Congress is about to pass internet censorship, even though the vast majority of Americans are opposed. We need to kill the bill – PIPA in the Senate and SOPA in the House – to protect our rights to free speech, privacy, and prosperity.

This internet censorship will be implemented in the same way that China and other countries are blocking websites, through DNS blocking.

In an attempt to appeal to all styles of readership, I’ve included some information on SOPA in image/graphic form, video form, and in nerdy “who said it” form.

SOPA Hard Copy

You can read about SOPA on the following sites:

• AmericanCensorship.org
• Fightforthefuture.org
• EngineAdvocacy – My favorite STOP SOPA site.

Images about SOPA

Access the Stop SOPA Infographic here.

And make sure that you like and tweet the page.

Videos about SOPA

Quotes about SOPA

“The main “enforcement” mechanism in these bills is to put liability on third party service providers coming from the tech industry, undermining the safe harbors of the DMCA and the legal framework that has allowed tons of important internet platforms to evolve.”

- Mike Masnick (TechDirt)

“When ideas are blocked, information deleted, conversations stifled and people constrained in their choices, the Internet is diminished for all of us.. There isn’t an economic Internet and a social Internet and a political Internet. There’s just the Internet.”

- Hillary Clinton (United States Secretary of State)

I’ll add a few more as the days progress…

Help Stop SOPA by Using Your WordPress Site

It’s actually pretty easy…

You can write a blog post like I have to create some awareness, and / or you can install one of these Stop SOPA plugins on your WordPress site.

I’ve checked them out, and they’re pretty cool. 

• Stop SOPA Ribbon - Appears in the upper right hand corner of this site – great for businesses
• Stop SOPA Widget - The SOPA popup will only be displayed on January 18th from 8am–8pm EST (1300–0100 UTC) by default, but if you’re javascript savvy feel free to change that.

And if you don’t like these, here is a full list of SOPA Blackout Plugins.

Below you’ll find a list of must-have apps (Cydia Packages) for your new Jailbreak 5.0.1. These apps are some of the most used apps, and will have your iPhone functioning as it should have been under iOS 5.0.1. – screenshots coming.

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE (1/07/2012)

NoLock prevented my iPhone from dimming after lighting up on a lockscreen alert. This decreased battery life tremendously. Fail.

KillBackground

KillBackground has been my favorite app (outside of MailEnhancer) to-date. It allowed me to create an Activator event that kills all apps, except the music app) with a Short Hold of the Home button. Score.

A Little Background

Yes, I “have a little fun” with Blackberrys, and Blackberry Themes. Yes, I enjoy building iPhone Web based apps, and iPhone/iPad ready websites. Two years ago, I purchased the iPhone and was using it mainly for business purposes, but never setup my Exchange mail accounts because I didn’t like having to type out different signatures for the different Exchange accounts every time I wanted to send an email. I have 7 different email accounts on my iPhone and 10 different email accounts total. This is an integral feature that Apple’s iPhone needs in order to establish itself as a business phone. Another feature the iPhone needs is text replacement. Rim’s Blackberry will continue to win as it offers these two features as default with its operating systems.

It wasn’t until about a year after I purchased the iPhone that I found MailEnhancer and went ahead with untethered Jailbreak 4.3.1. MailEnhancer is the only reason that I do not upgrade my iPhone when new iOSs are released. I refuse to be without it. And I refuse to upgrade the iOS until a jailbreak is released that will allow me to continue using MailEnhancer.

Now on to the goods…

The Jailbreak 5.0.1 Process & How-To

I installed Jailbreak 5.0.1 on my iPhone on Wednesday following the process found here: Jailbreak 5.0.1 Untethered (iOS 5) – iPhone 4, 3GS, iPad, iPod Touch 4G, 3G

The process wasn’t too difficult to follow. However, I had jailbreak 4.3.1 installed, so I had to backup and do a clean install of iOS 5.0.1 with iTunes prior to running the jailbreak software provided at the link above.

Of the apps that I had installed previously, I am only using about 4.
I used AptBackup (BigBoss & Chris Featherstone) to run a backup list of the apps I had installed prior to wiping the iPhone. AptBackup doesn’t backup the actual apps, it simply creates a list for you to restore those apps. Once you reinstall Cydia, you open AptBackup, hit “Restore” and it will find and restore the apps for you.

Unfortunately for me, a few apps that I used under Jailbreak 4.3.1 weren’t working under Jailbreak 5.0.1. But fortunately for you, that meant I spent a good 9.75 hours scouring Cydia finding the apps that would work, and didn’t cause Springboard to crash. hello.

The following is the list I generated of the Must-Have apps for Jailbreak 5.0.1. Enjoy!

AdBlocker

This is great for blocking the ads that appear in iPhone apps like Angry Birds, and Safari.

AnyLockApp

Change the lockscreen camera button to a different app.

biteSMS

Great for using QuickReply and QuickCompose

BlackBadge (non-retina)

I didn’t like having a red notification count above my icons. Black looks better.

BytaFont

I like to change the standard iOS font. I’m using Tuffy font this time.

CameraLocker

This make sure that your lockscreen always shows the camera shortcut. And I use “AnyLockApp” above to replace the camera shortcut with Twitter or Facebook – depending on the week.

Infiniboard

iPhone limits you to 12 apps per page. Inifiboard allows you to have an infinite number of apps on each page. I prefer to have one long page that I can swipe up and down – like my Blackberry, of course. (wink)

Infinidock

iPhone limits the number of apps that you have in your dock.

Infinifolders

iPhone limits each folder to 12 apps per folder. Infinifolders allows you to have an infinite number of apps in each folder you create. I have quite a few social apps, so I had to move some apps into an alternate folder. This eliminates my having to do that.

Invisible Folder

iPhone folder apps have a white/greyish border which doesn’t look too great on dark backgrounds. This makes the background invisible.

Lockinfo

This allows me to display notifications on my lockscreen.

MailEnhancer

This app allows you to have multiple signatures for your email.

This is the reason I installed the jailbreak on my iPhone in the first place. And this was the reason that I would not install iOS 5.0.1 until there was a jailbreak for it.

NoLock

iPhone dims the background image on the lockscreen. This removes that.

QuickLock 2

This app creates a “lock” app on your iphone – like the Blackberry.

I actually spent about 2 hours trying to determine what was crashing Springboard. I had installed QuickLock (1) instead of QuickLock 2. QuickLock (1) was apparently for the previous jailbreak version. But the notes aren’t really indicitive of that. And I didn’t notice that there was a QuickLock 2 until I was looking for an app to replace the app that I thought was causing the crash. hello.

Shrink

This allows me to make my app icons smaller. In coordination with Infiniboards, this app allows me to fit more apps on the screen and scroll less.

SmartFolders for Mail

This app allows you to filter your email.

A follow-up to my October 2008 post:

Brain Overload. IE6 must die.

If you know anything about me, you know that I hate Internet Explorer.

As a web developer, Internet Explorer is the one browser that happens to be a serious headache. And the more coding I do, the more I hate it.

If a client calls and they want us to code their site for IE 6 compliance, we usually just simply say “No” and try to explain why. But it’s a constant struggle not to say “Hell No!” Most often than not, they’re at work in a government office, which is still utilizing Windows XP for networking.

Our government is so up-to-date and awesome, isn’t it? - I hope you caught the sarcasm.

I Knew It Wasn’t Just Me.

Across the internet, developers like myself have been calling for IE6 to die (October 2008).

In fact, almost a year after my article, many companies – including Mashable,  jumped on board to support the IE6 No More campaign.

And in November of last year, the Atlantic called for an “Upgrade Your Parent’s Browsers” Day.

Google Chrome Became Most Popular Browser in December 2011.

No doubt concerned about having lost their #1 spot in the browser war to Google Chrome, Microsoft developed a website called IE6 Countdown to encourage users of IE6 to upgrade to newer versions.

As if the Heavens opened up and said, “Get your life together”, this month (January 2011), Microsoft has started forcing Internet Explorer browser upgrades. They’ve started in Australia and Brazil, and will slowly work their way around the world until all those old rickety browsers are upgraded through Windows Updates.

And from now on, Internet Explorer will quietly update itself just as Windows does.

It’s about time! I knew this was going to be a great week.

I know you’ve seen it.

The glaring yellow “WordPress 3.3 is available! Please update now.” notice at the top of your WordPress administration control panel.

Whether you like to keep things simple and hit the “Please update now.” for a quick automated update, or you’re like me and you like to do a clean wipe using FTP to ensure changes and rouge issues, you must be advised that you could encounter issues using the new Javascript (flyout) features such as Menus, drag and drop widgets, and Media Uploader.

Being that we installed this for a few clients, we actually had to back track and install the HotFix plugin for WordPress. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough. We had to edit the hotfix.php file to include the 3.3 update for WordPress. We implemented the hotfix-patch found here.

So when you put it all together…

(more…)

Rovio released the Angry Birds Season’s Greetings for Google Chrome last week.

Awesome. Something else to lose track of time with.

If you’re like me, you’ll probably have to play for a few hours to get it out of your system, and then delete the Chrome Plugin.

Yep.

You actually have to delete it to get back to work.

Good luck with that.

It’s been a rough week for Apple.

Steve Jobs, who had been suffering from pancreatic cancer, has died at the age of 56.

Goodbye, Steve Jobs. RIP.

Around the same time Facebook made some major updates, Pandora made some as well.

You probably weren’t paying attention because you were too busy b*tching about Facebook. *smirk*

The ”New Pandora” boasts the same personalized radio experience you’ve enjoyed for years, wrapped in a new HTML5 look that makes it more responsive, easier to use, and better integrated with the friends and music lovers in your life.

Of the few new features that have been added to the New Pandora, the only things I really care about are:

• Discovery of Music with Friends
• Simplified Station Creation
• And Unlimited Listening – No more 40 hour cap!

As with all of the latest web applications, they’ve finally added the Facebook API, allowing you to connect with your friends and see what they’re listening to.

I’m guessing you’ll like the updates Pandora made more than you’ll like the updates that Facebook has coming next week.

Buckle up, folks! Social media is about to get even more interesting!

Things just keep getting worse for Verizon Wireless Blackberry Customers.

Starting last week, we’ve been experiencing issues sending and receiving BBMs, Emails are delayed about 3 – 5 hours, and the Web Client just refuses to cooperate randomly. This outage has been affecting us since Monday of last week, and is STILL going.

My Blackberry is now a high-priced paperweight. Thanks, Verizon Wireless

Now, I’m getting SMS Messages from FB instructing me to:

“Please make a Voice Call to 911. There is no text service to 911 available at this time.”

Apparently, FB SMS was hacked and this is only affecting Verizon Wireless Customers.

So, if you have a Blackberry AND you’re on Verizon Wireless, consider yourself to be f0cked.

If you’re like me, you’ll be calling Verizon Wireless and sitting in a queue of reportedly up to an hour to get a credit for all of the crap they’ve been dishing us the past week.

FYI: Verizon has been denying the outage when you call in. Some people have been convinced to get replacement phones as a result only to find that the issue still exists with their new phone. Do NOT get a replacement, or purchase a new phone. Call them on their Bullsh*t until you get the credit you deserve.

If you have to sit there and go through “troubleshooting” until you get your credit, do so. Verizon will continue to be bombarded with credit request calls until they get their shat together.

Dear Verizon, You Suck.

Read More about the Message from FB to Make a Voice Call to 911 Here

You know you want some.

If you don’t…I do.

The Adidas Facebook Superstar shoe comes in Facebook blue and features the networks logo on the heal and tongue. Inside the shoe the slogan: “Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you” is printed.

The Twitter shoe comes in the traditional Twitter colors with Twitter bird on the heal.

Concepts created for Adidas by Gerry Mckay.

This joke brought me such great delight today. I had to share. *smile*

A SPANISH Teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.

‘House’ for instance, is feminine: ‘la casa.’
‘Pencil,’ however, is masculine: ‘el lapiz.’

A student asked, ‘What gender is ‘computer’?’

Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two
groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether computer’ should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for its
recommendation.

The men’s group decided that ‘computer’ should definitely be of the feminine gender (‘la computadora’ ), because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;
2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

The women’s group, however, concluded that computers should be Masculine (‘el computador’) , because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;
2. They have a lot of data but still can’t think for themselves;
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model…

The women won.