STOP SOPA Now!! This Video that Must Be SHARED! How the corporate media set up Internet users to commit crime.
This guy has some great points about the SOPA act and its supporters. These supporters are responsible for encouraging and enabling the copyright infringement to begin with. Lets see if they can explain this??
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Roku: Streaming Right Into My Heart
I've been wanting to get some sort of streaming device for a while now but I was unable to decide immediately on what I wanted. The Logitech Revue was discontinued, so there went that idea. I didn't know if I wanted a Sony LED Smart TV powered by GoogleTV. What I really wanted to do was avoid shelling out for a new PC with Windows 7, but we needed Netflix instant watch capabilities. This meant that saving cash with Ubuntu Linux and a Zotac ZBOX from TigerDirect wouldn't do the trick either, as there is no Netflix Instant Watch support. I'm working on a Plex Media Server for streaming my DVDs all over the house or my massive MP3 collection while driving in my car. There was a Plex client beta released for Windows, but I really didn't want to give Microsoft more of my money, and a GoogleTV or Android powered device had everything I was looking for.
After weeks of deliberation and over-thinking, my wonderful wife decided I really wanted the Roku2 XS for the holidays. As of Christmas morning, I could access HuluPlus, Netflix instant-watch, a custom channel for my Plex server, and it had tons of other content like News and Sports content, Tech podcasts and shows, a TED talks channel and Crackle, a free streaming movie service, plus over 300 other channels with free and paid content. Below are some of the services I have examined thus far and their comparisons to the full versions of the original product. Some pretty good. Some not so much...
Roku Channel Store 4/5
The Roku Channel Store has lots to offer. The free content is pretty expansive and if you look in the right places, you'll find excellent resources for high quality, free content. For instance, Revision3 has an excellent selection of tech related content like App Judgement, a show that rates and reviews the latest mobile apps for iOS and Android. There are also tons of independent media channels available for free as well as an Onion News Network channel and a UFC channel.
Netflix 2.5/5
The interface is a little cluttered and watered down for my liking. I would lie to see a sortable category list, and a cleaner interface in general. The video links are aligned in a left/right scrolling grid much like the main site is now, but there isn't a way to filter the genres, what you get is on the initial screen and nothing more. While the limited content thing has been a bone of contention lately with most of their subscribers, it is even more limited on Roku.
Oh, Netflix. If it weren't for your DVD service and my aversion to Cable TV, I would cancel you altogether.
Hulu 4.5/5
The Hulu app for Roku is pretty sweet. I can do just about everything with it that I would normally on Hulu through Chrome or Firefox. Most of the content seems to be available with a few minor exceptions. I have full access to my history, subscribed shows, recently added and I can even adjust the auto-play feature. To me, the auto-play feature is a completely undervalued option It's an excellent substitute for live TV. You don't have to interact and something else comes on once the program has finished. Admirably they have recently taken to prompting you after 3hrs of streaming asking if you need a break. This is a great way to prevent waking up at 3 am to because you passed out watching the Colbert Report and you've been scared awake by the screams of a woman in labor during American Horror Story.
Pandora 4/5
Pandora was my favorite streaming music service for the longest time aside from gdradio.net. I like their interface. It's simple, clean and utilitarian. The UI is familiar and easy to adapt to. The selection is what I expect from their service. All of my stations appear with the latest albums covers of the artists they are named for. Navigating them is very congruent with the rest of the apps as the selections are limited to what you can do with the remote, up, down, left, right, play, pause, etc... Recently I switched to Spotify for my music streaming needs and have been more than pleased. I'm oh-so-patiently waiting for the Spotify Roku Channel.
Roku Newscaster 3.5/5
The Roku Newscaster has a wide variety of network news outlets all with fair selections of segments and shows. There are channels for Fox, NBC, ABC, CNN, PBS, NPR, ESPN, NASA and a few others. I'm frankly surprised that there is so much news content. I figured ABC and NBC would be on board, but rest of them are quite surprising. I would like to see an option to stream the local news affiliate based on the zip code in your settings.
Other fun features of note are, the expandable media slot for microSD cards, the ROKU USB media player capable of playing videos, music and displaying pictures on a USB storage device (XS model only) and an HBO Go channel for HBO subscribers, Some of the video formats supported through the USB media player are MP4, MOV, and WMV(HD). Music streaming is available for AAC and MP3 files and pictures of the JPG and PNG persuasion are also supported.
I'm not entirely impressed by the game selection. Angry birds bores me and the rest of the 30 or so of games aren't really my cup of tea.
I haven't gotten into any of the other paid services yet, but I'll take some time to review them once I've gotten through all of the freebies.
Overall, I am satisfied with my Roku2 XS. The excellent selection of programming, easy to navigate interface, and the extras for my media, are all huge positives. Springing for the $7.99 Hulu Plus account or some of the other paid content only adds to the experience. Between the free content, inexpensive paid channels and access to your music and movie collection make the $49.99-99.99 Roku 2 a worthwhile investment. Especially if you are trying to get rid of pricey and inconvenient cable TV.
After weeks of deliberation and over-thinking, my wonderful wife decided I really wanted the Roku2 XS for the holidays. As of Christmas morning, I could access HuluPlus, Netflix instant-watch, a custom channel for my Plex server, and it had tons of other content like News and Sports content, Tech podcasts and shows, a TED talks channel and Crackle, a free streaming movie service, plus over 300 other channels with free and paid content. Below are some of the services I have examined thus far and their comparisons to the full versions of the original product. Some pretty good. Some not so much...
Roku Channel Store 4/5
The Roku Channel Store has lots to offer. The free content is pretty expansive and if you look in the right places, you'll find excellent resources for high quality, free content. For instance, Revision3 has an excellent selection of tech related content like App Judgement, a show that rates and reviews the latest mobile apps for iOS and Android. There are also tons of independent media channels available for free as well as an Onion News Network channel and a UFC channel.
Netflix 2.5/5
The interface is a little cluttered and watered down for my liking. I would lie to see a sortable category list, and a cleaner interface in general. The video links are aligned in a left/right scrolling grid much like the main site is now, but there isn't a way to filter the genres, what you get is on the initial screen and nothing more. While the limited content thing has been a bone of contention lately with most of their subscribers, it is even more limited on Roku.
Oh, Netflix. If it weren't for your DVD service and my aversion to Cable TV, I would cancel you altogether.
Hulu 4.5/5
The Hulu app for Roku is pretty sweet. I can do just about everything with it that I would normally on Hulu through Chrome or Firefox. Most of the content seems to be available with a few minor exceptions. I have full access to my history, subscribed shows, recently added and I can even adjust the auto-play feature. To me, the auto-play feature is a completely undervalued option It's an excellent substitute for live TV. You don't have to interact and something else comes on once the program has finished. Admirably they have recently taken to prompting you after 3hrs of streaming asking if you need a break. This is a great way to prevent waking up at 3 am to because you passed out watching the Colbert Report and you've been scared awake by the screams of a woman in labor during American Horror Story.
Pandora 4/5
Pandora was my favorite streaming music service for the longest time aside from gdradio.net. I like their interface. It's simple, clean and utilitarian. The UI is familiar and easy to adapt to. The selection is what I expect from their service. All of my stations appear with the latest albums covers of the artists they are named for. Navigating them is very congruent with the rest of the apps as the selections are limited to what you can do with the remote, up, down, left, right, play, pause, etc... Recently I switched to Spotify for my music streaming needs and have been more than pleased. I'm oh-so-patiently waiting for the Spotify Roku Channel.
Roku Newscaster 3.5/5
The Roku Newscaster has a wide variety of network news outlets all with fair selections of segments and shows. There are channels for Fox, NBC, ABC, CNN, PBS, NPR, ESPN, NASA and a few others. I'm frankly surprised that there is so much news content. I figured ABC and NBC would be on board, but rest of them are quite surprising. I would like to see an option to stream the local news affiliate based on the zip code in your settings.
Other fun features of note are, the expandable media slot for microSD cards, the ROKU USB media player capable of playing videos, music and displaying pictures on a USB storage device (XS model only) and an HBO Go channel for HBO subscribers, Some of the video formats supported through the USB media player are MP4, MOV, and WMV(HD). Music streaming is available for AAC and MP3 files and pictures of the JPG and PNG persuasion are also supported.
I'm not entirely impressed by the game selection. Angry birds bores me and the rest of the 30 or so of games aren't really my cup of tea.
I haven't gotten into any of the other paid services yet, but I'll take some time to review them once I've gotten through all of the freebies.
Overall, I am satisfied with my Roku2 XS. The excellent selection of programming, easy to navigate interface, and the extras for my media, are all huge positives. Springing for the $7.99 Hulu Plus account or some of the other paid content only adds to the experience. Between the free content, inexpensive paid channels and access to your music and movie collection make the $49.99-99.99 Roku 2 a worthwhile investment. Especially if you are trying to get rid of pricey and inconvenient cable TV.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Reduce Your IT Budget: Invest In Your Infrastructure
Let's face it, your IT budget is forever growing. Servers and workstations need to be replaced all the time and software is expensive, but to maintain an edge on your competitors, you need to keep up to date with the latest software and smooth running computer hardware. The better your employees tools are, the more productive they can be. Investing in and improving your IT infrastructure is a must. To get the most out of your IT budget, consider some of the following options
Open Source Software
Over the past 20 years, small business computing has been dominated by Microsoft and their expensive and frequently unstable software. The benefits of using the Microsoft family of products are many. Chances are your users have been using Microsoft products at home for years and just about every job they have had since college involved them sitting down in front of a MS Windows computer. They are familiar with it, they understand how to use it and are proficient at it. Why switch. Thats a perfectly logical and frankly intelligent choice. It eliminates a learning curve for new software and platforms and it provides a steady user experience. What about your servers? For a Windows 2008 Small business edition, the license will run you about $900, plus $250 per incident when your Administrators have an issue they cont seem to get under control... It can get very costly.
The many flavors of the Linux operating system offer the same services with extra bonuses like added security, increased stability and uptime. On top of that, the cost of the license is $0. Now some enterprise level versions of Linux like RedHat come with support contracts for yearly subscriptions to their updates and versions of the the operating system.
Most of the largest tech companies like Facebook,Google, and Amazon use Linux as the framework for their infrastructure. It provides a much more customizable, stable and inherently secure operating environment. With more user friendly flavors of Linux like Ubuntu, and Linux Mint with large support organizations backing their progress, Linux has quickly become a viable and exceptionally useful tool for the small and medium sized business.
Responsible Energy and Resource Usage
Power usage is a huge portion of your IT budget. Most desktop workstations are left on all day, and all night. Whether running your computer at maximum capacity, or letting it sit idle, there is virtually no difference in power consumption. This means that roughly 2/3 of the time your employees desktop computers are on, they are wasting power and mony. It is estimated that the energy cost of running a computer over its entire life span is equal to the initial cost of purchase. This means that $1200 worksation, if left on, will cost you another $1200 to run it for the next 3-5 years. There are power management policies that can be put into place at a server level to prevent employees from disabling them. Responsible energy usage policies can effectively reduce your power consumption by 50%. or more per computer or server in your infrastructure.
The average employee wastes about $85 per year in paper, and toner by needlessly printing emails, funny pictures for their cubicles and personal documents. A responsible printing policy can be a good step to save a big portion of your IT budget. To enforce the policy there are a number of software options available to assist with managing e-waste related to printing. Preventing internal documents from being printed in color or logging print jobs sent to networked printers for reporting and review, there is a software option.
Hardware Life-cycling.
John in accounting is in need of a new computer. It's older than your office and you don't remember where you got it and the once white case is now yellowed from age. The engineers just requested 3 new machines to meet the requirements of the new design software. Chances are, the old machines the design team bought 3 years ago are more than up to the task of running Johns accounting software, office applications and email client without breaking a sweat. Instead of buying John a new low end machine, its time to do some repositioning. John may not need all the power that the old engineering departments machines have, but someone else could. Shuffle around your workstations on a planned, as needed basis. If you make all of your IT purchased with a focus on longevity, you'll maximize the usefulness and lifespan of your IT infrastructure.
Cloud Solutions
Cloud computing is the new rage in sustainable, low cost IT solutions. Its on-demand scalability and decreased operational cost make it a great solution for businesses worldwide. For the average Mom & Pop operation, a couple of servers on-site with active support and maintenance agreements, with a remote cloud hosted daily backup of their data isn't all that expensive and will probably serve them well. It doesn't pay for them to host their servers and run thin clients, but a cloud based service that acts as their accounting software and inventory system could save them a lot of money on support and maintenance costs as well as the energy cost of running the server or servers necessary to host an internal range of solutions.
Sometimes software is just too expensive. Nowadays you can find a cloud based solution for just about everything. From CRM software, incident and trouble ticket systems like SugarCRM, to hosted email and collaborative workspaces like Google Apps, the selection low cost, stable and secure cloud based solutions is expanding rapidly. As most of these services charge by the seat, they are easily scalable to meet our user demands. A cloud based solution is likely going to be a better bet than that pricey software package that needs a server to host the application databases. These services are typically available through a web browser and can be accessed from anywhere. This gives you the opportunity for a mobile workforce that can expand your prospective client base and talent pool for new employment opportunities.
Open Source Software
Over the past 20 years, small business computing has been dominated by Microsoft and their expensive and frequently unstable software. The benefits of using the Microsoft family of products are many. Chances are your users have been using Microsoft products at home for years and just about every job they have had since college involved them sitting down in front of a MS Windows computer. They are familiar with it, they understand how to use it and are proficient at it. Why switch. Thats a perfectly logical and frankly intelligent choice. It eliminates a learning curve for new software and platforms and it provides a steady user experience. What about your servers? For a Windows 2008 Small business edition, the license will run you about $900, plus $250 per incident when your Administrators have an issue they cont seem to get under control... It can get very costly.
The many flavors of the Linux operating system offer the same services with extra bonuses like added security, increased stability and uptime. On top of that, the cost of the license is $0. Now some enterprise level versions of Linux like RedHat come with support contracts for yearly subscriptions to their updates and versions of the the operating system.
Most of the largest tech companies like Facebook,Google, and Amazon use Linux as the framework for their infrastructure. It provides a much more customizable, stable and inherently secure operating environment. With more user friendly flavors of Linux like Ubuntu, and Linux Mint with large support organizations backing their progress, Linux has quickly become a viable and exceptionally useful tool for the small and medium sized business.
Responsible Energy and Resource Usage
Power usage is a huge portion of your IT budget. Most desktop workstations are left on all day, and all night. Whether running your computer at maximum capacity, or letting it sit idle, there is virtually no difference in power consumption. This means that roughly 2/3 of the time your employees desktop computers are on, they are wasting power and mony. It is estimated that the energy cost of running a computer over its entire life span is equal to the initial cost of purchase. This means that $1200 worksation, if left on, will cost you another $1200 to run it for the next 3-5 years. There are power management policies that can be put into place at a server level to prevent employees from disabling them. Responsible energy usage policies can effectively reduce your power consumption by 50%. or more per computer or server in your infrastructure.
The average employee wastes about $85 per year in paper, and toner by needlessly printing emails, funny pictures for their cubicles and personal documents. A responsible printing policy can be a good step to save a big portion of your IT budget. To enforce the policy there are a number of software options available to assist with managing e-waste related to printing. Preventing internal documents from being printed in color or logging print jobs sent to networked printers for reporting and review, there is a software option.
Hardware Life-cycling.
John in accounting is in need of a new computer. It's older than your office and you don't remember where you got it and the once white case is now yellowed from age. The engineers just requested 3 new machines to meet the requirements of the new design software. Chances are, the old machines the design team bought 3 years ago are more than up to the task of running Johns accounting software, office applications and email client without breaking a sweat. Instead of buying John a new low end machine, its time to do some repositioning. John may not need all the power that the old engineering departments machines have, but someone else could. Shuffle around your workstations on a planned, as needed basis. If you make all of your IT purchased with a focus on longevity, you'll maximize the usefulness and lifespan of your IT infrastructure.
Cloud Solutions
Cloud computing is the new rage in sustainable, low cost IT solutions. Its on-demand scalability and decreased operational cost make it a great solution for businesses worldwide. For the average Mom & Pop operation, a couple of servers on-site with active support and maintenance agreements, with a remote cloud hosted daily backup of their data isn't all that expensive and will probably serve them well. It doesn't pay for them to host their servers and run thin clients, but a cloud based service that acts as their accounting software and inventory system could save them a lot of money on support and maintenance costs as well as the energy cost of running the server or servers necessary to host an internal range of solutions.
Sometimes software is just too expensive. Nowadays you can find a cloud based solution for just about everything. From CRM software, incident and trouble ticket systems like SugarCRM, to hosted email and collaborative workspaces like Google Apps, the selection low cost, stable and secure cloud based solutions is expanding rapidly. As most of these services charge by the seat, they are easily scalable to meet our user demands. A cloud based solution is likely going to be a better bet than that pricey software package that needs a server to host the application databases. These services are typically available through a web browser and can be accessed from anywhere. This gives you the opportunity for a mobile workforce that can expand your prospective client base and talent pool for new employment opportunities.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Solar Cells Soon to Be Cost Effective Enough For Widespread Adoption
While exploring some of Hulu's videos on the search for informative content, I came across a Program from Australia called Catalyst. Its a science program with focuses on the discovery and scientific breakthroughs. In episode 4 there is a segment on ANU (Australian National University) and their contributions Solar energy. They they developed a method of creating solar panels that are up to eight times more effective at generating energy from the sun than conventional solar panels. In the show they show an experiment with a computer fan. 2 solar panes next to each other are compared. One conventional solar panel and one with sliver technology. The sliver solar panels produce enough electricity to power the fan with 10% total exposure while the conventional solar cell needs up to 90% exposure to produce the same amount of energy. These sliver cells are also flexible and have the potential to be made into a cloth-like material to be work on a short or hat which could charge your smartphone. Also since they are so much more efficient, they can be spread out to make a transparent solar cell. The potential for this type of application is incredible. Office buildings that generate electricity form the sun shining through the windows, A green house that generates the power fuel an aeroponic system while allowing enough light through to grow vegetables that bring to mind visions of high rise urban farming.
Developed by ANU, sliver solar technology was introduced this year that the Intersolar trade show in Germany by Tranform Solar and their Australian partner, Origin Energy. Together they have 2 plants manufacturing these solar panels in the US and Australia. Some people estimate that the emergence of this technology will allow solar energy to finally compete with the cost of coal within the next 3 to 5 years. Right now the return on investment with Soar panels is 20 years. This breakthrough has allowed for the reduction in time needed for the solar cells to pay for themselves to 7 years.
Here's a link to the episode. The solar segment is about 10 minutes in...
Developed by ANU, sliver solar technology was introduced this year that the Intersolar trade show in Germany by Tranform Solar and their Australian partner, Origin Energy. Together they have 2 plants manufacturing these solar panels in the US and Australia. Some people estimate that the emergence of this technology will allow solar energy to finally compete with the cost of coal within the next 3 to 5 years. Right now the return on investment with Soar panels is 20 years. This breakthrough has allowed for the reduction in time needed for the solar cells to pay for themselves to 7 years.
Here's a link to the episode. The solar segment is about 10 minutes in...
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