Insanity: CISPA Just Got Way Worse

I'm starting to think our government is run by evil aliens on a mission to troll us until we give up entirely. These internet bills are just getting ridiculous. 

In any case, this is just another in a long list of legislation that is by the government for the government, I'm sure it helps big corporations somehow.

 It's a great article, read it. 

Read More: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120426/14505718671/insanity-cispa-just-got-way-worse-then-passed.shtml

PC Pro Editor Takes The Microsoft Challenge and Gets Hacked

This guy, Barry Collins, gets challenged by Microsoft to try Hotmail, has a good time with it, and at the last minute his account gets hacked. He then writes his entire story to revolve around this hacking incident, which he describes as compromising the majority of his online accounts.

Hotmail does have a reputation for getting hacked, much more so than Gmail, but I don't think this has much to do with the service itself. It has far more to do with the expertise of it's users, and the things they do online.

 The simple fact that all Barry's accounts were compromised points to him using the same password everywhere. Someone could have easily mined his password from a different service and used it here.


This is just Bogus, if your story is going to be about hotmail's lack of security, why not back it up with some data? and why not cover more of the rest of your experience?


Read More: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2012/04/25/moving-from-gmail-to-hotmail-the-disastrous-conclusion/

Wired Digs Deep Into Klout

It appears as though Klout is about popularity pure and simple. The most popular influencers are the ones that can find and exploit the average.  If you aren't trying to be one of those people, your Klout score isn't going to be great, that's it. 

If you're happy with developing real relationships and having fun experiences, I wouldn't worry about Klout.  

"Over time, I found my eyes drifting to tweets from folks with the lowest Klout scores. They talked about things nobody else was talking about. Sitcoms in Haiti. Quirky museum exhibits. Strange movie-theater lobby cards from the 1970s. The un-Kloutiest’s thoughts, jokes, and bubbles of honest emotion felt rawer, more authentic, and blissfully oblivious to the herd. Like unloved TV shows, these people had low Nielsen ratings—no brand would ever bother to advertise on their channels. And yet, these were the people I paid the most attention to. They were unique and genuine."

Read More: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/04/ff_klout/

Mobile OS Fragmentation Data: Android Doing Terrible

The data wrangler extraordinaire Luke W has pulled up some pretty compelling data on mobile OS fragmentation, and it doesn't look good for Android. More than just having a billion different handsets on a billion different versions of Android, the Android versions are mega old.

"92.8% of Android users are on version 2 (2.1-2.3) of the operating system. Just 2.9% are on the latest version 4. (source)"


Unsurprisingly Apple is doing a much better job of keeping their handsets up to date, but not as good as one might think.

"All of Apple's smartphones released in the past three years support the latest version of iOS. (source)"


"15 weeks after launch iOS 4 was at 70% and iOS 5 was at 60% while Ice Cream Sandwich got to just 1% share at the same age. (source)"

I expected Apple to have numbers much closer to 100%, there was no data on Apples current numbers, but if you didn't update after 15 weeks you probably aren't going to. Overall I think the computing industry has done a terrible job of selling customer on why they should stay up to date, and even worse in enabling them to do so.

Windows finally made it an automatic process and I feel like Apple is starting to move in that direction. I'm not sure consumers will ever care to update, as long as things are working, but it's a necessary evil.

For the rest of the data, please visit: http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1545

The guy does some great work 

Online Ads Are Worse Than I Thought

I don't write software for delivering ads, but how hard can it be to tell whether your user is male or female? I'd bet many users would just offer their demographic data to their web browser, if prompted, especially if it was mostly anonymous.

If Google Chrome would promise that I never received an ad for a tampon again, i'd do it.  Maybe these people are just trying too hard... maybe I under-estimate the paranoia of the general public.

Why hasn't a web browser offered to collect and store this information? or sell it? Seems like a win-win-win.

Read More: http://allthingsd.com/20120423/bombs-away-web-ads-miss-their-target-all-the-time/

Beyond The Press Release: Twitter’s “Innovator’s Patent Agreement”

As usual, the majority of tech blogs and pundits didn't go beyond Twitter's press release to truly understand what this move actually means.

Fortunately Marco Arment did.

 This agreement has been given all the loopholes needed for Twitter to continue to do pretty much anything they want with the patents their engineers create. It basically amounts to nothing more than a ploy for PR and good will from consumers.

Read More: http://www.marco.org/2012/04/18/twitter-patent-agreement

Ikea Furniture with Integrated Entertainment Center

Ikea is finally pushing forward with something I have actually wanted, furniture with integrated web-enabled TV,  speakers, and Blu-ray. The screen sizes range from 24 to 48 inches. I for one, can't wait to see this become more mainstream, and move to other types of furniture as well.

-Tim Lovall


http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_20416490/ikea-begin-selling-web-connected-tv-integrated-into?source=rss