The Untouchables: Government corruption in Russia …

When you despair at the corruption in your own government, consider this story and rejoice. Here’s “something right out of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous mixed with Crime Scene Investigation. Watch Russian tax officials who stole $230 million from their people getting $43 million richer. See them buying multi-million dollar properties on Palm Jumeriah in Dubai, in Montenegro and Moscow, and getting payments to their Swiss bank accounts and offshore firms. Russian authorities refused to investigate the $230 million theft and declared these tax officials honest victims. Sergei Magnitsky, a 37-year anti-corruption lawyer who exposed their scam, was tortured and killed.”

Russian Untouchables. Episode 1: Artem Kuznetsov

Ugh! My iPhone is spying on me …

There’s a Mac desktop iPhoneTracker.app which displays which cell towers your iPhone was in communication with — on a map, by date.

The uselessness of android robotics …

Caption: iRobot’s Packbot

Japan has demonstrated some pretty impressive andriod* robotics over the years. Who could not love Honda’s diminutive ASIMO?

Why is none of this technology evident in dealing with the aftermath of Japan’s recent earthquakes, tsunami and now the Fukushima Diaiichi nuclear power plant disaster? Why instead, more than a month after these devastating events occurred, are the makers of Roomba (a robotic vacuum cleaner) providing the robots which today finally opened doors and entered the nuclear reactor buildings?

Anton Hammerl taught me a lesson in photography I’ll never forget …

Caption: Anton Hammerl, then and now …

I so admired Anton’s photography back in The Star* days I asked him how he did it. His answer stuck with me to this day. If you take enough pictures you’re bound to get one or two that are good. In fact, if I remember his words exactly, he told me “if you throw enough shit up against the wall …

Q: What happened the last time the government shut down?

A: A young White House intern, unable to take up a Federal paying job, tells the President she has a crush on him — so he takes her into a library at the back of the Oval Office and proceeds to …

Atari brings classic games to the iPhone and iPad: Tempest included!

My youth was not entirely misspent, but I was addicted to one particular arcade game: Atari Tempest. To the extent that I purchased a game console at auction and installed it in my apartment in Hillbrow, Johannesburg and played it to perfection.

How to get your “Free” AT&T MicroCell™ …

AT&T have recently been sending out letters offering some wireless customers a free Cisco MicroCell™ — a letter they can redeem at a local AT&T store. I believe they’re doing this because AT&T want to buy loyalty from good but wavering customers. I was one such wavering customer, except I did not come by my free AT&T microcell so easily. Many subscribers got unsolicted letters for a free microcell. I had to argue for mine.

Here’s how to do it …

The Paradigm for Success: Farming or Mining?

Here’s a link to one of the most sane blog posts I’ve read in years. I’ll paraphrase Wil Shipley’s blog Call me Fishmeal: Sustainable yields for all, not jackpots for the lucky few. Equally applicable to software development (which Wil is invested in), but to investments in general. The whole post is well worth reading here. Read it now …

iPhone: AT&T vs Verizon. Which way to go?

I’m an AT&T subscriber, but that hardly makes me biased in their favour. Welcome to the iPhone Verizon, I think the competition will be good for keeping AT&T on their toes. I considered switching but there’s a killer problem with Verizon’s service which AT&T isn’t playing up very well to their advantage — so I’ll say it here.

So how many emails did you get today informing you of Epsilon’s breach exposing your email address?

 
Six, so far. I’m listing them in order of how promptly they informed me. I’m expecting more from other vendors who are tardy …

1st TiVo: Saturday April 2, 2011 9:00:43 PM EDT
2nd College Board: Saturday April 2, 2011 10:31:41 PM EDT
3rd JP Morgan Chase: Monday April 4, 2011 4:33:27 AM EDT
4th Hilton Honors: Monday April 4, 2011 6:27:19 PM EDT
5th Walgreens: Monday April 4, 2011 7:20:10 PM EDT
6th Red Roof Inn: April 4, 2011 9:45:29 PM EDT