Image via Wikipedia

I’m not sure how Solve for X forum would be able to encourage and arrange the average folks who just happen to have brilliant ideas to come together and discuss the stuffs of fantasies that might just fly in real world, but as Steve Jobs’ Apple commercial “Think Different” has been promoting that the crazy ones might be just the kind of people that would positively change the world.  Solve for X is a project which Google has been working on.  Just now Google has released Solve for X’s website and videos.  The website is at wesolveforx.com.  The video right after the break introduces you to Google’s Solve for X project.

Perhaps, Google’s Solve for X might only reach out to the people who may have brilliant ideas to come together and promote what might change the world.  For an example, the X might be something down to earth as finding clean water for the poorest nations to something up in space as in starting a space voyage for humankind.  You never know!  Nonetheless, I don’t know for sure how different Solve for X might be if one compares it against TED.

I hope Solve for X would allow the average folks as your next door neighbor (or even yourself) to participate in the project somehow.  You never know someone out there, perhaps your next door neighbor or even yourself might just happen to have crazy idea that might change the world in a very big way!  Nonetheless, it seems Solve for X does include average folks in its equation somewhat as it allows you to post your own Solve for X talks using Google Plus.  In truth, I haven’t tried to do such a thing, therefore I don’t even know how one would be able to use Google Plus to start a Solve for X talk!  Do you?

Source:  http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/02/06/2237259/google-solve-for-x-website-goes-live?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign
=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29

Related articles

• Google’s mysterious lab surfacing in WeSolveForX? (digitaltrends.com)
• Google’s We Solve for X: a lecture series aimed at solving global problems (geek.com)
• Google Launching TED-Style Think Tank With ‘Solve For X’ (simplyzesty.com)
• Google ‘Solve For X’ Website Goes Live (tech.slashdot.org)
• Google Unveils New ‘Solve for X’ Project (techland.time.com)
• Google shooting for solving the impossible with its “Solve for X” project (inquisitr.com)
• Google Launches ‘Solve for X,’ Think Tank for Fixing Global Problems [VIDEO] (mashable.com)
• Solve for X: Google gathers top minds to solve everything (zdnet.com)
• Google Unveils ‘Secret Lab’ For Radical Ideas (informationweek.com)
• Google Forms ‘Solve For X’ Think Tank (myfoxphoenix.com)

Image by Aray Chen via Flickr

Forbes’ The Real Reasons Google Killed SOPA/PIPA article suggests Google is the biggest pirate ever.  So, they claim Google copies the whole Internet.  This is so incorrect!  Google is merely a GPS for the web!  If you want to go somewhere on the Internet, you don’t really have to use Google.  Nonetheless, if you’re really lost, you might need Google to point the way to the right destination.  We call this Google Search.  How about Bing?  Bing is doing the same thing!

OK, so you might argue that Google Reader is copying the entire contents of all online news websites, but you’re so wrong!  Google Reader is only using RSS technology where these news websites are actually voluntarily pushing out their news feeds through RSS technology.  If they don’t want countless Google Reader users to be able to find their news feeds, then they should stop using RSS technology.  It’s just that simple, really!

Now, if you’re still bitter and trying to point out to all of us that YouTube is the biggest pirate of them all.  Then you are probably trying to condemn millions of YouTube users for piracy!  In the reality, YouTube users are creating and pushing their own contents onto YouTube.  User generated contents are not pirate-like contents!  Plus, I might be wrong but I think fair use law allows YouTube users to use certain copyrighted contents within certain limitations without the requirement of acquiring permissions from the copyright holders.  In this context, YouTube users aren’t doing anything wrong.  Of course, there always will be some bad apples among many other apples that reside in the same bucket of apples, and so some YouTube users might be brazenly uploaded copyright materials that are outright infringing on the rights of copyright holders.  Nonetheless, in such cases YouTube usually takes these contents down in a timely manner.

Don’t get me going on why Google Plus isn’t wrong!  Just take a look at Facebook, and you know why Google Plus isn’t wrong!  If you think Google Plus is wrong, then Facebook is just as guilty as Google!  While at it, why don’t you condemn hundred millions of Facebook users and then millions more of Google Plus users too on being pirates?  You see, it’s you against the whole world.  Google, Facebook, and the rest of the major players on the Internet are possible, because the whole world is using them!  In a sense, the whole world is being condemned by you when you say Google is the biggest pirate!  I can rant on, but I rest my case.  It’s so obvious that I think it’s rather mind boggling and pointless and idiotic that I have to even try to defend Google when Google clearly does not even need me to do so.  Nonetheless, common sense makes me do so!

Personal Note:

• I did not mention other Google services since Google has a huge list of FREE services that would add pages to my single blog post.
• Hundred millions of users are obviously being so beneficial to have being able to use Google services freely without being charged for any fee!  
• Not only Google Search, but Google Gmail is so necessary.  I know, because I use Gmail everyday!
• Google Adsense and Adwords are perfectly making sense!  If someone thinks Google is doing something wrong by placing ads on their search engine, then I think such a person isn’t making sense.  It’s like somebody tries to tell you how you should decorate your own house!  
• It’s also making sense that Google has to make money to keep pushing out useful, free services.  
• It’s OK for the whole Internet to display ads! 

Related articles

• YouTube soars past 4 billion daily video views (news.cnet.com)
• How to upload a video to YouTube (marketing.yell.com)
• YouTube Streams 4 Billion Videos Every Day (escapistmagazine.com)
• YouTube’s Reach Begins to Eclipse Television (readwriteweb.com)
• YouTube hits 4 billion daily video views (ibnlive.in.com)
• YouTube – One Hour Per Second (adverblog.com)
• Social Media Digest: Foursquare Search, YouTube Growth and FB Apps (umpf.co.uk)
• News in Brief: One more thing: today’s other news (techradar.com)
• YouTube Gets Way More Social With Facebook, Google+ Integration (hubspot.com)
• Each day, 4 billion online videos streamed via YouTube (9to5google.com)

Image Copyright By Vinh Nguyen

PC BSD 9 just came out.  Users who want to install PC BSD 9 as a VirtualBox guest virtual machine might not know how to install VirtualBox guest additions.  Well, this post is going to show you how to do just that!  Before we get going, you must know that you have to obtain Ports Collection.  Usually, you can obtain Ports Collection by allowing the installation of PC BSD 9 to automatically do that for you.  If you haven’t done so, then you must look up through Google for how to manually obtain Ports Collection for PC BSD 9.

You should open up a terminal and become root.

1. Type the command [cd /usr/ports/emulators/virtualbox-ose-additions && make install clean]
2. Type the command [nano /etc/rc.conf]
3. Add the two lines below into /etc/rc.conf file
   1. vboxguest_enable=”YES”
   2. vboxservice_enable=”YES”
4. Use Ctrl+X  to save the file and exit nano editor
5. Open up PCBSD Control Panel
6. Open up Display
7. Choose General tab.  Make sure you choose the new video driver as vboxvideo.  Pick the right screen resolution.  Choose Advanced tab and check the box that says Monitor Settings.  Click Apply to save everything.

When your machine is done with its rebooting, you should now be able to see PC BSD 9 enters the correct screen resolution by using VirtualBox guest additions.  Also, if you still see a problem, I think you should use right Ctrl + F to enter fullscreen mode, and if fullscreen mode is at the right screen resolution, then you know VirtualBox guest additions is working for PC BSD 9.

Lastly, you should learn how to use Ports Collection to install additional software that PC BSD 9′s AppCafe might not carry.  Of course, you can always use AppCafe to install whatever is available inside AppCafe.

PC BSD 9 enables firewall by default.  Nonetheless, you should go into PCBSD Control Panel > Firewall Manager and configure it to your own liking.  Make sure you do not allow any incoming connection even though some incoming connections might be enabled by default under the Exceptions tab.  Well, that was how it was done by me.  You might do it differently with your firewall!

I can go on forever, but this post is specifically addressing the installation of VirtualBox guest additions for PC BSD 9 VirtualBox guest virtual machine.  So, let me end this here, and good luck to you in installing guest additions for PC BSD 9 under VirtualBox.

Source:  http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/virtualization-guest.html

Related articles

• PC-BSD 9.0 Release (bsd.slashdot.org)
• iXsystems Announces Release of PC-BSD 9.0 Isotope Edition (prweb.com)
• VirtualBox Not Exactly What I Need (velkrokronicles.wordpress.com)
• FreeBSD Takes The Wraps Off 9.0 (ostatic.com)
• VirtualBox 4.1.8 brings fixes for 3D support (h-online.com)

Image via Wikipedia

WordPress is a gigantic free blog service which allows roughly around 60 millions of people to blog freely.  According to TheNextWeb.com, WordPress has announced that it is against SOPA and PIPA.  WordPress even encourages its members to take actions against SOPA.  Perhaps, by that WordPress means its members should contact local representatives and state senators?  I don’t know much about PIPA, but I’d written extensively on how I’m against SOPA in previous blog posts of mine.  Anyhow, WordPress is truly huge, and with WordPress encourages its users to make a stance against SOPA, we can somewhat feel the movement against SOPA keeps on growing stronger.

Reddit is another popular web service which declares that they will shut down their web service for 12 hours just to protest against SOPA.  The Reddit website will go dark on January 18 from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM.  For your information, Reddit allows people to collectively and socially discuss, submit, and vote on headlines that they feel most important to them.

Some people suggest that to make SOPA truly dead, Google and Facebook must too support Reddit by going dark and placing links on members’ profiles to encourage members to contact their local representatives and state senators to protest against SOPA.  I think these people are making sense, because Google and Facebook are so popular that the protests from these two companies might create a real backlash against SOPA, putting a stop to SOPA effectively.  Obviously, Google and Facebook might lose a lot of money by just shutting down their websites for 12 hours.

I hope more people will speak up against SOPA!  WordPress users who support to put a stop to SOPA should write blogs to inform their blog readers why SOPA is downright ugly for the Internet.  You might not know, but EssayBoard is using WordPress, and now is even more proud of WordPress since WordPress has made a stance against SOPA.  WordPress is awesome!  For your information, besides providing free blog service, WordPress also provides free blogging software which you can download and install onto your web servers freely.

Sources:

• http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/01/10/wordpress-asks-its-60-million-users-to-help-stop-sopa-and-pipa/
• http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2012/01/11/reddits-sopa-blackout-admirable-but-google-and-facebook-must-follow/
• http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2012/01/reddit-gets-ready-go-dark-protest-sopa/47251/

Related articles

• Reddit will enact ‘nuclear option’ to protest SOPA, PIPA (zdnet.com)
• Reblogged: WordPress asks its 60 million users to help stop SOPA and PIPA (zemantified.wordpress.com)
• WordPress asks its 60 million users to help stop SOPA and PIPA (thenextweb.com)
• WordPress The Latest Tech Company To Come Out Strongly Against SOPA/PIPA (techdirt.com)
• Stop SOPA, help the internet. (yoast.com)
• WordPress Speaks Out Against SOPA (liquidmatrix.org)
• Reddit Plans 12-Hour Blackout To Protest SOPA And PIPA (forbes.com)
• Help Stop SOPA/PIPA (wp-cron.com)
• WordPress release on SOPA/PIPA (11/01/2012) (poethead.wordpress.com)
• Help Stop SOPA/PIPA (wordpress.org)
• Reddit confirms 12-hour blackout on January 18th to protest SOPA (100gf.wordpress.com)
• Reddit to Protest SOPA, Site Will Go Dark on January 18th (inquisitr.com)
• Going dark for SOPA (hyperorg.com)
• In Protest of SOPA and PIPA, REDDIT Plans 12-hour blackout Jan. 18th (pumabydesign001.com)
• WordPress is Best (rsmithing.com)
• WordPress Throws a Lifeline to Abandoned Splinder.com Bloggers (readwriteweb.com)
• Making Sweet Music with WordPress 3.3 (firstrate.co.nz)

Image via Wikipedia

I don’t know by now if SOPA has already become a household word yet or not, but I think it should have been so.  Nonetheless, not everyone cares what is SOPA since the Internet has always been huge and the word SOPA has yet to deal real damages against their frequent Internet activities.  Of course, SOPA is subtle and so it’s obvious that not everyone would make a big deal out of stomping SOPA at its inception.  Nonetheless, SOPA is a word which ties to a bill which might be passed and affected the Internet as a whole on many levels when not enough bodies scrutinize what will go into the bill.  So, it’s for certain that SOPA is not a word to be jokingly threw around, but it will be threw around nonetheless for whatever purposes there will be.

With SOPA makes headlines as often as it has been, perhaps enough eyeballs and brains are coming to an understanding that it’s something important enough to be addressed and publicized.  Publicizing it enough so even people who have no idea how SOPA would affect them might come to a small degree of understanding that SOPA may create unintentional negative consequences for the general population who regularly visit the Internet for whatever purposes.  Furthermore, some people may come to understand once SOPA becomes law, SOPA will have a high potential in encouraging even more new rules and regulations that have nothing to do with common sense, relatively speaking in regarding to the Internet.  Instead, such rules and regulations might exist so someone would be able to quickly plug each loophole there is one at a time, in regarding to their specific bottom line.

I have an analogy to why SOPA can create a chain reaction of negative consequences, and eventually the chain reaction gets so bad that it might break the Internet altogether.  This analogy would be someone found a leak on a boat made out of wood, and this boat found itself in the middle of the vast ocean.  He or she thought it was a good idea just to have someone quickly stomped on the leaky hole for now.  Eventually, such a measure would not help and so more able bodies had to scoop the rising water out of the boat.  Finally, it was obvious to the captain of the boat that one action which supposed to solve the problem was not really the solution, but it had created a chain reaction of negative consequences which led to an eventual, unsolvable problem at the end.  The boat would sink to the bottom of the deep blue ocean.  The ocean was nice, but the passengers on a sinking boat had not such a notion since they were on the way down to their deaths.

Without enough voices that would speak out against something as SOPA, I think the Internet might not be able to thrive for the small people.  Remember this, the small people are the majority of the Internet users.  Understandably, no matter how noble the purposes that justify the naive existence of a thriving Internet, the Internet will always be a commodity.  Then again, who to say the Internet should only be a commodity but not some other meaningful means that could be really useful and convenient for the small people (i.e., the majority users of the Internet).  After all, without these small people who have been eagerly found themselves to be attracted to the Internet as bees to honey, there won’t be much of the Internet anyway.  Without the worker bees, there won’t be much of a beehive anyway, and the queen bee would not be able to matter much since the population of the bees is basically about to be wiped.  I think a smaller, less interesting, heavy regulated, and insensitive toward small people Internet might not be a hot commodity in the end.

Some people might argue that it’s fine to go back to the old ways of doing things. Unfortunately, once you let the genie out of the bottle, it would be almost impossible to have the genie back inside the bottle.  Majority of people might just go on creating their new little pockets of Internets and circumventing the heavy censored Internet anyway.  Little pockets of new Internets would spring into existences, but none would be better than the original Internet.  Perhaps, things would move forward, but things pertain to the Internets would go on to be scattered, and nothing good would come about to have many disconnected Internets.  Or I could be wrong and good things might come about to have many disconnected Internets for the small people, but the big people might have the worst time in trying to regulate many more disconnected Internets.  Things get expensive for the regulators, and nothing would have stopped the small people from enjoying getting together through the means of Internets.  I can be very wrong though, because such Internets have yet to exist, and I’m just speculating.

Cory Doctorow is one of those people who think SOPA and other insensitive DRMs might not address the problems but might bring about even bigger problems in the end.  It could be that I misunderstood him, but I thought he insinuated the idea of having DRMs for contents would have similar eventual consequence to how the authorities went about the war on drugs, it would go on unending.  Nonetheless, he also pointed out the future of general purpose computer and the free as now Internet might not be viewed in the same category as war on drugs, because these things we care about aren’t the fixes for getting the next bigger, better high; instead, these things are excellent at bringing people together for whatever purposes, and nothing which came before now was able to do the same.  Therefore, we might not want to view waging wars against insensitive Internet censorships that have had many gripes against small people (i.e., the majority users of the Internet) as to how we have viewed the war on drugs.  Check out Cory Doctorow’s speech right after the break.

Source:  http://boingboing.net/2011/12/27/the-coming-war-on-general-purp.html

Burning of three witches in Baden, Switzerland (1585), by Johann Jakob Wick. Image from Wikipedia.

I’m a small shrimp in the ocean of sharks.  Yet, I still think SOPA isn’t the solution.  I fear SOPA might encourage witch-hunts.  What witch-hunts?  Don’t freak out, I’m not talking about burning real witches.  I’m talking about having SOPA witch-hunts.  Furthermore, SOPA might have the Internet Service Providers add more things onto their already super long todo lists, consequently making them unable to be productive and competitive.  What about the lawyers?  Lawyers might have a field day when SOPA is becoming law, because they might have less time to doodle but more time to make sure SOPA is SOPA or isn’t SOPA.  I can already hear a lawyer says, ” SOPA sounds like kaching (i.e., sound of a cash register) to me.”  What makes it more clear that SOPA isn’t a solution, because affected websites can just switch to DNS servers that are outside of the United States’ jurisdiction (i.e., as in oversea), avoiding the SOPA effect easily.  Then there is the feeling that DNS business might be outsourced to foreign countries, because DNS servers within United States suddenly feel like so SOPA.

I think SOPA might look good, but in reality it can be devastating and holding back innovations.  If not for big corporations holding back innovations through patents, we might already have our brave human fellows travel on USS Enterprise, exploring the galaxies.  Perhaps, we even have electric cars however many years early if corporations aren’t so fonded with oil and patents.  Yes, I know, the tiredness of the what if jokes!  But what if the what if jokes aren’t jokes?

SOPA does feel eerily to be similar to whatever rules and regulations that govern patents to me, because it might curb innovations.  I feel innovations should be encouraged fairly, and by this I mean big and small companies alike should have a shot at being innovative.  As we have seen where patents are heading, only big corporations would have billions of dollars to acquire patents and use these patents to sue everyone else that might not really infringe on such patents, but of course such patent cases have to be settled somehow, and usually the situations come down to settling out of courts for huge amount of money.  Only when things cannot be settled out of courts, then let the court battles begin.

I don’t think small businesses even have the money and time to worry about patents and SOPA, because they are trying to hire more people and expanding their businesses.  SOPA curbs innovations from small businesses, because big corporations might have more influences on how things should turn out.  With great money comes great responsibility!  No, let me rephrase this, with great money comes great power!  Oh boy, sorry for the inconvenience, let me rephrase this again, with great power comes great innovations.  Fine, let me backtrack a bit, with great money comes great power, therefore big corporations can use SOPA to favor their agenda, right?  I fear there will be little scrutiny of the SOPA violations but the alleged SOPA violators (i.e., relatively speaking of small businesses) might be out of business in a flash, as in websites are going to be shut down immediately at DNS level (i.e., revenue streams of such websites will be completely cutoff).

Ironically, even big corporations might feel SOPA is a pain if they are the ones who are being sued.  It turns out SOPA works both ways, like a knife with both edges being sharped.  Nonetheless, big corporations have the money and power to fight off SOPA easier than small businesses.  Plus, they don’t have to get into a panic mode and outright shut down their businesses for a SOPA case, because they are going to fight for their businesses with all their might, knowing they have a chance to make SOPA favors them even though SOPA is clearly at their throats.  When facing SOPA, I think small businesses might just as well close their doors and not doing business.  Why fight in courts when SOPA could or might make them even more broke, right?  So, once again, SOPA favors big businesses!  Is this fair?  I don’t think so.

Not only small businesses might face dire circumstances when facing SOPA, but customers and Internet users might face their own SOPA dire circumstances as well.  Customers most of the time are likely the Internet users themselves, and in this aspect we relatively combine customers and Internet users as one.  (Let not talk about customers as a business is a customer of another business, because it’s about something else entirely, and it’s not relating to the case I’m trying to make.)  When a customer comes to YouTube, he or she wants to see user generated contents and some professional contents, but more likely they will be bombarded with user generated contents; this is happening, because Internet is rather freer than not.  Now, imagine one weird user generated content gets call out, and SOPA might block the whole YouTube.

Of course, YouTube is belonging to a big corporation which is Google, and so Google will have the power, the means, and the money to argue against SOPA.  Nonetheless, even Google might not prevail and customers might no longer have something as useful as YouTube.  When SOPA claims victory, YouTube and other similar services might end up biting the dust.  Of course, this scenario might be too extreme, because when SOPA becomes law, YouTube might no longer be the same YouTube as Google has to make sure their original YouTube got to be sane with SOPA.  Shall we say user generated contents might be scrutinized evermore closely by Google?  Then again, it’s only the figment of my imagination, because SOPA isn’t law yet.  If SOPA isn’t law yet, then we cannot know how YouTube will behave unless you are the one who is directing Google’s YouTube.

Does this mean we just care not for SOPA, therefore piracy will forever rampage our Internet?  Yes, we should care not for SOPA, but we should care for stopping piracy at everywhere, whether that be on the Internet or off the Internet.  SOPA isn’t the solution since SOPA can be worked around easily by using DNS servers from oversea.  SOPA isn’t the solution since I hear that its language is too broad.  If SOPA’s language is too broad, it might dictate things that can affect not only the pirates but the innocents on the Internet as well.  I don’t think the majority is supporting piracy!  If SOPA’s language is too specific, it will not work, because it will not be able to justify when big corporations can just slowly comply to SOPA and stays in business while small businesses have to close doors immediately.  If small businesses can also slowly comply to SOPA, will big businesses favor SOPA still?

I know my understanding of SOPA is rather flaky, because my indirect knowledge of SOPA are from what I’d read online.  Nonetheless, if I’m wrong, then I have to admit I’m shortsighted.  Now, if I’m right, then SOPA might be very damaging to the whole old faithful structure of the Internet.  I believe the current Internet model isn’t bad.  In fact, I believe big corporations don’t need SOPA, but they need to only change their business ideas.  Steve Jobs knew this, because he had helped music labels stayed in business through iTunes store.  You can disagree with me, but you might change your mind if you read more on how Steve Jobs had convinced many players in the music industry to work with him to make iTunes store worked, and in return Steve Jobs had made some players in the music industry very happy in term of revenues.  If the music industry isn’t happy with iTunes store, how come they are so eager to sell their music on iTunes still?  It turns out that people might prefer buying music on iTunes store than pirating, because the quality for the music from iTunes store is simply better.  Let me put this in another way, an alcoholic cannot quit being an alcoholic unless he or she tells oneself to quit, but nobody else can!  SOPA cannot block a person from pirating or running a website with pirated contents, because he or she or an entity can simply use DNS servers from places that are outside of the United States’ jurisdiction.

You can argue that United States can make SOPA works by asking other countries to comply.  In my opinion, if United States asks nicely, only the countries that are aligning with United States’ agenda on SOPA will comply right away, but other countries will not.  Now, if United States forces other countries to comply on SOPA, the whole SOPA thing can only make the United States looks like an international bully.  For SOPA, is it worth it?

I fear SOPA might do its job too well that more people might find their computers infect by computer viruses!  How?  When web hosting companies and DNS service providers within the United States deny providing DNS service to some businesses to comply with SOPA, such businesses might use not so friendly DNS service from not so friendly DNS service providers, consequently helping the spread of the computer viruses, trojans, and malware.  It’s not like rouge DNS servers will spread computer viruses, but it’s more of rouge DNS servers might be hacked easier, consequently directing web traffics to dangerous web addresses.  Such dangerous web destinations might carry computer viruses, trojans, and malware.

You can argue that rouge DNS servers might have high security measures as how DNS servers that are being run within the United States, therefore we cannot assume rouge DNS servers might be easily hacked and redirected people to dangerous web addresses, consequently having people’s computers infected with computer viruses, trojans, and malware.  I don’t see anything wrong with such an argument.  In fact, I do think you are right on the money.  I do fear though when SOPA forces website owners to use rouge DNS servers, they might not have enough time to do a careful planning on picking the right DNS service providers oversea, and by rushing into picking DNS service providers oversea so their websites can get back online faster, website owners might sign up with bad DNS service providers, consequently allowing their websites to be subjected to DNS server hacks.  Evil doers might also take the chance of seeing some websites shut down by SOPA and reopen such websites with pirated contents but with different domain names, using DNS servers outside of the United States’ jurisdiction.  Customers (i.e., Internet users) might not know better and eager to download pirated contents without knowing what they download might infect their computers with computer viruses.

In summary, I think SOPA isn’t a right solution for stopping online piracy.  In fact, I think the right solution for businesses to stop online piracy is providing something which pirating cannot best.  For an example, by providing higher quality contents at affordable prices, this can effectively mitigate people from pirating since pirated contents tend to be poor in quality.  For whoever think SOPA is the solution to online piracy, don’t you fear the Internet, the engine which plays a big part in stimulating our current economy, might break down or become less attractive to innovations?  If you know something that I don’t on SOPA, please do tell.  If you’re supporting SOPA, let just hope you aren’t wrong by supporting SOPA so our Internet future will continue to shine for years to come.  Honestly, I just hope there are more people who want to have a more open and freer Internet so innovations can continue to spawn like crazy.

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• SOPA: a great example of failing to know your enemy…or your friends (securityskeptic.typepad.com)
• Firefox Add On Desopa Kills The Sopa Bill For Banning Internet DNS Blocking (newsworldwide.wordpress.com)
• Technical Comments on Mandated DNS Filtering Requirements of H. R. 3261 (“SOPA”) (circleid.com)
• SOPA Hearing Delayed Until Early 2012 (gadget.com)
• How SOPA’s ‘circumvention’ ban could put a target on Tor (news.cnet.com)
• Official list of SOPA supporters includes the X-Men, bible publishers & country music (venturebeat.com)
• Killing the Internet to save Hollywood – New York Post (nypost.com)
• SOPA Markup Delayed Again, DeSopa Firefox Extension Circumvents Censorship (blippitt.com)

Image via Wikipedia

PCWorld‘s article “What You Need to Know About Your Klout” introduces me to Klout, and I’ve to say I like Klout already.  Klout is unique!  Instead of copying Quantcast and Alexa, Klout isn’t aiming to gauge how popular a website has been, but it’s aiming to collect, analyze, and project how influential a person has been in the digital world.  Klout claims that it might even help an influential person in the digital world to be acknowledged by the real world, consequently such a person might be able to create a certain credibility in the real world such as in a new job.  Klout helps connect people who have high Klout scores with brands, and by doing this brands can give out perks to Klout participants such as trying out free products or getting invitations to events.

Like it or not, if you are participating the social network trend such as using Facebook, you probably have shared more things about you than you really would have loved to.  Yes, it’s a dangerous thing to share so much about yourself with strangers and friends you barely know on the web, but some people love it.  Some people might have more than one social network account, but others who only have one.  Some people use all sorts of nicknames for different social networks, but others who would just use one Internet identity for all of their social network accounts.  In my opinion, Klout might light a torch so it can shine on certain people who are being neglected by the majority of the social networks, and these people have to have the love and the will to share more of themselves to the digital world.

How might Klout help light a torch for some people?  Well, Klout is trying to analyze the social network data, connect the dots, and measure the social actions of the Klout participants; Klout tells the worlds (i.e., digital or not) who these people are.  By analyzing lot of social network data and connecting the social network graphs of Klout participants, Klout can get clearer pictures of certain people in regarding to their social network influences.  Perhaps, Klout will eventually become a standard measure of someone’s social network influences, and we know nowadays this often means something in the real world too.  People can get fire from their jobs for what they represent themselves on social networks.

Did you know that a person’s Klout score can shrink if he or she fails to influence their social networks in some ways over a period of time?  I don’t know what sorts of algorithms Klout uses to measure one’s true influence among the social networks, but it seems Klout is seriously going about doing it.  If Klout is sophisticated enough, I think Klout does have a chance to influence how people come to trust one another through Klout measurements.  Will this be a good thing if people begin to trust one another through Klout measurements?  I don’t know, but as long Klout isn’t easy to be gamed, then Klout should be a reference point for someone to make a rough assumption on the person he or she wants to share or follow or connect with.  Still, Klout itself has to carry out high standard for privacy and do no evil behavior in order for itself to be taken seriously by everyone.  So, Klout, you should do no evil, OK?

I read Klout Privacy, and it seems Klout won’t share your data with anyone unless you give a consent to do so.  Of course we can never be sure about an honest claim of any entity in regarding to do no harm but only good, but if you like you can take Klout at their word.  Klout claims that if a perk involves in delivering good, Klout will send such a good to your address but will not sell your address to anyone.  Klout won’t gather and analyze your private data unless you give a consent to do so.  Of course, without your consent to analyze and connect your private data, Klout won’t be able to be as accurate as it can be about your social network influences.  Still, I think Klout could be effective on measuring your social network influences without the need of accessing your private data.

I like Klout since it’s trying to do something unique as in measuring one’s social network influences.  Still, Klout might not be a good idea for people who loath social networks for obvious reasons.  Some people might depend on Klout to get somewhere in life if Klout earns real clout in both digital and real worlds.  This means Klout itself has to hold itself to a very high standard of trust.  Do you Klout?

Source:  http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/246435/
what_you_need_to_know_about_your_klout.html#tk.rss_news

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Once you got all the elements in place, it is easy as pie to locate your missing iOS devices virtually; you can then remote wipe your iOS devices if you feel your data are at risk, remote lock your iOS devices if you think some stupid thieves won’t be able to hack your easy passcodes.  How about remote lock first and then keep sending remote sounds and messages to annoy the thieves?  Remote wipe your iOS devices with Find iPhone app will prevent you from locating your iOS devices virtually.

Once log into the Find iPhone app, you can actually see the physical addresses on Google map that your iOS devices currently reside.  In the case of stolen iOS devices, you obviously have the knowledge of where your devices are on Google map.

Smart thieves definitely are going to delete Find iPhone app in case you try to locate them with your iOS devices.  Of course, they can’t do so if you have strong passcodes that lock your iOS devices from prying eyes.  Even though the app is known as Find iPhone, it actually works for all iOS devices.  This means if you install Find iPhone iPad app on your iPad, you will be able to locate your iPhone with your iPad (make sure the iPhone does have Find iPhone app installed, or else it won’t work).  To find your iPad, you need to install Find iPhone app on iPad and on iPhone, then use your iPhone to find your iPad in seconds.

I think this app is using the Internet and some sort of GPS capability, therefore the distances between iOS devices might not matter much.  If it’s in fact just that, no matter where the thieves who stole your iOS devices currently hide, as long they won’t be able to delete the Find iPhone app on the iOS devices, you will be able to sneak up on them and demand your iOS devices back.  Of course, don’t fight them if they have more than just iOS devices in their hands, OK?  Call the police instead!

To see if Find iPhone app actually does work for you, try sending a sound and text message to an iOS device.  You can also try unlocking an iOS device first, then using the remote lock feature of Find iPhone on another iOS device to see if the feature does actually lock the targeted iOS device.  Don’t use the remote wipe feature just yet, because once testing this feature out, you actually really wipe all your data on an iOS device, therefore this feature is for an emergency usage only and not for testing purpose.  So, you have been warned!

You do have to know your Apple ID and password before you can log into Find iPhone app and use it.  If you haven’t had an Apple account, you definitely have to sign up for one before this app can be any used to you.

In summary, with Find iPhone app installed on all of my iOS devices, I think I’m a tad safer in term of protecting my data.  At least, I know it’s easy as pie to locate my iOS devices and remote wipe or remote lock them.  You should try this app out to protect whatever important data you have on your iOS devices.  Have fun with it!

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Image by Brian Sawyer via Flickr

The first five million or so customers now have their new Kindle Fire from Amazon. Over half of those have already played with their new gadget while the rest are being gift wrapped for Christmas. Will those people wish for an iPad instead?

Although people keep comparing them, the two are not really related enough to be an either/or purchase, but the price of the Kindle brings the tablet within the financial reach of most.

The Fire is going to set many people’s Christmas alight, but it’s what the computer doesn’t do that will disappoint so many.

Where’s the Fire’s Camera?

The recipient of your gift will want to know where the camera is. Sorry folks, there isn’t one. You might want to Skype with your new toy, but you will have to wait for the next model. The lack of a camera shouldn’t stop the purchase as everyone has a phone with a camera.

The iPad isn’t really set for camera work, either, though at least it has one. The megapixels are too low for good photography, but they will be enough to take some simple photographs if all you want to do is email them to friends or post on your favorite social media site.

All iPad owners will need a separate iPhone because holding your iPad to take shots will make you look foolish. Try imagining it: a camera that large.

Where’s the Microphone?

Looking for the mike? You won’t find one on the Kindle Fire. If you thought this could take over as your business tool, forget it. The option to take short voice notes or dictate an attachment to your essential email just won’t happen. You will still need to carry around your digital voice recorder. That’s another failing to go with the lack of Skype capability.

Where’s the Rest of the Screen?

You know as soon as you open the package that the screen is so much smaller on the Fire than on the iPad. If you use your calculator app you will find you have 21 square inches against the iPad’s more generous 45. That is less than half the viewing space, for the failing mathematicians out there.

It does give you a much smaller and more portable gadget. You can carry it anywhere and it will fit in a surprisingly high number of pockets, but this might make it the next best thieves’ target.

How the smaller screen will affect your game playing is down to your preferences, but those on public transport may prefer the smaller model. It will be interesting to see if Apple launches a 7 inch model like the Fire and the smaller Samsung or whether Amazon goes for a 10 inch screen first.

I Can’t Find My 3G

Like the Nook tablet, with the Fire you don’t get the option of 3G or, what the latest gadget people require, 4G. You will only be able to connect online via Wi-Fi with the Fire. This shouldn’t cause a problem in most stationary uses, but for those roaming in the back seat of an auto, the lack of 3G might prove costly. Wi-Fi has become free almost everywhere, so at least your 3G data costs will be low.

The Difference Is In the Price

It’s not really fair to compare the two toys/computers. While some will argue that the difference is in the availability of apps for the iPad, that bridge is closing fast. Soon that won’t even be a consideration.

Whichever model you choose, you will have to battle with the brand’s parent company who insists that you trade exclusively through them. That is Amazon’s selling point; everything is available at a click and for those replacing their Kindle reader with the Fire, as long as they aren’t outside in blazing sun, the experience may be improved.

The lack of GPS in the Fire shouldn’t be a deterrent, but the lack of gigabytes under the hood might be, so you will be forced to use Amazon’s cloud experience. (How long before they start charging for that, we wonder?)

The price difference will be the tightest call. At just $199, almost anyone can buy a Kindle Fire while the $500 to $650 required for an iPad might be a bigger stretch. Perhaps the answer is to stop seeing the Fire as an iPad competitor and buy a Samsung tablet (with better use of the screen, Android and apps) instead.
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Olivia Lennox is a writer, bookworm, and gadget-obsessed ebook fiend. She loves digital books and the freebies made possible by paperless reading, but hasn’t quite been convinced to sell her paperback library just yet.

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Please take heed of this specific warning:  This article wasn’t written by the founder of this blog (i.e., Vinh Nguyen).  This article had been submitted by a contributor, Olivia Lennox, and so the point of view, belief, and other values profess in this article might not be the same values that EssayBoard.com holds true.  If there are links within this article, please use virustotal.com to check to see if the link is indeed free of virus, trojan, and malware.  Also, you might want to use Google and other well known online resources to validate the contents of such links.  Enjoy!

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