This disclosure was found by a couple of researchers:

We’d been discussing doing a visualization of mobile data, and while he was researching into what was available, Alasdair discovered this file. At first we weren’t sure how much data was there, but after we dug further and visualized the extracted data, it became clear that there was a scary amount of detail on our movements. It also became obvious that at least some other people knew about it, but it wasn’t being publicized.

So I decided to follow the instructions and extract this data from my phone backups, using the Python script and SQLLite plugin for Firefox referenced in the researchers’ post, which turned out to be more fun than scary. AT&T customers data is stored in the CellLocation table while Verizon users data is saved in the CDMACellLocation table.

My private data revealed

I was not impressed by the amount and quality of the data. I’ve only had my iPhone since Verizon began to offer it, but I expected more than 980 rows of data. So I proceeded to download the timestamp and location information to a comma separated value file that I promptly uploaded to Open Heat Map and the following map was revealed.

Here is where I think the premise of evilness by Apple falls apart. This data is useless. As far as I can tell, since I’ve had the phone in my possession from day one, some of the locations are completely off. I have not frequented a place near the Jersey shore or Long Island, NY.

It’s obvious this data represents cell tower locations more than it does my normal travel if you were to map it with a GPS.

Don’t fear the big bad Apple. At least not yet.

Sky News Video: Apple iPhone tracking device raises privacy issues

UPDATE: Alex Levinson destroys the premise that Apple is using this data for malicious purposes here.

Have you reset your PRAM and NVRAM lately?

After a bit of Googling for a fairly recent and verifiable solution I decided to reset the machine’s parameter random access memory (PRAM) and nonvolatile RAM (NVRAM) as suggested by some folks and Apple’s technical support site. It works!

Try this before you declare your SuperDrive dead and go out and buy a new one.

ITunes began crashing on Super Bowl Sunday after I upgraded my iPod Touch to the latest firmware, version 2.2.1 — Since then I have reinstalled iTunes, did a factory restore of the iPod to no avail.

A few minutes ago I was looking through the Apple discussion groups and came across this fix by Jeff McCord. It is a simple one when you think about it:

1. Deauthorize your computer
2. Authorize it again
3. Visit the App Store and “Buy” a free app
4. Sync up

I am a happy camper again. All my music, movies, videos and audio books are back!

To construct the basic menu, Kriesi takes advantage of CSS Sprites, a technique to reduce the number of image files necessary to accomplish things like rollovers, without the need to preload the images using JavaScript.

A single image contains all the navigation menu options in their normal and active states and CSS rules are used to move the appropriate menu option into view. Once the basic menu is working, animation is added by using Kwicks for jQuery, a plugin written by Jerry Martin, resulting in the final product seen here.

Today, I came across this post by Aliza Sherman where she describes the results of ten months of procrastination.

I brag constantly about how I’ve never had a major crash on any Mac I’ve ever owned over the last 15 years – and I keep each one for at least 3-5 years which is eons for laptops. My Macs have been virtually bullet-proof.

But last week, my 10-month old MacBook crashed. And died. And now I’m slowly uncovering the depth and breadth of my arrogance. Because, my dear readers, I had not backed up my computer for 10 months. And the only reason I had a 10-month old backup of my data is because it occurred as I was getting my files from my old G4 laptop to my MacBook last Fall.

This is a cautionary tale for anyone out there who is still finding every excuse in the book not to back up their computer.

Does anyone out there think that the bulletproof quality for which Macs have been known is at risk since the guys at Cupertino outsourced their manufacturing to China? And should I trust another Chinese made product (designed in California, of course) with my most critical data?

Do you have a software backup strategy? What do you use?