geek cowboy

Beating The Social Media Feedback Loop

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:31:00 +0000

I use a lot of social media websites, some are genuinely used to share with friends and family. But there are other sites I use because I am geek and I have to try every new and shiny widget that comes along. And this week with the introduction of Google Buzz, the social sharing world is getting even more fragmented. This would be a good thing if we were worried about competition. But frankly no one will ever pay for social media websites. If the Facebook were to put up a pay wall today, someone would invent the next best social site tomorrow. So competition for the sake of the end user (meaning you and me) is not that important, financially speaking. Yes there is goodness in pushing the technological boundaries, but these interesting times are also volatile and confusing times. Especially if you are trying to make a living on the social web. Should I be on Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, Google Buzz? Yes, no, and maybe. Each have strengths and weakness resulting from there complexity. Twitter is darn simple with 140 character text messages. Facebook is way more complex. So which is right? Well, there is no simple, right answer for everyone. But the simple answer is be everywhere. But that isn't easy. Let's take a look at the layer of services I use to get a message everywhere I want to play. I will admit I have not tried to optimize this "social flow", so perhaps I could be using fewer services or a different service to combine many into one. But for now, this works for me. I have painstakingly reworked it to eliminate feedback loops. For example, posting a tweet on Twitter that is fed to FriendFeed and then fed back to Twitter, and so forth.

Original message to a consolidated point

Google Reader, blogs, Digg, Pandora, AudioBoo, Picasa --> FriendFeed

Consolidate to disseminate (Twitter is my focal point, for now)

FriendFeed --> Twitter, Google Buzz

Disseminate further to various end points

Twitter --> RSS Graffiti, Twitter Feed

RSS Graffiti --> Facebook Pages
TwitterFeed --> Ping.fm

Ping.fm --> Posterous, Tumblr, Ning, Brightkite, Yammer, Flickr, LinkedIn, Diigo, Gtalk status

So what I would like is one hub site. It would know what site an update comes in from and sends it out to all the others. My goals of this omni-service should be reliable, fast, and no duplication. Still waiting. Or maybe I am doing something wrong. If you know of anything please let me know.

Apple iPad: Could Have Been Better

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 02:30:00 +0000

Today Steve Jobs debuted the Apple iPad, a device that promised to finally give the tablet PC market the breakthrough it has so desperately needed. It came up disappointingly short. I think this 1st generation iPad would have been Earth-shattering, if not for the fact that there are 3 generations of iPhones that came before. The bar was set by the iPhones, and the iPad came way under that bar. For me, there are too many missing pieces to make the investment for even the $499 16GB base model. The flaws that break this deal for me include:

No camera. So much for mobile communications such as video chat over Skype. Since the iPad is using stock iPhone OS, this lack of hardware to save a few bucks is disappointing.
No GPS. Mobile devices and their apps are increasingly location-aware. Yes the 3G device will have AGPS, but this isn't enough. Why include a compass if there is no GPS? Again, the iPhone already supports GPS, why start a few steps back?
No SD card reader. This feature was recently added to MacBook line. The iPad is marketed as a media consumption device and I can think of no better device to look at photos taken in the field than an iPad. There will be an adapter you can plug into the iPad, a la the Nike+ receiver for the iPods, but it seems so unlike Apple to rely on adapters given the cheapness of SD card readers.
No background apps. Android can do background apps with ease. The iPhone 3GS and the iPad have the horsepower to handle backgrounds apps but don't. So much for listening to Pandora while typing out a Keynote.

Not to be all negative. This device does seem to the best eBook reader around and that alone may salvage the deal. Plus it has new mobile versions of Keynote, Pages, and Numbers that make it a mobile professional's office for the road. Other than that, I am not seeing the advantages over the iPad-Mini, also known as the iPod Touch.

Books for Learning Electronics

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:12:00 +0000

I recently picked up "Make: Electronics" by Charles Platt from Amazon from $23 (vice $34 on MakerShed). It is one of the best introductory books written for those with little or no electronics experience. It is fantastic mix of theory and practical, and is all based on experiments that are well explained and illustrated. The book also does a great job of recommending tools, components, websites, and other books for the novice electronics DIYer. I find it be a terrific companion to two other books "Physical Computing" by Tom Igoe and Dan O'Sullivan and "Making Things Talk" by Tom Igoe. What sets "Make: Electronics" apart though is the attention to fundamentals, it does a great job taking you from the basic science of electrons and atoms, through the basics of voltage, current, power, resistance, capacitance, and inductance. It works through basic switch and resistor circuits, through transistor based circuits then onto to integrated circuits and finally a brief introduction to microcontrollers and basic software programming concepts. The only shortcoming is the lack of detailed microcontroller discussion, but that can be easily supplemented with the other two books I've mentioned. Speaking of microcontrollers, ff you are interested in the Arduino specifically, I would also recommend "Getting Started with Arduino" by Massimo Banzi. Lastly, another good book is "Encyclopedia of Electronic Circuits" by Rudolph Graf and William Sheets. So go check them out, they are all available on Amazon.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention the "Maker's Notebook" also available on Amazon or MakerShed. This customizable notebook is more than your average graph paper notebook. It contains many useful references specific for hackers and makers. It is a great little book to carry around with so you can brainstorm your ideas anywhere you go.

Geocaching on Android with GeoBeagle

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 20:42:00 +0000

Today I got the oppurtunity to do my first impromptu geocaching thanks to my new Droid and the free app GeoBeagle. The bottom line is that it does work but it is very much a beta, if not an alpha release. It does fall back to the web browser to access geocaching.com to find the caches, but once you select a cache you use the GeoBeagle app to navigate to the cache. You can also use Google Maps for a map view once you get close and I found that to be most useful.

For more information, visit my blog Ultimate Geocaching.

SCRUM

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:47:00 +0000

Looking to implement SCRUM practices from rapid software to development to hardware/systems engineering projects? Will document the results here. Anyone have any ideas/experiences on doing this?

Apple Won the Battle, but Lost the War

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:04:00 +0000

Sell your Apple stock today! The stock value peak has been reached and there is nowhere to go but down. At least that is my opinion after a week with my new Motorola Droid on the Verizon network. The iPhone and iPod Touch has been a major boon for Apple and their network partners. But the same reasons that ultimately gave Microsoft the advantage in the desktop wars of the 1980s and 1990s, will give Google the advantage in the coming decade. The bottom line reason is openness and the "warm fuzzy" this gives to application developers.

Before we get started, let's give Apple its due in that the iPhone, as the iPod before it, was nothing less than revolutionary. The iPhone was the first mobile computing and communications device (its very disingenuous to call it a phone or even a smartphone) that broke the death grip that phone manufacturers and network providers had on the software (aka apps) that run on your mobile device. Additionally, Apple built on the success of iTunes by introducing an App Store that made finding and downloading applications a snap. Native apps are the current drug of choice for the tech savvy, as the idea of browser-based mobile apps (which Apple initially intended to be the the de facto method of accessing third party applications) seems to fallen out of favor.

But by forcing users and developers alike to come through the iTunes app store has introduced a bottleneck that leaves a bad taste in the mouth of both parties, but developers especially. Think about it, you are small business who has invested a few hundred thousand dollars and 6 months in developing an iPhone application that you intend to sell for a few bucks to recoup your costs. There is no guarantee in the current setup that the app will ever be approved by Apple and therefore never seeing the light of day and worse, that developer is out a lot of money. This tight control is keeping in line with the Apple (and Steve Jobs') belief that without such control you open yourself up to a potentially unreliable user experience. By forcing apps to be evaluated by Apple you ensure that the apps will not degrade the iPhones' overall experience or hurt the network which the phone runs on. But let's face it, AT&T in the U.S. has been a horrible partner for Apple because the AT&T network simply can't handle the load the iPhone brings; especially in remote areas (lack of network) and urban areas (network degradation due to sheer number of users). I (and a whole lot of other people) have been waiting very patiently for the iPhone to come to Verizon. I bought an iPod Touch (2nd gen) to hold me over and waited with baited breath for the 3rd gen iPod Touch with the hope that GPS and camera would be added to help make the wait more bearable. Alas, the 3rd gen iPod Touch is nothing but a rehash of the 2nd gen Touch. When you couple the poor AT&T network performance, the fact you can't get the iPhone on another U.S. wireless provider, and the restrictive app development system; you get a situation that is unsustainable especially once a strong competitor enters the fray. Google's Android is that competitor. And we are tired of waiting for Apple.

With Android, though there is an App Market, you don't have to use it. You can develop an Android app, throw up a website, and offer the app directly to the public...no middle man needed. As I have said many times, the Internet is the destroyer of middlemen. The Internet didn't kill music, it killed the old music business model (with Apple's help); the Internet didn't kill movies, it killed the old movie and television business model. And though Apple helped to start the demise of the old wireless business model, it too will be a victim of the Internet's disdain for middle men when it comes to app distribution.

So Apple, you waited too long to expand beyond AT&T and whatever short-term gain you received from that deal will be dwarfed by what you could have had if you moved quickly to other wireless providers. But your loss is Google and the public's gain. Don't you know that you got to move fast in the tech industry and that those who don't die off? Well, that's my rant for today. I will follow up why and what exactly I love about the Motorola Droid in a later post to complete this story. As for my opening comment, you may want to hold on to the Apple stock for a few more weeks. Rumors are that Apple will be releasing a tablet computer (currently called iSlate) at the end of the month. Can Apple ignite a fire in a product concept that has meandered for so long? Will it be an Amazon Kindle killer? Who knows? We'll see at the end of January.

3rd Gen iPod Touch Lacks A Camera!?!?

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 23:26:00 +0000

Recently Apple held their yearly unveiling of their refreshed iPod lineup. As someone who is waiting patiently for the iPhone to arrive on the Verizon network, and the owner of the 2nd gen iPod Touch, I was eagerly awaiting some Apple magic. Boy, was I let down. I own both an iPod Touch and BlackBerry Curve, and I also sometimes carry a Flip video recorder. However, I would much rather downsize to a single device (which is an ideal world would be a Verizon iPhone). I was hoping to at least shed the Flip with advent of the seemingly inevitable iPod Touch with a video/photo camera. Alas, only the iPod Nano was blessed with a video camera (note this means it only records video, no still photos). This let me to wonder why? Here are my thoughts on the endless babble found elsewhere on the Internet as well as an explanation from Apple themselves.

1) Cost. Apple has heard from the people that the iPod Touch is a fantastic gaming platform, which is definitely true. In order to keep costs down they left out a camera in favor of a more capable graphics engine...on the 32 and 64 GB models only. The 8GB model is the same hardware as the 2nd gen Touch with the new software, version 3.1. Conspicuously absent is a 16GB model, perhaps the camera will come later on the 16GB model, sans the updated graphics hardware? If cost truly were a driving factor, then why add it to the iPod Nano? The costs on the Nano were not driven higher by adding video, why would the same hold true for the Touch?

2) Gaming. The iPod Touch is more of a gaming device and mobile computer than a camera. Okay true. But go to the App Store and see the countless apps, including games, designed to take advantage of the iPhone camera. Additionally, the current leader in portable gaming, Nintendo, unleashed an update to their flagship portable device called the Nintendo DSi that has, wait for it, a camera built in. So Apple is losing revenue from iPod Touch owners who can't take advantage of Apps that rely on the iPhone camera. So this is a gimped gaming device?

3) Technical difficultly. The Touch, being much slimmer than the iPhone, would require reworking of the hardware innards to house a camera. This became too difficult. Hmmm, so they can fit it into a device called a "Nano" but can't fit it into a device with a significantly larger footprint. I think not.

Still, I do believe the most likely answer was a technical issue with the camera modules themselves. In all likelihood Apple had to look beyond their existing iPhone camera manufacturers to handle the additional workload of manufacturing cameras. The first few production batches probably were subpar, which is keeping in line with the reports of the rather poor VGA quality coming from the iPod Nano. Did Apple try to use the same camera module on the Nano as the Touch? If so, the larger and higher resolution Touch screen probably displayed very poor playback; causing Apple to drop the camera in the 11th hour.

I do believe that an iPod Touch equipped with a camera is still coming. If not, it seems to show that Apple has lost their desire for consistency across product line. For example, the Nano records video, but not still photos. The iPhone 3G takes still photos but no video. The iPhone 3GS does do both. Could that be the true reason, that Apple is trying to force consumers to the more lucrative iPhone 3GS? Certainly possible, but there has been accessories released such as protective cases released for the 3rd gen iPod Touch that had the camera hole cut out. And since it takes months if not years to setup production lines, it seems this was planned and dropped rather last minute. What are your thoughts? Comment below.

Tron Legacy

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 04:49:00 +0000

Tron is one of the movies that is a geek right of passage. Check out the trailer for the upcoming sequel: Tron Legacy. Awesome!

Weekend Wasters: ZooLoo and Posterous

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:57:00 +0000

I am beginning to lose track of all the social networking and microblogging services that have invaded the Internet. But if you are tired of the tried and true platforms like Facebook and Twitter, I have found two replacements (albeit with significant less following base). They are ZooLoo (competitor to Facebook) and Posterous (competitor to Twitter). I am very impressed with ZooLoo in that it gives you a chance to build both a public and private space on the Internet. A place to go serve as a hub for all your web services while also giving you a public face by providing a way to easily create and maintain websites and blogs. Check them out.

Review: AudioBoo

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 01:40:00 +0000

Looking for an easy way to make podcasts from your iPhone or 2nd gen iPod Touch? Check out AudioBoo. From there iPhone app (free on the App Store) you can create audio recordings that are then uploaded to their stream (a la Twitter). The now standard concept of followers is there and you can see all your previous recordings or "boos" as they are known at AudioBoo. They also make it quite easy to notify your Twitter and Facebook followers of any new recordings. They also provide an RSS feed that you can add to websites such as FriendFeed too. Another feature is the ability to give a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" to other people's boos, thereby promoting them to the "Popular Boos" page.

How A Geek Spends His Time

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 02:25:00 +0000

I have spent the evening putting together a pair of circuits that allows sound from one computer to be transmitted via laser light to a second computer. You can get info such as the schematic and bill of materials from MAKE. Below is a video of my results

UPDATE: Here is the schematic for the transmitter and receiver circuit.

Tech Advice: Cleaning Tracks on a Windows PC

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 04:31:00 +0000

I recently received an email from someone who was using a friend's machine while they were away and wanted to know about "cleaning it" after using it for business. Below is my response.

Sounds like you are running a Windows computer. Your solutons is pretty good, however, if you are on a Windows computer then I have two recommendations:

1) Run a piece of software called CCleaner available at http://www.ccleaner.com. Of course, when done with it, you will have to delete the installation .exe file, uninstall the application and empty the recycle bin. But CCleaner does a tremendous job of cleaning all those hidden bread crumbs that are left behind. Now if this is extremely business sensitive and this person is so intent, he could retrieve what was deleted. But that would require special software and a lot of time; also he would need a reason to suspect use. Also realize that by clearing cookies and other browser "crumbs" anything he had saved prior to leaving will be gone too.

2) Try using Google Docs for sharing and working on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. It is free and seeing as you have a Gmail account, you are all set. The nice thing is you only have to worry about cleaning the Internet-based crumbs like cookies. The actual document never "lived" on the computer hard drive. Available at http://docs.google.com. Another web-based company that is free is zoho.com. But, not knowing your business and the level of sensitivity these are potentially risky options but, probably no more so than emailing files back and forth.

Review: Google Voice (Updated)

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 15:59:00 +0000

So I got my Google Voice invite yesterday and after some fiddling, I finally got it up and running. The best advice I can give when doing the initial setup and verification of an existing phone number is to be patient. You may click the button to have it dial your phone and won't actually get the phone call for upwards of 10 minutes. I suspect this is due to the initial flood gates of new folks registering.

The other neat thing is you get to pick the area code and telephone number, though it has to be within the list of numbers that Google recently grabbed. You simply put in numbers or words that you want to have within your Google Voice telephone number and they search to see if they have any available numbers that match your criteria. For instance, I wanted "MIKE" in my number, low and behold they had a number available that ended in 6453 which spells "MIKE". Once you get a call on an existing cell phone or landline and punch in the activation code, you are all set. The first thing they will ask you to do is establish your voice mail greeting. They will call your phone you initially used for verification to record the greeting. You can't seem to record greetings from the website.

If you use Gmail then getting used to the Google Voice interface is no problem. It is still pretty Spartan, but you can see that they are aiming for consistency and this UI will hopefully get more feature rich with time. The first thing you'll want to day is to add all the telephones that you want to ring when someone will dial your Google Voice number. See, this is the real beauty. Simply give out this number once and you will never have to worry when you move or change jobs that people won't have your most current number. You use Google Voice to hide your real numbers and simply rely on the Google Voice number to be the one telephone number to rule them all!

Google Voice UI: Spartan but functional.

Your Gmail contacts are available from within Google Voice and it makes it a snap to call or send an SMS message from the website. After adding all your telephone numbers, you will want to group contacts into friends, coworkers, family, etc. so that way you can assign different voice mail greeting depending on who is calling you. You can even add custom voice mail greetings on a per user basis. For example, when my wife calls she gets the sappy lovey-dovey messge. When making a call you will be asked which of your telephone numbers you have entered will be used to actually make the call. Your phone will ring and you answer and the person you are dialing will then be dailed. This is NOT a VoIP product.

When receving calls, you can choose to screen the calls based on if you know the person or not based on if they are in your contacts lists. Voice mail can be transcribed and sent as an SMS message or email to your phone or email account. The transcribing isn't perfect but it's getting there. You can listen to your voicemail from within the website or click a link from within your email and it will launch the audio playback. You can also now search SMS messages just like email.

International calling support is available though it does cost money. You can add credit to your account using the Google Checkout system. The rates can be found on the Google Voice website. My bottom line, opinion is that Google Voice will revolutionize the way we think and interact with our phones. If Google Wave represents what email would be if it were invented today, then Google Voice represents what voice mail and SMS messaging would be if it were invented today. Go sign up for you account today.

Update: Some new cool features I have found.

"Listen In" allows you to listen as a voice mail is being recorded (a la the days of tape answering machines) and should you decide to take the call, simply press 3.
Record a call simply by pressing 4.
You can forward voice mails to others just like you forward email. You can also download voice mail as well.
Embed voicemails into your website or blog. Really great tool for creating podcasts on the fly over your telephone.
Annotate voice mail or SMS messages with notes.
Change phones is mid-conversation by pressing * and your other phones will ring. Simply answer with the new phone and hang up on the old.
Conference call. If you receive a new phone call while on a current call, simply press 5 to join that person into a conference call.
Mobile device accessible. If you go to voice.google.com on mobile device such as a BlackBerry or iPhone you will get mobile formatted site for easy interaction on the run.

Review: iPhone OS 3.0

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:58:00 +0000

Well I've had a week now to really get my hands on the new 3.0 OS for iPhones and iPod Touch. Since I am holding out hope that the iPhone will come to Verizon in the next year, I don't own an iPhone, yet. So this review is focused towards iPod Touch users, specifically the 2nd Gen iPod Touch users. First of all, the OS 3.0 is free for iPhone users but costs $9.95 for iPod Touch users, available over at the iTunes App Store. So is the $9.95 worth it? In short, yes, and here's why:

Notes now syncs with Outlook. The built in Notes app now synchronizes with your Outlook Notes. Still no native Task app but this is good enough.
The native Stocks app is much more robust and visual with the introduction of trend charts. Still not as good as the Bloomberg app, but better.
Voice Memos: If you have a second gen iPod touch and a new set of headphones with a mic built in, you can now take advantage of a native Voice Memo app.
Landscape Email: Now, native support to have a landscape oriented keyboard when typing out emails. A big plus.
Bluetooth unleased. You can now sync with a stereo Bluetooth headset for hands-free and wire-free listening. Also, connect to other iPhone and iPod Touch users without a Wi-Fi network for one-on-one sharing and gaming.
Login in to both your YouTube and iTunes accounts within those apps.
Parental controls to restrict what music, videos, and apps your kids can get at.
The "Shake To Shuffle" feature from the newest iPod Nano is now available.
When listening to podcasts you can speed up and do a 30-second reverse skip. Makes it easier to get to content you want fast. You can even email a link to friends so they can listen to the podcast too!
OS-Wide Search. Scroll all the way to the left to reveal a search screen where you can search across all your iPod content including contacts, notes, calendar, apps, and music.

In the end, there are enough new features to justify the $9.95 for iPod Touch users need to plop down to upgrade.

7 Tips For Staying Safe Online

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 04:12:00 +0000

Was in my local library and got a handout on Internet safety that summarized some good tips that I'd like to share.

Protect PII. That's Personally Identifiable Information. Don't give out home address, telephone numbers, SSNs, account numbers, etc. In fact, create a public email address that you put out and forward it to your private email address. Never put PII in any website that asks you for it without your initiation. Never trust something that appears to be from your bank or credit card company asking you to verify information. If it seems legit, call the company first (don't reply or call a number provided in the same email, go to the companies website to find legit contact info). Have a separate credit card for online purchases not tied to a bank account.
Don't deal with strangers. As above, beware of phishing expeditions but also realize that if it sounds too good to be true it is. Avoid trying to get your music, software, of movies from shady file sharing sites that offer "warez". If you don't recognize the email or the subject line seems suspicious don't open the email. If you use an IM client, don't let people you don't know have the ability to contact you.
Be defensive. Use and update anti-virus, firewall, and anti-spyware software religiously. Look out for browser toolbars you didn't specifically download, unexpected pop-ups, strange desktop icons, changed homepage, keys that don't work, or sudden decrease in PC performance.
Be proactive. Keep your Operating System and Web Browser updated with the latest patches.
Don't store passwords on your computer and be careful in writing them down.
Back up your files religiously.
Learn who to contact if you think you've been compromised. Immediately disconnect the PC from the Internet. Contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) immediately, if for nothing else, to cover your butt. Run spyware detecting tools and virus scan. Call a geek.

So, anything else you would add?

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 22:09:00 +0000

Check out the widget I created for free over at Wix. They let you create free Flash-based websites and widgets. Very powerful tools and great user interface. Allows a developer to worry about the aesthetics and not the programming minutiae.

The Space Shuttle Was Designed For Roman Horses

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 05:51:00 +0000

I heard this story by watching a recent lecture given by MIT's Open Coursware initiative. It traces the history of how the rocket booster design of the Space Shuttle was influenced by Roman Empire horses. t goes a little like this.

Thoikol is a Utah-based company that builds the rocket boosters. The boosters are transported to Florida via the railroad. NASA engineers wanted large boosters but were constrained by a tunnel along the railroad path that the boosters would take on their trip. The tunnel was just slightly larger than the railroad tracks which measure 4 feet, 8.5 inches wide. So why the weird dimension.?
4 feet, 8.5 inches is the width of the British railroads, and it was British engineers who built American railroads.
The people who built the British railroads had initially built the British streetcar lines
The people who built the streetcar lines used tools made for building coaches and those coaches had a track gauge. The coaches had the 4 feet, 8.5 inches track gauge because of the width of the British roads.
It was the Romans who built the first British roads so they kept the width in building future roads.
The Romans built their roads to move the Army and thus fit their war chariots.
The Roman war chariot was built to accommodate the width of two horses!

So there you go, the reason the Space Shuttle booster rockets were designed and built as they are can trace their requirements back to butt of a Roman horse.

Why The Hell Do We Still Watch Jeopardy?

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:19:00 +0000

As of today, our children are in deep trouble with respect to their education, especially as they get into high school. This is mainly because the world is ran by baby boomers who were raised to naively believe that if you study hard, get good grades, go to college and get a degree that you are set for life. That is an industrial age mentality that needs to go the way of slide rulers and transparencies. The greatest danger we face is the notion that just because certain education methods worked yesterday that they will work tomorrow. Think of what this generation has compared to the baby boomer generation during the same stage of life. Internet, cell phones, GPS, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, VoIP, Skype, Google, iPods, and the list goes on and on. How could we possibly believe the same rules apply when we aren't even playing the same game? Education in the 21st century must have the goal of teaching children how to many new things including:

How to conduct reliable research and verify facts.
How to discern fact from opinion, to develop a critical eye for truth.
How to reason and solve problems, to think for yourself.
How to analyze data and extract information and then apply that knowledge to a problem.
How to collaborate with students across the world not just in the classroom next door.
How to learn on your own.
How to share and interact with others.
Encourage creativity and love of learning.

The business world today is global, dynamic, and moving at break neck speed. Yet we still cherish an education curriculum that embraces rote memorization of facts. Why in the hell is Jeopardy still on television? I watched a recent episode and every single question could be Googled and the found found within the top 5 sites presented. Those people have good memories but aren't necessarily intelligent. Intelligence is about how to turn that data into useful information and in turn using that information to create products and processes that are useful and profitable. Now, obviously we still need to memorize our alphabet, multiplication tables, and other basic skills. But we also need to encourage the learning that can only come from exploration and creativity. For example, I went to college for four years to learn computer engineering. When I graduated was I ready to enter the engineering profession? Quite simply, no. Many skills were not taught or worse discouraged by penalty of failure. Specifically I am calling out my computer programming courses where we were forbidden from collaborating. Now yes I understand that one person could take advantage of a team situation and leach of the team's effort. But this risk is so minuscule and grossly outweighed by the need to teach how to develop software in a large, diverse team. The day of the lone programmer is over for a vast majority of what we do. Yet we still teach programming like punch cards were still all the rage! Furthermore, when it was time for me to prepare for my Professional Engineering license exam I studied the books but I also tinkered with electronics. I got hands on experience. I could connect the theory of equations to the practical application of circuit design. Granted my university did do a pretty good job with labs, but not enough. The labs never connected the theory with practical design. We were never taught good design techniques.

Now I don't claim to know how we go about doing this. I do know that No Child Left Behind and standardized testing though need to go away, period. Standardized testing is a money-making racket that tests how well you can take a test, not how well you can learn and adapt. That is the key. In a 4 year computer engineering curriculum, what you learn in freshman year will be out of date then end of the junior year, if not sooner. Unlike mechanical or electrical engineering, where the fundamentals don't change appreciably, computer and electronics change fundamentally all the time. I have no doubt that the CMOS technologies I learned (though already obsolete in many ways) will be gone completely in 15 years when my daughter enters college. Instead of electricity, optics or biomass will be the fundamental building block of computer technology. How do you teach that? I encourage you to check out an old blog entry where I presented a great brief from some folks in Colorado called "Shift Happens", check it out here. If you are a parent like me I encourage you to take an active rule in changing the world. We need to hold our teachers AND politicians accountable. We need to stop trying to make every student the same and start ensuring we have smart and creative young people. The future is now and we need to make sure our kids are ready for this brave, new world. To do so we can't just teach the tools (i.e. PowerPoint) we also have to redefine the relationship we have with learning and the relation between teacher and student. Educational institutions must become places where innovation and creativity are encouraged and helped along the way. After all, look at the people who created Apple, Microsoft, and Google. All created and built by people who dropped out of school to nurture their ideas and built products/platforms to bring those ideas to fruition.

Product versus Platform

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:27:00 +0000

I have been having an interesting discussion with friends on the future of various businesses. One topic that we keep hitting on is the idea a company providing a product vice providing a platform. A company that provides a product is the traditional corporate model. Some market research is done, a product is designed, and pushed to the public. You purchase the product and use it. Sometimes you may call customer support for help. This is Business 1.0 and frankly it is out-of-date, especially for technology and journalism organizations. The future, or Business 2.0 is all about the platform. The difference occurs from the very beginning. Instead of building a product and then controlling it forever in facets of product maturation and support; you need to build platform and then unleash to the world. Now here is the real hard part. Not only to you have to build a social community of die hard users; you need to encourage the creation of a community that performs technical support, consulting, and development for your platform. You can't let yourself build walled garden to control over your product. To use the words of Dan Ariely, author of "Predictably Irrational", you need to rely on building a social relation versus a market relation that is built solely on supply and demand; and perceived value. You need to become friends and partners with your customers and those who grow new functions and tools upon your platform. This is how companies will be successful in the future. The underlying fundamental shift is that cutsomers are no longer mere consumers, they must be thought of as producers as well. The music and movie industry are having the hardest time figuring this out. How many times have you made a great slideshow or movie and the perfect soundtrack is the latest song from your favorite artist. You legally purchase the song from iTunes and then add as a background music to your video. You then post that video on YouTube, under the perfectly legal fair use provisions of copyright law; and then days later you get a DMCA takedown notice! The music industry fails to realize they just shut down free advertising for that artist and song because chances are your friends would have heard the song, associated it with the memory of the events in the video, and would have gone and bought the song from iTunes as well. Those that succeed in the 21st century will realize that customers are producers and no longer consumers.

The Navy Is All Over Social Media

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:02:00 +0000

USS_Nimitz_Bloggers_Embark_2009-05-28_21-43-21
Originally uploaded by Jennifer Jones2

Here is an interesting pic taken by a blogger while on a trip to the USS NIMITZ. It shows how the Navy is using Social Media. Awesome!

Weekend Wasters: Spymaster, Evernote, UberTwitter

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Sat, 30 May 2009 22:08:00 +0000

Found some good, new apps over this weekend. Some are web-based, some are for BlackBerrys. They are:

Spymaster: This is a bit hard to explain. It is a game built around Twitter, so you will need a Twitter account. You recruit from amongst your followers to join your spy ring. The game is a throwback to the days before graphics-based games, the days of text-based adventures. It is played in your browser, you'll need to visit playspymaster.com, but realize it is currently in private beta. All you need to do is follow someone who is playing the game and ask them to invite you in. The game is centered around raising money by completing tasks and assassinating fellow players to gather their goods. From there you can open a Swiss bank account to stash your cash or acquire a safe house and make some rent. You also can purchase spy goods (guns, knives) from the black market. The goal is to increase your rank by acquiring skill points. There is more to it, but you really need to see it for yourself. Check out this TechCurnch article for more information about Spymaster.

Evernote for BlackBerry: Finally, the cloud-based all-in-one note taking application is available for the BlackBerry. You can geotag photos and voice notes and save them on the web and access them from your computer or other mobile device later. Find it at evernote.com.

UberTwitter: A fantastic new Twitter app for the BlackBerry. A very straight forward interface and fast. I am using it instead of TwitterBerry, but keeping TwitterBerry installed as UberTwitter is currently in beta. Find it at ubertwitter.com.

OpSys and Governments.

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:27:00 +0000

Now, I am sure someone else has had this stark realization already, but I wanted to share my thoughts on this burning topic. That is, how to modern computer operating systems compare to various forms of governments. The similarities are striking.

The Dictatorship. Apple is definitely dictatorial in its closed control of hardware and software. I would argue though the for the most part, they are benevolent dictator. You can get your MacBook Pro in your favorite color, so long as your favorite color is brushed aluminum. The software and the hardware are one, and only comes from Apple. There is only ONE OS/X, so suck it up. But the Apple trains to tend to run on time and Macs rarely crash or get viruses.

The Anarchist. Linux, there are so many flavors of Linux it even puts Microsoft to shame with its 7,000 versions of Windows Vista (not true, for comedic effect only!) Stick it to the man and hack your O/S then recompile it to function however the heck you please! Many great Linux distros are free, as in not one single penny needs to be spent on the O/S. But any changes you got to share the source code. Peace and Love!

The Republic. Yes, Microsoft. Echoing the words of Winston Churchill , "Democracy is the worst form of Government, except for all those others that have been tried". For the most part it does do what it is supposed to, sometimes sluggish and inefficient, it tends to get the most done for the majority. Don't like it? Then vote with your wallet. As seen with the debacles that are Windows ME and Vista. The poor sales of Vista are quickly ushering in the era of Windows 7. However, you can get Windows on a wide variety of hardware to suit your personal tastes. And though they are the target of hackers due to the sheer number of Windows machine; you tend to find a lot of great freeware once you've paid a small fortune for the O/S. But these days, most people just buy a new machine instead of upgrading solely the O/S.

Welcome to the New Site!

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Sun, 10 May 2009 07:30:00 +0000

As the Geek Cowboy becomes more widely known, I am transitioning all blogs from the michaelbparks.com domain (except Deep Thoughts Daily) to my newly acquired domain geekcowboy.net; which is going to serve as the hub for all my future web travels. My current domain, michaelbparks.com will remain, however merely will serve as a web resume. The heart of all my digital content will be under the geekcowboy.net as I transition over the next few weeks. So if a page you follow me on suddenly stops working, its probably now at geekcowboy.net. Sorry for the inconvenience, hopefully everything will be settled soon.

Review: Star Trek

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Sat, 09 May 2009 01:31:00 +0000

By far, the best Trek movie ever. But the great thing is we are setup for an even BETTER film next time since everyone is in their proper place by the end of this movie. I will admit, I was very happy about the fact they were going with a more "realistic" feel, especially since I am an engineer. I was very much excited to see the water pipes and distribution system. Like it or not, when we get to that point in our history everything will not be clean like TNG. With that said, I think they relied too much on using industrial locales as a backdrop without sprucing it up with CGI. I did not see an actual engine or drive or whatever its called. I didn't get a feel for how the ship worked, the mechanics so to speak. Sure did look good though. So for me, I like the direction we are headed, just can't solely rely on 21st century industrial plants. Be realistic but also be a bit futuristic (a la the bridge). btw JJ, if you need an engineering consultant on the next film, let me know!

Review: Windows 7 (Release Candidate)

mike@michaelbparks.com (Mike Parks) — Fri, 08 May 2009 03:37:00 +0000

Microsoft has launched their Windows 7 Release Candidate for download, available through July. I am writing this post on my HP Pavilion laptop running Win 7. The real big news is that you will be able to use the RC for an entire year!

The first impressions are outstanding. It is solid and installs in mere minutes. I used GPart to partition my Vista Premium drive. With in about 15 minutes I was up running Win 7. The initial boot and setup reminded me of a watered down Mac OS/X initial boot up. Now granted this is only a Release Candidate so it was not loaded up with all the crapware you find on most out-of-the-box new PCs. I am curious as to if Microsoft will include more built-in useful apps (a la Photo Booth on Macs) or will they finally go a minimalist route? The RC feels very nimble and I like that but find some of the app upgrades are awesome, specifically the Calculator. Holy cow did it take them forever to improve that.

Your home directory for all your files is called “Libraries” under which there is Documents, Video, Pictures, and Music. Simple and straightforward. I also like the new Snipping Tool for taking screenshots in a simple way, a la a Mac. Paint has the new Ribbons UI that was introduced in Office 2007. I actually like it.

The big changes (and very good changes) are the taskbar and the absence of the sidebar. The sidebar is dead, but the gadgets are not. They are simply desktop gadgets that you sprinkle across your desktop. But the biggest good change is the taskbar. Finally, for the love of all that is good in the Universe, you can rearrange the open applications on your toolbar. Also, by simply running your mouse over a tab on the taskbar it will give you real preview of the app it represents. Also, in the Start Menu, next to your most used applications is an arrow that when clicked will bring up the most recently used file for that application. Pretty sweet! Overall it is quite similar to Vista but feels snappier and feels to work better.

I am quite impressed, and if Microsoft does the right thing and offers Windows 7 for free or at a very low cost for Windows Vista customers, then I think Apple will actually have some honest competition in terms of a quality OS that makes using a computer “fun” to use but provides the unlimited potential that has always been PCs.

Here is a screenshot of my desktop: