This was originally written on February 8, 2008.  I recently got back into the notion of blogging, and surprised myself when I found this buried at the bottom of my draft posts.

I found this to be very moving… Almost as moving as the original speech it is based on. Having watched various documentaries that have reflected upon Dr. Martin Luther King’s power in spoken words for a better society, and the tragic loss of the dream that he tried to share with us all – I’ve grown up in a society that has become increasingly cynical, distrusting, and disenfranchised from what was the American Dream – myself included.

Listening to Barack Obama speak has been inspirational for me. He is the only living political or social figure in my lifetime to make me feel that there is still hope for this country – a hope that we can overcome and fix what is wrong in our society, as well as how we behave as people on a planet that we share with others.

I like to think I look past the boundaries of political parties, and judge people for the values and decisions that they have and will make. I hope in my lifetime I can see the two party system abolished. I think that the current party system intentionally divides people that would do better to come together in solidarity for improving our great land as well as our lives.

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Ian McKellen has confirmed that he will reprise his role as Gandalf the Grey in the upcoming adaptation of The Hobbit. Let the world rejoice in all the goodness of Ian McKellen‘s portrayal of my all-time favorite archetype wizard.

But alas, learning of such things usually exposes me to more information than I need or want to know. Such as Peter Jackson handing the reins over to Guillermo del Toro to direct this Lord of the Rings prequel. BDT directing is a good thing, don’t get me wrong. I love what he did with Hellboy and El laberinto del fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth)… but … come on … why isn’t PJ handling TH’s parts 1 & 2?!

I attribute this near-travesty to New Line Cinema for succeeding in ticking off PJ enough that he went and attached himself as director to Steven Spielberg‘s upcoming animated film, Tintin – before getting the issue resolved. I say “blech” on both counts.

I’m pleased as punch that PJ will executive produce the two-part prequel, and that he has agreed to collaborate with BDT on the project. But, in the long run I think his priorities have perhaps become en-lodged in some netherplace detrimental to his career. PJ instantly created himself a legacy with his extraordinary work on the LOTR trilogy. To relinquish that creative control and insight into establish character and storyline modifications, and to hand it over to another distinctly creative director with fantasy genre credibility … well, that just strikes me as a huge mistake to make regarding this franchise. I fear it will be something to be remembered and noticed for all time – blemishing one of the only truly good trilogies of my, or any time.

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Google Lisa McPherson.

’nuff said.

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Clearly, there is something going on (see: wrong) with Comcast’s definition of unrestricted Internet access (see: Comcast/BitTorrent interference lawsuit). They say they are not blocking anything, and in fact, they are telling the truth. So if you call Comcast to complain about a service problem; do not use that verbiage. If you do, and you are persistent, they can and will will deem you a disgruntled or uncooperative caller and ignore you.

What you need to do is play their word game.

Their word game is not to call the teakettle black – but to say that it is less reflective to light due to its dark color. I.e., they aren’t blocking ports outright – they are hindering normal communication or doing something to affect it in a way that causes it to fail.

By using this type of wording and phrasing, I was able to get Comcast to admit that they block ports – something they are currently denying in court and normally never admit to. See below for the quote I got from a tech support representative.

However, in case you were wondering, I was not calling to complain about BitTorrent. I was calling to complain about their interference with other protocols; in my case, it was RDP for use with Windows Remote Desktop, as well as DameWare. These protocols/services have begun to be “interfered with” for me in the past couple of months, although they used to work flawlessly. Now they do not work across the Comcast network at all. Being a network administrator and having knowledge that nothing has changed on my home or work networks, I knew the problem had to be with the man in the middle: Comcast.

Kevin Kanarski, working as a Lotus Notes messaging engineer, observed that Comcast is indeed interfering with other network applications. In the case of Lotus Notes, Comcast is sending a RST (reset) packet to both the client and server in the connection intentionally killed emails with large attachments.

So, in this case, Comcast is sending false packets to the client and/or server in order to reset the connection (TCP packet with an RST flag). RST-reset connections are immediately closed without without any acknowledgment/confirmation handshake regarding the request between the client and server. My knowledge of TCP/IP protocol operation is limited, but this is my understanding of the condition that the RST packets cause.

Unbelievably, this is the crux of a man-in-the-middle attack, and it’s being perpetrated by my own ISP!

However, as you can see: this is “interfering”, not blocking. And this is how Comcast is playing their game.

If you do have a complaint about connectivity issues with Comcast, their regular support cannot (or will not) help you. First, they won’t help you if it involves any technology that they don’t support or have an obligation to support. Second, they will declare that “Comcast does not block ports”. However, they can (if you are lucky enough and they do not simply stonewall you) refer you to contact abuse@comcast.net. Yep, that’s right; the abuse department: The Comcast abuse department is in control of port blocking. To support this claim, here is a quote I finagled out of a tech support rep:

Them > We do not have that information, If you like, you can email abuse@comcast.net and they can check on that for you.

Me > abuse@ is for reporting service abuse. I am inquiring about the configuration of my account.

Them > That department does not only deal with abuse, they deal with any blocking of port numbers, or any problems with connection or email port number blocking.

Wait a second here – So, Comcast has a department that deals with port blocking – ergo Comcast is port blocking! Oh my stars and garters…

But this is just a start, and it’s where your and my fun begins, because abuse@comcast.net doesn’t get read by humans. If you send an email to that address, you’ll receive a boilerplate auto-reply e-mail response with links to common Comcast customer issue – although none of them will involve anything relating to port blocking/interference problems.

Comcast abuse line: 856-317-7272

Fight the power.

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