Tech Beat

I Want to Be a Cylon

2008-11-13T22:05:00Z

By Glenn Farr

   About five years ago, when I bought a Palm Pilot as part of my ever-spiraling descent into tech-geekdom, I found pre-installed on it an article describing an expected technological watershed referred to as “the technological singularity.”
   I had never heard the term before, but the title had the word “technological” in it, so I read the article. I must say, I found it unexpectedly disquieting.
   I don’t remember who wrote the article, but it was a well-documented piece by an expert and it described the point in time—estimated to be not too far from our own present reality—when artificial intelligence will advance to the point that it becomes conscious and can replicate itself and evolve with no help from its creators—we mere human beings.
   Sobering thought.
   And the article became even more sobering as it indicated how insanely intelligent devices with artificial intelligence could out-think us and out-perform us on every level and would ultimately render us obsolete. They might even choose to get rid of us.
   Very sobering thought.
   To be honest, the article creeped me out for a while. But then time passed and its impact lessened. I began to lapse into a que sera, sera mindset about it all and even stopped thinking about it.
   From time to time, I’ve been nudged back into considering my species’ pending obsolescence when I hear about new cars that can park themselves and I watch science documentaries heralding the latest advances in robotics. Honda has developed ASIMO, the cute little robot that can essentially move like a human being and can respond to certain inquiries and commands. But it doesn’t think for itself.
   Not yet.
   And other Japanese scientists have created the Repliee Q1, an automaton that looks like a living, breathing woman. She can even replicate certain aspects of human body motion. But she can’t walk and she doesn’t think for herself, either.
   Not yet.
   Of course, what may seem to be rather ordinary technological devices, like laptop computers and cell phones, continue through their own rapid arcs of development, allowing us to do everything from playing music to creating our own original movies. And from one model to the next, they continue to do a lot more a heckuva lot faster than we might have imagined only a few short years ago. My own cell phone, for example, does such arcane things as count how many steps I take each day and how many calories I burn while doing it.
   When I ponder where this kind of stuff leads, televised sci-fi shows me. Virtually any successful franchise includes some sort of AI, an artificial life form that became consciously aware and learned to function and replicate itself independently.
   Battlestar Galactica has the “skin job” Cylons, who were created by the metal servant/soldier Centurion Cylons. These metallic men had initially been created by humans do to their dirty work, but evolved into conscious awareness and adapted their later models to perfectly imitate human form and function—before ultimately attempting the annihilation of the human race. When their human-like bodies are damaged beyond repair, they simply download into a new one.
   The Terminator franchise (on TV now as The Sarah Connor Chronicles) has the killer cyborgs, whose primary mission is to wipe out John Connor so they can save the future for machinekind. These efficient and self-repairing robots are, in turn, created and managed by the evil Skynet, which evolved from a computer chess program created at some point in the late 20th Century.
     And Stargate Atlantis has the replicators, nano-machines that learned to assimilate into larger beings able to imitate human form and consciousness. And, they also figuratively eat their masters—once again, us lowly humans.
   Even the original Star Trek dabbled in higher machine consciousness. There was that episode about the new computer assigned to take over the Enterprise battle operations, but went rogue and began to vaporize other Federation starships, essentially just because it felt like it. On a lighter note, there was the “I, Mudd” episode in which half-hearted villain Harry Mudd found an android planet so dedicated to serving human beings they wouldn’t let him go—and he found himself imprisoned by android love.
   Of course, this is all fantasy.
   At least for the time being. When that technological singularity occurs, all bets are off.
   Recently, I was watching some science program on some satellite TV channel. It could have been the Discovery Channel or PBS. I don’t remember which. My apologies—I watch a lot of TV, absorb innumerable factoids and subsequently don’t remember where I gathered such minutiae. Nevertheless, this no-longer-remembered program disclosed to me that sooner rather than later, we should be able to electronically map our brains, thereby preserving our consciousness and allowing us to transfer it to the android body of our choice.
   Wow! Creepy, yet fascinating. Instant mortality!
   The very idea causes me to remember more about the “I, Mudd” episode of Star Trek. At one point in the story, Mudd is holding the Enterprise bridge crew hostage in a gambit to use the ship to escape from his android captors. As part of the crew’s attempt to escape Mudd and regain their ship, Uhura pretends to want to have her consciousness transferred to a new, artificial body.
   She says something to the effect of, “I want to be young and beautiful forever.”
   These days, when I have as many body parts that hurt as those that don’t, I can appreciate the sentiment. No aches, no pain, no growing old. And if I got tired of looking a certain way, or being a certain height—whatever—I could trade it in and get my consciousness transferred to a newer model.
   I’m sure there would be drawbacks, though. Flesh does have its pleasures, however more fleeting they become as we age.
   Nevertheless, the more I think about it, and since the technological singularity may well happen no matter what I or anyone else does … who knows? I think I might actually want to be a Cylon when I grow up.
   That is, if my cell phone doesn’t kill me in my sleep.

Barack Obama and the Internet

2008-11-12T15:20:00Z

With our nation's historic election day just a week behind us, many in the media are discussing a myriad of topics about President-Elect Obama's transition, where his kids are going to school, which type of dog they'll buy, economic policies and how he won the race for the presidency. I'm not an expert political strategist or even a mediocre one, so I'm going to bypass all the political talk and focus on his campaign's technology aspect.

My.BarackObama.com
Some people, like mega blogger Arianna Huffington, say that Obama won the election because of his online presence. Whether you believe that or not, the numbers are staggering. At the end of his campaign, Obama had over 1.5 million members signed up for his volunteer website, My.BarackObama.com, and $600 million raised from the site by 3 million people total. Things like this obviously don't happen by accident; Obama and his buddies didn't just download a free website template and hope people would visit. During the course of his campaign, he hired Joe Rospars as the online director, the same guy who had worked diligently on Howard Dean's web-savvy campaign in 2004. He also picked up Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook, and together Rospars and Hughes built not just a website for Obama supporters and volunteers, but a functioning social network complete with over 35,000 membership groups, individual membership pages, personalized fund-raising pages, etc. With its popularity among volunteers, the site has come to be known as "My Bo."

Obama supporters could sign up for a free membership to the site, and within minutes could have set up their own fund-raising page, uploaded their personal contacts for emailing, printed out lists of voters in their area to go talk to, joined a local group, printed flyers and blogged about it all on their personal page.

Communication through Community
The amount of volunteer interaction and communication that was given to the Obama volunteers through this site was certainly unprecedented. In addition to my.barackobama.com, volunteers gathered phone lists from hard-to-reach younger voters and sent out text messages to them at critical points in the campaign. During the campaign, 150,000 campaign-related events were set up and just one week before the election thousands of phone banking events were used to reach people to the very end. This wasn't just people wearing buttons and t-shirts, these volunteers used all of the communicative resources of the Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, etc. to connect with like-minded others and recruit others to join them.

Obama's campaign spent money on advertising as well, a significant amount on traditional means like cable, but his Internet advertising was substantial as well. He spent about $8 million on online advertising, which accounts for half of all of the political advertising for all the campaigns.

What's Next
Obama's use of technology and volunteer communication most likely won't end when he becomes president. Already, he has set up a new and official president-elect site (http://www.change.gov/). Even though it has the .gov url, it still reaches out to supporters by giving them the chance to enter text, a picture or video about their stories from the campaign or election day; encouraging Americans to further communicate with him and his team. The site's blog gives updates on what Obama's doing that day, what others are saying in the press and adds conventional press releases as well. We'll only be able to know later on whether he keeps up this dialogue with supporters and with the American people, but at least for now it looks like he's accomplishing it.

Additional Links:

Why You Should Be Part Of Online Networking

Obama Online Strategy

Propelled by Internet, Barack Obama Wins Presidency

my.barackobama.com

http://www.change.gov/

Landlines Declining Among Internet Users

2008-09-22T15:41:00Z

by Chris Neiger

It's not hard to assume that more and more people are using their cell phones as their primary phone of choice, rather than a fixed landline at their home, but it's always nice to have some information to back up that idea. The Nielsen Company recently published a report that shows that 17% of U.S. households are using wireless substitution (using cell phones as the primary phone instead of landlines); that percentage equates to just over 20 million U.S. households.

The 12-page report also mentioned information about how much cell phone-only users save each month compared to those with landlines and also includes television habits of wireless substitutors (see below).

To find out more about the decline of landline phones, read the full Nielson report.

Key findings in the report:
(Information and findings come from The Nielsen Company)

• Wireless substitution has increased in the United States and has reached 20.2 million homes in June 2008.

• Wireless substitutors pay 10 percent more for their cell phone service but use 45 percent more minutes on their wireless phone compared to non-wireless substitutors; which actually nets them $33 in savings per month in a single-person household (less $6.69 for each additional wireless subscriber).

• In the second quarter of 2008, 10 percent of U.S. households with a landline phone had previously ended their landline service, only to sign back up for it again.

• Wireless substitutors are more likely to have over-the-air or broadcast TV (rather than satellite TV) compared to average wireless subscribers.

UK Allows ISPs to Pursue Customer Surfing Habits

2008-09-16T15:23:00Z

by Chris Neiger

I knew people talked a lot about our friends across the pond losing privacy rights, but now I'm starting to believe it may be true. I recently read on the BBC that the UK has just allowed a controversial form of web tracking to be conducted by a company called Phorm. The software will work with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to bring customers targeted ads based on their previous browsing habits. It may not sound too controversial, but one the UK's major ISPs, British Telecom (BT), is already being sued by some of its customers for using this type of software in trial experiments without their knowledge or consent.

Regardless of the lawsuits and the fact that BT admitted to using the tracking software without its customers knowing it, the UK government says that they have outlined a way that Phorm can use their tracking software and not violate any laws. One of the foundational parts of that outline is that the companies cannot sign their customers up automatically. They have to opt in to the system and will always have the opportunity to opt out as well. Also, the software will be set up to gather information into profiles and user IDs that can't be traced back to a living person. It will keep track of content on sites that have been visited but is said not to keep information on actual web addresses. To be a little more technical, it uses information-gathering through deep packet inspection (DPI) to keep track of the information.

In addition to BT using the software, Virgin Media, who was one of the original partners, is still considering using it but is taking a more wait-and-see approach as of late. Net neutrality followers oppose the idea that ISPs will be able to track the content they look at and don't want the companies to go through with it. And they're not alone. Creator of the Internet, Sir Timothy Berners-Lee said back in March that he'll change service providers if his current provider uses Phorm.

An HD-DVD Story

2008-08-29T16:56:00Z

By Glenn Farr

I first became acquainted with high definition TV a little more than two years ago when I impulsively bought a small flat-panel television and added a high definition converter and channels to my satellite package. To put it mildly, it was love at first sight. I had never seen televised images look so lustrous, deep and just plain gorgeous.

HD-DVD/Blu-ray Early Awareness

A month or two later, the first consumer HD-DVD and Blu-ray players began to hit the Best Buys and Circuit Cities of the land and I admit that during my lunch hours, I hit them both (the NACA Office is little farther than walking distance to a store from each chain) to see what the fuss was about.

Well, at that time, most of the fuss was about the high prices of the decks and some of their still buggy functions. Initially, a Blu-ray player sold for about $1,000 and HD-DVD, while cheaper, was still at about the $500 mark. Far too celestial for my wallet, which seems to have a magic price point of $150 to $200 when it comes to anything resembling a DVD player.

So, I waited.

Learning About the Formats

In the meantime, I read about the emerging format war, what each format offered and which studios supported which format. Even for a moderate technophile like me, it was sometimes confusing. The things I learned came down to some basic points.
•   HD DVD players came to market more fully featured than the first Blu-ray players.
•   HD DVD players were obviously more affordable.
•   The Blu-ray format could hold larger amounts of data per disc, which might be important when it came to putting several episodes of a given television series and loads of special features on a single disc.
•   More movies studios supported the Blu-ray format.
•   If you sat before a TV watching a movie on either of the discs, with the naked eye, you really couldn’t tell the difference. They BOTH looked gorgeous.
•   And the reason the format war emerged probably had a lot to do with corporate greed keeping the developers from reaching any kind of compromise that would keep consumers from wasting money on whichever format ultimately lost the war.

Still Not Ready

In spite of everything I read, I was still not ready to make a choice. Regular DVDs still looked awfully good. I could let the war get as financially bloody as the corporate powers that be might want to make it before spilling any of my own cash.

Things Began to Happen

However, early this year, things began to happen—and fast. On Jan. 4, Warner Brothers, which had previously supported both formats, announced it would stop releasing HD-DVD titles in June 2008. That left only Paramount and Universal in the HD-DVD camp. Toshiba, the principal developer of the HD-DVD format and manufacturer of the format’s players, began to drop prices on HD units, and drop them dramatically.
In early February, when I began to find HD-DVD players through online outlets at prices of $150 and below, I took the plunge. I found a unit with 1080i output for about $130 and within days, it was joined to my flat-panel LCD via HDMI connection. While I was awaiting its arrival, I joined Netflix so episodes of Season One of the new Battlestar Galactica were ready to load once I had everything hooked up.

Truly Droolicious Picture Quality

I was not prepared for the improvement in picture quality. It was truly outstanding, and the pop-up menus at the bottom of the screen, which could be accessed without stopping the movie, were a pleasant and useful surprise, as was the ability to run a director’s commentary in a picture-in-picture feature.

In addition, I finally had the chance to experience the upconversion feature as it applied to regular DVDs. I had read about that, but I was astounded at how good an upconverter the Toshiba HD-DVD unit was. Ultimately, I was able to compare HD and regular DVD versions of the same films. Yes, the HD version had an edge, but who would have thought regular DVD could be improved to the point that it was almost indistinguishable from the high definition variant?

Two Are as Good as One

I was so happy with the purchase, I bought a second, identical unit to pair with my second HDTV in another room, and that techno-marriage was equally as satisfying.

Worthwhile Rationalizations

I knew in my gut that HD-DVD’s days were numbered. And I rationalized buying the Toshiba units because they were excellent DVD upconverters and I already had a couple hundred DVDs.

I also rationalized that I could rent as many HD-DVD discs from Netflix as long as they might be available. That rationalization backfired on me—shortly after my second Toshiba unit arrived, Netflix announced they would get out of the HD-DVD format by year’s end.

A Sad Demise

In spite of taking the HD-DVD plunge with my eyes open, its demise made me a little sad. I remember telling a friend that HD-DVD was “the little format that could,” meaning it was remarkably user friendly and came to market with its players’ interactive features being fully functional. (This was not the case with Blu-ray units—it is my understanding that with the recent release of Profile 2.0 units, they are just now reaching a comparative state.)

No Regrets

Do I regret getting into HD-DVD just as it was dying?

No, not really. As I said, the two players I acquired are better as DVD players than any unit I previously owned, and due to plummeting prices, were also among the most affordable.

And I’ve acquired a few favorite titles, such as Blade Runner and Serenity, among others, on HD DVD and I do enjoy the quality and special menu features. I still haunt the online DVD sellers, where prices on discs continue to drop. Yesterday, for example, I found A Christmas Story in HD-DVD for only $9. (And I do love watching Ralphie yearn for that Red Rider BB rifle.)

Is My Future Blu?

So, is Blu-ray in my future?

Oh yes, but not quite yet. My Internet scavenging has found the latest Panasonic and LG units dropping to only about $300 each.

And you know what I said about my magic price point?

I’ve got $100 to go.

Flying Higher and in 1080p--Eventually

2008-07-31T16:18:00Z

By Glenn Farr

When I recall a few facts about technological advances in my own lifetime, I’m stunned. Some things I simply can’t seem to live without today didn’t exist when I was born and most didn’t become part of my everyday life until the last decade.

For example, recent estimates (http://ask.yahoo.com/20010116.html) indicate there are more than 8,600 man-made satellites orbiting the earth—that do everything from tracking weather and allowing us to call Europe by phone to facilitating the Internet and beaming pristine, pretty pictures to our TV sets.

The irony is that when I was born, back in the dark age of 1955, the ONLY satellite orbiting the earth was the moon.

That’s right. The only satellite orbiting the earth was its natural one—no man-made objects had yet been launched. That didn’t happen until the former Soviet Union launched Sputnik I on Oct. 4, 1957, about seven weeks before my second birth day.

Of course, I don’t remember any of that, but I do remember the USSR-US space race that followed, and that became a big part of my childhood as I geekishly followed the Gemini and Apollo launches and the ultimate Apollo lunar landing on grainy black and white TV delivered to my home through a rooftop antenna.

But, in my lifetime, we’ve gone from one natural satellite—that’s still out there quietly circumnavigating the blue orb we call home—to nearly 9,000 artificial ones (and that number doesn’t include the approximately 16,000 man-made objects that are in some state of orbital decay and are no longer serving their original functions). Seems we might next need to launch some kind of giant space vacuum cleaner to suck up all our space junk.

Anyway, some of those nearly 9,000 satellite that are still functioning serve to deliver crisp high definition television to my home—which is one of those technological advances I discovered within the past few years that I now can no longer live without. Sometimes, when I look at what I now spend on my current personal entertainment budget, I’m shocked and decide I must cut something. But what? I can’t do without the SciFi Channel or BBC America or the Science Channel or Boomerang or during Ancient Egyptian Month or UFO Month, even the History channel. That’s very ironic in that until 1998, I subscribed to neither cable nor satellite TV service and depended upon rabbit ears or a huge antenna suspended from my attic trusses to deliver some of my favorite TV programs to me in colorful, but snowy, glory. (Sometime I’ll have to share the lengths to which I was willing to go with metal rods and coaxial cables to receive Babylon 5 over the air when it was first syndicated in the early 1990s.)

This all comes to mind because I received an e-mail notification from my satellite TV provider (DISH Network, for the curious) today that effective Aug. 1, they begin broadcasting HD content in 1080p resolution. Wow! And according to their news release, no one else is yet doing that. And this is all possible due to the recent successful launch of a new satellite. (Does this make 9,000 and one?)

So, what does that mean for me?

In the short term, not much. I mean, it’s another nice technological advancement of which I’m sure I ultimately will take great advantage. But for now, I have two HD TVs, both of which are 30 inches or smaller, and neither of which can display a 1080p signal. One maxes out as 1080i and the other at 720p. Also, to receive the 1080p signal, I would need to buy or lease a new, special DVR. So, to take advantage of this wonderful, new advance in broadcasting, I would need to buy the DVR (up to $500 on the Internet) and a new TV (anywhere from $1,200 to $2,500 depending on brand, features and size).

Anyone who knows me understands how much I like to spend money, especially when I’m dropping coin on a new gadget.

But not this time. No thanks. I’ll wait.

I’ll remind myself of my and my planet’s humble origins with respect to satellites, natural or man made, and savor the advances I already enjoy for a while.

Cell Phones, Contracts, and Capitalism

2008-06-23T21:05:00Z

By Chris Neiger

T-Mobile has finally jumped on board with other cell phone providers and is reducing the costs of its early termination fees (ETFs) by setting up a prorated system of contract termination. Verizon Wireless implemented a similar system almost two years ago and AT&T set up its reduced ETF system this past May. Which leaves Sprint/Nextel as one of the major cell phone carriers that as of yet has only announced they will cut their ETFs but hasn't set up any plan. The new T-mobile ETFs will start on June 28 with all new customers that have a one or two-year contract, or existing customers renewing their contract. Here's the breakdown of the new fees:

91-180 days left on contract: ETF drops from $200 to $100

Fewer than 91 days: $50 fee

Last 30 days: Either $50 fee or your standard monthly charge, whichever is cheaper

Instead of beating up on the big bad cell phone companies, which can easily be done by just about anyone who's owned a cell phone, we need to keep in mind that these are contracts. They aren't just pieces of paper we sign so they will let us walk out the door with a free phone. At the same time, the cell phone industry needs a refresher course on Competition 101 to realize that consumers will eventually go elsewhere when they find a better deal.

Let's talk about the contracts for brief moment.

They're a pain. We walk into the cell phone store, browse around for a cool phone (or for some of us, the cheapest one we can find), and pick out a plan from those tri-fold U.S. maps with about 27 different shades of the same color showing you different coverage levels. Finally they start typing on the computer and 10 hours later we have a new phone, a new company, and most likely a two-year commitment to some provider that may or may not have "best calling network" in the area. Side note: Is it me, or does every single carrier literally claim that their network is the largest, strongest, most advanced receive-a-signal-in-the-ice-caps-of-mars network?

So we've got our new phone and we've got our new company, now what? Well, we squint our eyes, hold our breath and call our friend to make sure everything is working on that expensive phone that looked like brushed aluminum (but we'll learn it's just cheap painted plastic when we drop it for the first time) and hope that it will actually sound halfway decent. Herein lies the problem. We've had to agree to something before we can actually use it. We've signed away hundreds of dollars, or thousands, in our one or two year contract before we could even turn the phone on and listen to what the ear-piece quality sounds like. It's not really a fair proposition, so some cell phone companies have set up a 15 or 30-day trial period to let people test out their network and phones. Now that may seem like it's a fair system, but that trial period usually isn't enough time to find out things like:

Your carrier drops calls as often as Samuel L. Jackson stars in movies
You won't get that text message until days after your friend wanted to see that cool new movie
You live in the 27th shade of color on their coverage map but you thought that meant you had the best coverage

OK, so I beat up on the cell phone companies just a little bit. But here's my counterpoint... we still signed the agreement. When we enter into our cell contracts, we're entering into a legally binding agreement with a company. As lame as that may be, we're still responsible to fulfill our part of the agreement; which is to pay our monthly bill on time and for a set amount of months. If we want out, they have every right to charge us money for breaking the agreement. We all know this, but when problems start happening with our phone or we're being charged for packages we didn't agree to we all feel liked we've been had.

Recently, a class action suit filed by some customers against Sprint/Nextel claiming that their ETFs were too harsh, was struck down by a California state jury. The customers weren't awarded anything, not even the satisfaction of winning, because the jury ruled that the fines were legal.

Consumer Options

Luckily for us all, things are starting to go more in the consumer direction. Some companies have plans that don't require any contract, T-Mobile is one of them. Today, Virgin Atlantic also announced that they would start a no-contract plan on July 1 that will be one of the cheapest flat-rate plans available right now. On top of that, the FCC is starting to look into cell phone affairs more when it comes to ETFs and is also pushing for consumers to have the option of buying what cell phones they want and use them for any company they like. These may seem like small steps, but they allow us to have more options of where we go for our service and what phones we can buy. And eventually, it gives us the freedom to shop for the best quality at the best price. So the next time you're overcharged on your bill or your company's customer service representative doesn't understand the meaning of the word "service', just keep in mind that things are moving ahead in cell phone business, and both the consumers and the companies will be the better for it.

Microsoft's New Push to Be Cool

2008-06-20T17:53:00Z

By Chris Neiger

Yesterday I read an article on the Fast Company website about advertising genius Alex Bogusky and his new $300 million deal with Microsoft to produce the next ad campaign for the tech giant (read about it here). After I read it, I kept wondering what exactly is wrong with Microsoft's image, how can it be changed and what can Bogusky do to fix it? I have to admit, when I think of Microsoft, I tend to think they're boring.

A Brief Background on Bogusky

If you're unsure who this guy is, maybe you'll recognize some of his work over the past few years. He's built up his ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky churning out the "Truth" campaign ads against smoking, launching Coke Zero with commercials showing Coke suing itself for "Taste Infringement" as well reviving the Burger King brand by bringing back the "King" icon form the 60's; just to name a few. Oh yeah, and the semi-creepy Orville Redenbacher doing his own popcorn commercials came from him too.

His company is known for using viral marketing and the Fast Company article notes several times of a certain cool factor that Bogusky has. Actually, the article is even entitled, "Can Hotshot Ad Guy Alex Bogusky Make Microsoft Cool?" And that, apparently, is what Microsoft is looking for.

Microsoft's Apple Envy

Obviously, there's no denying Microsoft's impact on technology, culture, innovation, etc. but lately they haven't been as successful at branding a good image as rival Apple has (I know I've mentioned Apple several times in the last few blogs, I promise I'll cut back). With the Mac vs. PC ads, the arguably failed launch of Vista in both software and advertising considerations, and the simple fact that not many people like the guy who's king of the hill for long, means that MS may in fact need a few suave pointers to get us interested again. The fact that they hired Bogusky and didn't turn to their go-to ad agency McCann Worldgroup, is a pretty good sign that the company is looking for a change. The question is whether this new ad direction will turn heads and change Microsoft's image from a cigar-smoking fat cat to... I don't know... a young, quick-witted hipster with blue jeans and long hair.

Needs vs. Wants

Although the company has hit a rough patch in the last few months with the whole mess with Yahoo!, causing their stock prices to drop off during that time, the company has still seen 10% profits over the past 5 years and, lest we forget, they still hold 90% of the market for applications and operating systems and Kiplinger.com still had them on their list of "5 Stocks We Love" back in February. Not that I'm defending the giant (this writer still enjoys his aging Powerbook G4 over any new PC he's used and drools over the latest iPhone) but a lot of what I do for my job is done on a PC and chances are you're reading this on a PC right now. So maybe it's just that Microsoft WANTS to bee seen differently, rather than actually NEEDING a new image.

Either way, whatever Bogusky and his co-conspirators come up with will launch sometime next month, and I am looking forward to seeing what they come up with. If they're successful in their campaign, maybe Microsoft can shake off its lameness and start competing in popularity contests with Apple. But until then, I'll continue being enthralled with rival commercials that remind me that Microsoft = Excel and Apple = All things cool.

Teaching My Parents about Technology

2008-06-18T20:37:00Z

By Glenn Farr

   I should have known I’d be driving uphill with a few failed cylinders and no clutch when my mother sincerely asked me one day if it were necessary to rewind DVDs.
   Yes, she actually asked me that when I gave them their first DVD player at Christmas a year ago. And to make matters worse, she butchered the acronym, calling the shiny silvery discs VDVs, making them sound more like a social disease than a piece of technology.
   I had to laugh, no matter how hard I tried to stifle it. My father had to laugh, even though he’s only marginally more technically proficient than she.
   I was comforted a few months later when Zits, one of my favorite daily comics, featured a panel in which teenaged Jeremy was asked the very same question by his parents. At least neither my mother nor I were alone in this respect. (Jeremy, though, had the grace not to laugh.)
   It’s rather amazing that I have any technical expertise whatsoever, even more so that I am writing a technical blog, albeit one focusing on the softer, user-end aspect of technology. When I joined NACA in the late‘80s, I worked on a black monitor that flashed bright, eye-deadening orange letters at me as I typed. When we moved toward a Windows-based desktop network, I groused and complained about how none of what I saw on the screen made any sense to me and I’d never be able to use it.
   Well, sometimes, it just takes the right form of technology to get someone hooked. A short while later, a co-worker introduced me to his personal Mac, I obtained Internet access and I was reborn a technophile. (That’s not an endorsement for Apple®, folks—it’s just that Macs always sang a song to which I could harmonize.)
   In fairly quick order, or so it seems from a backward glance over time, I moved from computer to computer, then on to two PDAs and several cell phones, cable TV boxes, satellite dishes, and two high definition TVs. (Oh, and somewhere in there, I must list a couple of answering machines and home burglar alarms that were amazing in their own rights.)
   Because my parents neither own nor use any of these devices except a satellite dish and a simple cell phone, I am the walking encyclopedia on all things technical to them. I do my best, although some of the questions they ask are truly mind-boggling.
   For example, my mother heard all about the controversy surrounding the illegal downloading of music from the Internet and thought ALL downloading was illegal. I happened to mention I had gotten some music online (meaning I bought it from iTunes) and she nearly freaked, thinking the FBI would be storming my door any minute to carry me off to jail.
   When I explained I had bought the music with an online account using a credit card, I was greeted with another chorus of alarm. My parents won’t even plug in the phone line to their satellite converter box for fear the satellite provider will erroneously charge them for pay-per-view without their knowledge. Using a credit card to buy something online through a computer to them is tantamount to selling your soul to the devil.
   Anyway, last Christmas, I gave my parents a DVD set of the first season of The Big Valley. (They like westerns and hate sci-fi, which is exactly the opposite of my viewing preference.). On my next visit, my mother told me the DVDs didn’t work—that they were able to watch only one episode per disc, while “the box says there are more on there. Maybe you need to take them back.”
   When I pointed out they were neglecting to move the cursor on the DVD navigation menu to select a different episode than the one they had by now watched four times, their mutual response was a somewhat sheepish, “Oh.”
   On a subsequent visit, I discovered they had added their local network channels to their satellite package. They did this all on their own—I was so proud. They equally proudly announced they had done it because they knew they’d lose their over-the-air analog local channels when the nation converts to digital broadcasting in February 2009.
   Well, bless their hearts, they got it partly right. They didn’t realize those disappearing analog channels would be replaced by crisp digital versions, also available for free over the air, and took down this enormous rotating rooftop antenna they had used for years. Due to where my parents live, that antenna could pick up signals from three states—South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia. And although they live only 30 minutes from Columbia, SC, they preferred the network affiliates in Charlotte, NC, Greenville-Spartanburg, SC, and Augusta, GA—all of which that monster on the roof could pull in.
   Their satellite provider, on the other hand, offers local network channels based on broadcast market, and due to their proximity to Columbia, SC, they were given the Columbia TV stations when they added the locals to their subscription.
   They did not expect this and quickly began to complain about not being able to watch “Greenville, Spartanburg, Augusta or Charlotte” anymore.
   When I explained they could have kept the rooftop antenna—and with a digital converter box (that would be almost free due to the government coupon program)—could have kept watching the far away stations they preferred, they were not happy.
   All I could say was, “If you had asked … .”
   To which they responded with another sheepish, “Oh.”
   After a beat, my mother asked, “Well, what is this digital TV anyway?”
   I sighed and began composing an on-the-fly Reader’s Digest condensed version of digital and high definition television and what it all meant to the average viewer. I completed what I thought was a fairly easy-to-understand description, only to be greeted with two blank stares.
   “Well, what’s the difference between high definition and what we have through the satellite?” my mother asked.
   I thought I had just covered this and, nearing exasperation, responded, “A high definition picture is about 10 times sharper that what you are looking at right now.”
   Referring to the scene from Bonanza being transmitted to their TV via satellite (which, by the way, I had explained WAS digital, but only standard definition), she asked, “How could anything look any better than that?”
   I turned toward their console television set that is so old it now displays only muted shades of yellow, brown and blue, and shook my head.
   “Trust me. It just is,” I said, remembering their responses to some of my childhood queries, and left it at that.

Finally, A Sirius Merge for XM

2008-06-16T21:00:00Z

by Chris Neiger

After 16 months of being held up in the regulatory process, Sirius and XM are finally close to their desired merger. Yesterday, the FCC Chairman Kevin Martin gave the O.K., and later this week we'll find out if the other commissioners will vote yes on the issue (only two more votes are needed for it to be official, which they'll likely get). If all goes well, the official merge will take place in about a month and will come over a year after the Justice Department's antitrust division said yes to the marriage.

Martin has asked for a few concessions from the companies, that many feel would good for the satellite business and for the consumer. Let's check out a few:

Over 24 channels (or 8% of the programming) would have to be set aside for non-commercial and minority programming.
There will be a three-year price freeze for customers.
Optional packages will have to be set up so consumers can choose (to a certain degree) what channels they want and by doing so, help decide how much they're charged each month.
XM and Sirius have to allow any hardware manufactures to make and sell satellite receivers; one of the biggest requirements.

The companies have agreed to these and other conditions, signaling that the two are in agreement with the FCC and want to keep moving forward with the process. And who can blame them? Analysts believe that the merge will save the companies billions of dollars by cutting costs. With news of the O.K. from Martin, stocks for Sirius rose by 3.15% and 3.96% for XM. Kevin Martin feels confident that the merger is "in the public interest" and if consumers are able to get cheaper satellite subscriptions, have the freedom to buy a receiver from whomever they want and lock in a price for three years, I'd have to agree.

A few years back when I graduated college, I almost purchased some Sirius stock. I didn't know (and still don't) much about investing at the time, but I ordered their company info online and sifted through all the stock reports and other information. I ended up using most of the graduation money to live off of while I was working as a (non-payed) magazine intern in Orlando. Occasionally I wonder how much I could have made off of that early investment, especially with this new merger and what it means for the companies, but I don't regret my decision for one moment. I will however be anxiously watching to see how this XM-Sirius deal pans out. If it all goes well, you better be sure I'll be investing on my next hunch.

The iPhone Revolution 2.0

2008-06-11T16:27:00Z

By Chris Neiger

It’s here.

It seems like ever since the first iPhone was launched technophiles and business gurus have been talking about the next generation iPhone and how much better it will be than the first one. Not that the first generation iPhone wasn’t already an interface revolution, graphically ground-breaking, and simply all-together awesome. But the tech-savants knew right away that the iPhone needed the already available, reliable and fast 3G wireless network in order to be a serious contender with the likes of BlackBerry and other smart phones dominating the market.

Their year of jubilee is finally here. Apple will start selling the second generation iPhone on July 11th and are shooting for a projected sales bonanza of selling 10 million in 2008 (the first iPhone has sold six million to date).

Let’s take a brief look at the iPhone’s new threads:

3G Wireless Technology: I already mentioned this, but what it means for users is that their Internet speed on the phone will take a leap from 1990’s dial-up to 21st Century download and streaming capabilities similar to Wi-Fi speeds.

New price: The new iPhone is available for $199 (8 Gig models) and $299 (16 Gig models). A steep drop from the original $600 and $400 a pop for the original.

Build and Purchase Apps: iPhone users will be able to purchase applications for their phone that are built by third-party developers. Apple’s original closed-fisted approach to producing all the software themselves has evolved into a system that will benefit both users and Apple in the long run.

MobileMe: In order to compete more directly with smartphones, Apple has come up with MobileMe, which allows the iPhone to sync with your PC, Mac and other applications and devices. You can check your MS Outlook mail, update your Mac iCal and update your contact list all in one place and have it sync on all your devices. This will be very useful for corporate accounts.

GPS: Another anticipated and sought-after upgrade is the new GPS chip in the new iPhone. Instead of figuring out your location through triangulation like before, the GPS chip allows real time and accurate positioning for directions.

In addition to these new main features, the phone also reads PowerPoint presentations, boasts a longer battery life, and also allows you to take a call, browse the Web and check email all at the same time… for hundreds less than the original.

You Paid WHAT for Your iPhone!?
That’s right, as if the people who waited in line for days and then paid $600 for the original iPhone only to find out two months later the price went down to $400 haven’t had it bad enough already. The new pricing is sure to draw in people who have been put off by the original phone’s prices or haven’t considering purchasing a smartphone in the past.

By creating an innovative machine and selling it at prices that tempt even the best of the money conscious, Apple is positioning themselves to grab a larger share of the cell phone industry… and fast. Currently, Apple only sells their little wonder in six countries; this year they’ll move across the globe into 70 countries faster than you can say Genghis Khan. BlackBerrys beware.

A New Addiction

2008-06-10T17:21:00Z

By Glenn Farr

    In spite of my general addiction to gadgets, I waited a long time to buy my first DVD player. The units remained fairly expensive during the first few years after they were launched in the late ‘90s and I didn’t find my price point for a while. In the meantime, I had discovered Super VHS and thought it looked mighty fine, thank you very much.
    But in 2002, I had just moved into a new house and was reconfiguring my audio/video system to fit my new living space and I thought, “Maybe it’s time.” I searched on the Internet until I found a loaded JVC unit that would have cost me almost $70 more in any of the local electronics stores and I made one of my first online purchases. (By researching and buying it online, I simultaneously engaged in two technologies that were new to me. Before then, the Internet to me was primarily a venue for exchanging e-mail and hanging out in chat rooms. These days, it is my main shopping mall.)
    One look at a DVD, even on the standard definition TV I had at the time, was enough to sell me on the medium for good. My Super VHS VCR immediately began to languish. It’s still in the rack, but it has rarely sprung to life in six years.
    As everyone knows by now, the picture quality, convenience of scene access and additional features that can be offered by DVDs are light years ahead of the VHS experience. And most important of all, you never have to “be kind—rewind.” (Remember when a video rental store would charge you $1 for not rewinding tapes when you returned them?)
    DVDs and I settled into a comfortable relationship, one I was certain would last for years.
    That is, until the advent of HDTV.
    When I first began to hear about high definition television, I didn’t pay it much attention. Flat screen TVs were selling for nearly $20,000 and I figured if it cost as much as my car, I wasn’t ready to know about it, much less buy into it.
    A little over two years ago, my perspective began to shift. My satellite provider began to include pamphlets about its new tier of high definition channels in my monthly billing statements.
    I began to read them.
    For the past eight years, I’ve had an on-again, off-again relationship with DISH Network. The status of that relationship has depended on where I lived at a given time and how many trees might potentially block the satellite signal path. In the spring of 2006, the relationship was definitely on; DISH had acquired the recently defunct VOOM HD Network and, after combining its exotic niche channels with some other early national HD channels, then offered more high definition programming than any other pay TV provider.
    And they wanted to share their visual feast with me—for only $20 a month more.
    At the time, I had a monster of a standard definition television stationed in one of those built-in cubbies over my fireplace. A 36-inch flat-screen CRT, it weight nearly 200 lbs. and wasn’t going anywhere. And due to its two-inch-thick-glass, it made standard definition satellite TV look so wet and lustrous several of my friends accused me of already having HDTV—and lying about it.
    “I’ll wait,” I repeatedly told myself. “The TV I have is quite nice.”
    Nevertheless, I began to haunt the big box stores at lunch, lusting after flat screens, absorbing all the information I could about plasmas and LCDs and which gave the best picture and which cost more, etc. At the time, even the smallest of these models was cost prohibitive.
    Then, one day late in May of 2006, during my lunch hour, I actually allowed a big box store salesman talk to me about a 26-inch Sharp LCD flat panel I happened to be standing near. To this day, I’m still not quite sure how it happened. But an hour later, I had bought it, taken it home, set it up and returned to work for the day with a guilty secret. (The feat WAS manageable within an hour because the store and my home are quite close to the NACA Office.)
    Within a few days, a satellite installer was at my door to upgrade my dish so I could receive and translate the HDTV signals that were already beaming down onto my house. (But I didn’t tell anyone I had taken the HDTV plunge for nearly a month because I had sworn to several friends I wouldn’t be spending any more money on gadgets for a while.)
    Now, a couple years later, I and many others know all about how some satellite HD signals are compressed and may not truly be high-def by the time they hit our flat screen pixels.
    No matter.
    What I saw when satellite guy hooked me up was truly remarkable, better than DVD and a visual epiphany for me. I discovered some of the exotic VOOM channels like Equator (a nature channel) and national HD offerings such as Discovery HD Theater (now just HD Theater). I soon became hooked on an HD Theater program called Sunrise Earth, which offered spectacular views of sunrises all across the globe. Who knew watching the sun come up could be so beautiful and breathtaking? (As if I’d ever get up early enough to watch a sunrise in real time!) I was so taken by the quality of the images I saw that one morning I was late for work because I was stupefied by the stunningly clear image of a moose wading into a pond in Maine as the morning sun made the water shimmer. You could even see individual droplets of water fall from that moose’s hide as he emerged from the shallow pool.
    In 2006, a 26-inch LCD sold for just under $1,000—and it didn’t include an over-the-air (OTA) tuner. Now, the same size and type HDTV—with a tuner—sells for less than two-thirds of that price. Yes, I might have benefited if I had pursued my original DVD player policy. But, I didn’t. C’est la vie.
    Later, after acquiring a compatible OTA tuner for that flat panel TV, I have discovered what I call “free definition”—the local HDTV channels available to most people with a set of rabbit ears. The signals aren’t compressed, and the images are truly, truly stunning. Who knew The Today Show could look so sharp and brilliant?
    My HDTV addition hit a snag a few months after it began, however. As the summer progressed, a tree began blocking my satellite signal and I had to give it all up, except for the few OTA channels I received.
    But you know how it is with an addiction, even a fairly harmless one. You just can’t let it go. Using the Internet, I found a newer type of satellite dish that was more versatile in terms of where it could be mounted—and I got my HDTV back, all without the aid of a professional installer.
    Yes, sometimes those rain forest tree frogs—or even The Today Show—will almost make me late for work again. But what can I say? I’m hooked. (And if there is a 12-step program for HDTV addicts, I don’t want to know about it.)

Glenn Farr is editor of NACA’s Campus Activities Programming and a technophile who chooses not to age gracefully in that respect. And while getting his first HDTV (he now has two) was a guilty secret for a while, he felt even guiltier when he bought into HD DVD--right before it went belly up.

Why I Don't Own an iPod

2008-06-10T14:30:00Z

By Glenn Farr

    Here in the NACA Office, there used to be a small group of fellow employees who would bet, in jest of course, what gizmo I might be buying next. These people had followed me through innumerable RAM upgrades to past computers, along with hard drive upgrades, additions of CD burners and even followed me as I transferred the basis of my online life from a mammoth industrial strength desktop computer to my first laptop and wireless home network.
At some point during these evolutions, Apple® introduced its soon-to-be-ubiquitous iPod and the odds were even that I’d soon have one.
    But, it didn’t happen.
    And the office odds-makers were perplexed.
    With each new iteration of the iPod, whispers circulated that “maybe he’ll get THIS one.”
    But, again, it didn’t happen.
    Not with the introduction of iPods in colors reminiscent of the original iMac.
    Not with the introduction of the economical iPod Shuffle.
    Not with ever-increasing storage capacity.
    Not with the introduction of the video iPod.
    And not even with the introduction of the iPhone, which includes the iPod’s music playback capabilities.
OK, I came close with respect to the iPhone. I was due for a cell phone upgrade and gave it serious consideration. A friend showed me his, and I was amazed at how moving your fingers across the glossy screen magically made things happen. But then that friend showed me the special shock-absorbing second skin in which he felt obliged to swaddle his new techno-toy and I remembered how many times I had dropped cheaper, less glamorous phones on everything from hardwood floors to pavement—and how upset I had been when those new toys emerged scuffed, dented and otherwise no longer perfect.
    I decided to postpone the potential grief—and financial consequences—from damaging an iPhone. Indefinitely.
    So, no iPhone and so iPod, either.
    And even I wonder why not?
    I digitized my old LP collection and emerged with about 11,000 mp3 files.
    I research and play music with respect to my theatrical pursuits—even using iTunes to find and purchase songs that are effective as pre-show or incidental music for live theatre.
    I create my own mixes and on the odd occasion when I host a party, I plug my iBook into my TV to take advantage of iTunes’ visualizer to create a retro light show for my living room.
    But still no iPod.
    I read about each new iteration of the device. I even lust after specific models from time to time, but when it comes down to why I don’t have one, I guess you can blame it on avoidance of duplication. My Palm Pilot and my Sony Ericsson phone both include media players that read mp3 files from removable media cards, which are becoming increasingly cheap and allow for virtually unlimited storage space.
    Or, you can blame it on my age. I am long removed from the teenagers and 20-somethings who’ve played a large part in the iPod’s success. While I still enjoy music, I also enjoy silence a lot more than I did even a few years ago. You won’t see me walking down the street with white cords (or cords of any color) dangling from my ears. I’ve come to prefer the ambient sound of wherever I happen to be.
    Or, you can blame it on other emerging technologies, such as HDTV. Sometime, I’ll tell you how I spent a morning watching a moose wade through a pond in Maine just because the picture was soooooo P-R-E-T-T-Y, as well as how much I paid to be able to watch that danged moose. (But that’s another blog for another time.)
    Still, I’m glad almost every other music loving person on the planet owns an iPod. The gizmo has in essence transformed a niche computer company into a major industry player. And since that computer company has always produced the machines and interfaces that suit my personality best, and taught me to actually like computers, I’m very grateful to the little mp3 player that could.
In the late 1990s, when pundits were pounding nails in Apple’s® figurative coffin, a friend of mine, who was no fan of Macs, told me, “You might as well buy a PC, because all that’s left for Apple® is to turn out the lights and go home.”
    Every time Apple® has a record-breaking quarter (www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/04/23results.html), I taunt her by reminding her of her errant prognostication.
    She doesn’t enjoy that too much, but she is considering getting an iPhone.

Glenn Farr is editor of NACA’s Campus Activities Programming and a technophile who chooses not to age gracefully in that respect. While he’s enjoyed every Mac he’s ever owned, this blog is not to be construed as an endorsement for Apple® or its products—including the iPod.

America: Land of the Free... Internet?

2008-05-30T15:10:00Z

by Chris Neiger

Yesterday I read reports that the FCC is considering auctioning off air waves to private companies in an effort to set up a network of free wireless Internet to millions of homes in the U.S. The New York Times spoke with FCC spokesman, Rob Kenny, about the June 12 meeting where the proposal will be discussed. He said, ''We're hoping there will be increased interest (in the proposal) and because this will provide wireless broadband services to more Americans it is certainly something we want to see.''

A couple of years ago, M2Z Networks Inc. asked for the unused airwaves and in exchange they would pay the FCC 5% of their advertising revenue, but the FCC did not accept the proposal because they wanted several bidders to compete for the airwaves. A similar auction earlier this year did not go so well for the FCC when they put unused airwaves on the table with the idea that a private company would buy them then have to set up an emergency communication network... go figure.

Obviously, this isn't the first stab at getting free (or low cost) Internet to the masses. A few years ago Philadelphia set up a low cost Internet system with Earthlink that was supposed to be the model of wireless Internet for other cities. Unfortunately, it was just reported earlier this month that the costs were too high for Earthlink, and they fell very short of receiving the minimum subscribers they thought they'd get. They've also had problems trying to give the system away to the city or a non-profit, or even paying an organization to take it. Earthlink is trying similar strategies in New Orleans and Corpus Cristi, to see if they can get different results elsewhere.

With these attempts, hopefully one day we'll be able to provide cheaper Internet, while still producing profit for private businesses through advertising or other means. In the meantime, we'll have to wait and see if the FCC even O.K.'s the proposal and allows these airwaves to go up for auction. If they do, let's hope it someone comes up with a plan to actually make this idea work.

Let's Talk Wireless Business

2008-05-28T13:59:00Z

by Chris Neiger

On Wednesday CTIA, a trade group for the wireless industry, released an updated report on the future impact of wireless technology on businesses. Sparing you the technical details, it basically said that wireless technologies are going to have a more substantial impact on our businesses and economy than previously thought. For example, they mentioned that the city of San Diego will be saving over a $1 million in taxpayer revenue each year by switching to a new wireless dispatch service.

For anyone owning, or even working for, a small business these findings could spur on some practical money and time saving options. The study found that by using the wireless broadband services, the productivity gains will amount to $860 billion in additional gross domestic product in the next 10 years, which was higher than the $600 billion estimated in their previous report in 2005.

The report also mentioned Best Buy as one business that has already reaped the benefits of updating their work force with new wireless technologies in order to improve productivity. Their goal was to increase the number of home visits by 1.5 more per day to customers who needed their famous Geek Squad techies. To do this, they armed each ~~nerd~~ computer specialist with a Windows Mobile 5.0 enabled smartphone. After deploying the new technologies in only 60 days, Best Buy not only met their increased home visits by 1.5 per day, but the Squad also uses the new technology to search for the lowest gas prices in the area to fill up their vehicles as well... no joke.

So the next time I'm watching the NBA playoffs and see another annoying BlackBerry commercial reminding me I can search Yahoo! and update my Facebook page in the palm of my hand, I'll try to think of all the billions of dollars that are potentially going into our economy because a few businesses saw the same commercial and had a great idea. Come to think of it, maybe I should use my IRS stimulus check to buy a smartphone; that way I can boost the economy twice over...