tvwonline

The fact this was written on April 1st doesn't mean anything to anyone?

I pay way too much attention to these things. I have found on my walk to work, some buttons which do nothing, some which you must press and some you must press if it is after 10pm.

At least where I live, it depends on the intersection. So don't assume anything.

Link to radio transcript from 2000 about Echelon.

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/stories/s103059.htm

Edit: pulled out a quote:

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: The existence of the Echelon network was only confirmed a few weeks ago when US National Security Agency documents were declassified. Essentially it's a surveillance network capable of intercepting any telephone call, fax or e-mail made on earth. Echelon is run by the US National Security Agency using satellites and ground bases in Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. It can sift through a million electronic messages every half hour.

Yep, it's gone now. The reeder update was just in the nick of time. I wonder if someone at google was waiting for it to update ;-)

3rd party apps are still working, I wonder how long until they are cut off?

I agree the details matter!

Each company would need to build an API for them, which would also need to be maintained. Imagine a dev updating some code and finding out he broke the build in the secret US govt. API? Ok that is a bit flippant, but the practicality of accessing the data is an issue, and would have involved lots of devs, managers etc which I would think increases the chances of leaks from with in each Internet company. There have been none, even now.

Just a thought.

Actually, hold that thought. Is it weird that no one is saying "I work at company x and I did or didn't see this".

I've been looking for a good alternative for years, but keep coming back to Fireworks. I am not surprised but still disappointed.

The Guardian has announced 'Guardian Goggles'.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/video/2013/apr/01/guard...

Just watched the Keynote announcement of Safari and I finally understand what 'Snapback' is (was?)

I have been using a Mac since 2005 and never figured out what it did, then I stopped noticing it was even there.

Does anyone else feel compelled to read any article with a headline like this? I know if I don't read it and then for some reason find myself on a sinking helicopter the only thing I will be thinking about is why didn't I read that article!

As it turns out, this article only talks about specialised training and special devices and the dangers of crashing in cold oceans. Probably not many handy hints for the casual helicopter passenger.

I wonder how many people who will look back in twenty years time and regret that all their photos from this time are compressed and altered heavily with filters.

Actually, just thinking about it, the future could be worse than that. Either some people will have too many photos it will too overwhelming to look back through, or all the photos will have been stored on some failed photo sharing site and lost forever. (or stored on a cd, SD card etc).

There is a lot to be said about a box of negatives stored in an attic.. (oh no, I sound like a grumpy old man)

In principal, as a non-US citizen, why would I want the US to control the internet as opposed to the UN?

This is not a reflection of what is currently being considered at the UN which from what I have read I don't support.

What do other international people think?

The key thing is that the data is "Corruption Perceptions" not actual corruption.

Here is a link with to their FAQs which explain more details. Also they mention there is a detailed sources description document if you download the raw data. http://transparency.org/cpi2012/in_detail

EDIT: D'oh, looks like jlmendezbonini beat me to the punch.

Google, I have the solution.

Step 1: Checkout the Sparrow source code

Step 2: Find and Replace All on the word "Sparrow" and change it to "Gmail"

Step 3: Add push notifications.

Compile and send to the app store.

Its easy to get caught up in metrics, sales figures and Google analytics.

Then suddenly out of nowhere you get a nice email from a customer and it can make the biggest difference to my motivation for the day.

The Daily's biggest competing app was the web browser. Thousands of websites with better information, accessible quickly and for free.

That's not to say a paid news magazine is not viable, but if you are going to start one, you need to know what you are competing against.

A fast, presentable application with unique focused content is going to be key in the future. It seems The Daily was the polar opposite of that - trying to put an old world concept on a new world device.

Right now, a large number of Android sales are Samsung devices. Samsung is very profitable. [1]

There is a risk to Google that if there is not sufficient diversification in the Android market then Samsung can do what they want - including in an extreme scenario forking away from stock Android and creating their own lock in ecosystem to go up against Apple. (this is an extreme scenario - but I don't think its impossible)

Remember non-tech savvy people may just enter a store and think do I want an Apple or Samsung phone/tablet.

I also wonder if the real purpose of the Nexus devices are to help get other devices makers up to speed to compete with Samsung.

[1] http://www.asymco.com/2012/11/14/google-vs-samsung/

Does anyone think that iOS and Android tablets should be included in these reports?

I think it is only a matter of time before for some people, a tablet will be their primary computing device.

Sorry, looking back, my response wasn't very clear.

I didn't mean Stripe's backend, but the website owner's. Before passing the data to Stripe's API, the website owner might intentionally or unintentionally do something insecure with your details.

Meaning if you wanted to feel 100% safe with your transaction you may prefer to enter your details on Stripe's website where you trust that company and their implementation of security measures.

Unfortunately, if someone wants to try and trick a user into getting their details, there is an infinite number of ways to make their payment page look secure. Worse still, non-tech people wouldn't know to trust a company like Stripe as opposed to any other made up company.

Regardless of people lying about using Stripe or what ever processor they claim, you still don't have any guarantee that their backend system is secure and treating your credit card information properly.

The same could be said of any payment processor.

The only way to verify would be to fill in your credit card details on a domain belonging to the processor.

Finally...

Does this mean they will now be charging for what was service pack updates?

I just recently completed a mobile web app for my start-up and was pleasantly surprise with what I was able to achieve.

If I was to share anything from my recent experience these would be my main points: - use the correct HTML5 elements for input (eg: "number" brings up the keyboard with numbers already selected, "date" brings up a native datepicker (iOS5+))

- Use lightweight javascript frameworks, or write your own. I tried JQueryMobile and performance was terrible with just a simple list(on iPhone 4). Used XUIJS instead and rolled my own framework on top to manage views etc. Performance is great.

- Use graphics only when needed, gradients, shadows, should all be css.

- If you must use graphics, be sure to support high res screens with alternative resolution images. I found the best way is to use the 'background-image' css property with pixel ratio css media queries to differentiate between different resolutions.

- Set the correct metadata values so you can add your web app to the homescreen to run full screen.

One problem I had was a lack of access to Android devices for testing, but I used this site http://www.manymo.com/ and found it invaluable.

There is something reassuring about looking back and seeing how much you have improved over time. I think it is in our nature to keep optimising and trying new ideas. My coding style is constantly changing over time. I hope I never stop improving because in a way that is what drives me to keep programming.

As for finding bad code, I wrote something today I was not proud of (doing it right would be a large rewrite of a common component... too big a job for today) and knew if I look back on it in the future I would be embarrassed about it, so I wrote myself an apology in the comments.