by steelie -

Google Aquires YouTube for $1.65 Billion in stocks…

Wow, Google is becoming harder and harder to avoid…

Google just aquired YouTube for $1.65 Billion in stocks. There goes one of my time killers. Some of you might already know that I’ve been boycotting the big “G” since I found out about the whole Google-China censorship ordeal. Eventually this whole boycott will become pointless because according to MacRumours.com, apparently APPLE is in talks with Google about streaming video for their upcoming iTV…

Crap…

I have an Apple computer. I need my computer to make a living. I need to make a living to provide for my family. Needless to say, I’m not prepared to not make a living for my family. At some point I’m going to be using Google services — directly or indirectly — whether I want to or not. I’m sure I’m using their services indirectly right now, just uncertain as to where or how.

Crap…
—
steelie

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

by steelie -

Passive Activist…

Timothys_logo
Timothys_logo

So, at work we have a social event coming up commemorating a former coworker’s retirement and I’m doing my little bit by helping out with certain decorations and ordering the coffee from a local vendor… So far I haven’t had a chance to start designing any on the decorations yet. I did, however, manage to get down to Timothy’s coffee shop to place the order for the coffee…

Now, I used to go to this place every day — EVERY DAY — but stopped going recently because the daily coffee/tea plus treat I was getting ended up costing upwards of $45 a month… some months more than that I’m sure. I know that $45 is not much but when trying to cut down on spending to manage other monthly bills it actually works out to be a whole heck of a lot… try over $500 a year!

Either way, that was a bit of a pseudo-digression… the point of which was to say that it has been a while since I’ve been down for my “usual”. So when I went down today (with a co-worker), I was a bit surprised to see that I didn’t recognize any of the staff… I knew that school had started back up and I knew that some changes were happening so I didn’t think that much of it at first. I proceeded to order the coffee (four urns: 2 regular, two decaf) from a gentleman who was apparently the new owner. I off-handedly mentioned that I didn’t recognize any of the staff — kinda wondering about the back-to-school theory — and he indicated that none of the old staff was left.

As I finished up the order and started walking back to work, I thought to myself that this really sucks because I’d gotten to know a few of the workers really well…

Please keep in mind that I am quite sleep deprived so it takes a while for certain this to sink in…

The co-worker I had gone down with mentioned that the new owner was going to force all of the old employees to re-interview for their positions and impose a pay cut to those who continued to work there. Needles to say, the employees were… well… how can we say this… pretty fuckin’ livid. So on the first day the new owner was supposed to take over none of them showed up. Not a single one. This of course left Mr. New Guy in a pickle… he had to shut down the shop and hire a whole new staff.

Wait a second…

Things start to sink in…

I just ordered coffee from this guy after he treated these people — some of whom I had grown quite attached to — like crap!? Now I’m not to happy with myself… I get back to wortk and explain what happened to a couple of other co-workers, Mr. Miko and Julé. Mr. Miko said that I should cancel the order…

I wish I had thought of that…

So, I hop on board and decide that this is exactly what I’m going to do… march right back down to Timothy’s and cancel the order and inform Mr. Latte that we have placed an order with someone else. Mr Miko was quick to point out that while was all-fine-and-dandy (my words not his), this will not let Mr. half-caf know that we don’t approve of his business practices — which is of course the real reason for cancelling the coffee order — and that today, he (Mr. Miko) was a bit of a self-proclaimed “crank” and perfectly in the mood to let Mr. no-foam-with-a-dash-of-cinnamon know why we were cancelling the order.

[sigh] I’m not built to be confrontational…

And so he did… Mr. Miko marched down to Timithy’s and cancelled the order that I should have cancelled… said his piece, which should have been mine to say… and earned my appreciation and admiration, which should have been a quiet proud moment I shared with myself…

[double-sigh]

I could promise myself that next time I’ll do it but I never make a promise that I can’t keep… so I didn’t. I turn thirty on Saturday… that should be grown up enough… to bad I always feel like a terrified kid in situations like this…

I wonder if I ask for a backbone for my Birthday if it would arrive by Saturday…

How would you wrap that?
—
steelie

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

by steelie -

del.icio.us Purchased by Yahoo…

Doing a bit of surfing, looking for an online bookmarks manager, and discovered that del.icio.us (perhaps the most popular online bookmarks manager) is now owned by Yahoo. This is not recent news (Dec-2005-ish), only a recent discovery for me. Until I hear otherwise, notable alternatives include Spurl.net, Blinklist.net, and Furl.net.

Until next time.
—
steelie

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

by steelie -

Gmail Alternatives…

Gmail Alternatives…

mood: contemplative

So, now I'm using IceRocket almost exclusively for my Web searching. The more I use it, the more I like it. I am, however, having issues with finding a suitable Gmail replacement. I'm sure I've spent way too much time looking for the perfect one but I'm not sure if it exists.

—
Hmmm, I apologise, before I go too far I should correct myself… I do still use Google on occasion. But only to search for Google alternatives. They do still return the most results and it only seems appropriate that Google be the search engine that frees me from using their services. 🙂
—

Www.noluv4google.com is keeping a running tab of all those who have "dumped" Google and moved on to better relationships. I have yet to sign up because I have been hanging onto my Gmail account trying to find the best alternative so I don't make the transition to another place and loose some important, potentially irreplaceable information (it involves company email addresses and other messiness). So far, I have found a number of alternatives, but none that capture all of the main features that I rely on the Gmail account for: POP3/IMAP, webmail, the ability to send and receive large attachments, mulitple accounts/identities, SPAM blocking, a generous amount of storage and, oh right, it's free.

Some of the most popular/reccommended Gmail alternatives that keep coming up are Walla.com (2 GB), Fastmail.fm (10 MB with free account), Runbox.com (10 GB for $49.95 US / year), and Spymac.com (1 GB email storage, 1 GB webspace). All of these are praised by a number of different people but fall short of what Gmail provided.

Walla.com does have the hefty 2 GB email storage, however, it has only a very basic interface and does not let you control any preferences at all. Plus, I was unable to attach a file to send. No POP, no multiple accounts… no thanks.

Fastmail.fm seems to come recommended by a number of people but it only has a number of features if you shell out $40 US / year. The free account only comes with 40 MB of storage space and very few of the features I'm looking for (no large attachments here). Plus if you don't access it for 45 days the close the account.

Runbox.com does not offer a free account, only a free trial. It has a huge 10 GB email account and claims to offer all of the features that I'm looking for. The problem is that the trial version does not seem to let you have access to all of the features so it's difficult to test anything. And maybe I'm stingy but I'm not shelling out money for something that I can't be be sure will work.

Spymac.com seems like one of the better candidates, however, it does not allow multiple accounts/identities. It looks like it might if I upgrade to their CLUB package but, again, Me stingy. Other than that, worth checking out.

I found an email service provider called 30gigs.com which looked promising given the fact that it offers a free 30 GB account and does allow for multiple identities. However, it does not offer POP/IMAP, nor was I able to successfully attach any files to send. Oh right, there's a mountain of ads to have to deal with. [sigh]

Another one I discovered from the list at Www.noluv4google.com is Aventuremail.co.uk/. It offers a 5 GB account for a one-time $5.95 fee. It offers POP and multiple ID's but I'm not sure about attachment size. Also, when you attach a file, there is currently no way to remove it if you change your mind.

The best online email service I have found is Inbox.com. It has everything I'm looking for except for multiple accounts/IDs. Unfortunately, for this reason alone I may not use it. Which is too bad because everything else about it is so perfect by comparison. If you don't care much about multiple ID's this is where I would start and finish looking. Plus it gives you a great email address too — yourname@inbox.com.

Either way, It's well past my bed time. I haven't found the perfect free replacement yet, but I'll keep looking. I'm actually strongly considering registering my own Domain name with someone that'll offer a free webmail account with it.

We'll see…

Good night.
—
steelie

[UPDATE]
Inbox.com now has everything I’ve been looking for plus they’ve increased their email space to 5 GB, which can also be used to store music, photos and other files. Very happy…
—
steelie

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

by steelie -

Well, here goes nothing…

So, here I go adventuring into the world of blogging — into a place I'm not really sure I belong. I have since long thought about what I would write in my first post… what I could possibly offer to the world that hasn't already been covered off in umpteen-billion other blogs or forums — truth is I'm not sure that there is anything. I'm not sure if that's the point.

Either way, for better or worse, I have finally decided to go ahead and impose myself on the world. And for this first post I might as well bite off more than I can chew…

Google… (sigh)

I loved using Google. I loved getting millions of results every time I went looking for Vespas, iPods, and le Parkour. I loved being able to search for local businesses and services, and zooming in on my house using Google Maps. And then along came gmail… Ahhh, sweet gmail.

A suite of services that were so easy to use, with such great results and attention to (functional) detail that it was easy to not think about what might be going on behind the scenes. I was enjoying this relationship so much that I didn't really think about what Google might be doing "behind my back".

Funnily enough, it was while checking in on a bit of Google News that I first learned about what would eventually lead to me no longer using their services. I learned that a number of people were boycotting all things Google. I learned that Google was offering a censored version of their searching platform to China, custom tailored to the Chinese Government's specifications, where anytime someone does a search of a "questionable nature", or for "sensitive topics" (democracy, Tibet, the Dalai Lama, etc.) they are automatically redirected to a page dishing out Communist propaganda.

(If you want to learn more about this visit the Student's for a Free Tibet (SFT) web-site or their spinoff site noluv4google.com — they're much better at explaining the specifics)

Now I'm usually not one to hop on any kind of "bandwagon", and I wasn't entirely sure if I would actually join in boycotting the big Google either. However, as the days went on, this thing really started to get to me… I really wasn't informed enough at the time to make a proper decision, so I had to start researching it for myself. The more I find out, the less the whole thing sits well with me.

A lot of people are upset with Google but most of these people haven't bothered to research things enough (I'm still not sure if I have or not). I have tried all of the search engines listed in noluv4google's "Google Alternatives" list (and I appreciate the research) but what I am now left wondering is… is this it? Are these the only "acceptable" alternatives? Are all other parties involved in questionable politics? What are these other (not listed) alternatives that are NOT acceptable replacements and why? I have been trying to find the best "anti-Google" search engines available but other than this site indicating which companies are seen as friendlier alternatives I am finding it very difficult to find which ones are not.

For example, I found a few bloggers hopping on the anti-Google campaign but stating that they will use Alltheweb.com for all of their searches from now on — obviously completely oblivious to fact that it is now owned by Yahoo (even more problematic than Google [SFT, InfoWorld]). Another site lists the following after their boycott-of-Google statement: GigaBlast, MozDex, Fybersearch, AltaVista, HotBot, Excite, AllTheWeb, Search.com, Ask Jeeves (now Ask.com), and Teoma.

I have been trying my best to find the best substitutes for Google but I am finding it difficult to weed out the ones that are owned by the "Baddies". I know that Alltheweb.com is owned by Yahoo and I've found a couple of sources that mentioned HotBot.com works closely with Google.

If a Search Engine uses information from Google but is not owned by Google how is it seen? I stumbled across this link that seems to sum up the relationship between many of the big players: bruceclay.com/searchenginechart.pdf

I have been using Ask.com as my main search engine platform, supplementing its short-fallings with IceRocket.com and Clusty.com, hoping that these are all viable options. Ask.com/MyStuff.ask.com has a number of great features, but I'm not sure how it sits if uses "Paid results" from Google (whatever "Paid results" are). IceRocket.com is listed with SFT but it has a Google button on the right-hand side of their results column that places the IceRocket.com results on your Google.com homepage… (shrug)

As I said, the whole thing is just not sitting well with me and I just want to make the right decision and a well informed decision. Any insight anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated. In mean time I'll continue using Ask.com/MyStuff.ask.com, IceRocket.com and Clusty.com — they all seem to generate consistent results, in number of results and relevance.

So long, Google. It was fun… but now we're done.

Cheers.
—
steelie

[UPDATE]
After further scrutinizing all three Search Engines recommended above, I have dropped Ask.com as one of my primary search platforms in exchange for IceRocket.com. I've been getting many more results with IceRocket.com. Plus, they provide the option to view a thumbnail of the sites listed in your search results — which you can turn off if you have a slower internet connection.

Clusty.com now occupies second place. Both Ask.com and Clusty.com have been returning a similar number of results, however, Clusty.com provides the option to further narrow your search by "clustering" (thus the name) common sub-themes.

I am now only using Ask.com if I cannot find what I'm looking for with the other two.
—
steelie

Read and post comments | Send to a friend