Yes, Another Blog

The world can always use another blog.

If you have ever posted anything on any of the social community sites (Craigslist, Backpage, Kiijji, eBay) you will sooner or later get an email response from a a person that usually makes no sense whatsoever and always includes a picture with an email address for you to respond to.

For example:

Now, I know this is some sort of SPAM fishing email that wants to snare you into some devious, evil, trap therefore I have never responded to the email pictured. But, I really want to know who the woman behind the little signs is. Actually, I really don’t want to know her, I want to know what she really looks like. I mean, come on… take a look at that chest!!! She reaches out of the computer screen every time she emails me and hypnotizes me with her enormous endowments.

From what I can tell in the pictures is that she must be in her early 20′s, about 5’2″ to 5’6″, somewhere between 110-120lbs, and due to skin tone and fingernail shade I am willing to bet that she is either a natural blonde or a ginger.

Yes… I am obsessed but I will not fall into her devious trap. She will not get my email.

Yes, I am weird… but someone has to ask these questions.

I am amazed that this is 2009 and they are still talking about this. I began surfing Malibu in 1985 and everyone knew then Malibu Surfrider is the most polluted beach in all of California. I have gotten sick numerous times surfing there and I know of at least 3 people that almost died due to complications that were largely caused by the polluted water at Surfrider beach. (LINK BELOW)

Surfrider Beach Making People Sick

I couldn’t help myself thinking about all these people trying to figure out what to do for the next hour or so now that Twitter is down.

This is just too funny not to post. The video (audio actually) speaks for itself.

Another sign that the people in charge are so out of touch that they do not know what planet they are on.

It seems that the Associated Press (AP) is threatening to sue a Tennessee Country radio station for embedding an AP YouTube channel video on their web page. One small problem here (actually two of them), the radio station is an AP affiliate. Furthermore, the AP has enabled embedding on the YouTube channel so anyone can embed their videos on ANY web site or blog.

Morons.

Here are the two stories:

• A.P. Exec Doesn’t Know It Has A YouTube Channel: Threatens Affiliate For Embedding Videos (TechCrunch)
• and
• AP Threatens to Sue AP Affiliate for Embedding Official AP YouTube Vids (Gizmodo)

So in the spirit of “Sticking it to the man” I will embed one of the AP’s YouTube videos. Why? Cause they allow it.

First of all, did you actually think I was not going to post today. Check your calendars.

I’ve been telling people about this when I heard that Cox was actually thinking about doing this back in 2007. People told me I was nuts.

Time Warner then went out and actually did it in January 2008 in Beaumont, TX. And now they are rolling it out in four new cities. (DSLReports.com, The Consumerist.com, BusinessWeek, Austin360.com)

Metered Billing Internet is here.

Basically this means that you pay a set price and you are only given a pre-determined amount of bandwidth. More likely it will range from 5 to 40GB per month. If you go over that you will pay an additional $1 per each GB you go over.

Why is this such a bad thing? With the advance in video streaming and especially high definition streaming, your bandwidth will continue to go up and you will pay dearly for it.

Right now, the iTunes HD movies are about 3GB each. Think about it. If your ISP caps you at 40GB for $50/month that means you can only download 16 movies before you are charged extra. That does not count whatever bandwidth you use for regular surfing and email. You will begin to see some serious bandwidth overage charges coming real quick.

Why are they doing this? As my Cox contact told me, ISP have realized that people cannot do WITHOUT their internet and will pretty much pay anything to keep it. Bandwidth is the new Gold and they know it. We have become so hooked on our Internet habit that we cannot imagine being without.

From what I have been told, AT&T is next and Cox is ready with a plan but will wait to see how the others do with their rollouts. I can guarantee that Comcast will match any competitor’s caps or rise their prices if their caps are higher than the competition.

BTW… This is NOT an April Fool’s Joke.

Has any seen this rather creepy Quizno’s ad? Depending on the time of day you probably haven’t.

But what struck me is the subliminal flash of a periscope on the screen at about 6 seconds in.

Too funny.

This is another sad day in journalism. One of the best newspapers in the West in closing its doors and publishing its last issue on Friday. The RMN was about to celebrate 150 years in print.

So sad.

From the RMN article:

Rich Boehne, chief executive officer of Scripps, broke the news to the Rocky staff at noon today, ending nearly three months of speculation over the paper’s future. He called the paper a victim of a terrible economy and an upheaval in the newspaper industry.

The Rocky was founded in 1859 by William Byers, one of the most influential figures in Colorado history. Scripps bought the paper in 1926 and right away entered into a newspaper war with The Post. That fight ebbed and flowed over the course of the rest of the 20th century, culminating in penny-a-day subscriptions in the late ’90s.

In the past decade, the Rocky has won four Pulitzer Prizes, more than all but a handful of American papers. Its sports section was named one of the 10 best in the nation this week. Its business section was cited by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers as one of the best in the country last year. And its photo staff is regularly listed among the best in the nation when the top 10 photo newspapers are judged.

Even the LA Times had an article about how LA based businesses were getting shaken down by Yelp sales reps that by paying for Yelp advertising they could move or remove bad reviews. And if the business did not have any bad reviews already and they refused to pay the bad reviews would all of the sudden show up.

But Yelp-savvy customers also mean Yelp-savvy competitors. Inzunza at Mamma’s Brick Oven Pizza said she noticed last year that every time a nasty review appeared on the site about her restaurant, a glowing review popped up for a pizza place down the street.

“We decided we had to advertise on Yelp because we wanted to make sure we could play up the good reviews,” she said.

and

On the other hand, Joompong Kongchareon, owner of Joom Bangkok Cafe in Los Angeles, is taking no chances. He said he decided to pay $300 a month for Yelp sponsorship after a salesperson from the website called “over and over” shortly after his restaurant opened about a year ago.

“If you don’t give them money, maybe they will put a bad review up high,” he said. “That would hurt my business. People come to us from Yelp.

“This is insurance that I won’t get real bad reviews at the top.”

First it was their draconian content right grab TOS and now this…

Facebook Won’t let you Remove Dead Relative’s Page, Per “Policy”.

Granted that they changed their tune after they got the negative publicity but damn!!!!

This is so NSFW. These guys are always dead on.

I was browsing one of my favorite sites, Format War Central, and they posted this tidbit about the upcoming Sleeping Beauty Blu-ray disk.

It seems that in the infinite wisdom of Disney lawyers, they have added 120 pages of legal jumbo-mumbo (otherwise known as the EULA) to the disk and you have to agree to it before you can play the disk.

Hey Disney!!! Do you actually think anyone is going to read that crap?

Blackberry is feeling the heat from the iPhone’s rising popularity. But the upcoming Blackberry Storm’s user interface looks a bit too familiar. I just can’t quite put my finger on it.

I am sure that some art department designer out there will probably lose his job today for this idiotic mistake but come on!!! Could you make it any more obvious.

I am sure this Vodafone page will disappear (or at least be changed) soon so I made a screencap for prosperity.

Today, The East Valley Tribune announced that it would lay-off 142 employees, 40% of their staff, and cut back to a 4-day-a-week free printed publication. The online edition will continue.

This announcement makes Phoenix officially a one newspaper town. The Arizona Republic will remain the only major newspaper serving the Phoenix area including the East Valley.

Nothing good comes from a one-newspaper town.

Very sad day indeed.