The NYT reveals that the Paris terrorists used encrypted systems to communicate and organise the attacks. WHAT IS THE SURPRISE IN THIS? The stupidity is that the MILITARY want to push for broken encryption systems, and that mentality is so flawed that one has to ask HOW ARE THE INFORMATION SERVICES PROTECTING US AGAIN?

The role of encryption is to guarantee privacy end-to-end in any kind of communication. Encryption runs the world today and If it wasn’t so the world would just collapse. Financial systems would be broken and caos would be everywhere.

The military mentality behind requesting backdoors assumes that they can stay ahead of the competition. While this could be used in the context of real physical military weapons, in digital realm one has to assume that EVERY THING I CAN DO, SOMEONE ELSE CAN TOO.

That is why putting a hole in encryption will just create a new target to be used by terrorists. Please stop this stupidity of thinking that encryption has to be BROKEN BY DESIGN. The scenario would be even worse than having terrorists encrypting their communications. They would be the ones using the loopholes to create global HAVOC.

With the advent of App Stores in many platforms we’ve seen a change in programming paradigm and a decrease in software quality in general.

When there was no other option to sell your product other than making it so good that word of mouth would carry if forward, developers invested a lot of time in the quality of their code and great pieces of software were produced. But now, with stores and fast distribution channels for the many platforms, software developers realized that shelf time of most of their products is very short in these stores — that are the de facto channel for software distribution. This pushes software developers to lower quality software. It is not an intentional decision, but is a matter of survival and having a quick meal while the food is hot.

The tools to develop software are more accessible and widespread while at the same time more cross platform. Write code once and distribute everywhere is of interest for comercial developers that save time and optimise workflows to be more productive. This “productivity race” has created a situation where quality software is more difficult to obtain and in the meanwhile we are seeing a lot of subpar products that are cheap, but one has the feeling they will never see an update because the brains behind it have moved on to another quick-buck-to-be-made.

Can we solve this? I don’t really know if we can. A few years ago while discussing with Maria João Valente about software she was in the camp of those defending the little app developer charging some money for it and her argument against open source versions was that the paid version would have more quality because of the commitment of the developer with the client, forcing a cycle of interaction that ultimately would drive the quality of the product up. And it was hard to fight this argument. In the Mac environment there were many examples of software that were just perfect examples.

But today, with the profusion of the stores can we still say the same? I’d probably say that 90% of the paid software in the stores is useless or broken or of dubious quality. I would argue that Open Source on the other hand, with all its flaws, still offers a more rewarding experience — even if at a slower pace. And as the software production is not driven by the need to make a quick buck, its quality increases steadily over time. Is open source the solution for everything and everyone. Some will say it is, some will say no. But its importance is without a doubt different from that of a few years ago. Every time a website prompts me to visit the “App Store” I immediately ask myself it it is worth even that click.

Temos urgentemente que criar uma lei que criminalise o marketing telefónico de uma vez por todas. Ultimamente é o número 210340970 em que a voz do outro lado se diz da EDP Comercial. Perguntei-lhes claramente se se tratava de uma campanha de marketing ao que não me responderam.

Será que estas companhias não percebem que estão a tornar o uso do telemóvel insuportável e que com isso estão a fazer que cada vez mais as pessoas bloqueiem os números que não conhecem? E é claro que com este comportamento agressivo perdem os clientes de vez. O SPAM telefónico tem que acabar, mas em Portugal os políticos parecem muito preocupados com estas invasões de privacidade constantes.

Segundo o link do Público a CML quer controlar, ou antes está a pensar em meter a colherada, num negócio que se percebeu que é florescente? Onde está o estudo a mostrar a necessidade de controlar o número de Tuk Tuk na cidade? Ou será que se trata apenas de apaziguar a malta dos Taxis?

One of the issues with blogging is that you can’t really do it from within any app you choose. There are dedicated clients like Ecto, MarsEdit or Windows Live Writer, but you have to use them. What I really wanted was something that would allow me to blog from anywhere. I could just use my favorite text editor to write and then select the text I wanted to publish and use a Quicksilver command or Mac service to push that to my blog. Is there such a thing?

AirBNB and Uber are the two most well known brands of the so called sharing economy. This is a concept where — through technology — normal people can earn some extra money by optimisation of resources through information. The concept is highly abused and the sharing economy businesses shows little differences from traditional business. I recommend you to read / listen to the following:

• Alex Hern at the Guardian

Nothing is being shared when you hire a cleaner to tidy your house or a car to drive you to work, even if you use an app to do it. Full story

• Benjamen Walker takes the subject to other level on his Theory of Everything, calling them Instaserfs:

• The Harvard Business Review tries to clarify the sharing part and comes with the notion that this economy is not about sharing but instead is an access economy. It is all about how information about opportunities becomes available.

But the HEAT is now. And discussion on sharing economy is taking place all over the web. The next few years will define how these companies will are accepted and how their business models evolve.