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The Github mess…

Responsible Disclosure Policy:

There has been some confusion over today’s security vulnerability and our policy on responsible disclosure and account suspension that I’d like to clear up.

[I think they’ve covered this fairly well. Not awesome, but fairly well. The biggest problem is that they weren’t completely forthright about what happened in their first blog post. Maybe they should’ve have waited a little while longer before posting… but I’m Monday morning QB’ing here. It’s all too common for people to take an all or nothing response to everything. They’re the best! They’s the worst! But that’s too easy. Rarely is life so binary. Besides, it’s all too easy to throw stones and in case there were two large targets… Rails and Github. Meh to all. ]

Music Lessons (that work for publishing, too) – The Domino Project

Music Lessons (that work for publishing, too) – The Domino Project:

  1. The new thing is never as good as the old thing, at least right now.
  2. Past performance is no guarantee of future success
  3. Copy protection in a digital age is a pipe dream
  4. Interactivity can’t be copied
  5. Permission is the asset of the future
  6. A frightened consumer is not a happy consumer.
  7. This is a big one: The best time to change your business model is while you still have momentum.
  8. Remember the Bob Dylan rule: it’s not just a record, it’s a movement.
  9. Don’t panic when the new business model isn’t as ‘clean’ as the old one
  10. Read the writing on the wall.
  11. Don’t abandon the Long Tail
  12. Understand the power of  digital
  13. Celebrity is underrated
  14. Value is created when you go from many to few, and vice versa

[Go read the whole thing, because a lot of this applies to everyone.]

When to call bull****

When to call bullshit:

If I had one bit of advice to someone thinking of a startup—including myself, at times—it would be this. Solve a genuine problem, even a trivial one, that you actually have, and that isn’t being adequately solved by an existing solution. Then think about how you can get money for solving that problem. Be wary of scenarios in which your revenue base and your customer base have no overlap.

If I had a second bit of advice, it would be this. Is the elevator pitch for your new startup—no matter how sincerely you believe in its fantastic future—at its heart a variant of, “Think [well-known service name] but with [added feature or new twist]”? If it is, you’d better know somebody willing to call bullshit.

[Seems like right fine advice…]

Source: Coyote Tracks

Edwin Black: IBM’s Role in the Holocaust — What the New Documents Reveal

Edwin Black: IBM’s Role in the Holocaust — What the New Documents Reveal:

Particularly powerful are the newly-released copies of the IBM concentration camp codes. IBM maintained a customer site, known as the Hollerith Department, in virtually every concentration camp to sort or process punch cards and track prisoners. The codes show IBM’s numerical designation for various camps. Auschwitz was 001, Buchenwald was 002; Dachau was 003, and so on. Various prisoner types were reduced to IBM numbers, with 3 signifying homosexual, 9 for anti-social, and 12 for Gypsy. The IBM number 8 designated a Jew. Inmate death was also reduced to an IBM digit: 3 represented death by natural causes, 4 by execution, 5 by suicide, and code 6 designated “special treatment” in gas chambers. IBM engineers had to create Hollerith codes to differentiate between a Jew who had been worked to death and one who had been gassed, then print the cards, configure the machines, train the staff, and continuously maintain the fragile systems every two weeks on site in the concentration camps.

Newly-released photographs show the Hollerith Bunker at Dachau. It housed at least two dozen machines, mainly controlled by the SS. The foreboding concrete Hollerith blockhouse, constructed of reinforced concrete and steel, was designed to withstand the most intense Allied aerial bombardment. Those familiar with Nazi bomb-proof shelters will recognize the advanced square-cornered pillbox design reserved for the Reich’s most precious buildings and operations. IBM equipment was among the Reich’s most important weapons, not only in its war against the Jews, but in its general military campaigns and control of railway traffic. Watson personally approved expenditures to add bomb shelters to DEHOMAG installations because the cost was born by the company. Such costs cut into IBM’s profit margin. Watson’s approval was required because he received a one-percent commission on all Nazi business profits.

[In an odd coincidence, I was discussing IBM’s role in the holocaust just this weekend. Thanks T., for the pointer to the article.]

Strobist: How to Avoid Dealing With the Police When Shooting in Public

Strobist: How to Avoid Dealing With the Police When Shooting in Public:

I know my rights. I carry The Card. But I also know that on the street, the police have the ability to wreck a shoot. This one was not time-sensitive, but many are. And even worse, they can write you up, take you in — and even put you on any of a number of secret lists in our new DHS Secret Police State.

I know this because a very good friend of mine asserted his rights to — get this — a rent-a-cop private security consultant while shooting a twilight shot of a hotel during a commercial job. He made the mistake of being near train tracks where, according to the private security guy, the Constitution was no longer in effect.

My friend won the argument, but lost the war. The security guard/terrorist detection specialist turned out to be a vindictive jerk. The photog is now on an “increased scrutiny list” that adds a long and special wait at TSA any time he flies.

That sucks. And it’s not right — or even legal. But that is the environment we are now in. Like it or not, we have to deal with ignorant bystanders and/or ultimately, uniformed police officers potentially screwing up our shoots. Or worse.

[What a mess. But not a bad plan.]

Your Next Desktop Could be a Phone

Your Next Desktop Could be a Phone:

Henri Sivonen: This getting interesting: Using an Android phone as an Ubuntu desktop when docked

Definitely Want.

Especially love the idea of sending and receiving texts from my desktop.  Would prefer a dock the size of a mac mini with a hard drive, USB and ethernet ports.

[I understand. This is appealing. But in an old school kinda way. (Taking with you vs. it being accessible anywhere)]

Not Just Safari

Not Just Safari:

Dean Hachamovitch, vice president of Internet Explorer:

When the IE team heard that Google had bypassed user privacy settings on Safari, we asked ourselves a simple question: is Google circumventing the privacy preferences of Internet Explorer users too? We’ve discovered the answer is yes: Google is employing similar methods to get around the default privacy protections in IE and track IE users with cookies. Below we spell out in more detail what we’ve discovered, as well as recommendations to IE users on how to protect their privacy from Google with the use of IE9’s Tracking Protection feature. We’ve also contacted Google and asked them to commit to honoring P3P privacy settings for users of all browsers.

We’ve found that Google bypasses the P3P Privacy Protection feature in IE. The result is similar to the recent reports of Google’s circumvention of privacy protections in Apple’s Safari Web browser, even though the actual bypass mechanism Google uses is different.

Guess what the answer is. Just guess.

[Google continues to redefine “evil”. They’ve completely lost their way.]

Source: Daring Fireball

Samsung is wrong about TV

Samsung is wrong about TV:

And that basically is the business Appe is in, taking advantage of people who employ obsolete ways of thinking. TVs are not ultimately about picture quality. In fact picture quality isn’t even number one. Integration, connections — that’s the first thing. If I can get great picture quality, and you can be sure Apple will give it to us (probably made by Samsung) that’s fine. But first I want to use the tool the way I want to use it.

Source: Scripting News