Canadian Border Checking Ipods Too?
Interesting and kind of scary article from Canada.com: “Copyright deal could toughen rules governing info on iPods, computers”
The federal government is secretly negotiating an agreement to revamp international copyright laws which could make the information on Canadian iPods, laptop computers or other personal electronic devices illegal and greatly increase the difficulty of travelling with such devices.
The deal could also impose strict regulations on Internet service providers, forcing those companies to hand over customer information without a court order.
Considering the US Border can search laptops without cause, it seems it’s not safe to travel anymore with these seemingly harmless devices. What you have on your computer or iPod could land you a serious fine or worse yet, jail time.
Crossing the border and delays between Canada and the US is already slowed by things such as terrorist alerts, currency exchange rates and high gas prices - this could just add another reason why not to bother crossing the border. Maybe their intent is to discourage travel and tourism. Thoughts?
Tag Galaxy
A phenomenal and impressive use of Abobe Flash to create a space themed visualization for Flickr images via tagging. Enjoy.
Site: Tag Galaxy
Bell offering movie downloads
Looks like Bell is jumping on the movie download bandwagon, ala Apple iTunes, Microsoft xbox 360 , Netflix, etc. Interesting arguments from the article in regards to this announcement and in the CRTC investigation on their own peer-to-peer throttling practices. Now I wonder when Rogers will follow suit with their own movie download offering.
Rogers has recently instituted a policy of enforcing download caps for customers. If Rogers were to offer movie downloads, it makes you wonder how they enforce internet usage, yet promote extensive movie downloading which would no doubt take a huge chunk of bandwidth. Then again, Rogers seems to have the reputation for not caring for customers as they continue to grow and expand into new media businesses. I’ve had a few run ins with Rogers myself that has recently led me open up their “iron grip” as much as possible by canceling my cable service and look at other alternatives.
It is nice to see that Canada is slowly catching up to the online media that our US neighbours enjoy so much. We can probably blame a lot on the CRTC’s restrictions. Let’s just hope that there’s some additional competition to keep Bell and Rogers on their toes.
Review: GrandCentral
Synopsis: Great in theory, not so great in execution
GrandCentral is a “free Google-owned internet service that uses VoIP to link customers’ phone numbers together”. It is currently in private beta and there have not been any invites available since March 14, 2008. Lucky for me, I managed to snag a “blogger invite” just before the deadline to sign myself up for an account.
Some Features include:
- Screen Callers - Know who’s calling and screen unknown callers
- ListenIn - Hear why someone is calling before taking the call
- Call Record - Record calls on the fly and access recordings online
- Block Callers - Unwanted callers won’t be able to reach you anymore
- Notifications - Receive voicemail notifications via email or SMS
- Ring Different Phones - One number that rings different phones based on who’s calling
- Greetings - Personalize your voicemail greetings by caller or group
- WebCall Button - Let people call you from a web page without showing your number
- CallSwitch - Switch phones in the middle of a call
It has allowed me to setup one US based phone number that forwards calls to my Canadian based number. In this case, it goes to my cell phone but I can also set it up to direct to various other phone numbers, all controlled via a easy to use web interface. This effectively allows people in the United States to call me for free since they simply call the US based number which is local for them and it will automatically call my phone number in Canada.
Not only that, through the web interface, it allows me to call any US based number for free as well. It basically provides a middle layer. All this for free….at least for now. Sounds great doesn’t it? It is great in theory and when it works, it’s a phenomenal service.
The main problem is that it is simply not reliable. On too many occasions, there have been sudden dropped calls and inability for calls to get through. There has been one major service disruption, and just today, apparently they almost forgot to renew their domain name!
This past weekend, all Canadian number seemed to be blocked and had me worrying that they suddenly decided to change their policies. It has since been restored. They are not the fastest on replying to support requests, however, I will give them credit since one of the customer service reps did call me to verify that things were resolved. A pleasant surprise.
You can get an idea about these and other issues by checking out their discussion rooms. I think most people agree that it’s simply not reliable and not quite ready for prime time. Would not use for business purposes until they’ve ironed out the kinks.
You would think that things would improve once Google got their hands on it but I am wondering if it’s just another one of their acquisitions that they put on the back burner as far as development is concerned (can we say Google Talk?)
Feel free to give me a call on GrandCentral
Free Photoshop Book in PDF
SitePoint, one of my favourite websites for resources and tips on web design/development, is offering the book “The Photoshop Anthology: 101 Web Design Tips, Tricks & Techniques Free” for the next 28 days.
Click here and enter your email address to get access to the links.
Direct url: http://photoshop.aws.sitepoint.com/
Wired Response to TechCrunch
Wired has issued a response to Michael Arrington’s tweet. Is it me or the tone a little snide? One thing I do know, it doesn’t seem they like each other much 
I’ll keep an eye on twitter for another colourful response.
Wired does make a valid point:
We pointed out how odd it seemed that the Washington Post, one of the nation’s most trusted and revered newspapers, would run stories written by an ex-lawyer who admits he may advise or invest in companies that are covered on his site.
In journalistic circles, that’s what we call a conflict of interest.
But I think the original blog post and this one, the overall tone seems snide and a bit questionable and doesn’t seem to be objective or fall under the so called “journalistic integrity”. Then again, it’s still a blog which is basically an editorial to some degree. The only problem is see is that as more and more “journalist bloggers” seek legitimacy among the general population as serious journalists, you can point to things like this back and forth exchange, that doesn’t help that cause.
Definition of Web 1.0 to Web 3.0
A great article Explaining Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 that provides a simple explanation of the popular buzzwords that have defined how our Internet experiences has changed through web movements.
Quick Summary:
- Web 1.0 - books, news, music and everything else being moved into a digital format
- Web 2.0 - the sharing of data and social networking
- Web 3.0 - data being integrated and applying it into innovative ways
The author’s definition of Web 3.0 is a little ambiguous considering it hasn’t happened yet but it seems like the next logical step. I would also throw in mobile web services, data mining and aggregation. I also suspect that security and privacy will be critical topics as there is just so much data available to be analyzed and used.
Anything else you can think of that will make up Web 3.0? Predications?
Torontoh.com - Toronto News on one page
For those who don’t use RSS or even know what it is (and probably could care less), a new Toronto based site www.torontoh.com has recently launched that puts the latest Toronto news all on one page. It pulls information from different sources - from mainstream news organizations to local Toronto based blogs. Inspired by popurls.com, it’s simple and to the point - a great snapshot of whats happening right now for Torontonians. Keep an eye on torontoh.com, and don’t be surprised to see other sections added beyond news as well as other cities.
TechCrunch vs Wired
TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington recently announced that TechCrunch articles will now be appearing on WashingtonPost.com. Nothing spectacular in regards to breaking news but it seems that Mr. Arrington took offense to a Wired blog post on the same subject and decided to use twitter to voice his “concern”:
Wow. Interesting to see the differences between mainstream journalists and “mainstream” or “journalist” bloggers.
Microsoft Bid for Yahoo Off - Let the games begin
So it appears that Microsoft has withdrawn their bid for Yahoo. A bit of a surprise that Microsoft didn’t try a hostile takeover, but I guess that would be business suicide considering Yahoo’s continuing refusal to work a deal with them. Could only get worse if MS attempts something hostile. Good on them not to will to Yahoo’s weak attempt to push the share price up. Now let the speculation run wild as to what will happen next with Yahoo.
- Yahoo’s share price tanks on Monday (it rose quite a bit after MS bid)
- Once the share price drops (see above) Microsoft comes back to the table and attempts to purchase at a lower price
- MS goes after AOL instead
- Google laughs and breathes a side of relief and negotiates some kind of ad/search deal with Yahoo
- Steve Balmer leaves Microsoft over this failed bid
- NewsCorp now goes after Yahoo
All I can say is that there will be some interesting developments from some of the biggest players in technology and could have some serious aftershocks throughout the industry. Stay tuned!
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Unscientific and unsupported theories on life, sports, tech and all things important to me.
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