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Apple, iPad, marketing

Anyone could be a critic …

Posted in 14 March 2011

Media issues - Writing/Publishing

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In the spirit of my recent post ‘Why am I doing this? Muckraking?‘ is this very worthwhile and thoughtful piece in the NY Times from Frank Rich:

NY Times (click)

Confessions of a Recovering Op-Ed Columnist

… For me, anyway, the point of opinion writing is less to try to shape events, a presumptuous and foolhardy ambition at best, than to help stimulate debate and, from my particular perspective, try to explain why things got the way they are and what they might mean and where they might lead. My own idiosyncratic bent as a writer, no doubt a legacy of my years spent in the theater, is to look for a narrative in the many competing dramas unfolding on the national stage.
I do have strong political views, but opinions are cheap. Anyone could be a critic of the Bush administration. The challenge as a writer was to try to figure out why it governed the way it did — and how it got away with it for so long — and, dare I say it, to have fun chronicling each new outrage. …

Nice.

And equally worth reading is this from big em Media thinker Jay Rosen at PressThink, which references NY Times chief Bill Keller’s recent piece on ‘news aggregation’ (ALSO good reading!)

Jay Rosen: ‘The Twisted Psychology of Bloggers vs. Journalists: My Talk at South By Southwest‘

Whew. Good luck.

criticism/reviews, journalism

AP and plagiarist Shepard Fairey settled. Now going after a common enemy?

Posted in 13 March 2011

Business/Investment - Media issues

AP snapper Mannie Garcia's photo + Fairey's treatment

I hadn’t seen that The Associated Press and Shepard Fairey had sort of settled their dispute over Fairey’s unauthorised and lied-about use of AP photographer Mannie Garcia’s pic of Obama in the famous and ubiquitous HOPE poster … which we discussed here and here. (Read AP media release here.)

The lawsuit (which was enriching no-one but the lawyers!) was settled ‘on amicable terms’ earlier this year, according to some reports. (Read this story with the lead buried in the last line in this report from PDN online):

In reaching their settlement, both sides stuck to their legal positions, and issued face-saving statements. AP president and CEO Tom Curley said, “AP will continue to vigilantly protect its copyrighted photographs against wholesale copying and commercialization where there is no legitimate basis for asserting fair use.”

For his part, Fairey said, “I respect the work of photographers, as well as recognize the need to preserve opportunities for other artists to make fair use of photographic images.”

He added, “I look forward to working with photos provided by the AP’s talented photographers.” And, the AP press release notes, he has agreed not to use another AP photo in his work without permission.

Today’s news is that AP is now suing more US clothing manufacturers, including Urban Outfitters Inc., Nordstrom Inc. and Zumiez Inc. … adding to its suit against Obey Clothing …

….accusing them of selling T-shirts [nationwide] that violate the news agency’s copyright of a photograph of Barack Obama that an artist’s “HOPE” image was based on.

image: tcritic.com referencing Upper Playground

Fair enough. Those firms (presumably) made money from a commercial venture exploiting a creative work for which they paid nothing(?) … pretty tough to make a case for ‘fair use’, it seems to me. And karma for Fairey.

Is admission of guilt important? It depends.

A copyright infringement lawsuit some of my authors and I took against a gang of multiple plagiarists a few years ago was also settled out of court — but not really ‘on amicable terms’. Indeed, the copyright infringer’s yelps of outrage (at being caught and held to account) continue to echo around the internet.

Richmastery’s public admission of wrongdoing — theft of our intellectual property — was part of the settlement. Unlike the evidence-falsifying plagiarist* Shepard Fairey. Still, AP is clearly ‘following the money’ … taking Deep Throat’s advice from All The President’s Men. Smart move.
-P
* Yeah, I think AP had it right about Shepard Fairey. Fair use? Nope. Not without attribution or acknowledgement. Fail.

Barack Obama, copyright/plagiarism

Julian Assange on 60 Minutes

Posted in 12 March 2011

A decent length 60 Minutes interview with Assange. Worth watching.

Still with the ‘oooh Julian Assange is soooo paranoid’ shtick. (What a disrespectful, unrealistic angle, that is.)

And then there’s this ‘not one of us’ arse-covering comment (… an editorial line from CBS? You decide.) : “Some have argued that he’s [Assange] not really a journalist at all. He is an anti-establishment idealoge with conspiratorial views. He believes large government institutions use secrecy to suppress the truth and he distrusts the mainstream media for playing along.”

I don’t blame him. That said, The NY Times’ Bill Keller says if Assange is prosecuted for publishing the leaks, he will, as co-publisher with The Guardian and Der Spiegal stand with him as will The Guardian‘s Alan Rusbridger. They both see him as a journalist, despite CBS’s awkward double-mindedness.*

Discussing Joe Biden’s and Sarah Palin’s calls for Julian Assange to be dealt to as a ‘terrorist’ … ‘renditioned back to the United States to be executed‘.

Interviewer Steve Kroft: As you know we have a First Amendment and people can say whatever they want, including politicians. I don’t think that many people in the United States took seriously the idea that you were a terrorist.

Assange: I would like to believe that. On the other hand, the incitements to murder are a serious issue and unfortunately there is a portion of the population that will believe in them and may carry them out.

Seems a reasonable fear to me.

His comments later re prosecuting a publisher for espionage: “The First Amendment covers the case” are right on, in my opinion. Likewise his defence of Bradley Manning as ‘America’s foremost political prisoner.’

On the subject of the US government seeking to stop publishers being free to publish fearlessly…

If we’re talking about creating threats to small publishers to stop them publishing, the US has lost its way. It has abrogated its founding traditions. It has thrown the First Amendment in the bin, because publishers must be free to publish.

Video from CBS below the fold Continue reading →

Media issues

Assange, journalism, WikiLeaks

An insight into sociopaths and liars

Posted in 12 March 2011

5 Comments »

Roger Ailes by Thomas Porostocky - Esquire (click)

This quote, from an excellent Tom Junod piece in Esquire on Murdoch’s Fox News Gruppenführer Roger Ailes, says a LOT about the trouble with trying to shame the manipulative, or liars and con artists …

The pundits, the professors, the professional journalists, the left-wingers, the tree huggers, the liberal blogosphere, President Obama — they all keep trying to catch him on violations of rules that they follow and he doesn’t. “Frankly, Roger doesn’t give a shit,” says an associate. “He just doesn’t have the governor that other media executives have. He does things they would never do, says things they would never say.”

Yup. You cannot trust them to accede to ‘normal’ moral or professional standards — they will lie, exaggerate, distort, manipulate, cheat and steal all the way to the bitter, bitter end.

They may even win — many times — because they will go further, and do things ‘decent’ people wouldn’t — and those same decent people often don’t have the stomach for the fight with slippery, immoral characters like that.

As Junod quotes Ailes’ father:

“Remember, son, for them it’s a fight, for you it’s life and death.”

My own fights with sleazebags have had a cost. There have been wounds. But you don’t tackle a school-yard bully without expecting a few scratches, bruises and bite-marks.

It’s worth standing up to them.
It’s worth speaking out and it’s worth ‘fighting the good fight’.
But, for all your empathy, just don’t fall into the trap of expecting them to share your morals or ‘rules’ (“violations of rules that they follow and he doesn’t”) They do not.

Read Tom Junod’s insightful article in full: Why Does Roger Ailes Hate America?
– P

Big Questions - Media issues

authenticity, courage, debate, Fox News, psycho-babble, spruikers, telling the truth

Losing respect

Posted in 11 March 2011

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Junior regatta at Howick Beach March 2011 — learning life lessons through sport (Pic: Peter Aranyi)

Both my kids have learnt sailing at our local sailing club. Last weekend, in pretty rough conditions, I helped out in a minor way when the club hosted a big Auckland regatta … a huge effort by the club, parents and volunteers, and really worthwhile, especially for the junior sailors.

I noticed this quote about respect on the club noticeboard. Like so many of the lessons we learn through sport, it applies to much wider areas of our lives.

'You haven't won the race if, in winning the race you have lost the respect of your competitors.' — Paul Elvstrom, 4 time Olympic gold medallist.

As a rule, I don’t throw the words ‘ethical‘ and ‘unethical‘ around much. I’ve learned they can be like a two-edged sword, implying unintended claims of sainthood on my own part (I’m NOT!) Also, people are complicated animals as we discussed in my post ‘If you prick us do we not bleed?‘ I can’t see inside them any more than they can see inside me.

Even so, when one observes the dodgy and deceptive twisting and turning some operators indulge in to try to evade their commercial responsibilities (and their moral obligations to put things right where possible) one has to ask the question: What ARE their ethical values, really? Despite what they might SAY they are.

A loud, repeated, public over-emphasis on his own personal integrity was one of the first warning signs* that a plausible-appearing, um, personality who burst on the ‘property education’ (ahem) scene a few years back may actually be considerably less trustworthy than he so ardently, copiously claimed to be.
And so it has proved, repeatedly, as far as I can see.

Respect. It’s worth something.

It’s worth avoiding engaging in certain actions, or entering certain business alliances, or making certain untrue or misleading claims to nurture and retain respect. These and other things can destroy respect. (These are my personal beliefs.)

Like chickens coming home to roost, as the saying goes, people’s actions and reputations eventually catch up.

We’ll discuss self-respect another time — a quite different matter.

* Alarm bells? Well, to me anyway.
– P

Big Questions

authenticity, psycho-babble, spruikers

Black Hats as the ‘good guys’

Posted in 9 March 2011

Business/Investment - Media issues

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For the most part, the people who attend Black Hat [Security Conference July 2011] are good guys who are there to learn how to keep our systems safe. As noted on ZDNet, Mac OS X security remains much better than that of Windows. Mac OS X 10.6.6 only included one security fix, while Microsoft’s February Patch (released last Tuesday) plugged 22 vulnerabilities.
— TUAW

Click to enlarge. (Observe Shaun Stenning's prominent Twalk 2.0 logo. A clue?)

Good guys, whew! … and what about these Black Hat guys?:

Remember my review of Geekversity spruiker Shaun Stenning‘s YouTube Traffic Thieves report… An odious little volume?

If you ask me, the tagline from the conference ‘DIGITAL SELF DEFENCE’ applies to any dealings with ANY such internet marketing spruikers.

online life, privacy, scam?

Refunds are like kryptonite (Salty Droid)

Posted in 8 March 2011

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This is from anti-scam campaigner The Salty Droid. It’s in relation to internet marketers by the name of Jimmy Davis & Dennis Karganilla … whose product he rather, um, colourfully describes in these terms:

The Salty Droid — the scourge of hyperbolic internet marketers? (click)

The 90 Day Challenge sapped victims for between $500 – $2000. It consisted of three main elements ::

Recycled information available EVERYWHERE on the web

Videos featuring DK stammering and stuttering into a webcam

Conference calls featuring DK stammering and stuttering into a phone {and occasionally Jimmy stroking his own incredibly insecure pole into a phone}

Additionally, several “perks” were thrown in for FREE ::

DK and Jimmy were, at all times, stupid and unqualified. Not even the remotest of qualifications to be found

Unprofessional Unavailability

Open hostility towards paying customers

Everything that makes for a successful business … in the Bizzaro World.

This narrative about dissatisfied clients calling for a refund is worth reading. Some observers might say there are similarities to the ‘refund movement‘ affecting the various schemes past and present sold by Shaun Stenning and his mates Dean Letfus and Ian Naylor which are discussed now and then here at thePaepae.com …

Battle Plan –> Successful! :: Multiple refunds have been demanded and obtained.

Refunds are like scammer kryptonite - saltydroid.info (click)

Refunds are like scammer Kryptonite. Symptoms start with diarrhea and frequent sneezing … and end with the scammer on the floor in the fetal position mumbling incoherently about “opportunities and automated incomes” :: They all promise refunds in spite of this danger because people rarely, if ever, request them. People don’t like to admit that they’ve made a mistake … and the scammer spends a good portion of his time bellowing about how only the worst kind of loser bastard gives up and demands a refund. That is usually enough to keep the evil cat in the bag … but now some crazy goddamn Droid is rolling around the parking lot giving away dime bags of Refund Kryptonite to anyone who asks.

Once a BullShit dam starts to leak refunds :: Serious trouble ensues. Continue reading →

Business/Investment

Dean Letfus, scam?, Shaun Stenning

Double standard?

Posted in 7 March 2011

Wow. Talk about a double standard.

source: readwriteweb.com (click)

Some tech bloggers and others talk about Apple having ‘too much control’ over people’s iPhones and iPads and the ‘walled garden’ approach of the App Store.

Look at these actions from Google (leave aside for the moment that Android’s marketplace offered more than FIFTY applications with privacy-busting malware embedded) :

Last Tuesday, news broke that over 50 applications in the Android Market were found to contain malware that could be exploited to gain root control over a phone and steal sensitive data. Google removed the applications from the market but offered no public comment about the issue, and so questions remained about what would happen to the 50,000 some-odd apps that had already been downloaded.

On Saturday evening, Google announced that it had initiated the “remote application removal feature,” that allowed it to wipe the malicious apps from infected Android devices without any additional action on the part of users.

Google also said that it would be pushing an Android Market security update out to those devices that would prevent attackers from accessing any more information via the exploit. Google said those users would get an email update as well as a notification on their phones that “Android Market Security Tool March 2011” had been installed. — ReadWriteWeb

If Apple was doing this (remotely wiping stuff off your phone without your consent, and ‘pushing’ a security update onto your phone without your consent … but emailing you afterwards) all hell would break lose about Apple’s prying, we-know-better-than-you and ‘nanny’ approach.

Am I right?

(And remind me: what’s the Bad Thing about the ‘walled garden’ approach? Maintaining the ‘hygiene’ of the App Store with an approval process rather than this Ooops! reactive ‘remote application removal feature’?)

Apple, Google, privacy

Perfect Symmetry, Episode 8

Posted in 6 March 2011

JT Peterson

The ring of Supercentenarians closed-in about us. Simon and Margret took up defensive positions. I signaled for them to stand down. As threatening as their behavior was I felt sure they would not harm us. For what could be their purpose in doing so? All the same I did not want to show any aggression, for we were, after all, on their turf and these people were our warrior-class militia.

The ring of Supercentenarian’s tightened: they were shifting to their left, in a clockwise direction — the ring becoming smaller, necessitating that some fall back. This created an ever thickening wall of ancient bodies, swaying in silent harmony. If they intended to intimidate us they were succeeding. I moved closer Eleanor, and she to me. Alarmed by the sight I signaled that a defensive position was probably not a bad idea after all. Simon, Margret, and Weston formed a defensive barrier with Eleanor and me in its middle. The only sound was the rustling of the fabric as the white coats of the Supercentenarian’s rubbed against each other as they moved. Sharp, bright yellow static discharges could be seen emanating from the swaying crowd creating an eerie staccato of light that flashed vertically up and down their bodies, and in and about the enormous white oval shaped room. Suddenly, about six feet from our position they stopped and one of them stepped forward. It was Peter Giles.

* * *

It was not that he stepped from out the crowd — it was more that the crowd stepped back away from him. A collective sigh went up from the crowd, and then Peter Giles spoke. Hunched and bent forward his thin wispy white hairs floated about his head in an ethereal dance that was mesmerizing. His face, nut-brown and wizened looked up at me.

“Why are a renegade group of Fleet officers interested in this peaceful troupe of Supercentenarians? Why have you come here? What do you want from us?”

I was taken back, to say the least. His tone was reproachful, the manner and delivery, threatening.

“We are come to warn you — if not to activate you.” Continue reading →

Original fiction

Science Fiction

Why am I doing this? Muckraking?

Posted in 5 March 2011

Big Questions - Writing/Publishing

8 Comments »

image: flickr/oledoe (click)

Remember Cactus Kate’s description of blogging as

“an utterly useless waste of a person’s time”

(Soooo well put, Kate!)

But her comment, of course, fits into Jonathan Swift’s self-aware description of satire …

Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own, which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.

… in other words, we don’t think that put-down applies to us, to our blog or website, or writing etc

Maybe we should?

Here’s a related thought about writing from Margaret Atwood in part of her introduction to The Paris Review Interviews vol III …

Why am I doing such an eccentric thing as writing? Is it just undigested neurosis? Why spend all day in a room, in the company of a bunch of people who don’t really exist? What good does it do the world? Isn’t it unhealthy? Why waste the paper?
Every writer has such thoughts from time to time, and to know that others have had them too is reassuring: I am not the only one who had viewed the page with loathing.

What do we achieve with our writing? Anything? Nothing? Mere entertainment?
Comforting the afflicted? Afflicting the comfortable? Hellfire and damnation?

It’s good to ask ourselves such questions now and then, I think.

At times thePaepae.com seems (even to me) to be a platform for exposing, cataloguing, criticising, mocking, even vilifying certain types of people and operations. That’s not all thePaepae.com is, but it’s part of it. That’s undeniable.

Muckraker? I wish!

I was discussing with my friend Graeme recently that I don’t see the term ‘Muckraker’, when it’s occasionally tossed at me, as A Bad Thing …

Muckraker — Origin of the term, Theodore Roosevelt

Continue reading →

courage, debate, Peter Aranyi, psycho-babble

Not THAT kind of PC

Posted in 4 March 2011

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Another difference. Does else anyone remember the little scandal-ette (BBC report) that erupted when Microsoft was shown to have erased a black man from a photo (except for his HAND) before using the image in Poland?

image: psdisasters.com (click)

Well, here’s Apple (putting their best foot forward) channelling Michael Jackson’s Don’t Matter If You’re Black Or White … the iPads, I mean…

They’re very deliberate, aren’t they?

Apple, marketing, Photoshop, racism

What would you grab?

Posted in 4 March 2011

Big Questions - Business/Investment

4 Comments »

What would you grab? Client database, contacts and accounts? Pic: The Press (click)

One of the unspeakably tragic deaths in the Christchurch earthquake was that of one victim who reportedly escaped from a shop with the owner, then ‘dashed back’ inside to grab her cellphone (perhaps to ring family and check on them/let them know she was OK?) and died when the building collapsed on her.

We’re all told in a fire to never go back into the building for possessions … this same precaution would probably have saved Ms Murphy’s life. Ghastly.

Now look at this photo from The Press (right) showing a man who appears to have ‘grabbed’ his business computers … to secure the information and records on them, most likely. I’m glad he’s alive, but gee, it looks like he took a risk, didn’t he? We’ll never know.

What do you save? Is it worth the risk? Tough one.
—
My sincere condolences to Ms Murphy’s family, and to all those who’ve lost loved ones or suffered in this disaster.

Christchurch earthquake

Good to see Steve Jobs

Posted in 3 March 2011

22 Comments »

Good to see Steve Jobs doing his thing for the assembled oohs and ahhs at the iPad2 launch.

A little bit of gloating 15 million iPads later (and 100 million iPhones!!) … well, you can’t take away from that success.

I laughed at his joke about the ‘unbelievable price’ of the original iPad — “just ask our competitors” … yes, it’s a game of catch-up, that’s for sure.