Category: Technology

Today's Technology

On By WinstonIn Loving Life, Personal, Technology2 Comments

Connectedness. That one word best sums up my enjoyment of technology. I’ve got friends scattered all over the place.

Today’s technology means I can chat with my buddy in California. Or I can tell my father in Sudbury about my new job. I complimented a friend in Montreal for getting some pro-level exposure for his photography. All while sitting at my trailer by the lake watching the chipmunks and squirrels preparing for the winter.

It’s also handy for doing real-time tech support for my daughter who is at home. We are texting on our smart phones while I use my netbook to look up how to install a wireless printer on her new Windows 7 laptop.

That’s connectedness. That’s what I enjoy most about technology.

Cheers, Winston

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From Netbook Blues To Happy News

On By WinstonIn Personal, TechnologyLeave a comment

If you read this regularly, you may recall that I’ve adopted my daughters orphan net-book. Windows Vista was dead slow on it (go figure), so I installed Ubuntu Linux as a dual boot. After some tweaking and poking, I convinced it to do most of what I wanted. Mind you, part of that success depends on understanding that it’s not going to do everything my daughters new quad core notebook does (again, go figure). Among other things, it’s never going to transcode video. Trust me on this.

Short version: It worked like a charm, until it didn’t. That is a phrase that can be applied to so many things, isn’t it. In this case, I knew exactly what had happened, I just had no idea how to fix it.

The problem, as is so often the case, was of my own invention. I was at my trailer and decided to install an application across their very erratic wi-fi. Signal drops, install crashes, I’m left with some partially rewritten config files and a pile of error messages. Ubuntu is not Windows. Thank the Geek Gods for that. Despite this colossal blunder, Ubuntu still works. I can do anything I want to except install things.

That’s not so bad. How often do I really need to install things anyway? Turns out, the answer is: More often than you think. Especially if you plan better after your mistakes. Let me explain how that works for me.

Because I was becoming unemployed, Lynn and I decided to spend some time at the trailer before the season ends. Since my net-book doesn’t have a dvd drive, I decided to rip Battlestar Galactica to digital format to take with me. I spent all that time getting the thing to play video, I may as well enjoy it right? I rip the first disc, test it out and decide it looks terrible. But it plays, so I know I’ve got the right format, codec, etc. I increase the quality and rip the next three discs before we leave.

Now I’m at my trailer unemployed and planning to enjoy some BSG. They won’t play. The increased quality and resulting filesize is apparently more than my little net-book can handle. This is the better planning part: test the new settings before ripping three more discs. Hindsight as they say is always 20/20.

No problem I think, I’ll just go online and download a transcoder and fix that. Except of course, I can’t install any new software because of the previous issue. That’s just inconvenient. So I grab Lynn’s laptop, download DivX and start transcoding things. Turns out, it’s not going to finish anytime this week. She might want to use her laptop before then so I cancel the job. But I still want to watch BSG.

That leaves me with two problems. The same ones I had before. Ubuntu won’t play my huge video files, and I can’t download any kind of fix for it. So I do what I always do and ask Google. I copy and paste the error message and run my search. Then I do it again and then I start to get grumpy. Turns out none of the answers I found covered my particular problems. So I opened up my braincase, rummaged around in the dus ty, unused part labeled “Figure It Out Yourself”, and set to work.

Four and a half hours, two cups of tea, one diet coke and some truly creative profanity later: Success! I am now able to install software again. That allowed me to install the xfce window manager. It is very simple, and so less resource hungry. I also installed the Kaffeine video player which is again smaller footprint. Between them, I am now able to watch BSG without having to wait until I get home to redo them all. YAY!

And that folks, is how you go from Netbook Blues To Happy News.

Cheers, Winston

EA To Sell Gamers To Advertisers.

On By WinstonIn Media, Pop Culture, Society, Technology, Uncategorized, Video GamesLeave a comment

The nice people at Electronic Arts (commonly know as EA) are rolling out a new service called “Legend”.  Sounds impressive right?  Well here’s the thing, it’s not.  At least not for gamers.  Or is it?

Confused?  Sorry.  I’ve got some mixed feelings about this one myself.  First, let me tell you what “Legend” is.  It’s an analytic tool which EA will use to provide advertisers with detailed usage habits of it’s products.  This would allow advertisers to be much more specific in their marketing efforts.

From the corporate side, this is a potential goldmine.  If it works as (you should pardon the joke) “advertised”, there isn’t a marketing department in the industry that won’t want a piece of it.  On the player side, my first instinct is, “Oh goody.  More ads shoved in my face while I’m gaming.”

But maybe I’m looking at this wrong.  Not that that ever happens, but maybe this one time.

Maybe this time, they’ll start to get it right.  What if they use this marketing data to develop a functional “less is more” approach?  How about using this new analytic to create ads which are more effective, and can therefore be less pervasive.  That could work out to being good news for gamers.

Only time will tell.  But if the vendors in Fallout New Vegas start trying to sell me a “Simpsons” t-shirt to go with my new “West 49” board shorts, then I’ll decide whether or not it’s a good thing.

Cheers, Winston

If “Not In My Backyard”, Then Whose?

On By WinstonIn Environment, Green Energy, Media, Politics, Society, TechnologyLeave a comment

Christina Blizzard, writing in the Ottawa Sun is slamming David Suzuki and Dalton McGuinty. One for being a “pompous ass”, and the other being praised by a pompous ass for wanting to build wind turbines where the wind blows.

Before I go any farther, I want to make it clear that this is not to bash Mx. Blizzard.  I subscribed to the Sun for many years.  I’ve always enjoyed Christina\s articles, and this is not an attack on her personally.  Only on the views expressed in the article in question.

Apparently, Dr. Suzuki endorsed McGuinty’s green energy initiatives and  stated bluntly that it would be “absolute insanity” for Provincial Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak to scrap them if voted in during our pending election.  She raises the point because of it’s status as a registered charity, The David Suzuki Foundation is not allowed to participate in partisan politics.  Fair enough.  On the other hand, Dr. Suzuki had apparently stepped down from the board, so is no longer bound by those rules.

Part of her ire stems from a plan put forward by Premier McGuinty’s Liberal party to place 260 massive wind turbines near the town of Zurich on Lake Huron.  According to Mx. Blizzard,  “Each turbine consumes 1.6 hectares of prime farmland – that’s some 405 hectares of farmland that could be use to grow crops.”  She then adds, “How green is that Dr. S?”

Just a couple of quick points.  If she’s so keen to preserve farmland, where has she been while the farms around Orleans have been sub-divided into the history books?  Oh and by the way:  Nice use of the diminutive “Dr. S” to undermine his standing with the readers.  She is an op-ed for a second string tabloid.  He is an internationally recognized leader on environmental issues who hosted a long running science program on national TV.  This probably has a lot to do with her later characterizing him as a “pompous ass” for telling homeowners to use energy efficient light-bulbs and caulk draft-causing leaks in a couple of “creepy” ads in partnership with the provincial government.  I suspect that when you can’t compare credentials, trash-talk is really all you’ve got left.

All of which serves as background for the point I want to make here.  In her unending quest for truth and objectivity, Christina Blizzard talked to the rural residents around Zurich, Ontario and discovered something remarkable.  They are “outraged” by the “monstrosities” springing up and feel they are a “blight on the landscape.”  I’m shocked, aren’t you?

Okay, maybe I’m being a little bit sarcastic there.  Realistically, I would have been more genuinely shocked if they had been happy about it and declared the turbines “paragons of aesthetics in harmony with their natural setting.”  That would have been news worthy.  The fact is, it’s another in a long line of “not in my back yard” issues.

Years ago, when I lived in  a different city, there was talk of building a Young Offenders Facility there.  Much of debate didn’t focus on the jobs such a facility would bring to a “one industry town” where the “one industry” had been declining for years.  Nope.  Most of what made the news were residents worrying what such a facility would do to property values and city councilors pandering to them.   Everyone agreed it was good, just not where they happened to live.

I don’t think you’ll find too many people who will argue in favor of coal burning generating plants over wind turbines in terms of sustainability.  Not unless they work for the coal industry, or they just want to be difficult.  As for the rural residents around Zurich, sorry, you just happen to live where the wind blows.  I’ve spent some time in the area myself, and I know how steady the winds are on the east shore of Lake Huron.  Nothing against the people there, but no matter where they wanted to put them, someone would complain.  It would be someone’s back yard.  This time, it’s in yours.

Sadly, coal, oil and other fossil fuels aren’t going to last much longer.  There are only so many waterways suited to hydro plants, and if the tragedy in Japan is any indicator, nuclear may not be the greatest either.  Barring any major breakthroughs, it seems probable that if you live in a naturally windy place, you could end up with a turbine or two… hundred.  By the same logic, if you live somewhere with a lot of sun, I see a high probability of solar panels in your future.

We need to develop these more sustainable energy technologies now, not when the last puff of smoke from coal drifts away on the wind off Lake Huron.  They have to go somewhere.

If “Not In My Backyard!”, then where?

Cheers, Winston

Gaming, Movies, And My Reality

On By WinstonIn Movies, Pop Culture, Self Awareness, Technology, Video GamesLeave a comment

As I mentioned yesterday, I really like Portal 2. I enjoy gaming, watching movies and reading. The commonality? They all take me out of reality for a while.  Not that my reality is even sightly terrible.  In fact, it’s pretty darned awesome.  I’ve got a wonderful wife, a great daughter, and the world’s best dog.  So why would I want out of it for a while?

Even billionaire playboys go on vacation.  It’s not about wanting to escape reality, it’s about keeping it fresh.  Truth be told, most of the time, my wife is sitting on the couch beside me using her laptop to play on Facebook. So even when I’m gaming or watching a movie, ore reading, I’m usually with my wife who will be gaming, watching TV, or reading or whatever.  Neither of us is the type to complain if the other interrupts what we’re doing.  Likewise my daughter and I watch movies or play games together.

We are a connected family.  That’s part of the reality that I love.  Really, when I’m avoiding reality, I’m still in the middle of it.  Sure, sometimes i game when they’re out, or after they’re in bed, but it’s not like I have to wait ’til I’m alone.  It just works out that way.

I love movies.  I LOVE my family.  I love games.  I LOVE my family more.  Likewise reading, listening to music, hanging out with friends etc.  These are all things that most people think of as taking people out of their relationships.  I’ve said it before in other posts, and I’ll no doubt say it again in others:  I’ve got an awesome wife, and I’m incredibly lucky to be part of her world.

I don’t game to avoid reality.  Games, movies, books etc.  are all part of that reality.  Why would I want to avoid that?

Cheers, Winston

The Internet Isn’t The Last Haven Of Democracy.

On By WinstonIn Global Issues, Media, Pop Culture, Society, TechnologyLeave a comment

Courtesy of a raging bout of insomnia, I was browsing some back stories on Maclean’s.  That’s when this gem caught my eye.  On Aug 12th, Peter Nowak posted this article: “Governments Must Adapt To Internet, Not Other Way Around”.  According to Mr. Nowak, democracy “is the de facto model that almost every online operation works on”.

“The popular and good rise to the top… the bad and unpopular is ignored or voted down.” It seems he is equating popular with good.  Hardly a supportable position given the current popularity of reality tv and Jackass movies.  Rising to the top isn’t necessarily a sign of quality, only of popularity and people’s urge to part of the “In Crowd”.  The fact that something gets 80,000,000 hits doesn’t mean that it’s good, only that nobody wants to be the one that doesn’t know what everyone else is talking about.  Popular doesn’t equate to good, more often, only to easy.  Lolcats get more hits than ethical debates.  Contestants on reality shows garner more votes than elected officials.  Yeah, popular is a sure sign of quality.

His next little piece of genius involves praising the hacker collective known as Anonymous.  These self appointed judges/juries/executioners are defenders of openness and democracy according to this guy.  He indirectly praises them for their attack on Sony in retaliation for their lawsuit against the person who posted an illegal hack for the PS3.  Peter seems to believe that it was wrong of Sony to take legal steps to protect their intellectual property.  On the other hand, he is perfectly okay with Anonymous using illegal steps to punish them.  There are a couple of details he leaves out in his paean to digital frontier justice.  The takedown of Sony didn’t just affect “Sony”, it affected the employees, the gamers, the people whose jobs rely on those services being up and running.  It’s like Robin Hood burning peasant huts so they can’t afford to pay taxes to the sheriff.  It sounds good in theory, but the sheriff is still going to want his taxes.

Anonymous is also the group who took it upon themselves to post the home addresses of members of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit police force.  This was in retaliation for BART shutting down cell towers to prevent protesters using them to organize.  Let’s deliberately endanger the live of the officers, their spouses and their children.  Way to pick your heroes Peter. If the persons responsible for that particular act are caught and convicted, they should be tossed into the deepest, darkest hole available and left there.  Pending further notice.

“The fundamental principles of the internet, therefore, are then same as democracy – each user is entitled to freedom and openness, so long as they don’t harm anyone else.”  Where he comes by these “fundamental principle” is never actually explained.  >he also doesn’t explain why Anonymous gets an exemption to the “don’t harm anyone else” part.  The fact is, the internet was created to share information.  Pure and simple.  Other people may have chosen to use it for their own purposes, but that doesn’t make it anything more or less than what it was designed to be.  Just because of bunch of spoiled children have decided that it’s easier to play “activist”as a way to act out when they don’t get their own way, doesn’t make them right.  When an allegedly serious journalist like Mr .Nowak buys into their fantasy, it just feeds into their bloated ego driven God complex.

His closing statement is the best illustration of his clearly delusional disconnect from the real world.  “Governments will inevitably have no choice but to acquiesce and adapt to what are ultimately basic human desires: to be open and free.  Otherwise, as advanced technologies make living in a virtual online world more realistic and palatable, people will inevitably abandon the real world and move into the ether permanently, leaving governments with no one to govern.”

If luck is with us, maybe Peter will be an early adopter of permanent virtualization.  Then any decent spam filter will keep his views in the junk folder where they belong.

Cheers, Winston

Netbook Blues Are A Boon For Me

On By WinstonIn Personal, TechnologyLeave a comment

A couple of years ago, we bought our daughter a netbook to use for school.  She was thrilled and happy as a clam… for about a month.  Just long enough that we couldn’t return it.  It seems she might have been mistaken in what she needed from her portable computer.  As well as running office apps to use for school, it suddenly needed to stream video, play Facebook games etc.  It was never made for those things so of course she wasn’t happy with it.  She managed to tough it out until now.

For her recent eighteenth birthday, we bought her a new notebook.  It’s faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and if it goes over any building, it’ll go poorly for her.  Short version, I inherited her netbook.

Now it’s pretty common knowledge that netbooks are underpowered.  Really, that’s sort of the point.  If you want a full power laptop, buy a notebook not a netbook.  On the other hand, this one has issues even by netbook standards.  The processor was bit slower than others at it’s price point, but it was a trade off for other perks.  When all the competition had 1gb of ram and 160gb hard drive, this one had 2gb of ram and a 250gb drive.  It also has an 11.6 inch display as opposed to the usual 10 inch,

As with any tech toy, it’s all about what you expect from it.  I don’t stream video or play Facebook games on the netbook.  I am using it to write this post.  I use it to surf news sites to figure out what I want to write about.  And even those things are a little clunky on this laptop.  Or at least they were.

I did some research and discovered the problem.  It’s actually one of the most ubiquitous problems in the computer world.  No, it’s not a virus.  It’s Windows Vista.  It turns out it’s a little resource hungry for this poor little thing.  On the other hand, there are apparently several Linux distributions optimized for netbooks.  I’ve used Linux before and have a current version on my desktop downstairs.  So I figured, “What’s the worst that could happen?”

Normally, that’s a question I try to avoid because I never really like the answer.  In this case, it wasn’t a problem.  I was going to install the Ubuntu Netbook Edition.  Yeah, that apparently doesn’t exist anymore, but that’s okay.  I’m not that picky.  Netbook Edition, Desktop Edition, whatever.  So I go ahead and install it anyway.

More accurately, I spent a fair bit of time trying to guess the secret of the setup instructions.  Then I spent more time swearing and attempting to guess the secret of the setup instructions.  After a fair number of guesses and a much larger number of words which I’m not about to repeat here, I got it to install.  There was much cheering and rejoicing, very quietly because by then it was 4:30am.

Because I installed the FULL Desktop Edition I sort of expected it to be as slow as Vista was.  Thanks to the God of all Geeks, it’s not.  In fact, it’s really responsive.  If I was typing this on the Vista side, I’d have a huge problem with lag.  When I typed last night’s post, I could literally type an entire sentence before it showed up on the screen.  On this shiny new Linux build, there’s barely a trace of it remaining.  It’s quicker loading web pages.  It doesn’t really care how many tabs I have open, it just goes ahead and does what it’s supposed to.

Now before everyone with a netbook clicks away to download Linux and speed things up, here’s what you need to know.  Unless you know at least a little bit about Linux, it’s not going to be as rewarding as you hope.  It wasn’t until after I installed it that I was reminded of just how many little things you need to know.  A software package I wanted to install couldn’t get some of the files it needed.  So I had to open a terminal window and type something like “sudko apt-get install whatever it was called”.

I’m not telling you not to do it, just be prepared.  Remember, Google is your friend.  The secret is, you have to know enough about what you’re doing to as the right question.  If you can do that, it should be okay.  Maybe.  If not, don’t use the comment section to ask for tech support.  I won’t respond.  No matter how much entertainment you have provided me with.

Cheers, Winston

Videogame Addiction 1.1a update

On By WinstonIn Media, Pop Culture, Society, TechnologyLeave a comment

This information is indicative of a more open position on the part of the APA. As such, I felt it important to post it in the interest of balance and fairness.

In doing some further reading, I discovered the APA (American Psychiatric Association) classifies video-game addiction and Internet addiction as “reward driven behavioral disorders”. It will include these and others in an appendix of the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. See, they really DO right the book on addiction. They still aren’t considering it an addiction, but are including it to encourage further study.

In the previous post, I indicated only that the APA doesn’t view video-game “addiction” as an addiction. The fact that they are encouraging additional study indicates it’s still a possibility. In the meantime, let’s try understanding instead of labeling.

Cheers, Winston

Videogame Addiction

On By WinstonIn Media, Pop Culture, Society, Technology2 Comments

So I’ve been reading again. This time, it was an article about the perils of video-game addiction. I actually found it sort of refreshing. In amongst the drama of neglected family and career, there was an item rarely seen in such an article.

Turns out, the American Psychiatric Association (the organization that literally writes the book on addictions) doesn’t believe that video-game addiction is real. I think that is great news. It’s not because I don’t believe that some people do really bizarre things in the name of gaming, it just removes the easy reason. Let me explain what I mean by that.

Many people seem not to really understand the concept of addiction. I have a teenage daughter (your sympathy is appreciated), and she and her friends use addiction to describe anything they consume in excess amounts. A song, a tv show, a snack, a celebrity, all have been preceded by “I’m totally addicted to….”

The culture of their youth was saturated with a conflicted message. Public Service Messages told them that alcohol, tobacco and drugs are addictive, but the social message was that they are enjoyable. This creates the shorthand association between pleasurable excess and addiction. My daughter understands that she isn’t actually addicted to the song, snack or whatever. It’s just a figure of speech. The problem is that common usage corrupts and replaces the actual meaning in peoples minds. That leads to a larger problem.

My daughter says she can’t possibly do dishes right now because she’s “addicted” to the show she’s watching. Someone else says they’re not attracted to their spouse anymore because they’re “addicted” to pornography. Is it really surprising that someone will say their life was ruined because they are “addicted” to video-games?

Jackson Toby, professor emeritus at Rutgers University writes, “I do not believe that the concept of `addiction’ is useful; it only describes strong temptations; it does not explain strong temptations. What makes the temptation so strong? The memory of past pleasant experiences with the behavior that we are talking about – in this case video-games.” He goes on to say “I don’t believe that someone can be addicted to video games.”. Addiction is a label, and the label isn’t the thing.

As soon as you apply that label, you avoid responsibility. “It’s not my fault, I’m an addict.” The person isn’t choosing to spend sixty hours a week playing World of Warcraft, they can’t help themselves. It’s not accurate, but if they see it enough in the media, it becomes real. The addiction label is also incredibly disempowering. Once the person believes themselves addicted, they assume the addiction has power over them. Not only are they being told they aren’t responsible for their actions, they’re powerless to change them.

The video-game addiction label is also a mask. It’s a false image hiding the real cause of the behavior. If a person can’t actually be addicted to video-games, then why are they destroying their lives? It’s easier to accept the mask than look at what it hides. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but that’s what we want.

When I was a teenager, video-games weren’t the boogeyman. I guess Pong just didn’t get it done for everyone. Back then, Dungeons & Dragons was the mind destroying addiction. One person killed themselves when their character died in game. Another was killed during a “live-action” adventure. Grades suffered as kids cut class to game. It was the “gamepokalypse” of it’s day. Then people moved on to the next media sensation and the hype died. Everyone realized that D&D hadn’t caused the tragedies associated with it. It was just a vehicle for deeper issues. Video-game addiction is no different.

If someone loses their spouse, children, house, job or even their life because they won’t stop playing a video-game, you need to wonder what’s going on inside. Saying “addiction” isn’t going to help anyone. At least not anyone looking for an answer instead of a soundbite.

Cheers, Winston

Tools Don’t Change Anything

On By WinstonIn Personal, Society, TechnologyLeave a comment

Earlier today I read an article on Maclean’s which argued whether Apple or Google had done more to change the world.  The author argued that Apple had simply refined what was already there, while Google had done something revolutionary.  My first thought was to side with Apple.  I use Google a LOT, but I use my iPhone a LOT MORE.  Of course, I have a Google App on my iPhone that I use too, so that kind of muddies the waters.  As I was debating with myself which is more important for me personally I realized something.  I was over thinking the question.   Let me give you an example.

I recently asked a friend of mine, “Why is the sky blue?”  They told me it’s about the light refracting through the water molecules in the air and so on.  I explained that they were over thinking it.   The answer is very simple.  The sky is blue because we’re told it is.  If we were told the sky is green, the sky would be green even though it would look exactly the same.

The same logic holds true for the Apple / Google question.  The answer is:  Neither one changed the world.  We are told that certain things changed the world.  The first stone tools, fire, bronze, iron, steam, electricity, splitting the atom were all “things that changed the world”.  Well, they weren’t.  What they did, was affect humanity’s ability to change the world.  This isn’t simple wordplay, it reflects our view of the world and our place in it.  All those things, from fire to Google, are just tools.  The idea that tools changed the world removes both our responsibility and our sense of engagement.

No tool ever changed the world.  Tools didn’t build the Pyramids, or the Eiffel Tower, or the Golden Gate Bridge.  No hammer ever drove a nail on it’s own.  My iPhone doesn’t write this blog.  Google doesn’t research a political issue unless I ask it too.  Tools don’t change anything.  People change and shape the world for better or for worse.  The printing press didn’t change the world.  People used the printing press to change the world.  Splitting the atom didn’t change the world.  What people decided to do with that tool, changed the world.

We aren’t used by our tools, we use them.  Our tools allow us to influence our world in unprecedented ways.  Whether that is a good or bad thing remains to be seen.  What we have to remember is that the choice is ours.  Tools don’t change anything.

Cheers, Winston