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Linked List: December 29, 2007

Saturday, 29 December 2007

Could Tech Support Undo Palm? 

Loyal Palm customer Tristan Louis on a comically disastrous experience with Palm’s customer service:

So I asked employee C11329 to be transfered to her manager. She told me she was the most senior person at Palm. I asked her again politely to transfer me to her manager. She told me she had none. I asked to be transfered to the person that was reviewing her work, giving her assignments, etc.. I was told she had none. I told her I felt that was odd as, apart from the chairman and CEO, I didn’t know of anyone in a company not having a manager. She told me she was the CEO.

How Do You Opt Out From Omniture in Adobe CS3 Apps? 

Michael 芳貴 Erlewine points out that Omniture’s suggested method for opting out of their data tracking service requires the use of a browser cookie:

That’s right. Cookies are stored in your browser. So if you opt-out in Safari or FF, will you be opted-out in a CS3 app? Um, no. Or in the iTunes MiniStore? No.

In the case of the MiniStore, you can just turn it off. But in the CS3 case (and for any other apps that build such communications in) things are trickier.

PHP BBEdit Clipping Set 

Speaking of BBEdit, G.T. Stresen-Reuter released an updated version of his extensive PHP clipping set for BBEdit, containing over 6,000 function definitions from the standard PHP library, complete with BBEdit placeholders for parameters.

The Beast: 50 Most Loathsome People in America, 2007 

There are a couple of number 9’s in every family. (Via Kottke.)

BBColors 

Worth a re-link: my freeware command-line tool for saving and loading syntax-coloring preference schemes for BBEdit and TextWrangler. (Reminded by John Resig’s kind words about my “Gruber Dark” scheme.)

Potential Vulnerabilities vs. Actual Exploits, Eh, What’s the Difference? 

InfoWorld says the third most-underreported tech story of 2007 is “Hackers take aim at Mac OS X”. But:

Is it time to panic? No, actual attacks against Macs and the rest of the Apple family, such as the iPhone, are still rare.

So if actual attacks are rare, and the only factual foundation for this are tabulations of potential vulnerabilities, what exactly is underreported? I.e. how was 2007 any different security-wise for Mac users than any other previous year?

Will It Fly? How to Evaluate a New Product Idea 

Evan Williams on how to evaluate new product ideas.

Photographs Before and During Benazir Bhutto’s Assassination 

Gripping, visceral photos taken by John Moore of Getty Images.

Pakistan Government Claims Bhutto Died From Self-Inflicted Bump on Head 

CNN on the Pakistan government’s cockamamie explanation of her death:

CNN national security analyst Ken Robinson, who worked in U.S. intelligence in Pakistan during the Clinton administration, said he suspects Bhutto’s enemies are attempting to control her legacy by minimizing the attack’s role in her demise.

“They’re trying to deny her a martyr’s death, and in Islam, that’s pretty important,” Robinson said.