by Bob | Aug 16, 2014 | Local Tech Notes
I try out a lot of shows. I like winding down with a good show on the tube/pad/laptop/phone/some device. Netflix, Amazon Prime and iTunes. They’re everywhere I am. What a world we live in.
So, when we still subscribed to premium cable channels I started getting hooked on HBO’s Silicon Valley. Then along came the trial season of Betas on Amazon Prime. The shows have a very similar premise: A team of young geeks striving to make it with their innovative app amid the crazy, over amped, high rolling tech world in the Bay Area. There are so many parallels between the two shows I kept thinking the characters from one would run into characters from the other.
Despite the similar premise there are differneces. The production values on Silicon Valley seem a little higher, the characters a little less extreme. There is a kind of coolness to the show that seems to emulate the image we have of the real Silicon Valley and its high tech, Apple like atmosphere.
But for some reason, I came away liking Betas overall better. I thought it was funnier, the characters more like-able. As the season went on I grew to empathize with them more.
Silicon Valley
Betas
I don’t know, maybe now that we don’t have HBO any more, I’m rationalizing, settling for what’s available. Now that old HBO stuff is showing up on Amazon Prime, I guess I could go back and watch them side by side. Yeah, that’s right. I have all the time in the world for that.
by Bob | May 18, 2014 | Life notes, Local Tech Notes
Travelling can be fun. It can also be fraught with trouble and misshaps, especially when you depend on technology to keep your life and work moving while on the road.
My work is all on line. So communication and work tools (phone, iPad, laptop) are essential. Two days into this road trip to Colorado I dropped my iPhone on a cement slab while trying to take a picture of a Clive Bundy supporter’s pickup at a rest stop in Nevada.
The screen was shattered. While the phone still worked, I knew it could easily deteriorate with dust or water getting in through the cracks. So, using my phone I made an appt. at an Apple store outside Salt Lake City. It got resolved ($280 later) and we were back on the road pretty much on schedule.
Today, I did an OS update on my MacBook Pro. I downloaded the update through the App Store and set the thing to reboot while I went out for a run. When I returned, the thing wouldn’t boot. So, it’s back to another Apple Store this afternooon.
Update
by Bob | May 1, 2014 | Local Tech Notes
We’ve started offering our home again, via the Warm Showers website, to cyclists passing through town. I know, it sounds a little illicit, but it’s really quite innocent.
Most people offer up a place to stay in trade for when they themselves go out on a bike tour. But I’m not touring much any more beyond an occasional bike ride around Eureka or the McKay Tract or the Arcata Forest. Our reward is meeting interesting people and hearing their stories.
Some people are just on a lark, riding along the coast because they have the time, the youth and the resources. Some are on a personal quest or attempting to burn out some trauma. Then others are riding for a cause.
This week we had a bit of all that, but the most recent was a rider with a cause. Will King is raising money to help fund research into leukemia and cystic fibrosis. Motivated by the loss of two friends, Will, who lives in London, is riding from Canada to Mexico and looking for sponsors and donations. Visit his site, read his story and donate if you can.
by Bob | Apr 27, 2014 | Life notes, Social Media
We Are All Data
Already we feel compelled to post so much of what we do on Facebook in order to validate our activities or to prove how active we are or what scrumptious meals we make. We share our photos, our thoughts, our blog posts. We all (well not all are on Facebook [yet] and Facebook users are not equally compulsive [yet], I realize I am using hyperbole, but it’s getting harder to avoid, is it not?), OK, I do this.
And it’s not just what you normally think of as Facebook. The corporation is sucking in other tools that can be used to share your life data. I’m looking at you Instagram. Now comes news that FB has purchased the activity tracker Moves.
UPDATE: Moves just published its new Privacy Policy. As expected, here’s the relevant piece:
- We may share information, including personally identifying information, with our Affiliates (companies that are part of our corporate groups of companies, including but not limited to Facebook) to help provide, understand, and improve our Services.
“…improve our Services…” can be very broadly interpreted.
We Are All Product
Moves tracks where you go, how fast you go and how long it took you to go there. To the right is an example of my activity for Saturday, April 26, 2014. It graphs that activity to mapping software as well. So, now Facebook knows that much more about me going back to June of last year since the app is in my phone and my phone is with me almost all the time.
While Facebook says it will not integrate Moves, Instagram, WhatsApp and other recently acquire tools into its social graph directly, this doesn’t preclude it from sucking the accumulated data into its vast maw and getting it to line up with all the other stuff I have voluntarily shared. And they can use that data in all sorts of ways to make money. I am the product. We are all the product.
Rage Against the Machine?
I’m really not sure how to think about this. I like Facebook. I love Moves. And this is only the tip of the iceberg of knowledge that Facebook gathers about me. Every time I login somewhere else using Facebook or even just browse the web Facebook is tracking.
And it’s not just Facebook, though it’s arguably the most successful behemoth. The Internet is awash with applications and companies gathering and sharing my data. It’s huge business.
I could unplug. But since I make my living on the Internet, that’s not very practical. I could use counter measures and tools to protect my privacy, but that in itself could be at least a part-time job. Maybe I worry to much. Maybe, instead, I should relax as we will soon have reached that new Eden that Richard Brautigan wrote about in 1967:
“I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.“
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How are you handling your data/privacy in this brave new world? Comment! Please…
by Bob | Apr 25, 2014 | Broadband/Internet
In spite of their recent blog post defending their new non-net neutrality policy, the FCC really is changing course. But don’t believe me. Here, read this post from Stanford’s Center for Internet and Society and decide for yourself.
The question is: What Can We Do About It?
It seems to me that only a change in the law will change the course of the river. That means appealing to a rather dysfunctional Congress.
