Thousands of Standardistas (people who support web standards) will wear a Blue Beanie to show their support for accessible, semantic web content.

It’s easy to show your support for web design done right. Beg, borrow, or buy a Blue Beanie (or Blue Toque in Canada) and snap a photo of your mug wearing the blue. (Or get creative with Photoshop). Then on November 30, switch your profile picture in Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, (and any other social network) and post your photo to the Blue Beanie Day group at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/bluebeanieday2009/ .

It’s easy to participate:

1. Make a personal commitment to fight Web Standards apathy. Show solidarity with the Standardistas on Monday, November 30th, 2009.
2. Buy, beg, or borrow a Blue Beanie (blue hat or cap, even a black or grey one will do in a pinch.)
3. Take a photo of yourself wearing the Blue Beanie. Or take a cool group photo of you and your friends wearing Blue Beanies.
4. Post your photo, or photos to Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and other social networks on Monday, November 30th, 2009. Remember to switch your Facebook profile photo that day, too!
5. Start by inviting all your friends to the Facebook Event for Blue Beanie Day 2009.
6. Promote Blue Beanie Day on your blog, wiki, facebook page, twitter tweets — telling all your friends to get ready for Blue Beanie Day.

Source

When we log onto the Internet, we take a lot for granted. We assume we’ll be able to access any website we want, whenever we want, at the fastest speed, whether it’s a corporate website or a personal blogger’s website. We assume that we can use any aspect of the Internet we like — watching video, listening to music, sharing your opinions, blogging, opening an online business, social networking — anytime we choose. What makes all these assumptions possible is Net Neutrality.

Net Neutrality is the guiding principle that preserves the free and open Internet. Net Neutrality simply means no discrimination. Net Neutrality prevents Internet Service Providers from blocking, speeding up or slowing down web content based on its source, ownership or destination, to maximize their profits.

All of the major the Internet Service Providers are in the process of removing Net Neutrality. This means that they will all control which content we get to see and which websites we will be allowed to visit. Here’s an image that may illustrate what this would look like.

Net Neutrality is not a new regulation that needs to be imposed. Net Neutrality has been a part of the Internet since its inception. However, lobbyists for the biggest ISPs like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner, etc., spend hundreds of millions of dollars on lobbyists to lobby Congress and the FCC to get rid of Net Neutrality. The most recent example of this is a bill introduced on October 22nd, 2009 by Senator John McCain, called the Internet Freedom Act of 2009. Don’t let the name confuse you, because that’s exactly what it’s supposed to do.

The consequences of a world without Net Neutrality would be devastating. Innovation would be stifled, competition limited, and access to information would be restricted. Consumer choice and the free market would be sacrificed to the interests of a few corporations. On the Internet, consumers are in ultimate control — deciding which website, content, video, application or service they would like to view — anywhere, no matter who owns the network. But without Net Neutrality, the ISPs will become the middleman, and the Internet will look more like cable TV. Internet Service Providers will decide which channels, content and applications are available; consumers will have to choose from their menu.

The free and open Internet brings with it the revolutionary idea that every website and every person on the Internet is within reach. The loss of Net Neutrality would end this unparalleled opportunity for freedom of expression.

The Internet has always been driven by innovation. Web sites and services succeed or fail on their own merits. Without Net Neutrality, decisions now made collectively by millions of users will be made in corporate boardrooms.

This is not fiction, or a faint possibility — this is a reality.

Go to http://savetheinternet.com and learn more about Net Neutrality.

Thanks for your time,

Greg Sabia
Sabia Creative Design

http://sabiadesign.com

415.935.4309

Over the past few days I’ve been a little sick. Somehow, I still found time to work on a project that I’ve been meaning to get live. Feeder.fm is the easiest way to post music directly to your Facebook and Twitter feed, just enter a search term, it’s that simple!

Soon I will finish the project by adding the other half of the website, Twitter. So check it out and let me know what you think so far, http://feeder.fm

I’ve finally completed my second compiled database of all Zip Codes and Cities in the United States. It’s taken a while, but it’s finally available for all you web developers out there that need a quick MySQL table of cities, states, zip codes and latitude/longitude of parent zip codes. Works great for Google Maps mash-ups!

I am also developing an open API for your disposal; awesomeness ensues.

Check out the demo: http://mysqlcities.com

This Friday, get your geek on! At exactly 3:31 PM (PST) UNIX Time will read exactly 1234567890!

All of the Geeks in San Francisco will be getting their beer on at:
21st amendment
563 Second Street
San Francisco

Handy Links for 1234567890 day:
http://21st-amendment.com/
http://1234567890day.com/
http://coolepochcountdown.com/

(Click Here if you don’t know WTF Unix Time is)

Today is Blog Action Day, thousands of bloggers will unite to discuss a single issue – Poverty. Blog action Day is a non profit, grassroots movement of thousands of individual bloggers coming together for one cause – End Poverty.

Blog Action Day originally began when a 27 year old Canadian student at Notre Dame University named Shawn got inspired by a speech given by Dr. Jeffrey Sachs (author of the book “The End Of Poverty”).

That speech inspired him to withdraw from grad school, liquidate his savings and begin his journey to try and make the world a better place – one meaningful difference at a time.

Shawn’s is just one example of the myriad ways for one person to make a difference. It just took one young college kid to make this into a worldwide movement.

What can you do to make a difference or get involved?

Publish: If you have a blog , podcast or a videocast you can commit your blog or site to participate in Blog Action Day. If you participate I encourage you to put up a post, video or podcast about poverty.

Donate: You may also wish to donate the day’s ad revenues to a poverty related organisation like Give India or help other entrepreneurs in the developing work with a micro loan through Kiva , or help to feed hungry school children in India through Akshaya Patra.

Participate: Eliminating Poverty is a movement that requires participation , promotion and fund raising on a mass scale. With every registered blogger, the event reaches more people and grows in scale creating a buzz and going viral. You can Post about your participation on your blog and help your audience sign up who will in turn do the same and create a buzz for this initiative, post the blog action day video on your site ( just pick the code from the home page of teh site and paste it on your site ), put up a banner on your site and spread the word.

Watch the speech by Dr. Jeffrey Sachs that inspired Shawn to start this movement.

Enjoy