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More on Groupon

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OK, Groupon has me flummoxed.
I didn’t understand how they could walk away from a $6B payday from Google, a bumbled deal that led to the ouster of their CEO.
You might think that, with fresh leadership and a renewed direction, they’ might have a clue about revitalizing their once mighty revenue stream.
Here, instead, is what they think might interest me, starting with a mysterious burn on their nephew, Steve



Which was preceded by a skull massage:

Which was preceded by, well, this:

One of an occasional series.
A bunch of years ago, I worked for a software company. It was hard work for long hours. At one point, senior management made the pronouncement that the development team needed to focus more on a particular aspect of the product. The QA manager and I agreed that we’d be Focused More-ons.

More on WiFi passwords

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Last week, I wrote a piece for The Mobility Hub about the challenges of managing WiFi passwords on various mobile devices. In brief, because of arcane guest WiFi policies, users must learn how to change the WiFi password on their devices. Setting aside the problem of entering passwords in the first place, most devices don’t have a direct way to change the password on a saved network connection. Generally, you must tell your gadget to forget about the connection, connect anew, and enter the new password. It is one of the most unfriendly aspect of mobile computing.
We’ve found a new variant of this exquisite defliction. At Hilton hotels, you can get free WiFi if you are a) staying at the hotel or b) visiting the lobby, provided that you ask for the password at the desk. The lobby password is a 14-alphanumeric-character string. The hotel guest password is your room number and last name; it’s only enabled when you are registered at the hotel.
This means that if you log in with the lobby password while you’re waiting to check in and/or waiting to have your in-room account to come alive, you have to change the password when you get to your room (which is beyond the range of the lobby connection).
It’s good to know that, Mordac, Preventer of Information Services from the Dilbert comic strip, has found regular employment with Hilton.

April 6, 1998

One of an occasional series.
A bunch of years ago, I worked for a software company. It was hard work for long hours. At one point, senior management made the pronouncement that the development team needed to focus more on a particular aspect of the product. The QA manager and I agreed that we’d be Focused More-ons.

More on language, good times, and wishing the best for others

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When you have a good time at a gathering of family and/or friends, it’s not unusual to say, “I hope that you had as good as time as I did.”
Courtesy suggests that we wish for better things for others than we do for ourselves. Saying “I hope that you had a better time than I did,” however, doesn’t have quite the effect that we’re after.

One of an occasional series.
A bunch of years ago, I worked for a software company. It was hard work for long hours. At one point, senior management made the pronouncement that the development team needed to focus more on a particular aspect of the product. The QA manager and I agreed that we’d be Focused More-ons.

More on passwords

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When I went to BJ’s  to create an online account, I dutifully created a password with at least eight characters, including at least one letter and one number. As standard practice, I also include a punctuation mark, making password cracking that much more difficult.

99.wharlG

BJ’s took exception to my choice. but did so only with a suggestion.

If a password should only contain alphabets (sic) and numerics, (sic+1) etc., then I would still be permitted to use punctuation characters against their advice. Grumble, grumble.

One of an occasional series.
A bunch of years ago, I worked for a software company. It was hard work for long hours. At one point, senior management made the pronouncement that the development team needed to focus more on a particular aspect of the product. The QA manager and I agreed that we’d be Focused More-ons.

More on copyright, Canadian edition

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Using small amounts of text as a part of a commentary is a long-standing exception to U.S. copyright law. The particulars of each instance are always subject to court review. The copyright holder doesn’t surrender rights by allowing these excerpts.
A few years ago, the Associated Press created a real problem for itself when it contracted with a company to charge $12.50 for using five words of text. The company eventually sued AP for bungling the contract.
Now it’s Canada’s turn, National Post, specifically. Michael Geist noted that merely selecting text to use a quote for another piece triggers a new content licensing scheme.
For example, let’s look at a story about the priciest house on Prince Edward Island. It’s a nice place on the north shore for $12M CAD.

If select a paragraph of text that I’d like to include in my review, I am presented with this pop-up .

Following through the options, I learn two things. It’s going to cost me up to $100 to quote 100 words and 50¢ for each additional word.
Next, I find that I cannot comply. When I selected the text, the pop-up prevented me from copying the words that I need to paste into this box to calculate how much I must finally pay.
Oh, the company that National Post is using to stand on guard for thee, iCopyright, is the same company that the AP used and was sued by. 

One of an occasional series.
A bunch of years ago, I worked for a software company. It was hard work for long hours. At one point, senior management made the pronouncement that the development team needed to focus more on a particular aspect of the product. The QA manager and I agreed that we’d be Focused More-ons.

More on cycling

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We recently discussed the effect of bicycle helmet laws on cycling safety. Now we learn that cycling itself is a hazard to the environment. According to Washington state Rep. Ed Orcutt (R-Kalama), cyclists are exhaling so much carbon dioxide that they are contributing to global warming. The representative sees a tax on cyclists as a reasonable response to generate needed revenue for road maintenance and to offset the environmental damage.

Click to enbiggen. via KGW

One of an occasional series.
A bunch of years ago, I worked for a software company. It was hard work for long hours. At one point, senior management made the pronouncement that the development team needed to focus more on a particular aspect of the product. The QA manager and I agreed that we’d be Focused More-ons.

More on sacred texts

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Sandra’s father’s family hails from a red-clayed corner of the Great White North. To the folks of  Prince Edward Island, Anne of Green Gables is a sacred text. To many Japanese girls, the Anne stories are an inspiration beyond words. These stories tell of an orphan girl who is a adopted by an aging brother and sister and who thrives by wit, pluck, and imagination. There was a mix-up in the request to the Halifax orphanage. The couple was looking for a boy to help around the farm while the person arranging the adoption thought that they were looking for a girl about 11.
At the core of the story is the girl’s determination to survive life as a red-head. On first meeting,  Matthew Cuthbert remarks that her hair is red.

“Yes, it’s red,” she said resignedly. “Now you see why I can’t be perfectly happy. Nobody could who has red hair. I don’t mind the other things so much–the freckles and the green eyes and my skinniness. I can imagine them away. I can imagine that I have a beautiful rose-leaf complexion and lovely starry violet eyes. But I cannot imagine that red hair away. I do my best. I think to myself, `Now my hair is a glorious black, black as the raven’s wing.’ But all the time I know it is just plain red and it breaks my heart. It will be my lifelong sorrow. I read of a girl once in a novel who had a lifelong sorrow but it wasn’t red hair. Her hair was pure gold rippling back from her alabaster brow. What is an alabaster brow? I never could find out. Can you tell me?

Because the Anne books are in the public domain, anyone can publish a new edition and publish they do. There are innumerable print and electronic editions as well as movie, television, and cartoon remixes. What’s newsworthy about another edition of a book about an 11-year-old, red-haired girl?
Here’s what:

Cover photo via Techdirt

As you’d expect, this edition, its cover since removed from the Amazon listing, unleashed a torrent of vitriol comparable to what might happen if a favorite sports hero appeared in a porn flick.
One takeaway message from all this is that, through our copyright laws and freedoms of press and speech, we can bring to market pretty much any full-tilt bozo idea of our choosing.

More on science

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Three quick notes on the ways that science making our lives, um, interesting.

  • We’ve often heard that printer ink is more expensive than human blood. Well, here’s a twist: UK scientists have used 3D printers to print human stem cells. It’s within the realm of imagination that we could eventually use human blood in printers to make something beyond our imaginations.
  • Humans have had a problematic relationship with insects. Some, such as honey bees, do great things for us. Mosquitoes are frog food and carry deadly diseases. We’ve done battle with chemicals and bazookas.
    Well, insects are fighting back and they’ve got robots.
  • Fish are in schools but, until science showed up, they could never raise their hands when the have an answer to the teacher’s question. The Register reports that Fish grow ‘hands’ in genetic experiment.
    Fish testing at Alden Research Lab

One of a occasional series. A bunch of years ago, I worked for a software company. It was hard work for long hours. At one point, senior management made the pronouncement that the development team needed to focus more on a particular aspect of the product. The QA manager and I agreed that we’d Focused More-ons.

More on job searches

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A while ago, I signed up with the job search site, Glassdoor. Since then, they’ve been sending me a list of  suggested jobs in the Worcester area. The jobs, however,  always a great match.

One of a occasional series. A bunch of years ago, I worked for a software company. It was hard work for long hours. At one point, senior management made the pronouncement that the development team needed to focus more on a particular aspect of the product. The QA manager and I agreed that we’d Focused More-ons.