racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

I’ve been using this nifty feature for quite some time now, and I think people will be interested, especially those who want to save up on telephone costs. Do you know you can sign up for a US and/or UK-based number that will route calls to your computer thru VoIP?

It’s as simple as signing up for an account with FWD, downloading a SIP-enabled VoIP client, and signing up for a DID (direct international dialling) account with IPKall or CallUK.

Earlier this afternoon, I perused a copy of the Philippine Internet Review: 10 years of internet in the Philippines (1994-2004) (thank you for the complimentary copy, Janette!). I haven’t finished up with the whole thing, but the writeups by Janette, Migs, and Danny (and as well the other writers) were all very enlightning, so far. However, one thing prevailed in my mind while reading: Where was I during all this?

I have always considered myself to be at the forefront of technology—or at least I try to keep abreast of whatever’s new and whatever’s happening. Back during the heyday of the BBS, I was quite active in the community (I even operated my own BBS and started a Fidonet-based network). When the Web as we know it was young, I also tried to get in the scene, being active in forums, message groups, and trying to learn Web markup.

Of course, I didn’t get anywhere near what those featured in the book had accomplished. And somehow, I think I never will, simply because I’d rather not be in the middle of things—I’d rather work behind the scenes, or even observe from the outside, looking at things from that excellent vantage point. Better perspectives? Probably.

In the online world and the Internet-related industries, I believe there are influential and accomplished people who are, and will be, prominently featured as movers and shakers. And my hat’s off to them. However, things tend to happen simultaneously, and there are also important things that happen in the background, behind the limelight, and on the sidelines.

I’d rather not forget the contributions of everyone else, though. In this world in which everything is connected, everyone has a part to play after all. We’re one big community of creators (and consumers). That’s probably a better definition of “World Wide Web.”

I know some people who truly are movers and shakers, but would rather not be named, and would rather remain in the sidelines, content that the work they begin meets success at the hands of others. They’re still truly the ones at the helm of everything, though.

It’s like being a covert operative connected to a group of other similar people within a super-secret organization—trying to shape world affairs without being noticed.

And in a way, I feel that I’m doing the same, in my own small ways. But then again, the smallest of snowflakes can start an avalanche.

So here’s to ten—or rather, twelve—years of the Philippine Internet!

Admit it, you’ve violated your service provider’s (email, hosting, blogging, photo-hosting, etc.) terms of services one time or another.

Nude photos on Flickr. AdSense on mature websites. Obscene photos on wiki encyclopedias. Corporate blogs on personal blogging services. We’ve seen ‘em all. Sometimes we click that feedback link and report the offense to the appropriate authorities, but in most cases, we just turn a blind eye. In most cases, after all, one wouldn’t expect a favorable response timely enough for our taste. Or perhaps we do enjoy the websites or content themselves, and would rather have them online than not.

I’d say it’s a bit more complicated than just “good” vs. “bad,” or even “right vs. “wrong.”

... the difficulty with ToS compliance is that we live in a world where companies tend to be biased and users tend to abuse—slightly or unknowingly, at least. Unlike the Force, which has a dark side and a light side, it’s a bit more complicated with all the in-between grey areas.

Quite a lengthy post over at ForeverGeek. Enjoy!

Ah. I found it at last! Here’s a link to one of my very first personal websites, back then hosted on Geocities and Sky Internet (my old ISP … wait, it’s also my current broadband ISP!): The Alpha Centauri Webpages.

And then, of course, here’s the website of my Bulletin Board System (BBS), which I ran for a couple of years in the mid-1990’s: The Cyber County Online.

The cache is hosted by archive.org, the site that seems to have crawled the whole web and cached copies of popular (and not so) websites at regular intervals.

I remember coding the site by hand on Notepad, but I don’t remember what exact software I used for the images–it’s most likely an old version of Photoshop, though.

So there goes another part of my computer/Internet history! Don’t you dare laugh! I know the design is tacky and the copy is not so well-written. But that was the Internet of the 1990’s (and I was in high school)!

The domain wikipedia.de, which redirects to the German-language version of Wikipedia was ordered to go off-line by a German court, per the request of a family of the late hacker known as Tron. They did not wish to make his real name known to the public.

From Breitbart.com:

Visitors to the site http://www.wikipedia.de were greeted by a statement from Wikipedia Deutschland e.V. informing them they were required by law to remove the site and promising the group’s lawyers were taking “every possible step to again bring you uncomplicated access to a the free encyclopedia Wikipedia.”


…


A Berlin court ordered the site pulled on Tuesday, after the family of the German hacker known as “Tron,” whose real name is Boris F., sued the Wikimedia Foundation to prevent them from publishing the real name of their son, who was found hanged in a park in 1998.

But a quick check with the English version of Wikipedia would reveal Tron’s surname.

This is definitely not the best way to hide information from the Internet. Take down a popular website and you’re sure to have a multitude of bloggers and DIGGers talking about it for the next couple of weeks or so.

I think the best course of action would have been for the family’s representatives/lawyers to request the Wikipedia editors to take out Tron’s real name and then lock the article from further editions.

Do check out the Wikipedia entry for Tron for more information on the story.

(via DIGG)