Kindle calamity strikes again

2nd damaged Kindle

About three weeks ago I picked up my Kindle one evening where I had left it in the afternoon, only to discover about 25% of the screen completely broken. It was a sad moment but after about a day of mourning, I called Amazon who kindly offered to replace the device for free, and pay for the return shipping of the damaged item. My relief was considerable and the replacement Kindle was delivered right to my office. Amazon is a fine company and I have always had really good service from them and especially appreciate their letting me activate and cancel subscriptions at whim so that I can in fact subscribe to a newspaper only for a few days while I travel, for example.

Image my chagrin when, a full four days after receiving the brand new Kindle, I knocked it off a shelf while rushing up the stairs, dropping it on its face on the floor. You can guess: same problem, but this time it was a single corner that was working properly. Eina! This was really 100% my fault and I am afraid that I ordered a new one the very same evening.  Among other things, I am reading The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis and am eager to resume. Nevertheless, I have to wonder whether I too am a Kindle serial killer?

What can one do with a partially functioning Kindle? It can still masquerade as a USB stick but I am struggling to find the application for such a large one.

GoogleMaps wormhole opened by my WiFi router

Quite strange things started happening over the past few days with my mother's position on Google Maps, which she shares with me using the Latitude application on her Symbian smartphone. Her position would very regularly show up right at my house and it took 15 minutes of trying to get her to adjust the settings today (manual setting of location is an option, after all) before the penny dropped.

I had recently moved a WiFi router from my house to my parents' and although I changed the name of the wireless network, it had obviously been scanned by equipment ID by Google when they surveyed (or, are surveying) my suburb and Latitude was positioning my mother using this device. Wikipedia informed me that Google Maps uses information from GPS first, then from WiFi access points and finally from the cellular phone network masts. Now, why does Google Maps not do a reality when check when a confirmed GPS reading outside in the street is followed by a WiFi location 15km distant, within seconds? I am going to wait and see whether they update their database by analysing readings in my parents' area but I would really be interested in tweaking the location algorithm and/or having more options in Google Maps itself.

Leaky and scary website customer data

A few weeks ago, I tried to fine a colleague's cellphone number by search engine and found her details along with those of many South Africans and others on the website of the Celebration Cruise Line (probable trading as Imperial Majesty in the past) at www.imperialmajesty.com/Information/form_results.csv. Under the presumption that if it was indexed by search engines, it has leaked already, I made a copy at www.webcitation.org/5u2ZpoFAM in case anyone needs to sue these jokers for damages due to identity theft. The moral: do not give out any more personal information than is strictly necessary!

eBay profit in the posting

On eBay one occasionally comes across curiously high postage fees. Obviously, the seller is offering a low price but making up in the P&P department. The most egregious case I have seen is the $100 prepaid visa card depicted below, with a $130.96 shipping and handling charge for despatch inside the US. The selling price is $0.99 so you'd have to be rather gullible to select Buy It Now!

Alternative copy of this image at http://awesomescreenshot.com/0c049rb9b.

Blogger in “Palestine” arrested for blasphemy

A blogger expressing anti-clerical sentiment has been tracked down by the Palestinian police force and arrested for “insulting the divine essence” using a Facebook sting. Islamic law explicitly prohibits apostacy, so going for Mo's message is a one-way street in many countries. I doubt that the Cape Town Opera's scheduled Porgy and Bess in Tel Aviv is going to have many Palestinians thrown in jail for thought crimes but the Palestinian Authority clearly is.

Source: Palestinian held for Facebook criticism of Islam http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40143564