Clipmarks | gagneeric's clips

Canada-Quebec bashing Techcrunch style.

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:27:48 GMT

clipped by: gagneeric
clipper's remarks: The blog star syndrome. Because you are respected in your field, doesn't mean you can discuss any theme with intelligence.

Clip Source: blogoramification.blogspot.com

I have been monitering the comments on one of Techcrunch's post titled: Canadians Unite To Fight Off The "Feared TechCrunch

. If you want to bash Canada, Eastern-Canada or Quebec, that is the place to do it.

Canadians are total media whores. They'll do anything for US press. They're starved up there. The best they have is Paula Todd, Lloyd Robertson and the most boring personalities and stories you could possibly imagine.

Look at this, CTV reported on a FAKE youtube video featuring people that were fighting back against throwing cigarette buts in the street. They couldn't even do due dilligence because THAT'S HOW STUPID CANADIANS ARE.

Melanie - Canada ganged up on me today. I'm simply defending myself. Why in the world you put up with those people from Quebec is beyond me

You can't judge Canada by Quebec, would Americans like to be judged by Texas? That's not just a no, that's a hell no

Want more. Enter here

Tags: techcrunch, canada, bashing

WiFi buses in San Francisco, USA, and Galicia, Spain.

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:00:46 GMT

clipped by: gagneeric

Clip Source: wirelesswebwifinews.blogspot.com

First SFO. For the first time, some Muni bus riders got to experience free wi-fi access and informational touch screens.

AC Transit has wi-fi on 90 busses, while Muni has it on one. The folks at Muni say this bus connects more than just people with the internet. Its onboard computer connects with the bus' operational system, creating maintenance logs and performance evaluations. There are five touch screens -- one by the driver, two overhead, and two in the back of the bus. The screens tell you how long your wait is if you want to transfer to another line and that's why Muni calls it the "connected bus".

Now Galicia. In La voz de Galicia, an account of a trip on a WiFi bus between A Coruña and Ferrol. Since the 10th of February, passengers who choose direct highway services, by the company Arriva, linking Ferrol and A Coruña, can enjoy free internet WiFi connection, through wireless technology wifi. The entire article (in spanish) here.

Tags: wifi

Semantic Web: Steady As She Goes.

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:56:41 GMT

clipped by: gagneeric

Clip Source: www.readwriteweb.com

In an hour long interview posted today about the Semantic Web, W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee says all the pieces are in place to move full steam ahead and realize the potential of a world of structured, machine readable data. Available as a part of the Talking with Talis semantic web podcast series, the interview (listen here) is summarized on interviewer Paul Miller's new ZDNet blog dedicated to the semantic web. A full transcript is available here.

It's an important conversation and a good introduction to what the semantic web is. Also notable is the way that Berners-Lee sees Semantics and Data Portability as very related. Some highlights are excerpted below.

My standard explanation of the value of the Semantic Web is this:
Once our software is capable of deriving meaning from web pages it looks at for us, then there's a whole lot of work that will already be done, allowing our human, creative minds to reach new heights.

Tags: semantic web

GAll Gmail Users Are Given Two Separate Email Addresses

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:53:12 GMT

clipped by: gagneeric

Clip Source: www.labnol.org

You probably know how to create multiple email aliases in Gmail by adding the plus symbol and dots to your Gmail username but there’s something more interesting.

When you create a Gmail account, you actually get two email addresses - one is the regular @gmail.com while the second email address has @googlemail.com in the domain.

That means if your email address in Gmail is something like billgates@gmail.com, all email messages that are sent to billgates@googlemail.com will also be delivered to your own Gmail account. That’s two for the price of one.

Like the Gmail plus trick, you can take advantage of these two domains so that less spam reaches your Gmail Inbox.

Give the @googlemail.com address to your close contacts (put that in the visiting card) while keep the @gmail.com address for public (put it on your blog). Then set a Gmail filter such that all email messages with @googlemail.com in the header go a special folder so you will never miss important email from close friends.

Tags: gmail, googlemail

Fight spamming with GMailPlus

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:50:51 GMT

clipped by: gagneeric

Clip Source: labnol.blogspot.com

GMail Plus Addressing is not new but still very relevant and useful trick to help save your GMail mailbox from spam. And if you get spammed, you know exactly which website / online service leaked your email address to spammers.

What is GMail Plus addressing? Say you have an email address like billgates@gmail.com. If you append a "plus" sign to your email username, gmail will ignore anything written between the + and @ sign.

So any email address sent to billgates+microsoft@gmail.com or billgates+blog@gmail.com or billgates+website@gmail.com will still reach your billgates@gmail.com inbox though technically, they are three different email aliases.

When you share your email with some non familiar service, like a newsletter, you can supply your existing email with a plus sign. If you ever receive spam addressed to that email alias, you know the exact source that's sending the spam and can easily block all emails using a GMail filter.

Tags: gmail, google

'Doomsday' seed vault opens in Arctic

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:53:19 GMT

clipped by: gagneeric

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

LONGYEARBYEN, Norway - A "doomsday" seed vault built to protect millions of food crops from climate change, wars and natural disasters opened Tuesday deep within an Arctic mountain in the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.

"The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is our insurance policy," Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told delegates at the opening ceremony. "It is the Noah's Ark for securing biological diversity for future generations."

The vault will serve as a backup for hundreds of other seed banks worldwide. It has the capacity to store 4.5 million seed samples from around the world and shield them from man-made and natural disasters.

Dug into the permafrost of the mountain, it has been built to withstand an earthquake or a nuclear strike.

6 Firefox tools that monitor your time online.

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 22:17:43 GMT

clipped by: gagneeric
clipper's remarks: PageAddict.com - A tool for monitoring your browsing habits and then allowing you to attach tags to certain types of sites such as "games", "work", "fun", and assigning a limit to how much time you can spend on that type of site per day.
Timer - A very simple extension that does nothing but count the time from when you start it until you tell it stop. Good way to at least monitor how much time you've been in front of your web browser.
TimeTracker - An extension that will monitor your browsing history, but monitors actual browsing time, not the time the browser is open. You can also add work sites that will stop the cloc while you are viewing it.
Usage Counter - Appears simple on the surface, and a lot like Timer, but it does keep track of your stats over numerous sessions, you can also set domains for it not to time.

Clip Source: mashable.com

Do you know exactly how you spend your time while surfing the web? Do you spend too much time on a given site, and you think you should cut back (Excluding Mashable, of course?) Well, the wonderful world of Firefox extensions can help you monitor your usage and better plan your web browsing, some will even help you control yourself by placing blocks on which sites you visit, and how long you can visit them. So, find one you like, get it installed, and start earning back some time in your life!

8AWeek.com - A downloadable toolbar that monitors your surfing habits and shows you which sites you visit the most, then lets you set the controls to limit how much time you can spend on them each day. The goal is to save you up to eight hours a week.

GetMeeTimer.com - Something like an online nanny, MeeTimer not only logs your web activity, it features LinkWarn and TabWarn. Before you open another link or a new tab, it will ask you if you’re sure you want to do that.

Tags: firefox, tools, time monitoring

Why Trafficjam.com really ...

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 22:08:12 GMT

clipped by: gagneeric

Clip Source: andybeard.eu

I could finish that title in all kinds of ways

does suck

is amazing

can bring you masses of targeted traffic

can be used for market research

can help you optimize your titles

can be used for discovery

is overrated

is underrated

is useful

is a waste of screen pixels

Get the idea? It all depends on perspective and objectives.

Even if you have absolutely no interest in TrafficJam or Blogrush, I strongly suggest you read this post, especially if you are interested in viral marketing techniques that are guaranteed to build you an email list.

TrafficJam highlights what is currently hot, without requiring high traffic numbers, a "trained audience" encouraged to click things to bring you more traffic, or anything else.

Clicks are based purely on headlines - if you have a headline that visitors to other blogs find interesting, you are going to gain a few clicks, even if you have a very low traffic blog - Blogrush already favours low traffic blogs in this regard because they gain lots of free credits.

Tags: trafficjam.com

Looting for Kosovo.

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 21:52:40 GMT

clipped by: gagneeric
clipper's remarks: BELGRADE (Reuters) - A video of two young women looting with gay abandon during rioting in the Serbian capital Belgrade was becoming a Balkan smash hit on the video-sharing Web site YouTube Friday.

Police arrested some looters but public humiliation by YouTube may prove a far more painful punishment for the pair, whose spree Thursday night was also aired on local television stations and was being discussed across the Internet.

A persistent amateur cameraman followed the women as they loaded up with chocolates at a corner shop, came out giggling, then went after designer bags, shoes and clothes at Belgrade's swankiest stores in its vandalized main shopping street.

Clip Source: uk.youtube.com

Dear viewers, seeing how this video has become hugely popular I think that is my duty to explain the whole situation.
The first part of the video is happening in a store at Slavija square in Belgrade, Serbia at the time of the torching of a McDonalds restaurant near by, when I by accident recorded these two girls. Two hours later, at Terazije square, I recorded two other girls ("Jesi li nasla broj?"), and shortly after I ran into the blondes from earlier who were emptying a store in Sremska Street. Astonished by their persistence on getting new clothes on a 100% off sale, I decided to further record them.

[Video]

Tags: looting, belgrade, serbia, kosovo

God hates men who pee sitting down.

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 21:31:23 GMT

clipped by: gagneeric
clipper's remarks: Don't worry. it is normal to do it. ...Me??? Are you crazy,.. I don't do it...

Clip Source: blog.beliefnet.com

No, really, a preacher says so: What's wrong with the world is men who sit down to urinate. Sit back and watch 4 1/2 minutes of sublimely weird preaching (thank you Mark Shea, you ignorant slut, and also your Knights of Templar tattoos, for brightening my wintry evening with this magnificent find -- the best thing since Carl got crackin' in Chicago)

[Video]

Tags: god, pee, sitting down

The indigo child bullshit

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 21:26:23 GMT

clipped by: gagneeric
clipper's remarks: * They come into the world with a feeling of royalty (and often act like it)
* They have a feeling of "deserving to be here," and are surprised when others don't share that.
* Self-worth is not a big issue. They often tell the parents "who they are."
* They have difficulty with absolute authority (authority without explanation or choice).
* They simply will not do certain things; for example, waiting in line is difficult for them.
* They get frustrated with systems that are ritually oriented and don't require creative thought.
* They often see better ways of doing things, both at home and in school, which makes them seem like "system busters" (nonconforming to any system).
* They seem antisocial unless they are with their own kind. If there are no others of like consciousness around them, they often turn inward, feeling like no other human understands them.
* They will not respond to "guilt" discipline
* They are not shy in letting you know what they need.

Clip Source: scienciaramificacion.blogspot.com

Is my new daughter an indigo child? If she presents these caracteristics, she just might be:

And if her aura is indigo (Does that mean that she glows in the dark?), I have a sure case of indigo baby.

But, according to psychiatric expert Russell Barkley, the New Age movement has yet to produce empirical evidence of the existence of Indigo children and the 17 traits most commonly attributed to them were so vague they could describe "most of the people most of the time".

It has also been hypothesized that rather than being a new step in human evolution, the Indigo phenomena may be the reaction of children watching television shows with an emphasis on magic and New Age-compatible language.

"Are you an indigo?" he asked Dusk. The boy looked at him shyly and nodded. "I'm an avatar," Dusk said. "I can recognize the four elements of earth, wind, water and fire. The next avatar won't come for 100 years."

Tags: indigo child, new age

U2 Bono's bullshit: still clowning around with the rich and powerful.

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 17:58:38 GMT

clipped by: gagneeric
clipper's remarks: 1. up to the conscience and the morals of Bono to lawfully arrange his personal tax affairs as he sees fit.
2. open to Bono to use his public profile to put his personal political views to the public

But, what is at the same time hypocritical, laughable and unacceptable is for Bono to have the gall to avoid taxes and at the same time chastise others (governments, individuals, corporations and supra-national bodies) for meanness in the area of aid and to hector others for loans to basket-case countries to be written off. Unless, that is, he does like Bill Gates and forms his own charitable foundation from his wealth.

Clip Source: blogoramification.blogspot.com

This is not a new story. I read it for the first time in 2006, I think. The other day when I watched Bono in Davos

and yesterday at the United Nations (UN), it came back with all the related disgust. For tax evasion purposes, U2 moved their song catalog from Ireland, a tax haven, to a better one, Holland. In Holland, their is still no tax on royalties. But, Ireland had decided to cap the income which can be subject to this exemption at 250,000 euros per annum. This is, of course, income beyond the dreams of about 99% of artists, whatever their medium, and so hardly diminishes Ireland's commitment to support the arts, if that was the intent of the exemption. But the change was apparently unacceptable to U2.

comment from Roger Rabbit:

I'm off now to download all the U2 tracks I can from free sites - I now consider it to be my moral duty. "

In Facebook there is a group called: Fuck Bono [and his faux philanthropy]. Join it as you please. I started a group called: Bono, pay your f.. taxes.

Tags: bono, tax evasion, bullshit

The word "canadian": a new way to insult black people.

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:06:40 GMT

clipped by: gagneeric
clipper's remarks: That leaves one problem. What do we say to a black guy from Winnipeg. Can't we ask him now if he is "canadian"? For example, go pick up Bob at the airport. How will I recognize him? He is a tall kind of bl..., kind of can.... guy. Ah! never mind. He will take a cab.

And the beer ad for Molson's Canadian, I am canadian", takes a whole new meaning now. Say good-bye to the american market.

Clip Source: lalonguefindesemaine.blogspot.com

This is hilarious in some ways and completely absurd as well. You can read in an article published in The National Post

, which is an insult by itself to Quebecers in general, that the word "canadian" has become an new insult thrown to blacks in the US south.

Who started this new trend, when, where and why, is still a deep mystery, according to the report. Except for this guy, Stefan Dollinger, a postdoctoral fellow in linguistics at University of British Columbia and director of the university's Canadian English lab, who has speculated that the slur reflects a sense of Canadians as the other.

"This 'code' word, is the replacement of a no-longer tolerated label for one outsider group, with, from the U.S. view, another outsider group: Canadians. It could have been terms for Mexicans, Latinos etc. but this would have been too obvious," he said. "What's left? Right, the guys to the north."

Tags: canadian, black, insult

Amazing Old Stars Give Birth Again

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 18:13:32 GMT

clipped by: gagneeric

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Two old stars appear to be gearing up for a second generation of planet formation, a phenomenon astronomers say they have never seen before.

"This is a new class of stars, ones that display conditions now ripe for formation of a second generation of planets, long, long after the stars themselves formed," said UCLA astronomy graduate student Carl Melis, who reported the findings at a recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas.

The stars are BP Piscium in the constellation Pisces and TYCHO 4144 329 2, which resides in the constellation Ursa Major. The exact ages of the stars are unknown, but it is estimated they are at least hundreds of millions or possibly billions of years old, and might have already given birth to planets long ago.

"Most astronomers now believe that most stars are accompanied by first-generation planets of some sort, even if the planets are not massive enough to be picked up by the radial velocity [detection] technique," Melis said.

Tags: star, birth

New York Times praises for citizen journalism

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 19:17:31 GMT

clipped by: gagneeric

Clip Source: www.readwriteweb.com

The New York Times ran two stories today affirming the usefulness of citizen journalists and microjournalism tools to the reporting of major news stories. In October we reported that citizen journalism had gone undeniably mainstream after both Reuters and CNN embraced citizen journalism techniques and amateur reporting itself in the coverage of important news stories (perhaps most notably at the time, the California wildfires). Today the Times writes in two separate stories how techniques and technologies pioneered by citizen journalism are changing the way we get news.

Noam Cohen reports on the use of Twitter on the campaign trail in the ongoing US presidential elections.

n another piece, the NYT writes about blogger Michael Yon, who uses his blog to cover the Iraq war from the front lines. "Michael Yon was not a journalist, and he wasn’t sure what a blogger was," the piece begins.

Tags: new york times, citizen journalism