Chet Davis - Your Technology Tutor

If a website or email asks, don't press that 'F1' key!

Microsoft has warned about the threat against those using older versions of Windows Operating System on their computer -- notably Windows 2000, Windows-XP and Windows Server 2003-based systems. Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 are not affected.

The other factor in this new threat is using Internet Explorer (the web browser).   The issue is a situation where the cyber attacker takes control of your computer - and is triggered when you follow on-screen instructions from a website, internet dialog box or possibly even an email message that asks you to press Function Key F1. 

The Microsoft Security Research and Defense Blog entry provides detailed information about this potential threat to your computer -- the easiest way to avoid becoming a victim is to refrain from pressing the F1 key and logging out of your Windows session.

Wal-mart Enters Online Entertainment Arena

Wal-Mart, the nations largest retailer,  plans to acquire Vudu, an online video service that offers movies to buy and rent through partnerships with makers of Internet-connected televisions and Blu-ray players.

The fact that Wal-mart has their eyes (and their pocket-book) on Vudu suggests to me they must be doing some things very well, and that Vudu stands poised for a successful future.

One of the primary factors that sets Vudu apart from another streaming video provider - Netflix - is the fact that Vudu is available without a monthly subscription or contract. You can rent or buy high definition and standard definition movies on what is essentially a pay per view system. As they put it "only pay for what you watch".

Ok - but how do you 'get' or access Vudu? There are two methods to access their movies & programs:
1. VUDU is now available built into products from LG and Mitsubishi (DVD players and TV monitors)

2. Or you can use a 'Vudu' box -- they have two models:

• The VUDU box ($149.00) may be purchased at Best Buy

• The VUDU XL model ($499.00), designed for high end home theaters, is available only through our authorized installers.

You can learn more about Vudu from their website:  http://www.vudu.com/

Rods & Mods: Kustom Kulture of Radical Computer Modification

This past Saturday at the Exploratorium - The Museum of Science, Art and Human Perception in San Francisco, I had the opportunity to take in a special exhibit with my sons.  We experienced 'Rods & Mods'.  Now this sounds like an event that happens at a custom car show, where auto restoration experts show off their awesome restored cards... but no, this was a show highlighting the work of experts who have modified computers!

It was actually very cool - there were some true craftsmen displaying their talents and their art.  Believe it or not, this picture at left is a computer! To be specific, it is the 'Decomatic HTPC Series' with plenty of power under the wood-hood and even a DVD drive (note the slot above the large silver knob). This and several beautiful wood designs were displayed by their artist,  Jeffrey 'Slipperyskip' Stephenson - you can visit his website for additional photos and specifications.

Then there were computer modifications built into all sorts of interesting cases... for example, this photo at right shows the 'Battlestar Gallactica' created by Brian Carter of Bods Mods. 

One of my favorites was this early TV by Philco that was converted into a computer (the CPU is in the base) while you view your monitor on the... well, on the monitor which is now in color but still retains that cool early period techno-rounded shape!

In addition there were exhibits of ear-r-r-r-ly computing history like the TRS-80 from Radio Shack, an Osborne 1, a Commodore 64 and a 'TVT-1' This is one of the very first low cost video display system for the computer hacker and experimenter.

You can see this and other early computers at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.

We were on our way out of the Exploratorium, when we saw the commotion and went over to the live stage area -- and this is what we observed...

Experts from Team IRONMODS were performing live demonstration of 'Extreme Overclocking'. This is where you push the physical limits of your computers processor to make it run faster.  Sounds like danger to me -- "don't try this at home kids"

They were getting their computer to perform at amazing powerful speed - which causes common processors to over-heat.  While some would add more fans, or introduce water-cooled apparatus -- these guys were cooling their processors with liquid nitrogen!  This allowed them to display beautiful 3D imagery at high-definition resolution, which was being rendered in real time by their computer. 

Now, this is not something I am going to be providing a tutorial for your to replication but this was very cool to see!

Google Announces the Future of Ultra High-Speed Internet!

News this week from the Google campus in California is exciting for those of us who use the internet for business, for communicating with family & friends, for sharing photos and viewing streaming movies... for pretty much everything and anything.

  We are likely already accustomed to the speed of our internet connection being sometimes slower than we would like -- I think there is this, oh I wish it would hurry up but I can just start the download/streaming video and come back later when it's done.

Google's announcement this week is that they are stepping into the ISP business, and in a fast way (read speedy!). They are planning to build and test ultra high-speed internet broadband networks in a number of areas around the country. 

 The plan is to offer 1 gigabit per second speed using fiber optic connection to your home. To give you a sense of the speed increase we are talking about, think 100 times faster than your current internet connection!  In another way, this speed/service would allow you to download a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes.

This suggests to me that Google has either on the drawing board or already in development a bag of cool applications or improvements to existing applications to take advantage of this higher speed delivery system.

In fact they point to some of the possibilities on their Google Blog:

Next generation apps: We want to see what developers and users can do with ultra high-speeds, whether it's creating new bandwidth-intensive "killer apps" and services, or other uses we can't yet imagine.

Imagine sitting in a rural health clinic, streaming three-dimensional medical imaging over the web and discussing a unique condition with a specialist in New York. Or collaborating with classmates around the world while watching live 3-D video of a university lecture

You can read more about Google's plans and proposals for enhanced, speedy internet service on the Google Blog - click here

U.S. Consumers and Navigation Devices

More people use portable navigation devices (PNDs) than in-dash navigation systems, but users of in-dash systems use their system more often, according to a U.S. consumer survey released by Navteq:  Navigation Study: What's Driving U.S. Consumers

Since getting my iPhone I have used the Map function/s several times to help me find a specific location, find a store and even find my way when I needed to see where the closest freeway on-ramp is while coming back from the airport.  Check this previous post for some thoughts I shared about using the included Maps app on my iPhone.

You may also find some value in this post on the 'iPhonNess' website: http://www.iphoneness.com/iphone-apps/10-cool-navigation-apps-for-iphone/

At the Movies: Avatar - An Interesting Article About the Film & It's Director

When discussing popular movies this month, certainly James Cameron's Avatar is to be in the mix. Just  one month after it's release out, Cameron’s sci-fi adventure has drawn in $450.4 million at the domestic box office. Avatar is now #4 on the all-time domestic box-office chart (not adjusted for inflation or higher 3D/IMAX ticket prices). Alt Film Guide website predicts:  It’ll surely be #3 by Monday, ahead of George Lucas' Stars Wars ($460m). Avatar is currently trailing Stars Wars, The Dark Knight, and Titanic

I was catching up on my reading last evening and read an interesting article in the December 2009 issue of Wired Magazine.  Come to find out that the same article is available online here: James Cameron’s New 3-D Epic Could Change Film Forever (Article authored by By Joshua Davis - no relation to yours truly)

Director James Cameron reviews footage on the Avatar set with (from left) actors
Sigourney Weaver, Joel Moore, and Sam Worthington (Photo: Art Streiber)

Samsung launches Blu-ray and HDTV app store

Many folks have heard of the Apps store that you can download applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  As of January 2010, there are more than 115,000 3-party applications for these portable media devices.

Well, Samsung is launching their own App store for their Blu-ray. Samsung launching an application store for select 2010 Blu-ray players, HDTVs and home theaters.

The website MYCE (My Consumer Electronics) reported earlier this week that "Samsung’s store is an upgrade to its existing Internet@TV platform, which launched last year as a strip of widgets running along the bottom of the television screen. These included Flickr, Yahoo and others. The new app store will include offerings from Accedo Broadband, AccuWeather.com, The Associated Press, Blockbuster, Fashion TV, Netflix, Picasa, Pandora, Rovi, Travel Channel, Twitter, USA TODAY and Vudu. More apps will be added later this year."

You can see several applications running on the Samsung TV above - these will be available from the Samsung Apps store later this year.

Best of CES (Consumer Electronics Show)

The world's largest trade show for consumer technology just wrapped up it's annual showing in Las Vegas, Nevada.  This year the dominant news coming from the city of bright lights is/was 3D Television (or 3D Home-Theater as the industry is calling it)

You have likely seen the articles in your newspaper, seen news clips on TV and/or read news feeds on the internet.  I share today two different sources for you to receive your inoculation of Technology News. 

My favorite, is this concise summary of CES News is from CNET - they provide a nice 22-minute video sharing their awards, their favorites from CES 2010.  After (or instead of) watching the video - scroll down and you'll see the top picks, by category, of CNET CES Awards for new technology.  Click here to check out the CNET CES Page

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Now, if you wanted to see/learn about everything that showed at the 2010 CES, you would head over to Engadget.  They were named the official blog-partner of the the group that sponsors/puts on CES every year, the CEA (Consumer Electronics Assoc.).

Visit the CES section of the massive Engadget technology/gadget blog site here http://www.engadget.com/ces and you can scroll through copious quantities of technology reviews that were straight from the floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

It is helpful that you can view their posts by day (the show ran Tuesday through Saturday) or use the Engadget search tab at the top of the page to read something specific by manufacturer or gadget.

The Mother of all Technology Demonstrations

I think today's article is a great way to close out a year -- by looking back at a fundamental piece of our technological past.

Last week I ran an article highlighting another blogger's 'history of the internet'. A comment inquired why she had not included any mention of what has been called the 'mother of all demos'.

This refers to a public demonstration made in 1968 by a group of technologists at Stanford Research Institute in California. In their 90-minute demonstration the world got their first view of the (computer) mouse, hypertext (which was the impetus for the way your internet browser sees other computers' pages), and more. 

It is very dated but it is an amazing piece of technology history and it is captured on film and is online for us all to view.  If you ponder that this was a little more than 30 years ago it is pretty amazing the advances we have made (and the genius behind these technologies).

From the host website:  The original 100-minute video of this event is part of the Engelbart Collection in Special Collections of Stanford University. This original video has been edited into 35 segments and reformatted as Flash streaming video clips. There is a brief abstract of the subject matter treated in each segment.

You can check out this bit of history here: Doug Engelbart 1968 Demo

Your Most Important Software: Your Web Browser?

By Chet Davis

I read a good article on the Official Google Blog recently that caused me to think about the most important software on our computer/s.  And as Jeffrey Chang, Associate Product Manager, Google Chrome Team and other on-line authors put it... this may very well be your web browser.

It is the web browser that is your conduit, your gateway, your toolbox that allows and facilitates your passage and travel on and around the internet.  And with all the recent developments in on-line tools like the Browser based email, computing in the 'cloud' (Google Apps), On-line Photo Editing & Sharing as well as the growing concern over data and identity security it is perhaps more important than ever to have a updated web browser.


As Jeffrey Chang mentions in his article: "Most browsers have released major updates over the past year, and to ensure your family is getting the most speed and security out of their web experience, you can help your family upgrade to the latest version of Google Chrome, Firefox 3.5, Opera 10, Safari 4, or Internet Explorer 8 — just to name a few modern browsers."

Mozilla Firefox remains my preferred browser -- but I have friends and colleagues who prefer IE (Internet Explorer) and my wife uses Safari.  A few friends have started using Google Chrome as well.

You can read more about the current round of web browser software on this page published by Top Ten Reviews: Internet Browser Software Review
They provide a nice summary and a thorough checklist for the features and benefits available in the most common web browsers.