There are a few bills going through Congress right now and I encourage you to write you congress-critter to voice your opposition. They are:

• H.R.3261 – Stop Online Piracy Act
• S.968 – Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011
• H.R.1981 – Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011

The SOPA and PROTECT-IP bills are very similar. Both would force your ISP to filter your Internet traffic and not allow you to go to “bad” sites. The problem is, if a site is even accused of hosting illegal music files, your ISP must prevent you from going to the site. No guilt of violation is required. In addition, the mechanism used to enforce this literally breaks the Internet and leaves you open to attack from viruses, malware, and outside attackers since you are no longer allowed to use DNS-SEC for protection. Nice. I sent similar letters to both NJ senators and to my NJ House rep, but this is the version for Bob Menendez, my NJ senator actually co-sponsoring the bill:

I am writing to you regarding your sponsorship of S.968 “Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011.” This is a horrible bill and I would like to see you withdraw your sponsorship of it.

On your own web page, from which I am sending this letter, you have links for me to become your Facebook friend, for me to watch your speeches and opinions on Youtube, and a Twitter feed so I may keep up with you. Each one of those three companies has come out very publicly against this bill. In fact, with the bill’s “assume guilty, take down site, then call lawyer” mantra, there is a very real chance that one of your endorsed sites will go offline for something that another person does. There is no safe-harbor provision as with the DMCA.

More troubling is the fact this will break the new Internet-protection mechanism called “DNS-SEC.” DNS interception and poisoning is a very real Internet attack, basically, the attackers give your machine their IP address instead of the real IP address during a DNS look up. Malware, viruses, and compromised upstream computers use DNS attacks to fool your computer into going to the wrong place. Your computer may think it is speaking with Facebook.com, but is is really talking to the attacker’s machine. This works because your machine will not know the difference. The attacker can forward all of your traffic to the real Facebook while keeping a copy for themselves. Imagine if they did this using a bank … or any .mil site. DNS-SEC is currently being rolled out on the Internet to prevent this attack. It would encrypt the traffic so that only the root servers or trusted servers could respond to the DNS look up query. But PROTECT-IP requires all upstream providers to filter DNS, ergo intercept and read it. So, you cannot use DNS-SEC to protect yourself.

Please, withdraw your support for this bill. It goes too far.

Though I didn’t point it out, the bill would also make unlicensed incidental background music illegal in an online video. So, if there is a radio playing when you upload video from a party, you would be guilty of a crime. For someone like Justin Bieber, the latest singing sensation who was discovered because he sang a song on Youtube, he would be guilty of violating the law, fined, and perhaps thrown in prison for 5 years — see www.freebieber.org.

The other bill is ostensibly said to protect children from predators. It would require your ISP to record most of your Internet traffic just in case. Sounds kinda big brother to me. Please, as a side effect, it will kill free Internet in coffee shops and parks. If you were a small coffee shop, you’d have to start checking the IDs of your customers, write down their information, match their web surfing to their machine, and log all of this data for a period of time. Would a Ma & Pa coffee shop do that? Imagine a park ranger in a city park walking over to people to check IDs. Won’t happen, so they’ll simply kill the free Internet. My letter to Albio Sires of NJ-13.

I wrote to you a few months ago about H.R. 1981, ‘the Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011′ and my thoughts about how the bill goes too far and will accomplish nothing. I’ve thought further and discovered another unintended consequence of the bill: it will kill free Internet access.

While on a vacation, I enjoyed free Internet at many small, family owned coffee shops in MA, NYC, and NJ. If this bill becomes law, those small businesses would need to start tracking all of the people who use their wireless connections. They’d have to check IDs, write down the information, record all traffic as mandated by law, ensure they’re not mixing each patrons’ data, and log it for some time. Or, they’d need to subscribe to some service that performs these checks at added cost. For a small business, would this be worth it?

Starbucks and McDonalds also offer free Internet today and may be able automate the ID checks to some degree. These big stores could have the user enter a valid credit card number to match to a name and allow the user to continue – they need not bill the person, only use the credit card as an ID card.

What happens if my credit card is stolen and used at Starbucks for ‘bad?’ What happens if a waiter at another place simply writes down my credit card number and only uses it to perform this ‘authorization check’ at Starbucks? To be absolutely certain, the big stores still need to manually validate IDs – which takes the time away from an employee. Do they now need ‘bouncers’ for Internet checks? It might be easier for them to simply discontinue Internet or to begin charging for it.

If a small shop did not do these tasks and one of their patrons went to an illegal site, would the owner of the store now be accused of viewing child pornography? Eventually, the charges would probably get dropped, but only have the owner was arrested, called a pervert in the media, sold the shop, and burned through their savings to pay for a lawyer.

Or, they just might stop offering free Internet. If this bill comes to a vote, please say no.

I encourage everyone to stand up for your rights and to prevent big brother from getting closer to reality.

So, I’m slow.  I’m finally getting around to the last bit of pictures from Hurricane Irene, only a few months late.  Lots more pictures located here: veggiespam.com/foto/Hurricane-Irene-Monday/ for your viewing pleasure. There are basement pictures, street aftermath, even a guest appearance from our controversy-free mayor. The last one was slightly sarcastic if you didn’t notice.

We had 1.23 meters of water in the basement and it cost $300 to hire some guy on the street with some old rust bucket of a pump to help excise the liquid.  Our maintenance company, who gives us preferred rates, wanted $2000. One of our fellow building owners had some appropriate, but not family friendly comments over the situation.  After 6 hours of listening to the racket and clatter far into the night, how much water was removed?  Building width 7.6m times length 30.5m times water depth of 1.23m = 285 cubic meters = about 1/9 of Olympic swimming pool (i.e. 79,300 gallons).

We’re dry now… until global warming raises the ocean level more.  Maybe I should sell before that day comes.

I’ve added a few videos, like of the fire truck making waves in my new door-front babbling brook, all of which can be found in my photo site.  My upstairs neighbors went for a walk, here is Elif with something in her shoe (water perhaps?).

How bad is/was the flooding?  Well, the image to the right (click on it for full size) shows the height of the Hudson River around 1015 at The Battery (see map) on the tip of Manhattan near my house from the US Gov Weather Site (site is constantly updated).

Here are a bunch of pictures from a local website; I’ve picked out four nice ones:

• Click here to see a great picture 1.5 blocks from my house looking down towards me.  The guy in the far distance in the middle of the road is standing in the intersection at my house.
• Here is an image on block over and one down from my house.
• Not quite sure where this picture was taken, but row row your boat.
• And finally, the ferry terminal, this is the land side of it, not the water side.

The wind has started again, seemingly more constant that before the storm hit.  And the sun actually shone its shinny face, if but only for a few minutes. Nevertheless, some streets are still impassable, like mine.

The flooding, wind, rain, and such has knocked out the Internet for a bit.  And since I have a viop-based telephone, that gets knocked out every-so-often too.  Plus, the cell service went down to one bar (OMG!) at one point.  But power has been fine, no flickers even.

I leave you with a comic: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/weather

I just heard the fog horn of a large ship.  I certainly hope it remains at least a two blocks away.  Its wake may take out a few buildings.  I also heard a building fire alarm but couldn’t tell from which direction it came.  I just surprised I only heard one.

The flooding is hitting the front of the building, but not the side where the entrance to my apartment is.  They evacuated the city’s evacuation center last night, so I went to bed expecting a meter of water.  But, woke up with both power and Internet, though only one bar of signal on my cell phone.

The eye of the storm was calm, but now the rains have started again.  The map on the storm shows the extent with the eye centered around us – From Maine, to Washington, to Buffalo.  And now, the storm surge has started again.

Some pix: http://www.veggiespam.com/foto/Hurricane-Irene-Sunday-0900/ — click for full size.

The police came by with an announcement over the loud speaker; it was garbled and unintelligible. I heard someone scream out their window “What?!”  Indeed Ma’am, what.

This is a live video of the pier at the end of my street http://www.erikthered.com/cam/ and is updated every ten minutes.  This camera is looking either NE or ENE towards midtown Manhattan.  The tall one on the right is the Empire State Building.  If you can’t see Manhattan or the pier through the rain sheer, go here http://www.wunderground.com/webcams/erikwx/1/show.html to see what it looks like during the daylight via the daily archive of the camera, including a videos. Yesterday was pretty.

The fire department SUV drove the wrong way down First Street, picked up the barricade left on the sidewalk during the storm last weekend, and proceeded blocked off Southbound Willow.  They don’t want to deal with idiots on that block as it always floods in every moderate storm.  To get an idea of the area, take a look at the Google Map to see aboutwhat I’m talking.

If you’re up for another map, here is the city’s wonderful flood map (click to make big).  My house is near the “triangle streets” at the bottom-center of the map.  Red; great. Now, how much red; how much rain?  That will be the question tonight.

And right now, the sky is dry.  But, the tornado watch right now makes it feel all Midwest-like.

As the camera panned down the beach, the news reporter said they used a bulldozer pushing sand to form a “Maginot Line” – what an amazing bit of amount of irony on the news.

Around 17:30, the rain finally started falling consistently, if only a light sprinkle, after a day of rain and dry in this super high humidity atmosphere.  An occasional nice breeze through the windows makes it bearable – at least until I’m forced to shut the windows.  Perhaps I’ll start to inflate the air mattress so that it may double as a raft; kitties will like that.

Batteries are charged in the cell phone, laptops (no Internet thought), iPad, a few flashlights, and an 18V drill / circular saw / sawzall.  Mmm… Sawzall.  And an old piece of plywood to shove on the windows if one breaks inward.  Since I have a USB TV tuner, I won’t need power and I can keep watching reruns of Baywatch to leave proper methods of dealing with water emergencies.  (Lesson learned: slo-mo running seems to help any situation – though I lack built-in floatation devices).

And do I have a non-electric can opener?  I wonder if Domino’s will deliver in 30 minutes or less or it’s free?  The city has outlawed liquor sales after 20:00, so I better get going if I’m to keep myself swimming in beer.  Otherwise I’ll have to switch to hard liquor.

Cats are fed.  Bathtub full of water. Me full of beer. It’s a good day.

Time for nachos.

So, there is a bit of a small squall starting around here.  Irene, Ilean, Dixie’s Midnight Runners, meh.

So far, we’ve cleaned off the roof to keep projectiles from breaking skylights, put the trash cans into the utility room, and duct taped the Bilco doors to keep the rush of basement-bound water to a trickle.  Of course, with the 8 foot storm surge now being forecast, the duct tape may have been futile.

In fact, the fire depart drove by on the loud speaker ordering mandatory evacuations for the first floor of all buildings immediately.  Guess that means my coffee shop is now closed.  I appreciate the advanced warning too.  I wonder why they didn’t tell people to move cars, but may the fire department wants to practice with the Jaws-of-Life.

And Bacon!  There was two pounds of frozen bacon in the chiller – no more.  I have one pound in the fridge ready to re-heat by candle if necessary.  MMMmmm… bacon, the other pound is in my belly (more likely ¼lb since it cooked down).  And beer, I have about a case in the fridge.  But none in my carboys as those are now filled with water – sacrilege.

The cats were annoyed since I vacuumed this morning (part of cleaning and getting ready), so they’re still hiding.  Plus, the cat carrier is ready to go in an emergency and Opus will most likely keep hiding for fear of being unceremoniously shoved into it again as he was for a recent vet appointment.

The work engagement has mostly ended for this India trip. So now, we begin the fun by following suggests from some Secaucus friends that formerly lived in Delhi – get out of Delhi. The Indian state of Rajasthan is my destination with the city of Jaipur as my centre of operations. But, how to get there.

You can fly to Jaipur, take a slow train, or the slower still state-run bus service. Or, as suggested by Bob, “ride a bus with chickens.” So, I did. Unfortunately, no chickens on the ride, but I swear I saw some feathers on my seat. So, for 200 Rupees ($4.44), I took a 35-person bus about 234km with 60 wonderful people. Megabus to Boston is 303km at $22ish; so 7.2¢ vs 1.8¢ per km – bite it Megabus.

The bus was a normal bus like most others, except that they divided the vertical space in half in a very ‘we already have the spare parts’ flair. I had ample clearance sitting down – there was just someone laying above me. Plus we shared the same large window across both stories. In fact, that upper berth had no metal support as the person lay – if he leaned too against the plexiglas, he’d fall out the side.

Sleep'n on duh engine block

Didn’t have to worry too much about the safety glass on the bus’s door as I believe the bus didn’t have a door. No need for air conditioning that way. The bus had a front mount engine and the driver sat beside it (kinda like some school buses). Instead of wasting space with the enge, they mounted a padded carpet shelf over it to allow people to sit; leaving a small cutout for the gear shift.

Google says it would take 3h17m for this trip on National Highway 8. Google assumes things like people driving in lanes, constant speeds, zero construction, no dodging of horses, and even pavement. The is an example of a Google fail.

There is no word in Hindi for “expressway”. I don’t think there is a word for “freeway” or “turnpike” either. It was a four lane road with a divider in the middle most of the way. Over the length of NH-8, a single bridge was found at what could be almost described as interchange. Since there are no bridges, there are breaks in the dividers to allow u-turns, people crossing, and cross streets. Plus, in many of the villages and small cities, they are starting to build overpasses adding construction to the mix. Plus we had to pass three elephants. Google is wrong by about 2h30m hours in its calculations.

I hopped on the bus about 10:45 and arrived at 16:00 – so why 90 more minutes than what Google should have said? This wasn’t the express bus, so there were a bunch of stops. Sometimes, they included slowing down along a few crowds of people and shouting “jah-pour jah-pour jah-pour” like an auctioneer. For a few pickups and drop-offs, we didn’t even come to a complete stop; just leap. There were a few food vendors that got on for a single stop, selling samosas and other yummie smelling wares. But, on the advice of a wise sagess, never eat from the street vendors. Plus toll booths and a gas refill.

Then there was the big stop for a snack at a street side hole in the wall. And when in Rome, I decide to partake in a traditional India male rite of passage: just take a piss on the side of the road. Don’t try to be subtle and hide behind a tree – just stand there and go.

The stop also involved impromptu repair. Some guys crawled under the truck with a large reservoir grease gun to do something with the drive train or axle and hopefully not the brakes.

Was the chicken bus worth it? Yes. I will admit that I was anxious when I noticed the bus would be making stops. I wasn’t sure if the luggage compartment was locked (it was) and if someone would walk off with my bags. I might do it again, but without luggage and with a companion to assist in the adventure (preferably one that speaks Hindi).

I have officially concluded that my mother can never visit India.  During her rides through the narrow streets of Hoboken or wide avenues of Manhattan, there is an audible gasp when traveling under the speed limit with ample clearance – both of which are still uncomfortable to her.  Mother’s reaction to three motorcycles weaving in the 50cm gap between my taxi and the three wheeled scooter carrying eight passengers may produce a short scream.  Add the rule-free traffic circles, roundabouts, and rotaries with the rare (but fun) figure-8 version and we’re moving into the oxycontin & xanax cocktail epi-shots territory.

AAAhhh, click for video

I filmed the whole commute but uploads are slow so you only get the first 2 minutes minutes – I’ll finish the other movies later (including the “dodge herd of cows” moment).   The ride between the hotel and office lasts 15-30 minutes, depending on traffic.  Of course, when the commute is bad, it is really bad: one days was over 90 minutes.  I could have got out and bought from the street vendors.

The first day ride from the airport to hotel was pleasant too.  Smokey fog with 0.25km visibility, freeway driving, and tractors that don’t quite reach freeway speed.  And out of all of these journeys, I only saw one accident – in the fog on day one.  Looked pretty bad with the car busting off a big truck’s wheel and the car’s engine compartment now being used as a replacement, but apparently no injuries.  And a few seconds later – lost in the fog again.

That new aeroplane smell of my 777-200 seat with its ability to recline with stretched toes helped me to sleep a little. With bumps from each little fluffy cloud, I tend to wake up, so this transatlantic+transcontinental+transsemicontinental flight makes me a bit zombieish. This gives me ample opportunity to gaze out the window at some of the countries over which we flew: Canada, Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and even India. When the clouds cleared, I felt like I was in Alaska since I could see Russia from my aeroplane.

We went over Afghanistan at 37000ft during the night. You could see many stars, but only a single light on the ground over the first half of the country. It was like over the Atlantic, seeing a few ships’ lights on occasion. Eerie. I’m pretty sure I could see Kabul and the villages to the south once we went near there. A very fine wispy web of tiny lights along the side of all the mountains. Once past it, nothing again until eastern Pakistan.

Flying over populate area at 15000ft, there were still not as many lights as you’d normally see in the US. Do we waste light by pointing it up? Are we too paranoid and need that extra light?

Now that I’m landed, the next adventure is the taxi ride!