Entry #10 Online Banking A Little More Secure

Security

IBM Research has just unveiled a new USB memory stick call "Security-on-a-Stick" witch will allow people to bank online with out the fear of malware on their computer stealing their banking information or manipulating there transactions form paying a bill to sending the money to a bank in Mexico. The USB stick once plugged into a computer will make a direct secure connection to the bank and bypassing the persons computer altogether. IBM says this device will handle all of the communication to and from the bank ensuring that no malware in the back ground can communicate with your bank while you are logged into the online banking service. The device appears to collect every transaction you perform on the banks website and asked you to approve or reject the transaction using the buttons on the device before the transaction is sent to the bank.

Entry #9 Its Alive! its Alive!

Tech News

Today is the first day of Windows annual PDC conference. and in today's keynote, Ray Ozzie as announced windows new cloud OS called Windows Azure. At a first place it appears the Azure is not what you think of as a traditional OS like Windows XP and Vista that you are use to seeing on your desktop. This OS will be used by Microsoft to host services that business can use to deploy applications to the users over the Internet. one of these new apps is BlueHoo which will be a mobile social network application. current cloud like apps are things like gmail and Amazon.com. So why is this exciting? well for the average user you will not notice much except that more and more software that you would traditionally by on a disk then install it on your computer you will now subscribe to a website and use the services over the Internet. This has two advantages to users. One the user no longer has to buy software and continue to buy multitudes of upgrades through out the life of the software. With the cloud computing users only need to use the service from the website and as new upgrades come out the service will upgrade automatically for you. The second point is the dependence people have one buying bigger and bigger computers to keep up with software. Users now only need to have a computer that will run the Internet and the power needed to run your applications are the responsibility of the cloud and not your home computer. This will make upgrading computers less frequent and cheaper as machines can be less powerful then those needed by people today.

Entry #8 Finally Emoticons Users Can Stop Sending Spam

Tech News

As on who suffers from people continuously sending emails with those annoying and often dangerous animated emoticons in there mail I am relieved to see that these people now have a safe option if they insists on using this things.

For you emoticon addicts how also phone me wondering why you computer is slow and then after telling them that most emoticons you download are full of spyware and malwar, but continue to use them. You can now switch to Google's Gmail and have all the safe emoticons to use and annoy us into deleting each email you send.

Yesterday Google announced that they have added a wide range of animated emoticons to there online Gmail application. with over 140 emoticons people can now express the most inner emotions graphically with out causing spam and clogging there computer with junk that slows the machine down.

Gadget

As for a gadget who really want to waist energy twisting the faucet nob when a sleek looking touch screen could save you from years of coporal tunnel. The Elettronico Faucet designed by Carlo Frattini is a space aged faucet that will impress and confuse anyone that wants to use your bathroom. the LDC touch screen display will allow you to turn the faucet on and off, control the flow rate and temperature of the water. So now when you burn yourself you will can tell the nurse in the emergency room the exact temperature of the water.

Entry #7 Happy Birtday, You have an STD

Tech News

Now there are not many really bright things going on in the tech world with the down turn of the market and every tech company under the sun laying off people left and right. But alas you can finally let the person you met at the bar in a depressed drunken stooper they might have left the with a little parting gift from the night before. inSpot, A website that gives information about STD's and where one can get treated has released a new service that allows one to send e-cards to those that might have gotten an STD from you.

Some of the cards read;

"You're too hot to be out of action."

"I got diagnosed with an STD since we played. You might want to get checked too."

and my personal favor it, "It's not what you brought to the party, It's what you left with."

Now the service seems like it has good intentions but more then likely it will be over run with people sending fake cards to there friend. So I give it a thumbs up for intention but I would be a little pissed if this is the way I was told I was given an STD.

Entry #6 Micrsoft's Head is in the Cloud

Tech News

At the end of September Steve Ballmer CEO of Microsoft introduced an new Microsoft operating system that will run on the cloud. This new OS was first call Windows Cloud but just recently on the PDC2008 website there was published a topic called "Windows Strata". Now there has been no confirmation that this is the name of the new OS but the name fits and soon after the topic was published it was removed and Microsoft had no comment.

So what is the "cloud " and this new OS? well back in 2005 Microsoft released a project call AJAX(asynchronous JavaScript and XML) witch is a new type of web page technology that allows web pages to really become interactive and powerful. From this came the ability for developers to make application that once you used on your desktop but know could be done through the internet, like Word, Excel, Email, Accounting, etc. So now that there was this power to perform these tasks online there became a need for websites to provide storage and integration for these tools online and hence the cloud was born. Sites like Google started providing integrated office like tools online where you can create, store, and share documents, pictures, emails and anything else you can think of. As this grew more and more popular and there were many people now using the cloud for something individual companies started making their own part of the cloud to attract people to their services and this is were the new Windows Cloud came in.

Although nothing has been officially released from Microsoft we can expect that Windows Cloud will look similar to Windows Mesh but will allow for further integration of Microsoft products and other products (we hope).

Gadget

The iLogic sound hat from iWoot allows you to listen to music in style. With built in speaker the iLogic hat plugs into any mp3 player and blasts the toons in cogneeto.

Entry #5 G1, IPhone Killer?

Tech News

With the release of the iPhone finally in Canada you would think we are finally starting to catch up to our American counterparts. But alas we fall short again. With our cell plans nearly double that of the US and while they enjoy unlimited data plans for under $30.00 dollars we get a 6GB plan for $30.00. But for those thinking of getting the iPhone now you are looking at shelling out for just 2GB of data. Can you feel Rogers bending you over because they are.
Along with the insulting cost we pay we do not even get the latest in cell tech. In late September of this year Google and T-Mobile just announced the new "iPhone Killer" the G1 Android phone. The phone will operates like the iPhone with a touch screen, download able applications, GPS, and media player, along with features the iPhone does not have like keyboard and an open platform. Now the verdict is still out as to if this new phone will really chop down the Apple Goliath but looking at the two phones together Apple better look out because Google is coming for your knees.

Entry #4 Election Tech

Tech News

Well the Canadian election has come and gone and with no surprises and no impact. We still have a crippled government with empty promises from the parties to work together. I was watching the CBC election coverage and its sad attempt at bringing tech into is coverage with the pathetic power point presentation that looked like the producers kid put it together. So I thought I would go over the Candidate tech attempts to reach us and see if they really understand what these social sites are or if they were doing it because everyone else is doing it.

Lets start from the bottom up and review what social sites each party used:

Elizabeth May leader of the Canadain Green Party

Well May's web site does not even use any of the new social sites. She does attempt to make here own twitter like micro blog on the front page but her lack of anything is a disgrace. get out of the 90's Elizabeth.

Jack Layton leader of the NDP

Jack uses three of the most popular social sites like Facebook, Twitter and Freind Feed. ALthought his attemp was lacluster his was the cloest to an effective use of social sies.The Facebook page that the NDP made looks clean with a lot of variety in the content available my one comment is, "Jack did you look at your site?" if you are using these sites to reach people you need to understand that these are not one way sites you need to go to them and comment on it, these are interactive sites. So the lack of any comments in response to peoples comments is a definite Oops.

The Twitter site for the NDP was very good the tweets were not just propaganda but were status updates about Jack and what he was doing so the NDP atleasted used this site for what it is for.

Gilles Duceppe leader of the Bloc Quebecois

Now I am not very good at french but using a few translators I was able to find a link to Gilles' Facebook page(which was not on the front page, No No No) and the first thing I noticed is a note from August 20th. Wow a dead give away this page is never looked at by Gilles.

Stéphane Dion the leader of the Canadian Liberal Party

The liberals did use Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace but looking at these where horrible. the sites were not updates regularly and face book and MySpace as well at Twitter were huge Harper hater propaganda sites. So if you were to go to these "social" sites to get a "social" opinion of Stéphan I would say Harper might want to invest in some protection.

As well as the irritating hate campaign Stéphane Dion would not even use is name in Twitter he used LiberalTour. I would have to give Stéphane Dion the most imperssional Social sites of all the canidates.

Stephen Harper the leader of the Conservitive party

Harper used the most social network including a social news site called Digg althought Harper used Facebook, Twitter, Freind Feed, and MySpace looking at all these sites it was quickly apperent that they were not monitored regularly and full of propaganda and very few personal updates. I do have to give Stephen Harper a thumbs up for using the most sites but none of them were really used effectivly.

So what does my rembling mean? Well even though the CBC said that the internet is becoming a big portion of a campaign, it is clearly visable that none of out canidates really understand these tools and do not use any of them effectivly to reach out to people in a more personnal and interactive way. So though our politions are tring to look up-to-date by using these solial sites it is quite easy to determine that the canidates only really familliar with old meadia and not new media.

Entry #3 Yahoo Eats AOL

Tech News

As I reported last week Yahoo has been looking at merging with AOL to make a a sub par search engine more readily available on a dieing AOL back bone. of course nothing is for certain till the bloated ad ware lady sings but sources say the deal is all but done and there will be an announcement soon.

Today is the big day and Apple has announced a brand new line of shiny over priced but got to have laptops.

Apple only really exciting new feature is a button less glass track pad that will allow for increased gesture recognition. The new glass track pad operates as the apple signal button mouse with click feedback although users can make the pad into a multi button mouse that most of the world uses with software. The pad is also 39% larger and will allow the user to gesture with four fingers now instead of two, greatly increasing the already popular two button gesture feature found on almost all Apple touch technology. Other then that Apple add some more power to the laptops and changed the look a little but did not introduce anything ground breaking. Overall a pretty disappointing year for Apple only announcing revamped products and nothing really new.

Gadgets

Finally a universal remote that does not look like the control panel for the star ship Enterprise.
This one button remote designed by Brian Garret Schuur allows users to perform basic remote functions such as play, pause, control the volume and power on and off your tv with just one button.
The remote appears to operate by pushing the button up and down to toggle the function you wish to control then you slide the button left and right to either turn the volume or channel up and down. All thought currently this remote is just a prototype the idea is intriguing and a welcome change to 103 button universal remotes that never really work.

Security

In the world of security Microsoft as released several new updates effecting everything from Office to Internet Explorer to Windows itself. Although the majority of the fixes are for Windows Server 2000 it is best we all fire up out computers and get the latest updates.

Entry #2 Apple Makes a Brick

Tech News

After many days over speculation and rumours of a new MacBook to come from Apple, today the "Brick" or so it was code named might be introduced on October 14th at the next MacBook event. Apple is of course keeping their lips sealed but the event title and slogan make it pretty obvious as to what is coming. So for those of you out there thinking of buy your the first Mac or itching to upgrade you Mac and calm you Apple fix, you might want to freeze that credit card for another week.

So as to what the new MacBook and MacBook pro will look like well the few leaked pictures on Apple Insider shows a solid Aluminium case for better toughness and sexy factor. As for hardware specs we will probably see a larger hard drive and better battery life, but you just never know what Jobs has up his sleeve.

Gadgets

Now this really is not a gadget but its geek cred factor is way up there making this new concept car from Mazda called Kiyora our gadget of the day. The concept car is not only designed to be more fuel efficient but it also uses it specially designed hood and a built in purification system to produce clean drinkable water for you thirty travelers. The car uses a channel in the roof of the car to funnel rain water (or soupy car wash water if you think about it) into it purification system purifying the water and storing it in a bottle in the car. Now I know this is just a concept car but how many times have you been driving in the rain and thinking to yourself, "Boy I am thirsty... I could stop at 7-11 but man the rain water looks refreshing"

Entry #1 Layoffs, and Exoskeletons

Tech News
With the market looking like the approval rating of Stephane Dion what would be more appropriate way to start a tech blog with looming threats of layoffs in the tech industry.

With eBay announcing layoffs and romars of Yahoo firing 3000 people along with Google canceling their annual ski trip (boo hoo). Are we looking at another dot com bubble burst? All though it would be an exciting ride if there was I would say we might start seeing companies start to canalize each other as what might happen between Yahoo and AOL talking of merger.

So What does this mean to us? Well with the tech industry being one of the most lucrative industries in the global market and one of the last to be affected by the market down turn I can only speculate that a turn around is further off then most of us would hope.

Gadgets

So now that we are looking out the window wondering if the fall will hurt you can be reassured that you can make that jump with your newly rented super powers. Cyberdyne a Japanese based company has started renting strap on Exoskeleton legs. So my dreams of becoming as fat as the people in the Disney movie Wall-E is starting to become a reality. The suit straps to your waist and will increase your leg strength my 10 times so now you will not have a major heart attack climbing the stairs to your office when the elevator is out.

Internet

Google has just announced that it will be adding RSS feeds to is search results allowing you to save your results and monitor if new content is available. Currently you can only receive updates through email but those RSS junkies out there like myself having your Google alerts come to your reader will greatly free up your inbox allowing you time to reed those important email about a 20 some blond in New Jersey wanting to meet you online.

Now to put this in terms other than a Internet news junky could understand. The new RSS feature for Google allows you to perform a search on Google then save those results in an RSS feed. After that each time you go back and check that RSS feed any new results you have not seen before will be delivered to you. So for those people out there that do repeated searches for the same thing and rely on your memory or your web browser to remember the phrase you used, this is now no more with the Google RSS alerts.

Welcome

So Today I have created this blog and thought there is plenty to talk about in the tech world today is just the setup day tomorrow I will jump right into the world of tech.