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Filed under: Business, Finance, Internet, Productivity, Web services

Keep track of bills with billQ

billq online billing managementWhat's worse then bills? Getting more bills with interest charges and the possibility for bad credit! If bills seem to get lost, fall under your desk, get eaten by animals, or just plain slip your mind, why not try out billQ. It's a web based application that tracks bills. billQ keeps you notified of how much you have to pay, and when you have to pay it.

billQ is a free web based application, that requires registration with only an email address and user name. Think it's not secure? Think again. billQ requires no sharing of information, account numbers or any real name for a company who's bill you are tracking payment for. Setting up a bill to track simply requires a name, amount, and a date. From there, you can give it a one-time, or a recurring payment status. To make things easier, billQ has added in billing groups. Members can be set up for a special group, and have the ability to view the changes made to a bill. Which can come in handy if payments are being rotated and shared for a particular service. Bill information is easily edited once inputted, and reminders are sent out to Email or SMS. For added convenience for Mac OSX users, billQ has developed a widget where you can quickly view all incoming bills, mark a bill as paid, and track bills. billQ seems like a great little application that helps you stay on top of those ugly bills.

Filed under: Internet, Web services

California bill to protect against stolen WiFi

California is on the road to new legislation that could require manufacturers to protect consumers against WiFi invaders that prowl the streets looking for open connections. Gov. Schwarzenegger is considering the bill due to the fact that that many consumers do not implement security settings on their wireless routers when configuring them. If the bill passes, manufacturers would have to choose between four ways of protecting consumers:
  1. A warning sticker
  2. Warning during configuration
  3. Action taken by consumers indicating they know security measures have not been met
  4. Manufacturer default setting that enables security
[Via InformationWeek]

Filed under: Internet

The Internet Non-Discrimination Act of 2006

Senator Ron WydenSo Verizon and every other mega-ISP think Google and other content providers are getting a free ride and should be paying on both ends and Comcast might be throttling Vonage to death, none of seems like a trend that's good for consumers, much less the future of the Internet. Luckily I'm not alone: U.S. senator from Oregon Ron Wyden has introduced the Internet Non-Discrimination Act of 2006, which the press is describing as the "net neutrality bill." From Russell Shaw's post on his ZDNet blog, the bill's key points are:
  • Preventing interfering with, blocking, degrading, altering, modifying or changing traffic on the Internet;
  • Prohibiting creation of a priority lane where content providers can buy quicker access to customers, while those who don’t pay the fee are left in the slow lane;
  • Allowing consumers to choose which devices they use to connect to the Internet while they are on the Internet;
  • Ensuring that consumers have non-discriminatory access and service;
  • Having a transparent system whereby consumers, Internet content, and applications companies have access to the rates, terms, and conditions for Internet service.
Senator Wyden seems like a very clueful guy who knows what kind of slippery slope Verizon and its ilk are about to create. He says, "I am not going to allow a network operator to say a person who buys online for J.Crew can stay on hold for five minutes, and where they make the Banana Republic customer wait 30 minutes." He intends to make his net neutrality bill part of a large telecom package that'll be making its way through the senate this year. Whether net neutrality will be able to overcome telecom's deep-pocketed lobbyists, however, is another question entirely. Head over to Shaw's blog for more quotes from Wyden and the full text of the bill.

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The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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