Category Archives: Technology

Is ‘Anything but Facebook’ the Open Web?

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I’d just been invited to an event via Facebook, When open web evangelist, Molly Holzschlag tweeted:

Despite having used Facebook to publicise events previously I firmly believe people and organisations shouldn’t solely use it to advertise their events ”just because everyone is on there”.

So I immediately responded to Molly:

Disappointingly, Molly confirmed my entry was too short. She did kindly favourite and retweet it. And, because Twitter and WordPress aren’t Facebook, I’m able to share this post and said tweets without first forcing you to login.

Tonight I noted Molly had followed up with the following gem:

It was a tweet which prompted some interesting responses. Many pointed out that “access” can mean many things. And it led to an interesting discussion on the topic.

I’m using her update to bulwark my response to the initial tweet. If I need to have an “account” or “login” to see content on the web, it’s not open. It’s clear some content requires restricted access for privacy and other reasons – but Public Events or status updates you otherwise share to 4 gazillion “friends”? No. They are restricted because Facebook needs to pay for Instagram and get a bajillion dollars in an IPO.

It’s possible that one day Facebook will no longer be the default location on the internet for a substantial percentage of the population. It’s even possible they’ll no longer try to corral everything within their “platform”. But until that day comes, I’ll continue to limit my use of Facebook to an ‘as needed” basis.

And when I invite you to an event, I’ll probably tweet, sms or email you a link to a file on my dropbox.

Apple Software Update Issues

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Before I hit the hay (instead of Making Hay) tonight I decided to respond to the Software Update Prompts on a couple of my Mac’s tonight.

I was kind of Surprised to see two versions of the same Safari offered

Two identical Safari Options

So I deselected one and ran the upgrade. It seemed to complete okay and as usual ran another check. At which point I was presented with something odd

itunes producer shows up

I never heard of iTunes Producer before, and judging by the description, it seems like something only content owners get access to, so I was surprised to see it in the standard Lion Software Update

iTunes Producer Description.png

Needless to say I installed it. Which seemed to go well. Upon launch however, I got this:

iTunes Producer Login

What’s iTunes Connect? Off to DuckDuckGo I went

Search itunes Connect

And eventually ended up at the Apple Site for Content Providers

Which (as did any site under apple.com/itunes) kept refreshing and eventually gave me this

Safari Fail

And a lovely crash report from Safari Web Content:

Process:         WebProcess [20467]Path:            /System/Library/StagedFrameworks/Safari/WebKit2.framework/WebProcess.app/Contents/MacOS/WebProcessIdentifier:      com.apple.WebProcessVersion:         7534.54 (7534.54.16)Build Info:      WebKit2-7534054016000000~1Code Type:       X86-64 (Native)Parent Process:  Safari [20044]
Date/Time:       2012-03-21 00:52:25.935 +1100OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.7.3 (11D50b)Report Version:  9
Interval Since Last Report:          1014 secCrashes Since Last Report:           16Per-App Interval Since Last Report:  1033 secPer-App Crashes Since Last Report:   16Anonymous UUID:                      1B08278B-0FAA-4437-8C46-60A82E82BD19
Crashed Thread:  0  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
Exception Type:  EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000000000008
VM Regions Near 0x8:-->     __TEXT                 0000000109ee4000-0000000109ee5000 [    4K] r-x/rwx SM=COW  /System/Library/StagedFrameworks/Safari/WebKit2.framework/WebProcess.app/Contents/MacOS/WebProcess
Application Specific Information:objc[20467]: garbage collection is OFF
Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Because this crash also happens when I tried to edit a post here at WordPress.com, I decided to disable all my extensions, which has fixed the problem. Once I identify the culprit, I’ll update this post.

UPDATE: The culprit appears to be the extension Disconnect.

Disconnect Extension

I say appears, because after resetting and turning on all Extensions, all the previously affected sites (Apple.com/itunes, Feedly and the Edit Post page in WordPress.com) worked initially. However after some additional testing, I could consistently get Safari WebContent to crash when Disconnect was turned on and I went to edit a post here.

So the questions are:

Has someone at Apple inadvertently released incorrect builds of Safari to Software Update?

Safari Version 5.1.4

Why did iTunes Producer appear in my Software Update – and is anyone else seeing it?

On Elcomsoft and their criticism of iOS Password Apps

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Excellent article from Glenn Fleishman at TidBITS Safe Computing on how Elcomsoft Criticism of iOS Password Apps is Overblown.

The core point I took from the article is that there is a four factor authentication process before you can get to individual passwords:

  • Get the Device (or the data file)
  • Get the Security code on the Device
  • Get the Security code or password for the app
  • Get the Master Password

Which doesn’t preclude a user of an application like 1Password from;

Disclaimer: I user 1Password on my Mac and on iOS and have done since I originally got a free install  about 3 years ago. I have since then purchased both the Mac software (currently 3.8.17) and 1Password Pro for the iPhone. Both of which I use daily on both devices.

Mouse and Keyboard in Windows 8

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Microsoft’s videos to help us get started with Windows 8 Consumer Preview are pretty slick and clearly illustrate the fantastic benefits of the Metro UI.

I can’t help but thinking though that Mouse and keyboard interaction in what appears to clearly be a touch screen UI is odd. And the file system user experience seems to be just Windows 7 with a fancy wrapper.

I can’t wait to get time to try it out though, a rethinking of desktop UI’s is long over due in my book.

AV Test: Two thirds of Android Malware scanners are unsuitable for use

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The summary of AV Test’s March 2012 Malware Protection for Android Tests includes the following:

“Close to two thirds of these scanners are not yet suitable for use as reliable products and identify less than 65% of the 618 types of malware tested”

Though I think the most damning quote was about one of the large number of “free” - mainly ad supported – services:

“…showed no detections in our tests and crashed several times. The advertisements worked properly”

Disclaimer: In my current role I promote Lookout Mobile Security which was in the top 7 tested applications

Resurrecting DRM now Flash is dead

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Ars Technica are reporting on an “unethical” HTML video copy protection proposal drawing criticism from W3C reps.

Mozilla’s Robert O’Callahan warned that the pressure to provide DRM in browsers might lead to a situation where major browser vendors and content providers attempt to push forward a suboptimal solution without considering the implications for other major stakeholders.

They prefer Flash because it supports DRM, but see the web going HTML5. And are now trying to patch DRM into the solution to protect their position.

Note the W3C stakeholders who are promoting this.

Ducking out of Google Search

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When Google were just a search company, they made the web one of the most usable things ever. Life was great and everything was a Google away.

Today, as they face the challenges of Facebook, Apple and potentially Microsoft in the turf they made their own, they’ve changed their search algorithms so much that finding a good result can be a challenge at the best of times on a desktop browser. Though surprisingly in the Safari browser on iOStheir results are more like the “good old days”.

So like many other companies who either fail to disrupt themselves or whose attempts at disruption are less successful than expected, they’ll do whatever it takes to maintain their lead. From next week they will make your Google Web history available to it’s other products. A bit like when Microsoft integrated Office into Windows, perhaps?

Because they still have a lot of soul, they at least make it very easy to prevent them from gathering said web history.

Well before the recent discovery Google were compromising, without permission, the privacy setting I had chosen in my browser, I’d already mostly stopped using them for search in the last 6 months. There will still be the odd time what is still the best search engine on the planet has to be used. But, for now, I prefer the growing ability of DuckDuckGo and other services to answer my queries.

DuckDuckGo sounds like they don’t want to be evil after all.

Making things easier with Tweetbot and Tweetie

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When I use Mail on my iPhone, I always drag down to update. It frustrates the hell out of me that Mail doesn’t support this great feature. After all, it seems like it was in the dawn of time that Loren Brichter first implemented it in Tweetie 2.

Similarly, if the system supports an ‘Open in Safari’ feature, why would you hide it behind multiple steps? Tweetbot, by far the most usable app on iOS implements this and other functions as a one click action. Long Press on any link, hashtag, username etc. and the user is presented with a list of applicable options.

It’s great to know these things, and it’s great to share them so people can remove their frustrations. They’re happier, I’m happier and the person who did the hard work of designing and implementing the function gets their just reward.

Is there a little known function on your platform of choice which others might benefit from that you’d like to share?

Five Pints 090212

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In a transport system which, while being cheap and reasonably convenient, is hardly good value, it’s probably no surprise that investment in enforcement appears to be higher on the agenda than investment in easy access to ways of paying fares. That City Rail Transit Police are glorified ticket inspectors dressed up as paramilitary police and have been known for overplaying their hand more than once doesn’t help my attitude toward them.

I won’t be sorry to see them go, but I hope the dollars which have been wasted on them are used to create a more convenient transport system for people in Sydney. How many integrated ticket systems would $34 million a year build and maintain? Instead I imagine those savings will be recouped by a State government whose promises are a year in the making with no solutions yet on the horizon.

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Mind you City Rail are not alone in the idea of building services to cover the exceptions rather than the rule. It’s not a bad idea to aim for great customer experiences for your users. But I’m firmly of the belief you should focus your investments on making services easy to access, use and pay for rather than spending your money on prevention, retention and convention.

Every system will have a small percentage of so-called corner cases. While you want to make the customer experience of those events as pleasant as you can possibly make them, the last thing you want to be doing is spending unecessary amounts of time and money building complex systems to deal with them. Often a good dose of common sense is all that is required, but the fear of losing the customer appears to blind good investment logic and instead funds are diverted to build expensive systems to manage those case. And this has to be to the detriment of the majority of your users from whom you might derive a greater benefit by retaining them with better products and services.

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Speaking of good customer experiences, it seems Path finally either understood what they did wrong or were pushed to do the right thing. I suspect the latter reading between the lines of their mealy mouthed apology.

As with other peoples money, other peoples privacy are things you never make mistakes with. One day a Social Network will come along which gets that without first taking advantage of their users. That other apps on the iPhone also access contacts data without advising users is also concerning. But just because the pecan pie is cooling on the windowsill, doesn’t mean you should take it.

Either way, expect Apple to soon issue an update to iOS restricting access to the address book. Is it an error on their behalf they allow such unfettered access now? Possibly. Does it show that some bright young things can’t be trusted with the family car? Absolutely.

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One of my friends sites has a ranking for the best smartphones around. It was a surprise to find the worlds most popular smartphone only coming in third. Though it was probably not unexpected considering one of the key decision points was the size of the screen – as opposed to far more valuable metrics like screen quality, usability and battery life.

Anyway, just like with BetaMax, it looks like despite being only third best, the modern day VHS of the iPhone is winning. Not just on sales, but on revenue, and value retention. Why are consumers always wrong, don’t they know this is the future of the Smartphone?

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On an upbeat note to finish, today saw the launch of the fabulous new version of my favourite twitter application. As with any great application, Tweetbot kept it’s core functionality and added some little tweaks which make such a big difference to the experience. And it’s on the iPad now too. Such a disgrace though that we have to spend all that extra cash to get the same app on another platform though.