Category: The Future!

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Milkomeda – Galactic Mergers Getting Personal

The Milky Way Meets Andromeda

Yeah, you thought this was gonna be some serious ripping on huge corporate mergers, didn’t you?

Well, surprise! Thanks to Wordout’s time traveling superpowers, I instead present you with this short, 1 minute video, showing the eventual merger of the Milky Way with our nearest neighbor in the universe, Andromeda. Not to worry, there’s still somewhere around 4 or 5 billion years before we get there. But it sure is beautiful, from this far away…

What’s that? You wanted more? Well, do you have more than a minute but less than, say… seven? Check out this (Quicktime) movie, complete with a really nice soundtrack and multiple perspectives, courtesy of the University of Toronto, Canada. You’ll have to click and go there… Snap Shots doesn’t support Quicktime files yet. But it’s worth it, if you have the time.

Enjoy!

I am Jon, and I’m heading over to Galaxy Zoo to find some real galactic mergers!


this post edited for punctuation and spelling

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Snap Shots – 5 Great Ways To Drill Your Links

Link Drillers

Snap Shots is of a class of scripts called Link Drillers. They have the ability to drill into the link to reveal more information about the link. There are a couple of main reasons why you might want to do this, depending on your perspective (whether you’re currently an author or a reader).

As a reader, you might drill into the link to see if there’s anything else you want to do with it. Maybe you want to click it, maybe not. Maybe you want to do something entirely different with it. You might never know unless you can get at whatever it is that’s inside that link.

As an author, you want to provide the most engaging content possible. You want your reader to keep reading your stuff, whether you’re already on the so-called A-list or not. You know that you have to be distinctive, with a voice that’s not only all your own, but entertaining to your readership. They gotta wanna come back. Today, I will focus only on the author’s perspective.

The Author’s Perspective

As a tool for the author, Snap Shots is superb. There are 5 basic ways an author might use it.

1.Instant Reference/Clarification – The author can provide a quick definition for unknown words or concepts without the reader ever leaving the page. You can see an example of this use in the 1st paragraph above, with the word “scripts”. Or, the author might rather choose to clarify his choice of words, so that the reader is more certain of the contextual meaning, as shown in this screenshot.

Rabidly2

In this instance, the author used a word that, in context, could have been exactly what you see or could have been a typo (rapidly). The Snap Shot clearly shows the author’s intent.


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2.Punctuation – The author can “punctuate” his writing with images that evoke emotional responses in the reader, expanding artistic styling capabilities. Satire, irony, and other forms of nuanced speech can be illustrated with instant imagery.

Humor2

Images become a tool for the author, much like a punctuation mark or a comma, enhancing the ability to convey emotional intent with perfect clarity.


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3.Allusion – The author can now use working video and audio, allowing literary tools such as “allusion” to be developed further. By showing the allusion to those not familiar with it, a greater and more rounded appreciation of the topic is won by more people.

HillStBlues2

The author can pinpoint the source of his allusion, introducing some readers to new sources of understanding and providing a moment of nostalgia for the informed.
Allusion becomes real.



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4.Presentation – The author can provide an instant image, video or audio as a reference, or example of a topic.

AdVsCon

This post was all about this video, so here it is without even leaving the page.


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5.Enticement – The author can “tease”, to entice the reader to actually click the link.

Tease2

Here the author is teasing the reader. Notice the mainly black website inside the Snapshot. Look at the words the author wrote, teasing readers that they “really ought to click that Foreigner link”.
(Go ahead, click it with your scroll button…it’ll play forever….)


And The Band Plays On

We’ve seen how a judicious use of Snap Shots can add value to the content in our sites. We can instantly clarify our meaning or provide a source of reference. We can stir emotions, we can take our readers back in time to a place they have, or perhaps, have never been. And we can get personal, play around a little and generally just have fun with our readers like old friends.

Is this manipulating our readers? Sure it is, much in the same way that Hemingway manipulated his readers by naming a book “For Whom The Bell Tolls”. With just 5 words, he told us the story, and made us want the details even more. Did we get offended by that? No. To the contrary, it became required reading.

Using link drillers can add another dimension to our writing, and help us to create our own, easily recognizable voice. In this constantly evolving world of internet publishing, technology is finally beginning to enable the artist in all of us. Some of us will embrace it, some will “leave well enough alone”. If we ignore the advances we see available to us, we run the risk of being left behind. Once that happens, to partially quote John Donne:

“…never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee…”

Feel free to look through Wordout at the many ways link drillers are used. In a couple of posts you will see them on almost every link. I’ve left those posts untouched, as examples of how NOT to use drillers. Judiciously used, they are great. But overusing them, or using them in places where they simply are not needed will drive visitors from your site like a wailing banshee. Remember: Link drillers are like exclamation marks, or that silly internet phrase, “LOL”. Too many and they mean nothing. Too much, and we lose our credibility.

BTW, I’m sure you noticed those little blue boxes in some of the images above. Those are link drillers, too, but those are oriented more toward the readers than the authors. I’ll cover them soon, in upcoming pieces on AdaptiveBlue.

But before that happens, I’ll be covering Snap Shots from the more important reader’s perspective. After all, it’s all about you guys, and me, when I’m one of you. Without the readers, this would all be pointless.

I am Jon, and… is that the starting bell I hear?

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this post has been edited for content and style.

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Spinning Iran – Here We Go Again?

With apologies for waxing political, I offer this for your consideration.

The Reuters news service today published a story eerily reminiscent of the days leading up to the invasion of Iraq by the US. From an article with the plain title, “US Report Contradicts Bush on Iran Nuclear Program”:

“A new U.S. intelligence report says Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and it remains on hold, contradicting the Bush administration’s earlier assertion that Tehran was intent on developing a bomb.”

and

“Tensions have escalated in recent months as Washington has ratcheted up the rhetoric against Tehran, with U.S. President George W. Bush insisting in October that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to World War Three. But in a finding likely to surprise U.S. friends and foes alike, the latest NIE concluded: “We do not know whether (Iran) currently intends to develop nuclear weapons.”

The Bush response was a typical spin to throw a terrorist light on this good news:

“Today’s National Intelligence Estimate offers some positive news,” Bush’s national security adviser Stephen Hadley said in a statement. “It confirms that we were right to be worried about Iran seeking to develop nuclear weapons. It tells us that we have made progress in trying to ensure that this does not happen,” he said.
“But the intelligence also tells us that the risk of Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon remains a very serious problem.”

Quotes from the National Intelligence Estimate report:

“We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program. We also assess with moderate-to-high confidence that Tehran at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons.”

and

“Tehran’s decision to halt its nuclear weapons program suggests it is less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005.”

and

“Iranian entities are continuing to develop a range of technical capabilities that could be applied to producing nuclear weapons, if a decision is made to do so.”

and

“We judge with high confidence that Iran will not be technically capable of producing and reprocessing enough plutonium for a weapon before about 2015.”

Personally, I have no idea what the Iranians are planning. If I were them, I would be a bit afraid of the US. We did, after all, invade a neighboring country under what turned out to be (similar)false pretenses. Coincidentally, according to the report, the Iranians stopped their nuclear weapons program the same year. I am thinking that the “international pressures” cited in the report is nothing more than our invasion of Iraq.
The Iranian subject is a hot one in the lead-up to next year’s US general election. For the American people to understand who is blowing smoke and who actually has the fire, we need to make it a habit to go to the source to get the facts. In this case, the source is the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Click the link above. It’s only 9 pages, easily readable, large type, in a downloadable pdf file. Go ahead. Then you can say you read it yourself.

I am Jon, and I think we should all read the report for ourselves.

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gPhone? This, That, And The Other Thing

There’s This

It appears to some that Google is thinking about getting into the mobile phone business. From the press release this past Friday:

“As part of the nationally mandated transition to digital television, the 700 MHz spectrum auction — which begins January 24, 2008 — will free up spectrum airwaves for more efficient wireless Internet service for consumers. Advocacy by public interest groups and Google earlier this year helped ensure that regardless of which bidders win a key portion of the spectrum up for auction (the so-called “C Block”), they will be required to allow their users to download any software application they want on their mobile device, and to use any mobile devices they would like on that wireless network. The winner must ensure these rights for consumers if the reserve price of $4.6 billion for the C Block is met at auction.”

“We believe it’s important to put our money where our principles are,” said Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO, Google. “Consumers deserve more competition and innovation than they have in today’s wireless world. No matter which bidder ultimately prevails, the real winners of this auction are American consumers who likely will see more choices than ever before in how they access the Internet.”

Other companies have chosen to team up with established players in the industry to gain a foothold. That’s a good strategy if you’re planning to produce some merchandise for sale. Google’s application to the FCC will list no partners. Could it be that there is no “GooglePhone”? So why would they care what happens with all that bandwidth?

There’s That

Let’s look at something else Google has been doing lately.

Earlier last month, Google announced the release of its open source Android mobile operating system and development software. The guys at Android say this in their “Introducing Android” video: “There is no gPhone”

So if there’s no gPhone, what’s the deal? Google might be the “Do No Evil” company, but they are definitely into “Doing Some Profits”. How will they profit?

The same way they always have, through advertising. Think about this: if our pc’s tell companies so much about us, and those companies are buying all that info to target each of us with our own personalised ads, how much more personal can our phone records be? And with social networking rabidly infecting everything we do, marketers should be able to tie our online habits of both types together with ease. Google stands to make at least a hundred dollars.

I’ll try to leave you with this quote I found on Broadband Reports:

“Imagine an iPhone where the whole thing is a screen and the bottom eighth is banner ads running across,” said Iain Gillott, a wireless analyst at IGR. “Spectrum is king; you own everything.”

And The Other Thing

Of course, he may have it wrong about the ads. There is also this video, called “If I had a Magic Phone“. Maybe this is what Google is thinking after all….

I am Jon, and I want my phone to fix me a sandwich, please.

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Piracy In France – The Smokescreen

Nothing For Us, Something For Nothing for Them

Last week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy endorsed a new law aimed at punishing those who share music and movies online. The new law creates an agency to sift through data that ISPs will be required to hand over about their highest-volume bandwidth users. Offenders will receive 2 warnings, and then be subject to disconnection.

This concept is the brainchild of Denis Olivennes, chairman of the retail chain Fnac. Fnac is one of the largest entertainmnet chains in France, and so has a definite interest in “physical-format” items such as CDs and DVDs. The theory is that, if downloads (non-physical) can be curtailed then sales of CDs and DVDs will go up. Seems like a conflict of interest to some.

How It Works:
ISPs monitor your bandwidth usage, identifying high-bandwidth users by name.
ISPs provide a list to the newly created agency.
The agency sends out “electronic warning messages” to individual users.
After 2 warnings, users are subject to disconnection.
Filmmakers agree to release physical DVDs faster.
Music firms support DRM-free tracks in music stores.

The WTF Factor
ISPs have always monitored bandwidth usage. That is, after all, what they are selling. They have an “inventory” of available bandwidth and, like any other business with an inventory, must know how much they have available.
P2P networks demand alot of bandwidth, so lowering the amount for a group of users will make more available across their system. This translates into increasing their supply, and probably their profits.

I’m not against more profits. But I am uncertain about any value this will add to anyone in the public. In the past, any customer of any ISP in the “free” world had some assurance that their personal info was kept confidential. This will not be true anymore. What will be true is that the ISPs are now providing that very personal information to an agency created by the government to help these two industries become more profitable.

Also to be considered is the reality that this strategy can only work in an area that’s pretty well saturated with cheap high-speed internet services. ISPs in other countries seem to be a bit reluctant to cooperate with efforts like these. File-sharing, questionable or not, is one of the biggest motivators for buying a high-speed connection.

Here’s a few quotes I’d like you to consider:

“In return for agreeing to monitor net use, film-makers agreed to speed up the transfer of movies to DVD and music firms pledged to support DRM-free tracks on music stores.”

Physical DVDs and CDs generally do not contain any DRM already, so the promise of no DRM on CDs is only smoke. And DVD releases are already fairly rapid. If they really thought this was cutting into their sales, they would just speed up DVD releases anyway. More smoke. The film-makers and music firms are not the ones doing the monitoring, the ISPs are, so this statement is all just smoke from its premise.

“The group who brokered the deal said the measures were intended to curb casual piracy rather than tackle large scale pirate groups.”

That quote, right there, tells the whole story. Large scale pirating, if pirating were the problem, would be the real threat to go after. But this is not about “pirating”. This is about increasing profits in 2 industries that are already increasing profits daily.The truth is that bandwidth is getting cheaper by the minute. By. The. Minute. ISPs can do nothing and their profits will go up. Record producers usually lose money on a per artist basis, but they have cut back on new artists and their profits are up. This is all what I can’t help but call, Bullicus.

From a well written critique of the RIAA(and others) assertions about online piracy. “If piracy is the problem, why is it that sales didn’t start declining until AFTER the RIAA had Napster shut down?”

Well, that’s a very good question. Could it be that the buying public now sees itself as an adversary to the recording industry? We’ve known all along that most of the artists got squat from their recording deals. Maybe we’ve changed the way we look at that, after several years of being treated like thieves.

So Who Benefits?

ISPs – less bandwidth used and therefore lower cost of operating services
FNAC – hoping for more physical item sales
IFPI etc – maintaining what little bit of control over where the money goes
Artists – can’t see any benefits here….

I am Jon, and I am calling Bullicus.

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New at Wordout – SnapShots and SmartLinks!

I’ve been doing quite a bit of work to the site lately, trying to add some fun and informative little extras. One of the latest things I am testing is Snapshots. If you look at the links in this post, you will notice a little box above and to the right of each link. (If you don’t see the little boxes, hit your browser refresh button. You are probably looking at a cached version of the page.) Placing your mouse on that little box will give you more information about the link.

Sometimes SnapShots brings you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you “look ahead,” before deciding if you want to follow a link or not. Go ahead and try it out on that word, “cached”. Now try the SnapShots link. To close the SnapShot, just move your mouse away or click anywhere outside the SnapShot box.

You might decide that you don’t like Snapshots. That’s okay, you can turn it off. If you decide to disable it, please let me know through the Contact button above. If more people like it than hate it, I will keep it. If the majority of you hate it, it’s history. Either way, let me know what you think! If you decide Snapshots is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt out.

Scrolling down the page a bit you will find another new widget in the sidebar. SmartLinks allows you to display your links visually. I’m really excited about about Smartlinks. Once I have wrapped my mind around it I will be able to display the “Recommended Reading” and “Links” in a way I think you will like. Meantime, about all I have working correctly as of Saturday at midnight, is the display.

Notice that the link to Smartlinks takes you to Adaptive Blue, founded by well-known software architect, Alex Iskold. Alex is also regularly found writing great content over at Read/Write Web and is referenced extensively across the net. He was kind enough to stop by Wordout a bit ago and gave me some pointers via emails. (Thanks Alex!) The page you land on hosts a cool plugin for Firefox which allows you to set up your very own Smartlinks organizer. Click the button to see the show.

Well, that’s about it for this week. I want to thank every one of you for dropping by. Seeing my readership increasing each day gives me a feeling that I am doing something worthwhile. Sometimes I find it nearly impossible to stop working, trying to make this site a place you will like and pass on to your friends. Tonight, even though I have reams of stuff to write about and more coding to understand, well, tonight just isn’t one of those nights. Tonight, I am simply too tired.

I am Jon, and I am taking a break….

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Live Documents Integrates With Your MS Office

If you’re wondering why I have never commented on any of the web-based Office’s springing up all over the place, it’s because I have yet to see one that offers anything worthwhile. Each one seems to be concerned with only one thing, taking the customer base away from MS Office. And that, in my eyes, isn’t really helping me or you. I know, several large companies have recently started using Google Apps and Zoho. And maybe that’s going to save those companies some cash. But for you and me, who don’t feel the need to upgrade every time Microsoft redesigns the user interface, where’s the perks?

That all changed when I read Nick Carr’s review over at Rough Type of Live Documents, a startup based in India and founded by the guy who dreamed up Hotmail. You should go and check out their site, it’s nice. It has a clean feel to it.

Live Documents is free to individual users, and comes at a small price for businesses. But that is not its greatest strength.

Live Documents can fully integrate with the MS Office already on your desktop. This is a first. This is a real benefit. You see, all the other new web-based Office replacements are designed to do just that: Replace MS Office. Live Documents lets you keep your existing Office and expand it into a web-enabled management suite. They copied the MS Office 2007 interface and features. I think that means you will get the Office 2007 capabilities regardless of what version of MS Office you are currently using. Hey! A free upgrade!

Live Documents is not fully online as of this writing. At the top right of their homepage is a little link that will let you apply for an account. I did.

I am Jon, and I am looking forward to my Office upgrade.

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State Forces Vaccinations Using Police and Attack Dogs

Search Google and you will find lots written about forced vaccinations in Prince George’s County, Maryland. This would be no big deal, really, except there is no law in Maryland requiring parents to vaccinate their children. Prince George’s county officials decided to team up with the department of health and force these kids to get their shots, threatening the parents with jail time if they did not comply. You can read about it at Newstarget.com.

In my mind, this story isn’t about the vaccinations. It looks like that is what everybody is focusing on, kicking up fluff all over the place about “Big Pharma”. To me, this is more about one more step we are gingerly taking into the wonderful political structure of losing our most basic rights. It makes me wonder about our future. Remember, there are no laws in Maryland requiring parents to submit their children to these vaccinations. Parents are free to choose what’s best for their families. That’s the law. And to me, that’s what this is about.

I guess that don’t matter much up there in Prince G’s county, just east of Washington, DC. What do you think about it?

I am Jon, and I am American.

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What, Exactly, Is a Spiral Frog?

Spiralfrog is a flailing, privately owned company offering free, ad-laden music downloads. I say “flailing” because these guys are obviously not going to succeed. Before you go clicking their link expecting to download some cool tunes, let me fill you in on a few of the “downs” to this download deal. Two sources provide the background information here.

First, thanks to Marshall Kilpatrick over at Read/Write Web, we learn the following:

“The SpiralFrog model is awful. Users get free downloads of DRM laden songs that they can listen to in Windows Media Player, but they have to periodically answer survey questions and view ads in order to for the songs to continue playing. The site itself looks like one big ad with music appended to it.”

Joeseph Weisenthal at paidContent.org goes on to quote their future strategy:

“Execute marketing campaign in the United States aimed at 13-34 year olds, through one or more of the following approaches: hire gorilla (sic) marketing firms for unconventional promotions; consumer targeted press releases; advertising on some of the youth community sites; or hiring ‘bloggers’ to attract attention to us on the internet.”

So, they think a 34 year-old father struggling to support his family has the same desires as a 13 year old girl? They make no distinctions, so who’s to say? Needless to say, I agree with Marshall’s assessment that the next step will be an all-out, and very annoying, media blitz. Very “gorilla“, indeed.

And what’s up with requiring Windows Media Player 11 just to view the site? I don’t have it, and I don’t want it. It’s just got too much Micro$oft DRM attached to it for my tastes. Plus, the only player that these downloads will play on is Media Player! Geez! Talk about trying to lock you in… but then again, that’s the Microstuff’s way. (To my way of thinking, all these restrictions on the download replaces the “free” with “as long as you do it our way, on our player, or else..” Free should mean, free to do with it whatever I want, as long as it’s legal.)

A Better Way To Go

For a better alternative, look to RCRD LBL. It’s the same idea, ad-supported free music downloads. But definitely NOT the same implementation. According to the RCRD LBL FAQ these tunes are playable in several players. There is no DRM at all. Formats for most popular music files are supported including the old standard (and my favorite), MP3. You are allowed to copy the files onto your portable devices. You are allowed to make mix-cds to share with your friends. You are allowed to do just about anything that you don’t make a profit on. You can even install a widget on your own website so that your visitors can play the tunes while they’re there.

Now that’s free downloads. I might even put up with a couple of ads along the way. After all, somebody does have to pay the artists.

I am Jon, and I love music, especially when it’s a free download.

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Home Page Link Fixed

Thanks to Dawnie Duckie for pointing out that not only did the old home page at www.computergeekservices.net look yucky, but the Home link at Wordout didn’t even point there! I took the time today to make a leaner page there, getting rid of the drab old charcoal look completely. Of course, like everything else around here, it seems to be a work of perfection in progress.

Thanks Dawnie!

Keep them cards and letters comin….

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Beta Testing

This site is now released for Beta testing to a select group of invitees (you know who you are!) . As you’re poking around in here, don’t forget to add the RSS to your Firefox. You don’t want to miss a thing…

Notes:

The FAQ Frequently Asked Questions still is not finished. It displays, and accepts questions… but still it doesn’t work.
The Comment Preview button is currently broken. The Submit comment button works.

For the next several days comments will be open. This means that anyone can leave a comment without registering. Once the Beta testing is completed, users will be required to be registered and logged on to leave a comment.

I’m trying to get the F-Secure® World Map over there to the right in that blank area. Currently waiting on a response from F-Secure to see if they will let me do that. (Here is a short 40 second video at YouTube showing the World Map in action.)

The aim of Wordout is to provide relevant news, facts and commentary on any facet of technology, computing and science in general. Many of the topics I covered before will be included, but current topics will be limited to these general interests. The site is public, and is primarily used by members of the On Call On Site™ program, a group of select business and residential customers of Computergeek Services.

Again, thanks… just place your comments on this post so I will see them.

jon

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Coming Soon

Coming soon to your screen: Facts and Commentary on many things dealing with The Internet, Computers, Developing Technology, Earth & Space, Scary Stuff, and The Future!

Be sure to click the RSS feed link and add Wordout to your Firefox Bookmarks Toolbar so you don’t miss any of it!