I’m running a poll on a question I’ve been pondering recently. I won’t go into it other than to put the poll in for now. I don’t want to cloud your thinking one way or the other.

If you want to wade into this more than the poll allows, leave some comments. I’d love to discuss this with you.

Ben Grubb over at It News has reported that Exetel is planning on banning P2P use (that is Bittorrent, Limewire, Kazaa (does that even exist still?), etc) during their off-peak period. I’m not surprised that John Linton, the founder and CEO of Exetel is considering such drastic measures, however I was concerned for my ability to download Linux ISOs at night. (Yes, all P2P is Linux ISOs — didn’t you know?)

At the beginning of this month, our off-peak time was trimmed from 12am-12pm to 2am-12pm. This was to stop a phenomenon that would basically kill the entire Exetel network at midnight. People just have to have that latest Linux ISO at 12:01am so start all of their downloads at the very start of off-peak. No worries, except people who wanted to browse web pages, use VOIP or do anything else suffered.

As John has mentioned many times over on his blog, most downloads would be finished by 12:30am or 1am and the network would be back to normal speeds. Despite years of trying to fix it, nothing worked.

This was a great cost to Exetel, who would continue to try different ways to combat this, including a P2P cache, asking for downloaders to be fair and push back their downloads and purchasing a ton of bandwidth they didn’t need except for that half hour. Seems this new tactic worked. So since most souls are in bed by 2am, they bit the bullet and moved off-peak back.

So what about the threat of banning all P2P during off-peak? Well this would only be after November, and only after they move back to a 12am-12pm off-peak period. And only if you choose that period over 1am-1pm or 2am-2pm. And it’s only banned during the first two hours. And it’s self-regulated.

A whole lot of ands really.

So I can have 60Gb of downloads over half of the month, and I either avoid P2P for two hours (which I was doing anyway voluntarily after a request another previous post from John) or move my off-peak to 2am-2pm, which since we are late risers would help us out anyway. Woah, I better get the tin foil hat out.

I still find Exetel to be extraordinary value. They usually have good service, and if it is bad they will be upfront and admit their issue. They aren’t for the faint hearted, as you have to know your stuff well and live with a support culture expecting you to find your own help in the forums, but if you can live with that you will get more from them than your regular ISP.

Free SMS from the web, they do email to fax and fax to email ($1 a month – wtf?), and more. I love them. I really do.

This is my first post over at the new blog Axis of Fat, which is bring run by Natalie and her friends. You should check it out, or not.

Axis of Fat is an idea of my wife. It’s something that Natalie and some of her some of her friends thought was a good idea – a place to blog about being fancy in the world while being fat. Fat and fancy is possible, and I’m sure you will hear them talk all about it.

I’m sure there will be a lot of talk of fashions and styling, where to find good clothes, stores that look after fat people instead of treating us like leapers. So why am I here, blogging on Axis of Fat? It doesn’t seme a very manly thing to do?

I think fat men of Australia, and the WORLDDDDDDDD need a voice. We need good clothes, not the dodgy off-cuts that are thrown to us by Lowes and Lowes. Why should I be grateful to find a pair of pants that fit when they make me look hideous?  I also think there are many fat men out there who, despite seeming very jovial and laughing off the jibes from their “mates”, are feeling lost and alone in a world where thin is beautiful and considered normal.

I’ve been through depression, the name calling, the school yard taunts, the art of hiding what I eat from people because of the shame. I’ve lived for years and years doubting that I’m a decent person because I’m fat. I’ve wondered, “Why me?” and tried all of the diets that I could get my hands on. I’ve had “caring and thoughtful” family members, friends, work colleagues, internet folk, doctors and people I don’t even know suggest that I need to lose a “little” weight.

No wonder I felt alone.

I exercise when I can (heck, who’s ever perfect on that score) and I eat the best food I can find for my mouth. I eat when I want, what I want, when my body tells me to have it. I don’t sit down to a tub of lard and think, “oh boy, I’m going to put on 10 kilos today so that I can have society taunt me”. I think, “I’m hungry and I feel like a Caesar Salad today” or “Darn, I’m late for work – Macca’s will just have to do”.

If I can let one man know that being fat does not mean you are worthless; that being a kind human being is more important than being a particular shape; that health is possible at EVERY AND ANY size; that being yourself and just going out there and doing whatever it is you want is your RIGHT, not your DREAM, then I’ve done something good.

Hi loyal reader. I’m sure there is at least one of you.

When I began blogging back in December 08, I didn’t put too much forethought into this place. All I wanted was a site which allowed me to express my opinions on things. So each time I had a bright idea, I’d create a new topic. Eleven topics later (you can’t count them on your fingers, unless you’re special) and I decided that enough was enough. I’ve cleaned up my list of topics to just five.

• Civil Liberties – I’m a strong believer that our rights can and will be eroded if we do not monitor what politicians, advocate groups and other interested parties try to force on us. I’ll present my view on the issues that I think are important or that affect me personally.
• Internet – If I’m posting about Twitter, the current No Clean Feed debate or the new National Broadband Network, then I’ll post it in the Internet Category. I will expand this as time goes on to look at other issues of interest to me.
• Politics – I’m an interested political observer and enjoy commenting on the current political landscape in Australia and the world. I’ll sometimes agree with those in power, but often not. Either way you’ll hear about it in this category.
• Religion – I’m a believer in a secular society free from the interference of religions and deities. I used to believe in the Christian version of God, but now I’ve come to understand that there is no God and that religion can be dangerous in some forms. So from time to time I’ll blog about issues I think need to be discussed. I’m also tolerant of other’s beliefs and options, even if I don’t agree.
• Meta – I left this to last for a reason. My wife suggested the name for this one as I was stuck. What should I do with stuff that isn’t really related to my other categories, but is either related to me or to this blog? That’s what Meta is for. It isn’t a miscellaneous file but will contain posts either about me or what I’ve been thinking about lately. Perhaps a clip on the Internet that I’ve enjoyed and think will add something to your life.  I’ll also cover other information related to this blog. I think it’s important to get a better understanding about the blogger behind the posts, so hence the need for Meta.

I hope that this new set of topics make more sense for you the reader. After all, they are really just a way to help you navigate the site better. Please let me know your thoughts and any good suggestions will be taken, mashed into my brain and taken on board.

The Federal Government has announced the winner of the National Broadband Network tender process. Nobody wins! Yay! I’m sure you’re thinking WTF? right about now, so lets get into some of the details.

The current tender process has been ended and the Government will create a new private-public owned company to spend $43 billion on fibre to the premises. That’s significantly better than fibre to the node. Kevin Rudd calls it “Nation building”. I call it bloody awesome.

The company structure will be such that the Government is majority shareholder and the company will provide wholesale services only. No more monopoly held by Telstra – that surely has to be a good thing. Well worth $43 billion I’d say.

90% of premises in Australia are to receive this new fibre to the premises service, which offers speeds of up to 100Mbps. That is just amazing to think about, considering most of us can get 1Mbps at the most with current infrastructure. The other 10% of Australia receives broadband through “next generation” wireless and satelite services. Speeds will only be 12 Mbps. Only.

It stinks of Nationalism. I don’t care though. Years of neglect of the country’s broadband networks by the current big players means that I’ll happily have the Government own the new network. They intend to sell down their stake-holding in the company within five years (market conditions may vary this) so I’m not to concerned at all. Just give me good Internet.

The low point of the announcement was having Senator Stephen Conroy drone on about the benefits of the package. It seems Kevin Rudd has sidelined him yet again so that he can take the glory. We didn’t need him here now and we don’t need him to filter the Internet.

I wonder whether this will be a way the Government gets their filter into our homes. If they are the wholesaler, they can say “Hey, we decide what you can access. So here, have our filtered feed. Guaranteed to be free of smut and free speech.” That is one worry, but hopefully they will work out the filter isn’t going to work anyway.

The Government also announced immediate funding to get fibre optic backbones developed into major regional centres, such as Darwin, Broken Hill, Mount Gambier and Mount Isa. This is to be done as soon as possible, so hopefully these regional centres will get some competitive broadband services soon.

Perhaps Senator Conroy could use a fibre optic backbone. Might make backflipping easier for him when it comes time to back down from the filter plan.