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Friday, June 22, 2012
#Howto start creating #professional #3D #effects for your #website!
http://psd.tutsplus.com/tutorials/designing-tutorials/creating-a-cool-3d-web-design-effect/
Monday, June 11, 2012
Every Bit counts: the Advent of Digital Democracy
Original Article in Full Here: http://geekscheaper.com/index.php/democracy/25-digitaldemocracy.
Digital democracy is on the rise - or at least beginning to have a more substantial effect on "real" democracy. At a time when the internet is more accessible than ever thanks to advanced mobile technology, individual people, funneled through well-oiled organizations, are becoming a force to contend with on the political and corporate scene. In the new American democracy, every bit counts. Democracy has stepped outside the ballot box, the chamber meetings, CSPAN and the front of your local grocery store, and it's made a successful home in your pocket or on your desktop. You have but to access it this very moment to get involved in some of the most amazing developments in "people power" that history has ever witnessed!
At a time of incredible emerging technology that makes us more connected than ever, offers the speediest connections between people over our businesses and social networks, there isn't any logical reason that government should continue to function without the informed consent of the people. Digital democracy through these and other means is beginning to affect how Washington, and how America, does business and politics, and is bringing us one step closer to direct democracy in action on a national level. Some of these emerging concepts may sound like Utopian dreams but many were not practically possible... until now...
Each of these use a combination of means to achieve their objectives, whether it be petitions, phone call, email and snail mail drives, or public commentary openings, each is on the ball and serves a clear purpose in making the general public both aware and active in the evolving political and corporate discourse.
MoveOn.org is a grassroots organization that uses a combination of robust mailing lists, highly interactive social media buttons, and massive user donations, to coordinate electronic and physical democratic efforts across the country. They have contributed or been largely responsible for some major recent efforts regarding issues like protecting reproductive rights and access to health care, to maintaining corporate accountability, to the internet blackout in protest of SOPA, to President Obama's recent announcement that he will launch a formal investigation into the activities of Wall St. prior to the 2008 credit collapse. MoveOn is also organizing and sponsoring a massive coordinated effort to train hundreds of thousands of non-violent activists to stand up for human rights while staying respectable and respectful to the law.
SignOn.org is a sister site to MoveOn.org where users can create their own internet petitions in support of or against corporate and political actions. The difference between it and its predecessor is that the user has the power to create their own petitions and broadcast them to the world. Successful and popular petitions will be promoted to the mailing lists and to MoveOn official actions.
CREDO Action is a group that also focuses on social media interactions and robust mailing lists in order to focus on direct actions to protect consumers from the abuses of power and technology. This particular group takes it one step further and has responded to the aggressive, anti-consumer actions of one of the nation's premier wireless carriers, AT&T, by creating a not-for-profit mobile services company offering Sprint and all the newest smartphones to regular consumers for very competitive prices. As if it wasn't good enough that your bill is going to finance democratic actions, a portion of the same bill is donated to a charity of your choice.
SumOfUs is a signer site that focuses on corporate actions. Keep in mind that none of these sites are necessarily anti-corporate or anti-capitalist, they are against the abuses of corporate power with a real human cost for purely capital gain. SumOfUs has been leading campaigns spotlighting abuse in worker treatment by Apple and FoxConn, as well as promoting safe working conditions and minimum wage elevation for workers at corporate employers such as Wal Mart. SumOfUs started last November but has very quickly accumulated millions of users.
There are many other considerations for this list and the "super signer sites" as I have dubbed them are a growing phenomenon. Given their growing effectiveness I don't have any reason to believe they will be going away any time soon - quite the opposite, for the time being I have only reason to believe they will continue to grow with more people becoming involved and getting online.
Here's the best part about it - involvement begets success - those of you who will turn away from this page without clicking any of these links will have both a self-fulfilling prophecy and a missing experience, and meanwhile the power of mobilized group action is increasing. I suggest getting on the bandwagon!
A couple more honorable mentions for the road - The League of Conservation Voters focuses mostly on environmental issues, while LeftAction focuses mainly on support of progressive political and consumer actions.
Happy Hunting!
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Our Mission as Geeks, Educators and Service Providers
Dear Frustrated Computer User,
We live in a world that's abuzz with technology. Only a decade and a half ago, the internet first started to enter the popular mindset, and now it fills our lives down to every little interaction. That's not necessarily a bad thing - we love it - it helps us to connect with others in the world over vast distances and fill our lives with infinite brand new media. But in this new ocean swim a new breed of sharks - brand new perils and scams and unknowns that make our newfound online lives that much more hazardous. Viruses, worms, trojans and hackers can make an otherwise-normal life suddenly nightmarish. The more we integrate our lives with cyberspace the more vulnerable we are, the more we "have to lose" - our communications, bookkeeping, music, photo memories, even our identity, are now mostly-electronic - and most people don't know the first thing about protecting it. But on the other hand, those who originally give us the ability to explore this brave new world, the makers and sellers of the technology, aren't much help either. Where are our guardians, who is keeping us safe? If the responsibility is out of the hands of the people who actually sell us this stuff and throw us out there, what protection do we have?
The fact is, there is no one protecting you on the internet but you. The first and final defense is knowledge. There is no absolute way to stay safe, but we believe that if you can go out there with some basic knowledge of how things work, how the many predators think, and how you can be preyed upon, you can make the decisions necessary to swim safely out there. This is the most important thing we offer - knowledge - because I know that no single piece of technology or software can ever offer 100% protection, but if you have the knowledge to use what's at hand, you can grasp it better and find a greater amount of solution and peace. Knowledge will save you money, help keep you safe, and help you get more satisfaction from your time on the computer. (Having a rock-solid foundation helps too.)
IT Support in this country and around the world is in a very sad state, because the stores and manufacturers of the technology often offer ineffective and overpriced tech services and products, and they do not provide the consumer with certain valuable information about the products and services they're purchasing. This usually helps perpetuate a cycle in which the customer gets frustrated, buys a brand new computer or device, and starts the whole process again - when they could've been spared the entire nightmare from the get-go. The nationwide brand "Geek Squad" charges almost $200 to just talk to someone and practically the price of a brand new computer to visit your house and resolve your issues. We intend to directly reverse this trend by providing quality services and support for a price that can actually save you money and help you out rather than funnel you into the purchase of unnecessary brand new equipment.
We pride ourselves on many things, the three most important of which are knowledge, humanity and honesty. As our customer, we will be absolutely honest with you; we will do our best do describe problems clearly, tell you what you need, what can be done and what should be done. I will give you more and better tools, information, and service than the "Other Guys" and for half the price or less. We will teach you, give you ideas and solutions and options, so that when your problems are solved or your project is finished, you will not only have received a service, but also a lifetime of valuable information. In fact, after we've helped you, we strive to never hear from you again about the same issue; although we guarantee steadfast follow-up support on any work that we do.
After all is said and done, we hope to have completely changed your ideas about technology and tech services altogether, to have set a new standard for how you expect to be dealt with by salesmen and service people for years to come. We hope to give you a fresh perspective, a fighting chance, and a leg up on the technology companies and the internet's manifold schemes and predators. And last but not least, we hope to provide you excellent computer services, cheaper.
Sincerely,
- Brendan McNamara (the original Cheaper Geek.)
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