May 5, 2008 by phillip.

I found myself feeling like a little bit of an outsider listening to the latest TWIT podcasts. They seem to read so much and I feel like I don’t read that much. I look at myself and say, “You really need to pick up your pace, these people are so much better than you because they read.” Well, this thought was very short lived. I guess I should get a book on confidence and self-esteem (problem solved I just ordered one). I’m constantly reading. I read because of something my Great grandmother told me when I was young about the bible. She said (and I paraphrase), “Anybody can come and tell people anything about their faith because most of them don’t read it for themselves.” Absolutely brilliant.

Due to this and reading a blog post once about a guy that was saying that he reads nearly 60 books a year, my bookshelves are huge and overflowing. In the car I even listen to audiobooks instead of the radio. His point really touched me. He felt that if you read nearly 20 books on any subject you could pretty much be considered an expert on that subject. I partially agree because I feel like a mixture of practice and usage with some subjects truly make you an expert.

I don’t want to let someone else always tell me second hand. I understand that that is exactly what a book is but a lot of times I just take it for granted that the person that is writing the book is pretty good at his/her subject. I have since done websites for authors and found that you also need to look at their publisher too because good publishers tend to weed out some of the rift raft but there’s good to be learned from the rift raft. Corwin Press, for one, is like a blog mentality for authors. It’s pretty easy to get published it seems. Maybe you’ll see a book coming from me soon.  I just have to figure out what I want to talk about.

I like where Amazon is taking this with the Kindle. I love this idea because you can just download your books in digital format. My only problem with this is getting used books. I have learned to order used books for as cheap as $1 on Amazon. After paying $400 for the Kindle sometimes I might want to load it up with cheap books. However, it seems that buying in digital format can cost me more even though I’m saving the environment. Audible.com isn’t helping much there either. Well, I guess, I’ll just stick with my way for now.

Oh, and for all of you like me… I found the source of my insecurity. I don’t read fiction and it seems that all the people that I listen to do. Don’t feel like an outsider. Read what you want as long as you read. Start with my blog.

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April 22, 2008 by phillip.

I was recently watching TV and there was a Mac vs. PC commercial on. The commercial was a therapy session where the therapist was telling PC that it “Wasn’t his fault.” Mac explained that due to the fact the Windows tries to make itself available  to so many types of hardware and Mac only makes it’s computers from specific hardware that Mac approves that Windows can’t help but have problems. This has long been Mac’s policy but it really made me think about that concept that I want to explore a little bit more. I call it “Communist design.”

I refer to it as communist design because it reminds me of the Russian automobile industry of the 80’s.  During the cold war communist Russia only allowed their people certain choices. The government decided what it thought you needed and gave you choices in colors of basically black or white. Now, granted, if Apple was the government of cold war Russia then they would still have less choices but have been really stylish ones.

The good part about this is that Apple really knows their hardware like the back of their hand before they build anything on that platform. It allows them to integrate all the parts together well without worry of a quirk (for the most part). This is a good idea in one way of thinking but has its flaws to me. First, what I like about it is that Apple has it’s people focused in order to knock out a problem.

The problem with this concept is that part that troubles me the most. Totalitarian decision making. Steve Jobs need only have a beef with one company, say Nvidia, and decide not to use any of their cards. This really stops the user from having all the choices he wants. This is one of the problems with Linux on the desktop but only for a short while as the drivers are soon developed as the product becomes more mature. This also hurts Apple for the discerning user due to the fact that Macs are always more expensive than their counterparts.

Apple I’ve got your solution so give me the credit (and a check). Put more eyes on the problem because they’d love to help. The way you do this is by contributing to the BSD and Linux effort to your benefit (as well as theirs). Stick to the design that makes you so famous. People love the look and feel of a Mac. However, throw your hardware guys into the open source driver development arena. They get and give with their code. This allows Macs to be able to take on more devices internally and Unix variants to do the same. Why do this? Even if Mac doesn’t like Linux their core is developed by using the Mach kernel that comes from BSD (Linux’s cousin). Helping your cousin ends up helping you at the same time it hurts your enemy (Windows).

Posted in My humble opinion, Mac | 1 Comment »

April 15, 2008 by phillip.

In a recent article on Ars Technica the government of Australia was trying to run a bill through it’s Parliament to allow for the monitoring of business’ email and telecommunications transactions. The bill would amend it’s Telecommunications act and make it legal for the government to fill in the gap that companies IT departments leave by not tracking the problems themselves. In the United States and in Australia, it is generally accepted practice for companies to monitor all incoming and outgoing traffic including email. You’re using their computers so they want to make sure there is no corporate espionage or possible harassment suits in their future. In Australia, they feel that a telecommunications (especially email or botnet) breach is how cyber-terrorists are going to take down the country.

With that said, let me just say, “That’s a load of crap.”  As a consultant and past IT director I know from experience when companies really care about monitoring. I had a CEO once tell me, “I know not to mess with you [the IT guy]. I’m sure you know where all the bones are buried.” Now I must admit. There is a certain amount of power that can be misused being the IT guy. I could definitely look into what everyone is doing and have the company’s blessing IF I find something juicy that they need to stick it to the person of choice that is doing some sort of offense. According to almost every company’s IT policy I would be required to report the offense to Human Resources, corporate level staff, or sometimes the board of directors. That’s why I was never really a big fan of spying on people in this way. You’d start off looking for the bad guy and next you’d find yourself reading IM’s between two coworkers. Next thing you know you’re looking at them funny at lunch and noticing them go into the janitor’s closet or leaving at the same time.

This is the fundamental problem with monitoring. Drawing the line when you’ve been given the power. Even though I don’t believe the political rhetoric that they are trying to sell for a second even if it was true it would open the flood gates for irresponsibility. Why would the government need to protect companies from treats they didn’t see coming. If they were going to do that then they would also need to have advisors on the boards of some companies to save them from collapse from their own stupid decisions. Could you imagine if there was an advisor on the board of the movie industry when George Lucas was told he could keep the rights to Star Wars when he was making it? It’s one of the biggest business mistakes in history seeing as how the movie industry is going down but George Lucas is a billionaire from brand marketing Star Wars. Wouldn’t a company’s demise be important? Yes, but that’s not why they are in it.

In a recent movie called “The Bank Job” a true story is told about a person holding incriminating photos of British royalty and using them as leverage against arrest. The British government in turn hires some thugs to rob a bank’s safe deposit boxes to get the paperwork. This was in 1971 so you know it’s going on all over the world today. Australia’s law would just make it legal for the government to cut out the middle man and rob the bank themselves. If it turns out to work for them maybe your government (whatever country you’re in) will be next.

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March 21, 2008 by phillip.

I’ve read more than enough blog posts about an interview last week of Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) by a lady named Sarah Lacy at the South by SouthWest festival. According to many reports the interview got out of hand and the crowd bordered on rioting. I’ve had time to analyze the video on YouTube and came to a couple of conclusions.

Let’s first understand the new power of the internet. Facebook is garnering cult status in the same way as Myspace did (or arguably still does). Twitter is the new kid on the block but in a different way. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in My humble opinion | 1 Comment »

March 20, 2008 by phillip.

The more podcasts and RSS feeds I listen to or view has made me come to a conclusion.  I’m not internet cool. I have most of the technical ingredients for it. I have instant messengers galore. I have a Twitter account. I have a camera phone.

I guess it’s really that I feel a little left behind listening to Leo Leporte (or any ex-Techtv people) on shows like TWIT. They seem to know so many people by name in the industry that actually talk to them all the time.

I guess I’m not too far off because I have met a lot of the people talking on some shows at conventions or something else but they wouldn’t follow me on Twitter. Although, I have been surprised when people have remembered me.

I’m not mad at them though. Keep doing your thing you Internet Rock Stars! I may not have a couple thousand people following me on Twitter like Robert Scoble or Jason Calakanis. I may not have a name with presence like Leo Leporte but if I can or have offered just one kernel of knowledge in my blog that has made your day… Let me know.  That’s what I’m here for.

Posted in My humble opinion, Only for the techy people, Cool Net Tricks, Life Lessons | No Comments »

January 31, 2008 by phillip.

Usually this blog is to everyone but today it is a response to a kind response to a blog post I got yesterday from Randal Schwartz (the co-host of FLOSS Weekly. You can find the response and the post here. My response was too long for a comment so here it is:

I don’t usually down people for what they do because I do realize that there may be unknown factors. FLOSS is no different. If I’m wrong in my opinion I love to be shown but here’s my constructive take on this.

I definitely understand some of the problems that go into this because Leo has brought up a lot about having to edit TWIT shows and I do go to the Podcast and Portable media convention every year to talk to podcasters, and some I talk to regularly. I also spent 5 years as IT director for one of the country’s biggest audio post production companies doing audio post production for every big name media company there is. So I do understand the time it takes to edit audio as I’ve stood in for a couple editors before and edited commercials long ago. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in My humble opinion, Announcements | 7 Comments »