Dave Winer has a great take on not just Google+, but social networks and companies in general. A lot of what he is saying resonates with me, at the end of the day I just want to own **my** data.
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Recent Articles
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Quote of the Day: Warren Buffett
“I could end the deficit in 5 minutes. You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP all sitting members of congress are ineligible for reelection.” — Warren Buffett
“I could end the deficit in 5 minutes. You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP all sitting members of congress are ineligible for reelection.” -
The HP TouchPad & Dropbox
Shawn Blanc reviewing the HP TouchPad: >There is not a Dropbox app in the Catalog, but rather a system-level sign-in for Dropbox. Why is this the first I am hearing of this awesome feature? Shawn says that apps have native access to Dropbox once you make the link. This is amazing and very cool. Too…
Shawn Blanc reviewing the HP TouchPad:
>There is not a Dropbox app in the Catalog, but rather a system-level sign-in for Dropbox.Why is this the first I am hearing of this awesome feature? Shawn says that apps have native access to Dropbox once you make the link. This is amazing and very cool.
Too bad the overall impression of the TouchPad is that it isn’t very good.
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I’m Quitting Email
MG Siegler: >For the rest of this month, I’m not going to respond to any emails. None. Who hasn’t wanted to do this? This blog generates about 75% of all emails that I get. At first I responded to 99% of all emails that I received and I did so with as much care as…
MG Siegler:
>For the rest of this month, I’m not going to respond to any emails. None.Who hasn’t wanted to do this? This blog generates about 75% of all emails that I get. At first I responded to 99% of all emails that I received and I did so with as much care as time allotted. Just over a month ago I was pretty fed up with responding to emails, so I stopped.
I didn’t stop reading emails, I just stopped responding to 95% of them. I feel like a dick when I don’t respond, but I also know that by not responding I have more time for other things and I am happier because of it.
I still read 70% of the email that I get, but I don’t feel guilty if I don’t read it. I do however read 100% of @replies that I get on Twitter — so you do have that option if you luck out getting in touch with me (well for as long as I remain on Twitter).
Kudos to MG, I may not be far behind — I have long desired to make Twitter the only way you can “comment”.
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Apple’s App Store Downloads Top 15 Billion
Apple press release: >Apple has paid developers over $2.5 billion to date. Anybody know how much Google has paid out to developers?
Apple press release:
>Apple has paid developers over $2.5 billion to date.Anybody know how much Google has paid out to developers?
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Quote of the Day: Tom Ford
“You should put on the best version of yourself when you go out in the world because that is a show of respect to the other people around you.” — Tom Ford [via Om Malik]
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What’s Yours Stays Yours
Dropbox clarifies its new Terms of Service, re-writing the section that got many hot and bothered, here’s their explanation of the changes: >We’ve never been interested in rights broader than what we need to run Dropbox. We want to get this language right so that you’re comfortable using Dropbox with no reservations: what’s yours is…
Dropbox clarifies its new Terms of Service, re-writing the section that got many hot and bothered, here’s their explanation of the changes:
>We’ve never been interested in rights broader than what we need to run Dropbox. We want to get this language right so that you’re comfortable using Dropbox with no reservations: what’s yours is yours.Bottom line: all that language before was lawyer speak that allowed Dropbox to implement features like sharing and galleries and hosting. The new language is dead simple.
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The “Cloud” and “Privacy”
*This is a reminder.* Unrealistic expectations: I think that is probably the best way to describe the general ‘internet communities’ take on Dropbox and the privacy/security woes the company has been facing. I know this to be the case because the fastest way to be the #1 story on the web right now, would be…
*This is a reminder.*
Unrealistic expectations: I think that is probably the best way to describe the general ‘internet communities’ take on Dropbox and the privacy/security woes the company has been facing. I know this to be the case because the fastest way to be the #1 story on the web right now, would be to post about how your entire life was ruined by any security lapse or overreaching policy that Dropbox has.
“Man has entire life savings wiped out from security lapse at Dropbox.”
“Women faces lawsuit after incriminating data turned over by Dropbox.”
Normally it would be fair to say any and all of the following about me:
1. Picky
2. Paranoid
3. PessimisticHowever in the case of Dropbox I am not paranoid, nor am I pessimistic about their future. I think the biggest problem that Dropbox faces is user education.
Companies really need to start hitting users over the head with the following information:
– Bad things happen to good people and good companies. Once the data is out of your control, it is indeed out of your control — be vigilant about what data you let out of your control.
– In the U.S. the government can and will seize your data through the use of the legal system. U.S. companies **must** comply with this, but you only need be concerned if your are doing something shady. ((Because of that ‘innocent until proven guilty’ thing we got going on I am going with shady instead of illegal.))### Smart Usage
I took a look through everything that I keep in Dropbox yesterday and I determined that, of all the files I keep there the most sensitive ones are financial files for iBank. These files don’t contain bank account numbers (they could, but I choose not to) so essentially you would just get to see how much money I make and how much *more* money I spend if you hacked into my Dropbox account.
That is, yesterday you could potentially have seen that data.
In about 5 minutes I created a few encrypted DMGs with the password saved on my Mac. That adds one extra step (opening the DMG) when I do weekly accounting, yet that one tiny step secured everything “sensitive”.
Sure, I don’t *want* everything in my Dropbox folder to be public, but if it was to get exposed it certainly wouldn’t amount to anything more than a really bad day.
With any “cloud” service you run the risk of your data being seen by someone other than you — it doesn’t matter which company is providing the service — this can and will happen.
If you accept this inherent risk, and you use the services accordingly, there is nothing to fear. So stop freaking out about Dropbox and it’s security — either accept the risks or don’t use the service.
### Pondering a Way for a Better Security System by a Guy Who Knows Nothing About Security or Programming
If you take Dropbox and how it currently works, say you ditch the website version. Once you ditch the website, Dropbox itself (as an entity) has no need to know which files are yours and where those files are, only your computers need to know that information.
It would be like a giant pool of those gross plastic balls that kids “swim” around in, only each ball is owned by a different person. Each person has marked the balls that they own in a unique way, but only the person that marked the ball knows what the mark is theirs. Thus an individual can find the balls that they own, but no one else would know that those balls belong to them and since all balls look the same, well you get the point.
Of course the whole thing is kept in a locked cage to keep out puzzle solvers.
This is security by obfuscation. If you couple this type of routine with what Dropbox [is doing](https://www.dropbox.com/privacy#security), then you have a system that becomes exponentially more useless to would be attackers. That is, you could see my financial “data” above (again without the account numbers) but you wouldn’t have much of a way to attach that data to me.
This also significantly makes government seizure a more difficult process — if Dropbox literally doesn’t know where, or what is, my data then how could they possibly hand it over?
No system is going to be perfect, so remember that when iCloud launches.
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Quote of the Day: Mike Monteiro
“Because ultimately, people may come for the difference, but they stay for the stuff.” — Mike Monteiro
“Because ultimately, people may come for the difference, but they stay for the stuff.” -
The Doom of Publishing Circa 1982
Robert Reinhold reporting for the New York Times on a National Science Foundation report from 1982, even then the coming technology was known to represent a massive change for publishers: >”Videotex systems create opportunities for individuals to exercise much greater choice over the information available to them,” the researchers wrote. “Individuals may be able to…
Robert Reinhold reporting for the New York Times on a National Science Foundation report from 1982, even then the coming technology was known to represent a massive change for publishers:
>”Videotex systems create opportunities for individuals to exercise much greater choice over the information available to them,” the researchers wrote. “Individuals may be able to use videotex systems to create their own newspapers, design their own curricula, compile their own consumer guides.
Fast forward almost 30 years and publishers are only just now realizing what was reported, by a newspaper no less.
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Capture — the Quick Video Camera for iPhone
This is a great little app that I have been beta testing for a while now. What I love about the app is how simple it is: tap the icon and the video starts recording the moment the app is launched. I don’t have kids, but I can only imagine this would quickly become a…
This is a great little app that I have been beta testing for a while now. What I love about the app is how simple it is: tap the icon and the video starts recording the moment the app is launched. I don’t have kids, but I can only imagine this would quickly become a killer app if I did.
Even without kids in my household this app gets plenty of use — I find that when I want to record something, the built in camera app is consistently too slow to make it worth my while.
The app is $0.99 and available now — go get it.
One last note: The app icon, it’s the best icon on my iPhone home screen.
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Quote of the Day: John Gruber
“If it works out as they hope, the result is that we’ll wind up thinking of this social network at least as much as we do about web search when we think of “Google”.” — John Gruber
“If it works out as they hope, the result is that we’ll wind up thinking of this social network at least as much as we do about web search when we think of “Google”.” -
Amazon’s Android Appstore, Not So Amazing
Ryan Kim on Amazon’s Appstore: >Romanus said that after the bad review, Amazon lowered the price to 99 cents from $1.50, which was already a 50 percent discount, without explaining why. Sounds swell.
Ryan Kim on Amazon’s Appstore:
>Romanus said that after the bad review, Amazon lowered the price to 99 cents from $1.50, which was already a 50 percent discount, without explaining why.Sounds swell.
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The Capacitive Button Cult Must Be Stopped
Lukas Mathis: >I think phones have capacitive buttons for the same reason laptops have reflective screens, and TVs in stores have their brightness and contrast turned all the way up. It looks really cool when you see it in a store, and you don’t notice how screwed up it really is until after you’ve already…
Lukas Mathis:
>I think phones have capacitive buttons for the same reason laptops have reflective screens, and TVs in stores have their brightness and contrast turned all the way up. It looks really cool when you see it in a store, and you don’t notice how screwed up it really is until after you’ve already bought it.That last bit, it’s spot on.
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The Email Charter
The email charter is full of great common sense ideas, like this one: >Ending a note with “No need to respond” or NNTR, is a wonderful act of generosity. [via Elliot Jay Stocks]
The email charter is full of great common sense ideas, like this one:
>Ending a note with “No need to respond” or NNTR, is a wonderful act of generosity.[via Elliot Jay Stocks] -
Dave Winer Deletes His Dropbox Account
Dave Winer deleted his Dropbox account due to the [ToS changes](https://brooksreview.net/2011/07/dropbox-tos/), and notes this in his post on the subject: >To people who say I over-reacted. How could you possibly know? I am in the camp that thinks Winer over-reacted, but he is right that I don’t know yet if he did. What I do…
Dave Winer deleted his Dropbox account due to the [ToS changes](https://brooksreview.net/2011/07/dropbox-tos/), and notes this in his post on the subject:
>To people who say I over-reacted. How could you possibly know?I am in the camp that thinks Winer over-reacted, but he is right that I don’t know yet if he did. What I do know is that the challenges that face the privacy and security concerns with Dropbox are the same that all other cloud services face — including Apple’s coming iCloud service and their past MobileMe services.
When deciding whether to use a service like Dropbox you have to make two decisions before you use it:
1. You must decide that the company you are going to use (in this case Dropbox) is not “evil”.
2. You must know that anything and everything you store online could be seen by others, and use the service accordingly.If the changes bug you, then delete your account. If you just want to sync some encrypted data (that you encrypted) or some silly text files then use the service knowing that this data is not 100% private.
I don’t agree with the take Winer has on the ToS, I think they are OK and within the bounds of what the law requires of them — I am not, however, an attorney.
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WordPress Version 3.2
A great update featuring a revamped Admin area and a fullscreen editor that is all the ‘rage’ right now.
A great update featuring a revamped Admin area and a fullscreen editor that is all the ‘rage’ right now.
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Review: Keyboard Maestro 5
Peter N Lewis, the creator of my favorite Mac app, Keyboard Maestro, sent me an email — I thought it was just one of the newsletter emails, then I read it — an invite to test out [Keyboard Maestro 5.](http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/main/) At this moment the heavens opened up and the sun shown on me brightly through…
Peter N Lewis, the creator of my favorite Mac app, Keyboard Maestro, sent me an email — I thought it was just one of the newsletter emails, then I read it — an invite to test out [Keyboard Maestro 5.](http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/main/)
At this moment the heavens opened up and the sun shown on me brightly through the Seattle rain. Why do I tell you this: so that you, the reader, know that this review is written by a huge Keyboard Maestro fanboy — HUGE.
### What the Hell Does it Do?
I really, truly, struggle to define what Keyboard Maestro (‘KM’) does for most computer users. Simply put, it makes my life very easy. It isn’t a tool for the ‘average’ user, it is a tool for people who don’t like repetition, a tool for people who want speed. There’s a learning curve to the app, but it’s not insurmountable.
If I find myself doing the same repetitive task over and over, there stands a good chance that I can automate that action with KM, saving me a lot of time. You can do so much more though, that even such a miraculous sounding statement is not doing KM justice. Best just to tell you some of the things that I use KM for.
#### My Uses:
– Snap a screenshot using Acorn instead of the Mac’s built in tools.
– Append a date to file names.
– Set a click delay on the mouse so I can walk to the printer and load envelopes, then the print button is clicked.
– [Create a ‘focus mode’ for TextMate](https://brooksreview.net/2011/05/km-tricks/).
– Connect to a WebDAV server via keyboard in Finder.
– [Launch Transmit with a shortcut and login to a desired favorite](https://brooksreview.net/2011/05/km-tricks/).
– Mail the currently selected file with a specific email account (more on this later).
– Launch various AppleScripts with keyboard shortcuts.
– [Move selected files to a ‘To Archive’ folder](https://brooksreview.net/2010/12/keyboard-maestro/).
– Create a new (from anywhere):
– Blog Post
– Email
– iA Writer Document
– Note
– OmniOutliner Document
– TextMate Document
– Tweet
– Check OmniFocus at certain times for unprocessed items in the ‘inbox’.
– [Open my most used apps while closing windows of apps I don’t want to see after they are open](https://brooksreview.net/2010/12/keyboard-maestro/).
– Paste current clipboard in plain text.
– Running various Automator workflows with a keyboard shortcut.
– [Super Quit](https://brooksreview.net/2010/12/keyboard-maestro/) (quits all open applications).
– [Open Terminal and SSH into my servers](https://brooksreview.net/2011/05/km-tricks/).
– [Create a Markdown style link from any app just like MarsEdit does](https://brooksreview.net/2011/03/mad-links-km/).
– Center Reeder every time I switch to it.
– Create a link blog post (more on this in a bit).
– Grab current Safari URL and add it to the clipboard as a markdown formatted link with current window title as the linked text.
– Create a quote blog.
– Resize my Safari window to my preferred size.
– [Move Twitter for Mac back to the perfect location on my screen](https://brooksreview.net/2011/05/km-tricks/) (I am forever accidentally moving that window).
– Send current Writer document to TextMate for posting.That’s 30 things that I use KM for almost everyday and it’s not even all the macros that I have set up. It is crazy to think how much tedious work this program has saved me and I am forever thankful for it.
### KM 5
With the release of [Keyboard Maestro 5](http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/main/) the software gains the following very awesome features (only the highlights as I see them):
– Control Flow
– Variables
– Calculations
– Undo-RedoIf you aren’t a KM junkie that list may seem pretty underwhelming, but I assure you that the second item on that list is huge for KM and that is what I want to talk about the most. (The others are excellent features, but I haven’t found good uses for them just yet and I didn’t want to reach to find a use for them just to write about.)
#### Variables
For me the biggest addition is variables, which allows you to ask the user for input and output it in specific areas without having to rely on clipboard history. Meaning that making more complex macros just got a whole lot easier.
Best just to show an example workflow. I mentioned above that I use KM to post linked posts to this blog, [here’s how I did it in the past](https://brooksreview.net/2011/03/cmd-one/) — now the process is much more automated. Here’s the process:
The key here is the variables, which as I have them implemented present dialogs like this:
When it is all said and done I get a TextMate document that looks like this:
[
](https://f3a98a5aca88d28ed629-2f664c0697d743fb9a738111ab4002bd.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/km-post.jpg)Pretty neat, right? I was able to do this before, but I had to click around and fill out the different ‘fields’ in TextMate, now all I need to to is add my comments and publish.
### Workflow, Mastered
The way I like to think about Keyboard Maestro is that it is a way for me to master my workflow — to command it — so it doesn’t command me.
Keyboard Maestro makes your computer work for you, not the other way around. It is one of the five best apps I have ever used on my Mac, hell on any device period. It is that good — be warned though, there is a learning curve with this software, but I believe the payoff is well worth the time spent getting to learn it. KM 5 also comes with a library of macros to get new users started.
### Learning, or How to Think About Macros
Showing you everything that I do isn’t likely to be that helpful to you — we all work differently. I show you my workflows and tell you about things that I do in hopes that I will be able to spark an idea of how you could use KM — there is more than one way to do things.
When I start to set up a new macro in KM here is how I work through getting the macro set up (I share this to help, if I can, you get going with KM):
1. Defining the end result that I want to achieve. (e.g. Creating a TextMate document formatted the way I want to be, pre-populated with certain information.)
2. Next I work through the steps that I would have to manually take to do this, noting along the way the areas that I would want to enter in specific data. (e.g. A file name or date.)
3. I then set up the new macro in KM starting with a name and hotkey. This is done so that I an can quickly test the macro as I go along.
4. Next I start to try and replicate each step in KM using the provided actions.
5. If I can’t do something with the actions KM gives me I go into the app I am interacting with (e.g. TextMate) and see if there is a menu item, or something that I provided that I can call on.
6. If I am still short on an action I move to Automator to see if it can do what I want.
7. Still having problems? Time to look for solutions via AppleScripting on DuckDuckGo.
8. Still issues? Time to dive into the command line and shell scripts.
9. Button it all up.That’s less than ten steps that will take a look of planning, but hopefully pay off in spades. There has only ever been a few things that I couldn’t get accomplished with KM, kudos on version 5 — it is a great step forward.
[Go get it](http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/main/), it’s $36 for new users or an $18 upgrade for current users.
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[SPONSOR] Verbs
Verbs, Simple instant messaging. Verbs is hands down the best IM experience on iPhone & iPod Touch. It’s fast, beautiful and it just works. Flick through chats with Safari-style previews, or tap and hold the page indicators to quickly swipe through them. With support for CloudApp and Droplr, you can view Images, PDFs, Office and…
Verbs, Simple instant messaging. Verbs is hands down the best IM experience on iPhone & iPod Touch. It’s fast, beautiful and it just works. Flick through chats with Safari-style previews, or tap and hold the page indicators to quickly swipe through them.
With support for CloudApp and Droplr, you can view Images, PDFs, Office and iWork documents within Verbs. See your friends, your AIM buddies and your Google contacts in a unified buddy list. Verbs supports a wide variety of instant messaging networks, so you can chat to all of your friends anywhere you go.
Verbs is currently on a ‘Fourth of July’ sale for $0.99.