On The Radio

So I’ve been mulling over the idea of Google’s Chrome for a few days and it got me thinking… What’s in it for Google? Browsers are free… and I’m sure a good portion of the company spirit is altruistic… building a better browser, speeding things up, isolating crashes, etc… but be assured, altruism is in the minority. Google is a publicly traded mega corporation that makes money by connecting advertisers much more specifically to their demographic… how better to get a picture of your personal interests and desires then by tapping into your web browser?

Sho’ nuff… there was the always predictable outcry… the feature “Google Suggest” was what folks took particular offense to… so Google posted this to their blog yesterday (09/08) announcing that the 2% of user entries to the OmniBox that are sent back and logged by Google servers daily… will be anonymized within 24 hours…

But what does that mean?

What’s fair game on that data in the interim?

And how do we know for sure that Google will be doing what they say they’ll be doing?

The thing that has me wondering is the “Cookies” paragraph in the Google privacy policy. It reads;

When you visit Google, we send one or more cookies – a small file containing a string of characters – to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser. We use cookies to improve the quality of our service by storing user preferences and tracking user trends, such as how people search. Google also uses cookies in its advertising services to help advertisers and publishers serve and manage ads across the web. We may set a cookie in your browser when you visit a website and view or click on an ad supported by Google’s advertising services.

Some parts are little ambiguous no? Truth is, if you use Chrome you’re taking the chance that Google knows every URL you type into the OmniBox… every partial URL too… every word or phrase you search for is fair game as well… What’s worse is that if you have a Google account (whether for Chrome or any other Google service), all this information will be tied back to your user account because Google sends your cookie along with every automatic search it performs.

Unfortunately, the internet has become a place where if you want to use it… you’re gonna be giving up some, most or all of your privacy… and I guess the bright side is that if I’m going to get bombarded with advertising anyway… it might as well be advertising for stuff I’m interested in. One way or another, Google’s privacy policy was an eye opening read.

I encourage any of you who have an opinion on this to post a comment…

Through the station or sent directly to me… I’ve been surprised by the amount of email that has come my way as a result of being on the show with Steve and Johnnie. Also surprising is the clearly defined line of demarcation… 99% of you are asking me questions arising from your use of Macs… the other 1% are taking some issue with my evangelism of Macintosh Computers… With most it’s just good-natured ribbing, which causes me no offense… but with others, it’s taken to a tone that none of us (on the Show) will ever care to converse with. That said…

I make no excuses or apologies for my love of Macintosh computers.

I also want to go on the record in clarifying that I have no official affiliation with Apple Computer. None whatsoever… In the spirit of disclosure; I occasionally buy things from the Apple Store… I’ll also ask questions or provide answers on the Apple Forums from time to time… I lust after an eventual Final Cut “Pro Certification” but I remain far from that goal… and just to lay all my chips on the table, I own an Apple t-shirt and my broken down motorcycle has an Apple logo sticker on it.

Beyond that I’m clean.

I always welcome email from those who listen to the radio show… and to the 99% of you… answering your questions has been fun and has made me more knowledgeable as well… it’s never a problem. Sometimes you might have to wait a bit for a reply, but as some of you know, sometimes I’ll answer right away… depends where you catch me.

But to the other 1% of you… who seemingly have nothing better to do then send email, with no redeeming value (also known as flaming), to someone they don’t know beyond their radio speaker…

Please do us all the honor of posting your prose to the “Comments” section here on the Show Site… submit your First and Last name while you’re at it… that way your thoughts won’t go uncredited and you can shed the shame of hiding in the anonymity of your gmail account. I’m all for different strokes for different folks, in fact it seems to be a running theme of the show… but if you find yourself afflicted with email tourette’s… do me a favor and lose my address.

I like to look at the show as information space on the subject of all things related to computers and technology. I would also prognosticate that in ten years time… the idea of Mac vs. PC won’t even exist anymore… I’m more a fan of the MacOS… and in 2008, the MacOS only runs on Macintosh computers…

So each and every time it’s appropriate, evangelism is unavoidable… as life’s too short for crappy computers.

So not quite two weeks after Apple launched its new App Store, I finally found some time this week to kick the tires on it a bit… and now find myself stoked as to the possibilities.

For those unfamiliar with the App Store, it was launched as a marketplace for applications that run on iPhone and iPod Touch. Access to the App Store comes with the latest version of both iTunes (7.7) and the iPhone software (2.0)… and although there is definitely still ghosts in the machine (i.e. Apps that don’t work as described… I also had a couple crash my phone), they’re definitely worth the annoyance for the exponential increase to functionality the App Store brings to both the original iPhones (with updated software) as well as the new iPhone 3G.

Not having a whole lot of time to write currently… here’s just a couple of the highlights I’ve found so far… And remember, these will only work for you if you’ve updated either your original or 3G iPhone to version 2.0 of the software, and you’re running the latest version 7.7 of iTunes…

WordPress App

On July 22 Apple approved and released the WordPress application into the App Store. The WordPress app allows blog publishers to update their site(s) through a native iPhone application.

Although I wasn’t ambitious enough to write this particular post on my iPhone, I’ve tested it on a couple smaller posts to another site I’m involved with and so far so good… it’s actually an incredibly handy tool if you need to post from the road…

The initial version of this app supports the following;

• Support for WordPress.com blogs as well as self-installed WordPress blogs (version 2.5.1 and higher)
• Full support for tags and categories
• Photo support for both camera pics and library photos
• Support for multiple blogs
• Auto-recovery feature recovers posts interrupted by phone calls

WordPress is a free download from the iTunes App Store… click here if you have iTunes 7.7 installed.

Remote App

If you’re using an iPhone/iPod Touch and you also use iTunes on your home computer as a jukebox, then Remote is a free iPhone app that you absolutely have to check out… I’ve tested it and it works perfectly…

From anywhere in your home over your wireless network, you can use the iPhone or iPod Touch as a remote control for the iTunes software running on your desktop computer. Play, pause, skip, shuffle. See your songs, playlists and album art as if you were right in front of the computer.

You’ll need to download the app, then with your phone selected in iTunes go to the “Application” tab and sync the app to your iPhone or iPod Touch. After that the iPhone/Touch will display a 4-digit code that you need to enter into the fields provided in iTunes to sync the devices… and BAM… it works… the process took me about 4 minutes.

Enjoy!

And a Quick Unrelated Link of Interest

For those of you that have already seen the Dark Knight once or preferably multiple times… this pretty cool article on the gadgetry from the movie ran in Wired (online) the other day. Don’t miss the image of the Dodge concept vehicle that the Bat cycle was based on… how cool was that?

And then in Alt Text, Lore Sjoberg adds a little more on the topic of grading Batman’s gear.

So many people in the world… some using their talents for good, some for evil… meanwhile the vast majority of us just end up unwilling participants much of the time… like the new subscribers to Time Warner Cable’s internet services in Beaumont, Texas. These folks are the guinea pigs for Time Warner’s latest experiments in metering internet usage.

The company claims that 5% of their users are responsible for using 50% of the available bandwidth. The idea is that charging these users more once they exceed a CAP (measured in gigabytes) is the fairest way to finance infrastructure updates… to me it feels like another baby step towards the end of Net Neutrality, designed to begin weening the consumer from the idea that they can pay a flat monthly rate in exchange for unhindered internet access.

Check this link to Yahoo! Finance for the whole story.

The Internet is such an extraordinary machine in terms of the spread of ideas and the viral nature with which oppositions can coalesce, but sometimes even the Net vets need to pause and consider whether they’re being duped or not…

For the longest time the notion of Net Neutrality was one such issue for me. The problem being, as it is with many of these believability conflicts… is with those whom exude that kooky paranoid bent that no matter how reasonable what they’re saying appears to sound… you just don’t know.

Although now that I’ve come across SaveTheInternet.com I’ve been given some more substantial food for thought… Their FAQ page does a great job of offering a primer to the uninitiated, educating on the issue and describing the nature of the threat.

I care about net neutrality because I’ve grown up with the Internet. I was the right age when the World Wide Web emerged to have taken the entire ride thus far. My livelihood and many of my interests are fueled or at least supported by the Internet… and I’d cry over having to abandon its dead carcass on the roadside if it ended up succumbing to the fate of yet another proprietary delivery system for the corporations feeding the consumer culture. I’m starting to think this is a real issue that its time to pay attention to…

You might also find checking Google’s take offers some credibility as well as the site for the Open Internet Coalition. If you have thoughts on the subject or sources of more information… please comment to this post. I’d love to turn this into a conversation

And finally, briefly… this story at Rolling Stone (it was in the last issue on the newsstand) paints an ominous picture of where the world seems to be heading on many fronts. A countries internal security is now a 200 billion dollar a year industry, bigger then Hollywood and music combined… new enemies must constantly be created to fuel the growth… and like I said at the top… some use their powers for good, but an increasing number seem to be focusing on evil.

Hey Website Wednesday Nighters,

With only a handful of shows in my pocket, it became apparent that I needed a place to document and expand the topics that come up on the air, as well as via email…

This will also be a great place to archive interesting things that come up during the evenings banter.

So here it is…

If you know something I don’t, or that I fail to mention… comment (post it) here under the post so that everyone can benefit from your altruistic contribution.

Welcome.