Saturday, July 24, 2010

Local Shared Objects and Privacy

2010

Friday, July 23


This entry is for those of us that are paranoid.

Turns out turning off web cookies may not be enough if you don't want to be tracked as you surf the web.  If you had Flash installed, the same thing can be accomplished through Local Shared Object.

An easy way to disable flash while still allowing you to access Flash content you do want to see is with ClickToFlash.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Unconditional love


Loving a kid because they are cute, or good looking, or smart, or good in school, is easy. 

Loving a kid unconditionally, is hard. 

If there must be conditions for love, I think it's better to love them because they are good, kind to others, and try hard. No one can control our looks, or the talents that we are born with.  On the other hand, it seems reasonable to hold us accountable for our efforts, and how we treat one another. 

I have a feeling if more parents do that, the world will be a better place. 

iPhone brouhaha (cont'd)

2010

Thursday, July 22


(Follow up to iPhone brouhaha?)

There are more test results on the iPhone antenna performance published by Spencer Webb on his blog.  While the test results showed that the iPhone 4 design causes the reception quality to be significantly impacted by the grip style that was used, since it's better than the iPhone 3G for all grip styles, and since there really wasn't that much complaint about the iPhone 3G's antenna design, I'd say this is not technically a huge issue.

"AntennaGate", as it were, is largely a PR blunder.  Had Apple just admitted that the grip style affected the reception, but even with that, the reception improved compared to the iPhone 3G, there would have been none of the talk about recall and the other silliness.

For people who are interested, here is a link to a podcast on the tests that Spencer Webb did.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

iPhone brouhaha?

2010

Wednesday, July 14

The iPhone 4 backlash seem to be reaching fever pitch.  After the consumer reports article that refused to recommend iPhone 4, there has been a lot of media and analyst attention on this issue.  There have been some, notably Rob Enderle, that is calling for a recall.  That seems extreme to me.  

[Note that Rob Enderle has written when the iPhone first came out that Apple will not benefit from the iPhone (which is, in hindsight, as wrong as can be), and he also speculated that there might need to be a recall for the iPhone 3G (which never happened).  Given the history, it's probably good to take Mr Enderle's, nay, any analyst's comments with a heavy dose of salt ...]

Meanwhile, there are some people that are questioning Consumer Reports methodology.  

Regardless, I suspect worst case, Apple might have to either give away or discount the $29 bumpers.  Truth of the matter is, I have gotten a protective case for all the iPhones I've had so far anyways, so assuming this is sufficient to solve the problem, I don't see this as a huge issue.

This doesn't stop some analysts from speculating that a recall could cost Apple $1.5 billion though ... to be fair they did say this is highly unlikely ...