Are they going to try to regulate Internet free speech using McCain-Feingold? Well, yeah. And anytime “they” refers to a Federal entity (in this case the Federal Election Commission), they’re going to do what they want unless a whole bunch of someones do something about it. I think it’d be safe to call this the Fuss of the Week around the blogosphere - there, I said it, I hate the word but there it is - and I think it’d be equally safe to say it ought to be. There are an awful lot of smart Americans who have realized during the past election cycle that, thanks to a half-dozen blogging services ranging from ‘free’ to ‘free and annoyingly ad-filled,’ the Internet really is a great marketplace for discussion and ideas. If the FEC decides to treat every Joe and Sally the same as NBC or Fox, a lot of us will be up the proverbial creek without a paddle (proverbial or otherwise).

First Amendment, First Amendment, First Amendment. For all the carrying on you hear about it from the attorneys of terrorists and Martha Stewart, here is a situation where a Federal bureaucratic agency is seriously targeting First Amendment protections. We’re not talking about millionaire nutjobs pouring dirty money into dirty politics here (ok, we’re not as long as you exclude moveon.org), we’re talking about insightful working men and women who take the time and energy to lend their own unabashed perspective to daily events. I, for one, enjoy that right, mostly because I like reading what they have to say. A lot. Ed Morrissey at Captain’s Quarters has posted a letter to Congress, and La Shawn Barber has a good rundown of the subject from top to bottom.

As far as open letters go, here’s my own much easier, dumb version:

McCain-Feingold must not be applied to the Internet. Would it be just - or within the intentions of the original legislation - to treat private citizens the same as NBC or The Washington Post? This is a dangerous swipe at our freedom of speech, and one that I’m counting on you and other Republican members of Congress to block. Thank you and God bless.

The Internet is, in addition to giving nerds such as myself someplace to write as though people were reading, a great resource for reaching our elected officials. If you’ve got a minute, send a quick message to your state’s senators. If you’re blessed to be an Ohioan, visit the contact forms at Voinovich.senate.gov and DeWine.senate.gov and drop a few sentences through. Otherwise, visit senate.gov and pick your state from the dropdown list.

Oh, by the way, those links to George Voinovich and Mike DeWine’s websites? In the months prior to an election, they’d probably be considered illegal in-kind assistance if McCain-Feingold were stretched to cover Internet communications. Yikes…

I’m not a conspiracy theory type of guy, and today is no exception… but let’s just consider something for a moment. I realize the average person is not too familiar with the gory details of web design, so I’ll try extra hard to tone the nerdage down enough that the typical reader (I say ‘reader’ in the singular because I know I’ve got only one, and that’s assuming mom figures out how to turn on the computer) can relate.

Ok, so… Microsoft. Whoa! See what I did, I used up around 90% of my allotted nerdiness just by mentioning the big M-word. Ah well. Anyway, we’re all familiar with Mr. Softy and the fact that, as a whole, the company sucks. Graphical, icon based operating system? Apple. Mouse? Apple. Web browser? Netscape. These are not three little things. If you have used a computer any time since 1985, it’s likely that these three things are the aspects of the PC which you are most familiar with. Microsoft, despite controlling a gigantic share of the operating system and browser markets, pioneered none of the most basic components of the home computer.

I should point out that I’m a Windows XP user. It is stable. It is smart enough that my camera, mouse, etc. work the way they are supposed to as soon as I plug them in. And until Service Pack 2, it didn’t even try to do too many things behind my back. In other words, no, I am not a disgruntled Mac user. Just a disgruntled web designer.

Obviously not all Microsoft products are horrible. Regardless of what anyone says, you don’t get into an industry dominating position without some degree of quality in whatever it is you’re selling. Internet Explorer, though, is pretty thoroughly horrible. See, following several years of “browser wars” (this is an actual term, I promise I’m not that much of a loser) between Netscape and Microsoft, several organizations came together and decided what we needed were concrete standards for anything meant for the Internet. This way, programmers could be confident they would not have to design 17 different versions of each thing they built, and Joe User could see content the way it was meant to be seen.

How do you think Microsoft felt about this? Having won the browser wars mostly on account of packaging Internet Explorer with new computers, it’s fair to say Microsoft saw little reason to comply with standards. Why allow for new competition when you control 85% of the market? This, apparently, was Microsoft’s reaction. Now, years later, Firefox is finished. And it’s free. And it’s faster, more secure, simpler to use, has better features. Now you can see where I’m going with this.

Firefox is better from the Internet user’s standpoint, and it’s nice to people who build websites. If you design a page, and your design is good, and you put it together the way you’re supposed to, that should be it. End of story, ship it out, open for business. Nope! Because Internet Explorer breaks or at the very least briskly jostles numerous attributes of even relatively simple designs, it’s not uncommon to spend twice as much time fixing IE errors as you spent designing the page from scratch.

“Woops,” Microsoft might say. “Couldn’t fix that whole not-working-the-way-it’s-supposed to thing. We’ll try and get that straightened out by version 8 billion.” In older versions, there was actually a weird sequence of commands that you could use in order to trick IE into doing what the other browsers were doing already. In the latest editions - this is it, this is the conspiracy, this is my evidence that this post is not completely out of left field - Microsoft fixed the workaround. The errors caused by their crappy program are still there. One of few options that web designers had for fixing them: GONE.

What can you do? As a designer, you can’t put something together in Firefox and tell Internet Explorer users to piss off. They are, after all, 80-some percent of your audience. Which is why, if you haven’t already, you should download Firefox. And tell all of your friends to do the same. And, while you’re at it, put a copy on your parents’ computer; as long as you import their favorites, they’ll hardly know the difference.

Those of you who might be normal, sorry. Somehow the 20-page MIS paper I’ve got hanging over my head has put me in the mood to write an entry that’s technical and nerdy. If you’re reading - thanks a lot, Dr. Yen. Is technical and nerdy better than nothing? Probably not. But here it is. Maybe I’ll write something interesting… next month?

When I order something or register with a website, I normally do not want to hear from them ever again. Did you send me what I bought? Can I login when I want to read something? Ok then, thanks, have a nice life. When they do email me, as even the more trustworthy companies insist on doing once every 4 hours or so, it makes me mad. Usually the first thing I will say at the sight of another “$10 off your next $3000 order” message is the name of the offending company, followed or preceded by a gentle expletive of some sort. In this sense, I am no different than your general garden variety nerd.

Not lately. Lately, I’ve been trying to teach my computer the meaning of “spam.” As such, I’d love to get some emails about political commentary or upcoming sales or general developments at websites I enjoy. I spent half an hour yesterday subscribing to the mailing list for each of my favorite bands and news sources. Why? Because that would be something to train my computer to like, versus the billions of true garbage messages I get about transexuals and poodles and transexual poodles.

Is anyone here familiar with Bayesian logic? Yeah, that’s what I figured. Apparently it’s fairly effective as an email categorizing technology. You set up a handy program to classify your email on its way to your inbox, and then you create a filter in whatever (Eudora, Outlook, et al) you use for reading mail. The classification program keeps track of every message it processes, and a browser-based interface lets you categorize new messages so it knows which ones are good and which are bad. Meanwhile, the filter in your email client shoves the ‘bad’ messages into a junk box or straight to the trash. Doesn’t that sound nice?

It is pretty nice, and I’m going to use it right this time around. See, when I originally set up iamthathero.com I was glad to finally have a .com site. I put my new email address on every page, and never thought twice - or even once, to be honest - about the fact that dirty, stupid, inconsiderate people (’spammers’) make a living by selling email addresses to other dirty, stupid, inconsiderate people (’other spammers’). And they have automated scripts that exist for the sole purpose of pulling email addresses off of websites. As a result, I was soon getting roughly 1,000 junk emails to every .6 real ones.

A close friend and superior nerd set up SpamBayes on my laptop, and I was on my way to enjoying trash-free email browsing. Or so I thought. As it turns out, SpamBayes develops a deep identity crisis when you classify several hundred emails a day as “spam” and one email every few weeks as “ham” (a simple but amazingly confusing slang term for good email). But that’s what I did, and instead of spending the summer sifting through metric tons of junk email I spent the summer sifting through metric tons of junk email and then telling SpamBayes that each one was junk. Don’t do that.

I’ve just started using SpamBayes on my new computer, and when it correctly classifies a message as spam I just discard it. Because why mess with its database when it’s getting the categorization right? If you get a lot of junk mail and are nerdy enough to try and fix it, check out spambayes.org for the free software and better explanation. While you’re at it, search the web for ’spam trap’ to find articles and tricks for killing spam robots that visit your own site. Oh, and if you know someone who sends mass unsolicited emails for a living, kick them in the teeth.

Think of your favorite movie. Now, what is it that makes this movie so great? Unless it’s a comedy where the plot is secondary, more than likely “good” and “evil” are involved (even if it’s a ‘I hope she chooses the guy who’s not a jerk’ chick-flick). And they are not playing nice. My favorite movie, when I’m in too serious a mood for The Princess Bride, is the final entry into the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Talk about an enormously popular series of films… we’re talking worldwide popularity to a degree that’s nearly universal. And what lies at the core of the story? Deceptively imaginary good vs. evil.

It should come as no surprise that this is the sort of movie people will watch again and again. Whether we realize it or not, there is more truth in the Lord of the Rings movies than in every chainsaw massacre, softcore pornography, and annoying documentary film combined. Right and wrong are deeper and stronger than laws or traditions; we know that the honorable should win and the cruel suffer defeat. The special effects are stunning, the acting is great, the directing is masterful - but these are only means to the end. When you watch these movies, you identify with the characters and hope for their safety and rejoice in their victory. Deny it if you will, but you have witnessed possibly the best ever cinematic depiction of the battle between the greatest powers in the universe. And I don’t mean mythological heroes and dungeon monsters.

There are great powers in the universe, and they are greater than nature, and they are as obvious as the sun. Belief in God is popular, but only under the most watery and least reasonable definitions of Him. As plain as movie-screen good versus evil, there are only two paths in life. One of them is with God; the other, without. We can see these only poorly, if at all. Our scientific stubbornness cannot ‘know’ that God exists at all. But should we expect to? A God behind, below, above and beyond the scenes of an everything-sized movie is awfully big. What character, conceived in His mind and drawn by His hand, could possibly understand Him? Would J.R.R. Tolkein’s fictional dwarves and elves, brought to bigscreen life but existing only on film, discs, and paper, have any reason to expect a handshake and signed photograph from the director?

So this is where faith comes in. We fuss and argue about religion until nobody knows what ‘religion’ means, but FAITH… faith is a word that actually makes you think of something. Faith is belief in an incomprehensible “big picture.” It’s something hard to explain, yet simple - either you take a step and have faith, or you do not. Reality does not leave footnote space or empty lines to fill in with an Eastern religion of your choice or a doctored defintion of God. When I say ‘faith’ I mean a thoughtful belief in the God of the Hebrews, the Father of Jesus Christ; the Creator. Everything else I’ve tried was an escape hatch to pride and self-reliance.

I hope you’re with me here. If not, there isn’t much I can do. Read some C.S. Lewis (he was a friend of Tolkein’s, by the way) or meet with a local pastor. Think about why you look at the world the way you do; hold up your favorite alternative to God against the light of an ordered universe complete with thinking, emotional beings. Should you choose atheism or something else, live your life for awhile and honestly consider how that goes. If there’s a point to something as complicated as life, how could it be as bland as ‘to be happy?’ If there’s not a point, how could someone as smart as yourself be so hung up searching for one? Honestly, you may think I’m stupid but scratch out God and you’re missing the show.

Yes, a truly good movie is a great thing. But how sad it would be if that were the greatest thing… a scripted course of events starring a cast of fake characters, all designed to evoke emotions that serve no other purpose. How easily we forget that God is here. His amazing plan is for our greatest good: and every day, we forget. I can glance in awe at the sunrise. I can take in the comforting, powerful words of the Bible. I can enjoy a beautiful song that doesn’t scratch the surface of God’s vast power… all while completely overlooking the facts that I am an adopted son of a God who does not make mistakes or concessions, and that I live in a world poisoned by Evil. Does God love his children? He gives us life and choice, and I can’t think of grander, better gifts. But I shuffle along feeling bored and unimportant 300 days out of the year.

Only once in awhile do I vaguely glimpse the plot. I really don’t know what is planned for me, let alone how I’ll get there. I know enough to see, at last, that Christianity is never a set of rules or a class on self improvement. Following Christ is a doorway opened, not to a quiet pasture or a golden road but to everlasting life… through a world at war. Good is fighting evil, but in our storyline we rarely choose a side or even realize the lines are drawn. I am often burned out because I want to tell my own story, with the entire thing planned and scheduled and padded for safety. I want to serve God, but I’d like to have a 12-step program or something to hold onto.

I should be holding onto God instead. This is GOD we’re talking about here. Outside of time, space, every other thing that restricts us. Awesome and creative and loving enough to put romance deep in our hearts. He made this world and if He chooses, He can unmake it. He will not die: at the perfect time, God will conquer. Think back to Return of the King and try to picture the horrifying odds; while enjoying the outcome, remember the theological relevance and beauty of that miraculous final victory. I cannot imagine - I cannot begin to imagine - the unbelievable God I claim to know, but I conveniently assume He’ll take care of me while I do my thing and try to be nice. This is not true.

In appreciating the good we must not forget the evil. Every day can bring me nearer life, or nearer death. If I insist on standing still, it will not be long before I’m shaken. I will try to ignore it, but many times I’ll have to choose: trust God to lift me forward again, or trust myself and fall to useless pride? Life lies at the handle of a bright but heavy sword, offered selflessly to undeserving hands. Dare you turn away and deny your loving King? Will you draw, but fight only for selfish glory? Darkness creeps in powerfully and in many forms. To share in victory, we must kneel and grasp Truth with a humble warrior’s heart. Not merely in one dramatic instant, but throughout our lives, as battles rage both inside and out.