Mikazo Tech Blog

What Is A Telecom Authorized Reseller?

2012-01-23T20:30:00.001-05:00

If you've just moved to a new place, or are considering switching internet, telephone or cable TV providers, you might want to consider looking at an authorized reseller of these services. Before you call up your local service providers, take a look at a website like Charter Cable Deals. An authorized reseller like Charter Cable Deals will search all the service providers in your area, and show you the cheapest prices from your local providers. They also offer business services, if you happen to manage a business and are in search of service providers. Take a look, it might save you some money! They even have a special on right now!

No Technology Competitive Advantage Is Safe

2012-01-13T21:20:00.001-05:00

I've been learning a lot about personal finance and investing lately, and one of the things I've learned is that technology companies are notoriously hard to invest in. With the gift of hind-sight, it may be obvious now which tech companies one should have invested in 20 years ago. Obviously, these companies did something right, but it may or may not be a good idea to jump on board with these companies (via the stock market) now and into the future.

The key to a good business is having an unchanging product that people instantly recognize and want to buy repeatedly. Coca Cola makes a good example. They've made the same syrups and pop for over 100 years, and people still want their product even though it has changed very little from the original. Now compare this to a company like Intel or Microsoft or Apple or RIM. These companies need to constantly stay ahead of one another in the race to develop the latest technologies. If you fall behind, you'll wither. As a result, massive amounts of money must be spent on research and development. And even then, there's no guarantee that you'll develop the best new technology. And even after that, there's no guarantee that consumers will like your new technology and buy it. Just look at the tablet and mobile phone wars. These big companies might have brand name recognition, but that doesn't guarantee that their products are the best, since their product lines are constantly changing. As a result, any past success in the industry is no indication of future success.

I've considered possibly investing in well-known technology companies, but the example of RIM's stock price falling over 70% in 2011 is a constant reminder that even once-great companies can fall.

New Guest Post Policy

2012-01-02T22:50:00.001-05:00

I have been receiving a lot of requests for guest posts on MTB lately, and I just wanted to write a post clarifying my policy, rather than having to reply to everyone with the same answer via email.

I've recently decided to stop accepting guest posts for the time being on my blog. I plan on honouring existing guest post agreements I have with others, but I'd like to try and focus more on creating my own content again.

Thank you for your understanding.

Guest Post: Next-generation GPS satellite inches closer to space, countdown begins to 2014

2011-12-30T14:38:00.003-05:00

Shannen Doherty writes another guest post for us on upcoming advances in GPS technology.

If you've ever had trouble with obtaining a proper lock on your PND, you'll be glad to know that some clever scientists have come up with some new technology that will largely eradicate such problems, making connecting on your free laptop easier than ever before. The program, which has been developed by Lockheed Martin, is expected to cost some £4 billion and will finally reach prototype stage by the year 2014.

The prototype, known as the Block III or the GPS III Non-Flight Satellite Test Bed, will be launched over the coming years in some 32 versions by the Air Force. The results of such a launch will be beneficial in a variety of ways. Firstly, accuracy, power and reliability of connections will be significantly improved and free laptop users will find it much easier to 'tune in'. Secondly, the possibilities for potential 'highjackers' or 'hackers' to jam connections will be significantly reduced. And finally, while with current technology getting a proper lock can be achieved within a range of ten feet, the new technology will ensure the distance is reducedto three. This kind of accuracy, formerly only available to the military, will now extend to the general population.

The Program

Having been recently delivered to the company's facilities in Denver, Colorado, the GPS III Pathfinder will now be completed and will then undergo a process of integration where numerous tests will be carried out. The facilities in Denver have been specifically redesigned for this particular project in an attempt to both optimise capabilities of satellite production and reduce costs.

The ultimate aim of the program is to replace out-of-date GPS satellites in a cost-effective way. The benefits of such replacement should effectively meet the demands of military, commercial and civilian users on a global scale. In addition to improved accuracy and 'blocking' powers, a civil signal is being introduced. This has been specifically designed to be fully integrated into existing international satellite-based global navigation systems.

The Technology

The prototype GNST is a working version of the GPS III satellite and has been designed to iron out any developmental issues with regards to the integration of the actual space vehicle. This approach, of using a prototype first, will not only include a significant reduction in costs, but will also reduce any risk factors and the predictability of production. This will ultimately maximise the likelihood of a successful outcome for the mission.

Since the prototype has been successfully installed in Lockheed Martin's Denver facilities, it can now be incorporated into the existing core structure complete with the navigation and antenna elements before test activities can be given the go ahead. At this point, the GNST will be reinstalled at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station where official path-finding activities will be launched.

The Facilities

The facilities for the program have been adapted from those that the company formerly used for the assembly of the Atlas rocket. They include some 40,000 square feet of assembly and testing areas that include thermal-vacuum and anechoic test chambers and a clean room high bay. The high bay has been developed to maximize efficiency through reducing both the distance between operations and space-vehicle lifts.

This all means that by 2014, all users will begin to reap the benefits of a program that has been carefully designed and moderated to achieve maximum results at a relatively low cost. The good news is that, thus far, the program is running according to schedule and has suffered no blips in its development. The official launch is therefore still on for the year 2014, an event which will, in the current technological climate, make all of our lives just that little bit easier.

About the Author:

The above article is composed and edited by Shannen D. She is associated with many technology and designing communities including Broadband Expert as their freelance writer and adviser. In her free time she writes articles related to free laptop deals technology, mobile applications, etc.

Why SOPA is Unnecessary

2011-12-21T12:33:00.000-05:00

The recent Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) being proposed in the United States has me concerned, as well as many others, even though I don't live in the United States. The bill proposes that the United States government would have the power to block access to any website they deem is infringing on intellectual property rights, without trial or investigation. There are many technical people considering the technical implications of how such a system would work, and many others considering how one would get around the implementation. While this is noteworthy, I believe the true solution to stopping the Act is to convince the source of the proposal and those with the power to defeat it that the Act should not be allowed to become law. This is more difficult for those that are not American citizens, however the EFF has a web page with a list of things you can do to help stop SOPA even if you aren't an American.

In essence, I can see why a company would be concerned over protecting their profits when they spent large sums of money producing a product. For example, if a software company writes a program and wants to sell it, they deserve to be paid for their work. Assuming that a consumer could just as easily download a full-featured pirated version of the product for free, companies need to innovate and come up with ways of enticing the consumer to pay for the product. There are many ways of doing this, and they do work for the most part. It may not be possible to convince every single person to pay for a software product, but most people are decent people. A company could offer regular software updates, tech support, ease of purchase, and lower prices.

For example, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is a great piece of software, but it costs $699 for an individual to buy a new copy! No wonder people pirate it! If Adobe were to lower the price to say, even $199, many more people would be willing to consider buying the product, and thus Adobe would make a lot more money than it probably does now at the price of $699. If lowering the price below $699 would result in a loss on Adobe's part, perhaps Adobe needs to streamline its development process to lower production costs. Now consider the popular video game distribution platform Steam that offers a quick, easy, cheap way to buy PC video games. I buy Steam games regularly, as they are often on sale or even when they aren't, many great games can be found for under $40, where a typical blockbuster game from a store costs $70. In the case of businesses, it is important to them to have good tech support for a software product when their business depends on the product. A company that doesn't cheap out on tech support and is willing to work with their customers after they've bought a product will encourage more to buy that same product and service.

The same goes for entertainment products such as movies. If a movie is quality-made, I would be willing to buy it on DVD or Blu-ray. I like to have a hard, legitimate, high-quality video copy of a movie that I like. Some people use movie piracy as a means to see if they like a movie. If they do, they will subsequently go and buy it. Middle-men such as publishers are becoming irrelevant in the age of digital content distribution. Rather than lobby for laws to allow them to continue to operate the way they used to be able to, such businesses should find new ways to stay useful and relevant. Businesses need to constantly adapt or die out in the economic world. The same can be said of banks and bailouts, but that's another topic more likely to be covered on my other blog.

In any case, I believe that SOPA is the wrong way to go in protecting intellectual property. Rather than force individuals and websites to comply, offer the proper incentives (economic and otherwise) and most people will respect intellectual property. I hope that you click the links in the first paragraph of this blog and participate in doing what you can to stop SOPA.

How To Make a Lightning-Fast Virtual Machine

2011-12-13T22:57:00.001-05:00

I bought some extra RAM for my system just recently, bringing the total to 16 GB. My friend told me that since I had so much RAM, I should try out a virtual RAM-disk. Essentially, a RAM-disk is a hard drive contained completely within a computer's memory. In other words, read and write access to this "pretend" hard drive is very fast compared to normal magnetic or solid-state drives. When the drive appears under My Computer or Computer, Windows isn't at all aware of the difference. A good way to see the speed difference is to install a virtual machine on the RAM disk. If your system has a lot of RAM (8 GB or more), follow the steps below to test it out.

First, install a program called ImDisk. It's free, from this website (scroll down a bit to find the download link). Once it's installed, open Control Panel, search for "ImDisk" and open it. You should see a window like this:

Click on the Mount new... button to open a window like the following. The only setting I changed was the size of the RAM disk (8 GB in this case).

Choose OK, and Windows will pop up and ask you to format your new hard drive. Do a quick format as NTFS, and open up Computer or My Computer. The RAM disk should show up beside the other hard drives in your system.

Now that you have an empty hard drive, open up your favourite virtual machine software. In this case, I used VirtualBox. Open the Virtual Media Manager from the File menu. Click the New button to create a new virtual hard drive. Set the location to the drive letter of your RAM disk and set the size to just under the size of your RAM disk.

Hit Next and finish creating the virtual disk. Once you've done that, create a new virtual machine, and set the hard disk to Use existing hard disk, and choose the disk you made for your RAM disk. Complete the setup of the virtual machine, and install your favourite operating system. You'll notice a very significant speed increase in system performance. For example, I installed Windows XP, and then when I was installing Service Pack 3, it completed in under 2 minutes. On a normal or older system, that can take from half an hour to 2 hours.

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial, and have fun with your virtual RAM disk!

Started at 22 Renewal

2011-12-10T10:12:00.001-05:00

If you happened to have read my blog post about the other blog I started last November, you'll know that I actually maintain two blogs, not just this one. My other blog is about personal finance and investing, however it's been feeling quite neglected this past year. Since I've started learning about economics and read more books on investing, I've decided to renew my interest in the blog and start posting on it again, as well as expand the topics it covers. I've also changed its title to reflect the fact that I had my birthday last August. So if you're interested in personal finance, investing or economics, head over to ~~Starting~~ Started at 22 and check it out!

Switched to TekSavvy, Google Chrome Issues

2011-12-08T00:12:00.001-05:00

Just recently, my fiancee and I decided to switch away from Rogers for internet to an independent cable internet provider in our area called TekSavvy. I bought the DOCSIS 3.0 modem that supports higher speeds, in case I'd like to switch to a faster plan later on. With Rogers, our monthly bandwidth limit was 60 GB. For the exact same download/upload speeds, TekSavvy offers a plan for 300 GB and $9 less per month than Rogers, so the choice was simple. I also like to support independent providers that don't contract or throttle their customers.

The switch went relatively smooth, however when I opened up Google Chrome after the switch, some websites would just redirect to www.rogers.com. I tried flushing the DNS cache, but it didn't seem to help. This issue was only particular to one computer in the house, and apparently only one browser, since Firefox did not redirect when I visited the same websites. In particular, Slashdot and Twitter were affected.

The solution for me was to export all my bookmarks and settings, then uninstall and reinstall Google Chrome. I imported my bookmarks and settings back in, and the redirect problem no longer appeared.

Edit: I also seem to get download speeds faster than what I pay for with TekSavvy. Apparently the advertised speed with TekSavvy is a minimum, not a maximum like with Rogers.

Guest Post: Is It Time to Invest in a Tablet Computer?

2011-11-30T17:29:00.001-05:00

Izzy Woods has written a guest post for us on one of the hottest technology markets today: tablet computers.

Technology has always been a cyclical thing, with trends taking the world by storm every now and again. Cast your mind back over the last ten or fifteen years and you'll see the rise of mobile phones, the advent of the internet, MP3 players, games consoles, and many more examples of popular consumer electronics. So in this world of high technology, what is the current 'hot button' trend? Well, in a word, tablets. The current trend began with Apple's renowned iPad in 2009, and we now have a huge number of choices in tablet PCs from popular manufacturers like Samsung, HP and even bookseller Amazon. But is it time to open your wallet and invest in one of these 'must have' gadgets? Let's take a look at a few of these devices' pros and cons...

Pro: portable computing at your fingertips

Laptops have been around for many years and have come a long way in terms of portability, but they're still relatively large - especially when compared to the smartphones of today. A tablet PC acts as a compromise between these two devices, giving you an ultra portable computing device that can check email, play games, read newspapers, and countless other tasks. Tablets aren't necessarily suited to office applications, but they're ideal for day to day web tasks like checking social networks, browsing news websites, and so on.

Con: the market is becoming flooded

Tablet PCs are now being sold by well known brands like Apple, Samsung, BlackBerry, HP, Amazon - the list goes on and on. Plus there are many 'generic' tablets that run open source OSs like Android. So why is this a negative? Well, once the market is saturated, the value of these tablets will go down. That means that if you invest now, you could end up paying more than you should - and resale value would certainly be lower. Having said that, it also means that if you bide your time a little bit, you can get the bleeding edge tablet PCs of today for a much lower price.

Pro: Apps, apps, and more apps

The reason people buy and use tablet PCs is that they make life easier and more fun. It's as simple as that. With so many apps being developed for all of these platforms all the time, you'll always be spoiled for choice when it comes to the software to run on your tablet. Whether that's from Apple's App Store, BlackBerry App World, or the Android Marketplace. The fact that are so many apps means that you'll always find something to suit you - from 'sell my phone' apps to online auction site apps - and of course something that will justify your investment in a new tablet PC.

Con: the rapid update schedule could come back to bite you

Tablet PCs are an area that is evolving faster than almost any other. New tablets are being released all the time. Since the launch of the iPad there have been dozens of new tablets released - from the BlackBerry Playbook to the new Kindle Fire. New versions of existing models are being released all the time, meaning that the one you buy could quickly become outdated. If you're the type of person that has to have the latest and greatest gadgets, that could get very expensive very quickly. On the one hand, you'll be on the cutting edge of tech all the time, on the other, you'll have a growing pile of unused tablet PCs.

So is it time to invest in a tablet PC?

The answer to this really depends on you. If you want to be part of a fast-moving corner of the tech industry and experience the best consumer electronics in the palm of your hand, then go for it - any one of the new tablet PCs would be ideal for your needs. Alternatively, if you prefer to make more calculated spending decisions and want to invest in a 'future proof' product, a tablet probably isn't the best choice at the moment. Once the market settles, you'll be able to see which are the best choices more clearly, and so be able to make a more informed buying decision.

Guest Post: How to Choose the Right Technology to Stay in Touch With Home

2011-11-28T19:24:00.000-05:00

Shannen Doherty writes on the best ways to keep in touch with far-away loved ones.

When you move to the big bad city everything is exciting. It’s new and it’s big and there’s plenty to occupy your attention. Like the phone bills you start racking up when you call home long distance on your mobile.

The modern world is full of technology to shrink the globe, and all of it comes through the Internet. Every cost effective, quick method of communicating with the folks back West (or wherever it is you came from originally) is powered by the spiralling connectivity and speed that the modern Internet represents. Like VoIP (it stand for Voice over IP, as in sending your voice over your internet provider), which you’ll probably already be familiar with as Skype.

Skype is not the only VoIP provider – and has the extreme disadvantage of bundling all sorts of information finding little web bots into your hard drive whenever you use it. There’s a reason it’s free, you know. No – you can use your existing net provider to deliver a proper digital telephony service, which gives you free calling or extremely cheap calling, without having to put up with spyware and other little malcontents.

There are some excellent Time Warner Cable deals to be had, which include both VoIP and internet (they’d have to include the internet, because the VoIP doesn’t work without it). So let’s work in reverse. In order to stay in touch with the family back home, you need to either phone or email. Email is sometimes a great way to deliver news, but it’s not the same as the sound of voices.

Both email and VoIP require an internet connection. Now, if you’re living in a new city you probably want to be entertained in the evenings (when you’re not out and about meeting new friends of course). The traditional way to entertain yourself cheaply is cable TV.

Therefore (I love saying that, it makes me sound like a professor ; ) ) it makes sense to get yourself a deal where your TV, your internet and your VoIP all come from the same place. Time Warner Cable deals provide what’s become known as a “triple play” package – that was actually a brand name for a Comcast product, but like Hoover it now means what it defines – in which you pay a single monthly bill and get fats internet access, digital telephony and digital TV.

You tend to find that all national calls are free on a VoIP package, because you’re basically using the same bandwidth that you are already paying for when you use the Internet connection. You will be charged for calling overseas, no doubt – but the charge is often quite reasonable when you compare it to a landline, and it’s in another league of reasonableness when you contrast it with mobile phones. Try calling abroad using your mobile and see how long your credit lasts – or how massive your monthly bill suddenly gets!

Digital telephony is ideal for all calls, really – it costs less than your mobile and if you are paying for the net anyway it’s probably free. To be honest I don’t know why anyone uses mobiles unless they’re actually away from their home!

Guest Post: Finding Your Next E-Reader

2011-11-17T19:06:00.003-05:00

Mike Scatterday at findthebest.com wrote a guest post on Mikazo Tech Blog for us today about e-readers and why you should consider buying one. It took me a while, but I eventually bought a Kobo Touch. In this post, Mike describes the features of the Kindle:

The typical argument against e-readers goes something like: “I like the way an old book smells”, “I love the feel of a book in my hands”, and “I want to look at my book shelf FULL of actual books”…

They’re entitled to their (archaic) opinion, I guess. But, if you’re looking to join the rest of us in the modern world, then here’s some e-reader advice:

On my birthday last year, a friend presented me with the second generation Kindle; from the second I had that slender little device in my clutches, it was, literally, love at first toggle.

Some of its glorious and revolutionary praises, you ask?

The live dictionary. Users can toggle to a word he or she doesn’t know, and the definition pops up at the bottom of the page.
The toggle/keyboard functionality. The little joystick on the side of each Kindle allows users to look up words, underline and annotate passages, jump to other chapters.
The automatic bookmarking, or technological dog-earing as I refer to it.
The Internet access, i.e. Magazine and newspaper downloading, Facebook checking and website surfing.
The ease of use. It’s lightweight, one-hand-held and has 1 click page turning capabilities. It’s also backlit, so it doesn’t feeling like you’re reading yet another computer; and as a rebuttal to the above protestations: it’s like your reading an actual book.

If you’re already a Kindle user, then I’m sorry for the redundancy.

However, if you ARE in the market for an e-reader, with all the new brands and versions on the market, a more objective data source - aside from my bias Kindle review - is necessary in order to make an informed decision.

This data-drive comparison of the top 3 e-reader brands on the market helps to choose the best e-reader for you. Hopefully you’ll have your own e-reader love story to blog about.

Top Three Brands of E-Reader Comparison

Check out these useful comparison for many products and services, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, HDTVs, and more!

Windows Mobile Application Error

2011-10-22T00:18:00.003-04:00

It's been quite a while since I've written a blog post, so I thought I'd write about what I've been working on lately. I'm in the last year of my degree in honours computer science, so that means I have do to an honours project. My project involves doing some work with an HTC Touch Diamond cell phone and its FM radio feature. This particular HTC phone uses the Windows Mobile platform.

I tried writing a small app for the phone, and I ended up encountering the following error about the application not being able to run: "Either it is not signed with a trusted certificate or one of its components cannot be found."

Of course, I took this error to mean the worst possible case and assumed that I needed to sign my application. I spent two days trying different app-signing programs and phone unlocking software, to no avail. The error was still happening whenever I tried to run the app on the phone. After Google searching the error many times, I re-read it and noticed the second part after the "or".

Maybe my app really was missing a component. So I took a look at my app's dependencies, and realized that I hadn't been copying a necessary static library file (.lib) over to the phone along with the app's executable file (.exe). I copied the library to the phone, the error went away, and the app ended up working just fine.

Consider a Career in IT

2011-10-22T00:04:00.001-04:00

Back in my second year of university, I worked for about 7 months at a Staples Business Depot in their Easy Tech Force department. While this is not an IT department for any particular business, it is very similar in most respects. The ETF department of Staples provides IT services for Staples customers. They set up new computer purchases, do computer repairs, and install new computer hardware. Customers could also call for troubleshooting, although this was only a marginal part of the total business of the Easy Tech Force. Here's my ETF business card that I kept:

Nearly any business that resides in an office building will have a bunch of cubicles, each with a computer workstation. All those computers are going to need support and maintenance staff, which means there are a lot of Information Technology department positions at a large variety of different businesses. If you're even a little interested in computers and how they work, you might enjoy a career in IT. Usually some sort of education or certification is required though. For smaller IT services like at Staples (or Future Shop, or Best Buy), a CompTIA A+ Certification is sufficient:

To obtain this certification, I read a book about the particular certification I planned on obtaining. Then I wrote the test at a local college, and received my certification. This made it much easier to find an IT-related job, and I even got paid a higher hourly wage for having A+ certification.

If you plan on setting your sights a little higher by seeking an IT job at a small, medium or large business, a more comprehensive qualification is required. Since these businesses rely heavily on properly functioning computers, they want the best in their IT department. For this type of job, you will most likely require a degree in IT. Fortunately, there are many schools that offer IT degrees. To help you get started, there is a very helpful website called Online IT Degree that offers information on IT schools, degrees, and other resources. If you're interested or even slightly considering a career in IT, take a look at their free education guide.

Guest Post: Are Online Social Media Titans Stifling Competition for Smaller Developers?

2011-10-21T13:30:00.003-04:00

You know the standards of online social media: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and maybe Google+ (in my opinion the jury is still out on their viability). Only a handful of sites, and yet they collectively house the information for billions of web users. As great as these services are, does their massive success lessen the chances of a smalltime programmer making a splash in the market? I think the short answer is yes, but obviously it’s a question that warrants a much more complicated answer than a simple yes or no.

A monopoly on online social media?

The big online social media networks cater to the vast majority of web users stuck with them because they have no other viable alternative. When Google+ emerged early this summer to attract those disillusioned by Facebook, people in stunningly polar camps embraced or rejected the new service. While Google+ is nowhere near perfect, its already massive user register (well over 50 million) suggests a willingness in people to try a new social media tool. And this eagerness for new social media tools did not go unnoticed. Facebook’s lightning fast response to Google+’s innovative features, for instance, showed that social media titans are aware of their vulnerability to newcomers in the market. In the months following Google+’s release, Facebook showcased several updates coalescing into the “Timeline” feature in order to prove that it’s still as fresh as it was when it first premiered years ago.

So do the online social media titans have a strong hold over the market? Yes. But can they be reshaped and influenced by ideas from outside their services? Yes. Granted, Google+ may have intimidated Facebook more because it was Google, but smaller-scale projects can reinvigorate social media just as strongly (think about Tumblr’s humble beginnings).

There’s room in the market if you make it

One of the great aspects of the web from an entrepreneurial perspective is its infinite variability. Any great idea can be expanded and developed across the virtual landscape to accommodate a user’s interests. And in the realm of online social media, the simple idea of connecting people has been hashed and rehashed over and over to great success. Facebook and Twitter may be the kings of the market right now, but even as I type this article others are launching similar concepts in order to get their share of the market. For example, there’s a new service called Chime.in that seeks to combine the features of all the major online social media tools into one cohesive platform. Its success can only be determined with time, but its blatant use of popular social networking features should give hope to those looking to develop similar services. Launching a concept similar to the social media titans will surely be an uphill battle, but it has been done before and could be done again and again.

Author Bio:
This is a guest post by Nadia Jones who blogs at online college about education, college, student, teacher, money saving, movie related topics. You can reach her at nadia.jones5 @ gmail.com.

Guest Post: How to Find the Best Electronics

2011-10-20T00:29:00.000-04:00

Guest post by Michael Scatterday

Searching for products using the top search engines can be a challenge, from biased reviews to filtering through the numerous guides out there; it can leave you with a giant headache. After being frustrated with this dilemma, I was happy to find this great new service called findthebest to compare products to find detailed, unbiased information on the hottest new items.

Findthebest is a new and unique way to compare products like smartphones, tablets, laptops and more.

Founded by former DoubleClick founder, Kevin O’Conner, this Santa Barbara based start-up allows the consumer to:

· Start with a comprehensive list of models and narrow down by brand, technical specifications, operating systems, network, manufacturer, price, and more

· Compare with simple and easy to use side-by-side interface

· Obtain unbiased ratings and detailed product specs

What I really liked best was how easy it was to select the features I cared about, and compare the products that had them.

Compare All Smartphones

Next time you are in the market for a new product, check out findthebest.com!

Guest Post: Google Takes on Privacy Issues by Allowing “Opt Outs”

2011-09-23T07:11:00.001-04:00

Mikazo: It is a strange coincidence, right around the time I'm beginning work on my honours project in computer science, I receive a guest blog post about location privacy. That happens to be the subject of my research, and this guest post will provide some good background for any posts I make in the future about location privacy. Laura Backes from DSL Service Providers has written an interesting article on the state of privacy and its role in the operations of large technology companies like Google.

I’m going to guess it’s probably safe to say that you’d be pretty unhappy if you found out that someone had intercepted your emails because of a registry that allows you to be located via your cell phone… right? Up until now, Google has utilized technology for apps such as Google Maps that locate you via Wi-Fi access points. Except that becomes an issue when you don’t know just how much or what kind of information Google is obtaining from you.

You see, Google wasn’t just making street maps or helping you navigate with GPS; they were also, in some cases, collecting user names and passwords (accidentally, but still collecting them nonetheless) that were being transmitted over unsecure networks. This discovery was made by the French National Commission on Computing and Liberty (CNIL), who were rightly outraged and fined Google $142,000 (€100,000) for breaching user privacy.

Considering many of us don’t even think twice when we log onto our email or social media sites over unsecured networks or on our cell phones, this has been an eye-opening experience to how vulnerable we make ourselves without even giving it a second thought and just how much information can be derived from our use of the internet and location tracking devices.

“At the request of several European data protection authorities, we are building an opt-out service that will allow an access point owner to opt out from Google’s location services. Once opted out, our services will not use that access point to determine users’ locations,” Peter Fleischer, who is the global privacy counsel for Google, blogged.

While the privacy controversy has been primarily in European countries, the institution of the opt out service will be world-wide, allowing users to specify if they do not want their locations to be transmitted from their phones or Wi-Fi enabled devices to access points.

Google isn’t the only company to be suffering from locating service mishaps. Earlier this year, Apple also had a run-in with German and French officials in regards to tracking locations from cell phones. Apple summed up their location collecting knowledge to a software glitch, and promptly issued a software fix. After the fix, CNIL discontinued their investigation.

The opt out service is set to debut sometime this Fall, and will come as a welcome relief to those consumers who don’t want their location to be public knowledge. It will also finally put the issues with the watchdogs of European Privacy to rest.

Author Bio:

This is a guest post from Laura Backes, she enjoys writing about all kinds of subjects and also topics related to internet providers in her area. You can reach her at: laurabackes8 @ gmail.com.

Computer Science Career Options

2011-08-31T22:51:00.001-04:00

Not long ago, I joined a computer science forum for a short while (http://www.compsci.ca) and made a few posts about computer science and the different computer science programs at universities in Ontario, Canada. While my blog is mainly centered around Canadian topics, I came across an interesting website that gives a lot of information on graduate studies in computer science at different universities in the United States and online university programs: http://www.mastersincomputerscience.com/

The website also has a pretty good list of different careers that a degree in computer science can lead to. Since I like to promote the field, here is the link if you're interested in seeing what you can do with a computer science degree: 33 Interesting and Unique Careers in the Computer Science Field

Guest Post: But what is 4G anyway?

2011-08-10T16:59:00.001-04:00

With the introduction of 3G mobile broadband in the UK in 2003, the idea of 'internet on the move' became a reality. Since then, the actual reality has been extremely patchy reception, average download speeds of less than 2Mb and barely any technological advances. With 4G, that’s all about to change.

In simple terms, 4G is the fourth generation of cellular wireless technology. It provides vastly improved wireless broadband speeds via a whole new network of mobile towers to bring the mobile internet up to speed with its fixed-line counterparts.

4G technology is already rolling out in some parts of the world, and if early indicators from the US are anything to go by we can expect our first 4G network devices (it will still be USB modem dongles and mobile Wi-Fi receivers) to put out speeds up to around 20Mb. Much faster speeds of 100Mb and beyond could well follow.

So why, if the US is already enjoying 4G speeds, are we lagging behind in the UK? It seems ridiculous, as the likes of Telefonica (parent company of O2) and Vodafone have advanced 4G trials already completed. The problem, as is so often the case, lies with the red tape.

Before 4G networks can get going here, the UK government needs to first make a certain part of the spectrum open for the mobile operators (800MHz and 2.6GHz). This will be sold off via an auction, but due to internal wrangling the date for this spectrum auction is still to be set. Increasingly it is looking like being in 2012, meaning UK 4G mobile broadband deals are unlikely to surface before 2013.

This is particularly galling when weighed against the advances we’ve made in fixed-line broadband. With Virgin Media already offering 100Mb speeds, and BT 40Mb, UK consumers are becoming increasingly blasé about streaming video, downloading large files and generally enjoying a seamless, reliable broadband service – until they try and go outside.

As manufacturers and software companies alike continue to explore the new boundaries of these advancing broadband speeds, this gap between services is only going to widen further. We can only hope that common sense prevails and the government pulls its finger out with announcing the 4G spectrum auction. If not, the UK could quickly become an even more embarrassing ‘have-not’ in the world of mobile broadband.

This post was contributed by Broadband Genie, the online consumer portal for researching the best broadband UK deals and latest mobile internet options.

Windows API Modeless Find Dialog

2011-06-07T23:42:00.003-04:00

The other day, I was doing some Windows API programming in C++ and Visual Studio, and I was trying to implement my own find dialog (similar to the one you see in Notepad when you press Ctrl+F).

The MSDN documentation and related links for how to open a modeless find dialog box using the FindText function is here: MSDN FindText

The function takes as a parameter an LPFINDREPLACE type, containing information on what you what your find dialog box to look like, etc. Take careful note that the type is short for LongPointerFINDREPLACE. This means that you are either allocating some memory on the heap of size sizeof(FINDREPLACE) and storing a pointer, or you're declaring a local FINDREPLACE variable and passing in a reference to it when you call FindText. That was exactly my problem.

I was able to get the find dialog to show up when I pressed Ctrl+F in my Windows application, but clicking the Find Next button did nothing. I even debugged the application with Visual Studio to make absolutely sure that I wasn't receiving any messages that I was supposed to be receiving. Turns out my problem was that I wasn't keeping the FINDREPLACE structure needed to initialize the find dialog longer than I should have been keeping it. Nowhere in the MSDN documentation does it mention that you have to keep a reference to that structure in memory for the duration that the find dialog is open.

Originally, I was making a local FINDREPLACE variable that popped off the stack as soon as my initFindDialog() function returned after calling FindText. The MSDN documentation says that the find dialog uses a FINDREPLACE structure to return user input through a message sent back to the application. It didn't say that the dialog uses that specific structure. So what I tried doing was storing my FINDREPLACE structure on the heap using a pointer, and voila! Messages started appearing in my message loop whenever the user clicked Find Next or Cancel.

Also, if you plan on re-using the same FINDREPLACE struct for opening and closing a find dialog repeatedly, remember to reset the flags before you re-open the dialog.

Where You Get Your Computer Science Degree is Only Half the Battle

2011-05-28T21:25:00.000-04:00

Just the other day, I signed up for an account on a computer science forum, and I saw there were a lot of questions from high school students trying to decide which university to go to for a degree in computer science. I answered one thread, since the original poster mentioned the university that I go to. After typing my reply, I realized something.

It is very important to consider which school you would like to go to for a certain program, that is a given. Your quality of education does matter. However, there was also concern on the forum about what an employer will think of where your degree came from.

In my limited co-op experience in the software development industry, where you got your education doesn't matter as much as what you do with your education. You can show on your resume that you have a thorough knowledge of computer science by working on personal projects in your spare time that apply the knowledge you learned. Further down the road in your career path, an employer will probably just check to make sure you have a degree, then focus mainly on your past job experience and your personal projects. Those are the true indicators of practical experience and knowledge that can be applied to a job you're applying for.

So in summary, while it is important to consider which school to go to, try not to worry about the effect it will have on your career. If you put the work in and you picked a decent school, everything will work out.

Bad API Design: Round 2

2011-05-14T18:27:00.000-04:00

In my quest to find a good free API for financial data on stocks, I came across Wolfram Alpha's API. This showed some promise, since it seemed to be able to aggregate a lot of the data I'm looking for regarding a particular stock. It even had some community-maintained language bindings for its API. I signed up for a personal account, which allows 2000 queries per month to the API.

My problem with this API is the following: The only return type for data is plain text. You can have data returned in XML, but the data you're actually interested in is still just plain text inside some XML tags. At first glance, plain text doesn't sound so bad. However, depending on what you are querying for, the plain text is organized in various combinations of symbols denoting separation, and the data you're actually searching for may or may not actually be on a separate line in the result. In the end, the plain text is good for being human readable, but very difficult to parse into something meaningful in terms of programming.

I'm tempted to give up on my project for now, since it seems that there are no free, reliable, well-designed data access APIs that I can find that will provide financial data. I refuse to write a kludgy parser to compensate for poor data organization, which could change at a moment's notice anyway. I guess I'll just have to let out my frustration on something else.

A Perfect Example of Bad API Design

2011-04-23T23:36:00.000-04:00

Lately, I've been basing a few projects off of the Yahoo Finance API for retrieving stock quote data. A good description of the API can be found here: http://www.gummy-stuff.org/Yahoo-data.htm

While this API is useful, it has a critical design flaw. When one queries the API, data is returned in comma-separated value (CSV) format. This means that each piece of data for a stock is separated by commas on one line of text. The problem is, some of the data itself contains commas. This ruins the effectiveness of the CSV format, as it becomes unclear where one piece of data starts and another ends (due to the extra commas in the data).

In my experience so far, the name of a stock can contain a comma. Also, the amount of float shares uses commas to group digits in the numerical value with commas. In my eyes, using the CSV format was a poor design choice. While CSV's simplicity can be useful, Yahoo might have fared better using a format such as JSON or XML.

Alas, poor individuals such as myself that use this API currently have no control over the format data is returned in, so we must deal with these inconsistencies ourselves. If you are querying for either a stock's name or its float shares (but not both), it is relatively simple to solve the problem by choosing to have that piece of data the last one on the line of text. This way you can be reasonably sure that all previous data is separated by commas, and any extra commas at the end of the text are part of the stock's name or float shares.

Unfortunately, if you want both a stock's name and its float shares, it becomes difficult to tell what text goes where, when there are extra commas. How would one deal with this problem? The first thing that comes to my mind is to use a regular expression. I would query for both pieces of data in question at the end of the text string, with the float shares first. Since stock names usually don't contain numbers (especially at the beginning of the name), we can use a numerical regular expression to extract digit-grouped numbers until we start seeing alphabet characters again. For example, the following regular expression could be used to match the float shares:

s/(\d+,)?(\d+,)?(\d+){1}/

This regex hasn't been tested (post a comment if you use it and find that it's incorrect). In languages such as Perl, one can access the matched digit groups using $1, $2, etc. to convert these string values to a numerical value.

Hopefully at some point, Yahoo will fix the deficiencies in their finance API. Until then, we'll just have to deal with it.

New Democratic Party Update on Usage Based Billing

2011-04-22T12:50:00.002-04:00

Thank you for your previous email regarding consumer issues. I provide
this email as an update on our plans to protect Canadian consumers and
put them first in the digital economy.

I have heard from thousands of Canadians who tell me that internet
access and cell phone affordability are critical issues for them. Please
know that New Democrats recognize the importance of these issues in
today's rapidly changing society.

The following are highlights from our 2011 election plan:

- We will prohibit all forms of usage-based billing (UBB) by Internet
Service Providers (ISPs);
- We will unlock cells phones, allowing consumers to change providers
without changing phones;
- We will rescind the 2006 Conservative industry-oriented directive to
the CRTC and direct the regulator to stand up for the public interest,
not just the major telecommunications companies;
- We will enshrine "net neutrality" in law, end price gouging and "net
throttling," with clear rules for Internet Service Providers (ISPs),
enforced by the CRTC; and,
- We will apply the proceeds from the advanced wireless spectrum auction
to ensure all Canadians, no matter where they live, will have quality
high-speed broadband internet access.

For more details, I invite you to visit these links:
http://www.ndp.ca/press/layton-to-put-consumers-first-in-digital-economy
and http://www.ndp.ca/platform/leadership-in-canada#section-5-14.

I am also pleased to let you know that we have released our 2011
election platform. A copy of it with its full costing document can be
found here: http://www.ndp.ca/platform.

Now you know where I stand. After May 2, I will deliver for you. And, I
won't stop until the job's done.

All the best,

Jack Layton and Canada's NDP / Jack Layton et le NPD du Canada
Canadian Leadership / Travaillons ensemble
canadasndp@ndp.ca / lenpdducanada@npd.ca

Canada's Green Party on Usage Based Billing

2011-04-20T21:59:00.001-04:00

In my on-going blog posts about net neutrality, usage based billing and the upcoming Canadian federal election, here is the Green Party of Canada's position on usage based billing:

"With the deadline for the Canadian Radio-Television & Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC) review process rapidly approaching, many Canadians—already paying some of the highest access rates in the world—are alarmed at the thought of a hefty increase to Internet and mobile costs.
The Green Party believes that Canada’s ability to hold its own in an increasingly wired world requires a nation-wide plan to modernize an outdated access infrastructure—one that involves all shareholders (private and public).
Our platform includes:

A Municipal Infrastructure Fund to help communities build broadband capacity that fully meets the needs of 21st-century Canadians.
National projects to update communications infrastructure.

The combination of swift changes in technology and regulatory neglect has created a Wild West communications market. The Green Party calls for:

Fair market practices through regulation and licensing of Internet and mobile device service providers.
The CRTC to work with the Competition Bureau to minimize anti-competitive actions by Big Telecom to ensure that consumer interests are protected.

Current CRTC’s public input policies are not user-friendly. They should be changed to make it easier for Canadians to have a voice in the regulation of this increasingly important industry, as it affects both personal and commercial spheres.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May sums up the party’s position thusly: “The Internet is critical for modern day citizen engagement and an integral part of our economic competitiveness… We are committed to enhancing broadband access, competition, transparency and choice.”
Please forward this to friends who may be concerned about the upcoming CRTC ruling on whether to limit broadband access through hefty rate increases.
Sincerely,

Johan Hamels
Executive Director, Green Party of Canada"

http://greenparty.ca/ubb

How To Read A Text File From The Classpath In A Java Application

2011-04-18T23:01:00.000-04:00

I spent way more time than it should have taken to figure out how to read the contents of a text file on the classpath of a Java application. I Googled quite a few things before I found something that worked, so here it is:

public class Test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
    try {
        BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(Test.class.getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream("file.txt")));
        String line;
        while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
        System.out.println(line);
        }
    } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    }
}