Posts Tagged ‘birthday’
Remember that school that was spying on kids? Well now it’s creepier
The Lower Merion School District (motto: “We’re Building the Future Police State”), caught using a remote monitoring service on school-supplied laptops while the kids were at home , had some pretty creepy rules on the books to ensure compliance. To wit we find, thanks to strydehax , these gems: * Possession of a monitored Macbook was required for classes * Possession of an unmonitored personal computer was forbidden and would be confiscated * Disabling the camera was impossible * Jailbreaking a school laptop in order to secure it or monitor it against intrusion was an offense which merited expulsion Expulsion, eh? Pretty rough stuff
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Remember that school that was spying on kids? Well now it’s creepier
Lensbaby turns 6 and you get the presents
Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Lensbaby ! Happy birthday to you! Cake, ice cream, and a prize raffle will take place as soon as you all calm down.
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Lensbaby turns 6 and you get the presents
Google Not Reading Your Personal Email Cause It’s Boring; Hard To Advertise Against
Google has a funny little blog post today on the Gmail Blog. Apparently, they’ve decided to change the way they’re serving advertisements in Gmail. Why? They say it’s in the name of serving ads that are more relevant to users. But really, it’s fairly obvious that it’s about serving ads that will bring in more money.
In the example they give, Google says that if you previously read an email confirming a hotel in Chicago, and were served an ad about flights to Chicago in Gmail, you might see that same ad when you’re reading an email wishing you a happy birthday. The thought is that there wouldn’t be a good ad to serve you related to this birthday message. That’s probably not true — instead, it’s probably an ad with a much lower click rate (and CPC rate) that makes Google less money.
Here’s something else Google notes that’s interesting:
To show these ads, our systems don’t need to store any extra information — Gmail just picks a different recent email to match. The process is entirely automated: no humans are involved in selecting ads, and no email or personal information is shared with advertisers.
Since the beginning of Gmail and its AdSense contextual ads, there has been much concern that Google was reading all of your email to serve up the best ads. Google employees aren’t reading them, but their bots are, and now they’re going to start reading some older ones that you’re not even looking at as well, apparently.
Now, how exactly reading another unrelated email will serve up a more contextually relevant ad, I’m not sure. Actually, I am. In this Google equation, “relevancy” simply means “ad more likely to make us money.”
Happy Birthday, LISA!
Is it ironic that this $10,000 computer only sold 10,000 units? Released on January 19, 1983, LISA (Local Integrated Software Architecture) was a gigantic flop, but paved the way for the success of the Apple Macintosh, which paved the way for the success of the MacBook, which paved the way for the success of the iPhone, which paved the way for the success of the Apple Tablet! Thanks Wired , for the reminder!
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Happy Birthday, LISA!
France and Germany agree: Don’t use Internet Explorer if you want to be safe online
In the intricacies of high-level European diplomacy, there’s two things Paris and Berlin can agree on: Conan is better, and you’d better not be using Internet Explorer. A French government agency is now advising citizens of the French Republic not to use Internet Explorer because of security concerns. It’s 2010, and we’re still writing “IE isn’t secure!” stories
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France and Germany agree: Don’t use Internet Explorer if you want to be safe online
Leaked: Alleged screenshot and details of iPhone OS 4.0
I could really write this post in all of about eleven words, and it would still have the same effect. It’d go something like this “Apple, leak, new iPhone OS, screenshots, multitasking, banshees, multi-touch gestures”
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Leaked: Alleged screenshot and details of iPhone OS 4.0
Use Internet Explorer, says Microsoft, but stop using IE6
So Google got hacked, or something, by cyber criminals in China, and Microsoft has acknowledged that their Internet Explorer browser was part of the problem.
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Use Internet Explorer, says Microsoft, but stop using IE6
It’s a pen! It’s a bullet! It writes upside down and underwater! It’s a bullet pen!
My penmanship is withered chicken scratch thanks to years of paperless endeavors, but this bullet pen looks intriguing for the two or three times each year that I need to write something down on paper. And lest you think it’s merely a pen shaped like a bullet, let me tell you that it also writes upside down and underwater all NASA-like. It can even write on top of grease and oil.
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It’s a pen! It’s a bullet! It writes upside down and underwater! It’s a bullet pen!