tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29564243641550941872026-10-10T02:18:49.482-07:00Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-82724847979237170252016-01-18T09:19:00.000-08:002016-01-18T09:24:23.566-08:00

2016: Silicon Cognition Several years ago I flogged the term “Cloud-Based Episodic Parallel Processing” and tossed c-bepp.org onto the Internet with a concise manifesto of a vision: a cloud API for applications running on PCs and other puny computers to be called when massive computation (or computation on massive amounts of data) is required. My focus was applications like personal

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-42973229738382526912014-11-07T10:20:00.000-08:002014-11-07T10:25:16.606-08:00

The Politico has published an exclusive cell-phone video provided by former CBS News reporter Sheryl Attkisson and supporting her claims that her computer was hacked, presumably in relation to her inconvenient reporting on Benghazi and other Administration scandals.  The video shows a Word document on her Macbook Air being modified by some mysterious operator. Now, this would be easily

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-90280241081721624172014-09-06T15:14:00.003-07:002014-12-29T21:17:59.475-08:00

I do a ton of presenting and have found Keynote on my iPad to be a tremendous upgrade over PowerPoint. There's no waiting for boot-up,  Transitions are beautifully fluid,  Animations and videos are 100% reliable and always smooth (and never a black box on the screen where a video is supposed to be!),  Projector compatibility is untouchable, and Courtesy Geekwire's excellent

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-88575973279969586852014-03-23T12:24:00.000-07:002014-03-29T19:37:24.069-07:00

When I upgraded from an impeccable and solid but nearly-four-year-old Macbook Pro to a spectacular new Retina model in late 2012, I had every intention of selling the old machine.  But as fine a machine as it was, it was worth only a few hundred dollars, so I decided to repurpose it as a server. OS X Server is an inexpensive app, available from the Mac App Store for about twenty dollars,

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-47650717037102810292014-02-22T08:19:00.001-08:002014-02-22T08:20:10.381-08:00

The ImperialViolet blog has an informative analysis of the just-patched encryption issue that can potentially expose unpatched iOS devices to a man-in-the-middle eavesdropping situation in some circumstances.  Seems Mac users running OS X 10.9 Mavericks should anticipate an update in the next days too… Do this now: Update your iOS device straightaway, and your Mac when an update comes. &

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-78837959933720854242013-12-31T11:11:00.002-08:002013-12-31T11:12:38.962-08:00

Today the Intertubes are awash with hysteric headlines like "The NSA Has Crazy Good Backdoor Access to iPhones".  It's quite the pile-on: besides the press' inclination to tear down the tall dog, there's something stunning about the well-regarded security of latter-day iDevices being easily circumvented by shadowy spies in Ft. Meade. What's missing--as is all too typical--is a close and

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-37131393452718029382013-12-14T16:35:00.000-08:002013-12-14T16:36:56.486-08:00

I don't quote my own blog posts very often, but a recent article in Slate, "Facebook wants to know why you didn’t publish that status update you started writing," spotlights an issue that caught my attention in the earliest hours of the Snowden revelations.  It's prompted some discussions and then some advice that's worth a post of its own, so here goes. Some of Snowden's first bombshells

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-34825100793730896322013-11-17T10:22:00.000-08:002013-11-17T12:15:24.084-08:00

Dropbox is great for sharing files between your machines. I've used and enthusiastically recommended Dropbox for years: as a costless "virtual thumb drive" for ferrying files between my machines, for sharing files too big to email, and even to host web content.  Great stuff.  I also make a habit of using my Dropbox folder for my current work, so every document I'm working on gets

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-46893117662180221212013-09-14T21:33:00.001-07:002014-01-01T15:09:53.713-08:00

Ed Snowden's PRISM revelations and the drip-drip-drip follow-ups by reporters Poitras and Greenwald have people in a windmilling panic.  According to countless op-ed pages and blogs, we can't trust our devices and services for fear the NSA might be accessing them. Going off the grid is suddenly fashionable.  Folks sense the NSA's shadow behind every pillar, its ears pressed to

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-63147480701840684772013-06-28T07:22:00.000-07:002013-06-29T16:39:55.809-07:00

Replace Google Reader entirely: never depend on an RSS aggregator again Many Google Reader replacements are available today on the eve of that service's termination.  Two things are required: (1) a service which scans, updates and syncs (aggregates) your RSS feeds, and (2) a viewer application or web-page.  Google Reader provided both functionalities.  Its replacements generally

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-73201222395513080412013-06-22T13:05:00.001-07:002013-06-29T09:44:13.777-07:00

The ZRTP-capable Groundwire app for iOS Recent revelations have alleged wholesale governmental monitoring of phone conversations and emails.  Governments (plural) are reported to have real-time ability to access encrypted digital connections of all kinds, including Skype.  My own hypothesis, based on details in the the published allegations and known hacks of Certificate Authorities

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-77874565830289516432013-06-08T19:44:00.000-07:002013-06-23T09:09:14.867-07:00

London's Guardian and the Washington Post have published reports, based on leaked slides from a Slide 4 presents a timeline. Pay attention to the timeline. National Security Agency PowerPoint of breathtakingly eye-searing design, alleging that the US Federal government monitors virtually all digital communications including VoIP, email, chat, file transfers and social networking. The

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-88465111505970495632013-05-27T10:14:00.000-07:002013-05-27T10:15:24.281-07:00

This essay was originally posted on Patricia Seybold's Customers.com. Drive through the green hills of the Virginia horse country: dotting the rolling landscape are lavish estates of the truly rich, distant stone monuments to old money overlooking countless acres of beauty and protection. Nearer the cities lie gated communities of the merely well-off, cloisters of fine homes and upscale

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-68167932622778297272013-02-27T14:22:00.002-08:002013-02-27T15:40:26.811-08:00

Has Mayer explained what's going on here?   I'm not seeing it, not in the original reports (in which Yahoo specifically declined comment) or in anything subsequent. I can go either way on her decision depending on what her objective is for making it.  For now, that's tabula rasa.  This article is a good example: it's one author viewing the decision through the lens of a

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-12837385309900190642012-10-30T08:09:00.000-07:002012-12-23T20:46:16.017-08:00

I framed my posts on setting up one's own secure, encrypted Internet access via a Raspberry Pi with the notion of accessing one's Netflix account from outside the U.S.  That's certainly an understandable desire, and either of the solutions I've documented so far (ssh proxy and pptp VPN) will work well for that purpose, assuming your hotel Internet connection provides sufficient basic

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-54780809700117856412012-08-28T22:28:00.000-07:002014-02-14T05:00:17.257-08:00

Well isn't it always this way... the very day after I post on how to use the Raspberry Pi as a secure Internet proxy by working around a missing element in its variant of Linux, that missing element becomes available in the stock OS! Here's how it went.  On a whim, even though I'd just given my Raspi a full software update just two days ago when I made that earlier post, I repeated the

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com57tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-7051821825728635272012-08-26T18:54:00.001-07:002012-11-13T19:12:14.671-08:00

UPDATE: The necessary modules for supporting a "real" PPTP VPN have been added to the stock kernel.  While the following methodology offers benefits in many situations, you might want to consider this new post on the topic, or set things up both ways. ---- Being a geek, I was the first kid on my block to sign up to purchase a Raspberry Pi Model B, a $35 computer-on-a-card that's

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-20341352847258472032012-07-28T14:17:00.002-07:002012-07-28T14:17:49.446-07:00

One habit I've brought to Scrivener from Word is to insert graphics and tables as I write.  I like to include cross-references to them in my text as I peck along.  Word has an effective way of doing that via the Insert | Caption and Insert | Cross-Reference menus.  An advantage is that numbers are automatically updated and regenerated (at least at print-time) if you move

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-87848374287542117572012-07-28T13:05:00.001-07:002012-07-29T08:12:16.928-07:00

I'm spinning up a lot of writing lately, and I'm finding Scrivener to be a marvelous tool for getting drafts accomplished.  It's founded on a nifty notion: by separating the composition and presentation of written work, both are facilitated. Not only is Scrivener more stable and less intrusive for writing than Word, but it has built-in organizing and bookshelf capabilities that help me

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-86392585373637492532012-06-07T09:33:00.000-07:002012-06-07T09:33:20.294-07:00

If the rumors are true... Then I plan to make a mint selling these: One Kickstarter project coming up!

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-82311224210290679832012-04-14T17:08:00.000-07:002012-04-14T17:51:16.839-07:00

Prior to OS X Lion, a Java interpreter came installed with OS X.  This allowed programs written in that language to be run; most often this enabled some web-related functionality.  Unfortunately Java seems to have recently stolen Adobe Flash's crown for vulnerability.  Successive security whoopses have driven Apple to remove both Flash and Java from its as-delivered builds of OS X

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-38271621875376924152012-03-31T15:13:00.000-07:002012-04-01T08:37:10.492-07:00

Whether you're a happy user of Gmail, Google Docs or other Google goodies, or a privacy-concerned current user considering alternatives but shackled by your stash of stuff on Google's servers, having local copies of your Google-stored possessions is valuable, wise and freeing. Loyal users can take comfort in having their data available offline on their own machines and backed up by Time

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-84421534558411992422012-03-12T22:09:00.000-07:002012-03-12T22:34:44.734-07:00

I finally ran the numbers. I now know what the true damages are for having cut my landline phone service and rolled-my-own Voice-over-Internet (VoIP). My most boring blog graphic ever.Until you look at the final number.Yowza! First there is the investment.  About fifty bucks for my recommended analog-telephone adaptor, the compact OBi100 or OBi110 units, available from Amazon.  

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-13165748187063392082012-02-17T06:59:00.000-08:002012-04-14T09:03:25.114-07:00

Since starting this blog, I've documented many reasons why roll-your-own internet telephony is a hugely cost-saving and flexible approach for home and business use for those who don't mind a small amount of initial geek-work.  Savings versus conventional phone service and digital providers like Vonage approach 90-95%, yet the quality is at least as good and the flexibility is far superior. &

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2956424364155094187.post-65286433668985513892011-12-28T16:28:00.000-08:002012-01-07T16:48:10.304-08:00

Windows has a horrible misbehavior when it updates itself in a partitioned environment.   This hit my son hard when, home for the holidays, his Windows 7 installation in a small Boot Camp partition on his MacBook Pro decided to run Windows Update, which is a behavior that is enabled by default and un-obvious to turn off in Win7.  From what I'm reading, the behavior is hazardous to many

Scott Jordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16745009082510388913noreply@blogger.com4