bLOGical
Carpe Diem "Weblog reporting on Advanced Technologies, Grid-Computing, XML WebServices, Semantic Web and Java / Python development"
 
                                                                                                         
   Updated: 10/28/2003; 8:04:42 AM.            

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Friday, July 04, 2003
> T -Mobile remote controls your Sidekick
T -Mobile remote controls your Sidekick.colorsidekickcnet.jpgHow messed up is this? T-Mobile is "updating" the new color Sidekicks, using their ability to modify the device over-the-air to remotely remove a bunch of the games that had come pre-installed. Which apparently means that they can pretty much do whatever they want to your Sidekick, whenever they want to, something that our buddy Cory from BoingBoing, who owns a Sidekick, isn't particularly pleased about:
They still haven't delivered a synch tool that lets you download your PIM data (calendar, contacts, to-do) from your Sidekick to your PC, and what's more, this latest move shows very clearly what you can expect to happen when you stop being a T-Mobile customer: they will "withdraw their support" from your handset, erasing your personal info. Who owns your Sidekick? T-Mobile does, apparently, even if you spent full retail on it (I dropped $250 on mine). You need T-Mobile's permission to install software on their device. T-Mobile will, from time to time, decide to erase software from your device. And when you stop subscribing to their service, T-Mobile will delete all your data forever, without giving you any mechanism for moving it off the device (and without giving you the ability to design a tool that would let you do this).
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[Gizmodo]
> Bezos plugs NPR book
Bezos plugs my book on NPR!. Jeff "Amazon" Bezos did a spot on this morning's NPR Weekend Edition on the best summer reading. His first choice was Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom! Color me stoked. Link to 1.3MB MP3 of the plug Link to NPR's page for the broadcast Discuss [Boing Boing Blog]
> Microsoft Survey
Two years ago today a survey asked if Microsoft adds features to their operating system in order to eliminate competition. Eighty-nine percent said yes. Note that all this is about Microsoft because for the last thirteen years they've dominated the software industry (since Windows 3.0 shipped and pushed IBM aside). Before that IBM and within their own sphere, Apple, did exactly the same. When they didn't want to be competed with they just crushed the competition. That's why power in the software industry must be controlled. The most effective controllers of power are the users, but for whatever reason, they never seem to take that power seriously. I've never seen it happen where they said "We're going to help this struggling company because we want choice in the future." I guess that's not the nature of being a user.   [Scripting News]
> MetaWeblog API
One of the many things the Echo folk want to reinvent is the MetaWeblog API. Of course this makes my teeth grind, because I know how much time and energy went into making it work, not just for UserLand's tools, but for many others. [Scripting News]

© Copyright 2003 Ed Pimentel.
 

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