Entry # 20 Nintendo DS Scrabble Teaches You Essential Vocabulary

Tech News

A mother bought her eight year old son the Scabble game for the nintendo DS in hope to help him with his vocabulary. To her surprise the game started to teach the child words that no eight year old should know. Words like fuckers, and titts started to be generated by the computer player. Surprised the mother looked at the definition the game offered and sure enough they meant exactly what they referred to.
The women of course was understandably furious and I hope Ubisoft the maker of the game will pull this game from the selves and off refunds to those that purchased the game.
Although this is a very serious topic one thing I did notice is this child better learn these word anyways because he is in for a world of teasing as here appears in the picture with is mother and a pink DS. brave boy or mean mother, one of the two.

Entry #19 'Tis The Season To Be Scammed

Security

With Christmas upon us and our hearts in a state of giving and joy it is a perfect tie of year for crooks and scam artists to pray on the naive and week. While going through my countless news feeds I discovered a story published by the Leader Post about a women that discovered a scam that prays on one's love for puppies. According to the story the women was interested in by a dog and though she had found a breeder online with the dog and price she was looking for. Now luckily in this cases the women was smart enough to do some background checking on the breeder to find out the address given to her was a fake and the information though appearing legitimate did not jive considering this breeder was willing to flight the puppy to her in -50C temperature. This story is a good example of how people should act online when purchasing anything.
When purchasing anything online people should do what they do in real life, use common sense. In real life you always make decisions about the places you shop. You look at the store and judge them by appearance. You ask friends what experiences they had there. You find out what type of shopper insurance they offer, things like return policy, price guarantee, warranties, etc. So why would you not do that online?
When shopping online research, Google is not their to just find funny pictures it is there for research. before shopping at a site find reviews of the site. If you can not find any well then that is a good indication it might be a place to avoid. Also read multiple reviews both good and bad because often just reading one review will not give you the true picture as reviewer tend to be over dramatic about something and either give a site a really high review or really low review and neither are really warranted. Also read reviews from independent site not the reviews on the site itself as though reviews are easily faked or moderated.
Other thing you can do to protect yourself is check scam warning sights like www.phonebusters.com. You can also use third party trusted purchasers like Paypal or Google Checkout as these sight pay for the products for you and you pay them. This gives you a layer between your credit card and the merchant. Most reputable online sites will support these services because they know the value of them their selves.
There are many other things that a person can do to protect themselves when shopping online but the best advice is do do exactly what this women did and research and use common sense. As the saying goes, "if it is to good to be true, it probably is."

Entry #18 The Mouse Went Over The Hill

Tech News

All though it is a little belated but on December 9, 2008 the computer mouse turned 40 years old. The mouse was first used by Douglas Engelbart in 1968 to demonstrated an new way of interacting with computers. In this demo Douglas used a one button wooden mouse made by Bill English and was used to show how a user could cut and paste text in a text file.
Since 1968 the mouse has become the critical interface device next to the keyboard and even possible more used then the keyboard. the Mouse has taken on many different shapes from multi tracking, ergonomic , multi button and even laser sensing, a far cry from the wooden one first used.
But what really makes the mouse important is it became the first human interface device to a computer that was not the keyboard. It also lead to greater use of graphical user interfaces on computers. Before the mouse computers were text bases terminals that used command line prompts from the keyboard forcing users to memories several text commands and the order at which to use them. With the invention of the mouse people were able to "point and click" their way through a computer using their eye for visual queues as to what to do.
The advancement of the mouse has also lead to new interface models such as touch pads that you find in almost all laptops today and even new multi touch tables built by Microsoft that allow users to interact with a computer like they would a pile of papers on their desk.

Entry #17 Drugs .... Maybe .... Linux .... NO!

Tech Humor

While in high school did you ever have something snatched from you by a teacher that managed to sneak up behind you with out warning. Well then you can imagine the invasion this student felt after a teacher confiscated a set of free distributions of Linux from the student as if they were drugs. After confiscating the disk the teacher then wrote an email to the Linux group supping the disks and stated,

"...observed one of my students with a group of other children gathered around his laptop. Upon looking at his computer, I saw he was giving a demonstration of some sort. The student was showing the ability of the laptop and handing out Linux disks. After confiscating the disks I called a conference with the student and that is how I came to discover you and your organization. Mr. Starks, I am sure you strongly believe in what you are doing but I cannot either support your efforts or allow them to happen in my classroom. At this point, I am not sure what you are doing is legal."

Then after claim the actions of the student and group were illegal she threatens to charge them illegally distributing software because as the teacher puts it,

"No software is free"

She continues to go on and claim that she tried Linux while at collage which by her ignorance I can only assume she tried DOS or Unix and would not know the difference.

"I along with many others tried Linux during college and I assure you, the claims you make are grossly over-stated and hinge on falsehoods."

The sad part about this email and the although not stated punishment of the student, is a clear example of an education system that is not well informed of the actual world outside of its own diminishing schools system.

The bright point to this story is the group the teacher contacted was able to set up a meeting with her and the principle and I hope that this teacher will be put in her place and the student giving back the disks that the student rightfully owns.

Although I did not include the entire email here or the response to that email I encourage everyone to read the email and response in its entirety as it made me chuckle at the ignorance some people have.

Linux - Stop holding our kids back

Entry #16 Could Apple be Removing the Cuffs

Tech News

It appears that the tech rumor mill is stirring up a story that might finally be what music lovers have been waiting for. ApplieInsider a reputable apple blog has just published a story that today Apple will remove the dreaded DRM (Digital Rights Management) from their music. Now for those that still purchase there music through CD this will mean very little to you but for those of us entangled in the glorious web of the ipod and buying music online from iTunes this could mean Apple might finally let you breath.

So what is DRM and why is removing it liberating?

DRM is a digital protection method that prevents people from playing digital music on unauthorized devices. This means if you buy a song from iTunes you could only play that song on a device that Apple though fit which meant an ipod. It also prevented you from putting that music on more then five (compatible) devices or giving it away. Now the latter is of course illegal but the others are simply restrictions on people that trying not to pirate music. Therefor people that use ipods and in turn use iTunes for there music have been suffering with DRM limitations for years. Finally music lovers might be able to buy music from iTunes and easily put it on other devices besides an ipod.

Now there has been plenty of alternative music stores that have been DRM free for quit some time now but for us in Canada these services have not been available. so my hope here is that Apple is able to make this happen and also make it happen in Canada (which could be the reason it took so long for Apple to change over to DRM free.) Because if Apple don't we in Canada will get the proverbial shaft like with other online media.

Gadget

Here is a gadget that take text messaging to a whole new level. "Honey I got a text... it is time" could be the next phrase you hear from your wife's lips. Babycenter.com has a service that will text you 18 time, 3 time for 6 months, telling a women when she is most fertile and when it will be ideal to become pregnant.

Entry #15 Ah Tech Nostalgia

Tech Nostalgia

At at time when the tech economy is in the dumps and companies are hemoraging staff like their is no tomorrow. It is time to look back to an age when hopes were higher and gadgets were simpler. The website Radio Shack Catalogs is a site that offers you hi-res scans of old Radio Shack catalogs all the way back to 1939. In each catalog you will find pages filled with tubes, insulators, connectors, sockets and coils all the great pieces you would rip out of your parent's stereo early in the morning before they awoke. The website also offers a history of Radio Shack and other extras such as pictures of flyers and clips of early commercials.