That’s the problem with a DESIGN Solution.

Cheaper than a recall, dumber than a box of rocks.

Better Yet… Send Condoms!! Un-lubricated with a reservoir tip. Unrolling them from the top will help you to remember which end is up.

Since condoms are made thin, you will be able to use your phone like normal without [...]]]> Covers? Covers?

That’s the problem with a DESIGN Solution.

Cheaper than a recall, dumber than a box of rocks.

Better Yet… Send Condoms!! Un-lubricated with a reservoir tip. Unrolling them from the top will help you to remember which end is up.

Since condoms are made thin, you will be able to use your phone like normal without suffering premature disconnection.

Hell ya can even get them in colors to accent your wardrobe, although how you can accent yourself with your hand stuck to your ear is a question for fashionistas.

seriously? 4 CD’s?

Three Years?

I suppose if Twitter is somebody’s idea of the web… But then, Some folks think Social [...]]]>

New research released today by Edison Research and Arbitron tracking three years of data and surveys related to Twitter use further solidifies the notion that the social media world is far different from reality.
Hattip: Jason Falls

Three Years?

I suppose if Twitter is somebody’s idea of the web… But then, Some folks think Social Media is a real job.

No innovation here, as they will be serving text advertisements between 140 characters of [...]]]> Twitter, the aptly named service celebrating brevity over content has monetized. The VC’s are swooning with crinkled nipples while visions of exit strategies dance in their heads as Twitter moves from phenomena to another web application needing a billing department.

No innovation here, as they will be serving text advertisements between 140 characters of pithy repartee or excremental convulsions of what passes for wit among the attention challenged.

Expect a real drop off in usage as the only light in this sinkhole was the lack of advertising.
Stupid fucks! They should have taken a page from the Steve Jobs manual and charged 99 cents a month.

The best thing that Microsoft can do for the web is to just get out of the Browser biz. The second best thing they could do is to bring back the Blink tag

Video has become a substantial portion of the traffic across the web due to the [...]]]> There is a certain amount of controversy regarding video standards and support in the upcoming HTML 5 spec for creating and designing websites. This is an important debate in terms of the future and open direction of the web.

Video has become a substantial portion of the traffic across the web due to the vibrancy of our ability to process information in engaging our visual and audio senses at one time. Folks like moving pictures.

One of the bedrock principles of HTML is the open and unencumbered code that is used into creating what we see on the screen in our browsers. To that end video and the new video tag for embedding needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. Closed technologies never benefit users over the long run.

Flash by Adobe is the current front runner in video on the web. It is an interesting technology but has become spyware on personal computers. Flash cookies are stored on your personal computer and are not removable with the standard browser privacy controls.

Don’t take my word for it, check for yourself:
Where to find these flash cookies:

* Windows: LSO files are stored typically with a “.SOL” extension, within each user’s Application Data directory, under Macromedia\FlashPlayer\#SharedObjects.
* Mac OS X: For Web sites, ~/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/FlashPlayer. For AIR Applications, ~/Library/Preferences/[package name (ID)of your app] and ~/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/FlashPlayer/macromedia.com/Support/flashplayer/sys
* GNU-Linux: ~/.macromedia
Hattip Wired News: You Deleted Your Cookies? Think Again

Read More
Schneier on Security: Flash Cookies

And currently none of the browser makers are addressing this issue. But then Adobe has a history of violating your privacy. An earlier version, Flash Player 6, turned on your Camera and Microphone by default if your computer had them. Flash itself puts blocks between you and your privacy by requiring you to go to Adobe.com to “manage” you privacy settings. There is no other down loadable program that requires this scheme, and cannot be managed on your own computer.

They say that the new version will respect your privacy, but don’t hold your breath.

Adobe is trying hard to keep their grip on the video on the web by a campaign of disinformation as to how open the Flash application is.
However, here is the money shot from Dave McAllister a blogger for Adobe.

The main reason we can’t release Flash Player as open source is because there is technology in the Player that we don’t own, such as the industry standard hi-def video codec, H.264. Adobe pays for that codec so video plays reliably worldwide, across browsers and OS’s. So we make it as open as we can – by releasing the specifications.
Source: Open at Adobe

Moving along from privacy to usability
Kevin Lynch also posted his take on Flash and most revealing are the comments.
Adobe is also saying that Flash doesn’t crash or hang systems, but the comments on this posting at Download Squad tells a different story.
H.264
Interesting is the admission by Adobe of incorporating H.264 to hedge their bets.
H.264 is getting a lot of airtime across the web as a possible successor to supplant Flash as a video standard. As the above quote aptly demonstrates H.264 is not an open standard, but a proprietary codec owned by the MPEG LA group. In a story posted at Beta News, the H.264 Group says that they will not ask for royalties aka payment for use,(until 2015 unless they change their mind) but trust me, just like the UNISYS .gif patent mess they will come calling.

According to Allen Harkness, global licensing director:

“While our Licenses are not concluded by End Users, anyone in the product chain has liability if an end product is unlicensed,” wrote Harkness. “Therefore, a royalty paid for an end product by the end product supplier would render the product licensed in the hands of the End User, but where a royalty has not been paid, such a product remains unlicensed and any downstream users/distributors would have liability. Therefore, we suggest that all End Users deal with products only from licensed suppliers.”

anyone in the product chain has liability if an end product is unlicensedThink YouTube with Invoicing. When the RIAA gets tired of suing everybody, the lawyers can just step into H.264 suits.

Like folks are gonna plumb source code for licensing and or liability. Give me a fucking break! Seriously, most folks on the web think that Copyright is a gift from Microsoft with Right Mouse Click > Save As.

Ogg Theora is currently the frontrunner in open source video, still has some technical limitations, but it has the potential to become a royalty free open video standard.
Encumbering the web with proprietary technologies will kill the web as surely as if you turned off the power to your computer.

“If Flash were allowed on the iPhone or the iPad, [...]]]> The best decision made with the iPad is the refusal to to use or enable Adobe Flash. The rest of the iPad is the continuation of the Apple is God control meme. As Mike Copeland at Brainstorm Tech notes, it is all about control and money.

“If Flash were allowed on the iPhone or the iPad, software developers would have free rein to sell apps directly to consumers, bypassing Apple’s shops and Apple’s cut of the sale. If Flash were on the iPhone, you could watch Hulu and play games on Mini-Clip rather than buying movies from iTunes or buying games from the App store.”
Source: Brainstorm Tech

Flash is the most notorious piece of spyware in existence compromising your privacy with every animation or movie played.

Flash is a virus program masquerading as a helper application. It does not just process video for compression and playback but creates a cornucopia of spyware hidden to the standard privacy settings in your browser. Flash cookies are spyware. The animation characteristics of Flash is too small a percentage given the primary usage is video playback. You can clear your text cookies, but Flash Cookies remain and merrily spy and report to every site their are scripted for. Not just first party but third party sites as well.
John Nack who is an Adobe employee brings out the “guns don’t kill people, people kill people argument” in defense of Flash as being blameless.
when he talks about how wonderful Flash is. He goes on to entertain us in how much standard compliance there is with Flash. That being the current save the world H.264 video codec.

H.264 and Standards
The H264 codec is being bandied about as the new open standards video darling, but it really is not. It is encumbered by patents requiring the payment of royalties which does not qualify it as an open standard. The HTML 5 Working group seems to have forgotten open standards in their discussion and or implementation of an open video standard.

I thought that we had the RAND discussion back in 2001. Back then I wrote:

The W3C is currently exploring RAND as a method of allowing commercial entities to incorporate proprietary or closed technology to be adopted into the Recommendations that are known in the web development community as THE STANDARDS.

RAND stands for “reasonable and non-discriminatory”

The Danger with “reasonable and non-discriminatory”

They are neither. They sound good, and seem to be fair, but they are not. Poll Taxes ‘were reasonable and non-discriminatory’.
The theory was that if you couldn’t pay to vote you were a second class citizen. Excluding women from voting was reasonable and non-discriminatory. Same Deal. Times have changed and both of these propositions are no longer reasonable or non-discriminatory.

I see this RAND business as a coercion attempt on the part of private companies to subvert the work of the W3C and to control the web through license intimidation.

This is a preliminary document outlining a mechanism for including intellectual property, patents of questionable validity and proprietary code and software components into the W3C Standards as Recommendations.

The W3C is a world wide resource. If it is to remain the authority that we have made it, we cannot allow it to be blackmailed by private companies looking to bleed every developer, business, and user from Boston to Bangladesh.

The only thing that has changed since I wrote that is time has gone by. And your privacy is at greater risk than at any time ever.

With Apple you know that you are getting screwed, but you know that your partner is clean and have made that decision. Flash is like getting fucked in an alley by a wino with various STD’s.

Robert B. Parker, Mystery Writer, Has Died at 77 – ArtsBeat Blog – NYTimes.com.