You’ve got to love the internet for it’s ability to communicate fast & effectively about odd rumors and/or news.
I stumbled across an interesting read on the theory of why the Dave Chappelle show was cancelled.
If it’s true, I’d not be shocked as they say ‘truth is stranger than fiction.’
Anyways, check it out, it’s an interesting read.
That’s all for now - Webcams Blog Guru
Well it looks as if my favorite web portal & search engine directory is coming on strong in the VOIP wars. Yahoo has been a leader in the search, messaging and webcam world for many years. I’m not shocked to see Yahoo step-up and take on some of these new fish in the pond. Good for them, and I wish them the best. They really do offer some of the best services online.
Here’s an excerp from the article I read this morning:
Yahoo! targets! Skype! with! improved! VoIP! offer!
Yahoo! is adding more features to its existing VoIP service in a bid to gain a bigger of the rapidly growing broadband telephony market.
A new version of Yahoo!’s Messenger service is due to be released soon that will enable users to make broadband calls that are reportedly cheaper than those on offer by VoIP giant Skype.
The new offer includes PC-to-phone calling and inbound calling with prices for calls ranging from 1 cent a minute to US destinations and 1.9 cents per minute to 30 other countries. Punters will also be able to choose phone numbers for incoming calls in the US, UK and France for $2.99 per month or $29.90 per year.
According to Jan Dawson, principal analyst at Ovum, Yahoo! is “frustrated” that Skype is “grabbing all the VoIP headlines when Yahoo! has been offering PC to PC calling for five years and webcam-based video calling for several years as well”.
That’s all for now, WebcamsGuru
It amazes me how being gay is still such a big issue in the year 2005. The article mentions that he met some guy online that was 18 and wanted to hookup. That may be considered odd as the age difference is fairly large. But as long as all he sought after were people of legal age that were consenting adults, what should it matter to us?
Gay-chat room talk could be mayor’s doom
Northwest Herald Sun, 04 Dec 2005 07:48:00 GMT
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) Mayor Jim West, a former Boy Scout executive and sheriff’s deputy, says he no longer engages in gay sex and has stopped visiting Internet chat rooms.
Read the Full Article Here
I guess the only thing that is noteable is that he is a Republican who’s platform is the most unaccepting of people from his sexual preference.
That’s all for now.
- WebcamsGuru
I figured it’s been a bit since I’ve posted. Here’s a webcam news item I stumbled across today.
TechWeb via Yahoo! News Thu, 01 Dec 2005 17:10:00 GMT
Logitech and Creative, which together own about three-quarters of the Webcam market, joined Skype on Thursday to co-market the Luxembourg-based VoIP developer’s newest software with their cameras and headsets.
Read Full Webcam Article
Here’s another interesting article on how military couples are using webcams and IM to keep themselves ‘connected’ in that special way while deployed. Checkout the blog entry and link to another related story on this topic:
http://wiredblogs.tripod.com/sex/index.blog?entry_id=1262046
type-atcha-later, WebcamsGuru
Here’s a cool article on a British programmer who recently coded a very impressive artificial intelligence (AI) bot to chat with people. I know I’ve seen a few in the past that were ‘fair’ but I’m sure this technology will grow and grow. Pretty soon when you see those spam bots in chat you won’t be able to tell if they are a real person or not. This application has some great potential for commercialization but I’m not sure really what else beyond high tech chatbots or possibly customer service that this stuff could do. Anyways, it’s an interesting read… The link and an excerpt is below:
Brit programmer wins chat-bot prize
Cheeky chat software accuses judge of not having a life
Ken Young, vnunet.com 20 Sep 2005
“A British artificial intelligence expert has won the Loebner Prize, held each year to determine which computer chat program is capable of responses most like that of a human being.
Rollo Carpenter and his ‘George’ program came top out of four entrants, knocking three times winner ‘Alice’ into fourth place. The award represented the first time that the prize has been won by a British entrant.”
type-atcha-later, WebcamsGuru
I know, you guys are probably wondering why it took me so long to discuss adult live webcams. Well first off I didn’t want to make this just another lame discussion of who’s hot (tee hee, I’m just a sexy girl, etc bla bla bla) and who’s not type of thing. I think we’ve all seen enough of those webcam sites already. Sure, I’m a fan too, and online interativity and naughty fun just are a perfect match. However, I wanted this blog to be something different on webcams, kind of a directory, review, etc and to include really what’s fascinating about the Internet…it’s interactivity!
I guess if I get enough requests I’ll do some more personal webcam site reviews and some reviews on the larger adult webcam portals to sniff out the crappy ones and point you guys (and gals) in the right direction of where to go to “get your fun on.” 
Anyways, I found an article on wired.com that was talking about how the Chinese government is trying to censor adult webcam chat from their citizens. The article also went on to discuss what a HORRIBLE situation there is over there in regards to the inequity of men to women! It’s really quite sad and online sexual experiences on webcams and in chat are really a needed outlet for sooooooooooo many men that have no chance in hell of hooking up with a real woman there as there are Far too many men in that country. In general webcam chat (of the adult nature) is also a great way to cut down on transmission of STDs. Cybersex really is safe sex in a way.
Something that saddened me while reading the article, is how much our country is becoming like China. Not in regards to the population disparity, we have plenty of women to go around thank G-d! But, when you consider the last year or so of the Bush administration gearing up to try and shut down the adult activities and freedoms online it really makes you think a bit. I don’t think anyone would argue that the Web needed some cleaning up, but the manner in which this administration wants to attack the online adult industry is very much overkill imo.
I and others I know have come to believe that our country has been taken over by theocrats, much like those we are supposedly fighting against in the middle east (or is that we are installing?). Sure we’re not quite as openly barbaric as they are, although if you’ve ever heard the stories of beatings, and the common place of gang rape and disease transmission, sexual slavery in the US prison systems you might think again.
Ok, I’ll stop ranting now… It just makes me sick at what hypocrits we’ve become in this country. Oh, and don’t say we don’t kill civilians like they do, check the #s on how many Iraqi non-combatant civilians we killed recently and compare that to the 9/11 death toll. We CLEARLY have doubled/tripled their kill rate. I guess we don’t believe in eye for an eye, but more like eye for a head, torso and limb. 
Ok, here’s the article I was supposed to be talking about before I got off on my rant. LOL
Enjoy this article on live webcam chat and censorship in the country of China:
China Mulls ‘Gang of 15 Million’
wired.com - Sep. 16, 2005
“Our sex-tech columnist wonders if the Great Firewall of China can withstand the onslaught of all those lonely young men now that they’ve discovered webcam chat.” Commentary by Regina Lynn.
type-atcha-later, WebcamsGuru
NOLA.com blogs and forums help save lives after Katrina
Online Journalism Review Wed, 14 Sep 2005 06:28:54 GMT
Here’s an inside look at how the website for the Times-Picayune helped guide rescuers and provided in-depth news for evacuees. >> Click Here To Read The Full Article < <
Here's an excerp that seems to really cover the overall vibe of the issue:
"As the water finally starts to recede in New Orleans, the watershed for online journalism has been laid bare. Hurricane Katrina brought forth a mature, multi-layered online response that built on the sense of community after 9/11, the amateur video of the Southeast Asian tsunami disaster and July 7 London bombings, and the on-the-scene blogging of the Iraq War....
NOLA.com is known more for its MardiGras.com site and its live webcam, but now has become Exhibit A in the importance of the Internet for newspaper companies during a disaster. When the newspaper couldn't possibly be printed or distributed, the NOLA.com news blog became the source for news on hurricane damage and recovery efforts -- including updates from various reporters on the ground and even full columns and news stories.
The blog actually became the paper, and it had to, because the newspaper's readership was in diaspora, spread around the country in shelters and homes of families and friends...."
The wonder of the Internet is amazing, I just hope that the US Congress doesn't legislate it into oblivion. You wonder why I even bring this up, well wired.com had an interesting article on it today. It seems the more we allow the US Congress and it's courts to legislate the Internet the more functionality and freedom on it will diminish greatly and I fear within 5-10 years will more resemble the major TV network dulldrums that we had to endure prior to the wonder we call the InterWeb
Here's that article from wired that reminded me of the danger the US legal system is to our beloved Internet: Open Internet, We Hardly Knew Ye
That’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed the links and the read.
Many thanks to the publishers of those articles, more people really need to embrace the power of the Internet with all of it’s blogs and forums and chat…and become citizen activists in keeping it from becoming an endangered species.
type-atcha-later, WebcamsGuru
Ok, so you’ve been on game servers or internet chat message boards?
If so you’ll love this animated gif… or at least I think you will.
**** WARNING *****
Some of the images in the animation are a big on the gorey side, it’s basically hacked up humours compilation of that Tom Hanks war movie, that I forget the name of
http://www.funzor.net/upl/sep/9.12/rulez/image.gif
type-atcha-later, WebcamsGuru
Well folks, one of the last free open communities online for chatting and playing around on webcam has closed ’some’ of it’s doors.
Yahoo bowed to pressure from advertisers and a law suit in regards to some VERY disturbing chat rooms. The topics were so disgusting I won’t post them here, but the jist of it was in relationship to young people getting together with adults for inappropriate behavior And that’s putting it very mildly.
I’m not shocked that they eventually got sued for this problem, as it’s been a plague to their chat portal for years, but what I am shocked about is that they didn’t merely use a word/phrase filter list to ban all users from creating rooms with those horrid titles and topics. Also, last time I checked yahoo made a few bucks, why couldn’t they simply hire or outsource a few posisitions to moderate their rooms? It sure could use it even now.
Although the obvious chat spam is annoying yahoo chat and their webcams are really one of the nicest out there, if you use a program (3rd party yahoo chat client) you can simply put all the ‘ chat bots ‘ on ignore and it allows you to find other like minded adults to chat with about all sorts of topics from racey to business to religion.
The regular rooms are harder to find people in, as the spam is a little nuts, but they are still useful. I’m guessing a flock of chatters will leave yahoo now and find other places to go like paltalk.com etc…
If any of you know of other good chat portals, please drop a comment on this post, I’d love to go check them out and do an honest review.
Well that’s all for today’s update, take care and…
type-atcha-later,
