This shouldn’t surprise anyone anymore than the price increase did.  NetFlix appears to be a fabulous service that remains heads and shoulders ahead of all others.  I can’t vouch for it myself as I’m not a subscriber, but it seems everyone I know has it and loves it.  The previous business model and pricing were clearly unsustainable as the content providers realize how much audience there is.  NetFlix isn’t negotiating as a “new online thing that might be used”, it is now the big dog in what is clearly a strong market with lots of room for growth.

Those that left realized they didn’t really have any alternatives with the same breadth and depth of offerings and now they’re back.  Until Amazon or Hulu or who-knows cranks up their game, where else they going to go?

I have nothing to add, other than to get to those classics I have on my Kindle that I keep putting off for “someday”.

Remember that democracy and Islam are completely incompatible. Doesn’t mean that countries can’t decide to go the route of Sharia, but there are geo-political ramifications for not only their nearest neighbors, but the entire global neighborhood. Politically correct blinders won’t change the reality, but only ensure that enslavement or death come that much sooner and as an unnecessary surprise.

Jason has a lot right in this article, primarily around the idea that Android tablets need to quit competing against each other and focus on competing against the iPad.  Most of the current Android tablets are already more technically powerful than the iPad.  I upgraded from my iPad to my Motorola Xoom and consider it to have been and continue to be a big upgrade.  How can that be when the Xoom isn’t as powerful as the latest Android tablets and is probably barely on par with the iPad 2, particularly if actual weight comes into play?

• Expandable storage.  My Xoom allows for expandable and swappable storage. Fixed storage is a huge disadvantage and I don’t intend to be locked into such a situation until wireless connectivity is as fast and reliable as my home wifi, and reliable 24×7 and free everywhere.  What can I say? I don’t want to watch stuttery, blurry videos on the plane and pay usurious rates to do so.
• No bloody iTunes.  In case you didn’t know, I abhor iTunes.  I bought one album on it and have not purchased anything through it since.  I connect my iPod to it for podcasts only and increasingly I don’t do that as my podcast listening is migrating to my phone.  I was astonished and dismayed at having to attach my iPod to iTunes to get quite a few things done.  Many of the apps I most used had to be attached to iTunes to load the files I wanted to use with those apps.  Granted, my wife hadn’t attached her iPad to iTunes ever and perhaps she’s more of a “mass market user” than I am.  However, we were both confused that she had to attach her iPad to iTunes to get the latest updates and iTunes screwed up a bunch of her apps, bookmarks and other settings.  Pile onto this the continuing lack of Flash and needless to say, my wife’s next tablet will be an Android.
• Apples purposeful gimping of all other services driving everyone through their store. It cracks me up that Applistas still think of Microsoft as the fascistic, big brother while they toil away in the shadow of Lenin’s, whoops, I mean Steve Jobs memorial proclaiming their superior liberalism.  Jason points out that services is the key and he’s right about that, but I’d argue that the platform that gives me more freedom to use those services of my choice in the way I want is better than being locked into one.  Android provides me access to Google’s Market and services as well as Amazon’s Market and services.  Additionally, I get the best experience that other app / service providers can give me without them being hamstrung by Apple’s “no store but ours” policy.

Anyone but me find the “shop locally” push an overly alarmist campaign?  I’d like to propose that all shopping is local.  I may buy any number of things online from enterprises that may or may not have local store presences, but I suspect that all those goods are delivered by someone with a job who is local.  I suspect that person represents lots of other people local to me and local to others that have jobs. Don’t they count?

How many components or support mechanisms are there local to me that went into some portion of the creation, marketing, support, delivery, etc. of the product I bought from the evil, online enterprise?  I paid with financial services that have a local presence and last time I was in my bank they paid their employees.  Don’t these people count?

I guess I’m supposed to be sorry that the local mom-n-pop bookstore is going by the way-side (seriously, where are these mythical realms?), but am not going to shed any more tears over this than the loss of my local mom-n-pop hobby store or printing store or… name your own thing here.  If you can’t compete, you don’t get to play for long.  This is a rule of life and capitalism mirrors life most closely which is why it works better than other systems.

I love that one enterprising person decided to take on Amazon’s app approach with an app of their own.  Great response if you want to compete, you have to compete, not beg for the pity and charity of your supposed customers.  That may work once or near the holidays, but is not going to keep you in business even mid-term, let alone long term.

Don’t get me wrong, if you have a “local” store that you love and gives you fabulous overall value for your money, sweet.  Keep going and spending your money.  However, don’t be guilted into caving to corporate charity.  You’re not doing the business a favor, merely slowly prolonging the inevitable.  Better the business be confronted with reality sooner than later and make the necessary adjustments which may well include changing businesses.  UPS and FedEx outlets are local too, remember.

I’ve seen the quote from Eric Schmidt all over the place and I can’t take any issue with Eric’s stated intentions and motivations, as they are whatever he says they are and I’m happy to believe him.  However, I can certainly chuckle about the reality.  It is exactly the same chuckle I had about the supposed user community kerfuffle around the “real name” related banning.

What kind of name could you put up that would get noticed and banned?  If you are John Smith and don’t want to go by John Smith, then pick something else that looks even remotely reasonable.  Kiqnaz Taiknaims?  Sounds good.  I just registered that at Gmail and invited Kiqnaz to G+ from one of my 4 G+ accounts.  It will be interesting to see if Google ever flags that “identity” as un-”real”.

Yes, you read that right, I have 4 G+ accounts and while I do have one in my real name, I don’t post there and don’t foresee really ever doing so.  I post under the same name I’ve used on the internet for over a decade.  There are people that only know me as Hahleq, so why shouldn’t it be considered a “real name”?  I have used it a lot and for a long time such that online it has as much or more reputation as my “real name”.  What the reputation is of course, is up for others to decide and therein lies the point I’m getting to much slower and more painfully than I’d like.

Your identity is not your username, real name or not.  Your identity isn’t your username and password.  Your identity is a combination of the following:  an identifier (username, screen name, email address, etc.) and data linked to that identifier.  This data comes in many forms.

• Sometimes the data may be contextual such as john.smith@myco.com indicates a certain level of data given that not just anyone can get a corporate address and that if I hit the user directory, I can get some more info on this person and if he’s hassling me, I can get it addressed with Human Resources.
• The data may be tied into reputation such as at ebay or Amazon given the ratings of various buyers and sellers.  The reputation may be 1:1 given your interaction with the person via email or chat.
• Insert your examples here…

The data at the end of the day however always comes down to trust.  Do you trust that your company controls issuing email addresses?  Do you trust that ebay and Amazon police their communities and prevent reputation inflation cheats?  Do you trust that the John Smith on Google+ ostensibly living in your hometown is the John Smith you went to high school with?  If so, what data did it take to earn your trust?  If you run across a blog written by Mr. Kiqnaz Taiknaims and find the content valuable will you really care if that is his real name?  If he buys your used tablet on eBay and the payment clears will you care?

Exactly.

Not too much to quibble with here except for #2, “Train Users in Best Practices”.  Why?  Why what?, you may ask.  Why is this in the top 5 and certainly if it is a top 5 item, why is it #2?

How much training do users need to be safe on the internet?  Other studies have shown that high percentages of IT professionals and even IT Security professionals get hacked.  Are they not going to be the trainers of the less savvy?  If they are vulnerable are they qualified to be trainers?

How many articles, local and national news broadcasts, radio discussions and gazillions of online articles do users have to see to know:

1. They should change their password
2. They shouldn’t use the same password everywhere
3. They shouldn’t open attachments at all or at least not from anyone they don’t know and expect an attachment from
4. Clicking links in emails is baaaaad
5. etc., etc., blah, blah…  I can’t type out anymore I’m nodding off thinking through all the “common-sense” items

Great info for those that believe there’s really no distinction between the 3 largest monotheistic religions and thus that we should be more understanding of the muslim world’s “viewpoint”.  Lots of good historical references, so you’ll need to engage your brain a bit… sorry ’bout that.

Works great and free!

Raymond just continues to impress the heck out of me.  Be sure to read all the way through to the end and not give into the current politically correct knee-jerk reaction of, “He’s criticizing someone’s beliefs, he’s a hate monger / bigot / whatever-a-phobe”.

Walk through this thought process.  Do you hate Fascism?  Do you hate Nazism?  Do you hate Nazis, ne0 or otherwise?  Careful…

Replace Fascism / Nazism with Islam and Nazis with Muslims and try again.

Tough one, eh?  Its cool to hate everything and everyone associated with Fascist thought.  We’re coached to not take this to the same extreme with “religions”.  Why?  The Nazis wanted to do away with (i.e. kill) all those who didn’t meet a genetic standard.  Islam is quite specific about not just wanting to, but the need to kill all those that don’t believe the tenets of Islam.  Throw in other barbaric, anti-human rights components of Islam (see list below) and what is actually left to not hate?  The only thing I can think of are Muslims themselves.

Think on that.  What belief systems encourage us to love others as ourselves?  Sow what we expect to reap?  Consequently, is there any moral equivalency between the Judeo-Christian west and Islamic world?

Troubling questions and answers then lead to interesting implications, strategies and tactics in the war on terror.  Or should it be considered a war on Islam?  Yep, interesting implications indeed.

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• Are Slave-Girls in Islam Equivalent to Animals?
• Conversion, Adultery, and Savagery Strike Egypt
• Islamists Project Islam’s Worst Traits onto Christians
• Raped and Ransacked in the Muslim World
• Muslim Woman Seeks to Revive Institution of Sex-Slavery