Saturday, March 27, 2010

Valleywag joins the Big MSM Whinge against the iPad

I see that whiny little Ryan Tate continues the contraction of Valleywag with more tripe about Apple and the as of yet UNRELEASED iPad. Yeah, whatever. Apple tit. MSM tat. Of course I comment.

To quote Owen Thomas when I handed him some Flash dirt soo long ago — NOBODY CARES about Adobe, Flash, or this crap.

I see that Valleywag is joining the anti-Apple dogpile, totally missing the point of the iPad’s market. Willfully. Just like TIRED, just like the rest of Gawker.

NOBODY CARES.

This is the 80-20 rule all over again. There’s more than 20% that Jobs can pursue, and all the whinging from the MSM now that they actually have to sweat details isn’t going to change that.

“Fewer apps means less energy and excitement around the Apple products.”

Hogwash. Fewer CrApps means less consternation and more ad revenue (via admob, etc) from non-CrApp developers, and the jokers and wannabes banished back to making trojans, popunders and other cheap parlor tricks that only work on the other prevalent platform, Windows (DT, mobile).

Apple. Judge, Jury, System Administrator to their own platform. And if you don’t like it, whinge to TIRED and Gawker.

[From How Apple Is Dogfighting To Control Your News - ipad - Gawker]

Yes, the Flash heavy MSM is lazy. Like Adobe, they put all their eggses in oneses basket, Gollum, and now they’ll pay for it. Even MSFT wasn’t this stupid. You don’t see them desperately pitching Silverlight instead of working on a technical workaround, do you? No, they’re just serving Silverlight via IIS in a form the iHardware can digest. And, since I’m in a sober punchy mood today, let’s continue:

@GoddamnSexualTyrannosaurus: If you enjoy ‘building your own systems’ then get a Dell Mini10(v), make it a Hackintosh, and install Click to Flash. Then open up your fav PDF book in ReadRight (JFGI) or in Preview.app. The PDF rendering you’ll see is a lot like what you see on an iPhone, and what you’ll see on an iPad.

Then you’ll have what most of the commenters here want, a complete system and not what they think is ‘an oversized iPhone’.

Don’t underestimate this new descendant of the Newton. What the Newton lacked was connectivity (I know, I had a MP 2000 for a long time). It was a PITA to get books on, or anything on.

So, now I’m potentially going to have a device, more than 3x the screen of my iPhone, WITH Eucalyptus, GoodReader (large PDF reader with OCR/text conversion), DropBox, iTeleport (VNC with ssh), iChm *and* my Kindle.app between a larger screen and my Mac? Basically all the Apps I bought for my iPhone will go straight to the iPad, and many will be native ‘universal binaries’. (iPhone, PPC/Arm; iPad, Intel based A4).

So. Why would I even *buy* a Kindle at this point? When I can transfer my Apps (which will be optimized to iPad) and then let my parents read news on a device which approximates the weight and size of a hardcover book?

Like you, for myself, I’ll probably wait a generation or two like I did on getting an iPhone 3GS (my first iPhone).. but for my parents? They’re getting an iPad.

There are a LOT of retirees from the Boomster demographic on up. They don’t care about whinging dead tree hucksters or their equally whinging sponsors, the whingy lazy software company that bet the farm on flying baloney and offshored everything to India.

Seriously. They. Don’t. Care.

[From How Apple Is Dogfighting To Control Your News - ipad - Gawker]

Gawker and TIRED sitting in a tree. W-H-I-N-G-I-N-G. Seriously, like every other on.line.rag, the commenters are far more interesting.

Ironically, the smaller papers who didn’t drink the Flash Kool-Aid are in a better position to party like the web is 1994 — which is what most if not ALL of the olds purchasing an iPad want their reading experience to be.

-Drunky out.

[Charlie Miller, that ex-NSA 'brainy cunt' has a book. Who'da thunk?]


"The Mac Hacker's Handbook" (Charles Miller, Dino Dai Zovi)

Saturday, March 20, 2010

TUAW & Muckraking, Charles Miller & Apple, Crapware & a Bag o' Chips

TUAW is always a head smack in the morning along with my coffee. Go ahead and skim 20 zero-day security holes in Mac OS X to be revealed and revel in the circus of FUD that is TUAW and their bloggahs. So, duh, I comment:

*sigh* Here we go again. Look, here's the deal. NO software is perfect, and any piece of software, whether it's made by $APPL, $MSFT or even $GOOG or $ADBE is filled with 100s of minor bugs and even a few major ones even at ship. That's the nature of the sausage factory.

1/ Charles, like every other security wonk out there, is out to make a name for himself. One of the ways that you do this is to pick a fight. With someone bigger. So, Apple. He's considered a 'personality' (read: a jerk) but being ex-NSA, he can back it up.

2/ Apple (and other vendors) know about CanSecWest and DefCon, and... and they normally drop updates. Charles may have found 20 bugs, but he'll have to contend with the updates as well as justifications for what he found, because normally what these wonks (like Charles) find are 'edge cases', as in, the hacker would have to have physical access to your Mac to execute these on Safari, etc. My reaction is: 'What, he only found 20??'

To say ' There's no question about it, Apple should have caught these holes in the first place..' is irresponsible. Nice hack job there, TUAW.bloggah. You're muckraking like everyone else who picked up the story.

If these holes are edge cases or the fact that 'nobody's perfect' you have to acknowledge some things: Again, people --who make and test software --aren't robots with perfect information, and also: The world needs jerks like 'brainy cunts' like Charles Miller to keep Apple on their toes. (the "brainy cunt" post got deleted, hah. -DE).

The real story will come AFTER CanSecWest. Let's find out what's real and what's 'claim chowder' from Charlie Miller.

[From 20 zero-day security holes in Mac OS X to be revealed]

The thing is all software companies KNOW THIS and there's a 'code of silence' of sorts about picking on each other's security unless, as a vendor they're a major liability to the other --like Apple NOT letting Flash on the iPhone and when Adobe complains about it calling them 'lazy'.

One thing that's going around the industry is how 'evil' Apple's becoming. What a load of bunk. On the iPhone, their crown jewel, as pervasive as Windows of is on PC-- they are judge, jury, and system administrator. I say GOOD. I don't want crap on my iPhone, and I don't want Apple wiping vendor ass, including updates for buggy software they have no control over. Apple vetting software on the iPhone is far better than what MSFT did on Windows letting any old crapware on. Apple saying NO is a good thing in this case.

The other thing is how little Apple (and Google) seem to offshore their staff compared to other companies in the same industry --and how those two companies are really innovating compared to the ones that are up to their ears in Indian and Chinese offshore 'assets'. At this point Google is the only 'worthy competitor' to keep Apple on their toes, and again, I think Apple is tired of wiping the asses of the less-than-worthy.

Make no mistake. Charles Miller acting like a jerk to Apple is a GOOD thing. It keeps Apple on their toes and will keep them from turning into Microsoft. But it also, in a small way shapes how tolerant Apple is about crapware on their platforms and how much bullshit they'll take FROM-- and are willing to take FOR-- other software companies who not only cannot innovate but don't currently have the depth to.

But I'm just an Apple fanboy, right? In the morning...

Drunky out.


"Beautiful Security: Leading Security Experts Explain How They Think" (O'Reilly Media)

Monday, March 15, 2010

US Intelligence Planned to Destroy WikiLeaks

This popped into my mailbox this morning. Seems the Barry "N to the W" O regime's plans to destroy teh Internets is well along:

FYI: US Intelligence planned to destroy WikiLeaks

http://wikileaks.org/#us-intel-wikileaks

This document is a classifed (SECRET/NOFORN) 32 page U.S. counterintelligence investigation into WikiLeaks. ``The possibility that current employees or moles within DoD or elsewhere in the U.S. government are providing sensitive or classified information to Wikileaks.org cannot be ruled out''. It concocts a plan to fatally marginalize the organization. Since WikiLeaks uses ``trust as a center of gravity by protecting the anonymity and identity of the insiders, leakers or whisteblowers'', the report recommends ``The identification, exposure, termination of employment, criminal prosecution, legal action against current or former insiders, leakers, or whistlblowers could potentially damage or destroy this center of gravity and deter others considering similar actions from using the Wikileaks.org Web site''. [As two years have passed since the date of the report, with no WikiLeaks' source exposed, it appears that this plan was ineffective]. As an odd justificaton for the plan, the report claims that ``Several foreign countries including China, Israel, North Kora, Russia, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe have denounced or blocked access to the Wikileaks.org website''. The report provides further justification by enumerating embarrassing stories broken by WikiLeaks---U.S. equipment expenditure in Iraq, probable U.S. violations of the Cemical Warfare Convention Treaty in Iraq, the battle over the Iraqi town of Fallujah and human rights violations at Guantanmo Bay...

Julian Assange
Editor
WikiLeaks
http://wikileaks.org/

What, the USG giveth ARPA, the USG can taketh away? The mind it doth boggle.

Take a read of the PDF that's at that link. VERY interesting if you want to get an insight into the mindset of 'those who watch (over? out for?) us'.

Drunky out.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

IBM Stops Disclosing US Headcount Data, Over 100K 'Employees' in India

Looks like IBM is set to go the way of Toyota -- to be fair, they're finally living up to their name 'International' Business Machines -- as usual the comments are better than the actual article.

Speaking as an IBMer... (Score:5, Informative)
by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 12, @12:40PM (#31453664)
We're projected to have more Indian employees than American in the next year or two. We already have over 100k in India, and we're ramping up in Argentina and Brazil.

Meanwhile, internal outsourcing has been an absolute mess. Our Indian-based helpdesks are reviled, both inside IBM and by our customers who use them. Indian technical resources are likewise extremely difficult to work with, and it has nothing to do with language or timezones - they refuse to speak up (from what we're told, "it's cultural", meaning don't make an issue of it or you'll get sent to sensitivity training). A solution can be completely wrong - as in, the contract says we were supposed to start work two months in the past or numbers literally don't add up, yet they won't question blatant errors, and won't respond if you question them. Apparently questioning someone else is deeply frowned upon, and makes them next to useless as anything but strict, brainless order takers. They have no initiative whatsoever, and seemingly no capability of independent creative thought. Maybe it's "cultural", maybe it's poor training - I don't know. I do know it's not working, but all executive management sees is that they cost a fraction to hire as western workers. You get what you pay for, and all that...

None of this applies to the many Indians I work with who are based in other geographies. But for whatever reason, Indians in India are just extremely poor replacements for western workers.

[From Slashdot News Story | IBM Stops Disclosing US Headcount Data]

and

Thank you Slashdot (Score:5, Interesting)
by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 12, @12:54PM (#31453876)
As a soon-to-be IBM ex-employee caught up in this latest round of layoffs (or "Resource Action" in IBM corporate lingo), I'm glad that IBM's total disregard for its own country's workforce is finally coming to light. IBM has been engaged in this behavior for years now, yet it has done such a good job burying the information so it gets little to no coverage by the media. In fact, according to a leaked management-level PPT posted on the Alliance@IBM site, IBM upper management is actively implementing a policy where even employees rated by their managers as solid contributors are artificially given lower ratings in subsequent years if their salary is deemed too high so that there is a pretext to push them out of the company and re-hire cheaper labor abroad. While I truly hope that the government would provide much needed intervention, I sincerely doubt any meaningful action will be taken. The best thing we can do is ensure as much media coverage as possible.

[From Slashdot News Story | IBM Stops Disclosing US Headcount Data]

So. Along with Microsoft and Adobe, now you know where the quality is. NOT. 'Made in America.' Looks like "Indianational Business Machines" is getting exactly what they want. A cheap, compliant, easy to abuse work force that will drive down labor costs. In fact look at what they've done already.

Are we sure these are 'American' companies? Maybe they should move base to where the bulk of their workers are.

Drunky out.

[Sheesh. $4500 smackers for a FINDING?? I'm in the wrong bid-ness]


"IBM, Cisco, AT&T, HP, Dell, and Microsoft Are Top U.S. Customer Selections for Infrastructure Outsourcing, But Customers Rank Full Service Outsourcer as Top Business Model for Service Delivery" (David Tapper)

Saturday, March 13, 2010

The 'Final Solution' for Tunnel Rat

Those who've been keeping tabs on the whole Apex Technology Group v. Tunnel Rat thing probably missed this:

THIS IS SPARTA FUNNY. Heck, even the forced pigmentation issue rings true, along with everything else-- knowing what I know about how they 'get things done' in South Asia.

Not that corporations or agencies are any better on our side of the ocean.

Bruno Ganz, Bollywood is calling. Are you 'fair & white' enough?

Drunky out.


"Outsourcing America: What's Behind Our National Crisis and How We Can Reclaim American Jobs" (Ron Hira, Anil Hira)

Public Service Announcement from Craiglist

Here's a post from (obviously) an American citizen, who's 'had it up to here' with the current labor arbitrage situation -- ironically from SFBay Craiglist, where they're all 'one big happy globalist family':

Public Service Announcement

Date: 2010-03-13, 12:50AM PST

When I worked full time to put myself through college I was forced out of manual labor by illegal Mexican gangs and greedy business owners that forced wages down to minimum wage...Strike One.

When I entered the IT workforce, my wages were then drastically reduced again. Productive CITIZENS forced out of IT in favor of outsourcing work to India at one to two dollars an hour...Strike Two.

Now I'm college educated with years of experience but told I need to learn Spanish, Korean, and Mandarin if I want to work in certain sectors of the workforce...Strike Three.

Lock and Load time! Maybe some of you people haven't read your California or US History but American citizens are crazy motherfuckers when others take advantage of our niceness and try and force feed us lies. Many of us are through with the numerous attempts at reasoning where our voices are squashed by those saying they represent honest, hard working American citizens.

BTW, I'm a educated Social Democrat so you can kiss my ass with the whole white trash redneck republican reactionary rhetoric label. Its high time to divide and conquer on who are the proud Californians and Americans from the traitors of this great country no matter what political spectrum you are from. Just keep fanning those flames higher you traitors because myself and plenty of others are armed and ready and we aren't going down without a fight.

[From Public Service Announcement]

And while some of the replies blather on about this or that, I think the reader really has a handle on 'Don't Tread on Me' -- one of the concepts that made America a great country.

I wonder if our politicians, and the CEOs who just so happen to live here instead of in the 3rd world where the bulk of their labor is, feel the same way?

Oh well. I've already said my piece about how to solve this mess.

Drunky out.


"Hoodwinked: An Economic Hit Man Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded--and What We Need to Do to Remake Them" (John Perkins)

Indo-Supremacy is Alive and Well on Dice.com

In case you're wondering why there are times when I show so much love to our Indian friends, let me introduce you to the Indo-supremacists, who are blustering back and forth with locals about India buying Migs and Aircraft Carriers from Russia. Actually, Indian folks, calm down. If that's possible.

What did you EXPECT?

So of course I had to jump in. Oh & before you curse me for the 'little brown people' comment, try socializing with some our wonderful politicians in DC. They're ALL THAT WAY.

And it doesn't matter what color they are either. Give them a little status and that's how they regard us, the voters-- just little tanned (or not) yobs to be taxed on or doled out to...Anywho, Drunky mode ON.

03-13-2010 06:28 PM

There are a number of reasons that the Indians are here. Don't shoot the messenger, I'm just calling em like I see em:

1/ Wealth destruction. There's too much fiat paper either in reserve or out in circulation. The only way to get rid of it is to destroy it one way or another. The Fed can collect on debt and destroy the currency, OR they can throw it down a hole called the 3rd world. The problem with the latter approach is that it throws the US middle class under the bus. The economy being the bus.

2/ The US Gov't is really gunning to make China the new Russia. We need a bad guy and the Russians really don't cut it anymore. But those Chinese are easily demonized and they also don't like the Indians. Of course, doesn't matter what CodeCorrector says, you can see by his posts why Indians everywhere are so loved.

Furthermore, it really doesn't matter how much the US Govt demonizes Pakistan, we have a longer history with them and more respect than we do for the Indians. We basically left India to the Brits, and when the Brits walked out India was left to their own devices.The fact that they go to whoever and have no loyalties anyway just plays into the Russians' Chinese' and our government's hands. They're a good way to get rid of excess paper.

So here we are, building up India as the bulwark to China, who is aligning with Pakistan. We're on the wrong side in South Asia, and setting India up for a war that it will lose. Badly.

When what we SHOULD have done was maintain our LONG friendship with Pakistan and let India delude themselves with that whole 'Chindia' nonsense (the Chicoms, um DISLIKE the Indians, and the Indians are Communist). That would have left India to keep busy with China and maintain good relations. But we're not seeing that, are we?

The Indians won't even stay on story that they're aligned with the USA, that's how bad an ally they are. They're doing what they always do, trying to curry favor on all sides and pleasing no one.

3/ Everyone knows the reason why CodeCorrector and his ilk are here is because of a number of social factors in the US. Falling birthrate being chief among them. But also, the yobs in DC are doing what I call 'trying on little brown people for size' -- seriously! The Mexican amnesty that now has Cali pegged with 12 MM 'undocumented' and in the red, H1B Visas for the Chinese and Indians, etc. Basically the CEOs and Politicians are looking for the right mix of unsophisticated, high birth rate, and most importantly COMPLIANT (and cheap!) for their latter 21st century workforce. They want another industrial revolution / robber baron model with CHEAP labor. The Indians don't bring 'best & brightest' to the table. They bring 'cheap.'

This whole cluster eff basically flourished under Bush 43.

Wasn't this all supposed to change under Obama? Let that all bake your noodles.

[From Re: India buys Mig-29's and Aircraft carrier from ... - Dice Discussions] [Second post after]

Some people never learn. And by some people I mean the Americans. The Indians? Yeah, them too, for the different reasons outlined above. Here's a big hint Indian folks: Remember how you deluded yourself with the Chindia takin' over the world thing while the Chinese went all buddy buddy with Pakistan?

How do you think you're deluding yourselves now? Here's a BIG FAT HINT. You have my permission to skip the Japan parts. Heck, in fact, read some more of my so-called POV at Dice.

You'd do well to heed the words of CaptainJack, one msg above mine.

Drunky out.


"Confessions of an Economic HitMan" (John Perkins)

Friday, March 05, 2010

Obligatory Vajazzling Post...

Of course a buncha Boomers are gonna get p-o'd that their kids are either going to get vj'd or get chafing-dazzle-glitter on their junk from knocking boots with some other vj'd BoomerKid. So here's a reminder...

Vajazzling. For when a trampstamp is not enough. I mean seriously? This seems to be a White Christian girl who already has a trampstamp thing in the morning...

Personally? I dig trampstamps.. Tho' to me.. all they mean is... 'this side up'.

Drunky out.

Dear PayPal: Re; Cryptome? Are you Total Retards?

Cryptome is one of my favorite sites for Confessions of an Economic HitMan type spooky files. It's not like PayPal has been singled out or anything, but yet this happens:

The Cryptome account has been shut down by PayPal. All DVDs requested through PayPal have been mailed and email confirmation sent. If you didn't get an email confirmation send a note to cryptome[at]earthlink.net.

PayPal shutdown shenanigans are amply and angrily covered on Google (a poster says, "look, it's a banking service, expect to get screwed, first open-arms welcome, then back-stab treatment;" another says "the shutdown reason is always secret if its government.") and the matter is recounted in line with Cryptome's public information on gov-com censorship topics.

Cryptome has published two of PayPal's lawful spying docs:

http://cryptome.org/isp-spy/paypal-spy.zip

http://cryptome.org/isp-spy/paypal-spy2.pdf

The DVDs were and are intended to get the archive widely distributed as beneficial public information and partial protection against the shutdown of the site. Donations are welcome but not essential to continued operation -- Natsios Young Architects has been since 1996 the primary funding source. Shortly the PayPal topic will sink into the archive swamp.

[From Cryptome]

I'm sure that PayPal will issue some kind of Microsoftesque statement later that 'they didn't intend' blah blah blah whatever.

Remember kids: PayPal is NOT a bank. They are a financial services entity. That's why I get amused when they yank the chains of banks in 3rd World countries ala 'Economic HitMan' and then cry foul with individuals.

Read that again: PayPal is NOT a bank. You'd think they'd hire some so that their pretend bank would look more authentic, tho'.

Seriously PayPal: Stop hiring *retards*. I'm certain that some grabby Boomer keeps doing this crap with WikiLeaks and Cryptome. Seriously PayPally.... put'em out to pasture. Now. That way you won't have to apologize later. Hire some conservative banker types and this crap wouldn't even be on the table.

Cryptome is well worth your time and everything there including the 'Lawful Spying' manuals is on the Drunky reading list. And PayPal? Personally I'm moving to something else.

Drunky out.


"Confessions of an Economic HitMan" (John Perkins)

Drunky.Popular