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Apple to move its calves into another barn

A “new” i.e. “incompatible” feature on your brand new Macs: no more physical ESC key on the keyboard, to prevent your perfectly running software to do so. ?Adieu! ?VI!

A “new” i.e. “incompatible” power socket for your MacBook Pro, to force you to discharge your old charger.

A “new” i.e. “incompatible” file system on your Macs (APFS), to make your system interacting haphazardly with your files. 1

A “new” i.e. “incompatible” operating system (High Sierra) to not work properly with your currently running software (from Office, to Indesign and Illustrator.)

A “new” – guess what? yes, “incompatible” – HTML 5 API to allow DRMs enforced at user-agent level 2

There are now enough calves in the valley, and the time is right to move them to another barn, where they can stay calm and dumb, with nobody but the rancheros from Cupertino telling them what, how and when to do.

They finally got it.

 

 

  1. First hand experience, after having upgraded the laptop ↩
  2. Apple, together with Microsoft and IBM chairs the HTML W3C Working Group that is going to standardize this “feature”. ↩
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The Flaws of the High Tech Advertising (or Why the Iphone X won’t never turn you into a better photographer)

The advertising strategy of the next technological gimmick is always based on what this gimmick can do and not what you can do with the gimmick.

This might sound counterintuitive, because if we look at the way the toys of the moment are presented to the prospect customers, the ads are focused on the opposite approach. Look at these landscape gorgeous pictures, incredible slow motion kids’ soccer match video or stunning portraits displayed everywhere on the web: isn’t all that an evidence that the communication is user-directed?

Well, let’s scratch the surface. Continue reading “The Flaws of the High Tech Advertising (or Why the Iphone X won’t never turn you into a better photographer)”

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About GDPR and Extraterritoriality

The extra-territorial aspect of the GDPR has been designed mimicking the criminal law approach enforced to punish crimes committed abroad by a national citizen. But while this approach works for criminal law, it doesn’t for civil (in the Continental meaning of the word) law that is strongly based on the jurisdiction (meant as “geographical limit to the power of a sovereign State) concept. Under this principle, a law can’t extend its reach outside the boundaries of the State that passed it. Continue reading “About GDPR and Extraterritoriality”

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The Agenzia delle entrate possible data-breach and the Italian Data Protection Authority’s reaction

According to Il Sole24 Ore (the Italian financial daily newspaper), the Agenzia delle entrate (the public body entitled to the processing of Italian citizen’s tax information – about 20 billion, says the newspaper) has been shut down because of a bug allowing unrestricted access to those tax related information.

This is a clear infringement of the data protection by design and by default rule, as well as evidence that a poor security check has been done before opening the server to the Internet. But the Italian Data Protection Authority, instead of starting an investigation, just “asked for information”, a rather odd behaviour if compared to the attitude showed by the Authority toward the private sector.

I wonder if the DPA will use the very same light approach when a similar – and maybe less threatening – even should happen to some non public entity.