Gally

Content from a friend, passing on the message:

Later this week, the government will introduce a bill (as soon as tomorrow) that will change our rights as Canadian consumers. I'll be brief and give you a shot list of things that are about to be outlawed:

1) Unlocking of cell phones
2) Transferring of music from CD (which you own) to your iPod
3) Recording of "time-shifted" television programs
4) Usage of mod chips and memory cards

For more info:
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=558674
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/03/canadian-dmca-will-t.html

While the legislators and their generous lobbyists may think that this provision will deal a critical blow to piracy, what they don't understand (or may not care) is that this will also infringe on our fair usage rights as consumers.

If this transgression frightens and offends you, please voice your concerns to your local MP. You can find their contact info here.

If you're feeling lazy, you can sign an online petition here.

Oh hey, kids! Freedom fries and freedom rights for all!
TEAM AMERICA, F**K YA!

If you want to get published, there are better ways than with TP. The internet is a nice leveling field and inexpensive to boot. Heck, there are even sites that will setup your comic FOR YOU, so you don't even really have to learn html or coding or design past characters and page layouts. And I'm sure it's pretty damn easy to google a packaged layout if you do want to dabble. Or build your own.

Wow. But I can't say that I'm surprised.

Let me say, thank god for call display! The lovely service allows me to screen out unwanted callers like surveys, charities¹, and more recently, phone spam and scams. There was that Bahamas scam a few years ago, and now there seems to be a rash of spamming via phone masqeurading as "voice marketing", as this website puts it. Pay attention especially to the second last comment to that post. The number that has rung me up, four times² no less, was 179-336-0280 as well. For Canadians, If you get harassed or targeted by these you can report to PhoneBusters and the RCMP. International friends, I'm sure you'll have similar services available to you.

While I'm on a bit of a PSA bent, please go sign this petition to save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which was on Bush's administration slate as open for oil drilling. (Oh, and I highly recommend watching their clever commercial :D)

Earlier this year I had posted a link to some Singapore uni students doing a blogging ethics survey for their thesis. If any of you participated, or are curious, they now have their results up, so go take a gander :)

Also handy to have is A Blogger's Disclaimer. I've pimped this around to a few people before, but have only just recently added it to my own userinfo. It's good stuff, people.

Oh, and this Canadian blogging experiment was hilarious.


l i n k o u t s ...return!

...it's Romance Awareness Month? HERE? Dude!

I was doing software research, and found cute japanese ipod holders..? XD

Proper aim takes a whole new meaning in pee goals (wtf?)

An interesting and introspective quiz from Oprah - go take it.

10 Rules for Success in the Creative Economy. Word.

...and lastly, why do men have nipples?³

f o o t n o t e s :
¹ I am not against charities, in fact I do donate. But I want to be able to choose when, where and what. Besides, there are networks like CharityVillage to expose the plethora of charities there are out there.
² Now five times by the end of this post!!! ARGH!!!
³ It's true, the human default is FEMALE. Hear that? Ya'll'r BITCHES XD!!!

Tags: psa