MacFlauaus

Well, some of you may be reading this because you found this site through a friend so something, so you may not have seen this post. Now that you have seen it, you are probably thinking, “I wonder what was there.” Well there my friends, were three links posted to three movie clips hosted on my server. Now you may be thinking, “Why did you take down three clips?

About This Mac

Saturday night, Arn over at MacRumors posted a blog entry, saying he had, from his sources, three video clips claiming to be the 6th Gen iPod’s new UI. The post was plastered all over the internet. On Engadget, Digg, Gizmodo, and many other sites. Then the video was posted on YouTube so everybody thought this was good. Then people started speculating whether this was real or not. To many people’s disbeliefs, it may in fact be real.

Once the speculation and conversation started on a roll, it all stopped suddenly. The links, and the blog entry for that matter, on the MacRumors site was gone. Many people started asking why it was taken down. Their answer was then put back up on the same blog entry: “[removed per request from Apple Legal].” This brought up many a controversy, mainly from new MacRumors: Forums users, claiming that MacRumors was a pawn to Apple and that MacRumors tends to “bow down to Apple.” I mean honestly, why would you not want to take Apple’s advice and take the content down? Apple could sue you into oblivion and make it seem like you never had a life online.

Well, among this news, I decided, being my brave and bold self (yeah, whatever) that I might as well mirror them onto my site. I thought it was safe for the time being since YouTube still had their videos up on their site. So I posted the links on a blog post and set it out on MacRumors. Well, needless to say, it was visited really, really quickly and frequently. I don’t believe there was a 10 minute break between any of the visits. Considering my site is very small and doesn’t get that many visits, this was quite the shocker.

Well, I started to get a little worried when member Peace posted that YouTube had taken the video down. I was getting a little nervous at that point, but decided that I might as well wait out the storm. As I watched the page views go higher and higher and then proceed to post the link onto Digg (where it got a whole 7 Diggs, mind you), my nerves keep going on end and then off, on and off. It seemed to happen all day. When I didn’t think about it, it didn’t bother me, but when I say anything relating to it, I got a little more jumpy.

When I signed on the internet tonight at about 9:20PM CT, I still realized that I had no email. I thought they were going to send me an email 48 hours later like they did with YouTube. So I kept on going and talking to friends about it and then it all came to a screeching halt at 11:27PM. In general, it basically said “You have our content, we’d like you to take it down immediately.” So I complied, replied back, at 11:41PM, and got another reply back at 11:59PM basically saying that everything was dropped, nothing was left on the table.

Summary

So there you have it. The story of the mystery post. I must say it was quite the ride and a lot of fun seeing my stats go higher and higher and higher. I mean, it was fun bragging to my friends about how I had 2,500+ page loads and also was emailed by Apple Legal. Basically, moral of the story: If you are concerned about the outcome of an event, try not to worry about it too much. Chances are it’ll work out well in the end.

And no, I'm not going on tour to many's beliefs.

I'm actually jumping back into the podcasting ring after about 9 months of being back out. Granted, it's not how you may think of it, but I am coming back to the internet waves.

I've basically become a correspondent/guest on the 10 Minute Blitz podcast as their "Senior Wireless and Blogging Correspondent." That's basically saying I'm the person that talks mainly on wireless stories and am also the go-to-guy for some thing blogging.

What I'm waiting on is broadband (read: me ticked off on earlier posts) so I won't have to be on the phone everytime I'm on the podcast, that way I'll also sound better. In addition to faster Skype, I'll also need better podcasting gear (because my Logitech headset sounds like crap), so I'm looking at that as well. Not sure where I'd start out.

Well, on to my scheme to get broadband, some how.

So my many feats to get broadband out in my neck of the woods (literally, I'm surrounded by trees) has once again failed, at least I think.

So in our area we have this wireless ISP and their tower/point-of-signal is about 2.5 miles away from our house. It seems all fine and dandy until you go to my house and try to look at the tower. Yeah, can't even see about 30 feet to the north. I'm surrounded by trees. So I've been trying to make attempts to get a tower raised, but my parents have been refused because they are convinced that the "other" service is going to come out here.

So anyways, our local WISP has 2.4GHz equipment and 900MHz equipment as well. The 900MHz immediately made a brain think of an idea. 900MHz signal travels much better through trees and foliage because the space between the wavelengths are much longer, which means they travel better. Now, I didn't know if they had 900MHz installed on their tower, so I sent them an email and got a response back today. No 900MHz.

What they suggest I do is get a site survey and they'll see if we could get a "good, reliable signal" before they sign us up for anything. I know they'd come out to our house and immediately scoff at the thought that we thought we could get wireless through all this.

So basically I am at a standoff. It's basically either raising a tower, getting satellite, sticking with dial-up, or praying that our power company will get moving on trying to get BPL out to our house, which I have a feeling won't be anytime soon.

What am I to do?

You know, in the article I wrote right underneath this (go ahead, scroll down), I suggested that you should try out Twitter. I like Twitter. I really do. It's just one thing that gets me irritated; their "friends/buddies/whatever" system.

This past week I have recieved many emails saying "You are being followed by (insert name here)." I'm like, okay, that's fine. If they like my tweets, fine, good on them. It's just that I keep getting these emails saying "You are being followed..." over and over because I'm assuming that the person is just un-following me and then re-following me again. This gets very old quickly.

There is no ignore button on Twitter, no "keep them as a follower" button, nothing. It's just "Add as Friend" or "You must ignore it yourself, we cannot take it upon ourselves to ignore them for you." All I ask is for a simple ignore button. That way it will save the sanity of myself, as well as probably many others who keep getting "followed" by these weird people.

MySpace is nice and all, but wouldn't you rather express your ideas to a bigger group of people than just those who can view your MySpace profile? I mean honestly, if all you do is "blog" in MySpace, then you aren't really getting the full effect of the Web-olution of the new version of this great internet.

To start off with, I'd suggest getting a Vox account. Hell, you already found my site, so why not join up? It's free and you can comment on my blog, as well as add me as a friend.

Want to show your friends what you are doing at any given moment? Twitter is the place you are looking for. Twitter was set up to give brief, 140 character blurbs of what you are doing at any given moment. An example would be my Twitter site found here on my site. You can send text messages to Twitter (it draws from your non-network messages) and it will automatically update your Twitter page to show the latest happenings in your life. You can also manually update it on their website, or download clients for your computer. You can also update it from AIM (service is down for the mean time) or Google's GTalk. Twitter is also free.

Want something a little more in depth? Jaiku and Pownce are what you are looking for. Jaiku can be used for more than just short blurbs. You can post photos on there as well as commenting back easily. If you have a website and an RSS feed, you can also plug that into Jaiku and your viewer will view everything you post on your website. Jaiku is free.

Pownce is a more advanced than Twitter, but that doesn't mean that it is difficult to use. It is also a little less complicated than Jaiku, but that's not to say that it's less powerful. To see a demo of Pownce, go to mine here. Pownce allows users to post blurbs (no character restrictions) as well as links, files (up to 10MB for a free account), and events so that you can send out a notice to your friends that a party is going to happen at your house sometime. Pownce is in it's trial period, which also means that you must receive an invitation from a member. I have 5 invitations if you would like to receive one. Just send me an email and if you are one of the five first ones, I will get an invite out to you.

Hopefully you will join me and hundreds of thousands of others and make the internet into what you want it to be. Free services are shaping the way of the internet and things to come, and by joining these free services, hopefully we will keep them free for time to come.

NOTE: This story was posted around 2:00PM CT. Some of this may be old, but I thought I might as well cross post it.

With the day that will live in infamy in Apple's eyes, consumers are going absolutely hysterical over Apple's new baby. The details are still rolling in about the iPhone and other related products to go along with the iPhone and I'm sure even more will be revealed after those waiting in line get their iPhone, but let's start with today's details and where we stand currently.

#1. AT&T's possible renovation of their cellular EDGE network. Apple has been criticized for not putting in a 3G compatible chipset in the iPhone so users can get broadband-like speeds on their iPhone, comparable to Verizon and Sprint's EVDO network. Before these couple weeks, people have complained that the speeds of EDGE that they were getting would simply translate into a horrible experience when using the fully-capable Safari browser. Now MacRumors, along with Engadget and HowardForums users, are reporting that they are seeing a boost in download speeds on EDGE. There were rumors going around that AT&T would increase the speeds due to pressure from Apple, and it's not clear whether this is just a temporary speed boost or a permanent speed boost.

#2. Ringtones on the iPhone. This is still a rumor, but due to the fact that the images are in the iTunes' 7.3 update, we can almost confirm this. Apple will allow you to put your own ringtones onto your own iPhone. According to Engadget Mobile, a user, and they also confirmed this as well, told them that in the directories for the iTunes program, that there is a GIF file titled "Ringtone.gif" and the image clearly shows the possibility of adding ringtones, due to the fact that the logo is a bell, an image widely recognized as a ringtone symbol on most phones. The pricing, if any, is unclear, and no details regarding whether you will be able to use your existing songs as a ringtone, or whether you will be forced to download them from the iTunes Music Store.

#3. Apple's Accessory Line. One of the first accessories for the iPhone released by Apple is their own Bluetooth headset that announced alongside the iPhone back at MacWorld 2007. The headset has a rated talk time of 5.5 hours and a standby time of 72 hours. It will include a dock that will both synchronize and charge the iPhone as well as charge the bluetooth headset. The dock, if it were not included with the headset, would cost $49. There is also a travel cable that will plug in to the bottom of the iPhone and also has a slot to plug the headset in, with a USB cable leading either to a USB Wall adapter, or your computer. A side-note, some accessories, such as some FM transmitters, may not work with the iPhone properly, causing the cellular radios to shut off due to the possibility of interference.

#4. The possibility of a 3G-capable iPhone for European networks. Guy Kewney of Newswireless is reporting that Apple has struck a deal, or at least close to, with European mobile carriers Vodafone and T-Mobile, as well as Carphone Warehouse as the MVNO, also more typically known as Pay-As-You-Go carriers. The announcement is expected to come Monday. Engadget Mobile is doubting this report because "do you really think Apple will provide Europe a 3G iPhone before the end of the year and not release it in the US at the same time?" It would make sense that the possibility is there because 3G networks are far more widespread in Europe than here in the United States.

And to end it with a humorous ending.

#5. Authority waiting in line for their iPhone. Engadget Mobile is reporting that Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street was spotted waiting in line at an Apple Store for his chance to get an iPhone. While they reported that he was there, they later updated that he left his spot and someone has taken the spot. No word yet on whether he will return.

There will be much more news later on in the day to go along with the release as more details come in.

Sources:

MacRumors

Engadget Mobile: #2, #3, #4, #5

Wow. It seems like I've become quite the opinionated writer/ranter. But not yet a debater.

In this day and age where YouTube reigns the internet and Skype is a verb, we see broadband connections getting fatter and fatter (for the most part). For those who are not fortunate enough to live near a town, have enough money/patience for satellite, and or other financial/geographical reasons, we are stuck using the all-time hated method of getting on the internet: dial-up.

I wanted to write this post mainly because AT&T is being their stuck up, unknowning selves, at least on my phone line. About a two years ago, AT&T (then SBC) said by some magic and pixie dust, we could get DSL. Know, we thought we were out of range, which we are and it is confirmed, but AT&T decided to let the order go all the way through the system up to the point where they sent the equipment out to us. About 5-7 days after we got the equipment, the local AT&T office (St. Louis) called up and said, "We are sorry, but DSL is not available at your location," click. That's it. Abrupt ending. To say the least, I was mad. So we stuffed all the equipment back into the box and continued on with our SBC dial-up account, thinking that we were doomed to dial-up.

About a year ago, they once again said we could get DSL. So naturally we ordered it and waited for the equipment. They called us up and said that we had no chance of getting DSL and once again, that abrupt end. So to say the least, the rest of my family was a little mad as well. We never got the equipment, so at least kudos to them for stopping the shipping.

Now, about a month ago. They once again said we could get DSL. The third time. A AT&T rep on DSLReports gave me an employee referral line to call up. Before I had a chance to call up, they retracted that statement from their prequal site and it's like nothing happened. Now about two days ago, they once again, for the FOURTH time, are saying that we can get DSL. I am just really frustrated at them, that I'm not even thinking of trying anymore. I know we are at 30,000+ feet, and DSL only reaches about 18,000 feet. I know that for a fact, so don't call me uninformed.

Now our only options for high-speed are wireless, satellite, and broadband-over-powerline; but they all have catches.

The wireless provider is a local one for our area and looks very intriguing. The main catch; we'd have to raise a 50-60' tower to clear our tree line to get line of sight. We live about 2.5 miles from the wireless base, so we don't know if we could get a signal with N-LOS, but my parents aren't willing to even get a site survey (free) to see if they can "sniff" the antenna.

The next option is satellite. I really, really want to stay away from this type of connection because I want to Skype without a whole second of lag, I want to stream video at full speed for most of the day, not only 15 minutes and then get my bandwidth cut into a fraction of what it's rated and then possibly get it reduced to dial-up speeds for the whole month. Plus the fact that all of them suck and cost a ridiculous amount of money is just not even plausible.

Lastly is BPL. The catch here; the power company hasn't even formally announced it. They were doing a "survey" to see if people would be interested in it. That was posted in their newsletter for the September-October issue. Nothing has been even mentioned since. I would contact the company via email, but they don't even have a contact page on their site except for phone calls, and I'd much rather just send them an e-mail.