Is Egypt our future?

As chaos in Egypt ensues, the US readies an internet "kill switch" of its own
The US Senate is in the works of reintroducing a bill that would allow the president to control and shut down the internet as he so saw fit. It was originally introduced last year but expired in Congress.
Supporters of the bill claim it is nothing like the stiff regulation of Egypt.
“My legislation would provide a mechanism for the government to work with the private sector in the event of a true cyber emergency,” Sen. Susan Collins said in an emailed statement to Wired. “It would give our nation the best tools available to swiftly respond to a significant threat.”
I'm sure that's how it started in Egypt to. It wasn't a means to control them, it was a means to help them, to legislate them If you can't hear it, my voice is dripping with sarcasm.
This bill is complete bull crap. I'm sorry, but the second the government tries to shut down the internet is the second this country will become Egypt. We are guaranteed a freedom of speech by the first amendment and that includes the internet.  We also have a freedom to petition the government over grievances and if this bill passes, we'll need to. If we don't, I guarantee there will be rioting in the streets.
http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/as-egypt-goes-offline-us-gets-internet-kill-switch-bill-ready-20110131-1aah3.html

Unrest in Egypt

What does that mean for us?
The majority of Americans don't think twice about what a tweet or a facebook status could mean. Telling what you had for breakfast or the latests movie you saw. But for protesters in Egypt and Tunisia, a tweet could mean life or death, freedom or opression. 

Protestors in these countries are utilizing these resources in order to revolt against their wildly controlling governments. Their leaders are trying and failing desperately to shut down these sources of unrest but the more they aim to stem it, the more powerful it becomes. People are taking to the streets in droves in order to vent their frustration with their government. And the more they revolt, the more the question begs, what does that mean for the US? Will we step in? Won't we? What does that mean for our nation which is more and more becoming fed up with its own government?

NYC ban on talking and walking proposed

In this day and age, multi tasking is a way of life. If you can't, you fail. Period. Like this woman

But one man not only despises the thought of it, but actually seeks to ban the combination of walking and using some form of movile device, be it mp3 players or cell phones while crossing the street. The ban comes from the death of 21 year old Jason King, The man was listening to his music player while crossing the street and was hit by a truck.
Sen. Kruger, the man behind the ban, claims it comes on the heels of a number of vehicle/pedestrian accidents.
If you ask me, the ban needs to be focused more on the drivers and less on the pedestrians. Just because he was listening to his music player doesn't mean his vision was impared. And as pedestrians go, they have the right of way.
Kruger claims “When people are doing things that are detrimental to their own well being, then government should step in."
Personally, I don't think it's Kruger's business whether we do something detrimental to our health or not. This a free country and the minute the government steps in to start banning things, this country will turn into countries like China and Russia.
We are a society raised on technology nad there is no way you are going to prevent people from walking and listening to music or walking and talking. You want to ban that, ban walking and chewing gum or just being an idiot in general.

Netflix to do away with DVDs

Clearly, Netflix you forgot what you were created for
So I read in a recent article that Netflix, the popular movie by mail rental company is going to do away with DVDs. Say what?? Now when I first read this I thought what I am sure all of you are thinking, I wont be able to get DVDs anymore from Netflix which completely defeats the point.
Upon further investigation, I learned that they are simply removing the option of adding DVDs to your queue from portable devices: ie phones, wii, etc. This seems so pointless to me. What does this possible acheive? Nothing. However, Netflix believes that by removing this option, it will encourage users to streem movies on their portable devices. They even stated on their blog
"We’re doing this so we can concentrate on offering you the titles that are available to watch instantly. Further, providing the option to add a DVD to your Queue from a streaming device complicates the instant watching experience and ties up resources that are better used to improve the overall streaming functionality"
Don't count on it considering the extreme restrictions internet companies are putting on streaming and bandwidth. I don't want to take away my much coveted surfing and viewing abilities simply because Netflix is feeling greedy with the options.
I pay you, Netflix, don't make me regret it.