Archive for September 12, 2016

#Fail: Apple Has A Weird Definition Of Diversity

Posted in Commentary with tags on September 12, 2016 by itnerd

This is the most bizarre thing I’ve seen from a company who should know better. Apple has been under the microscope when it comes to diversity within the company. To their credit, they put out an annual diversity and inclusion report that shows how well it is, or isn’t doing on that front. But all those efforts went straight to hell with one ill advised e-mail from an Apple employee to a reporter that highlighted the fact that at the iPhone 7 event last week, they had a very “diverse” group of people on stage:

There was a lot of diversity on that stage that you didn’t recognize. Unrecognized by you was the fact that we had a gay man, two African-Americans (Instagram and Nike), a Canadian, and a British Woman, Hannah Catmur.

Here’s where the #Fail begins:

  • The two black people on stage two were Nike Brand president Trevor Edwards and Instagram head of design Ian Spalter. Neither of them work for Apple.
  • The Canadian referred to in the e-mail is Heather Price of Vancover based This Game Studio. She does not work for Apple.
  • Hanna Catmur is head of design at ViewRanger. She does not work for Apple.
  • Unless the writer of the e-mail is referring to Tim Cook who came out as being gay in 2014, I have no clue who the gay man might be.

So, as far as the person who sent this ill advised e-mail is concerned, four people who don’t work for Apple somehow count towards the diversity numbers at Apple. On top of that, having a Canadian on stage on at an Apple event is somehow diverse?

Quite honestly I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

I am truly hoping that this is the failings of one Apple employee. Because if it is not, Apple has a much bigger issue with diversity than they thought.

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Does Dropbox Pose A Security Risk?

Posted in Commentary with tags on September 12, 2016 by itnerd

That is what a report on Hacker News claims. In short, the report claims that Dropbox on the Mac platform appears in the Security & Privacy tab for Accessibility, despite the fact that users are never prompted to grant access to the features. Here’s a video that demonstrates this in action:

I tried this on my Mac and I was able to replicate this behavior….. And I am not amused. Dropbox clearly is feeling the heat as they responded to this on Hacker News, in short saying that it only asks for the permissions it needs and uses the Accessibility features for certain app integrations like Office, although the permissions aren’t as “granular” as the company would like.

My $0.02 worth? Like I said, I am not amused by this behavior. Given that this is the same company behind Project Infinite which some people say would open up your computer to getting pwned on a massive scale, not to mention that the company was the victim of a massive hack of over 60 million Dropbox accounts back in 2012 which required the company to force a password reset, I really don’t think that anyone should give the company a free pass on this issue. There are lots of apps on the Mac platform that want permissions like these, but they ask for them as opposed to just doing whatever it pleases. It also begs the question as to what it does on other operating systems, like Windows for example.

Now if you excuse me, I’m going to remove Dropbox from my Mac as I don’t like having security risks on computers that I rely upon.

UPDATE: I’ve gone one step further and deleted my Dropbox, effectively closing my account. The more I thought about it, the more that this is a security risk that I want no part of. It’s not just the fact that Dropbox asks for permissions on your Mac without user intervention, it’s is the fact that some evil doer could leverage that to do something really bad. That’s a chance that I will not take.

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Samsung Sells Printer Division As Stock Tanks Over Note 7 Debacle

Posted in Commentary with tags on September 12, 2016 by itnerd

Well, I have two pieces of news to report from the world of Samsung. The first is that they have announced that they are selling their printer division to HP:

The personal-computer maker has agreed to buy Samsung Electronics Co.’s printer business for $1.05 billion, betting that it can grab share and generate income, even in a shrinking global market.

The deal will add to earnings in the first full year, Palo Alto, California-based HP said in a statement Monday. As part of the agreement, Samsung has committed to buy $100 million to $300 million worth of HP shares on the open market after the acquisition closes, the companies said.

That sounds sort of interesting. And it’s kind of handy that this deal nets Samsung a billion dollars as they may need the cash at the moment seeing as their stock is tanking:

Shares of the world’s biggest smartphone maker plunged 7% Monday after the company told owners of its high-end Galaxy Note 7 phone to stop using the devices over concerns they can burst into flames while charging.

A share drop of 7% works out to roughly $25 billion dollars. That’s not a trivial amount of money and I am sure that there are people at Samsung HQ who are very unhappy about the effects of the ongoing Note 7 debacle where the phones catch fire. What doesn’t help this situation is that the company is telling consumers to stop using the phones immediately. Samsung’s going to have a lot of fun digging themselves out of this one.

 

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3000 Dell Employees May Get The Axe

Posted in Commentary with tags , on September 12, 2016 by itnerd

As part of Dell’s efforts to buy EMC, which closed on September 7th by the way, as many as 3000 people may no longer work for Dell when it is all said and done according to a  Bloomberg report. The report claims that Dell will seek out $1.7bn in cost savings in the next eighteen months. However, it also claims that it will seek to beef up sales by several times that amount, minimizing the need to thin the herd. If they have to thin the herd, it will likely come from the US and in roles including supply chain, marketing and general and administrative functions.

It will be interesting to see what this new Dell/EMC combo does to make this deal work over next year or two. My guess is that they will be doing anything possible to prove that this merger was a good idea. Even if that means that this merger isn’t as good for others. Employees for example.

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