Computers and Internet

Smartphones, Silly Users | Harvard Business Review

Posted on by Andreas Tsouchlaris

Very interesting (and frightening) reading…

First, we don’t remember anything anymore. Research shows that we’re increasingly outsourcing our personal memory banks to Google and other search engines, effectively wiping our own brains of easily accessible information. But as the growth of apps per device skyrockets and user interfaces simplify, we’re relying on more cognitive crutches than ever. Can’t recall the name of your coworker? Don’t worry; their LinkedIn profile is just a few taps away. Forgotten the name of that Japanese restaurant down the street? Yelp it up! Look for our memory gaps to grow as we train our brains to recall where information is located, rather than remembering the information itself.

The rest is here: Smartphones, Silly Users at HBR.org.

Will your new computer be able to play an MKV file?

Posted on by Andreas Tsouchlaris

I was reading this article “How 4 Microsoft engineers proved that the “darknet” would defeat DRM” on how they were “attacked” for saying the truth. But what amazed me is a reader’s comment that the editor has also highlighted (that’s the quality of Ars Technica…). I copy parts of it:

What good is piracy if you can’t buy a computer that will execute your booty?

That’s the real problem. Yeah, it is impossible to make 100% of DRMed endpoints exfiltration-proof. However, your ability to make 95%+ of endpoints increasingly hostile to anything lacking a trusted DRM signature is constrained only by customer hostility, not by any technological barrier…

I totally agree. The millions of consumers that buy mainstream hardware and use mainstream software will find it really hard to use pirated material.

The issue of “monitoring” internet connections at home and businesses by organizations and copyright holders will be on another post…

Turning 100 needs adaptability

Posted on by Andreas Tsouchlaris

You might have noticed that this year IBM is celebrating its 100th birthday. ZDNet has some interesting turning points in IBM’s corporate history: IBM at 100: 15 inflection points in history | ZDNet. Andrew Nusca comments:

The lesson here? History repeats itself. IBM’s focus on innovation has indeed helped it adapt — proactively, I might add — to a changing market. When it began to rest on its laurels, play the short-term game and ignore its central tenet to offer “global business solutions” — whatever the phrase meant at the time — IBM began to descend into failure.

ZDNet’s Gallery IBM: 100 years of THINKing big is also very nice. And don’t miss the following amazing videos:

What’s behind WordPress.com and iCloud? Try Azure for free

Posted on by Andreas Tsouchlaris

Did you know that WordPress.com and its 350,000 blogs is running on Windows Azure cloud infrastructure? And there are hints that even Apple’s new iCloud solution is using part of it… Get a 30-day Windows Azure Platform Pass and try by yourself the Azure platform.

And if you want to know how much it will cost you to deploy your IT stuff on the cloud, use the Windows Azure Pricing Calculator.

No internet connection? Fix the TV antenna!

Posted on by Andreas Tsouchlaris

A consortium of companies like Microsoft, BBC, Sky Broadcasting and BT has started trials of transmitting data in empty spaces of the radio spectrum used by terrestrial TV. If they are successful, they will create “super WiFi” networks in cities and rural areas. The Financial Times have the rest of the story: Microsoft trial to use UK TV signals for WiFi

The needs for bandwidth and coverage have exceeded the available infrastructure (and way of thinking till now) due to the explosion of mobile devices, smartphones and tablets. That’s why in Japan, for example, KDDI, their principal telco provider, is setting up the largest nationwide WiFi network with 100,000 hotspots in less than 12 months. The most important thing is that the user’s device will switch between 3G (or 4G) to WiFi seamlessly without extra charges for the best experience. More on this here: KDDI and Ruckus Wireless Debut the World’s Largest Mobile Data Offload Network -PRNewswire.

 

 

Adobe prepping “Creative Suite 5.5 Digital Publishing” for iOS, Android development

Posted on by Andreas Tsouchlaris

Flash has finally entered iPhone and iPad through the back door. Flash Pro CS5 is already packaging flash apps for iOS but don’t expect to have the exact functionality (and performance) you can have on a desktop machine. Especially animations are very sloooow… We are waiting the next Flash Player version from Adobe and their new suite CS5.5. As they promised, it will be optimised for mobile devices. Let’s see.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/01/28/adobe_prepping_creative_suite_5_5