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07 Jul 2009 18:03

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World: China blocks access to Twitter, Facebook, proves they’re total douches.

  • Following the deadly riots in Xinjiang, the government is reportedly blocking all the fun stuff on the internet. I mean, Twitter, Facebook, Google, YouTube? That’s a lot of people’s plans for Saturday night summed up right there. Not to mention all those, um, human rights issues too. Bummer. source

02 Jul 2009 00:32

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Tech: The world needs more vomiting in Internet Explorer ads

  • However, this ad does it all wrong. The vomiting should not convince you to use Internet Explorer 8. Rather, it should convince you never to use IE8 ever again. OK, Dean Cain?source

29 Jun 2009 00:53

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Politics, Tech: Two examples of old people who don’t get new journalism

  • Judge: Let’s outlaw linking! In this corner: Seventh Circuit Appeals Court Judge Richard Posner, based out of Chicago. A pretty smart guy.
    His argument: Posner, in an argument on his blog, says that “Expanding copyright law … to bar linking to or paraphrasing copyrighted materials without the copyright holder’s consent, might be necessary to keep free riding on content financed by online newspapers.”
    Why he doesn’t get it Because his idea is against the very nature of the Internet and nobody would support him. Plus, his article has a trackback function enabled to encourage linking!
  • Judge: Let’s outlaw linking! In this corner: Seventh Circuit Appeals Court Judge Richard Posner, based out of Chicago. A pretty smart guy.
    His argument: Posner, in an argument on his blog, says that “Expanding copyright law … to bar linking to or paraphrasing copyrighted materials without the copyright holder’s consent, might be necessary to keep free riding on content financed by online newspapers.”
    Why he doesn’t get it Because his idea is against the very nature of the Internet and nobody would support him. Plus, his article has a trackback function enabled to encourage linking!
  • Columnist: Let’s tighten laws! In this corner: Connie Schultz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, still a solid print product.
    Her argument: Schultz says that there’s too many free riders on the journalism bandwagon and they’re coming at the cost of newspaper revenue. She subscribes to David and Daniel Marburger’s theory that copyright law needs to force aggregators to share ad revenue with producers.
    Why she doesn’t get it While her idea is less crazy than Posner’s (she’s not advocating the blocking of linking), it’s cut from the same cloth. Also, you can share her column on Reddit and Digg!

27 Jun 2009 17:08

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Biz, Tech: Google and Facebook are in a bare-knuckles fight to own the Web

  • In one ultra-organized corner … Google Google’s been on top of the heap for nearly a decade, and it’s a firm hold. They’ve built themselves around the idea that the Web’s organization should be simple. Their ads are well-targeted, and their services – especially search, Gmail and News – are incredibly useful. They made $4.2 billion last year alone.
    However, they have one big problem: They can’t convince the brands of Madison Ave. to work with them.

    source
  • In one ultra-organized corner … Google Google’s been on top of the heap for nearly a decade, and it’s a firm hold. They’ve built themselves around the idea that the Web’s organization should be simple. Their ads are well-targeted, and their services – especially search, Gmail and News – are incredibly useful. They made $4.2 billion last year alone.
    However, they have one big problem: They can’t convince the brands of Madison Ave. to work with them.

  • And in a more social one … Facebook Facebook, on the other hand, is building influence and currency on the Web. They’ve got critical mass, and, smartly, didn’t even focus on competing with MySpace. They want to be the new Google, and have just the right arrogant CEO to pull it off. Their hyper-focused information means they can focus on advertising for brands.
    However, they have one big problem: They keep pissing off their customers by evolving too quickly. source

20 Jun 2009 13:53

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Tech, World: Unable to block porn from computers, China turns to Google

  • Google has been asked by China to block a feature that brings up related search terms when typing in a word, because apparently it was showing too much explicit related content. source
  • China has been ratcheting up its internet censorship lately, much to the chagrin of users. On top of Tiananmen Square blocking, they tried (and failed) to put censoring software on all PCs. source

18 Jun 2009 20:21

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Tech: Available options for enabling tethering on your AT&T iPhone

  • According to The Unofficial Apple Weblog (where friend of the site Megan Lavey works), AT&T plans to offer a super-expensive $55 data plan to allow you to use the iPhone’s 3G on your laptop. Laaaaaaaaame.
  • According to 9to5Mac (where, sadly, no friends of the site work), you can hack your 3.0-upgraded iPhone using some simple non-jailbreaking steps to enable tethering in five minutes. Guess which one we’re doing?
  • waiting
  • hacking

16 Jun 2009 12:22

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Tech: Opera’s world-changing thing, Unite, might actually change the world

Much credit to Opera: Unite actually sounds like a brilliant idea and might get them elusive market share. source
 

13 Jun 2009 21:09

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Tech: Opera makes a broad, overreaching claim about the Web’s future

opera0613

12 Jun 2009 12:28

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Politics, Tech: Prediction: Barry Diller is a money-hungry net neophyte

  • I absolutely believe the internet is passing from its free days into a paid system.
  • InterActiveCorp CEO Barry Diller • On the future of the Internet, which he claims will be filled with pricing structures everywhere. Pretty much everyone at the conference he was at disagreed with him – including everyone in this article we linked. Idiot. • source

09 Jun 2009 10:58

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Tech: Bloggers who get bored leave a trail of broken dreams behind

  • I was always hoping more people would read it, and it would get a lot of comments. Every once in a while I would see this thing on TV about some mommy blogger making $4,000 a month, and thought, ‘I would like that.’
  • Judy Nichols • Who ran a site called “Rantings of a Crazed Soccer Mom” before she got bored because nobody was actually visiting her site. Nichols isn’t alone by a long shot. 95% of blogs get ditched for similar reasons, or because their authors get too busy. In case you’re wondering, that won’t happen to us. We spend too much time on this to get rid of it. • source