Daily Techno-Babble

Just in case you missed it, the latest from the internet radio scene has popular streaming audio service Pandora ready to bow out of the business thanks to a significant rate hike by SoundExchange. Although some claim that Pandora could improve it’s business model through more advertising the real issue at hand is the undeniable attack on streaming media services by SoundExchange. Just like the recent fuss over the throttling of bittorrent traffic by Comcast, this latest attack aims to accomplish one goal; the elimination of “new media” streaming content over the internet. Why you ask? Simple, these new business models are disruptive of traditional media and take control away from the middlemen companies such as SoundExchange and Comcast. Comcast wants to rid it’s own network of any potential competition to it’s own On Demand service while SoundExchange is using high fees to squeeze out competition to both traditional radio broadcasts and satellite services.

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After my recent World of Warcraft security snafu I decided to take a few minutes to address some of the issues most folks have these days trying to keep information out of the hands of online thieves. I was very tempted to write something that basically told everyone to just give up on Windows and use a Macintosh but that’s not always realistic for many folks and just seems to stir up too much negative emotions Ultimately all three of the main computing platforms; Windows, Linux, and Mac suffer from similar online threats so here are four things anyone (including Mac users) can do to improve their own online safety without going to extremes.

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Over the last few months many users of the insanely popular MMORPG World of Warcraft have been reporting more and more incidences of game accounts being compromised at an alarming rate. Even closed accounts have not been spared, making these reports even more disturbing. The typical account hacking usually includes tales of high level characters being stripped of their valuable gear and guild vaults being emptied but typically don’t include any “real world” compromise of billing or other personally identifiable information. Until now. Within the last 24 hours I have been initiated through my own experience with a hacked WOW account into this less-than-gleeful club when persons unknown used a stolen credit card and now Blizzard Entertainment wants to make me pay, all on an account that was not even active when it was compromised! If you have been, or are currently a World of Warcraft subscriber I highly recommend that you remove ANY personal information from your account ASAP. Blizzard insists that 100% of accounts that have been compromised are a result of user’s not taking adequate security precautions but the evidence seems to be pointing towards another explanation.

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If recent comments by Virgin Media CEO as reported by several online media news sites are to be believed then it is disturbingly clear that Virgin’s CEO of Media is a complete idiot. Yup you read that right, an idiot. Clearly he he has no idea what he is talking about with the statement that Virgin (in the UK) would begin to punish public broadcasters (like the BBC) that don’t pay for access to faster bandwidth (required to support online streaming content) by relegating them to what he describes as internet “bus lanes”. Seriously, I honestly cannot believe someone could get to be this high up in a major media company in the year 2008 and make these kind of statements. Idiots like this are why internet users to pay attention to the whole net neutrality issue…or end up losing access to quality services simply because the local cable ISPs don’t like the competition.

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As reported by Engadget (and others) the latest round of industry deals regarding the WiMAX wireless data standard is setting the stage for the next big internet access slugfest. Although WiMAX has yet to really get noticed by the general public there are clear indications that wireless data services such as this are going to be one of the big things this year and not for traditional reasons. Up till now most folks think of wireless as either cell phone data services, home cable or DSL connections (via WiFi 802.11a/b/g) or WiFi hotspot services but with both cable and cell phone providers joining forces this distinction is likely to blur somewhat in the near future. So what does this future look like? Read on….

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If you find yourself out on the road with your digital camera it is likely that you will at some point run out of memory card storage. So what do you do? Well, like most you might just keep your notebook computer close at hand to download your pictures to or you can simply swap out for a fresh memory card. Both of these solutions work well if you are not in a hurry and you don’t mind carrying your laptop with you but what if you don’t want to lug around a heavy laptop and a fistful of memory cards just makes you cringe? Well, thankfully someone has thought up a simple solution to this common problem: an external hard drive that can read common memory card formats! I can’t say enough good things about this concept. When you are out on the road being able to pull out a battery operated hard drive that you can just pop your memory card into to back up your photos is just plain awesome. Big question is; does the SmartDisk 80GB (PB80) stack up? Read on to find out.

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Lately it sure seems like Microsoft is pandering to the misguided notion that they need to counter Google in all markets to the point of total obsession. This has even gotten to the point where they are trying to buy Yahoo in a crazy attempt at forcing themselves into the online software market. They are clearly fixed on the this as being so critical to the company they are showing systemic signs of failing at their own core business. As any reader of this blog already knows I just love to pick on Microsoft for the complete pile of you-know-what that is Windows Vista but that’s not the only thing Microsoft is doing that is starting to get under my skin. This whole “Google” fixation has gone way to far. Here are four reasons why whey need to quit chasing the car and get back to peeing on the hydrants…

Technorati Tags: Apple, google, microsoft, yahoo, Vista, Windows

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After almost two years running my original iRobot Roomba Discovery the poor little guy was starting to look a little worse for wear. iRobot advises that you should clean the brushes and such after no more than three full cleaning cycles, something my Roomba was not always subject to and the results were starting to become apparent. Strange behavior such as random shutdowns and the occasional incident where the battery would run out before it could find the home base led me to consider that it might be time for an upgrade. Cash in hand I settled one of the newer models I found at the local Best Buy. The iRobot Roomba 530 is a complete reworking of the original Roomba design. Featuring several new cleaning tricks and a much improved battery this model looked like just the right excuse to upgrade. Although there was a lot to like about this new Roomba but my experience ended up leaving me with mixed feelings about the Roomba 530 and ultimately led to me returning the unit to Best Buy in defeat.

Technorati Tags: irobot, robot, roomba, vacuum

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Unless you have been under a rock recently you have likely heard of and maybe even implemented some type of virtualization solution. If you have already been down this road already then this post might not help but for those manager types out there who might be considering a virtualization solution in the near future this post talks about some of the most common misconceptions regarding server virtualization and how you can avoid getting into trouble implementing your own virtualization solution.

Technorati Tags: linux, mac, management, data center, virtualization, vmware, Windows

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After reading several interesting posts from the usual suspects regarding the recent studio defections from the HD-DVD camp to Sony’s Blueray format I started thinking about what this means for the average user and came to the quick conclusion that most folks don’t even care. Why? It really just boils down to a lack of demand for what many view as a luxury format that is very likely going to be quickly replaced with pure-play HD downloads over high speed internet connections. Average users just don’t care because DVD still offers high enough quality to satisfy them while HD-DVD or Blueray both look a whole lot like solutions looking for a problem.

Technorati Tags: blueray, HD-DVD, microsoft, DVD, sony

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