Tag: Technology/Internet

Google’s Demo Slam Is Really Nerdy Fun

You’ve got to hand it to Google. They’ve found a way to get others to cleverly promote their sites… then hook me enough to write about it.

I want to hate Google. They’ve become too big and powerful. Then the thing that just happened happens. Hatred gone!

Damn you smart guys!

It started as I was heading to Google to translate some Hebrew I found on a friend’s Facebook wall&#185. Before I could summon Google Translate I noticed a tiny line of text below the search box.

You’ll laugh. You’ll cheer. You’ll actually like tech demos. Demo Slam

Tech demos! This stuff calls out to me. I am so nerdy. It’s geek porn!

Astoundingly, Google has found a way to turn product demonstrations into a spectator sport. Think “Battle of the Bands,” but for tech demos.

The one I was shown pitted two very dissimilar groups.

The first was two young women who ordered Indian food in Hindi using the afore mentioned Google Translate. They typed in the phrases they’d most likely use, kept the browser pages with the translation open, called the restaurant, then allowed Google to ‘speak’ the words on demand.

When their food arrived it was just what they’d ordered!

The second group was four guys who wanted to see if they could convince Google Goggles they were at Mount Rushmore. They built a model mountain then dressed themselves as the Mount Rushmore presidents. Using an iPhone they shot a photo of themselves.

It didn’t work the first time, but with a little tweaking Goggles saw the photo and brought up the Mount Rushmore result!

I’m voting for the Indian food girls, but these were both well done and VERY nerdy.

You’ve got to hand it to Google. They’ve found a way to get others to cleverly promote their sites… then hook me enough to write about it.

&#185 – I didn’t click because it looks like an Israeli Facebook scam! See, we don’t have a corner on the scuzz market. This one has to do with sex and the Israeli version of Big Brother 3.

It’s A Good Day To Be A Geek

The hackers cleverly bypassed battery monitor which means an overcharged Nook could very well explode! Good hack guys.

If you haven’t been watching closely you’ve missed a few geekily exciting days with new technology announcements. Some of these are pretty substantial and could be the proverbial game changers. It’s all happening… changing so rapidly.

Doesn’t anything happen at human speed anymore?

Google was the main player. First, they redefined their new unreleased operating system Chrome.

Chrome will be aimed at netbooks which should be less expensive and bothersome than current laptops. The whole paradigm of what you install, change or keep on your laptop will be shuffled.

Instant web: Chrome notebooks boot in about 10 seconds and resume from sleep instantly. Your favorite websites load quickly and run smoothly, with full support for the latest web standards and Adobe Flash.

Same experience everywhere: All your apps, documents, and settings are stored safely in the cloud. So even if you lose your computer, you can just log into another Chrome notebook and get right back to work.

Always connected: Integrated Wi-Fi for home and work, and 3G for all the places in between. 100MB of free 3G data every month* on the Verizon Wireless network. Affordable data plans with no commitment required.

Meanwhile while talking up Chrome Google also showed a new tablet computer built by Motorola and based on its Android operating system. There are tablet computers other than the iPod right now, but you’d be hard pressed to name any. I expect an explosion in tablets over the next six months and both Apple and Google will be responsible for most of it.

Speaking of explosions, someone published instructions to hack a Barnes and Noble Color Nook so it could operate as an Andriod tablet! One problem, the hack disturbed part of the battery monitoring circuitry. Every time the Nook would fire up this circuitry would shut it down.

The hackers cleverly bypassed battery monitor which means an overcharged Nook could very well explode! Good hack guys.

I’d REALLY like a tablet computer. What I want doesn’t yet exist. It’s got to be ‘friendly’ with my camera. I’ll wait. No choice.

More news from Google who pushed out a new version of their Chromium web browser. Sweet. This one comes with its own apps store. More importantly the javascript engine has been turbocharged again!

Don’t worry if you don’t know what javascript is. Take my word javascript is the thing that slows your web browser the most! Run Chrome/Chromium as your browser and you’ll immediately feel like you bought a faster computer.

If you are not using Chrome/Chromium as your browser you really should give it a try. It’s free and fast.

Finally yesterday Microsoft announced their soon-to-be released Internet Explorer 9 would have new privacy controls.

Tracking Protection in IE9 puts people in control of what data is being shared as they move around the Web. It does this by enabling consumers to indicate what websites they’d prefer to not exchange information with. Consumers do this by adding Tracking Protection Lists to Internet Explorer. Anyone, and any organization, on the Web can author and publish Tracking Protection Lists. Consumers can install more than one. By default, there are no lists included in IE9, which is consistent with our previous IE releases with respect to privacy.

This is a big deal. Everyone who knows anything about Internet security is demanding more privacy controls. Microsoft is the last player I’d expect to be stepping up for me versus advertisers and marketers.

See what you missed yesterday.

I Almost Forgot – AT&T The Biggest Vacation Disappointment

Often my phone would show full signal yet be unable to originate or receive calls. Data was pretty spotty too.

It was my intention to totally depend on my iPhone 3Gs’s cell service for voice and data while on vacation in Las Vegas. Like everyone I’ve heard horror stories, but my service here in Connecticut is mostly good. Unfortunately, I have also documented trips to New York, Los Angeles and Boston where service was frustrating. Add Las Vegas to the list.

Often my phone would show full signal yet be unable to originate or receive calls. Stef’s BlackBerry and Helaine’s Samsung suffered a similar fate.

Data was pretty spotty too. Sometimes my phone would display “3G.” At other times it was the slower “E” or mysterious “O.” Often there was no data indicator at all! Unfortunately even seeing a data indicator didn’t mean there was access!

I ran an online speed test a few times. Once it wouldn’t work because there was no data access. Other times it was so slow as to be unusable for any purpose other than establishing how slow it was!

This is just nuts. There’s no excuse for this. Cell service is supposed to be a mature product. How can AT&T be the only company that hasn’t mastered this?

Need Your Advice On Roku/Boxee/Apple TV/Google TV

Do you have one of these Roku, Boxee, AppleTV, GoogleTV kind of devices? Do you like it? Do you recommend it? What else will I need?

It’s been a while since I had a TV in my office. Without it I’m usually driven to the family room where I play on my laptop, watch TV and snack incessantly.

That snacking’s got to stop!

With that in mind I went out and bought a new TV to bring me back upstairs at night. It’s a 32″ LCD HD model and it was under $300. From a historical perspective that’s a crazy price for what you get. Next year it will probably be less!

I don’t have a DVR or HD service for the set so I went online and checked Comcast’s prices. Then I checked with my friend Peter.

“What about Roku?” he asked.

I tried to sound savvy, but it was obvious I’m not. There’s a whole class of little computers like Roku that bring shows on the Internet directly to a TV. Though they claim to provide access to thousands of programs it’s obvious you’ll need to subscribe to a service to make the box worthwhile.

I don’t know what to do and so, again, I turn to you dear readers for some advice. Do you have one of these Roku, Boxee, AppleTV, GoogleTV kind of devices? Do you like it? Do you recommend it? What else will I need?

I am like a babe in the woods right now. Help set me straight.

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.

It’s Not That I Don’t Trust Facebook… OK, I Don’t

I’m not talking about posts in bad taste, but scams and links to viruses which pop up on my wall like dandelions in the spring! Facebook seems slow in stopping these

Facebook announced their new messaging plan yesterday. On the face of it it sounds great. Unified messaging without regard to platform.

That’s my clumsy way of saying what Facebook’s Joel Seligstein wrote:

Today I’m excited to announce the next evolution of Messages. You decide how you want to talk to your friends: via SMS, chat, email or Messages. They will receive your message through whatever medium or device is convenient for them, and you can both have a conversation in real time. You shouldn’t have to remember who prefers IM over email or worry about which technology to use. Simply choose their name and type a message.

Great, except I don’t trust Facebook.

I think Facebook does a terrible job of policing what its members post. I’m not talking about posts in bad taste, but scams and links to viruses which pop up on my wall like dandelions in the spring! Facebook seems slow in stopping these. With Facebook mail that problem will only get worse.

Facebook also drops the ball in policing the apps that run on its platform. Clicking a Facebook link shouldn’t lead to a scam, but it often does.

Beyond that Facebook has played fast-and-loose with privacy. Their money is made by selling your eyeballs! You are not Facebook’s customer and your concerns will always fall behind those who send cash Facebook’s way.

With a half billion members Facebook could become the Internet equivalent of too big to fail! We might be forced to put up with their shortcomings.

At the moment I will look warily at making Facebook the gatekeeper for my messages.

The Penguin And I Are Fighting… Again

You might be wondering why I run Linux if it is sometimes a little difficult to deal with? I don’t know, but I suspect it’s like a geek’s medal of honor.

This will be short. I am not of good spirit. I am fighting with the Penguin–my euphemism for Linux.

Last week I attempted to install a little hardware addition to the Ubuntu Linux computer I use as my desktop at work. It didn’t work and I gave up trying!

Trying to get back to where I’d begun I uninstalled the new software I’d added to the machine. Bad move!

Today when the machine wasn’t working quite right I rebooted only to find the Internet was nowhere to be found! I probably had uninstalled the software that controls Internet access. The only way to reinstall is to go on the Internet to get the files.

Oops! no Internet.

My only simple choice is to reinstall the operating system from the ground up.

I backed up my customized files to a pen drive, burned a disk and am in the midst of watching screen-after-screen of Ubuntu promotion as new bits fill up the hard drive. Before I leave work tonight the machine will be up and running again.

You might be wondering why I run Linux if it is sometimes a little difficult to deal with? I don’t know, but I suspect it’s like a geek’s medal of honor.

The More Things Change The More Money Talks

If you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.

There is a quote attributed to Andrew Lewis (who sells t-shirts emblazoned with it):

If you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.

Keep that in mind. Things are changing in the tech world. They’re probably not changing for your benefit. As products evolve the user is more-and-more the product being delivered to others. You are less lkely to be in control of your digital fate.

The Times had a big article this weekend about HTML5 the new iteration of the language that runs the Worldwide Web.

In the next few years, a powerful new suite of capabilities will become available to Web developers that could give marketers and advertisers access to many more details about computer users’ online activities. Nearly everyone who uses the Internet will face the privacy risks that come with those capabilities, which are an integral part of the Web language that will soon power the Internet: HTML 5.

Marketers and advertisers are paying for access and they’ll call the shots! You are more valuable to them when they’ve probed into things you might consider private.

The same goes with your cellphone. My iPhone is jailbroken which means I’m not limited to installing programs Apple approves of and profits from. Jailbreaking is to my benefit not the benefit of the cell providers or operators of app stores.

A cautionary story circulating this weekend told the tale of T-mobile’s new tact to stop jailbreaking of its Android phones. Basically the phone will ‘cleanse’ itself of unapproved files you’ve loaded at regular intervals.

… when unsuspecting members of the public buy The “T-Mobile G2 with Google” phone at a T-Mobile store, they aren’t getting a customizable mobile computer or phone but are instead getting a device where the hardware itself dramatically limits users’ right to make changes to their computers and install the operating system of their choice.

Some tech sites have taken to calling the G2’s hidden program a ‘rootkit.’ That’s a scare tactic. However, to say this ‘feature’ acts the same way a difficult to cleanse computer virus acts isn’t far off point.

I saw early signs of this trend when I bought this Dell 640m with Windows Vista a few years ago. The ability to record audio that’s being sent to the speakers had been removed. The hardware to do it was still in the laptop (since it does it in its Windows XP version) but the functionality had been stripped from the operating system. This wasn’t done for end users but for content producers who are Microsoft’s more important customers.

If you’re used to surfing to anything on the Internet or fast forwarding your DVR through commercials be prepared to see those features fade! You’re benefitting to the detriment of those who really pay the freight.

The digital golden age might already be over.

Comcast’s Got The Meter Running

Comcast’s limit seems reasonable now, but will it be used to rein in their online video competition going forward? That is the worry.

Tonight I stumbled upon an email from Comcast. It was sent ten days ago to an account I never use and seldom check. It said Comcast is now providing me with a tool to check how much Internet I’m using.

I knew this was coming. Comcast announced a 250 Gb monthly data limit a while ago. What wasn’t clear was how close to the cap we get? The simple answer is “not very.” We were well under what I assumed we used. That’s still not reassuring. More on that in a second.

The past few months have averaged in the 20 Gb neighborhood. We probably suck up more than most! Of course baseball season is just around the bend and Helaine and/or I will watch the vast majority of the Phillies games in streaming high def video over the Internet. Our usage will climb.

If you are wondering whether you are at risk of exceeding this 250GB threshold, you should know that the vast majority – around 99% – of Comcast customers use significantly less than 250GB per month. – Comcast website

It wasn’t that long ago we were using dial-up service. My 28.8 kbps modem (which never connected anywhere near that fast) was only good for downloading a few megabytes per hour. Tonight I uploaded at 30+ megabyte file before I could finish typing the description for it.

Comcast’s limit seems reasonable today, but will it be used to rein in their online video competition going forward? That is my worry. The more video and rich content we get online the less we’ll buy from Comcast. They want their Internet side to be successful, but not successful enough to cannibalize their pay TV side.

For now bandwidth is cheap and plentiful. Any artificial limits Comcast (or other ISPs) impose are just that, artificial limits. They’re getting us used to being on a leash.

Blogger’s note: As a very small portion of my retirement plan I own some Comcast stock. Of course what I just wrote doesn’t promote my best financial interest with that stock, but I thought this disclosure was only right.

Here Comes The Spam

Since the bog has been up with Wordpress (under 24 hours and only now beginning to be seen by Google) I’ve gotten 46 comments. 41 were spam!

While setting up this new iteration of the blog I made a decision–all my older entries would again be open for comments. A few years ago faced with a plethora of blog spam comments were shut off after a week or two.

You know what spam is, but blog spam? It’s much more insidious!

Did you create your own blog or did a program do it? Could you please respond? 18 – Leila Caracci

Looks harmless, right? Except Leila’s email address says she’s GailWoolfolk@aol.com. There’s more.

My blog’s comment form allows you to enter a website address. Leila/Gail has attached MLBH0TD0G.TK (I have sanitized the site by substituting zeros). There lies the rub.

If that comment had gotten posted, accompanied by that URL, the named website would get a little rub of my Google glory. It would rank a tiny bit higher in searches. Multiply that by hundreds or thousands of sites and the effect can become enormous.

I would have spotted this on my own, but WordPress comes with Akismet, a filter which performs the job silently and very well.

This blog is great. How did you come up witht he idea? 6 3 4

That’s another one appealing to my ego. Notice the random numbers at the end to try and throw off filtering. It didn’t work.

Great site! Your writing is so fresh compared to most other bloggers. Thanks for writing when you get the chance to, I’ll be sure to keep visiting!

That’s another with a non-matching email/name combo. The linked website soft sells French Press coffee makers with an affiliate link to Amazon. These folks are resourceful.

Any time anyone has something of value others want a piece of it, like my Google karma. What the Internet does is make tiny inconsequential pieces easy to aggregate. I would guess getting many Geoff’s to post your URL produces significant income for little effort!

Since the bog has been up with WordPress (under 24 hours and only now beginning to be seen by Google) I’ve gotten 46 comments. 41 were spam!

As long as Akismet holds its ground I’ll keep everything open. I am only marginally optimistic.

The New Blog Arrives

There will probably be things wrong with this site. I moved six years of stuff from one platform to another. It was tough and I was diligent but I’m no miracle worker!

It’s just about 4:00 AM. Things are quiet. I picked this as the right time to move my website. At least here in Hamden the move is a success.

There is no computer named geofffox.com or yahoo.com or any other URL. The Internet is really all about numbers and not even easily understood numbers! Each website is identified by four digits between 0 and 255. That’s too tough so a system was set up to translate more memorable words into the numbers. My wait over the past few hours was for my name to be associated with a new set of numbers.

There will probably be things wrong with this site. I moved six years of stuff from one platform to another. It was tough and I was diligent but I’m no miracle worker!

Switching from MoveableType to WordPress should make my life easier. I now have an app built into my iPhone which natively talks with the website’s ‘back end.’ The photo attached to this entry was directly placed by the phone. WP will also work better with video.

If you see stuff that’s not working, leave a comment or drop me an email.  I’m the web wrangler here.  I want to know.

Apple And HTC: Let The Suits Begin

By keeping programs like Dragon Dictation separated from other functions Apple has made a powerful feature nearly worthless. I love the app. I never use it!

apple-iphone-3g.jpgAs a geek these are exciting times. Smart phones like the iPhone, Androids and Microsoft’s still-to-be-seen efforts are putting major computing in your pocket. They’re powerful enough that I’ve sometimes been guilty of disregarding my dinner companions as I work the phone (actually everything but the phone).

Of course nothing like this happens in a vacuum. Everyone tries to protect their territory. There’s so much my iPhone can do, if only Steve Jobs would say yes!

Seriously, my phone is purposely crippled in many ways.

An example is the Dragon Dictation app. It does an amazing job of translating spoken words to text. Unfortunately Apple says it can’t speak directly to the email or SMS programs. In order to use DD you have to cut and paste.

Though approved by Apple this applet is hidden from the iPhone’s most powerful features. It’s not that the software can’t perform this task, it’s been prohibited from performing it!

By keeping programs like Dragon Dictation separated from other functions Apple has made a powerful feature nearly worthless. I love the app. I never use it!

This is totally Apple’s choice. They could let it happen tomorrow and I’m sure Dragon would have the updated software waiting.
This is just one in a series of arbitrary or puzzling decisions.

Some friends say I should just ‘jailbreak’ the phone–remove Apple’s grip with a simple unauthorized software download. Good idea, though jailbreaking alone will not make this particular software work as it should.

Maybe I own the iPhone, but only under a strict license which says what I can and can’t do, what I can and can’t load into it. It’s as if your Ford was only allowed to use Ford gasoline and could only be repaired with Ford parts. Maybe you should only be able to chill GE water in your GE refrigerator.

Don’t get me wrong, this phone is killer. I love it. I am frustrated though because I can see what is being done to keep Apple as gatekeeper.

Now Apple is reaching out to keep competitors from competing. Yesterday they sued HTC, who makes smartphones under their own name and for others. This has to do with HTC’s phone that use Google’s Android operating system.

“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.” – Steve Jobs

Apple is enforcing its software patents. That itself is pretty controversial as software patents are a recent ‘innovation’ seemingly granted broadly and with little scrutiny. A software patent case is on its way to the Supreme Court right now.
Though companies with these patents say they are (and probably are) just protecting their investments in research and development, others say patents on software limit innovation.

It’s interesting to hear organizations perceived as liberal, like the Electronic Freedom Foundation use concepts normally reserved for the right.

Software innovation happens without government intervention. Virtually all of the technologies you use now were developed before software was widely viewed as patentable. The Web, email, your word processor and spreadsheet program, instant messaging, or even more technical features like the psychoacoustic encoding and Huffman compression underlying the MP3 standard—all of it was originally developed by enthusiastic programmers, many of whom have formed successful business around such software, none of whom asked the government for a monopoly. So if software authors have a proven track-record of innovation without patents, why force them to use patents? What is the gain from billions of dollars in patent litigation? – http://endsoftpatents.org/

None of this seems to be happening for our (my) benefit.

There’s A Boatload I Don’t Know

It’s going to be a long night. There’s a boatload I don’t know and will only learn while banging my head against the wall!

Helaine and Stef are in California. I am in Connecticut. Actually, the more important “I am” sentence would be: I am in pajamas! This is a day at the computer hacking code.

If you’ve been following along you know I’ve become somewhat obsessed with changing my website–moving it from Moveabletype to WordPress and updating the look. A few weeks ago the job was 85% done. Then I did a design for a friend’s blog and the idea of designing from scratch became appealing.

Designing from scratch is a term with a multitude of definitions. If you’re a woodworker do you have to grow the trees too? In this case too scratch doesn’t start at zero but reasonably far down the chain. I am using 960BC with provides the minimal link between WordPress and the 960 Grid System.

For me this has become a methodical process. I’ve installed a small server and database manager on my PC. That allows me to do all my work locally without moving files to and from the remote server the project will end on. It also forces me to follow proper procedures in keeping the code ‘server agnostic.’

If I code for this server, instead of any server, the website will break when I move it to its final home.

It’s going to be a long night. There’s a boatload I don’t know and will only learn while banging my head against the wall!