Ditto, Steve Jobs

Image via Wikipedia
Even though for many years I worked with (and often preferred) Windows-based computers, it was Steve Jobs' Apple IIe that first inspired me to focus my career on IT.  So, I found his death left a kind of void that I doubt will ever be filled - at least in my lifetime.  I received this email from the president of the Ayn Rand Institute and I thought he voiced what many of us current and former IT people are feeling today.

WASHINGTON--Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged lionizes the great wealth creators--the men and women whose thought, creativity, and drive has lifted mankind from the cave to the glistening skyscrapers of New York City. As the president of the Ayn Rand Institute, I regularly speak about Atlas and there is one living person who, more than anyone else, I reference as embodying those traits: Steve Jobs. The news that Jobs is no longer with us leaves me truly heartbroken. 

What Jobs has always represented to me is someone who devoted his life to creating great values--who pursued his own vision, his own dreams, his own happiness. The results of his life's work are truly astounding: the Apple II, the Macintosh, Pixar, the iPod, iTunes, the iPhone, the iPad, and much, much more. He set out to change the world. He succeeded, and by all accounts took deep joy in his career and his achievements. He deserved it.

Image via Wikipedia

Ever since I heard the news that Steve Jobs died, a certain passage from Atlas Shrugged keeps running through my head, although only readers of the novel will understand the full impact of the scene. 

Toward the end of the novel, when heroine Dagny Taggart is reunited with several men she had thought she would never see again, she says that the meeting is like a childhood dream "when you think that some day, in heaven, you will see those great departed men whom you had not seen on earth, and you choose, from all the past centuries, the great men you would like to meet." 

One of the men replies: "And if you met those great men in heaven . . . There's something you'd want to hear from them. [Y]ou'd want them to look at you and to say, 'Well done.'. . . All right, then. Well done, Dagny!"If there were a heaven, filled with the great men of history, I have no doubt that they would say, "Well done, Steve Jobs." - Yaron Brook, President, Ayn Rand Institute

Related articles

• Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address
• Steve Jobs on Failure
• How Steve Jobs Created His Perfect App

Related articles

Google Chromebook - History repeats itself!

Image via Wikipedia

Google Chrome Logo

I never cease to be amazed at how technology often circles back on itself. When distributed computing first b
egan, clients used a terminal with no hard drive. All applications ran on the central mainframe and IT departments were the only ones that had to install applications, worry about hackers and viruses were not even invented yet. Now we have the "new" Chromebook which is essentially a terminal with no hard drive to access applications, documents, etc from "the cloud". The more things change the more things stay the same (or revert back to the same!)

The problem with such devices is that you need to have total faith in your service provider - in this case Google. It puts us back in the situation of having a commercial enterprise that, if used by huge numbers of people, becomes too big to fail. Google would also be in the position to offer the service for free to get it rolling then when the amount of critical data reaches a certain point they could change their policies and begin charging more and more - much like the cell phone companies do now and their users would essentially be held hostage to whatever revenue scheme Google (or another cloud service company) would impose.

Another issue is that these new "dumb" laptops could not be used for anything but a door stop if you live or travel into a geographic area that has no internet connection - I mean NO connection - Wifi or cell.  Yes, there are actually large areas, at least out here in the West, that have huge dead zones!  Although I live less than five miles from the center of a city right on Interstate 5, I cannot get a reliable cell signal in my living room - really frustrating since I'd like to give up my land line.  The construction of cell towers has pretty much followed the main interstate freeways and in states with extended rural areas like my native Oregon there are huge expanses within the state where your cell gets no bars at all.

Also, I doubt if Google's rivals would want to provide a service that can be accessed by someone else's hardware device so we get back to the iPad vs. Google Android marketplace issues again.

Related articles

• ChromeBooks - I've Seen the Future and It's Dumb (Terminals) (diversity.net.nz)

Is increase in gaming popularity among females and older players attributable to minigames on mobile devices?

I found the following infographic very interesting.  Apparently I am no longer in the minority as an older female who enjoys gaming although I simply don't have the average 18 hours per week to spend gaming.  I think the motion aspect of the Wii accounts for not only the popularity of the Wii but the significant growth in attracting older players like me who are bored with traditional exercise strategies but easily lose ourselves in a game that uses body motion to accomplish game objectives.  This attraction is also reflected in the list of most popular games of all time topped by Wii Sports.

I do wish they would have included smartphones in the mobile analysis though.  I have probably spent more time playing games on my iPhone than on my Wii just because I am often stuck waiting in doctors' offices or similar environments and find the games on my iPhone to be just the ticket to make the time pass.  Although iFishing is one of my favorites, being raised here in the Northwest where I grew up fishing the streams along the Oregon coast and Pacific ocean as a child, I also like history-themed games and have been playing Slitherine's "The Tudors."  I also bought the Sims' World Adventures although I must be honest and say I get really irritated with having to keep track of the Sims needs to go to the bathroom.  I think that level of detail is more tedious than entertaining.  I also like hidden object games in historical environments too.  I love the visuals and the short mini-game nature of the challenge especially since I am using these games to fill a relatively small time slot.

It would be interesting to have a breakdown of the average 18 hours spent gaming to see if the types of games people are playing are more of the short term mini-game variety played intermittently through the week or whether more intricate complex games are being played in longer dedicated sessions.  I think this information coupled with a parallel analysis of age groups would be helpful to game designers wishing to address the maximum target audience.  I'm also curious about whether the introduction of minigames through app stores increasingly available through a plethora of devices is ratcheting up the gaming statistics in both females and the older age groups now.



Source: Online Education

IE 9 RC still not ready for prime time but Google Chrome is a blast!

Well, I installed the new Internet Explorer 9 release client and, although I loved the "pinning to the taskbar" capability, the ability to designate an entire list of pages to open as default pages and the clean interface that lets you see so much more of each web page you are browsing, I ran into some significant problems using it on my new 64-bit Windows 7 workstation.

Image via WikipediaFirst, I tried to install Zemanta, a blogging assistant extension, for use with my Blogger accounts under this new browser and, even though Zemanta said it was installed, when I opened one of my Blogs to begin editing, the Z
emanta extension interface would not open.  I tried reinstalling, made sure I had "allowed" Zemanta to make changes on my computer, etc. but no joy.

Then I was up on Amazon looking at the new educational game "Roman Town".  I added it to my cart, went through logging in to my account and setting the shipping address but when it came to loading the screen where I would select my payment options, I got nothing but a white screen with a location bar at the top.  I retried the purchase several times but finally had to give up and use a different browser to complete the transaction.

Next I was reading my Google news alerts and went to "share" an article I had read on one of the web pages I pulled up to read and when IE 9 tried to open the Twitter interface I again got a plain white screen with just a URL and my Twitter icon.  Obviously, it recognized that I was already logged in to Twitter but could not draw up my status page.  Again, multiple attempts to successfully tweet from the web page failed.  I ended up shortening the URL myself with bit.ly and posting it manually to Twitter.

Then I went to read an article on Stacy Johnson's Money Talks News (http://www.moneytalksnews.com) that included a video and saw that the video had a question mark on it.  When I clicked the video I got an error message that the video contained a third party component that I would need to install but it didn't tell me which one.  I had never had a problem with any of Stacy's videos before.  So, I sent an email to Stacy's tech support people and they suggested I contact the tech support for Blip.TV which is the video host they use.  So I emailed Blip.TV and they suggested I install the latest version of Quicktime and try again.  I checked my Quicktime version and compared it with the latest one available and I saw that I already had the latest version.  I told Blip. TV that videos on YouTube seemed to play properly.  They were baffled.

So today I reluctantly gave up using IE and set my browser default to the new version of Google Chrome that I had recently installed.  Like IE 9, I was able to define a list of pages to open by default.  I found that I could still drag a page to my taskbar and "pin" it - apparently a default action allowed by Windows 7, and the interface was as clean as IE 9.

Then I went to Blogger and installed Zemanta and it came up without a hitch.  I went back to Money Talks News and the video I could not view under IE 9 played perfectly in Google Chrome.  Then, I held my breath and logged into my online bank.  I had used an earlier version of Google Chrome at one point but it turned out to be incompatible with my secure banking logins at two different banks.  This time, however, it worked wonderfully.

Then, I remembered a friend of mine had sent me a news article about Google Chrome's new web store so I went up there and found extensions for my Evernote account, bit.ly, Google Translate, Webpage screenshot, Web of Trust search advisor (WOT - a handy tool to avoid websites known for malware, scams, etc), an Internet Movie Database access tool to quickly access the movie database by clicking on a movie title mentioned on a webpage or in a blogpost, my good old "blog this" helper, a Share tool for those websites that  don't have it already built in (like many foreign news websites), and even Chrome for a Cause that records my search clicks and donates to a charity of my choice (from a small but adequate list).  Since I do a lot of research I like the idea that my productivity also serves another worthy purpose.  All of these very useful extensions were found on just the first twenty pages of the Extensions listed on the Chrome Web Store site and there are a total of over 10,000 available.  So, I have been able to regain all the features I liked in IE 9 without all of the technical problems and added some great functionality from the Chrome Web Store too!

Now if I could just get Samsung to add more useful apps to my TV's app store!!

Related articles

• 7 Chrome Annoyances and How to Fix Them (mt-soft.com.ar)
• Have Firefox Add-Ons Caused You Problems? (lockergnome.com)

Virtual Professors using Conversational Agent Software the Answer for the 3rd Dimension in Online Learning

"Developing that best-in-the-world online course — in which students would learn as much, or more, than in an ordinary classroom or a hybrid online class — requires significant investment. The Open Learning Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University, which has developed about 15 sophisticated online courses, mostly in the sciences, spent $500,000 to $1 million to write software for each. But neither Carnegie Mellon nor other institutions, which are invited to use its online courses, dares to use them without having a human instructor, too..."

"...But even when lectures are accompanied with syllabuses, handouts, sample problem sets and other aids that Academic Earth has for some of its courses, is the experience really complete? The Massachusetts Institute of Technology also shares the raw materials of courses in its OpenCourseWare program. For the benefit of autodidacts who aren’t M.I.T. students, it strives to publish materials online for every M.I.T. course. But students cannot interact and do not receive vital feedback about their own progress that an instructor or software provides."- Online Courses, Still Lacking That Third Dimension, Randall Stross, The New York Times

Way back in 1995, I became intrigued with developing conversational agents using software that was the descendant of "Eliza", software written at MIT by Joseph Weizenbaum between 1964 to 1966 to simulate a a Rogerian psychotherapist.  I wrote a script and adapted images of a bust of Julius Caesar to create an online "virtual" Julius Caesar that a web visitor could converse with and ask whatever they wanted to know about Caesar's life and times.

Head of Julius Caesar from
Trajan's Forum now in the
National Archaeological Museum
in Naples, Italy.

I received e-mail from history teachers across the United States who actually started using my "virtual" Caesar in their classes and found it to be a dynamic learning tool that kept kids intrigued.

Then I tried to convince professors I worked with to consider letting me develop a "virtual" professor for each one to provide online office hours 24/7 for each of their courses. After all, professors, especially those that have taught the same class for years, obviously had a wealth of answers to course FAQs.  To make the agent more interesting, I explained to the professor that we needed to try to impart each professor's unique personality into the agent so conversing online with the agent would feel like talking with the real professor for the project to be a success.  For example, one professor enjoyed sea kayaking.  I told him that I would like him to talk about sea kayaking with me.  I also liked to include answers to questions about favorite books, movies, food, etc.

But, although I got a couple of professors intrigued, they were always too busy to spend the quality time that is needed to produce a truly convincing agent.  Maybe if institutions would consider paying instructors royalties for the use of their knowledge in the development of "virtual professors", more progress could be made in the production of such online learning environments.

 

Related articles

• Online Courses: Media Used in Online Courses (brighthub.com)
• 

Magazine publishers need to think beyond just issue sales or subscriptions to capture the digital market

I didn't realize that magazine publishers could not sell subscriptions directly on the iPad but were limited to single issue downloads and a ridiculous pricing structure to match until I read this article in the New York Times.  I did see that magazines selling subscriptions on android tablets like the Color Nook I received for Christmas from my daughter are trying to charge as much for a digital subscription there as they do for a printed and mailed edition which is also outrageous.

It never ceases to amaze me that after all this time, major content providers still don't try to innovate when they redesign their business models for the digital marketplace.  I also don't understand why they still haven't learned the lucrative lesson of offering content via micropayments either.

I severely reduced the number of magazine subscriptions I maintained long before the internet began supplying the lion's share of my reading content because I found bundled content to contain too many articles that offered little interest to me.  I don't mean to pick on National Geographic because it is a quality magazine but in the last ten years or so it got to the point that I was reading only one article per issue if that much even though I had subscribed to National Geographic for years.  Their content focus was changed by a new editorial staff away from archaeological exploration to regional travel/culture pieces that I really didn't care that much about.and it finally reached the point that I discontinued my subscription because I saw no reason to pay over $20 per year for five or six articles.

Having an editor/gatekeeper determine what I would receive is as galling as having to purchase television programming by channel or by satellite tier or having to purchase music by album or CD.  I realize the subscription model offers the most reliable revenue stream for publishers.  But how about marketing written content on the Netflix model?  A subscription across a collection of magazines that would entitle me to download and view content up to a certain number of articles or Mb of data per year.  Many publishing companies produce an entire stable of magazines including constellations of magazines around similar topics.  But publishers should also consider collaborative groupings with other publishing companies as well.  This could provide more attractive packages to niche readers like me.


Of course ala carte article purchase could also be offered for a reasonable sum of say 50 cents for an article up to 3,500 words or so.  I realize ala carte article purchase has not proven successful in the past, mostly because ala carte pricing has been so ridiculously high like $2.50 per article - the price of an entire printed edition in some cases.  Publishers should take note of the lessons learned about micropayments from the "app" market.  If you make the payment amount seem small and insignificant enough, even browsers with a casual interest are often lulled into making a purchase. 

Consider the recent article about the 14-year-old boy who taught himself to develop an iPhone app that has become the most popular app at the moment, being downloaded over 4 million times.  As one of the news anchors pointed out, if the boy had charged as little as 99 cents for the app instead of offering it for free, he could have been a millionaire.  I firmly believe micropayments and ala carte choice options are the key to a bright online publishing future!

Related articles

• Magazine Publishers Still Seeking Recurring Application Subscriptions for the iPad (slashgear.com)
• New Storefront Coming for Tablet-Based Magazines [REPORT] (mashable.com)
• Magazine publishers still not happy about iPad; iPad users prefer ads to fees (teleread.com)
• What Digital Publishing Means To Marketers In 2011 (socialmediaexplorer.com)

     

Electronic Companies Dump Feature-Starved Products on Unsuspecting Black Friday Shoppers

I don't know why I should be so angry over the fact that the Samsung LCD TV I purchased on Black Friday lacks the ability to run apps from the new Samsung Apps Store.  After all, I purchased it as a secondary TV to use in my office to allow me to work out with my Wii and watch movies that my husband doesn't want to watch in the living room.  It does that just fine and I should have been satisfied.  But, as a technology-oriented person, I became excited when I read in the manual that the model I had purchased was wireless enabled and I saw on the Samsung website that they had an Apps store for their wireless products.  I thought it was a great bonus I had not expected.

I also noticed in the manual that a specific LAN adapter was mentioned.  I had an extra USB adapter from my DSL provider so I tried it but was met with a message telling me I had attached an unsupported device.  I also read on the web about other Samsung customers that had problems even with the adapter my manual specified.  So I called Samsung tech support to confirm that the model of TV I had purchased would in fact work with the specified LAN adapter. 

While I was talking to the support representative I mentioned to them that the reason I was so keen on hooking up the wireless was that I thought it would be better to stream my Netflix movies directly to a 1080p TV than to use my Wii to stream the movies.  I was afraid the lower resolution of the Wii would degrade the picture quality.  The tech support person agreed with me that it probably would and installing a LAN adapter on my new TV would be the best choice.  They also confirmed that the LAN adapter specified in the manual would be the one I would need.

On the Samsung website I also saw the link to a .pdf file that listed the apps available for various models of TVs.  I downloaded the .pdf and was gratified to see Netflix on the list for TVs like mine.

I purchased the LAN adapter from Amazon (it was on sale for $62 instead of the regular $79 price) and it arrived yesterday.  I plugged it in and the TV auto-recognized it right away.  I input my WEP security key and was ready to install the apps.  I went up on the Samsung website and set up an account then clicked on the FAQ to read how to begin and it said if I clicked on my Main Menu button I would see an internet@TV menu option.  When I did so I didn't see that menu option.  I checked under other menu options but saw nothing about setting up my internet access.  So I called Samsung tech support back and was told by a different customer representative that the model of TV I had couldn't access the app store and run apps.  I told her I had just discussed running Netflix on the TV a few days before with a different rep who I had called to verify the LAN adapter I would need and they didn't say anything about the fact that the model I had purchased would not do that.  Then I demanded to know what good was the wireless aspect of the device if I couldn't access the internet with it.  She told me I could use it to set up a PC share so I could retrieve images and movies from my computer and display on the TV.  I suppose that is better than nothing but I told her if that had been explained to me I would not have spent $62 for that feature since it wasn't that important to me.  I was fuming by then and told her quite bluntly that companies alluding to features in product literature included with products that aren't equipped to use the features just royally pisses people off. 

When I hung up in frustration, and ranted about it to my husband, he just looked at me calmly and asked why I cared about all that fancy stuff anyway?  I retorted "Because the literature said it could!" 

But Samsung isn't the only company guilty of subtly misleading customers.  On Black Friday, I also bought an LG Blu-Ray player.  The box it was packaged in had all of these logos for Netflix and YouTube and other websites plastered all over it to shout out that it was web capable.  When I got it home and unpacked it though, I discovered it only had an ethernet jack that required a cable between the player and my router.  There was no USB connection to enable you to attach a wireless adapter.  My router is three rooms away from my office so the ethernet jack is useless as I'm not going to drill  holes in my floor and crawl around under the house to run physical cable.  Again, the player does what I bought it for well - plays Blu-ray and regular DVDs just fine and I got it for a whopping $68, admittedly a good deal.  But I couldn't help but be irritated that it has the capability to access the internet but LG was too cheap to integrate wireless or even provide a simple USB connection so the much touted internet capabilities could be conveniently used. 

I read an article that said many companies that normally do not even produce plasma TVs also cleaned out their warehouses for Black Friday to seduce bargain hungry customers with outdated technology.  That is certainly not the way to win customer loyalty if my experience is typical.

I am grateful that the TV I purchased was not the main source of entertainment in our household and I'll definitely be much more skeptical and ask a lot more questions before plunking down a couple of thousand for a 3-D 55+ inch when our Mitsubishi projection TV finally gives up the ghost.  After my experience I also don't think I'll bother to participate in the Black Friday madness again if I were ever looking for another major appliance since it is apparent to me electronics manufacturers just use Black Friday to get rid of feature-starved products that haven't been selling anyway.

Related articles

• Black Friday 2010's dirty little secrets (money.cnn.com)

Geekiness a plus when buying a new TV

Since I retired my husband and I have tussled over control of the big screen TV in the living room.  He likes to watch automotive shows like "Chop, Cut, Rebuild" or "manly" reality shows like "Swamp People" or "Ax Men" while I would rather watch programs about ancient history on Discovery, Nat Geo or History Channel International.  In the winter time, he has very little to do outside so spends a lot of time watching TV.  With my publishing and photography activities, I spend much more time on the computer.  But there are times when I do want to watch a particular program and find it frustrating when he won't surrender the remote.

Last Christmas I also got a Wii game system but, again, my husband didn't want to give up watching TV so I could play a game of Wii tennis, go scuba diving in Endless Ocean, go on safari with Wild Earth, go fishing with Bass Pros or work out with Wii fit.  The only solution was to purchase another television.  But my husband balked, complaining that I would spend even more time back in my office than I already did if I had my own TV back there.

Still, I kept researching specifications so I would be prepared if the opportunity to purchase one arose and learned that all 40" TVs are not created equal. My son had told me that I should look for an LCD instead of a plasma because LCDs are more energy efficient and do not suffer pixel "burn out" as quickly as a plasma set.  I'm one of those frugal types who keeps TVs, like my car, for literally decades.  In fact, we are still watching an old picture tube-style television in the dining room that we bought way back in the 80s. (It's so heavy that now I am older I have to have help to move it if I need to clean behind the entertainment center.)  So pixel burn out would be an important consideration for people like me who plan to keep their new HD TV for a long period of time. 


Articles I have read also mentioned that plasma sets were more susceptible to burn-in as well, particularly if you watch a channel that has its logo in the lower corner of the set for hours without changing it. 

My son also recommended getting a set with at least a 120 Hz refresh rate.  Some articles say the average person cannot tell the difference between a 60 Hz and LCDs with faster refresh rates but my son felt he could tell the difference.  Although this would not be a big issue if a set is being purchased primarily for use with a Wii game system capable of only 480p resolution, it may make a difference if you watch Blu-Ray movies on it or eventually use a higher resolution game console like the PS3 or X-box.and enjoy fast-paced "shooters". 

So I tried to keep all of these things in mind as I perused the sale ads.  I knew, though, the biggest challenge would be to catch my husband at a vulnerable moment just to buy one at all.  As Christmas approached I read about HD TVs being the big bargain this season and hoped I would find a way to finally get one.

In the meantime, the old computer my husband used to search for military vehicle parts on Ebay gave up the ghost. I offered to let him use my netbook that I use when I travel but he insisted he needed something with a screen bigger than my Asus' 10 inches.  So, I suggested it was time to buy him a new laptop - another tech product expected to be a bargain this year. 

When I got the stack of sale papers for Black Friday I looked them all over and pointed out that if we could get to Walmart early enough, we could pick up an E-machine laptop with 15+" monitor, 2 Gb of Ram and a 250 GB hard drive for less than $200 - a really good buy and more than adequate for his basic web browsing needs.  However, I also noticed that the local Office Depot had a similarly equipped Lenovo - generally considered a better brand - for only a little more.   I looked wistfully at the great buys on LCD TVs but didn't mention them.  Joe decided we would get up early and try to get one of the laptops.  Since I had never been part of any Black Friday crush and remember the terrible news reports of people being trampled to death at a Walmart back east, I tenuously agreed but cautioned him that we should view it as a holiday adventure and not be too disappointed if we come home empty handed because I had no intention of getting physical with anyone to grab a bargain.

Walmart said their sale would start at 5 a.m. so we got up at 4 a.m. and drove the ten minutes to Walmart.  I thought it was strange there was no line and the doors were open.  We went inside and discovered that Walmart, that is normally open 24/7, had allowed anyone in the store after midnight to pick up the doorbuster specials and put them in their cart.  They just couldn't check out until 5 a.m.  So there were all these shoppers with full carts just loitering around.  Naturally, all the cheap laptops were gone.  So we reverted to plan B and got back into the car and drove over to Office Depot which wasn't scheduled to open until 6 a.m.  There was a line but it wasn't too long. About fifteen minutes before the scheduled opening time, the manager came out and went down the line asking which computer, camera, etc. each person was hoping to buy.  He handed out coupons for each item in stock and still had some of the Lenovo laptop coupons left when he got to me so we were able to get my husband a decent laptop. I was not only relieved to know that we were guaranteed a laptop but glad I wouldn't have to be shoved around by other anxious shoppers once the door opened. In fact, I was very  impressed that Office Depot was so organized and thoughtful.  Then we drove over to Fred Meyer, a local discount department store, so I could get a couple of sale games. 

While I was there, I was chatting with the store clerk about the good buys on HD TVs and she said if I was interested in a great HD TV, I should have been there earlier to get the 40" Samsung that was on sale for less than $500.  I purchased my game and started to walk out of the store but as I passed the sign still sitting there for the 40" Samsung LCD HDTVs (sitting on a stack of 32" TVs) I glanced over and saw there were two 40" TV cartons slid back along the bottom of the stack.  So I walked back in and asked the clerk if either of those were the ones she was talking about.  She said "Wow, I didn't think there were any left".  So, just hoping my husband would relent, I walked out to the car and told him about the sets.  He was still feeling lucky about his new laptop so he just said it was my money if I wanted to buy one.  I could hardly believe my ears So I raced back inside and wrestled one into my cart.

I thought the sale sign indicated the set I was buying had a 120 Hz refresh rate so I figured I was all set.

I got the TV home and hooked it up and was pleasantly surprised to find that it had 4 HDMI outlets, 2 USB ports, DVI audio and video connections for a PC, a couple of different composite video connections, optical audio and an ethernet jack. It's instruction manual said it could also be used with a USB Wifi adapter that, for me, would be much more convenient since my router is three rooms away from my office.  By using WiFi, I could stream Netflix directly to the set and get full 1080p HD resolution instead of reduced resolution by streaming Netflix through my Wii connected via composite video.  I tried using one of my spare Qwest DSL USB adapters but the TV wouldn't recognize it.  Samsung tech support confirmed that I had to purchase a proprietary USB Lan adapter (that I got on sale for $62 from Amazon) - a bit annoying but not a deal breaker.

With additional research, I also learned that the model I had purchased was not 120 Hz after all despite what the sign said .  I  called Fred Meyer but their customer service rep said the model I had was the correct model and that they had never even stocked any 120 Hz models.  Maybe I was wrong about the sign.  It could have been wishful thinking on my part and the sign is long gone.  I must admit I got so excited when my husband agreed to let me buy one I may have forgotten to check.

But, I also learned that this particular model had an excellent contrast ratio (90,000:1) compared to less expensive sets.  I had never considered contrast ratio and learned that the higher the contrast ratio the better range of difference between white and black.

This specification is especially important if you locate your TV in a brightly lit room or a room with a lot of windows.  As it turns out, my TV is on the wall opposite two French doors flanked by two windows - glass from almost floor to ceiling.  But I noticed that there is hardly any glare, the picture is finely detailed and the colors appear rich.   Many times, watching our old projection TV in the living room, my husband and I have been frustrated when movies would have night scenes because all we could see was a black screen.  We could only listen to the audio.


Later in the day on Black Friday, I managed to snag an internet ready Blu-Ray player for only $68.  So, I purchased my first Blu-Ray movie, "Prince of Persia", and when I tried out the new player on the new TV I marveled at how well I could see details, even in night scenes.  Contrast ratio, then must be an important consideration for settings like mine.

Reading over articles like this one  on my How-to-Geek website,  I also learned that pixel response time is considered important as well.  The model I purchased has a 6 millisecond pixel response time.  The 6 ms response time is not ultra fast but I must admit I didn't notice any motion blur with either my Blu-Ray movies or my Wii games so perhaps this spec, like the refresh spec, is not as important as some officianados may claim.  Even if I eventually add another game system, I personally am not interested in fast-paced shooting games so it probably is not that important to me anyway. 

Overall, for the money I spent, I managed to get a set that I think will serve my needs well for a reasonable price.  If  someone were to ask me which features I think are most important, I would rank them in the following order:

• LCD (instead of plasma)
• 1080p (instead of 780p)
• Overall screen dimensions (get as much screen real estate as possible for your budget if your space allows)
• Number and variety of component connections - at least 2 USB and 3 or more HDMI (especially if you plan to use multiple game systems or other high-definition components)
• Wifi ready so you can view web-based content like Netflix instant streaming, YouTube videos, and other sites with streaming multimedia since streaming media is the delivery mode of the future (that's also why you need the second USB port until manufacturers start integrating Wifi)
• High Contrast Ratio for use in brightly lit environments
• At least 120 Hz refresh rate (a nod to my son's observations although the 60 Hz I ended up with has no problem with motion blur that my older eyes can detect) 
• pixel response time ( as close to 1 ms as you can get without paying too much of a premium)
• LED for energy savings if you can afford the price difference

As noted above, I realize an LED LCD would have been more energy efficient but I would have had to up the ante in price quite a bit to get it and since the set I purchased was for infrequent use in my office compared to daylong use in the living room, it was a good compromise. 

As I think back on all the information I tried to assimilate before taking the plunge of buying an HD TV I can't help but wonder, though, how regular people without the "geek" background that I have sort through all the confusing hype to actually select a TV.  Maybe, ultimately, that is what has been holding back adoption of HD for so long.

Related articles

• Deciphering the technical lingo when buying a new TV (techburgh.com)
• Are plasma TV brands staging a comeback? (blogs.consumerreports.org)

Turn a simple search into a nonprofit donation

I received an email today from GoodSearch.com reminding me that by using the Yahoo-powered service when I conduct my online research I could generate badly needed donations for charities of my choice.  Apparently the service was featured by a major news network but I must have missed the piece - a hazard sometimes of being a television by satellite customer!  Anyway, I checked it out and it seems to be highly recommended.  I'm not used to using Yahoo as my default search engine but I suppose it doesn't hurt to give it a try.  I installed the GoodSearch toolbar, available from their website, into my browser to make it easier to incorporate this new way of giving into my daily work tasks. 

Many non-profits are really hurting this year.  I read that even the uber-rich have cut back their giving by as much as 38% - a real tragedy considering so many agencies that help low income households are literally swamped with so many people unemployed right now. 

"GoodSearch.com is a Yahoo powered search engine which donates about a penny per search to the user’s favorite charity or school! You use it exactly as you would any other search engine, but it turns the simple act of doing an Internet search into an act of doing good.  And the pennies add up quickly.  Just 500 people searching four times a day will earn approximately $7,300 a year!  And, it doesn’t cost the users a thing!

In addition, the sister site GoodShop.com has partnered with more than 1,600 retailers including Target, Apple, Macy’s, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Gap, PETCO and others to donate a percentage of each purchase back to the charity or school of the shopper’s choice (as well as provide thousands of coupons and free shipping offers).

 

More than 95,000 nonprofits and schools are on-board and seeing the results! (We can give you a list of some in your area.)

GoodSearch and GoodShop have quickly spread via word-of-mouth, the blogger community, and a number of celebrities and their foundations including Jessica Biel, Montel Williams, Jeff Bridges, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw among others. 

• Supporters of the ASPCA have raised over $37,000 to help animals in need
• St. Jude Children's Research Hospital has earned more than $13,000 to find cures and save children
• The National Inclusion Project, which helps children with disabilities, has used the money it earned to send more than 150 children to summer camp
• A single purchase at Gaiam.com resulted in a $284 donation to the Motion Mania Dance Theater in Maryland

Internet users have found GoodSearch and GoodShop to be a compelling idea.  Beth Elson, a lawyer in Chicago, uses GoodSearch and GoodShop to support the Best Friends Animal Society which runs the nation's largest sanctuary for abused and abandoned animals.  “This seems too good to be true but it’s not! I feel fantastic knowing that every time I search the Internet – which I do all the time – I’m helping a cause I care so much about.  It’s a no-brainer to use this site!”

The GoodSearch and GoodShop team is revolutionizing online philanthropy so that no one is denied the opportunity to support the causes most important to them.  “The response to this idea has been truly overwhelming,” said Ken Ramberg, Co-Founder of GoodSearch and former President of JOBTRAK, the largest online career site for college students (which was acquired by Monster.com). “More than 100 new nonprofits and schools nationwide register daily allowing GoodSearch and GoodShop to truly make a difference in communities across the country.  These sites make it possible for everyone, regardless of how much time or money they have, to give back.”

Related articles

• GoodSearch Announces Issuance of US Patent for Charitable Search Engine (eon.businesswire.com)
• How to research a charity before donating your money (usatoday.com)

S-T-R-E-T-C-H-I-N-G iPhone Battery Life

Image via WikipediaI've never been one to chat much on my iPhone.  In fact, there are months when I don't use any of my available talk minutes even though I have used the data features.  So, unless there is a crisis of some kind in the works, when I travel a long distance I often turn my iPhone off completely to conserve its battery since I may not be able to recharge it until late at night or, in the case of overseas flights, until sometime the next day.   As a member of the baby boomer generation, I was not raised with cell phones so don't feel "disconnected" when I am not "available".  But for those of you who can't quite bring yourselves to sever your umbilical to your connected friends, family members and colleagues, this article offers other less drastic ways to help stretch the battery life of your iPhone, iPod or iPad.  I'm sure these techniques would also work with non-apple Smartphones as well.

Of those listed, I found the following most helpful to me:

Make Sure the Screen Locks Quickly

Even if you’ve adjusted the screen brightness, there’s still no substitute for having it turn off quickly when you’re not using it. Head into General -> Auto-Lock to set the screen lock to happen as quickly as your device will let you. This makes a big difference if you are always picking up your phone and putting it back into your pocket without turning the display off.

 I have mine set for 1 minute.

Use Airplane Mode When You Don’t Need Internet (iPad/iPhone)

If you’re busy spending the next 8 hours playing Angry Birds, there might not be a good reason to have internet access, so you can consider using Airplane Mode, which turns off both Wi-Fi and the regular wireless radio. Of course, this will prevent phone calls if you’re on an iPhone—but if you’re busy with Angry Birds you probably don’t want the interruption anyway.

 My grandson recently loaded Angry Birds on my phone but I much prefer iFishing, Spear Fishing 3D, Sims 3 World Adventure or Sudoku and I hate to be interrupted if I have a fish on!!

Use Wi-Fi Instead of 3G if Possible

According to Apple, the iPad will get 10 hours of battery life under regular use with Wi-Fi enabled, but will only get 9 hours using 3G—the iPhone gets 6 for 3G and 10 for Wi-Fi. Of course, if you’re heavily using the Wi-Fi, you’ll still be draining the battery—the point is under similar workloads, Wi-Fi is better than 3G for battery life.

I actually can't get a cell signal when I'm at home anyway so I always have my Wifi network configured to ON.

Reduce or Eliminate Mail & Calendar Checking

If you’ve got a bunch of email, calendar, or contact accounts configured, and they are all being checked and downloading email on a regular basis, you’ll be draining the battery an awful lot faster than you need to.
Head into Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars -> Fetch New Data and change the setting to the least frequent check possible. If you don’t use it often, you can just turn Push off entirely and then manually check when you need to.

Now that I'm retired, I don't have to worry about someone other than me updating my calendar and I seldom use my iPhone to check mail.  Since I no longer have to worry about malfunctioning servers or frantic grant researchers who can't perform some technology function and are facing a grant submission deadline, I can usually wait until I'm in front of my regular computer to respond to email.  So I turned off the constant checking and will just manually enable it if I need to take a peek.

Disable Bluetooth If You Don’t Need It

If you don’t use a Bluetooth headset or keyboard, you should keep the Bluetooth radio disabled to save some extra battery life. Head into Settings -> General -> Bluetooth to flip it on or off.

Since I never treat talking on the phone as a priority I have never seen a reason to buy a headset so this one was a no brainer for me.

Probably the most important advice was at the end of the article.

Charge and Discharge Your Battery Regularly

Your iDevice needs to be fully discharged and recharged at least once a month to operate at maximum efficiency and keep the battery from dying. You’ll also want to make sure that you don’t store the device with a dead battery, as that can also cause the battery to lose charge capability—when your battery dies, make sure to recharge it quickly.

This one is hard for me since I seldom run my phone's battery down.  This also probably applies to laptops and serves as a good reminder for me since my netbook has only been recharged a couple of times since I returned from Rome in March of 2009.  I'll obviously have to be more dilligent!

Related articles

• Native Google Voice Returns To iPhone (informationweek.com)
• Apple iPhone 5 Specs Leaked (geniusgeeks.com)

     

Excluding digital camera transfer folders from antivirus scan list boosts performance

Recently, I removed McAfee and Spybot and installed Microsoft Security Essentials and my computer performance seems to have improved.  But I am always looking for other ways to improve its speed and I found this article on excluding "known good" folders from your antivirus scan list to speed up computer performance helpful.  I took this article's advice and excluded the folder where I transfer images from my digital camera since I know they are virus-free and take up gigabytes of disk space.

It also recommended excluding folders containing music files as long as you are obtaining your music files from a reliable source like Amazon, iTunes, or Audible.com.  I have an Audible subscription and download large audio book files from them every month so I guess I should exclude those as well.


The article points out that you should always exclude by file folder rather than by file type or file name.  As long as you keep files from particular sources (like your digital camera) in their own folder that is kept separate from folders with downloaded files from the internet, it works quite well.

Related articles

• Microsoft vs. McAfee: How free antivirus outperformed paid (kansasdad.blogspot.com)
• Monitor Folders for any changes, additions, deletions with Folder Spy (madrasgeek.com)

HDMI 4.1 fills the bill even for 3-D devices coming this holiday season

Until I read this article I thought HDMI was the only choice for new HD electronic components but I guess there is something called Display Port.  Since I retired I guess I'm getting a little slow on tracking electronic trends!


Image via Wikipedia

DisplayPort is another new video connector that’s being included on newer equipment, especially laptops.  It was designed as the successor to DVI and VGA on computers, but hasn’t seen as much adoption as either DVI or HDMI.  However, it is being included on all newer Macs and many Dell, HP, and Lenovo computers.  It is actually very similar to HDMI, so it streams both HD video and audio on the same cable, and can output up to 1920×1080 resolution and 8 channels of audio on a single cable.

 On the good side, DisplayPort does support HDCP, so you can use it to playback protected HD content from Blu-rays and more.  You can also connect it to an HDMI or DVI port with a  convertor, since the digital signal is compatible.  The problem is, few monitors and TVs include DisplayPort ports, so you’ll almost have to have a convertor if you want to connect your laptop to a larger screen. -What’s the Difference Between HDMI and DVI? Which is Better?

 I was relieved to see that "Geeks" agrees with my favorite bargain hunter, Stacy Johnson, who says a cheap $10 HDMI cable is all you need too.  Monster cables costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars are a ridiculous waste of money.  That company needs to reinvent itself now that digital video is becoming so widespread.  


The one question this article didn't answer for me, though, was whether the current crop of HDMI cables will handle true 3D that will be available on HD televisions this holiday season.  But, I found this statement about the new HDMI 4.1 standard.

The latest version of the HDMI standard establishes critical infrastructure for implementing 3D video in the home, defining input/output protocols that will allow 3D displays and source devices to communicate through an HDMI link. It’s a major milestone on the path to bringing true 3D gaming and 3D home theater to the mass market, supporting resolutions up to 1080p in 3D.
3D technology is evolving rapidly, with several competing approaches under development, so the HDMI 1.4 specification establishes protocols for a number of popular 3D display methods, including:

• Frame, line, or field alternative methods
• Side by side methods (full and half)
• 2D plus depth methods

  - HDMI.org

       

Compromised credit cards a pain when used for autopays

A couple of days ago I received ANOTHER call from the security department of a credit card that I use for all of my online autopayments telling me that a new card they just sent me a month ago has already been compromised.  I'm afraid I lost my temper and really gave the poor security representative a piece of my mind.

As a retired director of information systems for a college at a major university for over 20 years, I am well aware of hazards involved with e-commerce and have always taken all of the prescribed precautions.  I have used online credit transactions since the time they were first introduced on the internet and I have gone years without problems.  Now in less than two months one of my credit cards has been compromised twice.

Naturally, this makes me immediately suspicious that the bank's own database has been compromised, especially since the new card had not been used for anything but autopayments to my electric company, my satellite TV provider, my long distance company, etc. but they insist that it hasn't.  I asked them how they knew to call me to check on a suspicious transaction then and they told me that the perpetrator of the fraudulent purchase did not use the correct security code or my correct address.  These types of thieves use a number generator to generate random 16-digit numbers that are then used online to see if they will be accepted for online purchases.  If a small transaction goes through, it lets them know the number is a valid credit card number.   Then they attempt even larger purchases. 

So I asked them why, then, did their system allow the transaction to go through? I've written computer programs and I know their system could be programmed to automatically deny these types of fraudulent purchase attempts.

I also explained to them that I was using their credit card for my online autopayments so having to reset all of my account information for all of my service providers was very time consuming.   They just kept repeating to me that they were sorry for the inconvenience but wasn't I gratified that they were so observant.

Then they asked me how I wanted to receive my new card.  They "offered' to send a replacement card to me for ONLY $30 by express delivery.  I snapped back that I wasn't going to pay $30 for what I deemed was their mistake!  I told them if they would put the new card in US mail I would have it in a couple of days anyway.  Oh no, they said.  It would take time to prepare the new card so I wouldn't get it for 10 days to 2 weeks.  I just snorted back that I had a whole drawer full of empty credit cards and I'd just pick another one, then, to use in the meantime!!  I don't think the credit card rep expected that response.

This last ploy to get $30 out of me made me suspicious that the bank itself was pulling a scam trying to get yet another fee to replace all the fees they used to make before the government cracked down on them a couple of months ago.  After all, both compromises occurred right at the end of the month when autopayments are being processed.  Both compromises involved two very small transactions from an online vendor I couldn't even find online.

Anyway, now I had the problem of what to do about my autopayments again. 

So, I decided to use a card for my autopays from a different bank.  I have a Bank of America card and I noticed that they offer a free service called "Safe Shop".  To use it you set up an online banking account then you go under your credit card account and click on a link for More Details.  There you will see a link to set up a Safe Shop card. 

Safe Shop is like a virtual credit card with its own number, its own security code and its own credit limit that you set that is connected to your real credit card.  If you want to set up a recurring payment for something like Netflix you create a virtual Safe Shop VISA and specify a maximum amount allowable per month for the transaction and how many months of transactions you wish to authorize up to a maximum of 12 months. 

For example, I generated a Safe Shop VISA for Netflix and set a $10 payment limit for 12 months.  Then I logged into Netflix went to my account settings and entered the new "virtual" Safe Shop VISA information as my new source for autopayments.  Each Safe Shop VISA can only be used at one location. 

To set up my next autopay for my puppies' pet insurance account I generated another Safe Shop VISA, set a credit limit sufficient to cover the premiums for 12 months then called VPI (my pet insurance company) and gave them my new Safe Shop VISA information for their account. 

Only Bank of America has the association key to link these virtual VISAs to my real credit card.  My real credit card number is never given to any online vendor and each vendor has a different virtual VISA number that cannot be reused so it eliminates the possibility that an employee of any of the online vendors could use my credit card number anywhere else. 

I just have to set myself a reminder next September to go back and reissue new virtual VISAs for my next 12 months of autopayments since the maximum number of months of credit you can set per virtual card is 12.  It's worth an hour once each year to be able to take care of bill paying in a more secure fashion.  By the way, you can also generate a virtual VISA for just a single online purchase too for those occasional online bargains!

The service is entirely free.

I realize this process is not as convenient as the One-click shopping that many larger vendors are attempting to get you to use but it's worth the piece of mind.

Museums take baby steps with iPhone Apps

Edward Rothstein, art critic for the New York Times, gave his take on the museum iPhone apps that are popping up all over New York.  I think he is right on target when he points to GPS as the key to make the retrieval of information about objects in a particular collection much more seamless for the visitor.

Imagine standing in front of an object with an app that, sensing your location, is already displaying precisely the right information. It might offer historical background or direct you through links to other works that have some connection to the object. It might provide links to critical commentary. It might become, for each object, an exhibition in itself, ripe with alternate narratives and elaborate associations. And, best of all, you could save it for later, glance up from the screen and look carefully at what faces you, all scrims removed, all distractions discarded.- Edward Rothstein, From Picassos to Sarcophagi, Guided by iPhone Apps

I must admit, though, that I was surprised he pointed out that the app information may not even be equal to the information on the item's printed ID card.  Why aren't museum inventory databases connected to such information retrieval systems so a visitor can view at least all of the information on the ID card if nothing else?

I was also surprised that he complained that many objects' search tags are so obtuse.

Monet’s “Church at Vernon,” (from the Brooklyn Museum of Art) we learn, is tagged “blue,” “dreamy,” “hazy,”  Rothstein observes, puzzled.

At first I thought he meant that only those tags were entered.  However, by looking at the link Rothstein provided to the Brooklyn Museum's actual object record for this painting, we see there are 28 tags for this work of art and the museum invites visitors to add more tags.  Tags like "dreamy" actually serve to record a visitor's emotional response to the painting and although such a tag is subjective I agree with the museum's inclusion of it since art is suppose to evoke an emotional response from the viewer.  I had never thought about tagging art with emotional terms before but I like it!

For those of us who are trying to assist educators and students by providing photographs that we have taken of museum art objects and artifacts, how about an application that we can use to sync the Geocoordinates recorded as XIF data in the images from our cameras with the museum's inventory records so we can be  certain we are labeling images correctly.  Now I have to remember to photograph the image's ID card and, if the information is provided in a list of object descriptions, align the information in such a way that I can distinguish it from entries above and below it.  Similar objects are often displayed together so its not always obvious which description goes with which object unless you take an image that includes the item's number.  I take a lot of detail closeups that do not include the item number so I may not have a number for reference when I am working on my images in post production.

In fact, a perfect application based on the Flickr API using the Flickr Uploader interface would match the image coordinates with the inventory records then use the Title, artist, date, location made, and medium for the Title field, populate the tag field with the museum's tags formatted as needed for Flickr then populate the description field with a "Photographed by (photographer name) at (linked Museum name)", like I do now manually. 

I like the way the Brooklyn Museum displays related works by tag groups in their records.  Ideally, I think it would be even more helpful if the related object images were linked to a gallery map indicating each related object's location so a visitor that was interested in comparison could easily find them.

In fact, a visitor tracking system based on GPS could alert visitors to small exhibits in adjoining alcoves that might have been missed if the visitor begins to leave a main gallery space without a travel path into the adjoining alcove.  I usually try to be quite thorough when I am photographing museum collections but on my second visit to the Getty Villa, I noticed a display of ancient coins and jewelry in a small alcove off of one of their main galleries that I just hadn't seen on my first visit.  I'm very fortunate that I travel to the LA area on business at least once a year so I've been able to visit the Getty three times.  However, when I'm overseas, I may be in a museum only once - perhaps in my entire lifetime - so I don't want to miss little treasures tucked away in obscure areas of the museum. 

Museums could also analyze these travel path records to determine if objects could be displayed differently to avoid visitor oversight.

        

Star Trek vs. Star Wars Fake Movie Trailer Points The Way to Online Remix Service

This morning I received a link to a fake movie trailer where the Starship Enterprise and her crew (circa Star Trek: The Next Generation) race to save planet earth from Emperor Palpatine, Darth Vader and their evil minions.



The YouTube producer 2SunsNoWomen did an excellent job of integrating scenes from:

Star Trek (2009)
Star Trek First Contact
Star Trek Generations
Star Trek Nemesis
Star Wars A New Hope
Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Revenge of the Sith

Yes, I was an original Trekker and seeing scenes from Star Trek is like savoring a mouthful of my favorite dessert.  Star Trek must still be the favorite dessert for a lot of other people as I see the video has almost 40,000 views in less than a week!

My dream would be to easily have the ability to create a similar mashup of movie clips and share online with an online movie subscription and an enhanced remote control.  I have read that some Blue Ray DVDs include a mashup feature but I'm told its pretty primitive compared to a clip like this one .  I can only speculate as, alas, my husband says I can't get HD until our big screen bites the dust (which could be quite a while since we just replaced the convergence component last year).  I must admit even I want to wait until the dust settles around 3D integration but my resolve weakens everytime I walk into Best Buy or the entertainment department of Sears.

Of course there is also the problem of accessing clips from films produced by different studios.  I noticed after working in higher ed for over 20 years that a lot of people used to talk about the synergy that could be achieved with interdisciplinary courses but very few professors actually tried developing them.  Perhaps when we finally get enough critical mass of streaming customers to motivate the studios to move all movies to online delivery maybe they'll introduce a movie remix service that will let us add multiple movies to a project space much like Microsoft MovieMaker does, mark start and stop points on a movie to isolate desired scenes, edit, then save to Youtube and share via email, Twitter and Facebook.

I'd love to take a crack at a remix of Oliver Stone's "Alexander".  The introduction of the theatrical release was so slow and drawn out that even I was tapping my foot impatiently on the theater floor waiting for something to happen!  I purchased the director's cut when it was released on DVD and it was an improvement but still too low key for a tale about such a dynamic conqueror.  I think I would have started with the scenes of young Alexander (Connor Paolo) and King Philip II (Val Kilmer) in the dank cave below their palace in Pella looking at paintings of legendary heroes on the cave walls.



I would intersperse live battle scenes at points where the camera shows a closeup of  drawings of the eagle pecking out Prometheus' liver, the helmeted warrior with an arrow protruding from his eye and Herakles thrusting up the body of one of his children, then cut away to Alexander looking over the aftermath of the battle of Gaugamela followed by the camera pulling back and up to encompass the whole battlefield.  Then I would proceed from that point on. 

Sorry Sir Anthony Hopkins, you're a heck of an actor but listening to an old character ramble on for twenty minutes is not the way to open an historical epic IMHO.