Last week, Facebook filed documents with the government that will allow it to sell shares of stock to the public. It is estimated to be worth at least $75 billion. But unlike other big-ticket corporations, it doesn't have an inventory of widgets or gadgets, cars or phones. Facebook's inventory consists of personal data — yours and mine.
If you're not being charged for the product, you are the product.
European Union Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding has proposed a sweeping reform of the EU's data protection rules, claiming that the proposed rules will both cost less for governments and corporations to administer and simultaneously strengthen online privacy rights. Chief among the new proposals is a "right to be forgotten" that will allow people to demand that organizations that hold their data delete that data, as long as there is no legitimate grounds to hold it.
The bill would prohibit members of Congress from trading stocks and other securities on the basis of confidential information they receive as lawmakers. It makes clear that the insider-trading ban in federal law applies to members of Congress and their aides as well as to officials in the executive and judicial branches of the federal government.
About time.
Microsoft has long said that Windows on ARM will not include an x86 emulator, so legacy applications would never run directly on the platform, but there was always the possibility that existing desktop applications could be recompiled. That option is now unambiguously eliminated, with Microsoft saying "WOA does not support running, emulating, or porting existing x86/64 desktop apps." Office is a special, unique case.
My bet is that the only reason the legacy desktop exists in Windows 8 on ARM is because Office couldn't port their software to a touch-friendly Metro UI before the release, and we can't bear to sell a computer that can't run Office. I think Microsoft cedes a lot of either competitive advantage or user simplicity by not going all-in one way or the other, and I think the iPad benefits.
The Paypal competitor backed by Paypal cofounders. And yes, being a techie I did look at the API and the service they provide. Definitely a good design.
If I try my best and fail, well, I tried my best.
— Steve Jobs, 1998
Facebook has a culture of arrogance. It prides itself on a 'move fast and break things' attitude, which I find grossly inappropriate for organisation entrusted with the personal and private data of over 800 million people.
— Paul Robert Lloyd, Facebook and the Future of the Web
How do we reference locations in electronic books?
My small group ran into this problem when we were trying to reference sentences in three or four different revisions ofWild at Heart with different page layouts and a Kindle copy. Not easy to do.
Martin is a digital fixer. He wants me to call him a "mercenary hacker," although "renegade IT guy" probably better represents his skillset. Through a long history of hanging out with hackers, selling surveillance gear, and laboring on the fringes of the tech industry, Martin has developed a combination of technical skill and lack of scruples that makes him perfect for dirty jobs involving electronics.
Technology doesn't always serve to better society.
In 1870, a new cable was laid between England and France, and Napoleon III used it to send a congratulatory message to Queen Victoria. Hours later, a French fisherman hauled the cable up into his boat, identified it as either the tail of a sea monster or a new species of gold-bearing seaweed, and cut off a chunk to take home. Thus was inaugurated an almost incredibly hostile relationship between the cable industry and fishermen.
— Wired, "Mother Earth Mother Board", a discussion of material pertaining to the business and technology of Undersea Fiber-Optic Cables, as well as an account of the laying of the longest wire on Earth.