Thursday, October 28, 2010

Learning Blog 8

(Note: as I'm writing this I feel a migraine coming on so I might not make it to class tonight.)

The Net Neutrality readings this week were really interesting. I've never quite understood what it all meant but I have a little more of a grasp on the meaning now. "The Skinny on Net Neutrality" (and especially the comments on the article) helped as did the "Nuts and Bolts of Network Neutrality". This PDF did a really good job of explaining the technical aspect. I get what they're talking about with high and low priority packets and delays.

I understand the point of net neutrality but like one of the comments on the "Skinny on Net Neutrality" article pointed out, it's not always best to get government involved in something they might not completely understand. The "Nuts and Bolts" article agrees that regulations shouldn't be made at this time, as competition between service providers seems to be working.

At the same time, I can understand how service providers could implement delays of certain packet types in order to discourage customers from using some applications (the example of internet phone services helped me understand this. I thought of services like Vonage phone and how that works if your internet provider is Comcast--who also has an internet phone service).

There are a lot of good arguments on both sides of the issue so I'm not totally sure what side I'm on yet. Although, this might be an issue where you don't have to be "all or nothing". I don't know...

On the webdesign/textbook chapter side of things for this week, it was kind of a review for me since I studied this chapter when I was creating divs for my website. My site can certainly use a little more style so I'll be working on that in the weeks to come.

Since I might not make it to class tonight I'll go through tonight's class session & lab pages.

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