TECHNOLOGY: Big professional Irish dance shows today use a “click track”?

Sunday, July 24, 2011

http://www.irishcentral.com/story/irishdance/go-feis–the-irish-dance-blog/countdown-to-ireland-the-show-red-carpet-premiere-125699878.html

Posted on Saturday, July 16, 2011 at 09:51 PM
Countdown to Ireland-The Show Red Carpet Premiere!

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IRELAND-The Show premieres Sunday, July 17th at the Granada Theater in Santa Barbara, California and FEIS AMERICA on IRISH CENTRAL will have exclusive coverage of the Red Carpet and Show!

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Owen Barrington: The thing that makes Ireland-The Show special from most other shows is that we perform 100% completely live. Most big professional Irish dance shows today use a “click track” in which the taps are pre-recorded and the dancers dance on top of that. Dancing every night, completely live, without the assistance of pre-recorded taps, raises the level of difficulty because you must be spot-on every single show, there’s no other way around it. The benefits of dancing live though are a more genuine show and it gives us the freedom to change steps around at a moment’s notice if we feel it’s necessary.

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Irish dance shows are faked milley vanilley syle?

I am shocked. and not the Captain Renault style either.

I’ll never look at another performance the same way again.

Now I know how my Mom felt when she found out that pro-wrestling was fixed.

I feel dirty.

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“I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” Captain Renault in Casablanca

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SERVICE: Verizon Wireless’s America’s Choice II calling plan

Friday, July 22, 2011

If you subscribed to Verizon Wireless’s America’s Choice II calling plans, you could receive benefits from a class action settlement.

Para ver este aviso en español, visita http://www.cowitsettlement.com

A proposed settlement has been reached with Verizon Wireless (“Verizon Wireless”) in a class action, Cowit, et al., v. Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless, No. A0505869 (Ct. of Common Pleas,Hamilton County, Ohio), related to a lawsuit about whether Verizon Wireless failed to provide roaming service without any roaming charges under the America’s Choice II Calling Plan. Verizon Wirelessdenies all of the claims.

WHO IS INCLUDED? The Settlement Class includes all current and former customers of Verizon Wireless who, since February 21, 2005, subscribed to its America’s Choice II Calling Plan. If you are a member of the Settlement Class, you have certain rights and options, such as submitting a claim for benefits, requesting exclusion from the settlement, or objecting to the settlement.

SETTLEMENT BENEFITS. In summary, current Verizon Wireless customers whose calling plan provides for a specific allowance of minutes as part of their monthly access fee automatically will receive 25 additional wireless calling minutes, which they can use for a period of one year, or, in the alternative, if these class members submit a Claim Form they can receive a transferable PIN for 40 calling units, which will be valid for 24 months, that can be used to make domestic or international long distance calls. Current Verizon Wireless customers whose calling plan provides for an unlimited number of minutes as part of the monthly access fee will automatically, without filing a Claim Form, receive a transferable PIN for 40 calling units, which will be valid for 24 months, that can be used to make domestic or international calls. Former Verizon Wireless customers must submit a Claim Form to receive a transferable PIN for 40 calling units, which will be valid for 24 months, that can be used to make domestic or international calls. You can submit your claim online at http://www.cowitsettlement.com or by mail. The claim deadline is November 8, 2011.

As part of the settlement, Class Counsel will submit a request for attorneys’ fees, expenses, and incentive awards for the Class Representatives as more fully set forth in the Full Notice described below which will be paid by Verizon Wireless and will not affect the benefits to the class under the Settlement.

OTHER OPTIONS. If you do not want to be legally bound by the settlement, you must exclude yourself by September 27, 2011. If you stay in the Settlement Class, you may object to the settlement, the attorneys’ fees or the incentive payments by September 27, 2011. The Full Notice includes complete information on how to request exclusion or object to the settlement. The Court will hold a hearing on October 28, 2011, to consider whether to approve the settlement and the request by Class Counsel for attorneys’ fees and incentive payments.

THIS IS ONLY A SUMMARY NOTICE. A more complete description of this class action and proposed settlement, including how to exclude yourself from the class, claim benefits, or object to the settlement, is contained in the Full Notice. You may review the Full Notice at http://www.cowitsettlement.com, or send a written request for a copy to: Verizon Wireless America’s Choice II Litigation, c/o Epiq Systems, Claims Administrator, P.O. Box 3967, Portland, Oregon 97208-3967, or call 1-866-408-4551.

© 2011 Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless | One Verizon Way | Mail Code: 180WVB | Basking Ridge, NJ 07920

We respect your privacy. Please review our privacy policy for more information

If you are not the intended recipient and feel you have received this email in error; or if you

would like to update your customer notification preferences, please click here

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TECHNOLOGY: Kick Google at your own risk

Friday, July 22, 2011

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/07/16/0028255/Belgian-Newspapers-Delisted-On-Google

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D H NG writes “After being ordered by the Belgian courts to ‘remove from its Google.be and Google.com sites, and in particular, cached links visible on Google Web and the Google News service, all articles, photographs and graphics of daily newspapers published in French and German by Belgian publishers,’ Google had removed all traces of the newspapers in question from all its search services. The newspapers, however, are crying foul, and alleged that it was done in retaliation for being sued for copyright violations.”

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Doesn’t seem like you can have it both ways. Either you want Google or you don’t.

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TECHNOLOGY: MAC OSX 10.7 LION

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Not for me. Apple has demonstrated that it’s not the “champion of the people”.

Don’t like the Evil Empire, Microsoft.

But Apple is no better.

Argh!

So I’m not upgrading or otherwise investing in their products.

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TECHNOLOGY: Verizon pulls the rug on FTP webpage update

Thursday, July 21, 2011

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,26111924

Dear Verizon Internet User:

As part of our ongoing enhancements to the online customer experience, Verizon continues to ensure security for our Internet customers. As a result of this ongoing effort, Verizon Online is making modifications to the Internet access provided to you. These modifications will occur on August 21, 2011. For security reasons, Verizon will no longer allow users to FTP their HTML files to the personal web site Verizon offers.

Verizon recommends that current FTP users download their files prior to August 21, 2011 to prevent any data loss.

If you still wish to have a Verizon website, please go to our site builder tool available with Personal Webspace which can be found under My Services in My Verizon at:

»my.verizon.com/central/vzc.porta···WebSpace

Remember, after August 21, 2011, you will not be able to use FTP for uploading your files.

Thanks for being a valued Verizon Online customer. We encourage you to act now to protect your private information.

Sincerely,
Verizon Online

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And, why would you allow an ISP to control you?

Don’t use their email address, their webspace, and certainly if you do, don’t use it for anything important.

Cloud? Use it on whose terms?

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TECHNOLOGY: “because he looks like another driver”?

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/07/18/0335204/Facial-Recognition-Gone-Wrong?

“John H. Gass hadn’t had a traffic ticket in years, so the Natick resident was surprised this spring when he received a letter from the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles informing him to cease driving because his license had been revoked. It turned out Gass was flagged because he looks like another driver, not because his image was being used to create a fake identity. His driving privileges were returned but, he alleges in a lawsuit, only after 10 days of bureaucratic wrangling to prove he is who he says he is. And apparently, he has company. Last year, the facial recognition system picked out more than 1,000 cases that resulted in State Police investigations, officials say. And some of those people are guilty of nothing more than looking like someone else. Not all go through the long process that Gass says he endured, but each must visit the Registry with proof of their identity. Massachusetts began using the software after receiving a $1.5 million grant from the US Department of Homeland Security as part of an effort to prevent terrorism, reduce fraud, and improve the reliability and accuracy of personal identification documents that states issue.”

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Gooferment’s overreaching and using technology wrong.

What happened to “innocent until proven guilty”?

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TECHNOLOGY: The risks of relying upon the Cloud

Sunday, July 17, 2011

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Facebook Bans Google+ Ads by samzenpus

Barbara, not Barbie writes “Not content with making it hard for people to export their Facebook contacts to Google+, Facebook has now banned all ads from app developer Michael Lee Johnson, who ran an ad saying ‘Add Michael to Google+.’ Facebook sent him the following message: ‘Your account has been disabled. All of your adverts have been stopped and should not be run again on the site under any circumstances. Generally, we disable an account if too many of its adverts violate our Terms of Use or Advertising guidelines. Unfortunately we cannot provide you with the specific violations that have been deemed abusive. Please review our Terms of Use and Advertising guidelines if you have any further questions.'”

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This is an example of why you can’t depend the Cloud for “production”. It can disappear on a whim. Taking all your data with it.

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SERVICE: GOOGLE FREE APPS misfire

Saturday, July 16, 2011

201107151638.jpg

Argh, a network blip and now it’s screwed up.

My gripe is the message “contact support”.

Any idea how?

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SERVICE: FACEBOOK goes tilt

Friday, July 15, 2011

201107150816.jpg

Wow, first time this has ever happened to me.

Anyone else want to bet their job on the availability of cloud applications?

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TECHNOLOGY: Apple does evil?

Sunday, July 10, 2011

http://m.techeye.net/security/us-spooks-arrest-artist-for-tinkering-with-apple-macs

US spooks arrest artist for tinkering with Apple Macs
It’s terrorism
08 Jul 2011 09:41 | by Nick Farrell in Rome | posted in Security

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Tinkering with Apple computers in one of its cathedrals of shallowness is now a terrorist act.

According to AP, the fruity cargo cult called in the US Secret Service after it discovered that some of the Apple Macs in its New York Store had been profaned by unauthorised software which appeared to take pictures of customers.

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Unfortunately!

  1. My little more than a year old MACBOOKAIR has as many problems as my old WINDOZE machine. And, it’s had two bare metal restores and three type 1 hardware problems.
      
  2. APPLE is arguably as bad as MICROSLOTH! … but with better support at the genius bar.
  3. Linux is the wild frontier. But maybe it’s better?
      
  4. Google’s CHROMEBOOK is an interesting take on Cloud Computing.
  5. Crony capitalism is one of the terrible feature of today’s Gooferment.

So what does one do?

Beats me.

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