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June 30, 2007
In the Minority again
I still have absolutely no interest in the iPhone (or frankly any phone that costs two months tuition at St. Anthony's).
It is apparent that I might be the only one who doesn't care one bit.
Even Chris Muir gets into the act:
Then again what do I know, we don't even exist.
Posted by Peter at 08:28 AM | Comments (0)
June 29, 2007
Yeah so?
The iPhone is here. Wake me when something interesting happens.
Posted by Peter at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)
June 27, 2007
Google closer to mainstream acceptance of Google Docs
When Google started launching applications such as Gmail, they moved away from the “folder” structure we have become so used to using in Windows, Outlook etc.
“Labels” were the new folders, now you could tag a document or email with multiple labels and search on those labels or, at least in Gmail, limit your view to a specific label.
Google yesterday released an update to its Office killer – Google Docs & Spreadsheets...
with a slick new interface, support for drag & drop existing documents to new folders…I mean labels…no wait – FOLDERS!
I have to say, a lot of non-techies I knew, and some very very very heavy Micro$oft users had trouble adopting labels, some didn’t bother with the move to the once cool-to-have, invite-only Gmail which had almost twice the space and attachment size options of its closest competitor just because they didn’t have their folders.
Now Google in all its smarts has renamed “Labels” to “Folders” in Google Docs & Spreadsheets, don’t worry label fans – “Folders” still work much the same way. You can put the same document in multiple folders, remove a document from a single folder without removing it from others, and just for fun they prettied it up some.
This is no doubt an attempt by Google to bring more users into the Docs & Spreadsheets world and continue chipping away at Microsoft. Combine the new Google Docs interface and Google Gears (a browser plug-in that allows you to access web applications while you are offline) and Microsoft might just have some competition.
Posted by Jonathan at 10:07 AM | Comments (0)
June 26, 2007
Update: VMware and Parallels testing
As you know last week I posted an entry on a small challenge I put for myself. Test two virtualization applications for Mac OS X. I was hoping to have results by today but projects and business has caused me not have as much time as I would like to test them. I can say one thing Parallels is already uninstalled and VMware is taking the most of my time trying to see it's Pro's and Con's. Hopefully I will have something later in the week.
Posted by Chrisk at 09:50 AM | Comments (0)
When the internet does the job China won't
We're written about internet censorship in China. But all speech that promotes change isn't political:
A letter posted on the Internet by 400 parents of children working as slaves in brickyards was the trigger for the national press to finally report on the scandal that some rights groups say had been going on for years.The parents' Internet posting was part of a growing phenomenon for marginalised people in China who can not otherwise have their complaints addressed by the traditional, government-controlled press.
An unfree press isn't used simply to ignore political stories it is used to keep bad and unflattering news out of the public and world eye. Another example:
Also in Chongqing, parts of the city were this month set on fire following the beating of flower sellers by the "chengguan", city police charged with "cleaning up" the city's roads.Witnesses to the beatings had appealed to local television journalists, but nothing was broadcast.
The incident only became known outside the city thanks to photos and stories published on the Internet, sparking anger among China's netizens.
"It's fascism," said one, while another mocked: "The inhabitants of Chongqing are truly naive, the Chinese media is all controlled by the Communist Party, they decide what people know."
Well DUH. Some people haven't read their C.S. Lewis.
Posted by Peter at 07:45 AM | Comments (0)
June 25, 2007
I knew I should have posted this last week.
Cohen & Grigsby welcome to the 21st century:
What started as a simple marketing video for Downtown law firm Cohen & Grigsby has resulted in an Internet firestorm encompassing tens of thousands of YouTube viewers, Lou Dobbs and the U.S. Secretary of Labor.What harm could a very dry 20 part marketing video do to a big law firm? Plenty!
The segment of the video drawing all the attention is one in which lawyers from Cohen & Grigsby's highly regarded immigration practice advocate methods to comply with a law requiring employers prove that they have tried to find qualified American workers before applying for a green card for a foreign worker. The lawyers urge the audience, in so many words, to do exactly the opposite."Our goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker," said partner Lawrence Lebowitz on the video. "And, you know, that in a sense that sounds funny, but it's what we're trying to do here."
Last Monday I saw this video linked at National review I showed it to some people at work and predicted that it wouldn't be up for much longer. Our HR person was rather shocked by it.
The firm already removed its version of the video after a Monday article in the online publication Information Week detailed the controversy.
Unfortunately for them this went to several blogs from Sister Toldjah to Vdare. Then the programmers guild got it. Kim Berry edited it down to the money quotes and then put it back on YouTube with suitable commentary and Viola a video even more damning than the first one with all the real boring side stuff removed.
But Mr. Berry's version remains on the Internet and by Tuesday, the story was widespread enough to be featured on CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight," with Mr. Dobbs saying that "the law firms and everyone else, they're just basically try to [stick it to] the American worker."
Well ok so it was on the news one day every company has one bad news cycle. Or is it?
A U.S. senator wants an investigation into the ethics of a law firm whose YouTube video highlights how to circumvent the law to obtain visas for foreign employees.Attorneys say it's not illegal — but Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has asked Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to examine the firm's tactics.
Not to mention that if you search on the internet for the firm under google news this story is all over it. Not surprisingly the Cohen & Grigsby in the news page doesn't include any of these links.
Now the law firm quite logically figured that nobody would be all that anxious to peruse 20 long YouTube videos looking for stuff against them. Most likely it was posted for the client base but someone there noticed what was said and it started an e-mail trip that eventually led to all kinds of bad publicity.
This is the reality of the internet, once something is on the net it is there and all the taking it down later won't stop it as long as someone wants it. The sooner business learns this the better, for their sake anyway.
Posted by Peter at 01:19 PM | Comments (0)
Rosie the robots of the world unite!
We talked briefly about the Immigration bill that is now again trying to gain traction in congress. Wired reports all this debate has had an interesting side effect; farmers paying for development of Robot fruit pickers:
This time around, growers' associations are funding the research. By the end of this year, the orange growers will have invested almost $1 million in the project, says Ted Baskin, president of the California Citrus Research Board. He estimates that it will take about $5 million more to get to the finished product.The farmers are willing to pay up because they've been rattled by a labor shortage over the past few years -- California growers tell horror stories of watching their fruit rot on the trees as they waited for the picking crews to arrive. Last fall, growers rallied in front of the U.S. Capitol, frustrated that Congress still hadn't created a program to ease the passage of foreign guest workers across the Mexico border. .
If this happens it will have the same effect on unskilled labor that the McCormick Reaper had 175 years ago.
I'm late to this but Glenn has the best snark on it:
Eventually, of course, the robots will be made in China, and American-built robots will complain if they're imported illegally.
The interesting thing in the article is that Government research money dried up under labor pressure decades ago. It has taken this long for it to be worth the while of the farming sector to pay for it themselves.
Posted by Peter at 12:42 PM | Comments (0)
Avoid Panic Attacks, Backup That Data!
Seeing as I'm one of the "marketing" guys at HiWired, I feel it my duty to be sure all of our readers are aware of a great and truly helpful new service we have launched here...Unlimited Premium Data Backup. Everyone should back up there data and there are countless of reasons to do so (I give a personal example below). It's one of those things that is really easy to do, takes almost no time at all and is extremely reasonable in price (at least with HiWired it is at just $8/mo. or $75/yr.) and yet provides an unbelievable amount of value and peace of mind.
I recently got a new computer when my old one went down and as a result had to set up a new itunes account. Needless to say, I hadn't backed up most of my music (of course, this is before I joined HiWired and knew any better). Now, that music exists on my ipod but nowhere else. So I'm left with two options: 1. Keep the songs on my ipod but never download another song to it (itunes will delete all existing songs because I'm now using a new account) or 2. Delete all the songs on the ipod and start from scratch. Had I backed up my songs, I could have deleted the songs and uploaded the backed up songs into my new itunes account. If only I new about HiWired's Unlimited Premium Data Backup....
You can check it out at:
http://www.hiwired.com/web/info/products/unlimiteddatabackup.aspx
It's done remotely via the internet and takes very little time to implement. The system backs up your data on an ongoing basis to secure, encrypted data storage centers so your files are always safe. If you need to retrieve your files, there is an easy to use interface or if you need assistance we are always here to help.
Here's to fewer panic attacks and more peace of mind!
Posted by Jeff at 10:31 AM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2007
Apple's has its update issue too.
In an upcoming podcast (in the editing room now) we talk a bit about the people's displeasure with the Vista upgrade. According to Gizmodo (the 2007 tech blog of the year winner) it looks like there are some issue with a recent Mac Upgrade as well:
To Mac owners who have yet to upgrade to OS 10.4.10, you may want to wait a bit before slapping on the double digits. A huge thread worth of upgraders found themselves subjected to what has now been coined as "snap, crackle and pop" during audio playback.
Of course the big upgrade to Leopard is coming up and they have a bunch of stories on the subject.
Engadget also a winner last year is also worth a peek today.
Posted by Peter at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)
June 23, 2007
This weeks totally ignored story
I have totally ignored the story this week where the AMA is about may actually declare playing video game an addition and a syndrome.
That hasn't stopped spawning a bunch of news stories on the subject.
However all you really need to read is as usually written by James Lileks who you of course read religiously. (At least you should).
Every kid spends some time in a fantasy world. In the 50s they worried terribly about comic books, and the effect they had on tender minds; kids were getting hooked on the gore and horror. It’s always something. The difference today: we develop names and syndromes and diagnoses, which somehow makes basic human behavior seem like a mechanism we can fine-tune back to perfection.
He also predicts the future:
Internet addiction is the next pathology, no doubt. China has begun to face the problem already; supplicants get electric shocks and brain-secretion-balancing IV drips. That’s one way to cure it. Walking the dog is another.
People spending as much time as possible doing something they enjoy, scandalous!
Posted by Peter at 09:19 AM | Comments (0)
June 22, 2007
Hitachi's answer to the "Lazy Epidemic"
Hitachi has recently designed a device they call "The Brain Machine Interface". It is a device that is worn on your head, and converts changes in blood flow in your brain to electrical signals. A cap connects by fiber optics to a mapping device. In one study this cap was linked up to a toy train set via a control computer and motor during one recent demonstration the demonstrator performed simple calculations in her head, and the train sprang forward — apparently indicating activity in the brain's frontal cortex, which handles problem solving. "Activating that region of the brain — by doing sums or singing a song — is what makes the train run, according to Utsugi. When one stops the calculations, the train stops, too"
I find this very interesting, not surprising though. The technology has been around for years, someone finally put it all together. My only hope is that it works better than Hitachi's hard drives.
Posted by ChrisDu at 04:11 PM | Comments (0)
News Corp's Bid For Yahoo
It has been reported that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. has offered to swap their widely popular MySpace site for a 30% stake in Yahoo. If the deal were to go through, it could be a win/win situation for both companies. Yahoo has been searching for a way to get a larger presence in the social networking scene (they made a failed attempt at purchasing Facebook for a reported $1b last year). And News Corp. has been clear with their intention to utilize the web to enhance their portfolio and drive new demand for their other channels.
If this deal goes down, it will be interesting to see how much leverage News Corp can have at Yahoo and how they will use that leverage to promote other channels like Fox and their movie studios. It will also be interesting to see if MySpace can help Yahoo Search gain marketshare to the search giant Google. Google currently has a deal with MySpace to provide search and contextual ads on the social networking site. That would undoubtedly go away.
Posted by Jeff at 01:35 PM | Comments (0)
Some thieves are dumber than others
Phishing scemes look to steal personal information in order to steal your money or create phony bank accounts, but they sometimes run afoul of our culture:
The thieves apparently didn't realize Munster was a fictional TV character and dutifully offered to sell Munster's personal details -- accurately listing his home address from the television series as 1313 Mocking Bird Lane -- and what appeared to be his MasterCard number. Munster's birth date was listed as Aug. 15, 1964, suspiciously close to the TV series' original air date in September 1964.
A domestic thief would have caught this.
Clements said evidence indicates the thief, known online as "Supra," was operating overseas. "They really stumble over our culture. He's probably not watching any reruns of 'The Munsters' on TV Land."
Just remember just because one thief is ignorant this is no reason to take Phishing lightly. The best resource on the subject is here.
Posted by Peter at 08:06 AM | Comments (0)
Got 10K for a laptop?
If you have plenty of money to burn and don't want to spend it on a year of private school for a couple of kids Engadget has the recording studio/laptop for you:
Xeno is ready to make all your dreams come true. In addition to sportin' a fine Soviet-era name, the UUCTOP Xeno is a full production studio come broadcast server stuffed into a chubby laptop form factor.
I think I'll pass, how about you Bernie?
Posted by Peter at 07:06 AM | Comments (0)
News as it happens at the front line
We've mentioned Michael Yon more than once here and his reports from Iraq. If you read his site on Tuesday you would have seen this:
Thoughts flow on the eve of a great battle. By the time these words are released, we will be in combat. Few ears have heard even rumors of this battle, and fewer still are the eyes that will see its full scope. Even now—the battle has already begun for some—practically no news about it is flowing home. I’ve known of the secret plans for about a month, but have remained silent.
The remaining silent bit is in contrast to the BBC , If you read him yesterday you would have seen this:
The combat has only just begun, and media has now figured out this is serious business. During the morning brief (June 20th), Major Robbie Parke mentioned that CNN, TIME, Reuters and some others, are trying to get out here now. Problem is space. Looks like Gordon and I are mostly alone for now. Others are said to be in Baqubah, but if they are here, they are missing some of the most important parts, and if they were at the important commander’s meetings, I would have seen them.
Now this morning you would have seen this:
22 June 07First a quick media round-up. This is not all inclusive. Alexandra Zavis from L.A. Times is down in the heat and the battle bringing home information. Michael Gordon from New York Times is still slugging it out, and his portions are accurate in the co-authored story, “Heavy Fighting as US Troops Squeeze Insurgents in
Iraqi City.” Long title.CNN has joined the fight. AP came but will stay only a few days. Joe Klein from TIME was here 21st and his story posted the same day was accurate. We rode together in a Stryker. Like magic, Joe’s story was out before I got back to base. Joe took a helicopter out and filed from elsewhere.
And the press slowly finding this battle...
On information flow, as of noon in Baqubah on 22 June, the press is starting to flood in. A PAO officer (they are good here) told me that about 20 press should be here over the next days, so we should be able to get reports from many independent sources and compare and contrast.
The bottom line is that if you've been following Michael on the net you are already two days ahead of most of the media and have discovered details that you likely won't see on the news for at least another day or two.
In five or ten years it will be old hat (except for the guts of the reporters right in the middle of the fight) but today is still a tech revolution.
Posted by Peter at 06:44 AM | Comments (0)
June 21, 2007
Hacker Hacker here comes the hackers
Two Hackers in the news today....
First one's target is Harry Potter novel
The hacker, who goes by the name "Gabriel," claims to have taken a digital copy of author J.K. Rowling's seventh and final book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," by breaking into a computer at London-based Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.For months now, leading up to the book's July 21 release, legions of "Harry Potter" fans have debated whether Rowling killed Harry or one of his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, in the final book.
Gabriel has posted information at Web site InSecure.org that, if true, would answer that question. "We make this spoiler to make reading of the upcoming book useless and boring," Gabriel said in the posting.
This is just someone being a jerk. The second is more serious:
A hacker penetrated an unclassified Pentagon email system, prompting authorities to take as many 1,500 accounts offline, defense officials said Thursday.
The News gets worse.
On Wednesday, a congressional panel disclosed that hackers also have succeeded in penetrating computers at the Department of Homeland Security, the lead government agency in providing security against cyber attack.
As long as there are system that we try to secure there will be hackers trying to get in.
Posted by Peter at 08:15 PM | Comments (0)
June 20, 2007
A horse of a nasty color
Today lets talk a little about Trojans.
Like the Greek Horse that it is named after a trojan may slip onto a system disguised as a benign program, maybe a toolbar or maybe a graphic or sometimes even as an anti-spyware program. The method varies but the result is the same.
The Trojan hides on the system and performs its function for the benefit of the people who installed it on your system. The least malicious ones simply monitor network and/or internet traffic to detect patterns, other aid in the downloading and delivering of pop-up ads and e-mail that so delight our customers.
The worst of the bunch are like phishing program grabbing passwords, credit card info and the lot. It is internet fraud on a grand scale.
Whenever a trojan is found one should go to safe mode at once and attempt to clean or if you want expert help just give us a call and we'll take care of it.
If you ignore a trojan your system will fall as sure as the city did.
Posted by Peter at 02:58 PM | Comments (0)
Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion
Hello again to all of our readers of the Hiwired blog. In the next week I am going to be testing out Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion on the Macintosh platform. Both pieces of software allow users to run Windows or Linux on an Intel Based Mac without having to reboot. I will have the results in about a week of what was good and was was not so good on both.I will be installing Windows XP Pro SP2.Below are the specs of the machine I am testing it out on.
Apple Mac Mini Intel Core Duo 1.66Ghz
1GB of DDR2 Memory
80GB Harddrive
64MB Intel GMA Graphics
8x Superdrive
Mac OS X 10.4.9
Posted by Chrisk at 08:28 AM | Comments (0)
June 18, 2007
Ubuntu Linux + Windows Genuine Advantage tool=Validation?
This article about the good old Windows Genuine Advantage tool, makes me laugh and cry at the same time. If you can get Linux to validate as a genuine version of Windows and a persons computer built from any of the manufacturers fail. What does that say about the validity of the tool and its reason to be used.. I just do not get it and Microsoft still does not get it.
You can read the article here
Via Slashdot
Posted by Chrisk at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)
Speaking of free music (at least to hear) and free stuff...
When I talk to people about removing LimeWire I'm constantly asked where can I get free music to replace it. Well I'm the least musical person around but there is always Garageband.com.
From that site you can listen (not download) to music from independent bands free.
The whole concept of free stuff on the web is a topic hit by Don Surber in this post excerpt:
The big problem with the Internet is that everything is free. Blogging: Free. Fantasy baseball: Free. E-mail: Free. Browsers: Free. Software: Free.Everyone acts as if they are entitled to everything for free. And companies kowtow to this absurd anti-commercial ethos.
He has a suggestion:
Here is a radical idea: People start paying for things again.
That isn't as radical as it sounds and the best example I can think of for that is of all people Rush Limbaugh. Back when everything including internet access was free he refused to start a web site until it could produce revenue. He put it up with a subscription service which gave access to archived content and presto he had a successful for profit site.
Now for this to work you have to of course have a product people are willing to pay for. It remains to be seen if newspapers, bloggers and the like have such a product that can sustain a pay site without ad revenue. Andrew Sullivan did it for a while before he was hired by Time and then the Atlantic. Michael Yon and Michael Totten both support their live reporting from the Middle East on reader funds freely given (but not demanded). In all three cases above the people who kicked in payed for all those readers who do (or in the case of Andrew did) not.
It's my opinion that a high quality site like say Instapundt or a site that brings together people of a like bent such as Daily Kos could charge a fee and get it, but I don't know if that would make blogging too much of a job for Glenn or would dilute the power to mobilize opinion for Kos.
I'd be interested in hearing what you think on this one? Would you be willing to kick in say $10 a year to read your favorite site that you see daily? Would you kick on $20? Or would you just seek out other free content?
Posted by Peter at 07:58 AM | Comments (0)
Don't they understand that the rules have changed?
Via slashdot we link to an update to a story we already linked to before concerning counterclaims against the RIAA. Money quote:
What followed next was pretty amazing. A record company executive who sits on the board of the UK version of the RIAA got into an email exchange with the author of New Music Strategies, threatening to report him to the university by which he is employed if he did not delete the link to the Download Squad article. The author, in turn, published the entire email exchange on his blog, generating a lot of comments.
These guys just don't get it that in the 21st century if you burp near your grandmother I'm going to read about it online and an remixed audio version will be a top ten download at garageband.com you just can't do stuff like that anymore.
Posted by Peter at 07:35 AM | Comments (0)
June 17, 2007
Big vs Big
Looks like Google and Ebay aren't playing nice:
For those not up on the battle that has transfixed the tech world the last week here's a recap: both eBay and Google have been expanding into each other's turf, creating much tension. The expansion includes Google's one-year old Checkout service, a rival to eBay's very profitable PayPal unit.
Again there is no good or evil here it is just one big company vs another big company.
Posted by Peter at 09:50 PM | Comments (0)
June 16, 2007
Missed one but hey it's my day off
There is a third interesting tech/pol story that is unrelated to the first two I posted about this morning.
The Senate Minority Whip is Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi a republican. As you may or may not know he hasn't endeared himself to people on his side of the aisle these days. Michelle Malkin got an e-mail from a reader who decided he wanted to vent so we figured he'd visit Trent Lott's site. He assumed it was www.trentlott.com, however a democratic group MoveOn apparently purchased the domain name so that's where it went. (The place the fellow actually wanted is here).
This is an old trick, it is why when you misspell some word on the net you end up on a phony search page. This makes it worth highlighting two rules:
For business and individuals:
If you are opening up a business or running for office buy not only the name but the misspellings to make sure people who want to get to you can get there. This will also keep your foes from buying your name, it would be very interesting to see how many other members of Congress have left their names up for grabs.
For people searching for web sites:
It is always a better idea to search for the place via an engine instead of just guessing, this will decrease the chances of you being redirected someplace you don't want to go. Some are just annoying search sites but you never know where fraud might be found.
Personally I think it is very bush league for a person who has been in office as long as Senator Lott to have this happen, naturally this is the responsibility of staff but come on. It leads to snark like this.
And I haven't even touched the whole Crush of Obama video thing on YouTube but its on the front page of Technorati and the buzz on the net concerning the Obama girl.
Posted by Peter at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)
Yet another tech + politics post
Two interesting developments that intersect politics and modern technology two of them involving YouTube.
First want a chance to appear in the next presidential debate? Well here is your big chance:
CNN and You Tube are partnering up for the next presidential debate. Viewers can upload their questions to You Tube and CNN will pick 50 or so for the actual debate which will be moderated by Anderson Cooper. AP reports, however, "(a)ll the videos that are submitted will be posted on the site."
That is rather cool, it remains to be seen if they will pick someone who doesn't look all that video ready. I'd submit a video myself but I'm a lazy bum.
The second is something that nailed our (Massachusetts) ex-gov in something he said, or shall I say once said:
This comes from the YouTube account “mittvsfact”, which, coincidentally, is identical to the URL McCain’s camp purchased two weeks ago. (emphases mine) Supposedly Mitt had his “road to Damascus” moment on abortion in November 2004; here we find him six months later still vowing to defend the legal status quo in Massachusetts, per his campaign promise to do so, irrespective of his own views on abortion.
Two things to note about this. First of all we've said over and over that the days of things being said that fall down the memory hole are done. Particularly when there is video involved and apparently the Romney camp hasn't figured out that you have to answer video with video. They decided to answer with a press release on their site that nobody is going to read. Considering how professional these guys have been that is really foolish.
Note that McCain's guys are all over this.
These are the new rules of the game and if people don't learn how to play they won't be winners.
Posted by Peter at 08:36 AM | Comments (0)
June 15, 2007
Memorial day followup
You might remember from my Memorial Day post mentioning that Mike's son the teacher who helps one day a week at the butcher shop, is off to Iraq.
Our local paper did an excellent article on him this week. One notable tech note:
Romano will keep in touch with his family living in Townsend with the stack of phonecards the school has provided for him.He also plans to use e-mail and instant messaging services, programs that will allow him to type in real time to his family and receive instant responses, to stay in daily contact.
"My little guy is really looking forward to the instant message. We're going to write letters too. It's kind of a lost art, but we've stayed in practice," he said.
Again this is the magic of modern technology that allows you to keep in touch with your family even from a battlezone. We wish him our best.
Posted by Peter at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)
June 14, 2007
One of the reason why we do well
This is the reason why places like HiWired will always be there:
Customers are less satisfied with PC call centers than they are with the call centers of other industries, according to a survey by CFI Group Worldwide LLC in Ann Arbor, Mich.
They also give the bottom line reason:
"Too many companies treat call centers as cost centers rather than seeing them as an opportunity to solidify the customer relationship, resulting in increased loyalty and retention," said Teodoru. "Based on this research, any company that isn't putting resources into making sure that the call center is delivering customer satisfaction rather than frustration is taking a huge risk with its customer asset."
We will never forget that you are the reason our jobs are in New England instead of New Delhi.
Via slashdot
Posted by Peter at 10:38 PM | Comments (0)
June 13, 2007
iTunes Movie Rentals? It's a possibility
There has been some word on the street that Apple maybe planning to "rent" movies for a period of time, most sites seem to think 30 days for a 2.99 price tag. I am not sure what to think on this latest rumor. With movies from iTunes they are only viewable on and iPod, iTunes, or Apple TV. You cannot burn them to a disk and watch it on your TV. This is something that I will be paying close attention to.
Sources of the rumor is my favorite mac site Macrumors.
Posted by Chrisk at 08:15 AM | Comments (0)
Go for a Safari the next time you surf
Apple has released a beta of the Safari web browser for Windows XP and Windows Vista. It is a very fast browser but it has some bugs in it and should not be used for everyday browsing until the final release is out. This is news to Windows users but not to Mac users like myself. Safari is the browser of choice for Mac users and has been for the past few years as Microsoft discontinued Internet Explorer for Mac years ago and in my opinion it was a good thing as the browser was horrible on the Mac platform. If anyone wants to try it out you can download it here
Just remember to use at own risk as it is a beta program. For all that do not know what beta means. Basically it's not ready from prime time and not stable enough for the general public.
Posted by Chrisk at 08:08 AM | Comments (0)
June 12, 2007
Wouldn't you know they would fuss about the best feature
If (unlike Technocrati)you know this blog and read it regularly you will know that I don't have a very good opinion of Vista. Ironically the one feature that I really like is driving Google up the wall:
In a 49-page document filed April 18 with the U.S. Justice Department and state attorneys general, Google alleged that the latest version of Microsoft's Windows operating system impairs the performance of "desktop search" programs that find data stored on a computer's hard drive.The Vista operating system, which became widely available in January, includes a desktop search function that competes with a free program Google introduced in 2004. Several other companies also offer desktop search applications.
Besides bogging down competing programs, Google alleged Microsoft had made it too complicated to turn off the desktop search feature built into Vista.
The irony of google complaining about the Microsoft behemoth is only surpassed by the fact that just about every computer I see comes with the very annoying google desktop pre-installed. In addition the IE 7 browser (that has really grown on me) has a built in search that allows you to easily google search into the browser.
Maybe 10 years ago when the computer wasn't a household appliance this argument might have held some water, I don't think it does today.
Posted by Peter at 07:29 AM | Comments (0)
June 11, 2007
If you can track a package why not a cabbage?
Well the high tech world has reached the point where software can be used to track your vegetables and fruit:
Consumers interested in knowing precisely where their strawberries, carrots and other produce come from - valuable information in light of recent tainted food recalls - now can find out in just a few seconds by using the Internet.The tracking technology, called HarvestMark, is sold to growers who place their freshly picked fruit or vegetables into containers affixed with stickers that have coded numbers printed on them.
With the various reports of problem food particularly from China this is just the type of thing that gives a consumer power.
Posted by Peter at 10:03 AM | Comments (0)
What does that mean anyway
Ever want to know what a tech term means, well this link to Smart Computing might be of use. It is a dictionary of tech terms from A+ Certification to Zetabyte.
Posted by Peter at 08:41 AM | Comments (0)
Wires, we don't need no stinken wires
It's really early to be talking about this but just remember under 10 years ago almost nobody had wireless internet in their homes:
MIT researchers say they will soon be able to charge a computer or cell-phone battery from across a room, perhaps making the annoyance of wires or dead batteries a thing of the past.
That's a pretty cool idea.
"This invention could free us from power cables and ideally replace batteries to a good extent, at least in the context of a home or office setting," said Aristeidis Karalis, a student member of the MIT team that worked four years on the problem.
I have to disagree with this statement since a backup battery to retain data is always a good idea.
The team at MIT, a top US academic laboratory, has shown their fledgling "WiTricity" technology can power a 60 watt bulb from a power source two meters (seven feet) away.That is enough juice to power an average laptop, said Marin Soljacic, a professor of physics at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who called the experiment a "major milestone."
Its just a question of how many years and how much it will cost. It wouldn't shock me to see it on the shelves by 2015.
Posted by Peter at 08:36 AM | Comments (0)
More babies and weddings
As the number of members of the Hiwired family has grown the number of new members continues to grow as well.
We at HiWired would like to congratulate Liz from our sales team on the occasion of her child's birth.
We also congratulate Justin from our tech team on the birth of his son.
And I should also congratulate Chris K on the occasion of his wedding as well.
(I don't think I'm going to be able to keep up with all the social schedules much longer but I'll do what I can.)
Posted by Peter at 08:20 AM | Comments (0)
That's where the eyeballs are
It looks like Yahoo has decided that they way to get the eyeballs is more Paris Hilton style reporting as TV Week reports.
Yahoo, trying to capitalize on its users' hunger for dirt on Britney, Lindsay and Paris, is teaming with "Access Hollywood" to create a celebrity news Web destination.The NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution newsmagazine will supply exclusive entertainment stories for Yahoo's new omg! site. The companies are gunning for the kinds of fans who propel video-paparazzi site TMZ.com, which is allied with Yahoo rival AOL.com.
Its a good thing too, I had Cable TV News on for an hour this morning and didn't hear a word about Paris in jail....of course it was C-SPAN but still...
Posted by Peter at 08:14 AM | Comments (0)
Maybe it can lend memory instead
As you might guess we see a lot of older systems around here when we are doing our PC Restorations. Under the current rules we will not do a PCR on a system with less that 256mg of ram. (just too slow for the screen sharing)
One of the most common things we will see however is a system reporting say 240mb, or say 504mb. This is usually because video cards in the days before they came with their own ram memory would "borrow" system ram to run.
Engadget reports however that Diamond now has a new video card, the HD 2900 xp that has ONBOARD 1 gig of ram. This is twice the memory that the system I'm typing this post has (and costs more between $400-$450 than the system did).
All of this comes from online gaming that demands faster routers, faster processors and better video to continue to wow.
With this kind of memory maybe we can put this in an older system and let the system borrow memory from it.
Posted by Peter at 07:56 AM | Comments (0)
June 10, 2007
Sex and the silent blogger
As my sons are hitting the mid teenage years the subject of Sex is coming up in the house. There is a line of thought promoted by people such as Sharon Stone that says since your kids are going to do that kind of stuff anyways you might as well make sure they do things "right".
I disagree. As a parent my job is to tell them the right thing to do even if it is unlikely that they listen. I want them to hesitate before they make a bad decision particularly these days when a bad decision can not only affect their entire lives but can kill them. In other words, if they want to be idiots they will have to do it without my approval, consent and certainly without my aid.
Now since this is a tech blog you might be wondering why this subject comes up at all. Is it a sneaky attempt to get extra hits by adding word "sex" to a post? Not really but we'll take the hits. Is it a vain effort to get Technorati to realize that we are still posting over here? Nope it's a vain hope besides it's a great running gag.
The reason is to explain why when we mention various hacks that come up without linking to them. Or usually without linking to articles that link to them. There is a reason why we say: "Use WPA-PSK instead of WEP" (unless you have no other choice). There are the reason why we although we may or may not agree with the RIAA's policy, we don't link to sites to hack songs. We don't link to sniffers or any of the other stuff out there to get into systems.
All of this stuff exists and is only a search away but we object to this kind of stuff, it's illegal and makes trouble for the people being hacked.
We will report on this kind of stuff if it is significant, but we aren't going to aid and abet any of it. If you as a reader are interested in these things and choose to seek them out that's up to you. Like that parent fighting against teenage hormones however you are going to have to do it without our approval, consent or aid.
Posted by Peter at 10:56 AM | Comments (0)
June 09, 2007
Knowledge is power
Back on May 21st we commented on NZ Bear putting the immigration reform bill online. He had this to say:
If those who forged this "compromise" have their way, this bill will be voted on as early as Tuesday (May 22nd date insert mine P). That's a crazily short amount of time for Senators --- let alone the American public --- to review, understand, and have a voice on the substance of such a complex bill.
Well it is June 9th and a cloture motion on the bill has failed effectively killing the bill for now.
Daily Pundit raises a solid point:
Ten years ago, this bill would have been passed and signed by the president before most Americans were even aware that it existed. Those days are over(emphasis mine)
Again HiWired has no opinion one way or the other on this bill but his point is quite correct. The is one of the many examples of the new era that we are in. In 10 years this will be the norm but right now it is a big change.
Posted by Peter at 11:48 AM | Comments (0)
June 08, 2007
The rules of working at home
Today I was re-reading An Army of Davids when I happened to check out Glenn's site and saw this story about working from home:
It may sound like fun to sit in your garden and answer your office e-mail. But keep in mind, the mere act of working at home almost always puts a surcharge on your work of about 20 percent -- that is, you will have to earn your good fortune (and keep your legitimacy) by doing about one-fifth more work than you did at the office.Sure, that sounds easy. But life at home is different than life at the office. There's the Fed Ex guy ringing the doorbell, and the leaf blower next door, and the kids coming home from school (and, since you're home, you get to run most of the errands, too). And don't forget all of that Internet surfing, and your favorite talk radio show, and the distraction of the 24 news channels you turn on one day and never again turn off.
I find that that I have two issues when working from home; the doorbell/phone is the first one. I've never been able to ignore either a phone or a doorbell and it always seems to ring or knock when I'm with a customer.
The 2nd is the boys, particularly if the wife isn't home (but sometimes when she is) if they start fighting or making trouble (as brothers sometimes do) it's up to me to put an end to it working or no. That can be a huge distraction.
Of course as Melissa pointed out it a big issue for employers, particularly when the job is technical as opposed to creative.
(BTW I noticed that Army of Davids Hardcover is only $5 at that link. A real bargain and good reading too!)
Update: Removed some personal info.
Posted by Peter at 04:22 PM | Comments (0)
June 07, 2007
A license to talk
Hey you need a licence to drive why not?
Want to start a blog in Iran? Then you'll have to register it with the government - which has recently begun to require that all bloggers register at samandehi.ir, a site established by the ministry of culture of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government.
The expected results have started:
For clever users, filtering sounds pointless: thousands of proxy sites distribute the net's wider content to blogs or emails. But self-censorship is already affecting journalists, writers and intellectuals who fear prosecution.Whether the bloggers can fare any better remains to be seen; but what's clear is that they are all there, trying, working away at the edges that let the rest of the world creep through to tell Iran what the rest of the world is thinking, saying and doing.
The free expression of the net is always going to be a threat to some.
Posted by Peter at 02:15 PM | Comments (0)
June 06, 2007
Some things not important to remember some too important to forget
This quote from last year proved correct.
It is worth repeating something we said at last years D-Day anniversary:
When you see an elderly man say in his 80's or 90 keep in mind that more likely than not when he was a young man he put himself on the line for us. Even if he didn't serve consider; we have 40 different types of flavored coffee to choose from, his coffee was rationed, as was meat and a lot of other things we take for granted.These aren't just old people; they are the reason why we have what we have today. Occasionally I'm asked if it's hard to take care of elderly customers. They might not hear or see so well when you talk to them etc. I say no, that isn't hard, what they did 60 years ago is hard and we owe them, big.
That holds no less true today
Posted by Peter at 10:15 AM | Comments (1)
Who is suing who?
Well this is interesting via Glenn & Slashdot from the Recording Industry vs the People blog:
"The defendant in a Tampa, Florida, case, UMG v. Del Cid, has filed counterclaims accusing the RIAA record labels of conspiracy and extortion. The counterclaims (pdf) are for Trespass, Computer Fraud and Abuse (18 USC 1030), Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices (Fla. Stat. 501.201), Civil Extortion (CA Penal Code 519 & 523), and Civil Conspiracy
This is not the type of stuff that the RIAA had in mind if this type of countersuit keeps coming it will keep a lot of lawyers in clover and the RIAA in litigation.
Posted by Peter at 09:40 AM | Comments (0)
Software first plugin later
I'm old enough to remember the days before plug and play devices were the rule. Today most devices that you purchase are plug and play, that is , the system sees it as it is plugged in and doesn't see it when it is not.
One mistake that is very often made with plug and play USB devices is the following: Plug and play devices should have their drivers installed BEFORE the device is ever plugged in. During the install process for many devices particularly printers the install process will prompt you when to plug in the device.
On occasion you will luck out and the device will work but more often than not you will confuse a system. Once a system is confused it is hard to unconfuse.
So always install software first.
Posted by Peter at 12:34 AM | Comments (0)
June 04, 2007
Dell reaches WalMart
Was in WalMart two days ago and I noticed for the first time Dell PC's.
The Dell were had one Gig of ram and if I remember right Athlon chips for under $500, not a bad deal.
If the idea is to offload the entry level machines it just might work. The PC's sold by WalMart are all entry level stuff anyway.
(BTW checked there and at the local gamespot, no new Wii's and one used one.)
Posted by Peter at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)
Iphone due this month
If you watched TV yesterday (I didn't have much time, not even to blog)you likely saw an ad for the new iPhone due before the end of the month.
Yeah it looks nice but is Steve Jobs right about his 1% of the market by 2008, the register (via tech republic) doesn't think so:
Where Apple has gone wrong is in setting expectations. The phone will be late. All first smartphones are. The Nokia 7650 was late, the Ericsson P800 was nearly a year late. The amount of testing necessary for a new phone is incredible. And a new entrant has a worse time of it. The established players know the unwritten rules for getting phones accepted by each of the networks. They know which criteria are absolute and which can drift a little. It's a bit like getting your odd-ball car MOT'd by the garage which does all the work on it. They'll let some things through on the nod that a garage which had never seen a Marcos or Ultima before would fail the car on.
They however don't think it reflects on the product itself:
While iPhone sales volumes disappoint everyone, the device will not. It's the future direction of mobile gizmos. Most BlackBerry owners have a separate voice phone. The iPhone is a video iPod with a better screen that just happens to make phone calls. Over the next few years we'll see more mobile music devices, mobile organisers, mobile web browsers, and maybe mobile navigation devices, all of which happen to have a SIM card, and which can make calls - but making calls is a secondary use. Devices like this have been tried, but they've all been ahead of their time – not in technology terms, but in man-in-the-street acceptance.
I of course not even owning a cell phone (yes you read that right) am unlikely to buy Apple's.
Of course cell phones do have their uses.
Posted by Peter at 07:50 AM | Comments (0)
June 02, 2007
Some sheep don't read Ou
More people who don't read George Ou.
Sir William Stewart's call for a "timely" review of the possible effects of the technology - originally reported by The Independent on Sunday in April and featured by the BBC's Panorama programme last month - has led to an unprecedented reaction from the public, according to one large dealer.
Remember the Cell phone and Power Line Panics? Here is the latest one.
The London-based Scooter Computer call-out service said last week that it had received hundreds of calls recently.Will Foot, for the company, said: "I have never seen such a reaction. It's completely out of the blue. More than 50 per cent of inquiries were from people worried about Wi-Fi access." He said that the company had already removed 25 systems.
I'm very sorry but as I've gotten older my tolerance level for this type of foolishness and panic has dropped dramatically, but then again England is a free county and people have the right to be wrong or foolish.
Posted by Peter at 09:41 PM | Comments (0)
Yet another disincentive to upgrade
How do you know that your new word processing program is a lemon when (via slashdot) journals refuse to accept documents in that format:
Science cannot at present accept any files in the new .docx format produced through Microsoft Word 2007, either for initial submission or for revision. Users of this release of Word should convert these files to a format compatible with Word 2003 or Word for Macintosh 2004 (or, for initial submission, to a PDF file) before submitting to Science.Users of Word 2007 should also be aware that equations created with the default equation editor included in Microsoft Word 2007 will be unacceptable in revision, even if the file is converted to a format compatible with earlier versions of Word;
So what will happen if you want to submit something to Science?
Regrettably, we will be forced to return any revised manuscript created with the Word 2007 default equation editor to authors for re-editing. To get around this, please use the MathType equation editor or the equation editor included in previous versions of Microsoft Word.
Makes you just want to run out and buy it doesn't it.
Posted by Peter at 09:27 PM | Comments (0)
June 01, 2007
Podcast Tech Roundtable pt 2
Our latest Technobabble podcast features part two of our tech Roundtable featuring Chris K, Chris D and Roland S of HiWired. In part two we talk about what is cool, what is not and a few tips.
As always you can catch the podcast at the iTunes music store (keyword HiWired) or you can listen directly right here.
Sorry this one is even later. Business is brisk and the time available for podcasts had dropped.
Posted by Peter at 03:06 PM | Comments (0)