Month: November 2014

Facebook ≠ Friend of Free Speech‽

Posted by | Nov 26, 2014 | |

I’m not a fan of Facebook (I deactivated my account months ago) but this is a new low for the social networking giant. “Pakistani advocacy groups say that some senior members of the government telecommunications agency have boasted in court about the “arrangement” they have with Facebook, where they can have any “undesirable” content they wish blocked or removed. Twitter, however, is notorious for fighting such demands, which probably makes it seem like less of a soft touch. (GigaOm)” Truthfully I am not perplexed as to why Facebook cowers at the slightest government criticism while Twitter defies censorship requests (whether it’s from Pakistan, US of A or Mordor). Both companies have global ambitions although Facebook is willing to sacrifice freedom of speech in order to become “the pulse of the planet.” The Art of Censorship My theory: Facebook is attempting to achieve a pseudo balance between censorship & freedom of speech within a democratic theocracy (like Pakistan) before expanding into China (where Facebook is currently banned). While companies like Twitter & (to a lesser degree) Google would not be willing to silence human opinions in order to please hyper sensitive bureaucrats, Facebook has no qualms with censorship as long as it leads towards more users & more gold at the end of the day. Image Credits: ZDNet who has a very interesting article about Facebook censorship in India &...

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Welcome To Omerica…

Posted by | Nov 24, 2014 | |

Image Credit: GrrrGraphics.com To quote Coldplay, “call it magic…call it true” would be a perfect description of what a Presidential executive order has become nowadays. Sadly the American presidency position is morphing into that of a temporal king, especially after the executive order President Obama just signed (something even Saturday Night Live even acknowledges). If the President can choose which laws he (or she) can enforce, then what is the point of having Congress create the laws in the first place‽ What will prevent the next or current President from choosing which taxes to enforce, which illicit drugs will be regulated, which lands/waters (or rather the plants & animals in them) will be protected from excessive oil drilling irregardless of environmental damage‽ Presidents can already attack foreign nations without declaring war, as well as send out combat drones to slaughter American citizens without due process. If an Imperial President is the way of the future, then what truly separates the Leader of the Free World from official & unofficial dictators (such as Kim Jung Un & Vladimir Putin,...

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So Yahoo Supports 2-Step Verification After All…

Posted by | Nov 22, 2014 | |

Either I have been oblivious to the fact that Yahoo supports 2-factor authentication (aka 2-step verification) or Yahoo does a poor job of promoting this feature (probably more the former than the latter). After scouring the Twitterverse (yes, Twitter is my favorite social network) I came across this tweet: @richardcyates @chanimehro But yahoo/Flickr 2-step verification seem only SMS-based? Can’t use the MS authenticator app? — Massis Sirapian (@Massis_) October 23, 2014 Puzzled/excited at the prospect of finally receiving 2-factor authentication for my Yahoo accounts, I googled (sorry Yahoo!) upon this ancient (although recently updated) article on C|Net (note: video is from Yahoo’s help page): “Yahoo Mail: Yahoo’s Second Sign-in Verification requires that you answer a security question or enter a verification code when signing in to your Yahoo account from an unverified computer or device. To enable the feature, sign in to your Yahoo account, click the down arrow next to your name in the top-left corner of the screen, and choose Account Info (you’ll be prompted to re-enter your password).” “Click “Set up your second sign-in verification” under Sign-in and Security. Check the box on the screen that appears, and either use an existing number or add a mobile phone number. Once the feature is active, you’ll see a “Success!” message on the Yahoo verification page.“ Now that I’ve (relatively) secured my Yahoo account, I’ve re-downloaded not only...

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Google Wallet Ditches Developers…Except On Android‽

Posted by | Nov 13, 2014 | |

Spotted this via TechCrunch in which Google is doing their best to make frenemies & infuriate people. “As we continue to evolve and improve our merchant tools to meet new market challenges in the payments space, we are writing to let you know we will be retiring the Google Wallet for digital goods API on March 2, 2015. […]” “If you are selling apps on the Google Play Store or processing in-app payments through Google Wallet, you will continue to be supported. (Google Wallet Support)” I have purchased items via Google Wallet in the past, which I preferred over PayPal due as the former was slightly much more attuned to safeguarding my privacy (at least via email). With Google retreating to Helms Deep…er…Android, it makes me wonder how viable will Google Wallet be in the future—online &...

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Did @Google Abandon @Blogger‽

Posted by | Nov 10, 2014 | |

Perhaps abandon is a bit extreme (ignoring would be a better word) but many blogspot bloggers are wondering if Google is giving up on their publishing platform. Does anyone at Google actually work on Blogger or is it just a maintenance guy who makes sure the servers are plugged in? — Dare Obasanjo (@Carnage4Life) November 7, 2014 Google has mysteriously ceased publishing upon their official Blogger Buzz blog as well as Blogger’s Known Issues blog! (which lets users know which bugs Google is fixing within Blogger) All silent on the social front‽ Ironically the official Blogger Google+ page is as fresh as stale bread while the @Blogger team gave up on Twitter months ago. Now there’s an easier way to manage pages on your blog: http://t.co/DjouFibIVa — Blogger (@Blogger) February 27, 2014 The Blogger team has even ceased YouTubing as well (this is their last video). Unlike a few other spectacular failures (cue Google Wave), Google in the past would ignore a platform/service before shutting it down. Google gave Orkut the silent treatment before shutting them down, as well as Google Reader, & Google Video (the latter after buying YouTube). Although I would be shocked if Blogger was shut down (as the service is still very popular), Google for better or worse is no longer investing in its future (or at least not communicating Blogger’s future to the public)....

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