The incisive, insightful John Gruber on the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s manifesto:
The piece is supposed to be a criticism of Apple’s platform design and policies, but really, what they’re doing is criticizing users for enjoying it.
Gruber on EFF
Posted by Jim Caccamo on June 1, 2012
https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/06/01/gruber-on-eff-2/
On “Crystal Prisons”, Rights, and the Reality of Competing Values
A couple of days ago, the Electronic Frontier Foundation released a manifesto on the future of computing, claiming that companies that offer closed computing systems (like Apple and Microsoft) are violating mobile user’s fundamental rights. I use the term rights here because they use it at the end of the piece in the section “toward a bill of rights for mobile computer owners” and employ phrases like “deprived of liberty.” The basic thrust of the argument is that all computing devices should be open, meaning that users should be able to add or modify the software and hardware in any way they see fit. The piece is not long, and is worthwhile reading.
It has generated some pretty thoughtful critical responses within the Apple-using blogosphere. I won’t go so far as Peter Cohen at the Loop and title this post “The EFF can suck it“, but I do think the EFF’s material is both poorly framed and poorly argued. As is probably the case with all manifestos, they ignore a host of reasonable principles and perspectives in order to try to motivate the masses.
Posted by Jim Caccamo on June 1, 2012
https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/06/01/on-the-eff-the-nature-of-rights-and-the-fact-of-competing-values/
If You Can’t Innovate, Intimidate: Lobbying and LightSquared
Exactly what is wrong with the big business-Washington relationship:
Wireless startup LightSquared has laid off nearly half of its workforce and filed for bankruptcy, but isn’t parting with its extensive network of Washington lobbyists.
Philip Falcone and his investment firm, Harbinger Capital Partners, invested billions of dollars in LightSquared’s plan to build a high-speed wireless network that would have served more than 260 million people, but federal regulators denied it permission to launch in February over concerns that it would interfere with GPS devices…
Last quarter, at least 14 different firms lobbied for LightSquared, according to disclosure forms. The company spent more than $2.8 million on lobbying in 2011, according to records, roughly quadrupling 2010’s total of nearly $700,000.
LightSquared developed a technology that tends (in tests) to interfere with GPS. Rather than fix it, why not just find friends in high places?
There is no right to success in business.
viaBankrupt wireless firm LightSquared cuts employees, but not lobbyists, by Brendan Sasso and Kevin Bogardus at Hillicon Valley.
Posted by Jim Caccamo on May 30, 2012
https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/05/30/if-you-cant-innovate-intimidate-lobbying-and-lightsquared/
Park Like A Jerk?: Social Media for the Insensitive City
Ok. So the name is pretty rude. But the concept is pretty interesting.
Introducing Parking Douche, an app for the Android (GOOG) and iPhone (AAPL) which allows users to take photos of offending parkers’ license plates and detail the make and model of the vehicle. From there, the information is sent to a database where a digital mockup of the vehicle is made and featured in banner advertising on the web — but only those in the vicinity of the bad parking job will see the ad, offering a more localized attack.
There are some crazy and problematic bits to the ad model involved, and, for now, it is only available in Russia. But the idea of using the crowd to exert pressure on people to think about the effect of their actions on others is intriguing. (The article by Mike Schuster, Park Like A Jerk? This App Will Shame You Into Submission, is worth a look.)
Posted by Jim Caccamo on May 29, 2012
https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/05/29/park-like-a-jerk-social-media-for-the-insensitive-city/
Criminals Are Always One Step Ahead of Security: Tax-spoofing
Most thinking about security of online financial transactions focuses on security of the connection to the financial institution and the institution’s ability to police its systems from unauthorized access. But spoofing—gaining access to a site by masquerading as an authorized user—financial institutions doesn’t necessarily entail getting into your preexisting data.
Lizette Alvarez at the NYTimes had an usettiling piece this weekend (With Personal Data in Hand, Thieves File Early and Often) about a new and frighteningly creative strategy being used by identity thieves.
Posted by Jim Caccamo on May 29, 2012
https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/05/29/criminals-are-always-one-step-ahead-of-security/
Rewiring Virtue 