There’s been a lot of noise made lately about the information that the iPhone generates and keeps stored in it’s memory, digital information listing the phone’s geo-location (and by implication, you) over the last 10 months. A bit of software is available that extracts this information from your phone and overlays it on an interactive map, and although purposely granular on the time scale, it still shows a fair representation of your movements. But if the information is as accurate as my results show below, I doubt anyone should worry about their privacy, their Twitter feed is probably a lot more precise.
My logs show excursions deep into South Carolina and southern Alabama, even though my phone has not been in either state. Sure I’ve been in Georgia, in the general vicinity of those areas indicated, and it’s probable that my phone latched onto a cell tower somewhere across state lines as I checked my email, but that is hardly close enough to pin me to an exact geographical spot. But what I find odd is that it doesn’t show some places that I have been, like Chattanooga and Savannah. (Savannah isn’t shown because I’ve cropped it to only show the log hits.)
Our long national nightmare is over.
I have a lot of visitors to my websites and get a LOT of email asking permission to use my cartoons for every imaginable use you could think of, and some you wouldn’t. It’s a very rare instance that I don’t give permission and in fact, I can’t think of once that I haven’t. But it warms my heart to know that a great majority of my visitors understand that just because an image is available for download, that doesn’t mean that it’s fair game for any use whatsoever.
Unbelievably, the “writer” of the column at the other end of this link – Big Mother gets her shot at cutting health costs – doesn’t have a clue what copyright means. His ignorance of copyright seems to know no bounds, even when the error of his ways is pointed out by the artist whose work he stole, and a host of other commentors on his page. Mr. Blankenhorn’s justification in the comments section:
“The picture has been removed. However, I want you and every artist to know the following:
1. It’s easy to watermark any Web illustration if you don’t want it copied. You leave it in the clear, you’re giving permission.
2. I made a thumbnail. I didn’t “steal” the picture. I linked to the original, gave you credit, and tried to bring you business.
3. I will also remove all references to you from the story, quid pro quo.
This idea that one must gain permission before doing what comes naturally on the Web has to end. You have the tools to stop it. Use them.”
His hypocrisy is compounded when you read the copyright notice that applies to his articles:
“All editorial content and graphics on our sites are protected by U.S. copyright, international treaties, and other applicable copyright laws and may not be copied without the express permission of CBS Interactive, Inc., which reserves all rights. Reuse of any of CBS Interactive editorial content and graphics for any purpose without CBS Interactive’s permission is strictly prohibited.”
His theft, if we are to take his employer’s copyright notice at face value, has given themselves ownership of the stolen work that illustrated his article.
Unbelievable.
From the Los Angeles Times: 
“Robert M. White was a 38-year-old U.S. Air Force major and record-setting test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base in 1962 when he joined the elite ranks of America’s four astronauts.
But Mercury astronauts Alan Shepard, Virgil Grissom, John Glenn and Scott Carpenter went into space seated atop ballistic missiles and returned in capsules that parachuted onto the ocean.
White did it as the pilot of a rocket-powered X-15 research airplane, flying nearly 60 miles above the Earth’s surface and completing a conventional landing on Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards Air Force Base.
His out-of-this-world adventure earned him the distinction of being the first pilot to earn a winged astronaut rating by piloting an airplane in space.”
Photo credit: NASA
Finally.
And you won’t need a pilot’s license to fly one either, just a few lessons. But that’s not the problem in my household since I informed my wife that I was going to learn how to fly, the issue is more about convincing her to buy me one.
With a range of just over 30 miles at 63 miles per hour, this could make for a nifty commute that would even make you look forward to Monday mornings.
The Cat In The Hat and I are the same age. And today is the birthday of the author, Dr. Seuss.
I have more than a few people to thank for giving me the gift of reading and Dr. Seuss is one of them. But words aren’t the only joy a young reader takes from reading his books; his wonderful illustrations and fantastic characters bring you back again and again.
The Plain Dealer has a new interview with the reclusive Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes, one of the most beloved comic strips ever to grace the funny papers. If ever there was a cartoonist with a magic touch, it was Mr. Watterson.
Sort of. It was actually a kilometer, the first one flown around a predetermined course in a powered aircraft. It was done by French aviator Henry Farman on January 13, 1908 and averaged just over 25 miles per hour. Viva la France!
Berkeley Breathed, drawn back to ‘Bloom County’ but looking forward.
“When you’re young, you miss things, you just don’t see them,” said the 52-year-old Breathed, who walked away from comic strips last year because the Digital Age had eroded his newsprint audience and, worse, his artistic vigor and sense of whimsy.
Apple, News | Jeff Bucchino | 
April 26, 2011 10:00 am | 
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