Siri Spills It

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference is scheduled for June 13-17, as confirmed by multiple sources.

Microsoft Sues Over Gag Orders

Microsoft, in a complaint to the Justice Department, says that governments shouldn’t be able to keep cloud providers behind a gag order when they execute a search warrant.

Microsoft brings this case because its customers have a right to know when the government obtains a warrant to read their emails, and because Microsoft has a right to tell them.

Damn straight, Microsoft.

Procedural Failure

Over at MacStories, Graham Spencer wraps up a piece saying:

It is too soon to say, but Apple’s actions today may well be the latest example of policy and procedural failure on App Review.

This seems to be a running theme over the last couple years. The App Store(s) and the review process are both stuck in 2008, while developers and customers are living in 2016.

I’m hoping for big app review and App Store related changes in iOS 10 and macOS come WWDC.

Fight Another Day

The DOJ has vacated their order for Apple to unlock the San Bernardino iPhone. They were always on shaky legal ground, and were flat out lying about the technicalities of it all. They now say they’ve found a way to unlock the phone without compelling a private business to write software for the government.

This isn’t over by anyone’s estimation, but the conversation can slow down and be reasonable now, at least.

Breaking News: Ads Are Now Annoying

Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) SVP Scott Cunningham has released a statement regarding the current state of online ads:

As technologist, tasked with delivering content and services to users, we lost track of the user experience

He goes on:

Looking back now, our scraping of dimes may have cost us dollars in consumer loyalty.

I have two reactions to this.

  1. No shit.

  2. It’s good that the ad industry is finally catching up to user expectation. Nerds have been using ad blockers on desktop browsers for a while, and with iOS9, we’re all adding content blockers to our mobile devices.

I don’t hate “ads”, I hate the junk that quadruples page loads, slows down the open web, and tracks me around the internet. These are not just ads. They are Facebook/Twitter buttons, pop-over “shade” ads that cover all of the content, cross-network trackers, and other nefarious junk eating up my valuable mobile data.

The Irony Is Lost on Verizon

Writing for the Verizon-owned SugarString “news” site, Nick Douglas begins:

Hungary’s parliament is considering a bill that would impose a tax on internet use, a hefty 150 forints (US $0.62) per gigabyte. And the internet is pissed.

and concludes:

An internet traffic tax is an innovation tax, and any such tax, no matter how small, would be philosophically devastating.

I totally agree. My issue comes from the fact that Douglas rails against the constantly increasing price of internet access while collecting a paycheck from the biggest culprit of arbitrary internet price increases in the US. I’m surprised they didn’t ban this story, too.

Why Do People Give Money To Trip Chowdhry?

From a CNBC story on March 20, 2014:

“They only have 60 days left to either come up with something or they will disappear,” said Trip Chowdhry, managing director at Global Equities Research.

Cut to 60 days later…

Chowdhry is supposed to be a financial analyst in the tech sector, but he is constantly wrong.

On a funny aside, as I was typing this post on my iPad, autocorrect changed “Chowdhry” to “chowderhead” twice. Then, it learned it was wrong and stopped. 

 

Unlike Chowdhry.  

That's A Lot of Plusses!

Paul Thorrott, on his Supersite for Windows:

I’ve often described Windows 8 as Windows 7++, because — and contrary to a peculiarly widespread belief — it’s really just a combination of everything that’s great about Windows 7 plus a ton of new desktop improvements, all tied to a new mobile OS I still call Metro. On that note, Blue is Windows 8++: It’s Windows 8 plus a ton of improvements

So, if we’re doing the math correctly, Windows Blue is just Windows 7++++. Or is it Windows 7+16? I don’t know if we add or multiply made up modifiers.

James Bond is a Time Lord.

If you are a 007 fan, as I am, and a Dr. Who fan, as I am, Alan Gratz has something you need to hear.

One Bond. Many incarnations. James Bond is a Time Lord.

I think we can all agree this is the only logical analysis.

(Spoilers for Skyfall in the link)

Religious Freedom?

Valerie Hodges, a Republican State Representative from Louisiana, apparently thinks “religion” means “Christianity”. Someone should tweet her that there are lots of religions.

She was all for Gov. Jindal’s vouchers for religious or private education, until she found out the vouchers could be used for Muslim schools as well.

I do not support using public funds for teaching Islam anywhere here in Louisiana.

Some people are so self-centered that they don’t even notice the world is revolving around them.

Wait… Scratch that, reverse it.

All Wet.

Jeff Jarvis, on his brilliant BuzzMachine blog:

But mostly, shouldn’t reporters report? Standing in the water repeating what we already know over and over is not reporting. Reporting would be finding out what government is not doing — see Katrina. But in truth, with all this information flying by, we don’t need a lot of reporting unless and until government messes up. That’s what is making journalism more efficient and sustainable.

Just a bunch of idiots getting wet.

You're Secure

So, here’s a fun video that Jaime Walters just posted over on the Google+ of me getting locked in a Murphy Bed while she films and Erica has a cocktail.

I love those girls.

[Go to +Jaime]

Should Children Be Allowed To Attend R Rated Movies?

More to the point, should children be allowed to attend R rated movies where consenting adults are masturbating?

Should Adults Be Allowed To Bring Kids To R-Rated Movies Where We Masturbate?

If you’re not reading The Onion, you should be. (ignore the unnecessary Flash header). If you’re not following Baratunde Thurston on Twitter, you should be. If you’re not masturbating in movie theaters, well, that’s up to you.

Of Cell Phones, Coffee, and Pickled Vegetables

Cell phones have been put in the Class 2B by the World Health Organization. This means there’s a possible cancer risk.

Also in the 2B Class of 2011 are these winners:

  • Bracken Fern
  • Caffeine
  • Carpentry and Joinery (well, shit.)
  • Chloroform
  • Chlorine (laundry and pool)
  • Red Dye 9 (eat your M&M's!!)
  • Red Dye 2 (mmmmmm, fruit punch.)
  • Blue Dye 15 (again with the M&M's.)
  • Cobalt
  • Coffee
  • Marine Diesel Fuel
  • Dry Cleaning
  • Engine exhaust from gasoline engines
  • Being a firefighter
  • HIV
  • Human papaloma virus
  • Lead
  • Low frequency magnetic fields
  • Nickel
  • Pickled vegetables
  • Ceramic fibers
  • And a bunch of stuff I can't pronounce.

The moral of the story is this: ANYTHING YOU DO WILL GIVE YOU CANCER.

Have a great weekend.

Google Drops Support For h.264

From Mike Jazayeri, Product Manager on the Chromium Blog:

Though H.264 plays an important role in video, as our goal is to enable open innovation, support for the codec will be removed and our resources directed towards completely open codec technologies.

Google is dropping support for h.264 video in the popular Chrome browser in favor of Vorbis and WebM video. To “enable open innovation.” Yet Chrome ships with an embedded Adobe Flash player. Weird. h.264 is a licensed standard. You pay a license fee to play h.264 content in your software. Adobe Flash is a proprietary single-source (and 15-year-old) streaming technology. Completely closed, like Microsoft’s Word or Apple’s Final Cut.

Did you know Google also owns YouTube? Currently YouTube streams in h.246 for iOS and Android devices, and Flash video for everyone else. Is YouTube going to re-encode hundreds of millions of videos into the new format that has little or no installed base in Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, WebOS or Windows Phone?

Boneheads.

Political Ads Gone Bad, or Coincidence?

If you haven’t heard, Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot this morning at a political event. It is not yet known if she will survive the surgery. This poster from the Sara Palin political action committee puts Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the crosshairs. I’m not at all implying that it is a direct result, but some people tend to take things literally.

Sometimes hyperbole becomes reality. Images matter. Words matter.

Palin removed the poster from her site hours after the shooting.

Priority is a four letter word

I’ve been thinking a lot about priorities lately.  Turns out, there’s really no way to prioritize things.  It’s just not possible.  The same week I start pondering my personal paradox of priorities, I read over on another site an article from my favorite life-commentator, Merlin Mann.

Luckily, I happen to agree with every point he makes, and I also happen to be pretty lazy/busy right now, so instead of posting my thoughts, I’m just going to link to his.  Enjoy the read, and check out the other articles on 43Folders.  It’s good stuff.  Oh, and listen to You Look Nice Today. (iTunes Link)

Mud Rooms, Red Letters, and Real Priorities | 43 Folders | Merlin Mann

By the way, if you like to post things on your website that you find interesting that were really on someone else’s website, don’t copy and paste.  That’s just being a douche.  Some sites (not this one, but some) rely on clicks and ads to survive.  If you copy and paste, even if you give them credit, you are stealing money from the other guy’s pocket.  If you want to give someone credit, do it like me, with a link.  That way, you, dear reader, need to actually go to 43folders.com and read the story.  And that way, you, dear reader, will get the full experience of reading that story the way it was meant to be read, on the other guy’s site, with the other guy’s graphics, and with the other guys ads.  That’s America.

Al Gore to speak on Climate Change

According to Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic, who spoke to Al Gore’s office, the Nobel Laureate and former Vice President will be speaking tomorrow at D.A.R. Constitution Hall in Washington D.C.  His office says

The speech will offer a new way of thinking about our energy production and consumption and a new sense of what is possible when we choose to work together. It will propose a means of tapping America’s innovative skills to build a more secure energy future.</p\>

Apparently, Mr. Gore will lay out an “unprecedented challenge” to the American people on energy and climate change.  I’m listening.

Check out jimmy's new Photostream

Check out jimmy’s new Photostream at flickr.com.  It is a random stream of pictures taken with my iPhone and sent to flickr for the world to see. Find it here! Enjoy, and comment.