It's about time...

I just finished 'cleaning' up my personal Facebook account.

Was a long time coming.

This has nothing to do with the (now) useless and irrelevant Timeline algorithm, I just didn't see the point in sharing personal photo's and such with those I'd never knew/met/spoken to/had a drink with/shared a d00b with/exchanged emails or even texted. I just don't see the point.

Please take no offence, but with the lack of privacy in today's world... well, you see what I mean.

This does not mean the NSA can't (and doesn't) continue to read my personal page. :p

Everyone else... you can follow along here, or my Facebook Page, or even Twitter.

Please and thanks.

Here... have some bacon.

Read More...

Crushed

Candy Crush Saga

The makers of the ubiquitous Candy Crush Saga have been under a fire-storm of late.

Earlier this week King offered a 48hr window with which to purchase an block of time with unlimited lives, so to speak.
Shortly thereafter the connection required to make a purchase (in this case, the Play Store) has been unavailable.

Oh the site is there, it is Google's Play Store, after all.

No, there's been an issue within the game itself.

Thousands (millions?) are posting on both the games Play Store page, and Kings forums about having had their game progress 'erased.'

Now, as a relative newcomer to the game (am only on level 50) and having not invested any of my money on the game... ok, so the game is dead, no big deal. I can't get past level 50 without getting a ride, and I cannot do so as the game will not connect to Play Store.

However, I can certainly 'sympathize' with those who are a level in the 3, 4, 5, or 6 HUNDREDS and lose all progress.

Not good timing given Kings IPO offering.

We shall see what comes of this, until then... Candy Crush Saga is retired.

UPDATE: As of this Friday past, all is right in the world of Candy again. Read More...

Facebook not... Wastebook not

The ubiquitous Facebook logo

What is left to be said of Facebook.

Either through a browser or an app on your phone/tablet/phablet... hundreds of millions spend hours a week on it.

Some spends hours each day (I'LL CRUSH YOUR BLOODY CANDY!!!)

:l

Heck, from April 2007 and on, I usually checked out Facebook on a daily basis.

Let's Face it, Facebook has, in a very short period of time... become ingrained in... created really, a world-wide culture. With simple terms such as Poke me, and Like... (though many feels as I do that Facebook needs a Dislike button), have become everyday terms for, well... over a billion people.

'Gimme a call' has been replaced by "Facebook me".

In one way or another, we're 'all' on Facebook.

And Like any tech or code... it grows, it changes, morphs.
Facebook has certainly seen it's share of change, and not all of it seen as positive by its users.
Poor app launch, ClickBaiting, EdgeRank, PageRank, constant altering of one's Home Page/Timeline, Events, Notes, Places, Lists, malware, porn, Games, Games and more Games.

For a while now Page Managers have been voicing their concerns about Page Views dropping like a stone.

A few weeks ago, a blogger (and I've not been able to find the link, so, apologies) tested his NewsFeed for 24hrs. He removed what he didn't want to see, and found that no matter how many times he checked off not to see something, it would return. Time and again this would happen.

I can verify this myself.

It's been said that the reason the NewsFeed algorithm continues to change is that Facebook refines it on an ongoing basis, not to enhance our experience... but to sell ads.

Did I mention Facebook has Games?
Now, I've not played a Facebook game in a few years. Even then I only played chess.com with a few users.

Greg Godovitz of Goddo fame, 'famously' called the social media empire Wastebook, in one of his (at the time) rants. He's not on Facebook so much any more (as I can see.)

Like some, they've left.
Gotten bored, migrated to other social media sites.

It's the continuous 'tweaking' of the NewsFeed though, that's finally gotten my attention.
It's become largely irrelevant.
I was an early adopter of creating and using Lists to manage my feed.
I would then remove them from my feed, therein keeping the main feed for just those I know, rather than what I'd Liked/Followed.

And that's to be expected, isn't it?

Changes for the purpose of generating revenue.

It's time to re-evaluate Facebook/Wastebook.

As I'd said in an earlier post, my 'journey' to eat better, sleep better (etc)... take care of my body... fuck, just put it back together, can be exhausting at times. I'd added in more yoga poses/postures to my morning routines of late and have found it to be both enjoyable and invigorating.

Life altering really.

My body requires daily maintenance. For me, simply sitting up straight is a challenge.
I've also taken a look at how important rest is.

As such, I've taken to turning off my phone Saturday nights, sleep in on Sunday (my Sunday morning/brunch ritual of bacon plus, basically... bacon/eggs/hash-browns, etc, doesn't change in any way though...), giving my body a day of rest from exercise... basically just a day of rest.

And please, I won't entertain any biblical reference to the above pls & tks.

Where am I going with this rant?

I simply don't see what you're posting anymore.

I've recently un-installed the Facebook Messenger app from my S4.
It felt... nice.
And not because of the rumours of its nefarious information gathering.
No, because I simply don't use Facebook Messaging enough to warrant a special app.

I signed up for twitter in 2011 and find it's timeline/newfeed more to my liking.
Migrated to twitter.
Better newsfeed control.
More enjoyable experience, it updates my Facebook Page and my blog at the same time.

Perhaps... it was simply time to move on. Read More...

It was 25yrs ago today...

No, this post isn't about Sgt. Pepper.

This post is about the birth of the World Wide Web.

Today marks the 25th anniversary of it's 'birth.' It has seen some changes over the years, but before I get there lets take a at The Man known as 'TimBL.'

Anyone know who this is?

TimBL

Though it was Al Gore who famously laid claim to having 'invented' the internet, it was actually "Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee, OM, KBE, FRS, FREng, FRSA, DFBCS (born 8 June 1955), also known as "TimBL", a British computer scientist. He made a proposal for an information management system in March 1989, and he implemented the first successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and server via the Internet sometime around mid November."

I wonder if when he was coding what was then known as The Project he had any idea just how far reaching it's legacy would become. A look at the growth of what is (in some 'scenes') known as teh 'net, show's just how far it's come in what is a relatively short amount of time.

Source: VeriSign 2010

Here and here a couple of fantastic pages containing a number of stats and information on the first 25yrs.

And now... some random info;

* There are approximately 1,319,872,109 people on the Internet
* 78% of U.S. internet users are on Broadband
* It took the radio 38 years, the television 13 years, and the World Wide Web 4 years to reach 50 million users
* 80% of all emails sent are spam
* Domain names are being registered at a rate of more than one million names every month
* 80% of all pictures on the internet are of naked women
* In 2010 1 of every 8 married couples in the U.S. met online. Source
* 35.6% of internet users are Asian
* 1 billion users around the globe are surfing the Internet every month
* It is estimated that 18 countries still don’t have an Internet connection

Just take a look at what Google has to say about statistics and how they relate to teh 'net.

And now, let's take a look at the history and what was known as The Project... the first web page.

Personally, I started coding at age 15. My first job out of school (well, technically I hadn't graduated as yet) was running the payroll computer for Jetpower Credit Union, in Malton at the time. I was using email for work in the '80s. I built my first system in 1995, and to this day I am happily a tech nerd.
Only now I can make money at it.
:l
I simply cannot image a world that is not connected.

To that end, it's time I speak about what is (and will continue to) have a profound affect on teh 'net. And that is the erosion of privacy. Edward Snowden first brought Prism out of the shadows June 5, 2013. And that is simply the beginning. For years I'd been 'going on about' each and every digital phone call being tapped. For years I'd been going on about how easy it was to grab the signal from/to the satellites... and you thought me paranoid. Well, I've also always said paranoia comes from experience.

Finally... want to get involved?
Sign up at W3C, which develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential. W3C is a forum for information, commerce, communication, and collective understanding. You'll find news, links to W3C technologies, help and ways to get involved. "Public participation is welcome."

Enjoy today, and celebrate what is now a connected world!

Greg Read More...

Ya, thanks ya Twit

Twitter has updated their API so it no longer displays as a widget on one's blog/website.
You are required to actually visit the feed on Twitter in order to access the tweets.
...

And this makes sense how?

For further reference simply google --- twitter widget stops working --- anything similar, or click for this Google search.

Good luck.

Read More...

the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The first full-length trailer of the hotly anticipated movie Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has leaked online.

Read More...

Twit alert!

Either I just faced one of the 'well-known' Twitter on Facebook account hack attempts (notice I use attempt and not attack), or... Facebook software detected the sheer number of tweets made in a relatively short period of time, and said... HEy!

Still didn't click no link!

Duh! Read More...

Wierd Facts...

Over on the Wastebook Note, I'm encouraging those to prove/disprove any of the following and I'll edit where appropriate.

Could be fun.




* Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of cotton.
* The 57 on Heinz ketchup bottle represents the number of varieties of pickle the company once had.
* A rat can last longer without water than a camel.
* Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks, otherwise it will digest itself.
* The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.
* The dot over the letter 'i' is called a "tittle."
* A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continually from the bottom of the glass to the top.
* Susan Lucci is the daughter of Phyllis Diller. (snopes says...) Thanks Dave
* A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.
* A duck's quack doesn't echo. No one knows why.
* A 2x4 actually measures 1-1/2 x 3-1/2
* 40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.
* Every person has a unique tongue print.
* The 'spot' on 7UP comes from its inventor who had red eyes. He was albino.
* 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.
* During the chariot scene in 'Ben Hur' a small red car can be seen in the distance.
* On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
* John Wilkes Booth's brother once saved the life of Abraham Lincoln's son.
* Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister.
* Chocolate kills dogs! True, chocolate effects a dogs heart and nervous system, a few ounces enough to kill a small sized dog.
* Daniel Boone detested coonskin caps.
* Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If captured, they could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape.
* Most lipstick contains fish scales.
* Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.
* Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.
* Dr. Seuss actually pronounced Seuss such that it sounded like Sue-ice.
* Ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine.
* Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.
* During the California Gold Rush of 1849 miners sent their laundry to Honolulu for washing and pressing. Due to the extremely high costs in California during these boom years it was deemed more feasible to send the shirts to Hawaii for servicing.
* American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class.
* Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.
* The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.
* Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and lower, because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the 'upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller, 'lower case' letters.
* There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.
* There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange, purple, and silver!
* The numbers '172' can be found on the back of the U.S. $5 dollar bill in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial.
* The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan, there was never a recorded Wendy before!
* The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
* There are four cars and eleven light posts on the back of a $10 dollar bill.
* Leonardo Da Vinci invented scissors, also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips.
* If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death.
* Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to SLOW a film down so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.
* If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.
* The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's 'Born in the USA'
* The mask used by Michael Myers in the original Halloween was actually a Captain Kirk mask painted white.
* The original name for the butterfly was 'flutterby'!
* The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
* The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.
* Roses MAY Be red, but violets ARE, indeed, violet.
* By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand.
* Casey Kasem is the voice of Shaggy on Scooby-Doo.
* Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.
* Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look alike contest.
* In Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift described the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, giving their exact size and speeds of rotation. He did this more than 100 years before either moon was discovered.
* Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying!
* Sherlock Holmes NEVER said Elementary, my dear Watson.
* An old law in Bellingham, Wash., made it illegal for a woman to take more than 3 steps backwards while dancing.
* Sharon Stone was the first Star Search spokesmodel.
* The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.
* Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.
* Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a spacesuit damages them.
* Back in the mid to late 80's, an IBM compatible computer wasn't considered a hundred percent compatible unless it could run Microsoft's Flight Simulator.
* Bats always turn left when exiting a cave! Read More...

For all you skeptics

I'd posted earlier on the subject of evolving cyber attacks. With that comes word that Mac's are now being actively targetted.





So then, for those who swear by their Mac's and their untouchable security...

Apple Discussion Groups
Crying wolf? Apple support forums confirm malware explosion
What a Mac malware attack looks like

Was only a matter of time... Read More...

Should I click that link?

Here is an informative article on how cybercriminals not only stay ahead of the the game, but define it.

"Criminal hackers never sleep, it seems. Just when you think you've battened down the hatches and fully protected yourself or your business from electronic security risks, along comes a new exploit to keep you up at night. It might be an SMS text message with a malevolent payload or a stalker who dogs your every step online. Or maybe it's an emerging technology like in-car Wi-Fi that suddenly creates a whole new attack vector."

Read up and become informed. Read More...

Telecoms and Canada in 2011

With thanks to Michael Geist, this is a heads up that on a subject that is near and dear to many of us. The disaster that is our Telecom industry.

With a further edit coming, here is the original article. With thanks to its author Sean Michael.

Enjoy the read!

If the new Conservative majority government in Canada has its way, the telecommunications industry in Canada will be liberalized through some form of relaxation of foreign ownership restrictions in the sector. The existing foreign ownership restrictions in Canada, among the most onerous in the developed world, have up to this point protected Canadian firms from real competition and allowed them to enjoy inflated margins as members of a cozy oligopoly.

Liberalization could prove disastrous for incumbent Canadian telecom and media conglomerates, including Bell, Rogers (RCI), Telus (TU) and Shaw (SJR). While new developments in internet video technology have already threatened the existing telecoms business model in Canada, further liberalization of this market could accelerate the erosion of incumbents’ market share, pricing power, and industry control.

Major competitive threat from web-based firms

Even without liberalization, Canadian firms’ offerings are already being out-classed by web-based companies. For example, Rogers charges $7.99 for a single viewing of an HD movie through its Rogers On Demand service. For the same $7.99 Netflix (NFLX) offers unlimited viewing of a large catalog of HD movies for a month. Unsurprisingly, Netflix subscriber growth in Canada has been robust since it entered the Canadian market, even without any prior brand presence from a legacy DVD delivery service. Indeed, Netflix growth in Canada has been far quicker than it was in the United States, and subscriptions are expected to soon exceed 1 million, or 7.5% of Canadian households.

Meanwhile, Blockbuster (BLOAQ.PK) Canada has filed for bankruptcy just over six months after its parent company in the US. The trend toward low-cost subscription movie services and away from high-cost per-movie rental services appears unlikely to reverse any time soon in Canada.

Yet, no Canadian firm has announced any plans to introduce a low-cost subscription viewing model to become competitive with Netflix. Instead, the response of incumbent cable companies has been to lower caps on internet usage (typically around 25 GB per month, or one tenth of Comcast’s (CMCSA) 250 GB usage cap), and to enforce per-gigabyte charges on internet use above the cap of $2 to $5 per gigabyte in an apparent attempt to inflate costs for Netflix customers.

The incumbents have made their own far more expensive internet video offerings exempt from the bandwidth usage caps and overage charges. Netflix has responded by adding a “low quality” option which uses less bandwidth, out of consideration for Canadian customers who are trapped inside restrictive usage caps and face punitive overage charges. The company has also apparently stepped up its lobbying efforts in Ottawa.

In addition, incumbent ISPs have banded together and formally appealed to the CRTC to force Netflix to submit to regulation as a broadcaster, which would hobble the low-cost entrant with cumbersome red tape and Canadian content requirements. In Canada, broadcasters are subject to onerous and costly regulation of the content they show, but so far web-based video groups such as YouTube and Netflix have been exempt from this.

These attempts to stifle competition and protect their own market share have alienated many of incumbents’ own customers, prompting them to switch to competitors who offer unlimited internet packages. Incumbents have tried to convince the regulator to eliminate the ability of any firm in Canada to offer unlimited internet packages for residential customers, but this was met with a powerful wave of public and political opposition including a petition that went viral earlier this year, and culminated in a rare intervention by the Minister of Industry to stop the CRTC from allowing Bell to effectively impose usage based billing on the entire country.

Charging $2 to $5 per gigabyte to Canadian consumers for internet use in “usage based billing” schemes has been very profitable for major Canadian firms, and in some cases has been the main driver of revenue growth in the internet service business. But this has only been possible because of laws which prevent competitors from abroad from entering the Canadian market and eating the incumbent firms’ lunch. Shaw and Telus have indicated within hours of each other that they too will be introducing the hugely unpopular practice of capping and charging per gigabyte, following the lead of Bell and Rogers which have been doing this for years.

The Conservative government, now with a majority in Parliament, has indicated that they are preparing to allow more foreign players into the telecommunications market, and Globalive was just the tip of the iceberg.

Adding to the risks faced by incumbents is growing discussion of functional separation, or breaking up these vertically integrated behemoths to reduce conflicts of interest inherent in having companies that sell content also maintaining regional monopolies or duopolies on network access. And perhaps even more problematic is the growing proportion of adults under 35 who do not have a cable subscription and do not intend to get one, since they obtain virtually all their video entertainment, including TV shows, sports and movies through the internet.

Compounding this revenue-killing dynamic for Canadian broadcasters is the fact that young people in Canada are increasingly tech-savvy. Many, it is reported by senior executives at Shaw, already bypass the Canadian broadcasting system entirely by using one-click proxies, DNS spoofing services, or other methods to watch video content from lower-cost and/or higher quality content providers outside Canada, confounding any attempts to “geo-block” Canadian internet users. Growing numbers of Canadians now watch the Daily Show, Mad Men and House directly on US websites, cutting out Bell, Rogers, Shaw, and other Canadian middle men.

As Apple TV (AAPL), Google TV (GOOG), Amazon Prime (AMZN) and Hulu proceed with plans to aggressively expand into Canada, the future for Canadian broadcasters looks bleak. The situation is particularly bad for Shaw and Bell, who are still saddled with debt from their relatively recent acquisitions of major broadcasting corporations.

Foreign wireless companies will eat incumbents’ lunch

The same companies who control the mobile communications market have been able to realize huge margins from exorbitant prices on wireless voice and data plans. However, since the Conservative government allowed Globalive (controlled by Egyptian firm Orascom) to enter the wireless market, pricing has come under significant downward pressure. The incumbents' unions, rather than attempting to out-innovate the new entrant, have simply resorted to legal action, arguing that it is unlawful for Globalive to offer mobile phone services in Canada. Why innovate when you can litigate? Senior management at the major Canadian carriers claim to have no involvement or knowledge of the legal action being taken by their workers' unions against Globalive.

Reducing foreign ownership restrictions is also likely to change the game in the oligopolistic Canadian wireless industry. Even with the recent entry of Globalive, Canadian wireless plans (including mandatory fees and charges) are still so expensive that Canada’s mobile phone penetration rate was recently measured by the OECD at 67% - dead last among the group of 28 rich nations. There are millions of people in Canada who might consider getting a cell phone if only the cost of doing so was comparable to costs in the US, Europe or Asia. Mobile data costs in Canada are even further out of line with the rest of the world than per-minute voice rates.

Broadcasters and telecoms in many countries have been facing pressure from web-based competitors. But in Canada’s traditionally uncompetitive telecommunications and broadcasting industry, the impact of this latest technology shock may be particularly severe. Largely due to decades of telecom protectionism and some of the most draconian foreign ownership restrictions in the industrialized world, Canadian telecoms firms have enjoyed outsized margins, generous valuations and attractive dividend growth for more than two generations.

With a perfect storm of disruptive technology rendering traditional broadcasting all but obsolete, foreign entrants with superior services and lower costs, unfavorable demographics, a powerful pro-competition government, entrenched inflexible business models, lack of competitive and innovative edge due to decades of insulation from the rest of the telecom world, bloated balance sheets due to costly acquisitions of old-media companies, and regulatory uncertainty relating to usage based billing and functional separation, large telecommunications firms in Canada do not look well-positioned. Adding to this concern is the fact that none of them has any product - current or planned - which can credibly compete on cost and quality with web-based media services.

While Canada’s economy overall is likely to prosper under the Conservative majority government, any significant growth in Canadian telecoms is likely to come from smaller, more innovative firms who are able to keep up with new technologies, not bloated old-media companies whose business models depend on trying to artificially inflate the cost of internet service for the whole country and lobbying for legislation that kneecaps superior foreign competitors. Read More...