Author Archive
Worth reading
The Dirty Little Secrets of Search David Segal writing in the NYTimes reveals the games some businesses play with search engines. Reminds me of the ‘last-week-horse-racing-this-week-internet-marketing’ snake oil salesmen … note what happened to them when JC Penney got caught and ‘punished’ by Google’s spam cop. PENNEY reacted to this instant reversal of fortune by, […]
Had to happen: iPad approved for flight plans
From TUAW: Jeppesen, the company that produces most of the paper and electronic “Jepp charts” used by pilots for preflight planning and inflight navigation, announced late last week that jet charter operator Executive Jet Management has received authorization from the Federal Aviation Admin-istration to use the Jeppesen Mobile TC App for iPad as an alternative […]
Google ‘street view’ moves INDOORS
Where next? Google has hired photographers to take panoramic pictures inside hundreds of shops and other businesses in Wellington and Auckland so their interiors can be viewed within Google Maps. The internet search giant is seeking permission before filming inside business’ premises. It said it might use the photos in unnamed future applications, but business […]
Facebook info purloined. I guess I’ll be sorry when this isn’t news.
Another day another Facebook abuse. This woman’s Facebook profile and name and an image was used in an advertisement — snatched from Facebook by a ‘friend’ who worked for Vodafone creative… NZ Herald So, having slaughtered the words ‘friend’ and ‘like’, what? We’re now we’re redefining ‘public’?: Privacy lawyer John Edwards said while Vodafone could […]
Hacking the hackers, oops!
Also interesting reading on the WikiLeaks world is the humiliating news that Bank of America hired some ‘internet security’ consultants (Palantir Technologies, HBGary Federal and Berico Technologies) who briefed them on cyber attacks and personal pressure tactics they could launch against WikiLeaks, including naming Glenn Greenwald, who has highlighted the conditions [alleged] leaker Bradley Manning […]
Julian Assange extradition case defence documents
Available on his lawyer’s website: www.fsilaw.com where you can also donate to his defence fund. It’s interesting, blood-boiling reading in places. I got hooked just on the Skeleton Argument document (PDF 550K) OVERVIEW 12. Julian Assange (JA), the head of Wikileaks, arrived in Sweden in August and stayed by invitation at the flat of the […]
The street won.
On Hosni Mubarak finally acknowledging the obvious: “The street won. There was nothing that could be done. It’s good that he did what he did,” former Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who knew Mubarak well, told Israel TV’s Channel 10. Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, and there are […]
Wherefore art thou, Nokia?
thePaepae.com isn’t primarily a tech blog, despite our occasional forays into my nerd past and geeky/cyber present, so I don’t intend to examine too deeply the changes that are going on in the mobile phone and app ‘space’. Others are doing that with more dedication. But these changes at Nokia, formerly the world’s most successful […]
I agree: Steven Tyler is an improvement
American Idol. You either like it or hate it. I’m in the former camp. I enjoy the talent and the ‘quest’ that the show provides … but winning the popular vote isn’t an indicator of talent. Plenty of ‘also-rans’ were super-talented and (in my eyes) more interesting than the eventual winners. I will NEVER forget […]
Beeee-aaautifully put! We’d write for free for Arianna, but not AOL
I don’t mind saying, sometimes one comes across writing that says EXACTLY what you were thinking — or formulating — and says it so well you shiver in recognition. Douglas Rushkoff, on guardian.co.uk nails it on the unease about Huffington Post/AOL deal. … here we have a new media company fooling an old media company into […]
The demonisation of Julian Assange hits turbulence
As noted before, I’ve been uneasy about the pursuit of the WikiLeaks frontman Julian Assange — concerned at the [presumably] US and other intelligence agencies attempts at launching a ‘decapitation attack’. The Swedish prosecution seems half-baked — an arrest warrant, solitary confinement, extradition for questioning? Eh? Extradited for questioning? Now, according the Wall Street Journal‘s Julian […]
Beware the ubiquitous PDF? Really?
Oh no! First Flash, now PDF? Do we need to worry? My (profesional) life changed for the better with the widespread adoption of Adobe’s wonderful Acrobat PDF (portable document format). I use it every day — to communicate with others, to archive information or make it available for others … and to print and publish. […]
Uncovering the Scientology cult and its practices
Writing in The New Yorker, Lawrence Wright gives a comprehensive and illuminating account of the cult known as the Church of Scientology. His article is a follow-up the controversy surrounding writer/film director Paul Haggis’s public defection after 35 years as a Scientologist. I quoted Haggis’s resignation letter with its core message: ‘Silence is consent … […]
Heady assumptions, a get-rich-quick climate, wishful thinking …
I’ve just read a fantastic article Rethinking the Great Recession by Robert J. Samuelson in the The Wilson Quarterly. Wow. Instead of hand-wringing and wailing about ‘What’s happening to us?’ Samuelson’s plausible analysis points to a widespread forgetting of the boom-bust lessons of history… The great economic and financial crisis that began in 2007 … […]
