly, and Mary was all right. But it's not a situation I want to see happen again. Via the Chamber's BIA blog.

Steve Wozniak to the FCC: Keep the Internet Free

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The early Internet was so accidental, it also was free and open in this sense. The Internet has become as important as anything man has ever created. But those freedoms are being chipped away. Please, I beg you, open your senses to the will of the people to keep the Internet as free as possible. Local ISP’s should provide connection to the Internet but then it should be treated as though you own those wires and can choose what to do with them when and how you want to, as long as you don’t destruct them. I don’t want to Read more…

That was quick.

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It passed. From the New York Times. The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday approved a new and still-unpublished set of rules that are intended to preserve open access to the Internet. There was disagreement Tuesday about whether the F.C.C. had the legal authority to implement the network neutrality rules, and that authority is certain to face legal challenges in the months ahead. Nonetheless, the approval represented a significant progress toward fulfilling a campaign promise by President Obama to preserve a level playing field for Web developers. Mr. Obama congratulated the F.C.C. on Tuesday’s vote and said in a statement that Read more…

Be skeptical of the “Net Neutrality” proposal

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On the one hand, there is a victory in the FCC's recent Net Neutrality proposal: the FCC is proposing that Internet Service Providers can't limit access to certain websites or limit speeds of downloads. Imagine if Comcast could throttle Netflix streaming speeds so that the quality never reaches HD, unless you pay them extra for that. That's what this tries to limit. Unfortunately, there is also a clause that the ISPs can conduct "reasonable network management." That could end up being a pretty big loophole for them. The other big issue: cell phone carriers can conduct a lot more "reasonable Read more…

Please Vote for Me

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If you want to see a really engaging documentary, this one hour movie was quite good. Here's AO Scott's preview of Please Vote For Me. This convinced Mary and I to rent it and we weren't disappointed.