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My neighbour is using my WiFi. I know because she told me. But I’m sure other people are using it too, and they are not telling me.
On next week’s show our Techiquette expert Tom Howell will look into the ethics of piggybacking on your neighbour’s WiFi. It’s a funny thing, since you aren’t stealing anything tangible. Does that make the line blurry between right and wrong? Are there legal implications to stealing WiFi?
Tell us what you think. Is it ethical to pinch your neighbour’s WiFi? Post your comments and we’ll work them into the show.
You probably remember that when you were a teenager and first got your driver’s license, you had to have a long heart-to-heart with your parents about safety and responsible driving: not drinking and driving, not speeding, and so on.
Now, there’s “Teensurance,” a new service that uses GPS monitoring to implement a host of safety measures. There’s a roadside assistance plan, for instance. The feature that’s getting most of the attention so far, though, is the “Safety Beacon” notification.
According to their website, it will allow parents to set a perimetre that your teen can drive in. “Whenever the vehicle goes outside your preset boundaries,” the website says, “you’ll be notified instantly.” There are also speed “reminders”. If your teen exceeds the preset speed limit you’ve agreed on for more than 30 seconds, you’ll receive a notification.
Teensurance is run by the Safeco Insurance company and is so far only available to US customers of the insurance company, but there are more and more of these types of services all the time, thanks to the proliferation of GPS-enabled devices. There are cellphones you can get for your kids that include GPS tracking technology which let you know where they are. There are even GPS-enabled school uniforms for the same purpose.
Is all this tracking a sensible way to keep kids safer, or is it creeping surveillance that discourages independence? And how long should kids be tracked: until they’re 12? until they leave home? What do you think?
Every few years there’s one of them: the chicken dance, the hustle, the macarena…those ear worm songs and accompanying dances that are so unbelievably hooky, you can’t get them out of your head.
The folks at the Idolator music blog have an interesting mention about what the latest of these song/dance combos, “Crank Dat” by Soulja Boy, has to teach us about Web 2.0 marketing. From that post, I followed the trail to an interesting posting by Xiaochang Li over at the Convergence Culture blog.
Do you have thoughts on viral marketing and entertainment? Is it democratizing the “star-maker machinery” or dumbing it down? We’ll talk about the Soulja Boy phenomenon on our November 7th/10th show. Let us know what you think!
There are a ton of different versions, remakes and re-interpretations of the song/dance out there. Here’s the “official” version:
[edit] I should have added that if you want to follow the argument, there’s a very interesting discussion at blackweb2.0, which includes more of the musical side of the phenom in particular, and the implications for musicians marketing their work.
When I was a kid I used to practice my signature, so that when I got my first credit card, I would be ready to spend immediately. (and I did…thank you VISA…)
But signing your life away to the credit card companies is about to become a thing of the past. You won’t sign for purchases anymore, because you’ll have the Chip Card. By 2011, your credit and debit cards will be replaced with a similar looking plastic card, except it will have a microchip on the front. That’s where your (encrypted) information is stored.
Asia and Europe are already using chip cards, and Canada is starting to roll them out this month. The purpose is to reduce fraud. Instead of using a signature, you’ll use a PIN number.
Pressing plants are ramping up production, but where is the demand coming from? Why do so many people still love vinyl, even though its bulky, analog nature is anathema to everything music is supposed to be these days? Records, the vinyl evangelists will tell you, provide more of a connection between fans and artists. And many of today’s music fans buy 180-gram vinyl LPs for home listening and MP3s for their portable devices.
Spark’s own Tom Howell has vinyl on the brain, too. His radio story about the resurgence of vinyl drops this Wednesday, but if you just can’t wait, click above to listen or download the MP3.
We had a great discussion about the different types of marketing that goes on in virtual worlds, from tie-ins, to offering ‘virtual’ versions of products in the real world. Anastasia had very interesting things to say about tweens’ level of awareness of when and how they are being marketed to.
Click above to listen to the full interview, or download the mp3.
Spark 92 – November 22 & 24, 2009: FloH club, new media literacy, and getting the old age you deserve. Click to listen (runs 54:00):
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