Finally back online. I denied access to my blog after reading about a worm infecting WordPress blogs. Seeing strange new users registered I shut down, and finally completed the upgrade. Now to turn the command history into a BASH upgrade script.

I canceled my internet service and the world didn’t end. Ironic then that one of the last pages I downloaded at home was schrodingerthecat.com indicating Schrodinger is DEAD.

Now, there will be no more visiting websites listed in the real world. After turning in my modem I saw URLs like:

• metrocharity.org
• HoustonCommunityService.org
• tcresidential.com

Never could get defiantdog.com to work with my browser. I did however, surf to the end of the Internet at www.wwwdotcom.com and back. I can reminisce with the Top Sites page of Safari browser.

Now I’m on the wrong side of the digital divide. I have no internet, not even dial-up. I applied for government assistance, too; the $40 DTV coupon. I canceled my TV, too. I had access to good education channels but I hadn’t watched TV much. Still haven’t re-setup my other comptuer after Ike to record TV. Now, I’ll be on rabbit ears TV. Will I be seeing internet in National Geographic’s magazine featuring remote undeveloped countries?

Now that I’ve disconnected from the collective hive-mind matrix of the blogosphere and TV land, I just might be able to live down the “Lyndell of Borg” moniker.

The new iPhone is impressive. The AT&T network is now offering 7.2 Mbps. While performance is sure to vary, my Comcast connection is nominally 8 Mpbs. Comcast does, however, have PowerBoost. Downloads of files of a certain size download at 16 Mbps. I think I’ve seen 25 Mbps. Cable should easily be able to stay ahead of wireless. It’s impressive that the advertised speeds of AT&T’s data network and Comcasts braodband internet are so close. There is still a significant difference between the two. But a 7.2 Mpbs Internet connection on an iPhone hardly counts as an Intenet hobo. Very tempting with iPhone 3G S’s features and AT&T speeds. But I could save so much time an money without the newest iPhone and monthly Internet plan.

iOutage

I have been without internet at home sine Monday. During this outage I considered canceling my Internet service and becoming an Internet HoBo (DT, UD). iHoBO?. Using either an iPod Touch, or a MacBook Air I could hop Wi-Fi hotspot to Wi-Fi hotspot when I need Internet access. Internet usage would be limited to only the necessary activity. Inconvenience of accessing the Internet become a productivity boom. This week I made a to-do list of what I needed to do on the Internet.

However, I’d be:

• slowed down in responding to e-mail or updating home computers.
• asking friends to download and burn DVDs when I want to try the latest Fedora or VMware ESXi.
• planning when to take the laptop when I want to download podcasts, or upload files to my websites.

Yeah, internethobo.com is already taken. cyberhobo.net is also taken, but that’s a different kind internet hobo.

This?

I’m paying $65 (includes TV) for this? Ars Technica (Gizmodo) covers some stupid stuff on YouTube. However, most constructive is eating of a canned cheeseburger. Not that eating canned cheeseburgers is construction, it show’s the inferiority of the canned cheeseburger.

Cheeseburger in a can (YouTube)

Clearly, my Goerge Foreman grilled cheese hamburger is much more appealing.

Fresh home cooked cheese burger

GizMag also mentions:

• a chocolate mousse dessert
• powdered red wine

The emergency rations taste test (MP4](http://lyndell.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/ext/yt/emergency_rations.mp4) (YouTube) might also be worth a watch if you plan on buying those. Without watching it, I think I’ll stick to cans of Wolf Brand chili in a http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/ZAA066-1.html“>.50 caliber ammo can.

TV

TV can easily be replaced with wireless TV, er, broadcast TV. Ironicly, my TV has been restored just in time for the termination of the analog signal I don’t use. Strange how high-tech broadcast TV sounds when you call it wireless TV.

I won’t buy a converter. Can’t conventiently change the channels from the computer. The coupons are $40, and I haven’t found a $40 converter.

Even thought of selling the TV. I prefer watching TV on my computer instead. I made my own DVR with a WinTV-PVR-150 PCI TV-Tuner. A couple month of Internet/TV payment would cover the cost of a new ATSC tuner.

Benefits

However, there are good thinks on the internet, such as this article on the realism of the balloon lifted House (Wired) in movie Up Rakkav emailed me. Additionally, this article, “Blah, blah, blog!”, prodded by:

• raising the bar on my blog by writing more meaningful brainy posts rather than just compiling links to interesting pages.
• less frequent updates; saves time too
• changing the name and slogan, intentionally alluding to Star Trek
• changing the theme, even though preferred the previous theme

Fun

Just found played a while with tetris, thanks to Google. Good clean fun, but a reason to cancel my Internet to save time.

1964 MODEM demo

1964 MODEM demo (YouTube)

The Jones Hall marquee caught my attention with “Music of Star Trek and More Sci-Fi”. They’ll be playing themes from the various Star Treks, including the new movie. They’ll also play the themes from 2001: A Space Odyssey and Battlestar Galactica. I wonder if they will play the theme from Red Dwarf.

If music isn’t enough, there’s a costume competition.

And the Houston Chronicle Dollar Concert will be playing Holst’s “The Planets”

If you prefer music from video games, see the Gamer MusiCON 09.

The Terra Cotta Warriors are on exhibit in The Houston Museum of Natural Science

From yesterday’s 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast podcast:

…if an object were to fall into a black hole it would actually get stretched out and then ripped apart. There’s a great word for that; do you remember what the word for that is, Cameron?

Cameron: I believe it has something to do with Italian cooking…

Robert: It does — spaghettification,

I saw Star Trek last night.  It was surprisingly amazing. Rotten Tomatoes rate it at 95%.  It compares well to Ratatouille at 96%, and the incredible The Incredibles at 97%.

Before watching the movie, having seen only the trailers, and paid little attention to review and commentary, I complained this Star Trek movie is nothing like the original.  It’s a just modern action adventure.  That’s consistant with the reason for the release delay.

Star Trek broke the unspoken rules of time travel fiction:

• always restore the time line
• don’t speak to or meet yourself from the past or future
• don’t tranfer knowledge back through time

Doing this is as revolutionary as breaking the fourth wall. Back to the Future restored th time line at the end of the first and third movie.  Star Trek: Voyager always reset the time time too.  I like interest in Star Trek during Voyager, and am not familiar with all it’s details and Janeways big cheap to return home in the end.  Except for Janeway’s Search for Home, episodes had no permanant affect.  The cast ended where they began.  I recall Friends offten ended in the same predicament they began in.  This was almost tiresome in Gilligan’s Island, except for everyone’s unhuman patience with Gilligan restoring the castaways to standedness; must be some Vulcan in their distant ancestry.

Star Trek: Search for Zefram Cochrane, er, First Contact, the Borg attempt to use time travel to manipulate critical past events to their advantage.  We see a glimpse of the the Borg do to Earth, but the time is restored to the familiar. the timeline is also restored in ST:TOS “The City on the Edge of Forever”.

This time in the Star Trek prequel, the time is left altered.  Contrary to elder Spocks advice:

• he graciously meets and talks with his younger self
• shows Scotty his formula before Scotty devolops it

Now that I think about it, Scotty transfered knowledge in Star Trek IV (Search for Whales) to make the aluminum glass plate.

But for the paradox, how did destroying the ships and villan pivitol to this time travel sequence of events not restore the timeline?

article with videos at Wired.com.

Doctors who work in Houston’s busiest maternity ward say they’re expecting an especially bustling June, leading some to conclude that Hurricane Ike was the perfect storm for making babies.

It’s been eight months since Ike knocked out the region’s electricity, leaving many with no television, Internet access or other distractions for days, if not weeks. Now there’s a curious bump in the number of women who are rounding out their third trimesters of pregnancy.

– Chron

CNN has an article on visualizing the inside of a black hole.  It references a website with AVI and MOV video files, so I dropped the Flash video from CNN.

Now, if the LHC really could generate black holes, they could make a little side profit offering self guided tours inside the man black holes.  How long would it take to find the exit considering the effects on time?