Then in April 2010, Facebook decided to completely revamp the platform and roll out a series of new APIs, complete with new methods for authentication and new documentation. They deprecated the wiki and apparently hired the worst technical documentation guy they could find to write the docs. They’re incomplete, inaccurate, and contain very little sample code, context, and otherwise useful info. And the new APIs don’t even work half the time; there are bugs in the tracker that have been there for months, interrupting core functionality. The only place to really find any kind of useful info is the forums, which means hours of searching to find even basic info. Often this info is posted by people at Facebook, but they never bother to put it in the official documentation. I’ve worked with APIs from 2-man startups that offered a better experience, so it’s especially sad to have to deal with this from a platform with 500 million people on it.

Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications — including encrypted e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct “peer to peer” messaging like Skype — to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order. The mandate would include being able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages.

It’s almost unbelievable to me that in this day and age that the user interface many of us have in our cable boxes looks as if it was designed with a crayon by a 6-year-old. This is how we interact with the device that is for many, the most-used in their home: the TV. A lot of kitchen appliances now have better UIs.

Apple, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Amazon — all of these guys offer experiences that are a million times better than cable. The only thing that’s holding them back is the content. Netflix is the one arguably making the most headway here, but that’s mainly for movies and older television shows. But Netflix is smart in that they’re not trying to do their own thing. They’re great as a supplement to something like the Xbox 360 and soon, undoubtedly, the iTV. If Xbox Live really can get live sports programming too, it will be another step.

On Monday, Google and Verizon announced, as part of their bi-lateral net neutrality trade agreement they want Congress to ratify, that open wireless rules were unneccessary.

“We both recognize that wireless broadband is different from the traditional wireline world, in part because the mobile marketplace is more competitive and changing rapidly,” the joint statement said. “In recognition of the still-nascent nature of the wireless broadband marketplace, under this proposal we would not now apply most of the [Net Neutrality] wireline principles to wireless, except for the transparency requirement.”

That’s fancy language for: Verizon and the nation’s telecoms have yet again won; Google officially became a net neutrality surrender monkey; and you, as an American, have lost.

Both firms seem to agree that web users “should choose what content, applications, or devices they use,” and they both want “enforceable prohibition against discriminatory practices” — and yeah, that definitely includes prioritization and blocking of internet traffic, including paid prioritization. In an odd twist, what seems to be happening here is that both Google and Verizon are actually in favor of more government oversight on the internet, but they want that oversight to be beneficial to consumers. In other words, more regulations from the feds to enforce fewer regulations imposed on you from your ISP.

When we contacted Mitch Berg, he of the Astroturfing claim and a radio host for conservative talk Northern Alliance Radio Network, to ask if he thought our coverage was such, he said The Awl was “party to some really cynical astroturfing.”

Berg then went on to say that the Democratic-led Minnesota legislature had “done *nothing* to advance any shred of the “gay agenda,’” and that he was “waiting for the HRC to ask [Dem candidiates] Dayton, Kelliher and Entenza what they think about gay rights.” When I pointed out that Dayton and Kelliher have the need for gay equality listed in the issue sections of their websites and that the legislature’s recent gay equality bill was vetoed by Governor Pawlenty, Berg answered, “Whatever. I don’t follow gay issues closely.”

He closed with, “You’re in my spam filter now.”

Full text in the link.

I’m still entirely unconvinced that money is speech.

soupsoup:

Remember that torrent yesterday that contained the personal information off of 100 million scraped Facebook profiles? I thought it was strange that the guy didn’t sell this information, since many companies would be interested. Turns out they are interested.