Facebook has announced that developers of Facebook apps can now gather the personal contact information from their users.
Via Slashdot. As an old friend wrote about Facebook and other internet powers:
We don’t use the internet anymore: it is using us.
If you’re not paying for it, you’re not the customer: you’re the product being sold.
…. from the threat posed by the iPad. At Business Insider
Essentially what I posted back in September. A further point is that Apple historically does not compete on price. It sell premium products (good premium products) at premium prices. But for Amazon (and Barnes & Noble) discounting is a way of life. Apple cannot compete with them on price, and has no reason to: There are lots of people quite happy to pay Apple’s current prices. These are just different business models
Wondering about the financial health of B&N
Much more positive than what I reported here. I am quite happy to see this. While I do not have a strong attachment to B&N itself, competition in the book and ebook marketplaces is good for the consumer. I own an Amazon Kindle, but the way to be sure Amazon keeps focused on the consumer is to have it constantly worried about competitors.
From BoingBoing
Don’t do anything just because the vendor says it’s a good idea. Here’s why.
Just because your company is paying them thousands of dollars does not mean they are competent. I have seen a quite a few cases like this in my own experience.
Why Facebook is selling you out — and won’t stop
All in all, the Facebook ecosystem could generate $1 billion this year. You think that the Boy Billionaire [Mark Zuckerberg] is going to mess that up by worrying about your privacy? No way. So the privacy breaches will continue, no matter how shocked the company says it is. And anything you do or post on Facebook, regardless of its privacy settings and policies, will be fair game.
The great thing about capitalism is that it gives consumers lots of choices. If you don’t like what Facebook is doing with your data, don’t give it up. Maybe there’s another service to use, or maybe you could simply give your friends — the real ones, that is — a call now and then. If staying on Facebook is important to you, and it certainly has its uses, you’d better face the fact that Zuckerberg’s profits take precedence over your privacy.
Via
The last section is focused on the author’s monastic life, but the need to maintain focus and set aside distractions applies to all of us. When I left Facebook I described it as a “time sink.”
The Economist looks at the troubles of the bookstore chain.
Continue reading
From Hilbert Space to Dilbert Space, and beyond 