Monday, January 09, 2017

Dangerous iPhone Hardcovers

Calling it the G*dPhone  might outrage the sensitivities of those truly religious, but there is no denying that the iPhone did turn the tech world on its head. And on the tenth anniversary of its formal unveiling, having used every iPhone since its launch, I look at ten ways in which it changed the phone-y world. No, it was not always for the better. But change it did!

The world really did change…We now have handheld personal computers and personal entertainment centres, yet they are no larger than a thin pack of cards. The device itself is beautiful as well...
Even Jozef Imrich Did Not Predict The imrichPhone decade:
The iPhone, the device that redefined the mobile phone and has helped make Apple the most valuable company in the world, marks its 10th anniversary on Monday.

It was on January 9, 2007, that late Apple founder and chief executive Steve Jobs went on stage at the company's Macworld event to announce the tech giant was to reveal "an iPod, a phone and an internet communicator" — but rather than three separate products being revealed, one of the first truly smart phones was unveiled. Toys for Boys


THOMAS SOWELL’S FINAL COLUMN: “If you want to understand the fatal dangers facing America today, read The Gathering Storm by Winston Churchill. The book is not about America, the Middle East, or nuclear missiles. But it shows Europe’s attitudes and delusions — aimed at peace in the years before the Second World War — which instead ended up bringing on that most terrible war in all of human history.”


Mark Zuckerberg’s 2017 plan to visit all US states hints at political ambitions Guardian. Kill me now


Putin’s Real Long Game Politico. The Blob’s View.

Sanctioning Russia Is Just a Start Bloomberg
US Govt Data Shows Russia Used Outdated Ukrainian PHP Malware WordFence (RS). Deceptive headline. The very nerdy post concludes:

The IP addresses that DHS provided may have been used for an attack by a state actor like Russia. But they don’t appear to provide any association with Russia. They are probably used by a wide range of other malicious actors, especially the 15% of IP addresses that are Tor exit nodes.
The malware sample is old, widely used and appears to be Ukrainian. It has no apparent relationship with Russian intelligence and it would be an indicator of compromise for any website.



Incoming Trump Press Secretary Sean Spicer on the Media: ‘Business as Usual Is Over’


Mad Left: A human rights activist, a secret prison and a tale from Xi Jinping’s new China Guardian 

Mad Right: Seriously? Alt-Right Racist Leader Gets $250K Book Deal From Simon And Schuster

Milo Yiannopoulos has parlayed his ban from Twitter  — and some controversial appearances on college campuses and cable TV shows — into a $250,000 book deal with Threshold Editions, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, The Hollywood Reporter learned on Thursday.

Announced yesterday, Milo Yiannopoulous’ book is #1 on Amazon today, despite Twitter ban ...



If you strike me down. . . .

The War Against Alternative Information Consortium News. Quoting the NDAA: “… recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining United States national security interests” (whatever that might mean). Small blogs like this one are most definitely “non-state actors.” Snopes is, therefore, wrong. (I can’t vouch for the source, but this is the only post on the NDAAA’s legislative history I can find.)


TV CAMERABob Dylan and the Band perform Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, England, on May 16, 1966:


To read more about this concert, go here.

(This is the latest of my birthday videos ...) 



EVAN BERNICK AND CLARK NEILY: Peril and promise on Trump’s Supreme Court list: Americans want judges who, like Antonin Scalia, don’t accept government arguments on faith


We wrote about the Indonesian blasphemy scandal last month; at the time, police had agreed to investigate the complaint and the governor apologized for his comments, in an attempt to cool the rising tensions. But these gestures have hardly had the desired effect. If anything, hardline Islamists have been increasingly emboldened as they exploit the scandal to build support for their cause.
For many years, the world’s most populous Muslim nation has resisted the siren call of fanaticism. That increasingly appears to be changing, with the rising influence of hardcore forms of Islam. Apart from its effect on Indonesia’s domestic politics, this changing climate could have significant effects on the Asian power balance. Indonesia is a key link in the group of coastal Asian countries, from India to Japan, that have tried to balance China’s rising power. Even shifts in the political balance in relatively small countries like the Philippines can ripple across the region; a shift in Indonesia would be a much bigger deal....