Tag: internet

Immortalized in Firefox 2

Post ImageAs you might have heard, Firefox recently released a beta of the next version of their browser, code-named Bon Echo. Interestingly enough, they have also announced a program that would let you get your name right in the source code:

To commemorate the three-year anniversary of the creation of the Mozilla Foundation on July 15, the open-source group announced that if a Firefox user persuades a friend to download the browser, both the user and the friend’s names will be added to the source code of the next version of the browser, Firefox 2.0.

It’s an interesting marketing experiment, I’ll give them that much. Read that article, and then read Jeremy Wright’s post titled Firefox Copying IE. What Jeremy has to say is dead on, Firefox 2 probably isn’t worthy of a complete 2.0 release. I’ve been critical of Firefox on this blog and elsewhere recently, and this only adds to my feelings. Perhaps the Firefox team should be focusing on creating an incredible next version rather than one full of people’s names.

Read: CNET News.com

OpenDNS

Post ImageI came across OpenDNS today via Geek News Central. I have been meaning to look for something like this for quite some time. Basically, it is a DNS service, used by your computer to look up the IP address of a domain name. Whenever you setup your Internet connection on your computer, or router, or other device, you have to enter DNS servers that it can use to “resolve” domain names (convert to an IP). Until finding OpenDNS, I had just used the ones I was given from Telus six years ago, because I had memorized them. I always knew there was something better though:

OpenDNS makes the Internet experience safer, faster and smarter for you and everyone using your network. OpenDNS service is free. OpenDNS makes money by serving clearly labeled advertisements on search results pages where we cannot resolve your intent (i.e., not a known typo).

They have a big cache, and geographically dispersed servers, which should speed up requests. OpenDNS will also identify phishing sites and display a warning message. And finally, they will automatically correct spelling mistakes (I want this feature, though it doesn’t seem to be working for me yet, maybe I have to restart – I already flushed the DNS and restarted the browser…).

I just started using it this evening, so I don’t have much to report yet. I don’t think they’ll make any money off me directly, as I won’t click the ads on their search page, but they might indirectly, as I’ll probably start using their servers when I setup computers and networks for people. Give it a shot if you want.

Read: OpenDNS

The Age of Digital Rumors

Post ImageI have to admit I feel kind of bad for Christie Chorley. She’s a sports anchor for CityTV here in Edmonton, and was subject to rumors recently that she was carrying Chris Pronger’s baby (he’s married with kids in case you didn’t know), and hence, was the reason he requested a trade. Turns out that was completely false:

OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM CHRISTIE CHORLEY
JUNE 29, 2006

ANY RUMORS AND/OR SPECULATION ABOUT MY INVOLVEMENT WITH THE CURRENT CHRIS PRONGER SITUATION IS COMPLETELY, ONE-HUNDRED PERCENT FALSE.

I would appreciate your help in putting an end to my name being linked to this situation, as it is completely WITHOUT ANY MERIT OR FACTUAL BASIS.

Any further slander or defamation can and will result in swift legal action.

Thank you.

What’s interesting about this to me, is how fast and far the rumor spread, thanks in large part to the Internet. I received an email about it, as did Megan (she posted about it here). In addition to the email, a quick search on Technorati reveals a number of posts about the rumor. Christie’s site was down most of the week, no doubt because of huge amounts of traffic.

The Oilers have also felt the power of the Internet with regards to this rumor, posting a message that threatens to ban anyone who continues the discussion on the Oiler forums:

There will be no more speculation or rumours on this board regarding Chris Pronger’s situation.

Any attempt to do so will result in an immediate ban.

If it continues, we will be forced to remove the message board due to the threat of legal action against the Oilers. The legal action is NOT by Pronger himself but by outside parties implicated by rumours on the message board.

You can discuss trade rumours, etc. but leave his (or any other player’s for that matter) personal life out of it.

I agree with Megan, Chris Pronger himself needs to make a statement to put an end to all of this madness.

Things just aren’t like they used to be. Remember in high school, if someone started a rumor, a few dozen people might here about it, and then they’d get bored and move on to something else. There was rarely a record of the rumor. That’s different now. Even for high school students, I imagine MySpace has become a haven for rumors and slander. Welcome to the age of digital rumors I guess!

And Christie, if you’re reading this, you can take one positive from the whole situation. Most of the comments I heard related to the rumor said something to the effect that “I can’t blame him if he did.” Not the way in which you want to receive a compliment, but if you’re going to look for the positives here (aside from your name becoming much more widely known), that’s one.

[As an aside, I was kind of surprised that I still got an email about this. One of those “forward it on to everyone you know” kind of emails. I guess blogging hasn’t quite taken hold as firmly as I had thought, despite the number of worldwide bloggers inching towards 100 million (or maybe even beyond that already).]

Read: Christie Chorley

Anaheim goes wireless

Post ImageAnd I thought the biggest news in Anaheim was that the Mighty Ducks are now known as the Ducks! But nope, it’s not. The latest city to embrace my mantra is indeed Anaheim, which announced the new wireless network today with a ceremonial cable cutting:

Curt Pringle, the mayor of Anaheim, cut a thick blue cable with giant scissors in front of a quiet lunchtime crowd Thursday as this Los Angeles suburb joined the growing list of American cities that have launched a citywide wireless Internet network.

Anaheim is EarthLink’s first citywide network, but certainly not the last. EarthLink has signed on to provide San Francisco, Philadelphia, New Orleans and five other cities with municipal Internet access.

This one is different than most you may have heard about, as no free service will be made available. Instead, residents can pay $21.95 per month for access, and visitors to the area (such as the millions who visit Disneyland) can buy smaller amounts of access.

Still, this is great news for those of us who want wireless to be ubiquitous.

Read: CNET News.com

Yahoo hearts PayPal

Post ImageIn a deal announced earlier today, Yahoo and eBay are teaming up around advertising, e-commerce, and search. Yahoo becomes the exclusive provider of graphical ads on eBay, and will also provide some text ads. They are going to make a co-branded toolbar, and they’ll work to make their respective VoIP apps work together (Yahoo Messenger and Skype). The biggest thing of all though, at least as far as I am concerned, is Yahoo’s adoption of PayPal:

Yahoo will make eBay’s PayPal service the exclusive third-party provider of its online wallet, allowing customers to pay for Yahoo services from bank accounts, credit cards or balances associated with their PayPal accounts. PayPal will also be integrated into product offerings for Yahoo merchants and publishers, including the Yahoo Publisher Network, Yahoo Search Marketing and Yahoo Merchant Solutions.

Yahoo using PayPal essentially removes any doubt that PayPal is the de facto payment service on the Internet. It will be very hard for Google to successfully introduce a competitor now. Two of the largest sites on the net in Yahoo and eBay, plus the millions of other smaller e-commerce sites all using PayPal is an enormous hurdle for any rival payment service. PayPal is the closest thing we have to a truly digital wallet. Incredibly smart move by Yahoo, and excellent outcome for eBay.

Read: CNET News.com

Net Neutrality

Post ImageI haven’t said much about so-called “network neutrality” yet, but I do think it is a very important issue. I don’t pretend to know all about it, but I have read enough to form some opinions. First off, here’s how the term is defined at Wikipedia:

Network neutrality is a proposed principle of network regulation. It asserts that, in order to promote innovation, network service providers such as telephone and cable internet companies should not be permitted to dictate how those networks are used (ie. not permitted to ban certain types of programs, or to ban certain types of devices connecting to the network).

Currently, this is a big political issue in the United States, but I am not sure if it has received much attention elsewhere. A draft bill scheduled to be voted on tomorrow will be revised to ensure that the FCC has tools at its disposal to address violations. This is the main idea behind the bill, at least as I understand it:

The draft bill says broadband providers must provide connectivity speeds “at least equal to the speed and quality of service” that the operator offers for its own content or that of its affiliates, and “make available the same bandwidth” to everyone.

I encourage you to read the article linked to above (at CNET News.com) as it contains some background information in addition to the current happenings.

I was a little torn between whether or not network neutrality is a good idea or not. My gut feeling and initial reactions were that net neutrality is vital for the future of the Internet, and it must be protected. As I thought about it a little more, I turned to economics, and thus my secondary thoughts were that the market should decide how these services are charged for and offered. Upon still further consideration, I feel that net neutrality is important and we should all ensure the Internet remains neutral.

There are too many “ifs” associated with a network that might become tiered or fragmented in some way – who knows what the providers might do. The last thing I would want as a business consumer is to have different Internet access, whether in performance or throughput or bandwidth, than a larger company simply because the Internet providers can squeeze large sums of money out of them.

One of the great things about the Internet is that it is open and available to everyone (I realize there are people who cannot yet afford access, or areas for which access is unavailable, but as a blanket statement, the Internet is pretty open). I think it’s important we keep it that way, so I hope laws concerning network neutrality are ratified in the United States, and eventually, elsewhere.

Windows Live Updates

Post ImageYou might have heard today that Microsoft released a bunch of updates to the Live.com services. For one thing, the search is much improved and I love the new interface! Searches load pretty quickly too. The great thing is that there is no more “page 1” or “page 2” or results. Instead, you simply scroll down through the results. While scrolling may not sound like the best interface, it’s a start towards something better. Perhaps the only thing I don’t like about the search is that the URL is kind of ugly. A search for “mastermaq” for example, looks like this: http://www.live.com/#q=mastermaq&offset=1. Not bad, but could be better.

Also announced today is Live Clipboard which enables “PC to web structured data exchange”. Basically its a simple way of transferring data between your computer and the web. The technology is Microsoft CTO Ray Ozzie’s baby, so chances are it’ll be good. Lots of commentary out there on Live Clipboard.

Live.com is starting to look more and more interesting, though I am still somewhat concerned with the branding.

What the hell Yahoo?

Post ImageOne interesting item floating around the blogosphere today is that Yahoo has decided to give up in the search industry, essentially conceding defeat to Google. Yes, you read that correctly – sickening isn’t it?

“We don’t think it’s reasonable to assume we’re going to gain a lot of share from Google,” Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker said in an interview. “It’s not our goal to be No. 1 in Internet search. We would be very happy to maintain our market share.”

I think it’s incredibly sad and disappointing that they have made such a decision. And I really have to disagree with Henry Blodget:

Yahoo! has finally read the writing on the wall that everyone else (except Microsoft) has been reading for three years: The search game is over and Google has won.

If there is anything Google has taught us, it’s that search is important! While Yahoo and Excite and everyone was ignoring search, Google improved it, and look where they are now (definitely read John Battelle’s book The Search, it covers this in great detail). Search is not even close to perfect – there is so much left to be done! I think it’s a mistake to give up, and I don’t think there’s any “writing on the wall” either.

Thank goodness we have Microsoft! Instead of giving up, they’ve decided to pour oodles of money into search to try and improve the experience far beyond Google. Of course we won’t know how successful they are for a while, but that’s not the point. The point is that they did not give up, they continue to try and innovate, and in the end, it will result in better search for all of us (as Google is forced to further innovate as well).

Yahoo was looking really good lately, with their string of strategic “Web 2.0” acquisitions, then they go and make a statement like this. I’m kind of baffled, really. Certainly Yahoo’s business is not entirely search, but if they don’t think that search is and will continue to be a big part of their business, even indirectly, then I think they’re making a big mistake.

Read: seattlepi.com

The Digital Baby

Post ImageMere hours after I wrote about the digital family I came across an article at the New York Times talking about the “brave new electronic baby“, or the digital baby as I will call him/her. I thought my family was digital, but we’ve got nothing on young Carter Kohl and his family:

Dispatch from the future:

FROM: Carter Kohl, 34 inches, 30 pounds, 17 months.
TO: Friends and family.

MESSAGE: Feel free to contact me. Even though I cannot read just yet, you can still send me e-mail. My parents will read it to me and will help me respond to all your messages. In advance, thanks for getting in touch. I’ll be reading and replying back to you before you know it!

Apparently the latest technobaby craze is buying domains and email addresses for your newborn. Or in the case of Luke Seeley, before the baby is even born:

Luke Seeley, 22 months, has two Web sites of his own, including lukeseeley.com, a domain his father purchased soon after an ultrasound showed that his first child was a boy, four months before the baby was born. Given his more advanced age, Luke, who like Carter also has an e-mail address (luke@lukeseeley.com), possesses a slightly larger vocabulary, which includes computer, mouse and Google, said Gordon Seeley, his father. Luke “knows his animals,” Mr. Seeley added, and understands that mouse has two different meanings: something small that moves things on a bright computer screen and something small that devours cheese and lives in terror of cats.

That’s pretty amazing if you ask me! The article is very well written at least at the beginning, outlining why it’s the new craze, who’s involved, and even those who are annoyed:

“Why would anyone do that?” asked Donna M. Stewart, an aspiring artist who lives in Seattle and heard about the baby e-mail fad from a friend. “That’s like getting e-mail for your dog.”

(She confessed, though, that she sometimes sends e-mail messages to friends from the point of view of her dog, a mixed-breed shepherd, whom she declined to name.)

That one made me laugh! The article then wanders a bit, taking time to mention that people want a personalized e-mail address (instead of a generic Hotmail or AOL one) for credibility. The closing paragraph is perfect though:

So if a baby has an e-mail address, and people do write to him, he has a virtual time capsule waiting, messages from future friends and family, bulletins from the past written long before he even knew he was reachable online.

Pretty intriguing concept I’d say. I wonder what it would have been like to have such a time capsule when I was younger. Considering I’m so into technology now, I think I would probably have found it very cool. On the other hand, would I have felt obligated to reply to everyone? And if every child had a capsule, would I still have found it so neat? Maybe my kids will be able to answer such questions one day.

When I talk about a family embracing technology, this digital baby concept is spot on. Not only do the parents take pictures and video to share with friends and family, they’ve made the baby welcome in the digital world. I’d be willing to bet that a digital baby will better understand the dangers and benefits of the Internet than a non-digital baby (an analog baby?) and that they’ll become more digitally literate sooner.

Digital babies, who knew?!

(The baby pictured is Andy, my friend’s new baby boy, and yes, Andy has his own website.)

Read: NYTimes.com

Mindboggling – Microsoft buying Yahoo?

Post ImageEvery once in a while a rumor comes along that is so outlandish, so crazy, so never-gonna-happen, that it makes you really hope it does happen! The latest such rumor is that Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo, a rumor that has sent investors into a craze:

Analysts said reasons for the heightened interest in Yahoo call options ranged from recent rumors that software company Microsoft Corp. might be seeking to partner or merge with the Internet company, to bullish expectations for the company’s upcoming fourth quarter earnings report.

“The speculative activity in short-term calls might reflect the recent talk about an alliance with Microsoft,” Ruffy said.

Such rumors have been rampant since Google Inc. recently fortified its lead in the Web search market by taking a 5 percent stake in Time Warner Inc.’s AOL Internet unit.

On Sunday the Los Angeles Times cited what it called speculation that Yahoo had rebuffed an $80 billion bid from Microsoft as too low.

Did you see that? Eighty billion dollars! I can’t quite wrap my head around that amount! According to Microsoft Watch, the software giant currently has about $40 billion in cash.

There’s too much to consider if such a merger were to take place that I won’t even bother unless it actually happens.

Read: Reuters