Posts by Fred Flintstone

Yummie time bomb

This is about the biggest legal time bomb Farcebook could have developed.

By using your face in an ad it implies you endorse whatever crap you're associated with in Facebook. There is nothing in T&Cs that solicits your endorsement, so what you have is fraudulent use of your name and reputation. All it needs is to hit one demi-celeb an they will be absolutely buried under lawsuits.

I am looking forward to that. With enthusiasm.

This is not crossing a line in the sand - this is crossing it and disappearing so far in the desert that the line is but a distant memory.

OK, who let the idiots out of their cage?

"The public sees the PCI DSS standard and believes that the banks are doing a great job, but in the end of the day the only practical thing coming out of those standards are 'verified by ourselves' stamps of approval and 4 digit numeric PIN codes."

Wowie. That's actually nothing *banks* impose, but the VISA and Mastercard networks of this world. To call this security theatre is a tad over the top, but it is correct that sod all is done to secure it properly, and there is a very simple reason for it: the entities that actually could do something about it don't actually suffer the loss..

As iMessage is quite a privacy risk I don't use it..

Like WhatsApp, iMessage in principle gives the US free access to the SMS traffic that otherwise remains in a country as it all has to happen over servers in the US.

However, I *have* experimented with it, so it probably would be A Good Thing(tm) if Apple could tidy this up. While they are at it, they could also drop the requirement to enable location data disclosure to Apple before you're entitled to use the remote wipe process of iCloud - there is no need for it.

AFAIK, coercion to obtain non.essential private data is actually illegal under EU privacy laws

Here's some fun legalese..

You know, in relation to credit card data clauses 11.1 and 11.2 of the Google Terms of Service appear to be very entertaining. IANAL, but this reads as Google being able to change your transaction at will, and use your credit card data to sell you whatever crap they feel like :).. Puts a whole new spin on the "I feel lucky" button, doesn't it?

Extract from google.com/accounts/tos :

11.1 [..] By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

I bet you the program will get massive viewing

Nothing like a massive, published cock-up to attract viewers :-). And it proves it's for real.

Having said that, I am VERY glad no-one was injured. Maybe a God particle took a day off and put in some rescue efforts?

Zygna have another problem..

Zygna isn't just dependent of Facebook, it is also dependent on a continuation of the the privacy violations that allow them to collect the data they sell (implied permission to collect data is not accepted under EU privacy law).

The problem is that data privacy is slowly on the return (as all trends, this one is reversing the "if you want privacy you must be a terrorist" brainwashing during the Bush/Blair era), and Zygna may be heading for a point where it will have to justify having all this data. I wouldn't want to be a shareholder when that happens..

IMHO, of course, but I see a few icebergs they're heading for.

Good forward planning..

.. equipping the thing with a laser to defend itself in case it actually finds life.

I admire the optimism.

Ahhhh - no Friday is complete without it.

Genius, pure genius. Addictive as hell, and disturbingly inspiring 8-)

Now for the bad news..

I wonder how long it will take for the TSA to cotton on the fact that such batteries will in principle be very nice bombs when shorted. You saw what Dell could do with a laptop - imagine 10x that amount of energy available..

On the other hand - let's hope we can make even faster batteries. If we find a way to even inefficiently store the energy one *single* flash of lightning produces we'd be saving a lot of joules in one go..

What I want to know is ..

.. just how much of what you use Siri for gets added to your profile with Apple? I have enough trouble keeping numpties with mobiles out of secured rooms, I dread to think just how much more data they are now supplying to Apple. Must check if there's a way to kill off Siri (already done it for iCloud)..

I'm astonished as to which length phone makers are prepared to go to grab data. Google announced in Canada that the reason they no longer needed WiFi snooping with Streetview was that the Android handsets were now doing it, and forces people to hook unto a Google account for anything interesting in Android to work. Apple is now goading people into using iMessage ("gimme your SMS traffic" - on a global scale) and Siri ("tell me what you're doing, with your voice print, thanks") on top of grabbing customer details via iCloud.

And our poor, trusty users walk right into this, whilst loudly whinging about Facebook privacy.

Amazing. Truly amazing.

Anyone any idea what Microsoft/Nokia are planning on this front? The NSA needs all the help it can get..

So far, not good enough..

..but then again, I don't buy a new phone anyway - I tend to wait a few months. By that time, the early adopters have gone through the early suffering and I know what the phone is really worth.

Having said that, I am torn between good (it's a Nokia) and very bad (it uses Windows), and I suspect that my existing old iPhone (it's usable and by now average) will thus not get replaced soon..

The next Ubuntu

Linux Mint offers what Ubuntu has lost: an effortless, Linux based desktop that combines computing efficiency with the ease of use Ubuntu started out with.

Well done - I know many are switching.

On the bright side..

.. you already have the building in place for a water-cooled data centre.

The worst about this is the gazillions of people out of work across the whole country. And I'm wondering if this will affect the harvest, I hope not because that's an absolute disaster waiting to happen :(.

May I tank you for the word "copacetic"?

I had to look it up - brilliant. Or copacetic..

:)