Thursday, January 12, 2012
Quotes of the Day
Click for the context:
1. When I reach the Pearly Gates, I want the first thing I will hear to be "Unload and show clear."
2. But brother, if you ever find yourself collecting chili recipes for guinea pig you should take a long, hard look at your life and ponder how you ever came to give up on the world.
1. When I reach the Pearly Gates, I want the first thing I will hear to be "Unload and show clear."
2. But brother, if you ever find yourself collecting chili recipes for guinea pig you should take a long, hard look at your life and ponder how you ever came to give up on the world.
Watching
Continuing on today's theme of watching, I found this scary infograph about the data a phone company collected about a customer in Germany. (See the interactive version here.)
So big companies are tracking you. The government does lots of tracking.
I think we'll see more things like this neat bit of technology (Escort Live) that help level the playing field...
I think we'll see more things like this neat bit of technology (Escort Live) that help level the playing field...
"Escort Live (an accessory for Escort radar detectors) not only detects police speed traps, it also broadcasts their times and locations to other Escort Live owners. They (the traps, not the owners) show up on a map on the phone’s screen, thereby creating a speed-trap social network. The police can’t be thrilled."
Google Stock Drops
Google stock drops... some say because of Motorola. If it is because of Motorola, then it is because they split off the most valuable segment - ham radio!
Cameras Everywhere - Sousveillance
Clive Thompson talks about sousveillance:
"Sousveillance is the monitoring of events not by those above (surveiller in French) but by citizens, from below (sous-). The neologism was coined by Steve Mann, a pioneer in wearable computing at the University of Toronto."
I like the term and the balance of power it suggests.
Examples of videos providing evidence of when people do bad things is all around. Most commonly, we think of catching people in positions of authority misbehaving as in the video below:
Sometimes it even gets people fired - like the officer that threatened to kill permit holder in what seemed to be a simple incident.
LawDog points out that doing good may have a price. Even knowing the potential consequences, I would hope that I would be like Mr. Green, who recorded the video above, and do the right thing.
"Sousveillance is the monitoring of events not by those above (surveiller in French) but by citizens, from below (sous-). The neologism was coined by Steve Mann, a pioneer in wearable computing at the University of Toronto."
I like the term and the balance of power it suggests.
Examples of videos providing evidence of when people do bad things is all around. Most commonly, we think of catching people in positions of authority misbehaving as in the video below:
Sometimes it even gets people fired - like the officer that threatened to kill permit holder in what seemed to be a simple incident.
LawDog points out that doing good may have a price. Even knowing the potential consequences, I would hope that I would be like Mr. Green, who recorded the video above, and do the right thing.
Not Sure Which is Scarier
asymco From comments: "consumerization" is actually going to reveal itself as "commoditization" of IT as an industryWed, Jan 11 05:42:28 from Twitter for Mac
|
Of course, my background is on the infrastructure side, which I've felt like has been a commodity for a long time. In the past you outsourced infrastructure to a different company, but kept the techs (maybe the same set of techs!) on-site. Then you outsourced some of your infrastructure support to India. Now you put applications in the cloud. I guess it really doesn't scare me - everything changes and IT faster than others.
I'd still love to get our e-mail in the cloud. I've got plenty to do and off loading e-mail would be a good one.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Arrington on Politics
Not 100% right, but not too far off either..
arrington If republicans could just lose the fascination with our sex lives and the need to push Jesus down our throats, they'd be perfect.Thu, Jan 05 17:51:22 from web
|
arrington if democrats could take an econ 101 class, they'd be perfect.Thu, Jan 05 17:51:44 from web
|
arrington I think many, many americans are fundamentally fiscally conservative and socially liberal, but we have no party.Thu, Jan 05 17:52:15 from web
|
Coal Creek Armory
I think the many posts in this thread sum up the variety of experiences at Coal Creek Armory. I am sure that some of us customers aren't very educated or experienced. I am also sure that some of the staff could be a little more patient, too. Glad I identified the problems, so we can move on.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
GLOCK
I wrote earlier about (and poked a little fun at) an Uncrate post that was a little over the top in describing Glock: The Rise of America's Gun.
The author, Paul Barrett, was kind enough to come by and leave a comment about some better sources for information about the book:
"Brick: The Amazon.com page has a good summary, as well as early reviews from real live people who've read the book via Amazon's Vine early-review program:
http://www.amazon.com/Glock-Americas-Paul-M-Barrett/dp/0307719936
Another option is my website: www.glockthebook.com"
I'm happy to report that there is a Kindle version that is cheaper than the hardcopy. The book will be available on January 10.
Refresh and Reset
The two new big features of Windows 8:
- Refresh gives users an easy way to reinstall the operating system if they encounter a problem. Data and some settings are kept, while potential trouble spots are wiped clean. Users will also have to reinstall most desktop apps, although apps that use the Metro interface (the bright colored UI that was designed mainly for touchscreens) will stay around.
- Reset is a little more dramatic: it restores the PC to a clean state, like when you bought it, which will be useful when you want to sell or give away an old PC.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)