My kids have had their own Gmail addresses since they were about five years old. I set them up with accounts, added family and close friends to their contact list, and showed them how to communicate with Grandma, their uncles, etc. There's nothing cooler than getting an email from your five year old chock full of heart and rainbow icons.
My son has had his account for five years now, and it's full of history. I'll share YouTube clips with them, pictures, messages. It's a great digital archive of his early years, and he can keep that address forever.
Things haven't gone as smoothly for my daughter. At some point, Google prompted her to enter her birth date. She was born in 2004, and disclosed that to Google. Immediately, Google locked her out of her account. Apparently, you can't have a Gmail account unless you're at least 13 years old.
What irks me is that the account was suspended immediately. There was no opportunity to back-up emails. It was an instant "you're too young - sorry" and all was lost.
Michelle has a new Gmail account, and I've instructed her and James to never disclose their age to Google. They love having their own email account and using Google Chat and it's easy for me to monitor everything to ensure they're using it appropriately.
Google themselves seem to promote the idea of Gmail as a means of capturing a child's history, but in reality, they'll terminate such an account without warning.
Mamas, don't let your babies disclose their birth year to Google.
We might have won the battle against SOPA, but we in Canada have another fight on our hands. It's called the Copyright Modernization Act, Bill C-11 and it's an awful lot like SOPA and the DMCA. Bill C-11 is currently under review in Canada’s House of Commons.
Why should we be concerned about Bill C-11? Just ask Michael Geist.
Citing a document that appears to be a set of proposed amendments to the legislation from a music-industry representative, Geist makes the case that the same lobbying groups that backed SOPA are laying the groundwork for SOPA-like rules in Bill C-11.
“While SOPA may be dead (for now) in the U.S.,” Geist writes, “Lobby groups are likely to intensify their efforts to export SOPA-like rules to other countries. With Bill C-11 back on the legislative agenda at the end of the month, Canada will be a prime target for SOPA style rules.”
In particular, Geist says the idea of blocking sites from the Internet — or at least the Internet in Canada — is on the list of proposals. The note, dated March 1, 2011, suggests that the bill should “permit a court to make an order blocking a pirate site such as The Pirate Bay to protect the Canadian marketplace from foreign pirate sites.”
Besides that, the proposals would incentivize Internet service providers to terminate users who infringe copyrights more than once. Geist points out that there’s no mention of due process or what sort of proof would be required. Also under consideration is an “enabler” provision, which would target sites that aren’t necessarily pirate havens, but are primarily used for piracy.
If you like the idea of the internet as a police state, then don't complain to your MP. If you embrace the internet as the last truly free market, send a letter to Ottawa to stop Bill C-11.
Seriously. Do it now. Click that link and send a letter in less than 2 minutes.
I believe it is in the best interest of Canadian consumers and creators alike to amend Bill C-11 to clearly link the act of circumvention to infringement, remove the all-encompassing ban on circumvention tools and to establish a new TPM labelling provision.
McNulty is a regular commenter on this blog, and I think he's been participating for at least five years now. McNulty once lent me his DVD collection of The Wire, earning him a special place in my heart for all eternity.
Then the internet was on the phones. I realised that surfing the internet on my Blackberry was slow and pathetic. I grew tired of it pretty quick and I didn’t even bother. It was weak and sad. I saw a friend with an iPhone viewing YouTube videos and surfing the internet and my Blackberry seemed like that old Nokia flip phone that I gave to the boys to smash in the street. As time went on and I learned about apps and other benefits of the iPhone, I began to hate my Blackberry.
Like McNulty, I loved my Blackberry four years ago, but in 2011 it seemed more than a step behind. iPhone and Android phone users were doing all this cool stuff like watching YouTube videos, and using cool apps and surfing the web without delay or issue. Those smart phones seemed a great deal smarter than my Blackberry.
Three months ago, I switched to a Samsung Galaxy S II. I missed BBM for about six hours, then moved on to enjoy a phone that never needed its battery removed to reboot it, accessed the web like a speedy tablet, and had great mission-critical apps like Skype that truly made it a smart phone. I understand iPhone users feel the same way.
I'll leave the last word to McNulty.
I will make one final comparison. If you liked a local restaurant and served great food and the service was great, you would keep going back to that restaurant. However, if the food became a little dull, the service was weak you make question returning. And then a new place opened up that was a little further but the food was better, they gave you more for your money and the service was fantastic. Where would you eat? Keep going to the place that gave sub-par food and service or the new place that wanted your business and made great food?
I've left Blackberry behind and don't miss it in the least. Are there any other former Blackberry users out there with a story to tell? Any regrets?
I was perusing Retrontario's YouTube channel when I stumbled upon this commercial for the E.T. video game Atari promoted heavily back in 1982.
Back then, I had an Atari 2600 clone called the Gemini (not my award) but I never found E.T. under the tree in '82. Looks like I dodged a bullet there.
Negotiations to secure the rights to make the game ended in late July 1982, giving Warshaw only five weeks to develop the game in time for the 1982 Christmas season. The end result is often cited as one of the worst video games released and was one of the biggest commercial failures in video gaming history.
E.T. is frequently cited as a contributing factor to Atari's massive financial losses during 1983 and 1984. As a result of overproduction and returns, millions of unsold cartridges were buried in an Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill. The game's commercial failure and resulting effects on Atari are frequently cited as a contributing factor to the video game industry crash of 1983.
SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, has me worried. In a nutshell, SOPA is a proposed bill before the US congress that would allow owners of intellectual property to block or disable any website that they consider infringes on their intellectual property. It's a frightening slippery slope that promises to curtail freedom of speech on the internet.
GoDaddy announced they support SOPA. In fact, they were pretty vocal about it until about a week ago. As a result, and because I always hated the GoDaddy interface and their ad campaigns, I transferred all of my domains out of GoDaddy on Christmas Eve.
It was very easy following this handy tutorial. Just make sure you unlock your domains in GoDaddy first and export your authorization codes to expedite matters.
I went to NameCheap.com, although I could have gone to local pals coreFusion (sorry guys!) NameCheap.com is offering transfers below cost ($6.99 per transfer) all day today using the coupon code SOPASucks. Additionally, for every domain transfer initiated today, they will donate $1 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, to help them continue the legal fight against SOPA, PROTECT-IP, and other overbroad and ill-considered legislation.
If you've still got your domain names with GoDaddy, today might be a good day to transfer them. I'm glad I did.
Has your Gmail updated yet to give you the new Google Bar? I have to roll over the Google logo to access other Google services, and I need to choose "More" or click "Even More" to get at some of my favourites.
Here's a screen cap of my Google Bar:
As it is, this Google Bar is a step in the wrong direction. Calendar and Reader, two of my most frequently used services, are a couple of hovers away.
Google needs to make the Google Bar customizable so we can choose the options available on the top tier. Until they make this customizable, I'm going back to good old fashioned bookmarks for my navigation.
I've been working with Humble and Fred, who are now podcasting daily at humbleandfredradio.com, and when Carol Motts heard I had the guys in the iTunes store, she reached out.
When The Motts call, you accept the charges. I'm happy to share the news that you can now subscribe to the Motts on iTunes and Carol is now managing her own XML feed.
I don't think there's any conflict of interest here, there's very, very little overlap between The Motts' target audience and Humble and Fred's target audience. if you've heard both shows, you'll know what I mean.
But, I'd be remiss if I didn't remind you to listen to Humble and Fred radio. Subscribe and give it a whirl. It might just change the way you listen to radio.
Gmail really has become the heart beat of my life management. It syncs with my Google Calendar, Google Chat, Google Maps and, believe it or not, it organizes my many emails with convenient labels, filters and the search... damn the search is great.
And it's getting better! Here's a look at the new Gmail design.
If you want to pitch a project to me, require emarketing consultation or work, or just want to exchange emails with me for sport, I'm mikeboon@gmail.com.
I mentioned I needed a new phone. You guys had some great suggestions, with some lobbying hard for iPhone and others making a great case for Android. One guy, my bud BlackBerry Ry, even tried to get me to remain in the BlackBerry game.
I ended up getting a Samsung Galaxy Android phone. I absolutely love it. I use it so differently than I used my old BlackBerry. I use my Android phone like a tablet, with fantastic apps that make it so much more than a phone.
And no, I don't miss BBM or a tactile keyboard. I love this thing the way you're supposed to love your smart phone. It's a beautiful thing.
I've been using a company-owned Blackberry the past 4 years, but now it's time to give that up and get my own. This will be my only phone and I'd like it to be both smart and reliable.
I'm thinking I'll end up with one of these options:
Another Blackberry
An iPhone
An Android device
Here's how you can help...
Please tell me which phone and provider / plan you recommend. I'm very interested in what you're paying, what you get and what you think of your mobile phone.
And, if you can give Toronto Mike a phone, I'd love to hear from you. I need one fairly quickly.
My kids have had their own Gmail addresses since they were about five years old. I set them up with accounts, added family and close friends to their contact list, and showed them how to communicate with Grandma, their uncles, etc. There's nothing cooler than getting an email from your five year old chock full of heart and rainbow icons.
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We might have won 
McNulty is a regular commenter on this blog, and I think he's been participating for at least five years now. McNulty once lent me his DVD collection of The Wire, earning him a special place in my heart for all eternity.
I was perusing 
SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, has me worried. In a nutshell, SOPA is a proposed bill before the US congress that would allow owners of intellectual property to block or disable any website that they consider infringes on their intellectual property. It's a frightening slippery slope that promises to curtail freedom of speech on the internet.
The Motts were a popular husband and wife radio duo on CFRB for years and years until 
I got my Gmail account 