Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category
Monday, March 17th, 2008 |
Recently I have been using the program BlogDesk for everything I post to my blogs. However, I have only begun using the program conistently in the last two weeks despite having downloaded it quite some time ago. I really started moving over to this program as I got tired of the WordPress writing interface and some of the problems it has.
I actually found the program through Scott who writes My Thermos. On a side note, this highlights on of the great things about BlogDesk. I obviously use WordPress for my blogs, Scott uses Serendipity. BlogDesk can be used with many of the major blog platforms with no issues.
But enough of my rambling about nothing, let me tell you
What I like about BlogDesk:
It is great at uploading images. Beyond that it has two key features that make it a winner. The first that it auto detects the width of your content column. If I try to drop in an image over 450 pixels, it gives me a nice big warning and then directs me to the next feature… A built in image editor! I’ve really only used the resizing options, but there are more features that go far beyond what any other free posting tool I have seen offers. (To make it clear, BlogDesk is also Free)
You can also post to multiple blogs and select your categories from inside the interface. This eliminates the task of having to log in to multiple blogs to write and post - mostly a wordpress thing, other platforms control multiple blogs from one central admin panel.
The formatting you use in BlogDesk will be the same formating you get on your blog. The program uses very simple HTML markup (that you can view and edit directly) and thus the way it looks in blog desk in pretty well garunteed to be the way it looks once you post it on your blog. Hell, even the editor inside wordpress doesn’t always give me the results it shows me.
A couple things missing:
BlogDesk does technorati tags, but it does not work with WordPress 2.3 tags. Although that is because the tags on the QP side are in the API and not something BlogDesk can get at. However the Simple Tags plug-in fixes that and also offers a ton of other features you can play with.
The spellcheck function isn’t great. But really, you should be proofreading right?
You cannot add categories to your blog from BlogDesk. Once agin, that is more of an issue with WP, but it would be nice to be able to do everything other than plug-in management and a few other things from outside my browser and the world of distractions from the internet.
With all that said..
Go get it! Seriously, if you want to save some headaches with posting blogs BlogDesk is the program to get.
Posted in Technology | 4 Comments »
Monday, December 17th, 2007 |
I found an interesting bit of news over at Engadget. Apparently Ohio is joining the ranks of Florida and California in saying that electronic voting is no longer wanted. Here it is straight from Engadget:
Like California and Florida before it, habitual swing state Ohio has just issued a report slamming its three providers of electronic voting equipment — including, of course, renamed Diebold — and recommending that the 50 counties which use them scrap the machines in favor of a paper-trail-leaving optical scanning method. The report, commissioned by Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, details the ways in which white hat hackers were able to infiltrate the systems, easily picking locks, using portable devices to manipulate vote counts, and even introducing “malignant software” into boards of election servers
In my opinion this is an excellent move. there are simply too may problems is the voting machines, especially given the fact that two of the ‘competing’ companies are owned by siblings. I also suggest watching Man of the Year with Robin Williams for a great example of electronic voting failing in fiction. It is much less depressing than thinking of it failing in reality.
Hopefully more states will join up and demand accountability in elections. Paper trails are an absolute necessity.
Posted in Technology | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 |
I wrote a joke about Google taking over the world on my personal blog. But the more I think about Google, the more it raises some very real questions about technology, economics, and our corporate system.
No one should have missed the fact that the Google name and brand is exponentially growing. They have purchased Double Click and will probably be bidding on a chunk of the wireless spectrum in the near future. At the same time there are some serious allegations that Google has become a monopoly and the ball is starting to roll on anti-trust matters.
The last major company in a related field to be broken up under the anti-trust laws was AT&T. And as we speak the Baby Bells are not so slowly solidifying back into the exact same company it was. If our efforts to deal with monopolies in this case do very little in the long run against a solid target, what happens when you target one is not such a solid target.
By solid target I mean physical property. AT&T serves communication which is rather ephemeral, however, it is based on very solid infrastructure. You can divide and manage this sort of capital property. But what do you do when the monopoly is over digital information?
The data banks that serve and spider the web are real enough. Even the storage for the records is very real and can be pointed to. The problem would be disassembling what data goes to what Google service. The data has all become joined in an ever widening net of shared services and information.
There is a bigger problem though. Google has such a wealth of resources, talent, and information that it might have more effective power than any previous company. If an anti-trust suit succeeded against Google, the real question is: What if they said no?
I will follow up on one answer to that question in my next post.
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Saturday, September 8th, 2007 |
It appears that more heads in the United States government may be turning away from net neutrality. I caught this new story from Google Blogscoped, and their reporting on new information from the Associated Press.
As reported from the AP:
The Justice Department on Thursday said Internet service providers should be allowed to charge a fee for priority Web traffic.
The agency told the Federal Communications Commission, which is reviewing high-speed Internet practices, that it is opposed to “Net neutrality,” the principle that all Internet sites should be equally accessible to any Web user. (…)
The agency said providing different levels of service is common, efficient and could satisfy consumers. As an example, it cited that the U.S. Postal Service charges customers different guarantees and speeds for package delivery, ranging from bulk mail to overnight delivery.
The internet was created to spread ideas to people. For a long time it has almost become the equal opportunity information highway available to anyone and everyone. Luckily they have given a reason to destroy this system.
The Justice Department said imposing a Net neutrality regulation could hamper development of the Internet and prevent service providers from upgrading or expanding their networks. It could also shift the “entire burden of implementing costly network expansions and improvements onto consumers,” the agency said in its filing.
The reason is that upgrading the networks that most companies have with almost certain purpose let fall into continual decay would cost money. It would cost a great deal to replace the existing wires and fiber optics that companies have refused to upgrade or expand for years. So they will simply create multiple tiers of service in order to leverage more dollars from you.
Perhaps a better idea would be to ask your internet provider what exactly they have been doing with those dollars you send to them monthly. After all, as a dutiful consumer you have already been paying for this access. In addition, you have already been paying for tiered internet access. You pay higher premiums for higher connection speeds. Now they not only want to charge for your end user speed, but charge everyone upstream so that they can attempt to send you data at the speed you already pay for.
Don’t let phone and cable monopolies limit your access to information you have already paid them for. Don’t let big business be the arbiters of the cost of allowing information make it to the fiber optic highways that now drive our society.
After all, shouldn’t the free market avoid the practices of information control for blatant profiteering?
Posted in Technology | 1 Comment »
Monday, February 12th, 2007 |
Originally posted at The Seminal.
A bill introduced last week by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) is beginning to raise eyebrows.
[It] would require ISPs to record all users’ surfing activity, IM conversations and email traffic indefinitely.
The bill, dubbed the Safety Act by sponsor Lamar Smith, a republican congressman from Texas, would impose fines and a prison term of one year on ISPs which failed to keep full records. (emphasis mine)
This is a terrifying development and it must be stopped before it gains any significant momentum. Background, Action items and contact information below the fold.
Under the guise of reducing child pornography, the SAFETY (Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today’s Youth Act) Act is currently the gravest threat to digital privacy rights on the Internet. Given the increasing tendency of people, especially young people, to use the Internet as a primary means of communications, this measure would effect nearly all Americans in ways we are only beginning to understand. Also, given the fact that the Act requires all Internet Service Providers to record the web surfing activity of all Internet users, this amounts to the warrantless wiretapping of the entire Internet.
Amazingly, although the bill was introduced and referred to the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday Feb. 6, it has been virtually ignored by both the corporate media and major blogs alike. By combining such draconian legislation with several child pornography measures, Smith is trying to pull a fast one on the Judiciary Committee and on the democratically controlled Congress as a whole. I say we don’t let this happen. So, first, a little background information. Then below, I’ve outlined a few actions you can take if you’d like to spread the word on this.
Background:
The original SAFETY Act, introduced in June of 2006 by Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), was shot down due to free speech concerns over aspects of the bill other than the ones I’ve focused on here. At the time, the Center for Democracy and Technology wrote that the bill “would undermine First Amendment free speech protections and do nothing to protect children on the Internet.”
So what was Lamar Smith’s response you ask? He added the misguided measures discussed above in an attempt to fulfill the demands of the FBI. In an October 2006 conference of police chiefs, FBI Director Robert Mueller made the following statement:
Terrorists coordinate their plans cloaked in the anonymity of the Internet, as do violent sexual predators prowling chat rooms. All too often, we find that before we can catch these offenders, Internet service providers have unwittingly deleted the very records that would help us identify these offenders and protect future victims.
Mueller was signaling to Congress that he would like to see measures put in place that would require ISPs to store records of all Internet usage so he could access it when he felt it was neccessary. But, as has been pointed out:
The thing about retention laws is that they require all data to be maintained, not simply the data from child pornographers and terrorists. This means that such laws are usually favored by other, unrelated groups who would like access to such log files. Groups like the music labels. In Europe, where retention rules are already in place, the entertainment industry has already stated its belief that the data should be available for use in the investigation of any crime, even copyright infringement.
Action:
There are two ways to make members of Congress listen to your concerns.
1. Inundate them with phone calls and emails.
2. Get negative media coverage of what they are trying to accomplish.
Please contact any or all of the people and organizations listed below. Let them know that the SAFETY ACT, as it is written, is not acceptable.
Sponsor:
Rep. Lamar Smith, web form, 202-225-4236
Cosponsors:
Rep. Steve Chabot, (202) 225-2216
Rep. Tom Feeney, (202) 225-2706
Rep. J. Randy Forbes, (202) 225-6365
Rep. Trent Franks, (202) 225-4576
Rep. Elton Gallegly, (202) 225-5811
Rep. Dan Lungren, (202) 225-5716
Rep. Mike Pence, (202) 225-3021
House Judiciary Committee Chair:
Rep. John Conyers, (202) 225-5126
(more…)
Posted in Technology | 1 Comment »
