During a recent password audit at a company, it was found that a blonde receptionist was using the following password:
'MickeyMinniePlutoHueyLouieDeweyDonaldGoofyLondon'
When asked why she had such a long password, she said she was told that it had to be at least 8 characters long and Include at least one capital.
Via: Laugh it out
TUAWMacworld 2010: TUAW goes to the mothership originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Feb 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds
Google today announced a new service, Google Buzz, that automatically brings social networking into Gmail and the rest of the Google-sphere. Whether or not you're big on social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook, Buzz offers a somewhat new and intriguing approach.
Buzz's five key features, as laid out in the event at Google HQ today, include:
Buzz lets you share photos, video, links to web sites, and other content from all over the web with your closest contacts or with the public at large.
It feels a whole lot like Facebook's newsfeed—or even more like FriendFeed, though fewer people ever got to know FriendFeed all that well—but it lives inside Gmail and integrates automatically with your most frequent Gmail contacts.
Apart from working directly inside Gmail, it can pull content from Twitter, from Flickr, and from various other popular social sites from across the web. Currently social services supported include:
When you publicly post something via Buzz, it automatically and instantaneously adds the post to your Google Profile page (which it creates for you if you haven't already created one). If you want to post privately, you can create and choose specific groups you want to share with—in what looks like an attempt to offer both the public aspects of Twitter and the private aspects of Facebook.
Buzz is (or will soon be) available as a new sidebar link in Gmail, but it also integrates with your Gmail inbox. If you're worried about email overload, here's the skinny—Buzz items end up in your inbox in three ways:
Buzz also suggests a Recommended Buzz, pulling content from users you aren't following using an algorithm based on what your friends like or are following. The idea is that they'll bring you the 'good buzz' even if you're not friends with who's delivering it. If you don't agree with the recommended 'good buzz', you can tell Google so and it'll tweak its algorithm, so hopefully it'll more closely match what you like next time.
When your friends post content that's not all that exciting ('ate a bagel for breakfast'), Buzz will attempt to identify it and automatically 'collapse the bad buzz.'
Google is also launching three different mobile products that integrate with Buzz.
First, they've integrated Buzz into the Google.com mobile homepage. The new homepage has small UI tweaks, but the big change is that the Buzz icon now appears in the upper right corner of the screen. Click on it and you can post to Buzz, but more importantly, when you click there, Buzz will find your location and turn it into a real place—not just an address, but an actual, meaningful place. (When demoing, Buzz asked the user "Are you at Google?") In normal use, it'll try placing you at wherever it thinks you are, whether it's a business, your home, a restaurant, or wherever.
A mobile Buzz webapp for Android and iPhone (available at buzz.google.com, screenshotted below) gives the user mobile-friendly version of Buzz, providing a stream of people you're following. You can also grab nearby buzz to see what people around you are saying (say you're at a concert and want to hear what people are saying about it).
Finally, Google Mobile Maps has added a new Buzz layer, which allows you to post to Buzz quickly from Google Maps. (We're doubting this will work on the iPhone soon because it would require Apple to update Google Maps, which it normally only does on OS updates, but it will likely be pushed out to other devices soon.) Like the webapp, you can post from the Maps app, it'll grab your location and snap you to a real place rather than just an address.
Google says they want Buzz to be the poster child for what it means to make a social tool that plays nice—one that has an open API, that respects the user's privacy decisions, and that doesn't lock up your data. (As opposed to some other popular social networks.)
Last, Google explained that they'll eventually be adding Buzz to Google Apps accounts so businesses can use them internally, something that Google thinks will be a very important use in time.
Google Buzz will begin rolling out at 11am PST, and will continue slowly rolling out to users over the course of the next couple of days.
Interested? Let's hear what you think in the comments.
Pop quiz time! Both the iPod and iPad elicited lots of grumbling from the nerd contingency (including our own resident grumbler Adam Frucci). Can you tell which critique refers to which product?
A lot of them are pretty easy, although I definitely tripped up over a few of the more vague anti-Apple attacks. How'd you all fare? [Fast Company]
Via: Gizmodo
When I woke up today, it took me about half an hour to get up to speed with the iPad (I’m in Croatia, so the bulk of the news came in overnight for me). After I’d read a couple of articles, I already knew everything there was to know about it (and more): its advantages, its flaws and its potential.
But hidden between the lines of all that iPad coverage I’ve learned a thing or two about Apple and its plans, mostly from the things iPad is missing.
The thing is, Apple didn’t omit a camera or multitasking by accident. An engineer didn’t come up to Steve Jobs on Tuesday saying, “I don’t know how to tell you this, Steve, but we’ve forgotten about the camera. No, please, not the head! Ouch!” They’ve omitted all these things on purpose, and this purpose tells you more about Apple’s plans than the things they did put in.
First of all, Flash. For years, we’ve been hearing that Adobe and Apple are in talks to bring full Flash support on the iPhone. It was almost always described as “nearly there.” Well, now that the iPad is out — a bigger device, perfect for browsing the web — and there’s still no Flash in sight, we can assume that Apple is not only not bringing Flash to its mobile devices, it’s fighting against it. For some reason, Apple doesn’t see eye to eye with Adobe where Flash is concerned, and if they haven’t reached some sort of agreement now, it’s probably not just around the corner, either.
Then, there’s multi-tasking. Nearly everyone I’ve talked to thinks this is a huge deal-breaker, but I think it makes sense. Although Steve Jobs was trying hard to prove to us that the iPad is a computer, it isn’t. Just like the iPod and the iPhone, its main purpose is to give the users an easy way to consume certain types of digital content. After music (iPod) and mobile applications (iPhone) comes iPad with video, photos, e-books, e-magazines, games. Apple doesn’t really want you to do complex photo editing on the iPad; you’ve got your Mac or PC for that. Apple wants you to touch a button, and start consuming content (preferably paying a couple of dollars for it).
Finally, the camera. Yes, it would be nice to have video chat. But once again, Apple wants you to do that on a Mac. If you want to snap photos, you should do it on the iPhone — you’re carrying it with you all the time, anyway. Once again, it becomes clear that Apple doesn’t want to sell devices that can do everything; they want to find the best form factor to consume some types of digital content, and then focus on them. If you look at it, you can do pretty much everything on your personal computer; by that philosophy, you don’t need anything else besides a laptop. And yet, you’ve now got smartphones and e-readers selling very well. Could it be that one powerful device is not as good as several less powerful, but more focused ones?
The way I see it, the iPad is not about creating; it’s all about consuming content. It shouldn’t be sold in Apple stores, it should be sold on newsstands (together with a 24-month subscription to some newspaper), in video clubs, in libraries. I honestly expected a lot of subsidized options for the device if you agree to buy some content with it, but Apple hasn’t really delivered that — yet. If I’m right, and if Apple starts doing that, most of iPad’s shortcomings won’t matter.
Via: Mashable
Submitted by: dunno source via Oddly Specific
The help desk at my university had this same sign posted. As such, I was always extra polite to the techs, just in case they were serious.
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