Facebook forgets Google ain’t evil
Facebook has been steadily approaching the #1 spot on my “most unwanted” list. Currently they’re right behind Apple. Ever since they decided they were going to try and take information I’ve marked as private and keep trying to make it public so they can make a few bucks they’ve been quickly climbing the list. I now have to go in every month or so and double-check my privacy settings to see if they’ve done something “for my benefit” that I don’t want (again).
I find it ironic now that Facebook, who at every turn opts you into anything public without consulting you first, is trying to portray Google as improperly using and broadcasting your personal data.
As I understand it, Google is scraping publicly accessible data from social networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc). The key is in “publicly” accessible data. Data anyone can get anyway. They aren’t getting private content and then making it public (as Facebook likes to do). It’s already public.
Facebook decided they would try to do the underhanded thing by hiring a really shady PR firm to try and create an alarmist story about this without announcing their relationship. They assumed the media would jump on the sensationalist aspect of the story (instant headlines like Apple’s recent location bruhaha), but surprisingly… they didn’t. When the lie came to light, the shady PR firm then threw Facebook under the bus (karma). Shame on all of those involved with this. Zuckerburg, Facebook, the PR firm, and anybody else who knew. Kudos to the journalists who saw this for what it was and blew the whistle.
Further reading:
- Facebook admits hiring PR firm to smear Google – via Engadget
- Facebook, You’re Going To Need A Better Answer For Your Slimeball Stunt – TechCrunch (MG Seigler)
- Facebook Seeks to Downplay Campaign Against Google – NY Times
Friday FTW
Looks like summertime is trying to put springtime down for the count, but springtime ain’t going easy. We had a nice few days up in the 80′s, now it’s back into the 70′s for the next few days. I can live with that 
Especially when we’ve got robots, wizards, mutants, and a bow on hand.
Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon
Destruction, Terror, and Mayhem. Transformers 3 Images via apple.com
New trailer out today. And boy does it look good. Before watching the trailer, get a little taste of the clips hitfix was shown a few days ago. Visit the photo gallery over at Apple.com. 3D? meh. But I will see this in IMAX, and if the IMAX happens to be in 3D then so be it.
Ahem. Some lines from the trailer…
“Our entire spacerace of the 1960s was in response to an event.”
“You’ve lied to us. You’ve made a grave mistake.”
“From here, the fight will be your own.”
While the second movie (appropriately, “number 2″) was a bit of a miss the one thing that was truly EPIC in that film was the robot vs robot battles. And it sure looks like there will be plenty of that in this movie.
See the X-Men and Harry Potter after the jump…
Recap: DC United vs NY Red Bull
DC United falls to the New York Red Bulls 4-0. Hi(lo)-lights below.
And some post-game comments:
I don’t hate NY Red Bull anymore [I think I just threw up a little].
The New York Red Bulls were not only a mediocre (and often awful) team for many years, but also arrogant and pompous and whiny and didn’t know how bad they really were. They cheated (Bob), they dove, they hacked, they complained about being hacked and that others dove, they tried (and failed) to buy good teams and good coaches. There fans we equally as delusional, obnoxious, and annoying. They were the type of team I could thoroughly enjoy their (frequent) misfortune and relish the (also frequent) victories of DC United over this moronic group of individuals.
But things seem different now…
I noticed almost immediately during the game last night that this was NOT the same team. I mean, it’s a different team every year, but this team is *really* different. It’s not just confidence or pride or anything tangible or quantifiable you could put your hands on. As a former player, you just know when your opponent is a p*&$y and you can just stomp them into the ground. NYRB has had that look tattooed on their forehead for many years now. But not last night. I knew we were in for a battle and I hoped the boys in Black were up to the task.
Well. Some of them were. Some of them weren’t. It wasn’t that they were mentally “not in it”, it was just that some of these guys just aren’t good enough to play at that level.
Marc Burch in particular had a really bad night. He’s not that great of a defender (pretty bad actually), but usually he can add at least a little something to the offense. Last night he wasn’t attacking and he certainly wasn’t defending. By my reckoning 3 out of the 4 goals had him at least partially responsible. I feel a little bad saying that as I think Burch is one of those guys who leaves it all on the field and even stepped up into a leadership role at times over the last few years when others were doing impersonations of lawn chairs.
I thought overall the match was fairly even, with an edge (although not 4 goals worth) to NYRB who was just a little quicker to the ball and a little smarter once they had it. But when United tripped up, they really tripped up. And all credit to NYRB [gag again] for finishing their chances when they got them. As opposed to United who could have scored maybe 3 goals in the final minutes but seemed to find new and creative ways to miss the net.
This one stings a little bit, but you have to move on to the next one. Next league match is against the Dynamo April 29th.
Here’s what others are saying:
- RECAP: DC 0, NY 4 - dcunited.com
- Post-match quotes: D.C. United 0 – New York Red Bulls 4 – dcunited.com
- United not ready for Prime Time as they get hammered 4-0 in loss to rival Red Bull – unitedmania.com
- United vs. Red Bulls: D.C. routed by talented New York side – washingtonpost.com
- SBI Stoppage Time: Red Bulls 4, United 0 – soccerbyives.net
Friday! Apes, Cowboys, Aliens, Doctors and Priests
Lots of neat stuff this week. We’ve got Rise of the Planet of the Apes concept art and a trailer, along with the trailers for Cowboys and Aliens (now with more aliens), Doctor Who and Priest. Scroll down or follow the link below for more.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes Concept Art via facebook.com/apeswillrise
Continue reading →
Live Action Dragonriders of Pern Movie
This falls squarely in the “DON’T F%&K IT UP!” category. Please, please, please, do not mess this up.
Cover art by Michael Whelan glassonion.com for "The White Dragon" by Anne McCaffery
Growing up, this was one of my favorite series and I had (they are now lost) many pencil drawings based on Michael Whelan’s dragon depictions on McCaffery’s covers. McCaffery built a HUGE epic across over 20 books and covering thousands of years and generations.
Cloud Music, Legal or Not?
Before you get too far into reading this, please know that I am not a lawyer. Nor did I spend the night at a Holiday Inn. I’m just a guy with a ton of media and want to find a way to access it all no matter what I’m using and no matter where I am.
Store your files with us, what could possibly go wrong?
As most of you know, Amazon launched a music streaming service about two weeks ago. A combination of Cloud Drive to store your music and the Cloud Player to play those stored songs. Amazon lets you keep up to 5GB for free with paid options available all the way up to 1TB (not free). This stirred up a lot of tech commentary since they beat both Apple and Google who have been in “talks” with the music industry for what seems like forever over licensing agreements.
How did they manage to scoop both Apple AND Google?
Simple. They just didn’t ask. Kind of like it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission. Yeah, kinda like that. Only it’s different in that Amazon’s position is that they don’t need permission anyway. And I agree with that.
Streaming Music with Amazon’s Cloud Drive and Cloud Player
Google and Apple, who have both been rumored to be “soon” launching a streaming music service, just got snuck up on and hit with a pipe wrench by Amazon who just after midnight today launched their own streaming music service.
The biggest surprise for me was that I had not heard anything about this service until this morning. They’ve managed to keep it completely under wraps until it debuted. This even beats Apple’s level of secrecy…
So how does it work? Well, I’m going to go find out for myself in a minute, but here is what I’m reading from TechCrunch, Engadget, LifeHacker, and from Amazon:
- You sign up for it at Amazon.com – Right now there is a big notice on the front page with direct links to setup your Cloud Drive and the Cloud Player.
- This consists of two pieces which are the Cloud Drive service and the Cloud Player.
- The Cloud Drive gives you up to 5GB for FREE and is where you upload your music and other files such as movies, photos, documents, etc. There are inexpensive plans to increase the amount of storage to $20 for 20GB per year, $50 for 50GB per year, etc.
- If you purchase an MP3 album through Amazon MP3 you get the $20/20GB/1Year plan for FREE. More details here.
- Music purchased through the Amazon MP3 store can be automatically put into your Cloud Drive. They don’t take up any of your storage space which means FREE (for those tracks).
- The Cloud Player is what lets you play your music. There is a web version right now as well as an android version. Right off the bat there is no iOS version, but I’d expect that to change fairly quickly.
So let’s get started, shall we
Amazon Cloud Drive - Learn More: Big easy button to get started
One Goal Documentary, USA vs Argentina 2011
Really neat video from the One Goal documentary, I got this via the SoccerInsider Blog.
There’s always a ton of emotion in these types of games even though they are a “friendly”. The video reminds me a little of the fan videos during the USA’s last World cup run….
DC United Season starts TOMORROW!
As I’m unlikely tomorrow to have time to do a full write-up before the game, I figure I’d give a little taste to hopefully get you prepared for the upcoming season.
First, just to get you in the mood, watch this 2011 teaser for DC United. Featuring dramatic music and lots of staring at the camera. Oh, and a few highlights as well. Continue reading after the jump for more from me.
Aftermath of the Japan Earthquake/Tsunami
Japan Tsunami via Lifehacker
It’s often hard to relate to events that happen on the other side of the world. Frankly, it’s hard enough to relate to things that happen to people across the street from you. Sometimes though, there are photos or videos of events that really seem to resonate and make you “remember” them for a long time afterwards. I think this earthquake/tsunami in Japan will be one of those events. Maybe simply because of the abundance of available videos and photos shot live (thanks technology), or maybe due to the sheer magnitude of the event itself.
A first person view of the incoming tsunami via Gizmodo (with links to other video as well). It starts out as just a little bit of water… rising… and then it just. keeps. coming. First cars come floating by, then shortly it’s whole buildings floating away. Massive destruction. It isn’t like the movies portray it as a huge wall of water, but the end result is about the same.
This link to the NY Times website has a series of satellite photographs showing the before and after of the landscape. It’s incredible to see how much land, buildings, roads, etc were just wiped away like you brush the crumbs off of the counter. Drag the sliders on the images to the left/right in order to see what was washed away.
Lifehacker has a great summary of articles to help keep yourself prepared in case of disaster (natural or otherwise). It’s worth a read and some of these things are easily done and will come in handy should the unwanted ever really happen.
