Posts Tagged ‘google’

Quebec People Respond to Government Encroachment

Thursday, May 24th, 2012

(The police demand prior knowledge of rally routes. This is what they get!)

Quebec Premiere Jean Charest is in hot water. A few days ago he passed some short-sighted, heavy-handed emergency laws. These laws, when applied to their full extent, could easily cripple free speech. This misstep has only aggravated Quebec’s youth rebellion. Now, instead of just having to deal with pissed-off students, Charest now has to contend with most of the province being mad at him.

Seeing their precious freedom being infringed upon, Quebeckers sprung into action by the hundreds of thousands. They do not like what Charest has done, and they seem intent on banging pots in the streets until their voice gets heard.

The problem with the contested legislation – Bill 78 – is that it puts the right to protest directly under the control of the police. Anyone demonstrating without prior approval from a police department will face stiff fines or worse, like some entitled security thug punishing offenders with impunity. Yes, I’m talking about you, Canadian Pepper Spray Cop!.

Another problem with Bill 78 is that special provisions target coordinators of so-called ‘unlawful’ protests, who can also be punished whether they partake in the actual demonstration or not. So now anyone who spreads reasons to be disgruntled with government and dares to call for action could end up fined or arrested.

As much as it sucks to see heads of Canadian office trying to force ridiculous laws, witnessing the people’s response more than makes up for it. Clearly, they are as mad as hell and they aren’t going to take it anymore.

Right on! Hopefully Charest buckles sooner than later, and every single Canadian politician gets a reminder as to the power of the people.

Cheap Smartphones Flood Developing World

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

Smartphones are one of the most empowering tools on the planet. They provide a portal to the Internet’s fountain of knowledge and they allow access to the world’s communities via social media.

When everyone on earth can afford a smartphone, a more just civilization will be upon us.

And that day is arriving faster than many may anticipate, thanks to companies like China’s Huawei, who released an $80 smartphone into the Kenyan marketplace earlier this year.

So far, over 350,000 Kenyans have gained access to the smartphone known as IDEOS, which runs Google’s open-source operating system – Android – and gives users access to over 300,000 various apps.

Some of these apps are opening huge doors for ambitious Kenyans, like Medkenya, a tool that puts a library of health information at the user’s fingertips and performs other helpful tasks like guiding the ill to hospitals.

Another app, called M-Farm, lets farmers broadcast product prices and locations to the world via SMS. Other similar agri-apps can help diagnose and track the spread of crop diseases via crowdsourcing.

By empowering individuals and uplifting small businesses and farmers, low cost smartphones are sure to be one of the most integral tools to ever help ease humanity’s burdens.

It’s really happening! Our world is getting better by the instant, at a faster pace than ever before. Pretty soon the dark days of feckless infighting and battling over basics will be behind us.

We’ll soon enter a new era where we can focus our energy on more fruitful endeavors, like allowing the the human spirit to flourish throughout the universe.

Voices Out of Egypt

Monday, January 31st, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfLOufzTWPs

“I just wanted to let the world know we’ve been disconnected from… the Internet… The last time I was… so scared they were going to shoot us all and no one would know about it. This time, I’m not scared at all. I want to tell them ‘Bring it on!’ Mubarak is going out. Be with us.”

These words came from a woman in Cairo, preparing to take part in the today’s planned demonstrations, which may surpass a million protesters.

This message was recorded from a phone message and published online automatically by  Google’s brilliant contribution to Egypt’s struggle: Speak2Tweet. Now anyone with a phone line has one more way to circumvent the blackout to reach the rest of the Internet community.

Today’s Trip Towards Totalitarianism: Google Caves to the likes of RIAA

Friday, December 3rd, 2010

Google has catered to the likes of RIAA and other DMCA douchebags by removing terms that relate to copyright infringement from the auto-complete feature.  They also expedited the process to issue DMCA takedown notices.

Not really a big deal, feature-wise. Now you just have to type in the whole phrase yourself instead of having Google do it for you. Pirates will still be able to find what the same content, but it makes it less likely that non-pirates will stumble upon copyrighted material.

But this change is a big deal when it comes to precedent. Google already has a tarnished record when it comes to cowing down to pressure from influential institutions, like when they catered somewhat to China’s dictatorial demands.

Now, here we see Google capitulating to the whole anti-p2p movement – a litigious movement which critics say protect obsolete views of intellectual property in order to maximize profits for the big corporations (and their shareholders) that sit atop the mainstream entertainment industries.

Yes, Google has taken just taken a minor step. But it is still ONE MORE STEP!  Everyday, more and more rights are being stripped from us. Everyday, this big beast called totalitarianism clamps down on our world.

German citizens, recollecting Germany after the rise of the Nazi’s, would speak to how fascism set in. A small step here, a new restriction there. Never enough to really cause a riot. Just more each day for a few years,  until the government’s power crossed a threshold – the tipping point – and then it was too late. Out of nowhere, fascism came crashing down on them like a bear trap.

The establishment had all the means in place to easily quash any rebellion. The people were under complete control and they had no choice but to comply. An entire population was at the whim of the system and those who sat atop.

This is what can happen to our entire world if we aren’t careful. Forces are working diligently to make totalitarianism happen. It’s not even just the the Illuminati or the Bilderberg group or whatever secret society you want to name.

Totalitarianism can breed from within any of us.

Any mother who thinks more safety precautions are a good thing because they will make us safer. Any father who caters to irrational fears and mindlessly trusts a system to protect his family and keep them safe. Any one of us who doesn’t want to accept responsibility and accountability for our own lives and would rather just let someone else do it for us.

Fortunately, not all forces are working to instill Big Brother’s police state. One force that can (and will) counterbalance totalitarianism is the power that comes from humans uniting. We are coming together as a species, like never before, and the forces we are unleashing will keep totalitarianism at bay.

Humans are capable of remarkable things. We are starting to come together, and we will rise up against oppression to make world peace and a brighter future a reality.

Google’s Project 10 to the 100 voting open

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

Google’s Project 10 to the 100 has open their voting, after many months of deliberation. Over 150,000 entries from 170 countries had to be sorted, and the results are in. The result: a list of 16 “big ideas” each inspired by numerous individual submissions. Many progressive ideas have come out of this, like increasing government transparency, more efficient land-mine removal, and  encouraging positive media depictions of engineers and scientists. Voting is open until October 8th.

While it is nice for the results to finally be presented, they are somewhat disappointing.  Originally, they had planned to select 100 finalists, then allow the public to vote on their favorites.  It would have been amazing to see the finalists, to see the innovative and original ideas that others put forward.  Now, with just 16 broad catagories, the results don’t have same impact.

Oh well.  It’s still a great endeavor and good on Google for taking up the initiative.

Google’s Project 10 to the 100th

Sunday, September 6th, 2009

Google’s Project 10 to the 100th is a philanthropic project put forth by the Internet powerhouse Google. This project is a “call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible”. Watch the video below for more info or click here to read about it.

In October of last year, they opened up for submissions for ideas, and they received over 150,000 entries! The deadline for submissions has now passed.

Now, they are faced with the task of sorting through all of these submissions to pick the top 100. From these top 100, they will open up voting to the public, letting us pick the top 25. From these top 25 ideas, they will then pick the top 5. The top 5 will be splitting the prize of $10,000,000, which will be used to jumpstart the projects.

While it has taken them way longer than they initially hoped to pick their finalists, this project is still a great endeavour. What kind of projects have they received… what kind of great ideas and world changing events will arise because of this project… only time will tell.

Here at u4Ya.ca, the idea we put forth is the Global Voting System, which is a protocol for a world wide voting network, that runs off of existing infrastructure to promote global democracy.  It would be awesome if we were picked as one of the finalists, to really help jumpstart this ambitious project and truly get the ball rolling.