Disqus - Latest Comments for justcorbly

Re: Hello, my name is: 9649e796e8b23900dc9629a18f2d47306430e62f

justcorbly — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 18:20:55 -0000

It isn't so much a matter of privacy (focusing on that almost immediately devolves into a debate on what "privacy" is) as it is a matter of trust.

I don't trust the people gathering and selling this data. Not because I think they are currently doing anything more nefarious with it than leveraging it for advertisers, but because people are self-interested, contempuous and rationalizing bastards. Information about my locations, usage patterns, purchases, etc., could, in fact, be used for something rather more consequential that targeting me with ads. I see nothing in the character or behavior of the people leading our corporations that would keep them from doing that. If they can make money with it, they will rationalize away any moral qualms.

If you think this kind of stuff is OK, how would you feel about someone listening to your phone calls? It's the same principle at work.

Anyone who, like some poor sod upthread, says phone tech is so "awesome" that he doesn't care if his rights are violated has truly become an obedient consumer.

Re: Hello, my name is: 9649e796e8b23900dc9629a18f2d47306430e62f

justcorbly — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 18:04:33 -0000

Warnings in a EULA or a T&C won't count for much if a court determines against Apple, et al. You can't get a pass on a crime or a civil wrong just because you warned someone that you might commit that crime or that civil wrong. E.g., if I put a sign on my fence that says entry into my back yard means the visitor acknowledges I have the right to shoot them, and then shoot a kid chasing his ball...

Re: Just got a BlackBerry? The best apps, accessories, and tips

justcorbly — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 19:13:33 -0000

I've used Macs and other Apple toys for about 30 years. I think they're a great and innovative company. But, I wouldn't buy something I don't like or need just because Apple makes it. So, about a month ago I bought a BB Torch to replace a landline, not an iPhone. I don't like virtual keyboards and find iPhones awkward to hold and use.

What I want from a phone is good radio sensitivity, fast and reliable messaging and email, and a long battery life. So far, the Torch satisfies all of those expectations. No dropped calls; the battery lasts 24-48 hours, and the messaging and email are world class.

I use only a few apps. A very high percentage of apps on any platform simply encapsulate functionality that is available with a browser. Big whoop.

Games bore me, so I don't care a iota about them.

Android and iphone sales figures don't mean squat to me if people are buying the to do stuff I do not want to do. People buy a lot of Barbie Dolls, but I don't won't one of those, either.

It's a big world, with room enough for phones that meet everyone's needs, not just one kind of phone and its copycats sold to people with fragile egos who think they need to buy what some other people have bought.

Re: DROID 2 Global software update on the way, squashes global bugs

justcorbly — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 12:07:10 -0000

Almost bought the Global. Glad I didn't.

If this had been big bug fix for the Blackberry Torch, it would have prompted dozens of internet screeds happily excoriating RIM. Instead, we get this anodyne puff piece. Someone might at least ask if the rush to get Android phones to market is taking a bite out of reliability.

Re: Yahoo Just Killed… Consumer Confidence In Them

justcorbly — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 23:19:51 -0000

Right on point. The "cloud" isn't some distinct and autonomous entity. It's a conglomeration of a bunch of commercial servers. Business operate them to make money, not to provide a public service. Use them, but don't ever imagine they're permanent fixtures.

Re: Editorial: RIM seems to be as lost as my BlackBerry

justcorbly — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 23:35:19 -0000

@MD: What does an iPhone or an Android do that a Torch cannot? Forget about screen resolution, performance, etc. What capabilities do the former have that the Torch lacks?

All those apps don't count. All three platforms run apps.

I don't consider playing music or running video to be the hallmark of a smartphone. If you remove those capabilities from an iPhone or an Android, what's left?

Re: Editorial: RIM seems to be as lost as my BlackBerry

justcorbly — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 19:44:37 -0000

If someone would just tell me which phone's radio has the best sensitivity -- the ability to work with the weakest signal -- that's the phone I'd buy.

But we can't learn that from the crap phone reviews that are inflicted on us Frankly, I suspect most reviewers don't even know what the word means. Instead, we get fanboys and fangirls hyperventilating about watching a movie on a 4-inch screen.

Re: Editorial: RIM seems to be as lost as my BlackBerry

justcorbly — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 18:10:51 -0000

Fumbling a phone demo is entirely different from allowing the media to determine when you reveal your compnay's product plans. Jobs and Apple seldom, if ever, talk about product plans until the day the product debuts. That's why there are blogs trying to earn a living making predictions about Apple.

So, I'll stick with my statement. Because they are acquiring companies that bring specific capabilities, it seem obvious that, contrary to this editorial's implication, RIM does have something new in mind. After all, you don't need QNX to run a hum-drum Blackberry, and you don't need to buy TAT if you just wanna copy Apple by throwing a few dozen icons on a few screens

RIM needs to really be innovative. (That will not be difficult given the lack of real innovation in phones today and the copycat designs that flood the market.) But, to assume they are sitting on their hands because some tech writers don't know something is completely bogus.

Re: Editorial: RIM seems to be as lost as my BlackBerry

justcorbly — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 17:04:38 -0000

I don't think Lazaridis' avoiding questions about smartphone strategy necessarily equates to a lack of strategy. If Jobs had been cagey in the same circumstances, would that have been taken as evidence that Apple doesn't know what it's doing?

The proof will be in the pudding though. The first QNX phones that roll out have to deliver capabilities that can't be found in any other phone. Just doing a faster knockoff of iPhone or Android won't cut it.

That said, I recently bought a Blackberry Torch to replace my landline. (AT&T coverage is fine where I live, and my residence is midway between two AT&T towers that are one mile apart.) I considered a Droid 2 Global. But, the many complaints about battery life, operating temperature, and build quality put me off. (By the way, almost all phone reviews are crap. Reviewers seem to grab a phone as soon as it is released, play with it for a few hours, and then publish an alleged review. They need to be much better. For one, phones are radios. Any radio review worth its salt will include a measurement of sensitivity. Phone reviews don't, but they should. Instead, we get worthless dribble about "call quality".)

The Torch will probably spend its two years with me without taking a photo, without being loaded up with music, and without me using it to watch a video longer than a few minutes. Ditto for any phone I'd buy. I'm interested in a phone as a communications device. I'm interested in a phone that can do useful computing tasks. I'm not really interested in a phone that can double as an entertainment toy and i don't want to pay for capabilities that I don't use. I realize that puts me in a minority, but it isn't a minority of one.

Re: Running into the President

justcorbly — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 18:33:05 -0000

Don't see anything here that she was asked for an ID.

Just another right-wing liar making things up.

Re: Mississippi is Most Religious State -- Political Wire

justcorbly — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:36:37 -0000

And, where would you rather live?

Re: I want my Turbo Pascal! (Scripting News)

justcorbly — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:57:36 -0000

Don't forget Turbo C, which wrapped C in the same Borland goodies.The Windows versions were never the same. I remember the ads on the back of DDJ and in Byte.

Geez, remember Byte? Sigh. Back when a magazine wasn't a magazine unless it had a 400 pages.

Re: YWFFTMMR (Scripting News)

justcorbly — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:07:00 -0000

Too many people these days think capitalism means cheating and lying and getting away with it.

Re: Marshall Will Challenge Burr -- Political Wire

justcorbly — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:31:01 -0000

Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy has been making public noises about running for Burr's seat. He'd be more accpetable to progressives. We have a long way to go before producing a nominee.

Re: Many Virginians Doubt Obama Citizenship -- Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

justcorbly — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:59:23 -0000

Enjoy your myth, Tex. Everyone is dependent on other people. Always have been. We're not living Jefferson's idealized yeoman farmer dream (a dream he had never stooped to live, btw), nor are we capturing land, killing red and brown people, and watching out for wild animals. Today's enemies are giant corporations -- businesses that have nothing to do with a free market -- who tilt the economy so all of our money flows into their pockets. Conservative politicians get millions from these bastards, and use a bit of it to keep the con going with duped fools like you.

You don't like being dependent on government? How about dependence on corporations?

Or, are you somewhere west of Waco living below ground and chewin' on jerky?

Re: Many Virginians Doubt Obama Citizenship -- Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

justcorbly — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 15:39:42 -0000

It's this year's manifestation of racism by those think you need to own and beat black black slaves to be a racist.

Re: What worked for HBO won't work for the news (Scripting News)

justcorbly — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:17:05 -0000

Anna, yes, people paid me for 20 years or so to dabble in the dark art of "Media Analysis". I.e., trying to discern the things that influence someone in the media to say the things they say. It was never very mysterious or difficult. Frankly, mostly common sense. Most "non-news junkies" are, I think, unwilling or unable to chase down those influences. They expect reporters and other journalists to be free of the same pressures and influences that play upon themselves. However, why knowing something as transparent as Fox News deliberately going after right-wing viewers or MSNBC going after left-wing viewers seems so difficult for some is beyond me. That is as elemental, and as transparent, as the format at every radio station. It's all about going after a profitable market niche.

i'm cynical and chastened enough to believe everyone spins, whether in or out of the media, or even if they don't know they are doing it. To speak is to try to persuade. I have faith in democracy, but I have no expectation of ever finding a news outlet or a source who doesn't spin.

Re: What worked for HBO won't work for the news (Scripting News)

justcorbly — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:01:35 -0000

What myth, Dave? It is human nature to spin. Reporters do not need to be able to recognize or even identify it. That's not their job. As readers, it's our job. I don't want a reporter to tell me a politician or a businessperson is spinning. I just want them to tell me what was said. I go in knowing spin happens. I go in knowing reporters often know what kind of story they want to write before they start asking questions.

If you want someone to tell you when a source is being less than completely straightforward, you want something other than a reporter.

Re: What worked for HBO won't work for the news (Scripting News)

justcorbly — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 08:17:08 -0000

>>...reporters base their work on generous people who contribute their knowledge for free -- sources.

Well, ideally, and happily, often. But sources obviously often package and bend what they tell reporters in pursuit of their own objectives. Such is human nature. We acted the same way with our moms when we were kids. Good reporters obviously get other sources to talk about the same thing.

This isn't necesarily a Bad Thing. How a source behaves, what he says and does not say, and how he says it, often turns out to be the bigger story.

Re: Sources go direct (Scripting News)

justcorbly — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:54:50 -0000

I think many people are getting their news, such as it is, from sources that use the actual news to riff on opinion, whether it political news, sports news, tech news or even something like food news. That's the business of cable, talk radio, a universe of bloggers, etc. People do glean news from those outlets but reporting the news isn't there raison d'etre. I wonder if newspapers can emulate that (although the British press comes close).

My local daily has been shrinking and shedding staff. But it also runs several neighborhood editions that are adding readers as well as ad revenue. They sometimes come close to your model of user content, with lots of parental photos of school sports and amateur reports on local board and council meetings. The paper has expanded its investigative reporting staff, to good effect. It's also pushed forward a staffer who covers the local retail scene, with columns on store and restaurant openings and closings and advice on how to clip and use grocery coupons. In each of those three instances the paper is providing and packaging information (not necessarily news) that is not available elsewhere. Whether that can counteract shrinking ad revenue is a different question.

We need to remember that the web would be vastly different if the cost of getting a site online equalled the cost of creating the physical plant and staff needed to publish a paper. I'd love to see folks start web-only newspapers using the decentralized staffing and management approach that the web enables.

Re: Sources go direct (Scripting News)

justcorbly — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:20:14 -0000

I'm beginning to doubt people really want more news, faster.

Instead, I think people want more stuff that gets labelled "news", but isn't. E.g., most content on cable, almost all of talk radio, most blog conttent, and a good chunk of any newspaper.

Re: Who are your tech heroes? (Scripting News)

justcorbly — Fri, 15 May 2009 09:38:14 -0000

Can't really call anyone a hero but...

1. Gates and Jobs. Certainly no heroes, but few of us would be using a computer now without them.

2. The folks at Netscape who made and marketed a browser that worked on Windows at just about the right time. I.e., internet for the masses.

3. Torvalds.

4. Bill Gross, who Mitch Kapor says was responsible for Lotus Magellan. Best PC tool of the pre-Windows era, period. I've missed it on every platform I've used since.

Re: Door-slams by MSM journos (Scripting News)

justcorbly — Tue, 12 May 2009 12:16:03 -0000

You can glean news from the Huffington Post, just as you can glean news from the National Review, Instapundit, Kos, Limbaugh, or Olbermann. The primary purpose of none of them, however, is to collect and report the news.

HuffPo comes closest, because a news outlet could easily use a decentralized group of people to collect and report news using a publishing platform like HuffPo's (Movable Type, I believe). Love to see it happen. I wouldn't be willing to call that blogging, because blogging is one kind of behavior and reporting is another

ADD: E.g., Dave goes to MacWorld and posts an entry here telling us what Apple did right, what they did wrong, whether he thinks they're on track or off base, what new toys he likes, etc. That's blogging. Dave goes to MacWorld and posts an entry here saying this guy spoke and said this, then this guy spoke and said this, and here are the new products Apple introduced and here's what Apple says they do; here's what these two geeks in the audience have so say; here's what happened to Apple's stock today... that's reporting.

Re: Door-slams by MSM journos (Scripting News)

justcorbly — Tue, 12 May 2009 12:03:42 -0000

But, the news, whether reported in a newspaper, on TV, or posted in a blog, is not the "truth". It's information, which is something altogether different.

Reporters -- one kind of journalist -- can and should be fairly criticized for ignoring obvious leads and failing to ask obvious questions. But nothing is inherent in the use of blogging software that makes a blogger any more likely to follow obvious leads and ask obvious questions. It's a matter of human behavior, not technology, and our behavior remains remarkably constant while technology changes.

Other kinds of journalists -- columnists, editorial writers, cable talking heads -- are only using the news of the day as a catalyst for exposing their own opinions and advancing their own agendas, something they share with the majority of bloggers. Neither groups should be part of this discussion of the news.

Re: Door-slams by MSM journos (Scripting News)

justcorbly — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:01:52 -0000

When I am looking for news and information, I'm looking for something other than a viewpoint. While it is true that a multiplicity of blogs can, in theory, provide a multiplicity of viewpoints, the same can be said for a multiplicity of newspaper editorial pages or a multiplicity of any other publishing mechanisms. Just as I do not turn to newspaper editorials and columnists, or talking heads on cable -- all purveyors of comment on the news, rather than the news -- I don't turn to blogs for news.

I disagree with the assertion that the "whole idea of an independent press is based on the idea that a diversity of viewpoints sums to something like the truth." The whole idea of an independent press is its independence from ownership and control by political organizations and/or the state.

In addition, if you are looking for the "truth," then turn to religion or science. People who report the news have an obligation to make their best effort to be accurate and fair, but accuracy and fairness are no guarantors of "truth".

Re: The NYT and the Caracas story -- Selecting which stories to run is perhaps the most important part of an editor's job. Bloggers are their own editors who make the same kind of selection decisions every time they put their hands on a keyboard. For every blogger who said something about the Venezuelan story, there were hundreds of thousands who talked about something else.

There is nothing inherent in the technology of blogging, or the technology of publishing a newspaper, that has much to do with producing coherent news reporting. That depends on the skills and behaviors of the people doing the reporting and the publishing.

Integrity of mainstream media: As a former newspaper editor, PR hack, etc., I am well aware that people in the news business are not saints. They are, in fact, pretty much on a par with everyone else in society.

I also said nothing about "privileged relationships", nor did I make any claims about the effectiveness of what you call the MSM. My points are these: 1. The reporting of news and the presentation of a viewpoint are two different things. 2. A multiplicity of blogs can only provide improved news reporting if it can be shown that bloggers are all reporting independently. That does not happen. I don't think the vast majority of bloggers are reporting. I think the vast majority of bloggers are commenting on events that they only know about because someone else -- someone in the news business -- reported on them. E.g., tens of thousands of bloggers will write about what happened today in the Congress and the White House. How many of them were actually at the Congress or the White House covering those events? Unless a news reporter wrote something, they'd have no clue.

I don't intend to set up the traditional media as paragons of wisdom. But I do intend to say that it is the behavior of people that is paramount in this area, not the tool they use to publish. If a blogger acts independently to cover and create a news report about an event, then that blogger is acting as a reporter who happens to use blogging software to publish. If that same blogger tells me what he thinks about an event he only knows about because someone else published a news report, then he very far, indeed, from reporting the news.

For me to accept that bloggers are going to be the next, improved, wave of news reporting, someone will have to convince me that bloggers behave differently than news reporters. I don't see that happening. People are people.