Putting My Two Cents Worth In...Rather - Taking My Two Cents Worth OUT

I have a nefarious plan to become a professional blogger, hence, these Google Ad-words sprinkled throughout my blog.

However, something is telling me not to give up my day job yet, I'm managing to reap on average a whole 2 cents per month.  Scrooge McDuck I ain't!.  Based on the fact that they don't pay out until you've accrued $100 in  your account, it seems to me that it's highly unlikely that I will see any payout from Google.

Oh well, I certainly can't be accused of doing this for profit reason's only.  Let me see, if I average 10 blogs a month @ 10 minutes per blog, that's 1.5 hours (roughly).  2 cents per 1.5 hours work, hmm, I'm thinking that I should not be counting on this as part of my retirement portfolio!

It Kind of Seemed Like a Good Idea...

As I was blogging last night, I noticed an ad in my editor which caught my interest.

This ad was for a service where you can take your blog and this company will go and produce a book of one's book - very much a vanity-publishing sort of thing.

My first reaction is that this is way-cool.  How neato would it be to be able to flip through the pages of TecHumanity?

Then - a little voice popped up in my mind and said "Hmmm, is this such a practical idea?  Blogs by nature are dynamic.  Granted that the frequency of additions to it depend solely on the author, but geesh, it's going to take all of a week or so for the book to be "out of date".

Where this could be a very good idea is as it relates to eReaders and the such, but only to the extent that it must be automatically update the content.  That having been said, what's the difference from just browsing to the link.

Oh well, maybe when I "retire" from TecHumanity and post no more, I can revisit this.  Man, when I had them do a preliminary copy of my book, it was in excess of 80 pages.  It seems like a lot of blogging to me, but then again, I'm not the most active blogger out there :)

I'm So Excited - Okay - So This Totally Makes Me a Nerd - Not Like There Was Any Question

Recently, I had posted a blog entry about OtherInbox and how it has a nifty feature in conjunction with Yahoo to eliminate SPAM.

I was VERY tickled that my piddly blog entry was actually noticed by the company that wrote OtherInbox.  Further, one of their employees tweeted about my article.  I didn't realize that all of this happened until I was reviewing my blog visitor stats and noticed a (relative to me anyways!) explosion of 100+ hits on this one blog entry.  How totally exciting that my ramblings existed in the Twitterverse for an twitter-eternity (aka 24 hours).

Taking a real  long shot, I'm going to blog an open letter to Heather of Indigo saying how much I would love to receive a complimentary Kobo for my 'evaluation' and reading pleasure.  I am the all-mighty and powerful TecHumanity and what I say goes from my 'mouth' to the ears of - oh - maybe a dozen readers.  Surely that has to count for something!

I Yam What I Yam

As I was listening to the radio tonight, this Popeye quote came to my mind almost immediately.  There was a news story on how one of the growth industries in the school picture industry (and I would imagine by extension, the "professional head shot industry") is how one can pay extra money to photoshop out one's little imperfections such as acne, braces, pimples etc.

The commenator went on to quote a psychologist who claims (rightly to, I think) that this might not be the best idea.  The story went on to hypothesize that this ability to so easily crop out one's imperfections sends the wrong message in society, that one's worth is based on how "perfect" one's hair/skin/teeth/etc.. are.  Spot right on, on that one, he is absolutely right.

What on earth are we doing and encouraging?  Indeed, what kind of message does this send to our children.  I'll tell you the message.  The message is this "I'm so sorry, darling son/daughter that you're upset that you have this 'glitch' in your class picture.  Don't worry, your concerns are legitimate, let's use technology to 'repair' you, to make you into a more acceptable person".  That is EXACTLY the message that we are sending and frankly, this concerns me very much.

Great Caesar's Ghost! Do we really want to be part of a society where one needs to be electronically fixed/manipulated/revised?  I don't know - maybe I'm too out of touch with the whole "I need to be accepted by my peers" thing.

Oh, by the way, could someone please photoshop my picture at work and (a) remove the wrinkles (b) darken the hair and (c) give me an electronic lipsuction?

Good gravy - the madness never ends.

Now, let me see, I would like to see "http://techumanity.blogspot.com" to go right THERE *points*

This is too strange to make-up.  A gentlemen in Quebec is raising money by decorating his body with tattoos.

Gasp #1 - he is committed to covering his body with 100,000 tattoos in one calendar year.  If I'm not mistaken, there is a world record at stake here.

Gasp #2 - okay - so you're thinking "where's the tecHumanity context here, dude?"  Well, said tattoos are URLs.  Yep -he's proposing selling space on his body to advertise 100,000 domains and URLs.  First of all, that's an average of 273 per day.  That can't be possible - can it?  Man, how teeny is this writing going to be and where exactly should I sponsor "http://tecHumanity.blogspot.com".

The one thing that I've never figured with the heavily tattooed.  Not that I have a problem with it - I'm a very open minded chap and if this is something that someone wants to do, then all the power to them, but heck - what are the tattoos going to look like when said "walking billboard" is 75.  Wrinkles galore - can you imagine trying to unfold a wrinkle to find a particular URL?  The mind shudders.  But then again, how do I come up with this crap? :)

The "Going to Hell in a Hand Basket Award"

...otherwise known as "this use of technology is just freaking nuts".

Two totally abysmal stories in the news.

The first is a Canadian couple who have canvassed Facebook users to...get this...choose the name for the child.  Seriously - as in "no matter what name they come up with - we'll go with it".  I'm sure that the $40,000 promised by the sponsor of the event had something to do with it.  Sure enough, baby WWW is born and they register the name that "won" the Facebook derby.  Say what?  Really? And this doesn't concern them that something that will stay with this person for years, was chosen, not by parents, but by a group of strangers?

The second story concerns me even more.  The article stated that a US couple who is preggers was trying to decide if they should abort the child or not.  They claim that this is legit, that they'll put it to vote.  I can't say for certain how legitimate this was, or what became of it, but the second that someone even considers letting strangers decide on life and death...this one rocks me to the core.

Merry Christmas - From TecHumanity & Rick

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/XVpcRozp7k6qWBSvGzDm

This is a safe link, but as we all practice safe computing, copy and paste the link instead of clicking on it.

A very Merry Christmas and Seasons Greetings to everyone!

Rick

An Experiment - If You Will

Okay - I would ask this.  If you read this post, do me a favour.  Leave a comment as to what city you are from.  As I've approached...more than a year (?) with this blog, I am inordinately curious as to how many of you are real peeps - where you are from (and tell me your favourite dessert - that I MUST know!) and to determine that you are not a 'bot - venturing into the world of TecHumanity.

Consider this as a favour - as a "one hour before the dude turns 50 (argh!!!!)" favour to yours truly.

You Go, Girl!

News story today suggests that Groupon has rejected a $5-6 billion bid from Google.  Wow, too much.  Amazing that anyone has the audacity to deny the monolith of Google.  I can just imagine the apolexy with the ne'er do-wells of Google.  They must have felt not unlike the Empire not being able to withstand The Force.  Can you imagine?  I'd love to have been in the room when Google heard that it was a no-go.

God - I hate monopolies.  With every fibre of my body, I offer up a WOOT-WOOT to Groupon.

Yahoo! And OtherInbox...to Borrow from Monty Python "NOSPAM...NOSPAM...NOSPAM..."

I have been using the Yahoo! OtherInbox Application for awhile now. OtherInbox is an optional application that can be setup and configured to automatically create common folders and redirect common (and related) emails to that folder. For example, OIB may create a folder called OIB Jobs and it has some intelligence to redirect emails from sendors relating to Jobs to this folder. This is a great way to clean-up one's Inbox. One of the disadvantages of not having any limites on Yahoo! mailbox size anymore, is that there's no real incentive to organize and clean-up, so searching can be a mess.

I ran across a very nifty tip today. You can a folder called "OIB Unsubscribe" and then manually drag an drop SPAM that you no longer want in this folder. OIB will then pick up the ball and recognize that you want to be unsubscribed from this list and it will eventually hook-up with Lashbank - a global email compliance provider and will attempt to remove you from the list in question. I'm sure that it's not fool-proof, but then again, any little bits of SPAM that I don't have to deal with, is definitely a blessing.

My "Good Way to Use Technology" Tip of the Day (Or Whenever I think of Something!)

I am chronically bad with keeping paperwork and being able to find it.  I am just horrendous at filing and I spend way too much time sifting through piles of papers.

I have developed a little 'trick' which helps me out immensely.  What I do is use Yahoo! Mail as my filing cabinet.  When I get a paper or document or bill that I know that I will need at some point in time, I will scan it and send it to my email address.  Further, with the printer, I can specify the subject line for the email, so I will put in something like [Records] ING Statement for October 2006.

For those that don't know, Yahoo! no longer has a limit on the mailbox size, so go crazy, scan and email as much as you want.

Further, I have folders setup in my Yahoo! in conjunction with rules in my email.  So - when my Yahoo! receives an email with the subject "[Records] ING Statement" at the beginning, it automatically files in into my [Records] ING folder.  Cool and nifty.  I will not have to sift through mountains of paperwork to find that elusive bill.  Everything is not only in my email, but it is also automatically grouped together.

Of course, storing content online, is this a good thing - or a bad thing?  The good in this case is that you receive a wonderful benefit of being to review these documents from anywhere where you have access to a web browser or interface of some sort.  The very logical "bad" of this technique is that having these (assumedly) confidential document in one location, and if you're on a public computer, one can never be too careful about spyware, inadvertantly saving one's email password, etc...  As is this case, common sense should prevail and one needs to way the advantages against the disadvantages.
As Austin Powers might say "easy-peasy lemon-squeezie"!

Maybe It's a Bit Too Early to Classify this as a "Not such a good idea"

Apparently the FCC is now considering supporting 911 access via text message.  Okay, I'm thinking that this is probably  not a good idea.  Umm, if someone has a cellphone, then frigging dial 9-1-1, don't take a chance with emergency services via text message!  Aside from the fact that you just never know if your recipient received the message, I can see an exchange of text message:

Joe:  hey
9-1-1:  hey waddup
Joe:  idk, some1 crshed nto me
9-1-1:  r u ok?
Joe: atm
9-1-1: u need mbulanc?
Joe: pls
9-1-1: where r u?
Joe: 401 & 400
9-1-1: e or w?
Joe: w
9-1-1: k - hang tight - omw
Joe: gr8, ty
9-1-1: yw, np, cya
Joe: cu

Ho-ho-Wholly Straddling the High Tech World

Date: December 4, 2010


Time: 8:55a NPST (North Pole Standard Time)


Location: International HQ of SC Enterprises International, LLP

Santa walked towards the main conference room, carrying his Grande Non-Fat Peppermint Latte in one hand, as he held numerous file folders under his other arm and pulled his briefcase on wheels. He balanced his Latte on top of his briefcase as he fumbled through his pocket for his security card.

“Holy Peppermint – where is that confounded thing”, he muttered to no-one in particular (seeing that there was – in fact – no one else around).

He finally retrieved it from his pocket and swiped it towards the proximity card reader to the left of the door.

The access light above the reader flashed red and the buzzer went off indicate an unsuccessful swipe. The jolly man tried repeatedly with the same results. He glanced at his watch and sees that it’s only 5 minutes before the weekly status meeting.

“Are we having problems, Santa?” squeaked a voice from behind.

Santa turned around to see Percy – the elf in charge of Reindeer Games.

“Indeed”, Santa sighed. “I still don’t see why we need all of this security, being in an invisible location, it’s not very likely that we’re going to have unauthorized visitors!”

“True that”, replied Percy. “But you know the way that Elvis is. As the head elf with his PMP and CMA designations, he’s always trying to move you slowly into High Tech. Let me see your card, Santa? Maybe the magnetic strip is damaged somehow.”

Santa handed the card over to Percy who then flipped the card over and chuckled.

“I see your problem, Mr. Big. There’s a splotch of eggnog on the magnetic strip. The reader couldn’t validate you.” stated Percy who then took out his lens cleaning cloth and wiped down the magnetic card and handed it back. “Here you go, try now”.

Santa swiped the card once again. The light flashed green, the door unlocked and the card-reader exclaimed in Santa’s prerecorded voice, “Ho-ho-ho, your eIdentity has been confirmed!”

Santa pushed the door of the Grand Mistletoe Conference room and entered, surveying around the large table to see the contingent of Head Elves waiting for him.

Santa sat himself down at the head of the table. As he stirred his latter with his candy cane, he addressed the contingent, “Good morning team, does anyone have any idea what day it is?”

Head-Wrapper Elf, Holly guessed, “Is it the birthday of someone that’s very important?”

Santa gave a deep guffaw, “Oh, we all know the answer to THAT one, but that’s not what I’m referring to. Today is precisely three weeks from Christmas. I expect everyone to have the final checklist ready for my review by the end of the day. Now, did anyone have issues to discuss today?”

Immediately, Elvis’s hand shot up.

Santa sighed with resignation, “Yes, Elvis, what is it this time?”

“Well, Santa baby..”

Before Elvis could continue, Santa interjected with a booming voice, “You know I hate that term. Unless you’re Mrs. Claus or Eartha Kitt, I don’t want to hear that. Elvis, if you weren’t such a great head elf in charge of R&D, you’d be demoted to reindeer stall scooping!”

“Anyways, as I was saying, big guy. The boys and I have been doing some research on some new technologies for you. As you know, the constant mall visits takes a lot of your time and resources. In order to make more efficient use of both of these, we’re proposing to install iPads in shopping malls. There, kids will be able to drag and drop images of toys that they want and you never have to be there. We’ll also have a link to your twitter feed and we’ve published you on Facebook so that people can add you as a friend, you’re up to 249,210,011 friends already and your account has only been up for 3 days!”

“Jumping Reindeers!” St. Nick exclaimed. “You can’t do that! You can’t replace me with, what are those things called?”

“iPads” responded Elvis “It’s a tablet PC with a virtual keyboard, they’re all the rage. Apparently David P. put the bug in the ear of Melinda Gates and she requested one as well. Apparently, David says that you can control Apple TVs and do all sort of neat things with an iPad. Now everyone wants an iPad.”

“Well bless my beard!” replied Santa. “How can that be? How on earth did Bill let an iPad in the door to his house?”

Elvis chuckled in response, “Quite simple actually. We stuck a couple of round tinker-toy knobs on to the iPad and Bill is convinced it’s an Etch-a-Sketch!”

Santa harrumphed sternly, “Regardless, this whole technology thing. It’s great and all. I love my SQL Server 2008 database for tracking production and my naughty and nice list. I think that it’s great to run my manual SQL Queries to determine the trends and to be able to see that we have the proper amount of raw materials.” He paused and thought for a minute, “ I think that there’s so much there that has helped us, but this is going too far. I will not be replaced by an iPad. The kids need that personal connection. I need to hear the sincerity in their voices and to see the excitement in their eyes. Christmas is not about transactions, it’s about the humanity, the goodwill and peace and love of the season. This is not going to fly, Elvis, I’m sorry. I appreciate the effort but our entire team needs to keep in mind that spirit – the human spirit – can never be captured or conveyed through technology.”

Elvis scowled and slumped, determined to be in a foul mood for the rest of the day. Santa smiled at him with a glint in his eye. Elvis couldn’t help but think how lucky he was to be working for SC Enterprises International, LLP.

Happy Holidays from TecHumanity and Rick!

Wired Connections

In CNET News yesterday, there was an article posted that the human brain has more switches than all of the computer on earth.  The article goes on to state that just in the cerebral cortex, there are over 125 trillion synapses and the article draws a parallel between a synapse (the connection between neurons) and a microprocessor.  To put this number in context, 125 trillion would be roughly equivalent to the number of number of stars that would fill 1,500 Milky Way galaxies.

This point goes back to something I mentioned earlier this year on my sceptism on Artificial Intelligence, while there is a clearly the possibility of rudimentary AI, my personal opinion is that we haven't even come close to understanding the human mind.  My argument being until we get to this point, it will probably be difficult, if not virtually impossible, to have the type of AI that is romanticized (is that even a word?) in popular sci-fi fiction.

Lastly, if there are 125 trillion synapses, as the article states, then I demand some understanding for being somewhat...ummm....forgetful at times.  It's not me - honestly - it's just that I have so many synapses to sift though.

That IS my story and I am proudly sticking to it.

Today's SPAM

I think that the marketers are messing with me today.  Not only do I receive SPAM to 'enlarge my male parts' but I also get TWO, not one, but TWO emails offering me breast enlargement.  These guys are just messing with my sexual identity!

Also, apparently, I can make $150/day by working at home plus I can get a great deal on forklifts.

Just an amazing (albeit confusing) day of SPAM, and the day's just started!

Microsoft - Shares Sold

Well - this post isn't as much about technology and it's impact on humanity.  It's about something that I'm never too much in-tune with, but that I still found interesting.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced this week that he had made some minor tweaks to his portfolio.  Apparently, he wanted to diversify, to smooth out his exposure, so he went and sold 75 million of his shares in Microsoft.  Just a little transaction to even our his portfolio.  Million, wow.  How many million shares does he have? 

With the share price of Microsoft of about $26 yesterday, that means that the net proceeds of the sale was about $2b.  Holy Cannoli, these are numbers that just boggle my mind.  Which brings me to my original question, exactly how many shares DOES he have?  This same article made it sound like this was a relatively minor transaction, that it was routine, but I'd have to guess that this transaction probably represented at least 20% of his total net worth.  I've just done this amazing little thing called "reading the article" that answers this question.  His total holdings in MSFT is 408,000,000 shares.

Reading a bit further down, one can see that it might not have just been about diversifying either.  It goes on to say that there are new tax rules coming up in January with regards to the disposition of stock and by selling now as opposed to after the new laws come into effect, that it is estimated that this will save him around $65m.  Wow.  To have a soft paper savings of $65m.  This is clearly a scale of economy that is far over my head.  These numbers should apply to large corporations or small countries, not an individual.

I'm guessing that it's safe to safe that my little forays into the financial markets as I readjust my pension holdings are not as impressive as Mr. Ballmer.

The same article goes on to state that Mr. Gates also sold a few shares this week - assuming for the same reasons - for a total of 3,000,000 shares sold.  Poor Bill, he only realized net proceeds for $75,000,000 or so.  I guess that it will be Steve picking up the tab at the hot dog cart when the two of them go for lunch this week.

Google - A Nice Little Shopping Spree

Apparently, Google has spent $1.6b on acquiring 40 companies over the last 9 months.  Holy cannoli, must be nice!  We're not even into the official Christmas shopping season yet!  Can't wait to see if they break the $2.0b barrier.

Sigh - dammit all anyways, why wasn't I the one to come up with idea of Google, or Facebook, or...etc...

That's it...I've had it.  For my upcoming 50th birthday celebration, my present to myself will be to come up with the next great thing.

Move on over Google!  There's a new sheriff in town!

Now...does anyone have a spare $100-200m collecting dust.  I'd gladly pay you Tuesday for R&D costs today!  (bonus points to whomever can tell me where I bastardized that saying from!)

The Ever Changing Workforce

This is a subject that I've long contemplated.  It's not so much specific to our current technology, but this has always been something to contend with as our civilization advances and matures.  With new technologies come new jobs and it also often involves other jobs becoming obsolete.

This thought first came to mind a few months ago near work.  I saw an "Iron Mountain" truck parked on King Street here in Toronto.  For the uninitiated, Iron Mountain is a niche supplier of document services.  There focus is on off-site retention of documents (paper or electronic based) and the safe destruction of old documents.   The thought that came to my mind was "Wow - here is a while industry that didn't exist 30 years ago" (or at least if it did exist, it certainly wasn't so critical.  In today's society, companies live and die by data and a by-product of this is the appropriate retention and destruction.

I wonder to myself how many new jobs have been created in the computer era.  I'm betting that there it is far more than anyone had ever considered.    My position - as a Systems Analyst/Software Designer - would not have existed in the main-stream work force 40 years ago - there was no context of a "system" other than a paper based filing/record keeping system.

What finally prompted me to write this blog entry was an article that I read today that listed 20 jobs that are now obsolete.  The list is as follows (courtesy of the article at http://www.mainstreet.com/article/career/employment/20-jobs-have-disappeared?puc=outbrain&cm_ven=outbrain&obref=obnetwork) :

• Lector (to read articles to bored workers)
• Newsroom copy-boy (can anyone say "email!")
• Log-driver (not sure why this one is on the list?  I'd think that this position still exists)
• Pin-setter (I'm not even old enough to remember a person resetting the pins in a bowling alley.  Rejoice!)
• Lamplighter (totally obsolete now, I'd think)
• Switchboard Operator (anyone remember "1 ringie-dingie, 2 ringie-dingie", or am I dating myself?)
• Telegraph Operator (Oh boy, for sure.  Actually, one of my first employers in this field was CNCP Telecommunications and this was their bread and butter.  Anyone want to guess if CNCP is still around?)
• Ice-cutter (iceboxes anyone?  I actually have faint memories of an icebox as we had one up at the cottage before we had electricity)
• Ice Delivery (same as above.  Without the ice-cutter, I'm guessing it wouldn't be too fun to be an Ice Delivery man).
• Dictaphone Operator (Digital recorders 101)
• Typing Pool (hey - I remember those!  My first employer was Woods Gordon.  I remember there being a pool of ladies.  Now everyone is pretty much expected to type their own stuff)
• Newspaper Typesetter (this one, I don't know - I would think that this position has morphed into someone who does the layout and design.  Yes, they don't actually get those little square rectangles - umm did I just say little square rectangles? Conceptually, it seems pretty related.
• Elevator Operator (I have no memory of an elevator operator.  third floor- ladies' lingerie!)
• Mimeograph Operator (Paging Mr. Xerox!)
• Streetsweeper (again - I'd contend that this position is still there, just with different tools)
• Sandman (Wow!  I had no idea!  Apparently, this was a REAL position where someone would distribute sand over ink on a page to help it dry.  Good gravy - that is a job I would NOT want to do)
• Sawyer (wood mills/cut to order replaced by your handy-dandy Home Depot)
• Manual Port Loading (assembly line work replaced by robotics)
• Breaker Boy (poor lads had to go through and separate the non-coal from the coal.  Lung disease anyone?)
• Rag and Bone Men (the quintessential recyclers, they'd go house to house getting specific garbage to be reused.

There is one fundamental lesson here for all of us who are gainfully employed (or wish to be).

Keep yourself relevant.  Never get so comfortable in your job that you don't look to the future.

Riding the Coat Tails - or Missing the Boat?

As a guy who's constantly involved in technology, one of my biggest dilemmas is to when to jump on board. In one respect, it's always a great thing to be there from the get-go, to experience the technology and to reap the benefits that it's sown.

However, one of the downsides to this is that this is when the technology is the most expensive. As more of the product is sold, the price is generally dropped. A large part of the reason for this is that from the outset, the firm developing the product has to recoup some/most/all of it's R&D costs. Also, probably to an extent, they know that the can price it higher as there will be build-up for the latest and greatest and that there are many who will make their purchase to be the first one's on the block.

I sometimes waver in terms of what stage of the product life-cycle that I would make the purchase, but I will say this, I would never be these dudes that camp out in front of Best Buy the night before to purchase the newest iPod. I guess if that people are that driven to be the first on the block - no problem, all the power to them, but I'd never be one of those guys.

By the same token, I wouldn't want to wait TOO long either. The problem with technology is that it changes so frequently. If one waits for an approrpriate "price-point" before making the dive, then they also run the risk of their technology being obsolete sooner.

I know that personally, I've been very retarded <insert joke here> in terms of finally getting on board. Seriously, CD Players were out for a number of years before I finally jumped into the pool. The same thing for a DVD player.

Although I've shown restraint then, I'm chomping at the bit now over eReaders. As faithful netizens of my blog, you'll know that this is something that I've contemplated. Today, Barnes and Noble introduced a new COLOUR version of the Nook. This is the perfect dilemma. Do I really NEED a colour eReader? Maybe not, I've lived with reading monochrome for 4 decades. That having been said, my fear is that if I don't go with a colour, in two years, I'll be kicking myself in the keister as there was some benefit that I've overlooked.

Gotta love this technology. I'm never really quite sure what to do!

PS This is officially my 100th entry on my blog. I still don't know who actually reads this confounded thing, but heck at least it's out there :)

The Drug with a Plug

My usual disclaimer before I start this month’s article. First of all, I am just as guilty as anyone else on this one….

The other day, I was watching “A Christmas Story” with my daughter (yes – I know, it’s a wee bit early for Christmas movies but we are Christmas junkies - we can’t help it). The scene near the beginning shows Ralphie with his nose pressed against the department store window, marveling at the Red Rider rifle on display. “Kids”, I snorted to myself with no small amount of disdain.

The next morning, I’m going to work and walk past the local electronics store and my pace slows, and then stops. Here I am, Rick/Ralphie admiring the bevy of shiny electronics/the Red Rider Rifle.

The more things change – the more they stay the same.

It then dawned on me that I’m not the only one; this love of the shiny new electronic devices isn’t isolated to me, my gender or even my generation. My daughter constantly complains about how “uncool” her cell phone is now; to the extent that she was considering asking for that to be her main Christmas present, although there’s nothing wrong with her existing one.

This article could have easily been entitled “The Modern Age Lure of the Sirens”. In Greek mythology, the sirens were the prophets that lured mariners with their looks and their sounds of music. They would entice and enthrall the sailors, beckoning them to the sharp and deadly rocks to which the sailors were oblivious and totally doomed to smash upon.

The more things change – the more they stay the same.

As evidenced by my fascination with the latest and greatest, I know that I’m as much to blame as everyone else, but sometimes I think that we need to take a step back and think to ourselves, “This new electronic device that I’m considering, is it a NEED or a WANT?” I think that a good portion of the time, it ends up being a want.

I’m scared to think of how many people have bought a Blackberry just because of the cool factor when perhaps it wasn’t necessary. Not that I’m picking on Blackberry, I think that cell phones in general are quite prone to this phenomenon. There was actually a marketing campaign a little while ago where the vendor’s sale pitch was “when you fall out of love with your old phone”.

From strictly a business perspective, this marketing of new and shiny makes a whole lot of sense. Much as the case with planned obsolescence, if we as consumers hold on to our electronics for years upon years, then as the market becomes more mature and increasingly saturated, then sales will plummet. Unless the corporate world can innovate to the extent that we are forced to upgrade and/or replace, then they will do whatever they can to convince us that the new shiny is better than the old scuffed.

Honestly, I’m just as prone to this as anyone else. When I discovered that my (old) cell phone didn’t take too kindly to be being left in a puddle of water overnight, I was faced with the decision of “what do I replace it with”. Sniffing around Bell Mobility, I could have gone cheaper, gone simpler, but the lure of the sirens was just way too much for me. Besides, I’m quite enjoying my new smart phone. However, I’ll be the first to admit that it has a ton of apps and features on it that I probably will never use.

Maybe I’ll eventually learn how to load MP3s on it so that it can act as a replacement for my crappy old iPod that I’m resorting to using as I’ve misplaced my iPod touch. I know that I’ve accidently taken many pictures of myself with my phone’s front-facing camera. I am currently resisting the thought of a NEW iPod touch (4th gen)…for now…but I can’t promise that I won’t be blogging about how cool my new iPod Touch is in the near future.

WikiLeaks: The Good, The Bad, or the Ugly?

Me being the kind of guy I am, I generally like to have an opinion on any specific issue.  I'm not fool-hardy to think that I'm always right, nor even mostly right for that matter.  I've always kind of accepted the fact that sometimes my opinions might be wishy-washy, that I'm not quite convinced one way or the other, but at least I take a general sense of comfort that I am drawing a (tentative) line in the sounds - somewhere, somehow.

However, now and then, there are issues that pop up, and I can honestly see how it's a either a very good thing or just generally a bane to society.  It frustrates the hell out of me in that that toe is never at any point, it always vacillates - ne'er a stand to make!

WikiLeaks, this whole CONCEPT of WikiLeaks is frustrating the hell out of me in that it is one of these issues.

Quite often in the past, I've been highly critical of WikiLeaks as they disclose information under the thin veil of "freedom of information" that quite literally puts peoples, families and clans lives at risk.  Specifically, there have been documented cases where WikiLeaks has intentionally released the names of informers in the "War Against Terror".  The publication of the names of these people that are proponents for democracy and freedom of speech quite literally puts their lives at risk.  Dissidents aren't generally thought well of in those areas.

There is that, and there is the good that WikiLeaks provides, the objective release of information for the sake of making it public.  Without this approach to the ultimate form of journalism, mounds of documents that were once classified are now available for public consumption.  Even to the extent where the "heroes of democracy" (the western military that is "keeping peace" overseas) are having some pretty despicable acts disclosed.

One of the very basic tenets of democracy is that there is some form or level of free speech.  However, like many other topics, it's not necessarily an absolute.

Now, if I could figure out which side of line to put my tootsie on, I'd be all set!

Stupid SPAM 101

Same SPAM message as of my previous post. Now, if you're going to pretend that you know who I am, to personalize the email so that it doesn't appear as SPAM, there here's a HINT.

Before you send SPAM out, how about giving things a quick test, boys?!? This SPAM was personalized to "me" as follows:

Dear NOFIRSTNAME NOLASTNAME. Did someone not actually clue in that their mailing list didn't contain the full name, or were they just too stupid/incompetent to check the SPAM before it went out.

Hold the phone. There's no chance that I don't exist - is there? Is this society's subtle way of telling me to take a long walk off a short pier? I DO have a first name and a last name - I'm sure of it. I was even blessed with TWO middle names, so they can stick THAT in their pipe and smoke it.

Foot Rub, Mammogram?

Yes - that is EXACTLY what I thought when I saw my SPAM this morning with that subject line. I'll have to admit though, their little plan worked as I just couldn't help myself to see what an earth the SPAM could be about. Turns out that it's for one of those "we'll send you whatever meds you want" sort of thing. Foot Rubs. Mammogram. Is this the "new" one stop shopping? What's next? I'm almost scared to find out. Now...if only I can get some mind scrub happening so that I can erase this visual of a woman getting both of these things done at the same time, that would be great!

Facebook - The New Math?

In an article today that was talking about some changes to how Facebook uploads and displays photos, it makes mention that there are 100,000,000 photographs uploaded every day.  Every FREAKING day?!  I'm sure that they didn't just pull that number out of their ummm, collective wazzoo's to be somewhat polite? 

Now - according to Facebook, there are 500 million users.  First of all, I think it's actually much less.  My reason?  Because when you delete your Facebook, unless you know how to actually delete it, they just deactive it.  I would imagine in this case, they still count you as a user, even if you've been deactivated.  So - let's say that for the sake of argument, that there are 400 million active users, that 20% of them are deactivated accounts.  That sounds borderline reasonable to me.

What this would mean is that in one year, there would be 30 billion photographs uploaded.  That's a whack of photographs, isn't it?  What would work out to....let's see 30 billion divided by 400 million, carry they two, myltiply by 6.2...well - math was never my strong suit and I'm tired, so on average a whole heap of photographs uploaded each year.

Makes me wonder if Facebook is the Antichrist.  Did the bible actually SAY it was a person...???

The Invisible Tether

In some of my past articles and blog entries, I’ve talked about how one of my dislikes of technology is that there is a certain obsession to “keep in touch”; to remain tethered to technology. To a very large extent, I think that this is a big problem. This problem isn’t really so much an issue of technology, but rather it’s more about how we choose to use it.

For my readers that don’t know me, my friends and loved ones will tell you that I am just as guilty as everyone else when it comes to this obsession to stay connected. I’ll be the first to admit that there have been times in the past, where I’m lying in bed trying to go to sleep and then I think to myself that I should give my email a quick check – for no particular reason. It’s not like I was expecting an email, but it almost becomes a habit

What triggered this article was something that happened at work a little while back. I was in the men’s room and a gentleman walks in – talking away on his cell phone. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he proceeded to the stall and assumedly attended to his business. I was just totally flabbergasted as to what was so important that he couldn’t wait for until the phone call was over, or if the call to nature was particularly urgent, to say that he’d call back in a bit.

As I mentioned, I’ve written similar articles in the past. One of my biggest concerns with technology is that it’s a given that most of us are expected to be accessible. I read an article recently that from a business and legal perspective, that there’s an entire grey zone as it relates to “Blackberry Overtime”. As evidenced when you ride the subway, or attend a baseball game or even while at a theatre, people are instantly accessible via their Blackberry – connected to work – and always available. There are legal cases pending where employees are putting in for overtime where the premise of this overtime was that they were expected to be on call. The concept of 9-5 is something that is eroding.

However, this whole issue of staying connected with the workplace is more than just an issue of having our pager or cell phones turned on – just in case there is an emergency. This scenario is a passive one – one where the user of the communications device simply has it on, just in case there’s an important call or a support issue. For certain job functions, that’s a very reasonable requirement.

The real problem is that this concept of being accessible to the workplace after hours has mutated to also being an active problem. People aren’t just leaving their communications device turned on, they’re actively checking their emails – and you can bet that not only are they checking their email, but that will remind them of an (unrelated) email that they didn’t respond to. Oh yes, and then there’s that meeting that needed to be rescheduled. Oh – while I’m connected, I better write that email to Marketing about the new promotional materials. And so on, ad infinitum.

My dislike of the social implications or this 24/7 interaction is probably well documented for anyone that has read my articles. I guess that it’s different strokes for different folks, but I don’t understand the compulsion and need to tweet about the minutia of one’s life – about what kind of bagel I ate or to update my Facebook status to say how I’m feeling blah today.

On to the good.

There is no question that this invisible tether can be tremendously useful. It allows me to stay connected to my kids when I’m not there and it gives me a sense of comfort and security that I am accessible to them, should the need arise.

Although I have listed the disadvantages to this constantly wired world, it is a necessary evil (for lack of a better word). Without this accessibility, the information superhighway would be far less accessible and there have been numerous occasions where being able to browse the web from my smartphone or my iPod have benefitted me. From staying in touch with others when I was hospitalized, to being able to look up medical or legal information whenever I needed it, even for things as mundane as checking the address of a restaurant, or perhaps to see the next show time of a movie that I want to see.

To paraphrase Charlton Heston, you can only pry this technology from my cold, dead hands. But please, let’s start having some sanity and put some context back into when it is and when it isn’t appropriate to be accessing this tether.

Welcome to the WWW and P-mail

Interesting article today on a study in the UK that demonstrated how 'slow' rural broadband can be there. They attached a USB drive with a 300mb video file to a carrier pigeon and timed how long it took the pigeon to transport it 75 miles. It took the pigeon 1.25 hours. At the same time, the broadband transfer was ony 25% done, 'proof' that rural broadband was just too slow.

Yeah, perhaps 100-200kbps is a wee bit on the slow side, but this is probably a perfect example of how a study can be manipulated to prove a point. I'm quite sure before they setup the study, they did some estimates as to how big the file needed to be and how close the two points would be to achieve the desired results.

Afterwards, I had this vision of the 'new technology' where carrier pigeons (or owls ala Harry Potter) are used to transfer p-mail (pigeon-mail) through the WWW (World Wide Wing).

All that I will say that if this ever comes to fuition, then I will be making some serious investments in umbrella companies!

The Death of Privacy

There's been a couple of recent stories. Both of these I meant to blog about independantly but just never really seemed to get around to it, but in retrospect, there's probably a lot of context that I share.

The more that I get immersed in this technology, the more that I'm concerned that we're on a runaway freight train. I'm very worried that things will not get any better and as a matter of fact, things will just get exponentially worse.

The first article was that I read from the CEO from Google who recently half joked that as a matter of practice, people should change their names once they reach adulthood based on the premise that all of this online history would otherwise follow them around.

That in itself (in jest or in not) is just exceptionally chilling. As I've written in the past, these digital footprints that we leave cannot be erased.

Let's say that it just become practice that once one enters the working world, you create a new persona. What does that REALLY fix? Isn't that just fixing the symptom rather than the disease? If I have a new identify as I become 21, am I not going to have the same problem with privacy in another 10 years when I'm 31? There's something very fundamental here that needs to be looked at, and I know that I'm not the first person to have this concern.

The other article that really made me question privacy was where I read that there are government agencies that are openly using satellite photos (aka Google Earth and the likes) to "spy" on individuals. This is matter of fact. I don't recall where (but I will find the original article) but it goes on to state that in one instance individuals in the muncipal govenment scan photos to see if houses have undeclared pools or structures that have been built without building permits. There was one country - Greece I think - that openly admitted doing this, and the only reason why they were was because it was a cash grab - it was a way to increase the city coffers.

Can someone please stop this ride, I think that I want to get off now.

Literati eReader

As some of you who may have been following my blog for awhile, originally, I pooh-poohed the concept of eReaders.  Upon further consideration and signficant drooling and seeing users, I'm beginning to think that I might have been premature in my dismissal of them.

Latelly, I've been doing a little reading, just checking out the differences between them and what seems to distinguish between a good and a bad eReader. 

In an article today, I was reading about a new one coming to market by "The Sharper Image" called The Literati.  Okay - I'm getting intrigued.  I love the fact that it has WiFi access to it's bookstore (not all of them do).  Also liking the fact that the bookstore that can be accessed is powered by Kobo, so there's a bajillion books available there.  Nice little bells and whistles - little things like being to change the type from black on white to white on black depending on reading conditions.

Beginning to think that this is a possibility - just in time for the buy-a-Christmas-present-for-myself season.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/204170/sharper_image_brings_ereader_to_the_masses.html?tk=rss_news

http://www.literatireader.com/

Microsoft Bing Maps - Hot Dog!

I will just go ahead and file this one under "A Use for Technology that I Would Have Never Conceived Of".

In Portland, they are incorporating the latest and greatest technology in conjunction with Microsoft Bing Maps. Apparently, there are a number of vendor foodcarts that are outfitted with auto-Twitter feeds (that in itself - wow - as they would say in 'The Princess Bride' "Inconceivable")! What is pretty interesting is that they're linking in these feeds with Bing Maps so that you Portlanders (Anna - is that the right term? lol) can see in real time not only where each cart is, but what their speciality is as well. Now THAT is a great use of technology. Get it incorporated it here in Toronto and I can do a real-time scan of food carts close to me and what they're serving. Oh - some of the carts are also intelligent enough to transit what they're out of, so if you've got a hankering for a Polish Sausage, you can see if your local vendor has any.

Apparently, they're also integrating FourSquare into this information so that in addition, you can see which of your buddies might be busting their diet and noshing on a 'dog or two.

2b or not 2b that iz the ?

This in itself is bound to raise the ire or some. It quite simply is known as txtspk (text speak). It is either the bane of all society for those that disapprove of it, or a wonderful way to separate themselves from the “older generation” for those that use it as part of their lives.

As part of the “older generation”, my first thought is that txtspk is not an appropriate way to communicate. Certainly, in today’s business environment, it is not acceptable (at least, not yet). To a certain extent, I feel that it portrays a certain amount of – ignorance might be a bit harsh – but at the very least, a laziness to communicate properly.

Txtspk began through both instant messaging and text messaging. The earlier versions of cell phones had no easy methods of writing text messages. The earliest cell phones allowed text messaging but it was extremely cumbersome as one had to use the numeric keys to type messages. Each number on the keypad had one of three letters, so the user had to “cycle through” each key to get the right letter. For example, to “type” the word later, they would have to press 5-5-5 (L) 2 (A) 8 (T) 3-3 (E) and 7-7-7 (R). Subsequent devices developed a mechanism called t9 which used predictive logic to guess what the likely word would be. Again, using the same example, the user would just have to press 5-2-8-3-7 and the system would be intelligent enough to predict that the most likely word formed with this sequence was “later”.

However, I think that the reason for the adaption for txtspk goes much deeper than this. Certainly the vast majority of cell phones today have full alphanumeric keyboards, so why would people still partake in txtspk? I think the answer is in how each younger generation attempts to distance it from the older generation.

Thinking back to when I was younger, we didn’t have txtspk, but we did have our own jargon – our own lingo. We would never dream of expressing ourselves in the same way as our parents, and I think that to an extent that is what is happening with txtspk.

As I mentioned, from a very fundamental (and probably archaic!) point of view, I don’t approve of txtspk. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll do the occasional LOL or BRB, but for the most part, I try to express myself appropriately.

The reason why this whole topic came to mind is that I was on my way home one day and I saw an electronic billboard in front of a restaurant, where the message scrolled across “UR going to love us”. I thought to myself “Wow, this is a pretty sad statement of our society when businesses are using txtspk”.

There are a few things that come to mind though. One of the basic tenets of advertising is that it is mission critical to be able to communicate to your target audience. It made me realize that if this restaurant was targeting teens, then this is probably a very appropriate method of “delivering the message”.

The other thing that I considered was that our vocabulary constantly evolves. New words are added to our lexicon, and I’m certain that archaic words are periodically purged from our dictionaries. How many times do we read an article where an established dictionary has added new words? In essence, they are accepting these words as part of our every day vocabulary.

Think back again to the evolution of our literature. Now – for the most part, our literature is relatively young, but probably the most common (and older) piece that I can think of is the bible. Every so often, the bible (or portions of it) is rewritten to make the message more relevant. I wonder if one was to read some of the original documents from 2,000 years ago, how much of the vernacular used would make the message confusing to us.

Will the “modern classics” like Shakespeare or Charles Dickens need to be spruced up in the future as part of the vocabulary becomes extinct? It’s hard to say, but I will say this, technology stands still for no person. As much as we don’t to adapt, sometimes, we’re forced to, albeit with a kick and a scream.

I’m not convinced that txtspk is “good”, but I think that the reality of it (unfortunate or otherwise) is that it is here to stay.

I’m sure that there are many of them, but I did find this one website that gives a good translation of txtspk for whoever is interested (be warned that there is so profane language in it!).  http://www.internetslang.com/

In closing, all that I can say is TTFN – CYL8R (ta-ta for now – see you later!)

The Long Arm of the Law

Two unrelated stories in the news this week on how the coppers tracked down those of nefarious and questionable ethics and conduct.

In the first case, the thief accidently dropped his cellphone and they were able to track him down by calling the entry marked "Mom" in his phonebook to establish his identity.

The second guy - guys like this, it's probably good that his lack of intelligence is off of the streets. A bank robber who had escaped, sent an email to the local newspaper, mocking the police as there were all sort of inaccuracies that they had noted. Apparently, the only inaccuracy that didn't escape their attention was the general ease that someone can track you down based on your email address/IP address.

At least he won't be spreading his questionable gene pool (with it's inherent lack of intelligence) while in the slammer!

Rubik's Cube

As a kid growing up, I was right in the middle of the Rubik's Cube fascination, but sadly was never able to solve it (not that I spent a lot of effort on it)!

Apparently, a group of mathematicians have cajoled Google into giving them some computing power to try to come up with the ultimate solution.  Based on this computing power, they have come up with a solution that they say can be used to solve ANY cube combination in 20 moves.

First of all, I'm astounded that it can be solved in 20 moves, but most of all, as a software developer, I'd be really interested to find out how they came up with this solution.  The article goes on to state that there are 43 quintrillion (a billion billion) possible combinations, so they couldn't have gone with a "hit and miss" approach I wouldn't think.

The solution is apparently hosted at Cube 20.org and it actually goes on to talk about how they solved the problem.  I am thinking that I should probably make it a goal to get a Rubik's Cube and get this sucker solved!

Tablet PCs. What Exactly Am I NOT Getting?

Okay - I'm confused here - someone...help me out.  THE latest craze seems to be tablet PCs.  Now, from a marketing/technical perspective - what are these "meant" to be?  Are they basically a revved up iTouch with more sophisticated computing power?  Are they meant to be the "next-gen" for computing devices meant to render Notebooks obsolete?

Here's the thing - my biggest problem with tablet PCs is the keyboard.  It's partly that as a touch typist, I detest virtual keyboards (no tactile feedback and such), but it's more than this.  From strictly an ergonomic perspective, a tablet PC makes no sense other than as a casual & ultra-portable computing device.

Keyboards are monitors (ergonomically) cannot be on the same plane.  They just can't.  If the tablet is tilted as a screen normally is, then so is the keyboard.  For minimal typing, sure, that's fine.

I cannot fathom how someone can do serious data entry on a tablet PC.  Seems to be Carpel Tunnel Syndrome just waiting to happen.

Thanks - but no thanks.  As slick and sexy as the iPad and other tablet PCs are, I'll pass.  Instead, give me a freaking iPod Touch with more than 32gb capacity.  I need at least 64mb and probably higher.  I'm just very sick and tired of cycling music in and out.

Yes! Now I FINALLY Can Say it and MEAN It!!

Just read an article that Playboy has agreed to remove ALL girlie pictures and risque content from their iPod/iPad apps to conform to Apple's standards.

Now if only I had had access to this version of Playboy as a young lad, I would have been truthful that I was only reading it for the articles :)

WikiLeaks - Pushing the Boundaries of Freedom of Speech

I've generally been pretty cautious about censorship in general.  I think that diverse opinions are integral in an democratic society.

I'm a little concerned with WikiLeaks though.  From what I've seen, their posting of military documents puts lives at risk and I'm just not convinced that freedom of speech should exist to this extent.  From what I've gathered, not only are military plans that are supposed to be highly classified being disclosed (potentially putting servicemen at risk) but I also have read that some of the documents name individuals in Afghanistan who have supplied information about the Taliban, and the Taliban can now use this information in retaliation.

All that having been said, one of the biggest problems of the Net is that even if it deemed that Wikileaks doesn't have the right to publish this information, how on earth can this be enforced?  I'd be very interested in talking to someone with experience in this area of law, but I wonder if an American resident publishes information through an ISP in a "neutral country", are the individuals liable or are they governed by the laws of the country where the ISP exists?

Blog Stats

Recently, Blogger.com has introduced traffic stats for their blogs. As a relatively small and likely rarely read blog, I find it interesting that there is some "international" traffic to TecHumanity. It's nice to dream and imagine that traffic is going to reach a "tipping point".

Aside from the US (Portland - is that you? lol) and Canada, I show some (minimal) traffic from Denmark, Russia, Ukraine, South Korea and Latvia of all places but they could just be spiders or bots. If these are real people, then drop by and introduce yourselves :)

FAIL - 101

Working away right now...I move my mouse, but the mouse pointer on my screen isn't working...Damn! My computer's frozen! Hmm - maybe my mouse is out of batteries (cordless).

No - wait. I've been sliding my cellphone on my desk, not my mouse. Never mind lol

An Interesting Dilemma

Stephen Hawking went on record as saying that the human race needs to abandon Earth and expand to other planets to ensure their contued existence. That's all fine and dandy, but the thought just occured to me. How on earth (as a saying, not literally!) can we have the infrastructure of technology on a new planet? Think of the logistics of this. I originally half in jest thought of there being no Internet access on NewEarth, but think of the ramifications of society having to revert to a technologically stunted environment.

I ponder how long it would take to get an infrastructure in place to support the technology that we're used to.

But then again, the thought of having a technologically immature society isn't all together unappealing.

...and in Today's SPAM

I can choose to:
- get breast implants
- join an art school
- get a free travel kit when I join the American Association of Retired Person, despite the fact that I am neither American nor Retired
- hire a local contractor to paint
or
- become a social worker.

I just LOVE spam and how it enriches my life.

I think that I'll go with the art school!

Social Networking

I have enough of a problem with Twitter and this constant need to see and broadcast the minutia of one's lives, but I guess whatever floats your boat.  It seems odd, and way too much (spoken as ex-Tweeter).

Next, came Four-Square.  For the un-initiated, you go to your smartphone and you "check in" when you're at some geographic location (i.e. "hey, I'm at Burger King at  Yonge and Dundas!").  I guess the general concept is that you can see if any of your four-square network is in the same geographical location so that you can hook-up.  Umm - not always such a good idea.  I'm waiting for the "criminal element" to tap into this and say "hmm, John can't be at two places at once, so if he's four-squared THERE - he can't be at home" sort of thing.

Next, we have an app called GetGlue where you broadcast and announce what you're watching on the tube or reading or listening too.  I don't know - I suppose a bit harmless I guess, but doesn't this almost fall into the TMI category?

What's next?  Broadcasting announcements of bodily functions?  Well - actually...I did see an app on the iTunes store for this purpose, so you can see who else is ummm, shall we delicately say "indisposed and sitting on the throne".

Don't get it - and I don't know that I WANT to get it.

The Facebook Behemoth

I was just on the elevator a few moments ago.  One of those VDT had a quick story about how Google was in talks with "others" to put together a social network to compete with Facebook.

My first thought - wow - talk about going after THE de facto standard of social networks!  Facebook recently announced that they now have 500 million member.  Firstly, this is a dubious number at best.  How many of those are accounts that are deleted, but not REALLY deleted (by the way, Facebook accounts can be physically deleted instead of being made inactive - I've deleted mine).  That not-withstanding, that is one WHACK of a lot of users.  I have to imagine that this would fall under the "this is an uphill climb" scenario.

I would suppose that if there was any one that could put forth a challenge to Facebook it would be Google and their mystery colloborators.

I am going to very interested to follow this.  I'm fascinated to see exactly how Google & friends propose to steal market share.

The Art of Technology...or Should That Be...The Technology of Art?

First of all, disclaimer time – as those who know me personally can attest, I am not a very artistic person, so my view on this subject might be totally inaccurate, naive or just plain stupid. That having been said, none of that has ever stopped me from voicing my opinion in the past, so it’s certainly not going to start censoring myself now!


One evening, perhaps a month or so ago, I was on the subway on my way home. Almost immediately upon entering the subway car, I noticed a young man – presumably a student engrossed with his digital camera.

For awhile, I watched him – curious as I’m not only interested in technology but also in photography. I noticed him reviewing one particular photograph on the LCD screen and he applied digital filter after filter (sepia, B&W, distortions, etc...) and I became quite fascinated with how he was able to quickly change the whole tone of the picture.

My gut reaction as I watched him apply these filters was that this was way cool. To a large extent, I think it opens up new worlds to the photographer. One could instantly see the myriad of alternatives for the photograph. Now...before I proceed with my concerns, I will be quite honest that when I can afford it, I will be right in line for a Digital 35mm SLR and I’ll likely be doing the exact same thing with my photographs.

As I travelled on the subway, I started thinking a little bit more about this. I came to the realization that as with just about everything else in our life, technology has forever changed yet another aspect of our life – the arts. Where this is sometimes (and quite often is) a good thing, it still comes with a price.

What is art?

As a person who is not terribly artistic, my definition of art would be the sharing of one person’s thoughts and views – a way to express our inner emotions and ideas. Any form of art could be expressed with this very general and high level definition, be it graphics arts, performance arts, literature or art in any other form. I understand that art is so much more than this and I have probably over-simplified, but bare with me.

As demonstrated by watching this young man manipulate his photographs, it became apparent to me that one of the greatest strengths of technology and art is that it gives the artist the freedom and the flexibility to try different things, to find that “version” of their product that best expresses their views. What this article is about is that this is actually a double-edged sword.

The problem lies in that this ease of use allows the artist to continually refine their piece of art. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing but what this mean is that the artist can continually edit their photograph (or manuscript), fine tuning it and editing some more, looking for that “perfect” piece of art.

My concern is that the more that the artist manipulates their product, the less it becomes their view or thoughts at that point in time. Further, given the ease of use of being able to edit their work – is it every truly finished?

I enjoy writing – and I’ve done a bit of it. One of my frustrations is that my writing is never really finished. I continually go back to it, tweak it, clean it up or add some thoughts. With each edit, my writings no longer represent the original idea. I wonder how “A Christmas Carol” would have turned out if Charles Dickens had written it on a word processor as opposed to pen and paper. I expect that writing with on paper and writing on a word processor is a totally different thing.

Another case in point – I love to paint – especially abstracts. This is a case where my art is created using traditional methods. All I need is my paper, brushes, my acrylics and a dose of hyperactivity in conjunction with something that I needed to express.

When I paint, I paint. Once I am finished with a piece, there is no going back – ever. Although probably very primitive and amateurish, there can be no doubt that my artwork is reflective of my mood and thoughts as per that hour of frenzy – of that you can be sure.

Technology is a great thing, but I think that it’s important to keep technology in its own context and never forget about the importance of keeping some humanity as well.

New Blogger Features

I can FINALLY see stats for my blog - see if anyone else actually reads this crud :)

Last few blog posts - apparently not so many lol, but then again, my writing has been sporadic due to lots of stuff going on in my "real life".

Stay tuned - will try to blog more.

Production Costs for Technology

This is what confused and concerns me.  India has unveiled a prototype of a $35 touch screen table - hoping to release in 2011. 

This tablet will be on the very low end (in terms of technology), but the questions remains...HOW is this even possible?  There's something here that doesn't make sense.

My first thought was "oh - this is because third world labour - paying people like $3/day in India to produce". 

I'm sure that is part of the low cost, but what needs to be answered is how are the parts used in the production so cheap?  Again - I understand that they use inferior parts, but how is this even possible?  Is this a sign that we're paying through the skin for our technology?  If India can do it, couldn't we do it too?  I would love to see the true production costs for our technology.  Something just seems fishy to me.

President Obama & Broadband Access

Today, President Obama will announce a total of $790m in government investments (in terms of grants and loans) to implement broadband access in disadvantaged communities.  It is estimated that this program will also create in excess of 5,000 new jobs and result in $200m in related private investment.

I am sure that there are many arguments that can be made about how this amount of money could be better spent, but the thing here is that those in communities without broadband access are likely at a social and economic disadvantage and this will just give them one more way to reach out and find jobs or social services.

Too often, we underestimate the importance of technology.  For most of us, it's a given that we have broadband and WiFi access at our every whim.  We get frustratated when we can't find WiFi hotspots during our city jaunts. 

Like it or not, technology is here to stay - and the ability to connect online is getting to the point where for most people, it's as important as having telephone access.

The Great Side of Technology

I'll be the first to admit that through this blog, I probably tend to be a little critical of technology.  However, there are so many ways that it has enhanced our lives.

As much as I disdain it sometimes as it keeps us virtually tethered to it, I cannot imagine a world without the Internet.  This would be unfathomable for me.

During the past few months, I have been going through some processes in my life which have required me to understand our family law system.  Honestly, the amount of resources out there is just amazing.  I don't know how much hundreds of hours were spent researching the law, the process and existing cases online.  I can't imagine how this could have been done before.  I guess "back in the day", one really did have to depend on a lawyer to do all of this footwork.  Either that or I guess that one had to make specific trips to a legal or reference library.  Still - just manually finding the information without a search engine - can you imagine?

One side note though and this dovetails into one of my thoughts from a previous blog.  That being that one has to be very careful about what information is found on the Internet.  Question EVERYTHING that you see and get confirmation.  I actually ran into a situation just a couple of days before my filing date where my whole case just about came crumbling down around my knees for just this reason.  As part of my research, I had determined which forms to fill out and I found one of the forms through a search engine, downloaded it and filled it out.  I actually called the courthouse later to confirm as I had a sneaking suspicion and I was right - that form was no longer valid - and if I had proceeded to the courthouse with that form - well - it probably would have been disasterous.

David-On-Demand...Just When You Thought We Had Reached the Ultimate Lunacy

Alright, I don't even know where to begin with this one.  My mind just swims with ideas on "what is wrong with this picture".  A tech-enabled tech-geekster wants to go to Cannes.  His boss says that the only way that he'll send him there is if he somehow sets up technology so that they can stream live everything that he is doing (within modest limits of course!), but the kicker here....is that his Twitter followers must be allowed to tell David what to do and David has to do it.

Umm - okay....there's some pretty obvious big gaps on how practical this is.  I'm not even going to insult anyone's intelligence by trying to rationalize this - I'm sure that it must be pretty self-evident.

That having been said, I will try to follow-up on this during and after this week long Twitter-fest to see if I'm right that this just isn't such a good idea on so many different levels.

eReaders and the Information Age

eReaders /drool


In one of my earlier blogs, I pooh-poohed the eReader technology. There are a few things about them that I don’t like, but as I see more and more people using them, the more intrigued I am. As someone that reads a lot – and from a portability point of view – there are some real advantages to having content on an electronic device.

As I read the latest Stephen King 1000+ book in bed last night, I thought to myself that the physical size and weight of a book does impact on its readability. Quite often, I will tuck a book into my notebook bag and this is my casual reading at lunch or on the. However, I just can’t justify lugging around a 1,000 page book back and forth every day. This is one of those cases where having a small and light eReader would definitely be a good thing.

The other thing too is the “shiny factor”. I know that quite often, my posts focus on how one shouldn’t make technology purchasing decisions based on what is new. But gosh, the geeky part of me thinks that it is just almost too cool to resist. I love the thought at being able to click on hyperlinks in a book, or perhaps to highlight a word and have a dictionary pop up.

However, I think that there is one advantage that I had never considered. Publishing books has traditionally been in the realm of the rich and famous in the past, at least in terms of mass distribution. Although there are many vanity publishers, and the price has come down, it still requires a financial commitment to get a book published. The thing that people don’t consider is that writing a book is usually just part of the equation. To a certain extent, a writer should write for himself, but the harsh reality for most authors is that maybe there isn’t an expectation, but certainly a faint hope, of sales. Using a vanity publisher only addresses one issue – the creation of the book. The problem then is what to do with the boxes of books?

Where the advent of eReaders may have a significant advantage is that this opens up a whole new world for these self-publishers. Not only can they be in complete control of the production of their material with minimal costs, but there are also a myriad of opportunities available for them to market their material online. As the use of eReaders becomes more prevalent, I expect that the material for eBooks will as well.

Some make ask why I consider this to be an advantage and to answer this, let’s take go to the past.

It is true that the invention of the printing press opened up new doors. However, as this was an extremely expensive proposition, what this meant is that literally only the truly rich – the elite of society – were able to publish books. What does this mean to society? Quite simply, it means that the vast majority of the reading material available to the general public was published and controlled by society’s elite. Not only was their no room for conflicting opinions or alternative views, but there was no opportunity for those to present diverse opinions.

This glass ceiling of publishing has absolutely been shattered and this gives everyone the opportunity to voice their opinions.

However, like anything else, everything has its costs and benefits. The disadvantage of this ability to self-publish is that it not only floods society with exponentially more material to sift through, but it also contributes to what I call the “Wikipedia effect”. This being that just because an article is published on Wikipedia, does not make this a fact and the net result of this is that we all have more due diligence to determine what is valid and what is not.

In this digital age, we are all “experts”. We need to take everything we read with a grain of salt and challenge everything. That having been said, I don’t think that this is necessarily a bad thing. I think that technology as a whole has made us too lazy to think sometimes. Think back to the store clerk that needed a calculator to figure out the change due from a $10 bill on a $9.28 payment. Thinking is never a bad thing.

/end drool

Unlimited WiFi Access at Starbucks?

Starbucks has announced is now they're offering unlimited WiFi.  But...but...but...now, you get free WiFi for 2 hours.  Is that not sufficient?  Are there people who go to Starbucks and hang there all day.  To answer my own question - yeah - I'm sure there are, but this cowboy ain't one of them.  Probably the most that I've ever used up of my 2h allotment is perhaps 30min or so.

It would be nice I suppose, but certainly can't imagine that this is something that the vast majority of their customers will find useful.

Pier Pressure

Remember the "good old days" when we were kids.  We did something because someone told us too.  Our parents responded with "if they told you to jump off a pier - would you"?

Lady down in the US is suing Google Maps.  Apparently she has a smart phone and used it to access Google Maps to get walking instructions from Point A to Point B.  The map told her to...walk right across a busy multi lane road without proper sidewalks or pedestrian controls.  The lemming that she is, she blithely and obliviously crosses the road and...yes...gets hit by a car.  Somehow, this is Google's fault?  Goodness gracious, how did she ever make it to adulthood if she was not capable of formulating a logical thought such as "it is REALLY a good idea to cross the street"?

The Hidden Cost of Technology

There’s no denying that there are numerous benefits to technology. However, by the same token, any new innovation in society has an inherent cost.

For the past week or so, I’ve been struggling with a topic for this month. This morning, I was talking to someone on the phone and the topic got around to a cordless phone set that I was looking at using at home. The only problem with it is that the battery doesn’t hold a charge. My first thought was that I could just buy a new rechargeable battery. However, seeing that it’s a two handset combo and that both batteries were in question, I thought to myself that it would probably be cheaper to toss both of the handsets and the base – that the cost of a new phone would probably be not much more than buying 2 new batteries.

As soon as these words came out of my mouth, I realized the whole fundamental problem with technology; it is based to be thrown out. It is clearly designed to be obsolete, leading us to buy the newest and greatest every few years.

For those of us that have purchased computers, stop and think about how many “old and slow” computers you have at home – that are collecting dust because they don’t meet the needs of technology anymore. I know that for myself (in a three person household!), I have 1 notebook and 2 desktops that are currently being used. However, I also have 1 other “older” notebook and two other desktops that no longer meet my needs.

This follows in quite closely to my previous article on chasing the carrot of technology and that’s what we do.

The advances in technology encourage us to dispose of our hardware and software.

The true hidden cost of technology that is not considered nearly enough is what do we do with all of this hardware that we no longer use?

Here at work, our property managers had a “used electronics drive” to encourage their tenants to dispose of old hardware in special containers so that they could be recycled properly during the month of April.

I noticed a memo up in the kitchen the other day from the property managers saying that they had acquired 13,000 pounds of hardware in one month! That is 6.5 tons of hardware that thankfully is being diverted from landfill areas and being recycled.

The real question that begs to be answered is if there are 13,000 pounds in the GTA that is being recycled, then how much hardware is NOT being recycled – and that’s a scary answer.

What components are sitting in landfills and as they rust and corrode? What is being released into our environment?

I recall back in the…mid 90’s…I think. America Online was famous for sending out unsolicited CDs to encourage people to sign up with AOL. Without any exaggeration, I’d say that I had received at least a couple of dozen CDs in the mail or in magazines. Did they all get recycled? Based on this being in the 90’s – probably not, I’m afraid. I would think that it is probably a very conservative estimate to suggest that there are perhaps 1,000,000 AOL CDs in landfills. According to many ecological assessments, it will take approximately 500 years for a CD to fully decompose!

Another case in point is ink-jet printers. I am of the opinion that ink-jet printers are a prime contributor to this problem. They are so cheap and the ink itself is so expensive that should one have any difficulties at all with the hardware, the sad thing is that it’s probably economically better to just throw out said inkjet printer and purchase a new one instead of getting it fixed.

Same problem with cell-phones. My concern with cell-phones is that marketing plans actively encourage us to buy new cell phones when we “fall out of love with our old phone”. How do companies justify encouraging us to throw out something just because it isn’t new and shiny anymore?

The “theory” is that this is something that our government is concerned with, but the reality is that I’m just not sure. The Ontario government does charge an environmental disposal fee when new hardware is purchased. However, according to their legislations, they charge a grand total of $7.80 when a new computer is purchased. Is this really sufficient when it comes to the point in time when the hardware is recycled? Perhaps it is, maybe I just haven’t done enough research (I haven’t) to be able to offer an opinion on the efficacy of the program, but something just smells to me.

Let’s not even talk about the impact on the environment to physically do this recycling. How much gas is used to transport 11,000 pounds of hardware to a recycling depot? How much smoke is generated in the recycling plant? What chemicals do they use? How much of the hardware is actually recycled?

This whole issue of recycling our hardware and software, very clearly a significant hidden cost of the technology.

B&B Marketing

Good old Internet marketing - aka - SPAM. Was somewhat amused yesterday when I received two disaparate emails. The first was for Bras and the second...the second...was for..forklifts! Talk about two totally different products.

In both cases (but especially the latter), I like to refer to this as B&B marketing. Bullhorn and buckshot. The bullhorn is self-evident. The buckshot - well - you shoot off enough pellets and sooner or later one will hit a target.

The email for bras - okay - so I see their plan that with a mass market, they have a 50/50 chance at reaching their target audience. But forklifts? Seriously - I am very curious as to what the click-through on that email was. What's next? Spam for swimming pools? Nuclear reactors? A rocket-launcher perhaps?

B&B Marketing - it just has to be the lazy man's way of doing this.

Artificial Intelligence – Possible? Yes. Probable? Yes. In our Lifetime? Probably Not.

It has been a number of months since I’ve started off one of my articles with a quote. Today – I go back to my roots with the following quote:
“I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.”

I’m curious as to which of my audience recognizes this quote. I’m not sure if the most recognition would be from those of a certain generation – or perhaps those who appreciate particular genres of entertainment.

Regardless, this quote is from a movie – too be specific “2001 – A Space Odyssey” and it is muttered by “no-one” other than HAL-9000 – the onboard computer.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been pondering what to write this month. I knew that I wanted to write about “Artificial Intelligence” for lack of a better word. Once I read this quote, one thing immediately came to mind.

I think that there is a grandiose notion that eventually technology will evolve to the extent where it will become a form of a sentient being. Perhaps one day, technology will evolve (evolve?) to such an extent, but I don’t think that this will be in our lifetime, perhaps not even in the lifetime of our children, either.
This may be heresy to suggest, and there’s a good chance that I could be totally wrong. As much as technology has evolved over the last 20 years, I certainly don’t see any semblance of it pushing the envelope in terms of this level of sophistication.

Getting back to the quote from Hal – I’m most interested in the term “conscious entity”. I think that most people would consider that to be a relatively decent definition of “life”. Merriam-Webster gives a couple of interesting definitions:
1 : perceiving, apprehending, or noticing with a degree of controlled thought or observation
2: capable of or marked by thought, will, design, or perception
Can technology – in any form be considered of being self-aware? I don’t think so – not through any evidence that I have ever heard of or seen. I think of another movie from many years ago, “Demon Seed”. In this movie, Proteus (the computer) is clearly self-aware and does whatever is in its power to prevent being shut down.
If this is indeed one example of how a computer could be considered to be self-aware (and therefore be considered “conscious”), then I think that it’s quite apparent that we are many decades away from developing this type of sophistication.

If it is theoretically possible to build a machine that is self-aware, then I think that the first fundamental problem is that the technology as we know it is nowhere near sophisticated enough, quick enough or has sufficient capacity to host and run a series of programs that would define the computers “soul”.

Let’s take the last problem – that of capacity. How much data could the human mind hold. The answer itself is actually the whole root of the problem. The answer is that no-one really knows how much information the human brain can hold. One researcher from Syracuse University has speculated that the human mind can hold perhaps in the range of 500-1000 terabytes. One terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes, so if I consider that this notebook that I’m using has a 500gb hard disk, then the mind holds more than 1,000 times the capacity that I am working with now.

However, this leads to an interesting point, this memory requirement is what is required to store as much data as is in my mind. This does not take into consideration the extraordinarily complex program code that would need to be in the computer to process and analyze this data. Let’s say for the sake of argument that we’d need an addition 500-1000tb for the program itself.

The biggest argument against the possibility of there being sentient beings in anything but the distant future is that there is so much that we don’t understand about the human mind. There are numerous mysteries as it involves how data is processed, how decisions are made, how judgements are evaluated and how to analyze goals.

It doesn’t matter how good of a software designer or developer I am, if I don’t have a thorough and intimate knowledge of exactly how the mind works, then I can’t be expected to be able to write software that contains these skills.