So this morning I have an embarrassing called to the local computer shop:

“So does removing a screw fall within you installing upgrades remit?”

But, in the last few days, some pictures of my daughter had been favorited, which, particularly since they weren’t necessarily the most interesting pictures I’ve ever taken, struck me as odd.

The user who favorited them is not someone I know. That in itself is not so unusual. But, when I went to check his profile to see if he had any interesting pictures I found….nothing. No pictures, tags, groups, contacts, anything. Buy chance I clicked in his profile that shows what other people’s pictures he’s marked as favorites. That’s what really set off my spidey sense. Essentially four dozen pictures taken by a couple dozen different people – all of young girls. Nothing struck me about any individual picture as problematic. They were just pictures of people’s kids at birthday parties, swimming pools, playgrounds, playing dressup, etc. But, seeing them altogether in a group of thumbnails just gave me a really bad vibe.

I’ve ended up blocking his access to my pictures, which has also taken off his favorite markings. I also contacted all the other Flickr users whose pictures that I had favorited. I simply pointed out what I’d found – that a guy whose posted no pictures has been favoriting pictures of young girls in that user’s photostream. I said I was blocking this guy and I wanted to pass this info on to them as well.

I know, in reality, once a picture is shared with the public on Flickr, well, any sick freak can get a hold of it. They can download them to their own machines if they want. I try to be careful about what pictures I post, and I never geotag anything taken at my home or other family and friends homes – after all, I can easily remember those locations.

I don’t know that there’s anything else to be done at this point.

:)

http://www.muttonbone.com/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0779982/

In other news, Obama is bumming me out.

To a large degree, open source software works, and works well, BECAUSE of zealots. You have people that will code in every spare moment they have and simply give the fruits of their work away for anyone to use. You also have people that want to give others living in the various armpits of the world some of the power that we have by virtue of the fact that we were born into an affluent country. The OLPC was born of this drive. I’m sure many would find either of these examples “zealots”.

I would argue that many Apple fanboys and fangirls are zealots of another kind. They’re zealots to the brand. Screaming at the various presentations and blindly buying the latest iProduct. Slaves to the idea that Apple stuff is cool and hip. And Apples never crash (snicker, snicker). To me, this is very empty zealotry.

Apple does indeed hate our freedom. As examples, bricking jailbroken iPhones, no Ogg support on iPods, and the DRM in their music files. I don’t think anyone would argue that Apple is a company and doing things to increase the value of the company and market-penetration. And yes, they do have a right to do these things (ignoring the recent FCC inquiry into the iPhone/AT&T marriage). However, blocking people from CHOOSING to play Ogg files or install a stupid app that Apple doesn’t deem good enough for their store for whatever inane reason does, by definition, inhibit our freedom to use our products as we see fit. It was only market pressure that forced Apple to finally drop DRM from their music files. And yes, people SHOULD vote with their wallets and push Apple to change their ways. But many don’t, and some that don’t will announce that one of the reasons they don’t is due to their freedom-hating ways.

To close, I think we all know that companies are looking out for their best interests. Some of those are really disgusting. How about Net Neutrality? That is in the best interest of some big companies, but really squashes the freedoms that we currently enjoy.

I think I rambled quite a bit. I’m not very good or knowledgeable in this arena, and I hope I did not come off churlish. Time for me to start cleaning the house.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/17/iphone-3g-s-review/

So the cut and paste works ok.

Cough

Night Pan.

And yes, briefly exchanged words with Jack. He’s gotta talk to “his people” and then he’ll get back to us with more details. (Jack’s so important and ya know… “all that” so it’s hard to pin him down anyway.)

hehe “pin him down” *swooon*

still seems to working though

Cj, have you and Jack talked yet. Does he know what we (may have) planned on his behalf?

cough

Awesome points, Jack! I totally agree.

So 3.0 update went fine on the desktop, and iTunes on the netbook restored all my stuff to the phone.

Sooooo….

*innocent whistle*

– Wife of the Ultimate Anti-Apple Man

Then again… maybe not.

You weren’t talking about the Sega console?