Where does the Ask! virus come from? Java.

A *Really Good*, *maybe the best* reason to stop running java!

Perry

Lots Happening this week...

Very good - now if we can just disavow all software patents...

U.S. Disavows Patent at Center of Apple-Samsung Dispute

How about this:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/venkateshrao/2012/10/22/amazon-needs-a-public-editor/

(Funny how the page has an ad for the Kindle.   Interesting to see that you can now own a device that has *all* its content in the cloud )

Or this:

Cory Doctorow:  We don't use computers any more.  They're everywhere.  We're inside them (cars, planes, etc), and they're inside us - hearing aids, pacemakers. So if the government, or an insurance company pays for my hearing aid, can they decide what I can hear?

Or even this?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2012/10/23/5-reasons-you-shouldnt-buy-an-ipad-mini/

No, I don't think I want an ipad mini - $329 for a 7.8" walled garden.  Crummy resolution, No development,  No HDMI, no SD card slot,  Total control by them.  Maybe (hopefully) the next Nexus 7 that has a back camera.

Perry

Well, maybe TSA is listening to *someone*...

Is it the White House's "ban the TSA" petition (oops sorry, pulled right before it got to the required number of signatures)?  Is it the pending election?  Is it the people opting out (maybe the screener who opts out)?  Who knows? but they're moving x-ray scanners from large to small airports , likely this means that the millimeter-wave (good) systems at say, MHT, might be replaced by backscatter (bad), from BOS, but I've been going to BOS a lot more often lately.

At least the TSA Agents are totally trustworthy

Perry

How good is The Cloud?

Well, it depends.  Remember, you're using someone else's servers.  If they slip, and you lose stuff, what are your options?

Here's the story of Kyle Goodwin, as told in his Motion For Return of Property to the US District Court in Virginia.  He was a Premier paying customer to MegaUpload (remember KimDotCom?), and stored his small business's backups of his video files there.

His hard drive crashed, and within hours the US and New Zealand courts had shut down MegaUpload's servers, shutting off access to Mr Goodwin's data.  It's stored in MegaUpload's colo site, bit turned off and unavailable.

So don't worry, the cloud is fine, your data on the other hand,  Reply hazy, try again.

Facebook selling YOU

Are we Surprised?

From the Wall Street Journal: Facebook Sells More Access to Members

Is there anything we can do about it?  Probably not.  Remember, if you're not paying anything, you're not the customer, you're the product.

 

Every Movie Ever Made in Every Language Any Time Day Or Night

(In a cheap motel in the middle of nowhere)

I guess they didn't mention the price

This was a 1999 commercial for quest, and talked about by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Cay Johnston in his article in Techdirt and an interview on the daily ticker linked by DSLReports.com.  The book is about why our internet is way worse than the rest of the world (largely because we frittered is away on smartphones).

The Fine Print: How Big Companies Use 'Plain English' to Rob You Blind