Unconventional Wisdom

This can only give some the excuse to never ever join Facebook. The ones who refuse to join in the first place definitely won’t if they get wind of this story:

Within days, all of Facebook’s 800 million users’ profile pages will change. And with it, every photo, status update, wall posting, since your Facebook birth will be much more easily visible.

Facebook claims Timeline will make profiles more comprehensive.

Consumer advocacy groups say it violates users privacy.

“We want people to decide if they want to post the old stuff on the wall, says Marc Rotenberg, of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “We want people to decide whether the stuff Facebook wants to post, is the stuff they want. It really should be up to the user, not Facebook.”

But for now it’ll be up to Facebook to decide, and users to try to hide the stuff they’d like to keep private.

I found this story via Instapundit who noted:

FACEBOOK IS DOOMED BECAUSE OF TIMELINE. Not due to privacy concerns, but because the new Timelined pages look like nothing so much as old MySpace pages.

There is a reason why I and many other never use MySpace anymore. I’ve always liked FB better, but if MySpace could just become a place for bands to promote themselves then who knows what FB will be. That being said FB could be just another dead social network. There are many online too, for example I used to be on BlackPlanet and sadly I haven’t thought about that place in years.

BTW, so that I don’t contribute over any hyperventilation FB is doing what it can to inform people about the new timelines. There are some things I would like to keep private although I don’t plan to go back and delete every single item that I never want to see the light of day again. Just have to cross the bridge when that time comes.

[VIDEO] I found out just yesterday that Apple Inc. founder and former CEO Steve Jobs had passed away. At that time I was no where near a PC or a TV when the news broke. In fact, I found out through an IM courtesy of my non-iPhone

This video looks at the future of Apple without their visionary founder and leader. In August he stepped down from his CEO position at Apple Inc. He had been fighting cancer and already had a leave of absense since January, but returned to the public eye to unveil the iPad2.

There was another unveiling of products at least a day before his death when Apple had revealed the newest version of the iPhone. I understand that he wasn’t there to even show support.

As you see in this video people are talking about him. In the beginning he had a rough start. He may well have revolutionized the personal computer, but before the 80s was over he was out of the company he formed building computers in his parent’s garage. Then he came back by the late 1990s and then a string of products with the iPod, iPhone and then the iPad. Of course let’s not forget about those Macs.

As was the quote in that AP video, there is hope that Jobs’ vision will continue even though he has passed away. Perhaps we’ll continue to deal with the Macs, iPods, iPhones & iPads for the foreseeable future!

I’ve been talking since last month about getting a new phone particularly a Blackberry. Of course since my carrier is AT&T that require a data plan because I do plan to use the internet on it.

Since data plans are going down from at the minimum $30/month it might sweeten the deal for me if it was something I was going to do. The only downside is that it won’t be unlimited but then I’m not sure how much downloading I would do on a mobile phone. At best the services to be utilized would be either texting or mobile photography where I can upload to an online service to display the photo.

Also if I was getting a Blackberry this new plan could benefit me since there are no plans on my part to buy an iPhone.

My only thing is I really wish the price of a Blackberry could go down a little bit!

From Yahoo! Tech…

Here are a few tips:

• Don’t ever text personal information such as your PIN number, password, or banking information to anyone. Remember, once you send that information to another person, it gets stored in their cell phone and you don’t want that.
• Put a password on your phone to keep others from accessing your text logs or email. This will also prevent thieves from stealing information stored in your phone.
• iPhone owners may want to change their SMS preview settings to make incoming text messaging more private. Apple iPhone Review has instructions on how to do this.
• Those concerned about privacy, can send anonymous text messages with services like AnonTxt.com.
• Don’t forget to erase all your personal data before selling, recycling or donating your old phone. Many people are still under the impression that taking out your SIM card will do the trick, but that’s not true. You’ll need a series of codes to permanently delete stored information in one step, instead of manually. For this, you’ll need to find out if your phone has a “master reset” feature, which wipes out all the stored data at once. Since every phone has a different set of “master reset” instructions, you’ll need to either look them up online or on your phone’s manual. Recellular has a database of these codes with step-by-step instructions. You’ll need your phone’s make and model to get started, so if you don’t know it, check the back of the phone or the box.
• And last but not least, remember that no matter how secure you think your carrier’s SMS servers are, the ultimate security of private text messages depends on the recipient. Just ask Mayor Kilpatrik.

Don’t find yourself in the Mayor of Detroit’s shoes. Seriously!

Well this makes a lot of since doesn’t it. Hat-tip goes to InstaPundit…

For NASA and Mars, it’s no humans allowed. As reported by the Mars Society and other space enthusiasts, Congress is finally clamping down on the menace of human life on Mars (see “Why ‘Save Mars’ is worth the effort”, The Space Review, November 12, 2007). The House of Representatives version of HR 3093, the bill that determines NASA’s funding for 2008, effectively bans the study of an entire planet:

Provided, That none of the funds under this heading shall be used for any research, development, or demonstration activities related exclusively to the human exploration of Mars.

The House committee report mentions the proposed prohibition:

Finally, bill language is included prohibiting funding of any research, development, or demonstration activities related exclusively to the human exploration of Mars.

In 2006, there was an attempt to implement a Mars ban by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA):

None of the funds made available by this Act may be used for a manned space mission to Mars.

Frank was also arguing against humans and Mars back in 2005:

I agree about what was said about aeronautics; it is so important. I agree with space experimentation, primarily unmanned. But sending human beings to Mars, which this bill unfortunately endorses, is an extravagance…

The chief motivation behind the ban is the old, predictable anti-human-spaceflight routine. Robots are better for science, therefore we should have a robot-only space policy. The counter-arguments are ignored: that establishing human/Earth life beyond Earth is progress for humankind, and that a both-robots-and-humans policy is fair to all sides.

I could liken this to a form of environmentalism but it probably isn’t.

I’ve in recent months was mulling the day, well at least before the RefugeeCamp moved from Invision to their own webspace, when I could move a blog and then have my own “dot-com”. It wouldn’t have been very fancy but I’ve always dreamed of that I would have my own webspace without having to take advantage of a free service.

A free service such as Geo-Cities. I guess Blogger could count since when you start your blog it would initiallity be on their servers until you decided to go onto your own webspace.

Anyway it does cost money for buying your own webspace. First you need to buy the domain and then you need to buy the domain name. It’s all money, but I wondered if I would be better off buying my own server.

For that you would need to buy a computer that would serve that purpose. Of course I might have to figure out domain name, server security, and internet connection and things like that. Still I can have a server right in my home or anywhere for that matter.

At least I have this post from ProBlogger where I can download a program that will allow me to run my own webserver and then put some files on there which will eventually become just another website on the internet. Of course for now all I want is a test specimen and then eventually I will get there. My own server man, I can say that I have big goals, all be it geeky goals.

To a much newer version of WordPress. I followed these instructions and from there it was determined that I was up to date and there was no need for an upgrade as yet. I don’t exactly know why I need an upgrade, it’s probably for the purposes of better features what ever they may be. For right now however, I’m OK if I’ve gotten the latest version.

Oh, BTW,  a couple of my favorite blogs out there are in a need of an upgrade. I’m not gonna say who they are but they could use one.  And I’ve just proven myself to be such a geek.

Perhaps I should know just about everything there is to know about WordPress. I’m liking this software more and more.