Why does Android’s Google Maps need access to your personal contacts list?
Google has updated the Maps app for Android. The update says the app now requires access to your contacts list. Why? To share with their business partner, the NSA? Who…
#NSA’s PRISM enables staff to query Internet service providers data using NSA gear installed at corporate sites
According to the Washington Post, the PRISM system enables NSA staff to enter search commands that ultimately go directly to equipment that spies on US cloud-based servers: U.S., company officials:…
The Guardian has released an additional NSA slide on PRISM
It reinforces that the NSA is intercepting fiber communications within the Internet and has direct access to the server farms of major companies including Microsoft, Google, Facebook and so on:…
Health Care and Insurance Fees to Consume 1/3d of typical family income by 2022
Look for insurance savings – San Francisco Chronicle. By 2022, the typical family will pay 1/3d of their income to the health insurance and health industry industrial complex: It is…
HR is often a road block to hiring good workers
Ask The Headhunter: The Talent Shortage Myth and Why HR Should Get Out of the Hiring Business | The Business Desk with Paul Solman | PBS NewsHour | PBS. At…
Self-Published Authors should charge $2.99 to $9.99 for their e-books
Self-Published Authors Say ‘Don’t Overcharge for E-Books’ | Creatives at Work. Interesting but this conclusion appears to be based on opinion (which I agree with) but there’s no hard data…
The difference between software engineering and computer science
Computing Now | Putting the Engineering into Software Engineering Education. (I have an undergrad degree in computer science and one of my graduate degrees is in software engineering. They are…
Robotic Snowplows
I dreamed up some ideas about this a few years back: Design and Development: Robotics Teams Compete for Best Robotic Snowplow | Robotics Trends. In my concept, we only need…
How to Use Contests and Giveaways to Get User-Generated Content
Good ideas! How to Use Contests and Giveaways to Get User-Generated Content. User generated content contests – and voting polls – encourage users to pass a link on Facebook and…
How to save your Instagram photos and then delete your account
In light of Instagram’s new policy to license out user’s photos for ads, without specific permission or compensation, users are canceling their Instagram accounts in droves: Oh My Tech!: How…
The statistics behind start up success
Startups: never have so many understood so little about the statistics of variance present in the outcomes of small samples. People like to speak of 10x productivity, non-stop work and…
RailsInstaller: Use it
RailsInstaller. I am just starting to learn Ruby on Rails, the web development software and tools. I started with Michael Hartl’s book Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Learn Web Development with…
Square’s new credit card reader for iPhone
CoolBusinessIdeas.com | Square Credit Card Reader. Phones will be increasingly connected to external devices and the Internet of things. This is an area that interests me and I am looking…
“Fisherman Builds DeLorean-Style Hovercraft, Aims for Google Job”
I need to finish my hovercraft (really): His resume includes crab fisherman and maker of a hovercraft that looks like the car from the movie “Back to the Future.” via…
Digital Rights Management and … 3D printing
Digital Rights Management and 3D Printing. What happens when we can download an object design and create a copy with our 3D printer? That calls for digital rights management of…