Author: Dr. Bill

Your handheld device is watching you and recording your tracks around the world. Yeah, and what else is new? All you computers and devices are spying on you, because your digit habits are of great interest to businesses so they will know how to sell to you. There you go, evil corporate monkey business marches on!

Is Your Cell Phone Listening in on You?

“When a Connecticut programmer revealed that Carrier IQ, a hidden program on many smartphones, had the power to transmit information about the user’s location, web searches and text messages, the blogosphere erupted with commentary. Senator Al Franken of Minnesota sent a letter to Carrier IQ, Inc., asserting that the use of the software without the consumer’s consent could violate the federal wiretap statute.

But the Carrier IQ incident is just the tip of the iceberg of surreptitious collection of information about us using key features of our smartphones — their cameras, their microphones and their ability to connect to the Internet. And our legal protections are far less secure than Franken thinks.

It’s not surprising that we’re being tracked on our cell phones — data tracking on computers through browsers and Internet service providers has been going on for years, and what are our phones but mini-computers? But the information our phones convey is more revealing and intimate than data from our PCs, including our movements from place to place in real time and our conversations as well as our emails, status updates and web searches.

Some tracking programs, such as Carrier IQ, are installed without your permission. For others, you may intentionally download the smartphone app but not be aware of its full capabilities. Still other apps cannot be easily uninstalled if you decide to try to stop the privacy invasion.”

Farmville is stupid. Most of their games are stupid. So, they had a stock IPO. It was a fail as well. Wanna buy some stock cheap?

Zynga shares slump 10 percent below IPO in first day

“While there was hope for Zynga, the largest technology flotation since Google’s public debut in 2004, the company’s share price dropped by nearly 10 percent in its first day.

At the end of Zynga’s first day of public trading today, the company fell to just over $9 a share, in what could be the most disappointing stock market debut for a technology company this year.

In the biggest valuation since Google’s initial public offering in 2004, the FarmVille and Mafia Wars game maker’s shares dipped below IPO almost immediately.

Trading had initially opened at $11 a share, a dollar higher than its IPO price of $10. But the share price dipped below the crucial IPO benchmark by early afternoon.

Analysts expected at least a mild dip from market opening this morning, based on poor economic conditions, continuing Eurozone worries, and crucially a less-than steady business model.”

Get ready! Microsoft will soon be forcing you to upgrade. (Which is a good thing, pretty much!)

IE to Start Automatic Upgrades across Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7

“Everyone benefits from an up-to-date browser.

Today we are sharing our plan to automatically upgrade Windows customers to the latest version of Internet Explorer available for their PC. This is an important step in helping to move the Web forward. We will start in January for customers in Australia and Brazil who have turned on automatic updating via Windows Update. Similar to our release of IE9 earlier this year, we will take a measured approach, scaling up over time.

As always, when upgrading from one version of Internet Explorer to the next through Windows Update, the user’s home page, search provider, and default browser remains unchanged.”

This is fine except for corporate folks that have software that won’t run under the latest versions of IE. So, be aware! There is a way that corporate folks can block it, but you have to be proactive!

My favorite Linux server distro is out with a new, major version! However, they are still one version behind RHEL.

CentOS turns 6.1, still trails Red Hat by a lap

“CentOS 6.1 has arrived to bring the features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1 to those who can live without a Red Hat subscription. CentOS 6.1 offers almost all the non-proprietary portions of RHEL 6.1, including virtualization performance optimizations, enhanced development and monitoring tools, and YUM package management enhancements.

As usual with CentOS releases, there’s not much to talk about in version 6.1 because the distro is a free community clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.1, released back in May. In addition, RHEL 6.1 appears to be a relatively minor release compared with versions 6.0 and 6.2.
Nevertheless, a CentOS release is always newsworthy in the Linux world due to its continuing popularity. The server-focused distro has ranked between seven and 10 on the DistroWatch page rankings over the last year.

Considering that Red Hat has just released RHEL 6.2, the CentOS community has once again fallen behind Red Hat’s development schedule, although it is a bit more timely this time compared to the much delayed CentOS 6.0 released in early July. It must be harder to strip out all the Red Hat trademarked components in the operating system than one might think.

CentOS 6.1 follows RHEL 6.1’s lead in offering virtualization performance optimizations, improved operational efficiency, and high availability improvements. Newly enhanced development and monitoring tools are said to include a Gdb debugger with improved C++ and Python handling and a Valgrind memory tracing tool tuned for multicore processors. There’s also an updated Eclipse development environment that includes enhanced breakpoint and code generation for C/C++ and Java.

Enhancements to YUM command-line package manager

According to the CentOS community, the new release carries through a number of RHEL 6.1 enhancements to the Yellowdog Updater, Modified (YUM) command-line package manager. These are said to include a more user-friendly search function, new “updateinfo” and “versionlock” commands, and the ability to add one’s own .repo variables.

CentOS users who run the continuous release CentOS-Release-CR, starting with version 6.0, are already running code that is included in the 6.1 install media, says the CentOS community.

Availability

CentOS 6.1 is available now for free download on 386 and x86_64 computers. More information may be found in the CentOS 6.1 announcement and the CentOS 6.1 release notes.”

So, if Verizon bought Netflix… is that a good thing? I am a customer of both. What would the impact be? Would prices go up? What about… Naomi? (Wierd reference to the Electric Company, kid’s show back in the day.)

Verizon May Be Pondering Netflix Purchase

“Verizon is reportedly thinking about purchasing Netflix in an effort to make its way into the video streaming/DVD rental business and to give Netflix a boost as well

Just last week, reports indicated that Verizon was preparing to launch a video streaming service that would rival the likes of Netflix and traditional cable TV. However, according to Fox Business, Verizon is reportedly thinking about purchasing Netflix in an effort to make its way into the video streaming/DVD rental business and to give Netflix a boost as well.

While Verizon has a large user base with its internet, phone, data and wireless services, it would have had to come up with a unique video streaming service that challenged already-established Netflix as far as content and subscription prices. This wouldn’t be an easy task, and taking hold of Netflix would give it an automatic 23 million customers.

The deal could be advantageous for Netflix as well, since it has been struggling this year after raising prices and changing plans back in July. From there, the once unstoppable video giant continued ticking off customers with antics such as the loss of Starz content after the premium subscription channel refused to renew its distribution deal, launching a DVD spinoff business called Qwikster requiring a completely separate account, and then changing its mind about the Qwikster idea altogether.

So far this year, Netflix stock has fallen 57 percent. Just last month, it announced a bleak 2012 outlook and its shares dropped to their lowest point since March 2010.

Despite the potential advantages that most reports are pointing out, the potential disadvantages could likely outweigh any benefits listed above. For instance, Verizon could get greedy and decide to limit the Netflix service to Verizon customers only. Also, Netflix has been known for its rebellion against traditional cable TV by offering its own business model with cheaper monthly services and a growing amount of content. If Netflix were to fall under Verizon’s thumb, this likely wouldn’t be the case anymore.”

How cool is this?!?! Beakman’s World is on Netflix! And, so is all of the Star Trek series! I love my Netflix streaming! Awesome-ness!

By the way, I used to love to watch Beakman… now that I have access to all episodes on Netflix, I will be watching again and again! Get ready for more oddness! It is inspiring!