Tech Into English

#Cheap Valuations

2013-09-24T06:03:00.001-07:00

Twitter going cheap

At Arthur's Family Restaurant

2013-09-20T11:10:00.001-07:00

Live well, eat better...

See us soon! Coming to squarespace?

2013-09-17T02:43:00.001-07:00

SquareSpace

Need a great looking home for your hot new blog? Well you can just stop looking now.

Still Alive!

2013-07-01T17:21:00.001-07:00

I had migrated what little of this site I had written to techintoenglish.net. Then, the inevitable WordPress security bug caused my site to be hacked. Lesson learned. Pure HTML 5 from here on out.

Techintoenglish.net will return, under the new moniker techguycanhelp.com. Look for it in the next few months. I hope to make it a platform for rational, fun, informative discussion about tech, life, and tech in life, and how to make the most of one's technology.

I am excited and hopeful for this new venture. Check back in few weeks, will ya?

What is Dogfooding? Why should I try to eat my own?

2010-11-16T08:51:00.001-08:00

Does the idea of opening a big can of Ken-L-Ration and plunging in with a large spoon for your next lunch scare you? Gross you out? Make you nervous about diseases, mad cow, etc?

The subject today, folks, is a #techterm (to make the term search-able is why the pound sign is there) known in the technology business as Dogfooding. What in the name of time is Dogfooding? As you may be able to guess, it means eating dogfood that you yourself have made, or simply, using your own product and solutions.

If you are a private or independent technology consultant, as I am, this idea is critical. But, in all walks of life, dogfooding is important, as it prevents a dreaded symptom of not taking our own medicine; Hypocrisy. No one wants to be or even feel like a hypocrite.

Yes, using your own solution to fix your own issues is very important and a fine way to learn more about yourself, your needs, your industry, et cetera, and on and on...however, even I get tired of Dogfooding, sometimes...like in the previous sentence. Have a great day, dear readers.

What should I do about Windows Phone 7?

2010-11-10T14:23:00.000-08:00

Wait.

But check it out at your local T-mobile and AT&T store if you have time...it is very impressive to play with.

However, you may find yourself irresistibly drawn to it's bold new interface. It is a stunning achievement by Microsoft. Then, by all means, if you are not heavily invested in Android or iPhone, feel free to buy.

Why the New #Nook isn't DOA and it has nothing to do with hardware...

2010-11-10T14:18:00.000-08:00

Barnes and Noble has one large advantage over Amazon in the e-reader wars that may seem as a disadvantage to the professional observer like me.

Barnes and Noble started as a #brick-and-mortar enterprise. They understand the pleasure of finding an entire catalog of works, not just the ones that sell best, from a new author a reader has become enamored by. So they will have the obscure sophomore effort by Salman Rushdie, for example, while Amazon, may not have it available to download, because it doesn't sell, you see, and Amazon is about choice, sure, but Mr. Bezos and company are also about profit margins above breadth of back catalogs.

Barnes and Noble are the specialists, they actually have helped create the demand for books in the first place. They know their customer. Amazon is still learning the habits of the highly voracious reader, a species switching rapidly to the e-publishing medium. Should be an interesting contest till Amazon buys Barnes and Noble's back catalog rights, and then, my friends, it will all be over...

So, what's so great about the Nook?

2010-10-25T13:02:00.001-07:00

Well, in the tiny little island called Jaytv land, the functionality of a product must follow closely just behind It's form...unless it is an #Apple product, and then all bets are off...

The Nook at first seemed to be such a strange device...then I spoke with my lone adopter...as I will call my #decider/influencer mentioned below.

She mentioned the Nook's true strength, right out of the box...the completeness of Its back catalog of both authors' earlier works, and complete sets of all technical manuals in any given series.

BIG Deal, I was thinking...more tomorrow on how wrong I was...

However, all is not right in the #e-publishing and #Kindle paradise.

2010-10-23T11:08:00.001-07:00

That, my friends, is the Kindle. An item so good at what it does, it is well on the way to being the generic name of the activity it facilitates, namely reading books that you do not physically own. What do I mean? The Kindle allows you to buy books digitally, not by some physical medium as primitive as say, oh, paper? It does this nearly seamlessly.

However, all is not right in the #e-publishing and #Kindle paradise.

Are you ready for this? The Nook, from Barnes and Noble, has some significant advantages, some I don't think Mr. Bezos or his team care about or are not possibly aware of. Yep, I said it, in some ways, the #Nook is a more #fully-realized product.

I spent part of a sunny So. California afternoon recently in the waiting room of my local Mazda dealer. I met a extremely passionate devotee of the Nook, who just happens to be a major influencer/decider (code for VIP) at the top aircraft fastener company in the world. I promised her the same anonymity as myself in writing about her take on e-books and e-publishing in general, and specifically, why she proudly bought a Nook and defends it to all who ask why.

what a fascinating conversation! Tune in later for the reasons I believe the Nook has a niche following that could grow significantly over the near-term.

So, here comes HP roaring back to the Party...4G but only 2G Pre, oh wait, never mind...

2010-10-19T08:31:00.001-07:00

Ok folks, this is Big, as in the largest technology company #in_the_world big. HP is launching it's first foray back into a market it once created, and failed to dominate, even though it was the first coming, the #iPaq. Sound familiar? HP tried to make a phone out of the iPaq, and met with yawns from the marketplace.

Yep, the thunder rolls and the lightning strikes where I sit blogging away here in So Cal, but this is a smirk-inducing piece of news, as Engadget put it so eloquently;

http://www.engadget.com/palm_2_coming_to_france

France?!? Really? Ok, well this part makes sense. I'll explain why later...what do you think folks? The comment sections, as always, are open...

Why Email #Blogging is The Greatest thing since text blogging.

2010-10-17T14:18:00.000-07:00

Is it? This is a test, this is only a test...we will be back to your regularly scheduled programs forthwith...

What everybody knows, but doesn't...

2010-10-14T13:32:00.001-07:00

4G coming but only MiFi Verizon for the "revolutionary" iPad? Hmmm. Sounds fishy to me...methinks there is another plan to bring a certain #iphone or #MSiSMD in candy CDMA flavor to Big Red...whadda ya think folks?

Procrastination

2010-10-13T09:36:00.001-07:00

Did you know that your Inbox can reflect your state of mind? I do...that's why the Samsung review is so late...have so much to say but so many messages...

What is 4g? What the heck it LTE? Why oh why should I care?

2010-10-10T22:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, quick little primer on the whole 4G vs. LTE vs. common sense.

Does anyone out there remember a little green and black screen and any geek/nerd around you talking about the mobile internet? That was likely a ridiculous, almost 'proof of concept' version of the internet in a phone. That was 1G, or the first generation, and remember folks, geeks don't generally reproduce, so...

The next attempt was in color! Woo hoo! Now we were getting somewhere! You could actually pull up a movie time! This was proudly thought of as 2G or second generation, and the established geeks like to improve the breed without any regard to opportunity or regard to the needs of others...so...

Now it got interesting...3G was here and the mobile internet exploded into the mass media, and the world ate it up. It is now the fastest adopted consumer item, the cellular phone, in the history of history. Yes, his-story, as mostly male geeks are still impressed with this idea...okay, now I am tired so, 3G=high bandwidth, or the ability to display content like cranky old analysts random wisdo# or what we call wisdom, much more quickly...this actually became useful to the majority of laptop and mobile users.

Now 4G is here, and the battle royal is raging in the geeks, the jocks and the business warriors minds...what will get the email and attachments faster and more securely so I can go home and see my kids that the Geeks and Freaks who thought 2G was pretty cool, now do not have. And there are a few converted Geeks in the group as well. This 4G switch is the end of the mobile access to the internet being anything less than universal among new phone and data users. What is next? Keep reading.

Samsung review tomorrow or Tuesday. Will be meditative and authoritative reading.

Green Poison?!? Really?

2010-10-07T14:13:00.000-07:00

Folks, if there is anything you take away from this modest little endeavor of mine, is that great products are rewarded...poor products should scatter until they are fixed or ignored by the people that produce them until they slide into digital irrelevance.

FiOS by Verizon is just one example. The new jailbreak announced for the iPhone today is another. Greenp0ison?!? Really? So now, if you hate your iPhone enough, you can give Steve and Apple the metaphorical finger as they ever so gingerly "#jumptheshark" (look to the left for definitions on the buzzwords) in matching black turtlenecks over the Millions-Selling iPhone 4 Slow-Motion Disaster, or MSI4SMD, as we call it here, but certainly not around the billionaire dude ranch that is Apple. This is analogous to taking poison and hoping the other billionaire dies. What has Apple done to this hacker lately?

Now take your mind back with me one day to my promise to talk about the "crystalline entity" that is FiOS. Let's just say that whomever committed to bring fiber right into a house or apartment (like your humble correspondent's) needs to have their own scene (sic) in the new movie "The Social Network" because this person or persons have brought unalloyed joy to thousands, if not tens of thousands. FiOS, quite simply, in the best terms, with the easiest definitions, rocks the house. Yes, it is that good. I have had it for years now, and it has never let my snark go unreported in the netherworld of Wireless Forums.

Crystalline doesn't even begin to describe the picture or the service. If you live in a FiOS service area, you must try the un-recompressed HD Video service alone, if not the 20/5 (yes 20 Mega Bits down and 5 up) nearly perfect uptime standard internet services.

Whomever made those decisions to put $3000 in an ONT (Optical Network terminal) and Router in every house that wants to feel the future in their home today, shine on you crazy diamond! Thank you from the bottom of my black and white heart, dude!

Why Sprint will win the coming 4G apocalypse

2010-08-31T04:37:00.001-07:00

Why Sprint will win the coming 4G apocalypse

By jaytv

Don’t look now, but Sprint is rapidly becoming the little wireless carrier that could.

Fresh off years of management shake-ups, layoffs, perennially low stock valuations, an ill-advised merger (remember Sprint, together with Nextel? Yeah, we live and breathe this stuff and and it’s a dim memory for us, too) and the failure to land an “it” device, things are looking a bit different for the Overland, Kansas based wireless company.

Starting with the Hiring of Dan Hesse, the former AT&T wunderkind, and after some aggressive development moves, followed by the stunning announcement of the HTC EVO 4G at this year’s CTIA show, its subsequent unqualified sales success, and steadily improved customer service evaluation scores, one can see that Sprint feels the wind at its back these days, as much as any company can in these ridiculously uncertain economic times.

Today, Sprint will begin the launch of the Samsung’s Epic 4G, a gorgeous Galaxy S class device (this means a pretty screen and lovely manners, and in Sprint's case, a slim slide out keyboard) and probably the third most anticipated smartphone (or is it SuperPhone!, Google, we’re looking at you, uhh, nevermind…) launch of the year among the smartphone know-it-alls that worship at the altar of the Boy Genius Report, after the iPhone 4 (how’s that antenna working for ya, App…, oh wait, they dropped the call and the PR ball, yet still sold millions of of them, again proving the Apple faithful and the poor general public will buy anything Steve Jobs has demonstrated in a black turtleneck); and the still incredibly hot selling EVO 4G.

Sprint has even upped their Geek cred by having the first non-Googlephone device (aka the Nexus One) to have the highly anticipated Froyo release of the suddenly incendiary Android operating system.

Yep, Sprint is on a roll…how did they get here? Tune in tomorrow for the exciting conclusion, and some outrageous predictions from yours truly, jaytv, digital gadfly, wireless industry insider, and work/life balance guru (guffaw)...