Friday, June 20th, 2008

The ultimate responsibility of wireless network owners

I was reading an article called, “Confessions of a Wi-Fi Thief”, and was somewhat inspired to write the following…

First, If you leave your wireless network open, than you have no right to complain about people using it. Don’t know how to secure it? Learn.

If you are sharing your wireless connection — whether you want to or not, and whether you are aware of it or not — and someone is leeching off of that connection, than it is ultimately your responsibility to secure your wireless network.

Whats even more absurd is that some people call it ‘stealing’.

Right… I’m ‘stealing’ you’re wifi that you left open for the entire neighborhood to use.’ Sue me.

Stealing is such a bullshit word to call using someone else’s wifi… that they left unsecured.

And how the hell is it unethical? It it really morally wrong to use someone’s unsecured wireless network connection? WTF?… WTF indeed. The only reason I could think of it being really wrong is if someone is using your connection to look at illegal pr0n. Even then, you still should have secured your network.

Oh, and with some ISPs, sharing your internet connection with others is against their Terms of Service. So, if it is against your ISP’s rules to share your wifi in the first place, and people are leeching off of it, than it is you who should be held liable. Does this not make sense?

What’s even more ridiculous is that some lawmakers want to make it illegal for people to use other people’s unsecured wireless networks — and in some places, it is illegal.

Sense, it makes none.

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Thursday, June 19th, 2008

Web of ignorance; a short story

DISCLAIMER: The following true story/sentance contains strong language not suitable for sensitive minds. Don’t say I didn’t fucking warn you :-)

Ever have an argument with someone who knows absolutely NOTHING about the internet (provided that you yourself know a lot)? I had one of these moments today.

Someone (lets just call him Jack [ass]) was looking for Lipton’s site on Google. Jack then clicked on a website called liptonsoup.com, which is a parked domain full of ads. He then argued that the site was Lipton’s official site… just because it had the domain, liptonsoup.com… and it all pretty much went downhill from there.

Yes, an argument about Lipton soup. What a Fucking joke!

I told him, no, that liptonsoup.com is NOT their fucking site. IT IS FULL OF ADS AND EVEN A FUCKING MONKEY WOULD BE ABLE TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE, DAMNIT!

Ok, so I didn’t say that last part, but it was one of the many burning thoughts in my head at that point.

Now, I could have given him a whole slew of reasons why he was wrong, but I just let him satisfy his ego by leaving. Fuck it. Let him find out the hard way, and he will definitely encounter the hard way, sooner or later.

Seriously, there are some stupid-ass-ingorant people who just don’t want to know or learn anything, and who insist that they are right about things that are simply not true, NO MATTER WHAT.

Exactly why some people should never use the internet.


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Saturday, June 14th, 2008

[Nokia Productions] Mobile-generated content

Ten years ago, the idea of creating high-quality content generated from your mobile device might have seemed completely unfeasible, but current advances in technology and the many different ways we are now able to produce content on the fly makes this idea very feasible.

We all live in an continuously evolving, technologically-advanced society which is becoming increasingly connected to the world, and to each other. People have the endless ability to create vast amounts of mobile-generated content, and instantly share it with almost anyone from almost anywhere.

Photos, videos, music, and text; these are just some of the things that people can store, share, or create using their mobile phones. Of course, some phones are better at this than others, but with the right techniques, almost anything is possible. Quality content isn’t always limited to a certain phone’s abilities — it is limited to the user’s imagination.

Travel anywhere, and its not that hard to spot a mobile phone that has a built-in camera. Everyday, thousands upon thousands of people are photographing the world using their mobile phones. As an administrator for a popular Flickr group, “Photos taken with an Apple iPhone”, I have experienced first hand what camera phones and their users are capable of, and some of the photos that I’ve seen still amaze me.

Some people use their camera phones to capture special moments that would have otherwise been lost, while others might use their camera phones just to record random things. Mobile phones have enabled people to document nearly everything, where at one time, the only camera that a person really had on them was their regular camera — but not all the time.

I believe that mobile devices will continue to advance in their ability to provide consumers with a viable alternative to carrying around the things that a lot of us sometimes travel with all the time — everything from cameras, to computers, and even your keys. In a way, the mobile phone has become all of these things. These devices can also unify the way we interact with and produce content while on the go.

Although mobile devices are not designed to replace regular computers or cameras, they do provide us with an easily transportable alternative, and can almost be thought of as an accessory to your personal life.

In short, no matter what kind of mobile device you own, creating quality content with it is truly possible; all it really takes is some imagination. Just trust yourself, and anything is possible.

–––

This is a cross post of “Mobile-generated content” on the Nokia Productions blog.


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Friday, June 13th, 2008

My short [and random] thoughs on integration

Its always nice when something is Integated — like different products or services — just as long as that itegration is organized AND simple [and efficient].

No integration is simple, but not organized. How? Each part is separate, and allows a person to focus on a single piece.

Separation is simple because it breaks something down into smaller, and more manageable parts, but without some kind of organization, these smaller parts are in disarray.

Imagine you have 5 pieces of paper, all with different assignments. But, all together, in no particular order, they are cluttered. Separate them from each other, and they become more manageable. Simple.

Now, integrate all 5 pieces of paper into one pile, but put them in a manageable order, and they are now simply organized. Neat.

Add all 5 pieces of paper to a binder, but keep them in order, and they are both organized and integrated. Smooth.

Take MobileMe’s website, for example, which integrates separate services into one, unified interface. Once on the site, the services are organized into different pages, thus providing each service a simple and efficient space to work with.

The website is a whole, and each service is a part. Without the website, each part is separated… but they aren’t.

MobileMe is always integrated — always working with its parts — even without the site. It works behind the scenes to unify information flowing from one place to another.

For example, edit a calendar event on your iPhone. MobileMe immediately synchronizes that information to its server, which instantly becomes available on all of your devices that have MobileMe integration — including the site.

Sometimes, the sum is greater than its parts.

To sum it all up, the best kind of integration is an efficiently organized and simplified combination of separate parts. In the end, it all fits together.

Separate = not integrated
integration = organization
organization = efficiency

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Sunday, June 8th, 2008

Apple WWDC '08 Keynote Coverage

Apple’s WWDC 2008 is almost here, and it will be an exciting event indeed.

“Steve Jobs will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, June 9, 2008 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. This year’s WWDC will showcase two revolutionary development platforms, the ground-breaking innovations of OS X Leopard® and OS X iPhone™, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system.” via Apple.

The keynote will take place Monday, June 9, 2008 starting at:

7:00AM - Hawaii
10:00AM - Pacific
11:00AM - Mountain
12:00PM - Central
1:00PM - Eastern
5:00PM - GMT
6:00PM - London
7:00PM - Berlin
2:00AM - Tokyo (June 10th)

Although it is quite early to be listing all of the sites and blogs that will be covering this potentially action-packed keynote, the following usually do — and you can pretty much expect that this will be an extensively covered event.

I will also be updating this list periodically to include others who I have not yet listed. Also, If you know any sites that I missed, than please feel free to add them in the comments.

Until then.


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Thursday, May 29th, 2008
My new site design

Done with iWeb ‘08. iWeb has tons of potential, but there are still a few things that I’d like to see — like custom site titles, and favicon integration, and cross-browser happyness. Until then, my site is never done. Now, all I need is a blog redesign.

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

[fancy title]

[word, word, word, word, word; sentence. Word, word, word, word, FUCK, word, word, word, big word, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, backspace, backspace, backspace, word, word, FUCK, backspace, nothing, word, something, SHIT, nothing, backspace, something, word; paragraph.]

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Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
via www.beststumbles.info
via www.beststumbles.info
Friday, May 23rd, 2008
“ Design is not a short-term fix. It’s a long-term engagement that requires you to think about how design affects everything that touches the consumer—from product to packaging to marketing to retail to the take-home experience.
Yves Behar
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008
A short montage of videos I took at Universal Studios Hollywood. Could almost be a TV commercial.
Monday, May 19th, 2008
  • Stephen: wow, you typed all that fast
  • Stephen: but the Facebook test still says i'm faster
  • Me: :-(
  • Stephen: [How low have we become, comparing typing speeds on Facebook applications — the world is coming to an end!]
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
“ The world is just awesome.
Discovery Channel
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008

Facebook and Redundant Content

Embracing the idea of simplicity, I have removed all of my imported Facebook feeds — including Twitter, delicious, and digg. With the exception of Flickr, I feel that these feeds have no relevancy to Facebook, nor to any of my contacts on Facebook.

The less redundant content flowing through one’s mini-feed or profile, the more distinct Facebook becomes. Instead of focusing on regurgitated data, one can instead focus on creating new and more personal content for people in your Facebook network to enjoy.

One of the redundant feeds that circulates through many Facebook users’ profiles is Twitter. I’ve come to realize that there is no useful reason for Twitter to replace Facebook’s current status update tool, simply because what you post as your Facebook status is just not the same as what you would post on Twitter, and vice versa. 

I have learned to recognize the difference between Twitter and Facebook’s Status Updater, and that their dissimilarity has purpose.

Twitter is mechanism for sharing random bits to all of the people who you follow or are in contact with in your public life. Some people use Twitter to share things from their personal life, too. Some people use it to share things with only people from their personal life. Other people use twitter merely as a tool to keep up to date with everyone; and to keep everyone up to date.

The essence is that Facebook is not for all of these things.

The Facebook Status Updater is a one-way system for keeping your Facebook friends in the loop — your loop. Twitter is more of an omnidirectional, multi-purpose, mass-broadcast instrument.

When you share something on Facebook, you are sharing it with a select group of people; When you share something on Facebook, you don’t intend to tell the whole world about it.

There is no need to be bombarded with redundant information via Facebook status messages. I don’t want to see things that I’ve already seen via FriendFeed, or Twitter, or my RSS reader.

Facebook, to me, is a social network to escape from all social networks. A safe haven from the unnecessary virtual excess that exists everywhere on the web. Time to keep it that way.


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Sunday, May 4th, 2008

Geotagging in Photography

I’ve made a new guideline for myself when out shooting photos; geotag everything. It just makes photography that much more interesting/personal; especially in the long run, when you might otherwise look back at your photos and wonder, “Where did I take that?”.

There are some exceptions of course, like when shooting photos of things that wouldn’t normally make you wonder where you took that particular photo — a picture of a keyboard, for example. Or a fancy shot of an iPod.

The location of these things (like products and everyday objects) are not always relevant to where you were at the time, as it doesn’t really make the photo any more or less interesting — unless you are out shooting and stumble upon an interesting object, and the object and background or location play a significent role in the overall photo, like an iPhone at an Apple store (I know, bad example).

Then again, some people might choose to geotag everything, regardless of relevancy or interestingness. Thats perfectly fine too. The more it enhances your photos, the more you get to experience subsequently, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Geotagging is just another great way of expanding the way you share and remember your everyday experiences or adventures in your world.



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Friday, May 2nd, 2008
Simple Living Manifesto: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life | Zen Habits