TECHNOLOGY: The “cloud” can disappear in a heartbeat

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Frugal aka frugal_squirrel to reinkefj

*** begin quote ***

The Fiction Forum has been closed and will not be reopening.

*** end quote ***

Argh!

This was my first real forum where I posted my original writings. Got good feedback and encouragement. Read interesting stuff.

Gone.

In a flash.

All the bits just vaporized. Lost connections. Lost ideas. Lost a collective “soul”.

CEOs, CIOs, CTO, and Users best take this to heart. When you cast your bits into the “cloud”, they may NOT be coming back. Better include that in your plans.

# # # # #


TECHNOLOGY: “Human Resouce” problems on both sides of the fence

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/071811-10-hard-truths-it-must.html?page=4

10 hard truths IT must learn to accept
Unsanctioned devices, compromised networks, downtime — today’s IT is all about embracing imperfections
By Dan Tynan, InfoWorld
July 18, 2011 06:08 AM ET

*** begin quote ***

IT concession No. 6: You will never have enough hands on deck. IT departments often want a fairer shake when it comes to outsourcing and head count reductions, but they’re not likely to get it, says Meikle.

Because the tech outsourcing industry is much more mature than, say, legal services or HR outsourcing, IT is often the first to suffer when corporate bloodletting occurs. That’s not likely to change.

The solution to IT manpower problems, says Meikle, is to take advantage of third-party outsourcers and integrate with them as much as possible. The bodies are still available; they’re just not under your own roof anymore.

Also, says Meikle, be sure look out for No. 1. Keep your tech chops current with an eye on the next job before the current one evaporates.

“IT pros need to understand they work for themselves first, the organization second,” he says. “They need to continue developing their network and contacts, marketing themselves, and developing a personal brand even when they are employed. Like it or not, IT pros may have to pony up some dough personally to pay for their education and marketability, but that will pay dividends when the chips are down.”

*** end quote ***

I see several facets in this item. None good for folks stuck in the old memes!

1. Corporations are going to need help. Regardless of their plans for HR.

2. Employees must recognize that they are “consultants”. Very expensive and very expendable.

3. Technology obsolescence will quickly and silently hit corporations and individuals.

Make plans accordingly.

# # # # #


TECHNOLOGY: “Cramming” on the phone bill

Monday, July 25, 2011

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2011/07/18/crammed-a-shocking-utility-tale/

Crammed! A Shocking Utility Tale
Monday, 18th July 2011 (by Donna Freedman)

*** begin quote ***

Sometimes we don’t pay attention. Sometimes we don’t do what we know we should do. Sometimes life happens. But life also goes on. So learn from my mistakes. Read your utility bills, whether you get them on paper or online. Dispute charges you don’t recognize. Don’t give a crammer a dime of your business.

*** end quote ***

Argh!

The politicians and bureaucrats setup this system for us to fail?

# # # # #


TECHNOLOGY: Big professional Irish dance shows today use a “click track”?

Sunday, July 24, 2011

http://www.irishcentral.com/story/irishdance/go-feis–the-irish-dance-blog/countdown-to-ireland-the-show-red-carpet-premiere-125699878.html

Posted on Saturday, July 16, 2011 at 09:51 PM
Countdown to Ireland-The Show Red Carpet Premiere!

*** begin quote ***

IRELAND-The Show premieres Sunday, July 17th at the Granada Theater in Santa Barbara, California and FEIS AMERICA on IRISH CENTRAL will have exclusive coverage of the Red Carpet and Show!

*** and ***

Owen Barrington: The thing that makes Ireland-The Show special from most other shows is that we perform 100% completely live. Most big professional Irish dance shows today use a “click track” in which the taps are pre-recorded and the dancers dance on top of that. Dancing every night, completely live, without the assistance of pre-recorded taps, raises the level of difficulty because you must be spot-on every single show, there’s no other way around it. The benefits of dancing live though are a more genuine show and it gives us the freedom to change steps around at a moment’s notice if we feel it’s necessary.

*** end quote ***

Irish dance shows are faked milley vanilley syle?

I am shocked. and not the Captain Renault style either.

I’ll never look at another performance the same way again.

Now I know how my Mom felt when she found out that pro-wrestling was fixed.

I feel dirty.

# – # – #

“I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” Captain Renault in Casablanca

# # # # #


SERVICE: Verizon Wireless’s America’s Choice II calling plan

Friday, July 22, 2011

If you subscribed to Verizon Wireless’s America’s Choice II calling plans, you could receive benefits from a class action settlement.

Para ver este aviso en español, visita http://www.cowitsettlement.com

A proposed settlement has been reached with Verizon Wireless (“Verizon Wireless”) in a class action, Cowit, et al., v. Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless, No. A0505869 (Ct. of Common Pleas,Hamilton County, Ohio), related to a lawsuit about whether Verizon Wireless failed to provide roaming service without any roaming charges under the America’s Choice II Calling Plan. Verizon Wirelessdenies all of the claims.

WHO IS INCLUDED? The Settlement Class includes all current and former customers of Verizon Wireless who, since February 21, 2005, subscribed to its America’s Choice II Calling Plan. If you are a member of the Settlement Class, you have certain rights and options, such as submitting a claim for benefits, requesting exclusion from the settlement, or objecting to the settlement.

SETTLEMENT BENEFITS. In summary, current Verizon Wireless customers whose calling plan provides for a specific allowance of minutes as part of their monthly access fee automatically will receive 25 additional wireless calling minutes, which they can use for a period of one year, or, in the alternative, if these class members submit a Claim Form they can receive a transferable PIN for 40 calling units, which will be valid for 24 months, that can be used to make domestic or international long distance calls. Current Verizon Wireless customers whose calling plan provides for an unlimited number of minutes as part of the monthly access fee will automatically, without filing a Claim Form, receive a transferable PIN for 40 calling units, which will be valid for 24 months, that can be used to make domestic or international calls. Former Verizon Wireless customers must submit a Claim Form to receive a transferable PIN for 40 calling units, which will be valid for 24 months, that can be used to make domestic or international calls. You can submit your claim online at http://www.cowitsettlement.com or by mail. The claim deadline is November 8, 2011.

As part of the settlement, Class Counsel will submit a request for attorneys’ fees, expenses, and incentive awards for the Class Representatives as more fully set forth in the Full Notice described below which will be paid by Verizon Wireless and will not affect the benefits to the class under the Settlement.

OTHER OPTIONS. If you do not want to be legally bound by the settlement, you must exclude yourself by September 27, 2011. If you stay in the Settlement Class, you may object to the settlement, the attorneys’ fees or the incentive payments by September 27, 2011. The Full Notice includes complete information on how to request exclusion or object to the settlement. The Court will hold a hearing on October 28, 2011, to consider whether to approve the settlement and the request by Class Counsel for attorneys’ fees and incentive payments.

THIS IS ONLY A SUMMARY NOTICE. A more complete description of this class action and proposed settlement, including how to exclude yourself from the class, claim benefits, or object to the settlement, is contained in the Full Notice. You may review the Full Notice at http://www.cowitsettlement.com, or send a written request for a copy to: Verizon Wireless America’s Choice II Litigation, c/o Epiq Systems, Claims Administrator, P.O. Box 3967, Portland, Oregon 97208-3967, or call 1-866-408-4551.

© 2011 Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless | One Verizon Way | Mail Code: 180WVB | Basking Ridge, NJ 07920

We respect your privacy. Please review our privacy policy for more information

If you are not the intended recipient and feel you have received this email in error; or if you

would like to update your customer notification preferences, please click here

# – # – # – # – # 2011-Jul-22 @ 22:45


TECHNOLOGY: Kick Google at your own risk

Friday, July 22, 2011

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/07/16/0028255/Belgian-Newspapers-Delisted-On-Google

*** begin quote ***

D H NG writes “After being ordered by the Belgian courts to ‘remove from its Google.be and Google.com sites, and in particular, cached links visible on Google Web and the Google News service, all articles, photographs and graphics of daily newspapers published in French and German by Belgian publishers,’ Google had removed all traces of the newspapers in question from all its search services. The newspapers, however, are crying foul, and alleged that it was done in retaliation for being sued for copyright violations.”

*** end quote ***

Doesn’t seem like you can have it both ways. Either you want Google or you don’t.

# – # – # – # – # 2011-Jul-16 @ 09:08


TECHNOLOGY: MAC OSX 10.7 LION

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Not for me. Apple has demonstrated that it’s not the “champion of the people”.

Don’t like the Evil Empire, Microsoft.

But Apple is no better.

Argh!

So I’m not upgrading or otherwise investing in their products.

# # # # #


TECHNOLOGY: Verizon pulls the rug on FTP webpage update

Thursday, July 21, 2011

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,26111924

Dear Verizon Internet User:

As part of our ongoing enhancements to the online customer experience, Verizon continues to ensure security for our Internet customers. As a result of this ongoing effort, Verizon Online is making modifications to the Internet access provided to you. These modifications will occur on August 21, 2011. For security reasons, Verizon will no longer allow users to FTP their HTML files to the personal web site Verizon offers.

Verizon recommends that current FTP users download their files prior to August 21, 2011 to prevent any data loss.

If you still wish to have a Verizon website, please go to our site builder tool available with Personal Webspace which can be found under My Services in My Verizon at:

»my.verizon.com/central/vzc.porta···WebSpace

Remember, after August 21, 2011, you will not be able to use FTP for uploading your files.

Thanks for being a valued Verizon Online customer. We encourage you to act now to protect your private information.

Sincerely,
Verizon Online

# # # # #

And, why would you allow an ISP to control you?

Don’t use their email address, their webspace, and certainly if you do, don’t use it for anything important.

Cloud? Use it on whose terms?

# # # # #


TECHNOLOGY: “because he looks like another driver”?

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/07/18/0335204/Facial-Recognition-Gone-Wrong?

“John H. Gass hadn’t had a traffic ticket in years, so the Natick resident was surprised this spring when he received a letter from the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles informing him to cease driving because his license had been revoked. It turned out Gass was flagged because he looks like another driver, not because his image was being used to create a fake identity. His driving privileges were returned but, he alleges in a lawsuit, only after 10 days of bureaucratic wrangling to prove he is who he says he is. And apparently, he has company. Last year, the facial recognition system picked out more than 1,000 cases that resulted in State Police investigations, officials say. And some of those people are guilty of nothing more than looking like someone else. Not all go through the long process that Gass says he endured, but each must visit the Registry with proof of their identity. Massachusetts began using the software after receiving a $1.5 million grant from the US Department of Homeland Security as part of an effort to prevent terrorism, reduce fraud, and improve the reliability and accuracy of personal identification documents that states issue.”

# – # – #

Gooferment’s overreaching and using technology wrong.

What happened to “innocent until proven guilty”?

# # # # #


TECHNOLOGY: The risks of relying upon the Cloud

Sunday, July 17, 2011

*** begin quote ***

Facebook Bans Google+ Ads by samzenpus

Barbara, not Barbie writes “Not content with making it hard for people to export their Facebook contacts to Google+, Facebook has now banned all ads from app developer Michael Lee Johnson, who ran an ad saying ‘Add Michael to Google+.’ Facebook sent him the following message: ‘Your account has been disabled. All of your adverts have been stopped and should not be run again on the site under any circumstances. Generally, we disable an account if too many of its adverts violate our Terms of Use or Advertising guidelines. Unfortunately we cannot provide you with the specific violations that have been deemed abusive. Please review our Terms of Use and Advertising guidelines if you have any further questions.'”

*** end quote ***

This is an example of why you can’t depend the Cloud for “production”. It can disappear on a whim. Taking all your data with it.

# # # # #


SERVICE: GOOGLE FREE APPS misfire

Saturday, July 16, 2011

201107151638.jpg

Argh, a network blip and now it’s screwed up.

My gripe is the message “contact support”.

Any idea how?

# # # # #


SERVICE: FACEBOOK goes tilt

Friday, July 15, 2011

201107150816.jpg

Wow, first time this has ever happened to me.

Anyone else want to bet their job on the availability of cloud applications?

# – # – # – # – # 2011-Jul-15 @ 08:18


TECHNOLOGY: Apple does evil?

Sunday, July 10, 2011

http://m.techeye.net/security/us-spooks-arrest-artist-for-tinkering-with-apple-macs

US spooks arrest artist for tinkering with Apple Macs
It’s terrorism
08 Jul 2011 09:41 | by Nick Farrell in Rome | posted in Security

*** begin quote ***

Tinkering with Apple computers in one of its cathedrals of shallowness is now a terrorist act.

According to AP, the fruity cargo cult called in the US Secret Service after it discovered that some of the Apple Macs in its New York Store had been profaned by unauthorised software which appeared to take pictures of customers.

*** end quote ***

Unfortunately!

  1. My little more than a year old MACBOOKAIR has as many problems as my old WINDOZE machine. And, it’s had two bare metal restores and three type 1 hardware problems.
      
  2. APPLE is arguably as bad as MICROSLOTH! … but with better support at the genius bar.
  3. Linux is the wild frontier. But maybe it’s better?
      
  4. Google’s CHROMEBOOK is an interesting take on Cloud Computing.
  5. Crony capitalism is one of the terrible feature of today’s Gooferment.

So what does one do?

Beats me.

# # # # #


TECHNOLOGY: Google’s GOOGLE+ might be a big winner

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Recently I scored an invite to GOOGLE+, Google’s competitor to FACEBOOK. While my initial experience with it has been rough, I can see that this could be a BIG winner for Google in the “enterprise space”. It may even compete with LinkedIn, the recruiter’s white pages. This is also a competitor for various products and services that do “management of enterprise identities” (e.g., SALESFORCE; sales funnel management tools, Customer Relationship Management products). That’s how big it could be.

In a nutshell, it’s like FACEBOOK for a User’s define communities.

I’d suggest that every IT person should be grabbing a GOOGLE+ invite and try it for themselves. It’s going to be in the enterprise and everyone should understand the raw power that it represents.

# # # # #


TECHNOLOGY: Free public access for a month to 6.5 Million eBooks

Saturday, July 9, 2011

http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/64627

Millions of eBooks Available at the World eBook Fair
July 6, 2011 20:31

*** begin quote ***

The World eBook Fair runs from July 4 through August 4, 2011. Their goal is to provide Free public access for a month to 6.5 Million eBooks. Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive are both contributing organizations and will be presenting a number of items in other media this year, including music, movies and artwork, even dance choreography. The collections include light and heavy reading materials, more reference books, scientific items, etc., and about 50,000 music entries in addition to the 12,000 that debuted last year.

*** end quote ***

Wow, can one OD on content?

# # # # #


SERVICE: GOOGLE+ slugish start

Friday, July 8, 2011

GOOGLE+, Google’s version of FACEBOOK, is off to a slow start.

Somehow, not really sure how, I scored an invite.

Initial setup was trivial.

Added about forty folks whom I thought could benefit and enjoy this new “facebook”.

The big attraction to me was the ability to update, like “tweet”, to a specific subset of identities. My highschool mates versus my favorite headhunters versus my relatives.

Rumor hath it that adding someone to a circle triggered an invite.

So I loaded a dummy email (i.e., one of the many I have for various purposes) and about 12 hours later, it received an email update but no invite. So much for that myth.

It’s not very useful without participation. I could effect the same result with a big CC list.

Also, it appears that I can’t control the display name of the identity in my circle.

Also, it appears that there is a weak linkage to GMAIL’s contacts. With no “update”. I went to GMAIL’s contacts and I can’t figure out where the “name” for an identity is coming from. I loaded an email into GOOGLE+ and put in the name in the format I like. Poof, it gave it a different name that is not related to anything I have for it. Weird? And, I can’t fix it.

Finally, putting a post in the Google group for support, generates an email summary of a hundred or so messages, at semi random intervals.

Interesting?

# – # – # – # – # 2011-Jul-08 @ 06:26


SOFTWARE: Cloud update breaks app; flaw with the logic of the Cloud

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

NYT Update Breaks iPad App, Annoys Subscribers

by timothy

jbrodkin writes “The New York Times, which recently started charging iPad readers $20 a month, has a lot of angry digital subscribers after an update broke the NYTimes for iPad application. The update was designed to make it easier for readers to subscribe to the Times through iTunes (irony!) but instead left readers unable to access any articles. Worse, the Times didn’t bother to fix the app over the long weekend or reply to users who complained on Twitter. It’s not the first time developers have broken an iPad application with a poorly constructed update, but reader complaints noted that the size of the New York Times and the high price it charges make this gaffe particularly galling. Angry users have driven the app’s rating down to less than two out of five stars.”

# – # – #

IT Pros know the problem. How do you run “production” when you have no change control process?

Answer: You don’t.

# # # # #


HARDWARE: Free up tour guides to do other wealth building activities?

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/vatican-hopes-ipod-can-bring-silence-to-romes-churches

Vatican hopes iPod can bring silence to Rome’s churches

By David Kerr

*** begin quote ***

Rome, Italy, Jun 24, 2011 / 06:10 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican has introduced a new way of keeping silence in their churches while also informing tourists – the iPod.

Today is the first full day of a trial which sees pilgrims to the basilica of St. John Lateran given the audio-guide with a special app explaining the 1,700-year history of the church, which serves as the Pope’s cathedral.

“I can easily say that in Italy there are no examples of experiences like this in religious contexts, probably not even those in museums,” Jelena Jovanovic said to CNA. Her company, Antenna International, created the handheld device.

*** end quote ***

Think about the poor guides out of work.

Technology marches on.

# # # # #


SERVICE: Text message delayed as needed

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

http://ohdontforget.com

schedule text messages

Text messages queued up with Ohdontforget.com will be delivered at the date & time specified, unless you specify “now”, which will send the message instantly.

creative uses

Remind anyone about an event at a specific day & time queue up birthday reminders for the next several months have your to–do items sent to you throughout the day.

# # # # #


TECHNOLOGY: “Driverless” in compared to the Gooferment’s “High Speed Rail”

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/driverless-nevada

Driverless Nevada
Posted by Randal O’Toole

*** begin quote ***

The introduction of true driverless cars will significantly expand personal mobility because anyone—not just people over 16 who can pass a driver’s test—will be able to use them. Driverless cars will reduce congestion and improve safety. The new mobility will significantly change the way we live. And the cars will render obsolete any and all rail transit and moderate-speed rail lines now being planned or under construction long before taxpayers finish paying the heavy debts incurred to build such lines.

*** end quote ***

Having just driven recently for 8 hours from NJ to NH and a week later the reverse, I’d love to have had one!

Perhaps, if the car execs didn’t have their heads so far up the Gooferment’s <synonym for donkey>, then yhey could see that they are not in the “car biz”. They are in “satisfying people’s need to move” biz!

Argh!

I haven’t gotten around to a Segway yet. Looked on the website and you can’t even tell how much they cost.

Do people really try and do anything to make stuff easy for commerce?

Argh!

You’d think these people would be falling over people to sell ANYTHING that a buyer wants.

Sigh! If marketing is a conversation, then these folk have their listening ears closed.

# # # # #


HARDWARE: Apple’s perfidy continues

Monday, June 27, 2011

http://www.tuaw.com/2011/06/25/time-capsule-torn-asunder-no-server-grade-hard-drive-inside/

Time Capsule torn asunder, no “server grade” hard drive inside
by Victor Agreda, Jr.Jun 25th 2011 at 4:00PM

# – # – #

Headline says it all. Caveat emptor.

Must be time to move to Linux.

# # # # #


TECHNOLOGY: Diwheel – gravity-defying?

Monday, June 27, 2011

http://www.impactlab.net/2011/06/14/the-diwheel-gravity-defying-electric-vehicle/

June 14th, 2011 at 11:30 am

The Diwheel – gravity-defying electric vehicle

in: Alternative Transportation, Crazy Stuff, New Inventions, Science & Technology News

*** begin quote ***

The gravity-defying vehicle has two large wheels that are axially aligned with an inner frame. This holds the driver who is strapped in with a racing harness. A joystick is used to turn it on the spot and drive it forwards at up to 25mph. The bright yellow electric motor is affectionately known as Edward, which is short for Electric Diwheel With Active Rotation Damping.

*** end quote ***

I don’t understand “gravity-defying”.

If you do, can you explain it to me?

# # # # #


TECHNOLOGY: New top level domains?

Friday, June 24, 2011

http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/index.php/site/icann_new_open_domain_policy/#When:11:42:00Z

ICANN New Open Domain Policy

Posted by: Michael on Mon, Jun 20th, 2011

*** begin quote ***

Today ICANN voted to change the way we visit websites, they have pretty much allowed for any word to be a generic top-level domain (gTLD) starting in 2012. What is a g? You may know them as .com, .net, .org and .edu. There are currently 22 top level g’s.

*** end quote ***

I don’t see a lot of value. Other than TLD<xxx> for porn.

I’m not sure that DNS provides a lot of value for the problems it has and point of failure it introduces.

And, it keeps us from “solving” the identity crisis. How do I find folks on the net and how do I know it the right one? Think Lilly Tomlin as the Telephone Lady: “Is this the party to whom I am speaking?”. Makes as much sense. It’s much worse on Twitter and little better on Facebook.

Argh!

Why can’t we have phone numbers as a TLD. AAA-BBB-CCCC.tel. I thought that was proposed a while ago. Require Google validation of the identity and then you have “identity” solved.

# # # # #


TECHNOLOGY: Roadblock to the maturation of the information economy; it’s Gooferment

Thursday, June 23, 2011

http://www.salon.com/books/history/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/06/14/lind_information_technology

TOPIC: History
TUESDAY, JUN 14, 2011 07:01 ET
WAR ROOM
We need a New Deal for information technology
BY MICHAEL LIND

*** begin quote ***

America’s attention is focused on the faltering recovery from the Great Recession. But we cannot neglect another question: Where are we in the long-term technology cycle?

In the mid-20th cenIn the mid-20th century, the economist Joseph Schumpeter observed that technological innovation is not a continuous process, but tends to be concentrated in bursts of economy-transforming change. Within the industrial epoch that began in Britain in the 18th century and continues today, historians have discerned three or four or five successive industrial revolutions, driven by “general purpose technologies” like the steam engine, electricity, automobiles and airplanes, and information technology.

*** and ***

The evolution of a transformative technology can be retarded or accelerated by public policy. In particular, government policy can remove roadblocks on the path to the new technology’s implementation. These can take two forms: infrastructural roadblocks and social roadblocks.

*** and ***

Today’s universities and hospitals are the equivalents of neighborhoods hosting numerous individual blacksmiths working independently. They need to be replaced by higher education factories and health (not sickness) factories. Tasks done today by a few highly paid, credentialed elite professionals and an army of low-paid lecturers and health aides should be broken down, analyzed and reassigned to the moderately paid, middle-class Ed workers and Med workers of tomorrow. This may require a combination of capital deepening (the use of new technology) and deskilling (a moderately educated, moderately paid nurse with high-tech equipment may be a better diagnostician than today’s highly educated, richly remunerated M.D.)

*** and ***

Finally, we can promote “universal capitalism” by increasing ownership of income-generating assets, like shares in growing corporations, although the disastrous experience with 401K’s shows that any such programs must limit risk. Some combination of these reforms will probably be necessary to remove low wages as a social roadblock to the maturation of the information economy.

*** end quote ***

Michael Lind is Policy Director of the Economic Growth Program at the New America Foundation and is the author of “The Next American Nation: The New Nationalism and the Fourth American Revolution.” More: Michael Lind

# – # – #

imho

The last thing we need is more Gooferment.

Part of the reason for the mess that “we” are in is the continued interference by Gooferment into the “free market”.

And, he wants the Gooferment to lead us into the “Promised Land”.

My personal connection with the Gooferment and “technology” is my cousin, who was a happy elevator operator, and me at AT&T. The elevator operator was thrown out of work by the minimum wage law. I was a casualty, along with Bell Labs and a lot of good folks, by Judge Green and divestiture.

Without Gooferment, people would just lead their lives. Instead, the “plantation masters” use Gooferment force to channel us like the cows in the stockyards.

Argh!

No thanks.

# # # # #


TECHNOLOGY: iCloud; no silver lining?

Saturday, June 18, 2011

http://technorati.com/technology/article/why-the-icloud-wont-be-my  

Why the iCloud Won’t be My Cloud
Author: Stephen Lee
Published: June 16, 2011 at 5:29 pm

*** begin quote ***

Talk of “cloud computing” and “cloud services” has been in the air for years, but (despite the remaining ambiguity in the minds of consumers) recent developments have garnered a little more of the consumer electronics limelight for this burgeoning technology.

*** end quote ***

While the jury is still out, I’m beginning to have a lot of concerns:

(1) Control

Apple’s stuff is aligned with Apple’s interest not just mine. Look at how it can dump stuff and change stuff willy nilly. The big argument against ANY “cloud service” is that you, the end User and PAYING Customer, can’t depend upon it staying the same.

(2) Music

Apple is at peace with the RIAA. That’s a concern! All this “service” on any music you have? And, of course, it would never report pirates to the Empire. Can’t you see the “possibilities”? (I envision subpoenas to ISPs coordinated by “iSnoop” to prove that someone bit torrent in a particular music file followed by “service” of lawsuits.)

<<to be continued>>

# # # # #

http://apple.slashdot.org/story/11/06/19/1434211/Will-Capped-Data-Plans-Kill-the-Cloud

*** begin quote ***

With the introduction of its Chromebook, Google is betting big on the Cloud. As is Apple, with its iCloud initiative. So too are Netflix and Skype. Unfortunately, their very existence is threatened by data-capping carriers, who have set a course to make sure that the network is NOT the computer.

*** end quote ***

(3) Unlimited / Ubiquitous Connectivity

Clearly the assumption is as much as you want from where ever you are. Not necessarily a good assumption. Or an inexpensive one.

# – # – # – # – # 2011-Jun-19 @ 14:26


SOFTWARE: LibreOffice 3.3.3 is ready for download

Thursday, June 16, 2011

LibreOffice 3.3.3 is ready for download

The Document Foundation announces the availability of LibreOffice 3.3.3, a new release of the most stable version of the free office suite for personal productivity, targetingcorporate users. LibreOffice 3.3.3 is already available for download at the following address: http://www.libreoffice.org/download.

According to Thorsten Behrens, a developer and member of the TDF Steering Committee, “LibreOffice 3.3.3 fixes several bugs and improves the security of the suite, to specifically address the needs of corporate deployments, where stability is more important than new features. This branch will be maintained until the end of the year, to allow a smooth and safe transition to LibreOffice 3.4.x.”

LibreOffice 3.3.3 is available for Windows, MacOS X and Linux (DEB and RPM), in over 100 different languages (more than twice the language coverage of comparable proprietary products). Users of LibreOffice 3.3.2 are invited to update their software.

Short link to blog post: http://wp.me/p1byPE-8E

# – # – #

I use it. It’s “good enough”. And, the price is right.

# # # # #