Hot Stuff
Yesterday, we brought you news of the ridiculous new programme by ISP Charter Communications to track their customer's every move on the Internet in order to serve them with targeted advertising via advertising company NebuAd.
Charter tried to temper the negative reaction to the programme by saying customers have an option to opt-out of the tracking system, but a reader who goes by the name Fenn, who has the bad luck of being a Charter Communications customer, wrote to us regarding his experiences on trying to use the opt-out feature:
I followed the link to "Opt-Out" and was blown away by the audacity of the warning text:
"If you would like to opt-out of this process, please fill out the form below and click "submit". The third-party opt-out process requires you to permit a cookie to be downloaded onto your computer so that the ad network can read your opt-out status in your cookie folder. Therefore, if you delete your cookies or cache files, use a different computer, buy a new computer, or use a different web browser from the one you are using at this time, you will have to opt-out again."
I mean, come on...if we are paranoid already, we will be clearing our cookies often and this thing tells me I will have to return to Charter's website each time to "Re-Opt-Out."
TOO MUCH!
So, to add insult to injury, they make the opt-out process equally stupid and onerous?
I urge any of our readers that may be Charter customers to call and complain to the company and threated to switch ISPs so that they can get an idea that this is not the way to conduct business.
I would also recommend sending your experiences over to the EFF, so that they can help defend your privacy concerns against Charter Communications.
It's this kind of thing that really gets me angry. I'm going to go fume in a corner after I place a call to an EFF buddy of mine.
A recent study conducted by Prime Access, Inc. on behalf of the Planet Out networks revealed some wonderful information on the gays that I'm guessing most of us knew: We frackin love Apple. We love them allot. And while we've known that for a long time, the reason has eluded those in the marketing field. According to the study, us gays love Apple so much because we perceive them to be a gay-friendly, and we are an extremely brand loyal people.
I think this is kinda funny because this is something that we've know for a loooong time. Apple is and has been very gay friendly. Their internal policies are very pro-gay, and even their chic store design and products appeal to our sensibilities.
It also appears that Samsung was rated among the lowest when it comes to being gay friendly, so if you were thinking about getting a shiny new Glyde, you may want to reconsider. Besides, that's a Verizon phone, and it looks like we're all switching to AT&T anyway.
Overall, is just another showing that the gays are an extremely attractive group to market to. We have money, we spend it, we're susceptible to most types of advertising (more so gay targeted ads and ads in gay media), we're loyal, and we're trend setters. So, companies of the world, listen up! Please contact Tiny Dancer about advertising opportunities here on Homotron... no, seriously, do it. Poppa needs a new iPod (and apparently a new microphone from the sounds of the podcast... sheesh!)
Study: Apple Most Gay-Friendly Brand, Samsung Least [Gearlog]
Now this really grinds my gears: Charter Communications, a cable ISP, has sent letters to a few hundred thousand subscribers telling subscribers that Charter will now begin tracking every single site that customers visit, and then selling that information to NebuAd, an advertising company, in order to increase its revenues.
Are you kidding me? At least to Charter Communication's credit, they've got the balls to actually come out and tell their customers what scummy tactics they're going to employ, unlike Comcast who does everything to hide their sleazy practices.
However, their outright honesty doesn't improve the ridiculous intrusion into their subscriber's privacy, and Charter Communication's senior vice president of product management, Ted Schremp, gives an almost point by point regurgitation of the typical PR BS that accompanies wanton destruction of customer's privacy rights:
Charter is taking "for the most part, a high road approach," according to Mr. Schremp. "We have told customers exactly what we are doing," he said. The letter to customers, he added, was "very forthcoming" and "not buried in mouse type and legal disclosures."
The five-paragraph letter positioned the monitoring program as an "an enhanced online experience that is more customized to your interests and activities."
"As a result,'' the letter said, "the advertising you typically see online will better reflect the interests you express through your web-surfing activity. You will not see more ads -- just ads that are more relevant to you."
Yeah, great, because what we all want is even more advertising that is the result of you tracking my every move. W00T! </sarcasm>
Don't get me wrong, I know advertising is the lifeblood of the Internet. Hell, if it wasn't for the advertisers we have Homotron wouldn't exist and I wouldn't be communicating this to you.
BUT, there's a big difference between content makers like us putting advertising on our own website and an ISP tracking your every move and using that to add extra advertising content on top of sites in order to "increase revenue."
Ted Shcremp did tell the NYT that customers would be able to opt-out of the system, but that's hardly a solution. A default of opt-in with an option of opt-out is never a consumer friendly option, and it's a lesson that Facebook learned the hard way when it debuted its Beacon ad service a few months ago and incurred the wrath of privacy advocates everywhere.
For now, the programme is in a trial phase in Fort Worth, Tex.; San Luis Obispo, Calif.; Oxford, Mass.; and Newtown, Conn. If the trial goes well, Charter Communications will then roll out the programme to the rest of its 2.8 million subscribers.
If you're a Charter Communications customer, watch your mailbox for their letter and make sure to opt-out of this ridiculous programme.
Charter Will Monitor Customers' Web Surfing to Target Ads [NYT]
Oh snap! In the interesting move of the day, CBS and CNET announced a deal this morning whereby CBS will purchase CNET for $1.8 billion! While this is certainly not the $44 billion + we were looking at for the Yahoo! and Microsoft merger, this is still a large chunk of change for a internet company. This will give CBS control of not only CNET, but download.com, MP3.com, News.com, and all the other CNET domains.
How exactly was this news broken to the general public? Via Twitter of course! Dan Farber, the guy currently behind all that is CNET, posted up a quick tweet a couple hours ago, and since then the news has taken off. This, of course, was not the "official" press release, but it still provided the basic nugget that we all needed to know. Never let anyone tell you new media isn't making any ground.
CBS to buy CNET Networks [CNET]
[via: Brian Averly]
The Homotron Downlink Episode #4 is OUT and ready for download!
Join Den Den Boy and Jesse James (Tiny's passed out due to Anniversary celebrations) as we discuss what we're doing with our packages (the economic stimulus kind!), the end of the Microhoo! telenovela, MySpace and social networks, NIN, crazy copyright bills, Den Den's dating life and much, much more!
When you finish listening in, be sure to let us know any feedback you have, and of course any questions you'd like us to discuss on the next episode by shooting me an e-mail with the subject "Podcast Question"!
The Homotron Downlink comes to you every two weeks right here at Homotron.net!
Go on! Get to downloading!
Recent rumors concerning mergers and two little companies called Virgin Mobile USA and SK Telecom (parent of Helio) were forcefully squashed by SKT, who called the topic "groundless."
This led quite naturally to the contradictory announcement by Virgin Mobile USA that the two companies are indeed involved in "preliminary discussions" of "possible strategic opportunities."
Diametrically opposed statements? Vague, unhelpful PR lingo? Smells like business as usual to me - expect to hear more about this over the next few weeks and months. Also, expect not to hear anything about this over the next several months and weeks. Welcome to America: for more unenlightening doublespeak, please enjoy our presidential race, our news media, and our celebrity culture coverage!
Bring money.
Virgin Mobile USA Confirms Early Talks With SK Telecom [MocoNews]
[story and picture via Engadget]
If you don't think the science of sex is a hairy subject, just ask the late Dr. Kinsey. Or the makers of your favorite depilatory cream, wax, or wheat thresher. Luckily, there exists no shortage of science-minded horndogs on the internet, nor of literal-minded scientists just waiting to offer up clinical but accurate answers to your our most perverted puerile ponderings.
Thanks be to NewScientist for this latest excuse to talk about sex in a sciencey environment - their reader Q&A is full of geeky probings such as "Does the female orgasm serve a biological purpose?" (apparently not - ouch), and poses complicated questions such as asking if the human drive to constantly have sex stems from the fact that our ladies don't go into heat visibly.
But thank the good gay lord, there are some questions not preoccupied with lady-bits, such as whether or not circumcision makes it harder to have an orgasm (some say yes, but apparently that's a hot-button topic for sexologists both amateur and professional). Also, such burning issues as why anal sex feels so good for both partners (not really a mystery) and the length of time it takes for the scrotum to refill with semen.
In the name of all that's scientific, how could anyone not want to know if saltpeter is an anaphrodisiac?
Readers' Q&A: The science of sex [NewScientist]
For $60, Creative's new Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 offers you an external audio card that, with a simple pass of a USB cord and an optical output plug, hook up your PC to a home theater system with all the gloriousness of DTS and Dolby Digital EX.
Toss in the X-Fi CMSS-3D headphone technology and EAX ADVANCED HD technology for gaming and this baby is easy to recommend to anyone with a PC near a 5.1 speaker setup, even if you've already got a sound card. 'Creative ALchemy' even restores surround sound for Vista gamers, although as with all things Vista I'll believe it when I hear it in person.
Just make sure you've got USB 2.0, otherwise you're just wasting time and money.
[Product Page via Coolest-Gadgets]
While we featured the as-yet-unveiled BlackBerry 9000 as Gadget of the Week back in March, yesterday RIM officially unwrapped the BlackBerry Bold, as the handset will be known to marketing firms and eager buyers.
That 480x320 half-VGA screen with 65k colors sounds pretty bold indeed, and the word is it looks even better than it sounds - excellent video playback and an interface competitive with the iPhone. Also: leatherette texture on the back of the handset and superfast 3.5G tri-band HSDPA/UMTS support. Try finding an iPhone with download speeds as fast as 7.2 Mbps!
Wi-Fi a/b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 and full A2DP support, and built-in GPS round out the feature set.
I'm just coming back from a wedding in Carmel where I picked the brains of what seemed like an endless stream of high-powered techies and business types who - without exception - bemoaned the iPhones they all owned. Former BlackBerry devotees, none of the moguls and madams I talked to could say a single good thing about the buttonless device that they all seemed to use a lot anyway: "It's impossible to send email," said one; "typing anything longer than an SMS is agonizing," said another.
It's important to remember that while the iPhone has all the hype and style going for it, there are armies of QWERTY keyboard-using BlackBerry addicts out there - and for them, Bold is not only beautiful, it's better.
There seems to be a never ending supply of ways to quit smoking. There's patches, pills, therapy, and good ol' fashioned "cold turkey" method. Apparently though, that wasn't quite enough options, as a new technique has emerged on the market. The Gamucci Microelectronic Cigarette is a battery powered death stick, designed to satiate the mental aspect of holding a cigarette while weening you off the physical addiction to nicotine.
The stick works off of watch batteries, and has a small device that burns liquid inside when you take a drag to produce "smoke" for you to inhale. You can also insert little packets of nicotine, and reduce your intake that way. Or, you can just replace cigarettes with its mechanical version. Or, you can use the mechanical version to try and look as James Dean as possible without actually smoking. Of course, whatever the fake smoke is made out of will probably turn out to give you some random foot cancer or something, but at least you won't be smoking Camels anymore, right?
Personally, I recommend just not starting, but if you have and you want to quit, do your research on the best and most effective ways to quit. Get support from your friends and family, avoid situations that drive smoking (bars, stress, etc.), and be prepared for the hard road ahead of you. Realize that you won't ever really be over it (I've been smoke free for 2 years and still get random cravings), but that you can do it. OK, enough of the PSA mode... Don't you think this would make a super sexy costume piece? In any case, you could carry this in your new cigarette-pack shaped phone!
I'm gonna cut to the skinny of this: all you need is a functioning e-mail address that ends with .edu.
My Emerson alumni address ends with .edu and I was able to become eligible for this offer.
Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 comes with:
* Access™ 2007
* Accounting Express 2007*
* Excel® 2007
* Groove® 2007
* InfoPath® 2007
* OneNote® 2007
* Outlook® 2007 with Business Contact Manager*
* PowerPoint® 2007
* Publisher 2007
* Word 2007
That's a whole lot of unnecessary crazy shit, yo! Unfortunately for us Mac users, Microsoft is only offering the Windows XP or Vista versions of this fantastically jam-packed package.
Deal ends May 16. Get up on this pony!
Site: http://www.theultimatesteal.com/
Gay Republicans rejoice! Now you can stand in support of your Second Amendment rights to bear arms and Gay Amendment rights to be fabulous! Yeah, I know we don't have Gay Amendment rights yet, but with these bad ass weapons, we could hold the most fantastic revolution the world has seen! Watch out Stonewall, there's a new uprising on the Gay Horizon.
Gallery 1988 is hosting a show in their Los Angeles showroom called The Revolution Will Be Fabulous, which is showcasing "designer" weaponry. Everything from grenades to AK-47's are on display, sporting "designs" by everyone from Versace to Luis Vuitton. Personally, this is some of the coolest weaponry I've seen since the Hello Kitty Rifle.
The prices on the art pieces range from several hundreds to several thousands and come to you courtesy of artist Peter Gronquist. Personally, I think this is all brilliant work, and just a tad bit wonderful as well. If you're in L.A., definitely swing by and check out the exhibit. If you're not, check out the gallery. There are tons of cool weapons on display, I just chose the D&G gun because... well, I fancy me some D&G!
[via: Geekologie]
And girls who like girls who like fembots!
Gadget of the Week
Show-stopping "half-VGA" screen and HSDPA/UMTS support, gorgeous video playback: Bold, Bold, Bold!
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