DISQUS

Personally, I like Time Tamer.

Location-based advertisements are a benign use of tracking data when
compared with the possibility of realtime-tracking by the government.
Here in the US, AT&T has opened up its pipes to the government for a
long time. How easy do you think it'll be for them to track the
movements of any iPhone owner, should they choose to do so, now that
the GPS chip is in there? It would be a trivial switch in terms of
effort.

But really, this applies to just about any phone with a GPS chip out
there, not just the iPhone. The funny thing is, if the government had
actually tried to get people to carry GPS devices so they could be
tracked, they'd have never succeeded. But people have readily adopted
them and have opened themselves to that possibility simply because
they got some benefits out of it as well. Interesting how that worked,
no?

:-)

R.

Right on.

Thanks Chris! Gotta love your description of me!

Please correct the link in my last comment, it's not displaying properly. Thanks.

Mathew, I don't know why you would characterize my actions in protecting my copyright and hard work as "extreme". I've had no success in asking the people at Shyftr to remove my feed from their site via email. They're not responding. And don't let this latest policy change fool you. My feed is still on their site in its entirety, with all posts displayed unabridged, in full.

I for one don't care what they call their service, or how they want to couch their actions in words that make it seem less outrageous, but to me, what they're doing is simply theft. It's illegal, and it's copyright infringement. I keep full copyright on my work, and on my site, it's clearly marked as "All Rights Reserved". What part of "All Rights Reserved" don't they understand? How screwed up do they have to be to think they can build a business around my content (and others' as well) without paying for the right to use it or even asking permission, or allowing people to opt in?

I have no other recourse but to submit a DMCA take-down notice. I'm not going to let them get away with wholesale copyright infringement.

It's refreshing, and somewhat ironic to read this. Before this whole web "revolution" took place, it was quite normal for businesses to charge for their products. As a matter of fact, it was the only way to do things. Now it seems that we're coming back to that practice. I can't help but smile. Who'd have thought, right? You pay for a service that you enjoy using... How novel! :-)

Quite a change in stance since yesterday's post on this same gathering...

Thank you Nick! Finally, a more thoughtful look at social networks and their privacy implications. I was getting pretty fed up with all the hype I've seen lately, and it's nice to see someone being able to look at things from the other side of the fence.

Incidentally, I would volunteer to be the MySpace outcast (if I were still in school)... I don't like sites that replicate the cliques of real life. There's no diversity when you clump together online because of peer pressure or other silly reasons, the same way that it happens in real life. If the Internet can't encourage diversity in both association and point of view, what's the point?

I have a healthy amount of disdain for social networks, and every time someone begins to identify themselves with one, I wonder if they've really grown up. I associate them with the cliques of high school, or with the fraternities/sororities of college. Anyone so tied into a social network that they can't begin to imagine the Internet without it hasn't matured yet.

Social networks are nothing more than platforms that allow you to do various things. I might also add that many of those "things" are exaggerated and overvalued. It's important to see them as such, and nothing more. You can use them, but the moment you identify yourself with them, just as some might identify themselves with a brand, I have to question if that person can think independently and has developed a healthy personality.

All I can say is that the recent photos you've posted to Flickr blew me away. Keep what you're doing, I can't wait to see what you'll come up with.

Pretty cool! What do you think of the new, unlocked phones that T-Mobile will sell in Germany? Is the price ridiculously more expensive than the locked phones? Last time I checked, I read 999 euro, which would be crazy. What's your take on that?

It's nice to hear the truth, thanks. I don't like bloggers who blog for the sole purpose of getting on Digg every time they put something out. Writing for traffic may or may not be worth it, but we do know it comes with plenty of headaches. I'd rather have a steady stream of visitors that sometimes click on my ads or on my affiliate links and buy something. That converts to profit and rewards me nicely for my hard work.

Yes, I've been affected, and no, it hasn't changed my comment strategy. I've always preferred quality over quantity, so I'm pretty strict with the comments that I approve. I have pretty simple guidelines regarding comments, and it tends to work out well. Only people who have something worthwhile to say make it through to the live site.

Hah! I hear (pun intended) little plugs of raw potato stuck in your ear overnight are supposed to draw out the infection and help cure it. Never tried it myself, but a friend of ours who's into natural remedies said it worked all the time on his daughter and son, and no, there were no side effects. In other words, infection gone, hearing good.

Wow. That is a touching video. There she is, doing her job conscientiously, and out of nowhere, she loses it... Kind of wish we'd know why it happened...