Free calls for all - almost! Google rejected by Apple.

With the advent of VoIP and magicjack types, and widespread proliferation of smartphones at the same time, it was only a matter of time that people would stop paying for regular phone calls. Lo and behold, with "Google Voice" like apps, people are now able to use a single number for multiple phones and pay nothing for sms messages. International plans are included for apparently a low fee.

Seems too good to be true? It is :D As you could imagine, phone carriers were not too happy since GV was providing features for free that they, AT&T in case of iphone, charge for. Ergo, the perception that iphone's recent decision to pull GV from apple app store was because of AT&T's pressure.

I guess, Apple had to succumb to AT&T for all the $400/phone money they have been making off AT&T. It seems like a losing battle though, especially since Google will be incorporating GV in the web browsers. What's AT&T going to do? Block VoIP service or IP addresses altogether?

I really want to have some anti-Google posts here, but it's so difficult, damn it!

http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/28/google-voice-iphone-app-rejected-current-gv-apps-lose-connectio/

Google, exactly eight years ago from today.

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/3017

Larry Page, and Sergey Brin on Charlie Rose on July 26, 2001.

I remember thinking to myself back then "what could possibly overpower a behemoth like Microsoft?", not knowing the answer was right there in front of me. I still wonder the same, but about Google, although I must admit, I love Google.

American version of "Al Kayda"?

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07242009/watch2.html

As I was watching Bill Moyers Journal on the right wing factions in the US, I couldn't help noticing the uncanny resemblance to the "Al Qaida" fanatic rhetoric in the Middle East:

• Michael Savage's comparison of liberals to Hitler, and liberalism to AIDS
  
• Glenn Beck fantasizing about murdering Michael Moore
• Michael Reagan (son of the former president) asking for shooting and killing everyone who took part/believes in the "9/11 being an inside job" conspiracy theory.
• Neal Boortz calling New Orleanians/Katrina victims "useless, worthless, parasites" and Muslims "cockroaches" for fasting during Ramadan.
• Jim Quinn calling "National Org. for Women", National Org. for Whores".
• Jim David Adkisson's reasoning behind shooting "liberal" church goers "I couldn't get to the generals & high ranking officers of the Marxist movement so I went after the foot soldiers, the chickenshit liberals that vote in these traitorous people.". Al Qaida justifies killings of innocent Americans in the exact same way.
  

Interestingly enough, other than Reagan's, none of the wiki pages mention these instances, enforcing my opinion of wiki that it's essentially just a collaboration of the opinion of the loudest and the most persistent, but I digress...

I am personally not alarmed since they make up a tiny minority of American population so far, as 2008 elections have recently shown, but can you imagine if they gained actual prominence on American political and cultural scene ? :)

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07242009/watch2.html

Spirit of Humanity (Aid carrying Ship) & Israel

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

This is a video recorded on-board the boat called "Spirit of Humanity" carrying aid for Palestinians in Gaza on June 30, 2009. The ship was intercepted by the Israeli Navy and everyone on-board was imprisoned for a week (for carrying aid!). I am not sure what happened to the aid or the ship afterward.

The aid was in response to "over 2,400 homes were destroyed in Gaza during the Israeli massacre in December/January, 490 of them by F-16 airstrikes, as well as 30 mosques, 29 educational institutions, 29 medical centers, 10 charitable organizations, and 5 cement factories." http://jnoubiyeh.blogspot.com/2009/06/free-gaza-boat-spirit-of-humanity.html

I hope the video is not taken down from youtube due to pro-Israel protests, but if it is, then the original video is here: http://www.ricenpeas.com/2009/July/cynthia_mckinney_intvw.html