Anything Sorta Goes: GizmodoGate, Microsoft vs. Android, and South Park!

It has been a busy week and I somehow forgot to write anything for this site. As a matter of fact, everyone are busy with their day job, personal life, etc. I told myself that I should be the first to break the streak this time.

Anyway, huge story from last week, even though I don’t really want to talk about it. The GizmodoGate! The San Mateo DA issued a search warrant to seize evidence in the “lost” Apple 4th Generation iPhone Prototype. Jason Chen, Gizmodo and Gawker Media are yelling “FOUL!” and trying to hide behind the Journalist shield law. The evidence in a way is pretty damnig. Jason Chen is smart enough to have video of himself with the iPhone, which turned out to be considered a stolen item. In addition to that, Gizmodo admits that they paid some money for the iPhone from the person who “found” it. Jason Chen also smart enough to take the iPhone apart and document it; you can find the videos easily, Google is your best friend. Jason Chen has now hired a defense lawyer. The EFF for sure scrutinizing the conduct of the San Mateo and the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team (REACT). EFF is great but sometimes they could go overboard. Personally I do not like Gizmodo for all the attention-grabbing stunts they have done in the past, and most likely in the future. Anyone remembers 2008 CES?

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This one is a shocker and predictable. Microsoft is asserting the rights to collect royalty payment over Android Operating System. HTC has agreed to pay Microsoft for using Android Operating System. Where are the torches and pitchforks? The last time I saw them marching to Cupertino after Apple sued HTC for Patent Infringement. Where is the rage Mr. Laporte?

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Now, let’s get on to the finale of this post. South Park, Censorships, and Muhammad. For those who care already know what happened to South Park. April 14th, 2010 South Park celebrated its 2ooth episode with an episode aptly titled “200.” The episode drew somehow offended some Muslims and a group based in New York posted a warning against South Park creators.

RANT ALERT!
Seriously? You’re based in New York and you’re enjoying the Freedom Of Speech to threaten others for their Freedom Of Speech. Why don’t you move to a cave somewhere in the Middle East and then you can complain about other’s Freedom Of Speech. Wait, it’s still ironic. The Qur’an has never specifically or explicitly forbidden images of Muhammad. Now you’re threatening other human being over it?
/END OF THIS RANT

April 21st, 2010 Comedy Central aired “201” with tons of extra audio bleeps. Sure they bleeped out profanities. Comedy Central also bleeped out any utterance of “Muhammad” from the episode. Even further, Comdey Central bleeped out the closing speech that didn’t even mention anything about Muhammad. According to South Park Studios, Comedy Central does not approve the airing or streaming of Episode “201” in its original form. The episode was subsequently pulled off the air and has not been approved for sale on places such as iTunes Store and Amazon Video On Demands. In addition to that Comedy Central also pulled Episode “200” off the rebroadcast and the online stores.

Thousands of complaints from readers of this blog were sent to Comedy Central. Who’s to blame? Comedy Central is acting to protect their employees while subsequently caving in to terrorist’s demand.

ANOTHER RANT ALERT!
I for one values the First Amendment to The United States Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Comedy Central is acting within their rights to censor South Park. Matt Stone and Trey Parker have the right to express their opinion through their creation that is South Park. The fans have the right to complain to Comedy Central.

I am so appaled by the action of the party responsible for the death threats against Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Are there any Muslims out there who agree that the death threats is against everything what being human is all about? I do not want to be associated with anyone who supports violent against the South Park Creators. This is not the 13th century. For the Muslims who still thinks the custom of one region of the world from hundreds of years ago is the way the world should be, please leave us be.
/END OF THIS RANT – FOR NOW

Congratulations, Gizmodo for jumping into conclusion. At least you made a retraction.

UPDATE Again:
The post is back-up on Gizmodo.

UPDATE:
Apparently Gizmodo is deleting the post. Unfortunately I haven’t found any cached version of the page.
http://www.google.com/search?q=How+Apple+Screws+Every+Ebook+App+But+iBooks.

But there’s a copy of it posted here.

The piece was (hastily) written by Wilson Rothman.

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Gotta love John Grubber for being “insightful and not negative.” He’s just good at being sarcastic. Gruber pointed out the hidden Gem that Gizmodo is.

As always, Apple haters already jumped on the poorly-written-angst-driven-Apple-Hating-Paul-Thurrottesque story that Gizmodo ran about How Apple Screws Every Ebook App But iBooks. Great one Wilson, the Apple Haters took the bait. What? It’s not a bait. Well, at least you made a retraction and left your original post.

Maybe Gizmodo should give Paul Thurrott a call, your Apple Trolling skill is a bit rusty. For sure Thurrott can help you in that subject. But if you’re making Thurrott your staff then you’d be employing a Microsoft employee. Wait, what? Thurrott is not Microsoft Employee? Ah he’s just an independent Microsoft P.R. agent. Got it.

Moron of The Week: Adam Frucci of Gizmodo

Yet another gem from Gizmodo, where common sense is not required. It is Adam Frucci who must be desperate for page-views on his contributions. Spare yourself from reading the abomination that is his so-called article. A not-so-well-thought-out excerpt:

“Every single Mac app costs money. Where’s the freeware on Macs? On the PC, I used Texter to create macros for things I type a lot, which is free. On the Mac, there’s TextExpander, and it’s $30. There are loads of free FTP clients for the PC. On Mac, you use Transmit, and it’s $30. Tweetie is a nice enough Twitter client, but it sure isn’t $15 worth of nice. TextMate is a great, robust text editor, but no text editor is worth $54.”

Seriously? Every single Mac app costs money?

I guess Adam Frucci is the authority of computing world. He knows for sure that every single Mac app costs money. There are no freeware.

  • I wonder what Filezilla is. It is an open source FTP client that is available for Linux, Mac and Windows. It is also free.
  • There’s Cyberduck. “Cyberduck is an open source FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Mosso Cloud Files and Amazon S3 browser for the Mac.” It is also free.
  • There are other free Mac OS X FTP clients.

Evaluating the statement about the absence of freeware on Mac OS platform, we hereby award Adam Frucci as Moron of The Week.

Way to go for perpetuating the idiotic Mac vs. Windows argument, Mr. Adam Frucci. Please stop using computer now.

If you want to read his idiotic “article” just search for “Adam Frucci Mac Freeware” using your favorite search engine (Google).