WNBC is reporting a major Blackberry outage that affects 100% of the Blackberries in the US.
internet
Adobe Adds DRM To Flash
By 4.17.07
“Adobe has created the first way for media companies to release video content, secure in the knowledge that advertising goes with it,” James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research said.
American Airlines Eliminates Enfeebled "Women's" Search, Now Directs Women To Powerful Man Search – LGBT Search Remains The Same
By 4.15.07
Hallelujah, American Airlines has eliminated the gender-gap they created last week with the introduction of a powerless pink “women’s” search box. Women are now directed to American’s front page, where they must cope with the powerful, feature-rich man search.
Sprint: $2.50 For The Ringtone, $11.85 In Data Transfer Charges
By 4.13.07
I downloaded a single ring tone for my new phone, and paid $2.50 for it.
RIAA Files 23 "John Doe" Lawsuits Against NC State Students
By 4.13.07
From the Technician Online:
Pam Gerace, the director of Student Legal Services at the University, is fighting the lawsuits for her student clients. She advises that the students should remain anonymous.
Watch Your Mouth On Yahoo! Answers Or They'll Delete Your Email And Website
By 4.12.07
Reader Andrew has been a Yahoo! email paid subscriber for 8 years. He also has a Yahoo! Small Business account for his website and has a paid Flickr account. He also participates in Yahoo! Answers. Sadly, Andrew said something on Yahoo! Answers that Yahoo! feels violated their TOS. The result? They deleted Andrew’s entire account, including his email, Flickr, and website hosting. He was given no warning. Yahoo! says his account was “suspended.” Andrew writes:
Now, lets have a quick look at that word – suspended. If a student get suspended from school that usually means they are back within a few days or a week or so. Yahoo!’s definition of suspended means removed permanently. This included all emails I had saved over the last eight years, my pre-paid Yahoo! Small Business Account, my FLICKR account, IM account – the lot. To top it off, and here is the sweet bit, even though I OWN the domain name transformertattoo.com I cannot move it to another hosting service because the contact email address, yup, you guessed it, was my deleted Yahoo! email address. “
Andrew says this is happening to quite a few people who say something untoward on Yahoo! answers (according to Andrew they claim he said something about harming animals, which he denies, but who knows.) Even if Andrew did say something out-of-line, should that affect other services he’s paid for? Andrew claims Yahoo! will not reinstate his account or refund his money. Read his letter inside.
American Airlines Launches Weird, Lame Website "For Women"
By 4.11.07 — Updated: 6.4.14
Check the latest carry-on regulations, find advice on travel safety and wellness, and pick up tips for a stylish and efficient travel wardrobe.
Psssst. Women like clothes. Mention that on the site. This is awesome. They’re totally going to fly our airline now. Make the search box pink, and get rid of all those “tools,” women hate tools.—MEGHANN MARCO
Should Spyware Distributors Be Locked Up?
By 4.11.07
“Many of most serious wrongdoers we observed in this area, I believe, are only going to be deterred if their freedom is withdrawn,” so it’s important for the FTC to collaborate on its cases with criminal law enforcement authorities, Kovacic said.
What do you guys think? Lock ’em up? —MEGHANN MARCO
Comcast: Chicago Going All Digital By July
By 4.9.07
If you’re one of those stone-age-type people who live in Chicago and don’t yet have a digital cable box, you’ll be getting one in July. Comcast has nearly completed a $400 million dollar upgrade and will discontinue analog broadcasts this summer. Customers who plug their cable directly into their TV will receive only local channels following the official switch. From the Chicago Tribune:
Completion of the upgrade means all Comcast customers that have basic service will need to exchange their analog set-top boxes for digital set-top boxes. The cable company will not charge an additional fee or raise rates for current analog customers, Schaefer said.
College Radio Feels The Effects Of The RIAA
By 4.6.07
Internet radio’s low overhead allows for stations to broadcast on a shoestring budget and still access a worldwide audience. For some college stations that only have small transmitters or broadcast in small communities, streaming actually becomes the main source for listeners.
RIAA Sends Cease And Desist Letters To Its Own Viral Marketing Campaign
By 4.6.07
Trent Reznor leaks songs from his new album via USB drives hidden in bathrooms. Fans share the songs. Websites post the songs. Websites receive cease and desist letters from the RIAA. From Billboard:
Another Web posting alleged that all this activity resulted in entertainment blog Idolator and other sites receiving e-mail from the Recording Industry Association of America, demanding that they remove the MP3s from their sites. An RIAA representative confirms this, a move that boggles the minds of many. “These f*cking idiots are going after a campaign that the label signed off on,” the source says.
Good job, guys. —MEGHANN MARCO
Netflix Recommends Moses Movie For Lovers Of Death Wish 3
By 4.5.07
Speaking of God and marketing, here’s a movie recommendation Netflix made to Sam. Because he enjoyed Death Wish 3, Netflix thought he would enjoy The Bible Collection: Moses.
Verizon "Unlimited Access" Plan Is Extremely Limited
By 4.5.07
(iii) intranet access (including access to corporate intranets, email, and individual productivity applications like customer relationship management, sales force, and field service automation). The Unlimited Data Plans and Features MAY NOT be used for any other purpose.
More TOS fun inside!
Google Suggests You Swim Across The Atlantic Ocean
By 3.29.07
Google, either encouraging physical fitness or zero population growth, offers the above helpful suggestion when mapping the route from Chicago to London.
Click here for the full directions and map of the route.—MEGHANN MARCO
It's Extremely Frustrating To Buy Two Car Seats From Babies 'R Us
By 3.29.07
Here’s the steps I took to try to obtain these seats.
A Closer Look At Comcast's Privacy Policy
By 3.29.07
The privacy policy starts off with the fine sentiment that: “Comcast is committed to maintaining your privacy and believes that, as a subscriber to its high-speed Internet service, you are entitled to know Comcast’s information practices.” The policy then goes on to state “We will not read your outgoing or incoming e-mail, video mail, private chat, or instant messages, but we (or our third party providers) do store e-mail messages and video mail messages on computer systems for a period of time.”
The Paradox Of MSN: You Want To Cancel Because You Lost The Password, You Need The Password To Cancel
By 3.23.07
Reader Kim is mad. Her dad called MSN because he was having some computer issues, and they changed his password to something that he doesn’t remember. Unfortunately for Kim’s Dad, MSN’s solution to a lost password is to email the password to the account that you lost the password for. Even more brilliantly, if you call to reset your password, MSN’s verification system is based on the credit card number used to open the account, and that Kim’s Dad no longer remembers.
