Freeloader in the House Yow!

So I’m staring at my torrent download bar. I have downloaded 271 mb in exchange of 411 mb of blood. Data card is smokin' tonight. Literally. When you work with a Globe-run 3g connection, it's kind of Christmastime already when you get so far as download 100mb in an hour even when you’re just about three cartwheels from the foot of Edsa which is like the skyway of 3g. And tonight is a frenzy of blinking green lights signifying connection. Hello Santa. It comes with a hefty cost though. Overheating almost to the threshold of what my titanium casing can handle. Imagine me typing this over a hot plate. That's how hot my ancient laptop is. I bet my inserted China-manufatured data card would be blackened to the sim again after tonight. Last happened when I tried to download a season of Pushing Daisies. Had to scrape the black gooey stuff (might be a melted motherboard bit or something else previously technical but is now just a blob) when the thing finally cooled down.

Anyway, back to my stats. So I’m done downloading the complete discography of two foreign indie-ish bands, topped with a special edition soundtrack and finished off with three more backlog episodes of some random foreign show. And still, I don’t feel satisfied. It’s hard to be happy.

I have admitted long ago that I’m a cyber freeloader to the bone. I never tried going against the prevailing cyberfads and freeloading is one of them. Not a very admirable trait I know. But hey at least I don’t spread around Trojan or auto-program a Banila act with my cyberlounging time. I only suck those who allow me. And I just hate that my guiding principles sometimes sound so kinky.

But yes, back to my hard-to-be-happy point. It frustrates me when my peer list/leechers suck much more from me than what I get from them. Apparently, I can’t limit their sucking powers since there is such a thing as a global upload rate something which the informal ‘freeloading ethics code’ prescribe in return of a decent global download rate something. That is what the downloading netizens told me but I’m dubious up to this date as to the truth and existence of such “code”. They get better connection in the 1^st world, and the best of us from the 3^rd world get a pitiful sortalike-3g. Where’s the justice in the world eh?

And here is the part where I try to segue into an epiphany: The internet should be free. It should be made a protected Constitutional right to which every netizen…erm I meant citizen, is entitled to. Or at least make its availability to all a necessary implication of the Constitution’s state policies (ie. Article II, sections 9-10 and 17). The inability to access it in a decent span of time (read: 100mbps) should be made a violation of human rights.

These arguments (more of sentiments) may not fare well if thrown in the plenary hall for legislative debate. But for what it’s worth, I’m just sayin’.

Regine Tenorio; Entry # 1