Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

What If SOPA/PIPA Passes?

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A lot of people all across the Internet have been up in arms about the pernicious Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its companion Protect IP Act (PIPA) bills working their ways through Congress—and with good reason. But as a web site operator, even of a dinky little blog like this one, these bills stand to effect me quite directly. I thought I would share with you what changes will probably have to happen across the Internet, and specifically at Off on a Tangent (and in my life) if these bills pass in their current forms.

Today, sites based primarily on user-generated content (e.g., YouTube) are protected by the ‘safe harbor’ provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Under these provisions, upon a report of infringing material the company must review and remove the content. The company itself, however, is immune from prosecution or punishment for the infringement of its users. SOPA/PIPA would override these protections, making YouTube liable for an infringing video uploaded by its users. To continue operating as it does today, YouTube would need to review every uploaded video (at great cost), move out of the U.S. (at great cost), or constantly risk being taken down entirely because of individual infringing videos. Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, Vimeo, and countless others would face a similar conundrum.

Internet hosting companies and cloud service providers faced with the specter of constant lawsuits, shutdowns, and harassment in the U.S. are likely to leave the country. The Save Hosting Coalition, an alliance of Internet hosting providers, says that if PIPA passes, “We risk an environment where the bar within the United States is re-set so that only extremely large companies can afford to be web hosting providers. And what few hosting providers remain if the Protect IP Act passes will see less U.S. based content to host as we risk all independent content moving overseas.”

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Myrtle Beach Vacation Photos

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Been busy since we got back from our Myrtle Beach vacation. We had a great time, got to hang out with some of my family, ate way too much food, played mini-golf, went to the aquarium, and more. I didn’t spend a lot of time taking pictures, but I did grab some on the beach and when we went to the aquarium. Enjoy!

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The Ugliest Cars of the 2012 Model Year

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This year’s list hasn’t seen much change from the last, a welcome shift from last year’s slew of new introductions. What few changes there have been to existing models have usually been inoffensive, and there have not been many new-for-2012 models introduced. The Kia Soul and Toyota Prius, while still ugly, have dropped off the list due to the introductions of the Mitsubishi i-MiEV and Mini Cooper Coupe.

The criteria for this list remains mostly basically the same as it has always been. I don’t include models that aren’t sold in the United States. I don’t include models that sell in low volume (and volume is defined completely subjectively). I don’t include exotic, military, or special-purpose vehicles (so no super-cars, tanks, or postal trucks). It’s based entirely on my personal opinion of what looks good and what doesn’t.

I encourage your comments—whether they be nominations of ugly cars I may have missed, or impassioned defenses of the ones I didn’t. Feel free to vent your buyer’s remorse here too, if you happen to have purchased one of these monstrosities ;-).

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Creation and the Null Hypothesis

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The scientific method is an iterative process of testing hypotheses. The default position on a subject is known as the null hypothesis, and new alternative hypotheses are posited and then tested to see if they better fit observations.

For example, it was once generally accepted by scientists and laymen alike that the Earth was flat. An alternative hypothesis was proposed that the Earth was actually [roughly] spherical and, through observation and testing, that alternative hypothesis supplanted the null hypothesis and showed it to be false. That’s how science works. If we had never been able to produce sufficient evidence and observation to falsify the null hypothesis that the Earth was flat, we would still believe it today.

This method has falsified many null hypotheses about our universe, including many that originated in the great world religions and many that just seem to be ‘common sense.’ The Judeo-Christian creation story, for example, has been pretty soundly falsified as a literal account (though that has no bearing on its value as a figurative or allegorical account). The common-sense assumption that time is a fixed constant has also been falsified, as we now understand (per the Theory of General Relativity) that time is relative and is subject to dilation and delay when affected by gravitational fields.

But there is one fundamental question—how was the universe created?—on which there is little or no observable evidence supporting any hypothesis. So on this topic, if we are to apply the scientific method in a proper and consistent way, the null hypothesis stands. Only when an alternative hypothesis is proposed and sufficient evidence and observation serves to falsify the null hypothesis can we ‘switch’ to an alternative.

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Gingrich and Perry in Virginia: Epic Fail

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As a general rule, if you’re running for office, you should take the necessary steps to actually appear on the ballot. Just saying.

The Republican Party of Virginia has announced that former-Representative Newt Gingrich (R-GA 6th) and Governor Rick Perry (R-TX) have both failed to meet the requirements to appear on the ballot for the Republican Party primary in Virginia. Now, I know that Virginia is no California, Florida, or New York. But we’re no Alaska or Rhode Island either. We do count for something in Presidential politics, and it’s kind-of important to engage—at least a bit—in Virginia if you intend to be president. Failing to get on our primary ballot is a pretty stupid way to start.

In Virginia you have to submit a petition with 10,000 signatures, including at least 400 from each of our eleven Congressional districts, to appear on our presidential primary ballots. These requirements are a bit more stringent then those in many other states, but they’re not exactly unreasonable for top-tier major-party candidates. Gingrich in particular, who has emerged as a front-runner for the Republican nomination and lives in Virginia, was just recently talking about how petition efforts here were going to “showcase the campaign’s ground game,” and that they had obtained 12,000 to 14,000 signatures.

Well now that we know he fell short (possibly because of the ‘400 from each district’ requirement), the Gingrich campaign has changed its tune and says that the process for obtaining ballot access in Virginia is a “failed system.” Funny, it seemed to work fine for former-Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) and Representative Ron Paul (R-TX 14th). “Voters deserve the right to vote for any top contender, especially leading candidates,” said Gingrich campaign director Michael Krull. “We will work with the Republican Party of Virginia to pursue an aggressive write-in campaign to make sure that all the voters of Virginia are able to vote for the candidate of their choice.”

Yes, the voters do deserve the right to vote for any top contender . . . if that contender bothers to meet the requirements to appear on the ballot as stipulated by Virginia law. As for that write-in campaign, well, good luck with that. It will be difficult since Virginia law prohibits write-ins on primary ballots. Sure, you could write Gingrich in on the margin or something, but it won’t be counted as a valid vote.

Next time, Messrs. Perry and Gingrich, you might want to put in a little more effort here in the Commonwealth. Epic fail, guys.

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.