Bell and Telus want to start charging for incoming texts.

Bell says:

“Starting August 8, 2008 all text messages received will be charged 15¢ per message, unless you subscribe to a text messaging rate plan or bundle. For prepaid, messages will be deducted from your bundle on a monthly basis. International text messages sent (excluding U.S.) will increase from 20¢ to 25¢ per message for all clients.”

http://www.bell.ca/shopping/VasTextMessaging.details

Telus is less clear, though, all they say is this:

“Text messages received from another mobile phone are free to receive until August 24, 2008, at which time they will be 15¢ to receive.”

http://www.telusmobility.com/on/wweb/messaging_two_way.shtml

They don’t explicitly state that people on plans are exempted, though apparently there’s a press release floating around that says that they are intending this for plan-less people.

“All three telecom giants require customers to sign on to a standard agreement that allows the companies to change unilaterally its terms, including adding new fees. The contracts also include a clause that impose stiff penalties for customers who break their contracts early if they are unhappy about the changes.”

http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/story.html?id=419590d9-b1ee-4136-868b-dcee07283b61

So, from the sounds of things, today if you’ve got a plan Bell and Telus won’t be charging you the 15 cents/message - but they reserve the right to change their plans at any time in the future, and they’ll make it tough to get out of them.

As an illustration of how screwed you’ll be in the future, I took a look at the standard Bell contract:

http://www.bell.ca/support/PrsCSrvWls_Bill_ServiceAgreement.page

“You agree that this Agreement and any fees, charges or other obligations and any features, options, or other aspects of the Services, may be modified, discontinued or terminated by Bell except as otherwise specified in this Agreement. We will notify you by providing at least 30 days advance notice of any change that affects you. Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed as obligating you to accept receipt of the Services after any change is made to this Agreement, the Services or otherwise; however, your sole remedy in the event of such a change shall be termination of the Services including the payment of any SAPA or DSAPA that may apply, upon providing 30 days advance written notice. Should you continue to receive the Services after such change is effective, you expressly agree that no additional written agreement or express acknowledgement shall be required to accept such change and, unless otherwise prohibited by law, you specifically waive any and all statutory requirements for notice and express acceptance of such changes except for those provided in this paragraph. You agree that you cannot change this Agreement and that no oral or written statement or representation of any sales agent, representative or employee of Bell made to you can change this Agreement.”

“The SAPA is the greater of (a) $100 or (b) $20 per month remaining in the Committed Service Period on termination up to a maximum of $400, plus applicable taxes.”

So”¦ they can change anything you want, and you’re basically stuck paying up to $400 (unless you’re on an older contract - I thought it used to be max $200).

The only thing they say they AREN’T allowed to change in a contract is this:

“We will not increase your basic monthly voice plan charge or out-of-bundle airtime charge during any Committed Service Period, as long as you remain qualified to receive your chosen plan and Services throughout the Committed Service Period.”

So, only changes to voice cost seem to be not allowed.

How is this not criminal?

So… this girl that I’ve got a big crush on (bathroom girl) has apparently come back from Montreal with an affinity for swing dancing. Specifically the Lindy Hop; a reference to Charles Lindenberg’s historic flight, apparently. I can only assume that that reference was chosen because such activities SHOULD ONLY LEAD TO NEAR CERTAIN DEATH OR INJURY!

Observe:

My thoughts:

0-35 seconds: Okay… this isn’t too bad… I could maybe handle this…
-36 seconds: What happened to their feet? They’re moving independently of their bodies!
-46 seconds: at about that exact second, I would’ve snapped her neck. The rest of the video would’ve had about an equal amount of shouting… it just would’ve included her being dragged out by the paramedics.

The rest of the video is the dancers continuing to be spectacular. It’s like watching the Snowbirds areal acrobatics - except these people don’t have ejection seats. Then at the end they all get on the floor TOGETHER. At any moment I’m expecting some poor girl to get tossed into the band.

Man… I feel like while she was at Montreal she levelled up. It’s like I’ve gotta do some major grinding)… before I can do some major grinding)…

You know, when all the Web 2.0 darlings find that they can’t increase capacity enough to meet demand and go belly up.

Apparently Facebook has had some downtime, along with the legendary and continuing Twitter outages.

Could this be a recurring theme now and in the future? The more processing we move “to the cloud”, the harder it’s got to be to keep a service running.

10 minutes, but it’s really slick…

It really DOES have that “Cops” feel to it :D

So, I got to thinking… finite number of people on the planet.

Some people masturbate. People masturbate more then others.

That means that, somewhere on this planet, there is a human being that masturbates the most. There is a world leader in wanking off; and they probably don’t even know it.

Is it you?

This product looks to be the automated version of my lovely Aeropress, which I made a post on a few days ago:

It creates a vacuum, whereas the Aeropress uses positive pressure - but the process seems remarkably similar; just that the Aeropress is an extremely stripped-down version.

Apparently, the Clover is something that people are going wild over. Starbucks actually purchased the company that makes it in March, so expect $11,000 machines that make coffee one cup at a time to become more popular.

EDIT: found a halfway decent description of the process:

The brewing happens in a steel brew cylinder that sits atop a piston. When the brewing process starts, the piston moves to its lowest position and a drain valve at the bottom of the machine closes. After the coffee steeps, an actuator forces the piston to rise with the used grounds held by a perforated mesh screen, almost like a French press in reverse. When it does this while the drain valve is closed, a vacuum is created that draws down the brewed coffee. The piston descends again, the drain valve opens and the coffee enters the waiting cup.

-Source So, very similar to the aeropress (I’d wager the coffee can’t tell the difference between mechanically produced positive pressure, and environmentally provided positive pressure (by creating a vacuum below)