Today the FCC ruled on Net Neutrality. 
See the big fat power wires in my image?  Power is a regulated utility.

One of my co-workers asked "Is this a good or bad thing?"

What i basicaally said was:
It’s just another ‘thing’.  Let’s face it gents: we work in the utility business.  Regulated and semi-monopoly.  It’s been that way for a while.  And now the federal legislation backs it up and makes it official.  Our telecom/ISP business has always been, on the surface, a cutting edge technology business, but at it’s core, it is a real estate and construction business.  You can’t flip a switch and make a T1 automagically appear one block away.  You start from scratch, from the Central Office (CO), from the beginning, to deliver that T1 to the new address.

To elaborate a little bit more... if you tell your contractor for the most massive home remodel of your life "I don't want that indoor pool any longer in the basement.  I want it on the 3rd floor so I can see the Space Needle."  
Well then, when you only planned to have two floors in your house, then you got some massively expensive change orders coming down the line.  Imagine the structural and seismic changes that must be made to hold a million or so gallons of water on the 3rd floor when it didn't even exist before you changed your mind.

Yeah.  Welcome to my world.

P.S. imagine half way through painting that wall NW Salmon, that the contractors would have finished on Tuesday, you want to make it San Diego Clementine to brighten your mood the long dreary Northwest winter.  Mmmyeah, they're going to have to start over and re-prime (add one more week), make a special order for new paint (two more weeks), and then re-hire new contractors to re-paint again (add yet another week).

This article explains it all very well:  Marketplace with Kai Rysdall.
Enjoy!

Human Negativity Bias, aka Once Bitten Twice Shy (one of my favorite 80's glam rock songs).

One of the biggest issues with people and technology is the Human Negativity Bias.  And my Shaver is a perfect example of it.  The maker is a trusted consumer brand.  The company has plenty of smart people.  They make almost everything you can imagine.  Well think about how surprised I was when at 40% the shaver crapped out one morning.  I'm going to walk into the office looking like a complete NTAC.  Half my face with hair.  Half my face without hair.  WTF.

It said I had 40%.  But then all of a sudden it's dead.  And now suddenly it shows 0%.  It took a second for it to realize itself.  And as shocking as it was, now it's commonplace and I expect it all the time.  

Well it's good that I have a charging cable nearby.  I plug it in.  Wait five minutes.  The shaver reads 0%.  Great.  Well, I might as well give it a try.  And it works!  Yay!  So then in this twisted reality 40% means 0%.  And 0% means something higher than 0%.  Mmmk.  Alrighty then.  Let's keep this issue between us and we'll be just fine...

A funny aspect of working with smart, quick-witted sales people is their unexpected responses.  
Today:

After I pushed the elevator button, he said "Do you always use your elbow?"

"Pretty much."

"I like to use my tongue." ...as he sticks his tongue out towards the elevator buttons.

And I just cringe and gag a little bit at the idea of it.