IndyGeek.net - Latest Comments

Re: BREAKING: PlayStation.Blog Details “Welcome Back” Program

Johnny — Fri, 20 May 2011 22:35:20 -0000

well than this is a little bit of games then I thought there will be because its been out about 3 weeks almost 4 but we deserve more than just 2 games out of 5 crappy old games that get boring in a few days and you find out that you played it and passed this game 10 times and unlock all the trophies and that is this true and that is how other Playstation 3 owners feel and deserve more free games and DLC and contents for free and this is from a PS3 owner feels that this is outragous

Re: The Future of IndyGeek

Hahnarama — Wed, 18 May 2011 12:55:00 -0000

Bummer

Re: Geek Out with “Today In Geek History”

iOS 4.3.3 — Thu, 05 May 2011 08:10:36 -0000

good useful info buddy.....thanx

Re: Gen Con Update: True Dungeon Events Went Live Sunday

Barry — Wed, 04 May 2011 10:55:34 -0000

We are doing both this year.

Don't forget that ALL events went on sale last Sunday. The tech news here is that the registration process was pretty smooth - unlike past years. Imagine building a cost effective system that get nailed for one hour each year - the rest of the year it gets almost no hits.

Re: Geek Out with “Today In Geek History”

Ron Gaba — Tue, 03 May 2011 23:09:20 -0000

Awesome app for iPhone and Android!

Re: iMac Line Rev Expected Today [Update: iMac revved as of 9:30am]

Alex Conner — Tue, 03 May 2011 09:27:52 -0000

The iMac Was revved http://store.apple.com/us/brow...

Re: Schiller Poo-Poo’s Thicknessgate

Alex Conner — Mon, 02 May 2011 13:42:06 -0000

Honestly, who cares? If your willing to go out and drop another several hundred on a phone just to get the white version then $30 for a new case is nothing. And if you've been holding out to upgrade the the four anyway then your 3G / 3GS case isn't going to fit anyway so your buying a new case anyway.

Re: Schiller Poo-Poo’s Thicknessgate

nzeckner — Mon, 02 May 2011 13:41:49 -0000

It's totally thicker. Other than the bumper cases, I don't know why people are complaining. Seems to me if you really wanted the white phone, and waited this long for it, you'd want to show it off. It seems a case would be moot.

Re: Did Verge Fail the Transparency Test?

Brennan Knotts — Mon, 02 May 2011 07:49:29 -0000

I think it's acceptable and even a good thing to ask for more transparency from an organization that has become an increasingly important part of the tech community. If you'll indulge my "everyone's a critic" proclivities for a minute though - you chose a trivial event to raise transparency questions.

Isn't a bigger, more important question, "What's the criteria for choosing a presenting company in the first place?" Also, as an invested member in Verge, don't you want to know how decisions get made that affect you and the event? Don't you want to know how you can make your opinions heard?

I think the fact that you're asking for transparency is a huge compliment to how far the event has come. It's also a sign that members are invested, which is what's necessary to move this event and the community forward.

Unfortunately, while the title of this post is strong, the content is really just a nitpick.

Re: Did Verge Fail the Transparency Test?

John Fox — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 15:27:16 -0000

I understand that the purpose of your comment wasn't to flame me. I perhaps took my reaction a bit out of proportion and for that I apologize.

IndyGeek is a news site. Yes, we run tech community posts but at our core, we report news. Sometimes the news is good and sometimes it's not.

Initially I overlooked it, but when I started to hear that people were beginning to think along the same lines as I did originally, then that tells me there *might* be something worth reporting. I will agree with you that publishing this story as quick as we did might not have been the best choice. For that I apologize.

Re: Did Verge Fail the Transparency Test?

mileszs — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 15:10:26 -0000

You're welcome to email me if you feel you could better express yourself privately. (I'm assuming you can get my email through this comment system.) Perhaps I should've done that instead of commenting on your post. I apologize for not thinking of that.

Re: Did Verge Fail the Transparency Test?

mileszs — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 15:04:06 -0000

Look: I'm not trying to flame you, or question your integrity. I was attempting to be constructive. I do, however, believe that this is irresponsible, and not news. I read the part about you having asked for info from Hunckler, which is part of my question; I thought a journalist would normally wait to hear from sources. You're not going to scoop anyone in Indy, man. There's no rush.

What it appears to me is happening here is attempting to create controversy where 1) it doesn't currently exist, 2) it's potentially damaging to the local community -- a local community that is up-and-coming, and is potentially a boon for the city, Indy Geeks and Indy Non-geeks alike. I guess I thought of Indy Geek as a community site on same team as Verge. The hometown team. I didn't, until now, think of Indy Geek as an investigative reporting outlet covering networking events and user group meetings.

If you thought the email should've been worded different, shoot Matt an email, man. It's even less effort.

Re: Did Verge Fail the Transparency Test?

John Fox — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 14:47:16 -0000

This post was not written with malice intended. I received information and I ran with the story. As I stated above, "We’ve contacted Verge co-founder Matt Hunckler for more detail about the situation and we’ll share that information as we receive it." That is the case. When I receive information from him, I will update the post accordingly.

The purpose of this site is to convey news, both positive and negative, in the best journalistic sense possible. We highlight good news and have done so for sometime. Just because we run what you interpret to be a negative post doesn't mean we aren't doing what we're supposed to. In fact, if all we did was highlight the positive and ignored the issues that surround us, we wouldn't be doing what ethical news outlets do.

Re: Did Verge Fail the Transparency Test?

mileszs — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 14:40:48 -0000

I don't understand why you would post this, which reads to me like it's "calling out" Verge founder Matt Hunckler, without _waiting_ to hear back from him first. Aren't we all in this together? Don't we all want Indy to be awesome?

Matt's a great guy, and he works hard to put Verge together. It seems unnecessary to attribute malice to what is likely a simple mistake. Could you explain your motivation for this article?

Re: Portals and Potatoes: A Portal 2 Review [PS3]

Andrew — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 11:50:54 -0000

Still playing Portal2 (almost done I think). The co-op has been a lot of fun to play with my son who is a huge fan of the game. Nice review!

Re: The Daily Dose for April 26, 2011

nzeckner — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 08:43:54 -0000

Re: Nook Apps

From what I understand, B&N isn't calling the Nook a tablet. It's an "enhanced eReader." Maybe this is their reasoning in not allowing the phone/tablet integration you're talking about. Remember, the Nook (even my eInk version) has always ran Android. Just more fragmentation in the Android space.

Re: iPhone Privacy Scare: Relax, People!

Barry — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 08:41:47 -0000

John, thanks for the voice of reason.

Re: Portals and Potatoes: A Portal 2 Review [PS3]

Barry — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 08:36:57 -0000

Loved Portal 2. Completion time for single player for me was around six hours, but I spend some time just looking at the details. Word is that there are a number of Easter Eggs that I may ho back and look for.

I have the xbox version and cooperative play is fun there as well.

Re: iPhone Privacy Scare: Relax, People!

John Fox — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 08:27:33 -0000

testing...

Re: Jailbroken iPhones Have GPS Tracking Fix

Chris Vannoy — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 14:13:32 -0000

And you can say the same of almost any mobile device.

At the end of the day, I'll trust the company that makes the vast majority of its money off software and hardware more than the company that makes the vast majority of its money off targeted advertising (which, you know, could really take advantage of this sort of data).

Re: Jailbroken iPhones Have GPS Tracking Fix

Alex Conner — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:58:38 -0000

Plain and simple, I have no way to tell what Apple is sending over the 3G connection unless I want to build my own rogue cell tower. And something's only illegal if you can prove it.

Re: Jailbroken iPhones Have GPS Tracking Fix

Chris Vannoy — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:46:43 -0000

Just to drive the point home: https://github.com/packetlss/a...

And I'd be a hell of a lot more worried about some app off the Android Marketplace getting away with nefarious uses.

The long and short: You want a "smart" phone? It has to have a memory. And this one's as private as it likely can be.

Re: Jailbroken iPhones Have GPS Tracking Fix

Chris Vannoy — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:34:15 -0000

You can track the network usage pretty easily and this data isn't sent anywhere. If it were, I'd be the first one up in arms.

And Apple would be breaking the law, pure and simple.

http://law.onecle.com/californ...

Another nitpick while I'm thinking of it: It's not GPS data. It's the rough triangulation fix from nearby cell towers. It doesn't pinpoint exactly where you are, but rather general vicinity. For instance, mine says I went to Pontiac, Illinois. Never been there, but I likely had to hook up with a cell tower around there at some point.

My point of all this is: Your cell phone records what you do (even your rooted Android phone knows who you've called, who called you and such), and this one has a reasonable legitimate purpose of caching which cell tower's closest.

If it was sending it somewhere, yeah, freak out. But it sits harmlessly on your phone and in your backups.

Being paranoid about a phone just because you're not (legally) allowed to root it is just that: paranoia. This data sits in my pocket and on my laptop. Nobody else, even Apple, can access it without physical access to one of those points (unless I'm a moron mucking around with Apple's security settings on the laptop). And if they changed things so they could, I'd be the first one out and they'd be in a lot of legal trouble.

If this really freaks you out so much: Just switch off location services on the phone, or encrypt your backups.

This is a tempest in a teapot and so much bullshit.

Further reading: https://alexlevinson.wordpress...

Re: Jailbroken iPhones Have GPS Tracking Fix

Alex Conner — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 12:55:34 -0000

Chris,

Saying an Apple device is a device that's in your control is also a very misleading statement. Nobody has any way to know for sure what the device is doing due to the restricted access Apple has granted anyone outside of their world.

Re: iPhone, 3G iPad Stores GPS Coordinates

nzeckner — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 10:09:40 -0000

Its my understanding your wireless company is already doing this. I'm much more concerned with apps that are selling that same data to advertisers (ie Pandora).