Let Google Do Your Dialing

This entry was posted in Technology on by

I suspect Google already knows exactly who you are if you use their search, mapping or other services. Why not, then, give up your phone number? Now, they provide just a bit of incentive to do so.
If you are doing a business search on Google Maps they provide a feature that will call that business for you:

Search for a business, like a hardware store, on Google Maps, and click the ‘call’ link next to its phone number. Then, enter your phone number and click ‘Connect For free.’ Google calls your phone number and automatically connects you to the hardware store.
There are two things that I really like about this. The business’s phone number is automatically stored in your caller ID so you can easily call back in the future. And by checking the box to remember your phone number, you can make future calls from Google Maps with just two mouse clicks (and picking up your phone, of course).
We’re providing the ‘call’ link as a free service to all businesses. These aren’t ads and don’t influence the ranking of businesses in the search results. We foot the bill for calls (local and long distance), but airtime fees or other mobile fees will still apply if you use a mobile phone number.

The click to call feature is currently available only within the US and they say that they eventually delete your phone number from their servers. But they most certainly have added the information about your search and your phone call(s) to their growing file on you. If they really want your phone number later there are plenty of ways to acquire it.
On the other side, and it may not really make a difference, there are still quite a few people that delete Google cookies after every use. But, for that to mean anything, you’d better change your IP address every time as well.

Or use something like Tor.

Friday Ark #113

This entry was posted in Bird Blogging Cat Blogging Friday Ark Invertebrate Blogging Pet Blogging Weekend Cat Blogging Weekend Dog Blogging on by

We’ll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and….?

We add boarders all day Friday plus intermittently on Saturday and Sunday so visit frequently.

Do link to the Ark every week!

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page.

Alert: The Ark staff is traveling again today, 11/17. After the first round of early morning boardings updates will be intermittant…every few hours at best.

Cats

Dogs

Other Vertebrates

Invertebrates

Birds

In Memoriam

Didn’t Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map. (73 shouts as of 11/16)

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey’s Musings. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 138th edition, 11/12, is up at This Blog Is Full of Crap. The 139th edition will be hosted by Mind of Mog on 11/19. There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging hosted on 11/18 by Catsynth . Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 36th edition is up and hosted by Words & Pictures. The 37th edition will be hosted on 11/30 by Five Wells.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 14th edition is up at The Neurophilosopher’s Weblog. The 14th edition will be hosted at the end of November by Ocellated.

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat’s Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Over the past month or so Haloscan started (the end of July) handling of trackbacks has improved though it is still pretty broken for carnival type posts. Now, instead of rejecting every attempt to ping it accepts single pings for a while and then will start rejecting them. I will keep trying to track back to Haloscan boarders but can make no guarantees for any particular week.

Note for Typepad Users:

Typepad continues to behave similar to Haloscan for trackbacks. I have, though, for the past month been able to get trackbacks to most, if not all, Typepad based boarders. I have to do it one at a time and wait a while in between pings but Typepad does not go into semi-permanent rejection mode like Haloscan.

The International Traveler

This entry was posted in Anarchism Government Law Enforcement Libertarianism War on Terrorism on by

Kafka would be hard put to one up the folks at homeland security:

Under the proposed rules, orders by the CBP [Customs adn Border Patrol] to common carriers not to transport specific persons would not be based on restraining orders (injunctions) issued by competent judicial authorities. Instead,they would be based on an undefined, secret, administrative permission-to-travel (“clearance”) procedure subject to none of the procedural or substantive due process required for orders prohibiting or restricting the exercise of protected First Amendment rights.

Jill provides perspective:

I remember watching Sound of Music when I was a child and feeling my heart race as the Von Trapp family made its escape from Nazified Austria. I could never have imagined that a day would come when those wanting to leave the United States would be forced to “make a run” for the border to evade a myriad of obstacles placed by an American government in the path of those who wished to exercise their fundamental human right to emigrate.
That day has not yet arrived. But it will on January 14.

Don’t count on the Mexican or Canadian borders being your safety valve. The fences and the electronic surveillance can be just as effective at keeping people in as at keeping people out.

The newly powerful dems need to put the elimination of this star chamber behavior close to the top of their early 2007 agenda . If they don’t then a free people would be well within their rights to take the job into their own hands.

Orange Coast College Student Government Gets Rid of the Pledge

This entry was posted in Anarchism Constitution Government Libertarianism on by

There will be no more reciting of the pledge of allegiance at Orange Coast College student government meetings:

Student leaders at a community college voted to drop the Pledge of Allegiance after a tense meeting in which one flag-waving pledge supporter berated them as anti-American radicals.
Orange Coast College’s student trustees voted Wednesday not to recognize the pledge, with three of the five board members saying it should be dropped from their meetings.
Board member Jason Ball argued that the pledge inspires nationalism, violates the separation between church and state with the phrase “under God,” and is irrelevant to the business of student government.

To which Edwonk suggests:

Since these student “leaders” have taken it upon themselves to make a “statement” by rejecting the United States Flag, I wonder if these same student “leaders” would be willing to make an even bigger “statement” by rejecting all government-supplied financial aid as well.

Nope, not until the government stops collecting the funds used for financial aid via taxation.

Update (11/21/06): It’s back for now:

At an intense two-and-a-half-hour meeting in the faculty lounge, the student trustees listened to — and often expressed — passionate opinions both for and against making the pledge an official item. In the end, by a 3-2 vote, the board opted to reinstate the pledge as an “opportunity” for any attendees who wish to recite it and promised to hold a forum or take an opinion poll in the near future to determine students’ feelings on the matter.
“In my view, this is a fair compromise,” said student body president Lynne Riddle, who suggested the compromise that the trustees accepted but is not a voting member of the board. “I feel strongly still that the board made no mistake. However, we have heard additional voices from students and the community.”

If they can create an environment that supports those who do and those who don’t choose to recite the pledge great. If not, then eliminating it was the correct choice.