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Apple up in arms over Steve Jobs figurine
Monday, 29 November 2010 13:33
Steve Jobs Figurine

Steve Jobs Figurine

The Hong Kong based MIC (Made in China) gadgets. Was selling a Steve Jobs figurine made with incredible detail and likeness. SJ’s outfit is his classic trademark. The black turtleneck and Levi’s 502 jeans. You could even tell his pair of New Balance sneakers while standing on an Apple Logo platform. MIC Gadgets was contacted with a cease and desist letter from apple of California. Some web sites have stated that Apple is suing MIC Gadgets, but from what I can tell its only a letter asking them to stop.

From Apple: “Unauthorized use of a person’s name and/or likeness constitutes a violation of California Civil Code Section 3344, which prohibits the use of any person’s name, photograph or likeness in a product without that person’s prior consent…”

I am not even sure if a California law can be upheld in China. Maybe the Hong Kong legal rules are a bit different than mainland China. But Apple can not seem to stop all the iphone and ipad knockoffs that are in mainland China nor Hong Kong.

However the letter has scared them enough to stop selling the figurines at 300 units. They were selling for $79.90 USD with free shipping. The toy had gained much attention on the Internet, with many noting how the figure was holding the iPhone incorrectly, in the supposed (death grip) that causes signal loss on the iPhone 4. This issue did not hold back customers from purchasing the figure, which sold out completely.

M.I.C gadget apologized to Steve Jobs, and Apple.Inc for any inconvenience. For the full story and more pictures you can view them at the MIC gadget Site For now the Steve Jobs Action Figure has been taken off the market.

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Google Ads Follow You Across The Internet
Tuesday, 23 November 2010 17:39
Google Creeping you out?!?

Google Creeping you out?!?

Is Google creeping you out? Are all the ads you see the same type? This is their new retargeting campaign. It will work for a small percentage of people who need that extra reminder. For everybody else it will just seem really creepy. If this does creep you out, you can go to this page to see what Google thinks your interests are based on a cookie, and you can also download a browser plugin if you’re spooked about Google’s latest ‘interest-based advertising’ initiative.

What is ad “retargeting.” If you visit a page on an advertiser’s own site or YouTube channel, Google can now show a related follow-up ad to just that person when they visit another site which shows Google ads. Since there are millions of these sites in the Google Content Network, chances are Google will see you again.

The term “remarketing” has multiple definitions, but Google uses it describe a way for AdWords advertisers to run campaigns throughout the whole Google Content Network. The idea is that while visitors of a certain advertiser’s website may have shown interest for a product or service, leads don’t always convert to sales and Google aims to make it easier for AdWords clients to try and win over the potential customer at a later stage. Retargeting can be applied to either text or display ads, and during the trial period was used for everything from boosting brand awareness to driving clicks and sales.

If you’re spooked about Google’s latest follow you around until you buy something strategy then let them know it. Personally I feel like not using Google. Like they need more money?!?

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Castle’s Nathan Fillion sells out for Windows Phone 7
Tuesday, 16 November 2010 09:07
WP7 Phone on CASTLE

Castle changes phones?!?

Last night on the TV show CASTLE, Richard Castle, played by Nathan Fillion, Also known as Caption Mel on Firefly, and his ever so small role on as Private Ryan. Needless to say he is an awesome actor. Now his Character on Castle, the TV show, has him portrayed as a pretty cool guy. He has been flashing his iPhone around all season. It seemed quite normal, it may have been a plug for Apple but it was considerably more subtle than last night when he pulls out his LG device in what has to be one of the more ostentatious product demos on TV. I mean it was awkwardly blatant. Like really a phone get’s that much screen time?

I will however give props to the ad agency who is making the Windows Phone 7 TV commercials. They are pretty funny. I don’t think they will sell many phones from it, and the sales numbers for WP 7 phone reflect that. Plus their logic in the TV commercials is quite flawed thinking the WP7 is has different behavior characteristics than other smart phones, but they are funny. If Microsoft really was interested in selling phones then they should take their name off of it. I mean it worked for the launch of X-box hardly anyone knew it was Microsoft for a long time. Plus then their flagship game HALO made by Bungie was a Macintosh only game developer. Nothing cool can ever be related to Microsoft its just not their culture.

So I hope Richard Castle can come to his senses and start using his iPhone again. Because that is believable for his character. WP7 is not. Sorry Microsoft another fail.

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Bank of America may be trying to improve but they have lost me as a customer
Wednesday, 10 November 2010 15:49
Bank of America

Bank of America

I have been banking with Bank of America for over 3 years. I have 3 accounts with them. Recently I bought a new car. A nice 2011 Kona Blue Ford Mustang. I went to my local BOA branch where I sat for an hour waiting for the loan officer. Once I finally was able to speak to the loan officer she told me to just go online and fill out the application. I thought this was the whole reason to have a loan officer so you could have a human to speak with. Big mistake #1 BOA!

So I go home and fill out their online form. Its short and sweet and does not let you put in any supplemental information. So forget it if you are like me and have extenuating circumstances that need explanation on your credit report. I am a Junior and the Credit reporting agencies always mix-match my father and my records. They are a complete mess. I could write a whole post on how screwed up the credit reporting agencies are. This was the whole reason I went to the BOA branch anyway.

Just as I expected a letter finally arrived in the mail and I was declined a car loan. I mean how bad does your credit have to be for a new car. It provides it own collateral. Really though my credit is pretty decent. So I then called bank of America and talked to them about my rejection. They had nothing to say and were not prepared to explain the reason for rejection nor where they prepared to listen to my case. The girl on the phone was patient enough but offered no answers and no solutions. I have no idea why they even provided me a phone number to call about the case!?! Big mistake #2 BOA.

Two huge strikes for Bank of America! When I get the chance I will be leaving for a bank who will listen to me as a customer. I guess Bank of America just lost an Opportunity. What a joke tag line.

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Why Should I Vote?
Tuesday, 02 November 2010 14:28
Why You Shouldn't Vote!

Why You Shouldn't Vote!

I did not vote today! I am not unAmercian nor am I a political activist. I am tired of people having huge voting parties and rallies when they are all missing the point. Yes I am completely disenfranchised by the whole ordeal. As is half of America, they just are not sure why.

People come up with all sorts of various reasons to vote. Do it for the troops because they died for your fight to vote. Yes they did and if my vote mattered any then it would be a fitting tribute. Or just the basic premise that you should exercise your right to choose my representative government. Again right if that were the case.

You want to know why voter turn out is so low in America? Do you want to know why the voting public is so fickle? Its because it does not really matter who you vote into public office. No matter how many good intentions a person may have had coming into politics they will all eventually become puppets of the lobbyists. It makes no difference if you are republican or democrat. You as a voter can hold your ideas and ideals up and hope they are carried out by your representative. Its all a big lie. They are not your representative. They end up following the “Golden Rule” – Those with the gold rule.

90% of America’s wealth is controlled by 20% of the population. The top 1% controls 34% of that wealth . The people with big money are the ones who pay the enormous campaign expenses, just to get their people elected, then those elected officials put laws into play that make those people even more money. Then over time the rest of us (80%) are the ones to suffer due to unfair practices. So we the common man bicker and we complain and we get new public officials into office. Yeah problem fixed right!?! WRONG. this is treating the symptom not the problem. The lobbing interests don’t change, they are still there term after term corrupting our politicians. Bending them to their bidding no matter how long it takes.

This pattern will continue erode America’s greatness until one of two things happen; we create a law to remove all of the lobbyists, or America falls completely apart from all the corruption. Then we have the nerve as Americans to point the finger at other governments like China and stick our noses in the air and say look at their corruption and heavy handed tactics. Then we turn a blind eye to our own. Hmmm remind you of a certain biblical principal? We need to pull the stick out of our own eye.

It so simple really. Look at any problem, be it small or large. The answer to solving the crime is to follow the money.

So for all you people out there who vote and feel proud. You can sleep well knowing you have chosen the best politician who will be corrupted and then lie to you about it.

If you want to keep an eye on thing I found this group who does just that. Public Citizen

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Facebook plauged with problems
Thursday, 28 October 2010 09:55
Facebook

Facebook

I have no idea how so few people are not concerned that Facebook has allowed Zynga’s Farmville to steal and sell users personal data?!? Probably because its all in the background and nobody has seen any direct harm from it. Well now your personal data has been sold. It should not come as a huge shock I mean you share it for the whole world to see anyway. But there are some of us who use facebook to actually stay in touch with distant friend and not just use it for self promotion.

Now to make things worse among the virus spam you get from facebook we now have to content with a Trojan Horse called boonana. This is a cross platform virus that effects both windows and macintosh users. This Trojan horse malware that affects Mac OS X has been uncovered by Macintosh Security site SecureMac. The Trojan is called “trojan.osx.boonana.a” and is being disguised as a video and distributed through social-networking sites including Facebook.

This trojan is currently appearing as a link in messages with the subject “Is this you in this video?” When you click the infected link, the trojan initially runs as a Java applet, which downloads other files to your computer, including an installer, which launches automatically. When run, the installer modifies the system files to bypass the need for passwords, allowing outside access to all files on the system.

Its been a long time since something like this has come to the Macintosh community. And we see it come to us from the likes of facebook. The longevity of facebook is a puzzle. They think they are all high and mighty. Well I am sure Myspace felt that way also. Facebook is very small considering that Zynga is just as large and or larger and has all the money. Facebook is just the network. If they are not careful they will be replaced by the next networking site. Hopefully one that does not allow so many third parties to gum up the works.

The writing is on the wall for facebook.

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How to hide the bounding box in InDesign
Thursday, 21 October 2010 09:26
Indesign Frame Edges

Indesign Frame Edges

I have been using InDesign again now after years of not using it. Now I was trying to figure out how to make the annoying bounding boxes disappear that display up around every object. Having them on makes the program feel to much like Quark. Thats too much ugly for me to work with all the time.

Well first of off Adobe calls them frame edges. And you have to go under the view menu and then select the hide frame edges. So there now you can enjoy a cleaner screen for working on your indesign files.

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