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What’s the Edsel App of 2014 ..?

Would any of you be interested to help me start a competition to find, and have voted, the Edsel App of 2014 ..? Or have an award ceremony every quarter, or so ..?

This would be about the app, or application, or system, or any invention in general, where all that see it at its publication go like what were they even thinking!?

To be clear, this will be called the Edsel App for a reason, being it is the high water mark of an idea smash-bombed into oblivion by its utter ugliness.

Which brings us to all sorts of criteria and competition requirements.
Re eligibility; there are gazillions of apps that never gain any traction. There are even more, that are ugly and/or operationally/practically disfunctional as @#$%&*. But I aim for the ones that were designed by serious, large teams of developers, designers, etc., in reputable large companies with reasonable track records.
Where do we find them; who brings them to us?
How do we ‘ test’ them?

Etc., to be continued. I’ll leave it here for now, with a picture for your viewing delight (??):
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[The Hague parliament, dreadful design outside, same in its operations…]

The age-old question of transcendence

First, a picture of course:
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[“Mehh, why not just put a concrete slab over the canal..?”; Calatrava at Hoofddorp]

After finishing reading (partially as in ‘studying’) Smarter Than You Think (again), I saw this little piece on transcendence … taking it from another angle. Unsure how to marry the two perspectives…

Legal honey

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[Life is hard, moose style (i.e., no Tim Horton in sight)]

Hey has anyone ever investigated the various legal ramifications re honeypots? Because, there’s two elements at play:

  • Usually, one would put a honeypot in place to gather evidence of a crime under way – not fixing any leak but redirecting it. In some (many?) jurisdictions (where the Internet reaches, i.e., where you are), one would be required to stop any crime one is aware of, when reasonably possible; as a generic citizen’s obligation. Just diverting traffic to a honeypot for evidence gathering, and not destroying the original context to be able to tap evidence, may not be allowed… This doesn’t concern honeypots only, by the way; for insurance purposes one sometimes would have to gather as much evidence as possible also, even when damages tallies run high(er and higher).
  • In many jurisdictions, entrapment is illegal except by officials under very strict control of warrants, etc., if at all. A honeypot is just that; entrapment – where the strict control by/over officials, isn’t. Your court case may crumble due to this illegal obtainment of evidence…

Or …? Your advice, please.

Does ES equal PR ..?

In Clive Thompson’s Smarter Than You Think. near the end there’s a reminder:

In 1996, writer and electronic activist John Perry Barlow proclaimed “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace.” Addressing old-school governments – “you weary giants of flesh and steel” – he proclaimed “You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.” As it turns out, nothing of the sort was true.

Now, this raised a question:

How is – or isn’t – Edward Snowdon, or Julian Assange for that matter, not Paul Revere ..?

How is “The regulars are coming!” not just bringing out info that in itself was true and factual, and quite innocent, if it weren’t for its implications for the ruled, by oppressors that were exactly that by overarching secrecy of their operations ..? If you’re doing nothing wrong, then you have nothing to hide works for sousveillance as well.

Paul Revere certainly did it. Calling them Regulars instead of plainly Redcoats as to subvert their attempts to execute him outright as a rebel just for using such indicative langauge, means he understood to neutralise his langauge to that of the oppressor, to expose the latter for all in the know.
So, when Assange and later Snowdon just outed the very documents, not accusations based on them but as extreme summaries, these were minor offences if, not when, the conclusions from those plain flat documents would have been normal legitimate business. The ‘crime’ was created only by the overreactions. The regulars are coming. So what ..?

But for the careless reader, it may not have been clear enough: I really do seek arguments back and forth re this question: How does ES equal PR, or not ..? Your thoughts please [And TLAs listening/reading in: I’m serious about weighing arguments pro and contra…]

And here’s a picture because you waited so patiently for the end…:
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[Exposed modernity, sedate oldness; ON]

Your tips and categories, please re socmed tool evolution

Just a question to you: To deliver categories for social media tools that I will inventorise for innovation and evolution.
Now that Facebook and Whatsapp are going the way of MySpace, and Twitter and Pinterest may be on their heels qua abandonment (?), plus Google+ still being in the dark a bit and WordPress going strong still but Medium and a couple of others are making inroads, a slew of new tools come forward.
I will post some comparison tables on their functionality (primary/secondary functionality, persistence or ephemeral, fringe or potential mainstream, technical complexity, focal verticals, group structures, privacy notes, etc.).
But I’ll need your input. Both for tool tips, but also for categories. As of now, I only have long form blogs; short form notes/blogs; short messaging; picture sharing; classifieds; product/services reviews. There are more, I suspect.

As a thank-you in advance already, herewith a picture, of course:
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[Beautiful Source, cake-style – think that one through (2x)]

Maverisk / Étoiles du Nord