Gingerbread May be Ready to Come Out of Google's Oven

Finally it looks like Google is ready to serve up Android 2.3 nicknamed Gingerbread to its users. This a long awaited update as it should bring Android into a more competitive position with Apple and their juggernaut iPhone iPad combo. And with the features that most expect Android will offer most if not all of the features that Apple currently offers in its i line of products. The real question is will the Android driven pad computer offer the iPad's features but not require a data plan for most users. If it does it could make a real cost saving advantage that the iPad would have a problem answering as you can bet that At&T and Verizon aren't going to like the iPad trying to undercut their data plan sales. And if Google Voice is part of the deal then you have a pad computer that can work without a data plan and make a reasonable cell phone replacement all at the same time and all using Google services and software. That could be a true market changer as many would welcome a change to reduce their cell phone and data plan charges without losing any features or services. So the only question is just when will we all get to sample some of that Gingerbread Google's had in the oven. With gingerbread cookies in the shape of the Android logo showing up on some Google sites you can bet it won't be long.

Amplify’d from news.yahoo.com

Google Signals Android 2.3 'Gingerbread' is Done Baking

Google has dropped yet another clue that the company's next iteration of its Android mobile operating system is ready to be served up to users—literally. The official Google Mobile Twitter account now links to a rather suspicious image of a plethora of gingerbread cookies that have been baked in the style of, you guessed it, the Android logo.

The culinary move comes in the wake of Google's first big clue that Gingerbread was nearing release—the launch of a giant Gingerbread man in the front of the company's Mountain View, Calif. headquarters. It's been a longstanding tradition that larger-than-life replications of the company's mobile OS codenames, all conveniently themed around delicious desserts, get added to the ever-expanding "sculpture gallery" at Google.

So what, then, can users expect to see upon the ideally imminent release of the upgraded OS? According to Phandroid, the user interface has been shuffled around a bit to the benefit of Android's native applications—they'll now appear as more integrated parts of the operating system, rather than add-on accessories in the same styling of a conventional downloaded application.

Video chat is allegedly integrated into the Gingerbread OS—a move that wastes no time in arriving, given Apple's push toward making its Facetime video chatting service an industry standard. Provided carriers allow it, Google also allegedly intends to integrate VoIP service directly into its mobile OS.

While that might not be as big a deal for the mobile market, the cost of data plans being what they are, it would be quite a line in the sand for future tablet devices based on the Android OS. After all, one could then pick up an iPad-like device without having to pony up monthly fees to a carrier for any communications or data. Integrated wireless connectivity could solve the latter, and integrated Voice over IP functionality (through Google Voice?) could theoretically allow the tablet to serve as a kind-of phone replacement, if necessary.

There's no official release date for Gingerbread, nor the Samsung Nexus S—a device originally rumored to be hitting the market this month, and one whose front-facing camera would be an ideal match for the aforementioned Android 2.3 features. With pictures of both currently making rounds in the market, however, it's safe to say that the Gingerbread Man is coming soon to Android users soon. And, with luck, he'll have some new hardware for his features to actually work with. Read more at news.yahoo.com

 

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Everyone will try & many can succeed at pleasurable easy tasks real courage & strength is to risk the tough tasks & thus risk failure http://amplify.com/u/f6gt

G20 Summit no Summit at all! Just More Anti-American Economics as Usual.+

It's been a total failure so far for the president at the G20 conference. Not one major thing we tried to get went beyond the presidents talk. The G20 has become a group that is controlled by China and others working against the interests of America. That is not a good development for us and unless something changes it will only get worse. China and Germany in particular will still go on keeping their currency under valued by unfair and improper methods. And Germany is continuing to stimulate it's local economy in an unfair manor. While we here in the states are left unemployed and a struggling economy. This conference may well, as this article states, be the final conference we had any chance to stop such actions.

Amplify’d from www.guardian.co.uk

G20 summit: Seoul survivors

The summit communiqué is full of good intentions but the bottom line is that China has not backed down

It is tempting to treat the G20 meeting in South Korea as the "so-what" summit. Lots of leaders had lots of talks in Seoul. But they reached precious few enforceable agreements at the end of them. So what? Yet this was less the so-what than the Sherlock Holmes summit. In the detective story, the significant thing was the fact that the dog did not bark in the night.

By the same token, the big story from Seoul is that there was no big story. If there had been, as in many ways there should have been, that story would have been that the United States had successfully forced the Chinese and Germans to stimulate their domestic economies and compelled the Chinese to revalue the yuan upwards to help US exporters.

Yet this did not happen. The summit communiqué is full of good intentions, expressions of co-operation and agreements to make future agreements. But the bottom line is that China has not backed down. If you seek a symbolic moment when the United States ceased to command the 21st-century world and ceded its place to the Asian century, this week in Seoul was arguably that moment.

Reflexive anti-Americans will doubtless celebrate this. But they should be very careful what they wish for. The awkward truth is that in Seoul the United States was making the right arguments about the need to prevent trade imbalances getting out of control and was correct to criticise China and Germany for their big current account surpluses based on exports to the rest. A situation in which the surplus nations rely for growth on the rest of the world rather than on domestic demand, and then lend the creditor countries money to buy their exports, is a dysfunctional one. The political problem is that the US, as the principal shaper and owner of the postwar economic order, is not now in a position to win the argument from a new position of relative weakness.

For there to have been no mention of undervalued currencies or trade imbalances would have been a real slap in the face for the US. But the words in the communiqué, which concede a commitment by China to "move toward" more market-determined exchange rates and a pledge to pursue polices "conducive to reducing excessive imbalances", fall well short of the kind of bankable assurances that America sought. Though Barack Obama can tout the G20's opposition to competitive devaluations and its commitment to drawing up "indicative guidelines" on the necessary correctives against large imbalances as US gains, these are effectively negated by the capacious Chinese get-out which allows G20 members to "take into account national or regional circumstances". So the message from Beijing to Washington is very clear: don't call us – we'll call you.

The agreement on a so-called "Seoul consensus" on restructuring the International Monetary Fund is also more apparent than real. But the sensitivity of the negotiations on this point shows just how much symbolic significance was attached to it on all sides. As a step in the process of replacing the Washington consensus of strict monetary controls and private-sector led recovery, Seoul was a big summit. But the end of a period of US dominance may mark the start of a period of national and regional indecision that makes solutions to the world's economic woes more elusive than ever. Read more at www.guardian.co.uk

 

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G20 Summit Trying to Find Answers to Difficult Economic Issues

As the leaders of the 20 top economic countries meet in South Korea answers to the major countries economic problems loom large on the agenda. And with all the problems they already have news sends the tech industry stock lower on Cisco's lower earnings reports. Of course the big issue of the American delegation is to address the problems of currency control by Japan and China which keep their currencies lower against the dollar than the free market would if they were allowed to truly seek their proper levels against the dollar.

Amplify’d from www.kansas.com

Stock futures fall as G20 summit convenes

NEW YORK - Stock futures slipped Thursday as world leaders attempt to come up with plans to strengthen a weak global economy.

Volume could be light because of the Veterans' Day holiday, which would exaggerate moves. Bond trading is closed for the holiday and the government is closed so there will be no readings on the economy.

The Group of 20, which encompasses leaders from major rich and developing nations, are meeting in South Korea and trying to hammer out plans to help support a global recovery that has accelerated in some countries like China while more developed countries like the U.S. have struggled to rebound.

Currency manipulation, trade gaps and protectionism are the major topics the group is expected to discuss. Some countries criticized the U.S. last week after the Federal Reserve announced a bond-buying program that effectively cut the value of the dollar. The U.S. and others have criticized China for holding its currency artificially low.

A weak currency helps a country's exports because they become cheaper to sell overseas. That can lead to big trade imbalances and protectionist reactions from government's trying to keep their own countries' goods from being priced out of the world market.

The dollar did gain ground against the euro Thursday, but slipped against Japan's yen. The Japanese government has flooded currency markets multiple times in recent months with yen to cut the value of the currency as it hovers near a 15-year low against the dollar.

A steadily declining dollar over the past two months has helped funnel money into stocks and commodities as investors seek better returns. Read more at www.kansas.com

 

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Medical Research and it's Dangers to Our Lives and Safety

In an article by a fellow Amper on Amplify @rafaelmarquez he brings up the recent revelation that a hospital in South African had been obtaining kidneys from poor Brazilians and Romanians that were paid to donate kidneys to wealthy Israelis. Sadly in return for a guilty plea charges were dropped. So it remains to be seen if the guilty will even face more than monetary fines and punishments. Read the full article and it's comments here Hospital Admits Transplants

This story only shows that if we don't stay vigilant the poor and downtrodden among us will be unfairly used and abused by those who have the money and power to do it. And we have see not only private groups like this hospital abuse medicine but governments including our own do so as well. 

Look at the recent admission U.S. government medical researchers intentionally infected hundreds of people in Guatemala, including institutionalized mental patients, with gonorrhea and syphilis without their knowledge or permission more than 60 years ago. Many of those infected were encouraged to pass the infection onto others as part of the study. About one third of those who were infected never got adequate treatment.

And while, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius offered extensive apologies for actions taken by the U.S. Public Health Service how does ever fully excuse or defend such treatment of another human being. In part their statement read;"The sexually transmitted disease inoculation study conducted from 1946-1948 in Guatemala was clearly unethical," according to the joint statement from Clinton and Sebelius. "Although these events occurred more than 64 years ago, we are outraged that such reprehensible research could have occurred under the guise of public health. We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologize to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices."

And then again we see the an even worst mistreatment and of our own citizens in the case of the Tuskegee Airmen who for forty years between 1932 and 1972, were the victims of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) as they conducted an experiment on 399 black men in the late stages of syphilis. These men, for the most part illiterate sharecroppers from one of the poorest counties in Alabama, were never told what disease they were suffering from or of its seriousness. The story finally broke in the Washington Star on July 25, 1972, in an article by Jean Heller of the Associated Press. Her source was Peter Buxtun, a former PHS venereal disease interviewer and one of the few whistle blowers over the years. The PHS, however, remained unrepentant, claiming the men had been “volunteers” and “were always happy to see the doctors,” and an Alabama state health officer who had been involved claimed “somebody is trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.”

You can read more about the Tuskegee experiment here: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

So from these examples we can see the danger and the totality of the risk of medicine run amok. And as we now see genetic studies and experiments opening up even more ethical questions as well as medical advances we must say alert to the fact that we face an age when abuse and  mistreatment in the name of medicine may reach new heights. Everything from DNA and stem cell experiments make us face genetic manipulation and control while we have to worry if organs are being harvested for those with the power and money to obtain them from others against their will and at the cost of their lives.  

Just reading about Tom Selleck's new CBS series "Blue Bloods" starting this fall. It sounds great and I'm really looking forward to seeing him in a series again. Loved Magnum PI and most of his cowboy stuff since but it's nice to see him in some new stuff. I just hope it doesn't disappoint but I think it will be good. So any of you glad to seem him back? http://amplify.com/u/evux

Microsoft and Security It Still Sounds Strange to Say Them Together

Microsoft continues to make moves in the security realm. And while MS is most known for their Win OS's being weak in the security area the truth is that security with Win XP and beyond has continued to increase and improve. Now we see them beginning to offer a paid version that just might get some traction. So on the personal side they are releasing a new version of Security Essentials their free security suite. And on the business side a new version of Forefront Client Security to be called Forefront Endpoint Protection as a paid security suite. Both show promise of being good but not outstanding programs. Their main value is to show the security industry that MS intends to stay in the security suite business as security over all continues to be improved.

Amplify’d from www.zdnet.com

Microsoft delivers near-final test build of new Forefront security client

Microsoft is making available for download the Release Candidate (RC) test build of its Forefront Endpoint Protection client software.

Forefront Endpoint Protection is the new name for Forefront Client Security (FCS). Microsoft reiterated on November 8 that the product is still on track to be released to manufacturing before the end of calendar 2010. Microsoft announced the RC availability on the opening day of its TechEd Europe conference in Berlin on November 8.

Microsoft made available in July a beta of Forefront Endpoint Protection (as well as a beta of its free sibling, the updated version of Microsoft Security Essentials). The new version of MSE is also slated to ship before the end of this year.

Forefront Endpoint Protection — which is based on System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 –  is designed to provide security for XP, Windows Server 2003 and all subsequent versions of Windows client and server. The coming release includes the same anti-virus engine that is part of MSE; new behavioral threat detection; better protection against “unknown” and “zero day” threats; Windows Firewall management; and on-demand signature updates from the cloud.

Microsoft is pitching Forefront client as its security offering for business users of any size, from the smallest business to the largest enterprise. It is pitching MSE as being for consumers, and, as a couple of months ago, small businesses with up to 10 PCs. Read more at www.zdnet.com

 

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Geotracking Information Contained in Online Photo's Can Endanger Safety

One of the common security breaches people make every day is not realizing that they may be sharing more when they post pictures than they realize. Most smart phones and some digital cameras can add the coordinates where a picture was taken. So that cute cell phone picture of your child may contain the exact coordinates some stalker or molester needs to find them. And that new TV you got and posted a picture of on line might just give out where a burglar can go to pick it up. I'm sure that's not what you had in mind when you posted those pictures but that is just what you may be doing. So be sure that any cameras you use have geotracking turned off and protect your privacy and your family. If you have any problems finding out how to do this for you cell phone the site ICanStalkU.com. For cameras you will need to check with the manual or your camera makers site.

Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com

Web Photos That Reveal Secrets, Like Where You Live

When Adam Savage, host of the popular science program “MythBusters,” posted a picture on Twitter of his automobile parked in front of his house, he let his fans know much more than that he drove a Toyota Land Cruiser.

Embedded in the image was a geotag, a bit of data providing the longitude and latitude of where the photo was taken. Hence, he revealed exactly where he lived. And since the accompanying text was “Now it’s off to work,” potential thieves knew he would not be at home.

Security experts and privacy advocates have recently begun warning about the potential dangers of geotags, which are embedded in photos and videos taken with GPS-equipped smartphones and digital cameras. Because the location data is not visible to the casual viewer, the concern is that many people may not realize it is there; and they could be compromising their privacy, if not their safety, when they post geotagged media online.

Mr. Savage said he knew about geotags. (He should, as host of a show popular with technology followers.) But he said he had neglected to disable the function on his iPhone before taking the picture and uploading it to Twitter.

Still, Mr. Savage has since turned off the geotag feature on his iPhone, and he isn’t worried about the archived photo on Twitter because he has moved to a new residence.

“I’d say very few people know about geotag capabilities,” said Peter Eckersley, a staff technologist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, “and consent is sort of a slippery slope when the only way you can turn off the function on your smartphone is through an invisible menu that no one really knows about.”

Indeed, disabling the geotag function generally involves going through several layers of menus until you find the “location” setting, then selecting “off” or “don’t allow.” But doing this can sometimes turn off all GPS capabilities, including mapping, so it can get complicated.

The Web site ICanStalkU.com provides step-by-step instructions for disabling the photo geotagging function on iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Palm devices.

A handful of academic researchers and independent Web security analysts, who call themselves “white hat hackers,” have been trying to raise awareness about geotags by releasing studies and giving presentations at technology get-togethers like the Hackers On Planet Earth, or Next HOPE, conference held last month in New York.

Their lectures and papers demonstrate the ubiquity of geotagged photos and videos on Web sites like Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Craigslist, and how these photos can be used to identify a person’s home and haunts.

Many of the pictures show people’s children playing in or around their homes. Others reveal expensive cars, computers and flat-screen televisions. There are also pictures of people at their friends’ houses or at the Starbucks they visit each morning.

By downloading free browser plug-ins like the Exif Viewer for Firefox (addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3905/) or Opanda IExif for Internet Explorer (opanda.com/en/iexif/), anyone can pinpoint the location where the photo was taken and create a Google map.

Moreover, since multimedia sites like Twitter and YouTube have user-friendly application programming interfaces, or A.P.I.’s, someone with a little knowledge about writing computer code can create a program to search for geotagged photos in a systematic way. For example, they can search for those accompanied with text like “on vacation” or those taken in a specified neighborhood.

“Any 16 year-old with basic programming skills can do this,” said Gerald Friedland, a researcher at the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. He and a colleague, Robin Sommer, wrote a paper, “Cybercasing the Joint: On the Privacy Implications of Geotagging,” which they presented on Tuesday at a workshop in Washington during the Advanced Computing Systems Association’s annual conference on security.

By looking at geotags and the text of posts, Mr. Sommer said, “you can easily find out where people live, what kind of things they have in their house and also when they are going to be away.”

ICanStalkU.com, developed by the security consultants Larry Pesce of the NWN Corporation in Waltham, Mass., and Ben Jackson of Mayhemic Labs in Boston, uses a more direct approach to warning about the potential dangers of geotags. The site displays a real-time stream of geotagged photos posted on Twitter; the person who posted the photo also gets a notification via Twitter.

“The reaction from people is either anger, like ‘I’m going to punch you out,’ or ‘No duh, like I didn’t already know that’ or ‘Oh my God, I had no idea,’ ” Mr. Pesce said.

“I immediately tweeted back to find out what I can do about it,” said Ms. Parker. The site sent her a Web link to instructions on how to turn off the geotag function on her LG Ally smartphone. “It’s definitely good to know for me personally and because of my social media work, too,” she said

In the latter category was Cristina Parker of El Paso, who sells appliances part-time at Kmart and also manages social media for small companies. ICanStalkU.com notified her last week that a photo she had posted on Twitter of her Chihuahua, Zipp, also revealed where she lived.

Because of the way photographs are formatted by some sites like Facebook and Match.com, geotag information is not always retained when an image is uploaded, which provides some protection, albeit incidental. Other sites like Flickr have recently taken steps to block access to geotag data on images taken with smartphones unless a user explicitly allows it.

But experts say the problem goes far beyond social networking and photo sharing Web sites, regardless of whether they offer user privacy settings.

“There are so many places where people upload photos, like personal blogs and bulletin boards,” said Johannes B. Ullrich, chief technology officer of the SANS Technology Institute, which provides network security training and monitors the Internet for emerging security threats.

Protecting your privacy is not just a matter of being aware and personally responsible, said Mr. Sommer, the researcher. A friend may take a geotagged photo at your house and post it.

“You need to educate yourself and your friends but in the end, you really have no control,” he said, adding that he was considering writing a program to troll the Internet for photos with geotags corresponding to users’ home addresses.

“I’m beginning to think there may be a market for it.” Read more at www.nytimes.com

 

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Top Cars to Avoid as Listed in Forbes Article

Detroit has been busy trying to clean up it's act and has made some strides but sill there some cars out there that you just shouldn't buy unless you just love trouble. Forbes in this recent article talks about the issue of those clunkers still coming out of Detroit and lists them. Great read for anyone looking for a new car!

Amplify’d from autos.yahoo.com

Seven Clunker Cars To Avoid

Things have been looking up for troubled American automakers. In October General Motors saw sales across all four of its brands (Chevy, Buick, Cadillac and GMC) rise 22% year-over-year. Chrysler's sales were up 37% during the same period, and Ford Motor's sales climbed more than 20%.

But overall life is still giving Detroit lemons: All seven vehicles on our roundup of 2010's biggest clunkers come from GM and Chrysler.

Behind the Numbers

To determine 2010's biggest clunkers, we revisited a series of worst-of-the-worst lists, starting with our own The Most Dangerous Cars On The Road, Most Dangerous Trucks on the Road and Cars that Lose Their Value the Fastest. (We included depreciation rates because depreciation is the biggest expense of owning a car, and gives insight into whether consumers like their cars, and if they perceive them as reliable.)

We also looked at the 34 least-reliable cars as rated by Consumer Reports, and all vehicles that received a score of two stars or less on JD Power and Associates' annual dependability ratings. Any 2010 model car that appeared on at least three of these five lists makes our final ranking of the year's biggest clunkers. We did not include clunkers from now-defunct brands like Pontiac and Saturn.

It's All Relative

The car models on our list may rank at the bottom when you compare them to other new vehicles in their class. But just because a car counts as a "clunker" doesn't mean it's inherently dangerous or unreliable. Automobiles released in 2010 are safer, more reliable and better-made than cars made just a decade ago, and they're vastly better than anything made in the 1940s and '50s.

"If you're going to [ask about] unsafe cars in the market, or unreliable cars the market ... you'd have to say there aren't any," says Karl Brauer, senior automotive analyst at automotive website Edmunds.com. "You're really just down to the least-good cars, the cars that are below average."

Brauer says improvement comes mostly as a result of increasingly strict federal standards, which will continue to require safer and more efficient vehicles in the future. Two brands that have jumped ahead of the pack in those terms, according to Brauer? Korea's Hyundai and Kia.

Bottom of the Barrel

Still, it's impossible to ignore when a new car simply doesn't perform. Take Chrysler's Jeep Wrangler SUV: While it enjoys a fiercely loyal following of off-road and vintage-loving drivers, it doesn't perform as well as its competitors on federal and private safety tests.

Consumer Reports gave the Wrangler only 17 out of 100 points overall (anything above 70 is considered a "good" score) and criticized its ride, handling, braking, noise, fuel economy, fit and finish, visibility, front-seat comfort and access. The SUV received a less-than-glowing assessment: "We expect reliability to be worse than average, according to our latest subscriber survey," the Yonkers, N.Y.-based agency said.

Another Chrysler-made vehicle, the Sebring sedan, also appears on the list of clunkers. It's notoriously below-average in agility and performance tests and a frequent recipient of well-below-average reliability scores.

"The Sebring is one of the least competitive family sedans on the market," says Consumer Reports. "We found the 2.4-liter engine noisy and unrefined, and four-speed automatic unresponsive. The ride is unsettled, and handling is ungainly but ultimately secure. The interior has cheap, hard plastics, poor panel fit and uncomfortable seats." It's no surprise that the Sebring will be discontinued after the 2010 model year, to be replaced with the Chrysler 200.

Silver Lining For Detroit

Even though General Motors cars account for nearly half of the models on this list, it's not all bad news for the manufacturer: The three brands that saw the biggest year-over-year increases in new U.S. registrations are also Buick, Cadillac and GMC.

Tom Libby, an automotive analyst for R.L. Polk, says the strong showing in sales of those GM brands supports the notion that the auto industry is still "all about product." Buick's 58% increase over last year is due mostly to the recent introduction of the all-new Regal sedan, as well as nearly doubled sales of the updated Buick Lacrosse. Cadillac's 44% rise has been driven by a tripling in deliveries of the redesigned SRX.

"There are some hard facts working in [GM's] favor," Libby wrote this week in his earnings report. Indeed. GM is eliminating clunker cars like the Chevy Aveo, which was listed as one of the most dangerous cars of the year on Forbes' annual roundup, and rated by Consumer Reports as one of the least reliable compact vehicles on the road. GM is said to be planning a name-change for the subcompact when its refreshed version hits showrooms next year.

Redesigned and rebranded 2011 models should create positive buzz for American automakers. "The domestics are designing exciting vehicles such as the Malibu or the Taurus or the Enclave," says Eric Ibara, director of residual value consulting for Kelley Blue Book. "They're finally coming up with vehicles customers want to buy."

As early as next year consumers will see significant improvements in several key models from Detroit, Ibara says. In short: Don't splurge on a new car until the new models hit the market. You'll be glad you waited. Read more at autos.yahoo.com

 

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As Pogo Would Say " We Have Met the Enemy, and He is Us."

In what has become the most famous of many quotes and witty observations that were made in the comic strip Pogo by it's writer Walt Kelly he makes a profound statement that goes to the heart of most of our problems today. "We have met the enemy, and he is us." With that one short sentence Kelly managed to express the simple but powerful thought that all the problems we see as being somehow done to us by an unseen and unknown enemy are actually done to us by us. For the they and them we seek, write about, and condemn is made up of our neighbors, our friends, our family, and even ourselves. It is only by seeing that we are part if not all of the problem that we can begin to fix things in this country. By fixing first those things we are responsible for and then demanding of others to do the same we will start a chain reaction that will ripple through our society. Once we all start to do and be responsible for what we can change everything from our government to our businesses will see things right themselves. For as Kelly went on to write in June of 1953 "Traces of nobility, gentleness and courage persist in all people, do what we will to stamp out the trend. So, too, do those characteristics which are ugly. It is just unfortunate that in the clumsy hands of a cartoonist all traits become ridiculous, leading to a certain amount of self-conscious expostulation and the desire to join battle.

There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand. Resolve then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving and tinny blast on tiny trumpets, we shall meet the enemy, and not only may he be ours, he may be us.

Forward!'

Amplify’d from en.wikipedia.org

"We have met the enemy..."

Probably the most famous Pogo quotation is "We have met the enemy and he is us." Perhaps more than any other words written by Kelly, it perfectly sums up his attitude towards the foibles of mankind and the nature of the human condition.

The quote was a parody of a message sent in 1813 from U.S. Navy Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry to Army General William Henry Harrison after the Battle of Lake Erie, stating "We have met the enemy, and they are ours." It first appeared in a lengthier form in A Word to the Fore, the foreword of the book The Pogo Papers, first published in 1953. Since the strips reprinted in Papers included the first appearances of Mole and Simple J. Malarkey, beginning Kelly's attacks on McCarthyism, Kelly used the foreword to defend his actions:

Traces of nobility, gentleness and courage persist in all people, do what we will to stamp out the trend. So, too, do those characteristics which are ugly. It is just unfortunate that in the clumsy hands of a cartoonist all traits become ridiculous, leading to a certain amount of self-conscious expostulation and the desire to join battle. There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand. Resolve then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving and tinny blast on tiny trumpets, we shall meet the enemy, and not only may he be ours, he may be us. Forward!

—Walt Kelly, June 1953

The finalized version of the quotation appeared in a 1970 anti-pollution poster for Earth Day, and was repeated a year later in the strip reprinted here. The slogan also served as the title for the last Pogo collection released before Kelly's death in 1973, and of an environmentally-themed animated short on which Kelly had started work, but which ill health prevented him from finishing. Read more at en.wikipedia.org

 

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Did You Hear the One About FaceBook's API, Funny!

Talk about a punch line for a joke! The answer FaceBook now wants us to accept for why Google and other services can't access their API so users can download contact information and other items that they might want to sync and share is hilarious. It's FaceBook's contention that it's "too hard" to allow their API to sync information with Google and other services. So let me think about this for a minute.... Hummm... FaceBook, The same FaceBook, that allowed every game and app that had access to their API to download not only a users information but the information about every contact that user had along with the name and nature of every FaceBook app they used now can't make it possible for Google and other services to even get a friends list to sync. Come on Mark, I mean Mr. Zuckerberg, you're telling me that you can't find a way to allow information to be shared or synced by a user with ANY other service but that you can't stop and didn't know that EVERY single app using your service had access to everything about a user they could possibly want and all without either the users or your knowledge or permission. Sounds like you need to fire that bunch of programmers you have now and hire those boys that work for the app companies. Now there are some programmers! But seriously Mr. Zuckerberg, you can’t possibly believe that anyone who thinks about this can understand how it can be both ways. On the one hand your API leaks like a sieve and every program that has accesses too provide games, polls, astrology readings, etc. can capture any and all of the users (and their friends) information that they want. And they can transmit it to anyone anywhere in the world they want. But your programmers can’t provide an interface to this same API that allows a user to sync their information to another service of their choice. That is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard … ROFLAO… sorry lost it there for a minute. Anyway look let’s just leave it like this Mr. Zuckerberg. Quit trying to put a spin on it and admit that FaceBook doesn’t share information with anyone who doesn’t pay for it in some way. And FaceBook is only interested in promoting FaceBook and has no intention of ever sharing anything with anyone that could be even remotely seen as a competitor. I can live with that position and seemingly so can most of your users as they have kept their accounts through all of your security snafus. But what I am getting tired of and can’t live with is being treated like an idiot… that Mr. Zuckerberg I am not.

Amplify’d from www.zdnet.com

Google vs. Facebook in API scrum: Why can't we all just be reciprocal?

Google tweaked its terms of service for its contacts application programming interface and raised a bit of a ruckus. Turns out Google will only enable contact data to be exported if the party on the other end is reciprocal. In its terms of service, Google notes:

5.8. Google supports data portability. By accessing Content through the Contacts Data API or Portable Contacts API for use in your service or application, you are agreeing to enable your users to export their contacts data to other services or applications of their choice in a way that’s substantially as fast and easy as exporting such data from Google Contacts, subject to applicable laws.

That tweak is a dig at Facebook, which isn’t reciprocal to Google. In a statement to TechCrunch, Google said that Facebook is a data dead end. So Google changed its rules. Google won’t allow Web sites to automatically import contact data unless the other site allows a similar export. The key word is “automatically.” You can still download contact data to a file that in theory could be added to Facebook.

Google is going to take some heat, but the move does send a message. Facebook argues that exporting data is difficult when it comes to the social graph. In the end, the API battle is really over control. The social graph goes through Facebook and Google wants better access to it—so it can use its search to craft a social networking hook.

Add it up and users are in a contact data mix-up between Google and Facebook. In reality, the API battle may just be symbolic. You can still import contact data from Hotmail and Yahoo Mail, two massive email services that happen to be partners (Yahoo) or investors in Facebook (Microsoft). But rest assured data portability and being reciprocal appears to be an issue that’s emerging.

The trick going forward will be interpreting what’s a real issue of being reciprocal and what’s corporate positioning. Read more at www.zdnet.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/enj8

And These are the Guys that Want Us to Allow Them to Control Our PC's

Internet Explorer 8 developed a filtering problem on November 4th and for most of that day and into the evening many sites were blocked as "bad" sites that were anything but.

A prime example was Vista's credit card site. This had anyone using IE8 blocked from using or visiting that site. So if you wanted to pay a credit card bill, transfer some money from your card, or just see your balance you were SOL.

And while this was a real problem for many it isn't the fact that IE8 messed up and blocked some sites that to me is the important issue in this problem.

The real issue is that it shows the current state of software to monitor things on the internet and to be counted on to correctly interpret good sites and programs from bad sites and programs.

This is the same MS that had some of it's major people blogging that what we need to protect the internet is for companies and internet providers to be able to block from the internet individual computers that have become infected with viruses and Malware.

And as MS and others on the security and hosting side of the internet were loudly stating their case I was just as loudly saying no way in posts both here on Amplify and on my blog http://ht.ly/3538y.

And now only a few weeks from those posts comes just the demonstration of what I feared. If the same flawed programing error had been blocking your computer from the internet that was blocking you from going to some site on the internet the problem would have been much worse for you.

For while this error kept people from some sites it didn't keep them from the internet completely. And while this issue because it affected millions of IE8 users was addressed quickly I can't imagine that if my personal or work computer was being blocked totally from the internet due to a "mistake" that it would receive as prompt a fix.

Even worse how would you even report such a problem without being able to even get on the internet to report it in the first place?

And who would you report it too? Who would be responsible for finally getting you back on the internet?

The government (think big brother and censorship).

Some big security company (remember MacAfee's error that deleted a key windows systems file).

Well I'm sure you get the picture. Lets keep fowl ups like this in our mind the next time our friends in business and government start wanting to control or block our computers.
Maybe what we need is a national right to own a computer like our constitutional right to bear arms. Anyway no matter what we need we sure don't need someone somewhere deciding to block our computer(s) from the internet for reasons that only they decide!

Amplify’d from www.zdnet.com

Internet Explorer 8 malware filtering problem hits users across the Web

A problem with the Microsoft SmartScreen malware-thwarting technology in Internet Explorer 8 rendered countless users unable to access all kinds of sites throughout the day on November 4.

Microsoft officials seem to have licked the problem by the end of the work day on the East Coast, but had posted no explanation as to its cause.

There are numerous tweets from frustrated IE users attempting to access banks, financial sites and other Web properties, noting that those sites were being reported as malicious by IE 8 even though they were not.

SmartScreen Filter is a feature introduced in Internet Explorer 8 designed to help users avoid “socially engineered malware phishing websites and online fraud.” The filter checks sites against a “dynamically updated list” of reporting phishing/malware sites, and checks software downloads against reported sites. If a user tries to visit a site that is marked as malicious, a screen pops up advising that user not to continue to the unsafe site.

The @MicrosoftHelps twitter account is reporting that the issue has been resolved and apologized for any inconviences caused by the issue. I’ve asked the Internet Explorer team whether there is additional information on what went wrong today, but there’s no word back so far.

Update: Microsoft is providing the following statement but no further details as to which sites were affected or what caused the problem. From a spokesperson:

“The SmartScreen Filter was unintentionally blocking a group of websites sites earlier today.  The issue has been resolved and we apologize to the customers and sites that were affected.  We understand the root cause and have taken preventive action.  We take security seriously and are committed to delivering a trusted browsing experience.”

Via Twitter, I am seeing reports that Visa and Moneytree Inc.sites were affected, among others.

Internet Explorer 9 also incorporates the smart screen filter technology. I am running the beta of IE 9, but didn’t encounter any issues today with sites falsely reporting to be malicious. Read more at www.zdnet.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/emqf

@bluewater25 Poking around with bump into and saw you and realized your in Ireland and just had to add you to my follow. Always loved Ireland and just had to have so Irish blarney in my follow. http://amplify.com/u/elxr

With all the talk about #Firesheep I thought it good to post this link to a video by @t_rave made on some ways to help protect yourself http://t-rave.com/y/bsafe This is a very real threat and I've blogged about open Wi-Fi's before in an article about a client who lost over #30,000 dollars to a Wi-Fi hot spot and that was before this new easy to implement #Firesheep threat was even developed. You can read it here http://ht.ly/34BqA One of the simple and effective thing you can do is to use #Hotspotshield a free #VPN. If you use a #VPN with care you can be safe from threats like #Firesheep and other man in the middle tools. You can check out #Hotspotshield here http://www.anchorfree.com/ were you can also download the free program. Only thing to be careful of with Hotspotshield is that it can sometimes disconnect and not give any warning so be sure the icon is there and green to show your safe. http://amplify.com/u/el0x

Sorry FaceBook But for Me Too Little Too Late

In PC World’s latest article on FaceBook's user ID information scandal we see FaceBook doing what they always do, covering most up the facts, slapping the hand of a few offenders, and continuing business as usual.

And while FaceBook reveals some of the facts behind their latest security problems they in general accept no part of the blame while pointing a finger at everybody else.

But those of us who understand the close relationships that FaceBook has developed with many of the companies involved still have questions left unanswered and doubts that anything is either better or changed over what it has always been.

For what we see from FaceBook on this issue is their usual window dressing and PR designed to cover the up the truth and hide the full extent of the problem. And as a PR job it's one that would make any Washington politician or the guys over at BP proud.

But the long and short of it is that FaceBook and Mr. Zuckerberg are again insulting the intelligence of anyone familiar with how IT works. There had to be people who knowingly turned a blind eye to what was going on within FaceBook! And I'll believe that FaceBook is truly beginning to address the problem when some FaceBook people are held accountable and join the unemployment lines.

For when you look at what FaceBook is admitting happened you see a company that having already faced more security issues and problems in the last couple of years than most companies will face in a 100 still violated every basic IT security protocol in the book.

FaceBook made no rules regarding user ID information and how it was stored nor had in place any policy of what companies could do with such information once they obtained it.

FaceBook also kept little information about the principals of the businesses involved and did little to check out where they were located or how their programs tracked user interaction and site movement within both FaceBook and the application.

And finally FaceBook had in place no kind of firewall or portal that in any way inspected or controlled the data that was allowed to leave FaceBook’s network. By their own admission they don’t really know to this day just how much or what kinds of information may have been obtained about FaceBook users.

All of these facts taken together show a pattern of total disregard for anything even approaching a security policy by a company that has already been caught in numerous security issues and violations. Worse still many of these previous security issues have been in the very recent past.

So Mr. Zuckerber, what’s the reason you and FaceBook can’t seem to get the message?

When, Mr. Zuckerberg, can I expect that you will finally understand that I deserve both your respect and your protection as a user of FaceBook?

Just what is it going to take for you to wake up and finally start to treat FaceBook users as more than dumb cattle being lead to an unsuspected slaughter?

As you ponder these questions Mr. Zuckerbert I would also ask you to keep in mind those companies that have gone before you and FaceBook like AOL and MySpace that thought they were too big to care or listen to their users.

Ponder their fate and ask yourself, is this what I want for FaceBook?

Amplify’d from www.pcworld.com

Facebook and Your User ID Explained

Facebook blew it when it comes to handling your identity and now it's trying to save face. It already outlined how it is coming down hard on app developers that sold personally-identifying information to data brokers. For that offence it nailed developers who knowingly passed along User IDs with a six month suspension. But the site also announced several policy changes and clarifications on what will happen to User IDs that were already shared.

Facebook Ad Networks Must Delete User IDs

In a blog post, Facebook developer Mike Vernal said the site will not allow ad networks to continue operating on Facebook Platform unless they delete all User IDs, regardless of how they were obtained. The idea, I'm guessing, is that advertising on Facebook is more valuable than having personally-identifiable information on file. Vernal doesn't explain how Facebook will verify deletion.

User IDs Must Stay in the App

While app developers were previously not allowed to share User IDs with advertisers or data firms, Facebook is changing its policy to say that User IDs may not leave the app at all. Because apps may still want unique identifiers to share with permitted outside parties, such as advertisers or content partners, Facebook is creating a way to share an anonymous alternative to the User ID, to be released next week. It'll be required for all apps starting January 1, 2011.

RapLeaf is Out

Facebook "reached an agreement" with RapLeaf, one of the data brokers called out in the Wall Street Journal's original article on User ID sharing, Vernal said. RapLeaf, which created detailed profiles on people from Facebook and other Web sources, will delete all User IDs and won't operate on Facebook Platform anymore. It's not clear what RapLeaf gets in return, if anything.

No Private Data Changed Hands

Vernal emphasized that no private Facebook data was accessed as a result of User ID sharing with advertisers. We already knew this -- User IDs allow access to the public parts of a profile, including names and any other information shared with "everyone" -- but the assurance is somewhat comforting. Read more at www.pcworld.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/ekpl

Do You Really Think Your Maid Cleaned Your Room

Reading this article sure made me think about some of the places I've stayed and if they were really as clean as one would hope. And while it's been no secrete for a long while now that hotel rooms aren't very often cleaned as they should be this article makes it seem even worse. I guess I feel a little better because it's always been my practice to tip and tip the very first day and ever day there after. Maybe that 5 I leave means my room at least got a cursory cleaning.

Amplify’d from shine.yahoo.com

Confessions of a Hotel Housekeeper

The best guests sleep in Three simple letters could inspire the "Hallelujah" chorus: DND, or do not disturb. One sign hanging on a doorknob, and the day's work was shortened by half an hour. Two signs? Pure heaven, but only if they remained there until my eight-hour shift ended—otherwise I'd have to circle back and clean the rooms. My daily list of 15 rooms (out of 325 in the hotel) consisted of DOs (due out) and Os (occupied), which in housekeeping lingo meant the guests were scheduled to check out or were staying another night. An occupied room was less labor-intensive (making the beds rather than changing the sheets saved me 20 minutes), but there was always the possibility the guest would stay in the room while you worked. One man watched me clean his entire room, from scrubbing the toilet to emptying the trash—and told me at the end that I was "building character." Condescension is not nearly as encouraging to a maid as a couple of dollars.

As long as it looked clean I cut corners everywhere I could. Instead of vacuuming, I found that just picking up the larger crumbs from the carpet would do. Rather than scrub the tub with hot water, sometimes it was just a spray-and-wipe kind of day. After several weeks on the job, I discovered that the staff leader who inspected the rooms couldn't tell the difference between a clean sink and one that was simply dry, so I would often just run a rag over the wet spots. But I never skipped changing the sheets. I wouldn't sink that low, no matter how lazy I was feeling.

A bacterial wonderland I was disgusted by the many guests I came in contact with through the things they left behind: the hairs on the pillow, the urine on the toilet seat, the half-eaten cookie, the stained sheets. One woman had soiled her sheets so thoroughly that we had to toss them in a bio hazard bag—they could never be used again. Rooms where young kids stayed were the worst, with food ground into the carpet and piles of used diapers in the trash. That kind of demoralizing mess could take 45 minutes to clean up. Most maids wore rubber gloves when they worked, but mine were too big, so I discarded them. Unsurprisingly, I got the flu twice.

Not for love—or money I didn't know maids received tips, so it took me weeks to realize that the coins left in rooms were an intentional gift. My tips were paltry: I almost never received more than $1, and at times guests left religious pamphlets. One day, however, I was shocked to find a crisp $100 bill lying on a table. Although the generous tip put a little spring in my step and compelled me to do a better job that day, it didn't change my work ethic for long. I apologize to you now if you ever stayed in one of my rooms. You deserved better. But if housekeepers were paid more than minimum wage—and the tips were a bit better—I might have cleaned your toilet rather than just flushed it. Read more at shine.yahoo.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/ejhs

Wow gone from Amplify for a couple of hours and come back to a new look. So far I think I like it with fewer but more used tabs and latest posts a choice. Should be faster to locate stuff and work with it. http://amplify.com/u/eiuh

Why is it a surprise that California didn't pass legalized marijuana. Most of the users who would be supporters of the bill were probably too stoned to get out and vote. http://amplify.com/u/eh8j