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Google and Verizon Close to Inking Deal That Would Kill Net Neutrality and Turn the Internet Into One Big Mafia-like ‘Protection Racket’ [UPDATE]

August 5, 2010 By James View Comments

In case you haven’t been paying attention today you may want to start because we could be witnessing the end of the internet as we know it. Apparently Google decided to take its corporate philosophy of “You can make money without doing evil,” and turn it into, “Hey, Evil! Cool, let’s do it.”

Google and Verizon, two leading players in Internet service and content, are nearing an agreement that could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content’s creators are willing to pay for the privilege.

What does this mean? Well if you’re familiar with mafia protection rackets then this needs no explanation, but in case you’re unfamiliar with such sleazy tactics CrunchGear sums it up nicely:

Mountain View is in talks with Verizon that would allow the Big V to prioritize Internet traffic as it sees fit. So, if Site A wants to pay Verizon $X so that it loads faster than Site B, Site B has two options: it could either pay Verizon $2X so that it loads faster, or it can be content with the fact that its rival just paid for better access to the same customer base.

Or, let’s say there’s a nifty new online service like Rdio. In a world without Net Neutrality, ISPs would be able to say to it, “Look, you have a nice service there. But if you want to reach our customers at anything more than [arbitrarily low speeds], you’re going to have to pay for that. Don’t like it, tough.”

If you have a blog that you like to see your site get traffic you better hope that someone else blogging about similar topics isn’t greasing Google and Verizon because, if they are, your content may never even make to the eyes of potential readers. Sound fair?

If we don’t manage to rattle enough cages and make our voices heard and this deal actually goes through, I don’t think it’s reaching to say that the internet as we know it dies as soon as this deal is sealed.

Update

Google responded to the original New York Times article with this tweet:

I’m not completely convinced. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Filed Under: Tech Tagged With: corporate whoredom, extortion, google, net neutrality, verizon

Five Chrome Extensions That Will Make Your Life Easier

July 20, 2010 By James View Comments

One of the reasons I was so hesitant to move from Firefox to Chrome was that I had my FF tricked out with so many custom plugins that it really slowed me down to try and surf without them.

Now that Chrome has opened up the floodgates and allowed extensions, the playing field is starting to even out. Here are five quick and easy Chrome Extensions that come in handy and will make your life easier.

  1. Webpage Screenshot – While not as slick as Firefox’s ScreenGrab! it still does the job. This is probably one of my most used extensions.
  2. AdBlock – Basically the same concept as the FF version but since Chrome doesn’t fully support the code it’s not quite as effective as it is on FF but it still gets the job done.
  3. MeasureIt! – I love this extension. This is actually one that I could never find on FF and have always wanted. MeasureIt! is a simple tool that let’s you measure the width of something right on your browser. It’s a lot easier than doing a screencap, firing up Photoshop and measuring it that way. This app will save you lots of time when trying to figure out the dimensions of something you like.
  4. Google Mail Checker – It’s simple, that’s exactly what it does. You don’t have to worry about keeping Gmail open in your browser, Google Mail Checker lets you know how many unread emails you have in your inbox and once you click on it, it opens a new tab and takes you right to your inbox. Pretty handy, especially if you’re waiting on an important email and don’t want to keep hitting refresh all the time.
  5. Eye Dropper – This is another app I use a lot. Again, it’s not quite as good as its FF companion but it still does the job. If you need to find the color on a page this will definitely get the job done for you.

Honorable Mention: Web Developer - This didn’t make the list because I think it still needs a little bit of work. The Web Developer add-on for Firefox is arguably one of the best plugins out there for anyone building websites. This plugin has a lot of potential but still seems a little clunky and harder to use.

There you have it, enjoy. Let me know what some of your favorite Chrome extensions are and maybe I’ll check them out.

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: browser, chrome, extensions, google, Tips, Web Apps

How to keep your memories safe like an Enterprise-level organization on a recession proof budget

November 12, 2009 By James View Comments

I have a 19-month-old daughter that I have taken about a million pictures of since she was born. Obviously these photos are very important and extremely valuable to me and something that I hope to someday pass on to my daughter, so it’s my responsibility to make sure to keep them as safe as possible.

Anything that you have that exists only on your hard drive is in constant danger of being lost forever. Is it likely to happen? Perhaps not, but trust me, you don’t want to be the one who finds out the hard way.

I am a photo freak. I, like everyone else who owns any sort of camera, fancies myself an unpolished, amateur photographer. I love taking photos of what’s going on around me. I am constantly amazed at how easy technology has made it to instantly immortalize what is going on in at any given moment in time.

I want to make sure that ever photo I take is safe. I have enough going on in my life that I don’t want to have to worry about whether or not I could suddenly lose every photo I have of my daughter if my hard drive decides to crap the bed.

You don’t have to be a huge corporation to utilize backups and extra storage to keep your photos safe. Here are a few of the tools I use to do it.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: google, hard drives, photography, picasa, picasa web, Web Apps

Google Boosts Their Paid Storage Quotas

November 11, 2009 By James View Comments

It’s no earth shattering secret that storage has become cheaper and cheaper over the past few years and since there’s probably no one on the planet with more storage capacity than Google, it’s nice to see them spreading the wealth so to speak.

google_storage_boost

Hi,

We wanted to let you know about some exciting changes to your Google paid storage plan. While storage costs have dropped naturally in the past few years, we’ve also been working hard to improve our infrastructure to reduce your costs even further. On Tuesday, November 10th, we increased the size of each of our tiers to make storage even more affordable and accessible. For the same $20.00 per year, you’ll now get 80 GB, 8 times as much storage as before. Your current plan will be automatically upgraded and your new quota will automatically show up in your account in the next 24 hours.

We hope you’ll like the extra space, but if it’s more than you need you can always change your storage plan or renewal preferences for next year in your Google account settings: www.google.com/accounts/purchasestorage. Feel free to visit our Help Center for more information.

Thanks,
The Google storage team

My Account_1257988092607

This is great news for me because while 17GB of storage for my email is probably enough to last me a lifetime, I use Picasa Web to back up all of my photos and I was starting to run out of room.

Filed Under: Tech Tagged With: gmail, google, picasa, storage, Web Apps

Google Image Search Rolls Out “Find Similar Image” Feature

October 27, 2009 By James View Comments

Google announced today that a sweet new feature was finally being rolled out of Labs and becoming a permanent feature in Google Image Search.

So, let’s say you want to find images of Ancient Egypt. Google Images will provide you with a rich variety of results, including pyramids, maps, relics, drawings and other types of images. Instead of poring through hundreds of images, now you can simply click “Find similar images” to narrow down the results to the results to the type you want. (We’re rolling this out gradually, so the links in the below examples may not work for you yet.)

Let’s say you want to find a work of art by Michelangelo but you’re not exactly sure what the piece is called. So, you do a Google Image Search for “Michelangelo”, which returns the following results:

michelangelo_gis

Which leads you to the image you actually want, The Creation Adam. Once you figure out what you’re looking for you can click on “Find similar images” and return a whole slew of results to choose from.

michelangelo_gis2

This is a very helpful feature and has the potential to save you a lot of time if you’re looking for just the right image for that project you’re working. Google is currently rolling this feature out so if you don’t see it now you should be getting it shortly.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: gis, google, google image search, google labs, images, photos, similar images

How To: Import photos from your iPhone to your PC in 3 easy steps using Picasa

July 17, 2009 By James View Comments

If you go searching on the web for the best way to import photos from your iPhone, most likely the answer you’re bound to find is iPhoto. Which is great if you have a Mac, but what about us PC users out there?

Well, as an admitted Google fanboy I have to say that Picasa handles importing photos from your iPhone just as well, if not better than iPhoto.

Once you have your iPhone connected to your computer just follow these three easy steps.

Step 1: Open Picasa and click on the import button

iphone_picasa_1

If your iPhone was already connected Picasa will detect that as the correct device to import from.

Step 2: Confirm your device, choose which photos you want to import and execute

iphone_picasa_2

Step 3: Enter your info

Enter a folder name and location and description of your photos. Also select what you would like to do with the photos once they’re copied onto your hard drive.
iphone_picasa_3

That’s it! Rinse. Repeat whenever you want to grab your photos off your iPhone.

Also, if you’re not familiar with Picasa, it integrates perfectly with Picasa Web and allows you to flip a switch and sync your offline albums to your online Picasa account. No uploading necessary, it’s all done in the background for you.

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: google, iPhone, pc, photography, photos, picasa, Tips
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