If you havent heard all the news about the issues with sharing your real-time “location” with others then you need to broaden your news sources, but that’s a story for another time.  However, when you have clowns like some of the writers at Mashable (not all of them are) say things like “But at some point, one has to realize that not using any location services won’t do much to protect you from being robbed.” you have to just roll your eyes at their 8 year old intelligence level, or, write YABP (yet another blog post).

Not using any location services won’t do much to protect you from being robbed?  Really?  Are you that stupid?  Just as dumb as those two iGeniuss who got married in an Apple Store?  Lets take a lookey at the following scenarios for a quick minute why don’t we…

I leave my lights off because maybe I’m getting ready to go to bead, and then I may not bother answering the phone for the same reason, or don’t want to be pestered by YAMS (Yet Another Marketing Schmuck).  So here we go.

Joe Robber – Robbing My House

1. He calls my home phone number (how he got it is pointless, that part is easy) and says “ohhh, no answer, he’s not home”
2. He then drives up to my house and says “lights off, hes not home, yessss”
3. He then proceeds to sneak around back and do some hacking 1.0 to get into my house
4. I hear him from my bed upstairs, stomp my 6′4″ body down the stairs wondering WTF is going on
5. Joe runs away, scared before he even sees me because, he DID NOT KNOW I was home.

Joe Robber – Using PleaseRobMe.com or other methods

1. He sees in real-time that I have just left my home and KNOWS that I’m not at home.
2. He then robs my home

As Homer Simpson would say, “DOH!”  That simple, that simple to NOT USE any location service to PROTECT me from being robbed.  It’s that simple to NOT post personal information online, don’t be a Homer.

In the context of the internet, personal information is not “what you like” as other people don’t truly care about that data (companies yes, people no).  Personal is “who you are, what you do, and where you do it”, never ever forget that and think twice about publishing it.

So, how about you, thinking twice about sharing your coordinates?

Morons, the world is producing them left and right, front and back.  It’s sicking.  What the fuck is wrong with everyone?  If you want to marry someone, don’t have an iWedding.  It’s an insult to humanity and your own intelligence if you have any, which they didn’t, because they fucking got married at an Apple Store.  The thing that bonds them is a “gadget”.  Please tell me there was more than that, I can hope cant I?

Wake up, you are not a gadget! You have proven you have zero creativity, zero passion, zero romance.  I sense an iDivorce coming soon!

Unbelieviable.  I couldnt resist adding to the peanut gallery on this one.  For starters, CNN says predator drones were hacked (thank google news for linking me to the poor headline).  They were not hacked even the slightest.  And second, if you remove encryption from something that should be encrypted (military communications, WTF) then what do you expect will happen?  Did they honestly think this was a good idea?  Did they honestly even think before doing?  Note to Mike Mount and Elaine Quijano of CNN, there is nothing to hack or crack if it isnt secure to begin with.  Note to the DOD, encryption requires more processing power, deal with it.

Often throughout my career many have said “bah, its too slow, it takes too long to setup, does it really have to be secure?”.  If you are asking that, you shouldnt be in the job your in.  Cmon DOD, wake the fuck up!

WTF, $15,000 is too steep a cost and nobody can present a strong enough business case to upgrade a fleet of airliners to Internet based real time black box data collection?  As usual, it’s never impossible.  Technology can do the job if it weren’t for greedy business men and slacking politicians.

So, here’s a business case for you… “The ability to collect data in real time from an airplane in flight, essentially collecting all the info a black box would collect and then some can save hundreds of lives and billions of dollars”.  What if the malfunction that causes a plane to crash can never be identified because its 20,000 ft under the sea, then one month later another plane crashes as a result of the same defects?  Hmm, yes, hundreds of lives can be saved as well as the cost for the search and rescue of said plane and its replacement.

The real question is, what dollar amount do the airlines actually factor into the life of a human being?  They do risk analysis, and that number must exist.  

Michael Lynton said “I’m a guy who sees nothing good having come from the Internet. Period.”.  And he seems to mean it.

It is something you would expect coming from the CEO of Sony Entertainment and something you would expect coming from an old school capitalist.

If what you create for a living can be turned into 1’s and 0’s or it starts off as 1’s and 0’s then you had better stand out from the rest if you are to make it.  Keyword being “you” and not some bloated middle man like what Micahel Lynton represents.

The Internet killed the middle man. With that said, everyone is on an even playing field and the competition is HUGE and the choice for the consumer is 100 fold better.

What does that mean?
Climb above the crap and add something of value, something PHYSICAL and or something that cant be turned into 1’s and 0’s.   In the context of Music (since Michael refers to that) look what NIN did with their limited edition CD boxed set in the age of digital downloads, making $700K  sales from a physical product without a middle man, without a Sony Entertainment.

Where does that leave you?
If you are the creative type, there is plenty of re-inventing the wheel left in the physical world.  In the context of face to face interaction provide added value in what/how you interact with others.   Everyone should read up on Daniel Pink, Why Right Brainers will Rule The Future. Another option, do as I have, learn how to write software.  You can create the new middle man (web server and related tech), just don’t expect a bloated multi million enterprise as a result, sorry Michael Lynton, your days are over.

I stumbled upon this video just now and it really hit home with what I have read a lot about in regards to ones passion and career.  What is said in many books and sites time and time again is to take some of your strengths and combine that with a few of your passions and whamo, you have niche that you can easily climb to the top in with some hard work.  This works for those that want to grow what they have and or make a big career move.

While watching this video it became clear very quickly that this guy was a poet at one time, and it turns out I was right.  He took that and mixed it in with motivational speaking and whamo, a niche that one can make a living off of.

The audio quality could be better, but this is a great video of a motivational speaker who has done many big name keynotes and has some poetry accolades as well.  Kirk Nugent.

FYI – Sure the last two posts have been off topic, a clear sign I have no idea what direction this blog is going.  ;-)