In one episode of "Seinfeld," George's girlfriend glosses over details in her adventures by simply saying, "yada, yada." It turns out that she was also a habitual shoplifter, and the episode ends with her spending some time in the slammer and yada, yada.
The yada yada story of today would have to be the recent discovery of a prototype of the next generation Apple iPhone being left in a bar by an Apple engineer after a night of revelry. Gizmodo.com published details of the phone after purchasing it, and as of this week the police got involved, serving a search warrant at one writer's home.
Interestingly, it was only when Apple officially asked for the phone to be returned that it became clear it was indeed their property. Apple fiercely guards its intellectual property and patents. While the end of this story isn't yet clear, someone may indeed be asked to pay with their freedom for this episode.
The "Soup Nazi" episode: Apple makes another appearance here. In the "Soup Nazi" episode everyone is terrorized by an eccentric soup-specific restaurant owner who demands perfection in his customers' behavior. Elaine fails to meet the standard and is denied soup until the end of the show where she and Jerry discover the recipes for all of the Soup Nazi's offerings. Elaine ends the show by informing the owner that his exclusive recipes are out for anyone to see.
Steve Jobs of Apple is certainly no Nazi, but he is a perfectionist and tightly controls all things Apple. The company recently virtually banned the popular Adobe Flash from the iPhone and iPad by insisting its developers use only approved methods of programming determined by Apple. Jobs has also tightened controls on what sort of applications can be accepted in the Apple app store, banning any content considered to be even slightly suspect.
Many believe that Jobs' tight control will ensure the success of the iPad and continued popularity of the iPhone, but some writers think that this strategy may backfire. Flash is the technology used to present videos on probably 80 per cent or more of websites, so currently video won't play on many sites for the iPad. Also, Apple is more and more in direct competition with Google, and everyone knows how formidable Google can be. Only time will tell if the total control approach will work. For now, no soup for you, Flash.
The Secret Code: In this episode George refuses to divulge his secret password for his bank account even to his fiancé. He is forced finally to reveal it only when it's necessary to save a man trapped in a bank.
I'm reminded of this by a recent story on a company whose business consists of allowing you to share your credit card purchases with others. Like the unlucky George, the secret is out: users' credit card numbers have been discovered in plain sight on Google, proving that it's becoming more difficult to keep secrets of any kind.
While I probably err quite often on the side of safety, I can't imagine why anyone would risk exposing credit card data for small rewards. To me we risk enough just paying bills online and over the phone.