Google Talk now has the ability to track popular music trends and to display your “Now Playing” as your Google Talk status. I figure why not? I already broadcast what I am playing through last.fm so I don’t see what would be the big deal with sending this data to Google as well. (more…)
Yesterday I had to experience the fucking slowness that is dial-up. Dial-up is the worst kind of Internet connection you can have and you should only use it if your high-speed Internet connection is down and you are waiting for the people at the Cable Company to respond, if you are stealing your neighbours Internet connection and you are waiting for THEM to realise that their Internet is out and call the Cable Company or if you are waiting for the Cable Company to come and install your Internet.
Now, whose fault is it that my Internet is down? The blame has to go to Charter Communications, one of the worst Internet Service Providers in the world. If you do business with them, you might want to stop because you are getting a very inferior Internet Connection (see http://www.azureuswiki.com/index.php/Internet_service_providers_that_do_not_like_file_sharing for a list of inferior ISPs).
If you ABSOLUTELY must use Dial-Up, follow the following golden rules:
1. Turn off images and JavaScript in your browser
2. Ditch webmail and use a POP3 e-mail client if possible
3. Forget about online gaming and torrenting. Until you get an acceptable Internet Connection - don’t torrent - it’s better that way.
4. Have a very limited amount of applications open at one time.
5. Turn off additional features of applications like AudioScrobbler or other plugins and extensions that appear on runtime.
6. Cancel your dial-up account IMMEDIATELY after you get high speed.
I apologise sincerely to everyone in my Ragnarok Online guild for not being online. I hope you killed some good MVPs ^_^