Tech News

Appearing just now on the NRSC’s official website:

(click for larger view)

Notice anything in that Help Elect Republicans to the Senate box? You would think that the NRSC would figure people might do something like that and put filters on it. I guess not.

This is a really, really, REALLY bad idea:

To the dismay of safety advocates already worried about driver distraction, automakers and high-tech companies have found a new place to put sophisticated Internet-connected computers: the front seat.

Technology giants like Intel and Google are turning their attention from the desktop to the dashboard, hoping to bring the power of the PC to the car. They see vast opportunity for profit in working with automakers to create the next generation of irresistible devices.

This week at the Consumer Electronics Show, the neon-drenched annual trade show here, these companies are demonstrating the breadth of their ambitions, like 10-inch screens above the gearshift showing high-definition videos, 3-D maps and Web pages.

So drivers will be texting, shaving, putting lip stick on, checking the map, finding a radio station, adjusting the mirrors, shoving a Big Mac in their mouth, and now surfing the tubes for porn all while they are driving. Forget terrorism – our biggest threat is the ADD that plagues America.

Following up on yesterday’s news of the White House now using the open source content management software Drupal to power their site I decided I needed to expand on it a bit more for my less tech savvy readers.

First an explanation of open source software is in order before an understanding of what it means to the citizens and taxpayers of our country.

The open source model is very powerful and starting to dominate the computing world. Approximately 75% of the websites on the internet are powered by software developed as open source. Apache is the most popular web server software and is open source. Linux is the most popular operating system for servers and is open source. Even MySQL, the database which powers most sites including Google is open source.

Open source software can be freely obtained. Any of the examples I gave above you can go and download right now and even download the underlying code that makes the software run. You are free to modify it however you like, given you follow the very lenient licensing requirements, and run those changes openly.

Making this software free doesn’t mean there isn’t money to be made. Drupal is a perfect example of this. The software is so powerful and robust that it ends up with a very steep learning curve. That’s not by design, but rather because of what the software has to offer.

The home page of 1600 Pennsylvania avenue did a relaunch over the weekend. The most exciting part is that its now running on Drupal, the same software that powers IntoxiNation and Crooksandliars. 

The day after Obama was inaugurated as our 44th President I did a post about having a more tech savvy commander in chief, and in it talked about how the government should really embrace and move towards open source software like Drupal. It’s great to see that they are doing this.

Given the extensibility of Drupal and existing modules that can provide anything from a full social network site to a major campaign site, including email letters, I say we can expect to see a much more user oriented whitehouse.gov.

I was just reading the following blog post:

The days of building your precious DVD collection may be coming to an end sooner than you think. If Netflix CEO Reed Hastings' comments are any guide, the DVD era may be set to come to a rather abrupt halt.

Specifically, Hastings said in an interview with The Motley Fool website (digested here) that DVD will only be the "primary delivery format" at the company for the next two years, though he did add that it would stick around in some fashion for the next decade or two. That's a huge pull back from Hastings' previous prognostication; the Netflix boss had formerly predicted DVD would remain the company's primary format until as late as 2018.

Basically Hastings is saying that people will go to their set top boxes, which require high speed internet. The problem is this country is way behind countless others when it comes to broadband coverage. I live 30 miles north of Cincinnati and a mile up the road they have no broadband coverage. Until this country gets its act together and starts welcoming the 21st century then predictions like Hastings are way too premature.

Reports are that Microsoft and Yahoo have sealed the deal for Microsoft to offer their new Bing search engine as the default search engine for Yahoo. In my opinion this should give Google something to worry about. Bing is a very nice search engine. Microsoft finally broke out of their stagnant web presence with the new search engine, and now Google’s main competitor will use it.

Of course Google is so far ahead of Microsoft in other web services that I don’t know if it will pose as much of a threat as people are expecting. I really like Bing, but I still use Google for 99% of my searches. It isn’t a matter of preference, but rather a force of habit. Also we can expect to see Google take the nice benefits of Bing and improve on them. It’s all part of the competition that goes on daily in the internet business.

It turns out an Islamic extremist website was actually being hosted right here in the Untied States:

On March 25, a Taliban Web site claiming to be the voice of the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" boasted of a deadly new attack on coalition forces in that country. Four soldiers were killed in an ambush, the site claimed, and the "mujahideen took the weapons and ammunition as booty."

Most remarkable about the message was how it was delivered. The words were the Taliban's, but they were flashed around the globe by an American-owned firm located in a leafy corner of downtown Houston.

The Texas company, a Web-hosting outfit called ThePlanet, says it simply rented cyberspace to the group and had no clue about its Taliban connections. For more than a year, the militant group used the site to rally its followers and keep a running tally of suicide bombings, rocket attacks and raids against U.S. and allied troops. The cost of the service: roughly $70 a month, payable by credit card.

The Taliban's account was pulled last week when a blogger noticed the connection and called attention to it. But the odd pairing of violently anti-American extremists and U.S. technology companies continues elsewhere and appears to be growing. Intelligence officials and private experts cite dozens of instances in which Islamist militants sought out U.S. Internet firms -- known for their reliable service and easy terms that allow virtual anonymity -- and used them to incite attacks on Americans.

I deal with these hosting companies all the time. I have even dealt with ThePlanet before. This happening is no shock. A lot of their stuff is actually automated, and they handle hundreds, if not thousands of websites, so they really can’t keep an eye on things. I really don’t blame them either. If we are going to get on companies for enabling people to push a message, then we need to start looking at FOX news and every station that carries Limbaugh.

Of course there is something this article doesn’t mention. There’s a thing called “reseller accounts” in the hosting world. That is where someone foots the monthly bill to rent out an entire server from a company like ThePlanet. They then rent off pieces of that server to other sites a month. It’s not a bad way to make a little extra cash. So there’s a chance that ThePlanet wasn’t even directly involved, but rather these people were actually being hosted through a middle man.

The New York Times has a really nice write-up about Drupal today. Drupal is the engine that drives this site and many others. As matter of fact one of my goals for 2009 is to talk more progressive blogs into giving Drupal a go, as it has most of the features available we are all looking for.

This is exactly why we need net neutrality passed asap:

For some sports fans, ESPN360, the online version of ESPN's television channel, is a cornucopia of more than 3,500 sporting events each year, viewable from the convenience of a computer. For others, it's a total bust. The only difference: their ISP.

The culprit is ESPN's strategy of licensing ISPs rather than users. If your ISP doesn't want to pay for you to watch ESPN360, there's nothing you can do about it, short of switching to a provider that pays for it. While other companies strive for a more direct, one-to-one relationship with consumers, ESPN is doggedly pursuing the same strategy online that made it a success in the TV world: licensing pipes, not people. And it just might work.

So from a quick read it sounds like the ISPs have to pay for the service, but that isn’t the case. Instead then the costs will end up being passed onto the customer. And not only that, but what if I don’t care about sports; should I have to pay because someone else does?

If this kind of greedy action doesn’t get stopped then think about what the future will hold. You will see other major websites follow suit. Perhaps your ISP won’t sign the agreement to get YouTube, and you might live in an area where you have no choice in internet providers.

Also our internet infrastructure sucks. I have blogged numerous times about that in the past, but it bears repeating here – we are losing the tech war. By greedy corporations like ESPN trying to suck out more money from the internet companies, that means less revenue for things like upgrading to fiber optic lines or making other strides to more widely accessible and higher speed internet. Hopefully President Obama will get the FCC and Congress to take this on.

Microsoft rolled out an update to their .NET framework, and in it is an extension for Firefox. The update installs this extension and doesn’t allow you to uninstall it. As if that isn’t bad enough (Microsoft FORCING people to use their stuff – wasn’t there suits about this already?), Microsoft gives no documentation regarding what this is or does, or any notification that it is installing.

Maybe it’s time for our new Justice Department to take a look at Microsoft.

Senate has passed a bill to delay the switch over to digital television by four months. If you need one of those coupons, now is the time to try and get it.

90% of the work I do is in the open source software field. This blog runs off of open source software, as do most. It’s also turned into a multi-billion dollar industry. Imagine, software that is given away for free is now generating tons of revenue in a field that keeps on growing.

I think this whole concept would have made George Bush’s head explode, but Barack Obama seems open to it:

The secret to a more secure and cost effective government is through open source technologies and products.</p>

The claim comes from one of Silicon Valley's most respected business leaders Scott McNealy, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems.

He revealed he has been asked to prepare a paper on the subject for the new administration.

"It's intuitively obvious open source is more cost effective and productive than proprietary software," he said.

"Open source does not require you to pay a penny to Microsoft or IBM or Oracle or any proprietary vendor any money."

I have championed for this for years now. The government currently is in a love fest with Microsoft, and that costs us billions of dollars alone. Making a move to open source software not only eliminates a bunch of that cost, but also moves us to a much more secure government. I would love to see this come to being and our government kick Microsoft to the curb.

The U.K. has now developed a security camera that can see through clothes.

Nothing is safe anymore. I remember reading an article about 12 years ago, when the internet was first booming, and it pointed out that World War 3 will be fought in cyberspace. If that happens, we are at a serious disadvantage.

Being a big shutter bug, I found this article very interesting. Digital photography has changed the field immensely, but the new wave could be even better. That wave is 3D photography.