It’s so simple …
new hilarious blog – The Content Farm
We’re so lucky to have content farms on the internet. Not. 🙂
Category: internet
I love Minister Tony Clement
I love him so much, I just might have to vote Conservative next election.
I heard Clement on the radio yesterday, making exactly the right noises.
Canada minister says Internet billing ruling flawed
… A Canadian regulatory ruling that effectively stops small Internet providers from offering unlimited downloading must be revised, Industry Minister Tony Clement said on the social networking site Twitter.
“True. CRTC must go back to the drawing board,”
Read more …
Prime Minister Harper dropped the hammer on the CRTC via Twitter, too.
The people I trust on the internet are Michael Geist, Jeff Jarvis and Cory Doctorow. (2 of them Canadian).
They’ll like the stand made by Clement.
Here’s what Cory Doctorow had to say Feb. 2nd, before the elected masters stomped all over the CRTC ruling:
Welcome to the Canadian Internet, where extreme concentration in telecoms and a weak, lame regulator have given rise to a nation where your Internet access is metered in small, ungenerous dribs, and where ranging too far afield during your network use results in your ISP breaking into your browsing session to tell you that you’re close to being cut off from the net. …
Boing Boing – Welcome to the Canadian Internet, now stop using it
Other politicians are coming ’round to the ephiphany that standing up for the voters is a WINNER of an issue.
Jeff Jarvis:
In her second major speech on internet freedom, I’m delighted that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stood for the freedom to connect and recognizes the internet as a public space …
She vowed Tuesday to invest $25 million for developers to build tools that will let online dissidents get around “thugs, hackers and censors.”
Just How Open Is Your Internet? [INFOGRAPHICS]
I know what you’re thinking. We’re going to drive TELUS, Bell and Rogers out of business in Canada !!
I hope so.
Some leaner, more honest competitors will rise to take their place.
If there’s a demand for internet, companies will fill that need.
best browsers: Chrome and Firefox
I keep both open on my Mac at all times, switching frequently.
Lifehacker posted a reader’s poll where ‘power users‘ strongly liked those two best.
Since that poll, Firefox has closed the gap. A little.
The main rule, however, is do not use Internet Explorer … unless you have to. IE still sucks, though it’s not as ghastly as in the past.
If you want to know why click over to Lifehacker – How and Why Chrome Is Overtaking Firefox Among Power Users
UPDATE: … The next version of Internet Explorer (not available yet) was just reviewed. Some improvement. But it only works well on Windows 7 and Vista, not XP. And, as usual with Microsoft, it’s too little too late.
Second UPDATE: Dave Sykes links to a BBC Tech reporter who confirms IE 9 is available for download. Microsoft claims it’s now the fastest browser on Windows 7. … When I went to check, all I can find is the IE9 Release Candidate. That’s still something of a Beta.
Microsoft doesn’t care much about IE, in any case. The big problem at Microsoft is Windows Phone 7, too little too late.
food Search Engine = Foodily
Social networking based around food.
Foodily is like Google news for recipes, but with a social twist. Users can search across multiple sites by ingredient, see recipes that their friends like and create Facebook events around recipes. …
Here’s my search results for “raisins”.
… Allrecipes.com, Cooks.com, BakeSpace.com, and Nibbledish all foster community and encourage comments on recipes, but they do so among strangers. …
Bandwidth Caps & Usage Based Billing
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission approved a lame proposal being pushed by 3 Internet Service Providers that control 96% of the market.
I’m one of 200,000 voters who signed a petition against that proposal.
Happily it looks to be dead in the water.
First the NDP. Then the Liberals. And now Conservative Tony Clement, the Minister responsible, are all banging the drums for an innovative and competitive marketplace.
CBC – Industry Minister Tony Clement says CTRC decision will be ‘studied carefully’
Fact is that corporations try to use monopoly and oligopoly to maximize their own profits. They want to make you pay as much as possible, for as little as possible.
If you are interested, the best summary of the complicated issue was posted today by Michael Geist.
FOOD social networking
Rocco uses a site called allrecipes.com to store his favourite dishes, e.g. Italian Chicken and Chickpeas
Seems to me that food is an ideal topic around which to build a social network.
Foodspotting and Urbanspoon are two hot players in this space.
Chewsy, a mobile app, has a GREAT name.
Leave a comment if you use any food centric web services.
(via Mashable)
High Greed Internet
Many Canadians are asleep while the ISPs plot a cash grab.
George Stroumboulopoulos explains the complicated issue calling B.S. on the Internet Service Providers.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I’ve already signed the petition at: StopTheMeter.ca
Telcos and ISPs are the least trustworthy corporations today.
Stop The Meter On Your Internet Use
… this post for Canadians who want good internet service at a fair market price …
Atop my least trusted and most hated corporations list are the Telecos.
(There’s a special circle of Hell reserved for TELUS employees.)
An enemy of my enemy is my friend … these guys:
Stop The Meter On Your Internet Use
I like their strident hyperbole:
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are about to impose usage-based billing on YOU.
This means we’re looking at a future where ISPs will charge per byte, the way they do with smart phones. If we allow this to happen Canadians will have no choice but to pay MUCH more for less Internet. Big Telecom companies are obviously trying to gouge consumers, control the Internet market, and ensure that consumers continue to subscribe to their television services.
These Big Telecom companies are forcing small ISP competitors to adopt the same pricing scheme. So we have no choice but to pay these punitive fees.
This will crush innovative services, Canada’s digital competitiveness, and your wallet.
This will bring you up to speed.
Click PLAY or watch a CBC news summary on YouTube.
things getting better – teenage girls
As a gymnastics coach, I work with a lot of teenage girls.
Troubled teens, I’m oft to call them.
Over my lifetime I’m convinced that young ladies have gotten more confident, savvy and funny.
I first started noticing the trend in the mid-1990s. Teen girls were smart, organized and independent. Teen boys were … the same. Teen boys.
The internet, especially Facebook, has really liberated their creativity. I’ve seen stats showing over two thirds of the posts are by females. But the GOOD posts are about 90% female.
Facebook has not changed teen boys one jot.
Girls are better communicators than boys. And Facebook gives them the chance to really go crazy.
In this Facebook photo one girl is proposing marriage to another. She’s even offering a ring.
Hilarious.
… Am I wrong?
I’ve never had anybody else concur with my theory.
still confused by Net Neutrality?
I am.
At first it seemed that the best case scenario would be to have a government owned digital superhighway … and let competition innovate. And keep prices low.
But can the government do anything efficiently?
If corporations build “the tubes”, shouldn’t they be able to charge what they want for using them?
Certainly. If there was competition.
But most people have 3 choices: phone company or cable company or satellite. Sadly, that’s not competition enough.
If the Internet Service providers (TELUS, Shaw, Verizon, etc.) have their way, your internet service will be about as good as your current TV service.
The worst case scenario is explained in a fun, graphic way on a new website. Click through to see it – TheOpenInter.net
Scary.
(via TechCrunch)
Rick McCharles 