After AT&T shut down Allfreecalls, it has reinvented itself and relaunched as Yak4Ever.com. Same rules apply: Call a special access number, then dial the actual number you want to call and you are connected for free, with no limitations on call length.
I have no idea how they are back online but Yak4Ever has gone to great lengths to call themselves a club, which I’m sure has some significant legal standing in their battle with AT&T.
Today the Defense Department blocked the websites YouTube, Metacafe, IFilm, StupidVideos and FileCabi, MySpace, BlackPlanet and Hi5, Pandora, MTV, 1.fm, live365, and Photobucket from all military owned networks citing security and technical concerns.
“The U.S. Army’s not going to pay the bill for you to get on MySpace and YouTube,” said Maj. Bruce Mumford, of Chester, Nebraska, who is serving as the brigade communications officer for the 4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, in Iraq. [...]
As blogs and video-sharing become more common, the military has voiced increasing concern about service members revealing details about military operations or other information about equipment or procedures that will aid the enemy.
At the same time, service members have used the Web sites to chronicle their time in battle, posting videos and writing journals that provide a powerful, personal glimpse into their days at war.
Having a background in IT, I can understand the bandwidth concerns – but I am a firm believer that the troops deserve unfettered access to the internet preserving their rights to free speech that they are so bravely protecting.
The hemorrhaging VoIP provider Vonage announced today it may have developed a workaround technology that skits the patent spat that they are involved with telcom giant Verizon
“We will begin rolling these workarounds out shortly, hopefully in the next few weeks, and we believe they will work [...] Vonage’s new technology can be installed through software downloads and shouldn’t be costly to deploy, Citron said. The company will continue to appeal the court decision that requires it to pay Verizon damages for infringing patents on technology that translates Internet-based calls to standard lines.
That news helped Vonages stock price to close almost 3% up.
Hey Movie Studios: That PG rating just went up in a puff of smoke just as your lead character took a nice drag on a cigarette.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) today announced that it would consider raising a movies ratings to ‘R’ if there is any smoking featured. In the past, illegal teen smoking, sex, violence and adult language has been a factor in the rating of films.
WHA? Does anybody even pay attention to movie ratings anymore?
What a world we live in! DRM Company Media Rights Technologies has filed a Cease and Desist letter against Apple and other companies for NOT using their products.
MRT claims that the DRM that Apple uses is inferior and causes the company to be in violation of the DMCA because it can be cracked. MRT claims that their “X1 SeCure Recording Control” has proven effective against stream ripping, and these companies have been “actively avoiding the use of MRT’s superior technologies.”
I think we reached a new low here.
This has to be the funniest story I have read all week:
Before he became a poster child for weight loss, the affable Subway spokestool once ran a adult film emporium from his bedroom, reports Best Week Ever. His collection was said to be “vast and extensive,” and rental rates were hard to beat — a dollar a day per vid. “People would come from all over to take advantage of the deal,” according to BWE’s source.
The same source snitches that the real reason Jared started eating Subway wasn’t motivated by health concerns, but sheer laziness. Turns out that Subway happened to open a franchise on the ground floor of his dorm, so it was the closest fast-food joint to Jared’s XXX lair.
So the Subway thing was a total fluke?!
Alltel in February revealed it was considering a sale, with at least three pairs of private equity groups putting in bids. Currently valued at $25 to $30 billion dollars, it seems that Alltel is waiting for a larger company to buy it. Will Verizon snatch it up for the spectrum, or will Sprint take the plunge for the subscriber base?
Bulgarian train engineers, just got a new job perk. Rotating chairs so they can pee out of the window without having to stop.
The engineers were complaining that on some older trains, there were no toilets and they were having to pee out of the windows. So, Instead of installing bathrooms the management responded by getting special chairs so the driver can turn and pee out the window without having to get up from the controls.
Sounds like a typical management decision, trying to milk every ounce of productivity from their employees.
Wal-Mart is known for destroying all local business when it enters a town, but a grocer in a small town in Ontario Canada has found way way not only to stay alive, but to compete against Wal-Mart using a taste of their own medicine.
Emo, Ontario sits near the US border and grocers owners Dan and Mark Loney decided to cross over to the US side and buy affordable bulk food at Sam’s Club, which is owned by Wal-Mart.
Since they bought in bulk their prices are cheaper then Wal-Mart’s retail prices, and Dan and Mark Loney are not afraid to advertise that – and that pisses of Wal-Mart.
In a four-page letter to the Loneys, dated April 23, lawyer John Macera of Macera & Jarzyna LLP in Ottawa, claimed Cloverleaf is violating trademark, advertising, packaging, labelling and other laws and regulations.
“Moreover, because of the very extensive use and advertising of Wal-Mart’s trademarks, Wal-Mart has a very strong cause of action against you for unfair competition and passing off,” the letter says. “There is no doubt that Wal-Mart can obtain court relief by way of injunction, damages, an accounting of your profits, punitive damages and payment of its legal fees.”
Boooooooo!
Good news for Yahoo! stock owners (stocks up 17% as of this posting), Microsoft may want to acquire the search company.
Software maker Microsoft Corp and trivial internet player asked Yahoo Inc. to re-enter formal negotiations for an acquisition that could be worth $50 billion. No word of how much of the deal would be cash vs. stock, or if Yahoo would even return to the table. If the acquisition happens, it could give search leader Google a run for their money.
