TECHNOLOGY: The Philosophy of technology lock in

Friday, January 4, 2008

In considering moving to an ultra light, my current subscription to verizon wireless broad band rears it’s ugly head. (It’s already in my doghouse for its recent poor performance in AC.) New notebooks offer a Verizon wireless broadband, but you can NOT swap in your existing plan. And, the plan is tied to that specific platform. Argh! If I sign up for another two years (an eternity in the technology world), then they give me a “free” usb dongle. Hah! Like I can be fooled by “free”. No more than I am by “unlimited”. Argh! What to do, w2do, w2do, what do I do?

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: You Can’t Copy

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/RIAA-Says-You-Cant-Copy-Music-To-Your-Computer-90566

RIAA Says You Can’t Copy Music To Your Computer
Even when you’ve legally purchased the CD that it comes off of
02:04PM Saturday Dec 29 2007 by KathrynV

***Begin Quote***

They say that even a copy made on to your own computer is considered unauthorized. The Arizona man that they’ve accused of this crime has refused to pay the RIAA fines and the issue is heading to litigation.

***End Quote***

I think we have really now thrown down the red cape in front of the bull.

What kind of “barbara streisand” is this?

I have cassette tapes that I paid through the nose for and they say “tough”.

Well, I say we boycott them.

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Posted by reinkefj

LINKEDIN: Digital Nuisance

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

http://www.jibberjobber.com/blog/archives/1060

Resolve To Not Be A Digital Nuisance In 2008
January 1st, 2008

*** begin quote ***

Improving communication is key to our career success, right? Here are 08 things for ‘08 to help us communicate better on the digital playground.

*** end quote ***

One can only hope that one avoid annoying people. After all, we need them to do the “heavy lifting”.

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TECH SERVICE: SPOKEO is ghostly; it tracks you?

Sunday, December 30, 2007

http://blog.spokeo.com/?page_id=128

***Begin Quote***

1. Is Spokeo another social network?

No. Spokeo is a friend tracker (or a reader for the Open Social Graph) that automatically brings you friends’ updates across the Web. You cannot send messages, create profiles, or interact with others. Learn more about how to track friends.

***End Quote***

This looks like another JIGSAW or SPOCK type engine.

Hmm?

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LINKEDIN: More characters for our professional endorsements

Saturday, December 29, 2007

>PLEASE give us 500 characters for our professional endorsements!

May I suggest a tiny url as a continuation to what you really want to say?

*** begin quote ***
Joe Jones is a real gem. Blah blah blah
(continued at http://tinyurl.com/yo6d5y)
*** end quote ***

That uses up your last 31 characters, but you have an unlimited amount of space somewhere.

With Google pages, ISPs, WSPs, giving the stuff away it shouldn’t be a big deal?

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Posted by reinkefj

LINKEDIN: that circle-R next to the LinkedIn logo

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

http://www.trademork.com/in

12.27.07 | No Comments

On December 11, 2007, business networking company LinkedIn Corporation filed to protect the trademark in in relation to their popular business networking website.

*** begin quote ***

So, you thought that circle-R next to the LinkedIn logo was only for the whole name. Well, now it appears it applies to just the “in” part. The abbreviated LinkedIn logo (seen in the above link) is now showing up on sites across the web, including that of a prominent Presidential candidate (scroll down), and on LinkedIn’s own merchandise. Makes sense. With one little word and a cute Web 2.0 logo, everyone in the world can see that you’re “in” the club, “in” the know…and just plain “in”.

*** end quote ***

Argh!

LinkedIn groups are basically under the bulls eye.

Trust no one! Ever.

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TECH SERVICE: GReader sharing flap!

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

http://slashdot.org/~Felipe+Hoffa/journal/191246

http://groups.google.com/group/google-reader-howdoi/msg/876a2302bc71b433

GReader sharing flap!

***Begin Quote***

Message from discussion New Feature: Sharing with Friends
The group you are posting to is a Usenet group. Messages posted to this group will make your email address visible to anyone on the Internet.
Your reply message has not been sent.
Your post was successful

AnnaB
View profile
More options Dec 22, 8:03 pm
From: AnnaB
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 17:03:45 -0800 (PST)
Local: Sat, Dec 22 2007 8:03 pm
Subject: Re: New Feature: Sharing with Friends
Reply | Forward | Print | View thread | Report this message | Find messages by this author
This is going to sound like hyperbole, but this new feature has
actually RUINED CHRISTMAS for my family! I sent a share a few days ago
that I thought would only go to a few politically-like-minded friends.
I didn’t realize that because I had chatted with him in GChat, it
would also go to my brother, who is of a different political
persuasion. When he received it, he sent a snide, angry email about it
to a large group of our family members. I sent him an email (I’ll
admit, not the nicest one I’ve ever sent) asking him not to talk about
me behind my back and recommending that he stop reading my feed if the
posts were going to make him so angry. He called me a nasty name and
told me that if I can’t take a little ribbing, maybe we shouldn’t talk
anymore at all, including at Christmas Eve dinner. My whole family has
taken sides over this divisive political issue, and several of them
are not speaking. I kid you not, this is threatening to break up my
family at Christmas.

***End Quote***

In case you missed the latest GREADER “feature”, that’s what you get with web-based software — no change control; no feature control; AND it may happen without you even being aware of it.

Sigh!

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TECH HARDWARE: OLPC hardware on order

Sunday, December 23, 2007

In my spare time (ha!), I have decided to “learn” the OLPC. It just has some tremendous potential. Under the G1G1 program, I should have mine shortly. I figure I can be at least as good as the Thrid World child who gets one. Maybe not. The child has time, motivation, and focus. Maybe I can do almost as good? :-)

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: SPOCK presents some challenges

Thursday, December 20, 2007

*** begin quote ***

From: Nadine
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 5:31 PM
To: reinkefj
Subject: Fw: Ferdinand Reinke has requested your trust on Spock

Hi fjohn,

I received the following email regarding your Spock request. I’m not a user. If you are, do you recommend it and why?

*** end quote ***

OK, SPOCK is of interest (as I’ve blogged about) that is a “sponge”. It “sucks up” publicly available info, (somewhat like JIGSAW), and makes it available. Unlike JIGSAW, you can “claim” the account and make sure what it says is accurate. Leaving it alone, just leaves a collection point that is “untended”. In these days of digital dirt, I am a fan of taking any control I can of anything that will let me. I’m afraid this is just another something that you need to “tend”?

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Posted by reinkefj

TECH SERVICE: KODAKGALLERY recommended but one caveat!

Thursday, December 20, 2007

***Begin Quote***

From:
Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 10:08 PM
To: Reinke’s Catch All Email
Subject:

{Extraneous Deleted}

Are you happy with using the Kodak page as a way to send pics? I bought a new Kodak camera and the upload/set up a photo gallery the Kodak page looks pretty simple.

*** end quote ***

Kodak is a name brand. There is one hidden trap. It’s dead drop simple to put the pics in, print, and share. BUT to get hi rez out, you have to join their “premiere gallery” for 25$ year. (50$ if you want a discount on reprinting I don’t print that much.) Then, you can DOWNLOAD a high rez version of the pics you put in. Otherwise, you’re uploading say a 5meg version, but can only download a 5k version. And, they do promise to keep your pics archived for an annual purchase of some number of dollars (One print order of $10? I think)

So I think Kodak sums up: (1) cheap photo archive; (2) cheap prints (probably cheaper than doing it yourself); (3) a neat one button fix of pics; (4) a central place for all your pixing activities. On the theory that you should never depend upon any ONE point of failure. I suggest that one should upload photos, fix ’em, hirez download them, and then send them to a gmail account (i.e., one message per “album”) with the album name in the subject line.

Also, since scanners are so cheap, old pics should be “captured” in the same way.

I’m thinking of the NOLA flood and SanDigo fires. Bet those folks wish they had such.

Plus, Kodak handles ANY jpeg. So, any important docs can be put into a jpeg and put on the Kodak site. (Cute huh?)

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RECOMMENDED with that one caveat!

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