Dvorak News Blog

iPhone Keeps a Record of Everywhere You Go

By hhopper Wednesday April 20, 2011

guardian.co.uk

Security researchers have discovered that Apple’s iPhone keeps track of where you go – and saves every detail of it to a secret file on the device which is then copied to the owner’s computer when the two are synchronised.

The file contains the latitude and longitude of the phone’s recorded coordinates along with a timestamp, meaning that anyone who stole the phone or the computer could discover details about the owner’s movements using a simple program.

For some phones, there could be almost a year’s worth of data stored, as the recording of data seems to have started with Apple’s iOS 4 update to the phone’s operating system, released in June 2010.

“Apple has made it possible for almost anybody – a jealous spouse, a private detective – with access to your phone or computer to get detailed information about where you’ve been,” said Pete Warden, one of the researchers.

You can get the iPhone Tracker Application here.

DH Unplugged Podcast
Up, Up and Away!

By John C Dvorak Tuesday April 19, 2011

4 Comments

Here is the latest conversation I had with money manager Andrew Horowitz…. new insights for anyone who invests in anything. This week we look closely at the market’s short-lived hiccup.
Click here for non-Flash version.

click ► to listen:

Right click here and select ‘Save Link As…’ to download the mp3 file.

Contribute to the future of the show here.

Nothing Better For Next Sunday’s Dinner Than Roasted Easter Bunny!

By Uncle Dave Tuesday April 19, 2011

33 Comments

Variations of brown sugar bourbon-glazed ham or rosemary-garlic roasted lamb, warm, billowy biscuits and roasted root vegetables grace traditional Easter tables, and thankfully so. If you want to go beyond the merely traditional but keep close to the holiday’s theme, consider rabbit. After learning how good they are for you and how great they taste, you may just want Peter Cottontail to ditch the bunny trail and hop on into your Dutch oven.

Rabbit is leaner than chicken, veal or turkey, with less fat and cholesterol. It has half the calories per pound compared to beef and pork and is the most easily digestible protein around. Since it’s both abundant and ubiquitous, low consumption has little to do with availability and lots to do with Thumper (a Cottontail) and Bugs (probably a Lop-Eared Gray.)

“Some people just can’t get beyond that mindset,” says Stephen Edwards. His Aspen Hill Farms in Boyne City, Michigan supplies local three- and four-star resorts and sells nationally through U.S. Wellness Meats. “I’ve had my rump chewed any number of times by people who say, ‘That’s not an appropriate food.’” He just holds his tongue and keeps his cool.

Here’s a bunch of rabbit recipes for basting your bunny.

Helpful suggestion: take your bunny to a movie before cooking him.

Florida Combats Unemployment with Juvenile Promo

By McCullough Tuesday April 19, 2011

21 Comments

ORLANDO, Fla. – Florida officials are investigating an unemployment agency that spent public money to give 6,000 superhero capes to the jobless.

Workforce Central Florida spent more than $14,000 on the red capes as part of its “Cape-A-Bility Challenge” public relations campaign. The campaign featured a cartoon character, “Dr. Evil Unemployment,” who needs to be vanquished.

Florida’s unemployment agency director asked Monday for an investigation of the regional operation’s spending after the Orlando Sentinel published a story about the program. State director Cynthia Lorenzo said the spending appeared to be “insensitive and wasteful.”

Workforce Central Florida Director Gary J. Earl defends the program, saying it is part of a greater effort to connect with the community. The agency says it served 210,000 people during its last fiscal year, placing nearly 59,000 in jobs.

Nice, A great use of taxpayer funds, probably thought up by a 3 year old. In other news, McDonald’s hires 50,000 burger flippers.

The T-Mobile Royal Wedding

By hhopper Tuesday April 19, 2011

6 Comments

Where Did Your Taxes Go (Assuming You Paid Any)?

By Uncle Dave Tuesday April 19, 2011

99 Comments

Click pic for a very well done and comprehensive look at your tax dollars. The website is interactive, so if you click on a slice, it will show you what makes it up.

Michigan State Police Extracting Your Cell Phone Data During Traffic Stops

By Uncle Dave Monday April 18, 2011

50 Comments

Click pic to watch the video

You’ve got nothing to hide, right? So, if you don’t want to hand it over, you’re obviously guilty of something.

The Michigan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is questioning the Michigan State Police’s use of cellphone “extraction” devices. The ACLU said MSP has used the devices to access information from cellphones that officers ask drivers they have pulled over to give them.

“It can contain information that many people consider to be private, to be beyond the reach of law enforcement and other government actors,” said Mark Fancher, an ACLU attorney.

The ACLU is asking why the state police is using devices that can gather data stored on cellphones, and why it is not telling the public about it. The ACLU said the devices could violate Fourth Amendment rights.

“There is great potential for abuse here by a police officer or a state trooper who may not be monitored or supervised on the street,” Fancher said.

Sometimes You Have to Ask Your Father for Help

By Eideard Monday April 18, 2011

13 Comments

Highway to Hubris on the
No Agenda Podcast

By John C Dvorak Sunday April 17, 2011

11 Comments

Executive Producers and 300 Club members: Joseph Leeper, Edwardard Beerthuizen, Jesse Cruz
Associate Executive Producers: Hans-Jorg Schultz, Armin Breuer
Executive Producer and 296 Club Member: vacant
Art By: Thomas Nussbaum

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Donate to show here or here.

Listen to show by clicking ►

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Show Notes here.
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Kiss Cam Humour

By McCullough Sunday April 17, 2011

5 Comments

World’s Greatest/Worst Kiss Cam Operator – Watch more Funny Videos

Japanese Earthquake Recorded by Hydrophone

By McCullough Sunday April 17, 2011

5 Comments

Captured by an underwater microphone called a hydrophone positioned 900 miles away from the epicentre in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska the earthquake’s incredible rumbling and roaring is not dissimilar to the sound of a rocket taking off.
The clip, available on You Tube, is sped up 16 times and in the second half the sound becomes almost blurred and muffled as the Earth’s crust readjusts hundreds of miles under the ocean.

The initial burst of noise is the P-wave, which stands for ‘primary’ waves and the second louder noise is the sound of the T-wave, or tertiary waves. Tertiary waves are created when an earthquake occurs under the sea. They are the slowest waves of the three types of waves and are created when their seismic energy goes upwards into the ocean. As this happens it converts to sound energy making the T-wave.

The clip comes as the Japanese are trying to get their nation back on track. The now infamous Fukushima plant has been spewing radioactive substances for more than a month after the 14 metre tsunami devastated its cooling towers and wrecked emergency back-up systems. Thousands of families were evacuated from the nuclear disaster zone and are now set to receive compensation pay-outs from the operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco).

Time-Lapsed Mountains

By Uncle Dave Sunday April 17, 2011

8 Comments

Click here to read about how and where this was filmed.

Weak Demand, Oil Market Glutted, So Saudis Cut Production, But Pump Prices Still Raising?

By Uncle Dave Sunday April 17, 2011

41 Comments

Ah, the wonders of supply and demand. On the supply side:

Saudi Arabia Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said on Sunday the world oil market was oversupplied and that the kingdom had reduced production in March due to weak crude demand.

Oil consumers have urged OPEC to quickly add supply to the market to quell the rally in crude prices that has taken oil to its highest level in two and a half years amid unrest in North Africa and the Middle East.

Other OPEC ministers have insisted the market is well supplied and there is nothing the group can do to stop prices from going higher while there is not unmet demand for crude.

“The market is overbalanced… Our production in February was 9.125 million barrels per day (bpd), in March it was 8.292 million bpd. In April we don’t know yet, probably a little higher than March. The reason I gave you these numbers is to show you that the market is oversupplied,” Naimi told reporters.

And now for the demand side:

Oil prices are roiling financial markets, hitting the economy and forcing investors to re-examine their portfolios.

Oil prices closed at $109.66 a barrel on Friday, up more than 31% in the last year. They’re up from a low of about $84 in February and are near levels not seen since September 2008, before the economic downturn.

Behind the spike in oil: Unrest in the Middle East, including continued fighting in Libya. At the same time, improving economic prospects in the U.S., including a slowly improving job market, suggest that energy demand will grow.

Is This The Signal The Stock Market Is About To Fall?

By Uncle Dave Saturday April 16, 2011

26 Comments

Tipping points are funny: for years, decades, even centuries, the conditions for an event to occur may be ripe yet nothing happens. Then, in an instant, a shift occurs, whether its is due a change in conventional wisdom, due to an exogenous event or due to something completely inexplicable. That event, colloquially called a black swan in recent years, changes the prevalent perception of reality in a moment. This past week, we were seeing the effect of a tipping point in process, with gold prices rising to new all time highs day after day, and the price of silver literally moving in a parabolic fashion. What was missing was the cause. We now know what it is: per Bloomberg: “The University of Texas Investment Management Co., the second-largest U.S. academic endowment, took delivery of almost $1 billion in gold bullion and is storing the bars in a New York vault, according to the fund’s board.” And so, the game theory of a nearly 100 year old system of monetary exchange has seen its first defector, but most certainly not last. With an entity as large as the University of Texas calling the bluff of the Comex, the Chairman, and fiat in general in roughly that order, virtually every other asset manager is now sure to follow, considering there is not nearly enough physical gold to satisfy all paper gold in existence by a factor of about 100x. The proverbial Nash equilibrium has just been broken.