Gizmodo actually has a good point: Google would be protecting the brand from fragmentation, ensuring that the Android remains fully functional:

Sold without a carrier, [...]]]> Ohh that it were true! Thee are rumours about a new Google phone coming out in January for only $99, and although pure speculation it makes my mouth water in anticipation.

Gizmodo actually has a good point: Google would be protecting the brand from fragmentation, ensuring that the Android remains fully functional:

Sold without a carrier, software updates for the Nexus One will be in Google’s hands. They will be able to keep it up to date as Android develops, without having to depend on some other company—or companies—not to drop the ball.

The good part would be that, by creating a loss leader such as that, they will be generating a new generation of google users, with complete integration over the phone.

And, quoting reddit: “google just accidentally the whole cell phone industry.”

Why is that imnpoirtant? When a corporation owns the format in which your document lives, it is effectively gone from you the moment that corporation changes anything, goes broke, anything.

Also, if you have an open document, archival and retrieval processes are far easier and replicable. How many of you know [...]]]> Today is Document Freedom Day 2009

Why is that imnpoirtant? When a corporation owns the format in which your document lives, it is effectively gone from you the moment that corporation changes anything, goes broke, anything.

Also, if you have an open document, archival and retrieval processes are far easier and replicable. How many of you know how to deal with a 1995 Wordperfect document? What about a TXT file? Exactly.

As they indicate in their blogpost

The question of Document Freedom has severe repercussions for freedom of choice, competition, markets and the sovereignty of countries and their governments.

Freedom of speech is worthless if you can not open the speech file!

via adventures in open source and linux today

But it was due to happen: Facebook as a social application is, by far, the most famous; its users are all connected through some degree of trust, and the constant use of social sites has eroded the security instincts that we all developed [...]]]> Facebook, much maligned social site, is now target of trojans, specifically the Koobface.

But it was due to happen: Facebook as a social application is, by far, the most famous; its users are all connected through some degree of trust, and the constant use of social sites has eroded the security instincts that we all developed when we first opened our hotmail account. Now, how many users would even consider clicking on a link that came through email, even from a friend? Very few people – email like that gets trashed very fast. Not so in Facebook, it seems, so much so that this is making news. And at least now we know that fb has a security page, although too little, too late.

From the avertlabs page on the trojan we get that

This component listens on TCP port 9090 and proxies all HTTP traffic, in particular looking for traffic to Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Live.com for the purpose of hijacking search results. Search terms are directed to find-www.net. This enables ad hijacking and click fraud.

The tinyproxy thing was easy to find, but many other things come through that open
door. And that’s when the security nightmare beings.

Ironically, I just got a CSI invitation, and one of their selling poiints is social media and its implication sin security. What do you know!

“@Neurokafka you DMR invaded brain washed corporate elitist! about 5 hours ago from TwitterFox in reply to Neurokafka”

okay, w.t.f. are you talking about? What do you have against stand-up comedy? Larry Miller

and what the hell is DMR invasion, some sort of takeover of the Department of Mental Retardation, [...]]]> And I get this email

“@Neurokafka you DMR invaded brain washed corporate elitist! about 5 hours ago from TwitterFox in reply to Neurokafka”

okay, w.t.f. are you talking about?
What do you have against stand-up comedy? Larry Miller

and what the hell is DMR invasion, some sort of takeover of the Department of Mental Retardation, or Dept Marine Resources? Is this some sort of offshore drilling reference?
My GOD Man! sometimes your tweets (not just your tweets) are like some sort of ironic-cynical koan designed to induce seizures.

This deserves a blog, not a tweet, and since today is Talk Like A Pirate Day, from now on referred to as TLPD in the rest of this document, let’s talk about pirates and DRM, Spore, and IP assumptions.

Spore: magic concept, ambitious yet achievable, and full of unexplained possibilities. It is alike to a caricature of the Metaverse, yet it is extremely poor in activities. It is a common theme that, whenever a social virtual space appears, people forget that activities and meeting points are the most important elements when designing a community infrastructure, be it a building, a city, an enterprise or a game. As Jane Jacobs would say, The point of cities is multiplicity of choice.

The facebook people got it – they walk to school, they walk to work, they interact with others. Yet apparently the people at EA have a limited exposure to old buildings, and probably it is their crunch time strategy affecting the products from Maxis, I don’t know. But while evil facebook will allow people to create communities through activities and enjoy the addictive space that it creates, all that Spore allows you to do is click and click and click. It may have worked ten years ago for SimCity, but now we have RealCity. Times, they are a’changing.

And now to Spore DRM: you have to have an approved PC to run that? Are you oput of your mind, EA? Here are some links you might have encountered regarding that little debacle: Dumbed down experience and draconian DRM; EA Admits Spore Launch Botched by DRM; Still, Financial Damage Already Done; DRM: Buyers Beware, and, last but not least, Spore Most Copied game Thanks to DRM.

What’s that about TLPD then? Pirates are not interested in games qua games, they are interested in whatever brings them money.

• Users sharing their game with others? Cool! Monetize that!
• Users using your servers to exchange creatures? Good! Monetize that!
• Users asking you to allow them to give you money so they can get extra servers and faster interaction or premium access? Monetize that.
• Users talking about how cool your company is? That is something that you can actually transform into money!

So, you see, my tuíterin friend, Spore is bad business, old model, worse interaction.

.

It makes a beautiful poster, though.

OLPC = One License Per Child

Reported by the Inquirer, the OLPC project is throwing away its linux pedigree, opting for the impossibly corporate Microsoft Windows.

What, I wonder, is the rationale behind it. An open-source OLPC would have been magic, even more so in poor countries, or in countries with large barriers [...]]]> This comment summarizes it all:

OLPC = One License Per Child

Reported by the Inquirer, the OLPC project is throwing away its linux pedigree, opting for the impossibly corporate Microsoft Windows.

What, I wonder, is the rationale behind it. An open-source OLPC would have been magic, even more so in poor countries, or in countries with large barriers to technology.

By making it Windows the OLPC is effectively dead; it needs a bigger platform, licenses, updates and distributors, and introduces security risks in all these countries: having an open-source laptop? Cool. Having a closed-source PC? Backdoors come to mind.

Next: get your own Asus eee

Is this a broad generalization, or is this post by Atanu Dey actually on point?

The famous OLPC irks me because of the [...]]]>

I am confident that the One Laptop Per Child will have the effect which is the educational equivalent of the nutritional disaster that imported formula has had on the poor parts of the world.

Is this a broad generalization, or is this post by Atanu Dey actually on point?

The famous OLPC irks me because of the arbitrary definition of “poor parts of the world”, and it has a big shadow reminiscent of “white man’s burden” all over it.

At the same time, I see how communication and free access to networks can create more open, egalitarian discussion, and that in turn might be good.

But I am reading a lot on the OLPC because I am interested in getting those little shiny laptops here in NC:

• Huge income diaprity between classes? Check.
• Limited access to education? Check.
• Low life expectancy? Check.
• Human rights abuses? Check.
• economy in turmoil? Check

I think that the USA qualifies as well as any other country.

It doesn’t go to a “kid”, it goes to a school system, which will then have to pay to maintain it. They’re actually having trouble unloading the devices, from what I’ve heard. My dad immigrated from Africa, and I find that device obnoxious [...]]]> While interesting to suggest giving an OLPC, what is it that makes it insulting?

It doesn’t go to a “kid”, it goes to a school system, which will then have to pay to maintain it. They’re actually having trouble unloading the devices, from what I’ve heard.
My dad immigrated from Africa, and I find that device obnoxious and insulting. I’ll certainly never own one.

Although I am interested in OLPCs for some places in USA, since the whole thing “3rd world” doesn’t apply anymore.

What about getting these to children living in restrictive conditions in poor areas of the world, with little or no access to effective education? What about children living in areas with huge mortality index and decreased life expectancy?

That would bring a new intriguing and fascinating redefinition of 3rd world. As Friedman says, the world is flatter than we think.