Author: Chris Harrison
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Disqus
I disabled Disqus commenting on my site. As it stands now, it just doesn’t integrate fully enough into WordPress for me to be happy with it. I’ll see if I can migrate the handful of comments over to be on my site within the next day or so. I think Disqus has a lot of potential, but I just can’t get used to having it here.
Update: I’ve re-enabled Disqus for the time being. Having trackbacks is a welcome addition.
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Today’s the Day
Today’s the day! Help the Mozilla team set the record for most software downloads in a day by grabbing Mozilla Firefox 3. Firefox 3 will be officially released at 10am PST. (If you’re not sure what time that translates to in your part of the world, consult the fixed time world clock.)
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The iPhone 3G Upgrade Question. “The new iPhone 3G is a surefire winner for anyone who doesn’t have an iPhone yet. It’s not such a sure thing for people with existing iPhones.” Gruber FTW!
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Scraped
Derek Powazek’s article “It’s 2008. I can’t believe we haven’t figured this out.” spoke loudly to me. I’m tired of content scrapers. I’ve had articles stolen, simply because they covered popular subjects I’m still offering full text in my feed, but for Derek, that’s no longer an option. The problem with splogs and spam in general is that as long as there are people stupid enough to click on links on their site on it their emails, they empower their creators more and more.
This has got to stop. Just because someone offers an RSS/Atom feed, doesn’t mean others have the right to repurpose that content any way they see fit. It’s one thing for someone to read a feed through Google Reader or some other feedreader, it’s another to take syndicated feeds, repurpose them and monetize off of content THEY DIDN’T CREATE.
There is a plugin called AntiLeech available for WordPress that ought to help curb some of the theft from occuring. Maybe it’ll help, but it won’t eliminate the problem.
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Google Talk + Yahoo Messenger
The original post is now offline, but here’s the deal:
Just announced today, Google and Yahoo are entering into a partnership where Yahoo may offer Google paid search results as part of its search offering. As part of this agreement, we are agreeing to make our IM services interoperate. From the Yahoo press release:
In addition, Yahoo! and Google agreed to enable interoperability between their respective instant messaging services, bringing easier and broader communication to users.
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Opera 9.5 was just released and it’s gorgeous.
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Why I Still Won’t be Getting an iPhone
PCWorld offered up 5 Reasons to Buy the iPhone 3G and I’m here to tell you why I won’t be buying into the hype. Before I go on, I should note that I own an 8GB iPod touch and use a Motorola E815 on the Alltel network. This article specifically addresses the points made in the PCWorld article. I recommend reading it first.- Price. Yeah, the price drops on the new iPhone are nice, but the rate plans suck. 3G service will now cost folks an additional $10/month. Nevermind the fact that everyone who’s already bought an iPhone and wants to upgrade will essentially need to break their contract and pay a penalty to get the latest and greatest. Oh, and did I mention there’s a two-year contract?
- 3G Browsing Speed. Yes, 3G is faster than what the first-generation iPhone is capable of, but I’d imagine that for most people, the load times are tolerable. Also, the switch to 3G comes at a cost: According to reports, iPhone activation will now need to happen in-store.
- Great International Support. Seriously? The only reason for this “push” is because iPhones are being unlocked everywhere.
- Applications Galore. All of which can be had on the first-generation iPhone and iPod touch (for a $9.95 fee). The App Store is going to be a great thing for Apple mobile users, but it’s not something you HAVE to upgrade to 3G (or ditch your iPod touch) for.
- iPhone: Still at the head of the Class. The iPhone is not the best phone out there. It still can’t record video. It can’t handle MMS. It promises the “real” web, but ignores popular plugins such as Flash which are a part of the “real” web and aren’t going away.
Where the iPhone gets things right is that it puts things together in a nice, user-friendly package, but nothing about it is truly groundbreaking. Upcoming smartphones, such as the Blackberry Thunder, Samsung Instinct or Omnia, or the HTC Touch Diamond will do more, offer greater expansion capabilities, better quality camera optics and much, much more.
I love Apple products but there just isn’t enough of a difference in the new iPhone to make me run out and buy it on July 11.