Reclaiming Privacy with a Tether?

Random Opinion:

A friend of mine commented that her iPhone Internet is faster than her work computer’s Internet.

It’s bothered me for some time that the assumption is that companies can spy into your business as much as they want because “they provide” the equipment. Are you going to listen to my phone call to my doctor as well? Unfortunately, too often, the answer (given seriously) is “yes”.

“We have no respect for you. You are meat. Here’s your minimum + $x.” It seems odd on the surface, but obvious once introspected. The more people pay you, the more they don’t intrude on you. This has always been the case for me, and I’ve worked a wide variety of jobs.

Read more

More on Regulating Beer Distribution

Patrick Beach at the Austin-American Statesman ran an article on the current fight for an inch: Regulation, Legislation and Fun You Can’t Have with Texas Beer: the patchwork of Texas’ beer laws satisfies almost no one. My summary of it: beer distributers are engaging in anti-Texas behavior. Texas legislators are weak and willing to bow … Read more

Strangers in a Crowd

A random idea for an iPhone Application: Apple announced they would provide bonjour discovery of devices in the iPhone 3.0 software.  (They announced it to the world, so it’s not covered by the iPhone SDK NDA, you NDA nazis.) My mind was w[oa]ndering and I thought of an interesting, odd, but compelling idea for an … Read more

McDonald’s is a Blight

There was a brief story in the Houston Press about all the broken McDonald’s signs in Houston.

broken_mcdonaldsThere is an annoyed citizen that has taken his grip to the newest town square: Facebook. He created a Facebook Group to help people voice their shared annoyance.

I joined the group on Wednesday as the 34th member. I suspect if the group gets traction it should be over 1000 people in no time. And if other media in town mention it, it could go well above that.  (Or, if it goes no further than here, it could peak at 35 some time next week.)

I think if it gets noisy enough, we could likely get the Houston City Council to do something about it.

Read more

Store Kit: Micro Payments

When Apple announced their iPhone 3.0 software, they announced an API‡ called StoreKit. This is a small collection of interfaces to facilitate purchases via Apple. It is, of course, still subject to the 30% cut by Apple – they are about to become even richer on the App Store. (Since they are not providing hosting … Read more

Sausage Making: HB1062? nee, HB2094

I previously emailed Rep. Farrar about House Bill 1062. She pushed for similar legislation two years ago, and got stomped by the distributers lobby. She left a comment hinting she was going to introduce a more feasible bill, but didn’t offer the details. I ran into Brock Wagner soon thereafter. He had just met with … Read more