NETWORK: Carriers Hold the Cards

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/02/iphone-verizon-sucks/

Verizon iPhone Shows You Can’t Win: Carriers Hold the Cards

By Brian X. Chen February 7, 2011 | 4:45 pm

*** begin quote ***

On the day that iPhone preorders began last week, Verizon quietly revised its policy on data management: Any smartphone customer who uses an “extraordinary amount of data” will see a slowdown in their data-transfer speeds for the remainder of the month and the next billing cycle. It’s a bit of a bait-and-switch. One of Verizon’s selling points for its version of the iPhone is that it would come with an unlimited data plan — a marked contrast to AT&T, which eliminated its unlimited data plans last year.

*** end quote ***

“A BIT”!

Are you kidding me?

Where’s the FTC on false advertising, the FCC on “telecom regulation”, and DOJ on “restraint of trade”? (… or do you think APPLE’s IPAD just isn’t welcome on the T-MOBILE network.)

How come they (DOJ) took AT&T apart at the seams and ruined a “national treasure” (Universal cheap local phone service and Bell Labs)? But they leave the cesspool of cable and telcos “unregulated”. Talk about “regulatory capture”!

I think it’s “real simple”. Reintroduce the idea that you can make hardware, software, or the network. But never the twain shall meet. If you open an “app store” then you can’t be in the business of making software.

How about the doctrine of “first sale” and all this “licensing” nonsense? You have to be kidding me!

The crippled DVRs of the cable and telcos is unfair competition with TIVO.

And, billing? Sorry but you can’t mislabel “fees” as “taxes”. And, you can’t pre-bill, post-bill, or change it as you go along.

Finally, “agreements” that are “agreed to” after the purchase, or have legalese, or that are 37 pages of small print designed to be “read” in real time on a computer screen should be presumed to be fraudulent and thus null and void.

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Posted by reinkefj

SOFTWARE: OPERA1101 can’t send a link?

Sunday, February 6, 2011

In my quest to find a browser that fulfills my needs (whatever they are), I’ve been using OPERA (version 11.01).

I just noticed a blunder in the User Interface.

There’s no menu option under “file” to forward a link.

Curious oversight.

Otherwise, the browser is quite good.

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: Google can’t verify a Google Site?

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Verify ownership

Verification status

Not Verified – Last attempt Less than a minute ago – Hide history

Attempted Method Outcome

2/6/11 10:06:00 PM UTC Meta tag Verification failed. Your meta tag is not in the <head> section of your home page.

2/6/11 10:04:01 PM UTC HTML file Verification failed. Your verification file was not found.

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Ok, Google, how should it be done. Sigh!

# # # # # posted 2011-02-06 17:10

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Posted by reinkefj

SOFTWARE: APPLE’s APPSTORE has no way to roll back

Sunday, February 6, 2011

http://www.tuaw.com/2011/01/28/ipad-101-reverting-to-an-older-version-of-an-application/

iPad 101: Reverting to an older version of an application
by Michael Rose (RSS feed) on Jan 28th 2011 at 2:15PM

*** begin quote ***

It happens to us all: an application update for the iPhone or iPad goes awry, and the new app doesn’t do things the way we want (or, unfortunately, work at all on one of our devices). We ourselves are in that boat at the moment, since the new version 2.0 of the TUAW iPhone app is not working as expected on the iPad — our development team is digging into the problem right now and we hope to be fast-tracking a fixed version right away. Our apologies for the issues.

This sort of thing is particularly sticky because there’s no Apple-supported way to roll back to a previous version of an iOS application once you’ve updated. There is a workaround, however, if you haven’t yet emptied your Trash in the Finder. Read on for the steps.

*** end quote ***

Here’s the chief objection to cloud-based version control.

You don’t have the old software to fall back on.

And, that’s the objection to “application stores”.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: No “kill switches”

Saturday, February 5, 2011

http://www.backwoodshome.com/blogs/ClaireWolfe/2011/02/04/if-your-sic-government-shuts-down-the-internet/

201102042204.jpg

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SOFTWARE: POSTBOX2 NOTRECOMMENDED

Thursday, February 3, 2011

POSTBOX2, a OSX mail application, is in my doghouse.

  • Smearing in message preview screen when paging down in a message.
  • Support told me that I’m unique and they can’t reproduce it.
  • Don’t have the accounts open.
  • Unable to “next” thru an mail folder from message to message.
  • It’s “involved” in several high CPU usage incidents.
  • It’s “involved” in several disk space exhaustion incidents.
  • It has “performance issues” especially when switching mailboxes.

I’ve fallen back to APPLE MAIL.

# # # # # posted 2011-01-26 17:03

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Posted by reinkefj

SOFTWARE: POSTBOX2 “SMEARING” appears to be related to “account” display

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

RE: POSTBOX2 has a serious value-impacting problem — “SMEARING” in message preview pane

*** begin quote ***

“SMEARING” in message preview pane POSTBOX2 Version 2.1.0 (PAID) While the workaround — “click on the message” and read it in a new tab — works, it destroys the usability of it.

*** end quote ***

The support folks have tumbled to a key fact. “SMEARING” only appears to occur when (1) the ACCOUNT has many accounts; and (2) the ACCOUNT folder is open to show individual accounts. Close it, no “SMEARING”.

This is now a acceptable temporary (I hope) workaround.

Support was good in terms of responsiveness and follow thru.

Assuming this will get a fix, I’m downgrading my “NOTRECOMMENDED” recommendation to “WARNING”. (Like anyone cares.)

The implication is that it is NOT well tested if within a week of buying and using the product, I can hit a CLASS #2 bug which should have been obvious to find.

# # # # # posted 2011-02-02 09:04

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: Talking cars

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

http://www.impactlab.net/2011/01/26/talking-cars-someday-may-save-lives/

‘Talking Cars’ Someday May Save Lives

*** begin quote ***

“This technology is an opportunity to help create a future where millions of vehicles communicate with each other by sharing anonymous real-time information about traffic speeds and conditions. This new world of wireless communication will make transportation safer,” said Peter Appel, administrator of the Transportation Department’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration.

*** end quote ***

I wonder if the regional dialects will be preserved.

As they say in Brooklyn, Fuggedaboudit!

Another boondoggle.

Think runaway Toyotas are “fun”?

How about cars that “know better” than the driver!

Still a autobahn with 200 mph cars and no driver would be an interesting experience. Like the Disney attraction Mister Toad’s Wild Ride!

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MACBOOKAIR: Disk space disappears until reboot

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

*** begin quote ***

Case Information

Case ID: 202017437

Case: Application or system is unresponsive

Status: Opened Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Contact Option:

An Advisor will call you Tuesday, February 1, 2011, between 4:00 p.m. and 4:15 p.m. Eastern

*** end quote ***

I’ve gotten annoyed with the continual temporary disk space exhaustion issue.

I left windoze because of all the issues. And, on MACOSX, I seem to be having as many.

ARGH!

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: Amazon Simple Email

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

http://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing/

*** begin quote ***

Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES) (beta)

Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES) is a highly scalable and cost-effective bulk and transactional email-sending service for businesses and developers. Amazon SES eliminates the complexity and expense of building an in-house email solution or licensing, installing, and operating a third-party email service. The service integrates with other AWS services, making it easy to send emails from applications being hosted on services such as Amazon EC2. With Amazon SES there is no long-term commitment, minimum spend or negotiation required – businesses can utilize a free usage tier and after that enjoy low fees for the number of emails sent plus data transfer fees.

*** end quote ***

10¢ per thousand emails?

Wow!

That’s going to change the dynamics of the marketplace.

Not as simple as a Yahoo Group. Haven’t played with Google Groups. It requires coding and the use of APIs. I’m sure someone will write an smtp front end that makes it trivial to use.

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: Why does MOBILEME sync not work

Friday, January 28, 2011

Last good sync was 1/9/11. It’s been on lots of different networks. Hooked, litterally, for days to the inet.

Yet, their “sync” can’t sync. CARBONITE, DROPBOX, POGOPLUG — all seem to work just fine.

Maybe they need some “help”?

Sadly, NOTRECOMMENDED!

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: Google Cloud Print “real soon now”

Thursday, January 27, 2011

http://www.google.com/support/cloudprint/?hl=en

*** begin quote ***

Troubleshooting Google Cloud Print

Why is my document not printing?

Why can’t I print to my cloud printer from Chrome?

For now Google Cloud Print is only available in mobile devices such as smart phones and Chrome notebooks.

*** end quote ***

Argh!

So after much ado about a FUTURE service!

I find out about it’ll work “real soon now”.

Great idea.

Just not useful … yet

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: FACEBOOK as the arbiter of identity

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1350038/Facebook-bans-Kate-Middleton-imposter-having-royal-brides-namesake.html

I’m not a fake Kate! Facebook bans royal bride’s namesake for being an imposter (but boyfriend Jonathan Ross can keep using his account)
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 5:52 PM on 24th January 2011

*** begin quote ***

Banned: Kate Middleton has had her Facebook account suspended after being accused of impersonating Prince William’s fiancée

Facebook has accused a woman of being an impostor and suspended her account – because she shares her name with Prince William’s future bride.

Healthcare assistant Kate Middleton, 29, has been locked out since last Thursday after the social network site claimed she had registered under a fake name.

Ironically, Miss Middleton’s partner Jonathan Ross has not been accused of being a fake, despite sharing his name with the television presenter.

*** end quote ***

This is going to get interesting. Especially since FACEBOOK is being touted as the arbiter of identity.

Any competent Information Security practicioner could have predicted that “NAME” would not be a unique identifier. Or, any combination of LNAME, FNAME, LNAME||FNAME, or even if you throw in SUFFIX, TITLE, MI, or NICKNAME.

Sigh!

I learned this lesson in High School — too many moon ago — when the Good Christian Brothers had to revamp their “information systems” — manual on clay tablets — to accommodate identical twins Peter and Paul. It was a hoot. They were the first twins I remember meeting. (You really count Playboy twins as having been “met”. Yeah, I know TMI!)

So you can establish “identity” with any combination of name, email, phone number, or even address.

How does the internet establish identity?

I have, always, thought that the ISPs were absolutely best suited to provide “identification”.

Of course, they never agreed. But when there is a credit card transaction, you actually have something that you can hang your hat on.

It doesn’t assure that you can say it is a “unitary id”. I can, and do have, multiple ISP accounts paid for separately on different credit cards for what would be “multiple identities”.

But, it’s better than depending upon FACEBOOK.

FACEBOOK has even abandoned requiring College email accounts, so even they have realized the flaws in their original design.

What to do? What will they do?

Bottom line: Nobody does nothing! And, the problem goes on.

This is important because IF the ISPs stepped up, we could have a good age differentiator on the internet. But no one cares much! Unless you’re a parent.

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: Decode QR codes

Sunday, January 23, 2011

http://zxing.org/w/decode.jspx

Decode QR codes in a jpeg picture file.

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Posted by reinkefj

SOFTWARE: After a fellow blogger lost a post …

Thursday, January 20, 2011

… I suggested:

*** begin quote ***

May I suggest that you, or your tech support — whomever you’ve stuck with that job — look at “Lazarus plugin”. http://lazarus.interclue.com/ It allows you to recapture data that you’ve put in a form and lost.

I try to write all my stuff in a text editor and cut’n’paste it where needed. Lost too much. Too often. But, I try to discipline myself to do it that way. The losses are too painful.

*** end quote ***

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SERVICE: Google SITES is tough to use

Thursday, January 20, 2011

I use a Google Site as an overflow area for my alumni ezine.

But it’s frustrating.

Take for instance, tables.

A basic concept.

SITES requires you to use HTML to get it working.

Not User friendly.

APPLE’s MOBILEME and IWEB isn’t much better.

Argh!

And, I hate the thought of investing a lot of time, effort, and attention on something that may go away of change.

Argh!

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Posted by reinkefj

SOFTWARE: SAFARI is getting demerits

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Had another occurrence of “all space disappears”.

The SAFARI browser and POSTBOX2 mail were active. (I didn’t do an autopsy.)

Reboot and restart.

Free space is in the 6’s.

Argh!

# – # – #

And, I don’t like how it has fixes with tabs and shoves the overflow tabs off the screen.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: Always encrypt your phone

Monday, January 17, 2011

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/guides/2011/01/why-you-should-always-encrypt-your-smartphone.ars

Why you should always encrypt your smartphone
By Ryan Radia

*** begin quote ***

As such, if you are arrested or detained by a law enforcement officer, you cannot lawfully be compelled to tell the officer anything other than your basic identifying information—even if the officer has not read you the Miranda warning. Exercising your right to remain silent cannot be held against you in a court of law, nor can it be used to establish probable cause for a search warrant.

However, if you voluntarily disclose or enter your mobile phone password in response to police interrogation, any evidence of illegal activity found on (or by way of) your phone is admissible in court, regardless of whether or not you’ve been Mirandized.

What if you’re not a criminal and think you have nothing to hide? Why not simply cooperate with the police and hand over your password so that you can get on with your life?

For one thing, many Americans are criminals and they don’t even know it. Due to the disturbing phenomenon known as “overcriminalization,” it’s very easy to break the law nowadays without realizing it. A May 2010 study from the conservative Heritage Foundation and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers found that three out of every five new nonviolent criminal offenses don’t require criminal intent. The Congressional Research Service can’t even count the number of criminal offenses currently on the books in the United States, estimating the number to be in the “tens of thousands.”

*** end quote ***

Secure your phone with a passcode, put it away when you’re driving (Good idea so you’re not tempted, and, if stopped by a cop, keep your mouth shut under any and all circumstances.

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: STUFFBAK “not recommended”

Monday, January 17, 2011

http://www.stuffbak.com

201101071801.jpg

I signed up for this a while ago. And, for a variety of reasons, forgot about it. Found some of my left over labels. Hey, let’s see if the service is still up.

Yup! I was. Yay!

So, I “registered” one. And, found out it forgot me. (?)

“call 1-800-yeah-right”

I don’t do phone in “customer non-service”. My blood pressure can’t stand it. It has to be really really important for me to endure that particular hell.

From what I remember, it only had one level of service. And, there was zero charge for recovery. (I know I had one.) Now before you “tag” any thing, make sure you’re willing to pay 50$ for it’s return. Argh!

I don’t like folks that suck you in and then change the game after you’ve bought in. I had to buy the labels. If they had presented this value equation, then I’d have passed.

NOTRECOMMENDED!

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SOFTWARE: POSTBOX2 has a serious value-impacting problem — “SMEARING” in message preview pane

Sunday, January 16, 2011

“SMEARING” in message preview pane

POSTBOX2 Version 2.1.0 (PAID)

While the workaround — “click on the message” and read it in a new tab — works, it destroys the usability of it.

I’ve used Chrome, Safari, Opera, and Firefox. It’s no better.

It seems that the “rendering engine” of Postbox2 for HTML is slow, or broken.

I can’t believe that I am the only one who has this problem. If I am, why me? If not, why aren’t other screaming?

# # # # # posted 2011-01-16 13:45

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Posted by reinkefj

SOFTWARE: OPERA in the doghouse

Sunday, January 16, 2011

OPERA

* LASTPASS broken with this browser. Reported to LASTPASS.

* Doesn’t quit; have to force quit.

* Would like to use the integrated mail app, but …

# # # # # posted 2011-01-16 14:54

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Posted by reinkefj

SOFTWARE: ECTO in my dog house … again

Sunday, January 16, 2011

1. Describe the account you’re using.

Jasper Jottings Daily!!!
https://jxymxu7sn5ho9d.wordpress.com/xmlrpc.php
WORDPRESS hosted at wordpress

2. If the issue involves communication with your blog system

A post is being made. It was placed on the blog correctly from what I can tell.

3. Some odd hang-up?

Nothing appears to hang.

4. Crash?

Doesn’t crash

5.

I wrote and pushed a post with a forward time stamp. (The whole rationale for ECTO is it is easier than using the WordPress web page. Time setting is still not as easy as it could be, but that’s another matter.)

In looking at the post about an hour LATER, I see it is truncated. Argh!

Quick like a bunny, I go up and see the post is complete in WordPress. Againlike a bunny, I make a backup copy of my pearls of wisdom.

Then, I do “retrieve posts”. The target post comes back complete.

But when I open it, it is truncated.

(We have had this symptom before. Where posts or partial posts are produced but then don’t display correctly int he Client side software. A while ago. But it was never resolved. Haven’t seen it in a while. I think, always suspected, that there is crud in the underlying copy. Maybe an unprintable character or some such?)

Help.

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Argh! I hate having “problems”. The ECTO folks are good in support. Just not there on Sunday. Argh!

At least, the post is up for publishing correctly. And, I have a copy.

I think that I have to now reorganize how I do the blog posts.

More work for me. But, I have to keep a running backup of the post. Perhaps prep it in a WP, instead of using the ECTO Client.

Argh!

That’s a waste of the old technology budget.

The downside is that my pearls might be lost. But, then I have learned that pearls aren’t worth much on the resale market! Argh squared!

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Posted by reinkefj

SOFTWARE: CHROME in the doghouse; end of the queue

Saturday, January 15, 2011

GOOGLECHROME, aka CHROME, goes into my doghouse and is relegated to the back of the queue.

The symptom is that all available space is consumed on the hard drive. Only a restart gets it back. It might be POSTBOX2 to blame. But maybe not.

APPLESAFARI, aka SAFARI, is next on the batting lineup.

Argh!

# # # # # posted 2011-01-15 16:40

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Posted by reinkefj

PRODUCTIVITY: Always have a email account to spare?

Friday, January 14, 2011

No secret I use a lot of email accounts. For a purpose. For a community. For relatives. For friends. For projects.

Interesting that some ISPs (i.e., Saint Peter’s University Hospital and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital) offer free wifi.

Unfortunately, like most things you get for “free”, they both have their own “unique” opportunities.

Not everyone has a VWBBIE (i.e., a Verizon Wireless Broad Band Service for 70$/month) or an IPAD with the AT&T 3G turned on!

SPUH doesn’t permit email. I chatted with a fellow nerd from a past employment and he had no idea why or even who “decreed” this. But the diktat couldn’t be overturned.

Now clearly with web access, you can use the web front end that most email providers have. But that’s not a very efficient or effective imho. Your really want a unified mailbox for the different account with the capability to send from the correct account.

GMAIL to the rescue.

It was trivial to set this up so that “emergency” could read and write in the “important” accounts.

Now when I need it, I have it.

Kudos to GMAIL.

/44

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Posted by reinkefj

SOFTWARE: DROPBOX and TRUECRYPT

Thursday, January 13, 2011

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rounds/rounds15.1.html

How To Use Dropbox and TrueCrypt To Securely Transfer Files Privately
by Bill Rounds

*** begin quote ***

USING DROPBOX AND TRUECRYPT

Using Dropbox and TrueCrypt should appear fairly self-evident by now. For example, you can travel with a laptop that contains no information across borders and when you arrive at your destination just install Dropbox and sync with your files from the cloud. Because Dropbox has control of the encryption key you can use TrueCrypt for an added layer of protection. That way if the Dropbox servers were compromised for whatever reason the your files would still be encrypted.

Another wonder aspect of setting up your information architecture to use TrueCrypt and Dropbox is that you no longer need to worry about backing up the files. This can save lots of time and headache.

*** end quote ***

So much for the child pornographers being caught at the border crossing.

I’m advising that all international travelers NOT carry ANY computing platform through “security”. (Not that it makes us any more secure; it’s just theater to amuse the rubes.)

That means phone, ipads, netbooks … … nothing.

You can’t know what they will “find” when they do their “data proctology” exam. Or, what they will place on your hardware when it’s outside of your control.

Come to think of it that’s good advice even inside the US.

Argh!

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Posted by reinkefj

SOFTWARE: Apple’s IWEB NOTRECOMMENDED!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

IWEB is Apple’s version of a webpage builder.

It doesn’t do a table?

I have a spreadsheet of my High School alums with a link to their page. I thought it would be easy to put it into an IWEB site.

Thought wrong!

Argh!

Even if I had to rebuild the table in IWEB, that, while upsetting, would be “good enough”.

Argh!

So, it seems there’s no way to do it.

Hence, “NOTRECOMMENDED”!

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Posted by reinkefj

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