Ting’s rate plans are highly customizable, allowing you to choose how many minutes you think you’ll use, how many texts, and how much data. Moreover, the plans increase in fairly small increments, so going over and getting bumped up shouldn’t break the bank. For example, if you have the 500 minute plan and go over, getting bumped up to the 1000 minute plan will only cost you $9. Depending on how much you go over, that could be a pretty significant savings over the overage fees charged by some mobile carriers.

Ting uses Sprint’s wireless network, so their phone lineup is much like Sprint’s. They have a decent selection of Android-based smartphones, two basic feature phones, and four wireless data devices available.

If you’re thinking about switching, Ting provides a helpful savings calculator to show you how much you could save by switching. Just plug in how much you pay for which services, and Ting will tell you how much you could save by switching. Head on over to Ting’s website and check it out, then let us know what you think in the comments.

While folks are still waiting on Wikipedia to commit to the blackout, one way or another, some other sites of note have declared their intentions to join the blackout as well. Perhaps the most popular of these are the Cheezburger sites, which were made famous for their help in popularizing the LOLCats meme. The public was informed of this decision via Ben Huh’s Twitter:

The Cheezburger network is not the only site openly supporting copyright infringement — if Lamar Smith were to tell it — as other site owners have expressed an interest in taking a stand against the piracy bills. For instance, Tucows is also joining in with the blackout, and while they may not be as popular as they once were, or, at least the act of downloading of free software, the company’s name still has recognition. From the Tucows blog:

The proposed SOPA (and equally odious “Protect IP Act“) legislation is fundamentally flawed in how it works and the damage it is likely to do to the Internet, which has been the greatest platform for innovation the world has ever seen. For that reason we will be joining the blackout organized by our friends at Reddit by blacking out the Tucows Software Download site on January 18th from 8am to 8pm EST (1300-0100 UTC).

A video game developer, Red 5 Studios, is also joining the blackout, something The Escapist discussed in a recent post:

While the games industry’s response to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) has been relatively muted so far, Firefall developer Red 5 Studios has announced its intention to completely shut down its website, community site and Firefall beta on January 18 as a protest against the controversial legislation. It has also cancelled its booth at E3 to protest the continued support given to SOPA by the event’s organizers, the Electronic Software Association (ESA).

As the blackout day gets closer, expect the list of participating sites to continue growing.

Here are today’s reports from around the web:

- Tucows cuts employees by roughly 15%. (MORE)

- Condé Nast and Wired.com cuts 7 employees, approximately 30 percent of staff. (MORE)

- MetaCafe.com fires 11 employees which accounts for 15% of the labor force. (MORE)

- Current (Al Gore’s site) eliminated 30 net positions of 440 total. (MORE)

- Carol.com cuts 25 jobs or a quarter of its workforce. (MORE)

- CBS Interactive which includes CNET is laying off 6 employees while shutting its Juke site. (MORE)

- Six Apart is laying off 16 employees, approximately 8 percent of its total staff. (MORE)

- AdReady trims 10 jobs from 40 staff payroll. (MORE)

“GoDaddy And Friends Rescue RegisterFly Database”

Yet, for the uninitiated, that phrasing makes the act sound like a hostile acquisition, and it was really more of a rescue mission.  As the Channel Register’s Burke Hansen notes, “RegisterFly controlled two million domains, but a bitter personal breakup between the two founders led eventually to bizarre personal attacks, acrimonious litigation, and ultimately to the loss of ICANN accreditation.”

So when GoDaddy stepped in, “[I]t’s what many RegisterFly customers asked us to do,” says Bob Parsons, the company’s CEO and founder.  In an official statement, he also adds, “We worked with ICANN to effect a migration of the RegisterFly domains to GoDaddy.com and help those customers left in limbo.”

But ICANN and GoDaddy aren’t the only ones behind this benevolent act.  “Afilias and VeriSign, the two registries with the most RegisterFly names, have forgone considerable fees for transfers,” according to a press release.  “The gTLD registries GNR, NeuStar and PIR also acted to prevent deletion of names.  As well, Tucows took uncompensated effort to provide data and pursue a solution that would protect registrants.”

So all appears to be well in regards to the RegisterFly fiasco; those affected domain names should be safely within GoDaddy’s grasp by the end of next week.  GoDaddy does, of course, stand to profit as those domains get renewed, but it was still nice (and interesting) to see everyone pull together on this one.

That’s an oversimplification, however, and is not meant to imply that Ross Rader (or perhaps Elliot Noss – view the article here and see if you can figure out who wrote it) wasted his time.  Rader (or Noss) outlines ten different subjects that individuals should research, and gives his personal recommendations on each of them.

Yet there’s some repetition between numbers one and ten.  “Understand what business your registrar is in, and also understand who owns them and what business they are in,” Rader/Noss suggests at first.  The concluding point then recommends that you determine whether the company is a registrar or a reseller.

Most of the rest of the piece delves into some seriously fine print.  “Understand all the rules and restrictions concerning transfers that your registrar employs,” writes Rader/Noss in his second point.  His third section is followed by the advice to “know whether your registrar locks names and if they do, how to unlock them.”

Number four relates to the details of registrars’ auto-renew plans, while number five suggests that individuals “[a]sk about and understand any restrictions on changing contact information.”  Number six: know about the privacy policies, especially as they relate to Whois privacy and any extra fees.

Rader’s/Noss’s seventh and eighth pieces of advice entail – you guessed it – more research and fact-finding.  “Know your registrar’s policies and practices with respect to compliance issues and how you contact the compliance department” is the take-away message from number seven, while eight adds, “Try and find the contact email addresses and phone numbers BEFORE buying.”

For all of the nitpicking and repetition up ‘til now, the ninth question is a big one: “What happens when my domain expires?”  The thing is, that issue is between you and you registrar, so Rader/Noss suggests that you “[f]ind a registrar that provides at least a 40 day grace period and that respects an actual or implied RGP for 30 days after that.”

And so there are some (perhaps just shy of “all”) questions you can ask when deciding between domain name registrars.

e360 filed suit against UK-based antispam outfit Spamhaus in an Illinois court, accusing Spamhaus of wrongfully blacklisting commercial email from the company as spam, effectively blocking email from reaching UK inboxes.

Spamhaus has long been criticized by commercial emailers for being the Internet version of Salem witch hunters – overzealous in their categorization.

Spamhaus did not appear in court for the same reason the company refused to pay the default judgment: Illinois, nor the US, had no jurisdiction over a UK company. The court responded by requesting an permanent injunction against spamhaus.org, suspending the domain, an act the company claimed would result in a worldwide spam flood.

The default judgment found Spamhaus guilty of (1) “erroneously and repeatedly placed Plaintiffs on its Register of Known Spam Operations (the ROSKO list), and then (2) wrongfully coerced Plaintiffs’ business partners to refrain from doing business with Plaintiffs . . . ”

ICANN says it has no direct knowledge of the claims made by e360 nor of why Spamhaus took no action to defend themselves. Further, the decision to suspend is left to the registrar, Tucows.

From ICANN’s statement:

Tag:

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Yahoo! My Web | Furl

Bookmark WebProNews:

Blogger Robert Scoble suggested the sale of Kiko predicted “more failures” from the Web 2.0 startup space. The online calendar ended up selling for $258,100 in an eBay auction, with Tucows revealing itself as the buyer.

Long-time geeks have probably visited and downloaded software from Tucows in the earlier days of dialup and 14.4kbps (and slower) modem speeds. Despite all the software they have hosted, Kiko proved to be one they would buy outright.

Tucows president and CEO Elliot Noss provided several reasons on his blog why they chose to buy Kiko:

Among the little features, Noss touted mobile carrier integration as one factor:

Noss cited Kiko founders Justin Kan and Emmett Shear in calling Kiko a feature and not a business (we suggested that too), and considering Kiko’s and Tucows’ global userbase it appears it will be offered that way.

—
Tag:

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Yahoo! My Web | Furl

Bookmark WebProNews:

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.