i@m.fm

Apparently British scientists have created a made-to-order embryo that does not inherit a possibly cancer causing gene:

“But it’s all worth it” is the sentence you normally hear uttered in
form of a mantra by parents when it comes to the conversation about
having children. Well, count me in

Maybe it’s too early, but little more than three weeks after the birth
of my son, I can say that I get little sleep (which I am used too, but
it used to be on my own terms). It’s especially taking it’s tool on my
wife, who’s been on her own with him during the day now for the first
time after having excellent support from my mother in law for almost
three full weeks (thanks!).

Despite feeling tired (I can only get through one page of the book I am
trying to read on the train before falling asleep) and frustrated about
not being able to follow up with all other duties as needed, there is
that “cloud of happiness” around my head. A little look at our son can make things good again. It is all worth it – and it’s only just the beginning.

As a matter of fact, yes We’ve got all the letters for the name of our son (who is soon to be born), but the “A” you know, I am talking about those wooden letters for the wall by Nexxt. We’ve been waiting for two weeks now.

Apparently we also would have been able to reserve the $2.50 item at Kitchen Stuff Plus for a partial deposit (a cent? ) and they would have tried to get it from another one of their stores for us. However nobody told us about this. Well, 30 “A”s are on back order and 6 people are on the “Waiting for As” list.

Trina: I am going to play/ask a
question now, but don’t worry, your answer does not have to be related
to the question at all. As long as you stick to your time limit,
anything goes.

Jack: The question does not
really matter, and I am not going to spend any time on telling you what
we will be doing. What matters is what the liberals did wrong.

Steve: We are going to do
everything better and everyone is going to get more money and have to
pay less taxes. How? I am not telling.

Paul: We were just about to
take care of everything we promised and we were also mending what we
broke, but the other parties are not letting us finish!

Gilles: The only thing what
matters is what Quebec wants. And just so you know, we know exactly
what Quebec wants, because we are Quebec. And don’t forget, everything
is a provincial issue. C’est la faut du federal!

(And I didn’t even need to watch all of it to write this summary )

I recently came across Riya, a new online photo service.

Basically this is a service where you upload your pictures and identify
people in the pictures. The system will then also be able to identify
the same people on other pictures. Sounds like something Flickr should
be adding.

The part that I am not so sure about here is the privacy. Making all of
this information publicly available is certainly a concern – just think
about all the places that would love to license and have access to this
information in order to identify people.

So Open Letters on Blog actually do get a response. Here the one I got a while back with regards to my Open Letter to Blinds to Go.

Your Open letter to us is brought to our attention by a Blinds To Go employee today. We apologize for your not getting the information the first time you asked for it. But here is the link (https://www.blindstogo.com/blindstogo/customerservice/privacypolicy.asp) to our Privacy Policy - it is applicable to customers purchased from our stores as well as online. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We have already made sure to inform our stores about our Privacy Policy.

As per your request, we will remove your information from our future mailings. Meanwhile, we will be investigating why you have been receiving our offers.

Response to a follow-up email:

Yes, the same policy applies to both US and Canadian stores. We have now informed all our stores about it and will remind them regularly so that new employees will be aware of it as well. Thank you for your suggestion

Please feel free to post our response to your website. Meanwhile, we hope you will continue to enjoy our products and services and share your experience with us and the online community.

Hopes for legal music podcasts rise | CNET News.com

Dear Record Industry: Here’s a chance to positively react to yet
another change that might affect your business model. Are you ready
this time?

[ Feel free to use this as a template ]

Dear Sir/Madam:

When I purchased blinds in your store last year, I asked to see your
privacy policy, since the store employee was asking me for contact
information.

I was told that they did not have a privacy policy, but that the
information would not be used for anything but the purchase itself.

Since my purchase I have received several mailings from you. I have
requested to be removed from the mailing list two times already, but I
am still receiving your mailings.

Please remove me from your mailing list and ensure that I do not
receive any future mailings. Please also provide me with a copy of your
privacy policy, so I can decide if I will continue to make future
purchases from your company.

Sincerely,
Frank Michlick

PS: While I did not mention this in
my letter, I also tried calling them, but of course the store told me
to call the head office. I was told to get the number off the website.
Of course it was impossible to get a hold of a human in their voice
mail labyrinth.

As always I am running a little behind (this was published 6 days ago):
Americans are pants at password security | The Register

I wonder how many people couldn’t actually tell them the password because they have it saved on their computer – not a very secure alternative.

Paying by Fingerprint at the Supermarket | Reuters.com

Convenience or loss of privacy? To me somehow this idea is not appealing at all.