Posts by Oregon Guy

Apple spews Judas Phone signal bar 'fix' to world+dog

This is a step forward (possibly the first of 12)

Apple basically stated that this hubub is based on a misperception caused by their faulty formula for calculating+exaggerating the signal strength bars, and rather pointedly directed its apology towards "any anxiety we may have caused."

Apple has also resolutely maintained that the wireless performance on the iPhone 4 is the best ever, and has never acknowledged that there is any flaw in the hardware.

So now, Apple will solve what *it* perceives to be the root of the problem, and people will then observe 1-2 bar drops instead of 4-5 bar drop when they hold the phone "in a certain way," as Apple puts it.

Ultimately, this comes down to dropped calls, and those are measurable. If Apple is in denial about the nature of the problem, this patch throws out their Valium supply.

Apple bars radiation nanny from App Store

$10 FUD app for the short-sighted

Tawkon is getting a lot of press attention. Would an unknown company peddling junk science deliberately break Apple's API guidelines to ensure App Store rejection and the golden opportunity to make a public fuss? Their ridiculous video seems like a confession that they planned this all along.

The default comment on Tawkon's petition is "I want the ability to avoid radiation." There's something I don't understand... if mobile phone radiation really is a health threat, how can consulting an animated app *at the time of exposure* be preferable to consistently using a wired headset? Perhaps a stray Tawkon partisan can enlighten me.

I find it somewhat gratifying that when Apple eventually approves this thing, it will end up in the Entertainment section with various gag apps like Ghost Radar and the "lie detectors." Of course, those apps sell for $0.99 and don't try to say that a purchase is an investment in your future health.

Pakistani lawyer petitions for death of Mark Zuckerberg

Let's call Interpol. And the UN General Assembly!

Interpol is little more than a coordinating agency and won't touch religious law; to be effective they stick with common denominators. So on one level, it seems surprising that Pakistani government officials would think that Interpol could be persuaded to officially ask US police to arrest Zuckerberg and company for blaspheming Islam. But then, remember that US prosecutors routinely make similarly threatening noises about Craigslist executives over prostitution. All the world's a stage, it seems.

Whether consciously or not, these officials are only positioning Pakistan to have its silly request rejected, so they can wallow in perceived humiliation by the decadent US.

We might not hear much more about this, but the Pakistani equivalents to The Daily Mail are bound to harp on this for a long time to come, and I think that sense of impotent martyrdom is what this is really about.

A Monty Python icon would fit well here.

Facebook gives users' names to advertisers

The REAL Mr. Z

I have to agree that the Reg sometimes overuses its catchphrases. However, this phrase was *not* taken out of context; in fact, the context is MUCH richer than the epithet alone.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/14/facebook_trust_dumb/

And it is entirely relevant. He was not talking about how he thought that Jar Jar Binks was cool, or how he loved to wank with his teddy bear. He was talking about the first several thousand users of the very same Facebook that he is running today. He held his users in contempt for being so stupid as to think that he would not do something to them that he wouldn't want done to himself. What's most interesting, the only thing that Zuck had to gain from the offer he made was a bit of ego gratification, like a malicious bureaucrat. No financial incentive required. He lives in a sociopathic world where those who trust others deserve to be used and abused to the maximimum extent that the user can get away with.

It's true that people do immature things in their youth, but not every attitude is changed by the passage of time. In the years that have passed, I expect that Mark "I'm CEO... Bitch" Zuckerberg has learned to be more careful with his words, but his need to have one over on people is there to stay.

Apple director 'disgusted' by Jobsian health secrets

I wish Steve Jobs were running my company

I work at a well-known American corporation that was once one of the most innovative companies in the world, with a research division that was widely admired. Sadly, for many years now, the company's been run into the ground by lemmings who've never seen an industry trend that they wouldn't follow. Unlike Apple, we’ve blown several billion on gimmicks to raise our stock price and pay dividends -- then turned around and laid off engineers. When our president or CEO talks to the media, you hear a lot about returning value to our shareholders. Shareholder value is paramount here. In terms of the management priorities raised in the article here, my company is virtually Apple’s negative image. And we are literally mortgaging the company’s future in order to *seem* more profitable today.

Steve Jobs runs his company as if it were a private firm, and that is a very good thing. Shareholders are a fickle bunch; they don't give a damn about the quality of the products that are being made, they just want higher profits, and many really don't care how those profits are made. But they’re being mistreated if the CEO doesn’t disclose the results of his latest biopsy? That’s ridiculous.

The best thing Steve Jobs could do to protect his legacy is to use some of those billions to take the company private. Stop worrying about what the stupid shareholders might think, and focus on making the company as healthy as possible in the long term.