Felicia Day was asked “Does the carpet match the curtain?” and doesn’t know what it means. The panelist to the right explains it to her and she goes into shock. Panelists add more confusion as Felicia attempts to reorganize her thoughts resulting in more hilarity.
This footage wasn’t shown on the official stream (nor the panel itself).
Video recorded by ebonite45 on YouTube.
Finally managed to get up these damn photos… The joy of bulk resizing.
There has been a lot of controversy lately with Apple, Google and AT&T. Here’s what went down a few weeks ago:
Google had submitted an application to the iTunes store for their ‘Google Voice’ service, which essentially allows you to better manage the way people communicate with you. Basically what it does for you is it acts as a centralized service that forwards calls depending on who the person is that’s calling you. Say for instance you have a land line, cell phone, and a work phone; you can assign groups within Google Voice to screen these people, and forward the calls to one or all of your lines.
Example #1: Say your co-worker calls your Google phone number, you can tell Google to forward that call ONLY to your work phone.
Example #2: If your friend calls you, you can have Google Voice ring both your home phone, and your cell phone at the same time.
The idea is really neat. On top of being a call forwarding service, it allows you to send out SMS messages at no cost, as well as listen to your voicemail online. The other cool feature of Google Voice is it can automatically transcribe out voicemails left for you and email/text you the message. The speech to text conversion isn’t perfect, but it works well enough for you to tell what the message is.
If you’d like more information about Google Voice check out their ‘About’ page.
In any event, Apple claimed the Google Voice application was denied because it duplicates what the iPhone can already do. The application rejection has caused major backlash against Apple because of the application process. Not only was the official Google Voice application revoked, but every other 3rd party application using Google voice was pulled as well.
AT&T made a statement claiming they had nothing to do with the rejection of the Google Voice application. I personally find this hard to believe because AT&T in the past has forced Apple and developers of certain applications not to allow access through the AT&T network. Skype is a perfect example. Skype only works via wifi. SlingPlayer is another application that AT&T demanded not to work over their network; like Skype, SlingPlayer is restricted to use via wifi only.
This isn’t the first time legitimate applications have been rejected. Nobody but Apple understands the application approval process. Earlier this year, Google had another application, Google Latitude rejected as well. This application essentially allowed you to share your current location with your friends using the phones GPS. This also enabled your friends to do the same, even if they had a different phone. Nobody quite understands Apple’s reasoning for denying this application, but the approval process has reached a point where it’s becoming blatantly anti-competitive.
Now here’s why Apple is hypocritical:
Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs pleaded with the major music labels and the RIAA to abolish DRM that’s included with their music. He argued that ultimately that the music industry needed to be more “open” (DRM free). And now just a year and a half later, Apple is doing the opposite themselves. They’re controlling every aspect of iTunes. They restrict direct syncing with other devices other then Apple products, forcing other companies to have to develop plug-ins that allow their devices to sync with Apple’s software.
Why have a restriction like this? Why not open iTunes up so that any device can sync through it? I would expect if anything, that it would increase revenues for Apple. As the process of purchasing music is so simple, I would think people would be inclined to purchase music through the iTunes store. Apple currently has the largest selection of music to offer for sale. I can’t imagine it would impact the sales of iPods that much.
China's Government has deemed Gold Farming Illegal
The Chinese government has put out a ban on gold farming, now making it illegal to trade virtual currency for real money.
It’s estimated that 80-85% of gold farmers are located within China, which would majorly impact the gold farming industry. In 2008, the virtual currency in China exceeded several billion yuan last year, which grew at a rate of 20% annually.
The government claimed the ban was justified because it’s there to stop gambling and other illegal online activities. China’s Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Commerce said “The virtual currency, which is converted into real money at a certain exchange rate, will only be allowed to trade in virtual goods and services provided by its issuer, not real goods and service.”
It’s not like it’s incredibly hard now to earn gold in World of Warcraft…
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The Pirate Bay will be changing soon... And probably not for the good.
I’m sad to say, that the Pirate Bay will be changing very soon. And probably not for the good.
The Pirate Bay (TPB), launched on November 21, 2003, and has been the pinnacle website to go to for your needs. Nearly everything you could ever want has always been available to download. Music, Porn, TV Shows, Movies, cracked programs, console games, PC/Mac (lol Mac) games.
The Pirate Bay has had its fair share of legal threats, none of which they took seriously. They’ve received threats from Microsoft, Apple, SEGA, EA, Dreamworks, Warner Bros, the MPAA, and the RIAA. Their responses to these companies has always been something like this:
Actually, being in different countries (even on different continents) means that we don’t have the same laws here. You know, in Sweden, it’s still legal to do a lot of things. Elks can have sex with each other without being prosecuted for instance. And people are allowed to copy. It’s quite natural, both of them, don’t you think?
They announced in late November 2008 that they had reached over 25 million unique peers, and approximately 3.6 million registered users.
On April 17, 2009, the founders were sued by the MPAA and IFPI in the Swedish courts, and were forced to pay 3.6 million in damages. They tried to appeal the case mainly due to the fact that the judge hearing the case, Tomas Norström had connections to national and international pro-copyright lobby groups but the courts deemed him unbiased and therefore there would be no retrial.
On June 30, 2009, they announced on their blog that there is a good chance they will be bought out for 7.8 million dollars by a Swedish advertising company called the “Global Gaming Factory X AB.” They also said:
If the new owners screw around with the site, nobody will use it. That’s the biggest insurance one can have the site will be run in the way we all want to.
That comment doesn’t bode well for their future. I have seen this type of situation before, and frankly these buyouts never end up for the good of the users. A company putting up that kind of cash will definitely be driven by pure profit, and will most definitely change the idea & concept of the Pirate Bay into something different then what it is now. Remember Napster? …Yeeeaah.
Farewell The Pirate Bay, it was fun being on-board while the waters were calm, but it looks like I’ll be jumping ship elsewhere.
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