2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,900 times in 2010. That’s about 5 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 4 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 56 posts. There were 11 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 8mb. That’s about a picture per month.

The busiest day of the year was December 2nd with 27 views. The most popular post that day was Blog Action Day 2009 – A (Blog)World United.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, iont3ch.blogspot.com, blog.si.umich.edu, fienchannel.com, and on9tvseries.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for server farm, server farms, google server farm, is google making us stupid, and google.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Blog Action Day 2009 – A (Blog)World United October 2009
2 comments

2

iRespond: "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" September 2009

3

4 Reasons Why I Think The Gizmodo iPhone Leak Was A Deliberate Setup (Updated x2) April 2010
1 comment

4

U-Discuss: What Would Happen If English No Longer Became The Worldwide Language? (From A Tech Standpoint, Of Course) November 2009
2 comments

5

About Me June 2009

4 Reasons Why I Think The Gizmodo iPhone Leak Was A Deliberate Setup (Updated x2)

Quick intro in case you haven’t heard: On April 19th, Gizmodo put up a post fully dissecting Apple’s next iPhone (except for the software – they couldn’t turn the damn thing on (it was remotely killed by Apple)). Here’s the catch: Apple has never announced any next-gen iPhone yet. It was discovered (on March 18th – one whole month before Gizmodo broke the news) in a Redwood City, California bar disguised as a current iPhone 3GS. It seems that some Apple employee (lets just call him Gray Powell) left it behind, probably doing some field testing,  and was found by a bar patron (who, according to CNet, has been identified by police (UPDATE: His name is Brian J. Hogan). The phone eventually found its way into the sweaty palms of Gizmodo, which ran them a tasty $5000, though at this time it is not clear who exactly sold them the phone (UPDATE: Yes it is – It was the same guy who found it; see link re: Brian J. Hogan).

Last week, news broke that a criminal investigation was under way, and hours later police served a search warrant on the home of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen and seized his computers and other electronic equipment. Some are accusing Apple of launching this entire police operation.

(Want a visual aid for this whole fiasco? Check out an ingenious flow chart created by Fast Company below, after the break!)

Has Apple gotten off their game? Or is this the most brilliant marketing scheme ever devised? Here’s why I think the Apple Marketing team has seriously topped themselves.

(Continued after the break –>)

Tags: apple, gizmodo, iphone, lawsuit, leak

McAfee Windows XP Update Causes Computers To Turn On Themselves

Actually, it is more likely to turn computers OFF.

If you’re a Windows XP user and you are presented with an option today to download an update to McAfee (anti-virus software), do yourself a favor – DON’T. A seemingly routine McAfee update has caused computers running Windows XP to shut down. WORLDWIDE. Since many corporate entities operate on Windows XP, this is going to cause quite the problem. Engadget.com has reported that they know that an Intel facility as well as Dish Network call centers have been affected, but that’s only an initial report.

For the nerds among us, Engadget described the issue as being: “DAT update 5958 deletes the svchost.exe file, which then triggers a false-positive in McAfee itself and sets off a chain of uncontrolled restarts and loss of networking functionality”. Basically – the computer thinks that it is infected when it is not. Sort of like a really bad reaction to a vaccine.

Since the incident has occurred McAfee has (obviously) pulled the faulty update from their site and has released a fix for said update. A fix which only works for those who have not been affected by the bug. Yikes! Even with a fix, a McAfee tech needs to personally attend to each machine affected. Looks like we’re going to be hearing about this one for a while. The day the terminators turned on themselves.

As you would imagine, Twitter is all aflutter, as it always is when something BAD happens. Some cursing McAfee to all kinds of high heaven, others thanking G-d that they have a Mac (like me!).

So, anyone here think this might be a deliberate attack? Or some McAfee tester really screwed up (like messed with the world economy kind of screwed up)? Are we all soon doomed to a computer-less existence (at least an XP-less existence)?

Ads Coming To Twitter – Co-Founder Biz Stone Prepares His Pool For The Money

From day 1, Twitter’s “business model” was split up into two parts: 1) Create a service everyone wants to use. With over 50 million registered users, I would say that part one has been fulfilled. 2) Figure out a way to make money from this service. Starting today, the wheels for fulfilling that goal have been put in motion.

Known as “Promoted Tweets”, this will be Twitter’s foray into actually making money. Since its beginning, Twitter and it’s co-founder Biz Stone have looked into different ways of monetizing the service, without pissing off its users. The model unveiled today, will follow Google’s highly successful ad model: insert ads at the top of the search results page that are related to the term being searched.

As described by Twitter:

“You will start to see Tweets promoted by our partner advertisers called out at the top of some Twitter.com search results pages. We strongly believe that Promoted Tweets should be useful to you. We’ll attempt to measure whether the Tweets resonate with users and stop showing Promoted Tweets that don’t resonate. Promoted Tweets will be clearly labeled as “promoted” when an advertiser is paying, but in every other respect they will first exist as regular Tweets and will be organically sent to the timelines of those who follow a brand.”

(Continued after the break)

Google Nexus One vs. Apple iSlate: POLL

The new decade is already poised to start off in a huge way in the tech world. Google has a press conference scheduled for Monday in which they will be releasing the Nexus One, their first foray into the world of hardware. Some say this is going to be to the first “true” Google phone. Engadget already got their hands on one. Check out their first impressions.

Also, rumors have been at all time high for Apple’s “universe-changing” tablet/ebook/large-iPhone/iSlate(?). Rumors about this device have been around for at least five years, and kind of died down with the release of the iPhone and the iPod Touch. Now some serious sources like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and many others seem to be pretty confident that this “God gadget” will be coming in 2010. Some have even concluded that an Apple event will be held at the end of the month and will focus on the “mobile computing space” (aka a tablet). After waiting years for a touch-screen iPod because of rumors of its release every other week, I now only believe it when I see it. Though this time, with the fever pitch of rumors, I may just believe it before I see it. Just like the iPod changed the music industry this past decade, the Apple tablet may change the print industry over the next decade. The end of the month couldn’t come soon enough. If this “iSlate” actually does come out then, you bet you’ll be hearing from me about it!

So, which of these tech news items gets you excited/hopeful for the coming year/decade? Sound off in the poll after the break!

The Christmas Airline Terror Scare and What It May Mean For Your Tech

On Christmas Day last Friday, the United States experienced its first serious terrorist scare in months. On a plane originating from Yemen, headed to Detroit, Michigan by way of Amsterdam, a man attempted to detonate an explosive device, but fortunately was unsuccessful. You didn’t come here to read international headlines, however, and chances are, you already knew about this. I bring this up because, with every new terror scare/attempt/attack, there are alway new policies put into place, new regulations implemented and new limitations put on travel, all in the hopes of improving our travel safety. These new regulations may have an effect on the technology we hold oh so dear.

Get Under The Table Kids: Comcast Buys NBC and Shakes The Foundations of the Entertainments Industry

How much television do you watch? Now, how much television do you watch on your television? If you’re like me you don’t have time for such pesky things as TV schedules and minutes-long commercial breaks. In this day in age the Internet is king, and the king mandated that we the people shall get some TV whenever we want it.

As of last week, change that mandate from some to all: One the world’s largest cable service providers, Comcast, has bought NBC. You know, NBC! Aka the NATIONAL Broadcasting Company, aka the parent network of CNBC, Bravo and USA (among many others). With this merger, a big, drooling, fire-breathing, Chuck-Norrising, monster, behemoth has been born.

Comcast is the largest ISP (internet service provider) with nearly 20 million subscribers, and NBC, is well, NBC. So what’s so special about this merger? I’ll put it this way: Not only does Comcast not control the tubes that connect us all, they can control what flows through those tubes (in terms of digital entertainment).

Tags: Comcast, deal, entertainment, media, merger, NBC, networks, television, tv

SixthSense – Breaking the Bounds of the Digital Realm

One problem that plagues all tech devices today is the learning curve that one is required to learn in order to use any piece of hardware. Because, honestly, who wants to learn? As humans in the technological revolution, we’ve been bred to skip right on past the manual and teach ourselves how to use any given technology. What is an instruction manual but a complimentary coaster with every purchase?

Enter Pranav Mistry, who plans to do away with instruction manuals and the usual method of “guess-and-check” learning as we know it. His vision, called SixthSense which actually exists but still appears to be in its design phases, fully integrates a wearable computer with your natural hand motions. For example, say you want to take a picture, but you are either to lazy to take out a camera, or you simply don’t have the time to. Simply hold up both of your thumbs and pointer fingers like a director making a frame, and that shot is saved to the hard drive. Want to view, edit and/or email the pictures you took? Find a wall, draw a circle in the air with your fingers and the interface is projected onto the wall, just like that. All of these manipulations are made possible by a small camera that is part of the wearable ensemble. This camera tracks your fingers and interprets their motion as actions. Magic? That’s what it appears to be. But this is the future. Actually, no, wait. This is the present.

SixthSense has nearly limitless applications, including a computer on a piece of paper. Ya, I know, that seems a little beyond ones own imagination. Don’t believe me? See this and other examples of SixthSense in action in the video after the break.

Augmented Reality – There’s Always More To See (Part 3)

You’re probably wondering”Part 3??” What about 1 and 2? I can assure you, they do exist:  here and,  here.

So, now that you’re up to speed, it is finally time for the stunning conclusion of this special segment of augmented reality. And I saved the best for last. After education, tourism, marketing and medicine, it’s time for some augmented garages and video games!

Automotive Repair (The cheater’s DIY)

Sick of having to pay hundreds, maybe even thousands of dollars to take your car into the shop for a simple repair? Too scared to do it yourself? Well does BMW have the thing for you (or your BMW repairman)! They have developed a pair of slick AR glasses (currently just a concept) which would lead the wearer through a step by step process of how to complete the repair task at hand. It’s actually quite nifty, but when you think about, shouldn’t auto mechanics, who these are being developed for, know how to do their job, without a computer leading them each step of the way? I would most certainly hope so. If the computer already knows what the problem is and exactly how to replace it, the only other step would be to connect the computer to a robotic arm. And that’s the easy part (it’s called an “assembly line”). To BMW’s vision, quite literally, of AR in the garage, check out their video.

After the break: AR Video games!

U-Discuss: What Would Happen If English No Longer Became The Worldwide Language? (From A Tech Standpoint, Of Course)

Ya, that’s probably a really big if. Or is it? Not after some recent news out of the ICANN (that’s Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Wait, you didn’t already know that?) that non-Latin characters are now fair game in website domain names. You heard correctly, all of your favorite Russian, Japanese, Greek, Macedonian, and (insert vague rarely used language here) are now usable on the Internet! World peace is now plausible! Cancer can now be cured! World hunger is a thing of the past!

This is great and all, but brought back something I was thinking about during a programming class about a year ago….

(Continued after the break)