tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11895825250301793492024-03-05T19:40:12.370-08:00Donnahoo FamilyLeedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-52333770258107847712023-01-29T19:17:00.002-08:002023-01-29T19:17:22.428-08:00My COVID Virtual Choir ExperienceBack in the Fall of 2018 I joined a wonderful group of musicians called the <a href="https://www.seattleensign.org/" target="_blank">Ensign Symphony and Chorus</a>. I had never sung with a choir before. At first it was a little weird to be singing instead of playing in the symphony but it has turned out to be an incredibly fulfilling experience. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFPa0_kqV-ZAi5_oLAOHNa2T0wkeyFF3FyedXqM-dT-sKxPM-Paf-odfabfn7NshAe0dU_Q3wCApgY-ILzGWsI9KhLbIyOBY2yk3q28PBUjuhKfpOJv3wKqRX1ncFg4UkrK9xUxK7uZVE/s2048/Ensign+Performance+Nathan+Pacheco+Oct+2019.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFPa0_kqV-ZAi5_oLAOHNa2T0wkeyFF3FyedXqM-dT-sKxPM-Paf-odfabfn7NshAe0dU_Q3wCApgY-ILzGWsI9KhLbIyOBY2yk3q28PBUjuhKfpOJv3wKqRX1ncFg4UkrK9xUxK7uZVE/s320/Ensign+Performance+Nathan+Pacheco+Oct+2019.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ensign Symphony & Chorus with Nathan Pacheco<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>And then COVID crashed the party...<br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">...And cancelled our concert with just a week's notice. Originally scheduled for March 7th, pushed to June 12, then cancelled completely. Ugg.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl_stDKOGELBGsyGp-kQ1USiVXV2Bx28gBYBkWHYIFmmiDCIVd1nlF_XSPOq0vBkcbSfQYxN5JUgNx05I6dISn3yeuVUHoXPkSOIFVqWC5i-MkpM9WCj-BbcwILMHI8AleDGg2KAgH4Sc/s357/Mar+7+Website+Mock+-+Postponed-01.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="351" data-original-width="357" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl_stDKOGELBGsyGp-kQ1USiVXV2Bx28gBYBkWHYIFmmiDCIVd1nlF_XSPOq0vBkcbSfQYxN5JUgNx05I6dISn3yeuVUHoXPkSOIFVqWC5i-MkpM9WCj-BbcwILMHI8AleDGg2KAgH4Sc/s0/Mar+7+Website+Mock+-+Postponed-01.png" /></a></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">This ensemble is about 80 singers and 40-50 symphony players and we perform at <a href="https://www.seattlesymphony.org/benaroyahall" target="_blank">Benaroya Hall in Seattle</a>, which seats upwards of 2000 people. So this was not a small decision. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Starting around March 15, our director <a href="https://www.sdcompose.com/#/" target="_blank">Steve Danielson</a> reached out to
me and a few other people with audio/video experience to discuss how to quickly
put together a virtual choir video. Several folks in our group had experience with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7o7BrlbaDs" target="_blank">Eric Whitaker's virtual choirs</a> and wanted to a similar performance experience for our group. No one else seemed to have much audio
editing experience so I stepped up. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Here's the short version...</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>The song</b>: We picked a public domain song that we were
already planning to perform in our recently cancelled concert: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_on_the_Mount_of_Olives_(Beethoven)" target="_blank">Hallelujah from "Christ on the Mount of Olives" by Beethoven</a>. This minimized prep time because we had already spent weeks rehearsing this number in-person before the lock down happened.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><b>
The rehearsal track</b>: Our conductor created a MIDI track of
the song and filmed himself directing to it in front of a green screen. We
added a click track and put out the video for everyone to use for creating
their video. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><b>
Creating individual videos</b>: We sent out instructions for all the
performers (what to wear, how to stand, how to sing, say your name/part at the
beginning, how to play the video on one device while recording with another,
etc). Initial deadline was 2 weeks to record but we ended up extending another
week. We After some begging/pleading/bribery we had enough coverage from all the parts to start editing.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>
Submitting tracks</b>: I shared an editable link to a OneDrive folder and everyone submitted their
video to their corresponding section folder. Fortunately I had a lot of online drive space available. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>
Audio Editing</b>: I used free tools to strip the audio out of
the video files (FFMPEG) and then edit/mix it all together (Audacity). After
some bumps and false starts I mixed the two sections, the sopranos and altos.
As I started mixing the basses I reached out to a friend who does audio
engineering professionally for advice on how to do the final mix and introduce
live performance effects like reverb and stereo panning. Since he all of a
sudden had a lot of time on his hands he volunteered to help. He mixed the tenors
and then performed the final mix himself, after I finished mixing the symphony. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>
Video Editing</b>: one of our sopranos also does a lot of video
editing so she stepped up to do the video on Adobe Premiere. She took my lead
of creating videos by section, making it look almost like a Zoom/Teams video
but on a stage. She added some b-roll from some shots we took at a concert last
year and polished it up nicely.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>
YouTube premier</b>: The end result was published to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKdHQXUycvo" target="_blank">YouTube</a> to premier the next night at 7pm. Before the end of
the day we had a copyright claim against the video (which we immediately
disputed) but it only prohibited monetization so nothing was delayed. We had
nearly 400 viewers of the premier, which was more than I anticipated. Now over 2700 views. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rKdHQXUycvo" width="320" youtube-src-id="rKdHQXUycvo"></iframe></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And now the longer version….<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><b>
Who are we?</b> <a href="https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.seattleensign.org%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cleedo%40microsoft.com%7C5c73bbfbbe8948134f9b08d7fe8a6720%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C0%7C0%7C637257743030353735&sdata=X8idF9osAz7EfZj0q%2FLZLfJSHl7zloGVN%2BhIms%2Bv8s4%3D&reserved=0">Ensign
Symphony and Chorus</a> has been around for nearly 12 years in the Seattle
area. It is an audition-choir/orchestra with some of the best singers/players I have ever worked with, primarily made up of members of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (although anyone can join us). I
joined the choir back in October 2018. It was really weird to sing in a choir
with an orchestra because I’m usually on the orchestra side of that equation
(playing cello or bass). It has been an amazing experience to perform in
Benaroya Hall in Seattle in front of 1500+ people 4 times a year. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><b>
The idea</b>: In late February our conductor (<a href="https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sdcompose.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cleedo%40microsoft.com%7C5c73bbfbbe8948134f9b08d7fe8a6720%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C0%7C0%7C637257743030353735&sdata=xrxvpr2xRPfYvmsJyQMjyq52r4Td%2FzUcsNYJ1nPwAWk%3D&reserved=0">Steve
Danielson</a>) was musing about doing a virtual choir similar to one he
participated in a few years earlier (Erik Whitacre’s <a href="https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DD7o7BrlbaDs&data=02%7C01%7Cleedo%40microsoft.com%7C5c73bbfbbe8948134f9b08d7fe8a6720%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C0%7C0%7C637257743030353735&sdata=Y9WFUIJtbRLO%2BzKyN1JJyPZ9erM%2Bq9aHk%2Fp6tyf7vDo%3D&reserved=0">Lux
Aurumque</a>) but on a tighter budget. When the lock-down hit and our concert
was cancelled these musings turned into an actual project.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">P<b>roof of Concept</b>: As Steve searched for a song, my wife and I sat down
and talked about how to pull this off with limited resources and everyone at
home. Since my wife used to work as a TV producer/editor she gave us lots of
practical production advice. Using my wife, son, and myself as guinea pigs, we
spent a Sunday afternoon doing a short/easy 3-part virtual choir as a
proof-of-concept using a well-known church hymn ("I Need Thee Every Hour"). The final video was really bad so I will not bore you with the results (We didn't exactly practice, that wasn't the point). This proved that my processes for shooting and editing could
work at a small scale but we had no idea what to expect as we ramped it up. to over 100 people.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><b>
The song</b>: This one garnered a lot of discussion. What about
a pop song? How about something from a recent concert? Can we do one of the
show tunes we were prepping for our March concert? ("<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=545WnGmzcTs" target="_blank">One Day More</a>" from Les Miz
was a favorite here) In the end we picked Hallelujah by Beethoven (from the "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_on_the_Mount_of_Olives_(Beethoven)" target="_blank">Christ on the Mount of Olives</a>" oratorio), which was
also in our March concert repertoire. This dodged the copyright issue
completely since we chose a song written in the early 1800s and from a score
printed circa 1890. It didn't stop Sony Classical from flagging it for copyright infringement but that's a story for another day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><b>
The conductor track</b>: Steve recorded his conductor video in
front of a green screen wearing his concert tux to give the video the
performance feel. For audio he put together a MIDI audio click track for all
the orchestra and choral parts. We added a tone at the beginning to make it
easier to sync up the audio/video later. We also layered some text to tell
people when to say their name/part, when to sing, etc. We asked that everyone have their headphones unplugged until they heard the sync tone, then plug them in for the remainder of the video.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><b>
Instructions website</b>: This included links to the sheet
music, and instructions for practice tracks (created months earlier for the
cancelled concert), wardrobe, video background, recording location (a quiet,
well-lit location), how to record the video, and how to submit the video. Deadline for submissions was 2 weeks.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><b>
Making videos</b>: Wow, this took a while. I spent far more time
ironing the sheet for my backdrop than I did actually making my video. For me
personally I did about 20 takes to get it right. This was right in the middle
of the range for most of the folks in our group (8-40 takes). After 2 weeks
only 3 of the singers had submitted videos so we extended the deadline another
week. Final count on videos was 58 singers and 23 instruments. We were a little
light on tenors so I asked one of the tenors to duplicate his track with
different voicing so we could get more depth in that section and ended up using
4 of his tracks. The only instrument we were missing was the timpani, which our
conductor created using a MIDI synth. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Does everyone else make weird faces when they sing?
Apparently I do…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieKcMRaolQ5RDmFs3SFOskVUkvqIgRtxAn38TcFqZOIj3h-jeusrpq6B6K2l_s6LOr_7g6Il0kHav4OMBmLMSnFbdTTCvjB_RUAr7TudptDg55I37jz05TQZvjHwKKOhjjlms-rr6jWg0jKh4LXSSC3GM9Gm0Vg4-Oi1mK3w2mtpVXNWi0o-4ZGhZl/s3545/IMG_20200405_165930921.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3545" data-original-width="2402" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieKcMRaolQ5RDmFs3SFOskVUkvqIgRtxAn38TcFqZOIj3h-jeusrpq6B6K2l_s6LOr_7g6Il0kHav4OMBmLMSnFbdTTCvjB_RUAr7TudptDg55I37jz05TQZvjHwKKOhjjlms-rr6jWg0jKh4LXSSC3GM9Gm0Vg4-Oi1mK3w2mtpVXNWi0o-4ZGhZl/s320/IMG_20200405_165930921.jpg" width="217" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><b>
The sound editing process… </b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">This was where I spent the bulk
of my time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>
The editing workflow</b>: As soon as videos started trickling in
I began playing around with Audacity trying to come up with a good work flow
for mixing the audio the choral parts. In the end it went something like this-<o:p></o:p></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Using FFMEG strip out
the audio from the video into a high-quality WAV file. With so many
submissions coming in I actually scripted this in PowerShell. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Split the submissions up
into the choral parts (SATB) and save different Audacity project files for
each one. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Starting with the
conductor MIDI/click track as the base, add the audio tracks one by one,
adjusting timing as necessary to make everything line up. Level volume
across all parts to get a good balance. This same process was used on the
choral and instrument parts.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">With the finalized
sections mix SATB together with the symphony and balance the volume<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><b>
The False Start</b>: As parts trickled in, I began
the intake process immediately and worked on adjusting timing. After many hours
of editing (Sopranos were pretty much finished and I was halfway through editing
22 altos) I found I was using Audacity incorrectly to make timing changes (simply selecting sections of audio and using cut/paste to move them to the right place). This introduced digital artifacts into the output files (audible clicks and pops). A quick search of the interwebs/YouTube for
Audacity tutorials pointed out that this was a BIG no-no. So I started over and
learned the RIGHT way to split a track into clips to move things around without introducing digital noise.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><b>
Asking for help: </b>Now, using the right process, I found myself
running very short on time. I reached out to a friend (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/skyriversound/" target="_blank">James</a>) who does audio
engineering freelance work for video game and movie productions. His work had
recently dried up a bit so he graciously gave me hours of free advice and then
volunteered to help with the mix. I gave him the entire tenor section and then
he did the final mix as well. My wife was not terribly pleased that I was
spending most nights working on this project for the better part of 2 weeks
plus my day job.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><b>
The final mix:</b> For the final mix James used <a href="https://www.reaper.fm/" target="_blank">Reaper DAW</a> and
added some cathedral reverb to make it sound like we were in a concert hall. We
played around with volume levels a bit (cleenfeed.net is an AMAZING
high-quality streaming solution for conferencing) and eventually rendered the
final mix with a week to spare (May 15<sup>th</sup> 2020 was the premier date we
announced online). <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><b>
The video production</b>: our video editor used Adobe Premiere
to follow a very similar process to what I did with the audio-<o:p></o:p></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Create a single video
for each section with the singers/players arranged to look like they are
in a Zoom call. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">With the different
videos, composite them together onto a single screen around the conductor.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Zoom-in and pan around
each section as the vocals change in the different parts.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><b>
The big surprise:</b> We kept a big surprise from the chorus
and orchestra during this entire process: 2 of our guest performers from past
concerts would be joining us with violin parts. <a href="https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jennyoaksbaker.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cleedo%40microsoft.com%7C5c73bbfbbe8948134f9b08d7fe8a6720%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C0%7C0%7C637257743030363728&sdata=XYUWESQzF2h1SByIRL6XRpZBb%2BVK7%2BTF9PC5ZCYxP0Q%3D&reserved=0">Jenny
Oaks Baker</a> and <a href="https://nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fjenniferthomasmusic.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cleedo%40microsoft.com%7C5c73bbfbbe8948134f9b08d7fe8a6720%7C72f988bf86f141af91ab2d7cd011db47%7C0%7C0%7C637257743030363728&sdata=Ig9QhlGPT5XEvNH1OnRA2TzfFuloVkYuHgZeuBolFnY%3D&reserved=0">Jennifer
Thomas</a> submitted 1<sup>st</sup> violin and 2<sup>nd</sup> violin parts,
respectively. We featured them in the video in prominent places. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><b>The Big Premier</b>: We <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKdHQXUycvo" target="_blank">premiered on May 15<sup>th</sup> at 7pm</a> Seattle time with
just over 300 watching live. Wow, what a relief to finally reach release! My
biggest surprise was how well the entire thing turned in the end since we used
primarily cell phone cameras. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><b>
Some Lessons learned</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>When recording from home, the ENTIRE HOUSE must be quiet. Lots of submissions had background noise (i.e. turn off
your furnace/AC if possible)</li><li>The click track turned out to be very important to most performers, especially the orchestra. It helped to balance the audio. Some
people said the click track was unusable, some said it was invaluable.</li><li>Create a voice track for each section and layer it on the conductor video so
people can sing along, hit the right pitch, and know when to CUT OFF. I spent
HOURS and HOURS retiming vocal tracks so everyone came-in and cut-off at the right
time. This was by far my biggest time-suck.</li><li>Give more guidelines for phone placement to create the right shot and not
overwhelm the microphone (some sopranos were FAR too close). Also being too
close to the mic made page turns very obvious in the audio. Even with the various problems we encountered, I only had to ask 1
soprano to re-shoot her video with her mic farther away (she is a very strong singer).</li><li>The beep at the beginning was not very valuable: some phones were pausing
for up to 2 seconds when the headphones connected, and even when that didn't
happen not everyone did their entrances on time (see #3).</li></ol></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">There were some funny things heard in the background…</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lots of furnace/AC fans<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A passing freight train<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Cars passing outside<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Someone doing dishes (clinking of dishes)<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Kids fighting with each
other followed by a parent telling them to stop<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A ticking clock<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ol><div>Overall this was an AMAZING experience. I had never done audio editing before and this was quite an enjoyable experience. I have no done quite a bit more audio/video editing for the choir, which has been a very fullfilling experience. </div><div><br /></div><div>And now, almost 3 years later, I am working on a remaster of the project using <a href="https://www.reaper.fm/" target="_blank">Reaper DAW</a>. It didn't cost that much to license and has quite a few features that make it far superior to Audacity. This will (hopefully) be done in time for Easter 2023. And I do plan to do most of my editing on my <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/rmsnwbrdr" target="_blank">Twitch channel</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>}B^)</div>
<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-24550442821076395122014-10-08T21:47:00.001-07:002015-06-29T11:44:47.312-07:00I used to like Weird Al... Now I LOVE Weird AlWay back when I was just a little bitty boy living in a box under the stairs in the corner of the basement of the house half a block down the street from Jerry's Bait shop...<br />
You know the place...<br />
<br />
Actually, I never lived near a Jerry's Bait shop, but way back when I was a boy (I don't think anyone has EVER described me as "little bitty"), at the ripe age of 10, I was introduced to Weird Al, specifically the "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0060ANWF4/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0060ANWF4&linkCode=as2&tag=nogutr09-20&linkId=P76FGZJYKWQLIAVN" target="_blank">Weird Al in 3D</a>" album. I must have listened to that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubbing_(music)" target="_blank">absolutely-100%-totally-legal</a> cassette copy 27,000 times. I knew all the lyrics to all the songs. And I still do, in most cases.<br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Weird_Al_Yankovic_-_In_3-D.jpg/220px-Weird_Al_Yankovic_-_In_3-D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Weird_Al_Yankovic_-_In_3-D.jpg/220px-Weird_Al_Yankovic_-_In_3-D.jpg" /></a></div>
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Over the years I have purchased just about every album he has released. My friends and I spent countless hours learning to play his songs, singing them on Boy Scout adventures, and annoying the !@#$ out of our parents and siblings with fun phrases like, "Today we are teaching Poodles how to fly. Nope, not today!" And don't get me started about the multifaceted debates/arguments/fights we had regarding Dare to be Stupid and Albuquerque.<br />
<br />
OK, I admit, I <i>really</i> like Weird Al.<br />
<br />
And then, last week, I discovered I LOVED Weird Al. No, not that kind of love...<br />
<br />
Time to 'splain Lucy...<br />
<br />
I have a son with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome" target="_blank">Asperger Syndrome</a>. Life with him is never a dull moment. He is 10 years old now and, through the wonderful magic that is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_behavior_analysis" target="_blank">ABA</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_therapy" target="_blank">OT</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_therapy" target="_blank">PT</a>, he is beginning to live a semi-normal life compared to his normally-abled peers. Even so, there are things that he really struggles with that most people take for granted.<br />
<br />
The most recent struggle involves sarcasm. According to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>, which is never wrong, sarcasm is defined thusly-<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Sarcasm is "a sharp, bitter, or cutting expression or remark; a bitter gibe or taunt." Sarcasm may employ ambivalence, although sarcasm is not necessarily ironic." The distinctive quality of sarcasm is present in the spoken word and manifested chiefly by vocal inflections". The sarcastic content of a statement will be dependent upon the context in which it appears.</blockquote>
Most people with Aspergers really struggle with this. My son simply does not recognize the facial expressions, vocal tones, or contextual clues that most people use when employing sarcasm.<br />
<br />
My problem: my family <i>lives and breathes</i> sarcasm. It comes out of us as normally as any other language. Our conversations are not only saturated with sarcasm, they are dripping with it. But when speaking with my son I have to be very literal.<br />
<br />
As an example of this frustration, you have to look no farther than Dr. Sheldon Cooper-<br />
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And then one day my son heard a new song by Weird Al and became our grammar nazi...<br />
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He can quote to you each and every one of the grammar rules and examples in the song. And he does so DAILY. Like this gem...<br />
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And then, after quoting the line above, he asked me, "Dad, what's sarcasm?"<br />
<br />
Oh boy, here we go.<br />
<br />
Me: "Sarcasm is when people say something but they aren't being literal about it. Kind of like when people use idioms."<br />
Boy #3: "Then what is Irony? Is that like sarcasm?"<br />
Me: "No, that's when something happens to someone and it's ironic. Like when a policeman gets pulled over for speeding."<br />
<br />
OK, I wasn't helping. So we turned to his current, most-favorite form of literature, the comic book, in particular <a href="http://garfield.com/" target="_blank">Garfield </a>the cat and <a href="http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/" target="_blank">Calvin and Hobbes</a>. It just so happens that two of his favorite comic book characters are masters of the art of sarcasm. And, because they are his favorite, we have plenty of source material from which to study.<br />
<br />
Examples like this...<br />
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<a href="http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2014/09/20" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://assets.amuniversal.com/0d03c31000bf01328df1005056a9545d" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://garfield.com/comic/2014-09-26" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://garfield.com/uploads/strips/2014-09-26.jpg" height="211" width="640" /></a></div>
Does Calvin really want his Dad to sue him?<br />
Does Garfield know that donuts aren't healthy for him? Does he care?<br />
<br />
The contextual clues are all there-<br />
<ol>
<li>Calvin looks bored (resting his head in his hand) and is looking away from him Dad in panel #3.</li>
<li>Garfield has a huge grin on his face which signifies that he likes what is about to happen.</li>
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My son didn't pick up on these right away. We had to read well over 100 pages of comics, with him analyzing each one, before he started to notice the clues. Then his ABA therapist got into the act and started working sarcasm into his sessions, both using and recognizing it. </div>
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In regular conversation he would quietly ask me, “That was sarcasm, wasn't it?” practicing incessantly until he had it mastered. I use the word “incessantly” because he really annoyed his brothers with it for a while. Now, two months later, he is starting to get it.</div>
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<ol>
<li>He (somewhat) understands what sarcasm is and is not (i.e. compared/contrasted with irony and metaphor). </li>
<li>He now uses sarcasm daily, typically in a humorous way, as opposed to an insulting or tedious way.</li>
<li>He tags every use of sarcasm with “that was sarcastic,” sung just like Weird Al. </li>
</ol>
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I cannot express how big an accomplishment this was for him. My wife and I cried about this when we realized what had happened. I’m sure he will continue to struggle with sarcasm in the future but for now he at least understands the concept and can use it and recognize it. </div>
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I find myself going to the "Weird Al well" more and more these days. My oldest son was asking me about writing styles the other day (first person, third person, etc.) and wanted an example of "stream of consciousness" writing. I immediately pulled out "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHnTocdD7sk" target="_blank">Trapped in the Drive-Thru</a>" and "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE37e1eK2mY" target="_blank">Albuquerque</a>" by Weird Al. Now he gets it.</div>
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And now I find myself in the odd place of thanking Weird Al for "Word Crimes," profusely, I might add. The song that my kids sing at least once a day (also profusely).</div>
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Someday I’ll show him <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWME4d1BRCk" target="_blank">Nature Trail to Hell</a>. That should scar him for life.</div>
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<br />Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-50373053970315417192013-10-29T23:55:00.000-07:002015-06-29T11:39:25.171-07:00Best and Worst Use of Technology in Movies<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
I'm a nerd. I'm a geek. And I LOVE movies. This presents some interesting issues if you ever watch a movie with me: I CANNOT STAND the way technology is used and portrayed in movies, at least most of the time. Sometimes the writer/director/producer have <i>no clue</i> what they are doing with that technology. </div>
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And therein lies the rub. Their use of technology is so baaaaaaad that it completely ruins the movie-watching experience for me: it's just annoying even though I usually end up liking the film.</div>
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At other times the technology makes it oh, so beautiful. </div>
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I'm sure <a href="https://twitter.com/neiltyson" target="_blank">Neil deGrasse-Tyson</a> feels the same way about how physics is portrayed in space. Oh, wait, <a href="http://www.popsci.com/article/technology/neil-degrasse-tysons-awesome-twitter-rant-about-science-errors-gravity" target="_blank">he does</a>, even when he actually likes the movie.</div>
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And Neil and I are not alone in this "fun". The geeks over at <span style="font-size: 11pt;">NASA watch the movie <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120591/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Armageddon</a> to see <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2007/sep/04/whichisthewo" target="_blank">who can find the most "impossibilities" in the movie</a>. Apparently, t</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">he record is </span><a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19526191.500-feedback.html" style="font-size: 11pt;" target="_blank">168</a><span style="font-size: 11pt;">. </span></div>
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And so here I present...<br />
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<h2>
<b>My Best and Worst Use of Tech
in Movies</b></h2>
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But first a warning and then a note.</div>
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<b>WARNING: </b>Movie plots and key scenes will be discussed. No complaining later about spoilers!</div>
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<b>Note: </b>The movie Hackerz
will not be discussed or included in this list. In our house it is "the movie that shall not be named". It's right up there with <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093278/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Ishtar</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112462/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Batman Forever</a>. And <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Baloon" target="_blank">The Red Baloon</a>.</div>
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<h2>
The Best</h2>
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/ba/Poster_-_The_Matrix_Reloaded.jpg/220px-Poster_-_The_Matrix_Reloaded.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/ba/Poster_-_The_Matrix_Reloaded.jpg/220px-Poster_-_The_Matrix_Reloaded.jpg" height="320" width="214" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0234215/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Matrix Reloaded (2003)</a> - This one has to come first in my list because it marked an incredible "First" in movie history. In the movie there's this power plant where... oh, who cares? The movie wasn't that great. It served as a vehicle to get Neo into his epic battle with Elrond the Elf. And to teach us that French profanity sounds waaay cooler than English. But along the way Trinity does something incredible. She uses <a href="http://www.securityfocus.com/news/4831" target="_blank">a real, unpatched SSH 1.0 buffer overrun vulnerability</a> to hack into that power plant. She then changes the root password to Z1ON0101, and just like that, she is God on that system. When the movie came out in theaters you could use that hack to do some real damage. For the first time in history a fictional movie accurately portrayed a real hack.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086393/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Superman III (1983)</a> - Before I go into just how cool the hack was in this movie, I do have to say that the rest of it is pure 1980s cheese. What was so cool about such a bad movie? Richard Pryor is a computer programmer who... OK, I laughed when I wrote that the first time. Richard Pryor... A nerd? Well, if he was he was one funny nerd. Anyway, he plays a software developer who writes a program that steals tenths and hundredths of cents and
funnels them into his own account. Brilliant. And parodied countless times
elsewhere. </span></div>
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/29/Wargames.jpg/220px-Wargames.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/29/Wargames.jpg/220px-Wargames.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086567/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">WarGames (1983)</a> - A kid, with a cobbled-together
computer, can connect into another computer a thousand miles away and use programs in a way someone didn't
think about with possibly disastrous consequences? In the early-80's, playing off the Cold War fears, this was big time stuff but it wasn't far outside the realm of possibility. Modems were around, although they were incredibly slow and there really was no public internet. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_phreak" target="_blank">Phone phreaking</a> was a real thing (until people stopped using fax machines and AOL). In 1986 I saw CompuServe for the first time and was floored. What David Lightman did in WarGames helped inspire me to pursue a career in computers. No joke.</div>
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/87/StarWarsMoviePoster1977.jpg/220px-StarWarsMoviePoster1977.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/87/StarWarsMoviePoster1977.jpg/220px-StarWarsMoviePoster1977.jpg" height="320" width="204" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Star Wars Ep. IV (1977)</a> - There is so much to say about this movie that I have to limit my remarks to one thing: R2D2, while inside the Death Star, teaches us an entire course on modern Information Security. That little droid can connect into a wall socket and advance the plot faster than any writer could, but I digress. He "talks" to the <span style="font-size: 11pt;">main Death Star computer and obtains all sorts of information (which he does again in Ep. V on Cloud City). He operates garbage compactors. He opens doors. And he does this even though he is an unauthenticated, untrusted intruder. In 1977, computer security was little more than a guard at the front door, so this isn't that big of a stretch. Where is their authentication? Why do they trust anyone who can plug into a terminal? There is no auth or trust so he can perform his tasks and gather information with impunity. </span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/9e/Apollo_thirteen_movie.jpg/220px-Apollo_thirteen_movie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/9e/Apollo_thirteen_movie.jpg/220px-Apollo_thirteen_movie.jpg" height="320" width="215" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112384/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Apollo 13 (1995)</a> - They invented "a way to put a square peg in a round hole, rapidly." "We need to
make this (square thing) fit into the hole for this (round thing) using nothing but that." 'Nuff said. If you don't know what that means, throw a party and watch one of the best movies of the 1990's. And then sell your house because it would be easier than cleaning it.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105435/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Sneakers</a> (1992) - Good writing/directing and an AMAZING all-star cast. What could make this even better? How about some amazing hacking using old-school social attacks? The theory of a key-to-end-all-keys is a bit out there but not 100% impossible. The best thing about this movie is that they use very little technology to break into a building overflowing with it. And it's the best River Phoenix movie out there. </span></span><br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7a/Social_network_film_poster.jpg/220px-Social_network_film_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7a/Social_network_film_poster.jpg/220px-Social_network_film_poster.jpg" height="320" width="203" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1285016/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">The Social Network</a> (2010) - Not a bad movie, if you unplug the plot from reality for 90 minutes. The "Winklevi" portrayal by a single actor is amazing. What is more amazing, though, is Zuck's first "Facebook" hack where he collects information about coeds from various "Facebooks" of Boston-area colleges/universities. It is a VERY well-shot scene with explanations that actually make sense. Would love to hear a modern web developer poke holes in it, since I haven't coded in any of the platforms used in the hack (Python, AJAX, etc). Key point: what he did is completely possible and it was portrayed in a cool way.</div>
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/75/Cloak_&_Dagger_(1984_film)_poster.jpg/220px-Cloak_&_Dagger_(1984_film)_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/75/Cloak_&_Dagger_(1984_film)_poster.jpg/220px-Cloak_&_Dagger_(1984_film)_poster.jpg" height="320" width="216" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087065/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Cloak & Dagger</a> (1984) - A mid-80's kids movie? What could possibly be interesting in here from a geek perspective? How about hiding top-secret data in an Atari cartridge? And the only way to access it to play the game in a certain way. BRILLIANT! Yes, it's an 80's kid's movie so don't expect a lot of plot or character development.</div>
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/ae/Men_Who_Hate_Women.jpg/220px-Men_Who_Hate_Women.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/ae/Men_Who_Hate_Women.jpg/220px-Men_Who_Hate_Women.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1132620/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2" target="_blank">The Girl with the DragonTattoo</a> (2009) - Lisbeth (the main character) is a private investigator, of sorts. What does she investigate? People, using her computer. Or rather using their computer to investigate them with some awesome hacking using real tools and methods. </div>
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And now, brace yourselves for...</div>
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The Worst</h2>
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/36/Clear_and_Present_Danger_film.jpg/220px-Clear_and_Present_Danger_film.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/36/Clear_and_Present_Danger_film.jpg/220px-Clear_and_Present_Danger_film.jpg" height="320" width="215" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109444/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Clear and PresentDanger</a> (1994) - I actually like this movie. I'm a big Tom Clancy fan and I was really into this movie right up until I heard the nameless CIA tech say, "OK, sweetheart, let's get to work!" Jack Ryan has just asked him to do something of questionable legality and high difficulty, so he starts talking to his computer. Now, I have no
problem with nerds who talk to their computers. Shoot, I do it all the time
using somewhat colorful metaphors. My problem with this movie, which almost makes this movie unwatchable for me to this day, is that he wasn't actually talking to a computer. He was talking to a <a href="http://www.tech.proact.co.uk/storagetek/storagetek_powderhorn_9310_tape_library.htm" target="_blank">StorageTek 9310 PowderHorn</a> tape silo (you can clearly see the StorageTek logo on the robot arm).<br />
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<a href="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2217/2074232520_dc34da3416.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2217/2074232520_dc34da3416.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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I'm sorry, a tape library robot is not a computer, no
matter how you talk to it. It does look a lot more impressive than a mainframe (most likely what a CIA tech would have used to pull off this hack in 1994) with its arm swinging around but it cannot calculate squat. What it can do is store upwards of 150,000 tapes and several hundred terrabytes of data. Yes, those were impressive numbers considering the average desktop computer had less than 1 gigabyte of disk space.<br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e7/Jurassic_Park_poster.jpg/220px-Jurassic_Park_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e7/Jurassic_Park_poster.jpg/220px-Jurassic_Park_poster.jpg" height="320" width="215" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107290/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Jurassic Park</a> (1993) - If we were talking about how computers were used to create the film this one would be near the top of the list. But we're talking about how they are portrayed in the film. Nedry's computer setup is interesting (even Samuel L. Jackson can't hack into it!) but it is easily figured out by a little girl with big eyes. The worst part? An 11-12 year old girl knows how to use a $50K SGI workstation? Not on your life.
And apparently not on her life either.<br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/29/Wargames.jpg/220px-Wargames.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/29/Wargames.jpg/220px-Wargames.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086567/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">WarGames (1983)</a> - <span style="font-size: 11pt;">Yes, this movie is in the best <i>and </i>worst category. I'm that fickle. Why is this one the worst list? For all the cool stuff they did with computers there is one thing they did that still bothers me 30 years later. When he first connects to the WOPR, David Lightman hooks it up to a sound processor to have it interpret the text into words, pretty revolutionary for consumer tech in his day, but it doesn't stop there. From then on through the film the WOPR
can talk to him, and in the EXACT same voice no matter which workstation he is using.
In 1983. No. Way. Oh, and the launch codes are cracked 1 digit at a time.</span></div>
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e1/MissionImpossiblePoster.jpg/220px-MissionImpossiblePoster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e1/MissionImpossiblePoster.jpg/220px-MissionImpossiblePoster.jpg" height="320" width="215" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117060/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Mission Impossible</a> (1996) - I won't go into the weird portrayal of email or AOL screen names, or whatever it is that Tom Cruise uses to communicate with Job, I suspended my disbelief on that one. What cracks me up every time is the hanging-by-a-wire ballet scene in the computer vault. A super-secret, <i>super-expensive</i> CIA computer, connected to nothing, that is incredibly hard
to access? What exactly does it do? The antithesis of user-friendly or even
usefullness. Why have such a secure room for a computer that holds <i>digital</i> data that is no doubt available elsewhere? Ugg. I'll stop now on that one because the next one is worse...<br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/75/Enemy_of_the_State.jpg/220px-Enemy_of_the_State.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/75/Enemy_of_the_State.jpg/220px-Enemy_of_the_State.jpg" height="320" width="214" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120660/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Enemy of the State</a> (1998) - Will Smith and Gene Hackman in an action thriller? What could possibly go wrong? How about Jack Black using infinite zoom and 3D rotation on a grainy surveillance camera? (skip to 2:06 in this video)<br />
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Yes, this is one of Jack Black's earlier film roles where he plays a tech geek hired to pursue Will Smith at all costs. Including stretching the reality of 1998 graphics software and audience intelligence levels. </div>
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0d/Netposter1995.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0d/Netposter1995.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113957/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">The Net</a> (1995) - ID theft,
corporate espionage, and public infrastructure in danger over the internet?
Reality in 2013 but in 1995 it was a pipe-dream. If they had set the movie in
the near-future (a la <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181689/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Minority Report</a>) it would have made more sense. Instead they tried to twist 1995 technology to make it look like it could do incredible things that simply weren't possible. If they made that movie today people would probably just shrug their shoulders and say, "Meh. The NSA does that on a Tuesday."<br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e8/Swordfish_movie.jpg/220px-Swordfish_movie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e8/Swordfish_movie.jpg/220px-Swordfish_movie.jpg" height="320" width="215" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0244244/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Swordfish</a> (2001) - This one is the absolute worst. I thought I was watching an action movie, not a laugh-out-loud comedy. There are just far too many situations that stretch their geek cred a little too far. The low point is near the beginning when John Travolta, soul patch and all, puts a gun to Hugh Jackman's head and asks him to hack in a DoD database protected with 128-bit encryption in 60 seconds while
being, um... "distracted" and typing at what must be 300 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Words_per_minute" target="_blank">WPM</a>. Which invariably works. Because movies.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Honorable mentions
from TV:</span></h2>
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSI:_NY" target="_blank">CSI: NY</a> - "I'll
create a GUI interface using Visual Basic to see if I can track an IP
address." Wow. So much ignorance crammed into one sentence.<br />
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numb3rs" target="_blank">Numb3rs</a> (2005-2010) - One of my favorite shows of the time but they constantly made me laugh any time they showed the inside of the FBI office. They put together quite the swanky FBI office in downtown LA with projected computer screens and great looking graphics but the prop computers sitting in telco racks are 15-year-old (at the time) 1990s-era Compaq servers. I have spent <i>countless</i> hours working on them, including the oft-represented <a href="http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliant6500/" target="_blank">Proliant 6500</a>. If you look closely enough in some scenes the server had 1.6" 9GB drives. Those were smokin' systems in 1998. Now my phone has more storage and processing power. And none of them were ever powered on which would have made dialog in the near vicinity inaudible. </span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/u8qgehH3kEQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCIS_(TV_series)" target="_blank">NCIS </a>- Arguably the highest rated show on TV right now but they still have their moments. Like having two people
hacking on the same keyboard at the same time, where the hacker is hacking a <i>single computer </i>but the target cannot be isolated. How is the hack stopped? By the two 1D10Ts typing in the keyboard? No, by the main character unplugging the !@#$% computer. Brilliant.</div>
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And some parting thoughts...</h2>
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I left out quite a few possible nominees on all categories to keep this concise. My wife complains that I am a little long-winded when it comes to things I am passionate about. I do not disagree. Neither does my son, apparently. </div>
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When movie-makers or TV people use technology it doesn't take much to make it realistic. Just screen it for a geek or two, which are VERY easy to find, and your problem can be solved. Want to do some product placement with EMC to put one of their HUGE storage arrays in a key shot? Have it be in a datacenter where it belongs, not in the middle of a @#$% conference room where the 90 dB, 1400 CFM fans would make it nearly impossible to have a relaxed conversation. Use advisers who will properly vet how you portray technology, just as you would the military, planetary science, medicine, or any other scientific aspect of your film.</div>
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Then maybe my wife will stop elbowing me when I laugh at inopportune moments of impossible ridiculousness that is technology in movies.</div>
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Hold on a minute, what about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_(1996_film)" target="_blank">ID4</a>? How can you possibly not mention Jeff
Goldbloom's magnum opus of hacking? Maybe because it isn't really that cool and definitely not totally impossible (i.e. it doesn't fit into either category above). His character was an EXPERT in communications. Who's to say he didn't
figure out a way to connect via TCP/IP and upload a custom virus? The display graphics aside, for a moment, it could work…<br />
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<object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/QOKociU8t_Q/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/QOKociU8t_Q&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/QOKociU8t_Q&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>
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Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-71540819296453962202013-10-11T23:54:00.001-07:002015-06-29T12:35:39.865-07:00How NOT to create a movie trailer<b>RE</b>: An open letter to movie executives/staff<br />
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<b>Subject: </b>How NOT to create a movie trailer<br />
<br />
I was watching Marvel's "Avengers" recently with my kids and was reminded again why I have a love/hate relationship with movie trailers. What reminded me? This...<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGPNkTZXhDz9FmsckNlVLRdeTtYX-M8Wjl7sntNc50L2oU63lNnJo1gng50hZlZ6WH9DPqWFnVPMrwxi-7q1StYCrgOqiAHZxfjEYHHS3P1ZCgtTgAQKpy_hXrUjqdCZiNyg43ra5pIRg/s1600/hulk+grab.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGPNkTZXhDz9FmsckNlVLRdeTtYX-M8Wjl7sntNc50L2oU63lNnJo1gng50hZlZ6WH9DPqWFnVPMrwxi-7q1StYCrgOqiAHZxfjEYHHS3P1ZCgtTgAQKpy_hXrUjqdCZiNyg43ra5pIRg/s320/hulk+grab.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hulk Grabs Ironman, grabs hold of a building, and... no spoilers.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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If you haven't seen the movie stop reading now and go watch it. Go ahead, I can wait. It was only one of the best reviewed and top money-making movies of 2012. That image comes at 1:54 in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIR8Ar-Z4hw" target="_blank">"Marvel's The Avengers Trailer 2 (Official)"</a> on YouTube. Once you have seen the movie come back here and continue reading.<br />
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And now we continue...<br />
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Marvel has this weird habit of spoiling the penultimate scene from the movie in the trailer. Yes, it looks incredible. Yes, you spent 1/4 of your budget on the CGI for that scene alone. And, yes, you need to draw-in people with these fabulous shots, I get it!<br />
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How did this spoil the movie? Maybe my memory is just too good, I don't know... But, as I was watching the finale of the "Battle of New York" for the first time, I knew exactly how they would solve that little issue of Tony Stark falling toward the ground after "resolving" the invasion situation. Why? Because the trailer clearly shows Hulk catching Iron Man while stopping his momentum using a skyscraper.<br />
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Let me be clear: they used one of the most memorable, eye-popping scenes from the movie in the trailer, where it was just as memorable and eye popping.<br />
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Example #2: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atCfTRMyjGU" target="_blank">The Amazing Spider-Man Trailer 2</a><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDLZDAXEpuBEEDzxSIjLWm82Q6zET54CuIneGTsjKd5_N_4wtshIwAQh9ufyn0gVqvQ6Up10hd5pemFBeJd_L-ux5hcirnBUye9u_iUQLgb1ynbfwNWdXK6XzQLw_AEn9iqRWupOZXixE/s1600/spidey+hanging.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDLZDAXEpuBEEDzxSIjLWm82Q6zET54CuIneGTsjKd5_N_4wtshIwAQh9ufyn0gVqvQ6Up10hd5pemFBeJd_L-ux5hcirnBUye9u_iUQLgb1ynbfwNWdXK6XzQLw_AEn9iqRWupOZXixE/s320/spidey+hanging.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spider-Man, hanging out with some electronics</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
At about 2:20, we see Spidey fall from the top of a building and catch himself while the top of the building falls all around him. Yes, it looks really cool and it is very memorable. THAT'S THE PROBLEM.<br />
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When the "disarm the weapon at the top of the skyscraper" scene came up in the movie we know exactly how Spidey is going to fall and whether or not he survives BECAUSE THEY ALREADY SHOWED US IN THE @#$%! TRAILER!<br />
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Have you ever read the book "Ender's Game"? If you haven't, don't watch the trailer for the movie. They give away one of the pivotal plot points in the movie right in the trailer.<br />
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OK, enough of the single-scene antics. This post is supposed to be about what a trailer is actually <i>supposed</i> to be. Should be simple, right? There's even a <a href="http://www.ehow.com/how_2124844_make-movie-trailer.html" target="_blank">guide on eHow.com</a>.<br />
<br />
Where did the name movie trailer come from? <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movie_trailer" target="_blank">According to Wikipedia</a>, which is never wrong, they were originally called "trailers" because they "trailed" the end of the movie. The promotional shorts advertised an upcoming feature film and were designed to get people excited to come and see. Since people rarely stay after a big feature film (who wouldn't want to stay seated a few minutes longer after watching epics like "The Greatest Story Ever Told" or "Dr. Zhivago"?) so movie promoters moved them to run before the big feature. In today's theaters you can expect 12-20 minutes of trailers, depending on the theater company and the time of year. I think the longest I have seen is 25 minutes of trailers. It gets really bad in the early spring as the studios gear up for summer movies.<br />
<br />
In the 70's the movie trailer was a simple structure: show the stars of the show, play a song from the movie, and maybe actually show some footage from the movie (some early trailers were a montage of scenes from other movies starring the actors). They were short and simple.<br />
<br />
The 80's introduced us to the voice-over trailer and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_LaFontaine" target="_blank">Dan LaFontaine</a>, the most prolific and well-used voice in movie history. If you have seen any movie trailer in the last 30 years you have heard his voice. Don't recognize him? Try this on for size: In your mind, think of a movie trailer and say the words, "In a world where..." Was the voice in your mind a deep, gravely man's voice? That's Dan LaFontaine who voiced an impossible number of trailers. Unfortunately he died in 2008 but his body of work is tremendous.<br />
<br />
Now we move on to today's movies. (I'm skipping the '90s and '00s because I'm lazy)<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://moviechopshop.com/2009/04/20/the-movie-trailer-formula-why-do-we-love-it-so-much/" target="_blank">formula for modern movie trailers</a> is pretty standard...<br />
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Fast-cut scenes of action, silence/black with maybe some words, voice-over montage of key points in the movie, the villain reveal, and maybe a plot twist or two. Comedies, romances, and horror movies all have their own version of this theme but inside each genre <a href="http://moviechopshop.com/2009/04/20/the-movie-trailer-formula-why-do-we-love-it-so-much/" target="_blank">the structure is remarkably similar</a>.<br />
<br />
So what makes a bad movie trailer? Here are my thoughts-<br />
<ol>
<li>Revealing key plot points in the movie. I've beaten this one to death but there are many others who have <a href="http://nerdtears.com/are-trailers-ruining-movies/" target="_blank">also</a> <a href="http://www.ugo.com/movies/trailers-that-spoiled-their-movies" target="_blank">illustrated</a> <span id="goog_67984858"></span><a href="http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/trailers-that-spoil-movies.html" target="_blank">this</a> <span id="goog_67984859"></span><a href="http://www.ifc.com/fix/2010/08/ten-movie-trailers-that-spoil" target="_blank">point</a>. </li>
<li>Revealing the ending - There are several trailers released right now that out-and-out give away the movie's ending. For a remake of a famous movie, like Stephen King's Carrie, why not leave out the ending scenes for those young kids who don't know? Wouldn't it make a better movie if they found out the ending by watching the @#$!! movie? The funny thing is that the trailer for the original "Carrie" from the '70s gave away the ENTIRE plot right in the trailer. Pulled no punches. So I doubt the modern "Carrie" promoters thought twice about doing the exact same painful thing. </li>
<li>Revealing the villain and their intentions - Sometimes this is just as bad as #1. Sometimes discovering the villain is the entire <i>point </i>of the movie. (*cough* <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_f1uCWKZQs" target="_blank">Unbreakable</a> *cough*)</li>
<li>Marketing the movie to be something it isn't. "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWX34ShfcsE" target="_blank">Drive</a>" was shown to be a "Fast and the Furious" wannabee, not a brooding drama with a little bit of driving thrown in. "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH7gQqpw7ok" target="_blank">Million Dollar Baby</a>" wasn't really about boxing. "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ywmoXZwkA0" target="_blank">The American</a>" wasn't actually a James Bond type of movie starring George Clooney even though it was a really good non-action movie.</li>
</ol>
Some movie trailers are <a href="http://www.mania.com/5-trailers-better-their-movies_article_128507.html" target="_blank">better than the actual movie itself</a>. Typically this happens because they take all the good stuff about the movie and cram it into a 3 minute trailer. This is a frequent occurrence for me. I can't count the number of times I saw a trailer for a movie, got excited to see it, and the movie was, in my ever-so-humble opinion, a dud. Like "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87E6N7ToCxs" target="_blank">Wreck-It-Ralph</a>", "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLkSl0dKOsI&feature=player_embedded" target="_blank">Wild Wild West</a>" (that horrendous Will Smith movie), and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dWA9DwDQpM&feature=player_embedded" target="_blank">Star Wars Ep. 1</a>. Oh, and "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6Squ9a2kO4" target="_blank">Snakes on a Plane</a>," the quintessential trailer-better-than-the-movie trailer.<br />
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Some people have taken this a bit too far and <a href="http://www.film.com/movies/the-best-fake-movie-trailers" target="_blank">created amazing trailers for movies that don't even exist</a>. I will get a good laugh if they come out with <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ega5Rcct2s" target="_blank">Ghandi II</a>.<br />
<br />
So what makes a good movie trailer?<br />
<br />
Rule #1: Don't commit any of the infractions listed above. (Sorry, had to say it)<br />
Rule #2: Show me just enough of the movie to make me want to go see it.<br />
Rule #3: Give me the main idea of the movie but you don't have to tell me the EXACT plot.<br />
Rule #4: LEAVE ME WANTING MORE. (most important)<br />
Rule #5: Don't let Michael Bay make the trailer. He totally screwed up the trailer for <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrQZSco77Pg" target="_blank">The Island</a> by giving us the entire plot in the first 30 seconds of the trailer. The movie-watching experience would have soooo much better with hearing Ewan McGregor give away the main plot point 1:17 into a 2:20 trailer.<br />
<br />
With all this in mind, here are my "Best movie trailers of all time" as ranked by me.<br />
<br />
Honorable mention: Spider Man. Not a bit of this trailer ended up in the movie. It is a bit hokey and has nothing to do with the actual movie but it did get people excited to see the movie. Unfortunately they went on to make several other trailers that violated just about all my rules for trailers.<br />
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#10 - Men In Black: The trailer does contain major plot points but doesn't give away to much of what's going to happen. The key thing they do is that you can't really tell just how much of a farce this movie turned out to be. It was only a few years post-<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-S9nKByu5w" target="_blank">ID4</a> (Will Smith's other <i>alien </i>movie) so we didn't know what to expect. I haven't seen my wife laugh that hard in a movie, except for maybe when we saw "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2fO6dzwZB0" target="_blank">Noises Off</a>" for the first time.<br />
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#9 - Sin City: AMAZING trailer for a concept film that was way ahead of its time. Maybe someday I'll actually watch it.<br />
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#8 - 300: Once again, amazing visuals from a concept movie that pulled no punches with violence for the sake of violence. And you get the only quote that has actually been attributed to a Spartan in the movie (the part about fighting in the shade. Look it up).<br />
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#7 - Cloverfield: Just enough of a tease to make you want to see it. Unfortunately the movie was like an extended version of the trailer, although it was good in its own right. But the trailer was better.<br />
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#6 - The Matrix: "No one can be shown what the Matrix is." That tag line was EVERYWHERE in the summer of 1999. The trailer showed quite a bit of the movie but didn't give away the primary premise, which was so shocking at the time. I remember seeing it in the theater on opening night with some friends from work. During the big-reveal scene you could hear half the theater audibly gasp. My friend next to me said, "NO F-ing WAY!" (he actually said "F-ing", not the other word). This trailer lured you in, just as a trailer should. It even proved that you <i>can </i>show off big portions of the movie and not ruin the movie experience.<br />
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#5 - Transformers: This teaser trailer makes you wonder "what the heck did I just see?" The trailer really got the buzz going about one of the biggest movies of 2007. I won't comment on the quality of the movie but the trailer was amazing.<br />
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#4 - District 9: It starts out making you think it's a racial movie then shifts to something about aliens? No plot points, we don't even know who the major characters are going to be.<br />
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#3 - The Lion King: No, really. The original trailer that I remember seeing for the Lion King was the opening few minutes with the "Circle of Life" song, right up until the monkey-priest-guy holds up Simba for the crowd. That was epic. No plot points, no zany special effects, just awesomeness. Unfortunately I can't find that trailer online so you get this one, which is not nearly as good-<br />
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#2 - Star Wars VII. No, I mean "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me." You see, that's the point: they toyed with the audience and played off the fact that Star Wars Ep. 1 was coming out the same summer. This was an AMAZING trailer to behold in the theaters.<br />
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#1 - Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: the ultimate teaser that shows nothing from the movie except the two main characters and a hint that they aren't exactly what they seem. None of this footage is from the movie, not even the voice-over.<br />
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So there you have it, film makers. Make good trailers and we'll all be happier together. I'd hate to swear off trailers completely.<br />
<br />Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-54211749857809421102013-09-04T14:51:00.002-07:002015-06-29T11:25:08.802-07:00A positive restaurant experience<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">It isn't every day that I have a <i>positive</i>
restaurant experience with my autistic boys so I had to share our sheer joy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Near the beginning of a long road trip we stopped for dinner at a Subway restaurant. As I was 10 seconds into the obligatory explanation
of the ordering process to my kids, my son with Asperger says, “Dad, I understand,”
and he steps up to the counter to order. In 20 seconds his order was complete
and he had a huge smile on his face. Why?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Subway
has switched to a 5-step ordering process. Stuck to the plastic shields between
you and the sandwich items are a decals detailing each step. Each step has
listed the possible options. The decals for each step are right in front of the
item options making it incredibly clear the link between word and object. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">(These
are outlined on page two in <a href="http://www.subway.com/menu/PDFS/MenuPDF/USA_Menu.pdf">this menu</a>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Step .5
(not listed): choose your meat<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Step 1: 12”,
6”, salad, or flatbread<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Step 2: Choose
your bread (and toasted or not)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Step 3:
Choose your cheese<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Step 4: Choose
your veggies<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Step 5:
Choose your sauce/dressing<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Step 6:
Do you want to make it a meal? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">My son
easily understood the choices to be made and, since he was able to complete his
order without any parental help, he came away happy and content. All of these
are rare for him in public spaces and left me not only speechless but tearing-up.
Good thing I was ordering last.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">This
happened on the second day of our long road-trip. Any bets on where he asked to
go for lunch/dinner for the remainder of the trip?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Thanks Subway!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.subway.com/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://www.subway.com/subwayroot/Images/FranchiseOps/image-own-a-franchise.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-27295408156171767012013-08-06T11:44:00.001-07:002013-10-10T13:40:51.951-07:00Lack of Nuance in Reporting - Non-news stories<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
Hang on to your hats folks, this is earth-shattering news...<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865584142/Poll-Mormons-least-likely-to-be-smokers.html" target="_blank">A new poll</a> has found that Mormons may be the least-likely of any religion to smoke.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.deseretnews.com/images/article/contentimage/1183751/1183751.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://www.deseretnews.com/images/article/contentimage/1183751/1183751.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h4>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865584142/Poll-Mormons-least-likely-to-be-smokers.html" target="_blank">Poll: Mormons least likely to be smokers</a></span></h4>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Take a moment to let that sink in.<br />
<br />
While you are pondering that latest bit of trivia, try this one on for size...<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
BYU remains the nation's bastion of college sobriety, according to the Princeton Review, which has named BYU the nation's top "stone-cold sober" school for the 16th year running.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
- Emma Penrod, <a href="http://byu%20remains%20the%20nation%27s%20bastion%20of%20college%20sobriety%2C%20according%20to%20the%20princeton%20review%2C%20which%20has%20named%20byu%20the%20nation%27s%20top%20%22stone-cold%20sober%22%20school%20for%20the%2016th%20year%20running./" target="_blank">Deseret News</a> </blockquote>
These are news stories published today, August 5th, by Utah's finest news source, the Deseret News.<br />
<br />
In other news...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18w6i1t6onvf9jpg/ku-bigpic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18w6i1t6onvf9jpg/ku-bigpic.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<h2>
<b><a href="http://jalopnik.com/science-has-no-clue-how-bicycles-really-work-1040770947" target="_blank">Science Has No Clue How Bicycles Really Work</a></b></h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The saying "just like riding a bike" has been around for ages. It refers to doing something that's easy to understand. But there's irony in that: Physicists have no clue how bicycles work, making them some of the most complicated things in the world.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
- Travis Okulski, <a href="http://jalopnik.com/science-has-no-clue-how-bicycles-really-work-1040770947" target="_blank">Jalopnik</a></blockquote>
Back to your normal lives people, nothing to see here.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-50801107548869437582012-12-13T12:22:00.000-08:002012-12-13T12:22:10.034-08:00Geek Links of the Week - 13Dec2012<br />
Yeah, it's been a while. Work+life = no time for fun stuff like this.<br />
<br />
In this week's post we cover everything from parade confetti and geek TV shows to online schools and police raids.<br />
<br />
<strong>My Geek Links of the Week!</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong><b>Pregame: <a href="http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/11/21/2314242/ask-slashdot-geekiest-way-to-cook-a-turkey" target="_blank">Geekiest Ways to Cook a Turkey</a></b><br />
<br />
What started out as an easy question on Slashdot quickly descended into hilarity...<br />
<br />
"What self respecting geek doesn't go home to be pampered by Mom?"<br />
"Don't you mean 'go upstairs' ?"<br />
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<strong>Link #1: </strong><b><a href="http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/08/bryan-singer-h-plus/" target="_blank">Computer Viruses Can Kill in Ambitious Sci-Fi Web Series H+</a></b><br />
<blockquote>
“In upcoming sci-fi web series H+, people embed themselves with a chip that hardwires their nervous systems into the internet 24 hours a day — until a virus kills a third of the world’s population. How will survivors cope, and who unleashed the homicidal computer code in the first place?”</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
- Hugh Stewart, Wired</blockquote>
A new series called <a href="http://www.webserieschannel.com/h/" target="_blank">H+ launched recently on Webserieschannel.com</a>. The series intrigues me to two ways...<br />
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1. The Scifi angle - The concept behind the story is that people can be implanted with a chip to interface their brains with the internet. At first glance the ability to access any information anywhere may seem like a good idea but, as with any other internet connected system, the inevitable happens: a virus spreads and kills 1/3 of the world's population virtually overnight. This reminds me of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell" target="_blank">Ghost in the Shell</a>, another series I never had the time to fully appreciate. Setting aside the apocalyptic theme for a moment, the story of how this was developed and sold to the public would make for a great piece as well. How would you convince people that the system was secure? Wouldn't people be wary of the devices? The possibilities are endless.<br />
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2. The direct distribution angle - This series was developed and produced by people that are no strangers to Hollywood and the entertainment industry (The director previous was attached to an X-Men movie) yet they chose to do this on a low budget (shooting in just 29 days) and release it as a web series. Perhaps they pitched it to some TV execs and were turned down? More likely this was done in their spare time as something fun to do and build their resume. Netflix and other online distributors are already producing properties that will never touch a traditional cable or satellite. When you are not bogged down with a studio or media corporation breathing down your neck the creative process can be much more free.<br />
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At any rate it will be interesting to see where this goes. The trailer looks really cool.<br />
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<a href="http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/dk-quarter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/dk-quarter.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<strong>Link #2: </strong><b><a href="http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/08/the-surprising-stealth-rebirth-of-the-american-arcade/" target="_blank">The surprising, stealth rebirth of the American arcade</a></b><br />
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“The arcade industry is dead in the United States—everyone knows it—done in by a combination of rapidly advancing home consoles and rapidly expanding suburbanization in the late '80s and early '90s. The only people not in on this bit of conventional wisdom are the ones who happen to be opening a surprising number of successful new arcades around the country.”</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
- Aurich Lawson, Ars Technica</blockquote>
This one is close to my heart. As a pre-teen I spent (wasted) a lot of money playing video games in arcades, amusement parks, and convenience stores. I have a special place in my heart for Super Mario, Pac-Man, and Gallaga. One of my fondest memories as a young child was playing Joust and Night Driver (the really old sit-in version) at a now defunct bowling alley near my Grandmother's house. A good friend of mine from high school is into collecting and restoring these old arcade games, which he does as a side project.<a href="http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/arcade/index.html" target="_blank"> PBS even did a documentary about it not long ago.</a><br />
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These old electronics are in danger of going away completely. As time goes by the plastic components degrade and eventually the circuit boards fail. The cool part is that you can buy really small devices to plug into your TV to emulate just about any old arcade game but the experience may fall flat. Nothing can compare to the old style way of standing in line with your quarter lined up on the machine to mark your place.<br />
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For some serious 80's nostaglia, check out the book "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3764530901/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=3764530901&linkCode=as2&tag=nogutr09-20" target="_blank">Ready Player One</a>".<br />
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<a href="http://rapidberry.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/security.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://rapidberry.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/security.jpg" /></a></div>
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<strong>Link #3: </strong><b>106 <a href="http://rapidberry.net/106-passwords-that-blackberry-10-wont-let-you-use/" target="_blank">Passwords that BlackBerry 10 won’t let you use</a><span id="goog_1946270751"></span><span id="goog_1946270752"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></b><br />
<blockquote>
“Deep in the heart of the BlackBerry 10 OS is a list of 106 passwords that you will not be able to use. We will probably see this list being added to over time.”</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
- Rapid Mike, Rapidberry.net</blockquote>
I like the fact that RIM is taking a proactive approach and simply disallowing the most common passwords, forcing you to choose something a little less common. But this is chasing your tail: when you stamp out the 100 most common passwords they are replaced by the next 100 most common passwords. Users want ease of use and if you allow non-complex passwords in your app your users will use them. Ultimately this process will lead to the banning of the entire dictionary of single words. What's next, moving on to banning word combinations? Hint: many of the currently banned 106 passwords are more-than-one-word or letter/number combinations.<br />
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In the end, all it takes to be secure is a <a href="https://www.grc.com/haystack.htm" target="_blank">haystack</a>.<br />
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Speaking of weak passwords...<br />
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<a href="http://securityledger.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Password_Cracking_HPC-300x225.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://securityledger.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Password_Cracking_HPC-300x225.jpg" /></a></div>
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<strong>Link #4: </strong><b><a href="http://securityledger.com/new-25-gpu-monster-devours-passwords-in-seconds/" target="_blank">Update: New 25 GPU Monster Devours Passwords In Seconds</a></b><br />
<blockquote>
“The system was able to churn through 348 billion NTLM password hashes per second. That renders even the most secure password vulnerable to compute-intensive brute force and wordlist (or dictionary) attacks. A 14 character Windows XP password hashed using LM, for example, would fall in just six minutes.”</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
- Per Thorsheim, organizer of the Passwords^12 Conference</blockquote>
Read that quote again. They can crack ANY Windows XP password that was hashed using the LM hash in under 6 minutes (XP has a 14 character limit on passwords). They used off-the-shelf components that are easy to acquire, along with an open-source HPC platform to create a monster password cracking platform. This attack does mean that the attacker must have access to the actual password hash, which requires OS access, so the actual threat your typical user is low, but an attacker with physical access to a machine can easily take it over <i>without changing any passwords.</i> They can read the local admin password hash using some common tools, look it up in a hash table, and now they have root access.<br />
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The writing is on the wall: passwords are not secure. The technology to crack passwords is gaining ground. How long until we hear about someone who used AWS or Windows Azure, with a stolen credit card, to create a password cracking cloud service? We need something much more secure: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-factor_authentication" target="_blank">multi-factor auth</a> seems to be a possible alternative (something you know + something you have).<br />
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Why did Jeremi Gosney create this password cracking system? He was one of the first researchers to <a href="http://securitynirvana.blogspot.com/2012/06/final-word-on-linkedin-leak.html" target="_blank">publish the list of common passwords</a> after a list of password hashes stolen from LinkedIn was published online, but that's not the end of it. He is quoted in the article as saying, “I have way too much invested in this to not get some kind of return out of it.”<br />
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<a href="http://i0.wp.com/boygeniusreport.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/winnie-the-pooh.jpg?w=618" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://i0.wp.com/boygeniusreport.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/winnie-the-pooh.jpg?w=618" width="320" /></a></div>
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<strong>Link #5: </strong><b><a href="http://bgr.com/2012/11/22/pirate-bay-raid-winnie-the-pooh/" target="_blank">POLICE RAID HOME OF 9-YEAR-OLD PIRATE BAY USER, CONFISCATE HER ‘WINNIE THE POOH’ LAPTOP</a></b><br />
<blockquote>
“Copyright enforcement might be getting out of hand in Scandinavia. As anti-piracy groups and copyright owners continue to work with authorities to curtail piracy in the region, police this week raided the home of a 9-year-old suspect and confiscated her “Winnie the Pooh” laptop”</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
- Zach Epstein, BGR</blockquote>
This one is a trip, we'll have to wait to see how it plays out. Apparently...<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>A 9-year-old girl (in Finland?) has her own laptop.</li>
<li>She searches for songs on Google by a popular Finnish band, Chisu.</li>
<li>Goog pointed her to links on The Pirate Bay.</li>
<li>She clicks the links but the downloads failed.</li>
<li>Her father takes her to a store and they buy the CD.</li>
</ol>
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Meanwhile....</div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>One of the ISPs involved in her online activity (not clear if it was her residential ISP) flagged her activity.</li>
<li>The ISP reported it to the Copyright Information and Anti-Piracy Centre (CIAPC), a non-profit anti-piracy organization.</li>
<li>CIAPC contacted the family and demanded they pay a 600 Euro fine and sign an NDA.</li>
<li>The father declines the offer.</li>
<li>Police raid the home, confiscating the laptop and other items as evidence in the case.</li>
</ol>
<div>
The exact details are still fuzzy and it will take some time to clear all the legal facts in the case. For a moment we will assume all the alleged items above are true.</div>
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This brings up a lot of questions-</div>
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<div>
<ol>
<li>Can a 9-year-old be held liable for not fully understanding copyright law online?</li>
<li>Can you be legally liable for entering a search term on a search engine and then clicking on a link?</li>
<li>What should be the legal or civil penalty if that link is not from a valid source?</li>
<li>In the case of a simple infringement, even in the case where there IS infringement, was a police raid an appropriate response?</li>
</ol>
</div>
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The quote from the father sums it up pretty well-<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“I got the feeling that there had been people from the Mafia demanding money at the door,” the girl’s father said when recounting the police raid. “We have not done anything wrong with my daughter. If adults do not always know how to use a computer and the web, how can you assume that children or the elderly – or a 9-year-old girl – knows what they are doing at any given time online?”</blockquote>
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<a href="http://cdn.thenextweb.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2012/10/pirate_flag-645x250.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="124" src="http://cdn.thenextweb.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2012/10/pirate_flag-645x250.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<strong>Link #6: </strong><b><a href="http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/11/24/researchers-find-megaupload-shutdown-had-a-negative-effect-on-box-office-revenues/" target="_blank">Researchers find Megaupload shutdown hurt box office revenues, despite gains for blockbusters</a></b><br />
<blockquote>
“In this paper we make use of a quasi-experiment in the market for illegal downloading to study movie box office revenues. Exogenous variation comes from the unexpected shutdown of the popular file hosting platform Megaupload.com on January 19, 2012. The estimation strategy is based on a quasi difference-in-differences approach. We compare box office revenues before and after the shutdown to a matched control group of movies unaffected by the shutdown.”</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
- Abstract from the study, Munich School of Management and Copenhagen Business School</blockquote>
What does all that mean? Here's the money quote- “In all specifications we find that the shutdown had a <b>negative</b>, yet in some cases <b>insignificant effect</b> on box office revenues.” (emphasis added)<br />
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The researchers found that shutting down Megaupload had a negative effect on some box office returns. It did NOT have a positive effect in any case. That seems to follow the argument that pirates actually spend more money than the amount that they supposedly pirate.<br />
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Disclaimer and clarification: I do NOT endorse the stealing of intellectual property but I am most definitely FOR loosening digital copyright rules. This is a losing battle on all sides. I'm not sure there is a perfect answer but it is certainly not the situation we have now.<br />
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<a href="http://cdn.ph.upi.com/sv/upi/UPI-68261353887903/2012/1/9356c55140810cc22714f083c6487054/Police-documents-found-in-parade-confetti.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://cdn.ph.upi.com/sv/upi/UPI-68261353887903/2012/1/9356c55140810cc22714f083c6487054/Police-documents-found-in-parade-confetti.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<strong>Link #7: </strong><b><a href="http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2012/11/25/Police-documents-found-in-parade-confetti/UPI-68261353887903/" target="_blank">Police documents found in parade confetti</a></b><br />
<blockquote>
“Parade-goers in New York City say they found shredded police documents mixed in with confetti at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The documents contained confidential information, including detectives' Social Security numbers, bank information and unveiled undercover officers' identities, WPIX-TV, New York, reported.”</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
- UPI</blockquote>
Who knew that you could steal someone's ID simply by watching a parade? }B^)<br />
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Of course Macys, NYPD, and Nassau County authorities (where the documents apparently originated) said they were investigating how such documents made it NYC to be used in the parade. Macys even said they used only commercially produced, multi-colored confetti and does not use shredded paper.<br />
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The moral of the story: EVERY company/organization that handles sensitive info MUST have a well-defined, trustworthy, and <i>audited </i>document retention and destruction policy. If not you are asking for trouble.<br />
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<a href="http://photos.pcpro.co.uk/images/front_picture_library_PC_Pro/dir_372/it_photo_186088_52.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://photos.pcpro.co.uk/images/front_picture_library_PC_Pro/dir_372/it_photo_186088_52.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<strong>Link #1: </strong><b><a href="http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/378328/rise-of-the-code-schools" target="_blank">Rise of the code schools</a></b><br />
<blockquote>
“Learning to code used to involve a school computer room, a bearded teacher in a cardigan, and a book the size of an encyclopaedia. Not any more. To the delight of shoulders everywhere, there’s a new breed of code school on the scene: one that expects no physical attendance, that won’t put you on the spot in front of the class, and doesn’t even require a textbook. Welcome to the online code school.”</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
- PCPro.com</blockquote>
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS!!!<br />
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Online learning has come a long way. I took some online college courses in '06 and hated the experience. In the past year I have taken courses from Khan Academy, codeacademy.com (along with my 10-year-old son).<br />
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Their user interfaces are incredibly easy to use. Even my kids love it because they make learning fun and easy. Isn't that what makes a good teacher in a real school?<br />
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Brick and mortar schools are in for some serious competition. And, yes, competition is a good thing.<br />
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}B^)Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-80075415765989091782012-09-09T19:08:00.001-07:002015-06-29T11:23:40.236-07:00A Logical Approach To The Healthcare DebateThere are a lot of things wrong with the recent Supreme Court decision to uphold Obama-care but, rather than speak to the political or legal aspects of the matter, I would like to take a more reasoned approach to resolving the issues in the healthcare industry. No, I don't believe it is a crisis but it does need fixing.<br />
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Do you like your health insurance provider? No? I doubt many people do, given how many people think the healthcare system needs a complete overhaul.<br />
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Should a corporate or government entity, such as a health insurance company or the health department, decide what care you get and how much you should pay for it?<br />
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I will answer this question with an analogy: should everyone be required to have auto insurance? The answer in our current American society is an emphatic "Yes!" but only if you drive a car. If you choose not to drive a car you are not required to purchase this service. Who enforces that law is another story (hint: it's NOT the federal government) but think about auto insurance in a different way: do you use your auto insurance to pay for periodic maintenance? Oil changes? Windshield wipers? How about gasoline? The idea is simply idiotic. It is almost always cheaper in the long run to pay out of pocket for most maintenance items for today's practical car. I use term "practical car" on purpose because if you have an expensive luxury or sports car the economics are much different. We have auto insurance as a hedge against the financial impact of being in an serious accident. In a two-party vehicle accident, where you are at fault, you end up paying for the following items for all people involved (drivers, passengers, and pedestrians)-<br />
<ol>
<li>Repairs to both vehicles</li>
<li>Medical bills </li>
<li>Salary for missed time at work</li>
<li>Pain and suffering</li>
</ol>
To revisit the earlier question, let's try it with a different spin: should a corporate or government entity, such as a auto insurance company or your local department of motor vehicles (which we all love!), decide what auto maintenance you get, the price the mechanic will be paid, and what your portion of the bill will be? Does that not sound patently ridiculous? The auto-insurance industry is also heavily regulated but it allows for much greater competition and consumer choice.<br />
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Now it's time for a little history lesson. Health insurance came to popularity in the 1950s as a benefit from employers looking to attract top talent. During the post-WWII economic boom employers, desperate to hire the best talent from a very constricted pool of workers, looked for ways to increase the benefits package offered to employees while not increasing their taxable income, which would move them up the marginal tax bracket scale. Employers added all sorts of non-taxable benefits-<br />
<ol>
<li>Health insurance</li>
<li>Dental insurance</li>
<li>Club memberships (health, golf, diners, etc.)</li>
<li>Expense accounts</li>
<li>Company cars</li>
<li>...the list goes on and on...</li>
</ol>
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Non-taxable benefits are important because the employee sees more benefit per dollar spent by the employer than they would by increasing their salary by the same amount. </div>
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In countries with very high tax rates this effect is amplified. As an example, Israel's tax burden (income tax and nation tax combined) ranges from 35-58% plus a 16% VAT on top of every purchase. In that country companies routinely give employees free on-site meals, gas/commute allowances, and many other employer provided benefits. I worked for an Israeli-based company in the late 1990s and was astounded at all the perks my Israeli counterparts were using and they were equally astonished at the higher salary levels and <em>lack</em> of company provided benefits in the US.<br />
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After 50+ years of employer-provided healthcare insurance in the US it is now so engrained in today's society that many people would be upset if they received a job offer that <em>didn't</em> have comprehensive health insurance in the benefits package. <br />
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />
The answer to the health care debate may be as simple as changing over to a system where we only need health insurance for the same reason we have auto insurance: as a hedge against catastrophic health issues.
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To follow the auto insurance analogy, do you pay your doctor directly for any of the following-<br />
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<ul>
<li>A simple check-up or annual/sports physical?</li>
<li>A quick cold/flu visit, typically to obtain a prescription cough medicine or antibiotic?</li>
</ul>
Have you ever looked at your medical bills paid by your insurance company? Do you even know how expensive it is to see your primary care physician? Would you go less or more if you had to pay cash every time you went? You pay your mechanic every time you get an oil change, why not pay your doctor when you get a physical? Most people do not know what their doctor charges for a "standard" office visit. If you had to write a check or pull out your credit card every time you visited your doctor, would you go less frequently?<br />
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Would you continue going to an auto mechanic if their prices were 30% more than the shop next door? What about the rates your doctor charges? This isn't even relevant in today's healthcare system because most of the healthcare prices you "pay" through your insurance company are pre-negotiated between your doctor's network and the health insurance company.<br />
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How do we get our healthcare system to the point where health insurance is "liability only," to coin a phrase from the auto-insurance industry? There are already healthcare plans that only cover severe or debilitating illnesses.<br />
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There has been a push recently toward a "single payer" healthcare system run by the federal government. In a way we are very close to that type of system in that we have a "a couple of payers" system. Those payers are the health insurance companies. The system itself would change greatly if that buying power were taken away from the heath insurers and placed in the hands of the consumers.<br />
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In order to do that we need to do something drastic, and this is the meat of my argument: eliminate employer-based healthcare coverage, the majority of all health insurance plans. What incentive would employers have to eliminate this valuable benefit? The answer is quite simple: repeal the federal income tax. To make up for it the federal government could switch to a flat tax or a consumption based model which would be less cumbersome and may even reduce the bureaucracy of the Department of the Treasury.<br />
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What would happen if the income tax were eliminated? Many employer perks would end. The pendulum would swing further toward cash-based compensation and employees would be free to spend their money on the healthcare program that was right for them. They could remain in a health-insurance plan that pays for everything or switch to a plan that covers those severe or debilitating illnesses that would otherwise lead to bankruptcy.<br />
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In the end this system would allow for a much more open marketplace where consumers and doctors are free to decide on their own treatment plans as well as competition in pricing and services.<br />
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<br />Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-57429763254754839012012-06-28T20:40:00.000-07:002012-10-08T15:40:57.075-07:00Geek Links of the Week - 25June2012Wow, it's been too long since I posted this...<br />
This week's links cover everything from DNA research, XBox forensics, and gadget hacking! I usually try to limit it to 5 links but it this week I just couldn't do it! Here ya go with 7...<br />
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<strong>My Geek Links of the Week!</strong><br />
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<a href="http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/02_Surface_with_Touch_Cover_Left-640x360.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/02_Surface_with_Touch_Cover_Left-640x360.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<strong>Link #1: </strong><b><a href="http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/06/microsoft-surface-a-gentle-kick-in-the-teeth-of-the-oems/" target="_blank">Microsoft Surface: a gentle kick in the teeth of the OEMs</a></b><br />
<blockquote>
“To allow Windows 8 to compete with iOS, Microsoft needs hardware to compete with the iPad. Bad hardware would jeopardize Redmond's ability to play in the tablet space, but the PC OEMs have established for themselves a track record of producing little else. And while many of the OEMs have produced Android tablets to try to compete with the iPad, they've also consistently failed to match its quality. ”</blockquote>
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- Peter Bright, Ars Technica</blockquote>
I have mixed feelings about this, having been a consumer of the Windows ecosystem for some time. Building PCs in the mid-90's was a real kick and the best way to create your dream machine for (typically) less money than buying off-the-shelf systems. Those days are long gone but not entirely forgotten (my sister built her own cheap PC a couple months ago). <br />
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This move by MS shows just how broken the old Windows OEM model is when compared to Apple. Is this move by MS a permanent one or, as the author suggests, a kick in the pants of the OEMs to get moving and to start out-innovating Apple at their own game?<br />
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<strong>Link #2: </strong><b><a href="http://www.globalfoundationservices.com/posts/2012/june/21/every-watt-matters%21.aspx" target="_blank">Every Watt Matters!</a></b><br />
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“Data center operators are touting metrics like PUE to demonstrate energy efficiency leadership, but there is more to consider. Data centers exist because they can more efficiently and economically scale to house servers that host online services used by enterprises and consumers. However, we need a more holistic approach to ensure that we are minimizing the energy consumed to run these services. Performance matters, but so does the energy consumed to deliver that performance” </blockquote>
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- Dileep Bhandarkar, Distinguished Engineer, Microsoft Global Foundation Services</blockquote>
Most people don't know much more about internet than to say it is, "In the cloud somewhere." Ted Stevens wasn't that far off when he esoterically described it as a "<a href="http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/series-of-tubes" target="_blank">Series of Tubes.</a>" And then you see pictures like these from <a href="http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Outside-Containers-470.jpg" target="_blank">Datacenter Knowledge</a>...<br />
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When you dig down into it all major internet services start in a datacenter where the equipment is hosted. Those facilities are big business, <a href="http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/10/20/remembering-exodus/" target="_blank">difficult to run</a>, and <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/202803957" target="_blank">incredibly expensive</a>. <br />
So it goes without saying that building facilities requires a lot of engineering and cost-benefit-analysis to justify building such a large facility. This article goes into a lot of details around power utilization, PUE, and other metrics that show how well MS datacenters are using the power they draw. Very interesting analysis. <br />
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<strong>Older stuff...</strong><br />
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<strong>Link #3: <a href="http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/374587/30-best-features-of-windows-8" target="_blank">30 best features of Windows 8</a></strong><br />
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“<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">The Metro start screen may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it does have undeniable benefits</span><span style="background-color: white;">”</span></blockquote>
I have been using Win8 since the Consumer Preview last December and I have to say I love it, even on a laptop and in "desktop mode" (where I don't really use Metro apps). The list of features I like is quite long: split touch keyboard, new task manager, Skydrive integration, split screen metro apps, universal search, the advanced file copy features... too many to mention! When you run it on a device with a touch screen it really shines! Remember those touch screen tablets (i.e. laptops with swivel screens) that no one really bought? Now you can use one to run Win8 and it will amaze you. Just make sure you put an SSD in it before you start!<br />
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<strong>Link #4: <a href="http://www.ctpost.com/default/article/Radioactive-man-Milford-resident-pulled-over-by-3549631.php" target="_blank">Radioactive man? Milford resident pulled over by state police</a></strong><br />
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“Mike Apatow was minding his own business Wednesday, driving to an appointment for work in Washington Depot when a state police car appeared suddenly and signaled for the Milford resident to pull over. Apatow, 42, was entering Interstate 84 in Newtown when the cruiser appeared, and he had no idea what he'd done to merit police attention. It turns out he didn't do anything. But earlier that day, Apatow, who'd experienced a recent spike in his blood pressure, had a nuclear stress test at Cardiology Associates of Fairfield County in Trumbull. In the test, a small amount of a radioactive material is injected into the veins and used to help track blood flow to the heart.”</blockquote>
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- Amanda Cuda, ctpost.com</blockquote>
So a guy is driving down the road in his vehicle and the State Police can detect if he is radioactive? First off, that's amazing but it makes you think for a minute. Yes, the technology to detect low levels of radiation, in an effort to find possible unauthorized people transporting active materials (i.e. terrorists/criminals), but do they really need it? Do we live in a world where this is necessary or is it cheap enough that they decided to do it because they could?<br />
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<a href="http://www.hanselman.com/blog/content/binary/Windows-Live-Writer/8492f6080c35_9A8D/24_be0e6c259c388444d13de1cdeccb9cbc_15b59a92-f4e8-4fd6-8c39-35f55d3c52dc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="155" src="http://www.hanselman.com/blog/content/binary/Windows-Live-Writer/8492f6080c35_9A8D/24_be0e6c259c388444d13de1cdeccb9cbc_15b59a92-f4e8-4fd6-8c39-35f55d3c52dc.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<strong>Link #5: <a href="http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheFloppyDiskMeansSaveAnd14OtherOldPeopleIconsThatDontMakeSenseAnymore.aspx" target="_blank">The Floppy Disk means Save, and 14 other "old people" Icons that don't make sense anymore </a></strong><br />
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“What happens when all the things we based our icons on don't exist anymore? Do they just become, ahem, iconic glyphs whose origins are shrouded in mystery?” </blockquote>
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- Scott Hanselman, hanselman.com</blockquote>
This one made me think for a minute. There are all sorts of technology that my kids will never have to use that were necessities only 10 years ago. This article takes a different spin on it: look at the icons on your computer that mean things like the save button, radio buttons, folders, etc. Will my kids even understand what those icons mean? Will they know why we call them "radio buttons"? What is a folder? What is CC:?<br />
OK, I'm old.<br />
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<strong>Link #6: <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18002220" target="_blank">US self-defence expert banned from entering UK </a></strong><br />
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“Tim Larkin tried to board a plane from his home in Las Vegas on Tuesday, but was given a UK Border Agency letter saying "his presence here was not conducive to the public good". Mr Larkin, who was due to host seminars, told the BBC the move was a "gross over-reaction". The Home Office said he was subject to an exclusion order.” </blockquote>
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- BBC News Service</blockquote>
The British consider an unarmed civilian to be a threat to the public good because he is trained in self defense and the use of lethal force? Or it is because he is critical of the self-defense laws on the books? There are many limitations on speech in the UK so this should surprise no one.<br />
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}B^)Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-16780687434763429782012-01-18T11:28:00.000-08:002012-01-18T11:28:42.486-08:00Geek Links of the Week - 16Jan2012Snow day! Yes, it's a snow day in Seattle, the biggest one we have had in 3-4 years.<br />
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This week's links cover everything from DNA research, XBox forensics, and gadget hacking! I usually try to limit it to 5 links but it this week I just couldn't do it! Here ya go with 7...<br />
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<strong>My Geek Links of the Week!</strong><br />
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<strong>Link #1: </strong><b><a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/searches-and-xbox-live-stakeouts-how-cops-investigate-consoles.ars" target="_blank">CSI: Xbox—how cops perform Xbox Live stakeouts and console searches</a></b><br />
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“In June 2009, a Massachusetts state trooper was gathering evidence in a case that involved a suspect having sex with an underage girl. He hoped to find one crucial piece of evidence—video of the encounter—on a digital device from the suspect's home. But the device wasn't a computer; it was the suspect's game console. The investigator was stumped as to how to sift the device for clues, and he turned to a digital forensics mailing list for help. ”</blockquote>
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- Nate Anderson, Ars Technica</blockquote>
Earlier in 2011 someone in the hacker group Anonymous hacked the email account of a computer forensics expert and posted all the emails online. Part of that email cache was a lot of traffic from an email mailing list for digital crime specialists.<br />
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This article spells out many of the different scenarios in which law enforcement is using electronic devices such as game consoles, cell phones, and even mobile gaming devices to track down and prosecute criminals. Excellent read if you are interested in such geeky stuff.<br />
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<strong>Link #2: </strong><b><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/09/justice/washington-cold-case/index.html?hpt=hp_t3" target="_blank">DNA links 1991 killing to Colonial-era family</a></b><br />
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“DNA may help Seattle-area sheriff's deputies find a suspect in a 20-year-old killing after a comparison with genealogy records connected a crime-scene sample to a 17th-century Massachusetts family.” - CNN Wire Staff</blockquote>
You may be asking yourself, "Say what? How is this Geeky?" Follow the logic: a cold-case murder from more than 20 years ago has a clue from a link to a genealogical society's DNA records. Did you follow that? Here's how it works-<br />
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<ol>
<li>People voluntarily send in DNA samples (usually a cheek swab or blood sample)</li>
<li>A private company sequences the DNA and sends it to the genealogy society</li>
<li>The genealogy society enters the DNA sequence in their database and does a little research</li>
<li>The society sends a report to the original DNA donor giving them an idea of which family they may be related to to give them a better idea of where to do their own family history research</li>
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How is this related to a cold case? These DNA databases are the same type of databases used by law enforcement! They can be easily cross-referenced (with a court order, of course) for forensic purposes. In this case a Sheriff's deputy in Washington state (not far from my home) got a lead on a 20-year old cold case using this very method.</div>
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This brings up all sorts of privacy and ethical issues. When you send in a DNA sample to a genealogy database you are effectively giving your DNA to law enforcement. </div>
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The proverbial "good guys have no reason to fear" argument does apply but what happens when government oversteps its bounds? The possibilities are endless.</div>
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Needless to say what might happen if that DNA DB is hacked and leaked on the internet. Be careful out there!</div>
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<strong>Link #3: </strong><b><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/01/can-you-predict-the-price-is-right-wheel/" target="_blank">Can You Predict The Price Is Right Wheel?</a></b><br />
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“So, here is the question: Can I come up with a strategy to make the wheel land at a particular spot? Clearly, there are a couple of things: Where does the wheel start? Where do you want it to end? How fast do you have to spin it and where do you let go?”</blockquote>
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Rhett Allain - Dot Physics, Wired Science Blogs </blockquote>
OK, confession time: I'm a sucker for <a href="http://www.priceisright.com/" target="_blank">The Price is Right</a> and the <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/science-blogs/" target="_blank">Wired Science Blogs</a>. My favorite Wired Science Blog story was when they <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/07/how-fast-is-a-throw-from-center-field/" target="_blank">analyzed the physics of a baseball throw</a> from an actual baseball game (yes, it was an AMAZING play).<br />
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Is it possible to predict where the big wheel will stop? Is it possible to spin it just right to reliably land on $1 or a combination of two values that total $1? Rhett goes to great lengths to find out, starting with vast data collection (with the help of Youtube), kinematic equations, and more physics and math than you can shake a stick at.<br />
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But is it possible to "play the wheel"? You'll have to read the article to find out (i.e. I'm not giving it away).<br />
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<strong>Link #4: </strong><b><a href="http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/10/2697298/exopc-exodesk-hands-on" target="_blank">ExoPC EXOdesk hands-on pictures and video</a></b><br />
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“ExoPC's EXOdesk was originally a touch-enabled panel running Windows 8 and powered by a Core i7 processor. Well, after stopping by ViewSonic's booth here at CES 2012 we've learned the company has other plans for the EXOdesk. ExoPC has ditched the processor and computer components to help reduce cost, and what we're left with is merely a 1920x1080 32-inch touchscreen monitor fused to a desk. Like the original, this EXOdesk has 10 points of touch, but it simply serves as a secondary monitor for Windows (Mac support is being worked on) rather than a standalone PC. We're told EXOdesk will be shipping at the end of 2012 with a targeted price of $1299. However, ExoPC said, "price is pending a few factors: customer feedback to size, desired touch input, usage models, apps, user interface."”</blockquote>
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- Sam Sheffer - TheVerge.com</blockquote>
I gave my wife an <a href="http://www.exopc.com/" target="_blank">ExoPC Slate</a> for Christmas 2010. So far she uses it a little bit and hasn't gotten used to the entire idea of a tablet. It doesn't help that Windows 7 isn't the best tablet OS out there. Win8 works much better on her tablet but the Win8 Developer Preview wasn't very useful for anyone not a software geek.<br />
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This is a fabulous idea! The EXOdesk serves as a second monitor for a PC and can be used for just about anything. The UI is very interesting and has all sorts of uses. It even got <a href="http://exopclab.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">"Best Gadget of CES 2012" by PC Mag</a>.<br />
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<strong>Link #5: </strong><b><a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/01/03/1723225/german-hackers-propose-uncensorable-global-grid-with-satellites" target="_blank">German Hackers Propose Uncensorable Global Grid — With Satellites</a></b><br />
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“The members of the Stuttgart Hackerspace have taken it upon themselves to launch their own space program. The immediate goal of the Hacker Space Program is to create an uncensorable internet in space beyond the control of terrestrial entities using a network of ground stations and communications satellites. In the longer term (think the year 2035), they'd like to put a hacker astronaut on the moon!”</blockquote>
Tired of meddling government censors and traditional boundaries, a hacker community has announced plans to create their own satellite network and even put a astronaut on the moon. Their goals aside (being able to share any content at any time with no governmental controls) this is the kind of project that really interests me. I don't care about breaching copyright or sharing kiddie-porn but a grass-roots effort to launch satellites and actually have them work sounds like a super-human project. I'm sure in 25-30 years this may seem trivial but with today's technology it is a HUGE task. In some ways I hope they pull it off but the governments of the world will never let it happen if it challenges their ability to censor and control content.<br />
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<strong>Link #6: </strong><b><a href="http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2012/01/raspberry-pis-35-700mhz-linux-computer-enters-manufacturing.ars" target="_blank">Raspberry Pi's $35, 700MHz Linux computer enters manufacturing</a></b><br />
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“The Raspberry Pi Foundation announced this week that its $35 Linux computer has entered the manufacturing stage. The system, which is an open board with a 700MHz ARM11 CPU and 256MB of RAM, could be available for sale within a matter of weeks. The foundation, which is located in the UK, was originally founded in 2009 with the aim of developing an affordable computer that children could use to learn computer programming. The organization produced two batches of sample boards last year for testing purposes prior to the recent transition to full-scale manufacturing.” </blockquote>
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Ryan Paul - Ars Technica </blockquote>
Wow, a $35 PC (no monitor, of course). It runs on ARM so it has to run an ARM-compatible OS like Linux but, since Win8 will eventually support the ARM platform, eventually it will be available with other OSs as well. I may have to buy a few of these just to support the effort (this is a grass-roots, open source project).<br />
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<a href="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/120112030122-rushkoff-code-story-top.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/120112030122-rushkoff-code-story-top.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<strong><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Link #7: </strong><b><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/12/opinion/rushkoff-write-code/index.html" target="_blank">Learn to code, get a job</a></b><br />
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“It's time Americans begin treating computer code the way we do the alphabet or arithmetic. Code is the stuff that makes computer programs work -- the list of commands that tells a word processor, a website, a video game, or an airplane navigation system what to do. That's all software is: lines of code, written by people.”</blockquote>
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Douglas Rushkoff - CNN </blockquote>
Was "learning to code" one of your new year's resolutions? If so, there is some good news: the <a href="http://www.codecademy.com/" target="_blank">Code Academy</a> has online tutorials and classes available to teach you to be a software developer within a year, with a lesson per day. Why is this important?<br />
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With cloud computing on the rise it is apparent that many IT professionals will soon need a new job (like me). My current job of IT systems design is going out the window in the next 5 years as people move to generic systems architectures like Microsoft's Windows/SQL Azure and Amazon's EC2. Re-learning C and C# is on my list and this site is helping me. Maybe I'll post some code examples if I actually stick to it.<br />
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}B^)Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-57362095494908618262012-01-10T13:15:00.000-08:002012-01-10T13:15:05.754-08:00Geek Links of the (Last Several) Week(s) - 9Jan2012<br />
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Yep, it's been a while. The holidays were crazy, I bought/sold my car, <insert excuse>, etc. Enough of that...<br />
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<strong>My Geek Links of the Week!</strong><br />
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<strong>Link #1: </strong><b><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/12/the-chinese-town-that-turns-your-old-christmas-tree-lights-into-slippers/250190/" target="_blank">The Chinese Town That Turns Your Old Christmas Tree Lights Into Slippers</a></b><br />
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“A single strand of burnt-out Christmas lights weighs almost nothing in the hand. But a bale of burnt-out Christmas tree lights the size of a love seat? That weighs around 2200 pounds, according to Raymond Li, the general manager of Yong Chang Processing, a scrap metal processor in the southern Chinese town of Shijiao. He would know: on a recent Saturday morning I stood between him and three such bales, or 6600 pounds of Christmas tree lights that Americans had tossed into recycling bins, dropped off at the Salvation Army, or sold to a roving junk man. He had bought that 6600 pounds for my benefit, to show me how his company's Christmas tree light recycling system works.” - Adam Minter, The Atlantic</blockquote>
This is probably the coolest story I read over the Christmas break. There is an amazing trend in the recycling industry to change the framing of the recycling vision from a sorting problem to <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/mike_biddle.html" target="_blank">a mining problem</a>. By treating recycling as a sorting problem you assume that you can accurately sort different materials to be obtain enough raw materials in a clean state to allow for efficient re-use. When you change your perspective to a mining problem it changes the parameters of the issue completely. Now, instead of error-prone manual or automated methods for sorting, you shift to mining and extraction methods that have been in use for centuries. This allows for much cleaner extraction of the raw materials and more material is recycled.<br />
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<strong>Link #2: <a href="http://boingboing.net/2011/12/27/the-coming-war-on-general-purp.html" target="_blank">The Coming War on General Purpose Computation</a></strong><br />
<blockquote>
“The last 20 years of Internet policy have been dominated by the copyright war, but the war turns out only to have been a skirmish. The coming century will be dominated by war against the general purpose computer, and the stakes are the freedom, fortune and privacy of the entire human race. .” - Cory Doctorow</blockquote>
Interesting take on the future of computing. If the copyright-infringement debate continues "as-is" it is only a matter of time before the general purpose computer, at least the way we see it today, is no more.<br />
<br />
<strong>Link #3: </strong><b><a href="http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/01/04/dancing-in-star-wars-the-old-republic-can-make-you-invincible/" target="_blank">Dancing in Star Wars: The Old Republic can make you invincible</a></b><br />
<blockquote>
“The recent <a href="http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/01/03/star-wars-the-old-republic-players-face-temporary-bans-for-ilum-exploits/">Ilum
exploits</a> in Star Wars: The Old Republic pale in comparison to the the glitch
shown above, spotted by <a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/01/04/let-the-wookiee-waltz-swtors-god-cheat/" jquery1326075731383="15">RPS</a>, in which a bounty hunter discovers that
dancing instantly interrupts all enemy attacks, effectively rendering him
invincible as long as he never, ever drops the beat.” - Tom Senior, PC Gamer</blockquote>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/vun5geNHA5M?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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This seriously makes me want to check out SWTOR just to try it. The video above shows what happens when a player uses the command "/getdown" during a battle.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately they patched this flaw as of 1/5/2012. Well, that saves me some time.<br />
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<a href="http://9.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/360iphone-275x171.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://9.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/360iphone-275x171.jpg" /></a></div>
<strong>Link #4: </strong><b><a href="http://mashable.com/2011/12/30/apple-iphone-1983/" target="_blank">Apple’s First iPhone Was Made in 1983 [PICS]</a></b><br />
<blockquote>
“The first <a href="http://mashable.com/follow/topics/iphone">iPhone</a> was actually dreamed up in 1983. Forget that silly old touchscreen, this iPhone was a landline with full, all-white handset and a built-in screen controlled with a stylus.”</blockquote>
<br />
Wow, that is one cool phone, even by today's standards. I would LOVE to have had that phone back in 1983.<br />
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<strong>Link #5: </strong><b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/business/for-libraries-and-publishers-an-e-book-tug-of-war.html?_r=2" target="_blank">Publishers vs. Libraries: An E-Book Tug of War</a></b><br />
<blockquote>
“LAST year, Christmas was the biggest single day for e-book sales by HarperCollins. And indications are that this year’s Christmas Day total will be even higher, given the extremely strong sales of e-readers like the Kindle and the Nook. Amazon announced on Dec. 15 that it had sold one million of its Kindles in each of the three previous weeks.”</blockquote>
E-books in the library are an interesting business model. This is strikingly similar to the argument for/against MP3/Video piracy. Publishers and libraries will have to come to some sort of agreement on this issue or it won't be long until we will see a world with no libraries (did you see the movie "I Robot"?). Either that or the publishers go away, which is <a href="http://www.lulu.com/" target="_blank">already happening</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://www.ncsu.edu/_assets/flash/images/santa-science.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.ncsu.edu/_assets/flash/images/santa-science.jpg" /></a></div>
<strong>Link #6: </strong><b><a href="http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/12/25/1243230/the-science-of-santa" target="_blank">The Science of Santa</a></b><br />
<blockquote>
“For decades, mystified scientists have chalked up Santa's power to the inexplicable wonder of magic, but North Carolina State University aerospace engineer Larry Silverberg, team leader on a first-of-its-kind visiting scholars program at Santa's Workshop-North Pole Labs (NPL), says that Santa is, in fact, a scientific genius and that Silverberg looks forward to Christmas each year, so he can ponder the remarkable accomplishments of one of the greatest pioneers in his field.”</blockquote>
For years there has been an article circulating to debunk Santa from the standpoint of science but this article goes the other way: how would you use current scientific thought and even unproven theory to postulate how Santa might actually pull off his holiday magic? Fascinating read.<br />
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}B^)Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-14747346981058123762012-01-04T08:41:00.000-08:002012-01-04T08:58:40.425-08:00My recent (positive!) Frontier storySometimes a company pulls out all the stops and does something good for a change.<br />
<br />
Sometimes a company does the opposite of what <a href="http://www.clarkhoward.com/" target="_blank">Clark Howard</a> calls "customer no-service".<br />
<br />
I was fully prepared to write about how Frontier rested on their laurels and lost another customer. Instead, I was amazed.<br />
<br />
<b>The Backstory...</b><br />
<br />
Back in '99 DSL was THE thing to get if you wanted fast internet speeds so when we bought our first house I took the plunge and hooked up 1.5 Mbps down, 384K upload speed. That was 12 years ago and our speed hasn't changed since. At that speed today's internet seems like a 56K-dial-up-modem crawl. YouTube and Netflix videos take FOREVER to load and buffer frequently.<br />
<br />
In 2005 cities near me were some of the first to roll out Verizon FIOS with synchronous speeds up to 15 Mbps. In 2007 Verizon came to a city council meeting in my town, talked up their new service, and applied for a cable TV franchise license. How did I feel about this? Ecstatic would be an understatement. I signed up to be notified when FIOS would be available in my service area.<br />
<br />
And then the waiting game started. I checked the Verizon website every 6 months or so to see if their FIOS announcement had been made. And then I signed up to be notified when Verizon FIOS would be available in my service area.<br />
<br />
And then in 2009 <a href="http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Verizon-Sells-Huge-Chunk-Of-Network-To-Frontier-102414" target="_blank">Verizon sold off their "rural telephony business" to Frontier Communications</a>. More waiting... And then I signed up to be notified when Frontier FIOS would be available in my service area.<br />
<br />
Several times I went on the Frontier support site and submitted a support request to ask when I could upgrade my service. Each time they told me that there was nothing they could share with me. Did I mention that I signed up to be notified when FIOS would be available in my service area?<br />
<br />
<b>Comcast: The company I love to hate</b><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjYvush0Md2W-O6QRlkGXR-DMtP1VPpO_PZ3Mcaxi_YR16GfD9N4SMFWjSVzr9x6qv-RImSORQQ6ADlHQrgsD98D_hdn6BIiWM-G_dKxrlSas7yihfldWwJnQcp28uug-aiTVAfmSpO6M/s1600/Netspeed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjYvush0Md2W-O6QRlkGXR-DMtP1VPpO_PZ3Mcaxi_YR16GfD9N4SMFWjSVzr9x6qv-RImSORQQ6ADlHQrgsD98D_hdn6BIiWM-G_dKxrlSas7yihfldWwJnQcp28uug-aiTVAfmSpO6M/s200/Netspeed.jpg" width="141" /></a></div>
In the mean time my wife's parents have a Comcast TV/internet bundle. Every time we visit I love seeing my download speeds go to 14-16 Mbps. Why didn't I make the jump? I don't exactly enjoy bandwidth caps, speed inconsistencies, blocked ports, and other weirdness that comes along with Comcast's network. So I soldiered on.<br />
<br />
Speeds at work are FABULOUS. I can download files from 3rd parties at speeds approaching 100 Mbps (with some limitations, of course).<br />
<br />
So when I get home and slow down to 1.5 Mbps it feels like walking back in time 12 years.<br />
<br />
<b>Frontier Hits it Out of the Park</b><br />
<br />
One day, while doing my typical "have they changed service in my area" test on the <a href="http://www.frontier.com/" target="_blank">Frontier website</a> I found a <a href="http://www.frontier.com/customerservice/8/" target="_blank">customer service page</a> with contacts for 3 people in Frontier's West Coast region: the President of the West region, the Regional Director of Marketing, and Manager Communications for the West Region. This wasn't just a web form to fill in, it displays their emails and mailing address in Elk Grove, CA. After thinking, "What do I have to lose?" I sent of a quick mail to all three of them...<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">I have been a
Verizon/Frontier customer in Sammamish, WA, for over 10 years with both phone
and internet service. While my DSL service is quite stable </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">for many years </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">(no service
interruptions!) the speed just doesn’t cut it anymore. I have had
the same DSL speed for 15 years and I need something
faster.</span></div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">I have the 1.5 Mbps
download, 384K upload DSL, which is the fastest available due to my distance
from the CO. I would love to be able to get something faster, perhaps 10x
faster, and I’m willing to pay for it.</span></div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">When will Frontier
build out FIOS service in the Sammamish, WA, area? I am interested only in phone
and internet, not TV service. I like the pricing and bundles available on your
website but have been waiting for a LONG time. I’m not sure I can wait much
longer.</span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"></span></div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Any information you
can provide would be greatly appreciated.</span></div>
</div>
</blockquote>
I expected a response within a week and to be sent back and forth to sales and support and, in the end, nothing really happening. Boy, was I wrong.<br />
<br />
The very next day I received this mail from Denise B., President of the West Region for Frontier, along with her office and cell phone numbers (not posted here for obvious reasons). Here is what she had to say-<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Mr.
Dunnahoo,</span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Thank
you for reaching out to me regarding your Frontier services and I appreciate the
opportunity to serve you. Frontier Washington has a very aggressive plan to
enhance the high speed internet experience over the next six months. Rich
Klena is the Washington State VP, and Jason Gamble is the local General
Manager. They will reach out to you to share more specifically the plans to
enhance your neighborhood. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"></span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Appreciate
your business for the last 10 years and I want you as a customer for
life!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div>
<div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Denise
B.</span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Frontier
Communications</span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">President
- West Region</span></div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
Not many people spell my name correctly on the first shot so that was quickly forgiven. }B^)<br />
<br />
She CC'd Richard K. and Jason G. Within 30 minutes of that email Richard's office assistant sent me this...<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Mr. Dunnahoo,<br />
<br />
Jason G. is out of the office today. He will be in
contact with you <span class="Object" id="OBJ_PREFIX_DWT169"><span class="Object" id="OBJ_PREFIX_DWT170">tomorrow</span></span> morning.<br />
<br />
Thank
you.<br />
<br />
Linda P.</blockquote>
Four hours later I got an email from Tim B., a Frontier Technical Supervisor located not far from my home.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lee,</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am a Frontier Technical Supervisor located in
Kirkland.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My understanding is that you would like to upgrade your
internet speed with Frontier. I would like to investigate what options we may
have available to you.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Can you please provide me with your billing telephone #,
address, and a contact # where I can reach you? </div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thanks,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tim B.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Frontier Technical Supervisor</div>
</blockquote>
After a couple of emails back and forth with various technical folks they informed me that my best option was for 7M download, 768K upload bundle package. The message included the best news I've heard all year: "<span style="color: #1f497d;">By rebundling your service, you
will be saving money over your current plan.</span>"<br />
<br />
Let me get this straight: If I renew my 2 year contract (which is only 6 months old to begin with) I get DSL speeds 4.7 times faster than my current line and it will end up costing me <i>less </i>per month? Where do I sign up?<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSUTxpv_ynuQ4WsXu7VBP1YrtbSVPplGunxpNH8CLc4MLP0AQ_UbyyuCSULpjLfSKteEQ0TwaBp_rnCc6zvoqrDw-J09_2qWWpXMqqJ8dKHniI90QQBpnsujn35srGBOJ-Wo18i4OJ6ug/s1600/New+Upload+speed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSUTxpv_ynuQ4WsXu7VBP1YrtbSVPplGunxpNH8CLc4MLP0AQ_UbyyuCSULpjLfSKteEQ0TwaBp_rnCc6zvoqrDw-J09_2qWWpXMqqJ8dKHniI90QQBpnsujn35srGBOJ-Wo18i4OJ6ug/s1600/New+Upload+speed.jpg" /></a></div>
After a quick verification the order was processed. Within a couple of days my line was re-provisioned at the new speed. They even sent me a new DSL modem to replace my ancient model. The results were immediately apparent-<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>I can now stream Youtube videos at 1080p, where before it was stuttering on 480p.</li>
<li>I can now watch a Netflix video on my XBox while someone is downloading their email in the other room (couldn't do it before).</li>
<li>Remote access to my work computers is MUCH faster.</li>
</ol>
<div>
So there you have it: a great example of how a big company listened to a customer and did the right thing to improve their experience with their product. The entire process took less than 2 weeks. Now I only wish I had done this a couple of years ago.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Thanks Frontier!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
}B^)</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-12267811584523684242011-12-20T22:40:00.000-08:002015-06-29T12:40:05.569-07:00The 12 Days of Christmas Movies NOT About ChristmasI missed this by a couple of days but here it goes anyway...<br />
<br />
The top 12 non-Christmas movies that happen during Christmas, mention Christmas, or have some portrayal of Christmas. Watch one movie per day until Christmas. You might have to double-up on a few to finish them all in 2011. These are presented in "top 12" order.<br />
<br />
<b>Day 1: Edward Scissorhands</b> - not many people knew what to think of this movie when it came out, my parents included. Hence I didn't see it until I went to college. Still one of Johnny Depp's best roles.<br />
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<b>Day 2: Ghostbusters II </b>- The much-lessor of the Ghostbusters movie, this one is kind of fun with a good message.<br />
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<br />
<b>Day 3: Any of the "Harry Potter" movies</b> - They all have a Christmas scene. Watch one of them and you're covered. Watching all of them is not required, unless you are on Christmas break with nothing better to do.<br />
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<br />
<b>Day 4: Nightmare Before Christmas -</b> Gotta love a Halloween movie about Christmas. We watch this one just about every year. And then I have to put up with a week of my kids singing the Oogie-Boogie song.<br />
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<br />
<b>Day 5: Trading Places</b> - One of my favorite comedies of all time. Works on the question of nurture vs. nature with comedic results.<br />
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<b>Day 6: Lethal Weapon</b> - Gotta love an action flick with Christmas in it.<br />
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<b>Day 7: The Family Man </b>- Arguably the most ultra-pro-family movie EVER. Yes, I cried the first time I saw it. And the second. Very well written and acted. Best Nicolas Cage movie by a long shot. An interesting take on the "It's a Wonderful Life" formula, but with life choices.<br />
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<b>Day 8: Die Hard, Die Hard 2</b> - Explosions, guns, Alan Rickman, and Christmas. How can you top that?<br />
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<br />
<b>Day 9: Red</b> - This is how you beat Die Hard. To the amazing Bruce Willis you add Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich, and Karl Urban. Even Ernest Borgnine gets into the act. Amazing.<br />
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<b>Day 10: Gremlins</b> - The first nightmare I ever remember having was about this movie. It still holds up after all these years, except for the special effects. The book has the best chapter ever, only 2 words long: "Billy forgot."<br />
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<b>Day 11: Catch Me If You Can</b> - One of my favorite movies of all time. The Christmas scenes are quite touching and emotional, showing how isolated and alone each of the main characters really are.<br />
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<b>Day 12: The Star Wars Holiday Special</b> - One night when I was young my parents let us stay up late to watch a show that had "Star Wars" in the title. After a few minutes my folks lost interest and left me and my sisters to finish the entire show. We were blown away as only pre-8 year olds can be with Han, Leia, and Luke. The following morning my parents thought we were insane when we told them about the rest of the show (song/dance numbers, a cartoon with Boba Fet, Chewbacca's home world). My father continued in disbelief for decades until I found a boot-leg copy at a flee market and showed it to him. Now we have the interwebs to help us remember what Anthony Daniels joking calls, "The horrible Holiday Special that nobody talks about."<br />
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<b>"OK" Choices</b><br />
These will work in a pinch but I can't totally recommend them for various reasons...<br />
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<b>Sleepless in Seattle</b> - What some people call the ultimate chick-flick. It has some charming moments but you won't see me running out to watch it again.<br />
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<b>While You Were Sleeping</b> - Hmmm, another movie with Bill Pullman? Yet another chick flick but with a very pro-family message. Worth a watch if you haven't seen it.<br />
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<b>Steel Magnolias</b> - The movie my wife quotes the most. What does she quote the most? Tom Skerrit's line, "I have to get rid of about a zillion birds before Shelby’s reception this afternoon, or I will have to deal with my wife. And I make it a point never to deal with my wife!"<br />
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<b>Home Alone</b> - I remember watching this in the theater as a teenager and having a good laugh. Years later it doesn't hold up that well but I'll eventually show it to my kids.<br />
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<b>Bad choices - </b>Some folks like these movies but I cannot recommend them.<br />
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<b>Batman Returns</b> - Wow. Like so many other Batman films, it had so much potential but was squandered in the end.<br />
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Bridget Jones Diary - Not going to dignify this one with a link or trailer.<br />
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Now go out and celebrate <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Holiday_Special" target="_blank">Life Day</a>!<br />
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er, I mean Christmas!<br />
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}B^)<br />
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<br />Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-6793254426832903462011-12-19T19:12:00.000-08:002011-12-19T22:36:41.871-08:00Geek Links of the Week - 19DEC2011<br />
It's never really "safe" to come back to my site (i.e. go on the web), but don't take <a href="http://twit.tv/sn" target="_blank">my word for it</a>. Now for the good stuff...<br />
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<strong>My Geek Links of the Week!</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>Link #1: </strong><b><a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/12/universal-megaupload-video/" target="_blank">Universal Says It Can’t Be Sued for Bogus Megaupload Video Takedown</a></b><br />
<blockquote>
“Universal Music acknowledged late Thursday that it was responsible for taking down from YouTube the infamous Megaupload video in which pop stars — from Mary J. Blige to Kanye West and others — sing the praises of the notorious file-sharing service. But the record label said there’s nothing Megaupload can do about Universal Music taking down the video, even if Universal doesn’t own the rights to it.”</blockquote>
This is the story that keeps on giving. It started when the website Megaupload released a <a href="http://youtu.be/o0Wvn-9BXVc" target="_blank">promotional video</a> on YouTube featuring many popular artists, including Will-i-am, P Diddy, and Jamie Foxx. Universal Music decided, for some strange reason, that the video infringed on some rights of theirs and used the YouTube Content Management System (CMS) to delete it. When <a href="http://twit.tv/tnt" target="_blank">Tech News Today</a>, a daily tech news podcast and one of my favorites, played part of the video their newscast was censored from YouTube by UMG as well.<br />
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Universal has clearly overstepped their bounds and they have partially admitted that they were wrong but have also said that Megaupload has no recourse and should not be able to sue for damages. I think most judges will disagree.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_296w/WashingtonPost/Content/Blogs/blogpost/201112/Images/warren.jpg?uuid=JKKksCUEEeG6UZmisn9jBQ" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_296w/WashingtonPost/Content/Blogs/blogpost/201112/Images/warren.jpg?uuid=JKKksCUEEeG6UZmisn9jBQ" width="149" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rich Warren and daughter</td></tr>
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<strong>Link #2: </strong><b><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/hey-google-thanks-for-making-my-daughter-cry/2011/12/12/gIQAhYx9pO_blog.html" target="_blank">Father’s open letter to Google: ‘Thanks for making my daughter cry’</a></b><br />
<blockquote>
“Father Rich Warren sounded off Sunday on social media sites Reddit and Google+ about his upsetting morning: He had woken up to find that Google had suddenly, without warning, shut down his daughter’s e-mail account and blog. His daughter had used her Gmail to send e-mail to her grandparents, friends and classmates, and had started the Blogger blog as a class project.” - Elizabeth Frock, Washington Post</blockquote>
This is a tricky one. How do you weigh the online protection of a child while allowing them to express themselves online? Google has responded (see <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/hey-google-thanks-for-making-my-daughter-cry/2011/12/12/gIQAhYx9pO_blog.html" target="_blank">original article</a>), saying that their policies are not to allow children under the age of 13 to sign up for Google services unless it is done under the guise of their educational product suite through their school. There are some laws on the books, particularly <a href="http://www.coppa.org/" target="_blank">COPPA</a>, that do limit the amount of information that can be collected about children under 13 <i>unless supervised by a parent/guardian</i>. My young kids, all under 10 years old, already asking about getting Gmail, Windows Live Messenger, and Facebook accounts. 13 sounds like a good age to start, in my book, but there should still be parental supervision.<br />
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<strong>Link #3: </strong><b><a href="http://www.infoworld.com/t/consumerization-it/how-thwart-the-high-priests-it-180296" target="_blank">How to thwart the high priests of IT</a></b><br />
<blockquote>
“There are a lot of good IT pros who earnestly want to help their employer do well by providing and maintaining the technology systems that conduct so much of business today. Then there are those who are the company's enemies, whether they realize it or not.”
</blockquote>
Disclosure- I'm an Elder, not a High Priest. And I'm have been in IT at a Fortune 500 company for nearly 11 years, 4 more at a start-up in the dot-com era.<br />
<br />
I hesitated to even include this story but I can't help myself. This train wreck of a blog post, which would be mistaken for a comment-troll on my blog, is arguably one of the worst IT hit-pieces of recent memory. The comments from the article and on <a href="http://it.slashdot.org/story/11/12/18/2154224/how-to-thwart-the-high-priests-in-it?utm_source=headlines&utm_medium=email" target="_blank">on the Slashdot article</a> are not kind but reflect the same sentiment I have for the article and its author.<br />
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I think this guy is fishing for readers and hoping to increase his ad revenue: that's the only scenario that makes sense. I have yet to find a <i>serious</i> IT or programmer who agrees with him. Even the /. nerds are crucifying him, which says a lot about just how ridiculous his premise ultimately is. His aim in starting the blog was to talk frankly about the "consumerization of IT" but instead his opening salvo has not only missed the target but gone outside the firing range and hit the very people he was trying to persuade: developers and technology enthusiasts.<br />
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My favorite comment from the article: "Author needs less amphetamines. Someone's been up for days raging because they couldn't bring their toys in to work."<br />
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<strong>Link #4: </strong><b><a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2017001880_stratolaunch14.html" target="_blank">Paul Allen space venture begins with 'largest aircraft ever constructed'</a></b><br />
<blockquote>
“Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen on Tuesday launched a speculative space-travel business that calls for building "the largest aircraft ever constructed." The twin-fuselage, composite-plastic plane, using systems cannibalized from two 747s and powered by six jumbo-jet engines, is intended to fly to an altitude of about 30,000 feet before launching into orbit a rocket slung underneath its wing.”</blockquote>
This is just TOO COOL. Paul Allen and company are going to build the world's largest plan, longest runway, and do it all in the name of privately-funded space industrialism. YES! Finally someone with some really big plans is stepping up and it isn't NASA or affiliated with any governmental organization. I love the idea of using existing engineering (i.e. cannibalizing existing planes and engines) and laying new designs on top of it to reduce cost (why re-invent the wheel?). I hope they are successful. This could end up being the grand-child of the space-shuttle program.<br />
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<strong>Link #5: </strong><b><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2011/12/chromebook-library/" target="_blank">Silicon Valley Library Lends Google Chromebooks</a></b><br />
<blockquote>
“If you find yourself in Silicon Valley and you need a laptop, try the library. In a first-of-its-kind pilot project, the Palo Alto, California Library will soon be loaning Google Chromebook computers to library patrons for as long as one week at a time. The program highlights the Chromebook’s ability to operate as a kind of “disposable computer,” as Google puts it. With the Chromebook, most all data and applications reside on the Web — not the local machine — so it can easily be passed from person-to-person. It’s a very Googly setup, and the search giant hopes it will reinvent the way businesses use computers.”</blockquote>
I like it. It was only a matter of time before a library somewhere picked up this idea. Using it as a platform that can be checked out is like a tool checkout at a workplace: you use it and give it back when you are done, up to a week in this case. When it is returned the user state information is easily wiped since the whole point of the Chromebook is to store everything on various cloud-based services, like Google or iCloud.<br />
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While this is a good idea I'm not sure how far this will spread until tablet/laptop prices fall below $200, maybe even sub-$100. The best market for devices like this are poor areas but they usually lack the funding for expensive tech projects. Sounds like yet another pet-project for a state-senator somewhere...<br />
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}B^)Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-49909540947015108672011-12-12T15:38:00.000-08:002011-12-12T22:01:24.399-08:00Geek Links of the Week - 12DEC2011<br />
Just when you thought it was safe to come back to my site, I bring you...<br />
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<strong>My Geek Links of the Week!</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong><br />
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<strong>Link #1: <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/12/cannon-balls-size-matters/" target="_blank">The MythBusters Cannonball Saga Explained</a></strong><br />
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By now you have no doubt seen <a href="http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/12/mythbusters-cannonball/" target="_blank">the video or read the news story</a> about the MythBusters team and their unfortunate incident with the cannon. No, I'm not talking about a Canon, like my PowerShot A710, I'm talking about a real, home made cannon that fires projectiles at high speeds to cause varying levels of destruction and mayhem. If not read the story above and check out the <a href="http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/12/mythbusters-cannonball-map/" target="_blank">map</a> to see just how out of control this little experiment became.<br />
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Having been a big fan of the <a href="http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/mythbusters/" target="_blank">MythBusters </a>for quite some time, it is obvious that they take safety very seriously. The most unfortunate part of this entire incident is that, according to the news story above, the episode with the cannon will not be aired. Bummer. I love their explosion episodes.<br />
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Now check out the explanation of the math involved to see just how much force was exerted to make the cannonball go that far, that fast, and through that many objects.<br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/28/Bill_og_Melinda_Gates_2009-06-03_(bilde_01).JPG/320px-Bill_og_Melinda_Gates_2009-06-03_(bilde_01).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/28/Bill_og_Melinda_Gates_2009-06-03_(bilde_01).JPG/320px-Bill_og_Melinda_Gates_2009-06-03_(bilde_01).JPG" /></a></div>
<strong>Link #2: <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20111208/sorry-folks-bill-gates-is-not-coming-back-to-microsoft/" target="_blank">Sorry, Folks, Bill Gates Is Not Coming Back to Microsoft</a></strong><br />
<blockquote>
"While it is fun to play “what if” games, the fact is that Bill Gates is not
planning a return to Microsoft, the software giant he founded with Paul Allen
decades ago."</blockquote>
-Ina Fried, All Things D<br />
<br />
Earlier last week <a href="http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/12/08/bill-gates-comeback/?section=magazines_fortune" target="_blank">Fortune Magazine published a story</a> from a "prominent Chief Executive" who heard that uber-geek himself might be staging a come-back to help a struggling MSFT. Yes, Fortune published a story based on the word of someone who "heard from someone close to Gates that he might be considering such a move."<br />
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An un-named source heard it second hand? Wow, that's authoritative. While I would LOVE to see BillG back at MSFT I doubt it will ever happen. He has his sites set on Malaria, AIDS, and Education, three of the biggest challenges in the world today. Probably not going to happen but it would be cool if it did happen.<br />
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<strong>Link #3: <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1112.1645" target="_blank">How to Gamble If You're In a Hurry</a></strong><br />
<blockquote>
"The beautiful theory of statistical gambling... has mostly been studied under the unrealistic assumption that we live in a continuous world, that money is indefinitely divisible, and that our life is indefinitely long. Here we study these fascinating problems from a purely discrete, finitistic, and computational, viewpoint, using Both Symbol-Crunching and Number-Crunching (and simulation just for checking purposes)."</blockquote>
Short summary: how to win at gambling if you don't have infinite money or time. Check out the math if you are into that kind of thing. Gambling is a fun practical application of math, of which I always do poorly, hence my tendency to avoid participation. I do enjoy watching others <strike>lose</strike> participate. Now someone has taken that love of math and come up with a pretty good analysis of how to gamble optimally in a short amount of time.<br />
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<strong>Link #4: 2012: <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20111208/2012-siri-is-a-stunner-amazon-is-amazin-and-security-gets-spendy/" target="_blank">Siri Is a Stunner, Amazon Is Amazin’ and Security Gets Spendy</a></strong><br />
<blockquote>
"It means a whole lot of stuff that needs to be integrated. We don’t need
anything new at all. There’s so much work that needs to be done with the
existing tool sets. Steve Jobs didn’t really invent anything at all. But he was
great at integrating things into a product. There’s a lot more of that work to
do. We have to do it in the phone world and the TV world and the health care
world. We have lots of devices and lots of chips and lots of operating systems
and lots of content. The bigger question is, how do human beings use it all
efficiently?"</blockquote>
- Mark Anderson, CEO of Strategic News Service<br />
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Things he missed-<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Death of Nokia? I'm not totally sold on this one. Perhaps they are in the smartphone world but they <i>own</i> the down-market phones (i.e. almost-smart phones). His line about smartphones taking over the world is right on but combine this with Nokia's brand recognition and market penetration in the non-smartphone world and you have a great story. If they can take Windows Phone 7 and make a smartphone for "every-man" now you are talking serious $$$.</li>
<li>Voice differentiation - He makes a big deal about voice recognition taking over the world but there is one thing he is missing, as seen in the <a href="http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1994-04-24/" target="_blank">Dilbert comic</a> below: differentiating voices. How do you get your phone/car/TV/device to recognize your voice if there are other voices present. Imagine trying to talk to your car while your pre-teen in the back seat is belting out the latest Justin Beiber tune. Or trying to get a drink recommendation at a bar filled with people. If you can solve that problem then I believe that tech like Siri can solve world hunger.</li>
<li>An Amazon monopoly? Amazing is a growing behemoth that is taking over and owning a large piece of the online shopping world with its sites on online entertainment. Combining markets and products can get you into big trouble. Just ask Microsoft, Google, etc.</li>
</ul>
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<a href="http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1994-04-24/" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="273" src="http://dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/000000/20000/3000/700/23718/23718.strip.sunday.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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<strong>Link #5: </strong><span id="title-26899542"><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/12/10/028244/are-you-better-at-math-than-a-4th-or-10th-grader?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29" target="_blank">Are You Better At Math Than a 4th (or 10th) Grader?</a> (linked via Slashdot)</span><br />
<blockquote>
“A longtime friend on the school board of one of the largest school systems in America did something that few public servants are willing to do. He took versions of his state’s high-stakes standardized math and reading tests for 10th graders, and said he’d make his scores public.”<br />
<br />
-Valerie Strauss, Washington Post</blockquote>
This is interesting but kind of sad at the same time. I like the fact that a public official is trying to set an example by taking the standardized test and publishing his results. The sad part is that he failed to correctly answer any of them without guessing. I took the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-buzz/post/test-your-math-skills-on-questions-meant-for-fourth--and-eighth-graders/2011/12/07/gIQAVnHhcO_blog.html" target="_blank">sample questions</a> myself and came out with a perfect score. If the score wasn't perfect I would have committed grievous bodily harm to my keyboard. Remembering back on my high school math classes these questions are perfectly appropriate and worded well. We need to have our students pass tests like this if they are to compete in the real world. The math questions were not too hard. An adult school administrator with poor math skills? Say it isn't so!<br />
<br />
Math is right up there with reading and speaking abilities when it comes to success in life: the more complex the math that you can understand the more likely you are to get a higher paying job than someone who doesn't.<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>Link #6: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/12/worlds-first-128gb-20nm-nand-flash-could-pack-25tb-into-a-25-ssd.ars?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+arstechnica%2Findex+%28Ars+Technica+-+Featured+Content%29" target="_blank">World's first 128Gb 20nm NAND flash could pack 2TB into a 2.5" SSD</a></strong><br />
<blockquote>
"Intel and Micron's joint venture IMFT has announced that it has produced a 128Gb die. A package combining eight such dies together would be small enough to fit on a fingertip and boast an unprecedented 128GB capacity. Mass production will start in the first half of next year, and devices using the new dies are likely to start shipping in 2013."</blockquote>
<br />
HUGE SSD drives are on the way. SWEET! It's only a matter of time before SSD drives of various types take over for the various types of spinning hard drives we use every day. Now that consumer devices like tablets and phones are starting to use them the prices are falling precipitously.<br />
<br />
}B^)Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-67687615957580171282011-12-08T14:54:00.000-08:002015-06-29T12:25:40.576-07:00The LDS life of an LDS President<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://leedonnahoo.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/dsc6844puchtdorfstandside_9jun09_519x360.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Apostles Visit UK and Ireland Saints, Build Faith" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-142" src="http://leedonnahoo.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/dsc6844puchtdorfstandside_9jun09_519x360.jpg?w=300" height="208" title="Apostles Visit UK and Ireland Saints, Build Faith" width="300" /></a></div>
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Joseph Smith was the first one way back in 1844. George Romney was the second one (Yes, Mitt's father). Midas Udal was third in 1972 followed by Bo Gritz in 1992, Orin Hatch in 2000, and Mitt Romney in 2008 and again for the 2012 election. They are all members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, who have run for President of the United States.<br />
<br />
Lee Davidson of the Salt Lake Tribune wrote a <a href="http://www.scrippsnews.com/content/past-mormon-presidential-candidates-have-found-scant-success" target="_blank" title="Past Mormon presidential candidates have found scant success">news article</a> detailing past church member candidates for President of the United States, or "POTUS" for short: interesting history and well worth the read.<br />
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It's fun using the term POTUS because in the Mormon church we sometimes refer to the Prophet as the "President," since he is the President of the church and head of the "First Presidency." It also sounds pretty cool when you say, "POTUS." Go ahead and try it 5 times fast and tell me it doesn't sound cool?<br />
<br />
A couple days ago my wife and I were toying with a another topic: how would the life of an active member of the church change, in regards to the church-related aspects of their life, if they were elected President of the United States? Even if Romney misses his opportunity to be POTUS the odds of another member of the church running for the office again are quite high given the <a href="http://famousmormons.net/pol.html" target="_blank">number of church members in Congress and politics in general</a>.<br />
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The culture of the church is quite different than most other Christian religions in that the church has many cultural aspects that integrate with doctrinal principles. Living our religion is more than just going to church on Sunday. Many aspects of regular worship, doctrinal adherence, and sociality would be adversely affected by the rigorous schedule, daunting logistics, and intense security associated with the office of the President. Here is my take on some of those issues and impacts.<br />
<br />
Instead of explaining each aspect in depth I only address the issues and impacts. Follow the linked title of each section to read more about the details of this part of our faith at Mormon.org.<br />
<br />
<strong><a href="http://mormon.org/faq/#Church|question=/faq/church-welcome-visitors/" target="_blank">Sunday worship</a></strong><br />
<ul>
<li><b><a href="http://mormon.org/faq/ward-stake-branch" target="_blank">Assigned Ward</a>: </b>The assigned ward for 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is the Washington DC 3<sup>rd</sup> Ward, Washington, DC Stake (according to LDS.org). Would their membership records remain in their pre-election home ward, go to this new ward in Washington, or some other ward? Since their residence will be the White House I assume it would be the Washington D.C. 3rd Ward. Although some people prefer to keep their membership records at their "home ward" when they travel abroad or move for short-term missions (1-2 years), the term of the presidency (4-8 years) would most likely necessitate them moving their records to their new home.</li>
<li><b>Actually getting there:</b> Weekly attendance at church services for the first family could be weekly but POTUS may only be able to attend up to a couple of times per month due to scheduling. Visiting other wards/branches is another option given the schedule and travel concerns but site security becomes an issue.</li>
<li><b>Site security and screening: </b>The entire church building would have be cleared in advance of the presidential visit (think bomb-sniffing dogs), along with screening of everyone entering the church. Does this create too much hassle/disruption to the rest of the ward to allow POTUS regular sacrament meeting attendance? It did for <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/god-and-country/2008/12/29/president-elect-obamas-church-attendance-grinds-to-a-halt" target="_blank">President Reagan</a>. Imagine everyone, including 80-year-old widows and little 2-year-old boys/girls getting a pat-down every time they came to church. </li>
<li><b><a href="http://mormon.org/faq/church-welcome-visitors" target="_blank">Sacrament</a> at the White House:</b> Assuming that attending a regular family ward every week is not possible or practical, it would be MUCH easier to bring the sacrament to the White House every week. You simply screen a group of Aaronic Priesthood brethren, along with their parents, and choose a few of them to visit the White House each week on a rotating schedule.</li>
<li><b>Sacramental bread/water:</b> the sacramental bread/water would have to be screened before consumption just like any other food served to the POTUS.</li>
<li><b>What about <a href="http://aboutcampdavid.blogspot.com/2010/08/evergreen-chapel-at-camp-david.html" target="_blank" title="About Camp David">Camp David</a>?</b> Camp David has a chapel which has been used by past presidents and could be used for sacrament services. Pres. George W. Bush used it frequently for church services. The only snag is getting other people there to join in the service. Which Bishopric would you invite to preside, the
Washington D.C. 3rd Ward or the Frederick 1st Ward, Frederick Maryland Stake, where Camp David is located? The Church usually defers to local (i.e. geographic) authorities to be the presiding authorities at meetings. If this becomes the church location of choice local authorities may ask that the membership records be moved to the Frederick 1st Ward.</li>
</ul>
<strong><a href="http://mormon.org/faq/#Church|question=/faq/no-paid-clergy/" target="_blank">Callings</a></strong><br />
<ul>
<li>I would assume that all callings for POTUS would be off the table. Their entire time in office would be more than filled with the requirements of office.</li>
<li>First family: First Lady most likely will not have any callings but older children may be able to serve (i.e. Aaronic Priesthood quorum or YW presidency). Imagine a family in the same age ranges as the Kennedys or Obamas? How would their kids participate in primary and youth activities?</li>
</ul>
<strong><a href="http://mormon.org/service/" target="_blank">Home Teaching, Visiting Teaching</a></strong><br />
<ul>
<li><b>Can POTUS be a Home Teacher?</b> The short answer: no. There is simply not enough time available for this calling. It would be cool if he tried but I think his schedule would be too full to get in even a few visits every year. And the site security question always comes up if POTUS is going to a private home so he would probably have to perform these visits in the White House.</li>
<li><b>Can the First Lady be a VT?</b> She might be able to fill this calling but it is very schedule dependent. Security is also an issue but not to the same degree as the POTUS.</li>
<li><b>Receiving visits from Home or Visiting Teachers</b>: very schedule dependent but also very doable. HT/VT persons would be required to go through all security protocols for visiting the White House. Can you imagine going to the White House every month to present a message and ask, “Is there anything we or the Ward can do to better meet your spiritual needs?” or “Have you been holding FHE?” "How's your food storage?" "When was the last time you invited someone to attend church with you?" The comedic possibilities are endless.</li>
<li><b>Presidential records: </b>Would these HT/VT visits be considered “public record” of the Office of the President and need to be recorded? Not sure how that plays out. I would hope that personal activities such as this would not need to be public record.</li>
</ul>
<strong><a href="http://lds.org/family/home-evening?lang=eng" target="_blank">Family Home Evening</a></strong><br />
<ul>
<li><b>Scheduling</b>: Good luck getting the entire first family in the White House one day a week, let alone the same day every week.</li>
<li><b>Security</b>: no real issue here since only the first family would be invited.</li>
</ul>
<strong><a href="http://mormon.org/faq/#Scriptures" target="_blank">Scripture Reading</a></strong><br />
<ul>
<li><b>Personal Scripture Study</b>: Scheduling is the only issue. Past presidents have done regular scripture study, George W. Bush most recently (not sure on Obama).</li>
<li><b>Family </b><b>Scripture Study</b>: Once again scheduling is the only real issue. Regular family scripture study will be a problem.</li>
</ul>
<strong><a href="http://lds.org/church/organization/membership-in-the-church?lang=eng" target="_blank">Priesthood Interviews</a>: Temple Recommend, PPIs, and Tithing Settlement</strong><br />
<ul>
<li><b>POTUS alone in a room with a Bishop or Stake Pres</b>. (confidentiality of recommend interviews): Not impossible but the Bishop and Stake Pres. would be required to go through all security protocols to see the POTUS. This may be a problem if the Bishop or Stake Pres. cannot pass the background check: counselors that can pass the background check could substitute.</li>
<li><b>Location</b>: Similar to church visits. May be easier to just do it at the White House or Camp David.</li>
</ul>
<strong><a href="http://mormon.org/faq/#Temples" target="_blank">Temple Attendance</a></strong> – This is the toughest nut to crack.<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Support Staff: </b>Would require all Secret Service, White House Staff, and other support personnel (i.e. medics, military, etc) entering the temple to be recommend-carrying members of the church. All personnel outside the temple can be non-members.</li>
<li><b>Site prep:</b> Same issues as church attendance but on a larger scale. One of the smaller temples would be a MUCH better option in terms of site security. You could designate a single day reserved for the POTUS and his entourage and have a much smaller staff to screen. It would also impact far fewer temple patrons. Would the church allow bomb-sniffing dogs inside the temple?</li>
<li><b>Location:</b> DC is closest temple to the White House but its sheer size presents a problem. Next closest is NYC/Manhattan but that has the complexities of a very large metro city. Other options are Rochester, NY; Columbus, OH; and Raleigh, NC. POTUS may also elect to visit smaller temples around the US/World based on his travel schedule.</li>
<li><b>Best Bet:</b> Schedule a smaller temple in the US, randomly chosen, and pick a day and time that works. Temporarily close the temple for a day or so and keep it private and low-key: only a few key people at the temple, such as the Temple President, need to know exactly who is coming. Let everyone else be surprised and honored to meet the sitting POTUS. There are some pretty remote temples around the US that would fit the bill.</li>
</ul>
<strong><a href="http://mormon.org/faq/#Health" target="_blank">Word of Wisdom</a></strong><br />
<ul>
<li><b>Not really an issue:</b> George W. Bush was a recovering alcoholic and this did not appear to be a show stopper. Presidents are not <em>required</em> to drink alcoholic beverages.</li>
</ul>
<strong><a href="http://mormon.org/faq/#Culture" target="_blank">Ward Activities/Socials</a></strong><br />
<ul>
<li><b>Basketball</b>: Many presidents have been physically active, including President Obama, so the act of playing basketball is not a problem. Might not be able to participate in church ball due to scheduling and security issues.</li>
<li><b>Ward Socials</b>: Same issues with scheduling and security as sacrament attendance. A one-time visit may be possible but recurring visits may be impossible. Perhaps the best idea would be to hold the ward social at the White House?</li>
</ul>
<strong>Post-Term Issues</strong> – impacts after POTUS leaves office and returns to “normal” life, or as normal as it gets for a former President.<br />
<ol>
<li>Secret Service escort: former presidents receive secret service protection after leaving office. This makes for fun times at church, in the temple, and any private priesthood interviews, as I have described above, but on a somewhat smaller scale.</li>
<li>Callings: given the need for security even after leaving office, there may be additional headaches to serving in the church later in life. Imagine a mission or temple president with a secret service escort? How about an Apostle? (might be a stretch for a politician but not impossible)</li>
</ol>
As I was writing this post, my wife sent me this which addresses a lot of the same issues: <a href="http://thisweekinmormons.com/tag/temple-attendance/">http://thisweekinmormons.com/tag/temple-attendance/</a><br />
<br />
So the main point here is that trying to live a "normal" church-attending life for a member of the Church would be nearly impossible. The commitment level of the person filling the office of the POTUS must weighed against the rigorous religious observance and practices, which will be left to fall behind while in office. This is a sacrifice one makes with that level of commitment. Think of it as the opposite of what happens with General Authorities: they give up everything but their church and their families to focus on their jobs. The President of the United States makes a similar sacrifice to serve the people in the greatest nation on earth.<br />
<br />
}B^)<br />
<br />Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-31904869344964066982011-12-05T00:00:00.000-08:002011-12-12T15:13:08.477-08:00Geek Links of the Week - 05DEC2011Just when you thought it was safe to come back to my site, I bring you...<br />
<br />
<strong>My Geek Links of the Week!</strong><br />
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<strong>Link #1: <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5863849/your-android-phone-is-secretly-recording-everything-you-do" target="_blank">Your Android Phone Is Secretly Recording Everything You Do</a></strong><br />
<blockquote>
"If you have any decently modern Android phone, everything you do is being recorded by hidden software lurking inside. It even circumvents web encryption and grabs everything—including your passwords and Google queries."</blockquote>
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This "Carrier IQ" controversy is just now blowing up. I won't belabor you with links to other summaries because there simply are too many. This may not only affect Android but the jury is still out on that one.<br />
<br />
Here's my take on it- the developer of the software missed a key feature: turning it off. What it does makes sense as a feature-improvement data gathering service similar to other features in Windows, MS Office, MacOS, iOS, and countless other products that count how many times you use a specific feature and how you use it. The one things most of them have: a way to turn it off. The big problem here isn't that there is a piece of technology to track how you use the device and send back usage stats and data to a 3rd party, it's the fact that there is no way to disable the feature once the user has decided NOT to consent to this "feature."<br />
<br />
This will blow over soon but it is a major breach of trust in a very popular platform.<br />
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<strong>Link #2: <a href="http://www.loper-os.org/?p=568" title="Why Hypercard Had to Die">Why Hypercard Had to Die</a></strong><br />
<blockquote>
"Does anyone really believe that Mr. Jobs genuinely '<em>thought you could do everything in Cocoa and ProjectBuilder that you could do with HyperCard'</em>? He was far too intelligent a man to believe any such thing. One may as well say that <a href="http://xkcd.com/378/">you could do everything with a magnetized needle and a steady hand that you could do with a text editor.</a> Or that you <a href="http://www.loper-os.org/?p=448">could do anything with Roman numerals that you could do with Arabic numerals.</a> Or that you could do anything in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INTERCAL">INTERCAL</a> that you could do in Common Lisp. And so forth. Jobs was almost certainly familiar with HyperCard and its capabilities. <strong>And he killed it anyway.</strong> Wouldn’t you love to know why?"<br />
<br />
-Stanislav Datskovskiy</blockquote>
<br />
I used Hypercard for about a month when I was about 12. My "Computers" professor (yes, I had a class in Junior High simply called "Computers") got his hands on a couple of them and we played with it for several weeks before they had to go back to wherever it was he "borrowed" them from.<br />
<br />
My second favorite quote from the article...<br />
<blockquote>
"Jobs supposedly claimed that he intended his personal computer to be a <a href="http://kottke.org/10/10/steve-jobs-and-the-bicycle-for-the-mind">“bicycle for the mind.”</a> But what he really sold us was a<em> </em>(fairly comfortable)<em> train</em> for the mind. A train which goes only where rails have been laid down, like any train, and can travel elsewhere only after rivers of sweat pour forth from armies of laborers. (Preferably in Cupertino.)"</blockquote>
<br />
This is what bothers me about Apple today and its current slate of products: they look the same, they all work the same, and most of the apps on the iPhone/iPad can generally be classified into several categories. What is different about that? How can you think "outside the box," to continue the overuse of an over-used pun, when the box is a wall-in garden and overseen by an army of overseers that must approve your app? Unfortunately I see too many other platform manufacturers going this direction as well (Windows Phone, Android to a certain extent, etc). What made the PC so cool 20 years ago was the ability to customize it to the n'th degree and write code or develop a periferal device to make it do whatever you wanted. I think that utopia died in 1994 when we connected everything to the internet. OK, now I'm sounding like an old geek-fart.<br />
<br />
<strong>Link #3: <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/11/the-psychology-of-nakedness/" target="_blank">The Psychology of Nakedness</a></strong><br />
<blockquote>
"Looking at a naked person filled us with sexual desire, and that desire induced a form of mindblindness. Instead of seeing the individual as having agency, he or she became a means to an end, nothing but a vessel for our satisfaction. Kant was describing a phenomenon known as objectification, in which seeing a body turns the entire person into a physical object."</blockquote>
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This may seem to fall into the "well-DUH!" category until you read the entire article and realize the impact of exactly what they are saying. When a person reveals even slightly more skin than they did just a moment before the brain shifts more toward objectification. I can't summarize it better than that. Read the article... }B^)<br />
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<strong>Link #4: <a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/11/complaint-medical-copyright-over-your-comments-contracts-are-illegal-1.ars" target="_blank">Complaint: medical "copyright over your comments" contracts are illegal</a></strong><br />
<blockquote>
“When I walked into the offices of <the Doctor>, I was looking for cleaner teeth, not material for an Ars Technica story. I needed a new dentist, and Yelp says <the Doctor> is one of the best in the Philadelphia area. The receptionist handed me a clipboard with forms to fill out. After the usual patient information form, there was a "mutual privacy agreement" that asked me to transfer ownership of any public commentary I might write in the future to <the Doctor>. Surprised and a little outraged by this, I got into a lengthy discussion with <the Doctor>'s office manager that ended in me refusing to sign and her showing me the door.”<br />
<br />
-Timothy B. Lee, Ars Technica staff writer</blockquote>
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Amazing. You go to a dentist's/doctor's office and give away your right to publicly say <em>anything</em> about the services rendered? I doubt this will pass legal scrutiny but the idea is simply absurd. I'm not going to pay for a product or service if I cannot tell others in person, in print, or online, what I think about it. Most of the time I don't but that's not the point.<br />
<br />
<strong>Link #5: <a href="http://wrttn.in/04af1a" target="_blank">Institutional memory and reverse smuggling</a></strong><br />
<blockquote>
"Institutional memory comes in two forms: people and documentation. People remember how things work and why. Sometimes they write it down and store that information somewhere. Institutional amnesia works similarly. The people leave and the documents disappear, rot, or just become forgotten (as it were)." -an engineer</blockquote>
<br />
What would it be like if you were a new engineer and given a set of 30 year old specs and schematics. Your new job is to figure out what the heck this thing/plant/process is all about and be able to not only explain it to someone but redesign part of it or add a new feature/thing to it. Sounds totally cool. This guy almost had to do it in real life, except he wrote most of the specs/schematics he was now studying. The company had lost many of the docs but this engineer had "unofficially" made his own archive. How does he now smuggle the intel BACK into the company? Great geek read.<br />
<br />
}B^)Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-81509576675429111952011-11-29T12:38:00.000-08:002011-12-09T09:51:07.601-08:00Geek Links of the Week - 28NOV2011Returning to a feature that I though up a while back, I bring you...<br/><br/><strong>My Geek Links of the Week!</strong><br/><br/><strong>Link #1: <a href="http://earthsky.org/health/how-your-brain-cells-might-be-sabotaging-your-diet" target="_blank">How your brain cells might be sabotaging your diet</a></strong><br/><blockquote>"It might be tough to stick to a diet because of the activity of self-cannibalizing neurons in the brain. "</blockquote><br/>That's <a title="How your brain cells might be sabotaging your diet" href="http://earthsky.org/health/how-your-brain-cells-might-be-sabotaging-your-diet" target="_blank">the word from a new study </a>that essentially says that when you dramatically reduce your food intake, hunger-causing neurons in the brain start to canabalize each other which, in turn, makes you incredibly hungry. So when you go on a binge diet your body turns against itself and you eat more, which makes you gain weight or break your diet. Yes, you are <em>hard wired </em>to fail at fad diets.<br/><br/>Sidenote: Earthsky.org is one of my favorite websites for all things science but them seem to specialize in natural and astronomical sciences.<br/><br/><strong>Link #2: <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20111123/seven-questions-for-seagate-ceo-steve-luzco-about-the-effects-of-the-thailand-floods/" target="_blank">Seven Questions for Seagate CEO Steve Luczo About the Effects of the Thailand Floods</a></strong><br/><blockquote>"By the end of 2012 you’re back to being close to industry demand. But even then, you’ve not included the impact of that missed 100 million units. And that will take another year to absorb, because it’s not like the industry is building new factories to chase that demand." -Steve Luczo, Seagate</blockquote><br/>AllThingsD.com has a good interview with the CEO of Seagate, maker of various types of disk drives and data storage systems, to find out the impact of the floods in southeast Asia. The main point of the article is that supply chain and inventory shortages are going to persist well into 2012 and possibly even until 2013. This holiday season will be somewhat affected by the shortages (i.e. low inventories and higher prices on some electronics items) but the next holiday season could be even worse unless people start working NOW to find alternatives or make repairs to existing facilities. You can't exactly build a new fabrication facility in 10 months.<br/><br/><strong>Link #3: <a href="//entertainment.slashdot.org/story/11/11/22/1523249/ham-radio-licenses-top-700000-an-all-time-high">Ham Radio Licenses Top 700,000, An All-Time High</a></strong><br/><blockquote>“As technology changes and advances, it is especially vital to keep up or be at the forefront, I believe that Amateur Radio has done just that! The measurable results are our indisputable license numbers. It amazes me after all these years how important and relevant Amateur Radio remains. I am proud to be one of the 700,221 licensees and to see this historic and important milestone.”<br/><br/>-ARRL VEC Manager Maria Somma</blockquote><br/>It's 100 years later and we just hit an all-time high for Ham radio licenses. It's amazing how, even with the internet and mobile smartphones, Ham radio continues to increase in popularity, not decrease. Granted, they only added 17,000 over the last 10 years but that number is up over 200,000 in the last 20 years. If you look at the numbers we have leveled off but it's amazing how an old-school tech continues to thive.<br/><br/><strong>Link #4: <a href="http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2011/11/10-mesmerizing-time-lapse-videos/" target="_blank">10 Mesmerizing Time-Lapse Videos</a></strong><br/><blockquote>"With the use of high-quality DSLR cameras, computer-driven timers and tripods, it’s never been easier to achieve these images. Professionals and hobbyists alike are creating stunning views of our world — from the cosmos to the Truckasaurus."</blockquote><br/>These videos are astounding. It isn't just the ability to capture these videos that makes them so cool it is the framing, lighting, pacing, and sync to music that seems to transcend the normal, natural world. The "Stars in Motion" and "Metal Heart" videos are my favorites.<br/><br/><strong>Link #5: <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/t/misadventures/the-2011-infoworld-geek-iq-test-178642" target="_blank">The 2011 InfoWorld geek IQ test</a></strong><br/><blockquote>"Dust off your pocket protector, suck face with your closest Ewok doll, and dig into your Bag of Holding to bring forth the answers to our nerdiest set of 20 questions yet"</blockquote><br/>Infoworld is one of the quintessential geek trade rags. Leave it to them to come up with a test like this that only the incredible uber-dorks could pass. I only scored 16/20.<br/><br/>KE7UYN, clear.<br/><br/>}B^)Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-33946417321899095712011-06-22T16:40:00.000-07:002015-06-29T11:50:02.983-07:00The Summer Pain of Snow DaysToday is June 22, 2011, and it is the last day of school for my kids. Their cousins in Utah have been out since late May. Up until today, every time they chat with each other online via Skype, XBox Live, etc, the Utah cousins say something to the effect of, "You're still in school? That's totally lame."<br />
<br />
I am inclined to agree. Running the school year out 2/3 of the way through June and one day past the official start of summer borders on torturous.<br />
<br />
What causes this summer pain? Snow days. We typically have 2-3 snow days every year. In a good year we have 0 and in a bad year we have 6. This year was 3.5 (yes, they did a half day back in November). This March the Lake Washington School District (LWSD) sent out a <a href="http://www.lwsd.org/News/News-and-Announcements/Pages/Snow-Day-Make-Up-Schedule-Set.aspx" target="_blank">news release and letter to parents announcing the revised schedule</a>.<br />
<br />
An excerpt from the article: "The district is required by state law to provide 180 days of school.... One of the November snow days was a scheduled half day and the last day of school was scheduled as a half day. If both half days were combined into one full day, the district would only be offering 179 days of school. This unusual schedule, with two half days at the end of the school year, keeps the district in compliance with state law."<br />
<br />
Yes, there are a state-mandated number of days and hours that students must be in class. This makes a difficult position for the principals/superintendent. They have to balance the safety of transporting students to school during winter weather with the state-mandated time spent with "butts in the seats," to use a travel industry term.<br />
<br />
In the Seattle area we don't get enough snow to have an army of plows at the ready every time it snows like they do in mid-west and other northern states that have severe winter for months at a time. The low amount of snow we get every year (<a href="http://www.seattle.gov/html/weather_averages.htm" target="_blank">average 12" TOTAL for a year</a>) and it typically melts off within 24-72 hours anyway. Some people call it "inclement weather" but it's only "inclement" if it doesn't happen every year, which it almost always does.<br />
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To make up for the missed snow days some districts have to build in a certain number of "snow day make-up days" through the year. In the LWSD they do not have this policy. They do have 10 school days off for winter break, 3 days off for "mid-winter break" (some call it "ski weekend", I call it Presidents Day Weekend), 5 days off for "spring break," and 3 other days spread throughout the year for "teacher training" (LEAP days). These days off are written into teacher contracts and "not negotiable". In other words, if there is a snow day they tack it onto the end of the year instead of cancelling mid-winter break, shortening Spring Break, or cancelling a LEAP day. Gotta love those teacher's unions.<br />
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So what do our students do during these make-up days? In LWSD final grades for the year are due on June 15. That was 5 school days ago. What have they been doing for the past 5 days? Let me put it this way...<br />
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The next time there's a day that is "almost" a snow day, I'm going to call the principle and ask him what movie my kids will be watching during their class party. ...because all they do on snow make-up days is have parties and watch @#$%! movies!!! No, I'm not kidding. I'll post an update later with the list of movies that my kids watched in their STATE MANDATED snow make-up days.<br />
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Here's an issue my wife brought up: "Last Monday (2 school days ago) our oldest son's class cleaned the classroom and stacked the desks. Um...They have two more days. Just what are they going to do? Oh right, copyrighted movies distributed for home use. See the mandatory warning at the beginning of the DVD you ...can't skip? Thank you LWSD for teaching my kids how to ignore the law. I asked one of the teachers and they brushed it off. Why can't they turn it into a learning experience? Yes they watched a few movies based on books they read during the year, how was it different from the book? Can they write about the locations seen in the movie? Would you like to lived there? etc. ARGGGGG."</div>
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OK, I'm done venting. It feels good to finally put this out in the public sphere. Maybe someday I'll tone down my remarks a bit and send them off to Randy Dorn, the <a href="http://www.k12.wa.us/">Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction</a>. If they are going to extend the school year, TEACH my children, don't entertain them. If I want them entertained I'll keep them home and give them my own supervised entertainment like I do every Family Night.</div>
Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-76473064231453590982011-06-22T16:17:00.000-07:002011-12-09T09:51:07.595-08:00Sony PSN and Data SecurityThis got lost in my "Drafts" folder...<br/><br/>I work at a large company doing data systems engineering and architecture. One of the major components of my job is data security so when I hear of a security breach at a major online service my ears perk up.<br/><br/>The <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/04/27/qa-1-for-playstation-network-and-qriocity-services/" target="_blank">news</a> <a href="http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/34332/Report_Sony_Providing_New_PlayStation_3_SDKs_Before_PSN_Comes_Online" target="_blank">doesn't</a> <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/27/sony-update-on-psn-qriocity-outage-some-services-up-and-runn/" target="_blank">look</a> <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/04/26/update-on-playstation-network-and-qriocity/" target="_blank">good</a>. What Sony initially acknowledged only as a service interruption has escalated into an "external intrusion." In other words, they were hacked. PWN3D. People are <a href="http://arst.ch/p6e" target="_blank">already complaining about fraud </a>and <a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/04/27/2122241/Sony-Sued-For-PlayStation-Network-Data-Breach" target="_blank">the lawsuits </a>are lining up even before the dust settles. What did the hackers get? The investigation is ongoing but this is the list so far-<br/><ul><br/> <li>Your personal profile information: Name, email, birthday</li><br/> <li>Your PSN login information (username/password and answers to security questions)</li><br/></ul><br/>What might have been taken-<br/><ul><br/> <li>Your purchase history on PSN</li><br/> <li>Your billing information: home address</li><br/></ul><br/>Was credit card data access? Yes, but it was encrypted. Were the hackers able to read the encrypted data? Sony is still investigating.<br/><br/>Even though Sony has a major black eye right now, here is where Sony is shining:<br/><ul><br/> <li>They are doing a complete service rebuild from the ground up. This is Security 101: when you are compromised in a major way instead of trying to ferret out every intrusion point, malware, and hacked admin account, just rebuild the entire thing. They are maintaining evidence where necessary to investigate and cooperate with law enforcement but they also have a service to run. The only way to know that your service is not compromised is to go back to a known good state. Which means re-imaging every server in your datacenter from a known-good copy and start fresh.</li><br/> <li><a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/04/26/update-on-playstation-network-and-qriocity/" target="_blank">They are being open and honest about what happened </a>and the possible consequences to the point of advising everyone to watch their credit reports and credit card accounts for unusual activity.</li><br/></ul><br/>It took weeks to recover and bring the site back up only to be taken town again... and again... and again.<br/><br/>What does this mean to the information security world?<br/><ol><br/> <li><em>Encrypt</em> or at least <em>hash</em> your passwords BEFORE you store them in the DB.</li><br/> <li>Teach your IT guys appropriate security practices</li><br/> <li>AUDIT, AUDIT, AUDIT. And when you are done, AUDIT SOME MORE.</li><br/> <li>Teach your users to TRUST NO ONE. When you receive an attachment from someone call them up and ask them: did you mean to send me this document (in Excel format with an embedded malicious flash component)? (<a href="http://www.itnews.com/security/30620/rsa-hackers-exploited-flash-zero-day-bug" target="_blank">that's how RSA was hacked</a>)</li><br/></ol><br/>Will the Sony debacle blow over? Of course. Will people every forgive them for screwing up and come back to the PSN? Of course they will. People want to play games and Sony has a popular (albeit #2) game console. The public forgets all the time. They will eventually forget with the next ultra-cool, can't-miss games comes out as a PS3 exclusive.<br/><br/>But will the industry ever be the same? People are already calling 2011 the "<a href="http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/368041/is-this-the-golden-age-of-hacking" target="_blank">Golden Age of Hacking</a>." Exploits are no longer being bragged about by hackers to show who is the best: they are hiding them close to the vest and selling them off to the highest bidder or embedding them in malware that is then sold on the web to spammers and would-be botnet controllers.<br/><br/>Wake up people, tighten your belts and gird your loins. The advanced persistent threat is here to stay. Only good development practices, sound security policies, and self-analysis will win the day.Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-52123356062093929322011-05-01T08:32:00.000-07:002011-12-09T09:51:07.556-08:00Pains of GeekdomSometimes being a geek has it's issues. Today's issue involves airline travel and smartphone apps and what happens when the two collide in an uncomfortable way. I am flying home tonight on an American Airlines flight. Out of curiosity I pulled out my smartphone to try out a new app called "Tail Tracker". It's quite simple: you enter the tail number of a plane (N566AA in this case) and it pulls up the owner information and airplane info as well as any pictures or history available in public databases.<br/><br/>This particular plane is a McDonnell-Douglas MD-83 manufactured 15.53 years ago with 172 seats and 2 Pratt & Whitney jet engines. The current owner is Wilmington Trust Company out of Delaware leased to American Airlines.<br/><br/>Why is this uncomfortable? I'm about to get on a plane for a 2.5 hour trip. Said plane is over 15 years old. Maybe I'm paranoid but that makes it older than my car, which I may replace in the next year or so. My car is pretty reliable but it hasn't logged hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of miles flying 170+ people for the last 15 years.<br/><br/>Am I paranoid? Would I have even thought about this had it not been for my geeky curiosity?<br/><br/>}B^)<br/><br/>Update #1 - It's never a good thing when an airport fire truck comes running up to your plane rolling code 3 (lights+sirens). They just sat behind the plane for a few minutes then drove off without getting out. I hope that's a good thing but I'm delayed an hour which means I miss my connecting flight to SeaTac. Ugg. This doesn't help my earlier issue with the plane information. Nervous factor: 5 out of 10.<br/><br/>Update #2 - Made my connecting flight because all flights in/out of DFW were delayed due to a huge thunderstorm. Made it home by 4 am which makes it a 25 hour day. No, I don't sleep in terminals or planes.Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-12321016373453963672011-04-29T15:00:00.000-07:002011-12-09T09:51:07.511-08:00(Old) Geek Links of the Week - 29APR2011News Roundup for January 2011, something I have also put off for too long. I found a bunch of bookmarks that I forgot about until recently...<br/><br/><a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2011/01/star_wars_coming_to_blu-ray_se.html" target="_blank">Star Wars is coming to Blu-Ray</a><a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2011/01/star_wars_coming_to_blu-ray_se.html"><img class="alignright" src="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/assets_c/2011/01/darth_vader_ces-thumb-200x150-32119.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="150" /></a><br/><br/>You would think that, as a self-respecting Star Wars fan, that I would be super excited to run out and buy the Blu-Ray edition of the best movie series ever (yes, that includes Eps. 1-3). My reaction? YAWN. During the HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray debate many people asked "what will be the next disc format?" The answer was clear: nothing. <a href="http://www.bnet.com/blog/gadget-guy/blu-ray-sales-drop-a-victim-of-being-both-too-early-and-too-late/355" target="_blank">Blu-ray sales have not been beaten DVD players</a>. Am I excited to see Star Wars in HD? Sure but I'll wait until I can download it rather than pay $140 for the set. The only reason I have a Blu-ray player (I have 2) is that it came with my computer.<br/><br/><a href="http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/11/01/06/2041207/New-Cars-Vulnerable-To-Wireless-Theft?from=rss" target="_blank">New Cars Vulnerable to Wireless Theft</a><a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/27037/?p1=A1&a=f&a=f"><img class="alignright" src="http://www.technologyreview.com/files/50490/keyless_x220.jpg" alt="" width="220" height="249" /></a><br/><br/>Now seriously, who didn't see this one coming? Keyless entry systems rely on rolling numeric keys to unlock your car, roll down the windows, open the sunroof, and even start the engine. GM first added keyless entry systems to their luxury car lines in 1989. Now, 22 years later, even new cars with the latest technology are being hacked in new and creative ways. Now someone can do things like lock/unlock doors, start the engine (i.e. drive off), or even kill the engine while you are driving. Fun stuff. They can even do it <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/27037/page1/" target="_blank">using your car's antenna</a>.<br/><br/><a href="http://skattertech.com/2011/02/how-my-smart-phone-got-me-out-of-a-speeding-ticket-in-traffic-court/"><img class="alignnone" src="http://static.skattertech.com/media/2011/02/police-car-droid-660x314.jpg" alt="" width="462" height="220" /></a><br/><br/><a href="http://skattertech.com/2011/02/how-my-smart-phone-got-me-out-of-a-speeding-ticket-in-traffic-court/" target="_blank">Android Phone Gets Driver Out of Ticket</a><br/><br/>This one caught my attention since it blends technology and the law, specifically that someone got out of a ticket using their smartphone's GPS (or any GPS for that matter). A guy supposedly used the GPS data from his smartphone to get a speeding ticket dismissed because his GPS said he wasn't doing 40 in a 25 zone but was actually doing no more than 26 MPH (highest speed recorded by the GPS software). And then I investigated further and actually went to <a href="http://skattertech.com/2011/02/how-my-smart-phone-got-me-out-of-a-speeding-ticket-in-traffic-court/" target="_blank">the source</a>...<br/><blockquote>The judge took a moment and declared that I was not guilty, but he had an unusual statement that followed. To avoid any misinterpretations about his ruling, he chose to clarify his decision by <strong>citing the lack of evidence on the officer’s part.</strong> He mentioned that he was not familiar enough with GPS technology to make a decision based on my evidence, but I can’t help but imagine that it was an important factor.</blockquote><br/>So the Droid didn’t clear his name: lack of appropriate evidence on the part of the officer was the reason the case was dismissed. The questions he asked are standard questions that should be asked by any ticket defendant if you go to court to contest a ticket. <strong>THIS IS A NON-STORY.</strong> The fact that he tried to use his GPS data to prove innocence is interesting but not relevant. GPS devices are not accurate enough to provide convincing data for contesting a traffic ticket in a court of law. A radar gun (properly used, calibrated, etc) provides an instantaneous data point that is very accurate. Unless you have a corresponding data point at or very near the same timestamp then you probably don’t have enough data to provide a defense. He would have had better luck with his car’s telemetry data, assuming it is equipped with this feature (lots of luxury and sports cars already have this feature although you need a mechanic who can download the data for you or hardware/knowledge to do it yourself). The jury is still out on this topic, so to speak. Someday there will be legal precedent but this isn't it.<br/><br/><a href="http://www.itnews.com.au/News/243260,microsoft-puts-data-centre-in-a-barn.aspx" target="_blank">Microsoft Puts a Datacenter in a Barn.</a><a href="http://www.itnews.com.au/News/243260,microsoft-puts-data-centre-in-a-barn.aspx"><img class="alignright" src="http://cdn.i.haymarket.net.au/Utils/ImageResizer.ashx?n=http%3a%2f%2fi.haymarket.net.au%2fNews%2f20110105051039_ms+tent.jpg&w=158" alt="" width="158" height="118" /></a><br/><br/>As an IT geek this immediately caught my eye. Most "modern" datacenters are engineering marvels with a lot of fixed costs: virtually sealed buildings with hardened walls, raised floors, and forced air cooling. <a href="shedding-light-on-our-new-cloud-farms" target="_blank">Microsoft designers </a>used a wholly different strategy to build the new DC that utilizes outside air (virtually unfiltered, at least at the micron level) and much less structural integrity. <a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/msdatacenters/archive/2011/04/19/the-disappearing-datacenter.aspx" target="_blank">The GM of DC R&D</a> at MSFT recently referred the "disappearing datacenter." I have to say I like it. The DCs of even 5 years ago were patterned after the old-school building methods that started with mainframe datacenters where you had to have constant temperatures, usually in the 62-65F range, with very low tolerances for dust and humidity. Not anymore. They even ran a test where the servers were literally in the parking lot of the datacenter <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/the_power_of_software/archive/2008/09/19/intense-computing-or-in-tents-computing.aspx" target="_blank">covered by only a tent for 8 months</a>. Seriously. It's a brave new world in the datacenters these days.<br/><br/>}B^)Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-67630437323218968682011-04-27T12:14:00.000-07:002011-12-09T09:51:07.565-08:002010 News RoundupOK, <span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:small;">so I'm a bit late (like 4 months late). These are articles I found near the end of 2010 or the beginning of 2011 on Wired.com. </span><br/><br/><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:small;"><a href="http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/01/vaporware-2010-the-great-white-duke/" target="_blank">Vaporware 2010: The Great White Duke</a></span><br/><br/><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:small;">Like a broken record, Duke Nukem once again makes the 2010 Vaporware awards. The big news? It's not #1. That spot is taken by the white iPhone.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:small;"><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/top-stories-gallery/" target="_blank">Wired's top 10 space/science stories of 2010</a></span><br/><br/><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:small;">Some very cool stories this year: water on Mars, giant iceburg collisions, Hubble is 20 years old, and giant spiders from the Middle East. Wow, what a year. The spiders can creep you out but they are totally cool.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:small;"><a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/worms-fractals-and-mars-top-science-image-galleries-of-2010/" target="_blank">Wired's top science images of 2010</a></span><br/><br/><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:small;">To go along with the top science images, here are the top science images. I'm a sucker for cool pics and this one doesn't dissapoint. From crazy fractal patterns and smoke to worms and cute ZooBorns.</span><br/><br/><a href="http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/01/in-memoriam-ten-cars-we-lost-in-2010/" target="_blank">Cars we lost in 2010</a><br/><br/>Will you miss these cars that were discontinued in 2010? Will you even notice? I have driven several of the models (PT Cruiser, Grand Marquis, and Kia Borego) and I actually owned a Volvo V70 a few years back.<br/><br/>}B^)Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-71123861903415167682011-03-17T14:49:00.000-07:002011-12-09T09:51:07.588-08:00St. Patrick's DayFirst off, my favorite version of Danny Boy...<br/><br/><object height="350" width="425"><br/> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OCbuRA_D3KU"><br/> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"><br/> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OCbuRA_D3KU;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"><br/> </object><br/><br/>I'm not sure I can say, "Happy St. Patrick's Day" because it is actually the commemoration of the death of St. Patrick. Around our house we sometimes just say, "Happy Patrick's Day!" for Patrick, my son, who is indeed named after the patron saint of Ireland. With a name like "Donnahoo" it seemed only fitting to name my first son with a traditional Irish name. Do we have any real Irish blood in our family? I'm not sure yet: the genealogical jury is still out on that one. My Dad and Aunt Penny are still working on it. One of these days we'll find out when the O'Donaghue family crossed over and became Donnahoo. We are back as far as the early 1800s in the southeast US but no hint of immigration in that family line.<br/><br/>I'm sure you have read a lot about Saint Patrick. Did he really run the snakes out of Ireland? Probably not. But he did help bring Christianity to Ireland in the 5th century. And he did it through faith and love, not by force, as many countries were converted around that time.<br/><br/>So I wore green to work but I raised a glass of sparkling water in his honor. What did you expect from a Mormon? }B^)Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1189582525030179349.post-39469987242738834592011-02-08T09:48:00.000-08:002012-01-12T21:27:38.150-08:00Donnahoo.com is transferred...After some quick economic calculations the decision was made to transfer the donnahoo.com website. I'll be posting family updates, links to new photo sets on flickr, posts on my companion blog <a href="http://www.normalguytri.com/" target="_blank" title="NormalGuyTri.com Website">Normalguytri.com</a>, and lots of other sundry thoughts and commentary.<br />
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Now, back to your regularly scheduled madness/neuroses.<br />
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A word on economics: the old price to host my website was $15/month for a service I haven't updated in years due to poor technology integration (i.e. it was hard to post updates). With Wordpress it's only $12/year. No, I didn't have to think about that decision for more than about 10 seconds, but it did take me almost a year to get off my duff and do something about it.Leedohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07861254781793205817noreply@blogger.com0