Tech It Like A Man!

Does it strike anyone else as weird that Africa is worried about this new fuel for their GSM phone systems? I think it is, especially when a good portion of that country doesn’t even have electricity. Why would they worry about having an alternative source of energy centered around cellphones of all things?

According to reports found on Cnet and MSN, Nigeria will be the first to get this palm and pumpkin power boost. The funny part is that only a quarter of Nigeria actually has power to begin with. I don’t know about you, but I surely think that they should be more worried about getting power to those who are in need.

Rural areas in emerging economies, where most new mobile-phone subscribers come from, are often not connected to the electricity grid, which means the base stations to connect mobile-phone users to the network are powered by generators.^cnet

Yes I am soaking up as much free YouTube video as I can stand in the little time we have left before the merger solidifies like concrete on a hot day.

If you frequent Google Videos, you know there is a certain amount of free and a certain amount of pay for play videos. I personally enjoy free videos with the option to download and pay. The one thing that keeps me from loving Google videos is the whole “pay $2 to watch this video” thing. I don’t like to pay money for intangibles. You know, things you cannot get a hard copy of for later use or viewing pleasure.

Programs like IMVU have an option for you to get intangibles to play their game. I will never buy accessories and whatnot to games and stuff like that. Seriously, money is better spent on things that can be continuoulsy enjoyed.

More often than not, big Internet acquisitions turn out to be disappointments, or at least a bit ahead of their time.

read more | digg story

Google has just bought YouTube! Yes, the alliance has been forged. The story is on CNet. A blogger was the first to post the news.

Google has agreed to purchase online video phenomenon YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock, the companies announced Monday.

The execs of Google are already talking about the big plans they have for the company in the near future. YouTube was apparently struggling because the bandwith was killing their budgets, but low and behold the benevolent *and money hungry* Google has saved their lives.

As you can see from my previous take on this situation, I am not pleased, BUT I will allow them time to settle in and see if there is anything good coming from this situation.
In the nice little podcast on Cnet, they use words like “joined forces” and “Global Media Platform”. Call me crazy, but that sounds a little like WORLD DOMINATION to me. Next thing you know they will be buying media outlets like newspapers and such. We will have one world media system controlled by one group of people.

How scary.

In other news, Google didn’t talk about all the copyright infringement lawsuites they will have to deal with now that YouTube has become their problem. I can’t say that I am surprised. With all the videos being uploaded at such ridiculous speeds, there is no accounting for who is breaking the law and who isn’t.

Chicago Tribune