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Technology (Apple)

Submission + - Amazon to Sell E-Books for iPhones (nytimes.com)

Dekortage writes: Amazon's e-books aren't just for the Kindle anymore: they will be supporting Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch as well. Available today, Amazon now offers Kindle for iPhone (note: App Store link) for free. Among other features, existing Kindle customers can access previously purchased e-books on all of their devices at no additional cost, and synchronize bookmarks back to Amazon's servers so they can pick up where they left off, regardless of device. However, it only supports books, not magazines or newspapers. An early review from CNET suggest one advantage of the iPhone over Kindle: comic e-books in color.
Government

Submission + - Secret Government Legal Memos Released to Public (nytimes.com)

Dekortage writes: After the September 11 terrorism attack in 2001, U.S. government lawyers provided broad interpretations of the law authorizing President Bush to use military within the U.S., conduct raids and wiretaps without obtaining search warrants, suppress freedom of speech and the press, abolish foreign treaties unilaterally, ignore the Geneva Conventions, and more — all in the name of fighting terrorism. "Too often over the past decade, the fight against terrorism has been viewed as a zero-sum battle with our civil liberties. Not only is that thought misguided, I fear that in actuality it does more harm than good," said Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. before releasing the previously-secret documents on Monday.

Comment Umm... it worked nicely for Apple (Score 1) 227

It may be a mistake from our perspective, but Apple shareholders don't mind too much that the iPod and iTMS are incredibly successful.

Many other companies have tried to break into the same markets (hello Microsoft?) with not much success. And they had even better DRM than Apple's! (from a lock-in perspective)

Google

Submission + - Google's Charity Chief Steps Down (cnet.com)

Dekortage writes: Dr. Larry Brilliant is stepping down as executive director of Google.org. He also suggested on his blog that Google may cut back on funding charity projects that aren't closely aligned with Google's own internal projects, although they remain committed to spending 1% of Google's value on philanthrophy. Google.org will now be run by Megan Smith, who will juggle that job while staying vice president of new business development.

Comment Re:Alternatives (Score 1) 208

No, If any part of a page is not encrypted then an attacker can effectively strip all encryption from the entire page.

You're right, and thanks for the links. Though, this seems to be more a problem with scripting vulnerabilities and MITM attcks than with HTTPS specifically.

I also thnk that browsers just should not allow a form on a not-fully-HTTPS page to submit to a HTTPS URL.

Comment Re:Huge pet peeve (Score 1) 208

Designers then started breaking this. To avoid an extra https serve, particularly on a front page or popular page. For the sake of "Design", including putting a sign in form on the front page.

Errr... you really think the DESIGNERS cared about extra HTTPS hits??? They were probably told to put the login on the home page. Then, the sysadmins balked at the idea of an increased SSL load, but still said the login could be done securely if the form action was HTTPS.

The real problem is browsers. They should have been designed so that only HTTPS forms could submit to HTTPS actions. No HTTP form should be accepted.

Comment Re:Alternatives (Score 2, Interesting) 208

Really, you should already be wary when a site asks you for login information over HTTP rather than HTTPS.

Maybe. The login form might be located on an HTTP page, but as long as the form submits to an HTTPS page, your login credentials are still SSL-encrypted. Conversely, if you have an HTTPS login form, but the form action goes to an HTTP site, your credentials are NOT encrypted.

Comment it's actually a fantasy game! (Score 4, Funny) 293

FTA: "In fact it is more like a puzzle that you get to solve. It told me to go to Windows Update and do a bunch of incantations."

Finally, someone at Microsoft admits that you have to use magic to make Windows work right... I would comment more, but I am on my way to my daily Ballmer goat and bull sacrifice.

The Internet

Submission + - Maybe America Isn't So Behind in Broadband (nytimes.com) 1

Dekortage writes: The U.S. is not so behind in broadband, at least according to the Connectivity Scorecard. Commissioned by Nokia and Siemens and designed by British economics professor Leonard Waverman, the study ranked the U.S. first of in being "usefully connected," saying: "PC penetration of businesses is excellent, and the country is first overall in terms of secure server deployment... a large proportion of companies buy and sell online, business spending on IT is high, and enterprise telephony also enjoys good penetration." Maybe it isn't size of your bandwidth that matters, but how you use it.

Comment Re:What is this "UNIX" you speak of... (Score 3, Interesting) 450

Apple is 1% hardware and 99% Marketing. Not too much they do can't be done on a Dell or HP. They just make it appear to do it better/slicker/faster, that's all.

I'd peg it at 10% hardware, if not more. The internal hardware layout of Apple's desktop towers borders on beautiful. Beats Dell and HP hands down.

And, while its hardware failures tend to be more spectacular, I've generally found Apple hardware to be more reliable than any of the Wintel vendors. (...speaking as someone who has been supporting computers since before MS-DOS or the Mac...)

Comment Re:roadkill (Score 1) 258

Fair enough.

So, just to take this to a logical conclusion... would it be OK if a stranger walked into your house or office; copied your music CDs, movie DVDs, and files off your computer; photographed your desk and bedroom; and then left your house... as long as the original materials remained behind? They would not be depriving you of the "good" you receive from those items.

Comment Re:roadkill (Score 2, Informative) 258

Off the top of my head: beaches are the only thing, in the USA, I can think of that are always public and you can always cross private land to reach.

Upstate New York's Adirondack State Park is over six million acres of forest, mountains, lakes, and streams -- the largest state park in the continental U.S., almost as large as the entire state of Massachussetts. Half of the land in it, is actually privately-owned. Years ago, I hiked and camped there a lot, and frequently hiked along a state trail, only to find myself tramping across someone's backyard. And that is perfectly acceptable there. Very little land in the Adirondacks are truly off-limits to hikers, and it is very clearly marked. If you buy property there, you just know that hikers may be on your land. It's part of the deal. Your house is still private, but your land is fairly open access.

Comment Re:roadkill (Score 1) 258

Does anyone think, "if I can see it it is mine?" Of course not.

I realize this may be off-topic, but have you heard about people downloading pirated movies and music off the Internet? Seems like an example of "if I can see it, it is mine," or at least "if I can find it, it can be mine."

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