What good are you?

In the spring of 2003, the door to the house I was renting was kicked in while I was working at my second job, and the thief proceeded to simply take all the things I had worked hard to paid for. I was told at the time the police department doesn't classify it as 'grand theft' unless the value of the stolen goods exceeds $3,500, and the total value of what was stolen came to around $650. That may not seem like much to you, but when everything you own (excluding the car) adds up to about $800, and a burglar just waltz's in and takes $650 of it... that's over 80% of your belongings! The responding officer then proceeds to tell you the police department won't do much because it's less than a certain dollar amount?! If you only cater to the wealthy... then what good are you?

They look old because they are brand new. Wait... what?

My grandmother always had many different photographs on display at her house. She had at least one framed photo on every shelf, and almost every photo had a faded orange tint to it. This is what happens to pictures that were taken 40, 50, even 60 years ago. This is also what happens to a digital picture taken 30 seconds ago. At least, this is what happens when you use Instagram. Personally, I don't understand why someone wants to age their pictures. The great thing about digital photography is that there is always a crisp, clean version at your fingertips (that is, of course, if you have uploaded it to the internet). A version that will always be as vibrant as the moment it was taken, or at least, as far as your camera will let it.

Well THAT was dumb.

The hacker group Anonymous has been making the news lately with their DDoS attacks on government websites and hacking into and recording a phone call from the FBI and the UK Police, among many other things. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your stance), some members of Anonymous have been found and arrested by the FBI. Now, when I first heard this news, I was a bit confused. You must be new to the group, or made a critical error to allow the FBI to locate which door you hide behind. Then the story broke: there was a mole. A long time hacker called Sabu had turned rat and given up the names of his fellow hackers to the government.

I don't know the details on why he gave up information, nor do I care. I'm just trying to figure out if he put any thought into this move. Sabu is one person, who has now, angered a collective of individuals that have fought for many years to hide what he just handed over. He has pissed off a group of people that are supplying blogs with as much information as they can find on him. Someone has even gone so far as to post a picture of Sabu's front door on Twitter, and say "Nobody was home."

He should have known. Just like all the gangster movies, once you're in the family, you'd better stay in the family. When you turn on the family, the family will..... well, you've seen the movies. I have a feeling that this story is far from over. In fact, I think it's just getting started.

I sure as hell wouldn't want to be in his shoes.

In this day and age, privacy is a myth.

Today, is February 29th, 2012. Which makes tomorrow March 1st. Tomorrow, Google is implementing their new Privacy Policy and a lot of people are up in arms about it, including the FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz who says that the change forces consumers to make a "brutal choice". But if you actually took the time to read the new privacy policy, you'll notice something odd. You will notice that they aren't really changing anything about what information they collect. Google is taking the numerous different policies for its numerous different services, and combining them into one easy-to-understand policy. The internet giant isn't collecting data any differently than before. Instead, Google is going to store all the info it gets in one place, instead of having parts of you spread out all over the different services. Don't take my word for it, go read it for yourself.

I love technology!

And honestly, who doesn't? Technology has given us the ability to get our messages instantly, instead of waiting days, weeks, or even months for the Pony Express to arrive. In 15 years, we have gone from an era of heavy, expensive, and boring phones with no address book, no email, no texting, and no screen like this one: