The MacDeskBlog

As all of the regular or semi-regular patrons have noticed, I run a lot of picture series on MacDesktops.com. People who have frequented MacDesktops for years, probably remember that a new TAZL picture graced the page every Wednesday. Beto Chavez has provided various series over the years. Tim Fielding, Laurent Lachiver, Jiho, and many others have provided themed desktops for periods of time.

There are a few series on the site right now. Frank J Sinkavich provides a steady stream of flowers, sunrises, sunsets, insects which are featured on Fridays for the foreseeable future. Edward N Urbanek‘s works include architecture, still life, and flower pictures, and are featured on Mondays. Aaron Kraus is taking us on a journey through Europe on Sundays. Stan Peyton landscapes adorn the site on Thursdays. I periodically feature my own photographs on Wednesdays, and am doing so at the moment (though I think I am about to run out again soon). I started up a NASA series in March, which runs on Saturdays at least into July. I just recently started an Anime series, running Mondays for the foreseeable future.

Additionally, I am trying to get back to my tradition of running Apple and/or Macintosh themed pictures on Tuesdays and/or Thursdays. This tradition is easier to keep going when Apple announces new products (like now) or new advertising campaigns (like now), and a bit harder in the periods between. Mondays have been for Movie pictures (therefore the new Anime series on Mondays).

As always, feel free to send in your pictures, whether they are just a few or form a long series, or send in a single one you wish to share. While I don’t publish all of the submissions which I receive, I do post many of them and am dependent upon them to keep the site going. And also, please send your comments on pictures you like to the artists who submitted them; the artist’s name under each picture is an email link. Comments about the site are welcome via e-mail or here in the blog.

I hope you’re enjoying the current series, and those which will come in the future.

I’m sitting at Willie Mays Field (two days after he turned 75 and who knows how long until the field actually gets named that) with an hour to go before first pitch. My usual pre-game ballpark dining haunt, Primo Patio Cafe, is closed due to a gas leak, so I just had garlic fries and called it dinner.

I’m not of the habit to bring my PowerBook to the ballpark, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. And tonight, it turned out to be a good thing. I realized as I waited for the train to bring me up here that I needed to queue a few more pictures for this week. So, I whipped it out, hopped onto the free wireless network here, and took care of it.

I’m waiting for my friend John from college to join me. I haven’t seen him in a couple of years since he moved to L.A. for a writing job. He just moved back to San Francisco last month. Tonight, we get to catch up.

Batting practice is finishing up now. The Giants just finished up a horrid road trip. And Barry is not expected to play tonight. Lowry is off of the DL and starting tonight. The sky is clear and blue, and the temperature is nice.

Life is good.

I’ve been struggling with trying to figure out what to say about network neutrality. The truth is that I didn’t think this is really a big deal. Not because I thought that it isn’t important, but rather because preserving network neutrality is so blatantly obviously the right thing to do that I could not conceive of Congress failing to preserve it.

I was wrong. The Senate has already voted to abandon network neutrality. That’s right, the (comparatively) rational, conscientious, thoughtful, sane half of Congress has already acted stupidly. This means that we have the much harder job of getting the irrational, easily corruptible, money grubbing House of Representatives to act intelligently.

You might be wondering still what is network neutrality?
Well, it’s what lets me deliver a free service to you with enough bandwidth to keep you happy. It is legislation which currently prohibits internet service providers from restricting access to competitors, or to sites they don’t like, or to sites which don’t pay them.

What would an Internet without network neutrality look like?
If AT&T, Comcast and the other big TelCos have their way, they will each be like China, able to block access to sites they don’t like. More likely, though, they’ll just meter down performance to those sites with whom they compete. So, Comcast will probably try to encourage people to use their music store instead of access the iTunes Music Store not by making the Comcast store more compelling but by making access to iTMS unacceptably slow. AT&T will do the same to iTMS and to the Comcast store while routing their customers to the Yahoo! music store.

What would MacDesktops look like without network neutrality?
These mega-corporations will each be able to bill me for the files which their customers download from MacDesktops. Or, they’ll be able to extort me in order to let traffic from my site through to you. If Comcast or AT&T or another TelCo decides that there’s money to be made in desktop pictures like there is in ringtones and cell phone pictures, they’ll be able to pinch off MacDesktops while promoting their own fee for picture site. The most likely outcome is that downloading pictures from MacDesktops will just slow way down.

What you can do:
1. SIGN a Net Neutrality petition to Congress.
2. CALL Congress now.
3. BLOG about this issue, or put our “Save the Internet” logo on your Web site.
4. MYSPACE: Add “Save the Internet” as a friend.
5. WRITE A LETTER to Congress.
6. VISIT our coalition Web site for more information, SavetheInternet.com.