Dubai detectives to get Google Glass to fight crime

 

A man wears a Google Glass at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, California June 2, 2014.

DUBAI Thu Oct 2, 2014 6:31am EDT

 
(Reuters) - Dubai police plan to issue detectives with Google Glass hands-free eyewear to help them fight crime using facial recognition technology, a police spokesman in the wealthy Gulf Arab emirate said.

The wearable device consists of a tiny computer screen mounted in the corner of an eyeglass frame and is capable of taking photos, recording video and playing sound.
The spokesman confirmed a report in Dubai's 7 Days newspaper that software developed by Dubai police would enable a connection between the wearer and a database of wanted people.
Once the device "recognized" a suspect based on a face print, it would alert the officer wearing the gadget.
The gadget would be used in a first phase to combat traffic violations and track vehicles suspected of involvement in motoring offences. A second phase would see the technology rolled out to detectives, the spokesman said.
The U.S. Internet company said in a blogpost in May that anyone in the United States could buy the gadget for $1,500.
Dubai's decision appears in line with the authorities' determination to spare no expense in equipping the police.
Last year Dubai announced it would supply its police with $400,000 Lamborghini sports cars for use at major tourist sites. Dubai's deputy police chief said the vehicles were in keeping with the Gulf capital's image.
Dubai, one of seven emirates in the UAE federation, is staging a recovery from the financial crisis it suffered during the global financial crisis in 2009. The emirate recently announced several big projects, including a huge tourism and retail development with the largest shopping mall in the world.
(This version of the story has been corrected to change headline to show recognition database software developed by police not Google)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/02/us-emirates-dubai-google-police-idUSKCN0HR0W320141002

Microsoft Wants Google to Censor…. Microsoft.com

Microsoft Wants Google to Censor…. Microsoft.com

In an attempt to make pirated content harder to find copyright holders ask Google to remove millions of search results every week. While these automated requests are usually legitimate, mistakes happen more often than one might expect. For example, in an embarrassing act of self-censorship Microsoft recently asked Google to censor links to its very own Microsoft.com.

Earlier this week we reported that Google has already received takedown requests for more than 100 million URLs this year.
While most of the submitted URLs do indeed link to infringing content, not all requests received by Google are correct.
The automated systems used by many of the copyright holders often trigger notices that include links to perfectly legitimate content, and sometimes even their own work. The latter happened in a recent DMCA takedown request sent by LeakID on behalf of Microsoft.
Instead of listing URLs of infringing material, Microsoft asked Google to remove links to their own websites, as can be seen below. The six links point to Microsoft’s store, support pages and product descriptions. A pretty embarrassing mistake to say the least.

Whoops..

Luckily for Microsoft, Google spotted the error, meaning that the pages in question have not been removed from the search results, although it would have been a fitting punishment if Google had decided to comply with the request.
While the above error is rather entertaining, matters gets more serious when copyright holders censor legitimate content produced by others. It’s hard to say how frequently this happens, but just by browsing through the many DMCA notices we have been able to find dozens of examples already.
Just two weeks ago we found that HBO had asked Google to remove a perfectly legal copy of the open source video player VLC, for example. The link in question was clearly submitted in error, but at the time of writing it’s still absent from Google’s search result.
Some individuals respond to these mistakes by blaming the search engine, and taking counter-action. For example, a person who uses the handle “Google dicksuck” decided to respond to the VLC takedown request by asking Google to remove HBO.com.

How about this takedown?

Unfortunately for him or her, Google did not remove the TV-network’s website.
Of course Google can’t really be blamed for responding to takedown requests because they are required to do so by law. Considering the millions of notices submitted to them every week, Google does a pretty good job at filtering out the most obvious mistakes.
The copyright holders on the other hand could take much more care to prevent these errors. Even if it’s just to avoid embarrassing themselves.
Update: A Microsoft spokesperson told TorrentFreak the following in response to our findings.
“We believe strongly in the effectiveness and the need for accuracy in the use of notice and takedown to address online infringement. To explain what happened here, Google’s online form requires identification of both the copyrighted content being infringed and the website address of the infringement.”
“A vendor properly listed those six urls as Microsoft copyrighted content that was being infringed, but then inadvertently copied and pasted those same six urls in the field to identify the locations of infringement. This simple clerical error was identified and corrected right away, and we have taken steps to address the process to avoid it being repeated.”

 http://torrentfreak.com/microsoft-wants-google-to-censor-microsoft-com-130728/

 

Stupid Idea Of The Day: Let's Nationalize Facebook!

Stupid Idea Of The Day: Let's Nationalize Facebook!

 Facebook is a little like the weather in that old joke: Everyone loves to complain about it, but no one ever does anything about it. So thoroughly have its failings been hashed over, it can be tough to come up with a genuinely new criticism. So I have to take my hat off to Philip Howard for offering what is, as far as I know, a knock no one has ever articulated before:

The problem with Facebook is that it’s not operated by the federal government. Writing on Slate, Howard, a professor of information technology policy at Princeton University, makes the case for nationalizing the massive social networking site.

While Howard couches his proposal as “a great thought experiment” and acknowledges that it’s probably outside the realm of the possibility, he’s sincere in his belief that that “the benefits outweigh the risks,” and that it’s fair to hold Facebook to a higher standard of public accountability and scrutiny than other companies must meet.

“Facebook is now public infrastructure, and it should be treated as such,” he writes. Should it, though? I like a good thought experiment, so let’s extend this one a bit. Let’s say the federal government somehow found a constitutional mechanism to seize control of Facebook. (Howard seems to think it could be done on anti-monopoly grounds; we’ll get to that.)

What would happen to innovation in Silicon Valley? What would be the effect of demonstrating that the reward of building the most envied company in America — one that’s actually profitable and employs thousands of people and provides a platform for other businesses, large and small — is getting seized by the government?

What effect would that have on the flow of capital? But you don’t even need to go there to see the flaws in Howard’s idea. As bad as it looks when you pull back the camera and take in the big picture, it holds up even worse when you zoom in on the details. Let’s take a closer look at some of his arguments.

Privacy. Howard: “Few of us fully understand Facebook’s privacy policy, much less keep track of changes. People are sharing more personal information on Facebook than they think they are. And for every dozen Facebook users in the United States, one does not use privacy settings — either because that person doesn’t care or doesn’t know enough about how the privacy settings can be used.

 One out of nine people who ride in automobiles still don’t use seatbelts, either because they don’t know the statistics around how they save lives or they don’t care. Is that a reason to nationalize all the car companies?

 Anti-competitiveness. Howard: “With 80 percent of market share, Facebook is already a monopoly.” This is asserted without a citation or link, so I don’t know what, exactly, Facebook is supposed to have an 80% share of. Not that it’s a far-fetched number:

According to Hitwise, Facebook’s share of visits to social networking sites is about 62%. But is that a meaningful statistic?

 Comparing Facebook, with its vast range of products, to a micro-messaging service like Twitter or a career-oriented site like LinkedIn is totally apples-to-oranges. And using site visits as your measuring stick only gives you a picture of the past, not the future. For the latter, you have to look at mobile usage, where Facebook’s dominance is far from established. Indeed, FORBES contributor Eric Jackson makes a pretty solid argument that Facebook might not exist at all in five years, much less have the entire internet in a headlock.

 Political expression. Howard: 

“Facebook communications are an important tool for democracy advocates, including those who helped organize the Arab Spring. Yet the user policy of requiring that democratic activists in authoritarian regimes maintain ‘real’ profiles puts activist leaders at risk….Rather than allow Facebook to serve authoritarian interests, if nationalized in the United States, we could make Facebook change its identity policy to allow democracy activists living in dictatorships to use pseudonyms.

 So the problem is that activists who use Facebook to organize are in danger of having their identities exposed or otherwise being spied on. Howard’s solution is to entrust the duty of safeguarding their privacy to the U.S. government — the same U.S. government that wiretapped without warrants and accidentally exposed the identities of Afghans who risked their lives to help American military units. Yup. Great idea. Another thought experiment: Let’s imagine that Twitter was government-run. Would it still have fought the attempts by prosecutors to get their hands on deleted tweets posted by an Occupy Wall Street protester?

 Public health. Howard: “Facebook’s data harvesting could be used to improve public policy, yet scholars rarely find the company willing to collaborate on important research questions…. A publicly accessible, central way of sharing data would allow better access for social and public health researchers.” This isn’t a terrible point. If public health officials could be using Facebook’s data to monitor diseases or otherwise keep people from getting sick or dying, then Facebook ought to cooperate. But there’s no reason it has to be nationalized to make that happen.

Google already helps track the spread of flu strains around the world, and it’s still part of the private sector last time I checked. By all means, let’s pressure Facebook to do more than it’s already doing. But must we resort to extortion? Whatever the hell this means: “While most U.S. citizens and most global citizens treat Facebookas their social network infrastructure, the firm is greatly understaffed: It has about 4,000 employees serving nearly 1 billion users.” In other words, if Facebook were a high school, it would have a really bad student/teacher ratio. You wouldn’t want to send your kids there.

 http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2012/08/17/stupid-idea-of-the-day-lets-nationalize-facebook/2/

List of websites blocked in the People's Republic of China

List of websites blocked in the People's Republic of China

Social Networks, Blogging Platforms, Video, Image Sharing and Web Hosting Services

* Facebook
* YouTube[6][7][8][9]
* Vimeo – Blocked since October 15, 2009.[10]
* Twitter – Blocked since June 2, 2009.[7][11][12]
* Google Documents
* Google App Engine - Unblocked as of November 27th 2011.
* Google Plus
* Picasa Web Albums – Blocked since July 2009.[13]
* Technorati (www.technorati.com) – Still blocked as of July 2, 2008.[14]
* Blogspot blogs – Still blocked as of July 4, 2010, but Blogger no longer appears blocked. Both Blogspot blogs and Blogger as of May 15, 2009, had been fully blocked.[7][8][15]
* Wordpress - All Wordpress-powered blogs are still blocked as of November 2011.
* Plurk (www.plurk.com) – Still blocked as of April 23, 2009.[16]
* Wretch – The largest Taiwanese blog and image hoster, blocked since August 2007;[17] blocked as of April 25, 2009.
* PBworks – Still blocked as of January 19, 2011.[18]

Non-governmental organizations

* China Bill of Rights (www.chinabillofrights.org)[19]
* Reporters Without Borders (www.rsf.org)[19]
* Wikileaks (www.wikileaks.org) （possible to access now,2011.10.18)[20]
* Falun Gong – related websites like (www.falundafa.org).[1][21]
* Nobel Prize Foundation (nobelprize.org)
* Amnesty International (amnesty.org)


Political organizations
* Central Tibetan Administration (www.tibet.com) - Blocked October 2002.[19]
* Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China (http://www.alliance.org.hk/) - Block as of June 17, 2009.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_blocked_in_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China

'I'm going to destroy Android': Jobs declared 'thermonuclear war' on Google

'I'm going to destroy Android': Jobs declared 'thermonuclear war' on Google
Rachel Metz, Barbara Ortutay and Jordan Robertson
October 21, 2011 - 1:35PM

Steve Jobs ... regretted not having surgery earlier. Photo: Paul Sakuma
Apple closes for staff to say last goodbye to Jobs
A new biography portrays Steve Jobs as a sceptic all his life - giving up religion because he was troubled by starving children, calling executives who took over Apple "corrupt" and delaying cancer surgery in favour of cleansings and herbal medicine.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, to be published in the US on Monday, also says Jobs came up with the company's name while he was on a diet of fruits and vegetables, and as a teenager perfected staring at people without blinking.

The Associated Press purchased a copy of the book on Thursday in the US.

The book delves into Jobs's decision to delay surgery for nine months after learning in October 2003 that he had a neuroendocrine tumour - a relatively rare type of pancreatic cancer that normally grows more slowly and is therefore more treatable.
Instead, he tried a vegan diet, acupuncture, herbal remedies and other treatments he found online, and even consulted a psychic. He went to a clinic that advised juice fasts, bowel cleansings and other unproved approaches before having surgery in 2004.
Isaacson, quoting Jobs, writes in the book: "'I really didn't want them to open up my body, so I tried to see if a few other things would work,' he told me years later with a hint of regret."

Jobs died on October 5, at age 56, after a battle with cancer.

The book also provides insight into the unravelling of Jobs's relationship with Eric Schmidt, the former chief executive of Google and an Apple board member from 2006 to 2009. Schmidt had quit Apple's board as Google and Apple went head-to-head in smartphones, Apple with its iPhone and Google with its Android software.
Isaacson wrote that Jobs was livid in January 2010 when HTC introduced an Android phone that boasted many of the touch and other popular features of the iPhone. Apple sued, and Jobs told Isaacson in an expletive-laced rant that Google's actions amounted to "grand theft".

"I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple's $US40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong," Jobs said. "I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this."
Jobs used an expletive to describe Android and Google Docs, Google's internet-based word processing program. In a subsequent meeting with Schmidt at a cafe in Palo Alto, California, Jobs told Schmidt that he wasn't interested in settling the lawsuit, the book says.
"I don't want your money. If you offer me $US5 billion, I won't want it. I've got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that's all I want."
The meeting, Isaacson wrote, resolved nothing.
The book is clearly designed to evoke the Apple style. Its cover features the title and author's name starkly printed in black and grey type against a white background, along with a black-and-white photo of Jobs, thumb and forefinger to his chin.
The biography, for which Jobs granted more than three dozen interviews, is also a look into the thoughts of a man who was famously secret, guarding details of his life as he did Apple's products, and generating plenty of psychoanalysis from a distance.
Jobs resigned as Apple's CEO on August 24, six weeks before he died.
Doctors said on Thursday that it was not clear whether the delayed treatment made a difference in Jobs's chances of survival.
"People live with these cancers for far longer than nine months before they're even diagnosed," so it's not known how quickly one can prove fatal, said Dr Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society.
Dr Michael Pishvaian, a pancreatic cancer expert at Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Centre, said people were often in denial after a cancer diagnosis, and some took a long time to accept recommended treatments.
"We've had many patients who have had bad outcomes when they have delayed treatment. Nine months is certainly a significant period of time to delay," he said.
Fortune magazine reported in 2008 that Jobs tried alternative treatments because he was suspicious of mainstream medicine.
The book says Jobs gave up Christianity at the age of 13 when he saw starving children on the cover of Life magazine. He asked whether his Sunday school pastor knew what would happen to them.
Jobs never went back to church, though he did study Zen Buddhism later.
Jobs calls the crop of executives brought in to run Apple after he was ousted in 1985 "corrupt people" with "corrupt values" who cared only about making money. Jobs himself is described as caring far more about product than profit.
He told Issacson they cared only about making money "for themselves mainly, and also for Apple - rather than making great products".
Jobs returned to the company in 1997. After that, he introduced the candy-coloured iMac computer, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, and turned Apple into the most valuable company in America by market value for a time.
The book says that, while some Apple board members were happy that Hewlett-Packard gave up trying to compete with Apple's iPad, Jobs did not think it was cause for celebration.
"Hewlett and Packard built a great company, and they thought they had left it in good hands," Jobs told Isaacson. "But now it's being dismembered and destroyed."
"I hope I've left a stronger legacy so that will never happen at Apple," he added.
Advance sales of the book have topped best-seller lists. Much of the biography adds to what was already known, or speculated, about Jobs. While Isaacson is not the first to tell Jobs's story, he had unprecedented access. Their last interview was weeks before Jobs died.
Jobs reveals in the book that he did not want to go to college, and the only school he applied to was Reed, a costly private college in Portland, Oregon.
Once accepted, his parents tried to talk him out of attending Reed, but he told them he wouldn't go to college if they didn't let him go there. Jobs wound up attending but dropped out after less than a year and never went back.
Jobs told Isaacson that he tried various diets, including one of fruits and vegetables. On the naming of Apple, he said he was "on one of my fruitarian diets". He said he had just come back from an apple farm, and thought the name sounded "fun, spirited and not intimidating".
Jobs's eye for simple, clean design was evident early. The case of the Apple II computer had originally included a Plexiglas cover, metal straps and a roll-top door. Jobs, though, wanted something elegant that would make Apple stand out.
He told Isaacson he was struck by Cuisinart food processors while browsing at a department store and decided he wanted a case made of molded plastic.
He called Jonathan Ive, Apple's design chief, his "spiritual partner" at Apple. He told Isaacson that Ive had "more operation power" at Apple than anyone besides Jobs himself - that there's no one at the company who can tell Ive what to do. That, said Jobs, was "the way I set it up".
Jobs was never a typical CEO. Apple's first president, Mike Scott, was hired mainly to manage Jobs, then 22. One of his first projects, according to the book, was getting Jobs to bathe more often. It didn't work.
Jobs's dabbling in LSD and other aspects of 1960s counterculture has been well documented. In the book, Jobs says LSD "reinforced my sense of what was important - creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could".
He also revealed that the Beatles were one of his favourite bands, and one of his wishes was to get the band on iTunes, Apple's revolutionary online music store, before he died. The Beatles' music went on sale on iTunes late last year.
The book was originally called iSteve and was scheduled to come out in March. The release date was moved up to November, then, after Jobs's death, to Monday. It is published by Simon & Schuster and will sell for $US35.
Isaacson will appear on Sunday on 60 Minutes in the US. CBS News, which airs the program, released excerpts of the book on Thursday.
Watch: preview the 60 Minutes interview


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/im-going-to-destroy-android-jobs-declared-thermonuclear-war-on-google-20111021-1mbaq.html#ixzz1bPhla9Io

Facebook updates its status: It wants to be an entertainment hub

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg tells the 2,000 software developers attending the company's annual conference Thursday in San Francisco that new features, including a dramatic redesign of users' profiles, will "transform" the media industry. (David Paul Morris, Bloomberg / September 23, 2011)



Facebook updates its status: It wants to be an entertainment hub
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg outlines a new look for the social-networking site and a media push. The moves come amid growing competition from Google, which in June launched rival social-networking service Google+.

Does Using Google Make Us Stupid?

Does Using Google Make Us Stupid?
March 12, 2011
by Bill Lentini

On my desk I have a dictionary and a thesaurus. Our offices at GAI (www.gunwel.com) are a big open space where we all sit facing each other and often times I’ll say “someone give me a word for…” (as I’m too lazy to open the thesaurus) and instead of someone just giving me a word or phrase you hear …tap, tap, tap of the keys as they google for a word or phrase. The internet is changing our brains. Neurologists and psychologists have discovered that our brains process Internet pages differently than they do printed pages. That can affect how much we learn when we read – and even alter our brains themselves.
The human brain “rewires” itself depending on how it is used, an ability neurologists refer to as “plasticity.” Apparently spending one hour per day on the internet for just one week alters our neural pathways. The neural rewiring could have unfortunate consequences. For the past five centuries, reading books has helped train human brains to concentrate intently over extended periods of time, an ability that has helped our species produces ideas and inventions. If we abandon books in favor of the Internet, our ability to maintain focus and think up new ideas might diminish. Here are other consequences of Internet use and what we can do about them…

Interruption System: When we read online, words are not the only information coming at us. There usually eye-catching advertisements alongside the text and hyperlinks in the text in case we wish to jump to different Web pages on related topics. We might have our e-mail program open and a Facebook feed, too, alerting us each time a new message arrives. Even when a printed book is transferred to an electronic device connected to the Internet, it turns into something very much like a Web site, with links and other digital enhancements. These distractions don’t just slow our reading, they also make it less likely that we will understand and retain new knowledge. What to do: When you wish to give your full attention to online or eReader text, close your e-mail program, your Facebook page and other competing information feeds on the screen. Also, use software settings that minimize interruptions.
Less is read: The Internet puts more information than ever at our fingertips – yet evidence suggests that it actually leads us to read and rely upon a smaller set of information resources, encouraging uncreative group thinking. The trouble is that the Internet does not just provide information. It also subtly evaluates it for us. Search engines typically sort their results in order of popularity, and few if us scan past the first page of results. What to do: So scan beyond the first page of results when you use a search engine to explore a topic of interest. This at least gives you a chance to learn more than what almost everyone else interested in the topic already knows. When an Internet search for a piece of information leads you to a compelling article, book or Web site, jot down its name, then explore it more fully when you have more time.
Less Social Intelligence: The Internet is no longer confined to our desktops. E-readers, smartphones and even vehicle dashboards increasingly allow us to bring the online world wherever we go – a trend that will accelerate in the years ahead. The danger of digital distractions while driving already is well publicized. Less discussed is the potential danger that such portable distractions pose while we’re just sitting around with friends or loved ones. The distractions created by the use of mobile Internet devices make it less likely that we will fully grasp the psychological states of other people’s moods, the less able we are to show appropriate empathy, weakening the bonds that hold together human communities, families and friendships. What to do: Turn off digital devices when you spend time with others…nuff said.
And for my part in writing this blog the only hyperlinks that I’m going to put in here are those to my website. I don’t want you to be distracted! Gunwel Tax & Bookkeeping Service is very tuned into the social networking aspect of business, yet when you are our client and we are meeting with your or working on your tax returns or books…we are fully concentrating on you. We are 100% present. We love what we do and our clients love our results. We’d love to hear your thoughts on what the Internet has done to your brain…Give us a call at 212-979-6830 or stop by for a visit. See you soon!

http://gunwel.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/does-using-google-make-us-stupid/

Google's April Fool's Day Joke

Google's April Fool's Day Joke: Gmail Motion (VIDEO)

http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2011/04/coming-soon-google-docs-motion-beta.html

Top 5 Viral Pictures of 1911
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNm8ZCJ7Fx8&feature=player_embedded

Story of a bad business that gamed Google's search system

Story of a bad business that gamed Google's search system

Posted: Friday, January 7, 2011 12:00 am

Story of a bad business that gamed Google's search system
By Kim States

Since its inception in 1912, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) has stood for trust in the marketplace. We’ve staked our reputation on making the case to businesses that they do well by doing good. That is, if businesses approach their consumer interactions with honesty, both businesses and consumers will be better off.

Unfortunately as technology advances, unscrupulous businesses sometimes figure out ways to temporarily game the system. The New York Times reported of one such example in late November about how an online eyewear retailer, based in New York, had purposefully been garnering online customer complaints in an attempt to appear higher in Google’s search results.

The article focused on a New York consumer who conducted a Google search for her favorite brand of eyeglasses, and at the top of the search page, just below Google’s paid advertisements, she found a company called DecorMyEyes.com. The consumer placed an order for a pair of designer eyeglass frames, and prescription contact lenses for a cost totaling several hundred dollars.

According to the Times article, the next day a representative from the company called the consumer saying they had run out of the merchandise she ordered, and told her she had to pick a different brand of contact lenses. The consumer told the Times that when she told the caller she wanted a refund, not different merchandise, he became rude and demanded she choose something else, and refused to give her a refund.

The article went on to detail how in her attempt to get her money back, the consumer was allegedly threatened repeatedly, sometimes with physical violence, by an employee of the company. The consumer told the Times the experience was “one of the most maddening and miserable experiences of her life.”

At first glance, you would think this was just a case of a dishonest company trying to cheat a consumer out of their money, but as it turned out the hostility towards the consumer was actually part of a calculated strategy. Not only was the company trying to avoid issuing a refund to the consumer, they were purposefully trying to get the consumer to write a negative complaint on one of the numerous online complaint boards.

DecorMyEyes.com’s strategy was simple. An online message board post, that the Times says was written by DecorMyEyes.com’s owner Vitaly Borker, says the company’s goal was to create negative buzz about the company all over the Internet, because the more online attention the company received, positive or negative, the higher the company would appear in Google’s search results, consequently channeling more unsuspecting consumers their way.

As it turns out, the New York consumer’s experience with DecorMyEyes.com was not unique; consumers on multiple Internet complaint boards reported similar experiences with the company. BBB serving Metropolitan New York has received 306 complaints against the company in the past three years, and 285 of those complaints have been left unanswered.

For consumers who research companies they find online, the complaints undoubtedly would have acted as more of a deterrent to doing business with DecorMyEyes.com. Unfortunately many do not, and companies like DecorMyEyes.com have been able to bully consumers out of their merchandise, and out of their money.

Fortunately this story has a positive ending for consumers and honest businesses everywhere. The week after the story ran in the Times, Google announced, in a blog post titled “Being bad to your customers is bad for business,” they were making significant changes to their search algorithm, so it will now detect “the merchant from the Times article along with hundreds of merchants” that, in Google’s opinion, “provide an extremely poor user experience.”

The fact that Google acted so quickly to address the problem with their search algorithm to lock out less than honest companies indicates that even in the wide-open business landscape the Internet has created, ultimately, to do well financially, businesses still must do well by their customers.

Whether commerce is taking place online or at a traditional brick and mortar business, trust is absolutely necessary for a marketplace to function properly. Dishonest companies may be able to game the system for a while, but at the end of the day, businesses can only do well by doing good.

http://www.insidetucsonbusiness.com/news/small_business/article_ef8edc02-2369-56b0-ab25-01eb3bee956b.html

Top 13 things about the new Mac OS X Lion first developer preview

You have seen the Mac OS X Lion Preview in the past Apple event. Today, the first developer preview is released. The reason why we want to talk about it because this first developer preview is different. Lots of new things and controls have been added.

We have reviewed and make up a list. Check out the top 13 things you probably don’t know about the Mac OS X Lion.


1. Migrate from other PC. Yes. A PC.


















It should not be difficult for Mac users to switch or upgrade their Macs. What if switching from Mac to PC? In Mac OS X Lion, Apple have already added such option for existing PC users in the Migration Tool. Switching is not that hard anymore.

2. The scrollbar scrolls in opposite direction! Thankfully it can be disabled

















3. Swipe to other Spaces and more finger gestures
























The finger gestures in Lion is very similar to the recent iOS 4.3 beta for iPad. You can swipe left or right using 4 fingers to go to other Spaces. If you are a frequent Spaces users like me, that would be much better than using the hot keys.














And yes, the Launchpad is already included. It works just like the iOS. The reason why it becomes very useful is that you can launch it simply use 5 finger to pinch on the trackpad. No need to find it from Finder or spotlight.

4. New Finder: Improved Quick Look and different sidebar















The Finder of Lion is changed. “PLACES” now becomes “FAVORITES”. The Quick Look is now changed. It’s not transparent anymore. There is a “Open With” button on the top right which you can quickly launch the related apps.

5. Auto saving different versions





















Time Machine is great to restore files. But, it needs extra partition or harddisks. Apple has added the new Versions feature in Lion. As long as you have choose to “Save a versions” from File menu. You can revert to any versions by clicking the “File” > “Revert to Saved” menu.

6. AirDrop: I wish it can share files with iOS devices

















As long as the MacBook are on the same Wi-Fi network, you can share the files with each other easily from AirDrop. No configurations is required. In the past, you will have to enable “File Sharing” from system preferences. I just hope there is an official app for iOS so that I can share files instantly.

7. QuickTime can now record part of the screen with video


































No one wants to record the whole screen all the time. In Lion, we finally have the option to drag and select the parts we want to record. After recording, it can be shared to more platforms like Vimeo.

8. Signature Preview: Create a clear signature easily with the iSight




















Some companies have already started to sign things digitally. For those who don’t have a scanner, Lion now allows to create signature in preferences. The best part is that it will clear out all the unnecessary backgrounds and keep the black stroke only.

9. Reopening windows after re-login















It now provides an option to reopen windows when logging back in. That’s what Apple called as “Resume”. During our test, it works perfectly. However, it may increase the loading time if you have previously opened too much applications.

10. iChat is now enhanced – with support of Yahoo!
















11. Missing Front Row, Rosetta (old Mac apps) Support, no Java runtime















Do you use the Mac as a multimedia center with Front Row? The app is now missed from the first beta of Lion. Rosetta, those old mac apps built before the Intel Mac released, are not supported.

No Java runtime is pre-installed. That means you may not be able to run pure Java apps. Thankfully, Apple will prompt you a dialog and lets you to download the Java runtime instantly when needed.

12. Podcast Publishers from server edition


























If you are a top host, there is a “new” tool in Lion. It’s the Podcast Publishers. It is not “new” actually. It was only available in server edition, but now it’s available in Lion also.

13. About This Mac is different











Current Mac OS X shows a tree lists of system information. In Lion, it is presented in a very easy-to-understand way. It uses different tabs and colorful icons.

That’s it. If we got any additional information, we will keep you all posted. Just keep clicking on winandmac.com.