B.S. Footprint™

FaceBook was counting everyone who ever looked at an iPhone, apparently:

A few days ago, Facebook divulged the number of users of its mobile apps. The most impressive figure from their posting also turned out to be the most controversial -- according to Facebook, more people were using its Facebook for iPhone app (104 million) than the actual number of iOS devices out there (around 100 million units, inclusive of the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad).

...

44 million Facebook for iPhone users is still a substantial percentage of the iOS devices out there, but it's a number that makes far more sense than the earlier 104 million figure. Facebook certainly is ubiquitous, but it was stretching credibility to claim that virtually every iOS device out there was running its iOS app.

I wonder if the recent global FaceBook membership claims were similarly inflated?

In the wake of the recent salmonella-tainted egg outbreak, Margaret Hamburg, the F.D.A. chief, says the agency needs more authority in order to take a more "preventive approach":

Food and Drug Administration chief Margaret Hamburg said Monday her agency is limited by law to a mostly reactive stance on food safety and argued that it needs a more "preventive approach."

Giving a series of network interviews in the wake of the egg and salmonella breakout, Hamburg said the FDA is taking the issue "very, very seriously." At the same time, she said Congress should pass pending legislation that would provide her agency with greater enforcement power, including new authority over imported food.

"We need better abilities and authorities to put in place these preventive controls and hold companies accountable," Hamburg said as she discussed the approximately 1,300 cases of salmonella poisoning and the recall of roughly a half-billion eggs from two Iowa egg distributors.

Here's today's pop quiz: Have you ever heard the head of a government agency say his or her agency needs less authority? If so, what agency, who said it and when?

We're glad to hear that a new long-distance weapon carries a message of peace and friendship:

Iran has unveiled an unmanned, long-distance bomber drone described by the country's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as "an ambassador of death" to Tehran's enemies.

At a ceremony today, Ahmadinejad said the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) – named Karrar, meaning "striker" in Persian – had "a main message of peace and friendship" but was intended to deter aggression "and keep the enemy paralysed in his bases".

I admit, upon first hearing of the new weapon, I was worried. Now I think we can all relax and go back to our daily lives.

Interesting story regarding the sheer hypocrisy of Apple's App Store policies:

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal, PC World Aug 19, 2010 6:29 am
Isn't it ironic? The director of Apple's app store (and the enforcer of such draconian policies as the "no-porn policy") has a side job: he sells fart apps on the app store.

Wired's Gadget Blog revealed on Wednesday that Phillip Shoemaker, director of Apple's app store, also works for an app company called Gray Noodle. Gray Noodle produces such highbrow apps as "iWiz," a urination simulator, and "Animal Farts," a, um, farting app.

This is, of course, only ironic because Shoemaker is one of the major power players when it comes to the app store's controversial and seemingly spontaneous policies regarding app store content. Perhaps the most recent app store rejection controversy was in February, when Apple decided to purge its app store of what it deemed to be pornographic material (e.g. anything containing the word "boob").

Brian Reid, an ex-Stanford professor, will finally have his day in court. He has accused Google of terminating his employment primarily due to his age.

The court documents are interesting because they provide a glimpse behind the scenes, including email exchanges between Google executives and the HR department.

So, the case is going to court. Looks like Google's deep pockets are about to be opened up.

At last! We know who to blame for the Apple iPhone antenna problem.

The Apple Inc. executive in charge of the iPhone has left the company following a string of stumbles with the device, and what people familiar with the situation said was a falling out with Chief Executive Steve Jobs.

Mark Papermaster, Apple's senior vice president for mobile devices, has left the Cupertino, Calif., company, an Apple spokesman said Saturday, declining to provide further details. Mr. Papermaster, 49 years old, had joined Apple just 15 months ago from International Business Machines Corp.

[snip]

Mr. Papermaster had lost the confidence of Mr. Jobs months ago and hasn't been part of the decision-making process for some time, these people said. They added that Mr. Papermaster didn't appear to have the type of creative thinking expected at Apple and wasn't used to Apple's corporate culture, where even senior executives are expected to keep on top of the smallest details of their areas of responsibility and often have to handle many tasks directly, as opposed to delegating them. One of these people also said Mr. Papermaster had difficulty maneuvering Apple's internal politics.

Hey! Apple software has the most security holes!

A new report from security software provider Secunia shows that despite considerable security investments, the software industry at large is unable to produce software with substantially fewer vulnerabilities.
The latest data shows that Apple has surpassed Oracle and even Microsoft with accounting for the most software vulnerabilities, though the No. 1 ranking is related only to the number of vulnerabilities--not to how risky they are or how fast they get patched.

How did that happen?

A friend once told me: "He who does little makes few mistakes" -- Welcome to the big time, Apple. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Where has the spilled oil gone?

By Rick Jervis, USA TODAY
NEW ORLEANS — For more than three months, Gulf Coast residents and federal officials have asked where the oil spill was headed and how much damage it would deliver.

Now, a new, equally baffling question looms: Where has the oil gone?

The amount of surface oil that has bubbled up from the leaking well at the site of the Deepwater Horizon rig sinking has rapidly shrunk in size since the well was capped 11 days ago, according to the Coast Guard.

Recent flyovers of the spill area spotted only one sizeable oil deposit in the region, down considerably from the large pools of thick, reddish oil that washed into Louisiana's coastal marshes and beaches along the Gulf of Mexico.

"What we're trying to figure out is: Where is all the oil at?" said retired Coast Guard admiral Thad Allen, the oil response's federal overseer. "There's still a lot of oil that's unaccounted for."

The impish mind reels. Maybe the whales ate it?

I loved seeing today's headlines (many have been edited) stating "Apple results blow past estimates" (or similar).

Apple's doing very well right now, no doubt about it. The headlines struck me as funny, though. To paraphrase Renée Zellweger in Jerry McGuire, "You had me at 'Apple results blow'".

This just in from the L.A. Times:

The mortgage giant plans to go to court against those who can afford to make their payments but decide it's not worth it. It also will limit their access to future loans.

Taking aim at homeowners who are able to pay their mortgage but decide it's not worth it, Fannie Mae plans to go after them in court and to limit their access to home loans for seven years.

The government-controlled mortgage giant said Wednesday that it would instruct the companies servicing its loans to recommend when it should pursue a so-called deficiency judgment — a court order requiring a defaulting borrower to pay any remaining unpaid portion of the loan after a seized home is sold.

And how big a problem are we talking about?

Foreclosures continue at a rate of 2.5 million a year, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairwoman Sheila Bair said, and some 11 million households owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth.
[snip]
In the fourth quarter of 2008, strategic defaulters accounted for 18% of all borrowers who were 60 days past due on their loans, according a study by credit-data giant Experian and consulting firm Oliver Wyman.

Last March, 31% of foreclosures were described as strategic by the borrowers themselves, compared with 22% in March 2009, researchers at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University reported.

I wonder if they are going to try going after people who've already walked away from their homes.

This just might make the iPad sell like hotcakes. If Apple doesn't try to derail it, that is. Porn. Porn on the iPad.

Yes, you heard it right. Your own, personal pornPad.

(CNN) -- It was just days after the release of the iPad -- Apple's slate computer heralded as a tool for gaming, book and magazine reading and Web consumption -- when the announcement arrived.

One of the world's biggest porn companies claimed it had created a way to stream its videos onto the device, skipping the Apple store and its restrictions on salacious content.

I found this tale of woe in an L.A. Times news story about homeowners walking away from mortgages they can afford to pay:

"There was not a chance that house was ever going to be worth anywhere near what my mortgage was," said [the homeowner], who is now renting a few miles away after defaulting on the $310,000 loan. "I haven't cheated or stolen."

Let's dissect this statement.

The former homeowner starts by offering a justification for defaulting on her contractual obligation:

"There was not a chance that house was ever going to be worth anywhere near what my mortgage was"

Followed by an assertion that there is nothing wrong, illegal, or immoral in defaulting on a mortgage. Implying that the homeowner's actions won't cost anyone else a dime:

"I haven't cheated or stolen."

I'm sure that belief helps the ex-homeowner sleep at night. But is it true?

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's sweeping health care legislation won precious support from a longtime liberal holdout in the House on Wednesday and from Catholic nuns representing dozens of religious orders, gaining fresh traction in the run-up to a climactic weekend vote.

Exactly when did the President of the United States gain the power to craft legislation? Is this the President's creation?

Article. I. - Section 1.
All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
Source: U.S. Constitution

Seems pretty clear, doesn't it? If all legislative power is granted to the Congress, why call it President Obama's legislation? Is the Congress embarrassed?

Even Steve Jobs looks uncool holding an iPad...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/curiouslee/ / CC BY 2.0

The iPad will fail to duplicate the iPhone's market success. It won't live up to the hype.

The iPad, though probably a masterpiece of design and execution, isn't going to sell like the iPhone.

Why? It's not the price. It's a cultural problem.

The iPhone is selling like mad because it's cool. Non-techies like it. It's sleek, sexy, and subtle. It's functional, luring users by offering cell phone capabilities (it solves a real problem out of the box).

The iPhone is the perfect size: It's sleek, small, lightweight, unobtrusive. Not much larger than a typical cell phone. It feels good in your hand. Whipping one out in a restaurant, bar, or other public place will not make you feel like a dork. To a casual observer, it's just another cell phone. Yawn. And therein lies the iPhone's appeal. When you use one, it looks like you are merely fiddling with your cell phone or PDA. And yet it's so much more than that.

My brother (a hardcore biker) and his wife have two iPhones, and they use them constantly. To the point of addiction.

But the iPad? No such luck. Pulling an iPad out of your backpack (you aren't going to keep it in your purse or pants pocket, are you?) in a public setting will announce your nerdiness to the world in big, flashing, neon letters. You may be a 'cool' nerd, but nerdy still. Even Steve Jobs (the poster boy for hip, cool techies) looks über-dorky holding one.

I know many people who do (or would) use an iPhone without hesitation, but "just don't get" things like the Amazon Kindle. They can't picture themselves dragging around a larger device, regardless of features.

Yeah, some people will buy the iPad. It might take a chunk out of the netbook market. But there are strong cultural factors that Apple must overcome in order to succeed with the iPad. The iPad, and other tech toys like it, will not become a ubiquitous presence like the iPhone–until the cultural issues become irrelevant, that is. And that may take a decade or more.

This is no surprise if you've been paying attention:

In an appearance before the full House Democratic caucus, Mr. Rangel said he didn't want to be a drag on the party. "I love my country. I love the Congress. I love the Democrats more," he said after the closed-door session.
(Emphasis mine.)

Ok, maybe he 'misspoke'. I'm sure he doesn't really love the Democrats more than his country.