Pop Goes Hotmail

As of March 2005, fans of MSN Hotmail will no longer be able to Access their e-mail via Outlook or Outlook Express, as Microsoft has announced they are reconfiguring Hotmail to help combat spam.
With Hotmail, an account holder can use what is known as Web DAV to download messages from Microsoft's server directlty into an e-mail client, thus saving the need to open a web browser to retrieve e-mail.
Under Hotmail's new policy, effective Monday, new users will only have the ability to use WEB DAV if they pay uncle Bill $19.95 per year, Hotmail currently has approximatley 185 million users.
Existing account holders will have until March 2005 to subscribe to the new service or be forced to browse to Hotmail's site to check their e-mail.
I don't know about you but it looks like one more reason to keep using Gmail, or even Yahoo.
A little known fact about Yahoo, if you set-up a e-mail account using a .ca extension instead of .com, you can have all mail routed through your favorite e-mail client via POP.
In Outlook Express go to tools then accounts and when you configure the new e-mail account enter the POP3 server as pop.mail.yahoo.ca and then enter smtp1.your-isp.com as the SMTP server, and OE will automatically download your mail from Yahoo's servers.

Google To Enter Browser Wars

How cool is Google.
First they develop hands down the best search engine in the history of the Internet.
Then they created Gmail, a web-based e-mail client that offers an amazing 1 gig of storage, and in the process force other web mail providers like Yahoo and Hotmail to up their storage capacities in order to compete.
Now, mere weeks after their IPO on the NASDAQ, rumors have surfaced that Google is in the process of designing it's own web-browser to compete with Microsoft's Internet Explorer(IE).
Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that Google has registered the domain name Gbrowser.com, hired a top Java developer from Sun Microsystems, snapped up four coders who helped create IE for Microsoft and more importantly scooped one of Microsoft's main programmers who was working on Longhorn - the next version of windows scheduled for release in early 2006.
Officials with Google of course will not comment on whether or not Gbrowser is in fact in development, however based on their track record and the fact that they earned $1.67 billion through their IPO, I would say Gbrowser will definitely be a reality.

PS - As a side note the first person to comment on this blog entry will receive a Gmail invite.

More On Save Betamax

Over 4,000 calls have been received by congress today as part of Downhill Battle's effort to save the Betamax Decision. You can still do your part if you are in the United States here's some phone numbers:

Senator Orrin Hatch 202-224-5251

Senator Ernest Hollings 202-224-6121

Congressperson John Conyers, Jr. 202-225-5126

Help Save Betamax

I am affiliated with a group called Downhill Battle.
Downhill Battle's main focus to actively fight to protect fair use laws in the United States and believes the survival of Peer To Peer file (P2P) sharing networks like Kazaa and Shareaza are vital to the future of the internet.
For a little background, Fair Use laws determine what you can and cannot do with things like CD's, DVD's and video games once you purchase them from the store.

For example, having the ability to buy a music CD, rip it to your computer's hard drive and then transfer the ripped files to portable MP3 players or burn them to a CD-r for personal use is considered legal in most countries including here in Canada.

In the United States having the right to do this was due in large part to a 1983 court battle between movie studio Universal and Sony.

Universal was battling to have a little device called the Betamax removed from the marketplace.

Betamax was the predecessor of the VHS VCR, and Sony eventually won what has become known as the Betamax Decision.

The Supreme Court ruled that while it was possible that VCR's could infringe on the copyright protections of movie studios, the devices also had legitimate applications and because of these applications, fair use laws would then take effect, thus allowing Sony to make and sell Betamax.

Flash ahead 20 or so years and Betamax is long dead, replaced by VCR's and organizations like the RIAA and record labels are lobbying congress in the Unites States to amend the Betamax decision to allow them to fight against or control any new technology that has the potential to copy audio or video files.

In short these groups want to take over the distribution of CD and DVD burners, TiVo's, PVR's and I-Pod's as a way of controlling how consumers listen and use copyrighted material that are purchased for their own personal use.

In an effort to quash this potentially new legislation Downhill Battle has organized a phone-in campaign for September 14, and I encourage any American who wants to continue to have decent fair use laws to visit SaveBetamax.org and sign-up and join the fight.

Fair Use laws are already more stringent in the US than any other country, and if congress successfully passes this legistlation, groups like the RIAA will yield more power than the companies who are actually developing the technology.

Please visit SaveBetamax.org and do your part.

Update September 13 - I have been notified by Downhill Battle that over 2000 people have signed up for their call in campaign - thank-you.

You Have Gmail

Gmail is the definitely the future of web-based e-mail services.
I was fortunate enough to have been among the first geeks selected to help beta test Google's new pet project a few months ago and I think it's quite possibly the best web-based e-mail clients I have ever seen, and definitely better than the spam magnet known as Hotmail.
In addition to strong spam filtering and having the ability to label archived e-mail in to specific conversations, my favorite feature is the 1000 mb (that's 1 gig) of storage that comes with your account.
Well, to help spread the love I have a couple of Gmail invites to give out, so if you want to geek yourself out with a Gmail account just post in the comments section of this blog entry why you think you need a Gmail account, and how it would improve your life.
Deadline for entry is Tuesday at 12 PM EST.
Please keep all comments clean and geek related as only the funniest and most creative responses will get the invites.
If you don't get an invite don't despair, KevinRose.com will be giving away between 2-3,000 invites on the season debut of The Screensavers on G4 Tech TV (and of course TechTV Canada) on Tuesday at 7 PM EST.
In addition, I will have more invites to give out in the near future so there is always hope.

The Penguin Goes Corporate

There's a cool story on MSNBC.com by David Lyons of Forbes Magazine about how Linux has gone from being a "geek thing", to among the more mainstream in the world of OS's. You can read the story here.

Signal Intrigues SETI

Much like the movie, it appears that ET may have finally phoned home, and we humans might have stumbled across at least part of the conversation.
Scientist involved with SETI (The Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence) have confirmed that they have stumbled across at least one signal that may lead to the most important discovery in human history - proof that we are not alone in the universe.
The signal in question was discovered during a February 2003 observing session from the Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico, and was verified by the group's SETI@Home project which uses volunteers computers (when not in use) to help analyze data from observing sessions.
The star system in question, named SHGb02+14a, is the third signal of unknown origin to emanate from the same region. And even though the first two signals have disappeared, the signal discovered in 2003 has actually grown in strength to a frequency of about 1420 megahertz.
"It's the most interesting signal from SETI@home," said Dan Werthimer, Chief Scientist for the project. We are not jumping up and down, but we are continuing to observe it.
The reason for Werthimer's and SETI's cautious optimism is that the paticular frequency at which the signal was observed is the same as the frequency required for hydrogen to absorb and release energy. Hydrogen is also the most common element in the universe.
Factor the hydrogen angle with the fact that the signal only broadcasts in one minute cycles and you can understand why SETI researchers haven't called CNN proclaiming that we have finally made contact with extraterrestrial.
As well the star in question, located in a solar system some 1000 light years away, is in a system where no planets have ever been detected by planet hunting astronomers.
In addition the "drifting" of the signal in question would indicate that the planet has a rotation about 40 times faster that that of the earth's - a factor that would make the existence of life near impossible.
Negatives aside however, SETI scientist continue to remain optimistic that the search for life beyond our solar system will bear fruit some time in the near future.