Paul – Page 89 – Paul's Tech Talk

No SOPA for me thanks!

PaulJanuary 16, 20122 Replies

Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr

Stop Online Piracy Act!

If you’ve been living under a rock lately, then your probably haven’t heard about SOPA(Stop Online Piracy Act) and it just worries me. It is like we would be living in China and that would mean less liberty for us bloggers and people who are the ones who may accidently infringe on copyrights.

SOPA(Stop Online Piracy Act) expands the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.

[Wikipedia]

I don’t like that you will not be “Innocent until proven guilty” but you will be “Guilty” with having a chance to fix the problem.

I will be Protesting January 18th!

On the 18th, I will be blacking out my website, and you will see a screen on how you can help. This is an attempt to show Congress that I am not happy with this bill. I will support any website that wants to join me in t his. I believe this bill will not make piracy go away and thus this bill will do more damage then good. Some of the websites that will be doing this are:

Cheezburger sites

MLG(majorleaguegaming.com)

and more

What will you do on the 18th?

I am showing my support and would love to hear what you i will do on the eighteenth. Will you do your site like others and black it out or will be talking about it all day?

Paul Sylvester

Resistance is Victory: SOPA And PIPA Sponsors Caving In To Opposition (mountainrepublic.net)

WRUP: Bowl of SOPA (joystiq.com)

SOPA Shelved, for Now (davidscommonplacebook.wordpress.com)

Rupert Murdoch critical of White House stance on SOPA (digitaltrends.com)

SOPA Blackout (mentalitysmind.co.uk)

Google doesn’t care about the small blogs!

PaulJanuary 13, 20122 Replies

Google Does it again!

I don’t know why Google is so hard to understand. I don’t know if they are good but Gail over at Growmap thinks they may be evil. I don’t know if they are but I am quite concerned what happened to my blog over the last weekend! It all started with a dramatic drop in people coming to my site. I had a dramatic drop of people who were coming to my site. This is always how it is, when a blog starts to get popular, Google drops them in popularity.

Google Plus World without me!

I don’t know what happened but after all this has happened, people around the blogosphere are recommending an FTC Probe over this. I know I am not the only one but this was a real drastic drop of people coming to my blog through Google. I have decide that I will switch to Bing and still use Google’s Chrome. This is after all a means to tell Google that I am not happy with there search results.

Google No more!

I encourage everyone else that reads this to change to another default search engine in your Web Browser and show Google that we are unhappy with there choice. The Bloggers are what made themnd we can who they are today a we can make some other search engine better or bigger than them. Until they change their tune and goes back to “DO NO EVIL” then maybe I will encourage people to go back to them. I’ve worked hard for this blog and I support Gail’s Attempt over at Growmap’s site and I encourage others to go visit them and tell them I sent you!

Paul Sylvester

Save 70% on Eyeglasses

Google Launch “Search plus Your World” (carocomarketing.com)

Epic to FTC: Google Search+ is violating users’ privacy (guardian.co.uk)

The Weak Antitrust Case against Google – Forbes (forbes.com)

Does “Search Plus Your World” Actually Improve Your Search Results? Not Really (siliconfilter.com)

Google faces antitrust calls over search shake-up – ZDNet UK (zdnet.co.uk)

Progressive Commercials : How about giving me a new Car!

PaulJanuary 11, 20121 Reply

Progressive Free Parking!

We’ve all seen those commercials where he is either paying to help people park or giving out free gas! I’m not sure how I feel about these commercials. What about people who might need a new car? Have they not thought about that? Are they not going to offer to help someone who might need a new car, with the amount of money they are supposedly saving they can afford a decent used car!

We are still in a recession some would say and I honestly think that we are still in that and that someone needs to help low income families with finding a car. I know I am a low income family and the car I have isn’t very good.

Donating your Car!

I know most of you are wondering where you can donate your car. I suggest organizations like American Red Cross , The Salvation Army or United Way . You can actually write off that on your next years taxes. It won’t be an instant money but then if your not looking for money as far as needing it for now. This is a great alternative for people who might need a car who can’t afford to pay for one because of being low income.

I know I will probably never get a free car but It would be something cool if not very nice. I am so tired of having really old cars and would love to have a new model car.

Single Family Dad!

I’m basically a single dad working anywhere I can, so I can support my family. it isn’t something that is always going to be something that I will look back on and say that was a good year. It is however something that makes me feel really good at the end of the day. I don’t worry about tomorrow because tomorrow hasn’t come yet. I try to only worry about what is today. I however have become increasingly worried about the car that I am driving because of the way it acts each and every day.

Hey Progressive how about help me out!

That is basically what I wanted to say about I am constantly worried about the car breaking down and not having any way to get to my job or anything else that I might need. Sometimes old cars may get more to repair than to the cost of the car. You will however have to consider cost verses repairs. I believe once the repairs are more than the car, you should consider buying another car and junking the car or selling it for parts.

How are you going to help someone today?

What are you going to do to help someone in need today? I’d like to hear your comments on what you did today.

Paul Sylvester

Need Glasses? Try GlassesUSA!

Commercial car insurance holders ‘could go for a Kia’ (premierlinedirect.co.uk)

Sonic is in this Progressive commercial (joystiq.com)

Paying for Parking (marginalrevolution.com)

Why Straight talk is better than Tracfone!

PaulJanuary 10, 2012

Image via Wikipedia

Would you pay more for your Minutes?

I’ve read how some people are really liking their Tracphone service but I have a few questions about that. We’ve all had those times when we don’t always use all our minutes. I know I sometimes don’t use my 1,000 minutes and 1,000 messages but It is better than paying for 120 minutes and that includes messages.

I’ve talked about how I like my Straight phone and I must say that I have been happy with the phones that I have bought. I’ve had my reasons for staying with Straight talk, and one of the more reasons is that they have unlimited talk and unlimited data when you need it. I’ve dropped down to the 30$ cards because I no longer need unlimited data which is 45$ a month.

Would you pay more for less?

Tracfone seems to think that we would want to pay more for less. Why would I pay more for their minutes. I am always looking to buy minutes for less. I know people aren’t always thinking about cost versus price but if your are like me and use your phone more than 120 minutes per month than you will definitely want to consider looking for something other than Tracfone.

Isn’t Tracfone and Straight Talk the same?

There are two separate companies but Tracfone owns them both. I am quite certain that most people think that they are exactly the same. I disagree, they don’t have anything in common besides the phones. Everything else is all different and that is fine with me. The Customer service is basically part of Tracfone but again, it isn’t exactly the same.

I don’t need Carry over minutes!

This is the one thing that really bothers me about Tracfone, they let you carry over your minutes but that is besides the point. I don’t need carry over minutes if I have 1,000 minutes to use per month. I have already used 200 minutes and I still have half the month to go. I’ll probably use 400 minutes before this is all over. If you really think about it, it is probably cheaper than Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint’s contracts. I’d probably pay $40 to $60 a month for 400 minutes. That is after all I guess but I am sure that if you look at their plans you will see the prices.

I think I will keep with Straight Talk because of everything that I get with it.

Which one do you like or prefer?

Paul Sylvester

Recycle your Cell phones!

Finding out which network carrier you are using with Pre-paid Cellular Companies! (paulstechtalk.com)

TracFone’s Straight Talk adds second Android smartphone, LG Optimus Q (fiercewireless.com)

TracFone’s Straight Talk Android phones will use Sprint’s network (fiercewireless.com)

Straight Talk MVNO TracFone adds 515K subs in Q3 (fiercewireless.com)

Samsung T404 is a low-end messaging phone, offered by TracFone for $59.99 (intomobile.com)

Why Opt-in is better than Opting-Out!

PaulJanuary 9, 2012

Image by DavidErickson via Flickr

Opting-out on Anything Worries me!

If your like me, you probably have had those experiences where you were automatically added to a list or even something like a spam list. I’ve probably seen it all if you ask me, I know I’ve seen those phones calls where I get pitched an idea or even trying to glean some other personal information from me. That is what really worries me sometimes, not knowing about my privacy and who all has my personal information.

Someone reader over at the GNC blog commented and said “I wouldn’t mind if starbucks comes to my place and give me a free morning coffee.” When I read that comment it made me think about how much some people like to just be auto-subscribed to emails and charged money for things they didn’t asked to be charged for.

Differences between Starbucks and Amazon!

Hey lets face it, I wouldn’t mind a free coffee now and then. Starbucks isn’t going to find you and give your a free coffee because that would go under the stalking rule. They probably don’t even have your credit card on file to charge your account if you buy something else along side that coffee in the first place. You have physically be in the store to even have a chance at getting a free coffee.

Amazon on the other hand, in my opinion has some things that can be trouble down the road. They have your personal information in a database, which could lead to identity theft. I really don’t think it is a real possibility but I have to at least throw that out and say it. They also have your Credit Card on file to charge for things on their website, Kindle, and Roku Box. It’s called the One Click buy, you don’t have much security but a pin that someone could easily guess or keep trying until they get it right. Although Amazon has some great policies in place to let you get your money back that is, if you can prove that it was malicious and that you didn’t authorize them.

Let me Opt in!

Amazon could of easily prevented this debacle in the first place by sending out email to a select few people offering them the chance to try this Kindle Fire Compass and telling them what will happen if they do try it out. How much it would cost after the 14 days of trial are over with and what the main idea about the product. If they just did that, no one would of minded to try it out. Heck, I would of jumped aboard if they ask me but I was one of the lucky few who didn’t get picked.

My Blog will always be Opt-in!

I know one thing, I will never give out your information to anyone. For that matter will ever send out unsolicited emails from me. The one reason you might want to consider subscribing to my email campaign is to keep up to date on any new posts. If you want to opt in and get my updates sent to your emails please join the list.