Video : Data Waste and Government Control of the Internet
Posted by: David
The video discusses my thoughts on data waste. Basically duplicate data being transmitted and stored in locations more than once. I also cover my thoughts on how this can and probably will lead into a centralized government database for personal information. The video is fairly generalized and may be hard to understand if you aren't familiar with some IT concepts, however you will understand the idea I am portraying without it.
Foursquare and Facebook : Why you should develop apps for facebook
Posted by: David
Facebook is now offering a check-in service similar to Foursquare
Facebook started offering a similar service to that of Foursquare today. If you are not familiar, Foursquare uses your location and allows you to "check-in" at places in order to share them through social media.
Foursquare was catching on like wildfire. It was developed nicely, is sharp and smart at the same time. However, Foursquare will now start to rethink business strategy as Facebook has started offering its check-in service.
The real problem is Foursquare's inability to plan for this day. They make an application that can easily be replicated, specially with a company with the resources like Facebook. While Foursquare was unique and innovative yesterday, it is just another social networking tool that Facebook decided it could do better.
This is the reason you shouldn't develop applications for social networking. IF YOU DEVELOP APPS FOR SOCIAL NETWORKING, THE NETWORKING SITE CAN DO IT TOO. Just because you wrote some nice code that is unique when you publish it, doesn't mean that companies like Facebook and Twitter with tons of resources can't emulate it within a few weeks (or less).
Strangely, it appears as if social networking games might be the safest bet for developing on social networking sites. The difference here is that people get attached to their game. Take Farmville and Mafia Wars for example, the both encourage hours of gameplay to make progress and require interaction with friends to advance in the game at certain points. People will be less willing to give up the hours they have spent on a game where they feel like they have earned something, as opposed to using an application that just shares information such as Foursquare.
It doesn't look good for Foursquare, but they may yet stand a chance. Badges that users could gain from Foursquare might retain some of their users. Otherwise, it looks like Foursquare should try to cash in right now, unless they have a card up their sleeve, or an ace in the hole. It might just be time for Foursquare to check-out.
Is my vision of the WebTV of the future here already?
Posted by: David
A new device called MetaMirror could be the future of WebTV
I posted about my future for WebTV being qoute
- Be connected with the web - obviously
- Be integrated with the web, allow controls via a web interface
- Not interrupt your TV shows to use the web
- Allow you to search the web for things you see, or are related to what you see on the screen
This seems to be almost exactly what MetaMirror is going to try to accomplish.
MetaMirror describes its software :
The product is a software platform which runs on a secondary device of the users choice, displaying this contextual content over a mirror of the television broadcast. By bringing together live television, real-time contextual information and an intuitive user interface, Meta Mirror is positioned to update television from uni-directional broadcast to two-way interaction.
While the software will obviously face challenges now, it is clearly going to be the wave of the future for WebTV, MetaMirror is only getting the quick jump they needed to.
Images and qoutes courtesy of http://www.core77.com/blog/technology/metamirror_notions_vision_for_the_near_future_of_tv__17118.asp
When to pull out of dying technology?
Posted by: David
When is it appropriate to give up on a technology that is still being used?
The answer obviously can vary, but it is important to choose a certain way to look at things in this situation. For this writing I will consider looking at when to stop dealing with a technology from the consumer standpoint. It is pretty simple for Company's to decide to change their technology (Not enough ROI? Ok, lets do something else).
What is there that will replace what you have?
You don't necessarily need to be an early adopter to recognize a new technology that will surely catch fire. Pay attention to websites that pride themselves on being the first on addressing new technology. (Gizmodo and Engadget are fairly adept at this). You will never be certain what technology will catch fire next and become the new standard, but being aware of it could certainly help. Staying up to date with the latest in technology news will allow to be aware of any new ways of doing what you currently do.
Ok, so you've seen something that can replace something you already own in the future - how do you know when to quit investing in your current setup and move into the newest technology. Here are a few keys to consider.
- Make sure the new thing offers considerable benefits - there is no reason to move horizontally with your technology
- Make sure the new thing will work as intended - you don't want to invest in a new technology that isn't polished enough to work to where it does the functions it was intended to.
- Make sure the new thing will become a standard - ever bought an HD DVD player? If you have I bet you feel rather foolish.
There is no way to tell if a new technology will catch on and last for a while, because newer technology is already being worked on to replace it. Let's take an example.
Example: Blu-ray media
Blu-ray media offers the ability to offer High Def movies in a physical format. Many, but not all people will consider HD quality a substantial benefit, and it also has already proven to work as intended, and also it has beaten out HD DVD to become the standard high capacity portable disc media for movies. So, why would we consider dumping blu-ray already? I mean I just bought my first PS3 last year, I can't afford to buy more equipment to watch my movies!
Well, there are already efforts to develop more advanced lasers to store more media on a disc than even a blu-ray. These new media discs could possibly contain an entire collection of movies in HD. Well, if that is the case you would probably be tempted to go ahead and buy this new laser disc reader/player as soon as possible right? Well, no. You should definitely wait until that technology becomes a standard for the industry.
Things are different in today's world though. You don't have to choose between CD, or cassette. Now you can choose to listen to your music in a variety of ways digitally, and we are just stepping into the world of streaming movies. While this isn't directly in line with the past progression of technology of playing movies (VHS->DVD->Blu-ray on physical media), it takes a step to the side and will start a new progression of technology.
Part of knowing when to quit using a technology is to know when it is becoming obsolete. Blu-ray is by no means obsolete yet, but very well could become replaced by most homes with streaming movies soon. With such improved bandwidth availability to most homes, it will become easier and easier to view your movies using a completely different technology.
Personally, I think in 3 years most people will be watching HD quality movies through streaming services such as Netflix. Blu-ray will still be a great choice for watching movies on the go, such as our current portable DVD players. As cell phone coverage and capability increases though and data becomes more available wirelessly there will be less and less a need for physical media. Eventually we will all be able to watch our movie collection from anywhere in the world.
The WebTV of the future
Posted by: David
GoogleTV is going to be cool, but what should WebTV be?
What WebTV should do:
- Be connected with the web - obviously
- Be integrated with the web, allow controls via a web interface
- Not interrupt your TV shows to use the web
- Allow you to search the web for things you see, or are related to what you see on the screen
How can WebTV offer everything?
A great idea would be to introduce touch screen tablets, probably based on an android platform that would allow you to sync your tv broadcast to your tablet. The tablet would have all of the controls for the WebTV, and unless you asked for your tablet to show the interface on the TV, the user interface would only show on the tablet. Want to watch a video from the web? Search for it using your tablet, while your show is still playing in the background, and then select that web video to play, and then choose the control to show your tablet on the television (with full HD/3D support of course).
The closest thing we have to a device that I am describing right now is probably the iPad.
Imagine using your iPad to control your TV. That is the future of WebTV.
Your touch tablet is your remote control for your TV. It is also your web portal, without interupting your TV show, but if you want, you can view something on your tablet on your TV.
Great, now you can view your shows on either your TV or tablet. Search on the web with either your tablet or TV without interrupting one or the other, but what about searching for images that you select on the screen?
A solution for this would be to possibly take a screenshot, and have it cropped to a certain size around the area you touched and have that submitted to the growing image searches. This technology could also search the images you submit for possible keywords that you might also be considering searching when you search by touching the screen. Say you were to touch search an actors face weapon in your favorite action movie. When that image gets submitted to the image search engine, it could also suggest keywords based on the image that you could also search, such as weapon, war, gun, 9mm, etc.
Integrating further with the signal the TV receives, or a cable box the search could also give you details about the show as it plays. Think of pop up video, but with your TV show - every TV show, only if you want.
Some other added benefits of using a tablet for your remote and WebTV experience:
- Easier to use than an old fashioned remote when using the web
- Offers a very familiar interface, your WebTV is just an app on your tablet that syncs with your TV
- Doesn't have to be integrated into the TV components - just get a projection box that works with your tablet app
- It wouldn't be something you would have to deal with. If you just want to watch TV, just watch TV, you don't need to worry about the web
- Easily upgradable. Since it is just software based on your tablet, it shouldn't be hard to save your settings to a new tablet, or just update the software.
- Most importantly, if it was just a piece of software on an android tablet, you could possibly customize your interface and even be offered 3rd party apps that you can use for WebTV!
The future... sounds pretty sweet.
Network Security with new technologies could endanger more than just data
Posted by: David
Secure technologies can save, and make lives easier - but what happens when a hacker takes control of this technology?
If a hacker were determined enough (as many are) they could find a way to take control of just about any device. What is to stop a hacker from taking control of your car with OnStar? Instead of just hacking the OnStar database and taking your information, they could hack the controls with OnStar and take your life.
You like that feature where OnStar can unlock your car? It is pretty convenient when you lock yourself out. It has helped a lot of people. However, if someone were to have the ability to control and view all of the information about your car without your permission they could not only find your car, with its GPS, but unlock the doors, start the engine and disable the OnStar abilities.
Even worse, if you were someone important and your death is of value to someone, say another country, another gang or just your sworn enemy, they could gain control of your car and manipulate it while you are driving it. It would be really inconvenient if your engine suddenly shut off when you were heading toward then turn that rides along the cliff's edge.
It's not just cars, and it isn't just now
Cars are just one of the possible technologies that can be exploited and made dangerous. It seems too obvious, and it has been done before in movies, but Robots could possibly be hacked too. It might not be reasonable to do now, but what about when we get a robot in every home? Why hire a hitman when you could just hire a hacker to take over someone's robot.and kill them in their sleep.
Another possibility would be your home. The smart grid is coming, and you are starting to gather more controls with your house. A hacker could conceivably take control of your house from the internet and take control of your utilities. I know it doesn't sound dangerous but think about your gas oven, or gas furnace or water heater. If a hacker was to kill your pilot light on your furnace and turn on all of your gas appliances, thus filling your house with gas they could flip the pilot light on and destroy your house in a fiery explosion.
The technology is advancing, but just with crime the hackers or criminals seem to always be one step ahead of those in who prevent security issues. If it wasn't for these criminals we probably wouldn't find some security issues. However as these technologies start gaining more and more power in our lives, the more power these hackers can have. For now you have just hackers stealing your information, but in the future, or even now, a hacker could take your life.
GoToMeeting thoughts
Posted by: David
Why use go to meeting?
- Cut your costs. No longer do you need to go out and do training, or invite people to your buildings to train them on your software. Simply host a webinar and invite all of the attendees to watch and listen from their comfort. No more travel fees! Sometimes you can't avoid travel, but there isn't much a great power point couldn't help with.
- Remote tools. If you need to support some helpless person who you have more trouble than ever with in giving remote assistance, gotomeeting is really simple. You don't need their IP, or hostname, just make sure they can read their e-mail, and send them an e-mail invitation. Change the presenter to them so you can see their screen and request control of their machine to start working on it.
- Simple. Even some of your more simple minded employees or customers can figure out how to use it. If they can't figure it out the first time, the help and manual for gotomeeting provides a great resource tool to get it. If you don't get gotomeeting, you don't get much. Sorry.
Some problems
- When things go wrong, they really go wrong. Hosting a webinar? Easy enough right? Well, not if you change the conference phone number without alerting half of your attendees. Make sure you keep all stakeholders informed on what is going on when you are hosting webinars, specially if they are more important than most.
- Requires a software download. The hardest part about getting a helpless remote user help is walking them through the install. If someone is completely helpless, then you know how hard it can be to walk them through installing something. This can be a bear, but if you are dealing with someone who knows how to use their computer, it should only take a minute or two (depending on connection).
- Chaotic. Get 70 people on your webinar with a teleconference. You sure are saving a lot of money, but you know how people can be. They refuse to mute their phone and you can hear them talking in the background. You can mute them from your gotomeeting, but whenever someone joins you need to keep reminding them or mute everyone. At time it can definetly be inconvenient.
Overall Thoughts
Gotomeeting is good software. It was excellent software to organize your web meeting, and with the use of a conference line can get confusing at time, but offers power that you use to only dream about. It cuts your travel costs a ton. Move that money in your budget to give you employees new monitors and ergonomic keyboards so they can be more comfortable working.
As long as you keep everyone informed, and are willing to help people who aren't familiar with computer gotomeeting can be very helpful. It is when you start having issues that things can get very bad very fast. Chaotic was a good word for it. Once things get bed they tend to stay bad for a while. Things get disorganized quickly. Game plan before you start, and be prepared for anything. If you are prepared, gotomeeting can be a great asset, otherwise it can be a complete hassle.
Before you start using gotomeeting corporate wide, make sure you have people who are familiar with using the software to be able to give some support. You should do this with all software really. However with something as important as web meetings with Chief Officers, it is particularly important you have someone on staff who knows how to lend a hand if something were to go wrong.
How to use 404 errors to make a URL shortener
Posted by: David
404 errors can be used for more than appologies
A project I created and implemented about 6 months ago was a simple URL shortener. I didn't go looking on how to make a URL shortener, I thought of this on my own, and while others might have done this before I was able to create and master this system.
How you can do it
- Make sure you know a little about PHP and MySQL, these two things are crucial.
- First, design a database that can hold a list of url's that people will enter, and also give each one an id. In the most simplistic setup you should only one table in your database with this information.
- Now, set up your site to allow a custom PHP page for the 404 error page.
- Write the PHP for your 404 page to get only the filename, or the part after the last forwardslash / on the url, for example it would be "touoik" if the URL someone entered was http://www.fake.foo/bar/touoik.
- Now after you can put the file name into a string variable, use this to search your database for the id of the url. Since this should be set up as a auto incrementing primary key you will be having numbers as the file name, and they should correlate with the id of a certain URL. Return a URL, or error with your query, then use some HTML to forward to the URL your query returned.
- The last bit is to create a form that will allow people to enter their URL to submit it to the database. The best thing to do with this form is to make sure that it delivers you a valid URL. Google some ways to find valid URLs with PHP.
It's that simple, but you can do so much more
Some simple ideas that I used in my URL shortener I made with 404.
- Limit an IP address to only making a certain number of short URLs a day. Do this by adding another column to your URL table in the database and editing your 404 query to check the count for a particular day.
- Another option I gave users was the ability to enable a preview of the URL someone was being forwarded to. To do this I added a bit of code when someone submitted a URL to check for the title of the webpage that the URL was for, then stored that in the URL database. Then on the 404 page I set up a check for the query to see if it was enabled for previews, if so I would put a delay in the HTML forward and display the page URL and give the person viewing the 404 the option to go back.
- Click tracking was another feature that I had enabled. For this I created another database table with the short URL primary ID as the foreign key and set up columns for the click ID as the primary key and the date clicked, and IP from as the unique attributes for the click. This was a little more complex but I added another section onto the site that allowed someone to input the short URL, or file name and they could see the history of the short URL click.
- Private and secure forwarding was provided by setting up the 404 page to check to see if passwords were enabled for the short URL. If so, I would have the 404 site show a form to submit the password. When submitted it would check for the password and URL ID. If both matched, you would be forwarded. I also set up the click history section to allow someone to make their URL history private.
- Limited redundant URLs to save space in the database. I used the submit form to check the database to see if a public short version of this URL already existed and if so I just gave that person the same short URL that was already in the database without creating another entry.
- Created lots more entries by using a higher base counting system and converted the URL ID's into these higher base numbers to provide shorter short URLs. For example, 10 would be "A" and 11 would be "B", which is similar to other base systems, but I used a base system that extended all the way to using all digits and capital and lower case letters.
Apple is separating itself from tech industry
Posted by: David
The image of Apple is changing
10 years ago if you heard apple you thought "Oh sweet, I played Oregon Trail on one - heh, remember that game?". Now you can't go anywhere without seeing someone whip out their Apple iPhone or talk about some sweet app that they get on their iPhone. The point is that Apple used to be an afterthought with most people, now it is making itself much larger and bringing itself to the forefront of technology.
This change hasn't necessarily been welcome by some of the technology field, despite the fact that most people would have loved for someone to rival Microsoft. Even though Microsoft has been a "Monopoly" of the industry at times, I think that Apple could really try to become a bully after gaining more share in the market.
How is Apple separating itself?
Apple is separating itself from technology industries by being too much like a strict government on it's citizens. In this case the government is Apple, and the citizens of Apple are the developers and users, much like businesses and individuals. If you choose to live in Apple, aka buy one of their products, then you are subject to how they want their device to operate despite what your needs or wants may be. This isn't new, but Apple is taking this kind of control onto another level. Not even Microsoft is as stingy as Apple is being.
Here is a look at a few examples of how Apple is being more stingy than Microsoft and limiting what people can do on its phone.
- Locked with ATT - For now, the iPhone and other 3G models are locked with ATT in America. Apple only has one phone line, so unlike other companies that lock their phones down to a particular carrier they create other models that can be sold across carries. Apple, not so much.
- Developer Hell - Apple gets the final say on what apps can go into the app store, and thus decides what you can and can not have. The worst part is that there have been several instances where apps have been rejected from approval because of very little, or seemingly no reason. Also, apps have been taken off of the app store once they have been added, without even notifying the developers but a day before hand. To get the removed apps added again they have to be modified and subjected to the approval method all over.
- Flash - Apple won't have flash on it's iPhone or other similar devices because it thinks that HTML5 can do just the same thing, but with less battery being used. Because of this, you don't even get an option to use flash on your iPhone, you are stuck on waiting for people to develop on HTML5 instead of Flash. The sad part about this is I think this issue will actually cause a larger than expected increase in HTML5 design as opposed to Flash. Apple will change the web development game by not allowing someone to use Flash, and people don't want to miss out on the iPhone market so they will either develop in HTML5, develop in HTML5 and Flash, or miss out on the market.
Ending opinions
Apple could be heading down a road that will lead to more control over your wants than even Microsoft has now. Apple seems to have a mind of it's own and isn't always willing to do what the public wants. The key to Apple is that they make great products. If the iPhone wasn't great it couldn't survive all these little annoyances like Flash, limited developing and only being offered on one carrier. Now, as long as Apple makes the best products in an industry they will probably be able to say whatever they want.
Maybe Apple is just giving everyone a dose of their own medicine. Maybe they are just getting back at developers for never having developed on their computers because they chose not too, and now they just love telling developers that they can't, despite wanting too.
Apple is starting to become an elitist company that is trying to put off a young and hip image. These two things will clash at one point, but will people even care? It is hard to tell, most probably won't even notice, but for the rest of us - it gives you something to think about.
How the smart grid can save you money!
Posted by: David
What is the smart grid?
The smart grid is currently a concept that is being developed in order to be placed into the electrical (and other) grids to better monitor and control resources.
How will it work?
We are not yet certain, but to break it down into slow mode for you I have a scenario.
- A person is using $300 worth of electricity every month
- The smart grid technology can be installed, and now the usage can be monitored
- Now that person who is spending $300 a month on electricity sees exactly where that money is coming from
- Once you see what devices are costing you the most money, you can more easily manage your power with those devices
- Better yet, you could possibly program your home through the smart grid to help control your usages. This is very similar to parental controls you might put on a child's computer to keep them from using it at certain periods of the day or for certain lengths. Although it wont turn your device off while you are using it or stop you from using it if you want to, it will help manage costs by putting devices into a lower power state or just turning them off when not being used.
- Your smart grid can be connected to the internet, and you can compare your usages to other peoples. You can see comments about certain types of usages and even get personalized information on how to improve your usage.
How exactly does it save you money?
- Your devices won't be using as much electricity since you can program your house to turn off devices when they are not being used.
- You can set up your house to only use what you need if you start approaching your budget limit for utilities. If you are already at your budget, you could tell your house to conserve as much electricity as possible and not allow any usage except for what you deem to be essential.
- The networking aspects will give you better ideas on how to manage your utilities. Communicating with other people will help provide you with better ideas on how to help save money in your own home. You could perhaps even download and use someone else's utility program that they designed for themselves if you thought it could help you and they decided to share their program.
- Also, the network ability will allow for the personalize tips and ideas to get you moving in the right track for cutting your costs. If it looks like your heating costs are worse than last month but the temperature hasn't gotten any colder then perhaps you need to make sure you keep the doors and windows shut better, as well as check the seals around the house for any leaks.
Don't be afraid of the smart grid
Obviously there will be a very Big Brother feel from this system whenever it is introduced but it is definitely in the best interest of everyone, and the planet! If you think it is a security risk that someone could get your grid data then you are right, but beyond maybe a locked privacy fence what is stopping people from coming up and reading your meter now, or hacking into the utility databases? The same work would have to be done whenever the smart grid is released. Just because almost all of the information is going digital doesn't mean it is much easier to get. A hacker will still have to hack the database of a utility company or personally come read your meters. I don't expect people to start trying to steal this information anymore, because there doesn't seem to be much of a need for it anyway. If there was much of a need for it now there would be more people snooping through my back yard trying to read my meters.