October 2008 Archives

Apple has announced that it is removing some of the NDA restrictions on developers talking to each other about how their iPhone applications work. This restriction was widely criticised as stifling collaboration and innovation. Already developers are taking the opportunity to start sharing some of their frustrations with developing for the platform and the approval process for applications. This includes an unofficial list of application rejection criteria.

Apple have also seem to have relaxed a restriction on allowing applications that duplicate Apple functionality by allowing IBM to release a Lotus Notes application. It may not be that much of a relaxing though. This may be more of an indication that Apple will allow large companies with lots of money and lawyers to do things it won't allow independent developers to do.

Would it be cynical of me to ponder that this may have a lot to do with the imminent release of a Google Android based phone?

I have used Google Blogsearch for a long time. It has been mainly for entertainment. But today they re-launched the site and it could end up giving Techmeme.com a run for its money.

Except for one thing NO RSS for main category feeds, what the heck was Google thinking. Someone did this on purpose no one leave a RSS feed out especially when the service has RSS before.

Back in June I did some work for a company overseas. It was all over the phone - I just had to talk someone through and be done with that. I suggested that they Paypal me to save on time and money, but they would have to talk to the accountant for payment.

I waited one, then two weeks. No reply. 4 weeks later, I emailed the contact to find out where what was going on. She said there was a mixup and she would get my payment out. One, two, three more weeks passed.

I sent out another email on the status. I got a reply from another person saying the original contact did not work there anymore. We then made payment arrangements. I suggested Paypal or bank wire but they said they'll mail a cheque. It tracked to the coast when the Royal mail handed it off. To whom I do not know. Any additional tracking was non-existent and the payment was lost. Two more weeks have passed when the company said they will wire the money.

As the last email came through, they stated that "They went through great expense to stop the lost cheque and get the monies owed to me". I was a little frustrated - After all, I offered a perfect way to pay in Paypal and also suggested wiring the transaction. They chose not to do a more direct pay and in the end I had to wait 3 months and also wouldn't get a full amount due to exchange and transfer fees.

Granted, Paypal does have transfer fees - However I would've received my payment months ago instead of having to wait this long. They could've also avoided the snail mail and did the wire - I wouldn't have blamed them for the fees.

I suppose I was lucky I got anything. If this client was disreputable, I would've lost out on all my time and work back in June. There would have been no recourse except to Blog with the companies name.

There are a couple things I did learn from this:
1. If you work with someone in another country, make sure you have all the payment
information set up in advance.
2. Once mail reaches an International border, don't expect them to find a way and continue to track it. If the mail would have went via an international carrier like UPS, this wouldn't have happened without an explanation and accountability.
3. Expect to wait for payment.

Like I said, I am glad I got my money. I understand currency doesn't always translate right between countries. However there still has to be a way to send monies promised without wasting time and tons of expense to do it. Something to think about next time it happens.

It seems like the RIAA is unstoppable in its crusade to sue music lovers into oblivion. They are using the courts to get their way with ridiculous judgments being handed out. A single illegal downloaded song can cost a person thousands. The RIAA really does not want to go to trial; they hope to scare people into paying up when threatened with a lawsuit. Most people will just pay up to avoid the extra hassle of facing a trial. I am not advocating stealing music because I believe it is stealing when you take something without paying. However the music industry (not all artists… look what Radiohead did) is being bull headed instead of changing with the times. And these judgments are not punishment that fits the “crime” There is no way that a few songs should cost as much as they do in penalties. The question is what can we do to destroy the RIAA.

I don’t think trying to pass any laws will help because the lobbyists are more incentivized than voters. They make money to get laws passed or to prevent laws from being enacted. Voters are just regular people with jobs & real lives. We don’t have time to know every single detail of what to vote on and when to do so. It is a very difficult thing to make changes through the voting booth. Tough but not impossible I know. Maybe a better way is to wreck the chances of any jury awarding outrageous cash to the RIAA & other such scum based groups. One way to do that is FIJA (Fully Informed Jury Association). Basically the Constitution set up the average person to be the final branch of government. We the People are the final road block to oppressive government. If lawmakers pass bad laws which are ruled on by corrupt judges then the jury becomes 12 super powerful humans that can do good. FIJA looks to educate Americans on a jury’s role in trials. Now this not mainstream stuff & judges will actually throw people off juries if they are found to be members of FIJA. So it is not going to be something that the powers that be will endorse, but the Constitution is supposed to be the highest law in the land. The concept is that a juror can not only find a defendant not guilty based on the evidence but also based on the fact that the law is BAD. The jury is in control. No really, they are. No matter what the judge tells them to ignore or base their findings on, they have the final say. So if I were on a jury and I knew I could prevent a real injustice from happening I would think it was my duty to do the right thing. If the word could be spread about FIJA then juries everywhere could be used to do away with bad judgments like what the RIAA goes after. This is a big task I know but I see no other way because the RIAA will not stop until someone stops them over & over again.

Ok folks I leave for a one week vacation tonight Your host will be Mike and Michael be nice to them and keep the show comments rolling in as I will forward them the listener mail.

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I may be the only one who has noticed that gas prices are ridiculously high now days. Ok maybe not the only one. Heck, even finding gas was a problem here in Georgia the past 2 weeks. So I have been surfing around to check out carpooling websites. I even thought of creating a simple one for my area, but don’t want to waste my time if there is a good site that I can just link to or promote on my local website. Carpooling is an immediate answer to everyone’s complaints about using their 401K to buy fuel. After the financial problems recently I guess the 401K may not be enough now. Gas is $4 a gallon here which can make fueling up each month as expensive as the payment on the thing (visit Dave Ramsey.com to get educated on why car payments are dumb anyway). So if you spend $400 per month on gas & could carpool to work each week that would save you substantial dollars. Maybe even close to half. So that would virtually make gas $2 a gallon again.

The problem is that carpooling takes work and could be a pain in the buttocks. It is hard enough to get your own family to get on the same schedule much less syncing up with a stranger and depending on him / her to get you to work on time. The last thing you want is to get in trouble at work or miss appointments because you got hooked up with a disorganized individual or worse, a complete nut. But people meet online to date and some even get married so I know it can work out. My best friend & I rode together to work for about 4 years & never had a problem. We were friends so that certainly helped. But you don’t have to be locked into just one carpooling partner. You can have multiple ones. One for work, one for ball games, one for church, etc. Of course this works better in a more populated area but it can work just about anywhere. It just depends on how much pain the gas costs are causing you. I know I am looking into it for our family because it hurts pretty badly right now! Has anyone had any luck with the various carpool websites?

I just saw a cool open source product to freshen up an old mp3 player from Rockbox. It is a firmware product to improve the user experience if your outdated player needs a kick and it is free of course. It supports a lot of Apple’s players obviously but also does not leave out the less popular players which is a huge positive for me. I have a Creative Zen which is not on the list yet but my daughter has a Sansa which is possible to upgrade. My experience has been that the player may die before I get tired of the firmware but I am very rough on my players. To be honest though, I have never even thought about the possibility of changing the firmware on a player. Good thing this internet thingy is still around for ideas to flow every which way. There may even be a different firmware that is available for my Zen so I will have to start a search. I am pretty happy with what I have but there is no harm in window shopping.

All this being said, be careful & if you don’t know what you are doing you should leave well enough alone. It can void your warranty but chances are that it is out of date anyway if you need new firmware. True geeks won’t have much fear though. Some of the screenshots I saw over at Lifehacker were very nice. So give this software a try on that old ipod that is collecting dust in your drawer. I think I will experiment on my wife’s Nano today since it is jacked up anyway and will not turn off.

My New PDA
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by technology and need to unplug yourself? I know I do. I have stuff stored in my cell phone, on my laptop, in an online calendar, and on a clipboard. The bad thing is I have a hard time finding what I need when I need it. It seems like I have all the tools to be organized but the tools themselves become clutter. An example is a simple list of oil & fuel filters I use for all our vehicles. I have it on a piece of paper (somewhere), in my phone (when I can find it), & on my email application. But when it is time to buy the filters I have a hard time getting to the information I need. So last week I de cluttered a lot of stuff. Some crap went on ebay but more went in the trash. Then I went to the Dollar General store in town & picked up my new PDA….. a 3x5 inch spiral note pad (Personal Declutter Assistant). Everything that I need to schedule immediately or remember I write down in this little book and I keep it with me all the time. I also use a pencil with an eraser to write with, something I never used to use except in school. I can hear the giggles coming across the bandwidth as you read this. I used to make fun of older guys carrying notepads with 3 inch pencils but you know what they had very organized & “clean” lives. I am not getting rid of my gadgets or downing technology. I am just cleaning up the life a bit.

The greatest example of this simple lifestyle was when I was right out of high school in 1992 -1993. I was working at a automobile distribution center. We had to purchase our own tools so two different tool companies came around weekly, a Mac Tools guy & the Snap On guy. The Snap On guy was younger with a computer on the truck and some kind of hand held device to enter information. This was the early nineties so high tech is a relative term! The Mac Tool guy was an older gentleman with …… a small notepad and a pencil. Can you guess which one was more successful (at least in my workplace)? The Snap On guy was not there some weeks and rarely had the tool you needed and you had to wait longer to get it. The Mac man was always there every week & usually had what you needed and if not he would get it the very next week. Now if we reversed the guys & tools I think the older guy would have still been more organized. So it really is an attitude & life philosophy more than a tech or non tech thing. I think that we just let our brains get scattered with too many devices to store too much information.

The Register reports on how the wikipedia entries on short selling, and possibly other financial sections where being controlled by a person with a very biased view on these subjects. The article alleges that one the effects control of this section of articles had was to supress discussion of the negative side of 'naked short selling'. This type of activity has had an impact on the current financial crisis, and the supression of discussion bridged into the mainstream press.

The worry from a technical viewpoint is that someone was essentially given moderater style controls over a topic that they had a vested interest in. I find this disturbing as these clear conflicts of interest should be easy to avoid. I do not think it is necessary to have any more checks on contributers identities than there already is. There are a number of people that track for spurious entries and it is better to make it easy to contribute so more information comes in.

The topic moderators, acting as editors of the content should be held to a much higher standard of identification. If no person on Wikipedia was allowed to become a moderator, or any kind of administrator, without some verifiable identity checking being performed. It would be silly to expect absolute accuracy from a service like Wikipedia. If it is to survive though, it must demonstrate that it is protecting itself from such gross manipulations as seems to have occured here. It really also needs to take steps to make sure it is protected to some degree from agendas.

Each person with any moderation or administration responcibility needs to verify their true identity in some way. They then need to be vetted for any potential conflicts of interest. A conflict should not bar them from looking after a topic as their knowledge would be valuable in evaluating what goes on there. If there is a conflict a second person that has no conflict should be required to verify their decisions. This second person (or people) don't need the knowledge they just need to challenge the moderator for evidence to backup their decision. While these people do not need to have their full identities disclosed any potential conflicts of interest should be clearly stated on their profile.

After being formally and loudly introduced in Baltimore last week, Xohm has now quietly been turned on in six other major places: Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and northern Virginia.

As much nay-saying as there's been about WiMax every coming to fruition, I'm pleasantly surprised by its current distribution and sudden growth. This gives me great hope that WiMax will indeed work, and be available in more and more places throughout the country as time goes by.

WiMax, to me, is the perfect solution to a pesky problem, and can be offered as easily in rural areas as in urban ones, and I live in a semi-rural area that is quickly becoming fully suburban. I figure if they can build a giganto Walmart on our existing infrastructure, then WiMax is more than possible.

Still crossing my fingers that this continues to take off.

According to multiple sources, Windows XP has received another six-month reprieve. This means that certain manufacturers and OEM providers can still put Windows XP on machines until the end of July, 2009.

I have lots of theories on why this is happening. XP has received two extensions already since Vista's launch. While I have a couple machines running Vista now, my primary desktop machine at work is XP, and will be for quite some time. This is likely true in a lot of businesses and schools around the country, as upgrading to Vista is proving to be cost-prohibitive for most. The only machines that can run Vista here are ones we purchased especially to do so, which means they are extremely high-end, with at least 4 gb of RAM, which raises the cost of the hardware considerably. On a college campus like mine, where there are upwards of 2500 computers, that additional hardware cost is just out of our reach.

Is this third extension a result of Microsoft listening to its customers regarding the problems with the new Vista operating system? I doubt it. Since Microsoft (and most other businesses) are in the business of making money, the slow adoption rate of Vista is affecting their bottom line. That's the kind of language they are likely to be listening to, and realizing that they can sell an awful lot of copies of XP while Vista sits languishing.

I, for one, am glad that XP has been granted a few more months to live.

One of the hardest working men in the podcasting space has taken his first true vacation in years, but the best tech, science and internet news can never stop.

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I am becoming frustrated with my in-house wireless solution. I have ATT high-end DSL, and the modem and combination router rest in the lower level of the house, albeit on a shelf that is less than 2 feet from the ceiling. The lower level of the house is half underground, on the back side, but not underground at all, on the front side (i.e., the house is built into the side of a rock ledge consisting of iron-laden limestone). Directly above the router in the dining room, I can get a signal quite well on my laptop and the one wireless desktop I have in that area. I can even get 4 out of 5 bars on the patio, which is at least 30 feet from the router and on the other side of a host of domestic appliances (washer/dryer/freezer), our electrical intake box, and a metal and glass patio door.

But how dare me want to walk down the hall to the bedroom to use my laptop; less than 30 feet from the router, even with a parabolic enhancer on both router antennas, my wireless drops to a bar or less, and usually just is out of range altogether. This annoys me to no end! And I don't understand it, as this is a pre-1070's frame-based ranch house with no inside pillars, and my wireless signal should transmit easily to that part of the house.

Even my neighbor sees my wireless signal at 4 of 5 bars in his house, 50 feet away from the router. That would mean for him it is passing through two concrete walls, across his garage, and upstairs into his living room, when it can't go merely down the hall to my bedroom less than 30 feet away.

I'm not wireless savvy enough to know what solutions I may have available. I am using a Linksys combo wired/wireless router, with four computers wired, and the rest working wirelessly. I would like for my kids to be able to use the laptops anywhere in the house, including their rooms, but right now, that just isn't possible. Any suggestions appreciated at this point.

I finally went to the doctor this week for a pain in my neck. I figured it was just a muscle strain (it is) but they took an x-ray to check the bones. My wife works there so I was able to go “behind the curtain” to see my x-rays. I was looking for a wall light fixture to pin the sheets of x-rays on but there was not one there. Instead they had a scanner like machine that they placed the x-rays into & then it uploaded the images to the computer. So we were able to look at the images on a nice big screen. Pretty cool I thought. You could basically do anything you could with a regular photo. They moved it around and zoomed in on the bones they wanted to look at. The picture was crystal clear and much better than the old school way of doing this procedure. Now I have no idea how much this little gizmo cost but I reckon it was close to the cost of a small car. I don’t know if it is worth the cost but I do know it is better in many ways: visible details, digital storage, easily copied, can be emailed to the patient or a specialist. Things like this make better medical options available to us common geeks. I was just glad I got to see it in action.

Todd is still on Vacation. Guest Host Mike Dell

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In the 415 podcast Mike talked about Googles new 'goggles' option which if you set asks you maths questions before you send an email at times you might have had a drink or seven. Personally I have never had a problem with sending email under the influence (although I could use a feature like that for my mouth).

There are a number of other interesting options that you can find in the "labs" section of your Gmail settings. Ranging from as bizarre as an option to play Snake within your mail window, to adding "mark as read" as a button instead of a menu item. Makeuseof.com has a list of 5 features and some instructions on enabling them. My personal favorite from their list is the 'forgotten attachment'. This option flags up a warning if you have the word 'attach' or a variation in your message and no attachement in case you meant to attach something and forgot. I do this all the time and wish I could get this option for my work email.

Some other options worth looking at are 'custom keyboard shortcuts' and 'mouse gestures', which are self explanatory; and 'Superstars' which give you multiple star colours and other icons, which can be very useful for managing your starred email with a bit more granularity.

It goes without saying that all the labs options are beta.

I see all this junk happening in the news from bank failures to foreclosures. And I admit it is disturbing & can be disheartening if you allow it to be. But what I hate to see is people making excuses for why their life sucks. We all do dumb things, maybe me more than most. But it is better to own up to stupidity & try to fix it and do better in the future. One thing that really bothers me is when people complain about not being able to get a good paying job. I know it is tough out there. I really do but that is no reason to give up & expect someone else to take care of you & you life. You are in charge of you. No one from Washington is coming to save you.

You may be thinking what does this have to do with tech. Well I believe this time we are living in is the best opportunity to succeed in life. The low cost of computers and the availability of the internet makes it possible to educate yourself as much as you want to. There is the equivalent of millions of tons of data right at your fingertips online. That is how you make it. You educate yourself and make yourself more valuable to a company or make it possible for your small business to become successful. I just found http://www.scribd.com/ , a website that has many free books to download in PDF format and of course Google has many books available in the public domain.

I know it is easy for me to say & hard for some to do. “Pull yourself up by the bootstraps” as they say. The single mom with 3 kids will have a harder time than a guy right out of school with no kids to provide for each day. It is harder to GET OUT of a hole than to STAY OUT so I do sympathize with people having a hard time. I just don’t want people to give up especially when economic times are truly tough right now. Did you know that more millionaires were made during the Great depression than during any other time in US history? Me either until I heard it on a podcast last week! That means it is possible to “make it” even when things around us are seemingly in bad shape. Another reason I am optimistic is that I read (online for free about) about people with great disadvantages who would not be denied a good life. Helen Keller was blind and deaf yet she is known everywhere as a great poet & writer. Type Helen into Google & the first choice they give is “Keller”. We should be ashamed when we complain about our little problems compared to Ms. Keller’s. What could she have accomplished with today’s technology? If you could bottle what made her tick & sell it you would get rich quick.

Time is our best friend & most valuable resource. If you are worried about the affairs of the country & your finances then how are you preparing? Are you spending 16 hours a week watching TV or reading about your passion that you can turn into a business? How are you using the vast library called the Web to make you more valuable to your boss? I’m not preaching to the audience anymore than to myself. I know I can do better & be more productive as well. One of my favorite books is The Fountainhead which shows what determination & self-reliance will do for you. Mark Cuban has said that book is what motivated him to succeed in business. I wish it was required reading in high school as it truly has motivated me to help me. Download it for free here if you need inspiration. http://www.scribd.com/doc/6315480/Ayn-Rand-The-Fountainhead

I remember reading an interesting quote from the creator of the comic strip “Dilbert” in Fast Company magazine, if I remember correctly. He was talking about how people in office workplaces like their gadgets and often times have almost no interaction with other people. He said he talked to many people who said they kept to themselves with tech gadgets like mp3 players because they “did not like people, ANY people they worked with”. That is a profound statement by any standards. I am an introvert myself so I love gadgets that entertain me instead of having to make small talk with people I will likely never see again. Being an introvert means more than being shy. It means I am content with my own thoughts in my mind without needing other people to entertain me. So I use an mp3 player to increase my knowledge of thoughts & ideas that are already interesting to me. In other words, why should I talk to people who likely have nothing in common with me when I can listen to carefully chosen podcasts or audio books or even watch videos of my choosing? It’s not that I don’t like other humans, as I do meet interesting people at events and gatherings. But most of the time it is small talk or subjects that are not interesting to me. I am not saying these people are boring, but….. These people are boring. Just kidding it is more likely that I am the boring one. I just have different interests than most people I am around.

The podcasts I listen to are about tech (GNC), liberty (Free Talk Live), money (Dave Ramsey), and business (Dan Miller) so it is unlikely I am going to bump into people in my area who are more informed than the hosts of these podcasts. It is possible that I could & if I don’t try then I guess I will not. I am not trying to convert anyone to my views so I don’t need a group to discuss things with. Really the only people I try to influence are my children & my wife (that is a challenge!) unless someone asks my opinion or tries to sell their opinion to me. Then I have to respond if I disagree since I cannot help myself.

It is a mistake to think most people you meet will not be likeable & just keep to your gadgets though. I know this because some of the best people I know could have ignored me instead of striking up a conversation which lead to great relationships. So geeks do need people too they just may not be the first to reach out or pull out their earbuds.

So the other day I walked into a shop to do some repairs. They had an in-house techie that put together their systems, but had no formal training. The kid was on vacation, so I walked in to fix an important program.

What I found was less than acceptable. The wireless was open, the computers firewalls were off and their data was completely exposed. Further, they were close to a public fairway which means that they get a lot of unknown traffic.

I have been seeing this on a regular basis - people that put their trust in non-educated techies. I lost a job to one a while back. They took price over quality. Later I found that person did something rather scary that exposed the systems and was asked to leave.

I can't believe how many shops that have free WiFi have open systems. One system I was able to not only see the computers, I could see their POS systems. I was also able to download and upload files.

Did you know if you expose your Credit Card data in any way, shape or form, you will be subject to a $30,000 a day fine. Let me reiterate:

Thirty Thousand Dollar a day fine

I understand you need to cut corners. You wouldn't fire your accountant for someone who does it every now and then. You wouldn't take your Lawyer off retainer because your cousin is taking some law classes in college. Why would you do that with your tech?

There is a flip side - I know a few so called "Experienced techies" that I wouldn't trust with my systems. They have certifications and diplomas to prove they have the knowledge, but couldn't troubleshoot their way out of a box. A couple of them turned out to be good supervisors.

I also know some kids who come out of the gate and know their stuff. They have no certifications and are still in High School. They have the thirst for knowledge and can pick up new technologies like no tomorrow.

So if you are a company or person that needs help with technology, what can you do? You don't know how to do that stuff and need to get things done.

Well, unfortunately the only way is to have a little bit of knowledge. Not only a little on the technology, but also what can affect you. A seasoned techie might not know that little tidbit on credit card info and you don't want to learn of the issue until after the fact (and fine).

A good thing to do is talk to another techie. Ask them if they will come in and look at something small. If a seasoned techie sees problems, you will know pretty quick. Then you can take action.

This is going to be more important now that we can connect any machine to any available open wireless network. Laptops, phones or whatever from inside or outside the building. You might not even know someone is connecting. That is, until your data is compromised.

A recent article in the NY Times discussed the new video games that provoke youngsters into …. Gasp …. Reading. I think it could certainly help while it will never motivate huge numbers to pick up actual books. I remember the same discussion years ago about comic books. Kids would get criticized for reading that “junk” but at least it gave them experience in reading. Most kids won’t read anything past a certain age unless they are forced to in school. That is part of the problem I guess. In public school you are forced to be in class about 7 hours a day and learn what they tell you to learn. So when you get home the last thing you want to do is read more, even about subject you enjoy. I have read many, many more books since I left school than when I was in school. It’s my fault for not taking advantage of books when I was younger but at least I learned the skill and now I can use it to the fullest extent.

If these video games just kick start the process of enjoying reading then I think it is a great idea. Reading is one of the most powerful weapons we have. Once you can read there is nothing you cannot learn. It is the key to education obviously. If a kid lives in a poor family & community sometimes his only hope is reading. Without it he may never know there is a better life out in the world for him. He may not have a good role model in his home but his books can introduce him to many heroes to inspire him. Watching TV will rarely make you smarter while audio books are much more valuable. Reading is even more valuable as you absorb the information much better.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/books/06games.html?_r=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&oref=slogin

Hey Folks I am back from vacation and back in the saddle. Great to have the batteries recharged and ready to take on the world. Off to Dallas tonight and will be recording the next show from Texas.

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Past Two Shows Guest Hosts:
Mike Dell's World
Mike Thinks News

I have been off on vacation for a couple of weeks, but I just got off the phone with Podcamp Hawaii lead organizer Roxanne Darling of Beach Walks with Rox and she caught me up on what has been happening.

The number of signups have already exceeded my expectations, and I am expecting the numbers to really climb when the TV ad Campaign starts. We received as part of a sponsorship with Oceanic Cable over 300, 30 second spots that are going to be running locally.

I have volunteered to do two sessions at the event, both of which have had full capacity attendance at previous podcamps. There will be a Senator speaking, that should be a fun session especially one week before the election.

If you have not checked out the Podcamp Hawaii website you need to do so now. Also their will be a Wordcamp happening at the same time and Matt Mullenweg will be speaking so the Wordpress folks should be impressed with that.  

If you have not made plans to attend, now is the time to book a flight and get a great business deduction by coming to this event here in beautiful Hawaii.

The list of sponsors for Podcamp/WordCamp Hawaii include:

• Wyland Waikiki Hotel
• Viddler
• Vantage Counsel
• Road Runner High Speed Internet
• RawVoice / Blubrry
• Projection Presentation Technology
• Hawaii Prince Hotel
• Podcast Connect
• Pacific Direct Connect
• PacRim Marketing Group
• KnowHow Cafe
• Johnson & Johnson
• Hawaii Convention Center
• Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau
• Blue Hawaii Lifestyle
• Blip.tv
• UH Center on Disability Studies

The Social Media Leaders here in Hawaii have invited a number of leaders in Social Media to hold a very high level Social Media Workshop here in Hawaii the day before Podcamp Hawaii.

Business Owners and Individuals that are behind the power curve in Social Media are going to be treated to a very special event that will likely forever change the way they do business and also the way the utilize the Internet to build better brands.

I will be at the event representing RawVoice and there to share our experiences with Hawaii Business leaders. The best part though is thought leaders from the mainland and here in Hawaii will be presenting topics on Social Media that you will not want to miss.

We probably all have had times when we have had to step away from a problem before we can solve it. A new study reported in the Telegraph found that when solving problems, distractions can make the process faster. The theory behind this is that non-linear problem solving requires the help of the subconscious mind. When our conscious minds are completely engaged in a problem it drowns out any subconscious thoughts we might have on the subject. Distracting our conscious mind for a moment allows those thoughts to bubble to the surface where we can acknowledge them.

Sure makes me feel better about looking for interesting stories on the Internet when I should be working.

I want a new watch. I don’t need one with an iPod embedded or Bluetooth capability. I don’t want a calculator watch (1980’s geek status symbol). I don’t want to watch videos on it. I don’t need it to wake me in the morning or remind me to bring home some milk. I just want a watch that does not get in my way or feel weird on my wrist. If you don’t know what I mean then maybe it is just me. But when I am typing on the keyboard my watch, admittedly a bulky one, hangs & bumps every part of the laptop. It just feels awkward. Even when I am sitting around I take off the thing just to be “free”. The only time it does not bother me is while working partly because I need it then for timing & I am in a hurry to get done. I have tried the watch that hangs on a belt loop like a rock climbing clip but I don’t like having to look down at it and move it to where I can see it. Likewise I don’t like things hanging around my neck so that type watch won’t work for me either. Some of you are saying, “who needs a watch when everyone has cell phone with the time?” I get that and used to think that way but it is the same thing as the clip watch. You have to dig in your pocket to get to it. With a wrist watch it is the fastest way to get the info so it is the best design.

I think I have the prototype of what will work and maybe there is a watch like this out there somewhere. I wear a yellow “Live Strong” bracelet and it does not bother me at all even when typing. So a watch embedded in that type bracelet with a slicker finish is what I need. If you know of one I will gladly accept it as a gift

According to a study being released in next month's American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, internet web searching may just enhance brain activity and keep your brain working at top function as you approach your middle-age and golden years.

The study compared subjects between the ages of 55 and 75 who were either reading a book, or searching the internet. Using functional MRI scans while the subjects were participating in these activities, researchers discovered significantly more brain activity with those that were searching the internet as opposed to those that were reading.

An oddity that appeared indicated that those who were familiar with web searching had higher activity than those who were new to searching and other internet activities.

I guess that means we geeks that are approaching middle age (I'm one of them...) should be just fine brain-wise! I'm a master searcher, having been involved with Internet-based research for many years before going into an academic environment. I'm always telling my students, "Google is your friend." It's better than a friend, it can keep your brain healthy into old age!

As the holiday season approaches, I'm starting to look at technology toys as gifts. Since I have teenagers, and a barely-technologically capable husband who want the same fun toys I have, I'm currently looking at ways to give them the toys without the expense.

I'm cheap like that.

I'm also a practical thinker. If I bought them all $300 iPods, they'd all be broken within a month and I'd be out quite a bit of money. But if I can go cheaper on MP3 players, but still give them some of the features they are looking for, then if they break in a month, I'm not as bad off as I could be.

My 15 year old daughter's old Creative Zen bit the dust last week, and my 18 year old son's relatively new Creative Zen is showing signs of death. My husband thinks podcasts are cool and he wants to have his own player so he won't have to listen to them on the computer. What's a geek-girl supposed to do?

Go out and snap up some 8 gb Sandisk Sansa players. At less than $150 apiece, these are a reasonable and functional alternative to my more expensive iPod. For a geek like me, 8 gb might not be enough, but for my family, who only want to listen to music and carry around a few photos, 8 gb is plenty.

There are other cheaper alternatives out there, and most these days feature at least a display screen, and some even have video features. Here are ones I've found, in no particular order:

The Sandisk Sansa Fuze. 4 gb of storage, plays videos, has a voice recorder, and a built-in FM radio. Retails at about $100

Creative MuVo T200. 2 and 4 gb models, color screen for navigating, has a voice recorder and built-in FM radio. Plugs in like a thumb drive so needs no cables. Retails at $50 and $70, respectively (by size).

It annoys me when people try to blame the problem on a single thing, banks, the government, deregulation, etc. The situation is so much more complex than can be explained by any one reason and most people that are trying to blame a particular factor have an agenda they are trying to promote. Greed and cognitive dissonance should be high in the list of causes though.

The