3D ... INVESTMENT GAMBLE FOLLY

Just over a year ago I commented on the folly of 3D as a viable business. That post can be read here.

Fast forward to today's Business Insider article "3D Movies Are A Bust".
The outcome was so very obvious but Hollywood and TV set manufacturers hopped on the bandwagon, spending billions to rush to market with the new technology. They stand to lose their investments.

The single biggest advantage for 3D remains in gaming on small mobile tablets and PCs, shifting away from Hollywood and 3D sets.

3D .... So-o-o yesterday.

TO BE TRASHED

Beyond belief. That someone actually spent time and money developing a desktop application that allows anyone and everyone with the app to search your trash bin for files you thought you might want to share is unbelieveable.

Justin Blinder, a Brooklyn self proclaimed programmer, creative technologist and hacker would like you to sign up for a "Dumpster Drive". Here's an explanation of the product and a video that follows.

"When we throw out physical trash, we know, at least on a subconscious level, that it often has the potential to be repurposed. Someone might rescue an abandoned book from a dumpster, or fall in love with the musical tastes of another through a discarded CD they find on the sidewalk. However, the drag-drop-delete process of deleting data from our computers prevents them from ever reaching others. Dumpster Drive makes your trash social within the context of your desktop, allowing you to dumpster dive through the discarded files of others."

Mac users can download the Dumpster Drive here.

I double dare you! Sorry PCs ...not yet available.

LIKE IT OR NOT ...

Obfuscate: To darken, To make obscure. To be evasive, unclear or confusing. To make so confused or opaque as to be difficult to perceive or understand.

Guilty: Facebook, Twitter and Google.

A recent investigation by the Wall Street journal into the use of "LIKE" buttons and widgets placed on thousands of major sites, signaled yet another serious breach of ethics that will surely have the privacy police up in arms.

It appears these buttons capture a user's visit to the site and feeds it back to the originator. The kicker is that you need not click on the button. Your visit is automatically logged by the likes of Facebook.

Their explanations obfuscate. Do we really believe when they tell us they don't use the data? If so, why are the visits tracked in the first place.

Their real response should be .... We know you're too stupid to understand what we do and we don't want to tell you why we're doing it but we're going to do it anyway.

Gotcha!

Read the story here.

SIT, STAY, DIE

An interesting and telling infograph (below) on the perils of sitting too long at your desk.

Where do you fit in?

With thanks to the folks at MedicalBillingandCoding.org

ABOUTFACEBOOK

While Facebook may extol the virtues of its privacy policies they will not hesitate to release personal information to law enforcement authorities if pressed to do so.

What kind of information are they willing to give up?

• All your contact information including your phone number,residential address and e-mail address.


• Status updates and posts.


• Everything you ever shared or liked.


• All your notes.


• All your friends.


• Groups you belong to.


• Events.


• Your photos and all your videos.


• All messages sent and received.


• Where and when you logged in.


• Your user number.


• The date you joined.

Scary?

Not if you're an upstanding citizen. But there are elements that deal with law enforcement that can, if willing, misuse this information. Consider, for example, the millions of homeowners who are defaulting on their underwater mortgages. The extent of the information provided seems a "bit" overboard and is potentially damaging on a financial and emotional level.

Best advice: Remember 1984. Watch your "Wall".