Patrick's Blog(2)

The Ballmer Peak by xkcd

Further explanation here.

Vandaag kreeg ik spam van kapitaalwijzer.com. Kapitaalwijzer pretendeert dat ze bedrijfskapitaal voor je kunnen vinden en aanvragen maar dan moet je wel een abonnement nemen. Een aantal zaken vielen mij op:

1) het domein kapitaalwijzer.com is pas recent (mei 2011) geregistreerd.

2) het domein kapitaalwijzer.com is geregistreerd via een bedrijf in Singapore.

3) de naam en adresgegevens van de registrant van kapitaalwijzer.com zijn afgeschermd.

4) op de kapitaalwijzer.com website  zijn nergens de bedrijfsgegevens te vinden. Geen bedrijfsnaam, geen adres, geen KvK nummer en geen BTW nummer.

5) de kapitaalwijzer.com website is gehost op servers in Hongkong en valt hiermee buiten de Nederlandse jurisdictie.

6)  referenties zijn anoniem

7) spelfouten, missende/onvolledige woorden en onvolledige zinnen in de tekst.

8) op de website staat “Jarenlange ervaring” terwijl het domein kapitaalwijzer.com pas recent is geregistreerd.

9) in Google is niets terug te vinden over kapitaalwijzer.com afgezien van één melding op OpgelichtopInternet.

Ik heb deze spam verwijderd en hun mailservers toegevoegd aan de mailserver blocklist.

The New York Times has an excellent article showing an overview of all (current) Facebook privacy settings. To protect your privacy you should use a setting of “Only Friends” or “Only Me” (via Custom) and disable pretty much every kind of sharing. If you do not understand what a setting means and you value your privacy then be sensible and disable the setting.

The last and quite important one in the right side in the picture called ” Facebook Ads Page” can be found (when already logged into Facebook) by clicking on Account then Account Settings and then select the tab on the right side called Facebook Ads and set *both* options (at the top and bottom) to “No one”. You have to do that separately for each one. So select “No one” in the top option and click “Save Changes” and then do it again for the bottom one.

Or you could just delete your Facebook account by clicking on Account then Account Settings and then select Deactivate Account. Once you have done that, do *not* log in to Facebook for at least 14 days or else Facebook will magically reactivate your account.  The Facebook help page on this subject can be found here.

Remember, Facebook’s business is your information so the more information they have, the more money they can make.

A lot has already been said about Google’s Chrome OS. I think it’s pretty funny that Google announced their Chrome OS just before Microsoft’s PDC. Guess Redmond execs are going to get a different kind of questions than they were preparing for.

Looking at the currently available information I’m not impressed. After all it’s just Linux 2.6 with a new Window Manager. I like the subtle change of Ina Fried’s take to “to challenge Microsoft, Google might want to think Apple”. With it’s appeal to the Open Source Community Chrome OS seems to be a product for techies by techies. Nothing wrong with that but Chromes OS needs a WOW factor. Something that the iPod, iPhone and  MacBook Air all had. Where are the screencasts and pics? Where’s the OS?

The thing is the Chrome OS probably competes more with existing Linux distributions than with the products from Redmond (or Apple). Renai LeMay thinks that Google should have based their work on Ubuntu’s stellar work already carried out by Shuttleworth. Off course Renai is totally wrong. Ubuntu & Shuttleworth mostly leech on the stellar work done by others: primarily the Fedora and Debian Communities and commercial backers like Red Hat which probably employs more kernel hackers than Canonical’s total global workforce. Canonical’s marketing is great but their contributions back to the Community are negligible. So if you want Google to work with a distribution than Ubuntu just isn’t an option. It makes more sense to align with Fedora and cut a Desktop deal with Red Hat.