New column with our first annual back-to...

New column with our first annual back-to-school buying guide 

Introducing GoLocal Tech: Back-to-School Buying Guide for College Students

Introducing our newest feature - GoLocal Tech by local tech expert Karl Hakkarainen.

In our back-to-school buying guide for college students, we’ll help you find the laptops, printers, and relat...

Introducing GoLocal Tech

I've started a new project, GoLocal Tech, a weekly technology column for GoLocal in Worcester and Providence. This week's column provides back-to-school computer recommendations for college students (and those who are paying for their education). Next week, we'll make technology recommendations for K-12 students. In the coming weeks, I plan to review new products such as Windows 8, Mac OS X Mountain Lion (version 10.8), and the Google Nexus 7 tablet,  report on local Kickstarter projects, and answers to readers' questions.

If you have topics that you'd like to have me cover, let me know.

And this is why we want our kids to learn...

And this is why we want our kids to learn more technology, so that computers can feel our pain.

Bio-boffins create world's first digital STD • The Register

A bacterium that in humans can cause genital pain, itching, and a burning sensation while urinating has become the subject of the first-ever complete software simulation of an entire organism, the New...

Is this also a way of validating users''...

Is this also a way of validating users'' identities? 

Washington State will enable voter registration via Facebook

State adds social media to 2008 online registration setup.

If Florida didn't exist, we'd have to invent...

If Florida didn't exist, we'd have to invent it.

Parking lot baby earns soda sobriquet

A baby born in the Parking lot of a 7-Eleven is to be named Cais "Big Gulps" Malley after the convenience chain's signature soda offering. [Florida Today]

EMC has had a good run and VMware has great...

EMC has had a good run and VMware has great brand recognition, but the relationship has never been clear. This series of moves is giving us clues of how a coherent message might be crafted.

Well played, EMC.

EMC might be smarter than we thought it was. If it handles the rumored spin-out and the Maritz-Gelsinger transition well, the companies under its banner could do great things. Of course, there are a l...

New banking software algorithms are providing...

New banking software algorithms are providing bankers with fresh insights into customer activities, government data, and financial markets, and can lead to core and operational improvements.

Better Bank Systems - Karl Hakkarainen - Finding Meaning in Banking's Numbers

Calling on such far-flung disciplines as neurology and astronomy, bank analytics provide a new glimpse into economic data, financial markets, and the seemingly fickle customer.

Securing the perimeter of your WAN is now...

Securing the perimeter of your WAN is now more urgent and easier with the release of the latest iteration of the WiFi Pineapple.

The Mobility Hub - Karl Hakkarainen - That Friendly Hotspot May Eat Your Lunch

The inventor of the WiFi Pineapple offers some advice for keeping your network safe.

It's too late to feel old

At a lunch meeting recently, I introduced myself to some new people. I mentioned that I used to work with a mutual friend when we were at DEC 20 years ago.

"What did they do?" asked one twenty-something web-developer type.

"They were a big deal," said another of the attendees, a gray-beard like me. "They made minicomputers. Most of the original UNIX development was done on DEC systems."

"They were, at their peak," I said, "the second-largest computer company after IBM." Hoping to bring a bit more geekiness to the discussion, I added, "They had 36-bit systems."

"Cool," said the young guy. Not as in admiration, but in the same way that I listened to my father talk about converting a Model A car into a small tractor.

I wasn't trying to impress anyone with where I'd worked. I was just stating facts. My street cred wasn't established until much later, when I mentioned that my grandkids call me when they need help with their computers.

Things and people and ideas go from urgent to irrelevant in the simple slip of time.  This is the way that the old become invisible.

Book review: Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy

There are two big challenge for people  trying to develop a unified content strategy, challenges that Ann Rockley and Charles Cooper's book, Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy, don't overcome.

The first is that most organizations don't care about a unified content strategy.  In every business, there are good ideas that languish because no one high in the food chain cares enough to listen to reason. The costs and schedule delays are too small and spread across too many organizational boundaries for any one person to see a major impact on business operations, expenses, or revenue.

Enterprise content is, first and foremost, about the enterprise, not about the content. The enterprise is an ecosystem that produces content, to be sure, but it's mostly concerned with staying healthy by making sure that no one loses their job because they made a bad choice.

Down in the trenches, the problems are all too prevalent. Anyone who has to write anything knows that someone else is writing almost the same stuff someplace else. Things are slightly out of date or out of phase. To fix it, though, requires a major shift in operations and management. It ain't gonna happen.

The second thing is that users don't care much, either. If the manual or online help is out of date, they'll use Google or Twitter to find the answer. It gets to the point that even if the content is correct, users are so out of the habit of trusting the docs that they'll go to Google or their neighbor or the kid down the street before they'll read a help file.

So, managing enterprise content isn't about identifying types of content, developing a taxonomy that resolves concepts and terminology into a coherent whole, or any of that, as important as those steps might be. It's about understanding a) why executives don't care and b) why users don't care and then delivers something that resonates with them.

The book has no mention of organizational issues or ROI or search or SEO or even Google. In other words, the book provides valuable tips (of which there are many)  for developing and managing content unencumbered by management or users.

I've been reading books like this, along with companion white papers and presentations and sales pitches, for a quarter-century. For most of that time, I'd get excited about each new analysis, only to see another project founder on the rocks of executive apathy. I'm disappointed that we haven't advanced beyond these good books and toward solutions that executives want to deliver and people want to use.

---

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review. I will donate my copy of the book. I was not compensated in any other way.

How to turn online customer service into a lost sale

I needed to order something from Intuit's online store. I went to the site, needed a bit of assistance retrieving a past order, and used the online chat service for help.

Twenty minutes later, after two up-sell attempts, my order is incomplete and I'm looking around at other places that I can buy the same stuff.

The task should have take three minutes at the most. The intrusion of the online chat slowed everything. In my first note, I indicated what I needed for help. Three questions later, the humanoid named Ken asked if I was ready to place the order. I restated what I needed. He fetched the information and then added two paragraphs about a feature that I didn't want or need. I declined the offer.

Mid-way through the nearly-final steps, he asked again, this time offering to sell me pens with tamper-proof ink. At that point, I bailed out, concluding the chat with a statement that I didn't plan to shop at Intuit again.

Sadly, of course, they've got a near monopoly on personal (Quicken) and small business financial software (QuickBooks). Because they've reached that saturation point, they don't have good ways of increasing revenue except by trying to add marginal features wherever they can.

Wouldn't it be great if businesses could say, "We make enough money. We'll maintain our products, issue upgrades to stay current with operating systems and other external requirements, and just make stuff work well. We won't load your product with new and unneeded features until it's both unrecognizable and unusable." ? Yup, that'll happen right after the unicorn parade.

No time for these old roads

Working from home, I drive a lot less these days. It's often two weeks between visits to the gas station. My trips have a purpose, to run errands or go to an appointment or to get from one place to another by a specific time. I drive familiar roads and glance down the side roads. I still know where the side roads go, but it's been years, decades, since I traveled them.

Cars way back when had odometers with removable cables. In some cases, you could hook up a power drill and take miles off of the car in a matter of minutes. My father routinely disconnected the cable on his car, "to keep it young." He'd reconnect it so that the mileage look low, but reasonable.

As a teenager, then, I could drive a couple hundred miles in a day and refill the tank for three bucks. I drove back roads around the small towns of north central Massachusetts, the barely paved roads that wrapped around Mount Wachusett, the twisted tunnels with tree branches shielding the sky. Miles from town, a trailer might have been plunked into a small plot of more-or-less level land. Many houses had more cars than people on the chance that enough cars would start on any given morning.

And so, the other day, coming back from a meeting in Amherst, I took a road I'd not traveled, Monson Turnpike northward toward Athol. Monson Turnpike would have reached Monson except for the intervention of the Quabbin Reservoir in the 1930s. (This 1895 map gives you an idea of the roads before the Quabbin was filled.) The road merged into another road in Athol, nice and nicer houses along the way. The Athol-Royalston Middle School is on the south side of Athol, as far from Royalston as you can get, an eight-to-ten mile ride for school kids.

It wasn't much of a diversion, just a few miles out of my way, but enough to remember that there are old roads that were important once. There are more than enough ways to get anyplace quickly, if that's what you want.

Bought my last HP printer

HP is using WSD ports when its networked printers are configured on Windows 7. (There may be more details on this, but this is as much as I've found.)
The trouble is that, for some machines in some environments, the service that resolves these virtual ports into an IP address will often fail and so the print jobs just sit in the queue. Changing the printer port to an IP port fixes the problem. You then have to make sure that your printer is set up with a static IP address.
This is just the latest in a series of problems that I've had with HP printer software. I also Epson and Brother printers; none of them have had anything like the kinds of setup woes that HP has inflicted on me.
In other words, bye-bye, HP.

New technologies in "smart branches" have...

New technologies in "smart branches" have enhanced bank revenues at the same time as backend savings improve profitability. Most interestingly, these innovations have generally been taking place outside the US.

Better Bank Systems - Karl Hakkarainen - Smart Branches Follow Smart Upgrades

As banks update their core systems, they are better able to reinvent branch banking as well.

Yours truly writes for Digital Draw

Yours truly writes for Digital Draw

BlueWater Technologies Sponsors Digital Draw, an Online Community for Banking Marketing Professionals

BlueWater Promotes its Digital Signage Solutions for Banking Southfield, Michigan – July 10, 2012 –BlueWater Technologies, a national provider of Me

When the moon hits your eye ...

When we remodeled the camp, we^[1] reused a couple of small windows. One is in our bedroom. For a couple of nights, about 2;30, the moon is at just the proper angle to shine directly into my eyes. The skies have been clear so that, even in its waning phase, the moon is bright. When that can happen again is an exercise left to the astronomers.

^[1]When I say we, I mean people who know which end of the hammer not to hit their thumbs with.

Working for a salary won't make you rich...

Working for a salary won't make you rich.

How the Rich Got Rich

Like to emulate the success of others? If wealth is what you're after, look to an unconventional source for tips: the IRS.

JC Penney brought in the best, but, sadly...

JC Penney brought in the best, but, sadly, it has little to show for its effort.

With Apple's former chief retailer Ron Johnson hired as CEO and the eminently likable Ellen DeGeneres acting as high-profile spokeswoman, JCP early this year launched a new branding and pricing strategy to shed its stodgy and profitless past. Alas, it appears that former customers are staying away, new ones aren't showing up, and the company president has just quit.

Read the rest of my blog post JC Penney Stumbles: Can It Recover?

War driving made easy

Sharing Internet access in networks of cars via WiFi | KurzweilAI

A new algorithm that would allow Wi-Fi-connected cars to share their Internet connections has been developed by engineers at MIT, Georgetown University,

No publication does better headlines than The Register

No publication does better headlines than The Register, not even The Onion. Oh, and the content is brilliant, too.

Door creaks and girl farts: computing in the real world • Reg Hardware

 

Bring it on, space alien h@k3rz. We've got the DMCA.

Even though researchers are worried that signals captured by search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) might carry a virus-laden payload, we're getting even in the best way that we know how. We've put copyright-protected music and text on the interstellar missionary Voyager.

 

One more thing that we'll need as casino...

One more thing that we'll need as casino gambling comes to Massachusetts

Casino Gives City a Citizen Alerts App

In return, free promotion for the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom in New Hampshire is displayed in the emergency app.

The downside of the big push to STEM education...

The downside of the big push to STEM education and IT credentialing in colleges is that we're preparing people for careers that they don't want. (They don't want IT careers because they watch us and hear us complain about how boring the work is.)

'Young people don't want to become like us', say IT pros • The Register

According to the polled professionals, the most attractive areas to youngsters are social networking (39 per cent reckon so) then mobile (21 per cent) and gaming (17 per cent). Half (49 per cent) said...

New blog community for developing and deploying applications on the cloud.

New blog community for developing and deploying applications on the cloud. I'll be a regular contributor

Develop in the Cloud - Keith Dawson - Welcome to Develop in the Cloud

Notes on cloud development resources

Notes on cloud development resources

Develop in the Cloud - Karl Hakkarainen - Mobile App Developers Rely on Cloud Services

There's no guarantee that you'll be successful with the cloud, but it's pretty clear that you won't be successful without it.

When a bank suffers a major IT disaster,...

When a bank suffers a major IT disaster, it can get ugly really fast. A failure during a software upgrade at RBS led to a four-day outage. The CEO did say that he was sorry and that it wasn't caused by the bank's outsourcing program. And, besides, he said, it was CA's fault.

Read more at Better Bank Systems - Karl Hakkarainen - Passing Blame on Core System Failures

HR professionals increasingly rely on mobile...

HR professionals increasingly rely on mobile apps to give them access to enterprise systems and productivity tools wherever their offices might be at the moment. To protect this sensitive data, app vendors must provide solutions with multi-level security that protects this sensitive data on the device, in transit, and in the API.

The Mobility Hub - Karl Hakkarainen - Securing Mobile HR Apps

Mobile HR apps need robust security features and users who understand that data security is essential.

More on warning labels

Ever helpful that they are, manufacturers are always trying to make sure that we use their products in the proper manner. Therefore, in the case of my Samsung Network Extender (aka a Femto cell), I've been cautioned to keep the gadget upright, cautioned by way of a warning printed on the bottom.

This may be longer longest day than folks...

This may be longer longest day than folks expected.

Anyone else experiencing high rates of linux server crashes today?

Just today, Sat June 30th - starting soon after the start of the day GMT. We've had a handful of blades in different datacentres as managed by different teams all go dark - not responding to pings, sc...

More on work

Making the rounds of hot topics this week is an article in the Atlantic by Anne-Marie Slaughter. Why Women Still Can’t Have It All tells the story of a woman who gives up her position as a aide to Secretary of State Clinton to, without euphemism, spend more time with her family.

Slaughter has worked in the rarefied levels of government with lots of hours and lots of travel. She decided that working like this wasn't working for her. It's easy to be skeptical of someone who truly has so many options available. After the first few paragraphs, I was ready to argue that point, but she brought in a number of threads that I thought were good.

Because we expect to live longer than previous generations, it's help to rethink the arc of our careers. We can plan, to the extent that we can plan, to peak later, perhaps in our 50s, rather than in our 40s. We can plan to have multiple, smaller career arcs. In short, we no longer have to calibrate our career against the end marker of at 65. (There are obvious exceptions for work that demands a lot of our bodies.)

This notion also leads to the idea that pushing the Social Security retirement age past 70 for most professions makes actuarial sense. We'll leave that for another day.

Dan Kennedy, in last night's Beat The Press, remarked that The Atlantic has a long, proud tradition of running 12,000 words when 3,000 words would have done just fine. Slaughter's article is much too long and so the most useful point, IMO, shows up somewhere beyond word 8,000. The discussion on BTP is also worth a listen.

And the bad ideas just keep comin'

And the bad ideas just keep comin'

So, we've got a superintendent in Huntsville, AL now sending kids off to the wilderness to live in teepees (with no ability to appeal) if they fight in school. We've got Philadelphia considering not o...

In the last class of my WISE course on...

In the last class of  my WISE course on the future of the news business, I made a few predictions. One of them was that, within a year, CNN would be toast. 
The only question now is whether it will be golden brown or burnt before the little bell dings.
+Dan Kennedy 

Media Nation » Will heads roll after CNN meltdown? Should they?

Three quick items on the Supreme Court's decision to (mostly) uphold the Affordable Care Act: 1. I was watching CNN while waiting for the ruling in the mistaken belief that the other cable nets would ...

Guide to Cheap Worcester

Guide to Cheap Worcester

I’d been thinking about putting together a guide to being cheap in our fair city for some time, especially for the items that don’t fit neatly into the Wednesday format. So I’ve...

Of storms and poetry

After yesterday's thunderstorms, the skies have cleared and a strong, fresh northwest wind is bringing cool air. I just got the fire started and soon it'll be warm for our breakfast.

Rocco doesn't like thunderstorms. He finds a place in the house, oddly, it seems, by a sink, such as the kitchen or bathroom, and stays there for the duration. No enticing of any sort, even cookies or supper, will get him to move until the storm has passed.

I recently talked about this with another dog owner. He mentioned how his new young dog went through obedience school and was trained to stay calm in noisy situations. Thunderstorms, though, are different, with the  low-frequency rumbles that can be felt long before we can even hear them. This friend said he'd put his dog in the dog's crate and, to add to the calm, would read Robert Frost's poetry to the dog. It seemed to work. When storms came, the dog now goes to his crate and waits for the poetry reading. If a storm comes at night, the dog will its master, expecting to hear Birches.

We tried this with Rocco. Of course, he's much older and his fears are deep. He didn't budge while Sandra read The Road Not Taken.

The storms, as I'd mentioned, have moved on. Rocco's already asked me once if it's time for breakfast. Not yet, but soon.

You might or might not want to learn how...

You might or might not want to learn how to change your Safari user agent: http://is.gd/ZxLOcw

On Orbitz, Mac Users Steered to Pricier Hotels - WSJ.com

Orbitz has found that people who use Apple's Mac computers spend as much as 30% more a night on hotels, so the online travel agency is starting to show them different, and sometimes costlier, travel o...

so much for 24x7x365 news. The Helsingin...

so much for 24x7x365 news. The Helsingin Sanomat is taking the next five weeks off because there's no news planned for summer in Finland. (Link should go to English page.)

Helsingin Sanomat - International Edition

Helsingin Sanomien Verkkoliite. Tuoreimmat uutiset aamusta iltaan sekä Helsingin Sanomat -verkkoliitteessä kaikki paperilehden kirjoitukset, kuvat ja grafiikat. Sähköisessä arkistossa yli miljoona kir...

Hint: It's not about the sunlight, except...

Hint: It's not about the sunlight, except that it is, but not in the way that you might think.

Essays on the U.S. Color Line » Blog Archive » Why Are Europeans White? (E1)

Most people know that it has something to do with sunlight, UV, latitude, and vitamin D. Here is a map of solar UV at the surface taken from satellite. It matches the skin-tone map everywhere but Euro...

Google+ Local physician reviews: A barrier for patients

For restaurants, hotels, retail outlets, this is welcome news. Google+ Local provides a high-interaction, personalized social experience … what’s not to love?

For healthcare, it’s not so welcome.

Google+ Local physician reviews: A barrier for patients

In an attempt to tackle the challenge of increasing the “authenticity” of reviews, Google revoked the ability to post reviews anonymously.

For those, including yours truly, who'd...

For those, including yours truly, who'd thought that Xerox was moribund, here's some surprising news about its strength in India.

Hiring: Xerox goes aggressive in India - The Times of India

Xerox plans to kick-start growth and regain lost ground in India with the help of frenetic hiring.

Bizarre is the word waiting for its whole...

Bizarre is the word waiting for its whole lifetime so that it'd be ready for this story.

EFF Will Represent The Oatmeal Creator in Fight Against Bizarre Lawsuit Targeting Critical Online Speech | Electronic Frontier Foundation

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is joining with attorney Venkat Balasubramani of the law firm Focal PLLC to represent The Oatmeal creator Matthew Inman in a bizarre lawsuit targeting the onli...

Semper ubi sub ubi, summa

Semper ubi sub ubi, summa

Men’s far infrared magnetic underwear

Men's far infrared magnetic underwear would make a perfect gift for men who have everything except men's far infrared magnetic underwear. One source is Alibaba.com, whose web site offers the f...

Notes on standing still

Our neighbor across the lake has a better view of our cove and reports that she's seen two herons, perching, in flight, paroling. From this vantage, we've only seen one at a time. When standing, they're improbable beings, a bunch of sticks and feathers. In flight, though, from take-off through glide, they're gorgeous. Last evening, we startled one as we came along quietly in our kayaks. It grabbed the strong southerly breeze and took off.

We're due for some hot weather. The season's first heat, like the other season's first snow, brings a bit of alarm among media types. Even when you know that it's going to be just hot and nothing more than that, it's difficult to displace the thoughts of alarm. Will the bridges melt? Will small children and old people spontaneously combust?

Astrological summer begins today for those of us on the top half of the globe. (Meteorological summer began at the first of the month.) The longest day of the year, however, will take place on June 30, when we get a leap second.

On the solstice, of course, the sun doesn't really stand still. We're the ones who need it to stop, if only for a moment, so we can consider where we've been and where we will soon be.

Making the Baby Jesus cry - 2012

Once again, Sports Illustrated wins the prize for the earliest Christmas promotion. This arrived in the mail yesterday.

I work hard, but what I do isn't hard work...

I work hard, but what I do isn't hard work. (via +Boing Boing)

Workers’ Hands

Having grown up in a river town that sported it's fair share of factories and also served a large number of family farms I can recall rough, calloused hands on the adults. The city wives fared better ...

The latest in BYOD

The latest in BYOD

Bring your dog to work? No problem – at these 14 Boston co's. - Boston Business Journal

In a handful of offices across Boston, it’s perfectly acceptable for some cube...

How Teachers Can Engage Students Through...

How Teachers Can Engage Students Through Twitter - AllTwitter

How Teachers Can Engage Students Through Twitter

Kevin Kelly's 1 second/day video of...

Kevin Kelly's 1 second/day video of Asia

Kevin Kelly, author of What Technology Wants, spent two months in Asia and took a one-second video clip each day. He says, "On a few days, I just had to an extra second… This is all the video I took."...

The major reason that I don't read newspapers...

The major reason that I don't read newspapers or magazines in the iOS newsstand is that it's difficult to clip articles for later reference. I use Evernote to collect articles that I can then access from Windows, Android, or any web browser. Although not mentioned specifically in this article, it sounds as though Apple's new closed reading list in Safari will make life difficult for Evernote and for any cross-platform solution.

TechCrunch | Which Apps Got Screwed By iOS 6?

Today's keynote at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference highlighted a number of new features that the company has added to its mobile operating system. And while a number of updates will make life e...

A reason to swear about living in Middleborough...

A reason to swear about living in Middleborough. which, by the way, is in the middle of nothing.

Middleborough, Mass. to take up $20 cursing fine - Boston Business Journal

The town of Middleborough got some attention from the Wall Street Journal, this ...

A listening tour

We're in the center of a small high pressure cell, so it's nearly calm. The sauna smoke rise nearly straight up, drifting just slightly to the west-southwest. Once the fire in the stove gets going well, it'll burn cleanly and we won't see the smoke.

We toured one side of the lake by kayak this morning, admiring the early mountain laurel, noting the camp for sale just around the corner, and looking for neighbors. We didn't see anyone and only heard Elijah, the small dog who lives at the point of the cove.

Sometimes, you set out to explore with the idea of learning something specific. We need to do that, to learn intentionally. Other times, though, we go out with our ears tuned to whatever sounds come our way. What we learned was that it was good to be on the lake, paddling easily, letting the little bit of wind push us.

After our tour, we jumped into the water. Rocco went first, anticipating that we'd follow soon, which we did. The rainy weather has cooled the lake considerably. It was refreshing.

NPR need(ed) Click and Clack more than they...

NPR need(ed) Click and Clack more than they realize(d).

A brief history of Car Talk: “They’ve changed the way people see public radio in America”

Tom and Ray Magliozzi endure, 35 years on, because they act like no one but themselves.

I know what the story means, but did the...

I know what the story means, but did the headline writer know what else the headline might mean? 

The Diary of a Construction Manager in Love with His BI Tool | SmartData Collective

Hi, my name is Bob and I am a construction manager. I oversee all aspects of managing the operations of a construction project, including budgets, staffing, and the compliance of the entire constructi...

LinkedIn and passwords

If you haven't changed your LinkedIn password within the past 24 hours, please stop reading this and read the LinkedIn blog post that describes, among other things, how to change your LinkedIn password now. If you've used the same email/password combination on any other sites, change those passwords as well. Come back here when you're done.

While the details are still trickling out, it appears that many, if not most, LinkedIn passwords got into the wrong hands. Some 6.5 million encrypted passwords were posted online (now no longer generally available).  Ars Technica has a good rundown on what happened. These were the passwords that the hacker(s) couldn't figure out. We can assume that the bad guy(s) figured out the other passwords. The reason that the passwords could be figured out is that the passwords are guessable, passwords such as 123456, 1234567, 12345678 , and the like.

It took a little while for LinkedIn to confirm that the breach had indeed taken place, but did finally confirm the trouble.

LinkedIn News (linkedinnews) on Twitter via kwout

As far as we can tell, only the password database was compromised, without the associated email addresses. This makes it less likely that bad guys were able to access any LinkedIn account, a small bit of comfort.

This was not a good day for LinkedIn. There was another problem with the way that LI handled calendar information on iOS. I'm still a big fan of LinkedIn for all that it can do. I use it many times a day to find important resources that I use on my current projects. At this point, there's nothing comparable .

The way that they handle these crises will go a long way to show how serious they are about protecting customer data. I hope that they get it right. If they don't, they'll lose and we'll lose, too.

Jersey loves its dogs more than it loves...

Jersey loves its dogs more than it loves its kids

Bark Bark - Click It or Ticket | MetaFilter

Well, let's think rationally. Yes, we don't want our kids to die. Probably we care about that more than we care about pets dying. But that's not what this is about. This is about the tende...

Don't Touch That Dial: How Boston Radio...

Don't Touch That Dial: How Boston Radio Could Destroy Itself

In 1979, Video killed the radio star. Not long after Carson Daly left his post at “Total Request Live,” though it's tough to pinpoint exactly when, Video turned the gun on itself. The shot, thank ...

Writers tell DoJ - Don't let Amazon lower...

Writers tell DoJ - Don't let Amazon lower the prices on e-books because people will buy more e-books because they're cheaper and that's really bad somehow. 

Attacking Amazon, Authors Group Urges Opposition to E-Book Settlement

The Authors Guild is encouraging its 8,500 members to submit comments against the proposed settlement between the Department of Justice and three large publishers. The settlement, the guild argues, wi...

It's a shame that this good research is...

It's a shame that this good research is cluttered with random and needless screeds. We know that you think Gladwell is hypocritical and dangerous, but let the facts tell the story. 
Long read, particularly if you've enjoyed Gladwell's  New Yorker writing.

Malcolm Gladwell Unmasked: A Look Into the Life & Work of America’s Most Successful Propagandist

Gladwell has shilled for Big Tobacco, Pharma and defended Enron-style financial fraud, all while milking a lucrative career as one of America's best-paid corporate speakers. ...

"For the first time since 2008 the US Government...

"For the first time since 2008 the US Government has run a surplus...."

http://papastraighttalk.blogspot.com/2012/06/us-budget-surplus-is-back.html

"When we ignore how innovation actually...

"When we ignore how innovation actually works, we make it hard to see what’s happening right in front of us today. If you don’t know that the incandescent light was a failure before it was a success, it’s easy to write off some modern energy innovations — like solar panels — because they haven’t hit the big time fast enough."

32 Innovations That Will Change Your Tomorrow

An abridged guide to the many ways that your day is about to get better.

Now that you've grounded your system, you...

Now that you've grounded your system, you'll find that suddenly your customers are occasionally dying!

WHY THREE PRONGS? Electrical ground, stray voltage

Why do AC cords need three prongs? If there is no positive or negative in AC systems, why do we have HOT and NEUTRAL? I attempt to shed light on some of these mysteries.

I may be done fixing things

Ever notice how, when you fix something and, instead, break it, that it's really difficult to get back to the Edenic state that existed before you fixed it? I have.

New old stuff

Because, well, because ..., I'm tinkering with this blog's settings some of you may see a blast of old blog entries. I'll send another note that indicates that the wave is over.

Um, to all of you newly-minted college graduates...

Um, to all of you newly-minted college graduates - another path out of your parents' basements is blocked by robots.

Automation Comes To The Coffeehouse With Robotic Baristas | Singularity Hub

Say goodbye to lattes with funky tastes or attitude from coffeehouse baristas. At the University of Texas, a startup called Briggo LLC has installed a coffee kiosk run by a robotic barista in the acad...

Yikes

Yikes

Facebook Declares War on Google by Pulling Support for Chrome Browser

Facebook is seemingly attempting to break one of the links in Google's ecosystem by slamming the company's Chrome internet browser.

A rainy cove day

When I was a kid, the roof on the camp was simple, just sheathing covered with tar paper and then shingles. We could hear the rain on the roof.

My father had thought he would live at the camp year-round after he retired. He added a heating system, including the oft-mentioned oil tank. He added a layer of foam insulation to the ceiling and covered it with particle board (plywood made from pressed wood chips). It looked nice, was warmer, and took away the sound of the rain.

As a part of last year's renovations, we put on a metal roof. It looks great, will last our lifetimes, and has brought back the sound of the rain.

The temperature has dropped to the lower 50s. A cold northeastern wind pushes clumps of fog and rain across the lake.

I worked in the yard for a couple of hours yesterday and, by the forecast, that may be it for this weekend. We've enough dry wood to last a long time. Was it three years ago when we had that chilly, wet June? This week is setting up for something like that. I'm grateful for a lot of things. Now I'm grateful that I don't have to work outdoors in all kinds of weather. I know people who do and we are in their debt.

From the "My hovercraft is full of eels."...

From the "My hovercraft is full of eels." Dept. 

Welcome to America, Please Be On Time: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S.

Such tips as "don't hand out cash to dinner guests" reveal what foreign tourists find surprising about coming to America.

OpenSignalMaps - The politics of WiFi names

OpenSignalMaps - The politics of WiFi names

How people are using the names of their Wi-Fi networks to signal their political allegiances.

Remembering typewriters - http://www.nytimes...

Remembering typewriters - http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/31/technology/personaltech/in-a-library-san-franciscos-last-public-typewriter.html?_r=1

A Google/Android/firewall mystery

A few days ago, my Galaxy Nexus (ICS, 4.0.2) stopped syncing my Gmail. I could get to Gmail and fetch new mail, but push mail wasn't working. I could wait hours and not get new messages that were appear just fine on my laptop. I could use other services just fine, such as search, browsing, Twitter, etc. My home WiFi signal was strong; no other device was having problem connecting or browsing.

It also synced properly when I was away from home, either out in the wild or connected to another WiFi access point.

The forums weren't much help, although they did point me in the right direction, kinda sorta.  When sync was working, the signal icon was blue.

When I was connected to my WiFi, it was gray.



It was my WiFi firewall. I'd temporarily set up a VPN connection, closed it, and left the firewall enabled.

I haven't figured which port setting is enabling/disabling the synchronization connection to Google's servers. If anyone has any clues, I'd welcome them

There's a lot of useful data in these surveys...

There's a lot of useful data in these surveys, showing us a great example of how poorly we use data. I tried to be methodical in my review of various practice groups, but was invariably drawn to the high and low score markers and making quick judgments accordingly.
BTW, doctors aren't rated here; they don't name names. The report card identifies clinics and practice groups in communities statewide.

The Best and Worst Doctors in Central Mass

A recent survey of Massachusetts doctors’ offices yielded good news for several Worcester-area health practices.

This doesn't bode well for my plans for...

This doesn't bode well for my plans for a .ScheißeKopf TLD.

Will India’s biggest dot-brand be blocked? | DomainIncite - Domain Name News & Opinion

TATA Group, the $83-billion-a-year Indian conglomerate, has confirmed to local media that it has applied for the new dot-brand top-level domain

"We don't always mock poor spelling, but...

"We don't always mock poor spelling, but sometimes we can't resist."

"Young America is... inovative"

The Campaign for Young America is backed by Young Invincibles, an inside-the-Beltway organization backing the healthcare reform law and tied to a number of mainstream liberal groups. Fix Young America...

Intriguing thoughts about what we offer...

Intriguing thoughts about what we offer as science education and how we carelessly lump science, engineering, and math into a 19th century world view. Among other things, Reed contends, it's created lawyers in Washington who equate spectrum with real estate.

dpr » Blog Archive » What we “know” that t’aint so…. and insist on teaching to kids!

What do we teach when we teach science in school? And really, why do we teach science that way? I've personally never been quite sure whether I'm more of a scientist, engineer, or mathematicia...