Interesting to see the efforts being taken to prevent social media and the internet in general from ‘spoiling’ the ending to Lost this Sunday.  I don’t watch Lost and don’t really care, but can substitute in the recent Olympics coverage and appreciate the concern.  There were several winter Olympics events I didn’t watch when NBC finally broadcast them in the Pacific Time Zone (the same time zone as the actual event by the way) because there was no suspense and the outcome was known.

I don’t turn off the internet when major media events are known to be working their way through the time zones.  I’ve lived most of my life in California and spent too many years having the accept the East Coast programming mentality that live really means three-hour tape delays.  National call-in shows don’t care about West Coast views, and talk shows can easily spend a whole hour talking in the future tense about something that actually happened an hour ago, sometime even on the same network. Thinking they can even move the sun and the stars by their commands, networks continue to show awards shows in Los Angeles “live”  in daylight long after the sun has set in San Diego.

If ABC really cared about making Lost suspenseful for West Coast viewers they’d figure out a way to broadcast it at the same time as on the East Coast.  Substitute CBS and Survivor or NBC and Olympics to fit your personal tastes.  That they refuse to, but rather blame the lack of suspense on websites and social media that transmit news instantly, is just a sign of disrespect for the viewers west of the Rockies.  It certainly isn’t a reason for me to adjust my life for their failure accept reality.

Traffic spiked on the law firm website Tuesday.  Didn’t really think about it, but it was interesting to see a whole bunch of searches on my full name.  The given name, not the familiar Chuck.  

Then this afternoon I got some e-mails through an e-mail address posted at KPBS, where I still post at Citizen Voices on election issues.  

Apparantly I have the same name as some kid in Ohio who is suspected of starting that nasty rumor about Sarah Palin and her baby.

For the record, I’ve never posted anything at DailyKOS, and certainly don’t have the time or energy to make up some fake persona and do posts at yet another website.  I have enough trouble keeping this site and beachlaw semi-current, keeping my wonderful editor at KPBS happy, and doing the work that pays some of the bills around here.  Not to mention maintaining my tanlines, planning a wedding reception and obeying the puppy’s every command.

Ohio rings a bell though.  Columbus, Ohio.  I think I flew over that state once or twice in the old days.  I suspect plastic crack has come to life and is running amock, trying to cause the collapse of our civilization as we know it.  That or a Hoont has just virtually nipped me.  Just kidding – I know the Hoont wouldn’t do that.  Must be the crack.

Work’s been keeping me otherwise occupied, I’m really tired of hearing about Michael Phelps, and the broadcast wing of NBC needs to start treating non-Easterners with just a bit of respect, but I caught my third water polo game of the Olympics last night, watching USA squeak out a win in a nail-biter with Italy, and loved it.  Even with the less than ideal video quality, live streaming video so beats tape-delayed and edit-butchered network feeds.

The opposite extreme was last night’s broadcast of select clips of the men’s 10m sychronized diving.  Some of the competing pairs were never shown at all, and while the winner was a surprise (kinda) I’d been texted the news on how the USA placed hours before the broadcast.

Maybe for 2012 we’ll finally be ready for an all sport, all live, internet-based Olympic coverage, with some network (or YouTube) doing a nightly recap.  But then how would bloody dictatorships get their social fluff broadcast to the world under the guise of ‘news’?

We’re number two (tied with Boston)!

Haven’t really thought about broadband availability in a long time, and have kinda fallen into the mindset of thinking that what we have here is normal.  As the article says, it’s cheap here; as the article doesn’t say, it’s because there’s a lot of competition for your business here.

But here’s my question: if San Diego is second in the country for having in-home broadband connections by having 61% of the households wired, and the national average is only 49%, what is the excuse of those communities in the 40% range? 

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen any arguments on designing sites for a 56K audience, and notice more and more sites clogging up even my cable modem speeds.  Curious how the 39% are handling Web 2.0, or whatever we’re calling it these days.

Good weekend including the Cirque du Soleil Corteo show here in San Diego and a great breakfast with an old friend. 

Lousy Monday with a lot of rain and a router upgrade that’s fighting back.  Even though the symptoms don’t make any sense to me, the common denominator in all our recent internet problems seems to be the wireless router, upgrading the software seems to have made things worse, and replacement looks to be cheaper than having someone come by to confirm the diagnosis.

My internet connection’s been spotty for over a week now, and charting the fingerpointing of diagnosis and responsibility looks like the flowing arms of some hindu god. Then tonight the TV dropped dead. Just dead, not even a nice shower of sparks. Dead.

On a related note, local bureaucrats made their way down some list yesterday and let me volunteer to work the upcoming election. Chuckie’s going to bring democracy to North County. I’m going to be the Touchscreen Inspector for my little precinct. The way things are going though that might mean Dick Cheney will get California’s democratic delegates.
[Via BlackBerry]

Limited internet access for the last week or so has probably been good for me, especially since I’ve been reading and finally started getting to the gym again, something that slipped over the holidays.  The jolt to the system from going luke-warm turkey reminds me of what’s supposed to be important.

But on a borrowed connection this morning I saw this.  Even the worst addict respects quality stuff.  Maybe I can’t always hold out for the best, but I know it’s out there and I want it.

And to be candid, despite my good intentions, I like it when my addictions are enabled.  It helps me rationalize my own inability to say no.  So please feed the monkeys on my back, just do it with quality stuff.

Having some home internet issues. Something that my ISP is absolutely certain is not their responsibility is preventing access to part of the internet, including the admin page for Howling Point.
[Via BlackBerry]

Loving the Blackberry the last few days – don’t know how I would have kept in touch or made it through Evac I* without it.  At the same time though, I’m flashing back to the old State Department days of telegrams.  You’ve seen them in old movies.  They’re like e-mail, but much more pretentious.  Instant communication anywhere in the world, back before Nobel Laureate Gore invented the internet, and its evil bastard child, spam e-mail. 

With telegrams we had a concept called ‘minimize.’  When your Embassy was under siege, a post could be put on the minimize list.  They’d still get the messages sent directly too them, but not the bulk nonsense.  In the e-mail equivalent, notes from friends, family and potential refugee hosts, but not the alumni updates, news summaries and URGENT MESSAGES for IMPORTANT LEGISLATIVE ACTION.  You non-profits know who you are.  Note I’m not even including spam.  I’m given up on ever eliminating that until we can reinstate the torture-before-death penality in this state.  But it would be nice if I could tell HowlingBerry to minimize *poof*, and some wizened gatekeeper would only send me the good stuff.  Everyone else needs to send a separate message to Ms. Berry justifying why Chuck needs to be bothered with this message now, and not by snail mail at a more convenient time. (more…)

Laughing at the thought that a country’s leadership apparantly believes that blocking the internet will help them solve their problems.  Unless they’re prepared to completely cut the wires that cross their international borders, it’s just a matter of time before someone digs up an old 56K modem and starts dialing long distance to post to their blog.  Or taps into some private or corporate satellite link.  But what does it matter?  Lots of documentation exists of the slaughter at Tiananmen Square, but the collective attention span of the world is short, and people will simply forget.  Maybe the masses would quiet down faster if rather than blocking access the junta offered free internet porn.

But then again, maybe they’ve got the right idea.  Maybe it’s time someone started blocking financial transfers out of Burma.  And airline reservations.  If the junta’s going to flee with their purloined wealth, they should at least have to fly one of their local carriers and have the gold bars count against their checked bag allowance.