So, I recently watched the episode of Law and Order: SVU that was about video games. Specifically it was about the GamerGate phenomenon. Now, I haven't talked much about GamerGate because I frankly don't want to acknowledge and give time to something as despicable as that movement. Law and Order, a Network TV show, chose to take it head on.
Read MoreGroundhog Day! Shaw does it again.....
Here we are again. Exactly 4 years ago today I had an interview with the Edmonton Journal about Shaw. A few days after I was contacted by CTV Edmonton and had an on camera interview with them as well. 4 years ago I had written a series of articles about Shaw’s then new data caps on their accounts. They had attempted to put strict data caps on all internet accounts that were hilariously low. Many people called them on it, including myself. I wrote an article that attempted to explain it, people I knew who worked in local media contacted me, and before I knew it I had 15,000 page views and my name in the Journal and my face on TV. It might have been my 15 minutes of internet fame, but it was a big deal at the time. Shaw had tried to pull a very anti-consumer move, and they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
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Lest We Forget
Today isn't about the First World War. It isn't about the Second World War. It isn't about the Korean War. It isn't about Afghanistan. It is about all of them, and more. Past, present, and future.
Thank you does not begin to begin to describe it. We have what we have because of those who serve. Too often we forget that, and we certainly do not appreciate it enough. How do you adequately say thank you when most of us can't even really appreciate what we have?
I guess the answer is that we can't. So, I return to simply saying:
Thank you, for everything.
un-bundled cable: is it really cheaper?
You may have heard on the news on Monday that the CRTC is beginning hearings called “lets talk TV” where, among other things, one thing that will be discussed will be to allow unbundled TV, or a la carte TV selection. Meaning you can pick the channels you want to buy instead of buying bundles.
Read MoreThe Internet of Free Things
How Free are Free things?
On the internet, we use a lot of free things. I’m actually typing this on a free product, Google Docs. Many of the things I use on the internet every day are free, and it is likely true for you as well. Google, Microsoft, Facebook (including Instagram and Whatsapp), Twitter, Foursquare, many TV news sites, and many others that I can’t even think of are all free services. When I look at just the websites I am listing I am not currently paying a dime directly to any of them, and I use them all every day, except for whatsapp. Yet, as of this writing Google is worth $397 Billion, Facebook is worth $194 Billion, Microsoft is worth $371 Billion Twitter is worth $27 Billion, and so on. How can these companies be worth that much money when, except for microsoft, they all provide mostly free services and the majority of the users don’t pay a dime?
The answer is simple. If you aren’t paying for the product, you *are* the product.
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