Best Aerosmith Parody ever:
Absolutely brilliant.
You seriously have to question if the guy was suicidal to go out into the woods with Dick Cheney holding a gun. It’s like walking into a tiger pit with fillet mignon in your pockets.
[Hat tip: Digg]
Category: Politics
Because nothing else is dumber
There’s been a lot of buzz lately over AOL and Yahoo charging to email their customers. I think this quote most likely will end up being the future:
“AOL users will become dissatisfied when they don’t receive the e-mail that they want, and when they complain to the senders, they’ll be told, ‘it’s AOL’s fault,’ ” said Richi Jennings, an analyst at Ferris Research, which specializes in e-mail.
Well said. Just wait until AOL customers realize they aren’t getting order confirmations, notifications, and other email’s because the sender won’t pay.
Another concern not really discussed is the possibility of having a Level 3/Cogent style battle where one ISP refuses to let another email their customers, because they aren’t getting paid what they feel they should.
Right now, email is essentially 100% peered. Everyone emails everyone, nobody charges. You pay your ISP to run the mail server, and that’s it. If commercial entities need to pay to email you, your going to get separate charges. Want an email when your order ships? Pay extra. Want an email when this item is back in stock? Pay extra.
This is a very slippery slope. Just one or two greedy ISP’s is all you need to ruin email. Once you can’t reliably email, the system is dead. Spam can reduce efficiency, but can’t kill email. Remember Email is by far the most used protocol in business.
I doubt this system will do anything to reduce spam for AOL customers. It will however help AOL’s revenue, which I’m assuming is the real goal. A slightly bold move as AOL is assuming their customers won’t mind not getting all the legitimate email they would if they used a free Gmail or even Hotmail account.
There’s also a decent possibility AOL customers might have to pay merchants an email fee when they buy products, to help cover that cost. Of course merchants eventually will sneak in their percentage there, further hiking prices.
Personally, I think this biggest threat is a Level 3/Cogent style dispute.
Should also note there’s currently a lot going on over Net Neutrality. Google’s been thrown into the middle of that, merely because of how ubiquitous the company is. Vint Cerf’s letter on the topic is really a must read. Paying for email right is really just an inverted case of network neutrality. Instead of the middle man dictating who you can/can’t communicate with, the next ISP down the line decides. That’s no better.
The Internet as an open medium could drastically change in the next few months if some of this stuff becomes reality. There are quite a few companies out there who believe the internet is enough of a threat to their business, that they want to go as far as crippling it.
Categories
The legal right to annoy
According to this article I can legally annoy you via this blog, since I operate under my own name. To cite the new law:
“Whoever…utilizes any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet… without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person…who receives the communications…shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”
Rather interesting considering many of the countries founding fathers are said to have written under pen names (most famous being the Federalist Papers ironically hosted on the Library of Congress website).
So if you use your name, it’s legal. Brilliant. Brought to you by the same guys who don’t even read the bills they vote for (remember that mess).
If some of this silliness keeps going on, were going to end up having airplanes without windows, because it could threaten security if you look outside.
Perhaps it’s time for some countries to consider building roofs over classified equipment, or perhaps putting a tarp over it. What ever happened to underground bunkers and camouflage?
Categories
MTA copyrighting subway maps
This is kind of disturbing. The MTA isn’t really a private company. As taken from their website (with my emphasis):
Since 1982 the MTA has been carrying out the largest public works rebuilding project in the country. Funded by federal, state, and local government and by the issuance of debt, the MTA’s most recent capital program has generated an average 31,760 private-sector jobs, $1.3 billion in wages, $100 million in state and local tax revenues, and $3.52 billion in economic activity annually.
That’s right New Yorkers… you by law paid for those maps, but by law you can’t have them.
There’s something seriously wrong when you have to pay for access to something paid for by your taxes. They should be given the choice of either giving up the federal/state/local funding, or release copyright into the public domain. The current situation is ridiculous.
Why does history have to repeat itself? It took years to get Number Portability for cell phones. Why isn’t there an effort yet to do the same for VoIP? There’s some discussion here on the topic. Do we really need to get to the point of an epidemic with people locked in to their current provider? Can we be pre-emptive about this? Some things just never change. VoIP numbers should be portable. It should carry on that internet tradition. I have a domain name, but I can take it to any web host I want. If one starts to stink, I can move it away without problems.
I’m pretty sure this will become a big issue at some point. I just wish someone at the FCC would take it on now rather than wait.
Categories
Hurricane Katrina Photo Part II
The individual who wrote the capture for the now infamous “finding” picture broke his silence today.
The people were swimming in chest deep water, and there were other people in the water, both white and black. I looked for the best picture. there were a million items floating in the water – we were right near a grocery store that had 5+ feet of water in it. it had no doors. the water was moving, and the stuff was floating away. These people were not ducking into a store and busting down windows to get electronics. They picked up bread and cokes that were floating in the water. They would have floated away anyhow.
looting, as defined by the dictionary is:
1. Valuables pillaged in time of war; spoils.
2. Stolen goods.
3. Informal. Goods illicitly obtained, as by bribery.
finding on the other hand, is defined in a way that makes it sound much more law abiding:
1. To come upon, often by accident; meet with.
2. To come upon or discover by searching or making an effort: found the leak in the pipe.
Taking property that isn’t yours without express consent, especially if it’s only feet away from a grocery store (which makes it obvious who the owner of the goods are) is still looting. Both definition 1 and 2 for looting 100% describe *both* pictures. The definition of “finding” doesn’t apply to either in the context of the caption. This is just like you can still be charged with armed robbery even if you don’t fire your weapon. Looting is looting. It doesn’t matter the color of your skin or what type protection the property owner had in place to protect their goods. You steal them in a circumstance like this (this really falls under time of war like anarchy)… it’s looting.
Yahoo Letter
Yahoo published the following in regard to this topic aknowledging it and explaining (although they didn’t write the captions, they just syndicate it):
To Yahoo! News readers:
News photos are an especially popular section of Yahoo! News. In part, this is because we present thousands of news photos from some of the leading news services, including The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France Press. To make this volume of photos available in a timely manner, we present the photos and their captions as written, edited and distributed by the news services with no additional editing at Yahoo! News.
In recent days, a number of readers of Yahoo! News have commented on differences in the language in two Hurricane Katrina-related photo captions (from two news services). Since the controversy began, the supplier of one of the photos – AFP – has asked all its clients to remove the photo from their databases. Yahoo! News has complied with the AFP request.
Here are a few of the postings that have commented on the photo caption language:
Flickr
Salon
Romenesko
Gothamist
You can comment on the issue on this message board.
Yahoo! News regrets that these photos and captions, viewed together, may have suggested a racial bias on our part. We remain committed to bringing our readers the full collection of photos as transmitted by our wire service partners.
Neil Budde
General Manager
Yahoo! News
Update: added yahoo letter.
Categories
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina took part of the gulf coast and smashed it yesterday. I remember a little over a year ago in Environmental Biology watching a video about the effects of the marhes near New Orleans erroding could cause a Hurricane to have catastrophic effects. Yesterday those theories became 100% solid fact. New Orleans being below water levels didn’t even the the protection of some extra land around it. Rather sad.
It’s amazing that the media can have so much bias while giving the news (Found this via Fark and expanded on it). Take a look at the following two examples:
Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans, Louisiana.(AFP/Getty Images/Chris Graythen)
From Yahoo
A young man walks through chest deep flood water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday. (AP/Dave Martin)
From Yahoo
It’s absolutely amazing to see something like that. Because the indidual is white, it’s theoretically impossible for looting to be involved, just like it’s bonified fact that only African Americans particpate in looting activities. [pause for collective sigh) Just shows how the media loves to influence the American public.
Update
The author of the ‘finding’ caption responds.
The above photo’s and captions are copyrighted and copied here for the academic purpose of illustrating media bias
Categories
Bloggers get ready
There’s going to be a lot of backlash at the blogging community in general thanks to this sicko (Joseph Edward Duncan pretty much detailing his sickness). Just wait until the backlash starts and we get some screwball senator who proposes to require all websites to be registered with law enforcement (the same thing the US has attacked China about).
I’m predicting in the next 18 months, things are going to get rather ugly for bloggers legally. As with any technology a few things will happen:
- Someone will find a way to profit – that already happened. There’s a bulk of commercial blogs by CEO’s, companies, media with no other purpose than to gain cheap brand exposure by littering the blogosphere.
- Someone will find a way to abuse – that’s already happened. From terrorists (who you can bet have used the medium), to criminals, etc.
- Someone will try to legally nullify it, or sue it – that’s about where we stand. Apple started, and it’s going to just escalate. Don’t be surprised if blogspot gets sued by the family or someone else as a result. As if they personally read all of the millions of posts.
Things will get ugly. Don’t forget the whole Patriot Act debate going on. This is right in there. It’s going to get ugly.
Please rel=”nofolllow” links like the above… lets not promote their google rank like many of the ignorant media outlets do.
Categories
Quote of the Week
See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda. (Applause.)
– George W. Bush [Source] emphasis mine.
That pretty much sums it up rather well. I guess honesty does occasionally show it’s face.
[Hat tip Fark]