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If you’ve been following the whole net neutrality fight for a while, the following graphic may be familiar to you — showing what a potential "cable-ized" world the internet would become without strong protections for net neutrality:

At some point, someone created a similar version, that was specific to AT&T: A little while ago, however, someone took the joke even further, and set up a website for a fake broadband provider, asking people to Join the Fastlane!, and it was pretty dead on in terms of what such a site might look like: I particularly like this bit: It’s now come out that this campaign (along with some associated billboards) has been put together by BitTorrent Inc., not all that different than the company’s billboard campaign against the NSA. Along with this, BitTorrent has put out a blog post explaining, in part, how we got here, but more importantly how we need to start thinking about a better way to handle internet traffic to avoid the kind of future described above.

The key issue: building a more decentralized internet:

Many smart researchers are already thinking about this problem. Broadly speaking, this re-imagined Internet is often called Content Centric Networking. The closest working example we have to a Content Centric Network today is BitTorrent. What if heavy bandwidth users, say, Netflix, for example, worked more like BitTorrent?

If they did, each stream — each piece of content — would have a unique address, and would be streamed peer-to-peer. That means that Netflix traffic would no longer be coming from one or two places that are easy to block. Instead, it would be coming from everywhere, all at once; from addresses that were not easily identified as Netflix addresses — from addresses all across the Internet.

To the ISP, they are simply zeroes and ones.

All equal.

There’s obviously a lot more to this, but it’s good to see more and more people realizing that one of the fundamental problems that got us here is the fact that so much of the internet has become centralized — and, as such, can be easily targeted for discrimination. Making the internet much more decentralized is a big step in making it so that discrimination and breaking net neutrality aren’t even on the table.

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via Techdirt.
BitTorrent Shows You What The Internet Looks Like Without Net Neutrality; Suggests A Better Way

The "secret" price codes used by popular retailers signal whether the price is as low as it’ll get or if it might go even lower. We’ve rounded up several retailers’ codes before, but here’s an even bigger list, which you can print out and keep in your wallet.

The list is compiled by the Rather Be Shopping blog and its informants. Retailers covered include American Eagle Outfitters, JCPenney, Kohl’s, Land’s End, and others we haven’t seen before. Here’s the printable cheat sheet:

Head to Rather Be Shopping for more details. The post is constantly being updated by Kyle James, so it might be worth revisiting in the future if your favorite store isn’t on the list.

Retailer’s Big Secret: Crack the Price Tag Code | Rather Be Shopping

Photo by paulswansen.

via Lifehacker
Crack the Price Tag Codes for Major Retailers with This Cheat Sheet

Nest is no longer the only game in town when it comes to stylish smart home thermostats. Honeywell has just unveiled a connected unit of its own design that handles your home’s heating and cooling so you don’t have to.

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via Gizmodo
The Honeywell Lyric: This Is the Thermostat the Jetsons Would Own

Living off the grid requires planning, investing and thinking outside the box. Such is the case for Bruce Campbell (not that Bruce Campbell), an electrical engineer who has made a home in a renovated Boeing 727. Yep, you read that right. Unique homes made out of reclaimed materials aren’t a new concept, but Campbell’s execution of[…..]
via AllOutdoor.com
Living Off Grid in a Boeing 727

A baby grand piano has mysteriously appeared under the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, right on the Manhattan side of the East River. Everyone in the city is speculating about its origin: Some people think it may be a viral marketing action, others think it may be an art project, but nobody really knows why or how it got there.

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via Gizmodo
Piano mysteriously washes ashore under New York’s Brooklyn Bridge

Too often, when we try to get our point across in email or other mediums, we have trouble keeping it short. Remember the acronym BRIEF to get your message across quickly.

Over at Fast Company, they suggest using BRIEF emails and presentations with the following formula:

B (Background): Provide a quick context—what prompted the update?

R (Reason): Explain why you’re speaking now—why should they pay attention?

I (Information): Provide two to three key nuggets of information you want to share. What are the bullet points of the conversation?

E (End): Decide on what note you want to leave the conversation. In this case, you may want to end by telling the CEO what you will do to get the project back on track.

F (Follow-up): Consider the questions you anticipate the CEO will ask you when you finish speaking and prepare answers in advance.

Check out other ways of saying more with less by following the link.

Less is More: Why You’re Saying Too Much and Getting Ignored | Fast Company

Photo by r reeves.

via Lifehacker
Remember “BRIEF” for Efficient Office Communication

via Dilbert
Dilbert 2014-06-07

Brad Paisley was playing on the stage when he decided to use a fan’s GoPro as a slide for his guitar solo. This resulting footage from the sliding camera is truly unique.

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via Gizmodo
Guitar player grabs GoPro from a fan and uses it as a slide for a solo