There's a new Facebook group called "We Will Not Pay To Use Facebook. Need As Many Members Possible To Stop This!." The members of this group apparently believe that this is true. I would usually brush something like this off, but the group has 2.7 Million members! All of these people apparently think Facebook is on its way to becoming a pay site. The info on this group states that because of Facebook's popularity that Mark Zuckerberg will sell the site, and that the people he sells it to "WILL turn it into a paysite." How does the creator of this group know for sure that the buyer "WILL" do this? He doesn't. Zuckerberg hasn't sold it so far, and while it is a possibility, there is no way that anyone would expect 200 million users to begin paying for the service. More than 100 million users log on to Facebook at least once a day. That's an incredible number that would drop significantly if everyone had to begin paying. There's a business model in the new age of "Social Media," and it includes providing a free service while making ad revenue. This is how almost everyone does it no days. The thought of someone turning Facebook into a pay site is laughable. This group was either started by somebody who is completely oblivious to the Web 2.0 business model, or someone who is trolling Facebook users. I would like to raise the question here, "How does starting a Facebook group help prevent this in any way?" It doesn't. While writing this article, I found another related group that has 4.8 million members. It is estimated that Facebook makes about $300 Million in ad revenue each year, and is expected to reach $1 Billion in total revenues by 2015. Why would you ditch the ads, lose members, and lose money by turning it into a pay site? You wouldn't. That's not how it works.

Do this at your own risk. I haven't heard of any problems using this technique, but I am not responsible for any "hacking" you do to your own iPhone.
Download these carrier settings
Make sure there is no .zip extension on the second file after download. Sometimes Safari interprets this as a compressed file, so take it off. Sometimes you have to hit Apple-I to REALLY change it. The icon should not be a zip icon. It should be a blank icon.

Make sure your iTunes is closed, and open Terminal. Paste the following into Terminal without the quotes "defaults write com.apple.iTunes carrier-testing -bool TRUE"

Open iTunes and Option-Click on the "Check for updates" button. Select the Carrier file (ipcc file) and iTunes will send it to the phone. It won't give you any instruction, so just reset the phone when it's done. After that, go to your phone and select Settings>General>Network>Cellular Data Network> and enter these settings. Leave everything else blank...

APN: wap.cingular
Username: wap@cingulargprs.com
Password: CINGULAR1

MMSC: mmsc.cingular.com
MMS Proxy: 66.209.11.32

Under Network Settings you should now have the option to enable tethering. You should also have MMS working as well of your plan is set up for MMS. If not... good luck on the phone with them. You can install the current iTunes if you want and put your library back at any time.

NOTE: Sometimes the tethering options disappear. Select the IPCC file again in iTunes and it should reappear without restarting.

The first thing you'll notice about Tweetdeck for iPhone is the really cool interface. You can scroll through columns just like you would with pictures on the iPhone. You can click on a column to zoom in and browse that particular column. Each column is custom set up by you, the user, and helps you organize your Twitter world. The setup will sync with your desktop version as well for a seamless experience. If you click on a user, their profile will appear.
All the options you would need are included in each person's profile including the option to email their tweet to someone or add them to your favorites list. You can add columns for direct messages, mentions, favorites, and even specific trends. Monitoring specific trends can be very handy. Many people have multiple accounts for business, promotions, and other marketing reasons. You are allowed to add multiple accounts which makes managing everything that much better. When you set up new columns, you have the option to select which account it is for. Your number of updates are listed in the bottom left at all times. Clicking the number will pop up a more specific rundown of everything. While composing a tweet, you have the option to add a shortened URL of your location which is really cool. You also have the option to add it as either your current location, or your profile location. There is even a way to quick follow new people on the fly.

Microsoft has started a campaign to get Australians using IE again. They are hiding clues around the internet to the location of $10,000. The catch is that you have to be using IE in order to participate. I smell a law suit for Mac users since IE is not available on the Mac. To me, this looks like a personal attack against Apple for creating Safari for Windows. This is a sign that Microsoft is actually concerned about the amount of people switching over to the Safari browser. I don't even see a mention of Firefox on their page.

Safari 4 is an amazing browser. Many of the crashes and hang ups on the previous version are now gone. I use Firefox sometimes, but always go back to Safari. It's the fastest browser available, the interface is beautiful, and it has some great features. Why would I ever want to switch to IE? Why would anyone ever want to go back? Because Safari is "boring?" I'm sorry, but that is not a good enough reason, Microsoft. How about giving us educated reasons rather than insulting our intelligence.

I've been going to the Target down the street for my groceries for years and years. One day I walked in and the manager said, "You know what? You've been coming here for so many years that I'm just going to give you all your groceries for free." I've also been paying for a truck for many years. One time I got a letter in the mail stating that, "Since I've been paying on the truck for so long, they're going to take half of the price off." I've been such a loyal customer by paying money in exchange for a product, that I DESERVE it.

Of course, all of that was a lie. That never happens in real life. So why do AT&T customers think that they deserve a free or discounted iPhone? What is it about telephone service that changes the way consumers think compared to other companies? There shouldn't be any difference. Just because you spent a bunch of money on a plasma television doesn't mean the next one will be any cheaper. When the very first iPhone came out, enthusiasts were willing to pay $699 for it. Now, an iPhone of even better quality is $99. But there's a reason for this. It's a subsidized phone. When the 2nd generation iPhone was released, everyone got the discount because everyone payed full price for the original if they had one. Now that there is a 3rd generation iPhone, the 2nd generation owners are getting pissed off about the price. First time buyers are getting a great deal, but existing customers aren't. This is because it's only been a year. If you got a new iPhone and signed a contract last year, you got a discount because you are paying off the rest of the phone's price over the next two years in your data plan. By this point, you've only payed about $120 of the $240 you owe on it. There is no reason to expect AT&T to give you another subsidized phone when you haven't payed for the first one.

Update: You can now do it right from the phone by going to this address on your iPhone Safari Browser http://help.benm.at/help.php

This worked like a charm for me and many of my friends. If you don't already have 3.0, it's easy to find online. If you don't have 3.0, don't do this yet.
Do this at your own risk. I haven't heard of any problems using this technique, but I am not responsible for any "hacking" you do to your own iPhone.
Download this older developer beta version of iTunes
Download these carrier settings
Make sure there is no .zip extension on the second file after download. Sometimes Safari interprets this as a compressed file, so take it off. Sometimes you have to hit Apple-I to REALLY change it. The icon should not be a zip icon. It should be a blank icon.

Move your iTunes Library to another location for now. Delete the iTunes program and restart your computer. Install this beta version of iTunes and connect your iPhone. Option-Click on the "Check for updates" button. Select the Carrier file (ipcc file) and iTunes will send it to the phone. It won't give you any instruction, so just reset the phone when it's done. After that, go to your phone and select Settings>General>Network>Cellular Data Network> and enter these settings. Leave everything else blank...

APN: wap.cingular
Username: wap@cingulargprs.com
Password: CINGULAR1

MMSC: mmsc.cingular.com
MMS Proxy: 66.209.11.32

As technology progresses and matures, so do the people using it. As a kid, I was way more into computers than any of my friends. They would join a soccer team, and I would program Basic instead. As years progressed, my friends began noticing technology and began to make it a part of their everyday lives. Some of their parents, as well as mine, embraced it too. But only some. There are many of my parent's friends who refuse to have anything to do with a computer no matter how cool, convenient, or time-saving it is. A rare occurrence is finding a friend's grandparent on a computer. It's an odd observation too. They either have absolutely no idea how to use a mouse, or they completely get it and are all over Myspace, Facebook, Blogs, and Twitter. It's been like this for the last ten years, but now things are changing. As my generation begins to age, so do our parents. Our parents, who got into computers later in life, are becoming grandparents. Pretty soon the stereotype that "old people" don't know how to use a computer will be gone. Take Facebook for example... How many people do you know whose parents have signed up? I know that quite a few of my friend's parents have added me as a friend. The number seems like it's growing.

There are some websites that I am more actively involved in than others. Facebook is one of those sites that I visit regularly and I have over 600 friends. They're old friends, new friends, family, and co-workers. With that in mind, I tend to be careful about what I post. I don't want to offend anyone, nor do I want people to get the wrong impression of me. If you use Facebook the way I do, you probably understand exactly what I mean by this. Then, there are sites that I have no "friends" on. Youtube, Digg, Friendfeed and other similar sites. These are sites that have very active comment systems and I tend to get in flame wars on them sometimes. Sometimes it's about politics, sometimes Mac vs. PC, sometimes I'm just downright cynical and sarcastic. I'm usually ok with being like this because I don't have any "real world" friends who will be reading it. It's something that I think a large portion of internet surfers do. If you're anonymous you can be anyone you want, or as mean as you want. For example: I have a youtube account with just a few videos on it. Every once and a while someone completely slams something I posted because they are anonymous and know that I can never find them. So I do the same thing right back. I reply to their comment very mean and sarcastic because I am anonymous as well. I don't take it to the extreme level that some people do, and I don't do it all the time, but I am willing to bet that almost everyone who posts online regularly has been in a bad mood one day, received a harsh comment, and gone to town on their critic. I usually don't ever hear back from these people, and sometimes I delete what I wrote later, but I don't expect people I know in the "real world" to ever come across it.

7 Days, and still my forums don't work. I've called 5 times. Instead of fixing the MySQL to point to the correct directory, they moved my files to the directory it was pointing to... thus breaking everything else.

Note to hosting companies... Don't move people's directories without asking!

After sitting on hold for 15-20 minutes after the initial 30 minute wait for a technician, I got transfered... to my OLD hosting company!

Listen to the clip. Someday I'll laugh at this.

Direct link to the MP3 here - http://media.libsyn.com/media/ibn/wtf.mp3

Video available in HD!