Grant's Space

Apple obviously cannot state the true reason for the much-hyped signal-strength reduction “flaw”.

The truth is, it’s not a flaw at all, but a life-saving feature. The media seems to have forgotten the research stating that cell phone radiation causes cancer. The iPhone 4 features a new sensor that detects how tightly you’re gripping the phone/antenna. If your hand is covering a sufficient enough portion of the phone/antenna, or most noticeably bridging the break between the two antennas, the phone automatically decreases the signal strength to protect you. If you release your gorilla-grip on the phone and hold it with safe, minimal contact, or add a buffer between you and the antennas, the phone can continue at standard strength.

Obviously Apple cannot advertise this feature to the public, as tag lines such as “kills you slower than the Droid” and “Now with less cancer!” perform poorly in focus groups. As a result, Apple must deal with unfair bad publicity. But, in the end, it’s a strategic business move, because the iPhone 4 customers will live longer than Apple’s competitors’ customers, allowing them to buy more phones in the future.

I’m really tired of what I call “faux security”. You know, inconveniences written off as “for your security”?

I’d like to get his basic principle out there. Please repeat it, remember it, email it to your bank (through their “secure” messaging feature…), etc:
Less Convenient Does Not Equal More Secure!

In fact, the best security is transparent to the person who is allowed to do something, and completely impossible for the person who isn’t.

Faux security is dangerous. Because it’s so complicated for you to, say, log in, you feel that it must be difficult for anyone to log in. However, the complexity frequently opens up gaping security holes.

Some examples I’ve seen:

1. A “secure” apartment building in which I used to live.
   Ooh, it was so secure. Call box, elevator key, cameras, alarms in the units, the works. Big deal. Even if there wasn’t someone to follow in, there was an easy-to-climb fence into a hallway about 20 feet to the right of the main door. My friend used to make it a point to get to my door without me letting him in every time he’d come over. The alarm in the unit was only triggered by the front door, and even then I don’t think anyone actually responded. It was all designed to look secure. All it did was add inconvenience. If you were going in the “right way”, you had to use your garage opener, then your key in the garage door, then your key again in the elevator, then again in your door, then turn off your alarm. The wrong way: jump the fence or follow someone in, go up the staircase to the roof (unlocked for fire safety), jump down onto the balcony (made easy by the stepped/sloping roof), and slide open the balcony door (probably not locked due to the false sense of security).
2. Your bank
   This one frequently pisses me off – bank’s “secure” login requirements. I generate extremely secure passwords. But when a bank requires me to follow stupid, random password requirements (or use a simple pin but have to click it on my screen, verify a picture, remember my customer ID, etc), it creates a scenario in which I can’t remember how to log in. That means I need an alternate way of remembering this information. Therefore, somewhere outside of my well-secured (and convenient) method of storing login info, I have to store my bank’s stupid login requirements. Less convenient, probably less secure. Because really, if you store your logins in your browser and lock your computer, what are you going to do with login information that you can’t store in your browser? It’s probably going to end up on a post-it note… (note: products like LastPass and 1Password provide alternate ways of securely storing this information, but you frequently still need manual interaction with them, causing you to display your login information on your screen for everyone in Starbucks to see…)
3. The airport
   This is my biggest pet peeve. I understand that they need to react to events to make people feel secure, but the real thing stopping something like 9/11 from happening again is the passengers, not the TSA. (i.e. someone rushes the cockpit these days, they get tackled by passengers). Securing the cockpit is a good idea, and the security screening is partly secure, but mostly faux-secure. Think about it for two seconds and I bet you can find a menacing instrument you can bring on a plane with which to threaten passengers. That’s all the 9/11 terrorists reportedly did. And none of the TSA’s current inconvenient restrictions prevent that. In fact, since “terrorism”‘s purpose is to cause governments to change things (i.e. cripple the airline industry), one could argue that it worked. And that pisses me off. I just hope that behind the scenes, they actually know what they’re doing and just aren’t telling us (which would be secure…).

Some things implement security well, such as:

1. MacOS X
   Secure keychain coupled with secure login. Easy to use if you’re you, near impossible if you’re not. It’s also simple, which means things don’t fall through the cracks (like the jumpable fence…). Ubuntu Gnome has a similar keychain. You can also generate truly secure passwords (long, with special characters).
2. LastPass and 1Password
   1Password adds a bit of inconvenience, at least in the iPhone app (2 passwords required to get to items), but overall is well designed. LastPass is also simple, and lets you fill in those stupid bank password fields, so you can use real passwords and not write them on a post-it.
3. Office tap cards
   Lots of secure office environments use simple transponder cards. Tap it on a pad, and you’re in. Simple if you have the card. Hard if you don’t. (Better would be a fingerprint scan, but hey, there’s always “better”).

So, start complaining when you see faux security and remind them:
Less Convenient Does Not Equal More Secure.

What do avoiding car accidents, being on time, and successful inventory control all have in common?

Buffers.

People aren’t precise. Everything we do has a margin of error. It’s cool and movie-like to drive as fast as your mind, and car, can handle, or run in the door just in the nick of time for something important; but in the real world, chances are that you’ll get pulled over, or hit something, or arrive at the important event just after it started (or 30 minutes late).

There are natural limits in the world: the fastest your car can go, the fastest your mind can process information, the actual time the meeting starts, the actual amount of toothpaste in the tube. If you pass those limits, it’s too late: your car breaks down, you hit something you didn’t expect because you didn’t see it, you’re late for your friend’s performance, or you run out of toothpaste.

There’s an easy way to have those things almost never happen: set a different limit, and treat it as your actual
limit. Drive around the speed limit (you’ll notice other people are doing it too). Stay 2-3 seconds behind the car in front of you. Stop at the yellow light (it’s a buffer, btw). Have an unopened tube of toothpaste in a drawer. (When you need to open it, add “toothpaste” to your shopping list.)

The difference between your limit and the “hard” limit is a “buffer”, or a layer that protects you from the hard limit (just like those yellow barrels on the freeway stop you before you hit the hard cement wall). The buffer means you won’t get a red light ticket (or accident), or a speeding ticket, or run out of stuff.

You can also apply it to car maintenance (avoid breakdowns), your checking account balance (avoid overdrafts), and on and on.

You’ll find that once you’ve relieved the pressures of pushing the limits in mundane areas, you’ll suddenly have time, and mental freedom, to spend on more exciting things. This might take some getting used to, as you’ll have a void of time and thought to fill. Then you can push the important limits: your fears, your comfort zone, and why you’re spending time on this earth.

This morning, in honor of Pac Man’s 30th anniversary, Google’s “Doodle” logo changed to a Googleized version of Pac Man.

With 255 levels, 2 player mode (click “insert coin”), and a statement that the game will NOT be archived, offices across the world have seen a dramatic drop in productivity.

When asked about the game’s effect on his department, a manager at a well-known dot com company, who wished to remain anonymous, stated “What? No, wait a minute I just. Dammit! Why did you interrupt me? I was on level 15! Get out of my office!”.

Similar responses have been heard at all levels of management in many corporations around the world.

In an exclusive interview with a VP at Google, we were told that the game was developed as part of Google’s ongoing plan for world domination:

“Using the IP address of the player and data such as the length of time playing the game, level achieved, etc, we can not only determine the immediate effect on office productivity to our competitors, but also gather information regarding the problem solving skills of their employees. Using the Google cookies already stored on the employee’s computer, we can make intelligent hiring decisions, stealing our competitor’s top talent.” *

So, there you have it. Innocent game? I think not.

* Nobody was interviewed at any company in the writing of this article. Were they too busy playing Pac Man to talk to us? Maybe.

1. Join mint.com
2. Check it weekly and visit the “Fitness” tab
3. Do what it says

I love Mint (and hopefully Intuit won’t kill it). The automatic view of your finances is great because it’s so easy, the reporting and tracking is decent, the budgeting has “rollover”, and it has a personal financial management tutor built right in.

I like “rollover” because it lets you set up buckets of money for certain things, versus unrealistic hard-set monthly budgets that you’ll never really keep to (because some months you’ll spend more, some less).

By far the best feature is the Fitness tab. Mint makes money by making you money. Good system. The Fitness tab gives you step by step tasks (with points!) to do to make money, complete with a “why do this?” button for each. If things like checking your transactions weekly, spending less than you earn, getting an interest-earning checking account, saving for emergencies, and putting money into a retirement fund aren’t obvious for you (and even if they are), Mint’s Fitness tab will make you money. If you do all of them, no matter what your income is, you will probably become quite wealthy. I’d guarantee it if I were a betting man, but betting men rarely get wealthy.