Eric Charnesky's Blog

Laughing out loud

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:24:00 +0000

I was reading an article that Dr. Livermore linked to and almost burst out laughing when I read this line - "Good IT pros are not anti-bureaucracy, as many observers think. They are anti-stupidity." - Thanks Jeff Ello - http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9137708/Opinion_The_unspoken_truth_about_managing_geeks?taxonomyId=14&pageNumber=1"

I just had to share...

Summer Break

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:25:00 +0000

I decided to take the Summer semester off. This is my first school-less Summer since 2004.

This Summer I joined my workplace softball league and am spending time at home with my baby girl.

When the Fall semester starts up I'll try to start posting again.

God bless you all, have a safe and happy Summer!

Games are serious business

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 03:02:00 +0000

With real money on the line, hacking and cheating in games is serious business.

there are real, functioning economies in virtual worlds and online games, and that players cash in their virtual goods for real money, to the tune of more than $1 billion a year. - http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10226485-235.html

Gold farming in China is almost an industry now - http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article648072.ece

Do you care

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 02:49:00 +0000

A 'civil liberties attorney' is stirring up drama by saying banks are collecting information about your computer to better protect your account.

Any website I go to can capture 'time zone, language, browser type, Flash ID, cookie ID and IP address'

I certainly don't care, do you?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10226742-83.html

Appliance-Oriented Architecture

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 01:28:00 +0000

Kas Thomas put together a good case for the up and coming AOA.

I am not certain his Q1 2010 date will hold, but I definitely see a movement in the direction of appliances, afterall, who doesn't love plug and play.

Governmental control of the internet

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:29:00 +0000

The 'Cybersecurity Act of 2009' may sound like a good idea up front, but in reality it gives the government control of "all networks considered part of the nation's critical infrastructure" - a.k.a. the Internet

"The government also would have access to digital data from a vast array of industries including banking, telecommunications and energy."

"It's really broad, and there are plenty of laws right now designed to prevent the government getting access to that kind of data. It's the same stuff we've been fighting on the warrantless wiretapping."

The bill would allow the government to create a detailed set of standards for cybersecurity, as well as take over the process of certifying IT technicians. But many in the technology sector say the government is simply ill-equipped to get involved at the technical level, said Franck Journoud, a policy analyst with the Business Software Alliance.
"Simply put, who has the expertise?" he said. "It's the industry, not the government. We have a responsibility to increase and improve security. That responsibility cannot be captured in a government standard."

Everything about this just screams bad idea...

Thanks to James Osborne for the article - http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/21/proposed-heavy-restrictions-internet-freedoms/

Technology innovation using 'obsolete' tech

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:45:00 +0000

Putting 'obsolete' tech to new use in the fight for literacy, especially in Africa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5B_RK61NI1Q

Interesting Biometric security

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 03:07:00 +0000

Call me a skeptic, but I just don't see 'ear based security' being a big hit anytime soon...

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227035.200-our-ears-may-have-builtin-passwords.html

The idea is definitely interesting though

Charney's Theorem

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:19:00 +0000

"there's always a percentage of the population up to no good."

Thanks to Elinor Mills for the link - http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10223686-83.html

Good eyes

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 03:32:00 +0000

Thanks to this guy's good eyes an ATM card skimmer was removed from an ATM. I honestly don't know if I would notice one.

Thanks to Chris Walters for the article- http://consumerist.com/5200818/reader-finds-card-skimmer-on-bank-atm

Time Warner backs down, for now...

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 02:24:00 +0000

After recently announcing the rollout of the tiered pricing model to more pilot cities, TW backs down.

In a statement, TWC made clear isn't giving up on the idea -- it just lost a public relations battle, saying that it was "shelving the trials while the customer education process continues." - Thanks to Ryan Singel for the article - http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/04/time-warner-c-1.html

I can't wait for that 'customer education'...

Digg's attempt at amends

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 01:28:00 +0000

Digg is trying to recover from the PR nightmare that the new DiggBar started.

I know I won't be signing up for Digg any time soon...

In response to the complaints, Digg plans to tweak the DiggBar to be less intrusive. Those who are not logged into Digg and click on a Digg link will not see the toolbar; they'll be directed straight to the source of content. Also, Digg claims it is ensuring that Digg URLs will not show up in search-engine results.

The DiggBar changes should start to take effect over the next week, according to Quinn.

Thanks to Brian X. Chen for the article - http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/04/diggbar.html

Taxes

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 03:15:00 +0000

This really motivates me to earn enough money to make it into the top 5th of earners in the US

The top fifth of households made 56% of pre-tax income in 2006 but paid 86% of all individual income tax revenue collected, according to the most recent data available from the Congressional Budget Office.

It gets even better for the top 1% of earners

The top 1% of households, which made 19% of pre-tax income, paid 39% of all individual income taxes.

Thanks for the post Jeanne Sahadi - http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/15/pf/taxes/who_pays_most_least/index.htm

Selling trademarks

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 01:51:00 +0000

I hadn't thought about it before, but I was recently looking for accounting software and did a Google search for Peachtree Accounting and saw adds for netsuite.

It turns out, Google allows auctioning of trademarked keywords to the trademark owner's competitors in the United States.

Sure, I know enough to know that netsuite is not Peachtree, but considering how Google auctions keywords, this is driving up the cost for Peachtree to advertise to customers looking specifically for their software.

I'll have to come out against Google on this one, I don't think auctioning trademarked keywords to competitors is fair practice. Especially since Google makes a hefty profit when competitors fight it out for the advertising space...

Thanks to Michael Orey for the article - http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2009/tc20090414_278741.htm

Evil incarnate

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 03:27:00 +0000

If you have been following the Diggbar scandal, you will enjoy this article.

The practice of presenting another site’s content within a frame served from your website has long been hated by web purists, and with good reason: It’s evil. http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/The_Diggbar_Is_Evil__Here_s_How_to_Stop_it

Thanks Scott Gilbertson

The hackable smart grid

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 02:30:00 +0000

I sure hope the billions of dollars that are being poured into modernizing our electrical infrastructure include a few pennies for IT security...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123914805204099085.html

Software rocks

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 00:34:00 +0000

If you think security cameras are common today, just wait until this new 180 degree camera gets released. Instead of getting an expensive fancy lens that may distort the image, they took 5 small cameras and turn the separate images into a nice 180 degree panoramic image.

I've seen the software that can turn multiple images into a panoramic, I am jealous I didn't think to combine it with multiple cheap cameras.

Ingenious programs and a controller chip synchronize the five images as they are received, stitching them simultaneously into a panoramic stream that transmits at 15 frames a second. - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/business/12novel.html

Patent idiocy

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 03:27:00 +0000

I wonder how much time and money gets wasted on ridiculous patents, I'm guessing it is in the billions...

Seriously, patents for a touch screen? Five year olds build toys out of legos and pretend they are touch screens, the idea isn't new...

If you come up with some great technology to use touch screens, great, go ahead and make a product that uses it and sell it, make your money that way, don't be a leach that tries to steal money from companies who are selling actual products.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/technology/companies/09apple.html

How much would you pay for internet access?

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 01:24:00 +0000

I pay $33 a month for my internet access at home from Brighthouse, no way am I going to pay $150/month...

Charging customers by the GB use for internet access is ridiculous, the minute my ISP tries to switch to a pay per GB model I am dropping them.

I am paying for my share of the bandwidth, if Time Warner oversold their bandwidth, that is their problem!

http://www.tgdaily.com/html_tmp/content-view-41999-118.html

A lesson in anonymity

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 01:32:00 +0000

A word to the wise, if you don't want pictures of your house on the internet, don't make a big scene with the Google StreetView car.

This 'affluent' neighborhood only got themselves more attention and more pictures of their houses posted online.

Thanks to Jeff for the link - https://www-secure.walshcollege.edu/Walsh_Blogs/BlogsDetail.aspx?CatID=0&BlogID=498

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1166722/Watch-Broughton-Street-View-fans-plan-descend-privacy-village-photo-fest.html

When the internet was born

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 03:59:00 +0000

I was reading Stephen Crocker's Op-Ed in the New York Times and one particular comment he made struck me.

"It probably helped that in those days we avoided patents and other restrictions; without any financial incentive to control the protocols, it was much easier to reach agreement." - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/opinion/07crocker.html

I stopped and thought for a minute, what would have become of my beloved internet had one of the founders tried to patent some of the core technology?

The whole design and architecture worked because it was open and shared, it was not proprietary and used to gain a profit...

Beautiful

MBA 501 - Presentation

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:00:00 +0000

My first assignment was to give a presentation that provided a synopsis and highlighted applicable information that can be used by the members of our class.

Please note, I take no credit for the material, I merely tried to summarize it in PowerPoint form.

Also, you are missing all of my interesting elaboration by viewing only the slides, but I haven't figured out a good way to record myself giving a presentation in class yet. Maybe someday...

Another technology that I've always wanted

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 01:53:00 +0000

Motion sensing and voice activated TVs! Who needs a remote if you can talk to the TV?!?

Now all I need is a smart fridge with a robotic delivery system and I'll never have to get off the couch again.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_15/b4126052301939.htm

Technology bliss...

Funny headline

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 00:14:00 +0000

It is actually an interesting article about professional gaming, but I just love the title

Virtual Leagues Fold, Forcing Gamers to Find Actual Jobs - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/sports/othersports/02video.html

Legitimately, you can call the people who get paid to play video games professionals...

Robotic Warehousing

noreply@blogger.com (Eric Charnesky) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 02:35:00 +0000

I'm actually very surprised this hasn't been a common practice for years, moving around pallets of goods in a warehouse seems like a perfect job for a robot - http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-04/st_robotwarehouse