You’re probably thinking to yourself right now, great, another fanboy coming to Apple’s rescue.

WRONG!

What the fuck Apple? Seriously, what the fuck? Is there a good reason for keeping track of this data? I mean seriously, what are you doing with it?

Actually, there is a good reason for it and its all about advertising. The guys at work have heard this on multiple occasions that the iPod, iPhone, iTouch, iPad are all marketing devices. Mainly for selling anything and everything from iTunes but with iAd, they can now sell you anything. It turns out with a little googling you can find that the Terms and Conditions changed with iOS 4 and there was a feature explained that Apple can track you to provide more relevant ads to your phone. And to also provide features such as Find My iPhone.

To provide location-based services on Apple products, Apple and our partners and licensees may collect, use, and share precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device. This location data is collected anonymously in a form that does not personally identify you and is used by Apple and our partners and licensees to provide and improve location-based products and services. For example, we may share geographic location with application providers when you opt in to their location services.

Some location-based services offered by Apple, such as the MobileMe “Find My iPhone” feature, require your personal information for the feature to work.

Apple and its partners use cookies and other technologies in mobile advertising services to control the number of times you see a given ad, deliver ads that relate to your interests, and measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns. If you do not want to receive ads with this level of relevance on your mobile device, you can opt out by accessing the following link on your device: http://oo.apple.com. If you opt out, you will continue to receive the same number of mobile ads, but they may be less relevant because they will not be based on your interests. You may still see ads related to the content on a web page or in an application or based on other non-personal information. This opt-out applies only to Apple advertising services and does not affect interest-based advertising from other advertising networks.

So does this make it right? No, I don’t think so. I think this sort of tracking is very very wrong. If you want to put up a service like this, it should be in the app to disclose my location. If I’m a developer, I have to allow for this pop up to appear. But apparently apple and their iAds do not. That is where we have an issue. The end user is used to the pop up appearing and only then does their location information get used. However, Apple apparently bypasses this for their iAd service which is not honoring the end user wishes in all cases.

So what can you do?

I know I only have myself to blame for this one as I should have read the terms and conditions more closely. But there is a way out of it. Just as you read above, simply go to http://oo.apple.com/ on your iOS device and you can opt out of the tracking. (Credit Geeky-Gadgets.com for this post.

What about Google

Don’t worry Android fans, you’re not left out in the cold either. Turns out the Wall Street Journal has discovered that Google is also transmitting data from the Android.

And don’t forget about the google street cars and their tomfoolery.

There is a site out there that can map the location of your wireless router via the Google Android’s Wardriving Database. I put in the mac address of my wireless router and was not surprised to find it in there with a GPS coordinate of my street. Awesome!

So now what?

Like many people out there, I was pretty pissed at Apple and Google to begin with. But at the same time, its my own damn fault, I didn’t read the Terms and Conditions like I should.

We live in a society of ever increasing intrusions into our private lives. These intrusions must be fought off in order to keep our private lives private. So my friends, opt out whenever you can and stay vigilant of new “features” that are released. Your privacy is only good if you fight to protect it.

1. Refresh Rates – My client likes to go into stupid mode for hours or days at a time. If I don’t notice and hit refresh, I simply won’t get updates. While nice for the lack of distraction, its still a bug that’s easy to spot.
2. Spaces – For the love of god people, spaces!!!! Its one of the killer features of OSX. Yet, you don’t respect it at all. No matter what, I get the damn Twitter app on every space, not just one. I like your app and all, I just don’t like it THAT much.

So Twitter, help a brother out and fix your app.

And no, this isn’t all sunshine and freaking rainbows.

The reason that I’m writing this is that recently FlipBoard raised another round of funding with a 200 million dollar valuation.

Excuse me? 200 million?!?!?!

Based on what? Seriously, I’ve gotta know. Do they have a unicorn in their office. Because I could generate some serious fucking cash from a unicorn. Just think of the number of people you could pack into a stadium to see a unicorn. At $5 bucks a pop just to see me parade out the unicorn for 15 minutes would do it. A US tour alone could raise 200 million let alone going international. Its a unicorn after all.

Surely they have major revenue streams pouring in right? Wrong. In the article you will see that at the recent SXSW, the CEO admitting that they have ZERO dollars in revenue so far! You’re supposedly worth 200 million bucks and you’ve made dick so far, seriously, there better be a unicorn in your office.

So what’s the solution? Surely its a solid business plan. The model is basically this:

Right now, the Flipboard app is free and the business plan is advertising and some possible subscription scenarios.

Some ads might get you some money coming in, I won’t deny you that. But seeing as you have been out since July and have made a fat goose egg in 9 months, I wouldn’t hold my breath on that being the ticket to profits. But let’s examine the most important line of that business plan, Right now you can download Flipboard for free. Free as in beer. Free as in air, free as in freedom.

Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot! This is EASILY a $2.99 app.

Let’s have some fun with math shall we. There are 15 million iPads out there to date and that’s before the big iPad2 announcement. So let’s say for arguments sake that since you are a popular app that you are getting 5% of those 15 million users. Just a mere 5%. That’s 750,000 downloads and if you charged $3 would be $2.25 million. After Apple’s 30%, you still have $1.58 million in your pocket. Wow, good thing its free! I’d hate to have that kind of money in my company.

So FlipBoard, let’s see where you get with ads and subscriptions for your app. I really hope you guys make it and can turn this thing into a profitable, sustainable company. You might prove me wrong yet but I’m not holding my breath on this one. Clearly I could be wrong, but I’m not the asshole that left a couple million bucks on the table.

Now, all of these people pretty much ran on 2 issues. Jobs and the economy. So far, here are the priorities that they have put first:

• Stop gay marriage
• Discriminate based on religious beliefs
• Stop early pre-school (or at least make it more difficult)
• And now – ban abortions and many forms of contraceptives.

When you guys lose your seats at the next election, try not to be too shocked.

Dumbasses!

And no, I’m not a Democrat or Republican. I’m barely a “little l” libertarian. I’d rather vote none of the above but I don’t have that option.

Why I hate the Mediacom portal

1. One of my biggest pet peeves is that I cannot setup my credit card to be charged on a monthly recurring basis through the portal. They can accept a one time payment, but not recurring. In order to set up recurring payments, I have to call a customer support representative. When you call them, they cannot take your information either. Uh…what? Instead, they send you a form to fill out and send back in. If the process is to fill out a form and send it in via snail mail, let me DOWNLOAD THE FREAKING FORM ONLINE!!!!!
2. I can however place a one time payment at any time. However, you can place a one time payment multiple times and the owed amount never gets updated. For example, I apparently paid my bill online multiple times last month. So this month I owed a pathetic amount of $11.08. Which I paid several hours ago. Yet, when I go back to look at my balance, lo and behold, it appears that I still owe $11.08. Maybe I should pay it again.

An olive branch

While I appreciate being able to pay my bill online, I get extremely frustrated by the design and meager abilities of the portal. As a programmer, I find the whole site frustrating to use and annoying that it hasn’t been updated or fixed in quite a while.

If someone from Mediacom happens to find this post, please feel free to contact me about a consulting engagement (use the Call Me option on the right). Not only will I be able to help you identify what is wrong, I can probably just fix the problem for you as well. It will be better for both you and your customers.

As many of my close friends know, I moved from the Beaverdale area to Ankeny about a year ago. For the most part, it was a pretty good experience. But there are a few things that I feel the need to warn people about if they are buying or selling a house in the greater Des Moines Area. Mainly, a certain Realtor to completely avoid at all costs. They have been nothing but a pain in the ass.

Now, before I start off, I do not think all realtors are bad. I know that no matter what profession you are in, there are good people and bad. As a matter of fact, I can’t say enough good things about the Realtors that were representing us. They were outstanding in every aspect. It was the Realtor that we were buying our house from. Here’s the brief run down of what happened….

In the early part of 2009, we were flip flopping between moving, staying, moving, fixing up the place and selling, fix it up and stay, definitely fix it up and stay, wait this is a cool house we should check out, we’re staying, putting an offer in, house is on the market, etc etc etc.

After the long process of finding a house, we put an offer in and wrote our earnest check which was delivered by our Realtor to their office. Everything was well on its way and we were narrowing in on a closing date after a few small items like the home inspection.

Unfortunately, the home inspection revealed a rather nasty issue, RADON! Nothing that a little mitigation coiuldn’t take care of. However, this is not a cheap ticket item. It typically runs in the $1,400-$2,500 range depending on what all needs to be done. The estimate for this place was around $1,500 and we, as the buyers, wanted the sellers to pay for it. So we wrote an addendum to the contract based on the results of the inspection.

Now, typically you would think that this is something that you would get back relatively shortly if someone wanted to sell their house. And the couple that we were buying from most definitely did. They unfortunately were getting a divorce and this quickly became an excuse for the seller’s realtor. We’re not sure if it was a legit excuse or not, but one we heard over and over. Even our Realtors at the very end couldn’t get their proceeds check due to this issue…supposedly.

So, quick response? Nope. Not a damn thing. Nothing! It was a freaking week before we heard anything. Even the seller’s Realtor had gone silent. Not a text, email, call. Nothing! Our Realtor had to call the manager of that branch to get some movement. Do they want to sell the freaking house or not, WTF?!?!? At least answer a damn email won’t you!

And we finally did get a response from them. They were going to take care of it. Customer service was dead from this agent. So we trudge on thinking that everything will go smoothly.

And here is the fun part. Our financing needs to have a copy of the deposited earnest money check. So we ask for it from the ReMax agent. It is at this point, 2 weeks after we have signed the accepted offer that we hear, we never got a check.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!?!

Our Realtor is on the freaking ball. We’ve known her to be top notch and she has the freaking awards to prove it. When our realtor states she did something, you bet your ass she did something. So I know for a fact that our check was delivered. And by law, they HAVE to deposit that check into an account within 72 hours.

For those not getting the full picture here. This real estate company is so freaking messed up that 1, they were breaking the law and didn’t know it and 2, didn’t realize that they didn’t have the check until WE brought it up. That should NEVER EVER HAPPEN!!!

So back and forth the realtors go. We move forward on cancelling the check and simply have to bring another $1000 to the table when we close since it wasn’t put in an earnest account as expected. The unfortuante thing is, to put a long term cancel on a check, it costs you $50. So for the realtor to lose my check, it is going to cost me $50 to make sure it does not get cashed in the future. Our realtor thought that their realtor should cover those costs. So an addendum was created for $50.

Guess when we heard back on the $50 addendum. As we’re signing the papers, via text, to our agent. She sat on that puppy for 2 weeks before letting us know at the 11th hour.

Here is the scary part, I’m pretty sure that the sellers had no clue that this clusterfuck was even going on. How would you like to be in that position knowing that we could have walked away from everything since the check was lost. That’s right, the deal was never fully signed at that point.

So for all of you looking to sell your central Iowa home in 2010, AVOID Kathy Nelson from Remax like the freaking plague.

Instead, I HIGHLY recommend Vicki Plank and Denny Junius from Iowa Realty. Go with them, you’ll be happy you did!

I’ve heard it called Silicon Prarie before, but I hadn’t heard of the Brain Belt. Back when I worked in Green Bay WI, we used to call it the Silicon Tundra. They of coarse are all just made up names to talk about the tech boom that is happening in the midwest.

Just in Des Moines, we have some pretty impressive tech companies. My current employer LightEdge Solutions is head quartered here. We’re the first company to tie Microsoft’s OCS messaging system to a Broadsoft VoIP platform for hosted consumption.

But we’re far from the only guys doing cool stuff around here…

BitMethod – iPhone apps and more.
Dwolla – Web + Dollar = Dwolla. Think ridiculously cheap paypal.

And then you have other things such as Google building an impressive data center in Council Bluffs Iowa. Microsoft just announced a new data center in the greater Des Moines area.

So what’s the big attraction to the midwest?

Well, besides being incredibly good looking, we’re hard working and pretty freaking smart as well. Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin have been ranked as having some of the top schools in the nation for decades. That doesn’t happen by accident.

The cost of living in the midwest is also a lot lower than our counterparts on the coasts. I did a quick survery using CNN Money for the cost of living for Des Moines vs San Fran and Queens NY. Here are the results if I made say $75,000 in Des Moines Iowa.

Not only is the cost of living cheaper, we’ve been voted one of the top 100 places to live, best place to raise a family, have the best drinking water, and quite simply the Best Places for Business and Careers.

Its about time we got some respect yo!

Smart, hardworking employees living in places that are quite simply, nice.

Should it be a surprise to anyone that tech is quickly moving forward in a place that has been known to the rest of the country as “fly over” country?

Well, not only are we going to continue to be the Grain Belt of the world, we’re also going to be known as the Brain Belt. Though I still prefer Silicon Prairie. It seems to make a lot more fun of those San Francisco companies.

Death to the fail whale they are calling it. Maybe so, but what really got me was this.

Twitter will have full control over network and systems configuration, with a much larger footprint in a building designed specifically around our unique power and cooling needs.

Uh, what?

What could possible be unique to your power and cooling needs opposed to well, ANYONE ELSE RUNNING A FUCKING DATA CENTER?

Sure they have a metric crapton more users than you or I will ever have. But unique cooling and power needs?!?! Bullshit!

Yes you have servers, routers, SAN cabling, racks upon racks of gear. We get it, you’re a big site. But that doesn’t make you suddenly special. Just because you have a lot of cooling and power needs doesn’t make you suddenly unique to the rest of the world.

I work for a company that has several large data centers. We host more companies than I probably even know about. And you know what, we use a LOT of power and cooling. Why you ask, we’re a freaking data center, its what we do.

While building a data center gives you other benefits which you have listed (customization and flexibility), its doesn’t make you special so stop acting like it.

So with that baseline set…here’s something that I’ve noticed recently. iTunes has definitely started pushing more of the cast albums at me in their weekly “what’s new” marketing emails. Here’s the thing about the Glee cast versions of songs…when listening to the sample track, it doesn’t get me to buy the song. Instead, it makes me search to find the original song because their cover reminds me of how awesome the original version was.

Does this happen to anyone else?