Quote Of The Day: Design

Great design does not come from great processes; it comes from great designers.

-- Fred Brooks, Interview to Wired Magazine

The Weather Channel: Who Do You Think You Are?

Let's take a brief look at permissions The Weather Channel application requests.

• Services that cost you money: Send SMS messages - Who is the application going to send SMS messages to?
• Services that cost you money: Directly call phone numbers - What numbers is it going to call?
• Your location: Coarse (network-based) location - All right, I understand it wants to know where I am to tell me what the weather is.
• Your location: Fine (GPS) location - Why does it want my exact location? Oh, I see, to show me ads. Thanks, but no thanks, you guys can easily do the same using just coarse GPS location.
• Your personal information: Add or modify calendar events and send email to guests - What? Excuse me? Why would Weather Channel want to intrude into my calendar, and, worse, send emails to guests?
• Your personal information: Read calendar events - This one even seems benign in light of the previous one, but still - why?
• Storage: Modify/delete USB storage contents, modify/delete SD card contents - Again - why? I can guess that it wants to cache data, but surely not as much that it requires special permissions to USB storage and SD card?

Note that the detailed explanation of why these permissions are required is not available from the developer (at least as of the moment of writing).

Summary

The Weather Channel application requests unreasonably wide permissions with no justification to do so. If you value your privacy, you should never install it, or uninstall it right away if you did install it in the past (when permission set was more reasonable) and forgot to check permissions as updates were coming.

Corollary

The Weather Channel is not the only application abusing permissions. Android core development team must come up with a way for the end user to selectively deny permissions requested by an application, so the end user doesn't fall prey to sloppy or malicious applications. There is some progress, but the definite answer from Google is not available - I wonder if there is a collusion between Google and big players in Android Market, just like there seems to be one with YouTube upload manipulation.

^Whiskey^Scotch

My friends,

I had not intended to discuss this controversial subject at this particular time. However, I want you to know that I do not shun controversy. On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how fraught with controversy it might be. You have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right, here is how I feel about whiskey.
"If when you say whiskey you mean the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster, that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean the evil drink that topples the Christian man and woman from the pinnacle of righteous, gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, and despair, and shame and helplessness, and hopelessness, then certainly I am against it.

But;
If when you say whiskey you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and laughter on their lips, and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer; if you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentleman's step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify his joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life's great tragedies, and heartaches, and sorrows; if you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of dollars, which are used to provide tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitiful aged and infirm; to build highways and hospitals and schools, then certainly I am for it.

This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise.

-- Noah S. Sweat, 1952

iPad through the eyes of Android user, part 2

It is extremely easy to put something onto iPad.

Oh.

Wait.

It is not.

You need iTunes and a platform that it works on. Windows or Mac. Linux won't do.

Files in formats that are not forethought by Apple will have trouble getting onto iPad as well. In other words, forget about using it as just storage.

But wait, that's just the good half of the story.

The bad half starts when you need to retrieve the information from it.

Either you can't at all, or you can only in a crippled form (two words: "optimized photos").

Homework for the inquisitive reader: find a way to back up the content of your iPad without paying Apple for their services.

So now tell me: why can't I just mount(8) the damn thing, again?