Archive for the ‘technology’ Category
Netbooks Cannot Fly
Aug.31.2010
A quick post from the great southwest. We are having simply a ton of fun down in the desert. Weather is perfect. Swimming, golfing, working out, seeing the sites, doing some photography. All in all, life does not get much better than this.
Except for Windows 7 Starter Edition.
I had packed my little Acer netbook — which runs Ubuntu — into checked luggage. I thought it would be okay. But netbooks cannot fly. At least not this one. When I took it out of the protective case, it had died. A paperweight.
Unfortunately, with all of the photography work, I have to store the images somewhere. And I can use really, really expensive portable storage devices for photography or I can use a cheap netbook with a portable hard disk.
I picked up a nifty little netbook from a Best Buy here in Arizona. A Toshiba NB255 netbook.
Sadly, it runs Windows 7 Starter Edition. What a mess. Aside from being crippled — unable to even change the wallpaper on the desktop — it dies on anything other than basic web browsing. I know. It is a netbook. It is not supposed to be a performance machine.
To load and preview a 25MB RAW image takes well over a minute under Windows 7 Starter Edition. To do the same task on the old machine — which was a lower performing machine — took less than a few seconds under Ubuntu.
I do not have time to put down Ubuntu on this box until I get back home. Although I have learned two things: do not pack netbooks and do not run Windows 7 Starter Edition on a netbook.
TWX-35
Aug.19.2010
Looking back on the slide rule from this post, I also remembered that I did use a computer in high school. In Grade 9. Our school had an agreement with the Illinois Institute of Technology for timesharing services. I learned my first computer language that year. IITRAN. The only access to the Illinois timesharing computer was through a single Bell teletype machine in one of the classrooms, a TWX-35. Also known as an ASR 35 Teletype. Similar to the one pictured below although we had a built-in rotary dial telephone on the right side.
I created software programs on long lengths of yellow paper tape with punched holes. After login, I would bring up the compiler, stream the paper tape, and wait for the output to be printed on the teletype. And, whenever I could grab time on the TWX-35, I would play a game. The very first computer game I ever played. A moon landing simulation. Captured and presented on a typewriter style printhead no less.
Ah, yes. Those were the days.
New Laptop
Aug.17.2010
My youngest son will soon be back to school. He is required to have a laptop for his studies and although we are a Mac household, I was a bit concerned about spending a lot of money on a machine for school, particularly for a thirteen year old boy.
So he is now the proud owner of a 15-inch Dell Inspiron running Windows 7 Home Premium edition. The machine seems to be well made and I’m sure that it will serve him well.
However, it did make me think about how much life has changed. When I went into Grade 8, I needed to bring a slide ruler, not a laptop. As my son may never have seen one, this is what it looks like:
PowerPoint Chops
Aug.06.2010
I generally tend to look for inspiration when I create new PowerPoint presentations. I go to slideshare.net and scan the most popular ones. I found another great source for inspiration at Note & Point. Some great examples of using Keynote and PowerPoint to communicate.
I’m not a death by PowerPoint presenter and I tend to approach slide decks from a minimalist perspective. But there is always more to learn and you never know when a different way of thinking about presentations might come along.
Like this one.
Steve Ballmer on iPad
Aug.02.2010
Microsoft really, really needs a new CEO.
A transcript from Ballmer’s recent encounter with analysts. His responses, like the one below, are interesting to say the least. More here.
A competitive response from Microsoft to the iPad? Just wait. Really, really soon or just really pretty soon.
But you say to me are we going to see slate? Yes. What processor are they going to have? They are going to have an Intel architecture processor at least in any foreseeable future. Are they going to run Windows? Yeah. Will it be tuned? Yes! And we are going to sell like crazy. We are going to market like crazy. We have devices that will run more applications, that have as much content, that have anything you want on the planet. And we have an ecosystem of developers that know how to write applications for that thing. Believe me, as I think everybody knows, you can buy two PCs for the price of one iPad — two netbooks today for the price of one iPad. So, people are sitting there over-celebrating bomb costs and blah, blah, blah. We and Intel can get our job done and know how to make money. There’s good money for everybody in the ecosystem to go make. I talked about power. We’ve got work we have to do with hardware partners, with Intel. There’s certainly some work to be done there. And over time where we go is where we go. But at least in the timeframe that which anybody does these models, for example, let’s go. Let’s go and we’ll be in market as soon as we can with new devices, whether that’s, you know, really, really soon or just really pretty soon. I’m going to wait until I have the device that I want to hand you and tell you to go use, or a collection of devices. I think that would be the appropriate time to say it is time. But it ain’t a long time from now. Pardon my English…
Microsoft To Kill The iPad
Jul.30.2010
From electronista:
Developing a Windows-based alternative to the iPad is a “job one urgency” at Microsoft, company chief Steve Ballmer said today during the annual Financial Analysts Meeting. He admitted that Microsoft was uncomfortable with how well iPads were selling and was tuning both its software and hardware partnerships to provide a competitive option.
Look for the new iPad killer coming soon from Microsoft. It will be called iZune.
I Didn’t Say That
Jun.17.2010
The privacy of a conversation with the convenience of email. That is how VaporStream pitches its product.
VaporStream is software that is said to operate like an actual conversation with few of the draw backs. Things like being worried about what you write, the time to parse and file thousands of emails, the cost of storage and — hint, hint — the expense of possible litigation.
We live in a world where most of our communication is being captured. When we call our banks, when we browse the web, when we talk on our cellphones, when we send emails, when we use our credit cards, when we receive services. Is it even remotely possible to ensure privacy in our digital lives?
Despite the promises made by VaporStream, I doubt that the software is immune to electronic eavesdropping by federal authorities.
In the United States, the NSA monitors phone calls, emails, Internet activity, text messaging and other communication. All without warrants. And although the exact scope is unknown, the NSA is or was provided total, unsupervised access to all major fiber-optic communications hubs. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has an interesting piece on the scope and magnitude of the NSA dragnet here.
Blame the Oil Spill on IT
Jun.03.2010
The headline from ComputerWorld UK:
BP Oil Spill ‘Slows’ but Serious IT Failures Come to Surface
From the article:
An internal investigation at BP has revealed serious IT failures played a part in the devastating Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico…
BP has said the accident “was brought about by the failure of a number of processes, systems and equipment”. It added: “There were multiple control mechanisms– procedures and equipment–in place that should have prevented this accident or reduced the impact of the spill.” These did not succeed.
In the investigation, BP raised “several concerns” about the blowout preventer, which sits on top of the well head 5,000 feet below the water surface, and controls oil flow, according to the US House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce. The findings are preliminary.
The “failure” of a key emergency disconnect system was noted in a committee memo summarising the early investigation. That system, if effective, would have kicked in to stop the oil from flowing, but signals may not have reached the blowout preventer because of the explosion.
There were also problems with a further automatic closure system, or deadman switch, that should have closed off the preventer if those connections were lost. This also failed. The testing and maintenance of the blowout preventer technology is also in question.
BP additionally experienced “failure” with interventions from its remote operated vehicles, which struggled to operate the shear rams to cut and seal the pipe. The reason for this, too, has not been established.
One person who commented on the article had this to say:
I find the headline of this article if awfully misleading and sensationalist. I didn’t interpret any of the issues stated as “a serious IT failure”, or even an “IT failure”. All the problems encountered seem like engineering and people problems. If their instruments and monitoring systems were working up until the explosion and the workers chose to ignore them, IT has done it’s job, and it was human error that led to the catastrophe.
It’s also quite a stretch to lay blame on IT for troubles with a remote controlled sub 5000ft below the water. The best in the world would have trouble with the same task.
Sounds like the author is the type that is all too quick to deflect blame to the IT dept because they are an easy scapegoat.
The Windows Era Is Over
May.26.2010
Apple achieved a significant milestone today. They became the most valuable U.S. technology company with a market cap of $228.56 billion. They are now the second-largest U.S. company by market capitalization.
Apple’s market cap was $88.68 billion on Oct. 2, 2008 and Microsoft’s was $228.35 billion on Sept. 29, 2008. Microsoft’s market cap is virtually unchanged. Different story for Apple.
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