Things I am interested in…

Here are three amusing videos from this site I newly discovered:

P.E.

Gunther – Ding Dong Song

(**WARNING – this features partial nudity… I find it funny becuase it is so euro-cheesy)

Jesus Will Survive – The Musical

Wow, there are a lot of groovy websites out there:

• a video on artificial muscle
• 10 emerging tecnologies in 2007
• Scientific American: Study shows why exercise boosts brainpower
• New Scientist: Small world networks key to memory

Basically start off points:

• File sharing
• Ant colony optimisation

For quite some time I have suspected that my ISP (Telecom NZ) has been shaping traffic – specifically, my traffic.

 I did some googling (keywords: telecom, “traffic shaping”, policy; limited to New Zealand websites) and came up with this interesting local discussion from the end of last year.

There were many other links, which, in summary, stated that Telecom has been traffic shaping packets in the plan I currently use, from when it was first introduced in December last year.  Apparently they stopped doing this at the end of last month.

Have since found another interesting blog article here that gives more information…

Here is Telecom NZ’s official statement…

Here is a story about it in a local newspaper…

 I have not yet decided how I feel about this, or what to do.  I think I will investigate the NZ ISPs that do not massage their traffic, and quite likely transfer over to one of them.

References:

• Net neutrality
• Traffic shaping

“Spartans! Tonight we dine in Hell!”

Own the original series. Very good Frank Miller comic (if maybe embellishing strict historical accuracy). Has been made into a movie that is about to be released.

Here is the second trailer:

Here is an excerpt from the movie: