Google+ Doesn’t Want “Real” Names. They Want WASPonyms. Three pieces of news lately about Google+ make it clear that when Google claims they want you to use your “real” name, it’s a load of hooey. First off, a legally mononymous Australian journalist named Stilgherrian was told he couldn’t use that name — his actual, legal name — [...]
Tag Archives: news
COICA Is Dead, Long Live the PROTECT IP Act
Thursday, May 12th, 2011 – 8:34 pm
And by “long live the PROTECT IP Act”, I really mean, “let’s kill the PROTECT IP Act, as quickly and as dead as possible”. [Update: At least one petition to the US Congress opposing this bill can be found at Demand Progress; I will update with others as I find out about them.] Back when COICA was winding its [...]
About WikiLeaks, DDoSes, Rape, and Justice
Monday, December 27th, 2010 – 2:44 pm
Why I’m In Favor of WikiLeaks’ Professed Ideals and Aims I am not a fan of government secrecy. Maybe some things should be kept secret, but by and large? Our government has overused that excuse to the point of absurdity. We can no longer trust the government to keep its citizens informed about what it’s [...]
Facebook and Privacy
Saturday, May 15th, 2010 – 2:22 pm
Okay, so I’m a little late to the party in posting this. All the professional bloggers have already written about it, while I’ve been busy with my day job. Nonetheless, something that’s been on my mind since the beginning of the week, when it would have been timely: I think Facebook has now hit its [...]
Does Wanting Privacy Make You Evil?
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 – 4:37 pm
According to Google CEO Eric Schmidt: “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” This is the same stupid excuse we always hear from people who want to invade everyone’s privacy, and I’m sick of it. Incidentally, we need a good term [...]
Palm Is Lying, Not Just Spying
Friday, August 14th, 2009 – 12:48 pm
So, Palm was recently caught spying on its users. Major kudos, by the way, to Joey Hess, who initially broke this story. For those who haven’t kept up, various other news outlets and blogs have also been reporting on it. Palm’s response to this problem is a single paragraph of corporate PR-speak: Palm takes privacy [...]
If I Leave the Tutorial, Can I Get Back In?
Friday, June 5th, 2009 – 4:10 pm
While reading c|Net’s preview of the upcoming Palm Prē, I came across: “When you fire up the smartphone for the first time, there’s a brief animated tutorial to familiarize you with the various gestures” the Prē uses. And having a first-time orientation is a pretty common UX decision, especially for products that are trying to [...]
McAfee: Failing at Security Since 2005
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 – 10:37 am
Back in 2005, I was a “geek for hire” and did a lot of general troubleshooting for end-users. Including malware removal and general PC tune-ups. One client wanted me to install some software, including McAfee’s main end-user product at the time — I don’t recall the name. I do recall, however, that my head nearly exploded [...]
Death Threats Against Bloggers
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 – 4:35 pm
First, there was what happened to Kathy Sierra. Now, it’s hitting Michael Arrington, too. I’m disturbed, and I don’t like this. I’m aware that some people take things like religion and politics so seriously that they’ll fight, kill or die over them. But Kathy Sierra wrote about making software as pleasing to users as possible. [...]