Some of my friends and colleagues may have heard me go on a rant or two about net neutrality or equal information access. Hopefully this post will describe my stance a bit better. Those who know me know that I stand strong for open knowledge and easily accessible information for all of us in the world. This includes upholding open document standards and the opposition of tiered-internet infrastructures. But most people that use computers these days, I am afraid, don’t think or feel that these ideals will affect their day-to-day computer usage that they partake in.

Well, I happen to think that it not only affects your daily pursuit of knowledge and you work in whatever field you are in, but it also greatly affects the way we work together as a society, create and bring new ideas into fruition, and nurture successful generations to follow.

Last Thursday, the FCC held a public hearing on net neutrality. 5 commissioners from the FCC joined and heard from leading public scientists, network operators, and entrepreneurs. 2 commissioners were in support of network neutrality, 2 against, and one neutral (pun intended). Also, Comcast and many other carriers were invited to the hearing; however, they declined.

Here is the video from the hearing as well as other snippets on the topic:

Jason Devitt, CEO of Skydeck, testifies at the FCC Hearing

Law Professor Lawrence Lessig on Net Neutrality and the Rise of Google

From Barack Obama’s address at Google

You’ll notice I stuck a button on the right of my site in support of net neutrality. I’ll be calling my senator and representatives on Monday morning to let them know of my support of net neutrality and a new Act working its way through the House of Representatives. I urge you to do the same. It is critical to recognize that issues such as Verizon winning the FCC spectrum auction to Microsoft’s OOXML as a international standard to Comcast breaking fundamental ethical and technical ways of the internet are of utmost importance to our current age, culture, and political era.

In the end, regardless of the specific topic at hand, be cognizant of those trying to disrupt and block the progressive movement that is before us. Especially when it involves profit rather than progress. Especially when that blocking impedes our societal learning, sharing, innovation, creativity, and global and equal access to information for all.

[Used from KPRC video click2houston.com]

Fire. It’s what I do. And I happen to subscribe to Google News alerts that have “Houston Fire” in the title. Helps me keep in touch with the fire. It also helpingly disturbs me as to what actually goes on outside of the classroom. Really, it’s quite a good way to keep yourself thinking and valuable if you are stuck with that stagnant smell of your job or classes.

Lots of fires happen everyday. Apartment fires always happen. A lot. Three apartment complexes burned to the ground within 48 hours over the past weekend. And then some. This is what I see:

Residents Say They Heard Gunshots Before 3-Alarm Fire

Blaze damages second apartment complex in 24 hours

Fire erupts at SW Houston apartments

Apartment Blaze Damages At Least 16 Units

Apartment fire sends 5 to Hospital

Yes, those are the most recent stories in my warm and cozy feed reader.

When is legislation going to get off of its ass and move at the pace that the rest of us do? When is enforcement going to follow? Sure, I guess we all are biased to the field that we are in and think that it is the most important thing in the world. But seriously, people are dying and losing their homes in the midst of an ocean of politics and code books wasting valuable daylight.

[Picture used from myFoxHouston.com]

A lot of the time, I am an optimist. I see what change has followed the positive move of a community-based and collaborative internet (see video in previous post) in other industries. And then I imagine progress and change happening in our daily lives. I dream of governmental processes being way more open and community-driven than we are used to. I can watch it in real-time, play-by-play happening with larger corporations - as they break down due to the epidemic spread of knowledge and awareness. And I imagine a world where fire sprinklers (technology that has been around for 130 years) and other fire safety systems make fire protection engineers obsolete before my industry has even had a chance to get popular and prestigious.

I suppose what I am saying is that I toil my soul, expand my brain, and work every breathing moment that I can, day-by-day on prediction of fire, contribution to the robust knowledge that we have on fire/combustion, and working using my technical skills. All of this to allow fire documentation, analytical and numerical tools, and scientific information to be available to all people around the world: engineers, scientists, students, and so on. Why? I’d say, in this century and society, I do it to contribute. And I think if just a few other key people did the same, our fire, death, and loss of home problems would vanish at amazing and mind-blowing speeds.

P.S. This thought process isn’t just limited to my field of fire science, but I write about it because it is what I do. Think about your field for a second. Finance, safety, technology, whatever it is. Mentally apply success to the field by working on and tweaking the top 3% of the people, systems, or methods that are in use now. Realize that these top 3% are there due mainly to tradition, and did not get there due to community-driven work.

Keep working at it. Align your work with your values. The change will happen. I’ll be waiting.

It’s interesting how my routines change month by month. I guess that is what is defined by this age range. Movies, programming, motorcycling, science. I just finished the book, The Quarterlife Crisis, and as cheesy as the title sounds, I did get a bit of good stories from it. You may notice how I say stories, and that is what I mean. At this point, after reading way too many psychology books and self-help books, this article really puts it into perspective: http://www.life2point0.com/2006/11/follow_your_bli.html

It’s a long, slimy article, I know. But if you can take time out of your day to read it… well, time out like time out to watch the previous video I posted, you know. Speaking of time, it tends to dilate depending on what you are doing - there is some correlation there based on how uncomfortable I feel before I do something versus how satisfying it is. We humans are built weird like that.

In other news, I took the Fundamentals of Engineering exam on Saturday, and wow. I cannot discuss the questions and stuff there lest NCEES sues me and makes me homeless, but that was the hardest thing that I have taken in my life. It was at the George R. Brown Convention Center with what looked like 800-900 students and, according to the NCEES stats, about 560 future engineers. I would show pictures but any phone or camera device would have you banned from the building and have you $130 lighter for no good reason. Anyway, about the test: this is why you have to kick ass in school, students. The test is the connector to the reality that is real-world problems.

Otherwise, I am off to sleep for another night. This week I will be working on a cross-platform launcher for Fire Dynamics Simulator, since the command line scares or hinders our users. In Python, of course. Python and Fortan, the story of my life.

Ok, I think I just found a new role model in the teeming world of science. I realize that every day I learn feel closer and closer to the mind of this man that I have just discovered. Watch this 18 minutes of video, and I think you will enjoy it very much. He is an eccentric man, yes, but listen. His words and final thoughts are aligned with the subtitle of my blog, “Communicating the greatest possible growth”.

Stuff like this gives me a warm feeling of why I am so attracted to the fields of science that I am. Something tells me that this man doesn’t fret too much about the trivial stuff that we sometimes get trapped up in day to day. Click on the picture to watch. Enjoy.

  
http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2008/04/09/must-watch-18-minutes-with-an-agile-mind/

By the way, watch out for loose gravel! - I wiped out on my motorcycle gracefully right at this spot near UHD. Everything is okay with me minus a brake pedal that needs to be bent back into shape and a slightly bent handlebar that with bother my OCD.

 
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I went camping this past weekend with the crew from the Montrose Motorcycle Riding Club, and the ride and cabin were awesome! Not to mention the lovely weather. I just wanted to share this video with everyone.