News Flash! The Internet is Dead.

At least according to Mark Cuban.  For those of you who don’t know, Mark made his billions thanks to the Internet.  Now that he’s cashed out and considers himself an expert of all things tech and NBA, he wants you to know that it’s hopeless for the Internet to continue.  According to Mark, the greatest innovation that the Internet has produces is YouTube.  Please stop for a moment and think about this statement while I elaborate.  The Internet has provided us with the ability to communicate with each other all over the world, share data, improved life-styles, aided governments and boosted technology related innovation beyond what was previously imaginable.  Now let’s look at YouTube.  Full of video shorts created by members of the community, you will no doubt find your IQ lowering the moment you even type the word “YouTube”.  In fact, if I have to type it much more, I doubt I’ll have the intellect to continue this short article.  If you haven’t checked it out, I assure you that you’re not missing anything.  Compare it to giving a video camera to a bunch of teens and you have a good idea of what it’s like to visit the site.

So Mark Cuban thinks that the Internet is dead, YouTube is the greatest innovation on the internet (he also thinks it’s a scum site) and cable providers will eliminate the Internet in its entirety.  Mark believes that cable providers will make the Internet obsolete by “…offering users suites of office applications or other complex utilities, something he says would allow them to leverage their superiority to ‘out-google’ Google.”  Of course this is coming from the same guy who banned NBA bloggers from doing locker room interviews even though he is an avid blogger himself.

Prepare yourselves people.  The Internet is doomed.  The fact that it was stated by a billionaire makes it even more possible.  Money = Intelligence and Forward Thinking.  Right?

Comcast and Bit-Torrent

If you keep up with the tech industry or even if you have Comcast as your internet provider, you’ve no doubt heard about how they’ve been strangling the connection on user’s accounts if they are seen using torrents.  This has led to a lot of legal wrangling, including the FCC getting involved.  Comcast has come under fire, not just for reducing bandwidth but for not upgrading their systems  to keep up with broadband in the US.

Now Comcast and Bit-Torrent have kissed and made up.  Comcast is not only promising to be agnostic regarding their throttling techniques during peak hours, but to also upgrade their systems to handle more traffic and bandwidth.

I have a feeling they’re only doing this in hopes of reducing the law suit and keeping the FCC off of their backs.

Source

What do you think about this topic?

Blu-Ray pricing insanity

Not too long ago, there was a format war waging in the high-definition realm of home theater junkies. With more and more Hi-Def TV’s being purchased, people are looking to purchase their movies in Hi-Def. When Toshiba threw in the towel on the format war (thanks to Sony’s deep pockets), the prices on HD-DVD players plummeted. What we didn’t foresee was the INCREASE on BR-DVD players. Across the board, they have increased in price by 15%-30%. In fact, the prices have climbed high enough now that for a mere 25 dollars more than the cheapest BR-DVD player out there, you can purchase a Playstation 3, which costs a ridiculous amount of money in its own right. I don’t know about you, but I can stand looking at standard definition DVD’s for as long as it takes Sony to realize that they aren’t going to make that much money off of me for a DVD player. The fact of the matter is that there are very few people who watch movies at home consistently enough and have the right equipment to justify the cost of purchasing a BR player.

What are your thoughts? Do you plan on purchasing one in the near future or are you going to wait for the prices to drop?

Browsers: The New Desktop?

I’ve seen several articles regarding this dispute and I’ve formed my own opinions about the matter.  The debate is whether or not the Desktop has become obsolete and replaced by the Browser.

In the “old days” and even today, many of us use our Desktop as a launch and storage platform.  Some people go berserk with their shortcuts and folders, making the Desktop look unattractive and unmanageable to another human being.  The point being that  you make your desktop your own.  Everyone has their own tastes regarding the choice of background, placement of icons and folders and whether or not you store the majority of your most used software directly in this work space.  Personally, I try to eliminate clutter by getting rid of shortcuts I don’t use much and reducing the amount of folders by storing them categorically in other folders.  My background changes every few days with a myriad of 1680×1050 images so I’m never bored.  I have to ask myself this question though:  How much time do I really spend on my Desktop anymore?

This is the key question really.  I find I’m spending more and more time in the Browser of my choice.  I use Firefox but it’s all about personal preference honestly.  I’ll attempt to get into browser choices at another time.  The browser today has taken over much of our computing time as the primary source of productivity.  Slowly but surely the browser is taking the place of the desktop.  I never realized how much I really do use the browser in relation to how often I use the desktop until today.  More and more applications are being tailored for use with browsers.  Point-in-case being Windows.  If you look closely, even when you open Documents or Computer you’re looking at them through a browser!  The desktop is an entity that goes no further than itself, whereas the browser can be used for most tasks within a computer.  So quietly and slowly as this takeover happened that I find myself wondering when and where it occurred!  There are those out there who consider the infusion of the browser into the core of the operation of your computing a nefarious and sinister thing to happen, but the reality of things is that the browser has actually given us an ease of use that wasn’t present pre-Win95.

What are your thoughts about this?

Suspended Animation: Still Science Fiction?

You read that right. For years we’ve all heard about the essentric rich people who somehow thought their bodies would survive sub-zero temperatures after having things like anti-freeze injected into their veins. We all laughed and it still makes me chuckle knowing that “when you’re dead, you’re dead”. Suspended Animation, however, is another matter altogether. If you’ve ever watched a Sci-Fi flick like Alien, when everyone comes out of a Suspended Animation chamber (essentially after sleeping off a few decades of space travel), there’s a lot of smoke and people yawning like they’ve taken a long nap. In reality, that would never happen. Or so we thought! Massachusetts General Hospital may have changed how people view Sci-Fi now. They were able to introduce Hydrogen Sulfide into lab rats and literally stop their metabolism without causing injury to the bodily functions. Truly amazing and I’m not being facetious. Imagine the implications here. If someone is terminally ill, can they be put into suspended animation until a cure is developed? Think of the possibilities! Obviously, perfecting this process to be maintained longer than 30 minutes could be problematic but the it just shows that the technology is there. This will no doubt take decades to even get to a human testing phase since there are so many variables involved.

Source

DRM

…or Digital Rights Management as it is also called, has been a hallmark of the movie industry to attempt to prevent piracy.  Yet again, they’ve spent millions of dollars on a technology that was “unbreakable” only to have the encryption broken by Slysoft within days of its release.  This is a constant occurrence, yet for some reason the studios seem to think they can outsmart the consumer.

Ever try to have DVD’s around young children?  Just yesterday, my three year old managed to demolish a DVD we had rented from Movie Gallery in Trenton.  When I say demolish, I mean it was broken into three pieces and one of those pieces was shattered.  Thank goodness for the 25 cents we pay for PlayGuard!  The bottom line is that DVD’s get scratched and broken if you use them often or have children around.  No one wants to pay 20-25 dollars per movie only to have that investment destroyed shortly afterward.  That was initially why so many people began making copies of DVD’s.  Things haven’t changed.   Consumers still want to make copies of their movies to prevent the original from being damaged.  The movie studios claim that they only put DRM on the discs to prevent piracy.  Naturally, they’re also trying to make sure that when you damage your disc, you’ll go out and buy another copy as well.  After all, ever consumer out there is a pirate!  With the way that studios look at consumers today, you’d think we’re all wearing eye patches and suffering from scurvy.  If you ask me what I think about this whole thing, I’m totally FOR DRM removal.  If you want to make a backup copy of a product you own, you’re within your rights.  As usual, studios and media outlets go out of their way to punish the people who legitimately purchase their products.

For more info on DRM and Slysoft, check out the links.

P2P? Not in Japan!

This was a bit disturbing since it is almost impossible to differentiate legitimate Peer-to-Peer sharing vs. pirating different forms of media.

If you thought that copyright infringement by peer-to-peer file sharing users was purely a western concern, think again. Japan’s Telecom Service Association and the Telecommunications Carriers Association have joined forces to draft a set of procedures aimed at curbing the country’s growing piracy rate. According to the Daily Yomiuri (don’t worry – it’s in English) the coalition represents around 1,000 providers of domestic broadband making it the biggest anti-piracy gathering in recorded history. The group aims to combat the use of peer-to-peer applications to trade copyright media, and it is thought that just shy of two million people in Japan use the file sharing program Winny to do just that. So far the scheme is the usual story of users being policed by their ISP, receiving sternly-worded warnings if their connection is used for illicit purposes and cutting their connection should the naughtiness persist. File sharers who ignore even this rather extreme step would find their contract terminated, although it isn’t yet clear whether they would be free to sign up with a different ISP should this happen. Interestingly, this isn’t the first time that Japanese ISPs have toyed with the idea of policing the use of file-sharing applications. Around two years ago one of the largest Japanese ISPs introduced an automated system to drop connections that were using the Winny P2P software, but this plan was dropped after the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry warned that the scheme smacked of “snooping”.

– Gareth Halfacree

Story Here

Let’s hope that this kind of a policing doesn’t gain popularity over here. It’s hard to gauge the exact amount of piracy vs. legitimate transfers that occur over P2P networks. Obviously it’s easier on certain networks since the advocate piracy, but other P2P networks are work or education related.

What are your thoughts on policing P2P? Have we not done enough or should we stop strangling innovation? Should better anti-piracy methods be developed so that legitimate users aren’t punished along side of the transgressors?

Changing things around a bit.

We’re going to attempt to breathe some new life into this blog since it stagnated for so long.  Over the next few days expect some changes, including the writing.  We want to not only examine tech news, but add Dade County into the equation as well.  This could prove to be an interesting experiment.

-Jay

Technology and DC

Dade county is a rich county. Not just in terms of wealth but in history and character. You’ll meet some of the most interesting people around if you manage to head that way. There is also a wealth of knowledge nestled away there too. All you have to do it stumble upon it. I am constantly meeting people and learning things I never knew about the natives. One thing I know for certain though is this: Dade county is absolutely in the Dark Ages in regard to technology. Most people are curious about it but there’s not the vested interested in expanding that foray into how it can improve the county beyond talking about it. Now I know that sounds like a blanket statement but it’s not meant to be. There are quite a few people there working hard to integrate the county into future and forward thinking. Our Chamber of Commerce works hard to get businesses to come here and provide “high-tech” jobs and the like. We have several companies who have come here in the past few years that have opened doors for residents here by providing jobs and training that were unavailable in the past. Progress is the watchword when it comes to preparing for the future.Technology is literally the pathway to expanding opportunity in our little part of the state of Georgia. Being that we’re located in the Tri-State area, we’re in the perfect position to make things happen that will have a large effect on how business views our county in the near future when looking for sites to place their offices and plants. There is no shortage of intelligent and highly motivated people here to go around. In that light, the county has been proactive in attempting to get us involved in educational programs that will train people to do technical work. If there’s a pool to draw from locally, businesses will clamor to set up shop here just to make use of local resources. I feel that Shawn and myself have a grasp on how important it is to start looking at this potential explosion of growth with renewed fervor. We’ve talked about it on numerous occasions and over and over we state the need to draw attention to pushing for more high-tech industry to be coaxed into building their facilities in Dade County.

You have to start somewhere, so let’s start with our school system. Dade has some bragging rights when it comes to education. One of the reasons my wife insisted we move back to Dade after my stint in the Army wasn’t just because of family. It was due to the school system. Obviously, it’s not perfect. You’ll rarely find a publicly funded service that is. We teach our kids fundamentals in technology related areas, such as typing but what we need to do is go a few steps further. I believe a few years back, either we or some other high school was offering Cisco certifications to these kids before they even graduated. Many of you may not understand the complexity of such a thing. A Cisco cert is by no means an easy feat. It can guarantee you high salaries with an IT department in large organizations, including local or state governments. To have this offered to high school students shows a commitment to going beyond the call of educational duties and preparing our youth to go to a higher education campus better prepared than even a ninety percent of the kids who enter into IT related studies. Not to mention the fact that getting a Cisco cert can range from 500-3000 dollars per head depending on the training facility and materials used.

That’s just the tip of the ice berg though. There are many other certifications out there that specialize in certain areas of the IT field that we could offer training on. Imagine preparing a small legion of “tech heads” who graduate high school and then a few years later re-enter the work force in Dade County having all of that experience. We have the potential to be a hot bed of technology related workers and innovators. Look at Shawn and myself if you want examples. We were the self-starters. We had no formal education on how to properly do things. I can’t count how many circuit boards I ended up shorting out before I began to catch on. That’s how it was back in the 80’s and early 90’s. There was very little offered in the way of IT education. Us “old hands” know what we do from trial and error. How much more effective will that freshman in high school be when he gets more formal tech education on top of what he’s already learning? Did you know that most top tier jobs are not being outsourced in a way to those who immigrate from India and Asia? They promote high tech education whereas we’re falling behind the curve.

We need to offer several different specialty fields of education as well. Not just networking, but also programming and hardware. Having our kids well rounded in their IT knowledge will guarantee superiority when compared to their peers elsewhere.

The MacBook Air

Apple is known for being fairly innovative in their ability to introduce products into the market place that are stylish and functional. The new MacBook Air is another one of these very stylish products just released that is trying to gain market share among professionals who have to carry a notebook computer around with them on a consistent basis. Most of you who have used a portable computer in the past understand that they can be heavy and unwieldy, especially if you have to lug it around with you everywhere you go. It feels like you’re carrying a dead weight when you combine all of the different accessories you need to make a portable computer truly functional.

This new iteration of the Apple notebook, while pleasant to the eye and light to the touch gives up a few options to make it more portable than the standard notebook. Notably missing is the optical drive. While some people rarely use the optical drive in their notebook, it becomes a life saver when you need to install a program or burn files to a disc for someone. Not to mention that people who travel with a notebook often find themselves using the optical drive to watch their DVD’s for entertainment.

As you may well know or have experienced, any negative critique of an Apple product draws the fanboys out of the shadows like flies on a bag of week-old trash. Such will probably be the case here as it has been in other places. In a moment I’ll go over the lack of the optical drive, but I thought I’d show you this picture which, while being funny, also brings to light the lack of critical business features while sporting the typical hefty price tag you’d expect from Apple.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s continue!

The MacBook Air comes with a piece of software that is supposed to allow you to mitigate the lack of an optical drive by using Remote Device.  This software package lets the MacBook Air talk to any Mac or PC with a shared optical drive so that you can install from or burn to a CD/DVD.  Herein also lies the problem.  This notebook is marketed to the young, hip professional who will no doubt be showing off their new accessory as a newly engaged woman would flash her opulent diamond ring.  While the flash and glitz makes for a beautiful piece of equipment it doesn’t make up for the lack of the optical drive.  You would think that something this well built wouldn’t have to rely on a piece of software to make wireless connections to a nearby computer containing an optical drive just to use and optical drive.  Some have said “take along an external drive if it bothers you that much”, but that’s just the point.  This notebook is highly portable according to Apple, so would you want to reduce the portability by lugging an external drive and it’s necessary components in your handbag or backpack, therefore adding three to four times the extra weight of a notebook drive?  What kind of portability is that?  No, YOU dear sir, are expected to link up with another Mac or PC to make use of an optical drive.  What are you supposed to do?  Apple is apparently suggesting that you walk up to a random laptop user on the street and ask to log into their machine in order to use their battery power to burn or install.

I’m guessing that the next step in Apple innovation regarding power savings and portability will be to develop Remote View to go with your Remote Device.  With Remote View, you will no longer need the aggravation of having an LCD screen.  No, you’re a trendy, hip professional who knows that saving weight by reducing the battery size and eliminating the screen is a great way to save time since the load won’t be so heavy.  You’ll finally make it to all of your meetings on time!  All you need to do is find a Mac or PC in the area to remotely link up to so that you can see what you’re doing.  Sure it’s inconvenient, but it saves power and weight, therefore making your life easier.  The price will go up accordingly for making your life so much easier of course.  I’m thinking 2200 dollars since you’ll be able to cut the battery size in half thanks to the lack of a screen.