Ted Stevens on the Daily Show?

While Jon Stewart has been brutalizing Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) on The Daily Show and via You Tube, it appears Sen. Stevens hasn’t yet had enough.

When asked if he would appear on The Daily Show, Sen. Stevens responded with “I’d consider it…“.

Let me be the first to say, PLEASE PLEASE, Sen. Stevens, say yes.. This would be a great opportunity to showcase the immense amount of savvy leadership that we have steering internet technology legislation through the U.S. Congress.
Seriously.. can’t wait..

Technorati Tags: media, politics

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Digg Labs and social news

Taking a page from Google’s book, Digg has spun up Digg Labs.

This site provides a sneak peek at emerging technologies from Digg. Their new Swarm widget is about one of the coolest visuals I have ever seen of how content is being churned on a site. Truly an innovative approach to visualizing user movement.

If you are a fan of dynamic, user generated news content or the whole concept of social bubbling, I highly recommend checking this site out.

Technorati Tags: digg, google, media, social

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Ribfest 2006 - Indianapolis

Ribfest is one of my favorite festivals of the year in Indianapolis.? This year it is Sept 1-4, 2006 at Military Park.

Interesting lineup this year, including:

• REO Speedwagon
• Molly Hatchet
• Charlie Daniels Band
• North Mississippi All Stars
• Big Head Todd & the Monsters
• Ted Nugent

More at the Indianapolis Star.

Hrm… Ribs…. *gurgle*

UPDATE

More info is available on the Rib America website.?

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Sammy Hagar and the Wabos (With Pics!)

Last night I had the pleasure of going backstage to meet Sammy Hagar at the Verizon Wireless Music Center in Noblesville, IN.

It was a great show with a stated attendance of over 11,000. Even the stifling heat and threatening clouds couldn’t dampen the spirits of those present. Sammy had abundant energy that betrayed his years. On top of all of this, he was a genuinely nice guy.

Certainly a very entertaining show with some great classic rock. Highly recommended. I have put all of the pictures in the Rumor Photo Gallery.

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Digg, Slashdot, whatever.. same thing.

Some random thoughts on technology news aggregator sites:

First, let me explain..? I was one of the first 5,000 users of /. and have read it daily since it first came out.? While I'm not exactly sure when I started reading Digg, it was fairly early as well when I added it to my daily rotation.

With the release of Digg v3.0, I have noticed a sharp decline in “news” and an uptick in silly or juvenile stories.? WeBreakStuff has noticed this as well.

Know what?? The EXACT same thing happened at Slashdot, which is why they initiated moderations.? As a /. reader since BEFORE they implemented moderation, it is MUCH better (though far from perfect) with moderation, rather than without.? Digg will probably have the same experience.

Digg and /. still both play valuable parts on the web.? Digg is in a position to scale MUCH larger, but they have a much wider scope of coverage.? /. has done a good job, over time, of sticking to it's core missions.? Geek News.

What's next?? Del.icio.us stalking is a favorite past time of mine, but I would love to see some new ways to display what must be a MASSIVE social cloud that del.icio.us now has.? I'm sure the NSA has already crawled all over that database, as it would be as valuable as cell phone numbers and the social network that can be built from the information.

The Google News page has no “soul”, for lack of a better term.? It is just cold, hard, computer sorted news with no social glue.? Another site I visit daily includes tech.meme.? But, I'm not quite clear how that information is chosen and rotated.

With the constant stream of RSS feeds, Podcasts and bookmarks, how do you keep your news organized?

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Net Neutrality, clueless senators and telco bribes

truly-ignorant-politician department…

Senator Ted Stevens (R - Alaska) shows his complete and total ignorance regarding the whole net neutrality issue.? One of several “money quotes”:

“I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?”? - Sen. Stevens (R-Alaska)

It is truly sad when the complete ignorance and stupidity of someone is displayed on such an important issue.? I bet the Telco lobbiest checks cashed, however…

Read more of the sad state of affairs regarding the party in charge and Net Neutrality.

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Bandwidth Stress Testing

Skype, Sirius radio and streaming audio/video?? Well, I ponder such things and wanted to get a feel for it for myself.

More results, after the jump…

Test Conditions
All applications on both computers were unloaded, except for one browser window for the testing and the application being tested.? All tests performed during a Saturday morning on a nice, sunny day.? Probably not “peak” conditions.

Location: Indianapolis, IN? 46220
Connection: Comcast Cable Modem - Claimed 6MB (~700KB/sec) down and 384 kbps (~44KB/sec) up.

Bandwidth tested from one location using the http://www.dslreports.com/ speed rating tool, utilizing the same bandwidth test server for each test.

Test #0: NO applications running:
* Download Speed: 3398 kbps or 424.8 KB/sec
* Upload Speed: 252 kbps or 31.5 KB/sec

Test #1: Cisco 7940 VOIP phone connected to Asterisk server, transmitting full duplex techno music:
* Download Speed: 3409 kbps or 426.1 KB/sec
* Upload Speed: 208 kbps or 26 KB/sec

Test #2: Skype dial-out phone call to my cellular phone, broadcasting full duplex techno music:
* Download Speed: 3398 kbps or 424.8 KB/sec
* Upload Speed: 231 kbps or 28.9 KB/sec

Test #3: Sirius Radio stream, music
* Download Speed: 3409 kbps or 426.2 KB/sec
* Upload Speed: 253 kbps or 31.6 KB/sec

Test #4: Test #3 (Sirius radio) & #2 (Skype call) combined
* Download Speed: 3393 kbps or 424.1 KB/sec
* Upload Speed: 234 kbps or 29.2 KB/sec

Test #5: Test #1 (VOIP Call), #2 (Skype) and #3 (Sirius radio) combined
* Download Speed: 3291 kbps or 411.3 KB/sec
* Upload Speed: 184 kbps or 23 KB/sec

Conclusion
Again, these are HIGHLY unscientific results and should be taken with a considerable grain of salt.? With that said, it appears that using my Cisco 7940 series phone with an Asterisk for a VOIP call is the most expensive in terms of bandwidth usage, consuming almost 1/2 of my theoretical total uplink speed.? Sirius Radio doesn't require much overhead and Skype did a fair job, also.? As for Test #5, it was nearly impossible for me to discern what the quality of all of the connections were, except for the Sirius Radio..which remained buffered and didn't have a single artifact.

Finally, I never came close to the claimed speed for either up or down streams.? Next time, I will use a different bandwidth testing server to normalize. ?

Next set of tests will include iChat A/V full duplex video conferencing.

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