Lamar Smith, the chief sponsor of SOPA, stated on Friday morning that he has “heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy. It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.”

Smith also released the following on Friday:

“The Committee will continue work with copyright owners, Internet companies, financial institutions to develop proposals that combat online piracy and protect America’s intellectual property.  We welcome input from all organizations and individuals who have an honest difference of opinion about how best to address this widespread problem.  The Committee remains committed to finding a solution to the problem of online piracy that protects American intellectual property and innovation.”

This is not the end of SOPA, nor is it the end of PIPA. Even though Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) stated he would “postpone Tuesday’s vote on the PROTECT IP Act,” it still means he will bring attention to the bill at a later day when announced during a Meet the Press interview, “we need to work on this and we’re going to — I will hope we can have a manager’s amendment when we get back here in a week or 10 days and move forward on this. It’s important that we try to do this on a fair basis and I’m going to do everything I can to get that done.”

Do we need to continue to see these bills resurfacing in another twisted form? Speak out and be sure to vote these Senators out of office before we see the internet crumble before us. Make this action a warning for future senators trying to bring back these bills to cripple free speech, innovation, and economic growth within our boarders.

Related articles

• SOPA and PIPA both shelved for now. (arstechnica.com)
• Did it work? The results of the SOPA/PIPA blackout (heidi-miller.com)

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Related articles

• What Is SOPA? Startup Offers One-on-One Tutorials (mashable.com)
• On the Street: Do You Understand SOPA? [VIDEO] (mashable.com)
• Could Facebook Shut Down? Understanding SOPA and PIPA (blogworld.com)

Reblogged from The Resource Legend:

Here’s some more iPad 3 rumors. Luckily, today, these rumors are from somewhat reliable sources, so I guess you could take them with a grain of salt. This one’s from Bloomberg: Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s next iPad tablet, due in March, will sport a high-definition screen, run a faster processor and work with long-term evolution wireless networks, according to three people familiar with the product. [...] The tablet will use a quad-core chip, an enhancement that lets users more quickly jump between …

The Resource Legend brings more iPad rumors and they are coming in droves from their site and countless others:

Related articles

• Rumor: Apple to launch iPad 3 in March (applescoop.com)
• iPad 3 (product-reviews.net)
• iPad 3 rumored to bring the improvements you want: faster CPU, higher-resolution, LTE (thegadgetsite.com)

As technology continues to add another layer to our hidden identity, it will only make it easier to hide who we really are and how we truly feel during a conversation via text messaging and social networks. So why the hell do we lie?

Dress to Impress

Hypothetically, we just added a few friends to our social network and we start chatting by text messaging. Do we feel compelled to “dress to impress” by giving a false identity of ourselves? Some people would and some people might not. Overall, we want who we are text messaging to think we are a “go get ‘em” type of person, so we might feel it is necessary to stretch the truth a tad. False identity does not stop with text messaging, it continues to our social networks – Facebook, Twitter, and Google +. For instance, we might post a leading statement stating how happy we are today, but we are actually experiencing a horrible day – our method of making ourselves feel better.

Hiding Emotions

Don’t you love those text messages asking, “How is your day today?” and “Everything okay?” These types of questions can make us pause for a moment and think about our response, most of the time leaving us to think how our day is really going. Do we be honest and tell the truth or do we hide behind the electronic device we are holding in our hands? Hiding behind our device seems to be the easier of the two alternatives, so we respond and throw in a silly emoticon smiley face to show we are just dandy. Reading one another’s body language or listening to the pitch of our voice can be an indicator of what our words mean when we are saying something completely different from what we are displaying. If we cannot be honest with ourselves about who we are and how we really feel, what is going to happen if we run into this person, or when it is time to finally meet this person for first time.

Truth Revealed

Wish I could play some suspense music while you read this part of the article, but I do not have the technology to know when you actually get to this section – still working on that. So, we have chosen to hide behind our devices and lie to those we are text messaging to feel “secure” about how we feel, what we think, and who we are. Now what? Well, sooner or later, the truth is only going to come to the surface when we are either caught in our lie or our true identity is revealed. During the study conducted by the University of British Columbia, they realized that the students who found out they were lied to (via text message) were the most upset compared to being lied to during face to face interaction or over the phone.

How often do you lie when you text?

Related articles

• Liar, liar: dishonesty more prevalent while texting ()

Download for your:

iPhone or Android 

Since rumors of the Apple TV started to surface around the middle of 2011, media sources have had a field day with getting the latest scoop of the possibilities of Apple’s TV. Inside sources from Japan and Australia reported the Apple TV will be available in three sizes with the already known sizes of 32 inches and the largest size of 55 inches. Rumors show the Apple TV will be  using the Siri voice recognition interface, allowing people to operate their television with voice commands, for instance, saying “watch HBO”. In addition, the technology will allow users to use their Apple iPhones and iPads to control their television.

Standing out from the rest of the manufacturers is what Apple strives to do, while either setting or raising the bar on the products they develop. However, some of the technology is already being used by other brands in the category of gesture recognition for running programs. For instance, the X Box Kinect uses the same technology but is a third-party technology for your television. As a result, making one wonder what possible direction Apple is heading when they are trying to emerge into other hardware markets.

Some companies are already using applications to allow users to play movies and television. HBO and ESPN, with Showtime recently following, already have their applications available to watch current and past programs while also being able to interact while the program is running. Kind of makes one wonder if Apple will use their applications as a type of channel we use with our cable provider. Instead of punching in channel 134 on our remote, we just say “MSNBC News” via the Siri application. The applications could end the use for a third-party cable service, however, we may experience the cost  of having to either pay for the application or download it for free. Basically, our television is a giant iPad with applications!

As rumors continue to circulate, we will not fully know the full possibilities of the Apple TV until revealed in detail during one of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in 2012. Apple will continue to tease the public until the introduction of their new products, a strategy which makes their WWDC popular.

In the past, when Facebook introduced something new they would be implementing, they did it immediately. Not now! Being the professional Facebook guru that you are, Facebook has given you till December 22 to customize and edit your timeline before it completely goes live.  How nice of them right? I know, they are thoughtful. During this time, you can edit all the embarrassing content that might show up because of Facebook’s clever algorithms that will magically place your history content in its designated place. To help you on your journey into Facebook’s timeline, I put together five quick starter tips that will help you discover the layout of the timeline, resulting in you flexing your Facebook Timeline muscles to those who have not edited their timeline!

1. Changing Cover Photo

Facebook Timeline features a “cover” for your profile page that can be changed at any time. I personally like this idea because it feels like my own personal website with a header! Having the option to customize what your cover photo is going to be, gives you the freedom of how you want your profile to “feel”. To change the cover photo, hover your mouse over the area for your cover photo and click drop down menu for  ”change cover”. You can either choose from an existing photo or upload a new photo. Unfortunately, by default, your cover photo is set to a public setting.

2. Editing Your Timeline

Since there are only two days left until Facebook Timeline goes completely live, you probably have your work cut out for you. So lets get crackin’ and edit our timeline before anyone sees our embarrassing posts and photos! First thing you will want to do is go through your whole timeline and make sure nothing embarrassing or private is shown in public view; by default after activating your timeline, all your settings for posts and pictures change to public.

In order to change the viewing of your post, hover your mouse over the post and click the “pen symbol”. From here, you can either change the date, add a location, hide from the timeline, or delete the post completely. If you wish to “feature” the post, click the “star” symbol and it will expand the post across the width of the timeline.

3. Create or Edit Life Events

Facebook really nailed it with being able to edit or create life events on your timeline. In my opinion, this feature allows you to be able to customize your visible biography of your life. However, keep in mind, you can edit who can see any particular event on your timeline by setting the security settings on the post. 

To add an event on your timeline, hover your mouse on the bar running down the middle of your timeline and click on the bar when the “+” sign appears. From here you can do several things: add a status update, photo, place, or a life event. After clicking on the “life event” tab, select what category you will be adding and add whatever content you want to include to this event. Do not forget to select the desired privacy settings!

4. Customize Your Favorites Box

Another useful feature Facebook has implemented to the timeline is the ability to show what you want on your favorites bar below your cover photo. This feature allows you to be able to further customize how your timeline appears while getting rid of private favorites like the map of where you live, deleting the map was the first favorite I tossed in the Facebook trash.

To get rid of or add favorites, click the down arrow  to reveal your favorites. When the drop down favorites bar shows, you can choose which favorites you wish to show on your timeline: likes, notes, maps, subscriptions, or groups. By default, your friends and photos will always show on your favorites bar.

5. Hiding Annoying Ads for Good!

Having the option to hide those annoying ads at the right of your side bar is the best invention since (I’m not going to say “sliced bread”), well, I do not know when. It is a damn good feature! When I discovered this option, I did not hesitate to click away at those ads. I became an ad hiding master of annoying ads. However, since you are hiding an ad from your page, Facebook wants to know why you would perform such a travesty! After a few clicks, those ads are gone for good or hidden from view.

Now, onto the excitement! Get your mouse ready. Once you notice an ad you no longer want to be displayed on your page, hover your mouse over the ad and click the “x” at the top right corner. From here, you can either hide or hide all from the developer. After you click your option, Facebook will ask why you do not like the ads. Usually, I click “uninterested” and move on, but Facebook wants to gather statistical data to better provide you with more “quality” ads.

Although the media is orchestrating a field day with how Facebook’s Timeline feature can ruin your social identity, there is a positive side to using this tool for your personal profile. Being a part of something new is exciting and can spark creativity of how we want our timeline displayed for all of the online curious viewers. As always, knowing how to use this tool to keep unwanted parts of our timeline from being seen is up to us of course. Overall, despite some of the negative publicity this timeline is receiving from people who hate change, it is a new step to having an online biography of our life and those involved – it is up to us to be the moderators of this biography.

Now Get Started on editing your timeline! Click “get timeline” at the bottom of the page.

 Throughout this short tutorial I go over the basics of how to use a lightweight program that operates as a recording device for your desktop, voice, and gaming content. Surprisingly enough, it is a very simple program to use, all you have to do is tinker around with it for awhile or go to the main website – Fraps.

Programs like this and other recording programs can help any business to conduct professional presentations of what they are providing to the consumer. Most programs are offered on a trial basis and have limited capabilities; we all know what they want us to do, buy the full version. There are other types of programs for recording your voice, desktop, or gaming experiences that can help you boost your social views on sites like YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter while increasing your media following. Overall, the end product is up to how creative you are and how you want it presented.