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SCI/TECH ARCHIVES -- JULY - AUGUST 2010
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AUGUST 2, 2010 -- AUGUST 31, 2010 REPORTS OF THE DEATH OF THE WEB GREATLY EXAGGERATED?
As the comments on Wired's site point out, Mr. Anderson's comments are somewhat biased and, in the context of this interview, misleading. From the perspective of a media company trying to monetize content (like Wired), the Web may be passe as a business vector; but, for users and searchers of knowledge, the web remains the premier information platform. If I hear of a business or organization and want to know more, I will not "download their app"; I will visit their web site. Read the article NPR/The web is a 'shrinking minority' of internet traffic <> I respectfully disagree. I reject the notion that for one thing to rise, the other must disappear, instead, what we are seeing is the sprouting of new access formats, that for a user, just means new ways to ‘do digital things’. To say that the rise of APPs will kill the web, is akin to proclaiming when the microwave oven was invented that it will replace the oven – the utility is different and hence they co-exist. Isn’t TV still alive and well? Each access medium/format will have its own set of “affordances” to which specific purposes and functions can be manifested. Humans are able to experience their digital lives in many forms, and we demand different utilities depending on what we are hoping to achieve, and hence the co-existence of different utilities that serve us differently. It’s an eco-system, not a page to be turned each time something new comes into it. With very new access format, we’ll only see the rest of the eco-system adjust accordingly. As our industry matures, we really need to stop making these grand zero sum game proclamations and begin to make far more mature assessments of these new additions from an ecological standpoint. There will be paid content as there will remain free content. Some parts of our digital lives will be more amenable to be experienced on our mobile apps than the web, and the reverse will be just as true. “A New Day” is cool but it does not have to mean “out with the old completely”. Things get introduced, yes, sometimes they replace parts of the system, but most times they settle into their optimal place and co-exist with others Read the article WIRED/The web is dead; long live the Internet <> This is like comparing apps and oranges. Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/Did the app kill the web?
WHAT NOT TO LIKE ABOUT FACEBOOK "DISLIKE" BUTTON
Remember the good old days when you'd just egg somebody's house? Read the article CNN/Beware of Facebook "Dislike" Button <> OR, how about THIS... Facebook provides us with a "dislike" button. Problem solved. And don't give me any of this garbage about a dislike button starting controversy or strife on the Internet, because that would not be it's only function. Here is a great example... My Aunt posts that her beloved dog died... I don't know what to say right now, but I want to follow the conversation. So I don't want to hit a "like" button to a post about her dog dying. (Joe likes this). I want to "dislike" that her dog died, and keep track of the conversation that way. It's not all about hate. Read the article CNN/Beware of Facebook "Dislike" Button <> "Security experts say the social networking site, which recently passed 500 million members, is a prime target for scammers because of its large user base." Read the article CBC/Facebook hit with 'dislike' scam CORE ISSUES BETWEEN APPLE AND INTEL
This is a very interesting read, but I find it hard to believe that Apple and Intel are "destined to clash". The two companies have very different business models and sell very different products, so in some places their interests will coincide and in some places they'll diverge, but they're not likely to diverge so much that Apple doesn't keep using Intel CPUs for its Macs. They just seem to be too perpendicular to one another to ever become adversarial -- Intel sells the little bits underneath the magic that Apple doesn't want its customers to even care about. For example, if Intel was to come up with a super great ultra-mobile solution, there's no reason why Apple wouldn't use that instead of ARM. Read the article ARS TECHNICA/There will be blood: Why Apple and Intel are destined to clash <> I think Intel is a bit worried about the future of consumer computing in a broad sense. ARM deices could take it over. I think that iOS shouldn't be thought of as a mobile platform but as a consumer platform. In three years, perhaps even sooner, most consumer's computers will be their 'phone'. Most of the pieces are already in place as it's possible to sync the iphone with a BT keyboard. Can it be that hard or that far off to sync an iphone with a monitor and mouse? I suspect Apple already have an iphone version of iWork waiting in the wings. Being able to check email, surf the net and do light office productivity work would cover a lot of consumers' needs. Read the article ARS TECHNICA/There will be blood: Why Apple and Intel are destined to clash <> I don't buy the argument that Intel getting into the smartphone business means that Apple has to abandon using their x86 laptop/desktop processors. Microsoft and Apple have had a similar OS/app relationship where they both compete and cooperate simultaneously in different areas. Sure Steve isn't happy about having a big competitor enter a market where he's having fun playing, but that's life. And Steve & Co. have been around long enough to know that the only constant is change. Read the article ARS TECHNICA/There will be blood: Why Apple and Intel are destined to clash
STAR OF STARS, MORE THAN 300 TIMES THE MASS OF THE SUN
This is pretty disturbing news for astronomers, truth be told. Read the article ARS TECHNICA/Researchers find giant stars with 300 times the sun's mass
JULY 19, 2010 -- AUGUST 1, 2010
Hardcovers were more likely to be purchased by hardcore readers (and in smaller numbers). So it makes sense that Kindle would overtake them so quickly on Amazon. Many people are switching right from hardcover to Kindle. I think Kindle has some of the appeal DVDs had, i.e. a longer-lasting format. Plus, digital is instant and not threatened by fire or theft, and is essentially weightless, i.e. buy as much as you want. Read the article ARS TECHNICA/Hardcovers fall behind Kindle books at Amazon <> Apparently Kindle-hate is still with us, though seemingly not as strongly as it was when the product launched. But John Siracusa got it right: Kindle is now a mainstream success, regardless of what some might have thought a couple of years ago. Read the article ARS TECHNICA/Hardcovers fall behind Kindle books at Amazon
Facebook is great for keeping up with friends. For everyone who says they don't see a point I can only assume you either live right next to all your friends or just don't have any. My friends ended up all over the place after we graduated about 5 years ago. I call them a decent amount and talk to them online but facebook lets me feel like they're still my roommates because I still know what they are up to on a day to day basis. It makes it easy for us to organize large events and organize visits. I get hear about when they're getting married and having kids. People are too paranoid about their information. There's nothing wrong with putting info out there about what you like and dislike. Obviously don't be throwing up everything on your account as far as your private info and be careful with your privacy settings and who you're sharing it with. Read the article WASHINGTON POST/Facebook to hit 500 million users, but meteoric rise has come with growing pains <> Facebook is for people who have nothing better to do. Who cares if your high school friend is married or where your college roommate is living. If they were important you would already know. And no one really needs to know what's going on in another person's life on a day-to-day basis over the internet. It's unseemly the amount of information one can find out about others from Facebook. Disconnect, join the real world, make real face to face connections. Or join the zombie herd, turn more of your life over to Facebook, your wants/needs/desires. See what they do with that in 5 years. You'll be amazed. Read the article WASHINGTON POST/Facebook to hit 500 million users, but meteoric rise has come with growing pains . <> When will mainstream media quit accepting the Facebook pap of "500 Million" users. It's a very simple thing to understand that 500 million "accounts" does not equal 500 million "people". 500 Million active people would be a big deal. 500 Million accounts, not so much. Accounts can be abandoned (and have been). People can have multiple accounts (and they do). Give me sufficient time, and I can create 500 million account on any social web site. But does that mean anything significant? This fictional milestone of half a billion "people" actively using Facebook is an exercise in marketing mumbo jumbo, nothing more (and a whole lot less). Read the article COMPUTERWORLD/The five stages of Facebook grief IPHONE 4 USERS
While agree that the problem is probably overblown in terms of percentage of people affected, Apple definitely went too far in the other direction. It is just insulting that they're basically saying I'm lying. Read the article ARS TECHNICA/Apple IPhone 4 Press Conference - Live Blog <> While true that there are some that take great pleasure in mocking Apple for wrongs real or imagined, here it is different. Functionality is directly being affected by an engineering error and it only affects a relatively small amount of users. However, what is driving a lot of the anger is that Jobs has the balls to stand up and imply that users are stupid and the way they've been handling the phone (even when they have done this on previous models) is wrong. Apple is not taking ownership of the problem, that is a huge deal and here have a free bumper does not set things right. The way this is being handled speaks volumes of how little they care about their customers. If this is how they handle something that is pretty trivial, how will they react when something else goes very wrong? Read the article ARS TECHNICA/Apple IPhone 4 Press Conference - Live Blog
<> I just ran that through my iPhone's "The Oracle of Steve" app. It translated The Divine Steve's words as, "We're not perfect. I'm still perfect, but the rest of these dolts who work for me aren't." Read the article USA TODAY/Apple to give IPhone 4 users free cases to remedy antenna woes
JULY 5, 2010 -- JULY 18, 2010
"...therefore Google wimped out" No, they didn't. Some people seem to have such a mob mentality about Google these days its frightening. Instead of torches and pitchforks, now its blogs and pundits. However instead of the tendency to mob unjustly we must take a step back, take a deep breath, and analyze the situation rationally. Here is the analysis. Google decided to live to fight another day. In warfare, sometimes you must lose a battle in order to win the war. It doesn't mean they've given up, nor does it mean their policy has changed. It just means that changing the hearts and minds of a billion socialist-communist Chinese, and its accompanying subculture, is a bit more of a daunting task than anyone realized. Tiananmen Square, considered a pivotal moment in the struggle for human rights in modern China, happened over twenty years ago yet has now been relegated to nothing more than a footnote in its history, though certainly considered a memorable and key event here in the West. I'm surprised at the sheer level of hubris and.. unappreciation.. the public has for a private company to risk its own neck and bottom line to do what it believes is right. Certainly no other private company has had the backbone to even attempt such a feat, and on this scale. Read the article WASHINGTON POST/Grading Google's China compromise <> It appears that Google's "Don't be evil" philosophy is a threat to both US and Chinese style capitalism. Detractors will find a way to portray them as "no different" than any other big evil company, and as often than not, it works, because true or not, it's a credible claim. These detractors attack Google with as much zeal as a left-leaning environmentalist would attack Halliburton. But one must admit that every company has it's unique flavor of evil, and the only attack on Google that really stands up to scrutiny seems to be offense at the very claim that it is possible to maintain ethics in the presence of such wealth. Maybe there is some truth to that, but there is a danger much greater than simply how we regard Google. It goes to the question of whether we, as consumers, CAN differentiate between the companies and products we use on moral and ethical grounds! CAN WE? If so, than we MUST recognize the ethical line Google has drawn. Read the article DAILY BEAST/China, Google make peace <> This is really the most important news of the day and maybe of the week or of the month. Remember, China has about 1.3 billion people. Read the article DAILY BEAST/China, Google make peace ROTTEN APPS: APPLE FIGHTS ITUNE FRAUD
I am hardly what anyone would refer to as an Apple fan, but in this case, I don't really see what everyone is so worked up about. So Apple had an issue with fraud which involved about 400 out of 150,000,000 accounts that's <0.0003% of users affected. These users are understandably upset, but shouldn't be upset that they heard it from their financial institutions first. Merchants who suspect fraud are required by their card acceptance agreements to contact financial institutions, not the users directly, if they suspect fraud. They are required to cooperate with the financial institutions, but are restricted in the comments to all third parties (including the card users themselves) while the fraud investigation is ongoing. Apple literally can't do more without violating the terms of its contracts with the credit card processing agencies. Read the article WALL STREET JOURNAL/Apple battles frauds in ITunes <> Apple is saying it was no big deal. Four hundred accounts equals 0.0003 percent of the over 150 million iTunes account holders, Apple points out. Doesn't this translate to Apple saying; "This is four hundred iTunes users we don't give a Damn about!"? Apple is well known for its draconian App Store approval process, so there are questions over how Thuat Nguyen's apps got approved in the first place. The developer links for these apps led to a parked (inexistent) domain, and according to one report, they even featured copyrighted material. YES! Exactly how did these apps get into the app store with such glaring features? Why does Apple refuse true and good apps because they may be from a competitor or not agree with Apple's political views? Is this the kind of society people want? Being told what they can and can't do. What they can and can't buy? What they can and can't see? Why do Apple product users accept being told by Apple what is good for them? Why do they accept Apple's 'Not my problem' stance? Read the article PC WORLD/Apple: 400 ITunes accounts hacked
TESTING A CAR THAT MAY ALLOW BLIND PEOPLE TO DRIVE
Considering how imprecise commercial gps is, how would a blind driver's computer co-pilot be able to help them navigate through a neighborhood's security guard-gate, or ticketed parking garage? Similar to the problem of correctly positioning a car next to a gas pump, but with more anarchy. Not only would the car counter-intuitively need to sidle up extremely close to a wall/machine, but the driver/computer needs to know which narrow pathways are for incoming traffic, and which are for outgoing traffic. And we have to keep in mind that sometimes the ingoing/outgoing directions are changed on the fly to handle traffic situations. Frankly, I can't imagine any computer system resolving that kind of problem without hooking every single guard gate up to an automobile internet. Read the article ARS TECHNICA/Non-visual interface may allow blind people to drive cars <> The challenge is that you need to know three things about each vehicle and pedestrian on the road with you. Where is it now? Which way is it moving? What is it indicating it will do next? Read the article ARS TECHNICA/Non-visual interface may allow blind people to drive cars JUNE 28, 2010 -- JULY 4, 2010
Getting FAA approval was the major event here. <> Truly an amazing accomplishment, and something I honestly didn't think would happen in my lifetime, even though the idea goes way back, but come on people! We deal with enough distracted/idiotic people driving on the ground that we're now gonna allow them to take to the sky? Just wait till the first accident happens while the pilot/driver is, lets say, stressed out,over tired, texting/talking on their phone, smacks into a bird and crash lands on a house....Then what?...It may be 2010, but this isn't the land of "Back to the Future2" or "The Jettsons" Read the article MOTOR TRENDS/Flying car cleared for take-ff at $194,000 <> I think a sober look at the "can vs should" argument is in order. When I look at all the idiots on the road, there is no way I want any of them in the sky--or dropping out of the sky...onto me. For the flying car proposition to be nearly as safe as a standard aircraft, the pilot regulations will have to be every bit as stringent. "Average Joe" doesn't want to have to deal with that. Just look on the roads. There are way too many idiots on them. The last thing I want is to give them opportunity to kill more people by falling on them from the sky. Hopefully, things will remain strict and keep only serious pilots in the sky. CNET/FAA floats a break to flying car FOR U.S. PIRACY HUNTERS, IT'S A SMALL WORLD
As much as I loathe certain aspects of current copyright and patent regimes, the fact is that IP is a HUGE issue for the US right now. The last thirty years has seen just about every industry gutted to the point where the country doesn't produce much of anything other than IP, whether it's a copyrighted song or movie, a patented drug or technology, or a trademark stamped on consumer goods made in China. At this point, if global IP enforcement goes up in smoke, so does the US economy. Read the article ARS TECHNICA/U.S. goes after movie pirates in estonia, counterfeiters in Tanzania. <> I have traveled the world extensively, been to both the wealthiest countries and some of the poorest. The 'pirated' movies and music you see sold on the streets of the less economically blessed nations sell literally for pennies. But pennies are all people have, expecting to stamp out this activity in favor or recovering 'lost' sales is delusional at best. There are no lost profits because there was no opportunity of profits to begin with. Read the article ARS TECHNICA/U.S. goes after movie pirates in estonia, counterfeiters in Tanzania. <> We (Lithuanians) have way bigger problems than piracy (like collapsing economy probably tops the list). But sure your money, educate our corrupt politicians and maybe in 10 yrs something will come up.
Read the article ARS TECHNICA/U.S. goes after movie pirates in estonia, counterfeiters in Tanzania. SOCIAL NETWORKS' $1.5 BILLION DISCONNECT
Social networks are exactly that so corporations find that all their usual levers don't work in this world, you can market a product that's rubbish and make a killing but you can't market a service that is rubbish and expect to make a profit, Social Networks and most of what works on the web falls into the service category! Read the article GUARDIAN/Big media's losses on social networks break through $1.5 bn barrier <> MySpace was just the 1st prominent global social networking site - its UI is cack handed and unless you had an interest in marketing yourself as the next creative/pop star/dj it really had little to offer the average person especially grown ups. Friends Reunited was hampered by the fact its model was based on the UK school system when friendships extend beyond that. Facebook took off when you no longer needed a university email account allowing all sorts mini groups to flourish (schools, colleges, corporations etc) and them having an accessible api promoting an array of social apps boosting growth despite all the privacy issues in a similar fashion to Jobs and Apple Read the article GUARDIAN/Big media's losses on social networks break through $1.5 bn barrier
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