December 2012 – Paul's Notepad

CyanogenMod 10 On My Nook Color

Paul Darr / 2012-12-14 / Leave a Comment

I felt it was time for an update on what I have been doing with my Nook Color. My last post was when I had CyanogenMod 7 on it. Since that time my Nook went around the world and visited Kuwait, Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan. In those locations it braved sand, heat, snow and cold. I’ve read over 20 books on the device and watched my son grow from an infant to a toddler. Using Google Voice I was also able to text and keep in touch with my wife as I was far from her. The SD card also helped to hold hours of music and videos for when I was traveling or just left with some down time.

Some where along that journey I found the time to install CM9 and later CM10 on the device. I went from running unofficial betas built by the community as a labor of love to receiving full CyanogenMod official status again. I have to say the developers in this community have done an awesome job keeping this ereader gone tablet going. It’s quite amazing to see what this hardware can do despite the original limitations of design.

As far as general usability I still have to give CM7 some what of an edge. CM10 lags a little and has a slightly lower battery performance. Despite the minor performance drops, I would still recommend CM10 to someone that has already placed a rom on their Nook. It’s fun to have the latest and greatest Android can offer. I can see myself still using this tablet into the future. It fits my needs well.

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Richard Stallman: Intellectually Dishonest?

Paul Darr / 2012-12-08 / Leave a Comment

In a recent blog post Richard Stallman referred to the Ubuntu Linux Distribution as spyware. Mr. Stallman’s post stemmed primarily from the recent introduction of the shopping lens into Ubuntu 12.10. This lens is on by default and when a user enters a search into the Unity Dash a user will get back results related to their personal files and search results for Amazon.com. This search is passed through Canonical’s servers and they act as a layer of anonymity between Amazon. If a user makes a purchase from Amazon, Canonical then receives the referral bonus for the purchase. Users are informed of the shopping lens when they read the privacy policy linked to in Unity’s dash. If a user objects to this policy they may disable the shopping lens in their privacy settings or remove it altogether using the Ubuntu Software Center. While many share Mr. Stallman’s privacy concern for Canonical’s implementation of the shopping lens, I would have to characterize his assessment of Ubuntu being spyware as intellectually dishonest.

First let’s look at the definition of spyware. Wikipedia defines spyware as a type of malware (malicious software) installed on computers that collects information about users without their knowledge. The presence of spyware is typically hidden from the user and can be difficult to detect. Some spyware, such as keyloggers, may be installed by the owner of a shared, corporate, or public computer intentionally in order to monitor users.

Ubuntu’s shopping lens does not meet this definition. The shopping lens is easily seen by design and a user can be informed about the privacy policy in Unity’s dash. In addition a user can easily disable or remove the shopping lens with a few clicks.

While I think the shopping lens is badly implemented, I could not honestly call it spyware. It seems most detractors are content to sling about incorrect terminology as opposed to just saying it’s implemented badly or offering a way it could be implemented better.

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