Afternoon, everyone, and thanks for stopping by. We'll get started at 2.  Much of the Internet is shut down in protest. We're still here, though, because someone needs to cover the protest and make sure that the LOLcats are fed and watered.  If you haven't, do go read Dave Fahrenthold's piece today, which gives some background on SOPA, PIPA, and the online protests. If you like, you can also read my piece on what we miss when we cannot use Wikipedia.  Today, I'm interested in how the Internet blackouts have impacted your normal online behavior. Are there things you went to look up, only to remember that Wikipedia was down? Which of your favorite sites have been impacted (or have you been impacted at all?) Please share your stories from the trenches.  Have you checked the Twitter account @herpderpedia? Evidently there are some internet users who are completely unaware of SOPA and PIPA and are jumping to all sorts of conclusions about the Wikipedia blackout. I am amazed at the cluelessness.  A friend of mine marveled at the divide on this issue. Half of the Internet was hunkered down for the battle of SOPA, and the other half was blithely posting pictures of Taylor Swift's new haircut, business as usual. My friend speculated that it was a nerd/non-nerd divide, but I think it's bigger than that. In any case, Herperpedia is a must-follow today.  – January 18, 2012 2:01 PM  I like that some of my most frequently visited sites took a stand against SOPA, w/o shutting everything down (Google, craigslist, etc.). I don't miss Wikipedia today since I rarely use it, but if they ever shut down IMDB or Pinterest in protest, I'd be in rough shape.  Google's stand (the black bar across the logo and the clickable Tell Your Congressman link) is fairly unobtrusive. It doesn't much impact user-experience. Do you appreciate that moderation? Or do you think that mass shut-downs like Wikipedia are less convenient, but ultimately more effective?  – January 18, 2012 2:01 PM  Can you let the Reliable Source folks know that printing their entire chat in bold text is annoying and makes it hard to read? Mmmkay? Thanks.  Had to be a glitch beyond their control, as Amy and Rox are never hard-to-read on purpose, though they are often bold.  – January 18, 2012 2:01 PM  I propose that people who do not use technology should not be allowed to make law, judge or interpret policy about such technology. Hell my boomer generation managers here at an unnamed federal agency can't use Word and hand you red lined paper documents to go back and correct, instead of using track changes and simplifying and speeding up everyone's life. I may be 35, but now I fully appreciate the idiom "Never trust anyone under 30." If there was ever an example of money dictating politics, SOPA and PIPA are it. When S.Ct. judges think beepers are still a rage, you know government is out of touch with the people.  This has come up in this chat before -- how much basic knowledge about the Internet should be required before one is allowed to legislate about the Internet.  Of course, one could make similar arguments about male legislators passing laws that effect women, or any number of other examples.  – January 18, 2012 2:03 PM  Sure, Wiki may be down, but the world needs to see Alex Ovechkin in a Russian rap video (he even raps a little at the 2:55 mark)  Absolutely the world needs to see this.  – January 18, 2012 2:04 PM  Eh, not so much. Actually, I'm sort of glad to be rid of the incessant PBS-pledge-drive-like banner ads across the top 1/3 of the page pleading for money to cover their "operating expenses". Also, I'm pretty sure that merely blacking out your logo "in solidarity with the protestors" is the same as wearing a black armband to your quarterly Bank of America Board of Directors meeting to show solidarity with the Occupy protesters; I'm looking at you, Google.  – January 18, 2012 2:05 PM  Is the second part pronounced "pippa" like the Middleton sister, or "peepa" like the gangsta version of a creepy guy who stares in windows? Also, am I the only person who thinks about sopapillas everytime I see this acronym? Of course, I usually spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about dessert, so that last part might just be me.  I shall certainly think about sopapillas *now.*  I've heard both "Pippa" and "Peepa." The grammarian in me wants to say "Peepa," because the singular "p" in the middle does not seem to warrent a short I.  – January 18, 2012 2:08 PM  I'm an IP attorney, hate copyright infringements and want to keep the LOLcats happy. Hasn't enforcement been shown to be less effective tha simply meeting the demand through more efficient legal means? The Napster case didn't significantly diminish downloading, but Apple did when it launched iTunes, a cheap and easy way to download "I'm Sexy and I Know It" without having to buy the whole album (which has enough cheese to endanger my cholesterol level). Why it's so difficult to get agreements with Hollywood to allow content providers (Netflix) to stream new release movies is beyond me.  I think the practical answer would be that Hollywood doesn't just want your Netflix dollars -- they want your $12 movie ticket and your $14 popcorn combo. But I think that it's likely inevitable that Hollywood and other content generators will realize that people aren't watching things the way they used to, that the Internet is renowned for its ability to invent new things and patch together workarounds, and that trying to solve problems of piracy with legislation will have unintended consequences. I'm sure they're already realizing that, which is why we have services like Netflix streaming to begin with.  – January 18, 2012 2:12 PM  Being an IT guy in DC, I've been trying to educate my political friends about SOPA for the last month or two. Initially the talk was laughed off as unimportant ramblings. Look its the tech guy who wants to discuss political issues, how cute. Then they went back and discussed pointless topics like who was polling higher Iowa between Cain and Bachmann or who made the stupidest statement in the 102nd Republican debate. Then Lamar Smith and his merry band of idiots told us that we couldn't organize a sizable protest. Hell hath no fury like a techie scorned. Let this be a lesson to any group who tries to ruin the internet in the name of their lobby. We are better organized than you can dream of and you have p---- off a pretty important group of people. Don't make this same mistake again. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p-TV4jaCMk  "Hell hat no fury like a techie scorned." Truer words were never spoken.  – January 18, 2012 2:14 PM  to write something for a job interview. it would nice to be able to go to wikipedia. when i search the terms, well, wikipedia comes up in the results, but I can't get to the page! annoying! just don't have it show up, google!!!  You should still be able to view cached Wikipedia pages. This blog post has a link walking you through it. Happy job hunting!  – January 18, 2012 2:15 PM  We can still use it. I had success using Google's cache pages today. I read that you can also disable javascript to get the blackout splash screen to go away. s  Another set of instructions for workarounds.  – January 18, 2012 2:16 PM  So, in sympathy with the Internet shutdown, I am going to not use the Internet today. No, wait...  – January 18, 2012 2:16 PM  Cupcake--survival at work is difficult without my favorite "Follow the Wikipedia Rabbit Hole" game. Thank God you are here!  I wouldn't have missed it.  – January 18, 2012 2:17 PM  Cupcake, I am positive you watch Downton Abbey, yes? Do you have a favorite character/plot line?  Any scene involving both Mary and the Dowager Countess are perfection. Daisy makes me want to throw crockery about the kitchen. You?  – January 18, 2012 2:18 PM  Isn't the saying "never trust anyone OVER 30?" Of course, we would normally just look it up on the wiki....  Oops, yes -- I think we can fairly say that was a typo.  – January 18, 2012 2:19 PM  So, the internet companies that make money are not shutting down, but doing a non-interventionary protest, but those who lose money are doing a sit-in protest. Google should have shut down - then people would notice.  Then we all would have just taken sick days and malingered in bed, unable to deal with it all.  – January 18, 2012 2:20 PM  My issue with the SOPA blackouts is that it seems to be affecting the wrong set of people. Most everyone on Reddit knows about SOPA anyways. To really get politician's attention, you need to get a website or company that caters to people who thinks what happens on the internet doesn't apply to them.  Hence, the previous poster's noodge toward Google. Much harder for the general population to ignore something like that.  – January 18, 2012 2:21 PM  Speaking of not being being internet savvy, the Justices are saying that you can cyberbully a principal because the internet is not on school property so the school can't regulate the speech, but that you can't carry a banner that says "Bong hits 4 Jesus" since that wasn't on school property, but the school still has a vested interest in controlling the speech of their students? Bizarre.  What if you sent the principal a link of a video in which students carried a banner reading, "Bong Hits 4 Jesus."  – January 18, 2012 2:22 PM  My coworkers and I were having a debate about when Super Mario Bros 2 that we couldn't resolve without wikipedia (and all the fun video game sites are blocked at our office)  – January 18, 2012 2:23 PM  I followed it for 5 minutes and now I just want to hide under my desk and weep for the stupidity and ignorance of humanity. Dear God.  In defense of humanity, I got the sense, from my scrolling, that a lot of those posters were about 15 (see the plentitude of "OH NOOOO HOW WILL I DO MY TRIG HOMEWORK POSTS."). And most of us are variations of stupid and ignorant at 15.  – January 18, 2012 2:24 PM  I'm dusting off my encyclopedia collection today. Now which boxes did I put them in when I moved 15 years ago...  I wonder how librarians are doing today. Maybe it's like 1999 for them all over again. Bless the librarians.  – January 18, 2012 2:25 PM  If this passes someone should hack into both the MPAA and RIAA websites, post illegal content then report them.  I'm sure a hearty band of 4channers are already on the case.  – January 18, 2012 2:25 PM  I hear the United Nations Black helicopters took out Wikipedia and now they are coming to take away our guns.  – January 18, 2012 2:27 PM  I think taking a stand but still being user-friendly is better. People get frustrated when things don't work and may turn the blame around on to the websites that are protesting rather than focusing on the agenda at hand.  Interesting point. Though I'm fairly convinced that most people "turning the blame" on a giant, hard-to-avoid Web site would likely result in a day or two of boycotts, followed by the irresistible urge to Google.  – January 18, 2012 2:29 PM  I am late to the party on this one, but HFS- this lady kills me!! *Tangentially related to SOPA because I went to search for her on Wikipedia and... well, you know.  Symptoms include staring out windows and walking slowly in comfy sweaters.  – January 18, 2012 2:31 PM  I can't access at work, but, please, please tell me that it's to the tune of the 70's hit "The Night Chicago Died" by the band Paper Lace -- 'cause that would be awesome. I'd also like to point out that I was able to research all the information for this post (inlcuding looking up the name "Paper Lace") without once having to interface with Wikipedia.  Rather, it is to the tune of "Bye Bye Miss American Pie," which, I assure you, is equally acceptable.  – January 18, 2012 2:33 PM  I always try to boycott the Washington Post's website due to the many, many, many, many technical errors and other basic functionality failings, but try as I might, I just can't quit you Washington Post.  Someday we'll discover that you have saved our old musty shirt in your closet, from all those years ago.  – January 18, 2012 2:34 PM  ...who find Wikipedia immensely helpful in doing their homework! I'm amazed at the extent of their section on advanced mathematics, and it has proven very useful so far as I pursue my Master's degree. But there's always Wolfram (and WolframAlpha) as a backup. :-)  No, of course not -- What I was saying was that a large percentage of the people on herpderpedia who had never heard of SOPA appeared to be 15-year-olds. Presumably, the overgrown math nerds among us know what SOPA is.  – January 18, 2012 2:36 PM  We're staring out the window and wearing comfy sweaters. We have 7 inches of snow and still falling. Check out how we drive on youtube - if it's still up.  Maybe you should all be on the Medicine.  – January 18, 2012 2:36 PM  As long as she throws it at Ethel. Love Mary. Love Matthew. Wish Matthew was real so he could marry me instead of Lavinia.  Lavinia is not long for this world. Her backstory is still too shady and her headpieces are too strange. She'll be gone by season's end.  – January 18, 2012 2:37 PM  sure...on the one day I needed to use wiki to see if I could use "volumetric" when referencing "tons".  I think the word you're looking for is "heavy."  – January 18, 2012 2:38 PM  Everything I've read about this legislation suggests that it's mostly about the entertainment industry's middlemen trying to protect their profits. The reality of the industry is that vast majority of profits from any work go to the middlemen and not to the work's creators. Those companies originally flourished because of the difficulties that individual creators faced in distributing and publicizing their works, and a case can be made that the Web has superseded that role. Do you see this as the real issue here?  Undoubtedly a large portion of this is about profit-protecting. But I'm not sure I'm following your particular question. SOPA isn't intended, at least on its face, to prevent distribution of original works -- which, as you point out, are now dispersed much more easily online than they ever were before.  – January 18, 2012 2:41 PM  So it looks like the MPAA and Former Senator Dodd are running a contest to see who can come off as the biggest jerk (because the words I really probably can't be printed in this chat)  Someone's account is going to get jacked soon, hmm?  – January 18, 2012 2:42 PM  ( ) (The above comment deleted in sympathy with the Internet blackout protest.)  – January 18, 2012 2:42 PM  Well, we're not doing all that well. Everyone thinks they no longer need us. I expect to be out of a job within 2 years.  – January 18, 2012 2:43 PM  Just type "define: volumetric" in your google search box  – January 18, 2012 2:44 PM  Speaking of blackouts, we had one in my little area a few months ago due to high winds. Well, no power for 1.5 hours made me reconsider getting an i-phone. Fortunately I did not burn down the house with candles and sanity was restored not too much later. But it does surprise me how sad I felt thinking "this was how it used to be before power."  Only because you weren't prepared. If you had lived in the world before power, I bet you would know all sorts of tricks for staying occupied in the dark. You would have a whole repertoire of scary voices for storytelling time, for example, and you would probably be so exhausted from getting up at 4 to milk the cow that you would be ready to go to bed by 7 pm anyway. See? It wouldn't be so bad at all.  – January 18, 2012 2:46 PM  If you shut down youtube (via lipsync), or Bit Torrents, or other methods of peer to peer transfer, its considerably harder to distribute your work. By focusing on user generated content, which can clearly be adversely affected by the legislation (even though its not the target) then only the big boys distribute entertainment anymore.  Yes, of course. Thanks for the clarification. This is the logic leap I was missing in the earlier question.  – January 18, 2012 2:47 PM  Hey! I'm over 50 and I can use track changes in Word and Wikipedia and an iPhone and... and... and lots of stuff. I'm totally groovy!  Have you uploaded your user-generated video to YouTube yet?  – January 18, 2012 2:48 PM  Gizmodo reports that multiple senate websites are crashing under the traffic. Politico has multiple articles about the politics (and grassroots behind the movement). I think its safe to say the message has gone mainstream. Its also safe to say that the MPAA/RIAA love hating on the average citizen. They can continue to mock everyone at their own peril. The internet has a long memory.  – January 18, 2012 2:49 PM  The movie industry set up in California in the first place because the fledgling studios wanted to use patented technology belonging to Thomas Edison without having to pay for it. Sure, they could have gone to Florida and gotten the abundant sunshine so critical in the infancy of film making, but that wouldn't have put them 3,000 miles from Edison and his process servers.  This is fascinating. I never knew this historical tidbit.  – January 18, 2012 2:50 PM  Is it at all wrong that my gut instinct with this blackout was to create an assignment for my college-level science class (due at 5pm today!) that would have been, in other circumstances, incredibly easy to finish using Wikipedia?  No, it is exactly right! It's a survival-of-the-fittest test.  Of course, as we've already discussed, I bet most of the folks in your college-level class already know how to access the caches, or have their own workarounds.  – January 18, 2012 2:51 PM  Yup, I think you're right....  Which of course brings back Back to the Future memories: "Is there some problem with the planet's gravitational pull?"  ...and of course we can't verify today....  I'm quite certain that a librarian could help you figure that out...  – January 18, 2012 2:56 PM  And with that ode to librarians, we'll sign off for today. I'll see you next week -- and in the meantime, catch up with me on Twitter or Tumblr, both of which are blackout-free.
A weekly chat about the best ways to kill time online. Our Web Hostess, Monica Hesse, sifts the Internet so you don't have to, searching for meaning, manners and the next great meme. This week, Monica discusses her story about the SOPA blackouts and takes your questions about the SOPA and PIPA controversy.