I’ve always had a problem with the term jailbreaking when it comes to Apple’s mobile devices. The term jail came into usage long before iOS in reference to isolated user-space instances, but that old meaning seems to have been obscured through both overuse and continued attempts to paint Apple as a dictatorial company interested only in hamstringing users of its devices. I’ve let jailbreaking slide until now because even though I think it’s a loaded term, it’s also a nice, short way to describe the act of opening the device to greater customization than Apple offers out of the box. It’s also a better term than Android’s “rooting,” which sounds a bit rude in my part of the world.

In the wake of Richard Stallman’s epically tasteless diatribe against Steve Jobs last week (Google for it if you’re truly curious, I’m not serving him any page views), I’ve decided I can’t let this slide any more. In addition to saying he was glad Steve is gone, Stallman also called Jobs “the pioneer of the computer as a jail made cool, designed to sever fools from their freedom.” So according to him, Mac users, iPhone users, iPod and iPad owners are all imprisoned and too stupid to realise it.

It’s at this point that I have to wonder whether Stallman or any of the other members of the free software movement have ever spent any appreciable amount of time in an actual jail or jail-like environment. I’m betting that few if any of them have. If they had, they’d see as I do just how full of hyperbole (and something else that rhymes with chit) the jail metaphor is — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Many people now rely on their smartphones, sat-navs or other GPS devices to find their way around. But when these fail us, and there’s no-one to ask for directions, there’s a more natural way to navigate, says Tristan Gooley.

It’s not every week that a massive solar flare knocks out the GPS network, but all it takes is a flat battery or a mechanical fault to hobble your automated orientation aids.

And if there’s no-one around to ask and no paper map on hand, you could be in trouble.

Natural navigation may be just what you need. This involves working out which way to go without using maps, compasses or any other instruments. It relies on awareness and deduction, so does depend on retaining some awareness of direction throughout each journey — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Google today launched an early preview of Dart, a programming language the company hopes will help web application programmers overcome shortcomings of JavaScript that Google itself feels acutely.

Programmer and project leader Lars Bak detailed the project in a talk today at the Goto conference in Denmark and in a blog post. Dart is geared for everything from small, unstructured projects to large, complicated efforts — Gmail and Google Docs, for example.

If we want to focus on making the web better over time, we have to innovate, including with new programming languages, Bak said in an interview.

Google also unveiled a Dart language site that includes open-source tools for writing Dart programs, code samples and tutorials; libraries of supporting software; the Dart language specification; and forums for discussion — via redwolf.newsvine.com