Google’s Star Trek doodle is fun to play with

Unlike a lot of Google’s doodles that are interesting homages to inventors, painters, and important events, today’s doodle commemorates the 46th anniversary of the original Star Trek. Unlike most doodles that have limited movement or interactivity, this doodle is very engaging.

Google’s Star Trek doodle shows the original cast as Google letters on the bridge. Move your mouse over the doodle and various different parts will light up. Click on them and you are treated to many of the shows sound effects and little scenes. If you click in the right place, you will find yourself in another scene with more interactive possibilities.


Be sure to mouse over all of the areas before you click on a piece of equipment in the scene that will take you elsewhere. You may find yourself in the transporter room before you have experienced all of the bridge effects. Of course there is an “Away” scene in which the Captain Kirk figure gets to save the day. Just use your mouse and you can find it.

The final scene, as it were, is of course Google’s version of the credits at the end complete with the shows theme music. There are several different actions that can be activated in each scene so if you seem to move from one to the other too quickly, go back and try each one again.

Should you have any questions about the original Star Trek show, just keep playing with the doodle and sure enough you will find yourself on a page that will lead you to the answer for any Star Trek question. For a show that was only on the air from 1966 to 1969, it left a legacy that is much larger than Gene Roddenberry could ever have imagined. It spawned movies, spin off shows, merchandise and a cult following that has only grown with the years. While some of us, I mean you, may have seen the original series when it was first aired, the majority of the current Trekkies have only seen the original on video or one of the spinoffs.

If you aren’t a Trekkie, I’m so sorry, but if you are, get over to Google now and have fun playing.

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Pogoplug partners with Amazon to offer affordable cloud storage family plans

Pogoplug is pairing up with Amazon to offer not only its own storage devices but also online archival storage. That means that your information will be accessible even if your hard drive dies, gets a nasty virus, or you just upgrade your computer. They are also offering family plans that come with a free Pogoplug device to get you started.

According to Engadget, the partnership between Amazon and Pogoplug is expected to be part of Amazon’s conference this afternoon. Pogoplug is offering three different family plan tiers all of which come with one of their devices. The lowest yearly plan is a $29.99 plan that gives three family members unlimited onsite cloud storage and 100 GB of offsite cloud storage. The $49.99 per year plan bumps up the onsite storage 300 GB offsite cloud storage and gives five users all of the different storage options. Ninety nine dollars a year will give seven family members a full Terrabyte of offsite cloud storage as well as unlimited onsite cloud storage.


The offsite cloud storage will use Amazon Glacier. This unique cloud storage service normally costs one cent per gigabyte per month to store information. There are no up front costs and you only pay for what you store. With Pogoplug, you are paying the yearly fee for a certain amount of offsite storage whether you use it all or not. You are also paying for more family members to access the service as you purchase larger storage plans.

The reason why you can get the Amazon service so cheap (300 GB would cost $3.00) is because you pay for it on the backside when you go to download. First your download request is sent to a queue and and according to Engadget won’t be available to download for three to five hours and it is only available to download for 24 hours. The first five percent of the download is free. After that you pay one cent per additional gigabyte you download. You don’t have to worry about any download cost because it is included in your plan.

You don’t have to use the Amazon Offsite storage option if you don’t want to. Pogoplug has its own storage system and it has much quicker access and download times than what you get with Amazon Glacier. The offsite storage option is there as a backup backup option (no that is not a stutter). For those that want to make sure that their most precious pictures or documents are safe, you can have your own redundant backup system.

For large families with multiple devices, this may be just the type of service you could use. Once you have your device set up, you can access the content with any browser or with apps on your iOS devices or Android devices. As families accumulate multiple computers, smartphones and tablets, having an easy to use and easy to access storage system becomes essential. Check it out and see if it is something your family could use.

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‘I Have 50 Dollars’ spoofs App.net

Whatever you think of App.net, I Have 50 Dollars should give you a laugh.

App.net, for those unaware, is the pay-for-access Twitter-alike from Dalton Caldwell (nope, I’ve never heard of him either) that recently raised $803,000 to get started. Some people – Robert Scoble, Matthew Ingram – are backing App.net very strongly, while others don’t see the point and are wondering whether it’ll remain vaporware for ever.


I guess in a world in which people will give hundreds of dollars to Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns for products which could turn out to be useless or bogus then App.net makes perfect sense. But I’m not interested, personally. I suspect I’m in the vast majority too; ask people whether they’d be happy to pay for Facebook and see what reactions you get. Most would walk away.

I happen to disagree with the whole concept behind App.net. It’s effectively saying Facebook, Twitter, and all other social networks that rely on advertising as a business model suck. So let’s shun advertising and get users to pay up front for the service instead. No thanks. I’m happy with advertising paying for my social networking needs, and I never notice it anyway.

I doubt very much whether App.net will succeed in any major way. Mainstream users will never pay an annual fee for a service they can get for free elsewhere unless it adds a great deal of added value. The mainstream also cares little about advertising or privacy, otherwise Diaspora – which doesn’t charge for access – would be bigger than Facebook right now. And it isn’t.

Which leads us on to I Have 50 Dollars, an excellent satirical take on the App.net Silicon Valley circle jerk that is currently taking place. I Have 50 Dollars mimics the look and feel of the App.net ‘Join the movement‘ site perfectly, with the reworded tweets from backers pitched particularly well. The big difference is that I Have 50 Dollars isn’t asking for any money, it is instead suggesting those who can afford it donate to a worthy cause. Now that is something I can get behind.

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Dish Network taking satellite broadband nationwide

People wanting premium TV services have often had to choose between cable and satellite. Now Dish Network thinks that choice should apply in the broadband market as well.

The company is said to be planning to extend its existing satellite broadband service nationwide. At the moment it links up with another firm, ViaSat, to provide service in a few areas. The plan now is to run a national network using a satellite from the fleet that provides its TV services.

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Google+ vanity URLs for celebrities, brands

Google has started rolling out vanity URLs to the biggest celebrities and brands currently using its Google+ social network. Whether us mere mortals will also be afforded the pleasure of being ourselves rather than a random series of numbers remains to be seen.

According to TechCrunch, Google has gifted Google+ vanity URLs to a number of celebrities and brands, including Britney Spears and Toyota. This comes just days after Web comic The Oatmeal was punked with a jokey vanity URL that was character-for-character the same as the one The Oatmeal author Matthew Inman jokingly referred to in a comic mocking Google+.


The reference to “vanity URLs” is a bit of a misnomer. It suggests the only reason anyone could or would want a personalized URL is that they’re vane. The truth is very different. Although I’m sure there are some people out there who would pick a URL for those reasons, most people would choose their actual name and do so purely to make it easier sharing their Google+ profile with others.

These new vanity URLs mean Britney Spears is now reachable on google.com/+britneyspears and Toyota is reachable on google.com/+toyota. The rest of us, who haven’t made crappy pop songs or who don’t sell cars, are still making do with google.com/randomseriesofnumbers … which is just stupid.

Right now I cannot see anyone even remembering the random series of numbers that makes up their URL, let alone them sharing it with someone else who would also need to remember it or write it down. But I bet you could now find Britney Spears’ Google+ profile without sneaking a peek at the previous paragraphs, assuming you have been paying attention to this point.

Facebook started offering vanity URLs in 2009, and pre-empted the rush by allowing its high-profile users to stake their claim in advance. I can only assume this is a similar move on Google’s part, but the company has yet to reveal its plans for mainstream users of the service.

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Filesharing site Demonoid in triple turmoil

As with Pirate Bay, it may always be too early to declare filesharing site Demonoid completely deal. But the site is currently unavailable and its operators have suffered three significant blows.

The first came last week when the site was knocked offline by a “massive” distributed denial of service attack. Who was behind the attack remains unclear: the motivation would be with law enforcement activities, though officially at least this isn’t the type of tactic normally associated with official bodies.


The site itself was physically located in Ukraine. It’s now confirmed that the second blow for the site came when the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs asked ColoCall to close down the site following contact from Interpol.

ColoCall says it complied with the request and allowed officials to take a copy of all data on the server for evidence purposes. It says it gave Demonoid several warning in the past that it had received complaints and might have to close the site.

The third strike comes with the news that Mexican authorities are engaged in a criminal investigation involving the operators of the site, one of whom is believed to have been based in Mexico at one point. One person has previously been arrested in Monterrey in relation to the site. Since the site closure, it’s emerged that it was this investigation that triggered the Interpol alert and in turn the Ukrainian shutdown.

There appears to be a political element to the events behind the shutdown. It doesn’t appear that Demonoid broke any laws within Ukraine itself and it made a point of blocking residents of the country from accessing the site. However, the Ukrainian government appears to have taken the tough stance to help shake the image of Eastern Europe as a harbor for piracy, most likely with the aim of boosting trade relations with the United States.

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Anonymous fights trademark application

And the award for ‘Best Idea Of The Year’ goes to Early Flicker, a company trying to trademark the logo and slogan used by Anonymous.

Anonymous, for those who aren’t aware, is a disparate group of hacktivists which started out fighting the Church of Scientology but has since expanded its operations to support a free and open Internet and fight against large corporations. They’re loved by the people they stand up for, and both hated and feared by those they make trouble for.


Whatever your personal feelings towards Anonymous and their activities, it’s hard not to side with them in their latest fight. According to Forbes, a company called Early Flicker has applied to the Institut National De La Propriété Industrielle (INPI) for the trademark to the Anonymous logo (seen above left) and the slogan, “We are Anonymous, We do not forgive, We do not forget. Expect us.” Which is surely the height of both arrogance and madness.

Early Flicker has no hold over either of these Anonymous properties, and yet it’s trying to claim ownership in order to sell all manner of different products with the well-recognized logo and slogan on. The company is in fact already selling Anonymous-branded clothing, and I guess this trademark application is intended to stop any other company from doing the same in France.

Unsurprisingly this hasn’t gone down too well with Anonymous, which has launched Operation AnonTrademark in retaliation. Anonymous has vowed to shut down any online activities of Early Flicker and get the trademark application halted in its tracks. In a video posted to YouTube it also warned:


“Their [Early Flicker's] arrogance and ignorance of what they have done will not go unpunished. Anonymous will take down any business they have going on the internet and the ninety nine per cent will not stop until the registration has been revoked and a public apology has been made. The name of Anonymous will not be the whore of the world.”

I’m no expert on the rules regarding trademarks but you’d assume that someone seeking ownership over a name or logo would be required to, I don’t know, prove that they have a legal right to do so. This has to be classified as a mistake on all counts, and I fear the punishment meted out to Early Flicker will be harsh.

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Google facing $22.5 million fine for Apple sneakiness

Google is reported to have agreed to pay $22.5 million to settle claims that it broke promises about respecting consumer privacy. The fine would be the highest ever paid to the Federal Trade Commission.

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DNSChanger doomsday has arrived



On Monday July 9 many of the computers still infected by the DNSChanger trojan horse malware will be

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