Dvorak News Blog

Apple Rejects MAD Artist’s iPhone Caricature App

By hhopper Tuesday November 10, 2009

A MAD Magazine contributor has been told by Apple that his iPhone app featuring drawings and contact information of members of the 111th Congress has been rejected because it depicts politicians in an objectionable light.

According to Tom Richmond, who wrote about his app’s rejection on his personal blog, his app–dubbed Bobble Rep-111th Congress Edition–in no way should have been construed as objectionable.

Richmond said that the focus of the app was to create a “database of all the members of the United States Congress which allowed the user to find the names and contact information of their senators and congressional representative either via Zip code or by using the iPhone’s GPS location services.” Rather than use the politicians’ individual portraits, the app depicts each senator and representative in caricature form, which Richmond drew himself. All told, the app features 540 caricatures of the politicians.

C’mon Apple… lighten up a little. Cripes!

UPDATE: If you would like to complain to Apple about the censorship, here is the address: appreview@apple.com

UPDATE (Nov. 14): Apple has relented and allowed the app to be sold.

A case against IP

By Jacob Galt Tuesday November 10, 2009

17 Comments

LewRockwell.com – Can anyone please explain to me how someone can be a just owner of something, yet not be allowed to exercise his or her ownership rights over it? He can throw rancid tomatoes at the painting, but not duplicate the pattern that makes the painting a painting, rather than just canvas and paint? Or, to use a different type of copyrightable pattern, how can someone own their own brain yet not own the part of it containing a song they memorized?

What we’re looking at is protectionism in disguise – government giving preferential treatment to one specific industry at the expense of the rest of society. Now, let’s go back to the copyright holder, the mysterious third party who was hurt by me copying the CD’s contents. What I’ve done by copying my friend’s CD is violate a government-imposed monopoly on copying the CD’s contents, the monopoly belonging to the copyright holder. Hence, according to the idea of intellectual property, I’m a thief. I’ve had the audacity to compete with the beneficiary of the monopoly. That is the sense in which I’ve supposedly hurt a third party.

Quite long, but it makes you think.

“Shit My Dad Says” Geezers Vulgar Witticisms Becomes a TV Comedy Show

By McCullough Tuesday November 10, 2009

7 Comments

CBS has picked up a comedy project based on the Twitter account, which has enlisted more than 700,000 followers since launching in August and has made its creator, Justin Halpern, an Internet star.

“Will & Grace” creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick are on board to executive produce and supervise the writing for the multicamera family comedy, which Halpern will co-pen with Patrick Schumacker. Halpern and Schumacker will also co-exec produce the Warner Bros. TV-produced project, which has received a script commitment.

The comedy’s title will change if it gets on the air.

Halpern, 28, had moved back in with his parents in San Diego, and on Aug. 3 he launched “Shit My Dad Says,” a Twitter feed featuring colorful — often profane — comments and pearls of wisdom made by his 73-year-old father during their daily conversations.

A couple of personal favorites:

“Nobody is that important. They eat, shit, and screw, just like you. Maybe not shit like you, you got those stomach problems.”

“I like the dog. If he can’t eat it, or fuck it, he pisses on it. I can get behind that.”

“You worry too much. Eat some bacon… What? No, I got no idea if it’ll make you feel better, I just made too much bacon.”

“Does anyone your age know how to comb their fucking hair? It looks like two squirrels crawled on their head and started fucking.”

“I think the baby shit….Well, I’m smelling shit right now, so if it ain’t the baby, one of you has a big fucking problem.”

At first I had to roll my eyes when I read this…and then I looked at some of his comments and I was hooked.

“Big” Pic of the Day

By Eideard Tuesday November 10, 2009

10 Comments

Happened on the South Side of Chicago, this morning.

No one in the house was hurt. Four people on the bus were injured including the driver.

UK to spy on every phone call, email and web search

By Jacob Galt Tuesday November 10, 2009

29 Comments

All telecoms companies and internet service providers will be required by law to keep a record of every customer’s personal communications, showing who they have contacted, when and where, as well as the websites they have visited.

Despite widespread opposition to the increasing amount of surveillance in Britain, 653 public bodies will be given access to the information, including police, local councils, the Financial Services Authority, the ambulance service, fire authorities and even prison governors.

They will not require the permission of a judge or a magistrate to obtain the information, but simply the authorisation of a senior police officer or the equivalent of a deputy head of department at a local authority.

Pic of the Day. Ducks

By John C Dvorak Tuesday November 10, 2009

15 Comments

(Click photo to enlarge.)

Video – Drunk Woman Almost Run Over By Subway Train

By Gasparrini Tuesday November 10, 2009

20 Comments

Wow, what a close call…

Report: 237 Congressmen are millionaires

By Jacob Galt Tuesday November 10, 2009

36 Comments

POLITICO.com – Two-hundred-and-thirty-seven members of Congress are millionaires. That’s 44 percent of the body – compared to about 1 percent of Americans overall.

CRP says California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa is the richest lawmaker on Capitol Hill, with a net worth estimated at about $251 million. Next in line: Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), worth about $244.7 million; Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), worth about $214.5 million; Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), worth about $209.7 million; and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), worth about $208.8 million.

iPhone Worm!!

By John C Dvorak Monday November 9, 2009

8 Comments

Google acquires Admob and Gizmo5.
Nokia charger dangerous and being recalled.
Firefox is five. I think it is bogus.
Nook is in heavy demand.
Droid phone having crappy battery life.
iPhone worm floating around.
Chipmakers doing well as predicted.
Radio Shack to sell the iPhone.
EU on the Oracle-Sun case.

Show brought to you by eHarmony.
Check it out at www.eharmony.com
using the code EHTECH for a fat discount.

click ► to listen:

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

Beck loses WIPO claim against ‘raped and murdered’ website owner

By honeyman Monday November 9, 2009

49 Comments

Glenn Beck loses ‘raped and murdered’ arbitration – thresq.com — Having proved his point, Eiland-Hall handed the domain back to Beck. The WIPO decision here.

Fox News’ Glenn Beck has lost a claim that a website called glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com was registered in bad faith and in violation of his trademark rights.

The website was founded by Isaac Eiland-Hall earlier this year in response to a joke on odd-news site Fark about Beck’s lack of denial for a non-existent murder/rape. Eiland-Hall argued to WIPO that he registered the website as a satirical critique of Beck’s conspiratorial politics.

WIPO’s arbitration panel agreed that the website appeared “to be engaged in a parody of the style or methodology that (Eiland-Hall) appears genuinely to believe is employed by (Beck) in the provision of political commentary, and for that reason (Eiland-Hall) can be said to be making a political statement.”

The domain name dispute resolution body added Eiland-Hall’s speech was “strongly protected” under the First Amendment.

I got one! I got the Motorola Droid!

By Marc Perkel Monday November 9, 2009

40 Comments

http://www.devicemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Motorola-Droid_Image.jpg

So – I bought it and as most of you predicted – I love it! It took a while to get used to not being as simple or intuitive as the Palm 700p, but once I caught on, it was very easy to use and unlike Windows Mobile – it actually works! Is it the iPhone killer? I don’t know but I bet it will be the windows mobile killer because if I were a cell phone manufacturer I would pull WM from all my products and install Android.

Gold flies above U$1,100 for 1st time in history

By Jacob Galt Monday November 9, 2009

20 Comments

Gold prices hit a record above 1,100 dollars on Monday with the dollar weakening after a pledge by G20 countries to keep economic recovery pumped up with easy money.

In morning trading here, gold struck an all-time peak of 1,109.50 dollars an ounce as the euro rose to 1.50 dollars for the first time in two weeks.

Gold price in real time

Class-action suits popping up against ex-Halliburton subsidiary: company may have poisoned 100,000 people in Iraq

By Jacob Galt Monday November 9, 2009

11 Comments

Defense contractor KBR may have exposed as many as 100,000 people, including US soldiers, to cancer-causing toxins by burning waste in open-air pits in Iraq, says a series of class-action lawsuits filed against the company.

At least 22 separate lawsuits claiming KBR poisoned American soldiers in Iraq have been combined into a single massive lawsuit that says KBR, which until not long ago was a subsidiary of Halliburton, sought to save money by disposing of toxic waste and incinerating numerous potentially harmful substances in open-air “burn pits.”

Text of one of the lawsuits: [PDF]

Top bailed-out banks to pay $30 billion in bonuses

By Jacob Galt Monday November 9, 2009

18 Comments

Three of the largest Wall Street firms — which together received $45,000,000,000 in taxpayer bailouts — this year.

That’s only the three largest firms. JP Morgan Chase took $25 billion in government aid; Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, $10 billion each. All three have paid back the government bailout money they’ve received, but the liquidity and “cheap money” offered by the Fed have kindled record profits at their investment and trading arms.

Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, let’s vote for jobs!

Kill All the Bankers? There’s an App for That…

By McCullough Monday November 9, 2009

15 Comments

Among the 100,000-plus applications for the iPhone is one that allows users to “kill” bankers.

The TARP-inspired Bailout Wars app lets iPhone users “take revenge on bankers” by “throwing them into the air, blowing them up, shooting them down and shaking them so hard their clothes fall off, writes American Banker. The point of the game, made by Gameloft and selling for $.99 on iTunes, is to destroy bankers in order to save both the White House (and US taxpayers’ money) from greedy day traders, high risk investors, and finance CEOs.

The game’s description on iTunes reads:

Defend the White House and save the US taxpayers’ money before it gets stolen! It’s time for you to give them what they deserve! […] It’s your only chance to really take revenge on bankers for the recession they caused […] Explore many different ways to beat bankers: tap, grab, or shake them in the air. Bailout Wars current has a three-and-a-half star rating on iTunes, with 219 users out of 492 giving the app a five-star rating.

I just hope it works on the iPod Touch.