Does everything need to be touchscreen?

Just like everyone else, I think that touchscreens are cool. It's nice to be able to move an icon around the screen, draw a line, do this do that.

But really - do we need touchscreens everywhere?

Take a look at that prototype iMac touch. Wow! How neat! You can...touch things!

Yes, very neat indeed. HP also has their breed of touchscreen devices and computers, and I'm sure this whole fad will be with us until non screen touching gestures are utilized over actually touching the screen...which is the problem.

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If you have a touchscreen device (Audric has an iPhone and Nate has the Samsung Intercept) you know how nasty that screen can get after a day of use. You seriously need to keep a microfiber towel handy to clean it off, otherwise in some sunlight, you're halfway trying to read text and smudge at the same time. It can look like Swamp Thing got ahold of your device.

I'm quite thankful that my Samsung Intercept has a real physical keyboard. With man hands it still is a bit small for my taste, but it does work and I don't have to type on the joke of a 3" screen (which I actually did once and somehow spelled "Remachines.com" correctly).

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I'm a holdout for things such as mice and screens until gestures (no, we're not talking a wand like the Nintendo Wii which is untolerable to control) become more mainstream. We're hoping that devices like the Microsoft Kinect for Xbox starts taking things to the next level. If it can, then all those front facing cameras will actually have a use other than trying to get some Facetime.

Then again, gestures might be a joke when your thoughts are downloaded immediately to the camera, like the most memorable part of Minority Report:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyMdrOGhBhI

Still typing on my Logitech UltraX keyboard (I've had for five years).

-Nate

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Ridiculous Ink Costs - Time for Laser Printers!

I happened to be surfing Gizmodo this morning, and they had this funny link to how much ink cartridges cost in comparison to things like Bottled Water, Blood and Oil.

I really was set back on how much more the ink costs were in comparison to everything else.

I expected ink costs to be more, but not nearly double the cost of Human Blood!

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Now this article was created in 2006, and things have changed, but I don't expect them to have changed all that much. So what does this mean? We think it means that unless you really, really have a need for a color printer (like you need to make nice presentations, you print your own photos professionally, you basically are a business in need of one) you should have moved over to a nice laser printer a few years ago.

The cost of ownership is MUCH less, and you can sometimes even refill your own toner cartridges for 20% the cost of buying a new one (which if you did buy a new one, it still is about the same price as a single black ink cartridge).

We're currently selling some brand new Canon all in one (Print, Scan, Fax) Laser printers for $125. That's absurdly cheap. But what makes the deal even better is that you can get third party toner cartridges for around $30-$35. That's around another 2,000-4,000 pages of printing for what you normally would get 150-250 pages out of that inkjet for.

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We also sell new and used Laser and Inkjet printers for much less than that!

As always, your mileage may vary, but you can always keep your pocketbook from bleeding to death by moving to Laser and leaving services like Snapfish or Walgreen's to print your pictures.

-Nate

Samsung Intercept Android Smartphone Mini Review

I held out as long as I could from getting a real smartphone (sorry Windows Mobile 6.1, you don't count). The real reasons behind getting the Samsung Intercept from Sprint are:

1) The battery in my Samsung Ace was finally going out after two years of everyday use (and a couple of drops).

2) My wife's Samsung Upstage was totally flaking out, and without a removeable battery, you would have to do weird things like call it in order for it to respond.

3) I was able to get Sprint to get me both Samsung Intercept Android phones for $150 AR.

4) I was able to get Sprint to give me Nights and Weekends starting at 6PM instead of 7PM.

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My initial thoughts of the Samsung Intercept are positive. I'm a guy who runs a couple of apps and primarily uses it for Email. The slider keyboard really comes into its own element here, allowing me to blaze through emails instead of "pecking one out" on the touchscreen.

The battery life is superb for a smartphone. 2.5 days on a single charge with medium usage, it's basically what I need. I don't want to be tethered to the charger every few hours. That's just unacceptable (check out our battery post here: http://remachines.blogspot.com/2010/08/batteries-we-need-better-affordable.html )

The battery is good because it's an 800Mhz CPU instead of the 1Ghz ones in the Evo and Epic phones. But this is where the phone has its issues. Sometimes, when running two to three apps at a time, the phone's buttons (menu, home, back and search) just stop responding for up to 15 seconds. This is an obvious design flaw, and will hopefully be rectified with the eventual upgrade to Android 2.2.

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But overall I don't have any complaints other than that. The sound quality, even on speakerphone completely crushes my Samsung Ace. It is loud, rarely cuts out, and the speaker is clear for me to hear the person on the other line.

I'm going to give the device an early 8/10. I'll give it a few months and come back with what I think of it then (after I've dropped it a couple times).

[Check us out at Remachines.com ]

-Nate

Isn't my old mouse good enough?

When did the mouse I've had for the past...8 years become obsolete?

I still have my Logitech MX300 USB optical mouse that I bought a LONG time ago for $30 on my desk, and I've tried to switch to others.

I once got a birthday present in the form of the Logitech Laser mouse once, which had weights you could put in it and whatnot, but to be honest, it just had too many buttons. I found myself accidentally hitting things and messing up my chi.

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So I went back to the MX300, and never looked back...or would that be "forward"? It's the dull, black and silver "modern" look from about 2002. But how can it be beat? Certainly not by a laser mouse.

Take a look at that new Arc Touch mouse my Microsoft. Sure looks fancy. Maybe it will help some people with gaming or comfort. Probably costs $75, and is wireless (something to this day I am entirely against, except for the wireless keyboard and mouse combo that hooks up to my plasma).

But really, do we need better mice? Two buttons and a scroll seems to be working out just fine here. The Mx300 is 8 years old, and has cost me about $3.75 a year to use, and I don't see it stopping anytime soon. I can't see myself using a touchscreen for my desktop unless something (truly) magical comes around that doesn't leave smudges, and even if so, what's the point? So I can shift my photos around with my finger instead? OK, fine, progress wins.

Maybe I'm just old and am losing contact with the kids, which seems to be the case when I read those Beloit College Mindset Lists: http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2014.php . I bet next year it'll say "Kids have never known anything that didn't have a touchscreen".

Which brings back a memory of when I used to work at EDS. One day we got a stockpile of Microsoft Intellimouse scroll mice in, and I thought I would be a savior for folks in an area that I know didn't have scroll mice. I was greeted as Computer Jesus by most, but of course, there always has to be one who doesn't play nice. She was a wonderfully crotchety woman, and was fine with having her rectangular Compaq mouse...forever. I was shocked, and tried to explain the benefits of the scroll mouse...to no avail. I went back to my desk defeated.

Here's to arched wrists and smudged screens forever.

-Nate

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Madden 11 Mini Review (Thanks to EA and a Remachined Xbox 360)

Where to begin?

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a console gamer. Of course I've played PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, whatever, but my weapon of choice has always been the

PC. I've always felt more in control of the game, be it using a mouse to snipe people versus a...controller or setting customized resolutions, playing in windowed mode, and basically throwing down a grand or so to build a box that plays...one game pretty well.

Well, here's to new things for me. My friend at EA sports mentioned the other day that Madden 11 was coming out. Normally I wouldn't care. I know Madden is THE football game to play, but I've got other things to do.

That was until a used Xbox 360

walked through my door on trade towards a used laptop. Along with 4 games and a wireless controller, I'd be a fool not to take it.

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But then again, in the electronics business, even a fool knows that Xbox 360s are easily one of the worst non-recalled electronic products ever produced. The failure rate on these things is horrendous. They usually bake themselves to de

ath and give you that nice red light of death.

Somehow this one, which smelled like an ashtray, ran great. I played some Tekken 6 to burn it in (like it needed it) and it went off without a hitch.

So that's where I drop a line to my friend at EA that I just got a 360. This was after cracking jokes that I hadn't played Madden since 1996 (which really is kind of true). She went ahead and overnighted me a complimentary copy of Madden 11, to which I owe them a mini review. So here we go.

Upon firing it up, the HD resolution going over HDMI on my 42" Panasonic Plasma looked amazing. I've never played a game that looked so good on a TV before. The good ol "EA Sports" logo slams in your face, and you're ready for some football.

T

hen Drew Brees shows up and ruins the moment with his contrived speech. A little "This is New Orleans" BS and whatnot. It really was kind of a downer and made me like him a little less for selling out like this.

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Thankfully that's in the extended intro, and that sappy stuff isn't dripping all over the game, since AC/DC Thunderstruck kicked in as soon as I got to the main menu.

Speaking of, where the heck is John Madden? His face is in the game sometimes, but you don't ever hear him talk. It's like he's dead or something, or locked up in solitary. It's kind of weird.

The new version of the game has GameFlow, which allows Madden to automatically pick a play based on where you are on the field and what down it is. That's pretty nice if I were 6 or if I was playing with someone who only knew football as soccer. I personally want control over my plays, but it does speed the game up for noobs and the play

calling is pretty logical.

Another weird thing about the game is that they took out speed burst. It's an automatic thing now, but how do you KNOW you're bursting and not just fat like Lendale White? It feels weird, but it does come into play when you bust through a hole or break to the outside...I just wish I could manually do it. You can enable it, but it should be on by default.

Gameplay is very smooth, and the game really requires you to wait for your receivers to hit their routes in order to complete passes. I'm a Tecmo Super Bowl guy (yeah, I'm that old) and I'm used to launching 70 yard passes and expect Henry Ellard to jump up and grab it over Deion Sanders' head. None of that is happening in Madden 11. If you try to float passes, you'll have every single one of them broken up or picked off. You need to have patience and really run a lot of crossing patterns and slant routes.

[Check us out at Remachines.com ]

Defense is actually fun to play. I've never felt as though I had the talent to be a defensive lineman and actually get a sack, or a cornerback and stick with my man without knocking him over and getting a penalty, so I play the nice easy role of middle linebacker. I have the ability to cover anywhere on the field or get in and stop the run.

You should ask the Steelers after I sacked Leftwhich about 8 times last night if he was going to play a few more quarters. I think the Lions are going to be a pretty good team this year (I picked a team randomly to start a season) as I smoked Pittsburgh 30-7. I yelled as I got a pick 6 and did a dive into the end zone all laid out posing for my football card. It was a great feeling.

I think Madden 11 is going to be a hit, and for someone who usually doesn't play console games, I was able to pick it up pretty fast (thanks for having a practice mode!). One final complaint is the constan

t reminder that the sponsor of the game is Verizon Wireless. OK, yes, I got it the first time Gus Johnson. You're more excited about that than my 30 unanswered points.

The minor issues with the game are definitely subdued by how amazing the game is. I'm glad I waited 14 years to play Madden again. However I do miss the 16 bit drunk sounding Madden and the hits and audio sounds like you were tackling a dog and not a person.

I have to give the game an A so far, but we'll see how generous I am if the Lions go 2-14!

I guess it was a good idea to keep his face off the game (1988 Apple II version):

-Nate

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Batteries. We need better (affordable) ones...or better software!

Nothing like waking up and forgetting to charge your phone, laptop or other essential daily electronic device.

Or nothing like having it die on you in the middle of the day away from your charger.

Why is it that battery technology, or should we say AFFORDABLE good battery technology so out of reach?

Well, it isn't always the battery's fault. Of course, it could be, as some Chinese replacement laptop batteries have been somewhat questionable, but then again, the "Panasonic Made In Japan" ones I bought for my Fujifilm camera that needed a piece of plastic cut off in order to fit (NP-40 size) seem to work great (and we know they aren't Japanese).

So who do we blame? We think it's a three way tie.

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1) You have to blame the manufacturers for using less cells than they could normally cram into a battery pack (say 4 cells in a compartment that can fit 9), as well as the manufacturers using aging Lithium Ion cells that were outdated to begin with from the lowest bidding manufacturer. I guess this should be expected when paying less than $400 for a new laptop, but a little better (or more) cells or more cells couldn't hurt.

2) You have to blame bad software code. I first hand saw this happen when I upgraded my first generation Android tablet from Droid 1.7.2 to 1.7.4 firmware. The optimizations in the software really improved the life of the battery by 25% or one hour. It was incredible. But then why doesn't Windows 7 get 10% better battery life than Windows XP if it is newer code? Well that's because you probably have that eye candy called Aero enabled, causing the Graphics chip to render that partially translucent desktop all the time. That'll kill a battery pretty quick. So we need better code for better battery life. I think this is always going to be a problem.

[Check us out at Remachines.com ]

3) It's our fault. Like I mention above with Aero enabled, there are things we can do to better battery life. Like disabling Bluetooth, wifi if we're hardwired, taking the battery out if hardwired and especially when gaming. This also holds true to using the laptop or device somewhere hot. Nothing will kill a battery (or computing device) faster than if it can't breathe. We see a lot of dead motherboards, power adapters, etc. Because someone wanted to use their laptop on their bed for a few hours a day with all the vents closed up. Let that thing breathe!

Here's the article that got me thinking about this: http://lifehacker.com/5609988/a-comprehensive-guide-to-improving-your-android-battery-life

Don't forget to completely discharge and then fully charge your battery every so often either (called - "conditioning").

[Check us out at Remachines.com ]

-Nate

The Age of Always Connected...Always Busy...Always Distracted

Yesterday I happened to come across this really good blog called "Tweetage Wasteland". The owner of the site has some really good quotes from people who are always connected, and always checking their phones or laptops or whatever wherever they are. There are some classics there, and it really just want to show how overconnected (I just made that up) we all are:

I Walked the Brooklyn Bridge Without Facebook
This was an era before the internet became an umbilical cord.

I really liked this one because it's true. Can't we just walk up and down the street anymore? When did it become a big deal? Why does that restaurant you ate at matter? Why do I need to know.

Because I need to know.

We All Have Photographic Memories Now
McEnroe has never watched the video of his dramatic 1980 Wimbledon final against Bjorn Borg … He doesn’t want to take the chance that his memory of the experience will be altered or even replaced by a new memory of the video version of the event.

This one really hit me. I've felt this way before, where if I go back and look at things I've previously written or have performed or produced, I'll forget how I felt or currently feel about them. That they'll change over time, or I'll find flaws in things I should have done differently. Some things should just be left alone locked up in that little black box we all have. It's this thing called History, and on some personal levels, it doesn't need to be relived on YouTube indefinitely.

I Can’t Read Anything Longer Than This Headline
After a decade of browsing, blogging, linking, clicking and Tweeting, I find it nearly impossible to focus on a book even when I try to recreate a reading environment that mirrors a more technologically simple time.

This one is true as well. I need brief articles or diagrams to keep me interested longer than things longer than a paragraph. Remember how an article in the newspaper picks up on another page? It's hard to not get distracted and remain interested enough to start reading it again later. Of course, that is if you still read things like the Onion on paper.

Check out the site - it's really interesting, and some days I really think that I'm connected enough. I try to keep my communication just far enough away that I'm not that guy sitting in a coffee shop messing with his iPhone as his friend is sitting right next to him as life passes him by.

But then again, the longer I push back that smartphone purchase, maybe I'm being left behind. I guess I'm OK with that right now.

Source: http://tweetagewasteland.com/welcome-to-the-wasteland/

-Nate

Apples to...Dells?

Dell has recently released its "Apples to Apples" back to school campaign where it compares its products to Apple's.

Now before you laugh, it is a pretty fair comparison, but I thought I'd point out the pretty ridiculous stuff for you.

First off, Dell compares their Studio 15 laptop to a Macbook Pro 15. I can hear the laughs now. But in the configuration Dell uses, both machines have Core i7 chips, top of the line stuff. Dell doesn't disclose the CPU speed, so that's kind of weird. Secondly, they say the Studio 15 has 6 colors available compared to...silver...or should that be Aluminum? The Software section of the comparison(s) is always the funniest. Dell tries to pass off the Windows Live Essentials package as being as good as the iLife suite. Now I'm no hardcore Mac user, but that's just crazy. Live Essentials is decent with Movie Maker, Photo Gallery and whatnot, but compared to iLife? Don't think so.

Then it comes to price. As always with me, it is ALWAYS ABOUT PRICE in the end. If not, then you're just rich and buy diamond studded burritos from Taco Bell.

The price for the Dell? $949 (that IS a good deal for the specs) versus $2,199 for the Macbook. Ouch.

Pretty much the same comparison goes for the 17" versions of the respective laptops.

Then we get to the desktops, the Dell Zino versus Mac Mini and the Dell Inspiron tower versus the iMac.

The first comparison makes sense, since Dell basically stole the Mac Mini idea from Apple and made their own cheaper clone. The specs on the Zino are quite good, 4GB RAM versus 2GB, 750GB Hard Drive versus 320GB...but the AMD Athlon II CPU in the Dell comes up a little short against the Core2 Intel in the Mac Mini.

Then we get to the software part again. I guess the Dell doesn't come with Windows Live Essentials (even though you can download it for free...what, did they get lazy?) but instead comes with...ready for the laugh track? McAfee Security Center (that IS funny) for 15 months. Supposedly the Mac Mini doesn't come with iLife either.

Dell again wins in the price category, but they should discount it more for having to waste time uninstalling McAfee.

Finally, the comparison of the Inspiron desktop and the iMac. Really, should there be a comparison? Yes, the iMac is a desktop, but it really is quite different. I personally like separate components in case something breaks, but then again, I work with run down worked to within an inch of their life electronics on a daily basis, so having a six foot mouse cable on my desk really doesn't bother my chi.

Again, McAfee is the separator here, along with the choice of 4 colors and (what I think is nice) a Blu-Ray combo for the Dell. Rolling in at $900 versus $1500 is pretty nice for the Dell too, but if I'm going to be dumping $900 into a desktop, it sure as heck isn't going to be a Dell, it's going to be a custom built, expandable gaming rig that I can grow into and that doesn't have some proprietary special power supply. But that's me.

In conclusion, you can see these types of comparisons are useful...as long as you know the little details that make them not so useful. But then again, when some people buy a car, they only care about the color.

Source: http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/apple-comparison?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

-Nate

Remachines.com

Perfect - Microchips in Footballs! First Down!

Finally - discussions went public regarding microchips in the NFL to determine things like First Downs and Touchdowns. This is a little off the cuff regarding technology, I know, but it is also an exciting time, since football season is ramping up here in the states.

It would be nice along with the current replay system to make the right call as much as possible. If that ball extends over the goal line, heck, make the pylons light up and have sirens like they do in hockey...

Speaking of, wouldn't that be next? That little puck flying around, would make icing calls, goals and probably some other things easier to determine too.

Next, Basketball. Instead of allowing instant replay on virtually any out of bounds play under 2 minutes of the halves, make the ball change colors to the team's colors that last touched it, then blink repeatedly and have the lines flash in that color when it was off on them. Also you could make the ball simulate "he's on fire!" if a guy gets hot.

Finally baseball. Sorry, can't change that sport. It's like the wild west where cheating, mistakes and blown calls rule. Good for that sport.

One last thing - when these balls or whatever come to the end of their life expectancy - do they then become eWaste?

Maybe we'll reuse them on our upcoming RETHINGS.COM site, or we'll sell them in our REMACHINES.COM store.

Source: http://ca.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idCATRE6722GD20100803?sp=true (<--Why is this from the Canadian site if it's about the NFL?)

-Nate

"If they can't deal with the Internet, they should shut it off." BRILLIANT!

So RIM's CEO (the maker of Blackberry) basically tells off Saudia Arabia and the UAE that if you can't handle the Internet, turn it off.

It's quite refreshing to hear some good political banter from our corporate overlords, particularly when it comes to being able to have access to the Internet, and uncensored access at that. I guess that if those countries can't successfully monitor access and what every single one of their citizens are doing, they should just pull the plug and go back to...censored television and radio.

That isn't going to happen.

Just like anything else, once the cat's out of the bag, it isn't going back in. What WILL happen is that individuals will find ways around the situation (just like they do in Turkey to get access to YouTube) and underground methods of enabling your device to do what YOU want it to do will prevail. (See - Jailbreaking your iPhone)

Now, the big deal here is that Blackberrys (Blackberries?) encrypt all of their data going to and from the phone. That's what has these countries in a tizzy. RIM hasn't given in to special security requests from any particular country before, and they shouldn't start now. Isn't it the person's data who owns the device?

But just in case you go visiting, be sure you leave your Blackberry at home until this whole mess is sorted out.

Source, WSJ:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704017904575409093226146722.html

-Nate

Ubuntu 10.04. Why are you the Vista of Ubuntu releases?

Ubuntu Linux has been around for a while, and we've been using it in the shop since version 8. It's always been a good OS to throw on an older computer that doesn't have a Windows XP license or if a customer has a specific request, or if they buy one of our SAFEBOXX products.

However, Ubuntu Version 10 really is a hog. They basically transformed it into some sort of Windows/OSX hybrid, and the worst came out of it.

It's slow, it doesn't like some of the same hardware that the older versions liked, it flakes out more often...basically the Windows Vista of Ubuntu releases. Yes, I expect some Linux folks to be knocking on my door any second now for saying that.

Ubuntu still has some sweet tricks up its sleeve though, like the ability to download software from with in the OS, the "spaces" like multiple desktop option (why doesn't Windows have this yet?), and the excellent ability to load up on a customer's computer to gain access to system files to perform data dumps without needing to take the drive out (say, when Windows is hosed).

I really think they rushed this one to market, which for a free product, doesn't make much sense. I find myself reverting back to version 9 because of its speed and reliability. Too bad it's got that horrid brown theme - at least they fixed that on version 10.

By the way Canonical - put the Minimize, Maximize and Close buttons back on the right hand side of the window. Being on the left is just illogical.

Try Ubuntu for yourself here (If you have a P4 2Ghz or higher):

http://www.ubuntu.com/

-Nate

So Microsoft's Dead huh? Not so fast...

Let me preface this post by saying that yes, Apple is rocking in Mobile sales and iOS sales and all that good stuff...but in reality, Windows 7 and Windows in general...dominates. Apple makes very nice products, and they do look sexy. But in the computing world, Mac OSX has lost some market share of late.

This is stuff that really confuses me sometimes. Every morning, lunch and evening I walk past a certain coffee shop, and I could swear to you that the only computer ever made was a Mac. This goes along with the only Mp3 player ever made being an iPod and Phone ever made being an iPhone. I walk by and feel...poor or not cool (OK, you've got me there). I've got either my used HP 17" laptop or Dell Netbook strapped to my back with my 2 year old Samsung Ace and no mp3 player and look through the windows to people sipping their $4 coffees and wonder what it's like.

Then I wake up and realize that 91% of the world's computers are good enough when they run Windows. They can do just about all the things a Mac can do (and many things a Mac cannot) for a fraction of the price. That's why I created this company - to make computing affordable, not to produce the image that by using a REMACHINE you're suddenly cool. I feel as the world is still sane in that respect.

I've come to realize that many people get it, and don't want to blow $1,000 on new laptop, that a $400 new one will be fine. Or a $200 used laptop will suit their needs better than a $500 one. I think that this is why Windows is so successful and will continue to be.

Even though every day I seem to live in that twilight zone.

Source: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/08/windows-7-overtakes-windows-vista.ars

-Nate

Change Those Facebook Privacy Settings Yet?

So the news that 100 million facebook (FB) users' information such as links to their FB sites, phone numbers, dates of birth, etc. had been extracted by a program that put them into a tidy 2.8GB file hit last week.

This file is now available on torrent websites, and if your privacy settings aren't on "friends only" or "private", you probably ended up on that list.

100 million FB users = 20% of all users. After all the kicking and screaming about privacy, it still seems to be a problem.

Another interesting fact about this data file is that it has been downloaded from some pretty prominent organizations. Now, there's no saying whether or not you'll end up on some SPAM list for the Church of Scientology, but there's a good chance that someone at one of these organizations will utilize this information in some fashion. Here's the list (so far):

A.C. Nielsen
Agilent Technologies
Apple
AT&T - Possible Macrovision
Baker & McKenzie
BBC
Bertelsmann Media
Boeing
Church of Scientology
Cisco Systems
Cox Enterprises
Davis Polk & Wardwell
Deutsche Telekom
Disney
Duracell
Ernst & Young
Fujitsu
Goldman Sachs
Halliburton
HBO & Company
Hilton Hospitality
Hitachi
HP
IBM
Intel
Intuit
Levi Strauss & Co.
Lockheed-Martin Corp
Lucasfilm
Lucent
Lucent Technologies
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co
Mcafee
MetLife
Mitsubishi
Motorola
Northrop Grumman
Novell
Nvidia
O'Melveny & Myers
Oracle Corp
Pepsi Cola
Procter and Gamble
Random House
Raytheon
Road Runner RRWE
Seagate
Sega
Siemens AG
SONY CORPORATION
Sprint
Sun Microsystems
Symantec
The Hague
Time Warner Telecom
Turner Broadcasting system
Ubisoft Entertainment
Unisys
United Nations
Univision
USPS
Viacom
Vodafone
Wells Fargo
Xerox PARC

So what can we do about it? Tighten up those security controls and watch the lawsuits fly. FB is the new way people stay in touch and "dropping out" really isn't an option once you join. I've seen it happen, and I've seen relationships die off and people join up again.

So please, change your security controls unless you're OK with Halliburton using your profile pic in some corporate training seminar or Wells Fargo sending you free Checking on your birthday.

-Nate

Source: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/facebook-torrent-bittorrent-profile-pictures,10976.html