zahnster

The iPhone 4G scandal has been pretty hard to avoid. First, the actual uncovering of the device broke some serious headlines, then the outing of the poor employee who lost it, then it’s formal return request from Apple… the whole saga has been rolling out in front of the blogosphere in full view, including the latest happenings, which saw a turn of the tables as Gizmodo editor Jason Chen had his computer equipment confiscated by the police last Friday.

Naturally, Gizmodo is crying fowl, issuing a statement to the authorities that the search and seizure was invalid.  However, the reasons behind their perceived “invalidity” of the warrant are bogus, and here’s why.

First, we have to look at the crime in hand. The crime for which the warrant was set to attain evidence for. Grand Theft.

Under California Law, it’s illegal to knowingly acquire stolen merchandise (CA Penal Code 485). What constitutes stolen? Under California Law, anything which is lost is considered “stolen”, if the acquirer of the object knows of the owner and fails to make a reasonable effort to return the device to said owner. Clearly Gizmodo was aware of this fact, since they famously outed the fellow who lost it.

So, the actual crime is indeed theft, hopefully we can all agree on this. Also a fun fact: In California, stolen possessions worth over $400 are considered “grand theft”, and filed under the felony category of crimes. Since Gizmodo paid $5,000 for the device, and also since all but the lowest of the current production iPhones fall above that price (not counting the AT&T subsidization here), it’s pretty clear that the crime involved is not just normal theft, but grand theft.

At the very least, Gizmodo is guilty of grand theft. Journalist laws do not apply here, no matter what argument might be thrown, there’s no press blanket for buying stolen merchandise. And yes, it was stolen. According to CA law.

Now that we know the crime, lets take a look at the two rebuttals to the warrant that Gawker threw out:

The first had to deal with section 1524g of the CA Penal Code (and, relatedly, section 1070 of the Evidence Code), which protects journalists from having evidence taken to out their sources. This would be a valid claim if the CA law enforcement were only interested in finding out the source who sold the phone. However, considering the previous mention about the actual crime involved, apparently it’s not the source the police are going after. It’s Gizmodo. This fact makes the 1070 argument completely invalid.

The second claim is ridiculous, with Gizmodo stating the search warrant wasn’t valid because they think the warrant, which was executed sometime around 9pm, was executed during night time hours. A warrant only counts as a night time warrant if the search begins after 10pm. If it starts before 10 and extends after 10, it’s still valid. Their claims invalidate their own statement on that front.

This search and seizure has nothing to do with the rights of journalists. This has everything to do with California anti-theft law. By all counts, the police took Chen’s computers to prove that a crime (aka the theft / purchase) was committed. It’s as simple as that.

So please, don’t think Jason Chen is some hero of journalism. It’s not nearly that complicated.

Afterthought: I want to say, on the record, it was just about the douchiest thing in the world for Gizmodo to out the kid who lost the phone, while keeping the person who found it (and illegally sold it) anonymous. Gizmodo’s claim that they were trying to protect the kid’s job is disingenuous at best. He lost the phone over a month ago. If Apple was going to fire him, they would have done that when he lost it, well before the story broke to the press. Don’t be liars, too, Gizmodo – you outed him for nobody but yourself.

Ever since transitioning over from PCland in early 2004, my Mac affiliation hasn’t been questioned much, due to the fact that most of the industry professionals around me also use them. It’s kind of like being a liberal in NY, nobody’s going to question your motives. This is all good and fine, until you find your Macness under attack. With your defenses down, it’s hard to think of a good response, and you can end up looking silly.

This is exactly what’s been happening to me recently, and being sick of my weak responses, one night I got to thinking, why am I a Mac?

Well, I know why I’m not a ‘Windows’. As someone who’s grown up online, and turned professional web developer during the birth of web 2.0, I’ve been pretty spoiled by innovation in software. I demand it, and any company who can’t provide me with such a service is not worth my time. I don’t have time to wait 3 years for a buggy web browser, and I definitely don’t have time to wait 8 years for a crummy OS. Add to that viruses, trojans, adware, malware, and spyware… you know, I think I’ll pass, kthxbai.

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Last week I finally caved and bought a bigger hard drive for my laptop. I opted for the top of the line, 320 gigabyte Western Digital drive – at $109, I couldn’t refuse (it’s amazing how cheap these things are nowadays). Instead of doing the classic mac os migration, I decided that a fresh start with a clean os install would be the best avenue. It would allow me to really optimize my computer, utilizing all I’ve learned in the last year about optimizing a development environment.

I figured I’d document the apps, libraries, and utilities that I install, partly for self-reference, and hopefully for informing others of some of the essentials for professional web development (on a mac). I aim to be very specific about what I install, and oddly minimalistic considering all the space I’ve gained.

So, lets start with the main apps. There are a few must-haves, including the super powerful text-editor TextMate, s/ftp dream Transmit, hacker must-have Quicksilver, and who could forget the only svn gui worth mentioning, Versions. Last but not least, the essential web browser, Firefox and it’s various plugins (such as Firebug and the web developer toolbar). On the big expensive software side, it’s never a bad idea to have Adobe CS3 at your side.

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It used to be that I would look at people waiting in line for a [toy|gadget|gizmo] and secretly make fun of them – what, don’t they have anything better to do with their time than sink into the cliche of commercialism?

That was, of course, until I found myself waking up at 5am to go wait in a 3 hour long iPhone line.

I’m not sure if people know how big of a deal that is for me. First, I love sleep. Second, I am so horrible at waking up early that you couldn’t pay me to usually. However, I was so excited about the thought of getting an iPhone that not only did I have no problem waking up, but I had problems falling asleep the night before (even though I was deathly tired).

So why is this? What is it about the iPhone that motivates people enough to stand in line for hours on end in the hot summer sun? Just what kind of magic has Steve Jobs and co released?

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This isn’t anything necessarily new, just something I noticed today as I went to upload some songs to my muxtape playlist. Apple’s file upload box goes all fancy when you pick the iTunes folder, and lets you pick and choose files using your playlists for shortcuts.

This totally beats the pants off what I was expecting – which was a long, tedious traverse through artist and album folders. Beats the pants off it, I tell ya! And it’s not just for music – all of the media types that Apple supports (such as photos and movies) have special interfaces as wel.

Well done, Apple. You’re the master of the ‘wow’ in the details.

(EDIT: My Muxtape is now mostly complete and can be listened to at zahnster.muxtape.com. Still to be uploaded – Radiohead (Jigsaw Falling Into Place), Elefant (Brasil), and Office (Possibilities)).