I had a pretty nifty word spin last night but it seems that the post got lost somewhere between the iPhone wordpress 2.2 app and the blog. A casual search shows a possible bug. Any more comment on this?
Anyway. Achtung, baby.
Archive for the ‘technoscene’ Category
Caveat Emptor Empty Post
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010You don’t have to go home…
Friday, June 26th, 2009Bob Evans is leading the charge to bring the geriatric generation (oh those silver foxes!) access to the Internet where they want it, when they want it.
No longer confined to the bingo parlor or shuffle board range, the silver foxes can enjoy their favorite streamed Jake and the Fatman episode while they sip on coffee and munch on pie.
If you haven’t been there in a while (or ever) Bob Evans has free wireless Internet access points available at select locations.
Who says you need to be young and hip, and hang at Starbucks for a net fix?
So feel free to play that online bingo or grab a torent of the Lawrence Welk Show while your turkey and gravey is cooked up. Wunnerful! Wunnerful!
The one particularly fasinating element of this service, however, is that AT the MINUTE of restaurant closeing hour, much like the oven cooking those rolls, it gets shut down.
That’s right folks: you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.
Usability at 30,000 Feet: Seat Review on B757-200
Saturday, June 13th, 2009Flew a Delta Boeing 757-200, SFO to SLA. My seat is in an exit row, 19b. This is quite nice, as I’ve got nothing in front of me, and the door to deplane is right in front. My row-mate, however, in 19a I’d say got the short straw. As seen in the photograph below, the emergency raft gear system sticks out into their crotch, basically negating about 75% of what would be yards of leg room (or a leg and a half). The other drawback I’m getting from this row is that there is no designated or easily accessable reading light, air jet, nor call bell. Oh, and no window peaking view for middle me, as the window seat has a pretty exclusive command over this because of positioning, and there’s nothing ahead of us, save for the 3 inch round of the exit door.
On the flip side, as the seating config on the plane is 3/2, our colleagues in exit row 18e an 18d have it nice. They still have the similar door, however, this bump isn’t doubleing as their tray table. Those would be fairly cherry seats.
Note to self: great for leg room, not so good for ammenaties, usability, and those with a sence of claustrophobia (as you stair into the bulkhead). Also, no underseat storage, of course. If given the choice, 18d would be the ticket, although I’m by no means complaining about 19b and 19c. Bonus though if you like to play footsie with the crew, with the jump seat facing my seat. Good view of first class, though, for wishful thinking.
WWDC heart’s iPorn
Friday, June 12th, 2009Here in San Francisco, the Apple World Wide Developer Conferece is wrapping up. Many new and upcoming products and enhancments were anounced and discussed. Usually the CEO, Steve Jobs makes the opening keynote, but he’s on medical leave.
But no fear, nerdy colleagues: there may be no Steve, but we’ve got iporn!
OS X Server Mobile Account @#$%! Synch
Friday, March 20th, 2009
This entry is to save others (as well as myself, once I forget how I did this) hours of frustration and money in the curse-jar. For brevity on those that don’t care on the tech issue, I’m not going to fully explain, but will have enough for entertainment purposes, as well as to remember and explain my problem in the future.
Note To Self
Regarding: OS X 10.5.x Server Workgroup Manager
Regarding: Mobile Account Preferences. Successful configuration settings for Synching at Login and Logout, while controlling what is ignored and not ignored; apparent solution for lab configuration.
iPhone Push Notification Service Say What‽
Tuesday, March 17th, 2009
Today, Apple announced their upcoming iPhone 3.0 software update and associated software developer kit (sdk), available in beta. (aside: Apple did announce the Push Notification capability in a previous announcement, nearly a year ago.) There are several enhancements coming, many I am very excited about utilizing and the potential these new features will lend themselves to, there is one particular enhancement that caused me to raise an eyebrow.
To quote Apple’s website, “The Apple Push Notification service provides a way to alert your users of new information, even when your application isn’t running. Send text notifications, trigger audible alerts, or add a numbered badge to your application icon.”
Why is this needed?
This Push capability is Apple’s answer to iPhone application background process functionality on the iPhone. Broadly speaking, as it is designed, the iPhone utilizes only the foremost application. No app can be running in the background. When you exit an app, it stops running. This is being done for a few reasons, particularly as Apple claims, for performance and battery life. This push service allows a sound, a text alert, or other action to occur in conjunction with an associated 3rd party application that is loaded on the iPhone.
Better Living Through Circuitry.
Thursday, March 12th, 2009
Reportedly, Google has recently announced further tweaking and customization of your digital-likeness rendering. Now, instead of advertisement content being displayed based on the topic of your search, it will now look at your broader trail of droppings, taking into account your search history, youtubing, and other web habits.
To some chagrin, my stance on unique delivered content (push-marketing) based on my personal profile has mellowed over the years. The cabin-in the woods Kaczynski in me has been walking to the woods edge to embrace the easy-life of Jetson-tech living, enjoying some of the “suggested gems” such companies as Amazon, Pandora, and Apple through iTunes provide to me. With so much crap out there, it can be useful to have a bit of intelligent “pre-sort” through some of the noise. I would bet most users have had some nice surprises using these services.
Review and Analysis on FCC Order 08 183
Saturday, February 21st, 2009
Formal Complaint of Free Press and Public Knowledge Against Comcast Corporation for Secretly Degrading Peer-Peer Applications.
Adopted August 1 2008
Released August 20 2008
Background
The Federal Communications Commission reviewed Comcast’s network management system, after complaints were presented that Comcast had been arbitrarily managing customers’ Internet activity, thereby violating the FCC’s Internet Policy Statement (FCC 05-151), which broadly describes network neutrality concepts, particularly whereby Comcast was allegedly intentionally degrading a targeted internet application. Comcast customers had complained that performance of their network activity was being degraded, but Comcast denied any interference by the company. Specifically, customers utilizing peer-to-peer network file sharing technology, (eg, Bit-Torrent) would experience slowdowns when using this kind of technology to share and download files. Comcast’s policy was to “pro-actively contact” users that were utilizing large amounts of bandwidth, but not to throttle traffic; however, according to consumers advocates, as well as independent AP news research, there was conclusive evidence that Comcast was indeed interfering with content distribution.
Comcast later retracted, and stated it does indeed target peer-to-peer technology users that reach a certain threshold of bandwidth, but only during peek usage times. Again, however, according to the FCC report, the independent study demonstrated that this was not the case, and Comcast was specifically targeting users of Bit-Torrent style applications, regardless of total network traffic. Once again, Comcast changed their claims on their network management practices.
Along a similar timeline with the reports of network management oddities, Comcast had also recently rolled out its video content on-demand service. This service allows subscribers to access and view movies and TV programming at the users choosing. Interestingly, Bit-Torrent and the peer-to-peer services that Comcast’s customers were utilizing mimic this style of content acquisition and delivery. Effectively, users can download content of their choosing “on-demand.” There was debate, however, on the legality of the content acquired through Bit-Torrent style services, as much of it is copyright protected.
It was beauty killed the beast.
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007
We’ll give him more than chains. He’s always been king of his world, but we’ll teach him fear. We’re millionaires, boys! I’ll share it with all of you! Why, in a few months, it’ll be up in lights on Broadway: Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World!
–Carl Dehnam
In performing broad company research for the past 10 weeks of classes, I’ve found that Google, as a company, continues to intrigue me. Its broader philosophy (do no evil). Dot-com era dejavu employe benefits (ridiculously varied, free, gourmet open buffets). Radical corporate underpinnings (IPO letter declaring that investors probably will disagree strongly with some of Google’s decisions, including the co-founders maintaining high-executive positions and voting control….).
All seemingly industry abnormality.
One At A Time
Tuesday, June 12th, 2007I read this today, and it made me very happy. Apparently the vaccum of good game titles available for OSX is now growing. For years, it seems the Mac community has been ignored for the Wal-Mart-esque mass delivery, mass consumption model of PC life. I was also encouraged to see a few weeks ago in the Indianapolis Mac Store, that there were many young people lined up to purchase new machines. Maybe there is hope. I gotta get my Tiger Woods fix… it’s highly addictive, and probably moreso on my G5.