The truth is, that isn’t how people are using these services and those people who made those gripes are almost certainly members of Facebook who routinely make ports or spins on those blossoming trendy technologies and they’re now common place. First it was a reworking of their statuses. Then it was a reworking of the feed that looks just like twitter. then pictures and video showed up in your feed and you could check them out without leaving. Now twitter is reworking it’s feed to do the same. Now Places has been created to capitalize on Foursquare though Places has a glaring problem that gives FS an advantage. Places has no badges, specials or mayor ships. No incentives to using the service. To date people just keep using Foursquare and like services with a few exceptions.

Image via CrunchBase

Those same people that complained about those services now see their favorite site adopting those practices.

Geo Location/Tagging is much more interesting though because of the privacy challenges it will face as well as the eventual benefits it will provide when more advances are made.

For me personally, I’m very interested in politics, civil rights, being aware of what your rights are in general as a citizen and protecting them. One of those rights does include privacy however, the Internet has caused us all to rethink what privacy actually means. In ye olden days privacy meant you lived out on a farm a couple hours horse ride into town where nobody could see in your windows. Later it meant nobody could watch you change clothes in a department store dressing room. At the core though privacy has remained the same in 1 way. We as individuals decide what our personal privacy level is. Choice is the key word. Old timers chose to relinquish their privacy when they would ride into town. People chose to relinquish a little privacy when they step out of the dressing room in the new outfit to show a friend or look in the mirror. Today, we chose where we check in. Where and when we broadcast our location. There’s another level though and that’s who we allow that broadcast to be intercepted by which is the purpose of this post.

On facebook we chose who our friends are and within those sometimes we chose to hide certain things from them as well with privacy settings. On twitter you can have a private profile or not sync your foursqare to it. On foursquare you approve or decline friendship requests etc.

Recently I had an automated service retweet my foursqaure post without my approval. That service is locationtweet. Before that, months ago when i first started using foursqaure there was a website that was collecting twitter posts from foursquare and archiving them on their site. Without my permission. I tweeted them telling them that they remove my location tweets permanently because I didn’t grant them permission. They responded quickly letting me know it had been taken down. This twitter account, locationtweet did not respond to my demand to no longer list me in their service.

To me, this is the core of the privacy issue regarding location services and the first thing that needs to be addressed, by whom, I’m not sure. Government, isp, foursquare or twitter them self. I’m not particular about who does it but I absolutely want it to happen. It may seem harmless and insignificant but entertain me.

I broadcast my physical location to the world, but I do so understanding in generalities who can see it. I have a decent understanding of my twitter followers, who i’m friends with on Foursquare and Facebook. Sometimes I check in without sharing with friends. Sometimes I only share it with Foursquare, sometimes just Foursquare and Twitter. The point is I’m in control and every check in is a conscious decision to do so while understanding the conditions.

Services like locationtweet and the other i mentioned exploit this use of technology without the permision or choice of the individual. Their obvious argument is that it’s there for all to see anyway. My response is that yes, all can see it, but i know who all generally is, all aren’t seeing it and their aiding in others seeing it i have no idea about. You’ve likely heard about the pleaserobme.com which now appears to be shut down. The premise was them posting your location implying that you’re not home so go break into my house. I can appreciate the humor in such an effort but it’s also offensive, potentially dangerous and could end up putting some body’s life in danger. Maybe unlikely but all that aside it gets to the core of what I’m talking about. Services should not be allowed or permitted to use my location, my content and the content i generate for services I’m a willing member of for their personal gain without my permission. If foursquare gave them permission to do so, I would look at what they offered and brought to the table. If nothing I would try to opt out and if I couldn’t i would legitimately stop using the service.

Privacy is choice. The conscious decision to share information about yourself and your location. It’s no longer living in your house with the doors and blinds shut. Services that remove my choice from me is an exploit and violation of my privacy and it’s wrong.

There are exciting things in store for location based services. It is the next frontier but something will have to be done on this front to protect our choice in the hopefully near future.

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If you know me, you know I LOVE Wu-Tang Clan. There is one aspect of the band/group that has always driven me crazy though. Their visuals. The album covers and designs have always left me feeling cheated. Like the full experience was never realized. Like they’ve been misunderstood and mishandled this whole time and that they’ve never been told or know any better.

If you know me, you know I LOVE Wu-Tang Clan. There is one aspect of the band/group that has always driven me crazy though. Their visuals. The album covers and designs have always left me feeling cheated. Like the full experience was never realized. Like they’ve been misunderstood and mishandled this whole time and that they’ve never been told or know any better.

I wish they would let me design their album covers. The subject matter they rap about and particularly the eastern aspects like kung fu, shaolin monks, religion, various martial arts references, old movie samples and dialog. Even NYC & Staten Island. The wealth of inspiration to draw from is and always has been endless.  The ability to reinforce their identity established in their lyrics via previously listed subject matter through visual design elements is maybe better than any other group or band i can think of. For sure hip hop. They are more rich with original content than almost anybody else.

I think its one thing that metal, hardcore, punk, rock n roll, indie etc bands have all mastered. Even lame ass hipster bands know they have a look and they reinforce it when they can. MC’s and Rappers live it, look it and breath it just the same. But they seemingly forget or take shortcuts on the design. T.I. for example seems to present at least some semblance of an identity that he’s high class rapping about every day stuff. This is what you get from his CD covers. Jay-Z on the other hand is all over the map.

Rap and Hip Hop have only done this in one way with exceptions and they all do it the same. They also deviate from the path most times. The problem is… not all rap and hip hop is the same. Even though i HATE Kanye hes an exception. Teaming up with Kaws and various artists to create a look that matches what you think his sounds would visualize into. the poppy attitude his tracks have a feeling that is backed up by the attitude of the visuals. When you think Kanye you think about these colors and shapes along side certain songs and hooks.

Tribe called quest had a look and stuck with the the traditional African color pallet.

There is no reason, for a band rich with solid legitimate content like Wu-Tang to have these lame album covers that have no valid relation to them as people, artists or the lyrics. Each one is completely different. They even have what most bands lack. An incredible logo mark that functions perfectly without any accompanying type. I have a Wu-Tang belt buckle on right now. When you see the shape you know its Wu-Tang despite not saying it anywhere. That is so rare for a band to have, and such a luxury I’m not entirely sure I can come up with a good enough example to convey its significance. I’m sure their best selling merchandise consists of the yellow logo on something. Like a black t-shirt. Because fans like their brand. Wu-Tang doesnt seem to know what their sitting on or care too much about their brand outside of the music they create.

As you can see from some of the albums… there’s no real representation of the group in any of them. No visual clues as to what their about. None of them are necessarily bad designs. They’re all just opportunities missed/cop outs. The first one sets the tone for what could have been very interesting. Faceless Urban Ninjas but then the ball is dropped swiftly with the Forever album. I will say my personal taste, that one is bad. the squished image of a hug show, unrelated head shots transformed strange and the pointless globe behind the too large logo.

I may not be the best artist for the job, but i could do better than what they currently have had to date and I understand branding and marketing better than most artists.

While the bellow falls a little short of its potential, like i said. I may not be the best artist for the job. but this is definitely close to what i had in mind. More of a mixture of hip hop/nyc style with eastern traditional style. It’s not incredible by any means, but its better than the above in my opinion simply because you get a feel for what wu-tang represents.

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In one respect, and one respect only, that statement is true. Everything happens for a reason. It however is not relative or devine. That one reason is life. Life happens. Life has always happened and life in some form or another will always happen. People die. people hurt eachother. People lose their jobs so on and so forth.

The only reason for these things is that theyre part of life. If my dog gets out and hit by a car, the only reason to that is that i made a mistake or she found a way out and there was an accident. There is no such thing as something like that setting up acquiring a new dog that will save my life when my house burns down, or that the occasion will be like a lightening bolt to my life which will suddenly motivate me or the opposite where it depresses me and sends me into a downward spiral. In the latter should I descend into depression these people would say once i was out that there was some great lesson i learned and that the death of my pet was the catalyst thus the reason.

These ideas are false and the need to create exterior forces or circumstances for the things we cant control or dont understand is silly. Just bc we dont understand something doesnt make it so. I dont understand how my heart knows to beat. i dont understand how plastics were discovered or how the first homosapien figured out it should walk upright but that homosapien that first walked upright didnt do so bc it knew i would exist therefore making me the “reason”.

I just wish people would let go of all this garbage.

If something good or something bad happens, there is no reason for it except that it is life. Weather you never existed or not, these things would have happened, they will all continue to happen and they always have happened.

This is not to say that there are no chain of events obviously. Certainly we wouldnt have discovered plastics if we never found oil and we wouldnt have built computers without discovering electricity. Things happening as a result of something else happening does not create reason. It is simply part of everything around us that life evolves and goes on.

Instead of these outside forces, things should either be categorized in 1 of 2 ways. By accepting ownership, or by accepting it simply is and had to be. My hypothetical dog got hit by the car bc i left the door open. Ownership. My hypothetical dog got hit bc she chewed the door clean off and ran out.

There are no exterior forces at work except for life. Accept it.

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a case which rendered the death penalty after jurors reportedly consulted the Bible.

Supreme Court declines review of case where jurors consulted Bible