Author Archive
What matters
I texted some of my friends in Christchurch earlier this afternoon. There was a big earthquake there a couple of hours ago. One of them, Mark, replying to my query/wish that he and his family are OK replied: Yes we are my office fell down while i went to get coffee saw buildings collapsing before […]
Paradox
I’m big on perceiving paradox and contradictions, quoting the already oft-quoted Walt Whitman from his Song of Myself: Do I contradict myself? Very well, I contradict myself. (I am large, I contain multitudes.) I see this everywhere. It’s OK. And I acknowledge that if I reach for the comfort/licence of that philosophy (which I do) […]
A friend’s lament – from FB to newspaper
A new version of the clichéd reporter’s question: ‘How do you feel?’… I don’t know the background, but I observed this morning that a young woman’s lament on Facebook about her friend’s death in a car crash was reproduced on a news website, along with a photo purportedly of the two of them from the […]
A profile of John Gruber
If you’re a blogger, or interested, it’s worth reading this erudite guy’s thoughts … One of the things I like about John Gruber is his economy of language (‘not a single wasted word’) as I pointed out in my post last year Inspiring clarity of purpose from John Gruber. Mark Webster interviewed John Gruber for the […]
How the smear works: Now Assange = ‘lothario’ … as a given?
This super sleazy opening line from Marcus Baram (maybe we can blame his subeditor?) illustrates the lazy acceptance of a smear … or is he just trying to be a colourful writer? FAIL. NEW YORK — A super-secret organization led by a white-haired, cold-blooded lothario that uncovers revelations exposing the wrongdoing of the world’s most […]
Worth reading
The Dirty Little Secrets of Search David Segal writing in the NYTimes reveals the games some businesses play with search engines. Reminds me of the ‘last-week-horse-racing-this-week-internet-marketing’ snake oil salesmen … note what happened to them when JC Penney got caught and ‘punished’ by Google’s spam cop. PENNEY reacted to this instant reversal of fortune by, […]
Had to happen: iPad approved for flight plans
From TUAW: Jeppesen, the company that produces most of the paper and electronic “Jepp charts” used by pilots for preflight planning and inflight navigation, announced late last week that jet charter operator Executive Jet Management has received authorization from the Federal Aviation Admin-istration to use the Jeppesen Mobile TC App for iPad as an alternative […]
Google ‘street view’ moves INDOORS
Where next? Google has hired photographers to take panoramic pictures inside hundreds of shops and other businesses in Wellington and Auckland so their interiors can be viewed within Google Maps. The internet search giant is seeking permission before filming inside business’ premises. It said it might use the photos in unnamed future applications, but business […]
Facebook info purloined. I guess I’ll be sorry when this isn’t news.
Another day another Facebook abuse. This woman’s Facebook profile and name and an image was used in an advertisement — snatched from Facebook by a ‘friend’ who worked for Vodafone creative… NZ Herald So, having slaughtered the words ‘friend’ and ‘like’, what? We’re now we’re redefining ‘public’?: Privacy lawyer John Edwards said while Vodafone could […]
Hacking the hackers, oops!
Also interesting reading on the WikiLeaks world is the humiliating news that Bank of America hired some ‘internet security’ consultants (Palantir Technologies, HBGary Federal and Berico Technologies) who briefed them on cyber attacks and personal pressure tactics they could launch against WikiLeaks, including naming Glenn Greenwald, who has highlighted the conditions [alleged] leaker Bradley Manning […]
Julian Assange extradition case defence documents
Available on his lawyer’s website: www.fsilaw.com where you can also donate to his defence fund. It’s interesting, blood-boiling reading in places. I got hooked just on the Skeleton Argument document (PDF 550K) OVERVIEW 12. Julian Assange (JA), the head of Wikileaks, arrived in Sweden in August and stayed by invitation at the flat of the […]
The street won.
On Hosni Mubarak finally acknowledging the obvious: “The street won. There was nothing that could be done. It’s good that he did what he did,” former Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who knew Mubarak well, told Israel TV’s Channel 10. Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, and there are […]
Wherefore art thou, Nokia?
thePaepae.com isn’t primarily a tech blog, despite our occasional forays into my nerd past and geeky/cyber present, so I don’t intend to examine too deeply the changes that are going on in the mobile phone and app ‘space’. Others are doing that with more dedication. But these changes at Nokia, formerly the world’s most successful […]
I agree: Steven Tyler is an improvement
American Idol. You either like it or hate it. I’m in the former camp. I enjoy the talent and the ‘quest’ that the show provides … but winning the popular vote isn’t an indicator of talent. Plenty of ‘also-rans’ were super-talented and (in my eyes) more interesting than the eventual winners. I will NEVER forget […]
Beeee-aaautifully put! We’d write for free for Arianna, but not AOL
I don’t mind saying, sometimes one comes across writing that says EXACTLY what you were thinking — or formulating — and says it so well you shiver in recognition. Douglas Rushkoff, on guardian.co.uk nails it on the unease about Huffington Post/AOL deal. … here we have a new media company fooling an old media company into […]
