Well, I finally got my first Facebook SPAM message.

Now, normally a person’s newsfeed gets rather cluttered up and becomes a sort of spam-feed really but after learning how to filter things out, it becomes much more manageable. For almost a year now, I’ve been following the progress of a game that has been advertised, The Secret War. It has the honour of being the first and only online MMORPG that actually will get me to pay for it. There are other games that I never bothered because I never had the system that could handle it and really couldn’t afford it. This game has so many elements of things that I like (Lovecraft, Conspiracy, Myths) that I can’t ignore.

The company partnered up with Facebook to help promote the game in a kind of pre-release FB-style of game. It’s rather interesting but not overly engaging. Really, I think the point of it is to simply meet other people online and once the game is officially released, there will be some sort of connection. Maybe not, but that’s my feeling.

So, to that end, I started added a TON of people because in the game, if you want to affect more areas, you need more friends. Sure, you could be fine with only 50 or so FB friends but if you want to do more, you need to add friends. Ok, I’ll bite, let’s see where this goes. I started adding friends like MAD. I am up to 1100+ friends now :)

A couple of days ago I got a SPAM message. I was surprised but thought I’d have fun with it. Check it out:

I haven’t heard back from yet.  I’m disappointed.

So then I got this threat from Facebook about blocking my account!

“We received feedback that you sent friend requests to people you don’t know, which isn’t allowed on Facebook. Please only send friend requests to people you know, like classmates, family, friends and coworkers. Otherwise, you could be blocked from sending friend requests.”

Please note the emphasis I added.  You are NOT allowed to add people you don’t know.  So let’s go back to the game where if you want to have more agents you HAVE to add more people.  This essentially limits you to how effective you can be in the game if you follow the rules 100%.  This also means people with more friends are guaranteed to win at the game.  So much for fairness.

Facebook irks me.

Twitter has this interesting feature called ‘protected tweets’.  From Twitter:

When you protect your Tweets, the following restrictions are put in place:

• People will have to request to follow you and each follow request will need approval.
• Protected Tweets will not appear in Twitter search or Google search
• @replies you send to people who aren’t following you will not be seen by those users (because you have not given them permission to see your Tweets)
• You cannot share permanent links to your Tweets with anyone other than your approved followers Your Tweets will only be visible to users you’ve approved
• Other users will not be able to retweet your Tweets.

It’s the italicized one that I want to focus on a bit.  I stumbled upon a way for someone to EASILY  share your tweet.  Any mobile device will have the ability to share content.  I have one guy who protect his tweets and typically I was under the assumption that I could not reshare them, despite that some of them were worth resharing.  My Galaxy Tab 8.9″(indeed any device really) can simply click on an item (internet related in this case) and choose the ‘share’ option after holding the screen for a few moments.  This allows me to email or tweet various links and files.  My main use for this is to share articles to my Evernote account so I can either save them or read them later.  A few days ago I was thinking “Hey, it says I can share to my Tweetcaster program….I wonder if…” and sure enough, the protected tweet was shared as if I found that tweet anywhere else.

Through by-passing Twitter’s ‘protection’ I was able to send out a ‘protected tweet’ without any limitations.

So, don’t be lead into a false sense of security.  Heck, even if this didn’t work, nothing is stopping me from taking a screen shot and posting that, which has been done even after people have deleted their evidence damming-tweets.

‘Mobile Computing’.  That term has been bandied about for a few years now and it’s happening.  Make one wonder if this is the chicken & egg thing.  Would ‘mobile computing have evolved if it wasn’t talked about so much?  Doesn’t really matter, the transition from packaged software media to online purchases (soon to only be online rental cleverly disguised as aaS (Blahblah as a Service). As if they are DONG you a faour by charging you for your time but I digress a little.

*****
So now everyone and their dog has an ‘App Store’.  The death of the Internet aside, these online stores are missing the whole point of going digital.  The biggest cost of products today is the delivery and packaging. The actual cost of development is pretty meger compared to al the rest. This while online capitalism is killing itself fr companies who just don’t get it.  And it truely astonds me when I see a company that was born in the Internet age and would be nothing but obsolete if the Internet ended as we know it.  I’m looking at you VNC.

Case in point:

VNC is short for Virtual Network Computing. Their software allows you to remotely control another computer anywhere in the world, given a decent internet connection.

Somewhere between 1 to 2 years ago, you could go to their website, download the software and get started.  It was all free and it worked remarkably well.  It became a geks best friend as well as a beloved tool for remote computer support.  Now if you go to the site, you have to jump through all kinds of hoops ahd give up all kinds of personal information t get to the download page.  Sure, it’s easy enough to fake the details but what a pain.  Still, it’s free and works just as well.

Fast forward to mobile computing….tablets and smartphones.

All these gadgets have ‘app stores’ where you can download all kinds of ‘apps’. They aren’t as powerful as PC programs due to the limitations of hardware (relatively speaking of course. My Galaxy Tab 8.9″ has 1000s of times more power than a C64) but you don’t need them to be. There are all kinds that are free as well as paid apps. I am all for companies trying to make an income but this is where there is a MAJOR disconnect for manycompanies., like VNC.

Let’s compare the PC version to the App version. The PC version is free. The App version is almost nine bucks. Huh? They do the same but one costs and the other is free. Hell, if anything it should be the other way around because doing remote viewing on screens of a smartphone and tablets is kind of painful when you are calling down the equivalent of a 23″+ screens.

So, what does this have to do with them missing the point of modern capitalism? Remember when I said there are all kinds of free apps as well? Guess what, there is a free version of VNC made by someone else. I am pretty sure that there are some technical and legal reasons why such alternatives are available so let’s put that aside for now.

I want to show definitive proof that VNC has missed the boat. Here is a screenshot of my Android App Store showing VNC app (keeping in mind I am in South Korea, price is in Won, divde by approx 1000 to get US/CD prices):

10,000 sales. That is nice to see. That is nearly $85,000. A decent programmer won’t cost you that much in a year so safe to assume they are making OK money at this.

Now the alternative.

1,000,000 downloads! 1 freaking MILLION! Most people, if they are smart, will opt for a product made by the same company who made the PC version of their software. Obviously when said company decides to charge more than is necessary they miss the boat.

Let’s put forth a crazy idea here. Let’s say that the company understands that mobile computing is here and is stupidly powerful and popular, and actually recognized this fact (I hope I don’t need to remind you of ONE MILLION DOWNLOADS) and decided to only charge $1 for their software. Now do the math…..that’s ONE MILLION DOLLARS!! Gee, do you think tht might make them happy?

OK,OK, so maybe not all one million people will pay, regardless of any cost. I will take a VERY conservative 1%. Now do the math……that’s $100,000. Still more that what they made. 1% is MORE than a fair number.

Three words for ya. Missing. The. Boat.

But wait, there more.

Apple. They ate just as bad. I bought a $25 card t actually go throuthe process of buying from iTunes so I knew ow it worked. I was so thoroughly disgusted with the pricing I saw there I immediately left the iTunes store on my system and did something else. How the hell can they justify charging the same price as a physical DVD or Blu-Ray?! I don’t get any of Tue bonus features k none of the Easter Eggs, zero commentaries and definitely no inserts/pullouts. Fuck them.

Two years later and that credit is STILL sitting in my account.

And the corporations wonder why places like ISOhunt and The Pirate Bay not only exist but flourish with such stupidity.

Oh yeah, before you Apple Fan Boys try and point out that Apple is making money, feel free to do some research into marketing and realize that you’ve been rooked into sounding pompous for saying that “OhI just downloaded that on iTunes”. I’ll laugh when I tell you that I downloaded the same thing but got all the extras for free….actually I won’t. I’ll just not and spend my money I saved from iTunes on more important things…..like a trip to Indonesia or something.

(FYI, I implied the ownership of VNC and used the software name as opposed to the company)

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/facebook-spies-on-phone-users-text-messages-report-says/story-e6frfku0-1226282017490

I keep finding more and more reasons to not go back to Facebook.

And I thought NORTH Korea was bad….

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/south-korea-must-release-activist-charged-over-kim-jong-il-tweet-2012-02-01