I was really horrified recently to discover that Apple iOS makes my address book available without asking my permission to installed apps (specifically the Twitter app in my case, but there are no doubt others). I carefully chose an iphone vs Android or whatever other options specifically because of security. Sure, I run Google apps for business, and all my data goes through there, but I (perhaps naively) told myself that this is a paid service, so I am paying them, to leave my data alone (ish) and at least not sell it to the highest bidder.
For the first time ever I am totally happy with my address-book system, I enter data once, in the field and then its backed up and useable.

The thing that really smarts here is that Apple, who I paid big money for iphone and iOS, (Apple are not offering me a free service in exchange for my data like FB ) have neglectfully given away my address book, and perhaps a lot of other data without even a 'by your leave'!
I think this is unethical practice by Apple, and at best a grey area. All I think to do to fix it is go back to a paper address book, seriously? Thoughts?

Brilliant concept, well executed! Helium is a good choice, I initially thought that the balloon might be thermal, powered by wax or some liquid fuel. (eg kerosene). The ballon project video is good but it could be improved.
Perhaps with a 360 degree fisheye or some kind of spin correction system, I felt a bit dizzy watching it. A really stand-out high-altitude stop-motion vid' with good production like this one of mountain views of Annapurna in Nepal can be really successful and might do a lot to promote this amazing balloon project.

This is only an issue when it is invisible, or out of your control. When I watch a trashy movie, I want a filter on everything else. When I go to news feeds, social sites, I want a challenge, many do not. they just want to not be bored. All this is only a problem if one treats Google, Fbook etc as being a 'true' and 'correct' view of the world. any monoply supply leads to this kind of problem.

The issue here is that these big algorythms are actually tuned to collect and hold and direct attention of users as first priority. Not to hand out accurate info, advice, wisdom, world views etc. I think It is easy to forget that " free " on the net actually means "you pay us with your valuable attention".

This is really interesting stuff... good book that I am reading (too early to review it sorry) http://cliftonchadwick.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/is-the-internet-changing-the-way-you-think-book-review/

Should have used a Trojan sized tissue!

Although this does seem a bit like getting paid to donate blood, somehow good but wrong... this guy has some interesting writing on how selling your 'private' data can be a good idea.

While it is indicative, one teardown is hardly a statistical sample to base QC on. The things mentioned all sound like non-core functionality. It is dissapointing, but this is precisely the maths that good statistical tolerancing would do. If we replace eg 5% of units in the 1st 12 months with warranty, we save 15% on unit assembly costs if we let the workers strip a few screws. Good enough is what matters to Apple and consumers.

I understand that the internet was invented/evolved as a robust distributed system that allowed communication specifically even when subject to attack or damage. Having a 'kill switch' is completely against the core purpose. as mentioned earlier, you just introduce an attack vector that was engineered not to exist. just get enought leverage against the killswitch operator and you can cause major damage.

I speculate that this is a major reason behind tiered internet. the kill switch can shutdown only the 'low tier' users of the internet, (punters, small businesses, the small fish, whatever). But, the top tier (military, corporation, gov, banking,power generation, big fish, ) can keep running unaltered (maybe even faster, and with more hardening). In this situation, the killswitch looks a lot more useful, or at least useable.

I just tried a few. It is worth a look around. Warning: There did seem to be a lot of glitches in the house. Experimental labs and all that...

are essentially being eroded. This is a good thing. Advertisers are essentially being quality controlled. product placement has known this for a while. Just look at the latest lady gaga video, or an episode of Madmen. Full of stuff for you to buy, and fun to watch. People like me will even plug for you, (Doh!). What we think of as ad banners will become decor, or whatever in their own right. wait... Isn't this just a diggit or 'like' tool for ads? I think this firefox plugin that lets you choose your own "ads" is a much better idea. http://add-art.org/