Random Musings

Censorship surrounds us and sometimes more often than it should or in places that it needs not be.
I have a number of views on the topic of censorship. Far to many to simply list here in a single post. However, I will say, to me censorship is a personal thing. I should never be put in the situation to HAVE to view, read or otherwise witness something I’d find offensive. On the other hand, I should also never be at a loss for the opportunity to make the choice myself. Education is a ongoing everlasting process. Every moment we live and every choice we make adds to our own personal education and life experience. As adults we should find every chance we can to better our minds and our knowledge about the world we live in. Our children should learn from our examples, with the protection of our parental censorship…

This whole train of thought has come to mind at this moment because of this:
Rosenbaum’s Dilemma, Lost War Videos and Adwords Censorship as written by Wayne Porter.

I think… we should not take it upon ourselves to censor eachother as adults. Don’t hinder the learning where one might be able to make a difference.

So with that said,
I have donated our trusty penguin hero to the message at hand.

Feel free to use this graphics on your own websites.More information about The Penguin

[tags]censorship,lebanon, war, Steve Rosenbaum, Google, Adwords, jgoode, penguin, [/tags]

Rather than rehash an entire story, I’ll just summarize for the moment.

Censorship surrounds us and sometimes more often than it should or in places that it needs not be. Read up on the Rosenbaum’s Dilemma, Lost War Videos and Adwords Censorship as written by Wayne Porter.

I have a number of views on the topic of censorship. Far to many to simply list here in a single post. However, I will say, to me censorship is a personal thing. I should never be put in the situation to HAVE to view, read or otherwise witness something I’d find offensive. On the other hand, I should also never be at a loss for the opportunity to make the choice myself. Education is a ongoing everlasting process. Every moment we live and every choice we make adds to our own personal education and life experience. As adults we should find every chance we can to better our minds and our knowledge about the world we live in. Our children should learn from our examples, with the protection of our parental censorship…

but we should not take it upon ourselves to censor eachother as adults. Don’t hinder the learning where one might be able to make a difference.

So with that said,
I have dedicated the following two penguins to the message at hand.

Feel free to use this graphics on your own websites.

[tags]censorship,lebanon, war, Steve Rosenbaum, Google, Adwords, jgoode, penguin, [/tags]

Here is an interesting find.

According to research and commentary by Ben Edelman, Vonage (you know, that internet phone company with 900 gazillion commercials), is/was/has been utilizing spyware to increase their advertising results.

They recently won an Effie award for, what I can tell, these fabulous advertising successes.

Now here this! I went to the webpage about the award to read up on this lovely kudo Vonage has earned (just last month, you say?). Right smack at the top of the press release are some amazingly entertaining words.

Did you know, the campaign was titled ”

‘People Do Stupid Things’

Now I’m wondering, are they talking about themselves and their recent alleged actions, or are they calling me and my considering their service stupid? Who and what exactly are they referring to?

Yes yes, indeed, I’m taking the phrase entirely out of context. Funny how it seems to apply completely diffrerently today. Just struck me as funny to think that a company would run a campaign, while (supposedly) utilizing spyware, receive an award for their “job well done”, and then get caught (appears to be red-handed) … and yet proud to post a headline such as this:

“People Do Stupid Things’ Campaign is Smart Enough to Win”

If i were capable of reading French, I’d be able to tell you if further press has been posted on the Vonage site. Unfortunately, I am not, so can not, and it’s probably not there anyhow.

Um.. Duh?

I have no tips for you today, and I have no exact knowledge if the problem has been or will be completely solved. (one must admit to a problem before it can be resolved, right?)

However, I have to say: If you don’t know what it does, don’t use it.

If you’d like to read up a bit more on the topic,
here’s today’s fun filled (additional) reading list:

• Infoweek
• ZDNet
• RealTechNews
• Revenews
• ZDNet – Rebutal by Vonage

[tags]vonage, spyware, ben edelman[/tags]

I frequently check out the “new cool” whatever. Yes, I tend to see something and *consider* downloading it. But rarely, and I mean realllly rarely to I actually read the full “terms of service” legal jargon re-repeating itself in 12 paragraphs in 4 point type.

However, I just ran across a banner for a new fun “thing” being provided by smileyCentral.com… Zwinky. So I clicked.. looks fun, looks entertaining – which means I’ll be bombarded with “mom can I download it” within mere weeks.

A Zwinky is a “virtual you”, a “tiny me”.. an avatar of sorts. Great little characters one can build themselves and then post all over the place. Neat. I used to doodle little me on my knee.. wow times have changed.
Now, I’m no insider techie. I don’t know what the zwinky software *does*. I don’t know how it does *it*. I could maybe find out if I wanted to dig, but I don’t need to. I DO know anything ever given away for free is NOT just a freebie for fun. There’s always a reason, a purpose and a goal.
Sooooo

I started to check out the terms of service whatever info, see if i could figure out the point. Now, correct me if I am mis-remembering. If I were under 13, I wouldn’t know to read a thing. It I were between 13 and 18, I wouldn’t care about a damn thing to read it.

Yet for this neat new download the service remarks say…

“If you are not yet 13, do not download the MyWebSearch toolbar. By using the Toolbar, you represent and warrant that you have the right, authority and capacity to enter into this agreement and to abide by all the terms and…”

“If you are at least 13 but not yet 18 years of age, please have your parents or legal guardian review this END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT/PRIVACY POLICY/TERMS OF SERVICES with you, discuss any questions you…”

and then “customer concerns” is at the very very very very bottom.. how considerate.

Bonus, seriously, go through the parent tips WITH your child, if you want to allow them to extra download fun.

At Least the above quotes are at the top, so maybe we can assume that maybe 1% of the kids checking it out will see something of use to them.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve always believed very child is born brilliant, and we are the ones that make them dumb. However, they’re also impatient, love fun and fun “thingies”, and at various life stages – uninterested in batting a single lash towards authority figures. Rules are ment to be broken… remember?
I know, the obvious arguement is “you should monitor what your kids are doing online”. Yes, you should. My children sit less than 3 yards from me when they are on the computer. Am I seeing every single click? I don’t see every time they pick their nose either, does that mean I’m not paying attention to their good hygeine?

Why is it there are kid friendly games and sites all over the place, yet there is no true kid friendly environment… advertising with a purpose other than to put some CEO’s kids through college?

Why aren’t there regulations for how sites conduct themselves and what they offer depending on their target demographic?

It can’t entirely be up to the parent/guardian. Have you not walked through Walmart with a 6 year old? Or the cereal with a 3 year old? Kids just like neat stuff, and if its in their view, they *HAVE* to have it (most of them, most of the time – not to generalize or anything).

There is hope… oh ye parents of the world. You know those over priced fruity computers with the funny TV commercials? Yes…. you know, APPLE. Well, maybe of the games and extra add-on do-dads kids can download, but don’t “need” to.. don’t work with a mac (for now). So HA! So my extra 2 cents for the day is, Get a mac, save a brain cell. 😀

Enough from me for today… I have plenty to go on and on and on about, and then you’ll miss lunch. Now we can’t be super heros, without eatting, now can we?

— sorry, no references today, I only found “hey look at cool zwinkies” – no real infos. Hmm Zwinkies, twinkies.. now I need a snack.

[tags]zwinky, toolbars, avatars, kids[/tags]

In response to recently discovered “did you know” info…

With the many laws, policies and proclaimations of safe surfing as we see posted around the web on a daily basis, it might surprise you to know we are being attacked right infront of our eyes.

There is a craze of facination between community networks and advertisers (both good and not-so-nice) whom have discovered a new medium to market. Online social networking communities such are quickly being saturated by sales pitches of all types.

One of the most innocent appearing, yet most harmful of these ad-posters is the friendly tool sharing buddies.

These are the folks that sign up as a user on sites such as MySpace and pass information as a “friendly freebie from your favorite unknown friend”. The ol’ “hey friend, look at the neat thing I found… and because I like you SOOOO much, I’m sharing it with my *friends*”.

These buddies come in, smiley as can be, invite us (and our children) to indulge in freebies; Free screen savers, free videos for our profiles, share free pics, etc. Meanwhile we download the tools and ignorantly install extra unwanted “watchers” on our computers. In some cases these programs do little harm to our own machine… they merely invade our privacy and follow us around like lost puppies with no leash.

Recently found is a denied, cross excused and pile of fibber-roos between Zango and MySpace.

Now, one might assume that there’s only one bad guy here (not to point fingers of course)… the so called “friend”. Leaving MySpace as merely the victim of service abuse. WRONG. Just because a company says “excuse me, this here activity is um, against our Terms of Service, and um we don’t like, allow, nor encourage this here stuff”… doesn’t mean they enforce it. Not to accuse or say this is the case in this particular example. However, TOS can and often times does come pretty close to BS for many companies. It’s words; a written policy. Enforcing is an entirely different bag-o-beans, and one must really consider the source of the service and past examples of handling “sticky situations” before believing everything a TOS supposedly stands for.

In this case the story ends with a happy smile. Dispite Zango’s pleas of innocence, they were pulled from MySpace. But this is only one victory, with one company and one *friend*. The story, I’m sure is yet to be over. Content providers claim not to have control over what their users use their content for, and social networks claim to not be able to control what content their users display… do the word problem yourself there.
We as a community, the internet community, really do need to stay on top of the game the bigger boys are playing to ensure our families are protected from *their* profit gaining plans.

Bottom line is, there are “evil-doers” around the web and it is our responsibility, moral duty, or maybe just our parental priority to be aware and be the super heros our kids believe us to be.

SO, with this thought in mind, here are few handy dandy tips…

Note: the following applies to you, the reader, as well as all members of one’s computer usage list — in other words: if you be a grown up and your kids be users… pass this on with anti-chocolate threats attached.

1. Keep an eye on where you visit online, what you’re downloading and what you’re installing. Just because someone is on your “friend list” doesn’t automatically make them your real friend.

2. Don’t just click buttons because they look neat and interesting… “I got distracted by shiny things” won’t pay your computer repair bill nor will it qualify the issue as a warranty use opportunity.

3. Read. Know the source you’re getting your freebies from. Also be aware, sometimes a true friend may pass something your way without checking out whether it’s ok or not… just look and think before you click.

*Basic rule of thumb – if you wouldn’t just open your door and invite the person in to sit down and each cupcakes… don’t automatically assume it is ok for you to click, signup, or otherwise interact with bells and whistles on any website.

Even paid advertising on a well established website can (and has) had issues regarding the security of the clicker. I’ve seen it, I’ve reported it and I’ve watched the wheels churn as one party points the finger at another. — just be careful when you click.

oh YAY! You can share it…(free, without wares)
Now look here… please share this information with your friends and family. You can even send this message without having to click one darn thing.

Help spread the awareness
Say NO to the Tango…

Copy the html below and send it off to as many people as you can.

<a xhref=”http://www.BSmartBSafe.com” mce_href=”http://www.BSmartBSafe.com” >BeWare the Ware Wearers</a>

Thanks in Advance for Your Support!

The above article was inspired by these great reads:
YaHoo News, VitalSecurity.org, Digg, Technorati, Internet News, TechDirt

[tags]Social Networking, MySpace, Zango, Adware[/tags]