I won't tell her name here. What you need to know is that my sweet Balinese friend, who likes kids and crafts, has been sentenced to a jail time of 18 month for, basically, having used her flashdisk.

She works in Bali, in a small painting and craft shop.
What they do is, they build picture catalogs from examples taken in magazines or on the web, and commission them to painters on customers orders.

Last year, she thought she could start her own business, and built a small website using some of her shop's references.
Keep in mind, these references don't belong to anybody in particular, they are just the result of some image search.
But apparently her boss didn't appreciate, and asked her to close the website.
Which she did.

It wasn't enough. Maybe Mr. Boss smelled good money, and he sued her for unfair competition.
Time passed, and many parties got involved.
It didn't take too long to find out there was no harm done business wise, but hey, you gotta get the money a way or another, so Mr.Boss sued her again, this time for illegal copy of digital material.

That's were things got really wrong.
See, worldwide, the law is already blurry when it comes to digital material... but in Indonesia it's even worse. First of nobody gives a damn, then the law stops at the basic anti-piracy jibber-jabber.

You can consult it online,  and if you speak the language, what you will read there is asinine.
"Any data accessed without explicit permission of the owner is considered accessed Illegally", that's what the law says.
Which is funny since you don't see any definition of "permission" and "ownership".
In Indonesia, it seems, browsing the web is illegal.

I am not a lawyer, but looking at the fact with some common sense you can see that a person not contractually tied by an NDA (or, actually by any kind of work contract) copying from a computer accessible to anybody, not protected by a password or any other means, files that are obtainable everywhere on the web, and using them in a way that was never meant to arm and did not cause any arm should never be legally worried, in any country.

There is something very wrong behind that sentence, especially since you consider that the murderers of three Ahmadi, in Cikeusik, earlier this year, received between 3 and 6 month of emprisonment.

Please look again.

Using a flash disk: 18 months
Murder: 6 months

As I am writing these lines, I am not sure of what will happen next, my friend had a very tough time, was involved in a pretty heavy bike accident just before being dragged to court.
She told me once she would rather die than go to jail. In another context, I wouldn't worry, but today she is emotionally exhausted, with not a dime left in her pocket to appeal, and about to be robbed 18 month of her life.I am worried she might attempt to arm herself.

This post is a cry for help. If you are a journalist, a fundation, a lawyer, please spread the news, help her appeal or take her case pro-bono. Help her and undo something very, very wrong.

You can contact me on on any of my social account, or via nojailforflashdisk[at]gmail.com , she needs all the help we can muster.

 

Posted via email from @Danny_Fr

Here is a very quick trick to add the Google +1 button to any site you visit by using a bookmarklet.
So far I have tested it on Firefox and Chrome without problem.

1. Copy the following code

javascript:function go(){var d=document;if(window.top==window.self){var oH=d.getElementsByTagName('HEAD').item(0);var oS=d.createElement("script");oS.type="text/javascript";oS.src="https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js";oH.appendChild(oS);var oB=d.getElementsByTagName('body').item(0);var oBu=d.createElement("div");var oBuS=oBu.style;oBuS.position="fixed";oBuS.zIndex="10000";oBuS.top="25px";oBuS.left="15px";oBu.innerHTML="<g:plusone></g:plusone>";oB.appendChild(oBu);}}go();

2. Manually add a new bookmark

In Firefox, you can do that either via the bookmark manager (Bookmarks -> Organize bookmarks->Bookmark toolbar) or by right clicking on the bookmark toolbar (make sure 'load in sidebar' is unchecked).
In Chrome, the fastest way is to add any page as a bookmark and click 'edit' when the confirmation pop-up comes out.

3. Paste the code in the 'location' field (Firefox) or 'URL' field (Chrome)

4. Give it a siny name and save the bookmark

Now any time you click on this bookmark, the +1 button will appear on the top left corner of your page.

Note: This post is a follow up to my previous post "Add Google +1 button to any site with this GreaseMonkey script".

Posted via email from @Danny_Fr

Yup. Now you can add yourself, from your browser, the Google  +1 button to all every site you visit.
It's the very fisrt version, and it needs much improvement.
I'm thinking of triggering it from a keyboard shortcut and adding some more features.

If you don't know how to use it yet, just check out the tutorial I wrote here, the steps are the same :)

Here is the little bugger, just for you guys:

_______________________________________

 

// ==UserScript==
// @name           PlusOneEverything
// @namespace      PlusOneEverything
// @include        *
// ==/UserScript==

if (window.top == window.self)
 {

var oHead = document.getElementsByTagName('HEAD').item(0);
var oScript= document.createElement("script");
oScript.type = "text/javascript";
oScript.src="https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js";
oHead.appendChild( oScript);

var oBody = document.getElementsByTagName('body').item(0);
var oButton= document.createElement("div");
oButton.style.position = "fixed";
oButton.style.zIndex = "10000";
oButton.style.top = "25px";
oButton.style.left = "15px";
oButton.innerHTML = "<g:plusone></g:plusone>";
oBody.appendChild( oButton );
}

_______________________________________

I'll turn that into a Firefox extension soon. Stay tuned :)

 

Posted via email from @Danny_Fr

LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner has been quoted in the Business Insider, stating that users won't find time for Google+.
It would stop at that, I would call him a fool. But then, later in the article, he mentions that, for Google+ to work, another social platform will have to fall.  Let me tell you who will fall and what to get from it.

 

Let's start with the cool stuff: video, chat, mobile, and yeah... the circles.

The circles are one of the smartest dumb idea I have seen so far: A graphic version of Facebook lists. Nothing innovative, it's just easy to use.
You hear, Facebook? E.a.s.y.

Video and chats come next, while FB chat is heavy and erratic, Google serves us with their excellent implementation of the XMPP protocol we all know via gTalk. On the interface level, the chat is not intrusive and actually lets you CHOSE when you want to discuss. And it does it with video.

Where it surprises: 'sparks' and 'incoming', or the end of friending.

Sparks are a good way to get the information you need based on your interest, while 'incoming' will show you the streams of people who're following you but you're not yet following.
These features are already powerful when looked at individually, supported by the Google's long experience in feed reading and struggles with privacy and/or data relevance. When combined, they simply mean the end of Friending. Which is not a bad thing.

Where it bites: integration.

Google has everything: Search engine, e-mail, chat, apps, browser, calendar, maps and places, news reader, document viewers and more...
Now, that would be really stupid not to take advantage of all this pre-existing material, right?
What you can be sure of, is that Google+ intends to become a full fledged OS and Web integrated platform, stretching from enterprise integration to social gaming.
Just take a minute to look at their already killer notification system, accessible from their search engine or from gMail, you'll see what I mean.

Where it hurts: mobile

One circle to bring them all and into the darkness bind them.
One little mobile application, a framework to link G+ to android apps and there you go, you've got yourself an all in one solution.

Facebook and Twitter: punched in the face.

You don't need friending on Twitter, but the looking for relevant data is a brain torture. You like your good old Facebook, but not only it's getting more crowded with adds everyday, it also gets more complicated and, come on, it's so 2007.
The truth is, Google+ has the potential to do everything Twitter and Facebook do, but better, with a cleaner interface and all the additions listed above.

The coutdown: RIP, RIM.

Research In Motions has been launching betas of his social framework for BBM for a while now, and we're not seeing anything consitant yet.
This is too bad for them, since they don't have anything to offer save their 'exclusive' enterprise and messaging services.
Their primary mistake was trying to do it alone, sticking to their own closed systems and proprietary hardware. While they were trying to reinvent the wheel with the Playbook and their new not-so-innovative-anymore social feats, they jumped-in way too late, with too little to offer. Google just went around their strategy and did the exact opposite, offering a comprehensive app suite available for everyone.

I don't see them getting out of that situation unless they do something drastic, such as opening BBM or porting it to other platforms.

Collective Asses given a life lesson:

Trial and error. That's about it. We've been repeatedly laughing while pointing at Orkut, Wave and Buzz while big G was jubilating, watching the critics pile up in the shape of a nice how-to for there future product.
My skeptical self still believes (as, apparently, they do) in the 'wait and see' approach, but G+ is adding a million users a day and has a surprising level of maturity for a product so new. I see a huge success, cake for everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted via email from @Danny_Fr

Yeah yeah yeah.
I just stumbled on a Yahoo! article (in Indonesian) calling all internet users to arms, with a strong password as their weapon.

So, all along the article, they beat around the 'please do not use 123456 as a password' theme and leave it at that. Good one, Yahoo! I still have friends who never ever remember their passwords.

Chosing a strong password is good, but how the heck are you supposed to remember " h4Xxx0|2l337fgalFUb@r30" ?
Hint: you're not.

But here, I am going to give you a trick that will make you feel like you have some sort of super power:
I am going to make you remember D4nFr&&Bl0g11.

Just follow the rules:

1. Pick a name you're sure to remember, nickname or pet name : Dan
2. Pick your family name, or a second nickname in relation with the first one: DanFr
3. Pick a random separator: DanFr&& (and)
4. Pick a word that has someting to do with the site you're using: DanFr&&Blog
5. Add the date (birhday, year of creation, last 2 or 3 digits): DanFr&&Blog11
6. Replace all vocals with numbers: D4nFr&&Bl0g11

Why you will remember?

Because the password is separated is two parts: your name, and the context. You won't forget your name unless you had that many beers, and the context will be pretty obvious. Now, if you're not an used to the technique yet, you can still write down the template somewhere safe: NameOtherNameANDx2ContextYear.
Oh and yes, you can actually read it aloud: Dan Efer And Blog Eleven :)

I know it looks a bit complex, so here is another way to make your passwords hard to guess for both machines and humans alike, with passwords such as: donkey123&&098yeknod

1. Pick a word you like: donkey
2. Add the 3 first digits on the second keyboard row: donkey123
3. Pick a random separators: donkey123&&
4. Add the 3 last digit on the second keyboad row, backward: donkey123&&098
5. Add the word you just picked, backward: donkey123&&098yeknod

 

Why you will remember?

Because the password is symmetrical. You type the same thing twice, but after the separator, you type it backward ;)

Why are these passwords safe?

• You can create your own rules and rely on the templates
• They mix lower case, upper case, numbers and special characters (neither machines nor humans are good at guessing all that)
• They use words that don't exist, limiting dictionnary based attacks
• They are long enough to discourage even a computer

You're still desperate?

If you're in search for the simplest solution... try that: &wakeupgrababrushandputalittlemakeup&.
These are the lyrics of a song you love, plus a couple of special character to frame them, like a nice picture in your mind.
It's not as strong as the first two methods, but that can do for an emergency ;)

Keep safe!

(picture source: http://www.worldofantiques.net/74.jpg)

 

 

Posted via email from @Danny_Fr

It's pretty easy to give advices but...
...are you really sure you are actually walking in your own footsteps before advising someone else to do so?

This post is the copy of an answer I have written on Quora, quite a while ago.
Except when migrating, I don't usually move my content from a platform to another, but this very text is somewhat special to me.
This very text is an advice I did follow before relaying it, and am still following by now.

It works wonders.

The question was:

 

Is it better to make bad decisions versus not making any decisions?

Here is the my answer:

 

My late mother would always say: "A walking idiot will always go further than a sitting genius."

What I've witnessed in my long, rich and wise life (cue recorded laughter):

• If you don't make a decision, life will make one for you, and it's not sure that you'll like it.
• If you make a good decision, in some cases you'll never know it's a good decision since you can't try out the other possibilities.
• If you make a bad decision, you'll get some experience out of it, at least you'll know, for instance, that "hold that beer for me and look at that" is not the right end of a thought process.
• If you make an informed decision you will, at least, be rewarded by knowing that you did your very best, which is the most you can do in life.
• If you make an uninformed decision, you'll experience the thrill of the unknown, or the disappointment of knowing that no, that's not the way you fold a parachute after all.

Also, see it like that: if you're in a car and come to an intersection where you either have to turn right or left, if you wait too long you'll end up going straight and crashing into a wall.
Even if there is a wall at the end of one of the roads, your probability of crash is 100% if you don't decide, and 50% if you do.

In conclusion, to my mind, it's better to decide.

Tried and foolproof.

 

Posted via email from Walking down the dragon's back

I have been working in the web development industry since 1999, I kid you not.
During all these years, nearly everything has changed except for one: greed.

That was true while I was working in France and is a fact here in Indonesia: companies want "cheap internets".
Actually, when it comes to IT they want cheap everything, from their system admins to their online campaign.

The results of having a cheap sysadmin, pirated softwares, amateurish websites and apathetic marketing are a virus-ridden network, non-existent customer service, and a below average brand image.
The corollary of these results... is a technical/strategic bottleneck that can ultimately translate into a total failure.

Of course you could think "Well ok, if a company choses price over quality, it's their problem, let them fail".

Unfortunately it doesn't work like that.

When a majority of companies in an industry ends up preffering money to experience, the whole industry suffers, and on a larger scale, the whole economy, and there is why:

'Cheap' is given the wrong meaning.

When it comes to workforce and services, cheap usually means that you will pay less for less value.
What it should mean is that you will pay less than the actual value, that is, pay less for the same standards and quality.

Why is this difference so crucial?

Say you are looking for a graphic designer. If you are willing to pay less for less value, you will attract a crowd of less talented/productive/reliable candidates. These flaws can come from a lack of experience, and anybody has the right to a first job, so theoritically there shouldn't be a problem, right?
Well, there will be a problem if you keep on doing it: you will demotivate the more talented candidate, who will either drop their prices and deliver a lower quality work or find something else to do because their current occupation just doesn't pay the bills. Oh, and the inexperienced ones you started with... they will leave you once they've learned enough, and join the 'talented and jobless' club.
Their little brothers and sisters and cousins will see how disappointing it is to do such a job, and as another side effect,  will spend their precious education money on something else.

And one day, you'll hear yourself say: "I don't understand, I can't find a good graphic designer" and "Why are all middle sized companies' websites looking like they were made in 2000?".

This, is true for any kind of workforce you are going to need in your industry, and for any industry as well.
The popular saying goes "If you pay peanuts, you'll get monkeys"...

How I see it is: "If everybody pays peanuts, there will be nothing left but monkeys".

And if you still don't believe me, try to find a good plumber in Jakarta.

Posted via email from @Danny_Fr