y.st./source/pages/en/weblog/2015/05-May/10.xhtml

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$xhtml = array(
	'title' => 'I think this laptop may need to be replaced after all',
	'body' => <<<END
<p>
	My replacement credit union credit card has not yet arrived and Discover is currently keeping me from buying Mark with a C&apos;s music.
	I don&apos;t even remember how long the credit union said my card would take for delivery.
	Was it twelve weeks? That sounds familiar.
	If it was twelve weeks, I still have a long time to wait.
	It hasn&apos;t even been quite a month yet.
	If I remembered how long the wait was supposed to be, I would know if it was right to go in in person and ask about the card yet.
	I didn&apos;t keep track of the time frame because I didn&apos;t think it would matter.
	Discover has never locked up my card like this in the past and I usually use my Discover card instead of my credit union card because I like the Discover card management website better.
</p>
<p>
	Cricket has reminded me once again that &quot;my month of service is up&quot; tonight, and asking again that I pay them.
	I suppose this marks the half-way point to when they will likely finish cutting off my service so I can switch carriers.
</p>
<p>
	The fight to get the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership made public continues.
	There is currently a petition by CREDO Mobile to get the president to <a href="https://act.credoaction.com/sign/tpp_reveal">disclose the details</a> of what this agreement really is.
	If you care about transparency, please sign it.
</p>
<p>
	CREDO Mobile is in charge of some of the petitions that really should be signed by as many people as possible, but there is a down side to signing them that you should be aware of before doing so.
	Signing one of their petitions, like signing one of the Daily Kos petitions, signs you up for their mailing list.
	Unlink the Daily Kos though, CREDO Mobile is trying to sell you $a[CDMA] mobile service on a contract.
	$a[CDMA] service is not compatible with free mobile operating systems such as Replicant.
	The use of service contracts is also a very anti-freedom practice and a very evil business tactic.
	As activists, they are helping the community, but as a mobile carrier, I would not recommend them.
	Right now, they want me to buy an iPhone on a two-year contract.
	If you don&apos;t know how I feel both about iPhones and service contracts, you haven&apos;t been reading my past weblog entries.
</p>
<p>
	Another petition by CREDO Mobile is an effort to <a href="https://act.credoaction.com/sign/debt_free_college">make college education gratis for students</a>.
	At first, I was kind of reluctant to sign.
	After all, if the student isn&apos;t paying, someone else is.
	Is it really someone else&apos;s responsibility to pay for our education? However, student debt is helping increase the divide between the wealthy and the unwealthy.
	The wealthy claim they cannot afford to put us through school, but then they turn around and make a killing off our student debt interest.
	The entire country would be better off if more of its citizens were better educated and we should not be just some tools to increase the wealth of a few.
	It&apos;s time to start closing the divide and create a better world for everyone.
</p>
<p>
	Apparently, there are laws in nineteen states that forbid the government from competing with cable companies to deliver Internet service to citizens.
	The cable companies try to maximize profits while minimizing costs, so their service is not as fast or as inexpensive as it should be.
	Municipal broadband is oftem much faster and much more affordable, but as its presence prevents cable companies from having their expensive monopoly, they don&apos;t like it.
	A third CREDO Mobile petition seeks to <a href="https://act.credoaction.com/sign/community_broadband_act">overturn the absurd laws that allow cable companies to keep their monopoly</a>.
</p>
<p>
	Congress it trying to reauthorize the {$a['USA PATRIOT']} Act through a new act called the {$a['USA FREEDOM']} Act.
	The final CREDO Mobile petition in my inbox seeks to <a href="https://act.credoaction.com/sign/usa_freedom_2015">prevent the {$a['USA FREEDOM']} Act from going through</a>.
	If the {$a['USA FREEDOM']} Act is passed, currently-illegal $a[NSA] spying could not only continue, but actually become legal.
</p>
<p>
	CREDO Mobile has a number of <a href="https://credoaction.com/">other petitions</a> that warrant attention, but my computer continues to need to be sleep cycled in order for me to even maintain control of the mouse.
	I now have to sleep cycle the machine a couple times per minute much of the time, up to four times per minute sometimes, and it&apos;s been painful enough just to try to get through the petitions that actually get sent to my inbox.
	I will have to ignore the others for now.
	It doesn&apos;t help that Evolution seems to be much slower than Claws Mail, nor does it handle frequent sleep cycling well.
	I may need to switch back to Claws Mail soon.
	Due to these technical difficulties slowing me down substantially, I did not have time to go through the rest of my inbox aside from the CREDO Mobile stuff.
	Hopefully things will work out better tomorrow, but I wouldn&apos;t count on it.
</p>
<p>
	My <a href="/a/canary.txt">canary</a> still sings the tune of freedom and transparency.
</p>
END
);