"This morning, on their main blog, Google posted a little reminder to everyone about its view on censorship on the web. Specifically, they don't like it. And while we all know their take on China's demand for censorship by now, the search giant also offered up a new interesting little factoid: of the 100 countries around the world in which Google offers their services, some 25 at least partially block them."Countries taking action by censoring the internet is increasing, and frankly I don't agree with it. In my personal opinion it isn't the governments place to censor anything for any reason. Censorship should be done on a far lower level, such as a company blocking access to specific websites. This is simply more efficient and provides far less potential for inconvenience. You would think when there are so many people and groups supporting this that the government as a single entity would be a lot less willing to step on people's toes by going ahead and censoring as they please. I believe perhaps it is time debate against internet censorship was taken a bit more seriously and we put some pressure on it.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Google censored in 1/4 of countries
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Windows XP will not support Internet Explorer 9
It's official. Windows XP will not support Internet Explorer 9. A lot of people are outraged that this is so, but I have one question? Why? Unless you're pretty young, you should know that this trend has existed forever. Back in the day, people treated Windows 2000 like they did XP now. The facts are however, that Windows XP is an obsolete operating system. Windows XP was released in the year 2001. It has been 9 years approximately since it's release, and it has been succeeded not by just one, but two newer and better operating systems. What people are doing now with Windows XP would've been like clinging to Windows 98 when Windows 2000 came along. Believe it or not Windows XP doesn't really have a chance anymore. It's in it's coffin, and it's just waiting for us to shut the doors, so to speak.
It's not a matter of choice anymore. Tons of new operating system features have been released that boast important security fixes, performance increases, and new features entirely, and frankly I believe it's time XP died, or perhaps was killed. It's too obsolete to continue supporting new software. This is fact, not opinion.
In conclusion, one should not be outraged as support is dropped for XP. It is getting more than any operating system has yet, and frankly, consumers should keep that in mind and stop being such dinosaurs with their computers. See, personal computers are not designed to be legacy computers. They are meant to be replaced. If consumers intend to fight this, they should expect for flexibility to eventually snap, resulting in loss of compatibility. It's pretty simple really.
It's not a matter of choice anymore. Tons of new operating system features have been released that boast important security fixes, performance increases, and new features entirely, and frankly I believe it's time XP died, or perhaps was killed. It's too obsolete to continue supporting new software. This is fact, not opinion.
In conclusion, one should not be outraged as support is dropped for XP. It is getting more than any operating system has yet, and frankly, consumers should keep that in mind and stop being such dinosaurs with their computers. See, personal computers are not designed to be legacy computers. They are meant to be replaced. If consumers intend to fight this, they should expect for flexibility to eventually snap, resulting in loss of compatibility. It's pretty simple really.
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
The Apple iPad
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/03/apple-ipad-review/
2. It's supposed to be a breakthrough in technology.
I'm calling Shenanigans. I mean really, not only has the exact same technology been used on the iPad's freaking predecessor, the iPhone... But it has been used on other things way before it was ever even announced. How about the incredibly famous Nintendo DS? How about the iTouch? New? Breakthrough? Not even close. Your high horse is built off of stolen ideas Apple. At least admit it.
3. It's supposed to take the "throne" from Apple's other products.
First, it's too big to take anything from the phone / mp3 player line, and too weak and non-functional to take anything from the laptop line. Second, the iPhone and even the new DSi does this stuff better in my opinion. Why? They're smaller, a stylus is more accurate than a finger, and most importantly. They don't try to be a computer. They're mobile devices. And that justifies their flaws. Oh, and they don't cost an arm and a leg.
In conclusion, don't be fooled by the hype around the iPad. There's nothing worth exchanging your laptop or smartphone for.
"The Apple iPad. The name is a killing word -- more than a product -- it's a statement, an idea, and potentially a prime mover in the world of consumer electronics. Before iPad it was called the Apple Tablet, the Slate, Canvas, and a handful of other guesses -- but what was little more than rumor and speculation for nearly ten years is now very much a reality. Announced on January 27th to a middling response, Apple has been readying itself for what could be the most significant product launch in its history; the making (or breaking) of an entirely new class of computer for the company. The iPad is something in between its monumental iPhone and wildly successful MacBook line -- a usurper to the netbook throne, and possibly a sign of things to come for the entire personal computer market... if Apple delivers on its promises. And those are some big promises; the company has been tossing around words like "magical" and "revolutionary" to describe what many have dismissed as nothing more than a larger version of its iPod touch. But is that all there is to this device? Is the hope that Apple promises for this new computing experience nothing more than marketing fluff and strategic hyperbole? Or is this a different beast altogether -- a true sign that change has come to the world of the PC? We have the definitive answers to those questions (and many more) right here, so read on for our full review of the Apple iPad!"The Apple iPad, pride of Apple. This is my favorite part of the above excerpt.
"The iPad is something in between its monumental iPhone and wildly successful MacBook line"They have it exactly right. Take out all the hype, all the shameless plugs, and all the typical Mac reasoning, and you have just that. The iPad could be described as a MacBook trying to be an iPhone. I've heard lots of things about the iPad. Here's a few things I'd like to bring up.
- It's supposed to be functional.
- It's supposed to be a breakthrough in technology.
- It's supposed to take the "throne" from Apple's other products. (I wasn't aware there was a "throne" for shenanigans or propaganda.)
- It's supposed to be functional.
2. It's supposed to be a breakthrough in technology.
I'm calling Shenanigans. I mean really, not only has the exact same technology been used on the iPad's freaking predecessor, the iPhone... But it has been used on other things way before it was ever even announced. How about the incredibly famous Nintendo DS? How about the iTouch? New? Breakthrough? Not even close. Your high horse is built off of stolen ideas Apple. At least admit it.
3. It's supposed to take the "throne" from Apple's other products.
First, it's too big to take anything from the phone / mp3 player line, and too weak and non-functional to take anything from the laptop line. Second, the iPhone and even the new DSi does this stuff better in my opinion. Why? They're smaller, a stylus is more accurate than a finger, and most importantly. They don't try to be a computer. They're mobile devices. And that justifies their flaws. Oh, and they don't cost an arm and a leg.
In conclusion, don't be fooled by the hype around the iPad. There's nothing worth exchanging your laptop or smartphone for.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Facebookers outraged over undercover FBI agents posing as "friends"
http://blogs.laweekly.com/ladaily/city-news/fbi-undercover-facebook/
"The AP mentions the Los Angeles case in which federal prosecutors unsuccessfully moved against a woman, Lori Drew, for posing as a teen boy on MySpace and then allegedly harassing a 13-year-old neighborhood girl who later hanged herself. She was nabbed for allegedly violating MySpace's terms of service -- posing as someone she isn't -- and convicted in L.A. before a higher-court judge overturned the ruling.
Aren't federal poseurs on Facebook doing the same thing Drew did? Facebook has a similar rule against giving false information when opening an account on the site."
Aaah... Facebook drama. On a list of websites I hate most, Facebook is right at the top. But that's a story for another article.
The internet is often considered a place of anonymity, where people can do what they please without fear of offline consequences. However, I don't sympathize with these people.
Facebook is a strict place with strict rules. If they expected anonymity there they thought wrong, very, very wrong. I've seen this since the first time I researched Facebook, that it was not a place to be anonymous.
Secondly, people seem to be forgetting that these are the authorities, not civilians, and certainly not bound to the same laws as civilians. The law for civilians does not automatically apply to the authorities, and it's their job to decide what is appropriate.
There is a huge difference between an undercover cop on facebook that adds suspected criminals and things like that in hopes of obtaining useful information and a lady who pretends to be someone else for the sake of harassing people and causing harm.
I support the FBIs ability to do this. Furthermore, unless you're a criminal, they probably are not going to randomly add you and start leeching info from you. This is logic. So if you're not a criminal, in the same boat as myself, then you probably have nothing to worry about in terms of this affecting your privacy.
As for criminals that abuse their privacy to break the law, what right do they have to that privacy anyway? It's their criminal choices, their consequences, and their life they screwed up. They tried to abuse the safety of their rights to privacy to screw other people over, and it's people like them that are the reason we have to deal with officials wanting to reduce privacy in the first place. I for one love the idea of one of these people being behind bars.
"The AP mentions the Los Angeles case in which federal prosecutors unsuccessfully moved against a woman, Lori Drew, for posing as a teen boy on MySpace and then allegedly harassing a 13-year-old neighborhood girl who later hanged herself. She was nabbed for allegedly violating MySpace's terms of service -- posing as someone she isn't -- and convicted in L.A. before a higher-court judge overturned the ruling.
Aren't federal poseurs on Facebook doing the same thing Drew did? Facebook has a similar rule against giving false information when opening an account on the site."
Aaah... Facebook drama. On a list of websites I hate most, Facebook is right at the top. But that's a story for another article.
The internet is often considered a place of anonymity, where people can do what they please without fear of offline consequences. However, I don't sympathize with these people.
Facebook is a strict place with strict rules. If they expected anonymity there they thought wrong, very, very wrong. I've seen this since the first time I researched Facebook, that it was not a place to be anonymous.
Secondly, people seem to be forgetting that these are the authorities, not civilians, and certainly not bound to the same laws as civilians. The law for civilians does not automatically apply to the authorities, and it's their job to decide what is appropriate.
There is a huge difference between an undercover cop on facebook that adds suspected criminals and things like that in hopes of obtaining useful information and a lady who pretends to be someone else for the sake of harassing people and causing harm.
I support the FBIs ability to do this. Furthermore, unless you're a criminal, they probably are not going to randomly add you and start leeching info from you. This is logic. So if you're not a criminal, in the same boat as myself, then you probably have nothing to worry about in terms of this affecting your privacy.
As for criminals that abuse their privacy to break the law, what right do they have to that privacy anyway? It's their criminal choices, their consequences, and their life they screwed up. They tried to abuse the safety of their rights to privacy to screw other people over, and it's people like them that are the reason we have to deal with officials wanting to reduce privacy in the first place. I for one love the idea of one of these people being behind bars.
Firefox shamed on first day of CanSecWest Pwn2Own hacker challenge
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=5865
"VANCOUVER, BC — The first day of the CanSecWest Pwn2Own hacker challenge wrapped up here today with a familiar face going after a familiar target.
And, for the second year in a row, a German hacker known simply as “Nils” exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in Mozilla Firefox to take complete control of a 64-bit Windows 7 machine."
I have personally been the victim of Firefox flaws. I've had it crash, become unstable, and memory leak up a storm. This being said, despite the fact that it was my default browser for several years, and I still use it regularly...
I'm rather tired of Firefox.
I look at Chrome, which now has add-on support and has never given me problems over anything, and on top of this, has been credited with being very secure, fast, and lightweight, and I'm starting to question why I go back to using Firefox.
Is anyone else starting to get the impression that Firefox is a bit bloated, slow to start, and now that it's essentially #1 in terms of fame and personal use, insecure?
Browsers are very lightweight. I encourage people to try several different Browsers, mainly Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer 8 all on the same system. Use them, test them, See if perhaps your initial browser choice wasn't optimum.
"VANCOUVER, BC — The first day of the CanSecWest Pwn2Own hacker challenge wrapped up here today with a familiar face going after a familiar target.
And, for the second year in a row, a German hacker known simply as “Nils” exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in Mozilla Firefox to take complete control of a 64-bit Windows 7 machine."
I have personally been the victim of Firefox flaws. I've had it crash, become unstable, and memory leak up a storm. This being said, despite the fact that it was my default browser for several years, and I still use it regularly...
I'm rather tired of Firefox.
I look at Chrome, which now has add-on support and has never given me problems over anything, and on top of this, has been credited with being very secure, fast, and lightweight, and I'm starting to question why I go back to using Firefox.
Is anyone else starting to get the impression that Firefox is a bit bloated, slow to start, and now that it's essentially #1 in terms of fame and personal use, insecure?
Browsers are very lightweight. I encourage people to try several different Browsers, mainly Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer 8 all on the same system. Use them, test them, See if perhaps your initial browser choice wasn't optimum.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Windows 7 Phone details
In my last blog post I talked about Windows 7 Phone not having Copy&Paste or Multi-tasking.
Conveniently I found another post that clarifies one of these two issues.
Link
In this article the issue where Microsoft does not plan to include Multi-tasking in the Windows 7 Phone is clarified. The good news is that that it was a false rumor, and that multi-tasking is planned for the Windows 7 Phone. What things will be able to be multi-tasked may be limited, however, multi-tasking will infact be available.
For instance, you will be able to listen to music and use other apps at the same time.
For more info, please read the original article, or this quote:
"Microsoft itself makes use of multitasking in the operating system. For users and developers, an application pauses when the user switches to another program, and the first one could be shut down by the operating system to reclaim CPU or memory resources.
"This was not a quick decision," says Charlie Kindel, partner group program manager for the Windows Phone 7 Developer Experience. Microsoft looked at what it could take to create and use background processing on the phone for developers and users, and the potential impact on the all-important user experience. The conclusion: A lot of infrastructure would have to be built and a lot of added complexity would result.
At the same time, Microsoft executives say the Windows Phone 7 platform provides a range of integrations and services for applications that provide the kind of multitasking users want. For example, if you start a music track on the WP7 device, it will continue playing if you switch from the music application to another one. The "live tiles" in the UI -- the intelligent rectangles and squares that can be linked to phone or cloud-based services and applications -- coupled with Microsoft's free push notification service for Windows Phone provide a way for developers, their apps and services to continually notify and update phone-based programs, for example, with the latest scores from the NCAA tournament.
The goal, Kindel says, is to ensure "We control the quality of the overall user experience.""
The lack of Copy&Paste was unfortunately not discussed in this article. I did however find an article that discussed the lack of Copy and Paste.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/191825/windows_phone_7_copy_and_paste_mia.html
"Microsoft revealed this week at its Mix 10 conference for Microsoft-oriented Web developers that its forthcoming Windows Phone 7 mobile OS will not include a clipboard capability for copy-and-paste operations -- at least not in the first version.
"Windows Phone 7 Series will not initially offer copy-and-paste; instead, we try to solve the most common uses for copy-and-paste via single-tap action," says Casey McGee, a senior marketing manager in Microsoft's Mobile Communications Business group. "For example, people often want to take an address and view it on a map, highlight a term in the browser, and do a search or copy a phone number to make a call. Instead of the user manually doing a copy and paste in these scenarios, we recognize those situations automatically and make them happen with just one touch. In our early testing, people have been pleased with this approach, but we're always listening to feedback and will continue to improve our feature set over time based on what we hear.""
What I see here is Microsoft trying to immitate something Apple did... The problem with this is that nobody liked tihs "feature" on the Iphone either. On the bright side, if you read the above quote there is a ray of sunshine. Number one is that Microsoft implied in their statement that they may add copy and paste in a later version
Number 2 didn't appear in the above quote, because it is said later in the article. Developers will be able to add copy&paste functionality to their apps. This to me sais that if Microsoft doesn't wise up, a developer inevitably will and implement copy&paste in say a web browser, where it's most important to people.
"Casey also notes that developers are free to implement copy-and-paste in their own applications"
In conclusion, the future of the Windows Seven Phone looks fairly bright.
One thing of note, however, is that the Windows Seven Phone will not support flash. From what I understand, flash can severely reduce battery life. To this I say to Microsoft, here's a better option. Include Flash compatibility, simply add an option to disable or enable it, so that people can choose.
The option is better than not having a choice.
Conveniently I found another post that clarifies one of these two issues.
Link
In this article the issue where Microsoft does not plan to include Multi-tasking in the Windows 7 Phone is clarified. The good news is that that it was a false rumor, and that multi-tasking is planned for the Windows 7 Phone. What things will be able to be multi-tasked may be limited, however, multi-tasking will infact be available.
For instance, you will be able to listen to music and use other apps at the same time.
For more info, please read the original article, or this quote:
"Microsoft itself makes use of multitasking in the operating system. For users and developers, an application pauses when the user switches to another program, and the first one could be shut down by the operating system to reclaim CPU or memory resources.
"This was not a quick decision," says Charlie Kindel, partner group program manager for the Windows Phone 7 Developer Experience. Microsoft looked at what it could take to create and use background processing on the phone for developers and users, and the potential impact on the all-important user experience. The conclusion: A lot of infrastructure would have to be built and a lot of added complexity would result.
At the same time, Microsoft executives say the Windows Phone 7 platform provides a range of integrations and services for applications that provide the kind of multitasking users want. For example, if you start a music track on the WP7 device, it will continue playing if you switch from the music application to another one. The "live tiles" in the UI -- the intelligent rectangles and squares that can be linked to phone or cloud-based services and applications -- coupled with Microsoft's free push notification service for Windows Phone provide a way for developers, their apps and services to continually notify and update phone-based programs, for example, with the latest scores from the NCAA tournament.
The goal, Kindel says, is to ensure "We control the quality of the overall user experience.""
The lack of Copy&Paste was unfortunately not discussed in this article. I did however find an article that discussed the lack of Copy and Paste.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/191825/windows_phone_7_copy_and_paste_mia.html
"Microsoft revealed this week at its Mix 10 conference for Microsoft-oriented Web developers that its forthcoming Windows Phone 7 mobile OS will not include a clipboard capability for copy-and-paste operations -- at least not in the first version.
"Windows Phone 7 Series will not initially offer copy-and-paste; instead, we try to solve the most common uses for copy-and-paste via single-tap action," says Casey McGee, a senior marketing manager in Microsoft's Mobile Communications Business group. "For example, people often want to take an address and view it on a map, highlight a term in the browser, and do a search or copy a phone number to make a call. Instead of the user manually doing a copy and paste in these scenarios, we recognize those situations automatically and make them happen with just one touch. In our early testing, people have been pleased with this approach, but we're always listening to feedback and will continue to improve our feature set over time based on what we hear.""
What I see here is Microsoft trying to immitate something Apple did... The problem with this is that nobody liked tihs "feature" on the Iphone either. On the bright side, if you read the above quote there is a ray of sunshine. Number one is that Microsoft implied in their statement that they may add copy and paste in a later version
Number 2 didn't appear in the above quote, because it is said later in the article. Developers will be able to add copy&paste functionality to their apps. This to me sais that if Microsoft doesn't wise up, a developer inevitably will and implement copy&paste in say a web browser, where it's most important to people.
"Casey also notes that developers are free to implement copy-and-paste in their own applications"
In conclusion, the future of the Windows Seven Phone looks fairly bright.
One thing of note, however, is that the Windows Seven Phone will not support flash. From what I understand, flash can severely reduce battery life. To this I say to Microsoft, here's a better option. Include Flash compatibility, simply add an option to disable or enable it, so that people can choose.
The option is better than not having a choice.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Here's a quote from the the article at http://gizmodo.com/5495005/hey-microsoft-dont-fck-up-windows-phone-7
"Dear Microsoft, you did a good job at out-Appling Apple with the Windows Phone 7. At least on paper. But instead of trying to beat them completely, it seems that you want to screw it all with two stupid decisions.
"Dear Microsoft, you did a good job at out-Appling Apple with the Windows Phone 7. At least on paper. But instead of trying to beat them completely, it seems that you want to screw it all with two stupid decisions.
The first one: Eliminate application multitasking. After making fun of Apple's iPhone for not supporting multitasking, you are exactly following Apple's task model... just when it seems that they are bringing multitasking with iPhone OS 4.0."
"And then... then there is copy and paste."
This will suffice for the article at hand. As you may know Windows is releasing a mobile OS platform to compete with the Iphone. My question to Microsoft is... You wouldn't really pull something like this, right? It should be common knowledge by now that everyone likes copy&paste, and everyone hates the lack of ability to multitask.
After all, there are several websites for popular mobile devices that offer a hack for tabbed browsing on normally tab-less browsers. A good example of one of these tabless browsers is the Opera browser for the Nintendo DSi, or Nintendo Wii. Neither have tabs built in, but in both cases there are websites that attempt to hack makeshift tabs for you. In some cases they work very well, such as one site called http://dsitabs.co.cc/
If that doesn't convince you that people love their multi-tasking I don't know what will.
As for copy paste, I don't see why it's a matter of "having it" instead of a matter of "not having it"
After all, shouldn't such a simple, basic functionality of Windows be standard? I dread the idea of typing everything out, on a phone no less, everything I could've copy&pasted in far less time. Don't remove things for no good reason.
This isn't the computer market, this is the phone/mp3 market. And to be honest Apple dominates that market right now. Microsoft needs to take this area of their business seriously, because to be honest it seems obvious to me they couldn't care less about Apple in the computer market.
All in all I think Microsoft has the advantage of better technology here and should make good use of it.
I don't know about the readers, but if the new Windows Phone turns out to be as good it sounds, I'll make an effort to get it.
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