TECHNOLOGY: Should have used a disposable address

Sunday, April 4, 2010

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/03/plain_dealer_sparks_ethical_de.html

Plain Dealer sparks ethical debate by unmasking anonymous Cleveland.com poster
By Henry J. Gomez, The Plain Dealer
March 26, 2010, 7:00AM

*** begin quote ***

On one side are experts who believe the newspaper has violated a trust by exploring and revealing information about a critic. On the other are those, including Plain Dealer Editor Susan Goldberg, who believe that information is too important not to see the light of day.

Until this week, “lawmiss” was known only as one of thousands who, often known only by nicknames, share views on news blogs and stories reported at cleveland.com.

But after investigating a comment directed at the relative of a Plain Dealer reporter, editors learned that lawmiss had the same e-mail address as Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold. A closer look revealed that the user had offered opinions on three of Saffold’s cases, including the capital murder trial of accused serial killer Anthony Sowell.

When confronted with the newspaper’s findings Wednesday, the judge denied responsibility for the posts. Her daughter, Sydney Saffold, came forward later to accept responsibility for posting “quite a few, more than five” of more than 80 lawmiss comments.

*** end quote ***

Silly people.

With gmail, and other free providers, using a “real” email address is a bone-headed move.

About the only thing dumber is using an ISP’s address.

And, if you’re uncomfortable about using a free email service, you can buy an email account from any number of providers.

You can still be tracked by IP address and credit cards.

But it’s not as easy as, in the newspapers case, of peeking at the computer records.

Silly, to expect honesty from the media. Next, you’ll expect honest from the police. Or the government.

(Stop, stop, I’m laughing so hard, I’m going to wet myself.)

Fore warned is fore armed!

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TECHNOLOGY: JAVA is “closed”; that’s a killer

Saturday, April 3, 2010

http://developers.slashdot.org/story/10/04/03/0147255/The-Struggle-To-Keep-Java-Relevant

*** begin quote ***

snydeq writes “Fatal Exception’s Neil McAllister questions Oracle’s ability to revive interest in Java in the wake of Oracle VP Jeet Kaul’s announcement at EclipseCon that he would ‘like to see people with piercings doing Java programming.’ ‘If Kaul is hoping Java will once again attract youthful, cutting-edge developers, as it did when it debuted in 1995, [Kaul] may be in for a long wait,’ McAllister writes. ‘Java has evolved from a groundbreaking, revolutionary language platform to something closer to a modern-day version of Cobol.’ And, as McAllister sees it, ‘Nothing screams “get off my lawn” like a language controlled by Oracle, the world’s largest enterprise software vendor. The chances that Java can attract the mohawks-and-tattoos set today seem slimmer than ever.'”

*** end quote ***

When I’m doing my spiel as a consultant, I use the line: “Creating tomorrow’s legacy today!” a lot.

There’s nothing that people want less than a dead end. Maybe right next to that is an “island” controlled by a vandor. Microsoft comes to mind first. Oracle is next.

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SERVICE: Yahoo and Facebook are cooperating

Saturday, April 3, 2010

*** begin quote ***

facebook

Hi XXX-owner,

Use the automatic Friend Finder for XXX@YYY.COM. Now it will be easier than ever to share and connect with your friends.

Use our Friend Finder to find your email contacts on Facebook

Find Friends

Thanks,

The Facebook Team

*** end quote ***

Looks like Yahoo and Facebook are cooperating to accomplish something. What I have no idea?

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HARDWARE: SOlar powered trash can risks?

Saturday, April 3, 2010

http://www.impactlab.com/2010/03/26/move-over-trash-cans-introducing-the-solar-powered-trash-compactor/

*** begin quote ***

A growing number of cities and municipalities are testing solar-powered trash compactors as a way to go green and save some green. Communities in 46 states, as well as some state parks and colleges, are replacing regular trash cans, according to Richard Kennelly, vice president of BigBelly Solar marketing, which manufactures the devices.

*** end quote ***

Given how valuable solar panels are, how long until these are stolen? Then we begin the war of escalation. Bolt down; bolt cutters. Motion sensors (for when they are pulled up); Faraday cage over them. Should be amusing!

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TECHNOLOGY: Education is the key to getting benefits form technology

Sunday, March 28, 2010

http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/27/why-america-needs-to-start-investing-in-its-workforce-again-2

Why America Needs To Start Educating Its Workforce Again
by Vivek Wadhwa on Mar 27, 2010

*** begin quote ***

Ask any old-time IBMer, and you will hear stories of IBM’s legendary workforce-development practices. When a manager identified a manufacturing worker with promise, the company would teach him how to dress, how to speak to clients, and how to service products. These technicians would then be trained to be computer programmers, sales reps, or product managers.

*** and ***

If you do get hired, it’s up to you to stay current or get booted out with the first dip in sales. American corporations consider their workforce to be disposable — like ball-point pens and cigarette lighters. Gone are the days when a company would train a factory worker to become a computer programmer or offer lifelong employment. It’s all about quarterly revenue and profits now.

*** and ***

The Indian experience highlights what can be achieved by investing in upgrading the skills of the workforce. If workforce training can take the output of an education system as weak as India’s and turn its graduates into world-class engineers and scientists, imagine what could be done with a worker base that has received amongst the best education in the world, as is the case in the United States.

U.S. companies have long played the guru, developing and disseminating many widely adopted management and workforce practices. The time has come for the guru to learn from one of its disciples: India.

*** end quote ***

Once upon a time, AT&T was like IBM as well. One of my early achievements was proposing Computer Operators be trained as Programmers. I had “the Charter”. Took the project from: “We need programmers.” to graduating 21 of the initially 22. (Darn girl! Went and decided she’d rather have a baby. She shoulda waited; ruined my talking point. She came back from maternity leave and successfully tested. But, I didn’t get credit for her. Still don’t understand why?)

Vivek hits upon a key change needed in the American business meme. “Quarterly”! We, as a society, have to figure out how to change the meme of “company” from a short-term focused entity to a long-term focused one. A company is “eternal”; unlike human beings. And, it is a creation of the government, so it should be easy. It’s all rooted in the tax code. We see corporations as “paying taxes” when if fact they just pass them on to real people and hide the tax in the cost of the product. To change the company focus, several things have to happen: realign corporate management’s desire to the long term, change investor’s expectations to the long term, and — probably the hardest — change the government’s rules. Management annual salaries should be limited to less than POTUS (President Of The United States) makes; bonuses should be in the form of long term bonds. (That will cure that short term viewpoint in 30 minutes or less!) Investors, to encourage sticking for the long term, should get a real “capital gains” tax break — most of the time your “capital gain” is inflation; not a real gain — ZERO tax for investments held for say a decade. And, the government — well they are probably incurable — we need stable money, low taxes, and low spending. (Like that’s going to happen with out a revolution!)

We can start on “education” by ending “public education” as we know it. It took seven decades to get into this mess; probably take seven to get out of it. But parents should educate their children. They are the ones who had them, have their best interests at heart, and have the motivation from them to succeed. Education expense today has no ROI. It’s a mess.

We have a lot to do to recapture the American Dream!

[When I worked with Vivek, was he this smart? Didn’t seem so at the time. Maybe I’m the dummy.]

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: What does Apple need to do for Mac OS X

Saturday, March 27, 2010

http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/20/what-do-you-want-to-see-in-mac-os-x-10-7/

*** begin quote ***

It’s time again for another Dear, Apple letter from the readers of TUAW. In our first series (part one, part two, part three) you told us what you want to see in the next iPhone OS. Now we need your help again to tell Apple what you want to see in the next version of Mac OS X.

*** end quote ***

I’m a newbie MacBookAir who left windoze behind. I’m pleased but not ecstatic.

(1) MobileMe “backup” of contacts hasn’t worked in a year. A long series of Genius Bars and chat sessions (that mysteriously drop after we run through their script) hasn’t made it work.

(2) Mail sucks. It’s not as good as Outlook, or LookOut as I grumbled when it did something strange. It should handle private key encryption. And, better “smartboxes”.

(3) Time Machine backup is ALWAYS backing up and slowing the pig down.

(4) Airport is always scanning for a wap, even when it has MINE, and slows stuff down. And, for some reason, it ignores all of them, so I have to select MINE! Argh! Of course, while this is happening, performance goes to hell.

(5) iWeb is good for beginners who want to do a simple complete website. Publisher on Windoze is better. But no one does a great job.

(6) iWork reminds me of Window’s Word a while ago.

(7) iTunes is a performance and a functional disaster. Have nothing to compare it to, but it could be useful if it didn’t perform like a pig. A pig that needs a support staff to understand it’s uses.

(8) The helps on the Apple provided software are limited and lame. Like an intern threw up some initial stuff and that was good enough.

(9) Windoze is notorious for the way it “sludges” up over time. My macbookair is beginning to feel the same way. Could it be the same need to be “reborn” from scratch?

Needless to say, I’m not a fan of Apple. But then, I’m not a fan of Windoze either.

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Posted by reinkefj

HARDWARE: An SSD is quiet

Thursday, March 25, 2010

http://www.wxpnews.com/

Vol. 2, # 12 – Mar 25, 2010 – Issue # 28
Storage Technology: Past, Present and Future
Deb Shinder, Editor

*** begin quote ***

Most SSDs use flash memory and don’t need batteries. DRAM-based SSDs are faster, but need a battery or AC adapter and backup storage because their memory is volatile, so otherwise data will be lost if the electrical power is lost. Flash-based SSDs do use DRAM for a cache. Unlike traditional hard drives, SSDs have no moving parts. That makes them quieter and also more durable and less prone to failure. They are also less vulnerable to damage from vibration, shock or extreme temperatures, and they don’t have to be defragmented. They are fast for read operations, but SATA-based SSDs are slow on write operations. PCIe SSDs provide faster write speeds.

*** end quote ***

The MacBookAir is quiet. But the bottom does get hot. From time to time, the box does slow down.

I’m suspecting it gets “cruddy” like windoze. Maybe it too needs a bare metal restore to get it back to its original snappy performance.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: WIFI SSID should be something useful

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Mine is “3TYNE7328219525”.

My neighbors can get ahold of me if they need to.

What does MOAA1, UY2C2, 08FX10100287, and Startech tell you?

Argh!

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SOFTWARE: TextExpander problem

Sunday, March 21, 2010

TextExpander had a brain fart. Somehow all my snippets were wiped out.

Again!

Argh!

Don’t know why? Again!

I tried to find the correct file to restore. (Didn’t write it down last time.)

So, as usual, the fat old white guy injineer had his own recovery plan.

I built the import files so that I could recover it.

*** begin quote ***

I’m sorry to hear that. You’ll need to restore your snippets from your backup:
1. Visit the TextExpander system preferences
2. Click the Preferences tab
3. Hold the Option key and click “Enable TextExpander” (which will kill TextExpander’s background process)
4. Quit System Preferneces
5. Restore this file from your backup:
[Home]/Library/Application Support/TextExpander/Settings.textexpander
6. Visit the Preferences tab of the TextExpander system preferences
7. Click “Enable TextExpander”
Thanks for using TextExpander from SmileOnMyMac!
Regards,
TextExpander Support

*** end quote ***

My way is faster. I think.

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TECHNOLOGY: Technology malpractice; Abbott Diabetes Care dictates how you interact!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

EMAIL RECEIVED AS A RESULT OF TEDIOUSLY ASKING A QUESTION ON THEIR WEB SITE

*** begin quote ***

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Abbott Diabetes Care, maker of FreeStyle and Precision products. We are pleased to provide you with a team of dedicated Specialists to help you understand your options in obtaining the FreeStyle and Precision products. Our Specialists are available to assist you toll free at 1-866-246-2683, Monday through Friday from 7 AM to 9 PM (CST).

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,
Abbott Diabetes Care

Join the FreeStyle Promise® Program Today and BE Supported! (https://www.freestylepromise.com)

This communication may contain information that is proprietary, confidential, or exempt from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient, please note that any other dissemination, distribution, use or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. Anyone who receives this message in error should notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and delete it from his or her computer.

*** end quote ***

No, I don’t want to call and talk to one of your “dedicated Specialists” (In a third world country?)

I just want you to answer my damn question.

If I wanted to endure the “fingernails on the blackboard” physical pain of calling your call center, I would have called in the first place.

My last THREE phone calls with product problems were really great experiences. Why would I want to repeat that experience? That’s why I sent you an email.

Argh!

If “marketing is a conversation”, Abbott Diabetes Care sure isn’t listening.

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