Technology as a Pacifier

In today’s hectic world, technology is a welcome relief from the constant bombardment of the daily life of work, travel, and home – repeat and recycle. Having a mechanism to give one’s self a break from the outside world can be a welcome and necessary relief.

To a certain extent I think that this is even more so necessary in today’s world where there is a technological connection for most people from virtually the moment we wake up until the time we go to bed.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with using technology as an escape, perhaps to listen to music, play a game or read something online but I often wonder if sometimes we’d be better off just totally unplugging ourselves, even for short periods of time.

I had a conversation with my girlfriend not too long ago and she mentioned how she had noticed so many children being handed iPads or other devices on the subway by a frustrated and weary parent. It caused me to think that she was right. As a parent, I can understand and appreciate the desperation we can have with a finicky child. However, I’m really wondering if using technology as a pacifier is such a good idea.

I do think back at earlier years though and I remember a time where the parent would be taking the child on their lap to read with them or read to them, or perhaps to invent and play a travel game with the child. Call me “old school” but I think that it’s not such a bad thing to have the parent being the source of relief for the child.

It’s probably not so different from when many of us were children and we were plunked down in front of the television – the electronic baby-sitter of the day. For the most part we turned out okay, but with today’s technology at every turn of our daily lives, the temptation to rely on the technology is difficult to resist.

What message do we send to our children when they are upset, frustrated or tired and we respond by handing them the electronic device instead of paying attention to them and spending that time with them? Is this the message that we want to give them, that the best way to deal with the stress is to reach for the device?

It’s a difficult road being a parent and I’m not naïve to think that I’m not guilty of the above. In some respects a parent will – and should – use whatever tools are at their disposal to help with parenting. I’ve had those days when it is absolutely necessary to steal an hour and keep one of my kids engaged with technology, but I’d like to think that it was just enough to allow me to regroup and recharge my batteries. A parent that selectively uses technology isn’t a bad parent; sometimes it will help them to become better parents as they can have that break in the day.

I suppose that I’d feel more comfortable with this technology if I saw a parent and a child at least sharing this technology together. I’d much rather see a mother and a son on the subway cuddled in together as they play some game or the child reads a story to the mother. At least then, the parent is there, in the moment and I think that’s what this article is really all about.

What3Words - A New Way to Share Directions

One of the biggest problems with the exchange of directions is nearly similar street names, or perhaps that the directions themselves are somewhat ambiguous "Meet me at the corner of King and Yonge" bring the most basic question - WHICH corner.

Well, a new website addresses all of this, in a very unique, creative and detailed manner. What3Words.COM has divided the entire world (well - probably the vast majority of it) into 57 trillion 3mx3m squares. What they have then done is assigned three words to this physical location and this combination of three words is unique to that specific location. The beauty of this is that this means that when I'm giving directions to the family cottage, I can just reference the three words associated with it - and a link to What3Words, and they will get the precise location.

The extra little tidbit of cool information is that you can purchase your own "one word" for that location on an annual basis - basically like a vanity plate for a car - or at least to make it easier to remember the What3Words key. I am seriously pondering "buying" the key for the cottage and using the name of the cottage as it's reference. It's a really unique way to communication a physical location!

Life Through a Lens

I was down at Harbourfront with my girlfriend as we watched the Canada Day celebrations. As we stood there watching the fireworks, the one thing that really struck me was how many people were watching the fireworks, but watching them through the lens of their camera.

Although they were indeed capturing the moments for posterity, it occurred to me that by focusing (pun only partly intended) on the filming, they weren't fully experiencing the event; they were only watching the fireworks through the rectangle of their device and therefore oblivious to the surroundings. For me, half of the fun was to experience not only the fireworks, but also the reaction of the people – especially seeing the joy of the toddler on his dad’s shoulders.

Upon further reflection, it seems to me that this isn't an isolated demonstration on how we can sometimes use technology as a “filter” in terms of our real world experiences. I watch people who think that it’s necessary to tweet or text message at a movie theatre. I don’t know how many times I’ve almost been clobbered as I walk down the streets and someone turns a corner, completely immersed on their cell phone, not aware of where they are going.

There are many more examples where life is experienced vicariously through an electronic device. The irony of this is that the true and full experience is easily obtained, just put down the device from time to time and look around!

Taking pictures or filming special moments help us to capture, reminisce and cherish those moments. Photography enhances our lives just as technology can. I’ll always like my tech toys and I’ve found things like my GPS or my smartphone (and the many Android apps that are installed on it) to be a wonderful resource the enables me to get directions, find restaurants, check account balances or even to check news or sports. I’d be pretty lost without technology, it’s an intrinsic part of my daily routine.

I think of this issue as if I were using a camera that had a macro lens and I was focusing in on a flower as I was photographing it. My field of vision would be greatly reduced and I would be missing out what was no longer visible in the periphery compared to a regular lens.

I’m not suggesting that people abandon their cameras – or their devices – to get the full experience. There’s something to be said for having a record of moments in time, that’s why many of us take pictures or videos. All that needs to be done is to stop and observe and experience from time to time.

Deals Deals Deals!

Blame it on the Scottish in me but one of my favourite things to do is to find deals via the Internet.  I've used Hotwire pretty frequently over the past 6 months and have found some pretty good prices on hotel rooms that wouldn't have normally been available.  Throw into that, a few entertainment related sites where I was able to get some great deals on wine tasting tours in the Niagara region, as well as other getaways, it's definitely much better than paying list price!

HowSpamWorks

The carousel of SPAM - or Internet Marketing - is ongoing.  As we become wise consumers of information online, the gauntlet is tossed our way as the Marketeers try to find innovative ways of suckering us in.

I've been caught on this a few times, most recently today on a link that was mixed in with (legitimate) "additional articles" on CNN.  I clicked on an article that sounded interesting and proceeded to read.  At the end of it, I thought to myself "hmm, why do I feel like I'm reading a commercial and not a objective news article".  

Suspicions arose and I went through other articles on this website which appears to be another "new oriented" website with sections like: News, Health & Beauty, Financial, Jobs, etc..  My first inkling was that was no Sports tab.  I know of very few information portals that would have one.  I then proceeded to pick and choose from each tab glancing through the articles and sure enough, the vast majority appeared to be a very subtle commercial.

It's not really all that hard.  If you are reading an article, then just take a moment and ask yourself, does it appear that the article is being objective.  The answer may not tell you right away if it is SPAM or not, but it will give you a sense.

I should add that I really shouldn't be referring to this instance as SPAM, as it's not being pushed to my email address, but the intent is the same as so many email messages that we receive on a daily basis.

I guess that the long and short of it is the maxim that has predated the Information Age - Don't Believe Everything You Read.

GMAIL and Email Addresses

I’ve been using GMAIL much more frequently over the past year or so and so it is with interest that I read an article on the naming convention of GMAIL email addresses that I was not aware of.

In any other email system that I’ve dealt with, the DOT is considered an alphabetic character which can also be used to improve readability of the email address. An email address of DavidOshea@yahoo.com could be setup as David.O.Shea@yahoo.com which would be different from David.Oshea@yahoo.com.

Where GMAIL is different is that it ignores the dot and although you can create an email address such as David.Oshea@gmail.com, any email to David.O.Shea@gmail.com or DavideOshea@gmail.com would also receive these emails.

GMAIL acknowledges this and calls it a feature. However, it is important for those that are setting up their email addresses to be aware of this so that their email addresses are sufficiently unique enough.

PRISM and the Digital Refraction

By their very nature, a prism is a geometric figure that refracts (bends) incoming light and changes the direction of it.

One of the hotter stories in the technology arena the past few weeks is that of the US Government PRISM program and it seems to me that their decision to name the program as such may not have been as deliberate as how I perceive it, but to me, it’s a very appropriate moniker.

PRISM is an electronic surveillance program developed and administered by the National Security Agency in the United States. The intent of this program is to monitor websites, photos, emails, and video and chat sessions in order to protect the country from foreign threats

Last week, an NSA contractor leaked documents which seem to indicate that the scope of the program has far exceeded the original intent and it is alleged that it now has direct access to the servers (and the data contained within) of Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft and other major websites.

The protection of a society is always paramount and many times it’s a delicate balance to afford this, while at the same time preserving the fundamental civil liberties. A program which tramples civil liberties (despite all of its good intentions) is as dangerous as a program where the population is at risk if the government is unaware of plots and aren’t able to intercept them.

What concerns me most is how it appears that the mandate of PRISM can grow, casting a bigger net over democracy. While they may be catching some of the bigger fish, there are too many smaller (and innocent) fish being caught up in the same net.

PRISM is not allowed to specifically target any individual unless there is reason to believe that there is direct evidence of a specific threat or plot.

In addition, there is also a “guilt by association” factor coming into play. If there is a specific “terrorist” where the NSA has significant reason to believe that there is a risk, then part of their online presence will be silently monitored. Further (and for me, this is the scary part), if there are a number of incoming emails to this individual, then the NSA can expand their scope and consider the sender to be a “person of interest” and as such, while they may not specifically monitor that person, at the very least, they could be flagged.

The danger is that with the technological age, the whole concept of “Six Degrees of Separation” has probably become more something like “3 ½ Degrees of Separation”. The number of people that we communicate with has grown exponentially in the digital age with message boards, user communities, social networking and the like.

In my mind, it’s very much like the Phacebook Phriends Phenomena which seems to be that it’s all about the number of “friends” on their profile. I find it hard to imagine that people actually have 500-600 true “friends”. I’m quite happy to keep my Facebook profile very sparse, but I digress.

Much like the prism, the PRISM program seems to be “bending” the data contained within the information superhighway to suit its purposes, assuming malevolence where there is not some.

Whether the large tech companies are permitting NSA full and unfettered access to their data remains to be seen. Even if this scandal turns out to be paranoid hyperbole, I am convinced that government agencies will not be able to resist the electronic breadcrumbs that we lay down.

The Traveling Bug

There are many aspects of technology that I find to be extraordinarily useful in my life but probably one of the biggest is the benefits of doing research on travel.  As I was reading through travel information on Greece this morning, it reminds me that there being to solicit opinion, read reviews and compare prices have made self-booking travel to be feasible.

No longer are we required to visit the travel agent, from start to stop, the whole experience can be investigated, managed and booked without human intervention if desired.   The biggest advantage of this though is that it gives the prospective traveler the opportunity to play "what if" and look at the myriad of options available in terms of costs, itineraries, flights and accommodations and to build the best package for them!

A Break from Technology

During a trip to Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake on this Victoria Day weekend, I'm reminded of the importance of taking breaks from technology.  I find that so often that I am so immersed in technology with text messages, emails and surfing, that I forget the simple joys of going for walks and enjoying nature.

Lying in a park on the grass and watching families playing, it helped to recall that there's much more to connections and families was just a perfect ending to a wonderful weekend away from technology.

Alien Invasions?!?!

Google has announced that there have been 900,000,000 devices that have been activated with Android since 2010!  Wow, that's kind of mind boggling.  That's a whole lot of devices!

Password Security - Lock It Down!

By now, most people are aware of the concept – and the importance – of having strong passwords. Generally a strong password is one that is difficult for an individual to guess or a system to crack. There are too many instances where security has been breached and in the case of a corporate breach in security, this is a big problem as confidential client information can be exposed and obtained.

One of the bigger challenges is how to make passwords stronger without making it more difficult to remember.

Intel has a website[s1] where you can enter a password and it will estimate how long it would take for the password to be cracked given the complexity of it.

In a simple case, take the password Twinkletoes76. Many would think that this is moderately strong as it’s not a dictionary term and the numbers at the end just add to the complexity. The Intel webpage (http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/security/passwordwin.html) estimates that this password would take 0.007 seconds for an automated system to crack.

Please note that the password(s) that you enter are not sent to their servers, or stored online anywhere, the calculations are strictly done via your local browser.  Still, they recommend making slight changes to your password for safety's sake.

The next approach in password generation is to embed special characters in the password and substitute these characters for the alphabetic characters in the password. Using the same base password as above, by simply changing the letter i to the number 1 and changing the l to an exclamation mark, then the new password of Tw1nk!etoes76 all of a sudden becomes much more secure and it would take a week to crack.

Here is where it gets fun.

A special character can be inserted in the password and it will not make it much more difficult to remember but it will significantly improve the strength. By placing a @ between the 1st and the 2nd characters so that the password is now T@w1nk!letoes76, the estimate is that it would take 1 year to guess the password.

Finally, to supersize the strength, just repeat that newly inserted special character and repeat it either one of more times so that the password is now either T@@w1nk!etoes76 or T@@@w1nk!etoes76 (with 2 or 3 @ signs respectively) and the estimates increase to 33 years for the former and 1,076 years for the latter!

In terms of memorization, it’s no harder for a human to remember the very last password than the original. Cognitively, we recognize that it’s still twinkletoes76 with character substitution with the i and the l and with 3 @ added in to the strong.

Digitized Immortality

Despite a certain appeal to the thought of being immortal, the stark reality is that time stops for no person and there are a plethora of reasons as to why immortality isn’t such a good idea.

The true “immortal” is the impact that our lives had on others and the memories and the love that we leave behind. Hopefully, these imprints of our passed life will comfort our loved ones as they recall certain aspects of our lives.

In this respect, our immortality transcends a physical body, the container as it were. I personally would never be interested in true physical immortality. I’m much more concerned with living my life in a manner that will hopefully impact others, so that my influence on part of this world will not end when I do.

I then think about how this somehow relates as it’s the person who we are that dictates how people perceive and remember us. When remembering someone who has passed before us, we may recall the physical characteristics, but it’s the person that we miss; the kindness, the love, the touch and the laughter.

Although our online personas rarely reflect our true character, for most of us, they are generally representative of who we are and how we have chosen to live our life. For the most part, our digital alter-egos are free of the trappings of the physical bias that one might have in the “in person” world.

One of the benefits of technology in terms of cultivating relationships is that we can interact with individuals in different geographic locations that simply can’t be done as easily in the “real world”. As a result, it’s possible to build more relationships than might be possible in person. In addition, we may have an in person friend or family member who is abroad and technology can be a wonderful medium to stay in touch and in this respect; technology can enable us to improve the quality of our relationships.

I was amazed to read an article on wills recently that dealt with this topic and it’s something that I hadn’t considered. In addition to the normal instructions on disposition of assets, many wills now contain specific instructions for notifications for accounts, in addition to containing email and social network passwords so that the deceased individuals “electronic estate” can be wound down as well, including not only social networks but other sites where credit card information is stored (including those where there are automatic renewals).

Mind you, the biggest problem for me would be to somehow figure out what websites that I have a login. I recently went to buy tickets at Ticketmasters and completely forgot that I had a previously setup account. Accounts such as this, I wouldn’t be too concerned if they lived on long beyond me, but there are some others such as my online art ‘portfolio’ that I’d rather have instructions for it to be closed. Somehow, my artwork is very personal to me and I don’t like the thought of it being accessible in perpetuity.

I was also reminded recently when discussing this topic that one of the other problems with these digital identities and why they need to be “wound down” is that if they are not, it may lead to more identify theft, as the person who would normally monitor their online identify, obviously can’t do so anymore.

Doing the Math, That Would Mean Approximately 99,999,900 Unhappy Users...

...as Microsoft has announced that they've sold 100,000,000 copies of Windows 8.  I'm sure it's not a stretch to think that perhaps that there are 1,000 happy users out there.

Signed

- A Disgruntled Windows 8 User

The World is at Your Feet

I was watching TV this afternoon and saw a commercial for an athletic apparel company and their slogan is "The World is at Your Feet".

I immediately thought of technology and with all of the good of it, the bad is that it encourages and seduces us to be virtual.

As soon as I finished watching this commercial, I thought that if I appended the saying to be "The World is at Your Feet, Not Your Fingertips", this would be a perfect slogan for TecHumanity.

Almost makes a fella want to go out kayaking or something.  Okay, maybe not, maybe we start out with taking the dog out squirrel-hunting - that'd be a start!

The Elephant In The Room

Read a very interesting article yesterday that PC sales are down significantly across the board and it's believed that the reason why is that Windows 8 is the main reason why and that many people are just migrating to tablets.

I am not convinced that there is a direct correlation between the two and it could be anecdotal but it does seem clear to me that Windows 8 definitely isn't taking the world by storm.

It seems to me that technology in terms of significant computing is at a crossroads as the industry tries to decide what our platforms will be.

I still remain very pessimistic about tablets becoming the de-facto hardware in business and heavy home usage.  If it does, then I will certainly buy stock in firms relates to products that alleviate Repetitive Strain Injury as this will be a very high growth sector.

The Vestigial Tale of Technology

ves·tig·i·al  

/veˈstij(ē)əl/

Adjective
1. Forming a very small remnant of something that was once much larger or more noticeable: "he felt a vestigial flicker of anger".

2. (of an organ or part of the body) Degenerate, rudimentary, or atrophied, having become functionless in the course of evolution.

Evolution of species is pretty much all about the development of features and body parts that enable that species to grow and become more sophisticated. An example of this would be the opposable thumb which humans and some primates have developed and has been paramount in the development of the species as it has allowed us to hold tools and therefore to build.

Similarly, there are others that are no longer required during the evolution of the species. Evolution has also decided that a species shouldn't expend energy on parts of the body that are no long needed in which case, the body part of feature becomes less significant.

Scientists believe that at all mammals had tails and that as these species evolved their need for a tail was eliminated. Through countless generations, the tail shrank until now; it’s believed that all mammals have a remnant of it – just a nub at the base of the spine that is referred to as the Vestigial Tail.

Recently, I was out with a friend and we were talking about technology and how it impacts our lives. One of the things that I mentioned to her is that one of my concerns with technology sometimes is that it becomes difficult for us to do things on our own and in some cases, we never adapt skills that might be useful as technology does it force us and we’re never forced to learn.

I’ve never learned how to drive a manual transmission because I've never needed to. Here in Canada, I’ve never had a problem getting a car with an automatic transmission. I was stymied when I went to Cuba last year and I just didn’t bother renting a car as they were all manual transmissions. The other example that I was discussing was my concern with these self-parking vehicles. It’s great that they will automatically parallel park but for the novice driver, it makes them completely dependent on a self-parking car because they do not have the skills to do so on their own. Since technology provides this function, there’s no need to learn the fundamental skill. This in turn can inhibit the growth and development of basic skills.

There are many other aspects of our lives where the technology has clearly made our lives easier but by the same token, our lack of ability to perform a task manually will impede us. I made reference to this anecdote in an article a couple of years ago but it completely gets my point across. I was in a store a couple of years ago making a minor purchase, the cost was something like $4.72 so I handed her a $5 bill. The cashier, who was an adult, was perplexed as to what to do as the till was down. She looks at my $5 and the price tag and then the moment of brilliance crosses her mind and she whips out a solar powered calculator to figure out the change. I was stunned that an adult was incapable of such a basic math exercise.

As technology advances it does wonderful things for us. It calculates much more accurately and quickly than I ever could; I still remain concerned which of our skills may become akin to the vestigial tail as a direct result of technology.

I suppose that there would be those that argue and say that these skills are old school and not worth worrying about. Perhaps they’re right. I don’t know how to use an abacus and in all of my years, I can’t remember one time when I said to myself “gosh, I REALLY wish I knew how to flip these beads on this abacus!”.

That having been said, old school is old school, I suppose. I best be more concerned about being the dog that’s able to learn new tricks than to be overly concerned with any technological vestigial tales.

Password Security

I had an experience today which has really caused me some concern with regards to security.  A received a notification from Yahoo stating that one of the email addresses that I do not use was breached, that there was a successful login.  My very first thought is that this was a scam trying to get me to click through on the links to get my password.

I opened up a new tab in my browser and manually went to the Yahoo Mail page and opened up my email.  Sure enough, it was obvious it had been comprised as there were emails in my Sent folder that I did not send.  As a matter of fact, I probably hadn't logged into that email in months.

I'm not so concerned with this email address and I may eventually shut it down, it's basically just a 'portal' to create a Yahoo Messenger account with a little more privacy.  The bigger question is how did this breach happen.  Now, I will say this, the password that I used for this email was a very standard password that I had used in the past on other sites.  However, there would be no way for someone to tie this email account to me, so it's not as if someone knew this password, that they'd be able to associate the password with this email address.

The second thing that I thought of was that maybe I had malware on one of my computers and it had captured the password as I had typed it in and silently emailed it out.  However, it's not that either, as I don't use the email address and probably hadn't logged in, in the past few months.

I then thought that maybe it was a brute force attack using software to generate passwords from the dictionary, but I don't think that's it either, as after a certain number of unsuccessful attempts, the account would have been locked.

I come back to someone, somehow knew not only my password but also the email address which normally wouldn't be associated with me.

This is more than a bit concerning. I think that I will need to go through my login ID and clean them up and start taking password security a little more seriously.

NYC - The Big (Silicon) Apple

Very interesting read by Dave Karpen that I found on LinkedIn this morning and his claim that NYC is the new technological capital of the world.  The article is here.

How accurate and unbiased it is, I can't say yet as I haven't really looked at it in great detail but for so many years California has been the defacto location for high tech.  Whether NYC completely supplants remains to be seen, but somehow, the thought of startup companies and technologies in CA seems a lot sexier than in NY.

South Korea Cyber-Attack

I'm continuing to follow this story as this whole issue of technological vulnerability is of great interest - and concern - to me.

One of the bigger problems that the authorities are having is determining who is behind this major attack on South Korea and it's banking system and television networks.  Apparently, it's estimated that it will take another 5 days to restore functionality and somewhere in the range of 32,000 computers were affected in South Korea.

This is serious stuff and I think it is just the tip of the iceberg.  I'm willing to bet that there are many occasions where there have been similar attacks that have not been publicized for fear of eroding confidence in the technology or services.

Streaming Music

It was with great interest I read an article today talking about how Apple, Google and Amazon are jockeying for position in the online music streaming industry.

Listening to music has always been my thing and what I'm reading has made me reevaluate how I listen to my music.

In the past, I've been pretty much a collector of music and I *gasp* actually pay for it.  I do get teased often as I don't believe in getting ripped off music (insert props to my nephew here - you know who and you know why).  I believe that the artists need to compensated in order to keep the innovation in music going, but I digress.

The thing is that I've always liked the fact that I have a very diverse choice in music and the genres and artists that I listen too change depend on the stages in my life or my mood of the day.

This is where I think the streaming music business model makes a lot of sense of me personally.  This will open up the floodgates to trying all kinds of new music and artists.

The only big problem that I can see (and I hate to harp on this) but this will only work on my devices where I actually have an Internet connection.  I suppose in that case, I'd still have my library of music stored on portable device to listen to.

It also seems to me that in terms of music providers, there seems to be a large amount of brand loyalty and this probably explains why the big players are trying to get people on-board with their music streaming service.

This is definitely worthy of future investigation!

Strategic Warfare

As I mentioned in the Digital Terrorism blog entry, I remain convince that technological warfare is becoming more common.

War, by nature, is impacted by, and evolves through, technology.  As technology advanced, so did the weapons, the defenses and the strategies.

In recent news, there has been a major attack on South Korea's infrastructure (including banks and television stations) and it's widely believed that North Korea is behind the attack.

Unfortunately, this is going to be come increasingly prevalent as a digital attack is significantly cheaper and safer than conventional warfare, let alone that a cyber-attack can be launched regardless of the geographic locations.

I was talking about this concern that I have with my son the other day and the way that I put it to him is that a well throughout cyber-attack - or even a natural disruption of technology - can cripple a society in so many different ways.  It can disrupt banking, medical services and records, send the economy into a tailspin, disrupt vital communications and traffic networks.  The list goes goes on.

This dependency that we have on technology isn't such a great thing when we have this completed dependency on it with very little manual fail-safe built into it.

Quantum Computing - A New Frontier

My previous article laid the foundation of how data is represented with current technology and that at its most granular level it is represented by a “bit” which is simply an electronic state that is either on or off. Much like a light switch can only have two states, so too can the bit only have two possible values. Last month’s article can be found here: Quantum Computing Primer - Understanding Bits and Bytes and is a basis for this month’s article

A bit is stored and manipulated at the electrical level and is represented by current flowing to that circuit. There is no middle ground, nor is it possible, for the current to be on and off at the same time. A bit can only have one of two states – on or off.

The concept of quantum computing is not new – it has been around since the early 1980’s but it’s only been recently that there have been advances which suggest that quantum computing is more than a theory and is possible in the real world, although for now, it’s on a very small scale. However, where this technology has being considered a new frontier, is that it is moving out of the realm of the theoretical and recent experiments suggest that it is possible.

In 2012, two scientists were awarded a Nobel Prize for an experiment in which they were able to demonstrate that they could have the same light particle at two different spots at the same time.

As the “bit” is the most granular level with conventional technology, quantum computing introduces its own version of the bit called a “qubit” (quantum bit). 

The following is admittedly a bit mind-blowing, especially for someone like me who is not a science major as there’s a revolutionary approach to data storage with the qubit.

The entire technology of quantum computing which makes it so intriguing is that the qubit can also be on or off like the traditional bit, but it can also be on and off at the same time.   What makes the quantum computing qubit so powerful is not only does it have these three states (on, off, on AND off), but it can also be any state BETWEEN on and off all at the same time.

Quantum computing is not based on electrical signals and current but instead, data is stored and manipulated at the atomic level.

How exactly does this benefit technology?  Well, recall in the previous article that stated that each character we type is comprised of 8 bits.  The word “Hello” uses 5 bytes and since there are 8 bits per byte, the most that can be done with 40 bits of information is to store a five character word.  The generally accepted theory is that a quantum computer which contains “only” 30 qubits (the equivalent to the word “hello” in existing bit technology) will be literally millions of times more powerful than today’s computer thanks to a concept called “Inherent parallelism” which suggests that the quantum computer can work on millions of operations simultaneously instead of just one at a time. 

Even though this technology is primarily theoretical, this is laying the groundwork for a technological revolution that none of us have experienced.    In 1812, Charles Babbage conceived of the first programmable machine, the precursor to the computer.  I consider the quantum computer to have the same impact.

How long it will take this technology to become mainstream is difficult to say.  From the little that I’ve read, it’s probably going to take at least 5 years to move this technology out of the labs and into a personal computer prototype and then perhaps another 5 years before the technology matures to the extent that it could be mass produced.  As always, these new technologies are very expensive as there is so much Research and Development cost that they need to recoup up front but I’m still excited at the thought of what this will mean to the computing world.

Quantum Computing Primer - Understanding Bits and Bytes

I've been some reading on the next true evolution of computers, that being quantum computing.  In the current digital world all of the data, all of the application, everything we do with computers can be broken down in it's simplest at the "bit" level - that a bit being a two state "switch" that is either on or off.

Before I can continue to write about quantum computing and what it's implications and impact may be on our technology and lives, it is important to understand how computers work and store data now.  This will be the first in a series of articles which attempts to explain the fundamentals.  For many of you, these articles may not be as relevant as you already understand these fundamentals..

The bit - and the inherent on/off - is a fundamental tenet of our technology.  Each character that we type or read is comprised of 8 bits and it's referred to a more familiar term - the byte (and it's distant relations, megabytes and gigabytes - millions and billions of bytes respectively.  A byte is made of 8 bits, each of which is either on or off which gives us a possibility of up to 256 different combinations of the 8 bits within a given byte which can be demonstrated as below (with 0 representing a bit being off and 1 with the bit being on).




Bit #        0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7
Bit Value  128 64 32 16  8  4  2  1  Byte Value
             0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0
             0  0  0  0  0  0  0  1  1
             0  0  0  0  0  0  1  0  2
             0  0  0  0  0  0  1  1  3 (2 + 1)
             0  0  0  0  0  1  0  0  4 
             0  0  0  0  0  1  0  1  5 (4 + 1)
repeating the pattern up to the state where all bits are turned on as follows:
             1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  255 (128+64+32+16+8+4+2+1) 

Each character that we see on the screen is one byte and each letter of the alphabet is assigned one particular byte value.  When we see the word "cat" on screen, it is represented by bytes with the following three values 99 (c), 97 (a) and 116 (t).  If you were able to look so see physically how it is stored at the bit level, it would look something like this.

Bit Value  128 64 32 16  8  4  2  1  Byte Value
c  (#99)                   0       1     1      0      0     0     1      1     64 + 32 + 2 + 1 = 99

a  (#97)                   0       1     1      0      0     0     0      1     64 + 32 + 1  = 97

t  (#116)                  0       1     1      1      1     1     0      0     64 + 32 + 16 + 8 + 4 = 116

A Freeware Alternative to Microsoft Office

One of the most common applications used in business and at home are one of the various configurations of the Microsoft Office Suite. I’m a big fan of Microsoft Office and I’ve used it for many years. However, what I’m not a fan of is the cost of it, especially when a new PC is purchased.

I’ve recently looked into an alternative to Microsoft Office that is free to use. Free, totally. Not a limited time offer, nor a crippled version of the software. OpenOffice (www.openoffice.org) has been around for many years and it’s only in the past few months that I’ve installed it and used it to see if I can avoid purchasing another Microsoft Office license.

My first reaction is that of frustration as the interface isn’t the same, nor are menu options grouped the same. Where I am so comfortable with knowing exactly where to find an item in Microsoft Office, I struggle and vent (and sometimes swear!) when I can’t figure out how to do the same function in Open Office. That having been said, I’m learning gradually and my frustration is somewhat reduced.

I would expect that there are some features and advanced functionality that is in Microsoft Office that perhaps isn’t available in Open Office, but to date, I’ve managed to muddle my way around and eventually have figured out how it’s done with Open Office.

Electronic Tollbooths and the Myth of the Free Ride

The plethora of websites that provide services out there is an incredible resource for all of us, and there’s no question that many of them enrich our lives – or at the very least, allow us to establish and enrich connections with friends and family.

What is important to consider though is that the vast majority of them are not in business for altruistic reasons. Websites cost money to build, host, support and enhance. Not all websites are developed for monetary gain but it should be assumed that it is not offering their services and resources out of the goodness of their hearts.

Why does this matter?

It matters because this makes us an educated consumer and by understanding this principle, we can decide if we want to agree with the terms of service of the website and use whatever “currency” is required to avail ourselves of the service.

I have made mention of this in a previous article, but there are many websites that when you sign-up, you are giving them the rights to use your uploaded content as they desire. In this case, your consent to share your content is the currency.

In other cases, the website provides basic functionality for free in the hopes that you become dependent on the website and services at which point in time, you may decide to become a paid subscriber in order to receive additional functionality.

Sometimes, your list of contacts can also be a valuable resource to a third party. Many applications such as Linked In (in addition to some other sites such as dating sites) will present a screen when you sign up that offers to invite your friends. By providing your email address and password, you are giving explicit consent for the website to mine your address book which allows them to grow their potential subscribers exponentially. This is fine if that is what you wanted to do, but many times it’s not clear that’s what will be involved with the sign-up process.

In other cases, the currency is your personal profile and your web surfing habits. Advertisements can be specifically directed to you based on your surfing history. As an example, late last year, I was researching digital picture frames from Staples. Within an hour of looking at specific products on their website, I was on a different website and noticed that the ads being delivered were from Staples and that the products displayed was the same ones that I had been viewing.

This last type of currency to me is the most dangerous and nefarious. We’re not necessarily aware of how we are tracked, and how the information is used – or possibly sold to third parties. This may seem like it’s not a big deal, but many times the marketing data that is gleaned isn’t anonymous – it could be – and probably is – stored in a database. Since many of us use the same user ids for websites, it wouldn’t be that difficult for an organization to start putting together a profile of what products you like, where you shop, and how much money you make and where you bank. In any of these cases, there’s nothing wrong with trading off your “currency” to access their site and services but as long as you’re aware of how you fit into the revenue stream and you’re making a conscious decision to do so, then that’s all part of being an educated consumer.