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Just for Techies

August 6th, 2010 | 2 Comments | Posted in Tech Goodies

Another funny German meme…



What Happens When You Have Way Too Much Time On Your Hands

May 16th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Tech Goodies

At the same time, I’d like one of these.

He Forgot To Say Flash Sucks

April 29th, 2010 | 3 Comments | Posted in Tech Goodies

Steve Jobs released a great article on why Apple doesn’t allow flash to play on its iPhone, Ipod and iPads.I have long disliked flash on the web, not only because it does nothing to help your website get found, but also because it is so proprietary. As a Mac user from the beginning, I couldn’t agree with him more.

Thanks Steve for clearing the air:

Thoughts On Flash

Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe’s founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned around 20% of the company for many years. The two companies worked closely together to pioneer desktop publishing and there were many good times. Since that golden era, the companies have grown apart. Apple went through its near death experience, and Adobe was drawn to the corporate market with their Acrobat products. Today the two companies still work together to serve their joint creative customers–Mac users buy around half of Adobe’s Creative Suite products–but beyond that there are few joint interests.

I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven–they say we want to protect our App Store–but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain. More »

Hitler Gets The News Of The Hitler Parodies Being Removed From YouTube

April 23rd, 2010 | 2 Comments | Posted in Tech Goodies

Ironic that the Hitler parodies have been taken down by YouTube. The video meme, which has run its course, has now found new life. This video parodies actually have made the movie a huge success.

Constantin Film AG is having YouTube remove re-subtitled clips of Hitler’s outburst scene in their film Downfall, even though they have no right to do so. Probably everyone on the planet has watched at least one parody based on Hitler in the bunker from the German film Downfall. The joke is to replace the subtitles with your chosen text.

There’s no doubt these parodies have sold more DVD copies of Downfall than any amount of marketing could have come even remotely close to. And it’s cost Constantin Film AG absolutely nothing. Someone over at Constantin apparently doesn’t get it.

So What Would Happen If China Cracked Google?

April 19th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Tech Goodies

Wondering just how badly Google has been compromised? And if I should be worried as a user of a ton of Google apps.

Always more to the story …

… losses included one of Google’s crown jewels, a password system that controls access by millions of users worldwide to almost all of the company’s web services, including e-mail and business applications.

The program, code named Gaia for the Greek goddess of the earth, was attacked in a lightning raid taking less than two days last December, the person said. Described publicly only once at a technical conference four years ago, the software is intended to enable users and employees to sign in with their password just once to operate a range of services.

The intruders do not appear to have stolen passwords of Gmail users, and the company quickly started making significant changes to the security of its networks after the intrusions. But the theft leaves open the possibility, however faint, that the intruders may find weaknesses that Google might not even be aware of, independent computer experts said.

The new details seem likely to increase the debate about the security and privacy of vast computing systems such as Google’s that now centralize the personal information of millions of individuals and businesses. Because vast amounts of digital information are stored in one place, a single breach can lead to disastrous losses.

The theft began with a single instant message sent to a Google employee in China, according to the person with knowledge of the inquiry, who spoke on the condition he not be identified. By clicking on a link and connecting to a “poisoned” Web site, the employee inadvertently permitted the intruders to gain access to his (or her) personal computer and then to the computers of a critical group of software developers at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Ultimately, the intruders were able to gain control of a software repository used by the development team.

The details surrounding the theft of the software have been a closely guarded secret by the company. Google first publicly disclosed the theft in a Jan. 12 posting on the company’s Web site, which stated that the company was changing its policy toward China in the wake of the theft of unidentified “intellectual property” and the apparent compromise of the e-mail accounts of two human rights activists.

Rest here.

What’s interesting is that this morning there were a rash of stories on US web security. Here’s a sample of the warning.

Another One Bites The Dust – Texas Stadium

April 11th, 2010 | 1 Comment | Posted in Tech Goodies

Great video for those that love watching things explode. From Texas.

What better way to end a Sunday than watching something being blown up? The Dallas Cowboys finally demolished Texas Stadium early this morning.