Charter Cable To Replace Ads For Customers

Reports are running rampant across the web today regarding Charter Communications , one of the nations largest cable broadband companies, and a new tactic they're deploying to make money from your internet usage. In some markets customers are recieving a letter in the mail stating that they will be part of a new service, where Charter replaces advertising in web pages with advertising deemed "more relevant". An excerpt...

"I'm writing to inform you of an enhancement coming soon to your web browsing experience... While continuing to deliver the same fast and reliable internet service you've always received, innovative new technology enables Charter to provide you with an enhanced online experience that is more customized to your interests and activities. As a result, the advertising that you typically see online will better reflect the interests you express thorugh your web-surfing activities. You will not see more ads - just ads that are more relevant to you."

They do offer an opt-out process , but the opt-out process requires you to input personal information in a non encrypted http session and stupidly relies on cookies which are frequently cleaned on peoples pc's obviating the necessity of redoing this dodgy and dangerously insecure process. Over and over and over again.

This is wrong on so many levels I cannot figure out where to start. The privacy issues are as obvious as the above statement. As a publisher who relies on advertising to survive, it potentially makes our advertising useless. Advertising is what drives the net economy, and this tactic sets a dangerous precedent ethically and legally.

This tactic also skims dangerously close to rights infrigement, because this in essence is modifying website content without permission. For those individuals who use blocklists to avoid advertising altogether, it makes that a meaningless endeavor as well.

This is yet another clear example of ideas gone wrong, and avarice taken too far. I don't think the Electronic Frontier Foundation will have much of a fight here though. Every mainstream news and information portal in the world, most of which make the bulk of their revenue from advertising, will be lining up around the block to sue Charter Communications over this stupidity.

14/05/2008 | Email

EA/Bioware Drop Mass Effect PC DRM

In a shocking display of clarity and reason, EA and Bioware have made an official announcement stating they have decided to drop the draconian every ten day activation fiasco they were intending for PC titles Mass Effect and Spore. Whether this is a reaction to the out of control firestorm this issue became last week , or EA/Bioware growing a collective brain within the last week we cannot say for certain. It is however, a welcome return to sanity and customer centric thinking within EA/Bioware, and one we applaud them for. An excerpt from Bioware's official statement...

There has been a lot of discussion in the past few days on how the security requirements for Mass Effect for PC will work. BioWare, a division of EA, wants to let fans know that Mass Effect will not require 10- day periodic re-authentication.

BioWare has always listened very closely to its fans and we made this decision to ensure we are delivering the best possible experience to them. To all the fans including our many friends in the armed services and internationally who expressed concerns that they would not be able re-authenticate as often as required, EA and BioWare want you to know that your feedback is important to us.

The solution being implemented for Mass Effect for the PC changes copy protection from being key disc based, which requires authentication every time you play the game by requiring a disc in the drive, to a one time online authentication.

This system has an added benefit of allowing players to seamlessly play the game without needing the DVD in the drive.

EA/Bioware's careful wording, as you peruse the entire post, seems to indicate that this was the plan all along. Just keep in mind that this is P.R., and full of more spin than a game of Twister in a centrifuge.

12/05/2008 | Email

Monday Burn-05-07-08

NZXT Tempest ATX Mid Tower @ TweakTown

Xigmatek Achilles S1284 HDT CPU Cooler @ Benchmark Reviews

OCZ ReaperX HPC DDR3-1333 @ ThinkComputers

Hades Gaming Ares H1 Optical Gaming Mouse @ DragonSteelMods

Hanns-G Hi221D 22in Widescreen @ OCIA.net

NESTEQ ECS7001 700W PSU @ TechwareLabs

07/05/2008 | Email

Mass Effect PC - Is Piracy The Better Choice?

Though by no means the most draconian of DRM schemes to date, a bit of a firestorm is brewing over the DRM infested activation system coming with the PC release of Bioware's Mass Effect.

Mass Effect PC will require an online connected activation courtesy of SecureRom servers every ten days. Apparently, for forever. Now, while it's clear Bioware and EA will go out of it's way to insure they avoid the activation debacle that hounded releases like Bioshock, it is also clear that when you purchase games these days you're not actually buying a consumable product that you "own" in the sense that you own a towel or a pair of shoes.

07/05/2008 | 20 comments | Email

MSNBC Needs An MS Office License

Just when you think the Pennsylvania Primary is the news of the hour, out of left field comes this. I was sitting watching MSNBC's Live feed of the Primary today, and during a commercial break I got to see MSNBC's feed PC being outed for having a bad MS Office license. Click on the image for a fullsize pop-up.

Maybe MSNBC is merely experiencing the woes many of us do with Microsoft's ridiculous and flawed Genuine Advantage program. Hilarious nonetheless.

22/04/2008 | Email

FyreTV IPTV Set Top Box Review

Perv's rejoice! FyreTV promises to bring streaming high quality porn directly to your TV Home Entertainment Center. Announced at the AVN Adult Video awards in January, we've had the opportunity to put the FyreTV box through its paces while it is still in beta. So far so good? Let's go see.

02/04/2008 | 1 comment | Email

Microsoft Makes Move To Buy Yahoo

Though details are still somewhat sketchy, it looks like the persistent rumor of Microsoft devouring Yahoo is getting some teeth. 44 Billion Dollars worth of teeth . Expect more news on this as it breaks, as the details currently are somewhat lacking, but consider this move a serious play in the battle for net supremacy with Google.

This would make this deal the largest internet based acquisition since the $182 Billion AOL/Time Warner debacle in 2001, largely viewed as the worst acquisition in history. Still the battle for net advertising dominance is a real one, with an estimated $80 Billion up for grabs in the net advertising market by 2010. This constitutes an extra 40 Billion reasons when compared to 2007 market scope, so take it seriously.

01/02/2008 | Email

Monday Burn-01-26-08

Lexar 12-in-1 USB2 Card Reader @ Ase Labs
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue PS3 Preview @ TweakTown
Nexus Caterpillar Silent PC Case @ TechwareLabs
ASUS P5E3 Deluxe WiFi X38 @ HardwareLogic
Nintendo DS Game Chamber @ BigBruin
RADEON HD 3870 X2 Roundup @ Digit-Life
Sparkle 8800GTS 512MB @ Madshrimps
OCZ 4GB Reaper X HPC PC2-6400 @ Virtual-Hideout
OCZ Vendetta CPU Cooler @ DragonSteelMods

28/01/2008 | Email

Another Stupid Survey About Billions In Lost Productivity Misses The Point

Global Secure Systems and Infosecurity Europe released the results of a poll they use to claim the U.K experiences upwards of 6.5 Billion Pounds in lost productivity costs to social networking sites like Myspace, Facebook, and Bebo. A quote...

The poll was carried out amongst 776 office workers, who admitted to spending at least 30 minutes a day visiting social networking sites whilst at work, that's a minimum of 10 hours a month which equates to 3 weeks of every year with two respondents who were so hooked that they spend 3 hours visiting these sites everyday!! The end result is potentially billions of pounds in lost productivity maintain GSS, plus the extra demand on bandwidth which is an additional cost to a business in terms of efficiency, maintenance and resources. As is often the case with polls asking a question in a certain manner can almost guarantee the conclusions reached. Also, when the parties involved are both interested in selling U.K. businesses their products and consultancy services you might want to replace that grain of skepticism with a boulder.

Any business really concerned about the productivity drain of social networking sites could easily block those sites from their employees with about 30 seconds worth of effort. [ED: We'd be happy to consult with you and show you how :P] But perhaps most smart business managers realize the value of having a diversion or two when working. Stop treating your employees like human beings and believe me, they'll stop acting like them which is a worse thing for productivity. When I worked in corporate america with hundreds of employees directly in my charge a survey like this one would have revealed to me the obvious thing here. That being someone trying to sell me a solution for a problem I didn't really have. It happens all the time.

Move on, nothing to see here...

28/01/2008 | Email

Pinnacle PCTV HD Card 800i Review

TV Tuners are an integral part of building a Home Theatre PC. To that end, today we take a look at Pinnacle's PCTV HD Card 800i . As an inexpensive PCI tuning option claiming support for NTSC, ATSC, QAM, and ClearQAM broadcasts, will it live up to the hype as well as Pinnacle's reputation? Read on to find out...

27/01/2008 | 6 comments | Email