Category Archives: General

As the joke goes, on the Internet nobody knows you’re a dog. But although anonymity has been part of Internet culture since the first browser, it’s also a major obstacle to making the Web a safe place to conduct business: Internet fraud and identity theft cost consumers and merchants several billion dollars last year. And many of the other more troubling aspects of the Internet, from spam emails to sexual predators, also have their roots in the ease of masking one’s identity in the online world.

Change, however, is on the way. Already over 20 million PCs worldwide are equipped with a tiny security chip called the Trusted Platform Module, although it is as yet rarely activated. But once merchants and other online services begin to use it, the TPM will do something never before seen on the Internet: provide virtually fool-proof verification that you are who you say you are.

There are some definite benefits to keeping track of users: online transactions and cracking down on cyber crime come to mind. However, one of the attractions of the ‘net has always been the anonymity associated with it. Even is discussion forums, chat rooms and instant messaging, we have anonymous identifiers like “cyber guy” or “user456.”

If these TMP chips are such a good idea, how come we’re only hearing about them now? Which of the computers out there have this chip? It sounds like they’re assuming that the chips can’t be modified; recent experience with the XBox would indicate otherwise. What about a crime committed by one user, on another’s computer? I think we’re opening Pandora’s box here and things may get kind of muddy for a while.

From MSNBC.

Kaya is ravishing. She has full lips, long lashes, and a slightly upturned nose. Her expression radiates confidence and power, and her smooth skin is well scrubbed and dotted with freckles. But she doesn’t have much of a body. At all. In fact, she exists only from the neck up. Kaya is a CG model, a 48,200-polygon beauty created by an artist in São Paulo, Brazil. And she’s sure to be a finalist in the Miss Digital World beauty pageant.

The man behind the event is Franz Cerami, an Italian promoter who’s trying to start the world’s first CG talent agency. His dream is to manage a bevy of virtual beauties, posing and costuming them for pinup calendars, videogames, ads, and movies. The benefits of digital models are obvious – they never age, never have bad hair days, and can be on location in Tokyo, Paris, and Hollywood simultaneously.

But there are downsides. For example, all of the talent that Cerami first auditioned looked creepy and waxen. CG artists call this the “uncanny valley,” the point at which a near-human model looks so real that every flaw and shortcoming is thrown into high relief.

So Miss Digital is a completely virtual model. Hair and makeup are always perfect. Easy to manage, and can’t be involved in any scandals that damage a career. In short, very easy to work with. Best of all, she can’t ask for a raise. I think she’ll have a prolific career ahead, and may get into movies down the road.

The model pictured is known as “Webbie.” See the other finalists and the Wired story here.

In a sprawling exhibit at the conference in a Washington hotel Monday, the group displayed 50 prototypes and early-stage products — from a robotic assistant called “Nursebot” to an interactive, Web-enabled medicine cabinet.

Some of the technology is expensive. It costs about $4,500 to outfit a home with wireless sensors in one Intel project: A personal computer and the Internet are used to allow doctors and relatives to check on a range of activities by a senior living alone. It tracks such things as whether medications have been taken to how many steps the person has walked since waking up, said Eric Dishman, chair of the Center for Aging Services Technology.

Prices should come down significantly in the future, he said, and those costs would be weighed against the sky-high price of medical care

Now, I’ve heard of a nursing shortage, but a nursebot? Our society definitely accepts robots on an assembly line, but to care for our loved ones? I’m not so sure about this.

Read some more here.

It isn’t easy to keep up with all my RSS feeds. If I go on vacation when I come back I have a virtual bible to read through. With all the content to keep up with it’s hard to go through my RSS feeds in a convenient manner. Luckily there is the rsstroom reader. It prints out, on toilet paper, my rss feeds for the day. Goodbye bathroom books and magazines, when I’m on the pot I’ll be surfing the Internet. Best of all, it’s environmentally friendly, all the paper gets, well…. used.

802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, Pre-N, 802.11n, MIMO, WiMAX, 802.16, 802.11i, IEEE, etc.

what do all of these numbers really mean? What do they stand for? If you’ve seen them before then you know that they all pertain to wireless networking, but that’s about it. Check out what InformationWeek.com says about the wireless jargon. In 10 minutes you’ll be jumbling wireless 802’s and acronyms like a real pro.

When Apple introduced the iPod Nano, the Mini was cut from the product line up. With the slim Nano came a flash based, color screened player with better battery life. Nanos flew off the shelf, and the Mini was a “has been.”

However, the Mini is having a second surge of popuarity. Devotees like the colored player, even if it has a black and white screen. Also the 6 GB Mini has 50% more capacity than the larger Nano.

What is Jobs to do? Look at the trend and build accordingly. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an 8 GB player available in colors to be introduced soon. Not everyone wants to step up to the 30 GB iPod.

See more here.

Update: I found this hack that uses a Seagate 8 GB MicroDrive to upgrade an iPod Mini.

There is now a solution for ipod mini-users. Seagate Technology has just released a large compact-flash type II+ hard drive called the CompactFlash Photo Hard Drive. Just as many once purchased a mini in order to remove the hard drive for digital photo applications, now you can buy a photo drive and use it to expand your mini’s storage. This works because the drive is formatted to the same ‘Fat 32’ standard that digital cameras and iPod minis use. Of course, you will have to tear open your ipod mini, much the way you would to replace the battery, but once you are in there, its simply a matter of unwrapping some tape and delicately removing a connector to the Hitachi 4GB drive, and replacing it with the Seagate 8GB Photo Hard Drive.

CNN is looking at the “10 Best Web Moments.”

These are Spark’s picks as the top 10 moments in the World Wide Web’s short but impressive life. Vote for the one you think is the most significant:

10. WiFi hotspots — wireless Internet connectivity appears in airports, hotels and even McDonald’s.

9. Webcams and photo sharing — communication becomes visual, and inboxes fill with baby photos.

8. Skype — telephony turns upside down with free long-distance calls, Ebay snaps it up in September 2005 for $2.6 billion.

7. Live 8 on AOL — five million people watch poverty awareness concerts online in July 2005, setting a new Net record.

6. Napster goes offline — Regulators close the pioneering music swap site in July 2001 and file-sharing goes offshore.

5. Lewinsky scandal — Matt Drudge breaks the Clinton/Lewinsky sex scandal in 1998. The blog is born.

4. Tsunami and 9/11 — two tragic events set the Web alight with opinion and amateur video.

3. Boom and bust — trillions of dollars were made and lost as the dotcom bubble ballooned and burst between 1995 and 2001.

2. Hotmail — went from having zero users in 1995 to 30 million subscribers 30 months later. It now has 215 million users.

1. Google — redefined search. Invented a new advertising model and commands a vast business empire.

I’m not sure I really think of Hotmail, or Google as a moment, but count me in for Google. The online search engine brought order to the 5 billion web pages out there- and growing. I would have put down Napster for online, rather than when it was shut down. At the very least, Napster showed the power of peer-to-peer networking for information exchange. You can vote for your favorite too!

An Orange County school district’s efforts to integrate technology into students’ lives by urging families to purchase laptop computers is creating a furor among parents who say the pricey obligation is segregating their children into the haves and have-nots.

Nearly 2,000 of the Fullerton School District’s 13,000 elementary and middle-school students carry laptops between class and home as part of a year-old pilot program that expanded this year to four of the district’s 20 schools. It is one of the largest such efforts in the state.

But some parents, already bristling at the tab of public education — from classroom supplies to sports uniforms — are incensed by the need for $1,500 laptop computers.

“That’s not pocket change for anybody,” said Tina Maldonado, a stay-at-home mother with two children attending Rolling Hills Elementary School. “We could buy the computers, but I don’t think we should have to. A public school education is supposed to be free.”

Required laptops first appeared at universities, then filtered down to private schools in the 1990s. Over the last decade, such mandates have emerged at public schools nationwide, sometimes with school districts or state governments picking up the tab. Because California and many of its school districts can’t afford to furnish laptops, the requirement is rare in the state.

Efforts similar to Fullerton’s in recent years have raised similar objections. Del Mar, for instance, nixed its laptop program because of resistance from parents over the cost.

The American Civil Liberties Union said this month that it’s considering filing a lawsuit against the Fullerton School District, arguing that it is violating the state’s constitutional guarantee to provide a free education, and is creating a two-tiered learning environment.

With the number of under $1000 notebooks out there, and even at $500, the $1500 price tag does apear to be rather over priced. After all, it’s going to be out of date every 4 or 5 years. That means that for a child in the 1st grade, they could end up going through 4 laptops for their education, including their college studies. And this assumes that it is not stolen, or doused from a juice box. I can see the parents side here, but on the other hand we need to equip our youth with the tools to function in our society. I think the only solution is more inexpensive computers. How come 3rd world countries can get a computer for $100?
From the L.A. Times.

We all love WiFi networking (look for an upcoming review of some wireless hardware). It has allowed us to use our notebook, and even our handhelds on the internet without being connected with a wire. But the real weakness of WiFi has been range. A few hundred feet away from even a really good router, and the signal is weak which means slow speeds, and dropped connections.

The next generation of wireless networking is addressing the range issue in a big way. We’re talking miles here of broadband thoroughput. This is the latest 802.16e, or WiMax standard, just approved by those excellent engineers over at the IEEE. This could give traditional broadband, provided by cable and phone companies, quite a run for their money. And offerings like Cingular Edge, with their high prices, will fade away.

The catch? You won’t see any of the products until late 2007, or more likely 2008. In my opinion, unlike a lot of other overhyped technologies, this one will be worth the wait.
From Popular Technology.

Increasing broadband at home and restrictive internet usage policies at work haven’t made a discernable dent this holiday season in employees’ penchant for shopping online while at work.

Last week marked the unofficial start of the online holiday buying season for many retailers, with traffic to retail sites up approximately 9 percent from last year, according to tracking firm Hitwise. More than half of weekday traffic since the Monday after Thanksgiving, according to measurement firm Nielsen/NetRatings, has come from workplace internet users.

“It’s as strong as ever,” said NetRatings retail analyst Heather Dougherty. “Once they get over the Thanksgiving hump, they’re ready to do their holiday shopping. Monday, they can’t help but keep it going, even if they’re at work.”

Companies are growing more accepting of the idea that workers will fritter away part of the workday shopping online, according to purveyors of employee internet-monitoring tools. Most employers engage in some sort of monitoring of workplace internet access. But rather than block all shopping sites, employers preoccupied with productivity are more apt to set time limits on access.

“At one time, they were more adamant about not having anyone do any browsing or personal activity over the workday,” said Susan Larson, vice president of threat analysis and research at SurfControl, a developer of monitoring applications. “Now there’s a realization that there should be more of a work-life balance.”

Why do I think we all don’t work for such enlightened employers?

From Wired.

If you were paying attention a few days ago, Yahoo! recently combined SMS with RSS to bring updates of favorite websites to your mobile device on a text message. I set up the service myself, to find that the execution was a bit rough around the edges. It is in Beta right now, which is industry lingo for “it still may suck, but we’re working on it”.

After posting the Yahoo! news, I received a comment from the developer of ZapTXT. These guys do the same thing Yahoo! did, only better. SMS + RSS is ZapTXT’s only game, whereas Yahoo! is trying to play defense, offense, special teams, cheerlead, mascot, and commentator.

My issues with Yahoo!’s new alert system was lack of information. I would receive a text message from a generic Yahoo! address. The body of the message contained only 120 characters of text. I had no idea which website was updated. I was simply informed that one of my registered RSS enabled websites were updated, and given the first 120 characters.

Yahoo!, this is useless. I registered more than 20 blogs and websites in that Yahoo! alert account. Each time I get a message, I have to surf each website to see which is the one that sent me the feed.

That problem is eliminated with ZapTXT. You are given 7 characters to name each of your feeds! Not only that, you can turn off late night messages, so that the 4am blogger doesn’t wake you up when posting to his “what I do at night when everyone sleeps” blog.

I admit it, I have since disabled my Yahoo! feeds and set up an account with ZapTXT for my RSS + SMS needs. You can also have the feeds emailed to you, but that’s just not as sexy as SMS, am I wrong?