From the New York Times: Ruling Allows ‘Jailbreaking’ of iPhones

From the article: “Owners of the iPhone will be able to legally unlock their devices so they can run software applications that haven’t been approved by Apple Inc., according to new government rules announced Monday.”

It won’t stop Apple from blowing it up with a software update, but at least it’s a step in the right direction…

Veteran journalist Daniel Schorr, whose hard-hitting reporting got him on Nixon’s ‘enemies list’ in the 1970s, dies at 93. More as I find it.

Edit: The New York Times obit.

Edit: For those who missed it, my trip to Politics and Prose to meet Mr. Schorr (includes photos and a short cell-phone video).

Check the comments on this blog post and please make suggestions for a good, free-for-personal-use, anti-virus software that doesn’t require you to deal with huge sales windows every day or demand every minute you restart your computer.

An incident I don’t want to detail has shown I need to briefly touch on what is and is not acceptable on the OTR Digest, or for that matter here on the Nostalgic Rumblings blog and on the Nostalgia Pages Forums, too.

Honest, it isn’t terribly restrictive…I mean, any discussion can become a little heated, especially when it’s as hot as it is here in the Northeast and we northeners are all a little cranky. Heck, disagreements can make the most interesting discussions to read…the trick here is to disagree with the points, not the person making them. Don’t attack the person, attack the idea. Do it politely even while being forceful, remembering the person on the other end is, above all, a person. Here on the Blog I tend to encourage more forceful discussions, and encourage you, my readers, to disagree with me and show me where I am wrong.

But I gotta tell you, swearing at another reader or subscriber, and frankly that includes me, is really not a good idea. I’m trying to keep all of the areas around here safe for folks of all ages, since it’s only by bringing in young people can we keep this hobby alive. So civility is required, and anyone forgetting this can expect a week or two “time-out” from the services here.
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Email scams are making the rounds again…unlike the annoying chain emails claiming that a president isn’t native-born or Bill Gates is giving away bazillions in an email lottery, these scams are designed to tug at your heart strings to help out a friend. Here’s a recent example, reported earlier today to the OTR Digest:

I’m writing this with tears in my eyes,I came down here to [insert any foreign location] for a short vacation unfortunately i got mugged at the park of the hotel where i stayed,all cash,credit card and cell were stolen off but luckily for me is that i still have my passports with me.

I’ve been to the embassy and the Police here but they’re not helping issues at all and my flight leaves in less than 3hrs from now but am having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager won’t let me leave until i settle the bills,I’m freaked out at the moment.

There are many variations on this horse-pucky, all of them designed to appeal to your desire to help out a friend.

I realize I sound like a hard-hearted b*stard, but don’t. The odds of someone you barely know asking you to bale them out of jail or send them money for living expenses are pretty darned low…and frankly, if they do, you need to question why they didn’t contact someone closer to them instead of you.

On the other hand, you may get this apparently from a family member, and be tempted…again, don’t. Pick up the phone, call other family members, check around…I mean, c’mon, if a close family member were stuck in some foreign land you can bet they will be making a whole lot of collect phone calls to a whole lot of family members, so verifying this should be simple.

Basically, I’m suggesting that any time you receive any emotion-packed email requesting funds, your default position is that it’s a bogus scam. Because it is.

For those of us in the northeast, this has been a miserable summer. It started with temperatures reaching the 90’s in the middle of May, and other than three days of blessed springtime weather last week, has pretty much stayed there. Watching the weather, and seeing temps predicted to reach triple-digits this week, it’s no wonder we easterners are all a little cranky.

So cut us some slack while we swelter, and swear a bit at the weather reports from Seattle with their highs in the 60’s and such.