Feeding the hand that bites you

I write blog entries, you write email. Sometimes happy, sometimes not, almost always interesting. Here’s a sampling.

Re “Surfin’ Safari,” reader B. D. writes:

I consider myself pragmatic and neutral on Windows/Apple/Linux/Other issues. But the bad press on Safari seems way out of place. Did the big splash on the web page say “Beta3”? What did anybody expect from a beta release?

Well, the answer to that would either be “more” (in terms of security) or “less” (in terms of bugs). Nobody expects a beta to be perfect, but Safari for Windows is more like an alpha in beta’s clothing.

I got a few reactions to my column about Google’s new Street View (“Smile you’re on Google camera”). J. W. writes:

The incriminating pictures are probably a service to society. Certainly any of the people caught in whatever act could have easily been caught by a cop … or a private investigator. Do you subscribe to the theory that it’s not wrong, so long as you don’t get caught? Well, these folks got caught….. if I got caught doing something else I shouldn’t have been doing, then I guess I’d take responsibility for my behavior. Maybe more people need to do that.

Most of the things people have been captured doing aren’t illegal, just embarrassing. And it’s one thing for some passing stranger to see you doing something stupid, quite another for thousands of strangers to see you do it in perpetuity.

The real question is, do you want to live in a world where you never know if someone is recording your activities, even if it’s only the unblinking eye of a Google van cam? I don’t.

One possible solution: Google could announce when its camera vans will be rolling into your neighborhood, so you’ll know to either a) put on clean underwear or b) stay off the streets. Or maybe it should play a jaunty tune as it passes – the Google Humor Van. Because just giving people the chance to opt out after the fact isn’t enough.

Finally, I heard from an attorney representing an AmeriTrade customer who’s suing the online trading firm for allegedly leaking his email address to pump and dump scammers:

My firm and I are concerned about reports that AmeriTrade has told its accountholders to delete spam directed to the email address registered with AmeriTrade. If this is true, it would likely constitute spoliation of evidence. …Can you please ask your readers NOT to dispose of spam sent to these email addresses and NOT to buy the stock promoted in the spam (although one hopes that if they are readers, that last piece of advice is unnecessary.)

Remember kids, don’t delete those P&D spams, and don’t buy the junk they’re promoting. Frankly, anybody who buys anything they found via spam has got to be a little loony in the tunes.

Itching to express yourself? Scratch out a few notes below or send them to me here. Top tipsters may receive a “I Spy 4 Cringe” bag for their troubles.