Tag: internet

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AT&T Charges for Mobile Use of Wikipedia?

suck it at&tWhile browsing ESPN Mobile on my mobile phone, I’ve been hit lately with text ads teasing me to “Get WikiMobile on Your CU500!”

My first instinct was to clickthru. I love Wikipedia and use it all the time. I’ve contributed content. I’ve also donated to the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that keeps the juggernaut wiki afloat. I’m also surprised I’ve never used it on my phone considering how adaptable it is to small text screens, ala Snap Previews WikiShots.

But when I click through, I see “Get Wikimobile, Cool Tool, $2.99 per month.” Now I am aware of a very cool-looking wiki production tool called WikiMobile sold from an EU based site. This is clearly different, as you can see from the teaser-text at right. Of course, the fact that I’m supposed to want to by $3 so I can find out who “Britney’s exes” were is where most 3G mobile-Web-browsing Americans are going to feel insulted. For me, its just depressing to confirm that the open source, mob-managed, infinitely free and user-supported Wikipedia is being exploited by AT&T.

Does AT&T’s WikiMobile have anything to do with Wikimedia other than abusing Wikipedia’s GNU license to republish the content for profit? I can’t find anything anywhere stating that Wikimedia is complicit in this agreement and/or receives a cut of the profits. Assuming that if it smells like bullshit and looks like it, it may as well darn be, I implore Wikimedia to make Wikipedia publicly available as optimized for the mobile Web. Hey Colbert, you got my back?

PostScript: While I do subscribe to AT&T Wireless, I am not a DSL customer and am not subject to those sketchy, infringing terms of service. That said, you’re welcome to terminate my service, T, if’n you really are that stupid.

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New Radiohead: Pay What You Want

Another stroke of brilliance from Radiohead is on the way… and in possibly their most genius move yet, it is being released independently by the band — that’s right, sans label, and one would assume sans DRM as well. The download can be pre-ordered for _.__ — or whatever you decide you want to pay! More genius, the CD will not be available until December, but the digital download releases October 10 — in ten days!


Radiohead — In Rainbows.

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Happy Birthday Google

happy birthday googleGoogle, you’ve made the world a better place over the past 9 years but, I must say, you’re getting a little too full of yourself these days and it’s really kind of annoying. So this year I’m giving you a small, handheld mirror. How far away do you have to hold it in order to see your whole face? Know how lucky you are GOOG, stop pulling stupid shit like the Moffett Field stunt. Try and look around you — that is, if the moon does not obscure the view — and remember to give back. You’re already in bed with the likes of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights and the Committee on the Judiciary. Will they re-write or scrap SOX before or after they hand you the spectrum of your dreams? Oh yeah, and stocks with near-$200B market caps. don’t just go up forever, you know. DoubleClick on that. Oh, and keep up the good work. Love, netZoo.

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Amazon Launches New Widgets

Amazon has been chilling on the UI and widget innovation while other Internet companies go berserk with it. In that same time, Bezos and Co. focused on their new Web service products, the inexpensive storage offerings of S3 and the collab ingenuity of Mechanical Turk. And wouldn’t you know that AMZN’s stock price has doubled in less than 6 months.

But, alas, they’re here: Amazon Widgets. The Associate widgets don’t seem to be any different than they have been, only more easily managed, but the addition of widgets for Favorites, wishlists, and unbox video is overdue.

What’s cool: These widgets can be directly integrated with your Amazon Associates account, providing even more opportunities to earn a few pennies (or 5 % back when you’re the one buying) on Amazon purchases stemming from your site. Also, the design templates are nice and very easily tweaked (at least color-wise)

What’s not so cool: The JavaScript default for widget implementation is janky and slow. For some reason they list WordPress.com blogs as “WordPress.org” — hello?!? Also, for some reason the Wishlist widget still shows items that you already purchased.