March 23rd 2010
Man – do I hate this. I feel that the compulsory viewing of ads, intros and stuff like that is a very good reason to copy the DVD before viewing it. My time is precious enough as it is, to spend it on stupid 3D animations that look as if they are made in the 80ties by a student of graphical arts. I don’t care who distributes this film – I want to bloody watch it!
September 10th 2009
There is a campaign going on in the States to get rid of those annoying, very long messages you get when you call a voicemail..
I would really like this to change in the netherlands as well.. it takes up a lot of time and is very, very annoying indeed!
Then I noticed this post in reply to the article… And I like it so much I wanted to share it with you:
so Pogue you’re the man of the hour
moving mountains to show off your power
the beaureaucracies shake
as they hasten to make
the changes prescribed from your tower.
LOL!
June 3rd 2009
Privacy and the internet do not go well together. While many people claim they are worried about this, almost nobody does anything about it. I may be a bit overreacting. I use two different browsers: one to do all the stuff with I need to login for and one to really ‘browse’ with ie all the other stuff I do online. While not perfect (you could still track my IP-adress, for instance) I never got around to using TOR. It turns out, Google and the likes are tracking people ever more intensely…
This article describes a recent study about the ways and the intensity with which people are tracked online.
Privacy, to paraphrase a well known security saying, is a project, not a product. You keep having to defend it! Use ghostery to get informed, use Ad Block to get rid of ads – and lots of tracking at the same time. Manage your cookies using all kinds of plugins. And if you don’t, please don’t expect anyone to protect you…
May 25th 2009
In a recent discussion on /. about a program to track stolen laptops I came across this quote:
where can you store scads of information in a free, reliable, anonymous, and secure manner?”
there’s 4 criteria there. take away free, and you can get the other 3 criteria. leave in the word “free,” and you can only have 1 of the other 3 criteria
This comment was rated as ‘funny’, which I think is a grave mistake. I think this is 1) very true, 2) not funny at all, and 3) much more important than most people realize.
I am continually surprised by the fact that everybody seems to think that everything has always been, will continue to be, and, in fact, should be free. Of course, in reality, nothing is.
It is just that the real cost of a lot of products (be it Facebook or the latest gadgets) is hidden for the consumer. This is especially true for a lot of websites. Almost all people expect the web to be free (as in beer). That may be great – but of course, these sites cost money – and lots of it. (YouTube is expect to lose $470.6 million this year.) What you pay for, in these cases, is almost always freedom. You might not notice it, you might not even care, but you do.
Every time you use a ad-supported service, you expect some else to pick up the bill for a service you are using – it’s as simple as that…
April 21st 2009
Some Kindle users are angry because Amazon blocked them from their Kindle accounts, thereby blocking them from accessing their already-purchased media. Even if these stories are exaggerated, they once again highlight the caveats that come with DRMed media. You don’t own your content—Amazon does.
This Ars Technica article is the perfect explanation of why I will never buy DRM’d media. And if I do (DVD, anyone?) I will try to get rid of the encryption…
January 7th 2009
The records that are kept show great detail…
I still don’t get that not more people object to this… in the Netherlands as well, most privacy issues are rarely discussed. Strange, and worrying!
January 6th 2009
This defies all cries of the record-companies….
Does it not? People will pay for music – even if it is available for free.
January 5th 2009
The Times claims that Popeye now moves $2.8B of merchandise per year.
Amazing… not bad for a 70 year old!
December 10th 2008
Book publishers as stupid as the musicindustry?
My 13 year old daughter totally ‘does not get’ that you might actually pay for music. Music comes for free from Limewire. The hassle of buying music is still astounding: iTunes won’t work on her MP3 player (actually her mobile). Instead of making sure she can buy the music on her phone they try to suppress filesharing…. and its not working….
October 24th 2008
Once again, Holland is ahead of other nations:
The woman used login information she got from the 33-year-old office worker when their characters were happily married, and killed the character. The man complained to police when he discovered that his beloved online avatar was dead.
But this time you have to wonder if it is something to be proud of. Anyway, this is a first in the world!