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The world continues to get smaller as more and more of us connect electronically. Its getting so we are like people crammed together in a cheap apartment house. And the walls between us are very thin.
This means, of course, we are more vulnerable than ever to eavesdropping. And as if that isn’t bad enough, the manufacturers of certain hardware devices are dropping eaves on us as we speak.
As we speak on our phones that is…
Suppose I told you evil Bill Gates could get a look into your computer from the heights of his new Vista? Suppose he didn’t like what he found. Maybe you were running some Mac software.
Suppose I told you he could kill those programs anytime he wants?
He wouldn’t have to fry your computer outright. He could just remotely disable any program he chose. Maybe he didn’t like your desktop screensaver because it had an unflattering picture of him.
When you connected to the internet, he was able to tunnel into the bowels of your code and see anything he wanted.
What if when you connected to cable, Comcast could fry your TV for running its shows through TiVo?
You’d be outraged, right? A violation of privacy. Harkening back to the days of AT&T’s monopoly over the phone system, when they wouldn’t even allow you to hook up a phone made by another company to their wires.
Well outrage away. Because that’s what the new iPhone has. A hidden kill switch. And it wasn’t the supposedly evil Bill Gates that installed it. Nope, it was good old Mr. nice guy, Steve Jobs.
Anytime Apple doesn’t like an app that you put on your iPhone, they can kill it remotely. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? It’s one thing to connect your computer to the internet and have Microsoft search your computer for updates, viruses and worms.
But your iPhone?
Whenever you call someone, the Apple bunch can tap in and search your phone for apps it wants to kill.
This means every time you call, someone is listening...
Evil big brother?
Or, well, doing it for our own protection?
America, ya gotta love it.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
#842 Shredded Belief
Nutrition is getting to be a pretty hard thing. Either you can’t afford nutritious food or the food you eat is nutritiously suspicious.
I try to adhere to the “at least five servings of fruit and vegetables a day” rule. Sometimes it’s tough. Take apples. I like to have one of them a day to keep the colon doctor away, but it’s getting pretty expensive to stay with a regular program.
The apples I like are now a buck-ninety-nine a pound. That’s right, 1.99 for an apple. ‘Cause that’s about what it works out to. The apples are big, plump and crisp. And they set me back almost two bucks apiece.
Now if I were a smart shopper I’d be saying to myself, “Gee what’s the most bulk and pure calories I could get for my money?” And I’d probably go down to Taco Bell and spend those same two bucks on a couple of 99 cent burritos.
Burritos keep me “running for the border” too. And Taco Bell’s trotted out a new value menu with 79, 89, and 99 cent items. Sure, they’ll send you to an early grave, but they’ll send you full.
It’s a sad state of affairs when a restaurant prepared food entrée costs half as much as one apple.
It’s hard to be nutritionally savvy just about everywhere. Take frosted mini-wheats. Their box proclaims, “Clinically shown to improve kids’ attentiveness by nearly 20%!”
How do you measure that?
“How awake are you, Freddy?”
“Well, I’m nearly 20% more awake than usual, Mrs. Johnson. That’s 20 over a hundred.”
But here’s what worries me. The disclaimer in extremely fine print says: “Based upon independent clinical research, kids who ate this cereal for breakfast had up to 18% better attentiveness three hours after breakfast than kids who ate no breakfast.”
First, notice how “nearly 20%” became “up to 18%,” so it was probably 15%.
Second, I’d hate to be one of the kids in the clinical study who they experimented on that didn’t get breakfast to prove their point.
Because basically, this study proved that kids who had a meal paid attention better than kids who were STARVING!
America, ya gotta love it.
I try to adhere to the “at least five servings of fruit and vegetables a day” rule. Sometimes it’s tough. Take apples. I like to have one of them a day to keep the colon doctor away, but it’s getting pretty expensive to stay with a regular program.
The apples I like are now a buck-ninety-nine a pound. That’s right, 1.99 for an apple. ‘Cause that’s about what it works out to. The apples are big, plump and crisp. And they set me back almost two bucks apiece.
Now if I were a smart shopper I’d be saying to myself, “Gee what’s the most bulk and pure calories I could get for my money?” And I’d probably go down to Taco Bell and spend those same two bucks on a couple of 99 cent burritos.
Burritos keep me “running for the border” too. And Taco Bell’s trotted out a new value menu with 79, 89, and 99 cent items. Sure, they’ll send you to an early grave, but they’ll send you full.
It’s a sad state of affairs when a restaurant prepared food entrée costs half as much as one apple.
It’s hard to be nutritionally savvy just about everywhere. Take frosted mini-wheats. Their box proclaims, “Clinically shown to improve kids’ attentiveness by nearly 20%!”
How do you measure that?
“How awake are you, Freddy?”
“Well, I’m nearly 20% more awake than usual, Mrs. Johnson. That’s 20 over a hundred.”
But here’s what worries me. The disclaimer in extremely fine print says: “Based upon independent clinical research, kids who ate this cereal for breakfast had up to 18% better attentiveness three hours after breakfast than kids who ate no breakfast.”
First, notice how “nearly 20%” became “up to 18%,” so it was probably 15%.
Second, I’d hate to be one of the kids in the clinical study who they experimented on that didn’t get breakfast to prove their point.
Because basically, this study proved that kids who had a meal paid attention better than kids who were STARVING!
America, ya gotta love it.
#841 Problem Spellers
There’s been a movement afoot lately to put less emphasis on spelling. The current advocates again maintain that exact spelling just ain’t that important. Added to their argument is the prevalence of the text message, which for reasons of space and economy has pared the English language down to bare necessities, like abbreviations and numbers to represent sounds.
Unfortunately, it also makes texters look self-centered, frivolous and superficial.
Us older folks don’t like getting a text message. Why? Because we have to pay for it. It’s like a letter coming postage due. Your first thought is who’s the cheap S.O.B. who sent me this?
And with the mangled language of text, the message itself loses validity and sincerity. Having a job applicant text in a “thx 4 the iview” is a far cry from a formal letter sent by snail mail. The snail mailer will have a better chance getting the job.
Something the immature never understand. You get respect when you earn respect.
So, as if I needed another reason to be concerned about left wing college students, I got this leaflet stuck on my car the other day. It’s hard to respect students who can’t spell. The broadsheet purported to give the early signs of fascism.
Their argument started out on the wrong side of persuasiveness when they spelled fascism with an extra i-s- in the middle, fasiscism.
They went on to list disdain for human rights as a symptom, except they spelled it d-i-s-t-a-i-n-. There is a distain with a “t” as opposed to disdain with a “d” but it doesn’t mean the same thing.
With a “t” it means to dishonor with a “d” it means feeling scorn for, or holding in contempt. I’d give them a “D”.
They then listed “fraudlent” elections, somehow managing to ignore the middle syllable-letter “u” and inadvertently making sense.
What is a fraudlent election? One that leaves out “u”.
I suppose these youngsters would see my insistence on proper spelling to be a fascist indication too.
Just as I suppose their inability to spell indicates their inability to buckle down and do something well.
QED
America, ya gotta love it.
Unfortunately, it also makes texters look self-centered, frivolous and superficial.
Us older folks don’t like getting a text message. Why? Because we have to pay for it. It’s like a letter coming postage due. Your first thought is who’s the cheap S.O.B. who sent me this?
And with the mangled language of text, the message itself loses validity and sincerity. Having a job applicant text in a “thx 4 the iview” is a far cry from a formal letter sent by snail mail. The snail mailer will have a better chance getting the job.
Something the immature never understand. You get respect when you earn respect.
So, as if I needed another reason to be concerned about left wing college students, I got this leaflet stuck on my car the other day. It’s hard to respect students who can’t spell. The broadsheet purported to give the early signs of fascism.
Their argument started out on the wrong side of persuasiveness when they spelled fascism with an extra i-s- in the middle, fasiscism.
They went on to list disdain for human rights as a symptom, except they spelled it d-i-s-t-a-i-n-. There is a distain with a “t” as opposed to disdain with a “d” but it doesn’t mean the same thing.
With a “t” it means to dishonor with a “d” it means feeling scorn for, or holding in contempt. I’d give them a “D”.
They then listed “fraudlent” elections, somehow managing to ignore the middle syllable-letter “u” and inadvertently making sense.
What is a fraudlent election? One that leaves out “u”.
I suppose these youngsters would see my insistence on proper spelling to be a fascist indication too.
Just as I suppose their inability to spell indicates their inability to buckle down and do something well.
QED
America, ya gotta love it.
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