Brad Stone:
The idea of a monthly subscription service that allows people to jump to the head of airport security lines by submitting to a fingerprint or iris scan may be getting another chance.
If I traveled even 5 times a year on planes, I would pay for this in a heart beat. Why we don’t have faster screening methods after nines years of the TSA is dumbfounding. Let’s get moving on this people.
I was just informed by a friend of mine that he has not been able to login to his online banking with Harborstone Credit Union for all of 2010. The problem is that Webkit was updated and now no longer works with the banks system. He has reported the problem and the bank is more than aware of it, however he was told:
We use a third party company for our online banking, and they have not been able to fix it yet.
Why the hell not? This is not 10 years ago, the Mac is very popular and gaining in popularity. IE’s market share is now below 60% and you don’t support two very popular web browsers? (Safari and Chrome both use Webkit’s engine) If you think for one minute that it is really not that big of a deal then you are an idiot.
Last October I decided it was time to switch banks – I made that decision because the Internet banking at my bank (Rainier Pacific Bank, now Umpqua Bank) was ungodly slow.
So I switched to USAA.com impart because they have a nice iPhone app, and also because I have never heard a complaint about them. They have a phenomenal internet banking service, it is fast and works on everything from my iPhone to Macbook Pro.
It is not a matter of technical hardship, or not being able to do anything about these changes. It is a matter of companies not caring to help their customers.
This day and age you should be looking to support Firefox, Chrome and Safari, then Internet Explorer.
Harborstone, tell your third party company that you want it fixed this week or you are leaving them. Because either you leave your software supplier, or your customers will start leaving you.
MG Siegler:
Again, this is still the early days for all of this. And I do believe these publishers (moreso in the magazine industry, but we’ll give the newspaper industry some time to catch up) are onto something. All I know is that I haven’t read this much print media in years. Or, let me rephrase that: I haven’t paid to read this much print media in years. And yet I’m happy to do it. It’s a weird feeling.
This is a very interesting take on the direction that magazines are taking with the iPad. I for one use Zinio Reader to subscribe and read magazines on my Mac and iPad. I have been using it for years now. That said it is not that great of a reading experience (basically a PDF version of the magazine), so if Magazines started releasing apps that I could subscribe to them in – well I would be all for it.
That being said I am not paying $4.99 an issue. Get it to the same price as paper subscriptions and we can talk.
When I traveled to Japan a few years ago we took an AT&T data card with us and enabled the international plan. The fees were horrendous and almost made it cheaper to lose business than to pay AT&T to stay connected.
Now with the iPad AT&T is charging $200 a month for a lowly 200mb of data. That is absurd.
Especially considering this tidbit from John Brownlee:
What’s most absurd is that since the iPad is sold unlocked, you should be able to just travel abroad, pick up a 3G micro SIM from a local carrier and use their iPad 3G at local rates without a contract. Who is AT&T trying to fool here?
That would seem logical, and if you have tried this please be sure to write and let me know if it works.
Stephen Hawking:
The slowing of time has another benefit. It means we could, in theory, travel extraordinary distances within one lifetime. A trip to the edge of the galaxy would take just 80 years. But the real wonder of our journey is that it reveals just how strange the universe is. It’s a universe where time runs at different rates in different places. Where tiny wormholes exist all around us. And where, ultimately, we might use our understanding of physics to become true voyagers through the fourth dimension.
Also I love this line:
If I had a time machine I’d visit Marilyn Monroe in her prime or drop in on Galileo as he turned his telescope to the heavens.
This release adds support for custom fields on WordPress installations:
For WordPress and other blogs that implement the WordPress API, you can configure custom fields in MarsEdit to customize the post editing interface.
This is something I have been waiting for, and I am so happy that it has now been released. MarsEdit is the best blog posting software you can get for the Mac, this release only ups the ante.
Nick Bilton:
Both agencies have received complaints about Apple’s new iPhone policy, according to a person briefed on the matter, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak about it. In such situations, the agencies typically negotiate with each other to determine which one will initiate an inquiry.
I saw rumblings of this yesterday on the NY Post, but the Post being what it is I had decided not to post it. Now the NY Times and WSJ are reporting this. Don’t be too concerned as these are lengthy processes and do not always result in anything happening.
Jean-Louis Gassée:
The upstart doesn’t signal the end of the previous generation. We still have mainframes, and we’ll have PCs for a long time. But give it time and, as stated at the beginning of this note, the Center of Money will shift as customers become more comfortable with the new, lighter, sexier model, as the nascent devices gain muscle and polish. This is the future Google and Apple have in mind for their Android/Chrome and iPhone platforms.
Indeed, after using the iPad for as long as I have, it is becoming clear that for a great many people there is no need for anything more than an iPad. Once OS 4.0 hits the iPad will be a great only computer for a great many people.
David A. Graham
With so few effective tactics for preventing low-tech attacks, the major consolation is that these measures seem to have driven attackers away from more lethal explosive devices, which are more easily detected, and toward primitive incendiary devices, which are more likely to fail and less deadly.
This is good news indeed. A month ago I was coming back from Canada with a couple of friends at the Major crossing on I5 into Washington. One of my friends had under went medical testing 4 days prior, that require a radioactive isotope to be injected into his blood stream. Within 30 seconds of getting into the area where the explosives detectors are housed there was an Customs Agent out with a Geiger counter. We were stopped brought inside, my friend was questioned and they verified the medical testing. Took us an extra 15 minutes, but was still one of the most impressive things I have ever seen.
The Gear Junkie:
Traveling in Nepal last month, the AdventurerOpti was constantly at my side. The product is small, easy to use and quick: Press the button, dip the lamp into your drink, and wait 90 seconds to purify a liter of liquid.
As a hiker we take water filtration and purification for granted. In the grand scheme of things these little devices are amazing, and hopefully we can get them into the hands of more people who need them on a daily basis.
Chris Foresman:
PTC [ed note: Parents Television Council] agrees with Jobs that this is a problem, as no other smartphone platform offers a system like Parental Controls. “We plan to draw attention to other platforms, such as Android, or Verizon’s Vcast service, that aren’t really doing anything,” McKiernan told Ars.” We definitely want to see progress from some of the other handheld devices.”
Ruh Oh.
Copy/Cut/Paste does not work for many users (including me). This is not good at all. I can’t copy and paste meaning that I can’t compose posts on the iPad (I don’t write them in the WordPress app).
This is a major flaw and I hope it gets fixed yesterday.
A month ago I, like many others, got and iPad. One thing that has really interested me is people complaining about not being able to print. Leading to dozens of iPad apps that allow you to print documents from the iPad via many different methods.
I have none of these apps and probably won’t buy any, the simple fact is that I am 90% paperless in both work and personal facets. So I asked myself, is printing still relevant. With email and signed PDFs, do we really need to print things, and when we do, does it really matter?
(Let’s put aside photo printing, as we all do it and we know just how important high quality is.) I think that now more than ever printing is very important.
Not so much in the sense that we desperately need printouts in order to survive in today’s world. The opposite is actually true, we truly can get by without paper these days – though most choose not to. It is for this very reason that printing is so important.
We need to change the way we think about printouts. Printing should be the new marketing materials that we use. Each printout should be high quality with thought put into it.
We no longer print for portability, we print to impress.
WSJ Staff:
The chairman essentially has three options. He could do nothing and simply ask Congress to pass legislation that gives the FCC authority to enforce net neutrality. (It’s unlikely lawmakers could pass legislation this year or possibly even next year.)
He could say the FCC made a mistake in 2002 when it deregulated Internet pipes and reverse itself, saying it will now apply rules written for traditional phone lines on Internet networks. Phone and cable companies are extremely opposed to this option, since it presents serious uncertainty about which rules will be enforced on Internet providers, like rate regulations and line-sharing provisions.
Finally, Mr. Genachowski could say that the FCC has plenty of authority to enforce net neutrality under its current scheme. The agency would basically need to take another shot at convincing the courts that it’s right. This is likely the easiest option for the FCC chairman, since he’d have the backing of phone and cable company lobbyists who could otherwise make his professional life a bit unpleasant. It would also likely take several years for the courts to rule on another attempt. It’s not clear if Mr. Genachowski will even still be at the agency then.
Everyone should be worried about how this will turn out.
Computerworld poses the following seven ethical questions (my answers shown below each):
Question 1: You open an e-mail to find a huge file of your company’s HR data that was sent to you in error. You can see how much everyone makes, their performance reports … everything that is pertinent to their employment. So, do you a) take a quick skim through before notifying the sender; or b) close it immediately and notify the sender? Is it wrong to look even if you keep the information to yourself?
This is the trickiest of all the questions. There is a line between what I believe to be right and what I would actually do. I think you should close it and delete it, notifying the sender of the error. However, I would most likely take a peek at the file, before notifying the sender.
Question 2: You find that you can examine people’s expenses claims and you see that your boss is cheating for a hundred or so dollars per month: Would you a) report him if you wouldn’t face any consequences; or b) report him, consequences be damned, or c) forget about it?
B) Report him who cares the consequences. My wife would say that I feel this way because I have never really had a boss, but I know I could never work for someone I knew to be cheating the company.
Question 3: Now assume the false claims amount to thousands, not hundreds of dollars: What do you do now? If your answer is different to your answer from question 2, explain.
Same as above.
Question 4: In these tough economic times many people are desperate to get a job. Is it unethical to intentionally and significantly underpay a highly qualified candidate?
No, I don’t believe this to be unethical. I see hiring the same as sales. The person hiring wants to pay as little as possible (just like a buyer) and the person trying to get the job wants as much money as possible (just like a seller would). If one party sucks at negotiating a good salary it is not unethical, however it is not a sustainable business practice. Resorting to underpaying employees will always lead to them leaving as soon as they can.
Question 5: You “know” you are underpaid. You can pad your expenses and get away with it and in the grand scheme of things, your overbilling would be virtually negligible. Is this wrong? If it isn’t, why not? If it is wrong, why?
Yes it is wrong, who would think it is right?
Question 6: You discover that a service provider has violated their terms of service and should have refunded some small portion, say a few dollars, of what they charge your organization, but they don’t make a correction on their bill. If you say anything, it’s going to be a huge fuss and could make your life difficult. Do you a) keep quiet or b) make a fuss. If you keep quiet because it’s only a few dollars then how much would it have to be before you took action?
There are a lot of factors at play here, I am inclined to answer A, remembering the info if there are later problems. I look at it as a cost factor, if I spend an hour trying to get back $3, then is my time worth less than $3 and hour? Certainly not. So I would wait until the amount was equal to or more than the amount I feel my time is worth to deal with the claim.
Question 7: You are part of the team looking for a new CIO. You are down to three candidates and, given the importance of the job, you have the candidates’ backgrounds investigated by a private investigator to see whether there is any “dirt” on them. Is it ethical to probe their backgrounds like this? If you were the candidate, would that change your answer?
I think it would only be unethical if you did not inform the candidate that this was part of the process. Made even more unethical if this is not something that you do for all applicants, only ones that you feel are hiding something.
There you have it, my moral standing.
Jolie O’Dell for Mashable:
The users are claiming that Linden Labs and Founder Philip Rosedale persuaded them to invest money and pay a sort of “property tax” with the promise of actual ownership of virtual land. Now, the users say, the terms of service have been changed without their prior knowledge or consent. They say the new terms “state that these land and property owners did not own what they had created, bought and paid for, and that these consumers had no choice but to click on a new terms of service agreement or they could not have access to their property.” Moreover, the group alleges that Linden Labs froze user accounts and deleted or converted non-virtual currency and virtual property without giving any explanation or avenues for recourse.
Uh Oh.
Cynthia Tamworth on how she uses Floppy Disks (as quoted in the BBC):
I buy these little beauties for a quite different reason. The floppy disk costs an average of £3.66 for 200, however they have a resale value of £5.50 at any good computer recycling centre, so I buy them in bulk and simply sell them directly at a profit. Take that, Bill Gates.
This list was spurned by Sony’s late to the party decision to no longer sell Floppy Drives. Reading through the list I couldn’t help but remember my middle school summers that I spent at my Father’s company formatting floppy disks to be reused and checking that there were no ‘important’ documents on them. Good times.
HotelChatter:
Today, the hotel landscape is firmly divided into those who follow Best WiFi Practices and those who do not. And while old stalwarts will probably never change their policies (cough, Four Seasons, cough), many up and coming hotel brands realize free, reliable, basic WiFi is an easy way to earn guest happiness and loyalty.
Be sure to take a look at this before you book your next hotel. Of the big chains Holiday Inn comes in at #4. Not surprisingly it is all the other chains that are pegged as the worst (W Hotels, DoubleTree, Four Seasons, Marriott).
Apple:
Apple® today announced that it sold its one millionth iPad™ on Friday, just 28 days after its introduction on April 3. iPad users have already downloaded over 12 million apps from the App Store and over 1.5 million ebooks from the new iBookstore.
Staggering.