One reason I like the twitter messages going to facebook is that facebook has a superior comments system, and often my friends say interesting things about my status messages; otherwise, I have friends on facebook that are not following me on twitter, and they might like to hear what’s roaming around in my brain every now and then.

(...)
Read the rest of facebook’s not-so-great firewall (334 words)

© gravitycollapse for Gravity Collapse, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: censorship, china, great firewall, internet

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Seemingly lost amidst all the windbaggery on this topic is the fact that according to Alexa, google.cn is as of this writing the #3 most-trafficked website in China. google.com, though, is #6.

I’m now beginning to think that Google’s strategy here might have something to do with the fact that google.com is already one of the top websites in China, with or without google.cn. Sure, by exiting the country entirely, they lose some leverage with the government, but monetarily, one would guess that at least some of the viewership and revenue from the Chinese operations will transfer back to the mothership.

Of course, the Chinese government could block Google’s domain entirely, like they do with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and they well might, but I would rate such a prospect as somewhat unlikely, since the GFW can already filter particular search queries when it wants to begin with.

© gravitycollapse for Gravity Collapse, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: business, china, google, internet

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

First, as someone living in China, I’d like to explain some things. Google operates in China as a separate entity from Google’s main headquarters in the USA. I’ve frequently seen this misunderstood by people who post on sites like slashdot, whenever there is a story about Google censoring information. In the past, Google has agreed to censor information on google.cn (from Tiananmen Square, to Falun Gong, to the Dalai Lama, and so on).

However, these same searches are not censored on google.com, and google.com is not blocked by the Great Firewall. The Great Firewall, though, does detect your search queries, and will itself block access to information coming off of google.com (and others) if it finds material it has flagged as objectionable. (Of course, it should be said that anyone who gives a shit about free access to information in China uses a proxy, VPN, or some other secure means of avoiding the Great Firewall entirely.)

(...)
Read the rest of Clever PR move, Google: give up the ball (717 words)

© gravitycollapse for Gravity Collapse, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: business, china, google, great firewall, internet

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

I visited a site that I never visit today: Walmart. This screen capture is a portion of the site’s header.

But it was this bit that caused me to trip and fall into the endless pit of despair:

Hey, wait a minute, Walmart! I am not null. No no, I am not! I am much more than that! And furthermore, now I’m confused: should I click “not null”, or should I “Log out”?

Agh…what to do, what to do…

© gravitycollapse for Gravity Collapse, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: internet, marketing

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Anyhow, I’m annoyed today, and there’s nothing that motivates me like a little annoyance. There is yet another Windows-specific worm going around in email right now called Sobig-F. This the same old, same old design: An attachment which presumably scans your address book apps and then sends itself around to everyone you know, posing as you.

Of course, I’m running Mac OS X, so I am immune to actually being infected by this stupid thing, but unfortunately I still get the damned emails. I’ve been getting ~10 an hour for the past three days or so.

But what I wanted to quickly comment on is this: brain-dead sysadmins who set up their mail servers to reject all “infected” mail, and sent an auto-response back to the “sender” of the message informing them that they are infected.

Hello, dumbasses?! What worms like this do is send emails posing as you…it doesn’t mean the email actually comes from you, and, therefore, you are probably not infected. So, these asshole sysadmins exacerbate the problem by multiplying the email that’s sent around by this work by a LOT.

Everyone, please, turn off those stupid auto-responders.

Thank you for your time.

© gravitycollapse for Gravity Collapse, 2003. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: computing, internet

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

–
Hot and beautiful gals….. 2 live shows with FULL chat

Geisha Japaneese gallery….tons on beauties

Movie clips and videos with a HUGE database of
action packed scenes…..behind, upfront, classic, etc…
–

That’s all there was in it. Apparently, they just wanted to inform me that somewhere there exists a HUGE database of action packed scenes, many of which involve Geisha Japaneese (sic) women.

Hello dumbasses? Might you want to include the URL?

© gravitycollapse for Gravity Collapse, 2001. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: internet, observations, spam

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

This whole thing is a complicated issue, I agree, with validity on both sides, but in the end I just think the RIAA is desperately trying to maintain their castle while it’s under siege from all sides by Napster and GNUtella and the clones, CD burning, and a new movement for individual freedom and information flow.

They’ve successfully castrated Napster, but GNUtella will be a far more difficult beast for them to topple. And, presently they are trying to go after CD burning.

The problem for them, is that the cat has been let out of the bag. It’s too late. Sure, their armies of lawyers might score temporary victories against music piracy and the free exchange of information, but eventually they will be toppled. They’ve pissed off the open source movement, they’ve alienated younger listeners and that just means its going to become war.

(...)
Read the rest of Boycott the RIAA (193 words)

© gravitycollapse for Gravity Collapse, 2001. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: business, internet, music

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh