I wish I could remember where I found this, but I have to share it with you. Ms. Dewey at www.msdewey.com will help you search the internet with a unique and entertaining interface. You really have to see it to appreciate it. Go ahead … click here …
First, To my subscribers:
I have been using a different posting method lately that allows me to post to my blog without actually being logged into my blog software. Performancing.com has a very cool tool for bloggers that allows you to post to most popular blog platforms while viewing another page on the internet.
It’s a pretty neat deal, but unfortunately I have discovered that posting by this method does not trigger the portion of the software that notifies my subscribers that a new post has been made. If you’ve been wondering where my semi regular emails have been, that’s the answer. You’ve only missed a few recent additions to the blog, but it would be worth your time to direct your browsers over to the actual site. Be sure to check out a few of the posts that have been bumped off the front page, you can do this by clicking on the “next page” link after the last post on each page. I’ll be posting by the regular method in the future so you should start receiving emails from me again. Sorry for the interruption.
Next, some help on adding a favorite to your browser:
Here is some very simple, but useful help. Most of you already are quite comfortable with this process and need read no further. I know, however, that some of you are visiting my blog regularly by doing a search through Google. I get a report every day on all the Google searches that reach my site. It is a very interesting report and often reveals some very humorous search strings. Someday I may post a list of all the strange things that people have searched for and found my site. Anyway … part of the report I get reveals that some of my regular readers are going to Google, typing in “why do i bother” and clicking on the “I’m feeling lucky” button. While this will get you to my site, there a few easier ways to do this.
First, in either Firefox or Internet Explorer you could simply type “whydoibother” (yes, all scrunched together like that) in the address bar at the top of the browser and then hit Ctrl-Enter. using this method will add www and .com to anything you type up there and take you to the site.
Second, if you are a regular visitor you may just want to add me to your favorites list. In Firefox you can do that very easily. First, open the “View” menu, then the “Toolbars” sub menu and make sure that the “Bookmarks toolbar” has a check next to it. You should see a toolbar directly under the address bar that has all your bookmarks listed. Now simply click and hold the little question mark that appears in the address bar next to my URL and drag that to your bookmarks toolbar. If you’re feeling adventurous you can create folders on the toolbar to organize your favorites by right clicking on the toolbar and selecting “New folder”.
If you are an Internet Explorer user you can add a favorite to your list by first navigating to the page that you want to bookmark. Then you simply press Ctrl-D and customize the information that appears in the little pop up window in your browser. Internet Explorer also allows folders for your bookmarks so you can easily organize your favorites into categories.
I hope this was helpful to some of you. Thanks for continuing to visit my blog.
Technorati Tags: Performancing.com, favorite
I have been working on a new project lately that has divided my attention even further away from this blog. WhyDoIBother.com is where my heart lies, but I also enjoy spending time tweaking and perfecting my other experimental blogs. The latest of these is YourInfoSpot.com. It’s still in developmental stages, but you can take a look over there if you want. Eventually it will be a massive catalog of articles on many different topics. It is searchable and is thouroughly tagged in Technorati.
I don’t expect those of you who find this blog interesting to read will also find that one interesting to read necessarily, but go take a look and see how I’ve been spending my time anyway. Tell me what you think. It’s the layout that has taken the most work. I had some difficulty getting the text to wrap around the AdSense ads, but I’m quite proud of the way it turned out.
Sadly, I had to remove the shoutbox that used to reside in the right column because of constant spam and abuse. I am able to filter spam comments on my posts pretty successfully, but the shoutbox is less easy to manage. It was a feature I enjoyed and my guests seemed to like it too. I’m sad to see it go. Please continue to leave comments or send emails as much as you like.
Do you remember when I posted an article about Yahoo! aiding communist China by providing information that helped the government jail a man there for speaking out about democracy? The article was originally from The Martian Anthropologist who referenced this article from Reuters.
At the time there was a lot of discussion and criticism here and on other blogs both for and against Yahoo!. Some even suggested that Yahoo! had done exactly what it was morally and legally obligated to do by upholding the laws of the country in which it was doing business.
Well, according to this article on Reuters about an hour ago, TAIPEI, China Yahoo!’s music search engine is up to some law breaking of its own.
In a situation that seems to mirror that of market-leading — and already sued — local portal http://www.baidu.com, Yahoo China’s music pages link directly to unlicensed downloads and streams of songs by domestic and international artists.
“Deep linking,” as the practice is known, differs from sending Web searchers to other pages that may host unlicensed music. Instead, the links on Baidu and Yahoo directly trigger a download of music hosted by sites that appear to be unaffiliated with Yahoo.
The most obvious examples of apparent copyright infringement on the Yahoo China site include deep links to music by the Beatles. The band’s catalog has never been licensed to a digital service. This is similar to http://www.top100.cn, a Chinese music Web site that claimed legitimacy but sold unlicensed music.
Yahoo! claims that these “deep links” are merely a catalog of what’s out there on the internet, and are not in violation of copyright laws on the part of Yahoo!. However, pages with Yahoo! formatting bearing the Yahoo! logo are set up to download or stream these very same music files through direct links. The files for download and for streaming appear to be hosted by sources other than Yahoo! itself.
Chinese courts have ruled against deep linking in seemingly similar cases. Baidu was found guilty of copyright infringement by the Beijing People’s Local Court September 16, 2005, in a case brought by Shanghai Bu-sheng Music Culture Media, the local distributor for EMI. Baidu has appealed the ruling, and appears to continue to post copyright-infringing links.
In addition to music files, Ringtones of unlicensed music were available for download from another site bearing the Yahoo! name and logo. Be sure to read this entire article for all the information. There are 2 pages.
UPDATE: On the other side of the spectrum, Google has stopped storing personal information of its visitors from china so that it cannot be used to incriminate them.
Technorati Tags: Yahoo!, China, Martian Anthropologist, Reuters, Yahoo, TAIPEI, music, downloads, streams, songs, Deep linking, unlicensed, Baidu, Beatles, EMI, Ringtones
The Martian Anthropologist reported this today. You be the judge. As I said on his site, I’m not sure who the good guys are anymore.
I think it’s time to boycott Yahoo!, don’t you?
In their journey to make even more money, Yahoo! has provided information that helped a Chinese court to convict an online democracy activist of ‘inciting subversion’. In other words, someone in China spoke out against their tyrannical government — and Yahoo! helped the Chinese put that person in jail.
Nice, huh?
WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 9 (Reuters) - U.S. Internet companies faced fresh bipartisan criticism in the Congress on Thursday following mounting controversy over Yahoo Inc.’s (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research) alleged role in the Chinese government’s eight-year prison sentence against a second dissident.
“I don’t like any American company ratting out a citizen for speaking out against their government,” Rep. Tim Ryan, an Ohio Democrat and member of the House Human Rights Subcommittee, told Reuters on Thursday.
Maybe it’s time to hit Yahoo! where it counts — in the pocketbook. If you are using a Yahoo! service, I challenge you to go elsewhere. Their two most popular services, of course, are their search engine and their email service.
Google out-does them on both.
If anyone needs a free Gmail account so you don’t have to use Yahoo! anymore, just email me at martian.anthropologist@gmail.com .
I challenge anyone with a blog to link to this post and encourage others to stop using Yahoo!’s services.
Technorati Tags: Martian Anthropologist, boycott, Yahoo, Yahoo!, Chinese, democracy, activist, China, Google, Gmail