Lego's big gamble

Like many little boys, I grew up playing with Lego.  I remained a big fan and currently have a Lego robot that I enjoy programming.  Lego's next step is apparently expanding into the video game arena.  Lego has developed a massively multiplayer game called Lego Universe.  Lego wants a piece of the $20 billion children's game market and has made an estimate $20 million investment in Lego Universe.  Whether Lego can convert the popularity of their building block and robotics toys into a computer game remains to be seen.   To learn more: http://spectrum.ieee.org/consumer-electronics/gaming/building-the-lego-universe-online

The cost of bad publicity

The sales of the iPad have been phenomenal.  I wonder if publicity from the recent lawsuit will dent those sales.  The plaintiffs are claiming that the iPad overheats so quickly that it cannot be used in warm weather or direct sunlight.  One of my colleagues has a iPad and only has good things to say about it.  I am skeptical about the claims and worry that the publicity hype may exceed the reality.  Technology sales are so dependent on the hype these days that reality gets left behind

Commercials on YouTube

I just bought a new hardened flash drive.  The manufacturer's Website pointed me to YouTube to watch their commercial for the product.  While I was watching the drive being driven over by a truck and beaten with a hammer I realized what a stroke of genius this was.  The company completely transferred the overhead of serving their video to YouTube.  Instead of paying the bandwidth overhead, they let someone else do it.  I wonder what percentage of YouTube content is commercial advertising?

This is a vacation?

The Washington Post (July 4, 2010) recently ran an article on how we take our technology on vacation with us.  Many hotels and resorts provide video game consoles along with television and Internet connections in every room.  Some hotels have switched to wireless connections because so many guests needed more than one connection per room.  Americans are now posting their vacation activities on social networking sites and cannot conceive of not constantly using their phones.  My memories of going to the cottage with the family are as outdated as my old Commodore 64 computer.

Legal Settlements

dell just paid an enormous settlement to end a legal situation about their chip selection several years ago.  http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/22/technology/dell_sec/?iref=NS1

Clean out your car

Many people who sell their cars are unknowingly leaving behind their personal data.  Cars with Bluetooth synchronization or GPS computers need to have their memory purged or the new owner can glean a great deal of information about the previous owner.

Contrasting Lifestyles

I just spent a couple of days at Shippensburg State University.  The school is located near a Mennonite community.  It was quite a contrast to drive past a community on horseback and in horse-drawn buggies to get my diet soda to drink while working on my laptop.  It is possible to live without laptops and the Internet but I am not certain that I want to :)

The cost of storage

I just got an e-mail advertisement for a 2 TB name-brand hard drive for $109.  I can remember when a 2 TB hard drive was  just a dream.

Verizon's big announcement

According to USA Today (June 30, 2010), Verizon is going to begin selling Apple iPhones in January.  This will end the AT&T monopoly on iPhone service and alleviate some of the network congestion that AT&T has encountered.

Good news for Farmville players

There truly is an iPhone app for everything.  Zynga is releasing an iPhone app for Farmville.

iPhone keyboard support

The latest and greatest version of the iPhone operating system supports using an external keyboard.  This feature will be greatly appreciated by many of the iPhone users who have struggled with the on-screen keyboard. to learn more: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/mobile/06/29/iphone.keyboard/index.html?hpt=C2

Hilarious Commercial Parodies

If you are a developer you might enjoy the Java parody commercials on YouTube.  This one is hilarious
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQbuyKUaKFo

What a contrast!

Verizon released the new version of the Droid phone.  The difference between this announcement and the latest version of the iPhone is staggering.  marketing and Hype play a large role in the success of any new technology product.

I coulda been a contender

CNN has a fascinating story about the third cofounder of Apple who sound his ten percent of the company for $800.  Not everyone is cut out to be part of a tech startup.  This video is well worth watching.
 http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/06/24/apple.forgotten.founder/index.html?hpt=C1

Is this really a problem?

I have enjoyed reading several articles on how Apple cannot meet the demand for the new iPhone 4.  All businesses should have the problem of not being able to sell enough of the product quickly enough.  Apple has come out with some of the most in-demand products in the technology marketplace and production cannot keep up.  If only more companies had this problem we would not be having any economic difficulties.

Do you use Hotmail?

According to the Wall Street Journal (June 5), Microsoft is going to release a new version of hotmail that they hope will become more popular than the old version.  Microsoft wants to compete with gmail and Mac mail addresses.  Getting people to change their primary e-mail account may be more difficult than the marketers think.

It was only a matter of time

It was only a matter of time before a Linux-based tablet computer was announced. InfoWorld reports that Canonical is developing a tablet based on the popular Ubuntu distribution of Linux. To learn more, go to: http://infoworld.com/d/mobilize/canonical-developing-ubuntu-os-tablets-778

It was also only a matter of time before iPad owners were targeted by cyber-criminals. ComputerWorld reported that a brute force attack targeting iPad owners successfully collected the e-mail addresses of more than 100,000 iPad owners. It is amazing how fast criminals target new technology. To learn more: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9177921/_Brute_force_script_snatched_iPad_e_mail_addresses

How much do you rely on Internet information?

According to the Washington Post (June 6, 2010, B3)), a woman is suing Google because she felt that the directions she received from Google Maps led her on a dangerous path. The route Google proposed was along a busy street without sidewalks. The woman was struck by a car and she wants Google to compensate her for this accident. This is a lawsuit that I will bring up in my classes to illustrate liability and torts. Maybe I’m old fashioned but I would have switched to “Plan B” if I felt the Google-proposed route was unsafe.

Scareware

USA Today has recently published a warning about the increasing amount of “Scareware” ads. Scareware ads typically state that your computer has become infested by a virus and for a reasonable fee the company that detected the virus will remove it from your system. These ads have increased en fold since 2008 and are becoming big business. These ads are simply scams that prey on people who are afraid of the Internet and will pay whatever it takes to have a “safe” computer. Like most online purchases, a little research before payment will reveal which vendors are legitimate and which are scammers.

Knockoff iPads

The first iPad knockoffs are coming out overseas.  This illustrates the need to have consistent protection for intellectual property around the globe.

http://kotaku.com/5549865/china-rips-off-the-ipad-with-the-iped

Change at Google

Many of us have become accustomed to Google's search page and made it our home pages.  Google recently announced that they are going to allow users to upload photos that can be used to customize the background of the Google search page.  I wonder what percentage of frequent Google users will take advantage of this?

Show me the money

There is a very interesting article on AOL.com today about the number of young billionaires making their mark on the economy. What I found most interesting was that all but two of these entrepreneurs made their money in an Internet-based business. Most of them have come up social-networking based Websites. The amount of money to be made in this market is mind numbing. I may need to brush up on my HTML coding skills :)


http://smallbusiness.aol.com/2010/05/27/meet-the-new-young-millionaires/

Hackintosh

I listened to a story on national public radio about how hackers use a new term of Hackintosh to describe putting the Apple operating system on standard PC hardware. This violates Apple's licensing terms but is the only way for people to get the benefits of a Netbook style of computer and Apple's operating system. It will be interesting to see if Apple fights the trend or comes out with an inexpensive Netbook of their own.

"Einstein" Monitoring

There was an interesting development this week in network security. The feds have asked businesses that operate the nation's infrastructure to install monitoring equipment on their network. This would enable the NSA to monitor critical networks for intrusions and attacks. To learn more, go to www.techdirt.com/articles/20100527/1304179605.shtml

Apple and antitrust laws

ComputerWorld recently reported that the Department of Justice is beginning to investigate Apple's business practice. One lawyer stated that it appears that iTunes may be vulnerable to antitrust attacks. iTunes has 70% of the music download market and has allegedly pressured music labels to give iTunes exclusive access to some music.

Market Capitaliztion

I read an article in yesterday's USA Today that Apple passed Microsoft in market capitalization because of the popularity of the iPhone. This is a major change from the days when Apple's future was extremely uncertain and Microsoft was a market juggernaut.

I spent a day earlier this week at a site where they lost their Internet connection. I was amazed at how difficult it was for me to adapt to life without Internet access. I am so used to checking e-mail on a regular basis, blogging, and using social networking sites that I felt lost. Even preparing PowerPoint slides was problematic because I lost access to my photo service. Making the matter worse, this site has a VOIP telephone system that went down with the rest of the network.

An overlooked vulnerability

Many of us in the Information Assurance field overlook a large risk to our client's e-commerce infrastructure. The IEEE recently declared that one of the greatest vulnerabilities to the Internet are the undersea cables that carry 99% of intercontinental Internet traffic. To learn more, go to
http://gizmodo.com/5542746/undersea-internet-cables-are-dangerously-vulnerable-to-attack

Is Facebook Playing Fair?

A Harvard economics professor has filed a complaint that Facebook is selling personal data about their customers in violation of their privacy policies. The professor claims that when Facebook users click on ad that Facebook passes on their account identifier. The ad owner can then track the ad visitor back to a personal profile and harvest their personal information such as age, hometown, and job type. It will be interesting to see how this complaint plays out in the inevitable court cases.

Web-based cross marketing

I am always impressed when companies collaborate and cross-promote each other's products. Collaboration is a growing trend and some companies are doing a much better job than others. I recently learned that 7-Eleven and Zynga games are collaborating on a a summer promotion. Customers that purchase a Big Gulp drink in a special cup will get a bonus item for use in one of several Social networking games produced by Zynga. These social networking games have some fanatical players that spend hours playing that will no doubt switch to buying their sodas from a company that will provide a little incentive. Some soda drinkers may be intrigued by their soda cup and try out the game. This is one of those business situations that are truly win-win.

I used to work with a programmer that was a partial owner of a convenience store. He always told us that items that do not sell quickly are not given shelf space. I always look around convenience stores to see what items must be selling and meeting today's consumer needs. I was amazed to see racks of game cards at the local convenience store and gas stations. Someone is buying game cards for Farmville, Mafia Wars, Social City, etc. and converting their hard earned dollars into the virtual currency used in these games. These games are played over social networking sites and are free to play. The problem comes about when you want the premium items available for sale in these games. I play several of these games and have been tempted to purchase a card or two to accelerate my game play. The game developers have a terrific business model that I wish I had thought of first.

The most powerful man on the earth

When I was a boy, we were taught that the President of the United States was themost powerful man on earth. I am beginning to question that truism. I have been watching the power of men like Steve Jobs, Paul Allen, larry Ellison, and Bill Gates shaping the world of computing and begun to realize their impact on the global economy. These men can make or break technologies and companies with their endorsement and support. Our Internet experience is shaped by software and these powerful businessmen control the direction and future of that software. When historians look back at this century I am certain that they will include these men among those who shaped our time and the future.

Will the iPad own a market monopoly?

I am always amused at how so many IT people do not want to give Apple credit for their innovative design engineering. I just read an article at Datamation that recognizes Apple's design superiority but in a back handed way. The author is more concerned that Apple may develop a virtual monopoly on the tablet computer market than in recognizing the design brilliance of the iPad. The iPad is giving Apple a huge market headstart by being the first in class. Once the iPad builds a critical mass of users, it will be very difficult for a competitor to enter the market. Consider the advantage the the iPhone has in the marketplace because of their early entry into the smart phone market niche.

The problem with Flash

I have been asked what the big deal is with Flash that has Apple so upset. The issue is in how Flash decodes video files. Flash uses a decoder that consumes more power than the H.264 industry standard. The power difference is significant in mobile devices like smart phones, laptops, and the iPad, so Apple decided not to support Flash and force the issue. The impact of this decision is huge for organizations like my employer that distribute content using Flash. Stay tuned, this may be a bumpy ride.

What is happening with Flash?

Flash is one of the most widely used pieces of software for presenting multimedia on the Web. lately, Apple has been challenging the use of Flash and does not support Flash on their iPad, iPhone, and iPod devices. The struggle between Flash and Apple will help shape the future of Web computing and is well worth following.