The Brooks Review

Category: Links

  • Andy Ihnatko’s Buying advice, from one to a billion dollars

    Andy Ihnatko:

    If you have only a thousand bucks to spend: Buy four or five Airport Extreme base stations and offer free upgrades to all of the coffeshops, libraries, and bagel places that you hang out in.

    That’s actually a great idea.

  • ‘Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction’

    This is a long read about how technology is changing the way students learn and work. Except that it is not really for the better, the story centers around one kid so obsessed with film making that he thinks that alone will get him into college. Matt Richtel tells the story:

    He occasionally sends a text message or checks Facebook, but he is focused in a way he rarely is when doing homework. He says the chief difference is that filmmaking feels applicable to his chosen future, and he hopes colleges, like the University of Southern California or the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles, will be so impressed by his portfolio that they will overlook his school performance.

    I’m not a parent so I tend to reserve judgment, but come on, really? Who is letting him believe this stuff, where are the reality checks, when did kids take over the decision making process?

  • Obama calls airport pat-downs frustrating but necessary

    David Jackson for USA Today:

    “One of the most frustrating aspects of this fight against terrorism is that it has created a whole security apparatus around us that causes a huge inconvenience for all of us,” Obama said.

    Funny I seem to remember President Obama not being OK with the Secret Service taking away his Blackberry for “security reasons”. Apparently the ‘huge inconvenience’ does not extend to giving up your Blackberry, only your dignity.

  • Dell Customer Service Saga

    Aayush Arya on a faulty Dell monitor that he has had replaced several times:

    Outrageously enough, this guy also had the audacity to suggest to me that since it seemed damn near impossible for the company to properly produce one Dell UltraSharp 3008WFP, perhaps I would like a downgrade to a cheaper monitor in the interest of at least getting one without any flaws.

    Be sure to click through and read his last paragraph. I have had similar bad experiences with Dell support.

  • My New Home Office

    In case your interested I have a completely different setup at home now, so I figured I would snap a pic.

  • Free Wi-Fi on Alaska Airlines

    Kristin Jackson reporting for the Seattle Times:

    The airline said Friday there would be no charge for in-flight Internet through Dec. 9 (courtesy of the Honda corporation).

    Awesome, who’s going to pick up the tab for me when I fly over New Years week? I vote the TSA pays for it.

  • Flight Control HD for Mac

    It is distributed via Steam and costs $4.99. I have it on my iPad only and love the game. Not sure about how it plays on the Mac, but it has to be better than it would be on the iPhone (iPad is awesome).

    [via TUAW]

  • An Important Update

    If you read this site in RSS or Instapaper be sure to re-read the updated post from today about Minimal Computer Geeks. I posted an important update at the bottom.

  • Get an iPad for $399

    TJ-Maxx is selling the iPad (16GB Wi-Fi only flavor) for $399, which is $100 off the ‘normal’ price. It is not at every store and they won’t tell you which, it’s like hide and seek.

    If you want one, but money has been an issue this is probably as good a deal you will find before Christmas.

    If you are wondering how they can do this – I am guessing that they are eating the $100 and calling it a marketing expense, otherwise they would be at every store. This is a great idea if I am right.

    [via everyone, yesterday.]

    [Updated: 11/19/10 at 7:58 AM] MacRumors (via Gruber) reports that Marshalls has them too and are getting 100 day over a 3-day period.

  • Emergency broadcast warnings to be sent to cellphones

    Tiffany Hsu:

    The “Broadcast Message Center” would allow government agencies to zap alerts to phones in the geographic area affected, whether across a few blocks or nationwide.

    Sounds cool.

  • How to Ask a Nerd for Help (and Get It) Without Looking like a Huge Jerk

    Brett Kelly:

    Reason being, if you don’t give enough of a crap to try to rectify your own situation, then neither does he. Effort shows that you’re (albeit clumsily) committed to getting the problem sorted out and have only come to him out of necessity, not laziness.

    So true, also try Googling for your answer first.

  • Opting Out of TSA for Airport Security Still Requires Full Body Scanners

    This is not good, Ken Tyndall reports:

    The TSA points out that even if an airport decides to use a private firm for security, the screeners still must follow TSA guidelines. That would include using the full body scanners if they are installed at the airport.

  • Defenseless

    Mike Lee:

    As an airline employee, I gave up a lot of rights, because airlines are considered a necessary part of the country’s basic infrastructure. That’s why we bail out the airlines when privatization fails.

    It’s mighty disingenuous, then, to now claim that airline travel is some kind of luxury reserved for those willing to submit to humiliation by the TSA.

  • Atleast One Politician is Mad About Porno-Scanners

    Congressman Ron Paul:

    In one recent well-publicized case, a TSA official is recorded during an attempted body search saying, “By buying your ticket you gave up a lot of rights.” I strongly disagree and am sure I am not alone in believing that we Americans should never give up our rights in order to travel. As our Declaration of Independence states, our rights are inalienable.

    and:

    My legislation is simple. It establishes that airport security screeners are not immune from any US law regarding physical contact with another person, making images of another person, or causing physical harm through the use of radiation-emitting machinery on another person. It means they are subject to the same laws as the rest of us.

    Those are my favorite parts, but the whole article is excellent and well thought out. This transcends political parties and Congressman Paul makes an excellent point that if “political elites” were subject to this type of screening it would never have gotten this far.

  • Backing Up Facebook

    Ian Hines messaged me on Twitter last night to ask if I knew that you could export your Facebook data. It was the first I heard of it, but it turns out that indeed you can export your messages and wall posts among other things.

    Here’s a video from Facebook explaining it all.

    If you are thinking about leaving (and I think you should) then this looks like a smart thing to get before you say goodbye.

    [via Ian Hines]

  • U.K. Government to Snub BBC, Google Over Web Access

    Let’s hope U.S. politicians still ignore other countries, because as Alan Purkiss reports:

    In a speech at a London telecommunications conference organized by the newspaper, the minister will say the market should decide the extent to which service providers can charge for preferential content delivery and slow down other traffic.

  • Google, Facebook Don’t Innovate

    Chris Nuttall for the Financial Times:

    Mr Wilson, author of the  popular A VC blog and a managing partner at Union Square Ventures, said Google had not come up with anything truly transformative that was a home-grown product since Gmail, introduced in 2004. It had relied on acquisitions instead to develop new services.

    Clever, but the story is a great very short read. Apparently Google board members don’t pay much attention to acquisitions their company makes.

  • One More Thing – TSA Porno-Scanners

    Carol Pucci reporting for the Seattle Times:

    Rachel Hawkridge, chairwoman of the state Libertarian Party, said she will gather volunteers at noon at Seattle’s Best Coffee in the main terminal at Sea-Tac airport, then go from there to security gates to hand out information to passengers on privacy and health risks associated with the scanners.

    This is awesome, I wish I was in town for this so I could lend a hand. If any readers are around I encourage you to participate.

  • Today in TSA

    Instead of flooding you with a bunch of links in the stream, here is what I am reading today in TSA news:

    Josh Mitchell for the WSJ:

    Mr. Pistole also tried to allay privacy concerns about full-body-imaging screenings, which allow inspectors to view graphic images of passengers going through security checks. He said devices lack the ability to store or transmit the images.

    That’s why there has never been a leak of say, oh, 100 images.

    Isaac Schlueter on his experience ‘opting-out’:

    After the first 4 “OPT-OUT” calls, they just passed us all through the regular metal detector. No one got groped.

    Information, properly delivered, is power.

    Great story, be sure to read it.

    Noah Shachtman for Wired adds:

    It’s the same kind of trade-off TSA implicitly provided when it ordered us to take off our sneakers (to stop shoe bombs), and to chuck our water bottles (to prevent liquid explosives). Security guru and scanner-suit plaintiff Bruce Schneier calls it “magical thinking…. Descend on what the terrorists happened to do last time, and we’ll all be safe. As if they won’t think of something else.”

    Read the last two sentences again.

    I don’t remember if I linked to this or not, but here is a letter from a Biochemist at UCSF talking about some ‘Red Flags’ and really if you read anything I posted here, read this.

  • iOS Twitter App Push Notifications

    Loren Brichter on who to quiet push notifications while you sleep:

    Pushes should honor sleep time settings (set on the web). In-app settings are on the todo list.

    Very nice.