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Some of the consumer groups have published a new report documenting some of the marketing practices aimed at kids. Like this one:

KFC used a high-pitched tone as a promotional "buzz" device for a recent "interactive advertising campaign." The MosquitoTone™ was embedded in TV commercials to launch KFC’s new "Boneless Variety Bucket™." In its press release, the company explained that the popular cell phone ring tone "is too highpitched for most adults to hear because most people begin to lose the ability to hear high frequency tones starting at age 20. This is a fact not lost on young Americans who seek the sound for clandestine ring tones that don’t turn the heads of nearby adults."

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While many applauded this (because at least they were going to anonymize it), many others say it doesn't go far enough.

When asked why they need personally identifiable information in the first place, their answer is for service optimization. I, as others, question what identifying someone has to do with search engine optimization at all.

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This is pretty neat. This drywall contractor with no inventing experience made an effective telescoping stun stick / taser out of a simple lightsaber toy.

That's pretty slick.

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For a company who's motto is "Don't be Evil", they sure aren't putting up much of a fight in their slide towards wretchedness.

I love Google’s technology, don’t get me wrong. But I think Google has turned a page here. They have now enabled a piece of software that is hard to remove and forces users to look at a really bad page. In fact, Google knows that this provides users with a dramatically worse experience.

Of course, Microsoft has done this for years. If you type a wrong address into IE, it automatically comes up with an MSN search page. But I don't agree that it's hard to uninstall, just that people who don't know better won't realize that they CAN uninstall it.

I DO agree that this is a bad move on Google's part. If they are truly trying to create a better customer experience and make some money on the way, they made a bad move here. What they've done instead (and Dell too), is make some money by making a worse experience for the customer.

Using a sound board to deal with debt collectors. Ha!

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This isn't really relevant to anything, but is very, very funny. Apparently the guy in this video has been harassed by a debt collectors for a while because he has the same last name as someone else with a debt. His way of dealing with the problem? Record a bunch of Judge Judy sound clips and use them during the telephone conversation to talk to the debt collector.

The best part is, this debt collector ends up having an entire conversation with a computer!

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Now that Apple is planning a DRM-free store, we can conclusively say that Steve Jobs wasn't just paying lip service. Right on.

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I've been saying this for a while, but LED lightbulbs are finally coming into their own.

Forget the alternatives, this is the real deal. It's brighter, smaller, don't produce heat, use far less electricity, and last much longer than any other kind of lighting. That's why you can have 200 of them in a single cell phone.

RFID

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The people over at CASPIAN have warned about how companies are trying hard to get RFID tags into all their products without people knowing. Well, now they will. The anti-theft tags that nearly every product currently has will be combined with RFID technology so that nearly every item you walk out of the store with will also transmit a unique identifying number to any reader nearby. Theives, marketers and big brother are salivating.

You don't believe that companies are desperately interested in what you do every waking moment? Then you haven't been paying attention.

Free Speech Flag

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This article is worth reading just from this tagline alone:

Last night, the AACS LA's attempts to keep an HD DVD crack under wraps backfired in a spectacular fashion. Pandora's Box is now wide open, and there's no going back now.

The problem with DRM is that they companies are doing this for entirely their benefit at the detriment of normal users. It's no wonder that the entire Internet community is against them. Now if we could only get that kind of response for RFID.

(Image is in the Public Domain)

I had no idea Diebold sold to the French. But seriously:

Philippe de Villiers, a nationalist Catholic candidate in the election, called it a "cheating machine" as he voted in his home town of Herbiers in western France.

Note that it doesn't actually say who makes the voting machines. Maybe it really was Diebold.