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Archive for April, 2009

Legacy Locker

Posted by Matthew Greensmith at 11:20 AM on April 9, 2009

Todd brings up this subject often. What happens to all our electronic lives when we leave this earth? We can save things to CD, on portable hard drives, lock them away in vaults and safety deposit boxes. But there’s so much more to “us” than just what we can put on CD’s.

What about all those pictures and posts and notes and emails on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LiveJournal, etc.? What about all those email accounts, and domain names you own? Who gets to retrieve those pieces of you, either for permanent archives or just for sharing and updating with those online connections that might not know you are gone from this world?

Legacy Locker is here to save the day. For a rather reasonable fee ($30 a year or a one-time payment of $300), you can list unlimited beneficiaries and assets in their “locker” system so that your loved ones (or whoever you’ve designated) can have access to all of your Internet-based things when you are gone.

Nifty, to say the least.

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TMI

Posted by Matthew Greensmith at 8:24 AM on April 8, 2009

In 2006 alone, the world produced 161 exabytes of digital data, the equivalent of three million times the information contained in all the books ever written.

This tidbit is from the Columbia Journalism Review. Are we all suffering from TMI, aka, Too Much Information?

I listen to podcasts regularly, and then there’s NPR programmed into my car stereo, and all the news reading I do online every day, hour after hour. In this day and age, we have the ability to gather and share information quickly an easily minute after minute, hour after hour. I get up in the morning to find that there are new articles in my RSS feed, or new articles on the local news sites, or new articles on the tech sites I visit, and it’s barely dawn. Someone was writing those articles, at all times of the day or night.

The real question is, are we suffering from information overload, responding in extreme fear to events that BTI (Before The Internet) we didn’t always know about? And how much is too much? I remember after September 11th, I was glued to television and Internet for information. After about four or five days, one of my friends confessed to me that she felt overwhelmed and just had to unplug for a while. I knew exactly how she felt, as I’d been feeling it too. And sometimes, it’s not that I feel overwhelmed, but I almost feel desensitized by all the of the information pouring in.

In fact, brain research shows that we do our best thinking when we’re not engaged and focused, yet fewer of us have time for downtime when we are allowing technology and information overload to take over. So if we are spending the majority of our time being “connected” and taking in information, how can we have the “down time” required to think up our best ideas and solutions?

Is it time to tune out, unplug, and re-sensitize?

I know one of the reasons I don’t Twitter is because of the sheer amount of time and “connectedness” I’d have to employ to maintain it. It is also the reason I do not have a smart phone and refuse to get one. I am online all day and am available on instant messenger for anyone who needs me, and on Facebook regularly to stay connected with my kids and friends and events I may be involved in. I’m already feeling too locked in and too connected from those things, yet I keep doing them. Now I have to wonder if my creative ideas are being suppressed in all the “busy-ness” of all of my connections and information resources. It’s too easy for me to be online, virtually anywhere and any time, with a laptop under my arm and WiFi everywhere I go.

Maybe it’s time to take at least a short step back. Maybe I’ll find it isn’t so bad to be a little less connected.

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Australia to get Fibre to the Premesis

Posted by todd at 11:38 PM on April 7, 2009

The Australian Government has announced that they have scrapped the tender process for a company to build an FTTN network, and will instead build its own new network that will put fibre out to 90% of all Australian homes. This is a FTTP which means that apartments will be sharing access to the fibre rather than getting one each. Home owners though will get 100Mbs fibre right to their front door.

This is great policy in terms of IT, economic stimulus and social equity. Surprisingly good from the same policy makers that brought us the great Australian firewall (more on this later). Rather than leaving it up to businesses to make economic decisions on where they can make the best profits from placing infrastructure, the government has decided to ensure everyone gets a chance by funding access for everyone. Suppliers of Internet services will then provide their services on top of this. This is identical to other utilities where the government supplies the base infrastructure to the homes and the service providers pay for access to provide their services over it.

Not only does it help to ensure everyone in the country has access to high speed broadband, it also increases the ability for true competition to exist in the market. Currently all of the Telco infrastructure is privately owned by the major carriers who despite some legislative controls, can block access to their competitors. This will allow smaller and local businesses to offer competitive options for Internet services and creative bundling of services like phone, broadband, television, etc.

What will still be lacking is the quality of service to the outside world which is restricted by the distance we are from everything. Our links to the US are not large enough to get good throughput from there now, and upping the links to everyones homes will not improve this situation. It could produce new options for local businesses though for high definition content hosted within country.

I am not holding my breath until the roll-out reaches my house as it will be an 8 year project in total. We might finally get to the technological level promised for the 90′s.

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Posted in Technology

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PDF for Everyone

Posted by Matthew Greensmith at 9:22 AM on April 7, 2009

There was a time, back in the technological dark ages, just a scant two or three years ago, that PDF’s could only be created by Adobe Professional. It was so fancy, so rare, and so expensive that it didn’t even need a real name, just “Adobe Professional.” To differentiate from other Adobe products, we often called it Adobe Acrobat Professional, just to denote it was different than the free Acrobat reader we all needed on our computers.

But the tide shifted when Adobe lost their tight control on the PDF production framework. Now anyone can make a PDF, for free, any time, using software that is usually already installed or easily installed as a plug-in to existing products. Microsoft Office has a save-to-PDF plugin, and so does Open Office. And now, Firefox does too. Self-publishing websites now have their own proprietary and functional PDF converters for use by authors, and if all else fails and you can find nothing else,you can go out and download a free PDF creator like PDF 995, or PDF Converter from SourceForge. Many of these freebies now come with all the bells and whistles of Adobe Acrobat Professional, including style sheets, text-to-audio creation functionality, and complete creation tools.

I played a bit today with the Firefox plugin, which is made by Nitro, and it is adequate for the task. It is easy to save off a PDF of a website, links intact, for use in presentations or just to save for archival purposes. My complaint would be it doesn’t allow me to change any settings, and it is a bit slow to create the page. The output is really good, though, so it’s not a bad tool at all.

There is no reason for anyone not to be able to produce a PDF these days, whether or not they have Adobe Acrobat Professional.

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Posted in Information

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What Hubble Brings Us or, Patience is a Virtue

Posted by Matthew Greensmith at 9:05 AM on April 7, 2009

The Hubble space telescope, now active for nearly 20 years, continues to send back images that amaze and astound scientists. And it’s not only the newest pictures being sent that are providing all of the “ooh” moments these days.

Scientists studying land-based telescope views discovered a gassy planet orbiting a nearby star (HR 8799), and then went back to images from Hubble that are at least ten years old to see if they could get a closer look. By using computer technology to “clean” the image, they were able to get a closer look at the gassy planet, which may not be as gassy as once thought. It might actually be water and land-filled, refueling the speculation that other planets can hold life as well. As in, “we are not alone.”

I’ve always been fascinated by Hubble’s images, and when images can be used to further develop scientific theories and expand on unkowns in our astronomical world, that is all that much better. It still bothers me to think that Hubble will be retired some day, as it is providing so much right now for scientists studying “other worlds.”

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Posted in Science

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Defining “Broadband” and “Underserved”

Posted by Matthew Greensmith at 7:09 AM on April 7, 2009

$7.2 billion in stimulus money has been earmarked by Congress for spending on broadband service and underserved areas. Thus is born a conundrum that is becoming virtually unsolvable.

What exactly does “broadband” mean? According to ATT, it’s anything not dialup. To others, like the Communications Workers of America, it is anything over 3 mb. And since our median “broadband” speed in this country is about 2.3 mb, while Japan boasts an median of 63 mb and Canada about 7.6, what are we truly talking about when we talk about broadband?

And what is meant by “underserved” areas? Is it rural areas with no access to broadband? Or is it broader than that, applying to any area that can’t get 3 mb or more, which includes both urban and suburban areas?

This is what the FCC is trying to figure out, and is open to comments through April 13th. The acting chairman of the FCC, Michael Copps, believes his agency is up to the challenge of defining these terms for the purposes of deploying the stimulus funding. But he notes that President Obama’s long-term goal is to get broadband deployed deep into the country, which could place rural deployment of broadband at the top of the list.

I’m all for that, since I’ve been craving a move to the country for some time. But I also want to see fatter pipes, to the tune of at least 10 mb, if not more. I realize I’m very blessed at this moment to have a realistic 8 mps down and 3 mb up on a regular basis, but I’m living in an area where the majority of people are using dialup, and if I were to move even one more mile further away from the main metro area, I would lose any type of broadband altogether. I’m also one of those that believes true broadband (I subscribe to the better-than-3mb club) should be a basic utility, just like gas, electric, and phone service. To me, it is no different.

You can submit your own comments to the FCC, through April 13th, on this important determination. Visit www.fcc.gov for more information, or take this link to go directly to the comment instructions (PDF file).

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Posted in service

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GNC-2009-04-06 #466 Tech Packed Show

Posted by geeknews at 9:38 PM on April 6, 2009

Great Austin meet-up, we will have a Dallas Meet-Up on Friday details of location and time to follow. Tech Packed show tonight, there is a bit of a surprise mid show.. It’s live to hard drive in its best form tonight.

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Podcast Comments call 619-342-7365 or e-mail geeknews@gmail.com

Listener Links:
www.blellow.com
Second Laptop Hunter Ad on Loose
Firefox Tabs Folder Style
Space Shuttle in Legos
Time Warner Net Neutrality Not

Show Notes:
Hubble Triple Galaxy
Copyright Holder threatened with Copyright Violation
Zecco April Fools gone Foolish
Antarctic Bridge Gone
Fonera 2 Coming Soon
BoinxTV Mac Screen Application
Microsoft Ad goes after Apple Big Time
FriendFeed Live Stream
XP until April 2010
FCC to look at American Broadband Policy
Time Warner its all about slowing down Innovation
UK Storing User Internet Data for 12 Months
EU Gravity Satellite in great shape
The Daily Hack
Ad Block Plus Maintainer RIP
Security Threat Analysis Review
President Obama keeps Pres Bush Wiretapping Protections in Place
X-Men Leak and Dumb Fox Columnist
ISS in all its Glory
ISS Crew Quarters
Mortgage Fraudsters
A.P. = MPAA = RIAA Protectionism at it’s best!
Windows 7 can be downgraded to XP
iTunes Light
Mini Hydro Turbine
Pogo Plug Review
Believe it or Not
Optimal’s Electric Car

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

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Sneaky Surfing Actually Increases Productivity

Posted by Matthew Greensmith at 8:24 AM on April 3, 2009

I am fortunate to work in an environment where we are not really prohibited from surfing the Internet for personal reasons. We spend time on Facebook, reading the local news, searching for product information or buying items online, or emailing friends and relatives. In general, as long as you are getting your job done and meeting deadlines, then your personal surfing is allowed. For me, this creates a relaxed and positive environment to work in; most of us aren’t just “workerbees,” we have plenty of life outside the office, and most of the time you can’t completely separate those two things.

A new small study out of Australia has come forth to reinforce an earlier study done in the states that indicate that personal surfing actually increased productivity by about 9%. The indication was for those that surfed 20% or less of their at-work time. 20% is quite a bit, in my mind, but that’s probably about how much time I spend doing personal stuff at work. That 9% figure is pretty astonishing; I have never missed a deadline and often work on complex projects that have a lot of pieces to keep up with, and a lot of people to keep focused on the goal. Yet, I do surf non-work-related sites on a regular basis.

The presumption, from both studies, is that those short surf-breaks allow the mind to re-gather its resources and enhance concentration for continued productivity. That makes sense, but I believe there is an old adage at work: if you want something done, give it to a busy person. Busy people manage to do everything that is required, plus some, but also don’t give up their own selfish pleasures while they are doing it. I am often told I’m one of those people, as I accomplish considerable tasks and meet many goals, yet I still indulge my own guilty pleasures along the way, because life is too short to do otherwise.

Now, if we can just convince companies to stop spending their profits on unnecessary blocking software, that could be a good thing. It is obviously a good thing to surf a little on company time.

Posted in internet

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Using Your Tabs

Posted by Matthew Greensmith at 8:00 AM on April 3, 2009

One of the fabulous features of Firefox, and now Internet Explorer, is the ability to use tabs inside the browser. I have a complete routine upon starting up my computer each morning at work, loading up tabs that I will use frequently throughout the day: our trouble ticket system, gmail, the staff directory on our Intranet, the document center on our Intranet, the local television news site that I look at when I have a pause in activity, etc. The effect is a neat and clean task bar that includes only one Firefox tab, along with the other things I may have open to work with (Outlook, MS Excel, Omnipage, etc.). I can even save these tabs when I close Firefox for the day, and they will reload when I boot up in the morning. Using tabs rather than several instances of the browser makes it that much easier to switch between items I’m using, as I don’t have to open or re-maximize a window every time. I just click the tab and the web page appears almost instantly.

I am surprised at how many techs in my department either don’t know about tabs, or haven’t tried them. One of my coworkers has so many instances of her browser open that there is no task bar left, and I can’t imagine how she even figures out which item is which in that mess, the tabs are so squished in her task bar.

I rarely use IE, so I can’t speak as confidently about how tabs work in it as I can about Firefox, which I use 99% of the time. If you’re a tech and not using tabs in the browser, I’d be interesting in knowing why not. If you haven’t heard of them before, or tried them, you should.

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Time Warner Actions Bait and Switch

Posted by geeknews at 7:51 AM on April 3, 2009

Time Warner is now starting to roll out metered bandwidth to markets across the United States with unreasonable bandwidth caps. In a move that will do nothing but stifle innovation and a move to kill online streaming service Time Warners actions alone will forever change the face of the Internet.

It was bad enough when Comcast rolled out 250gb metered bandwidth caps but at least the were semi reasonable in setting caps that guaranteed that users of their service would nor have to worry about exceeding there caps each month by renting a few online movies.

Time Warners 50gb cap per month is ridiculously low, and many will see huge charges on their bills when they exceed the maximum bandwidth allowed.

Just like the Music Industry, Time Warner is implementing metered bandwidth at at time when most Americans using there service have no other broadband offering.

Living in Hawaii the Time Warner Broadband service has not improved in the way of upload or download speed in over 10 years. They have failed to improve their infrastructure and now because of larger demand on there network have to place bandwidth restrictions on there service to maintain acceptable service levels.

If there were more broadband choices it would be easy to pick up the phone cancel service with Time Warner and order new service with another vendor. But because of actions of Public Utility Commissions most Americans have 1 choice in a service provider that offers a true broadband experience.

Time Warner should be simply ashamed of themselves and I encourage consumers to pick up the phone and complain to Time Warner directly, email the company and file complaints with your local public utilities commissions demanding more choices in the broadband networks.

Time Warner actions are simple. They want to cap bandwidth so that you are forced into consuming more of their base cable products to avoid busting ones bandwidth caps.

It is ridiculous to think that they were able to establish normal usage criteria by doing a test in Bealmont Texas. If they wanted to establish normal usage patterns they would have done so in a place like NYC, Austin, San Jose, Los Angles.

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