| Google, privacy and Eric Schmidt |
[Dec. 16th, 2009|01:18 am] |
I know this has already been done to death but I didn't have time to dig up a link while we were in New York. When Eric Schmidt said the other day that "if you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place" I thought back to 2005, when CNet used Google to look up Eric Schmidt and (in a companion piece) Live Search to look up Ballmer and Gates and (in CNet's words) "Google representatives instituted a policy of not talking with CNET News.com reporters until July 2006 in response to privacy issues raised by a previous story". (CNet seems not to have written up the story themselves, but CNN Money had more details). Google's view is presumably that if you publish information on a site or by running a search, it's fair game legally and morally - unless it's about Schmidt? Amused by the fervour of the discussions on a personal Mozilla blog that suggested the Bing privacy policy was better because Microsoft doesn't aggregate information from your Hotmail to your search results a la Google and Gmail; after discussing my personal discomfort over the Gears/HTML 5 team at Google showing a very cavalier attitude to privacy around location at the first Google IO ('we don't want a big dialog box for users to tick - we want [privacy decisions] to just kind of bubble up from user behaviour' was my favourite line, along with 'everything in the browser is inherently safe') with folk from Mozilla, I noticed how the Mozilla location demo at Google IO this year *started* with the privacy settings.
I could quote Larry Ellison too. But paraphrasing is quicker. 'You have no privacy' get over it'. Or I could link to the Onion Google Village video... |
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| Thoroughly touristy |
[Dec. 15th, 2009|01:33 pm] |
We went to Rockerfeller Center and saw the lights at Saks 5th Avenue and went to the Cirque du Soleil Wintuk show at Madison Square Gardens and shopped at Bloomingdales and in Little Italy. Balanced by a nice afternoon pottering about with Mr Pride and our work meetings, so we didn't feel too touristy. One of the bumpiest flights home we've had in a long while. |
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| I hate TicketMaster |
[Dec. 13th, 2009|01:14 pm] |
They make you do a capcha to even see tickets. Then they send you through long rigmarole screens with a 2 minute timeout. Then there is no way to use anything but a US or Canadian credit card - for a New York show! This is the cultural melting pot and tourist destinatin but Ticketmaster says the rest of the world can drop dead. By this time your ticket offer has expired. Madison Square Gardens has an in-person box office but the phone number only goes to Ticketmaster. And when you call them you have to deal with a tedious one question at a time answer by the numbers voicejail system to buy tickets. And if you wanted anything further to complete the experience, how about gouging international customer an extra $2.50 for collecting tickets when it's free for US and Canadian cardholders. I hate Ticketmaster and actively wish to destroy the company. I suppose they're too ignorant to even do online sentiment mining so I shall have to mail this to them myself. |
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| Rattle, hum, hic |
[Dec. 13th, 2009|03:52 am] |
Mary Jo suggested the Rattle n Hum (14 E 33rd St) and after a nice afternoon hanging out with old friend and NY transplant Simon P and his dog Oscar (Old John is a nice place for brunch near West End) we tried it out for a drink. With the warning that the small nachos does 2 people for dinner, on to the beers.
We tried three different Captain Lawrence Ales: the Freshchester is maybe over-bitter, the old gold is nice, the trippel Xtra is very nice. The Thomas Hooker Noreaster is like Ibarra made into beer: cinnamon, cacao, even a touch of cornflour hardness. The Smuttynose Big A IPA is big, rich for an IPA, like a trippel. The Middle Ages Duke of Worship is a spicy dark ale and the Stone Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout has that dusty oatmeal hardness in a rich dark brew. |
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| Mandoo dumplings |
[Dec. 11th, 2009|07:09 pm] |
We had a lovely chatty lunch at a nearby wine bar yesterday with Mary Jo Foley (wine:30 - thesliders with gruyere on brioche are as good as the wine list), followed by a thought-provoking dinner at the annual SNS predictions with Mark Anderson, arguing about cloud, consumer and conspiracy antitrust theories. And as Mary Jo reccomended the Mandoo Bar just across from our hotel we're having dumpling brunch. Standing in line let us read the reviews and the menu and watch the dumplings being built and cooked - which only makes it a little easier to decide. fried tofu is dipped in egg, fried crispy on the outside and silky on the inside with a fabulous tangy sauce dribbled over. Goon Mandoo are fried crispy and puffy, the dumplings puffing out bit and round, filled with lots of meat and green leaves. And the dolsot bimbimbob korean beef rice with egg and vegetables is *fabulous*: rice and little black seeds and beansprouts and carrot and courgette julien and shredded greens and a smattering of ground beef and egg yolk all stirred in a hot iron bowl so it mingles and crisps at the edges. we chickened out and put the hot paste on the side, dipping to taste. wonderful, and $30 for two with free hot tea (chrysanthemum?). on west 32nd street near madison. |
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| New York! |
[Dec. 10th, 2009|03:39 pm] |
Fly, sleep, fly: pretty lights! monorail! pretty lights! train! walk, walk, walk. hotel. bed: sleep. sleep sleep. yawwwwwn. coffee? |
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| Rabbit |
[Dec. 9th, 2009|10:03 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  weird | ] |
I'm going to quote Pooh, just to remind us. The sermon will follow...
"How would it be," said Pooh slowly, "if, as soon as we're out of sight of this Pit, we try to find it again?"
"What's the good of that?" said Rabbit.
"Well," said Pooh, "we keep looking for Home and not finding it, so I thought that if we looked for this Pit, we'd be sure not to find it, which would be a Good Thing, because then we might find something that we weren't looking for, which might be just what we were looking for, really."
"I don't see much sense in that," said Rabbit.
"No," said Pooh humbly, "there isn't. But there was going to be when I began it. It's just that something happened to it on the way."
"If I walked away from this Pit, and then walked back to it, of course I should find it."
"Well, I thought perhaps you wouldn't," said Pooh. "I just thought."
"Try," said Piglet suddenly. "We'll wait here for you."
Rabbit gave a laugh to show how silly Piglet was, and walked into the mist. After he had gone a hundred yards, he turned and walked back again . . . and after Pooh and Piglet had waited twenty minutes for him, Pooh got up.
"I just thought," said Pooh. "Now then, Piglet, let's go home."
"But, Pooh," cried Piglet, all excited, "do you know the way?"
"No," said Pooh. "But there are twelve pots of honey in my cupboard, and they've been calling to me for hours. I couldn't hear them properly before, because Rabbit would talk, but if nobody says anything except those twelve pots, I think, Piglet, I shall know where they're coming from. Come on."
OK, the sermon today will be about finding lost items. But I'll do it separately! See you in the previous message (sigh, blog formatting...) |
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| So not impressed by the MP currently in what will be our consituency |
[Dec. 8th, 2009|03:05 pm] |
Apparently, we're moving from Putney to Battersea. At least our votes are: hey, it's a closer demographic than Wandsworth. And the best way to find this out (not), is by having to pay for an unstamped letter from the MP currently in that constituency. Oh, not a letter telling us that we would be moving constituencies. Oh no. A survey offering us the chance of winning a TV in return for our views - a setup that makes me very uncomfortable, ethically and statistically. And when we complained about the matter, along with an apology and a promise to refund the money (we gave him a choice of that or a donation to Shelter), Battersea MP Martin Linton told us our votes would be moving to Battersea - and asked if we'd like to get even more bacon from him by signing up for emails from him.
On his Web site the survey details say it closes 24 December, and than only Battersea constituents are eligible for the prize; in his letter he points out that the general election will be in June at the latest. So he's starting his campaigning by getting us charged to to receive a survey with a prize we're still not eligible for... (no, I really don't want another TV, it's just the principle of the thing)
It's very hard to find out who complaints about MPs are supposed to go to: my best guess was the Standards and Privileges committee...
EDIT: and they say
Complaints that a Member of Parliament may have broken the rules made by the House should be addressed in writing to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. Guidance on how to do this is available here:
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/PCFSProcedNote2.pdf |
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| Own goal or CO2 saver? Bing Mobile ignores drivers |
[Dec. 8th, 2009|12:47 am] |
I've been a big fan of Live Search Mobile and the Bing version that replaced it for Windows Mobile. I put it in my top 15 WinMo apps recently, I use it for directions instead of Google Maps Mobile and I tout it of another example of how Bing gives you answers rather than information. Not any more it doesn't.
The new version that Bing asked me to download this evening sports a new (grey) interface with Bing styling, instead of the colourful - and nicely obvious - icons. Movies gets a big ad at the bottom of the screen; just like the old icon for finding movie times but somehow more important than anything else Bing can do (judging by the fact that it's twice the size). News pushes its way in, because obviously I want to search for that on the move more than anything else (not). And the 'always a day out of date but still incredibly useful' service comparing gas prices at local garages? (i saw gas not petrol, because it only worked in the US). Gone. It's not even hiding in the transportation section, which has no category for petrol stations, gas stations or garages of any kind (Microsoft seems to be suggesting you park the car and take a ferry to reduce global warming); it's just gone. As is the option to tell Bing when I'm in the US and want to get US services and results and when I'm in the UK and don't. So that's about half as useful for a start. That's a first; updating an app and making it less useful. Bing is all about taking data and turning it into useful services, so why take them away from the phone where you need them most?
This is as bad as Microsoft unveiling its other flagship Windows Mobile app, the beta of Office 2010 and giving it the sum total of maybe 5 new features (and a business only Sharepoint app). Dear Microsoft: it appears to have escaped your notice that the smartphone marketplace has a great many consumer users in, and they're increasingly picking other platforms? WinMo has 9% market share, 3% share of apps and Web pages with ads on served through the AdMob network and a glorious future behind it. Or more briefly...
Dear Windows phone team. You're doing it wrong.
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| Putting the rap in crapaud |
[Dec. 8th, 2009|12:05 am] |
I suspect you have to be from the island to see most of the humour in this, but hey, it's not as obscure as "Vraic My Beach Up"...
...of course I'm actually related (by marriage, through my uncle) to many of the St Ouen Le Maistres. Though on the other hand I should point out that my father grew up in Grouville (out at La Rocque).
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| Fitness, dowsing, and St Anthony |
[Dec. 7th, 2009|05:33 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  enraged | ] |
I just spent an hour posting that. I pressed "post" and LJ spell checked it. I pressed "post" again and it said:
"There was an error processing your request:
*Must provide entry text" |
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