Archive for July, 2010

100 Million Users Facebook Personal Info: Exposed Permanently

Jul 29th, 10 / Comments Off

As detailed here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38463013/ns/technology_and_science-security/

100 million facebook users have had their info compiled into a single dataset which has been published online.

Sure, the info was freely available as of when it was compiled, but this means people don’t get the option to adjust their facebook privacy controls to prevent access to this info today, tomorrow, or anytime, since your info is now available in a torrent that’s hit all the popular torrenting sites.

Bottom line: if you don’t want information to be public now or EVER. . don’t put it online.

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News, Opinion, Tech

NPR: Two types of managers

Jul 14th, 10 / Comments Off

Heard this on NPR, and it really rang true in a lot of ways.  Over the years, I’ve definitely worked with both types of managers, and it’s truly a blessing when someone is a “multiplier” as this transcript describes:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128401148

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Opinion, Work

Apple’s image cracking under iPhone 4 antenna issues

Jul 13th, 10 / 2 Comments

Steve, it’s time to concede the iPhone 4 isn’t quite a flawless home run.  It’s like cutting the video to black just short of seeing the hitter round 3rd and trip, heading face first into the sand.  Stop calling it a “stumble”.  It doesn’t matter if the ball is already outta the park.  Take the fall, get up, brush off and talk about how Apple is going to resolve this issue, and then make it happen.

The longer you wait, the bigger the roar of unhappy customers that are figuring out their recent increase in signal issues isn’t just a coincidence.

I’d love to see some charts from AT&T that show trending for signal degradation across handsets, specifically the iPhone line.  I bet the iPhone 4 leads the pack in sudden degradation.  Who knows if they trend any of this already, but I can guarantee you’ll never see any of it made public.

Apple stock is down, and Consumer Reports, while offering a GLOWING review based on features/functionality is recommending against purchasing until the issue is resolved.  Even devoted fans are cursing their phones due to dropped calls and degraded signal.

Personally speaking, I’ve noticed the issue somewhat intermittently, and believe that, like so many other variables that affect wireless performance, it’s not an issue that by itself can bring the signal to an unusable level, but drastically exacerbates the other pre-existing variables.

What do I mean? Well, think about it.  .  .with any phone, your signal often seems to rise and fall for no apparent reason at all.  Maybe the tower is a bit overloaded, maybe the weather is changing, maybe your “dome” is blocking some of the signal as you move around.   There’s literally thousands of reasons wireless signal may degrade.  If none of these are impacting you, and you degrade your signal by shorting that gap on the iPhone 4, all is well, even if it cuts your signal by up to 50%.  However, if you were in a low coverage area to begin with, or any of the aforementioned issues are affecting you, goodbye call.  This makes it really hard for the end user to identify what’s really causing the issue.

Consumer Reports did their test in an enclosed area with special equipment to virtually eliminate other variables, and determine the real impact of signal attenuation alone.  Guess what?  They’re suggested fix is a piece of tape over the joint to stop attenuation.

Wake up Apple, we want a fix. . a REAL fix.

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News, Opinion, Tech

Dodge This.

Jul 11th, 10 / 2 Comments

I don’t normally blog about anything sports related, but this photo is chock full of so much awesomeness that I had to.

More info here:

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/38190786/ns/sports-world_cup/

but the short of it is that this guy apparently sprinted onto the field pre-game and tried to put a hat on the World Cup trophy.  A security official “restrained” him. . and by restrained I mean pwned his face with their fist :)

By the way, just in case you were in closet all day, Spain won the world cup.

UPDATE:

I found a video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCmz2ymM1qU

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News

Winner – Title says it all!

Jul 10th, 10 / Comments Off

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1938370

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Tech, Uncategorized

Candwich FTW.

Jul 10th, 10 / Comments Off

Don’t even bother cooking anymore, Mark One has your back:

http://consumerist.com/2010/07/candwhich-the-sandwhich-in-a-can.html

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News

Scientists develop super-dense energy cubes, decepticons come looking for it.

Jul 6th, 10 / Comments Off

“The chemical xenon difluoride is normally a mild-mannered white powder, but when you crush it with the pressure of 1 million times our atmosphere, it turns into a super substance. Due to some weird science, all the energy used to crush that stuff is stored inside its chemical bonds, making it a terrific energy storage device. In layman’s terms, that would be a battery.”

via DVICE:

http://dvice.com/archives/2010/07/battery-breakth.php

As exciting as this sounds, lithium-ion and lithium polymer batteries already pack a tremendous amount of energy in a very dense space.  I’m all for improving on this, but technology like this one sounds exceptionally scary-dangerous when you figure the force it takes to form the bonds in these materials.  Imagine what would happen if you dropped the thing?

In fact, forget about that, imagine what happens when the decepticons find out you have one  :)

Real picture of the “formed” energy cube:

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News, Tech

NO, I don’t want to be your neighbor in farmville.

Jul 4th, 10 / Comments Off

No, I don’t want to be your neighbor in “farmville”, your friend in “cafe world”, or you’re hooker in “pimps”.  Yeh-yeh, that last one doesn’t exist. . .*yet*.

Social networks are all about repeat visits.  I get that.  If people don’t come back, they don’t see the new ads, they don’t see what everyone’s been up to, and your user base shrinks like ku klux klan sign-ups during a sheet shortage.

Games like farmville get people to come back, again, and again, and again, and again.  People with addictive personalities are especially useful gamers to social networks because they’ll actually HOUND their friends to come play to if it somehow benefits their own progress/success and the cycle repeats.

Think about this: The bigger the userbase, the higher the number of visits, the bigger the “value” of the social network.  What am I talking about? Well, Facebook has an estimated annual revenue of $1.2 billion and 400 million users.  That means each of  you reading this, that are members of facebook, are worth about $3/year.  Some of it comes from ads, some of it just from growth of the co., but roughly speaking, each person that “joins” facebook brings the company~$3 in annual revenue.

Are you starting to see the big picture yet?

I have nothing against the concept of a social network and sites that are designed to connect people, but I have a problem with the idea of turning everyone into a button pushing George Jetson to speed up the growth and value of a company and calling it a “game”.  Games usually involve skill or chance, and I see neither in the current crop of popular social networking games.  The greatest factor driving your success in any of these “games” is your willingness to come back, over and over again.

Count me out.  I’ll stick with “Call of Duty”.  Call of Duty never sends me messages reminding me to come play it, I can play as much or as little as I want, my success is tied to my skill and strategy, and nobody wants to be my neighbor.

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Life, Opinion