Digital Terrorism

It’s no big news that I've always had a bit of a concern over our dependence on technology. In a lot of respects, I think that this has become a very common theme in my blog. From the earliest conceptions with this blog, I've had this fundamental worry that as we become more dependent on this wonderful technology, what this means is that once we no longer have access to it, problems will ensue.

Recent events in the world have reaffirmed this as being an issue in my mind. More-so, having technology yanked out from under our collective feet won’t just be an inconvenience, but depending on that the what, why, how and how long, it can be devastating to our society. I don’t think that I’m over-reacting on this issue either.

In war torn Syrian, the government for all intents and purposes shut down all electronic communications (including of course the Internet) for the entire country. The primary rationale was to disable or severely inhibit those trying to actively destabilize the government and to make communications between them much more difficult.

As I read this article, it really made me wonder not if, but how, our society will be impacted by this type of a global outage. This will be more than just an inconvenience that we can’t tweet, can’t update our Facebook feeds or we can’t send a few emails. This technology is that the very core of just about everything that we do. The majority of traffic lights are controlled by remote computers. Medical records, although still stored manually, are most easily referenced and checked electronically. Power grids go – hospitals just run on generators, banking systems are down and the list goes on.

Not that long ago, the Bank of Montreal banking system was down totally for a few hours. These BMO customers had a first-hand experience of what happened when the magic carpet of technology goes limp and falls to the ground. Tweets were frequent and vocal. This was one bank – for a few hours.

A former director of a national security agency in the United States went on record as saying that the electronic world will be the next target for terrorism – and I think he is absolutely right. As devastating as 9/11 was, it will be nothing compared to the potentially severe withdraw of electronic services in a country, the impact of this type of an attack will be far greater than people realize. With a properly planned and executed electronic terrorist attack, a country can be crippled as long as we remain so dependent on electricity.

The hacker group “Anonymous” has recently attacked Israeli websites over the current and ongoing conflict in the Middle East. I’m sure that it’s not the first time that an organized group has attacked entities for political reasons, but I can’t think of any other instances where this group has brazenly and openly admitted to the attack without any apparent remorse.

The biggest problem is that there’s no easy way to reduce the dependence on technology. Society evolves and their technology evolves along with it. Much the same as when the automobile went main-stream, it just wouldn’t be possible to disavow a technology just because we don’t want to become so dependent on it. Probably the best thing that we can do as a society is to ensure that our infrastructure is protected as best as possible, but numerous fail-safes, contingencies and backup systems so that if access point is cut off, that the redundant connection can be substituted quickly.

A few years ago there were concerns about major sun flares and how they can disrupt and sometimes even damage electronic equipment. When I read that article, it started to percolate a story in my own mind where there is a solar flare of immense magnitude that literally disable any and all electronic devices. The premise of the story would be to try to figure out how society could reinvent itself in such a catastrophe. As I think through the plot and how society would be affected by this – I can’t imagine it being even remotely the same.

Letters From The Heart

One of my favourite independent musicians is Glen Hansard of Swell Season.   The first CD of his that I purchased has recordings from a live concert in Milwaukee.  He’s the type of artist that likes to talk to his audience between songs and I remember clearly listening to one of the things he was saying.  It resonated with me so much then but even more-so now for reasons that I will explain.

Glen was talking to the audience about how wonderful letters were and that while email had its advantages – he then went on to list the reasons why he preferred an actual letter.  I wish that I had could listen to the song right now to give a direct quote but basically he says that you can tear up a letter, kiss it, put it under your pillow, frame it…I think that his general mindset is clear, that the letter has a tangible and physical presence.

I recently inherited an old chest that belonged to my father’s uncle.  This chest remained locked and no-one had the key so for the longest time, the contents were a mystery; I liked to joke with my daughter that it surely contained a pirate’s booty and there must be gold and jewels inside.

Well, my daughter isn’t much of one for letting things go.  For months, the mystery was driving her crazy and she wanted to know if we could figure out how to get the chest open.  A couple of weeks ago, she kept on bugging me asking if she could try to pick the lock.  I eventually relented to her badgering and went into my room.  No more than 15 seconds later, I hear “Dad! It’s open!”  Yes, she had picked the lock with one of her hairclips!

As we spent the next little while going through the contents, I found many interesting documents, but none more-so than some letters between who I believe to be my great-uncle and some woman – a relative, I believe.  To see these letters and the time that was invested in writing them, Hansard’s comments became more meaningful to me as I understood completely.

Now, I’m not the type of person to write letters, and I never will be.  There is something about physically writing that is very difficult for me. It’s time consuming and writing things by hand is not something that I do well.  I’m a very keyboard-ish kind of guy as it frees my mind to think of the content without having to think of how to physically write.  I looked at these letters though and it occurred to me that when someone has taken the time to write a letter, it must be so much more meaningful than a quick email or a text message.

It’s not even the fact that writing by letter would be slower but it would have needed to be done moreh more methodically as one would need to compose the contents in their mind and then write it down on paper.  When I write my articles on a word processer, it is free form – no holds barred – damn the torpedoes, just get what is on my mind on the paper and fix and edit later.

I read those letters and I was completely charmed by the eloquence and the clarity of the letters, although trying to decipher handwriting wasn’t my favourite thing to do. 

In a lot of ways, Mr. Hansard had this bang on, there’s something very romantic about having a physical letter.  The emails that we send have their uses and their places and in a lot of respects they can be a more effective method of communications.  At the end of the day though, they have no presence, there’s no physical aspect of them other than the bits and bytes. 

What I type in these articles will always look the same as long as I’ve used the same font and format of the characters; you have no way to derive my state of mind or emotions.  A T is a T regardless of how I’m feeling or how tired I am and I think that this is the true beauty of a letter from the heart -- that there is a message beyond just the words that is being delivered.

OtherInbox Now Organizing...

Love seeing this notification from OtherInbox (http://www.otherinbox.com/).

Yeah, I know that I can emulate this functionality by setting up filters or rules or what-not but it's just very intuitive and easy for me that when I get incoming mail from a new source,  I can move it into a newly created folder with the OIB name prefix and from there on out, it will automatically move emails into that folder from that particular doman.  It's just really handy, dependable and easy to use :)

Passwords 101

Time has published a list of this year's "25 worst passwords to use".  Without further ado, they are:

1. password

2, 123456

3. 12345678

4. abc123

5. qwerty

6. monkey

7. letmein

8. dragon

9. 111111

10. baseball

11. iloveyou

12. trustno1

13. 1234567

14. sunshine

15. master

16. 123123

17. welcome

18. shadow

19. ashley

20. football

21. jesus

22. michael

23. ninja

24. mustang

25. password1

This list is based on the frequencey of ACTUAL passwords that have been hacked.  I'm sorry, but honestly, in this day and age, is it really that much of a revelation that it's not a good idea to use any password in this list, or any password that would be fully contained in a dictionary?  It's not like this is a revelation that an easy password to remember is an easy password to guess/hack.

Regardless if your password is on the list or not, there's a number of very good websites which will assess the relative strength and security of your password.  One of the better ones that I found is as follows:

http://www.passwordmeter.com/

Please, let's have some common sense.  If we all have strong passwords, it will make it much less likely that at least the casual hacker would be interested in trying to determine your password.

Some Things You Just DON'T Techno-Mess With

Okay, enough is enough.  DC Comics has announced that after 60 odd-years at the Daily Planet, Superman has quit - leaving of an online publishing company.

Honestly - is nothing sacred?  No more Perry White chewing his cigar in angst?  No more Jimmy Olsen-keener hanging around Clark/Superman like a puppy?  Honestly, what's next?  Superman develops a gut and hemorrhoids by fighting crime electronically?  Some things are just not meant to be tinkered with!

We Stand On Guard For Thee! Well, from 8-4 5 Days A Week

New report out by the Auditor General of Canada which contains the umm...revelation...that the agency that was created here to monitor online threats 24x7 (The Canadian Cyber Incident Reporting Response Centre) is only staffed from 8a-4p, 5 days a week.  As polite Canadians, I guess we're expecting those ne'er do wells to please not bother us with cyber-attacks during off hours.  Well at least we have people on call, so there is that...

Not Understanding Web Traffic

Yeah I know, a lot of hits come from bots and spiders.  I notice this when I publish an entry and within seconds, I get a hit.  I'm not lame enough to think that each hit is a result of real flesh-and-blooder.

What I can't figure out though is why this blog entry continues to get so many hits on a consistent basis.  The whole topic is so generic, it's a meaningless post and it's from two years ago.  I'm very cuious as to why.  What I also notice is that the referral source seems to be from Google with the term "fail" (pretty consistently) but I've tried to mimic the search results to see why and so far it escapes me as to how and why it's hit on so much - my #2 post and moving up the charts!

Technology:- Trying to Make Things TOO Easy?

Kind of a minor rant, but on my way in, I saw a poster from TD Canada Trust proclaiming that their banking machines allow quicker and easier access to one's money as they are somewhat customizable for favourite transactions!!

Honestly guys, what is this saving?  Perhaps 4 or 5 button presses at most?  I don't know how often others goes to the banking machine, but for me it's probably only 2-3 times per week.  This sounds to me like one of those "benefits" that really aren't.  Probably as "satisfying" as biting into that easter bunny that ends up being hollow inside when you think that it's a solid bunny.

The Personal Computer sayeth, “The Rumours of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated”

The great American author Mark Twain famously uttered these words about his own demise. The same can thing said about the popular view that the personal computer is on its deathbed.

The proliferation of notebooks, smart phones and now tablets PCs has led many to hypothesize that the standard plugged in personal (desktop) computer is a dinosaur and will also become extinct.

I’m not of the same opinion. Maybe it’s because I’ve cut my technology teeth on personal computers since its invention. The more that I think about it, the more convinced I am that there will always be a need for personal computers – for the foreseeable future anyways.

There’s no question that for casual home use, a tablet PC is a great tool. I have one myself and many times I will pull that out to surf or do a quick email when my desktop computer is occupied. Having done so though, I can’t imagine doing significant amounts of writing on my Touchpad. I’m forever cursing when my fingers are typing on the virtual keyboard. Typing mistakes are instead transformed into an auto-correct that clearly isn’t. I’ll reiterate – I’m biased – but as a writer, I find that the tactile feedback and the ergonomic position of a keyboard is far superior to typing on a virtual keyboard.

Aha! The tablet-ites will argue…you can just as easily buy a wireless keyboard for a tablet! Yes, they’d be correct, but if you’re going to do that, you’re going to need to buy a wireless keyboard AND a stand to elevate your tablet screen to the correct angle. Once you’ve done those two things, you’ve instantly mitigated one of the biggest advantages of the tablet – the portability.

What also needs to be considered is that a tablet PC is a closed architecture; its innards are permanent and cannot easily be fixed or upgraded. With the personal computer, the power supply, the video card, the memory and many other components can be replaced. Not so with a tablet.

For all of the same reasons, when the hardware is originally purchased, the consumer typically has some flexibility with a personal computer as to what hardware components to upgrade depending on their needs. Tablet purchasing is for the most part, one stop shopping other than purchasing a 32gb or 64gb model. Well, that’s probably not quite accurate, but definitely the options are very limited.

It’s not to suggest that the portability isn’t a good thing – it’s a great advantage and it remains one of the bigger disadvantages of a desktop computer but in the workplace, there’s something to said for its bulkiness – that it lends itself to be not as easily stolen – or at least, it would be much more obvious.

I think that in today’s society that both technologies serve our needs. I can see the point in time where perhaps the fulcrum will tip even more to the portable computer/laptop being more prevalent and the desktop computer relinquished to the basements of the technological age, but I truly believe that for many years more than people imagine, that the personal computer will be a staple of our age.

To be somewhat open-minded, for my next article, I’ll present the arguments for the other side of the fence. It will be interesting to me to see if my views will have changed. I am engaged and immersed in this personal computer world, but at least I can make an attempt to be objective.

The Future of the Office Place

On the way into work this morning, there was a tidbit in the elevator on the TV screen saying that in the office place, there are particular pieces of equipment that are either already obselete or on their way.  The specific examples it mentioned was the copier, fax machine and the rolodex.  The first two, I can understand, but the rolodex, it really made me wonder how many people have them at all anymore.  I can't remember the last time that I've seen a rolodex on someone's desk.

All that having been said, the little info-byte was absolutely correct.  The thing is though is that this isn't a new phenomena, it's something that's been going on forever and will continue to do so, it's just how we adapt to technology - and invent new technologies to (allegedly) make us more productive.

It does make me wonder though what the office place will look like in 20 or 30 years.

A Vacation from Technology

A pretty common theme in my blog is my concern about how many of us are so connected to and via technology that when we have to do without, sometimes we barely know what to do with ourselves.

Well, I had the fortunate opportunity to experience a total withdrawal from the electronic world two weeks ago when we went to Cuba for a week.  Even though our hotel had an Internet Cafe, I was warned that Cuba isn't exactly a technological hotbed and that the Internet access was so slow and unpredictable that it could literally take 30 minutes to send a 10 word email.  That having been said, I decided not even to bother. 

I knew going down that I wasn't going to have any Internet access, and I was okay with that, I was actually looking forward to it.  What I didn't count on though was not having any access to the Bell network so that I could text my daughter and see how her week was going, or so she could text me if the needed anything.  This was my only concern and frustration.

Looking back, I think that the only thing that I really missed was just not being able to read the news.  I generally like to at least keep up with what's going on in the world, but you know, not even having this, and being 'forced' to lie on a beach in Cayo Santa Maria and sipping back a Margarita or Pina Coloda between dips in the ocean - well, I'll take that hardship any day!

The Siren's Call

The ancient sea-faring mythology told of the Sirens, the mermaids who would sit on the rocks and whose voices were so beautiful and enchanting that the mariners were oblivious to the dangers around and would inevitably sink due to their lack of attention.

I’m sure that this particular opening is not one that is so subtle that one cannot figure out where I’m going with this article.

In our society today we do have our sirens, and these ones are unfortunately real, they are the gadgets that we use when we need to be paying attention to other things.

Of course, the one that most people might immediately think of is a cell phone in one hand while driving. Although illegal and it results in a hefty fine, I’m amazed by the number of people that just assume it’s okay to have one hand on the steering wheel. Not that I’m trying to self-righteous. I have to admit that there were a couple of times that I did as well, and I immediately regretted it as when I disconnected, the “all around vision” of driving became clearer to me and I could see how much I had been distracted.

What I can’t understand even beyond that is how people can text and drive. If talking on the cell isn’t bad enough, then there are those who are not only having one hand on the wheel , but also their eyes are not on the road. A recent article was of some guy that was texting and driving and he had just texted saying “I better stop before I kill myself” and then plummeted off the edge of the road. Although he did survive he has a tremendous recovery ahead of him.

I’m quite sure that there are readers of this article that never use their cell phone and drive, and I honestly give you full credit. The problem isn’t just in driving though. I don’t know how many times I see people walking down the street texting, for a good 20 or 30 yards without even looking up. Some days I’m tempted to just stand in front of them and let them run into me just so that they can see how oblivious they are to their surroundings. This is more than just a little problem, it can be as deadly as using the cell phone while driving. There are many instances of people getting injured. In the US recently there was a woman who fell onto the subway track as she wasn’t watching. Fortunately, she just had some bumps and bruises, not like the pedestrian here in Toronto that was killed when she stepped off the sidewalk to cross the street and unfortunately didn’t see the truck that didn’t see her – and apparently she didn’t see it either.

There is something about technology that just draws so many of us to an instant response. We get a text message and there’s this insatiable need that we MUST RESPOND and we must respond NOW.

The real fault doesn’t lie in the siren; it lies in us for not having the good common sense that the text message that needs to be returned – can wait. That the tweet of something funny I saw could wait 10-15 minutes and doesn’t have to be sent immediately.

Perhaps that’s one of the downfalls to technology, it’s gotten us accustomed to instant gratification so we just think that everyone else has to be responded to just as quickly.

It’s either we wise up and have a little more common sense before we fall fate to the Darwin principle and those that catch on to this will result in a premature end to their particular gene pool branch.

Pass on the virtual ear-plugs and enjoy your walk or drive!

Digital Connections

It was with great interest this week that I read an article where the premise was that those of Generation Y are eschewing the purchase of a car. The foundation for this article was that Generation Y prefers to spend their disposable income on technology as opposed to a larger purchase of, and the resulting ongoing operating costs of, a vehicle.

This in itself was an interesting article to me, but what really caught my attention – and the focus of this article – is that the rationale for making this decision is that Generation Y is using technology to establish and nurture their relationships and connections. My first instinct was to be critical of Gen Y’s method of maintaining their network but I’ve been thinking of this philosophy for the better part of today.

It’s just occurred to me that I touched on this phenomenon in this article and I will take the opportunity to expand on my thoughts on this a little more.

I think that it’s just far too easy and lazy for my generation (the baby boomers) to be critical of Gen Y and have the mindset of “digital connections and relationships are not as real as flesh and blood”. There’s a small amount of truth to it – well, maybe not so much a truth, but at least a minute basis of reality. However, technology affects most things in our lives. I’ll even go far to say that it not only affects our lives but it can be impetus for evolution, so why wouldn’t technology fundamentally change how we relate to one another.

There’s no question that any relationship or connection generally has to have a physical foundation but perhaps that Gen Y isn’t so off base on this and that being able to stay in touch electronically is just another option that we have to maintain our relationships.

I think that every generation looks back to their parents and proudly shows how their generation is better than their parents – that they have evolved and that they will dictate how society evolves. Similarly, this same generation often looks at the generation of their children and thinks to themselves “They’re naïve, they don’t have the experience that I do and they just don’t know….”.

I suspect that this inter-generational hopscotch is the basis of how our society evolves, the “I won’t make the same mistakes as my ancestors” or the “my generation will make this a better world”.

Communication and connection needs are affected and driven by technology, as so many aspects of our lives are.

In the earlier days, our neighbours were not so close geographically. Where now, we might have tens of thousands in a geographic region, then, it might have only been a dozen or so. Not only were neighbours further away, but it took much longer to reach them before the advent of the automobile. In this day and age, it was critical to have “good relations” with one’s neighbours as it was so important to be able to depend on them if you needed help. If my barn burned to the ground, then I needed to know that I could count on the support and help from my neighbours to help rebuild. In addition, if I had a problem with my water pump and this wasn’t my area of expertise, I had to know who to count on and more importantly, I had to make sure that the connection was there with my neighbour so that he would be able and willing to come and help.

With the advent of the telephone and motorized transport, this became less important. The so-called “shrinking world” had the advantage of making more resources available and as such, developing these neighbourly connections wasn’t so critical anymore. This would be an example of how the introduction of technology has impacted our connections.

Taking this concept to the current Gen Y phenomenon of technology being an integral component to their connections, perhaps I shouldn’t be so harsh and realize that there’s probably a lot of benefit to being able to instantly text, tweet, or post on someone’s Facebook wall what’s going on, or that they’re loved and missed.

The Mindset of Security

And yet again, there has been another security breach with significant number of accounts put at risk. Last week, it was disclosed by Yahoo! that over 450,000 account ID and passwords were obtained by a third party and published on the web.

The thing that bothered me the most about this particular security breach was that apparently the email addresses and passwords weren’t even encrypted. It was just a regular file on their server and once someone had downloaded it, it had the email addresses and passwords to approximately 500,000 people.

I won’t be a broken record and reiterate the importance of not using the same password for multiple websites, but if someone wants to read up on some suggestions I have, here’s the article Multiple Locks -- One Key.

The revelation that I had with this security breach is that the mindset that I need to take is to assume that any website that requires a password will eventually be compromised. For me, this is an important approach as it means that I will have to have the strategies and contingencies in place so that when the inevitable happens, that I am prepared.

It’s a little discouraging for me to think that there’s probably no chance that any type of password can’t be stolen, but I think that this is just one of the realities (and the disadvantages) of our technologies. In my mind, there’s just no getting around the fact that people will always try to make a living by obtaining things that don’t belong to them.

Part of the problem that we will face though is how do we limit the damage that can be done from those who obtain our identities? I think that some things are in our control and other things aren’t.

What we can control is how many different places that we use that password (refer to the previously mentioned article). If we have a password that is unique to one site, then if that one site’s credentials are exposed then at least we can limit it to that site.

The other thing that we can do is to look at some advanced methods of password creation. Sometimes we are exposed because of hackers that get into a third parties database, but there are other times when the weakness and lack of complexity of our password s makes it easier for a third party to guess – or to use automated tools to try different variations. If we’re using passwords such as PASSWORD or the date and month of our birthday for our banking PIN, we need to take some responsibility for that.

There are many articles online that discuss different strategies for creating stronger passwords – for the next article, I’ll summarize these articles, provide links and give some suggestions.

Those are a couple of things that we can do to limit the damage. One of the things that we don’t have control over is how long it takes to be informed that there has been a breach so that we can change our passwords. This one is a little more problematic as it could be days or even weeks before we’re aware and this means that they have seamless access to our account.

I suppose that the only real way to mitigate this is by keeping assessing the relative damage that can be done and then for those sites where it’s more critical, to make sure that we keep a closer eye on activity for anything out of the ordinary.

The other thing that we can do is to change passwords on a regular basis. From what I understand, this particular security breach was in a historical document containing usernames and passwords, so anyone who had changed their password since the list was created would not have been affected by the breach.

Unfortunately, there’s no one solution out there, I think that if I had to summarize how to minimize damage, it would be to be smart, be proactive and be vigilant of account activity.

Revisiting Security - Yet Another Breach

In the news this week has been yet another massive security breach - this time with the professional network - LinkedIn.  Apparently, millions of account passwords were breached and available to the criminal element. As I had to go in to reset my password, one of my previous articles came to mind and I thought it would be prudent to revisit it, and here's why...


I was discussing this breach with a colleague - I had asked her if she had changed her LinkedIn password and how it affected her.  Her response was "oh, I really don't use LinkedIn, there's not much personal information there and I have very few contacts, so even in the worst case, it probably wouldn't affect me too much".  I paused and then I responded, "Okay, so a couple of things, first of all, have you considered that your personal account information is theoretically available now, and that things like phone numbers, addresses and the such can be harvested to take out loans impersonating you?  Also, let me ask you this...this LinkedIn password of yours..it would be unique to LinkedIn and it's not a common password that you use for your email, for banking, for Facebook, right?".  With this statement her eyes got very big and she immediately went to change her password.

This is exactly the type of issues that I was referring to with my blog entry Multiple Locks - One Key.  As difficult as it is, we just cannot be using the same passwords for all websites.  It's human nature to do so as it's impossible to remember unique passwords for each site, but refer to my article, I have some suggestions on how to manage passwords effectively and safely.

Finally, should anyone have your own tips about how you manage your online identities and would like to share them, I'd love to post a follow-up article on other strategies and techniques.

Fantastic Voyage

As a virtual old-timer in the technological world, I’m very content with the little leaps and bounds that technology has made over the years. To a large extent, technology has evolved through gradual refinement more than anything else. I am of the generation that I can reminisce about an 8086 processor, a 300 baud modem or a dual floppy CGA-based system. Having knowledge and experience with these technologies grants me automatic inclusion into the TGC (Technology Geriatric Club!).

This gradual innovation and maturation is timed and controlled by the science behind the technology. Certainly, the advances in miniaturization has greatly influenced the ability to make smaller, and yet larger capacity – and faster chips.

Same sort of advances with our access to the outside world, we can have the fastestmodem and computer at home, but the true bottleneck is in the infrastructure of our cable or DSL lines.

I don’t know if it’s my imagination, but what I’m seeing lately with technology is astounding me. It seems to me that the physical limitations have been – well, maybe not eliminated, but certainly they are not impeding technological advance.

My first – oh my gosh – moment was with the advent of 3D printing. I’m probably fixating on this technology a bit, but holy cannoli – the more that I read and think about it, the more that I think that this is going to be an incredible technology as more applications are thought of for it.

Caught With My Technological Shorts Down

And here…

3-D Printing

The next innovation that caught my fancy was a monumental shift in technology as it relates to digital photography.

Next Great Technology - Digital Imaging

Next on my hot sheet is a medical technology that I’m not sure if it’s just experimental or becoming close to mainstream. This is the development of what are essentially micro-bots that can be inserted under the skin and either programmed or controlled remotely. I’ll be honest that I haven’t read much of this technology yet, but as someone who has gone through a few surgeries, I can attest that the smaller the incision, the less invasive the surgery, the easier it is on the body. As a side note, as soon as I read this particular article, I flashbacked to my youth and being fascinated with the movie Fantastic Voyage.

Are we there yet? No, not by a long shot and probably not in our children’s, children’s lifetimes but heck, when it comes to technology, I think that just about nothing is impossible but the impossible!

The more that I think about this theory of mine, the more that I think that I might be onto something. Maybe it really is a matter that our technology is maturing – that the first 40 years has been in developing the core infrastructure and technology to remove these hard-wired limitations.

Perhaps now that we have small, fast, efficient processors, (relatively) large storage devices the size of a fingernail and all of the other bits and bytes that we need, maybe now our biggest limitation is the creativity to think outside the box and to say to one’s self, “Well, why NOT?”.

It really is a brave new technological world and I don’t think that it’s going to get any less exciting.

Let’s strap ourselves in and enjoy this fantastic voyage!

The Next Great Technology - Digital Imaging

Some of my "faithful readers" might recall my fascination with 3D printing and how it snuck up on me as a "woah - I would have never thought of that!" sort of thing.

Well, another one of these moments has occurred - this time it is a technological innovation as it relates to photography.  A start-up company down in the US has invented a new technology that is being referred to as a "Plenoptic" camera.  In essence, instead of just taking a very static bits and bytes type of image, it's actually capturing all of the light waves coming from all directions.

What does this really mean?  Well, believe it or not, you can take an "image" which has been captured via a plenoptic camera and with a special widget, you can post this image online and the USER can decide - dynamically - where they want the focal point to be.  To see how way cool this is, the following article actually has a plenoptic image of a flower.  If you go and click on a portion of the image in the background that is currently blurry, you'll see that the effective focal point of the image has been changed.

With innovations like this and 3D printing, I'm always wondering if technology is taking a big LEAP.  For many years now it's been just refining and optimizing existing technology.  Now, it's inventing new technologies that I had never considered.

New innovation in digital imaging.

Engage! A Change in Philosophy

I’m a big fan of Star Trek, especially “Star Trek – The Next Generation”. One of Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s catchphrases was “Engage!” to his crew as they were ready to go into warp drive.

This phrase came to mind to me last week as I waiting to get some blood-work done at a lab.

I was sitting there waiting for my turn with 11 other people and I noticed how many people were on their communication devices. I did a quick count and was amused that half of the people were in fact engaged electronically and seemed to be completely oblivious to the real.

As a matter of fact, that was the original theme of my article, about how technology takes us out of the “here and now” and we are no longer as socially engaged with those around us.

However, as I thought through this, I came to the realization that this was an easy judgment to make. Pondering a little more, I considered that people in fact may still be socially engaged, but that I wasn’t in any position to be able to tell. Maybe the young man was texting with this girlfriend and was completely engaged with her during this exchange. Perhaps the elderly lady was in a chat room with her daughter and they were taking advantage of an opportunity to “spend time” together (in an electronic form).

Despite this revelation in my thought process, I think that there is still cause of concern as it relates to technology and social engagement. In some respects, I think that my original concerns were still valid. For example, should there have been some incident and all of my fellow waitees were called upon to give evidence as to who was there and who wasn’t, I’m quite certain that this electronic engagement would have meant that at least half of the people left the lab not even noticing who they were sitting down with.

In that respect, I think that society has lost a little of its charm.

I can’t help wonder about how many opportunities are being lost because people are oblivious to their fellow flesh-and-blooders. I think of something my Mom told me about how she took a cab recently. She had a nice conversation with the driver and for all intents and purposes adopted him. Had my Mom been absorbed with the electronic life, the two of them would not have had made a dent in each other’s lives.

I think a little ruefully that these types of encounters enrich us. They help us to learn about different views and to grow as we gain new experiences and meet different types of people.

I don’t really so much have a problem with the electronic form of engagement, but the biggest thing for me is that it generally involved engagement with people already in our circle; there can be minimal interaction with others that we might get in the “real world”.

Still, I suppose that it has its benefits. It’s extraordinarily useful for nurturing those relationships that we’ve already developed, so I can’t be too critical. I guess for me, it’s like this type of electronic interaction should be the dessert, not the main course.

In closing – next time you’re on the subway or in a cab and having the opportunity, I will give the following advice…

Engage!

Testing Internet Speed

When we sign-up for high speed Internet, one of the decisions that we’re making is what speed we want.

The problem is that what an Internet Service Provider will quote with their plan is the optimum speed that can be expected. The actual speed can vary – and will vary – depending on numerous factors.

This causes a problem as we don’t always know if there is a chronic problem that is impacting the actual access speed. In my own case, I had suspected that I wasn’t getting the speed that I was expecting, but I just wasn’t so sure and I didn’t really have time to investigate. I then recalled about a website which measures the speed of one’s connection. I ran this utility
http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ and noticed that I was consistently only getting a download speed of 8 megabits per second, despite paying for 18 megabits per second. The ISP had investigated and determined that there was a physical problem with my line but seeing that I was in the process of moving, I didn’t deem this to be something that I needed to contend with. Interestingly enough, since I moved, I’ve rerun the test and it’s now reporting a more reasonable speed.

Why does this matter to you? Well, first of all, if you’re paying for a specific speed, you’d like to (by and large) get the speed that you’re paying for. The other thing is that if you’re consistently getting much slower speeds, it can be an indication of other more serious problems. It could be an indication of a hardware/line problem, but it could also indicate a problem with your computer as well.

A "Public Service Announcement" from TecHumanity

Just read this article and I thought that this is exactly the sort of thing that people need to be aware of.  As per the attached article on CNET News, there is a DNS related virus which could impede people's ability to access the Internet this summer.  Now - that having been said, do you own due diligence - as you should with ANYTHING that's published on the Internet.  Being an electronic doubting Thomas is not a bad thing.

Still, here's the article.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57418276-83/web-could-vanish-for-hordes-of-people-in-july-fbi-warns/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=title

In case there's a link problem, then just go to CNET news today and find the article.  Also worth noting that later on, the article gives a website which can take a look at your computer to see if you're infected and affected!  The link is http://www.dcwg.org/ but as always, TecHumanity does not endorse or recommend any website, product or service.  As mentioned before, do your own due diligence!

Cloud Based Storage - Lessons Learned from the MegaUpload Kerfluffle

One of the neat aspects of cloud-based computing is that it gives us an ability to use the cloud as a conduit to backup our files and also to effectively transfer them between each of our electronic devices, or perhaps to be able to access from variable locations.  This is one of those things that is absolutely wonderful and is a real benefit.

Like with anything else in technology though - everything has it's price, and the recent shutdown of MegaUpload illustrates perfectly the problem with cloud-based storage.  One of the big disadvantages with cloud-based storage is that it's very obviously dependent on one's ability to access the website and service.
In this particular example, MegaUpload was a very popular site and was used by many people for storing their files on line - legally and within the TOS (Terms of Service).  The problem was that many people were using this service as a mechanism to distribute materials that were protected by copy write.  Recent legal action by the owners of this material has resulted in the entire site being locked down while this legal soup is navigated though.  In other words if you were an innocent user who was just using this service to keep your in-progress-novel-of-the-year online, well, you were caught up in the huge copy-write infringement net, and there is absolutely nothing that you can do about this.

The lesson here is that whenever using a cloud-based service, a risk analysis needs to be done to determine what happens if you lose access to this service and to put a contingency plan in place.

The Electronic Grim Reaper

Sometimes it might appear that I have a "problem" with cloud computing.  I don't think that's really the case at all.  I think that it's more that when it comes to technology, I tend to look at things with a critical and skeptical eye.   Especially with technology, I think that this is an important thing to do, as one can quickly become dependent on the technology and if you haven't done your due diligence, then problems can occur in the future.  But then again, like some many other cases, maybe I'm over-analyzing!

My latest aha! moment with cloud computing and one of the inherent problems with it came as I was reading the paper this morning.  This article in question was about the author's relatively large iTunes collection and how he had stored it on iCloud (for convenience).  What he then went on to ponder really shocked me as I had never considered the problem.

He started to question what happens when he passes away.  With all of his digital purchases that exist within the cloud - how does he ensure that the access to these files doesn't expire when he does.  He contacted Apple to discuss and the policy is that access to his iCloud account can be granted to his heirs, but in order for this to be done, Apple would need to see a copy of his death certificate in addition to the appropriate section of his will where he bequeaths his libraries.  Holy Cannoli!.  This means that I need list my digital purchases specifically in my will?  The other thing is that going with this process will just give the heir access to the library, it wouldn't allow them to merge in the contents of the willed library with their own personal collection.

So here's the rub...for me, this is not really so much of an issue as I don't (yet) use cloud computing for anything more than as a backup mechanism.  When I die, all of my digital purchases exist on the hard drive of my computer.  Of course, given that I have two teenagers and they do not have an appreciation for my eclectic love of music in all it's forms, I better find someone better to give it to.  If you have a particular genre or artist that you particularly like, leave a shout out and I'll will it to you :)

The Transformation From Information To Knowledge

The idea for this article came as I was walking to work the other day. At the most fundamental level, I marveled at the wealth of information that’s available to us in this digital age. For me personally, having access to information and data is critical – I’m a very self-motivated individual who doesn’t mind wading through the plethora of data to find what I’m looking for.

Over the past few years, I’ve taken advantage of this data availability on numerous occasions. From looking up medical information, to helping me navigate the wonderfully complex and convoluted legal system, to using the Internet as a tool to research productions before I buy. All of this has made instant availability to information a very valuable tool in my kit.

The first problem that we face is that there’s just too MUCH information available. I know that sometimes I’ll be sitting there at Google and I have to think “What is it that I’m really looking for”. This is the core starting point for research and it dictates which branch of research that we’ll take. Quite often, I’ll take a look at the preliminary search results and I’ll say “no, this isn’t what I’m looking for” and I’ll go back to how I structured my search term and I revise accordingly. Sometimes just changing the order of the phrases can make a difference in the search results.

The second problem is that once I know that I’m going along the right path, and I’m looking at the sites that were returned by the search engine, there’s still a big challenge. It’s a critical task to ascertain the legitimacy, accuracy and objectiveness of the website. I’ve said this before, but I think that it’s so important to be eternally pessimistic about the objectivity of any online source. I try to always assume that there is bias in the information presented, and if it doesn’t seem right to me, I’ll cross-reference with another site or do a brief sojourn to a separate search on this one topic.

As this article started formulating in my own mind, the general theme mutated from being just about information access to something a little bit different, and that is, what is the difference between information and knowledge.

When I came up with this question in my own mind, I thought that it would be simply a matter of looking up the dictionary definition of knowledge and from that, I can draw a comparison between it and information. It turns out that this isn’t so cut and dried.

There are numerous philosophies on what knowledge is, and what it isn’t. I had no idea that there are many debates between people that are much more philosophical than me, so I will defer on diving too much into this debate with this article.

As I think about this topic some more, I have my own definition on what knowledge is and how it relates to information.

To me, information is the data; it describes a product, a process, a law or defines and describes something. Information on its own doesn’t draw an inference as to the underlying data or otherwise make correlation between other components. My definition of knowledge is the intellectual exercise that attempts to interpret the facts that are presented.

An example I could give of this is that at a trial, the evidence presented, would be equivalent to the information. On its own, it just exists. The prosecution or the defense infers and theorizes about the evidence – this is the knowledge (or in the case the theory, I suppose) that is based on the facts presented.

If I’m on the right track about this distinction between information and knowledge, then I would contend that we truly are in the “Information Age”, that what is available to us is the raw data. The sophistication of the “Knowledge Age” will be where our technology not only presents us with the “dumb” search results but will be able to intrinsically determine what it is that we’re REALLY looking for, and attempt to deliver results in a context that’s closer to what it is that we really need.

Open Source - A Wise Strategy?

The concept of open source certainly isn't new. Open source is software that the vendor has published the source code, guides and tools to allow the development community to make modifications or enhancements to the software.

Open source has been around since probably the beginning of the personal computer, so this is hardly a mind-blowing development.

There's an article on PC World today where Microsoft has adopted an open source approach to their mapping software and this has helped them to capture some of the market from Google Maps.  As I read this article, it dawned on me that the concept of open source can also be a very strategic one.  In a lot of respects, open source essentially adds thousands, if not tens of thousands "free developers" for the application - at least in terms of it being more desirable.

Mind you, I guess that the downside is that the company relinquishes a certain amount of control over the direction that the application takes, but I guess it's like everything else that they've carefully weighed the advantages and the disadvantages.

SSOTD

Stupid spam of the day.  What a silly phishing attempt.  Obviously, by now, we're all intelligent enough and cautious enough to understand that financial institutions do not send us links to click on with threats that our accounts will be closed, but when you hover over the senders email address and see the address and not the sender's name, and when you hover over the link and see that the website address is nothng related to the institution...

Honestly, it's just insulting, at least put some effort into it, throw a few logos in the email, make the email address/URL even remotely similar.  I understand that they're hoping that even 1 in a million fall for it, but geez, go big or go home boys.

Holy Cow! That's a lot of Bull - and Could Just be a lot of Udder Nonsense!

Vast departure from my usual blog entry, but I think I have a way of posting this as it's very much related to technology and humanity - or cowmanity as the case may be.

Jocko the bull has sadly passed away.  Officially, he has sired 161,000 off-spring, but it's believed to be closer to 400,000.  That is one heck of a commitment to his job if you ask me!

The really interesting thing is that poor Jocko only gets a bronze medal for his impressive impregnatations as there are two bulls with more off-spring.  I need to find out how far behind he was.

Make no mis-steak, some other bulls will have to step up and bring their A game - or should I say their S game?

Finding Files or Programs – Part II

In my previous tip, I showed how easy it is to search files or programs. Certainly, when you already know the full and complete name of the file, your job is much easier.

However, what if you can only remember part of the filename? Or let’s say that you wanted to find any documents that you had worked on with the word “Budget” in them?

Before I start into the tip, there’s a little fundamental tidbit about how Windows names files. As you know, when you save a file, typically you give it a filename. Let’s say you’re creating a Microsoft Word document called “Grocery List”. What any Windows application will do is to also append a suffix to the filename to indicate what program was used to create or edit the document so that when you go to edit this document, Windows will know if it is to open up the file in Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel. This suffix is referred to as an extension. The extension is typically a 3 or 4 character code created automatically by the application program.

To illustrate, take a look at my folder where I keep some my articles.


You’ll see that there is a column in my explorer called “Type”. This is based directly on the extension associated with the file. You’ll see a bunch of MS Word documents followed by one MS Excel document. In this folder, all of the Word documents have an extension of .docx and the Excel document has an extension of .xlsx

When you know the full and exact name of the file (such as “banana bread recipe.docx”) it’s much easier for you as you can just type the name of the file that you’re looking for. You’ll see that in my example here, the full name of the file starts with the name that I’ve given it (banana bread recipe) followed by the extension of the file (docx) and that there is a . so that the computer knows where the filename ends and the extension starts.

In those cases where you only know part of the filename, the operating system provides two different special symbols that are referred to as wildcards. Just like in a normal deck of playing cards, a wildcard can be used for anything but there are a couple of differences on the wildcards.

The first wildcard is the ? character and it will substitute one – and only one character. In other words, the filename pattern of j?n.docx would match either jen.docx or jon.docx. In English, the filename pattern could be interpreted as “any file where the first letter is a J, the second letter is anything else, the third letter is an N and the extension is .docx”.

The second wildcard is the * character and it is more powerful. It can replace any number of characters. Using the same example, the filename patter of j*n.docx would still match jen.docx and jon.docx but it would also match Jamison.docx.

Wildcards can be combined and repeated and can be at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the filename (or even the extension if need be).

To close off this tip, here are some examples of wildcard patterns along with an English like description of how they would be interpreted.

Filename Pattern	Description
?arm.docx	Any filename that is exactly four characters wide and where the last three characters are arm and has a docx extension.
*budget.pdf	Any file with a PDF extension where there are 0, 1 or more characters of any combination suffixed with budget.
201? Taxes.xlsx	A file with an xlsx extension where the first 3 characters are 201, there is an  fourth character and the suffix of the filename is taxes.
*family*history*.docx	Any MS Word document (or that has a .docx extension) where there is 0, 1 or more characters, followed by the word family, an additional 0, 1 more characters, the word history and a suffix of 0, 1 or more characters.
F?ar?_sales*.*	Any filename that begins with an F, has one character, the characters ar, followed by one more character, the word sales and any suffix of 0, 1 or more characters.   In this example there is a wildcard in the extension so it would match any file types.
*.*	Every single file as this means any text in the filename and any text in the extension.

Finding Files or Programs

One of the features that I love best about Windows is its ability to quickly type in the name of a file or a program and it will search for it. As someone who uses the keyboard much more than the mouse, this saves me a lot of time.

There are two methods that you have type in the name of a program or a file, the first is to click on the Windows Start button on the left hand corner of the task bar and type in the name of the file or program to search for as per the following screenshot:


In the “Search programs and files”, you can enter in the name of the Windows program to run (i.e Word or Excel). You can also type in the name of a file that you have edited recently and it will bring that up in a selection list as well.

Another groovy trick is that this ability to search can be done without having to use the mouse to click on the Start button. To run the Search facility within Windows, while you are holding down the key with the Windows logo, press the F key to launch the Search dialog box.

Living on Cloud 9? Well Not Really, but Maybe One Day

One of the biggest buzzes in technology is the proliferation of “The Cloud”. Part of the attraction of the cloud is the thought that it is an ultra-convenient place to store ones files, documents, pictures, music or what-not.

In theory, there are some really interesting benefits of cloud storage and portals. As a writer, I often struggle with the dilemma of “oh gosh, my documents are at home and I had a great idea for my story!” The theory being that if I store my documents in “The Cloud” then it will remain always accessible to me and it doesn’t matter if I’m at home, or anywhere else. Presto – chango! Connect to the ‘net and Bob’s my uncle, there’s my story!

Fundamentally, this method of accessing files is only as good as one’s Internet connection. If I have my notebook on the subway and there’s no Internet connection, then there’s no access to the cloud and my documents. Even if I’m above ground on a bus for instance – unless I have a WiFi card on my network, then I’m out of luck. Now, it’s true that many new cellphones have the ability to serve as WiFi hotspots and once again – in theory – you can connect to the WiFi network on your phone, you still have to be concerned about data usage and other charges with your cell plan.

Let’s pretend for the sake of argument that we all have instant connectivity wherever we are. Is everything good? Is “The Cloud” a viable alternative?

The answer is not so simply…it depends…there’s a slew of other issues to consider when storing documents online.

Alright, so how many of you have Facebook – hands up! Now, everyone who has read the entire terms of service of Facebook, you can put your hand down. So now that everyone still has your hand up – if you store pictures on your Facebook page, or have any personal content, are you aware that when you signed up for Facebook, you have granted them the right to use any of your content, for any purposes, royalty free? I’m not picking on Facebook, carefully read the TOS for many of these free “services” and you’ll see that they may be free but they don’t come without a price. A similar example is DeviantArt – where I actually store my artwork. I checked tonight and it’s TOS (terms of service) also grants them royalty free use of any of my artwork without requiring my permission. Fortunately, my art pretty much sucks so I don’t have to worry about it being turned into millions of coffee mugs or such.

Legalities aside, think for a moment on if you’re having a fantastic time using some online portal to store your documents – like I sometimes do with Google Documents. Access to your documents are only as good as the service is up and running. A perfect example is the recent MegaUpload issue. This was a website that was being used for people to be able to store their documents, music and movies. The problem was that these files were then shared and legal action was initiated against the site for copyright violation. The net of copyright infringement was cast far too wide and it caught some innocent fish that did not share a thing – but just used MegaUpload as online storage.

It’s a scary digital world out there and sometimes I find that I will use a technology just for convenience sake without really looking at the consequences and to think of the possible impact.

Like so many areas of technology, it tantalizes us and hooks us with the promise of ease and convenience. Kind of like the wizard in Oz, sometimes it’s necessary to pull back the curtain to see what is really there.

Rotten Apples

Nice to know that everyone makes mistakes and it turns out that Apple is no different, and this could be a doozy.  From what I understand, Apple has secured the iPad trademark from many companies and they (allegedly) thought that they had secured it in China from a company that had previously trademarked it but the company that owned the trademark has claimed that this isn't the case.

There seems to be a wide variety on legal opinions on how big of a battle this will be.  As of right now, iPads are currently illegal in China. Being a hotbed of technology, this is somewhat of a problem.  The bigger problem though is not only is this affecting sales in China, but from what I understand, a pretty significant portion of the iPad is made in China as well.

Now, I think it's safe to assume that this will eventually be settled.  This Chinese company is currently going through some rough times, and it's being suggested that Apple may have to tithe a billion or two to resolve this little squabble.

This just has to fall under the banner of corporate oversights - and it's certainly not a minor one!

The TecHumanity Theme Song!

I heard this song on my satellite radio and I thought that this will be just a perfect into/theme song should I ever get into webcasting my blogs via YouTube - or become an internationally famous blogger/expert!

The song is Everybody's on the Phone by Jimmy Buffett and I think that this is just perfect!  There's one line in particular that I think is so appropriate - Everybody's on the phone - so connected and all alone. There is a lot of wisdom in that one line.

Here's the lyrics should you choose to sing along.

Message in a bottle, rhythm of a drum 
Smoke signals and telegraphs make the airwaves hum 
But that's all ancient history like bongs and Lincoln Logs 
Now we livin' like the Jetsons in a wireless wacky fog 
Squawkin' talkin' hawkin' who knows if anybody's gettin' through 

Toasters talk to crackberries, Bombay to L.A. 
Teenage needs and long-held dreams as minutes tick away 
We act like crazy people talking to ourselves 
Crashing cars in conversation while that shit flies off the shelf 
The information superhighways locked up like a L.A. traffic jam 

Everybody's on the phone 
So connected and all alone 
From the pizza boy to the socialite 
We all salute the satellites 
Let me text you with your master plan 
You're loud and clear but I don't understand 
I'm a digital explorer in analog roam 
And everybody's on the phone 

Do you remember dialing up? 
Yes I remember well 
Now I just can't go anywhere with out my sacred cell 
I think that I might die if I miss anything at all 
Text me, send me an e-mail, bring me up, give me a call 
I'm ADD on AOL tryin to read the writing on the wall 

Everybody's on the phone 
So connected and all alone 
From the pizza boy to the socialite 
We all salute the satellites 
Let me text you with your master plan 
You're loud and clear but I don't understand 
I'm a digital explorer in analog roam 
And everybody's on the phone 

Now I'm a real jungle jump up 
I'm a megahertz man 
I swing from tree to tree on the very latest plan 
On the download and the dropouts 
On every major city across the land 
I got my Marley on my ringtone, getup, standup, reachout, touch somebody band 

Everybody's on the phone 
So connected and all alone 
From the pizza boy to the socialite 
We all salute the satellites 
Let me text you with your master plan 
You're loud and clear but I don't understand 
I'm a digital explorer in analog roam 
And everybody's on the phone 

Can you hear me? 
Can you hear me now? 
I gotta get over by the beerstand 
Oh shit my batteries are going 
I'll call you back