How Hardware Manufacturers Are Deceiving You

Beware of fine print even on the front of the product itself — one got me
‘…Sure, everyone involved can come up with a variety of excuses — they aren’t technically misleading customers, it’s all in the fine print, and these are the standard ways the industry operates — but hardware has been advertised in many misleading ways.

‘We’re not the only ones calling these marketing gimmicks misleading. Some of these tricks have even been the subject of class-action lawsuits for misleading consumers. Today we will look at 8 ways hardware manufacturers attempt to pull the metaphorical wool over the consumer’s eyes…’
8 ways

NY Cigarettes and Terrorism
‘A Palestinian smuggling ring with possible ties to Middle East terrorist groups made millions selling tax-free cigarettes in the city and upstate, the Daily News has learned.

‘Late Wednesday, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and the NYPD busted up the ring of 16 defendants they say flooded the market with more than 1 million cartons of tax-free cigarettes.

‘Law enforcement sources told The News some members of the group may have ties to Hamas and Hezbollah…’
Read more

If you’re a perp, make sure your victim can’t even blink
Man Convicted by Victim’s Blinks
‘…the 16-minute video police shot they said clearly showed David Chandler identifying Woods as his killer by blinking his eyes.“I thought (the video) was very important,” Prem said after the verdict. “I know there’s a wide variety of opinions on that but when you look at it with the other evidence, it was powerful.”

‘The video shows Chandler, 35, of West Price Hill, in the hospital and kept alive only by machines. He went to the West End at about 2:30 a.m. Oct. 28, 2010, to buy crack cocaine. That’s the neighborhood where Woods, 35, lived…’
read more

‘Harmless’ Fads That Caused Widespread Destruction
‘Fads are almost never a good thing, but rarely are they ever truly harmful. We dump a few hundred bucks into Tamagotchis, Beanie Babies, or Rubik’s Cubes, and then the craze is over and we put all that crap in a shoebox to confuse our future grandchildren. However, some fads have poisoned thousands, started wars, and enslaved entire nations, all for the sake of some dumbass thing people wanted to ride, wear, or eat…’
6 fads

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Why WordPress.com Blog’s Stats are Useless

Internet stats (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Since January, I’ve been wondering how I’m getting more blog followers and yet, my visitor stats is diving. Then my blogging friend Bill Mullins of Tech Thoughts wrote about the same situation a few days ago. It was serendipitous when I landed on WP.com Forums while surfing yesterday. So since I was there yet, I posted my question. This is the answer I received:

In response to the topic “Traffic and Followers”:
Because people are following them on the Reader, rather than reading them on the web. Reader views don’t count in the stats.

So according to that statement, If all my followers are reading my WP.com blog on RSS feeds, I will get not even one visitor!! Can you imagine having 500 followers yet having no visitors LOL! And I don’t even use or read posts on RSS if you’re wondering.

This is what I wonder about now. Does that happen with WP.ORG blogs too?
Does WordPress even care that this illogical thing is happening?

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• My Phantom Followers – Who Are These People? (pochp.wordpress.com)

A Case of Legal Drone Intrusion

Creep stalks woman with drone — legally
‘…The mysterious drone operator may be perfectly right. Legislation on new technologies can often take some time to catch up with the technologies themselves, and it’s perfectly possible he was technically operating within the law.

‘As the Atlantic notes, talking to a Harvard public policy expert, there would be multiple questions to determine the legality of the drone – like what type of drone it was, and how it was flown. It could have been flown in accordance with FAA regulations. And, crucially, what exactly was being photographed, and if that was in line with the First Amendment.

‘This case hammers home the immediate extent of privacy violations made possible by camera-equipped UAVs, but many more Americans are worried that drones operated by the state could be even more intrusive…’
read more

Google Glass Will be a Spy Tool Too
Why The FBI Will Love Google Glass

‘…Imagine for a moment that wearable computing finally has its breakthrough moment. That a cheap version of Google Glass, after it becomes available to the masses, turns millions of users into full-time documentarians — of any and all things.Then, imagine the FBI has access to that information.

‘Public reception of Glass has been mixed. The vast majority of people haven’t tried it, or anything like it, but the concept is new and discomforting. For many, concerns center around Glass’ inconspicuous ability to outwardly surveil the unsuspecting. With Glass there is no “point and shoot” — there’s just “shoot.”…’
more

Alternative Learning is Booming
‘…Since opening in 2008, the School of Life has attracted over 100,000 students with its unique course syllabus. At the end of 2012 the Melbourne social enterprise firm Small Giants partnered with the London School to bring the School of Life to Australia, heralding the first international outpost.

‘Another similar business, Laneway Learning has hosted informal classes in city cafes, and inner-city pubs and outdoor markets since March 2012. For AUD$12 (USD$12) per head, members of the community can teach or learn just about anything, from the zany “Why zombies are so awesome” to the more practical “Introduction to playwriting.”

‘Yet another altucation group — the Melbourne Free University (MFU), an independent higher-education institution established in 2009 by a group of academics –offers one-off lectures or six-week courses to those seeking to take university-style subjects at no cost…’
smartplanet

Disk Crash is Biggest Computer Killer
When the disk of my Vaio laptop crashed, even MS system wrongfully alerted ‘No Operating Found’

‘According to a new survey of small to medium-sized businesses, it isn’t flooding, tornadoes or hurricanes that are mostly responsible for IT downtime, but rather hardware failures – a full 55% of downtime incidents, in fact. IT recovery vendor Quorum tracked the trouble tickets of customers who used their service in the first quarter of 2013 to derive the data.

‘Disk failures were the number one hardware failure, says Quorum CEO Larry Lang. “More often than you think, it’s a SAN failure,” he adds, referring to “storage area networks” that are designed to keep data available even when a disk – or disks – crash…’
readwrite

Feds vs Apostrophe in Jimmy’s Peak

The view to the northeast from the summit of Pikes Peak. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Feds Wage War on Apostrophes
Its Practically Against the Law to Use the Mark in a Places Name

‘The Domestic Names Committee of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names doesn’t like apostrophes. Visitors to Harpers Ferry or Pikes Peak might not realize it, but anyone aspiring to name a ridge or a swamp after a local hero will soon find out.

‘In this Adirondack town, pop. 1,219, a move is on to put a mountain on the map in honor of James Cameron, who settled here in 1773. There is some dispute as to which mountain, and whether to call it Jimmy’s Peak, Jimmie’s Peak or James’ Peak. But there is no opposition to the apostrophe—except from the government…’
read more

Companies that don’t care about your online rights
…And those which do
infographic

Authorship and Plagiarism
How a Blogging Community Can Help Mediate Problems with Accusations

‘…We counseled Yvette to publicly face her accuser and be honest in how she got to her content. Then Allen Mireles stepped in and explained she had helped Yvette with the blog post and didn’t find an impropriety.

‘The guy said he didn’t buy it and went on flaming her.

‘That’s when I stepped in. I carefully, and professionally, took apart his argument and explained why we believed she did nothing of the sort.

‘But here is where the magic happened: The rest of you stepped in. You took him to task in the comments, you tweeted at him, and you made him feel very uncomfortable…’
read more

Should citizen reporters and bloggers receive same protection as professional journalists?
‘The digitalization of the media landscape reinforces the global trend of freelancing by further expanding journalism beyond the ranks of employees in media institutions. Included in the supply of news today are citizen reporters and individual bloggers. While they may lack established forms of institutional gate-keeping, it is in society’s interests that they receive the same protection as professional journalists.

‘Digitalization also means that more and more information is transmitted and stored online…’
read more

Mike Masnick Amazed at Ignorance in copyright hearing
‘Impressive to see Rep. Judy Chu misrepresent a whole variety of things in such a short period of time at #copyright hearing.’
Twitter @mmasnick

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Online Photos, Vanity, and Plastic Surgery

English: Photo of Mini Facelift Cosmetic Surgery Procedure being Performed by Facial Plastic Surgeon. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This piece is making me guilty about my online profile photos
Social Media Leads to Spikes in Plastic Surgery Requests

‘The survey polled 752 of the AAFPRS’ board-certified facial plastic surgeons on the trends in reconstructive and cosmetic surgery. This year, one finding stuck out: surgeons are seeing a 31% increase in plastic surgery requests as a result of how people wanted to present themselves on social media.

‘“We live in a very visual world, and have come to expect that we will be ‘Googled’ or ‘Facebooked’ even before actually meeting someone socially or professionally,” says Dr. Sam Rizk, an AAFPRS member and director of Manhattan Facial Plastic Surgery in New York. “I see a lot of men and women who are executives or high profile so they are in the public eye. Their photos get taken all the time and they never know where they may end up…’
Read more

Common Foods That Contain Toxic Ingredients
‘Although the FDA gives the green light on some frightening food additives, including these 13 banned foods still allowed in the U.S., that doesn’t mean it’s starve or move to Singapore, where apparently they take their food safety very seriously. Nutrition experts Mira and Jayson Calton, Ph.D., the authors of Rich Food, Poor Food, came up with this grocery list to help you avoid the toxic items and still enjoy your favorite foods. Bon appetit in good conscience and good health!…’

Mac And Cheese
Banned ingredients: Coloring agents yellow 5 and yellow 6
full list

Study Confirms Hemp Oil Cures Cancer without Side Effects
‘When a person has cancer and is dying this question reaches a critical point. The bravery of Rick Simpson from Canada in showing us how to make hemp oil for ourselves offers many people a hope that should be increasingly appreciated as money dries up for expensive cancer treatments. We are going to need inexpensive medicines in the future and there is nothing better than the ones we can make reasonably cheaply ourselves.

‘For most people in the world it is illegal so the choice could come down to breaking the law or dying. There is no research to indicate what advantages oral use of hemp oil vs. vaporization but we can assume that advantage would be nutritional with oral intake. Dr. Budwig Below work would sustain this point of view especially for cancer patients…’
study

Moscow spy saga tied to Boston bombings case
read more

Add this useful image to your smartphone for emergencies
infographic

Boycott Monsanto with this Shopping App

Buycott Lets You Boycott Koch Brothers, Monsanto And More By Scanning Your Shopping Cart
‘…Burner created a mock interface for her app, but that’s as far as she got. She was waiting to find the right team to build out the back end, which could be complicated given often murky corporate ownership structures.

‘She wasn’t aware that as she delivered her Netroots speech, a group of developers was hard at work on Buycott, an even more sophisticated version of the app she proposed…’
full story

Computer Manufacturers Are Paid to Make Your Laptop Worse
An alternative to planned obsolescence?

‘If you’ve ever purchased a new laptop and found yourself spending minutes watching the bloatware load every time you power on your laptop, you can probably understand why so many people buy Macs.

‘We geeks may know how to deal with bloatware, but the average computer buyer is getting stuck with a laptop made worse by its manufacturer…’
read more

Why every smartphone user should have a panic button on their phones
How one woman’s abduction led to the Watch Over Me app

Whether you’re going for a run, walking to your car, walking home, taking a cab, or meeting someone for the first time, all you have to do is let the app know and it’ll watch over you throughout your event. If you fail to check-in safely once you’re done, Watch Over Me will do 3 things:

Automatic Alerts – Send an alert out to your emergency contacts via SMS, email, or Facebook
GPS Tracking – Provide your emergency contacts with your most recent location via GPS
Real-time recording – Turn on your iPhone’s camera + audio recording functions to let your loved ones know what’s going on.
full story

Keep In Touch with your Toddlers easily with 1stfone
1stfone is a credit card-sized mobile device designed for children aged 4 to 9 as an alternative to the smartphone, which may not be suitable for kids that young. While the 1stfone has no screen, internet access or texting capability, it does have customizable buttons and can be programmed with important numbers so that children can keep in touch with the people they need.
psfk

Scan Your Twitter Followers For Fake Accounts
StatusPeople

The Anonymous Inbox by Aaron Swartz

The New Yorker (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The New Yorker finally launches Strongbox
Use Strongbox to contact writers and editors at The New Yorker

‘Before his suicide in January, hacktivist Aaron Swartz was working on an ambitious project: an encrypted dead drop system that could receive and protect files from anonymous sources. Wired editor Kevin Poulsen, who met Swartz when his site Reddit was sold to Condé Nast (which owns both Wired and The New Yorker), had asked him to help design a secure and anonymous inbox for investigative reporting. Over the course of a year, Poulsen and Swartz worked out the system with help from security expert James Dolan, creating a stable version by December 2012.

‘But the tentative launch plans were derailed by Swartz’s death…’
strongbox

How to Leak to the Press
‘Well, it’s hard. Even the head of the CIA can’t email his mistress without being identified by the FBI. With a simple subpoena or warrant, the FBI can obtain historical calling information (and with cellphones, location history); email messages (and records revealing the pattern of where and when the target accessed these accounts); internet activity; and much more.

‘Since even separate, innocuous contacts between a reporter and source may be sufficient for the FBI to establish a relationship in its investigations — and who knows what kind of leak triggers a crackdown — here’s my guide for potential leakers…’

What is an Interactive Story Designer?
The New York Times is looking for one

‘The Digital News Design group at The New York Times seeks a technology-savvy Interactive Story Designer to join our award-winning multimedia producers in the newsroom. This person will be expected to work with reporters, editors, producers, designers and software developers across The Times to craft rich, multimedia experiences for both news and enterprise stories, across multiple platforms.

‘Expertise with web development — especially using Javascript, HTML and CSS — is required, and experience with video, audio, photography and/or game mechanics is a plus. All candidates must possess a portfolio demonstrating strong design work, a solid understanding of layout, typography and storytelling techniques, and a smart UX sensibility. Candidates will be expected to be quick learners with creative ideas and have the proven ability to work collaboratively…’
Job Requirements

Is Adblock Plus Friend or Villain?
In the first place, you shouldn’t use Adblock if you use free apps

‘The company doesn’t deny that they’ve asked publishers and advertisers for money. Back in February, Digital Journal cited an anonymous source from a major publisher who claims that the developers offered to let their ads through…for a 1/3 share of the revenue that the now-unblocked ads generated. Is this a fair agreement that subsidizes a popular and beloved browser plugin, or a shakedown?…’
read more