Archive for the ‘Recommended Reading’ Category
A topic of much discussion this week, the SOPA or Stop Online Piracy Act, is an unfair solution to a problem we can all agree exists. The U.S. government is currently debating censoring the sharing of intellectual properties owned by the entertainment industry by blocking ANY websites that they believe use their products without their permission with penalties as high as jail time. A tandem act is also being discussed which essentially could allow the government to block access to international sites as they choose. Below is a video explanation of these acts, describing the ACTA initiative – a conceptual global document that outlines SOPA-like bills around the world:
I wholeheartedly agree that online piracy and copyright infringement is an issue that needs to be handled, but policing the entire web and treating us all as if we were criminals is a step too far. I recommend anyone who agrees to check out this list of companies who support SOPA and discontinue your business with them.
HTML5
A new article posted on CNET’s “Deep Tech” section outlines the W3C’s plans for officially making HTML5 the standard web language by 2014. Enforcing this standard may be tough since the W3C is more like the UN- lots of consensus but no real power.
HTML5 has some great new toolsets built specifically for new “web 2.0″ applications- easy forms and social implementation and a lot of universal built-in coding for video; so much that a lot of plugin aps are going to be a thing of the past. Sorry, Flash and Quicktime.
While I’ve dabbled with HTML5, without that compliance component, I feel the benefits are currently lacking. The same issues I have making my code work with every possible piece of web tech out there could potentially still exist with HTML5 if not every browser accepts it (or if folks don’t update). Fortunately I think the future date will give people plenty of time to upgrade their systems.
Read more about the W3C and their HTML5 Press Release.
After reading an amazing article at MediaBistro, I feel like I’ve had an insight into the future of mobile aps and social media. Detailed in the article, a Swedish tech company has developed software that integrates image mapping and facial recognition into a mobile application that allows users to link their face to their social media profiles. By using the camera on your smart-phone, you could then scan someones face and retrieve all of their Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc data all at once.
I always feel like new technology like this is exciting and scary at the same time. At the rate information is indexed in our modern times, I often assume everything I’ve ever typed is open for public search- which can be somewhat jarring. On the flip side, our mobile devices now have 10 times the computing power ever imagined by Star Trek communicators taking place in the year 2250!
The future of mobile devices, mobile applications and social media will only continue to grow from here!
An article posted today on Yahoo! Tech News details some recent hacks to popular websites running the popular open-source ad server system OpenX. Among the affected were King Features (a popular comics site), Ain’t it Cool News and Adobe.
The two prong hack features two common techniques in releasing viruses these days: a “SQL injection” attack to the OpenX ad server which essentially forces an entry into the ad database, followed by a “iFrame” attack which loads a new page within the same window in your browser, enabling the hacker to fire a number of different pieces of code from the new “framed” page.
An iFrame attack can be avoided by using any decent anti-virus software to block the source, however a “SQL injection” is another matter. I’ve recommended that any of my clients using the OpenX software upgrade to the latest version and attempt to hide any publicly available database config info.
Speaking as a person who’s used a SQL Injection technique in a non-malicious way (as part of a plugin), the best route is to always make sure you keep your password hidden and up-to-date.
mental_floss
A long time subscriber to the knowledge oriented magazine, mental_floss, my girlfriend Kelly showed me a wicked cool ap from Zinio that comes with her subscription. Using a combination of Flash and Contentguard (for rights management), Zinio has made itself a very neat ap for view magazines and books digitally on your computer.
With a very short download for both the magazine/book and the ap (maybe only necessary to download the desktop version if you have Flash and only want to read your periodical in a browser), you essentially get the entire printed version of whatever magazine/book you want. A very well defined user interface allows you to navigate and scale to any article.
More and more its going to be key for publication companies to continue to offer these user-friendly digital alternatives to their books. I find this one to be an excellent solution as it doesn’t detract from the original printed version- both can exist and look and feel nearly the same.
Since I both recognize that I have readers and clients that don’t innately understand all the techie jargon and acronyms I use on a near-daily basis, and sympathize with them in light of the amount I use these terms, I decided to create a quick page detailing some of the more obscure crapola I blather on about.
Please check out the web terminology sheet page.
James. Tiberius. Kirk.
In an effort to share all the wealth the internet has to offer (and to spoil my productivity for the day), my friend Doug sent me this fine product at the Star Trek online store.
For the discriminating, tasteful, geeky man in your life- Tiberius: cologne for men. A scent reminiscent of the most famous and highly decorated starship captain in Starfleet history.
I have to say I enjoy the description far more than the idea of the product. That’s some fine copy-writing.
After looking for a few quickie gigs via some online community sites and after reading this article on Yahoo! jobs, its hard to believe some people can make a living in this country.
According to that Yahoo! article, half of the lowest paying jobs in america are in the medical profession. They’ll pull your mangled body from your car and resuscitate you back to life and may be doing it for as little as $9 per hour. That’s ridiculous.
I was taken aback by a lot of the designer-developer positions that required degrees and at least a dozen skill-sets that were also booked around the $12-$15 per hour range. How does one pay off that $60k education at $12 / hr? If you spent every dime you earned on it and never took a vacation day, it’d still take almost 3 years.
Kinda makes me wonder where our priorities lie- but we all have to remember: you get what you pay for.
As you may know from reading some of my other postings, I’m always a huge fan of people who use the internet to stand up for their beliefs. In an interesting article posted on CNN, reports show a large scale Iranian resistance to the latest political “election” over the internet.
I think its fantastic to hear people standing up against this crazy theocracy they call a government, and moreso great to hear of more middle-eastern countries using the internet as a protest tool.
While the government is doing a good job of cracking down on political discourse, online Iranians are holding to their convictions strongly. I support them – Iran could really show its colors in the middle-east right now!
Microsoft released their new search engine, Bing, earlier this month and has seen some small improvements as a result. Built off their existing LiveSearch functionality, Bing is essentially a face-lift to their previous search technology (a component of MSN). This article on Yahoo! Tech gives some statistical breakdowns of the search engine shares. En-brief: Google 60%, Yahoo! 20%, Microsoft 10%.
At this point, I’m not sure how anyone could compete with Google on a reasonable level. Setting a company upon the task of essentially reading and ranking every single piece of written literature on the internet is an amazing task, not to mention the efforts of attacking the extremely solid Google brand. I feel like Google is to the point where its like Coke is to soda- its synonymous with search.
Good luck with that Microsoft, I’m stickin’ with Google.