Wednesday, November 21, 2012
FBI examining HP/Autonomy accounting debacleHP’s got ninety-nine problems, but a recently-acquired pattern recognition company with possibly-dishonest accounting practices ain’t… …oh, nevermind.Wednesday, November 21, 2012
US accused of launching cyberattack against French government A spokesperson from the US Embassy in Paris, responding to an article at The Verge about the accusations: We categorically deny these allegations from unnamed sources, published in L’Express, that the United States government has …Tuesday, November 20, 2012
H.P. Takes Huge Charge on ‘Accounting Improprieties’ at AutonomyMichael J. de la Merced and Quentin Hardy, for the Times’ DealBook: The charge essentially wiped out its profit. The headline should say “outright misrepresentations,” not “accounting improprieties,” because the former is …Tuesday, November 20, 2012
INTRODUCTION Disclaimer: I don’t know anything about design. I’m a user, and design work on websites made for frequent article consumption should be tailored to user experience. I may come off as arrogant, ignorant, or petty. That’s not my intention. I’m being honest about my thoughts. Engadget has …Tuesday, November 20, 2012
MG Siegler finally gets a Surface, despite Microsoft’s best efforts In hindsight, I now see why Microsoft did not want me to review the Surface. That was probably the right call from a PR perspective. It’s simply not a good product. Mr. Siegler found the Surface very wanting, but this bit …Monday, November 19, 2012
Professor David Post on the Republican Study Committee’s prematurely-released-then-removed copyright critiqueDavid Post, writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: The Report proposes a series of rather radical — in the Jeffersonian sense — reforms, from dramatically shortening the copyright term (a …Monday, November 19, 2012
Wranglers say ‘Hobbit’ animals died on unsafe farmDisturbing.Monday, November 19, 2012
$22.5M FTC fine against Google for Safari trackingMichael Liedtke, writing for Associated Press: In the Safari case, Consumer Watchdog argued that the fine amounts to loose change for a company like Google, which generates about $22.5 million in revenue every four hours. It’s a very good deal for …Monday, November 19, 2012
Xbox 720 leak: Blu-ray, Kinect 2.0, new controller I don’t typically post rumors or leaks, but this stuff is exciting to me, so here it is, for whatever it’s worth to you.Friday, November 16, 2012
Streaming music to listeners, but not money to artistsGalaxie 500 drummer Damon Krukowski1, writing at Pitchfork: Since we own our own recordings, by my calculation it would take songwriting royalties for roughly 312,000 plays on Pandora to earn us the profit of one— one— LP sale. (On Spotify, one …Friday, November 9, 2012
Philly is lost-phone centralThis includes theft and just plain misplacement. I’m more of a dropper myself. Just ask my twice-cracked Galaxy Nexus. I’m not proud, but disclosure will help shame me into being more careful.Friday, November 9, 2012
Sprint buys spectrum and 585,000 customers from U.S. Cellular for $480m in cashEach subscriber Sprint buys from US Cellular in this deal will cost them $820.51.Friday, November 9, 2012
EFF’s pre-emptive prior art defense of 3D printingIt’s a great idea, and I hope it yields some useful results.Thursday, November 8, 2012
Twitter and Two-Factor AuthenticationTwo-factor authentication is a pain in the ass. Just ask my Google account or my Dropbox account. But it’s a no-brainer. Savvy users will flock to it, seeing the value in the headache. Less-than-savvy users don’t need to be forced into it, but Twitter is as good …Thursday, November 8, 2012
Judge blocks California’s new ban on anonymity for sex offenderThis one is worth watching. With regard to blogs and forums, particularly, there’s a strong analogy with letter-writing and other modes of communication with the “outside” that are typically allowed. The plaintiffs, two registered …Thursday, November 8, 2012
The Oxford Guide to Treaties: An Opinio Juris SymposiumIf international law interests you at all, particularly the role treaties play, you should click the link above this sentence. Professor Duncan Hollis edited The Oxford Guide to Treaties and is an expert on the topic. I’m currently in his …Thursday, November 8, 2012
Conservatives lambast Romney, vow to take over Republican PartyThe Hill’s Erik Wasson, quoting Jenny Beth Martin of the Tea Party Patriots: She described Romney as a “weak, moderate candidate hand-picked by the country club elite Republican establishment […] They didn’t see a clear distinction so …Thursday, November 8, 2012
“Parallel Thinking in Product Design Will Only Increase”Rain Noe at core77: When you have an uncomplicated design that’s boiled down to its pure essentials, you approach a kind of universal perfection, and that universality is the tricky part in a world filled with designers. This is a …Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Marriage rights tide turns decisively against US bigotsI hope this is the beginning of an acceleration in the death of “traditional” marriage in the United States of America. Fear, ignorance, and religion are all equally insufficient and shameful excuses to deny universal marriage rights for one …Wednesday, November 7, 2012
IMAlive provides online counseling—but at what cost?Aja Romano of The Daily Dot: IMAlive sounds perfect for introverts and those who are more comfortable writing than speaking. And anyone can volunteer to be a counselor, as long as they pass the background check. But there’s a hitch. Potential …Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Pandora suing ASCAP for lower licensing feesDon Jeffrey of Bloomberg: Pandora also claims that it’s entitled to lower rates because some large music publishers have announced they are withdrawing new media rights from Ascap and negotiating licensing fees directly with Web radio services. The …Monday, November 5, 2012
When 32GB is really 16GB…Microsoft is taking heat for claiming more user-available disk space on its new ARM-based Windows 8-powered Surface tablet than is really there. But I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. Most companies are lying in their commercials, product pages, and press …Friday, November 2, 2012
A Map Of America’s 284 Drone Strikes Against PakistanCliff Kuang of Co.Design: Whatever your stance on drone killings, the fact remains that there’s been very little national dialogue on the topic. Indeed, some would say that’s a direct result of the main problem with the policy: Its complete lack …Friday, November 2, 2012
Nearly all of Omni Magazine at the Internet ArchiveAdi Robertson shared this at The Verge and it made me very happy. I loved this magazine.Friday, November 2, 2012
Over 50% of Android phones still run GingerbreadThe greatest argument against Android is that the “Android” I am talking about when I describe the experience on my Galaxy Nexus is still very foreign to a majority of Android users.Thursday, November 1, 2012
Google integrating AMBER alertsRichard Dunlop-Walters’ The Brief is a must-read for those interested in news about how technology affects our lives every day. Mr. Dunlop-Walters said of Google’s AMBER Alert integration: whenever you perform a Google search related to an area where a child has been …Thursday, November 1, 2012
Professor David Post: Copyright is meant to benefit the publicProfessor Post, writing at The Volokh Conspiracy about the brief he helped write in the Aereo case: copyright law does not exist for the benefit of authors; it uses the benefit granted to authors because that is a means to increase the …Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Disney buys Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion Kathleen Kennedy, current Co-Chairman of Lucasfilm, will become President of Lucasfilm, reporting to Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn. Additionally she will serve as the brand manager for Star Wars, working directly with Disney’s global lines of business …Saturday, October 27, 2012
Marco Arment goes to a Microsoft storeThe link above and what it describes are far more damning than any of Microsoft’s shitty advertising and messaging.Friday, October 26, 2012
Samsung shipped a stunning 57M smartphones in Q3 — twice as many as AppleHow many Samsung devices are on the latest version of their respective operating systems? Many consumers don’t know or care that they’re buying an outdated version of Android, but that ignorance will not last forever. Samsung …