UPDATE – looks like Google might finally be doing something about this problem:
If you had a photography question you might be tempted to type in the URL “photography.com”.
Hey — not a bad looking website. This might be exactly what you are looking for.
Turns out photography.com has no content at all. It is a disguised collection of ad links.
I need a browser which blocks advertising sites like this as it blocks popup ads.
If you are bored with the whole confusing issue, you may get fired-up by this opinion piece by Molly Wood.
The Buzz Report: Net neutrality: bring it on – CNET.com
The war for trillions of our dollars is getting ugly.
My warning bells really started dinging when I saw the unbelievably manipulative, disingenuous Don’tRegulate.org and HandsOff.org. These sites are, for lack of a better description, fake grassroots Web sites that are actually funded by AT&T, Cingular, Alcatel, and then a motley collection of conservative think tanks or fellow “grassroots” organizations such as NetCompetition.org, which is in turn funded almost exclusively by telcos and cable companies.
The telecommunication and cable companies are still the “bad guys”. For now. By owning the last mile of service to your door, they have a lot of leverage.
Hopefully I can one day sign on with a satellite provider to get away from them. Or move to a country that legislates Net Neutrality.
Something I would never have predicted is about to happen.
I think countries like Australia, Netherlands, maybe Canada, are going to democratically decide to suspend some human rights in exchange for supposed security from Terrorists.
US citizens have no choice. Their rights have been limited already by the Bush regime, legal or not. Don’t count on freedom of speech in the USA.
First targeted will be Muslims. Next ???
I am strongly for all our current human rights legislation. We need protect and improve our freedoms. As for Muslims, I’ve never been better treated as a tourist than in Islamic countries. The friendliest countries I know are Syria and Jordan.
A glimpse of the future:
The Metropolitan police today bowed to demands for an apology from the family targeted in an east London terror raid, after the man shot by an officer spoke for the first time of fears for his life.
Dvorak Uncensored » Man shot by London police demands apology
Microsoft admitted that “its tool for determining whether a computer is running a pirated copy of Windows also quietly checks in daily with the software maker.”
Dvorak Uncensored » “Windows Genuine Advantage” checks in — daily
This is much like the Sony music CDs that phoned home. Those got Sony in a lot of trouble.
In future, expect more of your technology to be spying.
You can get past that. Assume that there is no privacy on the internet.
Or take action to protect your privacy. Encript. Use PGP email.
The only thing I do is use a program called Little Snitch. Every time my computer tries to call out unexpectedly, I get a warning. Then and there I can approve that contact. Or deny it. Normally I deny.
It’s interesting what software is yanking the football out from under me.
I’ve suggested 2025 as the date when everyone will agree that the USA is no longer the “world leader”. But perhaps it will be sooner.
Dvorak Uncensored » How much longer will America lead?! Public Unaware of Realities
The internet is the best hope for the future, but America seems bent on squandering their seemingly insurmountable lead in this field. If I were Google or Yahoo, I’d be looking to move offshore.
The main problem seems to be the legislative process in the USA. Lobbyists for corporations vie to get legislation enacted for the short-term interests of their shareholders. No one in the US government seems to be protecting free enterprise, free markets, and innovation.
The Bush Republicans are dead in the water, trying to deflect public attention from important issues like Health Care to hot button topics like same sex marriage. It’s embarrassing.
I admire what the USA has done to further democracy, freedom and entrepreneurship in the past. America has been the best country in the world since 1900.
But how much longer?
You may have got an email from Akin.
(FORTUNE Magazine) – Akin is, like many things in cyberspace, an alias. In real life he’s 14. He wears Adidas sneakers, a Rolex Submariner watch, and a kilo of gold around his neck.
Akin, who lives in Lagos, is one of a new generation of entrepreneurs that has emerged in this city of 15 million, Nigeria’s largest. His mother makes $30 a month as a cleaner, his father about the same hustling at bus stations. But Akin has made it big working long days at Internet cafes and is now the main provider for his family and legions of relatives.
… Akin buys things online – laptops, BlackBerries, cameras, flat-screen TVs – using stolen credit cards and aliases. He has the loot shipped via FedEx or DHL to safe houses in Europe, where it is received by friends, then shipped on to Lagos to be sold on the black market. (He figures Americans are too smart to sell a camera on eBay to a buyer with an address in Nigeria.)
Akin’s main office is an Internet cafe in the Ikeja section of Lagos. He spends up to ten hours a day there, seven days a week, huddled over one of 50 computers, working his scams.
Read the whole article …
FORTUNE: Online scams create “Yahoo! millionaires” – May 29, 2006
In the Fight Against Spam E-Mail, Goliath Wins Again
A Russia-based spammer counterattacked.
Using tens of thousands of hijacked computers, the spammer flooded Blue Security with so much Internet traffic that it blocked legitimate visitors from going to Bluesecurity.com, as well as to other Web sites.
When are they going to solve the Spam problem?
Dvorak Uncensored » Republicans prepare to ban myspace.com
America’s leadership on the internet is doomed unless somebody straightens-out a few idiot Republican politicians.
George Clooney told me to send George Bush a postcard about the plight of the innocent in Darfur, Africa. So I did.
Save Darfur.org :: Add Your Voice
What is Canada doing?
Global warming is about to reach the public consciousness in a big way. Check the trailer for the soon to be released documentary narrated by Al Gore.
I hope I get to see the snows of Kilimanjaro before they disappear completely.
An Inconvenient Truth – Trailer
And a list of Global warming skeptic articles.
Rick McCharles 