Something worth posting

Working on other projects has prevented me from contributing to this blog, but this video is so funny I had to share it. When you're done with it head on over to my new project, Travel Tech Review.

When Harry Met Sally 2 with Billy Crystal & Helen Mirren from Billy Crystal

The glorious iPad -- no, wait, the evil iPad

With all the problems facing this country, Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) finds time to deliver a speech on the House floor (with props!) decrying the Apple iPad as a job killer.

"Now Borders is closing stores because, why do you need to go to Borders anymore? Why do you need to go to Barnes & Noble? Buy an iPad and download your newspaper, download your book, download your magazine."

Some would say that Borders is closing precisely because it lacked a coherent digital strategy and failed to meet the changing demands of the marketplace. Not Mr. Jackson. Surely he's still upset at the automobile for decimating the horse and buggy industry.

Read more at Real Clear Politics. As noted in this article, only last month the same Mr. Jackson hailed the iPad as a game-changer:

"These devices are revolutionizing our country — and they will fundamentally alter how we will educate our children."

Mr. Jackson should fundamentally alter his logic.

Companies scrape your personal information from private forums

Are you aware that your posts in online forums -- even private, password-protected forums -- may be collected, deposited into a massive database, and even linked to you personally?  And these personally-identifiable data about you may be sold repeatedly, even used by prospective employers?  As this article from the Wall Street Journal reveals, there's an arms race between web site operators and data 'scrapers,' and our privacy is in the cross hairs.

The article is one of a WSJ series on digital privacy.  The special section may be found here.  Some articles are behind a pay wall; to view them, simple copy the headlines, paste into Google, and click the links back to the articles.   

It's not just your online behavior and identity that are tracked.  A recent study showed that 68% of popular free iPhone apps transmitted unique identifying data when launched, including the user's name, phone number, and even location.  Android apps did this, too.

Unfortunately it seems there's little we can do to protect our privacy.  We can attempt to keep our online personae completely separate from our real identities, but that's exceedingly difficult.  Another WSJ article details how to request your profile deletion from multiple databases, but this, too, is not a complete solution. 

Do you post information online that you would consider private?  Will this knowledge of 'scrapers' make you change your behavior?  Should we have an expectation of digital privacy, especially when posting in "private" forums?  Are these 'scrapers' any different than those who would tap a phone line to listen to your conversations (which is illegal)?  Should we ask Congress or the FCC to get in the middle of this debate, or will they just make matters worse?

Article excerpts after the jump.

Michael Been of The Call dead at 60

Many of my peers who came of age with the music of the '80s have never heard of The Call, although they'd likely recognize a song or two.  But those of us into the Simple Minds, The Alarm, U2, and Big Country know the every note of the Reconciled, Into the Woods, and Let the Day Begin albums.  And now we mourn the passing of singer/bassist Michael Been, who died of an apparent heart attack while working with his son's band at a music festival in Belgium.  He was 60, which seems old for a rocker from my youth, but young given my age of 40.

One of my first concerts was The Call opening for The Simple Minds at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, Maine, around 1987.  The band's hits were "Everywhere I Go" and "I Still Believe."  I wore out my Reconciled tape, and didn't yet own a CD player, so I listened to bootlegs and tapes recorded off the radio.

The San Jose Mercury News opens its obituary thusly:

"He played John the Baptist in a Martin Scorsese film. He once beat John Belushi in a comedy competition. He counted as friends Bono and Peter Gabriel. Al Gore borrowed one of his songs as the theme for his 2000 presidential campaign."

So dust off your box of tapes, listen to music from your youth, appreciate the synthesizers, and thank gosh your friends didn't have camera phones in high school.

Watch videos after the break...

In this fascinating TED talk, British author Matt Ridley argues that, through history, the engine of human progress and prosperity has been, and is, "ideas having sex with each other."  A few quotes to whet your appetite:

"Trade is ten times older than farming."

"What's relevant to a society is how well people are communicating their ideas and how well they're cooperating, now how clever the individuals are."