Ironically, I've played more video games over the past couple of days than I have for over two weeks. For some reason, right in the middle of the common tests, I am finding myself with a desire to blow things up. And it's really got nothing to do with the stress, either. It's not the "argh I'm so pissed that I want to level a city" type of desire. It's the "man, this is so fun. I'm just going to do it again! And again. And again" type.
That is probably not really a good sign. I should be focusing on my tests, because I don't want to get penalised for anything that, under normal circumstances, would have been entirely passable. At least I haven't started trying to find the value of Pi during an exam again. I'm never going to do that again. Ever.
... And I wasn't really finding the value of Pi. I was just dividing random numbers, and sticking them to the back of 3.142.
Hm. So, anyway. Recently, I came across this video on I-am-Bored of supposed open source experts claiming that the internet as we know it is coming to an end. They were basically saying that by 2013 or so, all the major internet service providers are going to change the way the internet works, entirely. Right now, we can basically access any site on the internet that is not restricted by the authorities. After the change, however, this would be no more.
Supposedly, they are going to turn the internet into a more subscription-based kind of thing, similar to television programs. We would be given a default set of websites that we can access as part of a basic package, such as... BBC News and various other commonly-visited sites. If we want something more than what is given, we would need to pay to subscribe to them, like subscribing to Animal Planet.
Well, that would be a real bugger. It would pretty much kill every small site that was run for interest or simply for people to have "personal spaces" on the internet.
Naturally, I called bullshit on this. It just does not make any sense. Firstly, it would render just about every search engine ever created entirely useless. When all you have online is the equivalent of Channel 5(which would probably be something like Photobucket on the internet) and a small variety of mainstream websites, there would be practically zero need to search entire databases for "reproductive cycle of mycorrhizal symbionts".
So then, Google will no longer be famous for being a useful search engine, but rather "just another annoying spamvertiser". I'm not sure if that's in their company goals.
You'd think that if all the "major internet service providers" are going to screw over just about the entire internet generation, they might inform them. Because, you know, people just aren't going to conform to a new standard that easily, even if you give them free donuts as an incentive. It just can't work.
Also those video-makers decided to put a half-second long flash of a well-endowed lady wearing a low-cut blousething, right in the middle of the clip. Now, when you upload a video onto Youtube, Youtube will pick the very frame in the middle of your clip to be that preview image. She was supposedly interviewing the "open source people". Clearly, the entire point of that was to attract viewers. There was absolutely no point in that split-second scene being in the middle of the video clip, other than that.
These people are probably just making these "messages to the public" as part of their own little thrill-rides. Lying to gullible people is fun, I guess.
And gullible people are everywhere. Check your inbox.
-Joe