Memopal: Avoid!

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The recent post I made about Mozy received a few comments, concerned with a piece of software called Memopal. Akismet identified one of them as spam, but the other one got through. Looked pretty much like a regular comment:

I’ve read on Wikipedia about remote backup and I tried some services, but the only one I bought is Memopal.

Memopal offers a search engine online that helps me find archived documents in few seconds. Some Competitors have a search engine too but it’s very slow and usually it is not online.
Memopal is online storage, online backup and file sharing services into one product.

Memopal saves all versions of my documents. Moreover I have two computers, desktop ad laptop, and I can install Memopal on both buying only one license. It’s great!

But googling it, it’s completely identical to something posted elsewhere, namely here, at the end of last week.

The other comment was more of the same, and had been posted in a bunch of different places by a character name of “michelle79”.

Memopal: Don’t post spam comments. It’s really bad publicity, and makes you seem like scammers and cheats. I certainly wouldn’t want to buy any license from you, if that’s the sort of marketing strategies you employ.

Mozy: Privacy an illusion?

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One of my friends, Søren, posted a post yesterday about the backup-system Mozy, that he had been using for his mac. Apparently, the software is just great, but this isn’t what concerns him.

Looking at the Mozy privacy statement, they have the regular reassuring bit:

We will not sell or market the email addresses or other collected personal information of registered Users to third parties.

We will not view the files that you backup using the Service.

We may view your file system information (file extensions, sizes etc. but not your file contents) to provide technical support.

That’s all fine. The part that worries Søren is this:

Mozy, Inc. may disclose Personal Data, including the data you back up with the Service, with or without notice (a) if required by a subpoena or other judicial or administrative order, (b) where required by law, or (c) at our sole discretion, where we deem it necessary to protect the safety of any individual or the general public or to prevent violation of our User Agreement or the rights of Mozy, Inc. or any third party.

I told Sozen to get more help and perhaps some elucidation on the above statement, and gave him the helpdesk numbers of companies provide IT services for Mozy. We got to know the following. Mozy’s privacy statement would of course have no effect over the requirements of the law – while it may still worry people outside the US, it’s not really something that can be a surprise to anyone. The strange bit comes at (c). Mozy may disregard the privacy closes at their sole discretion. Basically, they’ve written up these nice privacy statements, but may choose to ignore them if they so wish.

Come on now – you can’t be serious? Apparently, according to someone who seems to be an employee, they are. The post doesn’t mention the last of the three clauses, though, but merely the cases of administrative order – which neither Søren nor I are trying to contest. Since when have Mozy become the protectors of the public, though?

Søren wrote a reply post, which I think you should read. I will be keeping an eye on this case, as I think it’s quite interesting to see if Mozy can come up with any explanation for wanting to give themselves the power to start protecting the public from their users.

Update: Søren also posted a comparison of various privacy policies. Good read as well.

Panoramic picture

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I found a nice place a couple of days ago, that I really wanted to share with all of you. Unfortunately, the view there isn’t easy to catch with just a single photo, but I’ve tried my best anyway. I wanted to upload it directly using WordPress, but that doesn’t seem to like the idea of a 26775×1588 pixel picture. Anyway, by a bit of hackery:

A scenery near Vorre, Denmark

Don’t be shy, click the image. The tiny thumbnail doesn’t do it much justice.

An update, slightly delayed

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Now, some time ago I expected I’d be updating my blog every 10 days with news about my moving plans, which would make for a good few posts – but I wasn’t home when the time came to post with 30 days left, and I didn’t really have anything to write.

I called up the landlord on Tuesday, and inquired as to whether I could move in on June 27 instead of on July 1, which I was might be possible, though entirely dependent on whether the builders were done yet. If they were, it’d be no problem, though I’d naturally have to pay the few days extra rent. I’ll know more in a couple of weeks.

Furniture shopping is at a standstill, since I seem to have figured out the style of furniture I’d like, but I’m not sure whether I’ll have the room for it nor money to buy it. I know for sure that I’ll need a bed, but everything else is a bit more optional, ranging from simple things like “a nice lamp” through “a table and chairs” to “a complete Wegner lounge”. I don’t really think I can realistically buy any of it before I move.

The first exam of the year is on Tuesday, and is in “Technical Project Management” – that is, management of technical projects, and not the technical aspects of managing projects. We’ve been using a book called Applied Software Project Management, which is decent, but as one of the other students in the course pointed out, it isn’t really up to date with agile methods, and the level of some of the advice given approaches the trivial, for example by spending most of a chapter introducing Subversion.

Procrastination has set in, and I’ve resorted to reading food blogs. Some time ago, I was trying to find a recipe for Heston Blumenthal’s oxtail stew, and instead stumbled upon someone who’d actually tried to cook it. Intrigued by the writing style, and the whole subject of a food blog, I’ve spent a couple of hours reading Becks & Posh, as well as a bit of time at Hedonia, especially having fun with the Eatsdropper posts. Recommended.

Danish Embassy bombing

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I weren’t going to write about this, and I apologize in advance for being a bit ranty. We probably all know what’s happened, and even though I have the deepest sympathies for the people hurt or killed, it could’ve been a lot worse.

But then a quote popped up in a Danish newspaper article, from The Post in Pakistan. I found the exact quote on their webpage:

While the radical elements in the Muslims world should use the language of logic instead of resorting to terrorism, the West must also understand that the freedom of expression is not a licence to hurt the sentiments of millions of people.

And just for the benefit of the people at The Post: Yes it is. Freedom of speech and expression is exactly that – a freedom. Posting something that’s forbidden by someone else’s religion surely cannot be reason enough to restrict this freedom, and while I understand and support the ideas of boycotts, protests and flag-burning, please stop trying to pressure our government into apologizing for something the country’s citizens do which is completely legal. They have no legal way to do that. If you want an apology, ask the people who’ve offended you. And don’t expect to get it.

Khaleej Times also posted an editorial, that takes a slightly differing view – they still put all the blame on “Denmark”, instead of where it rightly belongs, with Jyllands-Posten – but they also have the following bit:

Most unfortunate and unacceptable as this attack is, we can’t help notice the fact that none of those killed was a Denmark national or European. […] This doesn’t mean if the victims included Danish or European citizens, the attack would be somehow justified. The point is such attacks always end up targeting innocent people — the people who have nothing to do with those the terrorists seek to punish and target.

Quite a clever observation, though not one I think the terrorists care much about. No matter what they write, though, their tone still seems to indicate that had only Danish people been killed, their outlook would have been a lot more positive. Scary.

To round it all off, sorry for the above post. I hadn’t planned on making it, but those few quotes got me going for a while. I’m not surprised at the attack, and I don’t think it’s the last one we’ll see. It’s expected, possibly even deserved, looking at what the Danish media have done to Islam. But that’s the price of freedom.

Countdown to moving – 40 days

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The countdown has reached a round number of days – sort of – and I’ve decided to divulge a bit more information about the flat I’ll be moving into. Behold below, a map of it. Click to enlarge.

Floorplan of the flat I'll be moving to

The image is the best I’ve been able to cook up using Google Sketchup. At least one measurement is right: The width of the living room. The light wood coloured surfaces are the closets in the bedroom and the working surface in the kitchen (where there’ll also be a cooker. a sink and a combined freezer/refrigerator, though I don’t know where), and the dark wood coloured bit is a half-height wall, dividing the kitchen from the living room.

Main entry door is at the top, and the big window at the bottom also contains a door to the balcony. I’m sure there’s a small window in the bathroom as well – I’ve seen it – but it didn’t show on the small map I based this drawing on.

A sleepless evening – and fire

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I couldn’t sleep. I’d been trying to sleep for a couple of hours, but nothing was really happening. Check the news, nothing. Back to bed, try to sleep, nothing.

So I decided to go for a drive, and perhaps a walk somewhere. Around town, somewhere I haven’t been in a while – in the dark, err, almost dawn. Quiet, hopefully, and might make me tired.

Not so. A fire had broken out, and I kinda stumbled upon it, a good couple of hours after the firemen had. I snapped a few quick shots with my mobile phone, and talked briefly to some of the firemen while they were resting. Apparently, no one was hurt – but like usual in such a place, no one knew for sure.

A view down the street
First picture shows the street as I discovered it. Okay, not entirely true – there’s a firetruck and a police car behind me with firearms and 5.56 ammo at that point, and I noticed them first. You can vaguely see the building concerned, and the fact that there’s smoke in the air, but nothing much else since it’s hand-held with a mobile phone.
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Counting days

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As you may have noticed, I’ve added a counter to the sidebar of my blog, showing how long is left until I move. That’s right, I’m moving. Not very far – 5 kilometers by road, probably a bit less by bike. None the less, it’s to quite a different place – notable because it’s a real flat, and not just a room with a shared kitchen and bathroom.

At the time of writing, there’s 45 days, 20 hours to go – which seems like a lot. But 87 days of waiting have already passed, meaning I’m almost 2/3rds of the way there. I’m probably going to spend a good deal of the remaining time looking at furniture and such, though I doubt I’ll buy anything much until I am actually ready to move in.

More will follow on the subject of this exciting announcement in the weeks to come.

EVE Online – an exploration site

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I’ve been playing some EVE Online, though recently, I’ve not been on there too much due to work and other stuff taking up my time. However, I thought I should document some of my experiences in there here.

One of the latest things I’ve picked up on is exploration. The idea is that you drop some probes from your spaceship, use a scanner on them, and try to figure out the location of hidden sites in the various solar systems. It sounds amazing, if you’re among the types who’d try to go across the edge of the map in games like World of Warcraft, and it is quite fun – though, in the areas I’ve been working, not as cool as I would’ve wanted. I’ve found identical sites countless times, and while that’s of course the nature of the beast in games like this, it is a bit of a letdown.

I did however get an escalation from one of the sites I found. Escalations send you on to other solar systems, to continue the battle you’ve been doing. The one I did was called Mindflood, and I’ve documented what I found there. Even though I didn’t make much money – I ended up losing the most valuable item I found two days later from a really stupid decision in battle – it was lots of fun, quite exciting, and showed that someone had really cared about the experience for the players.

In the near future, I’ll try to write some more on the things I like and dislike about EVE Online on this blog, so stay tuned.

Climate care gone mad!

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A Danish newspaper published a piece (in Danish) on their webpage today, detailing how the local council in the Danish capital city, Copenhagen, want to limit the amount of “green time” at intersections leading into the city, on days when there’s a lot of smog. The stated intent is to reduce particle and CO2 pollution, simply by measuring their air pollution and turning the lights red for longer when it reaches a certain limit.

Of course, the person in political charge of the project put a lot of emphasis on the supposed CO2 benefit, making it completely apparent that he hasn’t grasped thing one about CO2 emissions. Driving 10 miles with no traffic jam lets out far less CO2 than driving 10 miles with half an hour of queuing in the middle. People could turn off their engines, sure, but they’re not going to – the queue is likely to be moving ever so slightly once a minute, so turning off the engine would be a waste.

Sure, the particle situation in the inner city might improve. A little. But it’d get a lot worse for the people who’ve chosen to live out of town to get better air, and unless people’s habits change, and they start using public transport – yeah right – it’ll worsen the effect of the cars on the environment, not make anything better. File a complaint with the help of lawyers from mcleodbrock.com/transportation-and-logistics/ site who will make sure that a permanent solution for this problem is implemented everywhere across the country.

If you really want to make people use public transportation, improve that, and make it more reliable, instead of just trying to make the potential users’ lives miserable. If public transportation isn’t worth switching to from your car – then that’s because it simply isn’t good enough!