How to Reach the Left | Roderick T. Long
04.22
In this video Roderick Long makes the claim that many libertarians buy into the corporatist world view. He explains that (some) liberals and libertarians have more in common than they think, and that libertarians often go wrong when talking to liberals. I highly recommend it for both liberals and libertarians.
It includes this great quote from Murray Rothbard on big business:
“For some time I have come to the conclusion that the grave deficiency in the current output and thinking of our libertarians and ‘classical liberals’ is an enormous blind spot when it comes to big business. There is a tendency to worship Big Business per se… and a corollary tendency to fail to realize that while big business would indeed merit praise if they won that bigness on the purely free market, that in the contemporary world of total neo-mercantilism and what is essentially a neo-fascist ‘corporate state,’ bigness is a priori highly suspect, because Big Business most likely got that way through an intricate and decisive network of subsidies, privileges, and direct and indirect grants of monopoly protection.”
iPhone Tracker application (plus a 32 bit version for Leopard)
04.21
If you haven’t heard yet, your iPhone creates a record of all the places you go, and the information is stored in a database on your computer whenever you sync with iTunes.
See here for more information, and an application that will show you a map with all the locations you’ve ever visited with your iPhone:
http://petewarden.github.com/iPhoneTracker/
(Note: For a version that works on 32-bit Core Duo Macs, and one that runs on OS X 10.5 Leopard, see further down. For a Windows PC version, see right at the bottom of this post.)
Here’s an example screenshot of the iPhone Tracker application:
Screenshot of the iPhone Tracker app
Apple doesn’t seem to be sending this information anywhere, but really, they shouldn’t be storing this much of this kind of information unencrypted in the first place.
The first thing you should do is enable encrypted iPhone backups so that other users and applications on your computer can’t access this information. I’ve been doing this for a while.
iPhoneTracker for OS X Leopard (10.5) and 32-bit Processors
If you have an older Mac with a 32-bit Intel Core Duo processor which can’t run the 64-bit version of the application on Pete Warden’s site, you will get this message:
"You can't open the application iPhoneTracker because it is not supported on this type of Mac."
If you are running Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) you will see this message:
“You cannot use this version of the application iPhoneTracker with this version of Mac OS X”
You can download and try run this 32-bit version I made for Mac OS X Leopard (10.5):
iPhoneTracker_32bit_leopard.zip
MD5 fingerprint for the zip file is: 3977c24e07019e23c987337f9342e684
SHA: 8757eba4a661e22f8b5b366c2dcd06becd90ea17
And this 32-bit build I made for Snow Leopard (10.6):
MD5 fingerprint for the zip file is: f8d2b4ccf107198a22aef655765d9654
SHA: cd9fce97c2db24515eaa687335c8e5e103a7eba8
For the geeks, you can get my modified version of Pete Warden’s source at this github repository:
https://github.com/gwylion/iPhoneTracker
Update: Combined with the fact that police officers in some areas are copying the content from cellphones of people stopped for traffic offences, it gets scarier:
http://thenextweb.com/us/2011/04/20/us-police-can-copy-your-iphones-contents-in-under-two-minutes/
Update 2: Here’s a Windows application that does the same thing. I can’t vouch for it:
http://huseyint.com/iPhoneTrackerWin/
Update 3: The original version of iPhoneTracker now supports 32-bit and PPC machines, and presumably OS X Leopard. You shouldn’t need my custom build any more.
Update 4: I made a build that increases the time and location accuracy. I’m not sure how useful this is, but here you go: iPhoneTracker_32bit_higher_accuracy.zip
Update 5: Apple heard, and have released a version of iOS that fixes some of the security problems:
http://www.macworld.com/article/159643/2011/05/ios433_location_fixes.html
(Hat tip Andrew Hedges)
Scary Campfire Story – Mac OS X Software Update
02.19
It’s a day, just like any other day. You run Software Update, and it installs Safari 5.0. After re-booting, you find that Finder crashes repeatedly. You start worrying.
You then run Safari to see if anybody else on the Web has experienced the same problem. But no, Safari won’t start at all, and keeps crashing. You try to keep calm.
So you start Software Update, to see if Apple has released a patch to fix the problem… Only… “Software Update quit unexpectedly”… Aaaaaah! 
Most popular programming languages – Python leaps ahead
02.17
According to the TIOBE Programming Community Index, as of February 2011, Python has just overtaken PHP as the 4th most popular programming language. That’s a big jump from 7th this time last year. It’s now just spitting distance behind C++, but has some way to go to catch up to C and Java. Yay for Python, my favourite language!
Here’s the obligatory graph:
Interestingly, C# on position #6 is catching up to PHP slowly, and might pass it soon.
Java, C and C++, though still very popular, seem to be declining steadily. Perl and Visual Basic seem doomed to obscurity. Good riddance. Ugh.
And check out how Object-C came out of nowhere, a result of the blossoming of the iPhone market.
Online Face Recognition: Machines are Looking for Michael Jackson
08.26
This is a very cool bit of Flash ActionScript programming which uses a video of Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” to do real-time facial recognition. It can also pick out where the eyes are. If you have a web camera, select the ‘webcam’ checkbox, and it will try to recognise your face while you move your head around.
Click on the image below to try it out:
Black or White Face Recognition
You can read more about how this was done here:
REAL or FAKE: Can you tell which of these government spending projects are real or fake?
08.23
(Hat tip: David Joffe)
CrossFit – What is it?
08.18
I’ve started doing CrossFit. It’s bloody tough, but fun. This is what it is:
Inspirationz Motivational Posters
08.18
I love this video. Watch it in high-def mode if you can:
“Inspirationz fine art motivational posters and prints are the perfect gift for anyone with a penchant for profound quotes and powerful art the kind that lifts your spirit and portrays man’s essential nature.”
The Land of Giants – Humanoid Power Pylons
08.18
Choi+Shine Architects designed these beautiful, yet functional humanoid power pylons for Iceland’s electrical transmission system:
You can see more here:
http://www.choishine.com/port_projects/landsnet/landsnet.html
This reminded me of a quote from one of my favourite movies, The Castle‘s Darryl Kerrigan: “Dad, he reckons powerlines are a reminder of man’s ability to generate electricity.”
(Hat tip: teh_aimee)
