chowarmaan.com

Bell Mobility and Telus have both announced that they are going to start charging $0.15 per received text message since the traffic has increased considerably on their networks. This will be used for SPAM and other advertising which you can not stop, the companies send, and now you have to pay for it. What a rip off. Did these companies not watch the fall out Rogers is facing over the data plan pricing for the new 3G iPhone when it comes to Canada?

I actually went to an NDP site to sign a petition they have started to stop this madness, before Rogers (my carrier) thinks it is a good idea to add this as well.

The funny thing is that these companies have recently allowed their customers to add unlimited text and data to their networks for a fee ($15 per month I believe), and now that people are using it, they are going to charge the people who receive the data that is sent (text messages) for the privilege. Did they not expect people to use a service they offered for a fee? Now that it is being used, they have found another way to make more money from it.

Do you think that the small text messages, contained in packets, is actually more network traffic than the 2 people talking on their cell phones would be? How can they justify this?

Thankfully, I am not on their network, but I am waiting for Rogers to follow suit. The good news is that should be breaking a contract, and allow me out from under mine, so I can go over to one of the new start ups that bought the wireless spectrum, and hopefully get a reasonable package.

I was watching a show on Discovery last night concerning a near Earth asteroid called 99942 Apophis. This asteroid will pass closer to Earth than our geosynchronous satellites, which are at 35,786 km (22,300 mi) on Friday, April 13, 2029. Friday the 13th, of all dates…

This is going to be a close one in astronomical terms. The interesting part is that they are actually looking to possibly deflect this asteroid and prepare for others that might be coming. This is interesting mathematics for all the passes since different gravities will all play a role, and we could be in trouble, as the current calculations say there is a 1 in 45,000 chance of being hit by the Apophis asteroid. While this asteroid is not a killer asteroid as it would not wipe all life from the planet, it would certainly do its damage if it hit the Earth.

Just thought I would let everyone know about this asteroid to see if they are interested in following it as well.

Please go to the Canadian Coalition for Electronic Rights site and use their letter writing tool as well to help stop the Canadian DMCA. This site supports English and French.

Bell Canada has responded to the CRTC concerning their internet throttling practices based on the congestion on the network for each month since March, 2007. I have not seen a single congestion indicator over 10%. What a joke these guys are trying to pull by saying that congestion was high.

Warning, this is where the spin attempts to begin:

As can be observed in the table above, the total percentage of all four types of congested network links during a given month in the period in question has varied between 2.6% and 5.2%. While these numbers may seem low to the average lay person, they are significant to network traffic engineers such that it is important to consider the number of congested links in the proper context.

The complete, public filed document in PDF is here and the supplementary information is here.

http://view.break.com/521743 - Watch more free videos“>

Well it is now official. They have found ice on Mars, as it was reported on a NASA Twitter Post.

The Mars Phoenix update stated that some white, ice like stuff it was watching has sublimated. Once the the Phoenix team was able to observe sublimation, which is when ice skips the liquid state and just evaporates, then the team knew they could be sure that it was ice.

More interesting Mars Photos.

Helmet Assembly albeit in Lego.

You know you want one, I want one. This looks too cool to not be purchased.

Some numbers from a recent Angus Reid poll are quite interesting, as it appears that Canadians are learning more about this appalling potential law and are preparing to fight against it.

* 76 percent agree with the statement that the proposed amendments “are being introduced as a result of lobbying by the North American music market”
* 63 percent agree with the statement that the proposed amendments “will expose millions of Canadians to lawsuits by copyright holders”
* 66 percent agree with the statement that the are symbolic that “the government will not be able to enforce the new law”

The original summary is in Michael Geist’s blog.

The new bill for copyright reform is really just a joke. While Canadians did get a time shifting option, and the ability to play back the recording on any device, this is only allowed as long as the vendor does not say you can not. I am missing something? Did the MPAA (I know, not Canadian) not say the only way to watch a movie that was legally purchased for download to your computer, on a portable DVD player, was to buy another copy.

When do you think that the vendor will not lock down the recording is when it is in the public domain. All CDs, DVDs, etc… will come locked down. What a piece of crap this law will be. It should have been the reverse. It should be illegal to lock down the media in Canada so we can have our time shifting and device shifting options. If I buy a DVD, why can I not watch it on my iPod?

From the Michael Geist coverage:

Prentice’s strategy appears to have been to include a series of headline-grabbing provisions that would attract the support of the Canadian public and simultaneously mask rules that will reshape Canadians’ rights over their personal property. Accordingly, the bill includes a time shifting provision that legalizes recording of television programs, a private copying of music provision that allows consumers to copy music onto their iPods, and a format shifting provision that permits transferring content from analog to digital formats. While those provisions sound attractive, Canadians would do well to read the fine print. The new rules are subject to a host of limitations - Canadians can’t retain recorded programs and backing up DVDs is not permitted - that lessen their attractiveness.