Technology – Page 2 – Geoff Fox: My Permanent Record

The Cellphone’s Mortal Enemy: Lint!

Errand Day in Irvine! My chance to score daddy points with Stef. I took her car for a smog test, oil change and wiper blades.

My phone beeped twice as I took it from its charging stand. “8%,” a large notice on the screen read. This was a problem.

By the time Stef’s car was on the lift the phone had died entirely!

I plugged it in. Nothing.

What about a cellphone free weekend. I could handle that, right?

Who am I kidding?

My phone is an HTC One. I’d get one again in a second. It’s a wonderful phone with a solid build and battery that lasts through a full day!

Well… usually.

The AT&T store is five minutes from here. Not their job! They sent me to the central repair facility near the 405.

I handed my phone across the counter. He held it up to the light and looked at the charging port. His stare was intense.

“No water,” I offered.

They always look for water as a way to get off the hook. A few seconds later he was pushing a cloth across the port’s connectors.

“Maybe a little lint,” he said, though he didn’t sound totally convinced. “Let me put it on the charger for a few minutes.”

I went for coffee and came back to find the phone turned on with a 3% charge. It was back from the dead and slowly building its strength.

Lint? Lint did this? Or did he just get lucky?

Why Cell Phones Don’t Work (Well) From The Air

Some people are wondering why no one has been able to track MH370 through cellphone data. We know the NSA has been storing cell metadata for tracking. Isn’t this the same scenario?

A brief lesson in physics is needed. Don’t be scared. No math.

Think of an antenna as the launching point for radio waves. If the antenna is a single element, those radio waves will depart at equal levels in all directions. A car’s AM/FM whip antenna is an example of this.

Remember the days of rooftop TV antennas? They had many elements. That wasn’t just to make them more unsightly!

Antennas may also include reflective or directive elements or surfaces not connected to the transmitter or receiver, such as parasitic elements, parabolic reflectors or horns, which serve to direct the radio waves into a beam or other desired radiation pattern. – Wikipedia

That’s exactly what’s going on at the cell site.

Why bother sending signals where they’re wasted? With a directional antenna you can redirect power to where it’s needed. In most cases that means concentrating nearly all a cell tower’s power parallel or slightly down toward the ground. Pointing down slightly is necessary because of the Earth’s natural curve.

The extra gain in the antennas beams, used to increase signal strength to us on the ground, is taken from what would radiate upwards!

I’m sure I’m not the only person to ever power up a cellphone in flight to see if I could hit a tower. I’ve never been successful. This is why.

Happy Birthday WWW

The Worldwide Web turned 25 today. Mazel tov. That’s a photo of the first web server (above).

I was there at the beginning, watching from the sidelines. I’m not Al Gore! However, there was an Internet before WWW and I was on it.

Thanks to Dr. Mel Goldstein I acquired an account on the CTState network. That got me online, which at that time was a bunch of very simple servers. There were gophers and Archies and Veronicas. You used a terminal program, not a browser.

I remember manually routing myself through strange dial-up ports. Downloading a 1Mb file could take an hour.

There were no pictures (though porn wasted no time finding the Internet), nor decorative fonts. It was text.

Tim Berners-Lee created “http,” the Hypertext Transport Protocol. That’s how website data is sent and it was a breakthrough concept. Brilliant.

It took a few more years before the first web page appeared. It is preserved at its original address!

It was all geeks and dweebs at first. We early adopters test drove the kinks out for you. No thanks necessary. It was our pleasure. Really.

In many ways the web is showing its age. It just isn’t designed with the security necessary to safely accomplish its daily tasks. We are walking on eggshells at 25.

Too Much Technology Run Amok

I bought a new car a few months ago. Traded my SLK230 for an SLK250. Higher number. Smaller engine. Well played Mercedes.

It’s been 15 years since my last new car. Lots has changed.

I like having Bluetooth. I like satellite radio. This car feels more substantial… and it’s a lot less noisy.

And then there’s the GPS. It uses traffic reports from the satellite radio for route planning. It even checks for faster routes while in motion.

I got the car and gave it free reign, clicking the button that made the GPS boss. All of a sudden my routes looked like I was trying to avoid being tailed! Exits. Side streets. Crazy detours. I’m learning the area. Sometimes there’s no choice but to follow.

Reconfiguration time.

This time I clicked the ‘ask me first’ button. Now the weirdness made sense. The GPS has a hair trigger. If it could shave seconds, it would try.

Problem is the information it receives is full of little errors that momentarily make slow roads look fast. So, I get messages like this:

Traffic Jam On Your Route
Recommended Detour:
approx. 1 min Faster
Approx. 200 ft Longer

I’m sure this feature is great, but someone’s got to turn the sensitivity down. Right now it’s too much technology run amok!

The Oscars As A Synergistic Social Media Triumph

Did you watch the Oscars? We did. I suspect numbers will be up this year. It has little to do with Ellen’s performance or anything on-the-show, though she and it were very entertaining.

The Oscars has written the playbook on leveraging social media. It is the synergistic wunderkind! Truly a two screen show.

If you’re on Twitter you can’t not watch the Academy Awards. It our common experience. We’re watching TV together as a family. Welcome back to the sixties.

Of course the Oscar telecast has to bring something to this stew. It’s live. It’s unpredictable. It’s enthusiastically embraced its marriage with the second screen.

Don’t underestimate that last move. Few have done it as effectively or with the ease shown by Ellen tonight.

There were Twitter references everywhere. Ellen set up the selfie you see atop this entry during the show.

Long before midnight Sunday, the photo had been retweeted more than 2 million times, breaking a record set by President Barack Obama with the picture of him hugging First Lady Michelle Obama after his re-election in 2012. Twitter also sent out an apology because all of the retweeting disrupted service for more than 20 minutes after 10 p.m. ET. – AP via npr.org

She took another with Liza Minnelli. And then there was the (real) pizza delivery guy. It’s a good night to be @BigMamasNPapas.

My last few years in TV saw a push to engage viewers via social media. We were trying to make you more ‘sticky.’

The fact I have so many followers on Facebook and Twitter speaks to my belief in that. We never did it this effectively.

Has anyone?

GPS And Blind Faith

Google Location history

Jacob Wycoff is in town. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say what he’s doing, but it’s a cool assignment. We got together for dinner tonight. First time in five years.

Jacob is staying in Rosemead. He might as well have told me Mars. I’m clueless.

The new car has GPS, so I programmed in the address and set out. Locals always know better shortcuts, but for a territory virgin, GPS is an amazing tool.

This nav is hooked into satellite radio. It gets live traffic updates. It was very chatty tonight.

First it enumerated all the slowdowns on the 5. Then it told me it was changing the route.

Was I consulted?

I was not.

My rule with GPS is you believe or don’t. You don’t change your mind mid-route. For safety’s sake, the ability to preview the route isn’t available while you’re in motion. So, when the GPS changes the route, you must accept it on blind faith.

Down Irvine Blvd instead of the 5. Through Irvine and Tustin, I rejoined the Interstate in Santa Ana.

The GPS wasn’t done yet. It changed its mind once more, taking me back off the 5 and onto city streets… miles and miles and miles of city streets.

During the early evening hours freeways here are everything you’ve been led to believe. I-5 has four through lanes plus an HOV lane in each direction. Traffic’s still stop-and-go. This major change seemed plausible.

It’s certainly a route no human would formulate. Too awkward. Too disjointed. Too anti-intuitive.

Did the GPS save me time? Clueless again. Maybe all the GPS units are sitting around tonight having a laugh on me?

It was 1:40 to get there. The ride back, down the 5, thirty five minutes.

I Follow Quakes

There was an earthquake just north of Puerto Rico twenty minutes ago. It’s likely any damage will be minimal with no tsunami. Just like weather and other sci/tech pursuits, I follow quakes.

Our government, the USGS specifically, does an excellent job analyzing the data and quickly posting the results. It’s mostly an automated process, so even on a Sunday evening there’s no wait.

On the left is their front page link to the Puerto Rico quake. There are two entries because the original report was revised.

Each quake gets its own series of webpages. The first page contains a map pinpointing where the quake happened, plus an academic description of local seismology. This one got, “Seismotectonics of the Caribbean Region and Vicinity.” Riveting prose.

More useful on an immediate basis are the DFYI and PAGER pages.

DFYI (Did You Feel It) is an Internet derived ‘shake report.’ Regular folks try to quantify their experience. It’s very insightful when plotted on a map.

Most felt the shaking was light.

PAGER estimates the damage based on all the available data. Computer modeling at work. An educated guess. Tonight, it’s overdone. San Juan felt light shaking. PAGER says strong.

PAGER also predicts up to 10 deaths. Hopefully that’s overdone too.

I Wish I Was At CES

Between the reading tweets and news coverage I’ve become disappointed I’m not at CES, the Consumer Electronics Show. Las Vegas is nearby. CES has all the toys.

Technology is constantly changing. The big deal at this show is how much processing power can be put in how small a space, like Intel’s Edison Development Board.

It’s the same size as an SD card, commonly used in point and shoot cameras. It has a two core processor, with WiFi and Bluetooth already integrated.

Intel says, wear Edison. Here’s their suggestion for a baby monitor.

Start with a computer that really is the size of an SD card.
Attach it to a regular onesie and sensors that monitor the baby’s temperature, breathing, and motion.
Then, set the Intel Edison board to trigger actions on other connected devices, like this automatic bottle warmer or this coffee cup.
Each one of these has the Intel Edison board inside, communicating with the others to deliver amazing solutions to age-old problems.

Helicopter parents, your prayers have been answered.

This baby surveillance system is just a demo. It’s a taste of what the device can do so other developers create more products using it.

There’s lot of talk of 4k video at CES. It’s a new, higher standard for video. 4k video is sharper and more lifelike than HDTV.

I’ve seen 4k. Spectacular. The improvement is immediately noticeable.

Unfortunately, in 2014 having 4k capability is like having a car that can do 160 mph. So? Where can you use it?

Cable, satellite and Internet delivered video are all compressed mercilessly before we see it at home. Modern TVs are capable of much better images than what we see. I’d rather get less compressed HDTV (and hold onto my current hardware) than compressed 4k.

Marissa Mayer of Yahoo! spoke today. Her arrival has been widely applauded among the Technorati. Whether Yahoo! becomes a bigger player, as they once were, is another story. Their stock’s doing well.

1,700 were at the Hilton to see her. Katie Couric talked about her involvement with Yahoo News. David Pogue’s Yahoo! tech site was shown off.

It’s still more smoke than substance. They seem to be moving in the right direction. It’s a company full of smart people who should be able to figure things out.

This is the nerd prom. I need to attend. Maybe next year?

We Are The Jetsons

You’ll forgive me if this entry isn’t perfect. I am in bed. Helaine is asleep next to me. Doppler is at the foot of the bed. The TV is on softly.

I’m using a tablet and tracing my words withTouchPal. Not as good as a keyboard, but functional.

It’s easy to become jaded. The technology is ubiquitous.

As I watched Jon Stewart the tablet was on the floor displaying a loop from the Nexrad radar on Long Island. Amazing. It’s available, free and the best that exists.

We are the Jetsons. We Are Buck Rogers. It’s not done yet.

Embrace the technology or be left behind.

Democratizing Information Through Technology

It was once said, freedom of the press is limited to those with presses. Not anymore.

This afternoon (while taking my shower) I was listening to an NPR program discussing fall foliage. Some of what I heard was unexpected. Is it possible some of what I’ve always taken as carved-in-stone truth isn’t quite? Maybe the time of leaf changing doesn’t happen like clockwork.

I do a daily science/technology segment. Is there a better story to cover?

My purpose in writing this isn’t to tell you about my story as much as the enabling technology I’ll be using.

I contacted the professor I’d heard via email. He responded a few minutes later. We made an appointment to meet on Skype.

I love Skype dearly, but it’s not always dependable or easy to operate. There was no audio coming to me from his Mac! We rescheduled for 5:30 this evening.

This time the Skype problems were on my end. They were quickly overcome.

As he spoke an editor here captured the audio and video on a server. Videotape is passe.

I don’t want to log and write my story tonight, so I’m currently spooling off the video (all 1.7 Gb of it) onto a USB stick I carry with my keys!

If you’re my daughter’s age this is all matter-of-fact. If you’re my age you understand that none of this was possible as recently as a few years ago.

Though we use these tools at the TV station they’re available to anyone. Email is ubiquitous. Skype is free. The USB stick cost less than $20.

Information technology is more powerful than ever before and at a price that’s democratized it! It was once said, freedom of the press is limited to those with presses. Not anymore.

Shhh… It’s A Secret

It was Thursday. We broadcast a segment from my garden alongside the Courant/FoxCT building. When I got there two of our engineers were standing nearby. They had a piece of gear they were admiring. I know what it is. I can’t tell you.

I can describe the equipment as cleverly aggregated. It’s mainly off-the-shelf hardware used in a unique way. One of our guys customized a Pelican case to hold it.

I didn’t realize it when I got to the garden, but I was a beta tester today. Cool.

When we’re ready to show this technology off I’ll let you know. For a geeky guy like me it was exciting. Your mileage may vary.

Please Help With My Bottomless Pit Of Science!

Throw me a bone. Maybe there’s a story in something you’re involved in? Is there a concept you can help me explain?

Now that I’m on FoxCT doing science reports most afternoons at 4:00 PM I realize I am staring down a bottomless pit! There’s only so much science I know. I’ve already shown much of my low hanging fruit.

Some of you probably work for companies that delve in science and technology. Throw me a bone. Maybe there’s a story in something you’re involved in? Is there a concept you can help me explain?

I can’t promise to report every story that’s suggested, but I will consider every one.

Maybe there’s something in science or technology you’d like explained? I can do that too.

Please email your suggestions to me or leave them here as a blog comment. Thanks in advance.

Stuff I Never Saw Growing Up In Apartment 5E (photos)

A woman was on cross country skis heading toward the closed end of our cul de sac!

Sunday saw a big snowstorm across the Northeast. Though Connecticut didn’t get the worst we got some. Frank who plows my driveway will get a check!

The first day after a snowstorm is the pretty day. The snow is still pure white and this afternoon the sky was pure blue. I went for my camera.

Santa brought me a new lens, a Rokinon 8mm fully manual fisheye. It is a low end lens which has gotten rave reviews.

I took a few shots of my front yard… and then I spied her. A woman was on cross country skis heading toward the closed end of our cul de sac! I ran upstairs to get a more appropriate lens.

This is a site I never saw growing up in Apartment 5E back in Flushing.

Google Voice Is Almost Good Enough

I have no clue how it can be sustained for free, but I’m not claiming to be the smart guy here. I fly coach. The Google founders have a large luxurious jet.

I got an email from a friend yesterday. What was that thing where she could send text messages but not use her cellphone? The answer is Google Voice. It’s an interesting product that does a lot and stops short in a few functions that would make it a killer!

As with most of what Google does I’m not sure why they do this or where their money is made. It’s offered for free.

I have no clue how it can be sustained for free, but I’m not claiming to be the smart guy here. I fly coach. The Google founders have a large luxurious jet.

Google Voice starts simply by giving you a new, additional phone number. The number itself can be in your local area code or nearly anywhere else.

I got one for Stef with a Southern California area code with the thought she’d give it out and look local while Google Voice would sneakily (and freely) transfer the calls to her 203 cellphone. As far as I know she’s never used it.

The number comes with sophisticated voicemail which automatically transcribes messages to text and forwards them to you as a text message or email. The transcription is horrendous, but usually usable. The voice message is preserved just in case.

The Google Voice account can be set up to ring many separate phones from any incoming call. It would be nice if my friends with home, work and cell numbers used one Google Voice number. Instead of hunting them down all their phones would ring! So far none have used this–including me.

Like a cell phone Google Voice can be used for texting. If your cellphone has a data plan you no longer need a separate texting plan. It only handles text, not pictures. Too bad. I don’t know anyone who’s dropped their text plan for Google Voice’s free service even though it can be used from cellphones and computers.

All these things work. They work work reasonably well. Why aren’t they used? Is GV too kludgy… still lacking enough integration to make it an easy decision? Maybe. It still looks like a service designed by engineers for engineers.

Recently Google Voice released (and Apple finally accepted) an app to bring GV to iPhones. It was an immediate install for me!

It’s pretty slick, but every time you make a call through Google Voice it connects by first dialing through your cell account. Why doesn’t the Google Voice app use VOIP&#185? This one simple step could alter the cellphone landscape forever. You could buy a cellphone with a data plan only and no minutes or text plan.

Google Voice has loads of potential, but seems flawed in execution. Maybe that’s Google’s want. Maybe they don’t want it to be more popular than they’re capable of handling. More likely they’re showing what happens when a company gets big and products must satisfy too many managers and departments.

The difference between good and great isn’t that large, but it’s enough to inhibit use. Google Voice is good, not great.

&#185 – VOIP is voice over Internet protocol. It simply means calls are originated through the Internet and enter the ‘normal’ phone network late in the game. VOIP calls are data and shouldn’t use allotted cell call minutes.

Backing The Car In Changes Everything

Backing out is for wimps! I’m a real man now. I am a badass.

I had my windshield replaced a few weeks ago. To make things easier for the technician I backed into the garage instead just pulling straight in. With that one act I’m a changed man!

“It looks like you’re in the Bat Cave,” Helaine noticed.

She’s right. With the car pointing toward the door all I can think of is squealing tires and burning rubber! I’m now positioned for a quick getaway should the Commissioner call.

Backing out is for wimps! I’m a real man now. I am a badass.

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