New Posterous Webaccount

Trying out this posterous blogging account.  So many social networking sites, works kind of like friendfeed.  Have a look http://optionkey.posterous.com

Thanks,

Trevor

Posted via email from optionkey's posterous

Windows 7 Mobile To Little To Late

Microsoft has some gull. After about ten years in the mobile PDA and mobile phone space, replacing the Palm OS on most of Palms smart phones until Web OS was released; and BlackBerry being Microsoft's only competition (I realize there is Symbian from Nokia but let's be real it was basally these 2 controlled the smart phone market). Until the iPhone showed up and changed the smart phone market forever, Microsoft stagnated the development of the Windows Mobile OS. Microsoft had a rare opportunity to control the mobile market but did not seem to understand that a mobile phone is not a desktop computer. Windows Mobile is slow and bulky, and difficult to use. Lots of Palm users would buy old phones just to run Palm OS because they didn't like Windows Mobile.

Now Microsoft is to release Windows 7 Mobile, I for one was very excited for this release but not anymore. Microsoft some how thinks it has a healthy share of the smart phone market. Paul Thurrott from the Windows Supersite stated that Microsoft controls about 18% of the smart phone market on the Windows Weekly podcast with Leo Laporte. This is down from the 24% it had back in 2004 according to wikipedia with most of the manufactures and developers abandoning the Windows Mobile platform for more current standardized platforms like the iPhone, Android, Symbian and Yes Web OS. The one thing these Mobile operating systems have in common is web standards. Internet Explorer does not support web standards very well at all and from a consumer perspective why would you want a platform what has very few apps and at the time of this blog post you don't even know how many older apps will be ported or able to be ported to Windows 7 mobile.

Granted for the corporate space depending on the difficulty with IT support will either be Windows 7 mobile or BlackBerry (probably the latter), but the more work starts to encroach our personal time there will be a huge demand for these nicer easier to use products. Most IT support and network professionals know what I'm talking about. Microsoft will have to start changing it's attitude if it wants to grab a bigger share of the mobile market.

1. licensing it to mobile manufactures for free


2. creating an app store experience similar to that of the apple store


3. A web browser that supports web standards better


4. Maybe a mobile Microsoft office apps for windows 7 mobile


5. Maintaining or improving the syncing and integration with exchange

There is a huge push right now to keep everything on the cloud and an economic incentive for lots of companies to move their businesses to cloud services like Google docs, even Microsoft is going to release a version of office 2010 for the cloud. I like Windows 7 and like what I see with Windows 7 mobile but with Android, iPhone, and the other mobile OS, out there that I can develop for just using web standards, I don't know why I would want to develop for Windows Mobile when I would have to redo a lot of my code even to get things to work in Internet Explorer properly. Microsoft has a major up hill battle ahead of it's self in the mobile space, and they are taking the old Microsoft way of handling it. With the mobile OS user base increasing and Microsoft's share shrinking they might want to rethink the way they are approaching this.

Tips To Help You Protect Yourself From Scammers.

After hearing a news report on CBC about an Edmonton Realtor Robert McLeod; I though I should give some helpful tips to try help prevent users from being taken advantage of by scammers. Here are some helpful tips to help prevent you from being taken advantage of by scammers.

1. If it is to good to be true it usually is


2. Deal and meet with people locally as often as possible. Especially if using Kijiji, Craigslist or BuySell


3. Google the people or company your dealing with find as much information as possible.


4. If you have reservations or "bad feelings" about who your dealing with DON'T!


5. If there are professional accreditations check them out and confirm them. i.e. Better Business Bureau


6. Use a payment type that has excellent fraud protection or fraud insurance, like Visa, PayPal ***Policies my vary***


7. If something is a scam, report it to the authorities and the listing company.


8. Keep all evidence of the scam/fraud to protect yourself. Always file your paperwork and keep all documentation of all communications.


9. Don't cash or send any money orders, cheques etc. for any companies or individuals. At least not right away until you can establish that the individuals or company(s) are not scammers. Any fraud that will occur will happen right away, they will ask you to cash or send money to places with all kinds of excuses. REMEMBER you will be held responsible for any fraud that occurs if you cash any checks, money orders etc. Protect yourself no company or individual will get the a new person to pay the bills or handle large sums of money when they are just hired!

If you use these tips it should help prevent you from being scammed; you do need to keep a cool head, have a sober second thought. People get excited if they find something that seems to be to good to be true. Use your discretion and follow the guidelines and you should be fine.

Good Hunting

Trevor

Why Flash will die

Adobe Flash (http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/) is quickly becoming the bane of the internet. Mostly used for online video or interactive websites, flash is quickly becoming a hassle that people don't want to deal with. Within the last year Flash has become the main vector for many malware attacks. Flash also has major issues with causing the CPU to max out, browsers crashing, and memory management. Flash is also not as good for SEO and can lower your ranking on search engines.

A brief history on Flash

Flash has been until now the best platform for delivering low bandwidth highly interactive web objects. What does that mean? Well, Flash has been a great platform for delivering interactive content and eventually making up most of the video on the web. This was due mostly to ActionScript; a programmable language for Flash that allows you to do things you couldn't do before on the web with ASP, PHP, ROR (Ruby on Rails), Perl CGI, JavaScript, QuickTime and windows media player. Flash showed much of it's promise in Version 6. That is where ActionScript became really useful, and more mainstream starting to replace the older program Director, which was almost the same program just raster based with a language called Lingo and had much more CPU and Ram requirements. Director was also given the same options as Flash for posting it to the internet via The Shockwave plug in, but did not catch on as much as Flash did, probably due to the size of the player files, and the lack of bandwidth most internet users had at the time. Flash has quickly come to be the leading video player of choice on the web, and there is no better example of this then youtube. This was probably due to flash being able to read the length of time in the "Flash Video" and the communication capabilities between different swf files where you can put in "markers" or "hotspots" to trigger events in flash players.

So why will Flash Die?

To put it simply, there is a shift to move things on the web to open source and open standards preventing any one company from controlling the web. That is only part of the story. Flash has also drifted away from why people used it in the first place. A low bandwidth solution for providing highly interactive content. Flash as it has matured has become more bloated due to request from flash users for more features and capabilities. Eventually I think Flash will disappear from the web all together unless Adobe does 3 things.

1. Makes Flash Open Source


2. Fixes Flash from hogging the Processor and Memory


3. Stops Flash from crashing web browsers

Most of the things done in flash now with the exception of a few items can be done now with javascript and css. With the move to web standardized content management systems which pretty much eliminates flash unless you put in a Flash Banner, Gallery, video player or some other flash element which has to be custom coded, Flash becomes very inconvenient to implement into websites. If Adobe were to open up Flash and get partners like Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Yahoo to sign on and make flash freely available to everyone to make it easy and very cheap to produce flash swf files. This might be enough for Flash to become a true web standard and have HTML 5 have a native tag just for flash instead of using Active X (which is what they did for video). The odds of this happening are slim to none, it's hard enough to get these guys to agree on anything, let alone release control of their own technologies for an open technology that standardizes everything, which would be a benefit to us all. If Adobe wants flash to live on into the the future I think they have to open it up or it will go the way Director did into oblivion.

The Apple iPad

Apple has released their tablet computer and it is called the iPad. OK the name isn't that great but the machine is. This is the perfect device for people who want a netbook or laptop that actually wouldn't use one. For example, this would be the perfect device for my wife, It is an oversize iPod that she can hook a keyboard up to via the keyboard accessory. My biggest 2 issues are with issue with it is the lack of a usb port or card reader, (which I imagine will come out later as an accessory) and the lack of the Full Mac OS. To use this computer, fully, you still need a computer to sync it to itunes. Now if you could hook up an external hard drive, and have a card reader with the full OS functionality then I think people would be going gaga over it. Regardless this is still a huge leap forward.

I was expecting 3 things from this announcement.

1. It would start the pricing at $799.00 USD


2. It would be a little slow or "under powered"


3. There would be little to no software for it

Apple really surprised everyone with what they came out with. The iPad is the next logical extension of the hardware and at $499, it's a deal. Let's face it the regular Mac OS would be difficult to use without a full keyboard and mouse, the iPhone OS is much simpler to use and by adapting the software to work better with the iPhone OS then the target market will have an easier time using the iPad. Speaking of which who is the target market for this? Well you can say e-book readers, but I think where the iPad will shine is in Sales, Education, and most importantly general computing. Who will use this? Students, Moms, Non-Tech Savy People. Why? Because it is the easiest OS you can use. It does one thing at a time and won't allow you to do more then one thing at any given time.

What about the big techies that want one? Well it will make a great video device, handy for following online tutorials, reading websites, blogs, and ebooks. I must say it is a really good size as well; I can't wait to see one in person. My wife doesn't know if she would use it but for everything she does on her laptop, the iPad fits the bill better then her laptop. My sister goes to college this coming up school year, this would fit the bill perfectly for a mobile device for school. She can record notes, use google docs or iwork, and there are lots of apps that will open and save word files, and more. Having used XP tablets (Which cost a lot more) and end up feeling quite slow, I have I hopes for performance on the iPad.

For those people that thought Steve Jobs can change the laws of physics, he is only human and for their first tablet computer, Apple's is once again a cut above the rest. I'm not saying by any means that it's perfect, I'm just saying that what's out there right now it is the best there is. They made it cheaper then what most had thought (Starting at $499). It has a fast 1Ghz processor (still needs to be proven to me) and loads of apps thanks to the Apps Store.

Improvements I would make to the iPad.

Add 1 or 2 standard USB Ports
80GB SSD
SD Card Reader
FULL OS SUPPORT!

I would expect apple to have a $499 or $599 product line or the possible replacement of the MacBook line. These mobile devices are becoming cheaper, faster, easier to use and are much more popular then regular personal computers. Very soon you will have a home server to store all your data (songs, movies, documents) and everyone will have a "iPad" or tablet for accessing, and syncing it all.

Trevor

Why does Facebook Want To Be Twitter?

I for the life of me can't figure out why Facebook has Twitter envy. Maybe it's the followers, or maybe it's because you can follow celebrities, who knows. One thing I am sure about is that if Facebook isn't careful they can completely screw it up. What am I talking about the Privacy Settings. Just recently Facebook in an effort to compete with twitter changed their privacy settings so that things can be more easily indexed by a search engine. Read Article.

As this an attempt to take a shot at twitter, Facebook had some sort of trend about bra colours? Was this to take a shot at twitter? Probably. Did it make sense? Not to me but I don't wear a bra so maybe it effected me less. Facebook seems to be scared of twitter and my evidence is facebook recent changes to it's privacy rules. Read Article.

Facebook shouldn't be trying to be more open (in the content sense) they should trying to keep people's information as private as possible to the point where in the EULA companies can pay for placing ads or sending email fliers or messages about products they sell, services and or events in a region reaching people living in that region. Your selling access to your users, keeping everything else free; thus not having to monetize the services via subscription. You could also monetize by taking a percentage of the virtual economy, where you can pay money for e-cards to friends, or items in games like farmville.

How about selling your farmville game to someone else or trading virtual items for real world money and taking a cut? There is so much potential for Facebook the biggest thing going for it is the 65 million active users. No online app or service to my knowledge is larger then Facebook. Facebook has so many ways it can monetize it's not even funny, if it's to partner with google to show ads in the direct messages or emails based on keywords and splitting the revenue or getting money from government to perform census and surveys. Why does Facebook want to be twitter?

Stephen Harper Prorogues Canadian Parliament Again!

Well he did it again, shutdown the government. The current Prime Minister seems to not play well with others. We the Canadian people elected a minority government and that government is to work in the best interest of the Canadian people. We don't want this party politics garbage that all parties are guilty of, but the worst offender in my opinion is the Prime Minister.

Yes he has the "Majority of Party Seats" but the the Majority of seats in the house. As a responsible Prime Minister he should be reaching out for common ground not sending out ultimatums and bullying other MPs. What do I mean? The Name Garth Turner should ring a bell. Read Article Read Star Article. Mr. Harper also bullies public servants such as Richard Colvin. I'm talking about the Afghanistan inquiry into prisoner abuses. Then Public Servant Richard Colvin was trying to bring awareness about the abuses by the Afghanistan army/police. Read Star Article So instead of trying to get to the truth the Government wanted to bury it and also one could argue destroy Mr. Colvin's reputation. This is just one of the many things the conservatives have had blow up in their face, but more concerning is that this has all the signs of an election coming.

The Conservatives appear to be announcing more "Money Announcements". On January 7th Rona Ambrose handed over $125000 in federal funding, the latest in money announcements from the Government. There also appears to be allot of PR going on right now to boost numbers by the conservative party. Perhaps the government is going to call an election in March? I don't think that's far fetched. It's after the Winter Olympics, everyone "Should" be relatively happy with the government if the Olympics are a success. So what should you do, you might think I'm a "Liberal Fan Boy" but I'm not, I want our government to work for us, not for the parties or other interest other then that of the paying Canadian tax payer.

To that end I'll be buying a membership to the Pirate Party of Canada, and I'll do what I can to try change the government and the way politics are done in Canada. If I were you take a look at the parties, the people, and the way things are being done (Or as the case is NOT done). It's time for a change, Let's give the old parties a message. "Were tired of being screwed with, now do what we elected you to do. Work for the public good of your constituents, and the public well being in Canada." Not what your party's agenda is or those special interest groups.

You can follow the Pirate Party at http://www.twitter.com/piratepartyca

Is TV worth the price you pay?

Ok is it just me or does TV seem a tad expensive? Ok let's look at the facts here. 3 years ago you could get basic cable for $20.00 per month. Now they start you at $45.00. I know that now it's Digital or (High Def) TV and that's the old analogue system you were paying for, which is a good way to defend the increase in price. Let's also talk about the programming then. In my opinion TV programming has gone way down on the quality scale. The air ways mostly consist of reality shows; long gone are the days of Sci-Fi, Drama and Comedies that use to dominate. As you know we have a 1080P TV and now we have a BluRay Disk Player, and I am very happy with the BluRay quality. So now we are looking at cable or satellite. I am very disappointed with the options and the prices. Let's start with my least favorite company to deal with...

1) Shaw Cable.

So for basic HD they start you at 60.95/month, HD Plus is 69.95/month. Seems expensive considering I still need a HD receiver from Shaw or an HD PVR that is just for programming. Why would I pay $60.95/month to watch CSI and House? Those are the only two shows on TV that even remotely have my interest. My wife wants to watch a few shows but nothing where I can justify spending that much for lack luster, programming.

2) Shaw Direct (formerly know as Star Choice)

This came highly recommended by some of my wife's co-workers. Now I have to say it is much more reasonably priced then Cable is. Now it is much more reasonable, depending on the hardware we buy installation for Shaw direct ranges from 0 to $200.00. The programming on the other hand is much more reasonable. With programming starting at 23.00 all the way to 86.00 it seems like a deal compared to cable. My issue with Shaw Direct is the HD receiver can't work as a PVR.

3) Bell

Now Bell is much like Shaw direct with programming starting as low as $23.00 (for HD) ranging all the way to $99.00. Again fairly reasonable programming prices.

4) Telus TV

New to the TV market (relatively) is Telus. They provide 2 types ip and satellite tv. I will not slow my DSL speed so I am not going to be reviewing the IP TV, since it requires slower internet. Telus will not setup TV on their 15MB Internet; so forget that it's useless.

Telus Satellite again is fairly reasonable with HD programming starting at $35.00 going to $99.00.


With all the prices being around the same and all the promotions are almost identical, you would think we have a great competition going on between the companies. At least that's what they want you to think. Unless you get a customer retention specialist your out of luck on scoring any deals at all. At this point unless we get a great deal we are likely going with either Shaw Direct or Bell. (Probably Bell since we have the hardware). Not only that for the amount of time we are home, and the time we will watch tv we will be going with just a basic package and I can build a DVR using Elisa (Susie Linux Media Centre) to record the stuff instead of buying one. Or I can build the Media Centre and Stream the content off YouTube, Hulu, or right of the websites of the content providers. Is it just me or are we all being ripped off?

Facebook's New Privacy Settings

Well it has happened it was just a matter of time but now Facebook has really lost it. Instead of respecting people's privacy they want to go where twitter is, a real time search engine. Facebook has the numbers to kick twitter to the curb but most of the users on Facebook don't want to be on twitter, nor do they want people they don't know access to their personal information. This move by Facebook will be good for cyber stockers. With the default settings set to open, most users will be using the open settings and not even know it. Users protecting their privacy is something the user has very little information how to do, if they even know about it. They just assume that social networking sites like Facebook are safe. The way the privacy policy was when it started was the right one but now with Facebook's twitter envy I worry about them scaring off or even alienating their user base.

I know that users like my wife, my mother, father don't want what their doing being posted over the internet. The issues that have popped up about employer and employee conduct on their off time will be even more controversial because by default all their posts, and comments will be open and index-able by search engine spider bots. This will make things more accessible and once something gets on the internet it doesn't go away very easily.


The best thing I can suggest is to not use Facebook or turn all of your security settings up as high as it can go. As for what I think of the changes; I think Facebook just shot themselves in the foot, this will anger allot of users and some of them may even leave. The last few changes in facebook I have felt were lack luster, and the result has been I've been going on facebook less and less or just using programs like Tweetdeck to update my facebook status along with my twitter and myspace status.


Not to long ago twitter was audited by the Canadian Privacy Commissioner; and they locked down users profiles so it was harder to search about the user and browse other profiles that they weren't friends with. This seems to go in the completely opposite direction. Why can't Facebook get it? They are not twitter as much as they want to be their not. What they should be working towards is target ad marketing. Setting up regional deals with media companies for real time streams of programming. There are so many ways Facebook can make money without compermising it's user base, but instead it wants to be twitter.

Weather or not Facebook loses users we will have to see, since they have moved to a more twitter like format I have found myself using it less and less. I am not the only one, I know several other users that have been weening themselves off Facebook as well? What do you think? Is Facebook moving in the right direction or not?


By Trevor Tye

Reference:
cbc.ca
readwriteweb.com
readwriteweb.com

10 Geeky Gifts for Christmas 2009

Here it is my Top 10 Geek Gift List for 2009! Hope this helps when your looking for that perfect gift for that Geek of yours.

#10. The iPod Touch 8GB

The Apple iPod Touch 8GB is the entry level iPod Touch. Let's face it it is an iPhone with out the phone and camera. Still you can get your email surf the web and get over 10,000 applications. It is great for anyone that wants a "Tablet PC" only smaller.



#9. The Logitech Harmony 620 Programmable Remote

The Harmony 620 can control up to 12 devices. It is can be updated to control almost every device you own. I consider it a must have for anyone with a hi-def system. It is simple, easy to use and is nice to hold. It is probably the nicest remote you will ever buy for $120.00





#8. Super Mario Brothers Wii

Granted this is already going to be an extremely hot item this year and it will be difficult to get a hold of. The multi player features in this game are excellent, think of it as Super Mario Brothers 3 updated.

It's extremely fun, and it has a very nostalgic feeling to the game for those of you who have played Mario before. This game will be a riot at parties. In all an excellent game and fun for all ages.






#7. HAUPPAUGE WINTV-PVR (USB) EXTERNAL TV TUNER

This will bring that geek of yours hours of enjoyment. If you have an old computer around you can convert it into your own PVR using Mac*, Linux, Windows 7, Vista or XP Media Centre.




#6. Apple TV

Weather you like Apple or not the Apple TV is a pretty nice device. It connects to iTunes, and can stream everything from any iTunes collection. It is a very nice gadget that any geek would be happy to get.







#5. PATRIOT BOX OFFICE MEDIA

If your on a budget the Patriot Box is a great network based media player. It has a nicer enclosure then the Asus O!Play HD Media Player. Think of it as a cheaper Apple TV. Just remember the OS on the media player isn't as nice as the Apple TV.





#4. NBOX Media Player

Yes it is the year for TV media players. This is the most inexpensive media player running 30 - 40 dollars, you load your movies on SD cards or flash drives and play them from the NBox. Not as nice as the Apple TV or Patriot Media Player but hey for $30.00 I wouldn't complain at all.



#3. Nexstar Hard Drive Dock

This inexpensive little hard drive enclosure is a very handy thing that every geek should have. With DVD's being a fraction of the size of hard drives it is impractical to expect backups to be made on DVDs. That said though, with this hard drive dock you can just backup your data to hard drives and just shelve them like you would DVDs or Tape. For $50.00 is is a great gift any geek will appreciate.




#2. The Drobo

One of the biggest innovations in storage technology to date. This External enclosure uses "ZRAID" or "Raid-Z" to get a basic hard drive spanning with redundancy. The best example of this would be RAID 5. The difference being the hard drives on the drobo can be all different sizes, unlike a RAID 5 where the Raid goes by the smallest drive.



#1. The G1 Transformers TV Series DVD Collection

This DVD collection is one of few DVD collections I will recommend. Let's face it The original Transformers are classic. There have been several spin offs and remakes of this original cartoon series. This will be a collection that will be good to have for all time.




* There is a way to hack this PVR to work with the Mac. You do this at your own risk.

Review of Samsung LN46B550 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV

My wife surprised me when she said let's get you a HD TV, so I looked on line what the best deals and budgeted about $800 for a HD TV. Here were the main specs I was looking for.

• 1080p
• Good Upsampling
• Clear Picture
• Good Contrast Ratio

I was considering a 37" Samsung or 40" Samsung along with a 40" Toshiba and a 42" Insignia were also in the running. I we went to (BestBuy because it was closer to our home) to have a physical look at the TV's. The picture in all the TV's were good, and from the specs it was easy to see why. I had my heart set on the 40" Samsung but the 42" Insignia had some better specs then what the Samsung had and it was bigger and 120hz.

My wife and I discussed it and I told her I would prefer to buy the Samsung, she thought the Insignia was good and tried to talk me into that one. I just couldn't do it the Insignia set is a great deal, but I haven't heard to much about them and I knew the Samsungs have an excellent reputation, and from what I read they are highly recommended. I also prefer because it had the 12bit video processor and better contrast ratio, and slightly faster screen. So my wife made my decision for me, she had picked out the 46" Samsung because she thought the 40" was to small and that was what I was leaning towards. Checking the specs on the TV we agreed it was the one to get and it was only $200.00 more then the original budget and that it was worth it. We went to ask someone to grab one for us but they only had one left and it was in a open box, so my wife (the shrewd negotiator that she is) got a discounted price on the tv, a 4 year warrenty on the TV from the Store for $80.00 and a TV Stand (They also gave us a HDMI cable, surge protector and cleaning cloth and cleaner for no cost).

All in all I am very pleased with the Samsung 46" 1080p LCD HDTV (LN46B540). The scaling on the DVD's to 1080i is fantastic, the picture is super sharp and clear. Setup took no time at all and I can't wait to build a media centre to plug into the TV. I recommend this TV with no hesitation, and so far it's been a fantastic experience.

The New Apple Touch Mouse - Review

Today I tried the new Apple Multi Touch Mouse. What do I have to say about it? It is extremely uncomfortable to hold. I found the mouse very awkward and was starting to cramp my hand. The most important part of the mouse I found the worse. The way the mouse feels is the most important part.

However this was the only thing about the mouse I had an issue with. I did love everything else about the mouse. The functionality is excellent, the Left and Right clicking is no issue what so ever. All you do is press down and the mouse detects what side your pressing on you don't need to lift your fingers to press or anything like that. The best part is the horizontal and vertical scrolling. It is by far the best mouse I have ever used for scrolling with a scroll wheel. The mouse doesn't have a scroll wheel but beats out the scrolling on every mouse I have ever used including my current Logitech G7 Wireless Laser Mouse. The scrolling speed is variable rated. So The web browser, cover flow will scroll as fast as you move your finger. Absolutely brilliant! If the mouse was more comfortable I would totally buy one for my Mac System.

The Magic Mouse is a brilliant invention, and Apple almost got it right, the mouse is very pretty, has excellent functionality, but is in my opinion, uncomfortable. Maybe I can get use to it? Then again maybe not.

How to make a good password

I've been hacked! - No, I haven't but lots of people get hacked everyday. So Let's go over what you need to create a good password that is easy for you to remember and relatively secure for you to use. I am writing this because unfortunately a tech celeb that I flow on twitter @mostlylisa (Lisa Bettany) Read her twitter hack post. If someone like Lisa can get hacked then regular users are in big trouble.

So Let's start with the extreme side of security, where if you want to be 100% secure you will do the following:

1) Create a secure randomized password with capitals, numbers and non regular characters for each site you sign up for
2) Change your password regular and random intervals
3) You will wear a tinfoil (aluminum can also be used) hat.


Ok, the third one is a little ridiculous, but so is expecting a regular person to do this. If you want to know about all the little techy details about creating a good password go to GRC.com and read the perfect passwords article. By the way if you want a really good password generator go to GRC.com and follow the instructions for the password generator.

So I have a few simple rules for creating a relatively secure password that will be difficult to guess.

The OptionKey Password Rules:

1) Use one or two words any words or item that only YOU know that no one else does that has some sort of special or any sort of meaning to you. I recommend using more then one to prevent dictionary attacks.
2) Use your favorite number. It should NOT be in your Date of Birth
3) Use AT LEAST 1 Captial
4) Use AT LEAST 1 Alternative Character (%,* etc)
5) DON'T TELL ANYONE (except your 1 other person trust worthy person, spouse, or put it in a safe etc.)

Then you have a relatively strong password (for now).

Trevor

Changes in Alberta Health Services

Normally I just post about new technology and new trends but I need to bring to light the absolute idiocity of what the Alberta Conservative Government is doing to the Alberta Health Care system. So here is the back story. In March 2008 there was a General Election in Alberta. Ed Stelmach and the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party won an overwhelming majority (Please note that this was the lowest voter turnout in Alberta History Wikipedia Reference). So with a "blank cheque" and a "free pass" from the Alberta Tax Payer the Conservatives can do pretty much what ever they want.

So in January 2009 the Alberta Government hired an Australian economist to be the head of Alberta Health Services (now is it just me or how is an economist know anything about health care besides counting pennies?). Read CBC Article On Duckett Hiring

In May 2009 the new Health Minister Ron Liepert and his party decided to merge the regional boards into one big super board (Read Ref Link). This lead to the layoffs of many managers that got paid a huge severance for being laid off (CBC Article September 2009).

Here is an interesting note the allot of the deficit came from the Government changes to the health care system (please refer to the CBC Article September 2009).

So now we are looking into the abyss if you will. The complete and total destruction of the Public Health Care system by strangling it to death. Here is how it starts. Duckett implements a new code of conduct that puts a "gag order" on all Alberta Health Services employees. This is allowed to go though because of no public pressure or political will. (Read Calgary Herald Article)then closes 300 acute care beds (which we are already short on) at Alberta Health Services passing on the cost to municipal governments and law enforcement budgets since there is no place to take or help these people.
Police Worry About Alberta Hospital Closure 2009

He argues that here will be places in community based or assisted living programs. These programs are not equipped to handle these people with very specific needs.
(CTV Article).


"First of all if they could be in assisted living they would already be there this is going to be a repeat of history because Albertans can't learn from history. We went through this in the 90's and here we go again."

Now he is talking about crippling the back bone to the Health Care System, removing nurses (Which we are short on) saying that their job can be done by someone else who we don't have to pay as much. First of all they tried this already, and I won't get into specifics but we are back to removing highly trained and educated staff that we need to keep the health care system running. This is not a good idea!
CBC Nurses Complaint Letter 2009
Duckett Issues with Nurses in the Past

This is the problem when you don't have someone who is familiar with the training and backgrounds of personnel in the given profession. It doesn't matter what profession but if you don't understand or know about how something works then you are useless and more then likely will cause more harm then good. The oath of most medical professionals is to do no harm. Since Stephen Duckett and our Alberta conservative government didn't take that oath then I guess they can do all the harm they want that is until the next election... I hope...

Trevor

Embroidery Formats Are A Problem

I've been working closely with a few graphic designers and we are coming to the end of a project. The client wants to get some embroidery done on some shirts. So we get quotes from the various embroidery places and the client is ok with everything so we send the job off; so far so good right? Wrong. We get a call from the embroidery place asking us for a .dst format. The designer who took this call asked me after this information was provided "What a .dst was?" as he was not familiar with it. I looked at him and asked what an embroidery place wants with an autocad sheet file, as that was the extension I was aware of for that program. After a lengthy discussion and a few hours of research we discovered that it is also an embroidery format for their software. Since we didn't have any embroidery software we told them we couldn't provide then with the format. Then they told us it would be $100 to convert the file for the embroidery. Now the order was a very small order and a $100.00 to the client was a huge deal so we didn't do the order and here is why.

After some extensive research there is no free software to convert the files. There are a lot of viewers and trail versions but none save to an embroidery format. The closest one that did is a Mac program called graphic converter which can save as a Mac Weavlet file but that proved to be useless. I also found a program on the Mac called Convert It by Macemb which says it will convert jpgs, tiffs all sorts of different embroidery formats to different embroidery formats. So I downloaded the trial and you can't save to an embroidery format unless you buy the software which is $150.00 so not bad but not in the budget.

My issue is not with the different software out their for embroidery but the lack of compatible standards with the rest of the graphic industry. These embroidery formats need to be opened up and made compatible with everything else. Much like with Print and Web (the difference being of course is resolution). Open standards with the rest of the industry would make software work better and converting files easier faster and cheaper. - imagine that!

This was my first experience dealing with embroidery shops and it left a nasty taste in my mouth, If I can avoid closed and proprietary systems I try to but I also realize that systems like Windows and the Mac OS are also closed systems and operate similar to the embroidery software shops only not as stringent. You need to have a cheap free way to convert to and from these file types. Thus far I know of none, but if I come across any I will share that information. I don't want anyone else to go though the experience I went though.

http://filext.com/file-extension/dst

Trevor

What should a Canadian Copyright Law be?

As a content producer, I feel that there should be a flat fee for content. It shouldn't matter if you buy a DVD, CD, download your content, you should pay a flat fee for that content. The platform is irrelevant, as content should and can transend the platform.

The solution is simple.

A copyright bill that covers the content not the platform. If you have the rights to the content to view/own/rent what ever the "legal" terms of use/definition is then you can do what you want with it in the terms of use.

The terms of use should not limit the platform but want you to take the content to any platform and do what you want with it short of giving it the content you purchased away.

A DMCA style law is useless and wrong, it invites stagnation in content creation and delivery. To prove my point Artists that have released their albums under Creative Commons License

http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/11947

have been successful. For example Nine Inch Nails.

The question that we have to ask ourselves do big record/Movie companies/producers want to change to survive? Do they need a diamond crusted swimming pool or solid gold TV? If you were use to making 6 or 7 figures would you want your salary cut?

Media and content (to a point) can now be produced cheaply and relatively easily, maybe we need more CBC's and BBC's or a levy like the CD levy (Which is suppose to allow us to make personal copies of our purchased content) so we can fund more content.

The DMCA is wrong and our government officials would be a bunch of idiots if they adopted a DMCA style law here in Canada. It doesn't work in the States and it won't work here. The only reason the record/movie companies and lobbist want it is so they can charge for their content per platform which is wrong and should not be allowed.

Trevor

Microsoft Vs Linux. Debunking Microsofts Propaganda

Well, Microsoft is at it again. Using their enormous resources to go after the competition and using other companies employees to do it to.

Arstechnica has an article showing slides of a Microsoft Test trying to "Stretch" why one person should get Windows instead of Linux. Microsoft teaches Best Buy employees how to troll Linux users

Any rate lets go through step by step why you would pick one over the other.






1) The most important reason to pick an operating system is to get it to do what you want. In my opinion, for a Netbook Linux is a superior choice. A Netbook is to be used for word processing and web surfing. It is little more then a glorified type writer. If you want a productive machine for your kids that is safer then a regular Windows computer but doesn't cost as much as a Mac then Linux is for you.

2) Linux is self supported, you will have to learn a bit about computers to use it more then you would have to learn about a Windows system. It is NOT because Windows is easier, or safer, or even more inexpensive. It is because Microsoft has all PC manufactures (Except Apple) shipping their stuff with Windows¹.

3) Linux will use less resources for running your operating system then Windows.

4) If you do want to run iTunes without being an IT expert, then Windows maybe the version for you. You do have to enable Wine on Linux to run Windows applications.

5) Parental controls on Windows does not make it safer. There are better ways to make your computer and the Internet safer for your children such as using Open DNS to restrict what websites they can see and having a router, to control when they can go on the internet and most important keep the computer in a public area where you can monitor your children and what they are doing!

Microsoft has started an offensive against Apple and Linux, and one can argue that they are safer because their market share is so low but I also know that both the Apple and Linux kernel are very secure and I would even argue more secure then Window's kernel. Regardless a computer should do what you want it do and come at a reasonable price. A Linux system will do most of the things a Windows system will do, and it will cost less. - A lot less. Regardless make sure you tell the person selling it to you what you want it to. Here are some questions you should ask.

1. Will it play my music?
2. Will it play movies?
3. Does it come with a word processor and email program?
4. Can I edit pictures on it?
5. Can I edit movies on it?
6. Can I burn movies on it? (Fair use only!)
7. Does it come within my budget?
8. How long will it last me? ( Will you have it for 6 months or 3 years)
9. Do I need any additional software? If so how much will that cost?
10. Will it be easy to backup and recover my data with out any trouble?

Get what you need. Not what some one else tells you to buy. Mac, Linux, Windows, it's all the same hardware, just what software do you like?

Trevor

1 - A few pc manufactures such as Asus, Acer, Dell and HP have begun offering Linux pre-installed on their computers.

Security should not override productivity.

I think that some network administrators are to paranoid. When a network admin takes away a feature of a machine you buy in the "Name of Security" it is annoying, useless and a waste of money. What am I ranting about? Well I went to a client's office to consult and my client had a had copy they wanted to scan and email to me. They had just got this fancy multi-copier laser printer combo and when they tried to scan and email the document it said access denied and gave an error number. So my client calls his tech support manager and the manager tells him "we disabled that it is a security concern".

Needless to say the I.T. Manager and my client had some words, but more to my point. If a company purchases or leases an expensive piece of equipment with features that the machine is purchased for it makes sense to let staff use it. Other wise it is a waste of resources. Security is important but not so important that is should hamper productivity. These I.T. managers who think that nothing but security matters better wake up this is the 21st century, if your causing a lack of productivity and a lack of communication you better watch out or it could be your head on the chopping block and be replaced with a more savvy I.T. person that understands the growing needs for communication and security. It's not just security stupid; it's also about productivity and making the most money in the least amount of time with the least amount of effort.

Trevor

First Impressions of Snow Leopard

Well, I installed and did some basic test on Apple's Snow Leopard this weekend.  I have not had a chance to thouroghly test the Adobe Creative Suites on Snow Leopard Yet.  I hope to have it done by the end of the week.  Life has been very busy I remember a time when I had time to install and test a new operating system when it first came out but these days time is short and life is busy, so I have a limited look at leopard for you.


First thing I did was a clean install I did a full backup of my files and it took 20 Minutes on a 3.0 Ghz MacPro Tower with 16 GB of Ram, 2TB RAID 0 Hard Drive configuration (4 x 7200 RPM 500GB HD).  I am pleased to report that my Silicon Image ST3132 PCI Express X 1 E-SATA card works flawlessly. The card is a mere 34.00 from B-Com computers just follow the link  ST LAB SATA II PCI-E 2 PORT RAID CARD A-341 ($34.00) and get the latest driver from the Silicon Graphics Website. Silicon Image ST3132 Driver.  Also things seemed much snappier and faster under Snow Leopard; but as I said this is just a preliminary report there will be more to come.

Trevor

The importance of being Organized

Well I did it to myself; I left it to the last minute and now I'm scrambling.  I didn't order my business cards in time for a big event that is being hosted by one of my web clients http://www.samesamebutdifferent.org.  This brings me to my point never put off till tomorrow what you are going to do till it's do.  It's a bad habit and I know lots of people are guilty of it.  So When I get home after getting Snow Leopard I will be printing out about 20 cards, then I will have to run down to the event and run home.  So I never do this again I will be ordering 250 - 500 Cards from Vista Print http://www.vistaprint.ca/.  I like their web service and sample.  I am planning ahead and preparing for the future.  Now the next time this happens I will be ordering anything I need at least 2 week in advance of the event.  This will make sure that I have enough time to do everything I need to do.  Also by better organizing myself with my Google Calander and syncing it with my BlackBerry Curve and iPod Touch I should be in pretty good shape.  As for the rest of it.  I need to step it up and do what I preach.  Plan a head, stay focused, stay on track and always have a backup plan.  In this case I just wen to the backup plan.

Trevor