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The Internet

Submission + - Beta Culture Is Destroying the Industry

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: For Web 2.0 start-ups, it's become common to release products in beta, before they're quite ready for the consumer market. But Andrew Keen, author and entrepreneur, says it's time to abandon the "beta cult", which replaced "the adult ideal of perfection." Keen laments today's start-ups and the entrepreneurs who run them ("even the sloppily untucked clothing of the unshaven entrepreneurs seemed to exist in a puerile, petulant beta," he says). Instead, he champions companies like Microsoft which, in being "immune to the adolescent beta cult," don't release unfinished products. Google, on the other hand, announced the Chrome Browser OS before it exists. This will change in the future: "The simple fact is that unfinished products are unsuccessful," says Keen. "Thus the cult of beta will, like the Web 2.0 euphoria and other fashionable ephemera, eventually pass."
Privacy

Submission + - "How to Read a Privacy Policy" (myplaceinthecrowd.org)

Submitted by
Grace Meng
Grace Meng writes: "The Common Data Project, a new nonprofit, has just published a paper called, "How to Read a Privacy Policy," which is available here: http://commondataproject.org/paper-policies-intro. Unlike other privacy reports we've read, it's meant to be a user's guide to the kind of issues and questions we think are crucial for understanding online data collection and how those methods implicate a user's sense of privacy. We're taking some pretty strong positions about what users should and shouldn't worry about in online privacy policies. (e.g., We don't think data retention is a big issue. We think a clear story about what users get out having their data collected is.) We also know the privacy community is far from reaching consensus on these topics (Know Privacy, http://knowprivacy.org/index.html, EFF's Best Practices for Online Service Providers, http://www.eff.org/wp/osp). Our goal is to provoke some discussion around these issue. We'd greatly appreciate any feedback, questions, or comments you might have. The announcement for the paper is on our blog here: http://blog.myplaceinthecrowd.org/2009/07/21/welcome-to-our-guided-tour-of-online-privacy-policies/. The full press release can be found here: http://commondataproject.org/images/How_To_Read_A_Privacy_Policy_PR.pdf. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me."
Cellphones

Submission + - Lost iPhone prototype causes employee suicide (macrumors.com)

Submitted by
tlhIngan
tlhIngan writes: "Physical intimidation of a Foxconn employee and a possibly-illegal search of his house may have led to suicide after an iPhone prototype in his possession was lost. Entrusted with 16 iPhone prototypes, he discovered one was missing, and searched the factory for it. Failing that, he reported the incident to his boss, who ordered his apartment searched (potentially illegally), and there are reports of physical intimidation by Foxconn security personnel. This ended tragically on Thursday at 3AM, when he jumped from his apartment building to his dead."
Social Networks

Submission + - This Article Will Self-Destruct In 5 ... 4 ... 3 . (scientificblogging.com)

Submitted by
TaeKwonDood
TaeKwonDood writes: "Worried that your impish college antics could come back to haunt you in a job interview? A new University of Washington plug-in for Firefox says it can cause your online content to "self-destruct", keeping your errant emails and/or web cam videos from falling into the wrong hands. The hook? Encryption needs a key and, for security purposes, even the user does not have it. So they use the miracle of worldwide P2P, though how well it works will soon be found out."
Censorship

Submission + - Amazon Censors Orwell's 1984 From Kindles (nytimes.com)

Submitted by isBandGeek()
isBandGeek() writes: In an ironic twist, Kindle customers that had purchased copies of works by George Orwell, including 1984, found that these e-books had been erased from their Kindles. Amazon had remotely deleted purchased e-books from Kindles while claiming that the books were actually copies sold by a company that did not have rights to these books. Apparently, this isn't an isolated incident. Other customers report that books by Ayn Rand had also been deleted.

Comment Re:Draconian Laws (Score 1) 179

by isBandGeek() (#28739701) Attached to: Facebook Violates Canadian Privacy Law
If you're not a Facebook member and someone "tags" you in a photo, the result is an unsearchable tag. Besides, on what website do you have the privilege of pre-emptively removing photos of yourself? This is not a problem with Facebook: it is a problem with the Internet. Tough luck.

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