Google has launched a brand new feature on Google Maps, Street View. It uses video taken from the streets of major cities like New York and creates "man on the street" snapshots from different angles.
May 2007 Archives
I'd like to see the "I'm a Mac" ad that stars these guys. When zombies attack.
Have you ever received a threatening letter from a debt collector? Well, as of yesterday Toyman can proudly say, "yes, yes I have."
I used to use C I Host as the web host for my websites, but was increasingly displeased with the Byzantine billing procedures and customer service. Last June I received a bill for an auto-renewing feature that cost $60. On the same day I decided to cancel my account and move to a new provider. As part of the cancellation procedure, I had to fax in a written form to C I Host that stated, “We will not cancel your account and release your domain if your account has an unpaid balance.”
A few hours later I received confirmation that my account was cancelled. Case closed.
Not so fast! Yesterday I received a letter from Fidelity Credit Management stating that if I don't pay $65.24, the original $60 plus interest, that they'll submit a negative credit report to a reporting agency. Lovely.
For me the fun part is that I have a lot of documentation proving my case. The incredibly aggravating part is that I have to deal with this issue at all. C I Host's billing department always struck me as inept, and this ordeal is only driving that home for me.
Anyone else had similar issues?
Well, I haven't posted too much because I've been on vacation. Before my vacation I went to watch Discovery HD to find nothing but a black screen. In fact the vast majority of my channels were no longer functioning. Calling Comcast support revealed that the lovely lady who set up my CableCard order had screwed it up. You remember, Mrs. "how are you going to watch the digital programing on your TV without a cable box"? Evidently, she had cancelled my digital package with the removal of my cable box. Anyway, the new customer service representative was very nice and fixed the problem quickly.
After relaxing and enjoying someplace warm, I come back from vacation to discover in my latest Comcast bill that I'm being charged for two CableCards. The Comcast DVR saga will just not end. In easter Massachusetts Comcast provides the first CableCard on an outlet for free and charges $2.75 for each additional CableCard. My bill showed two charges for $2.75. The customer service representative that I spoke to about this issue was a little confrontational at the start but very quickly backed down when she understood the error.
If there was any lingering doubt that switching to a TiVo was a good move, Comcast has done everything possible to keep those concerns at bay.
Living in Boston, this story strikes close to home. In case you haven't heard of it, Internet2 is the "new" internet that strings several colleges and research universities together. It's makes the current internet look like dial-up.
Well, a few days ago a homeless man threw a cigarette on an old matress which started a major fire under the Longfellow bridge. The fire caused a major backup of traffic and quite a few people were trapped on a Red Line train for well over an hour.
As if that wasn't bad enough, the fire melted one of the major fiber optic lines that powers Internet2. I'm surprised that there weren't MIT professors rioting on the streets.
Check out the Internet2 Network Upgrade blog.
Continuing on the "16 Characters of Freedom" theme, Cali Lewis of GeekBrief.tv stars in a new music video about the digg.com controversy.
Another open letter from Steve Jobs, but this time he addresses the concerns of environmental groups. In recent years Apple has come under fire for not having an aggressive recycling program.
According to Steve, "I was surprised to learn that in many cases Apple is ahead of, or will soon be ahead of, most of its competitors in these areas. Whatever other improvements we need to make, it is certainly clear that we have failed to communicate the things that we are doing well."
Advanced Access Content System (AACS). It's the wonderful system that keeps the average consumer from ripping their HD-DVD collection to create backups, transfer movies to a portable device, or add content to a central media server. You know, the system that's there for the consumers own protection.
But what about the not-so-average consumer? Well, these crafty individuals have other methods for achieving those goals. Namely, 16 random hexadecimal characters.
Hackers have discovered the 16 hexadecimal key that is used to encrypt most of the current HD-DVD titles on the market. This of course makes the AACS licensing authority a little unhappy. They are currently waging a war against any website that posts the encryption key. Just ask Cory Doctorow about why his blog was censored. But like any good cultural revolution, the hackers are fighting back on behalf of the common man. Well, maybe not the common man, but fighting back nonetheless.
And it's the method of the fight that's noteworthy.
Instead of posting the actual 16 characters, they post an MD5 (d1af2e56517a7202a1cc087a69c4e296) that when converted reveals 16 characters of freedom.
Or create a screen saver that has random numbers falling matrix style on the screen. Well, eight pairs of "random numbers."
Clever. And best of luck the AACS licensing authority on getting the genie back in the bottle.
UPDATE:
Last night Digg.com started pulling down all posts that contained the encryption code, and the Digg users revolted. By 2:00am the homepage was flooded with dozens of posts containing the code and criticizing Digg for pulling the posts.
Digg's founder, Kevin Rose, responded:
But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be.If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.
Good for you Kevin.
