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Download Link: Technology Slot Dec 19 11

The headline is misleading - I actually love my Kindle. I have read several books I otherwise would have not read. What I don’t get is why otherwise well-healed and technology literate folk dismiss the Kindle out-of-hand. The most common reason? It’s not dead-tree paper. You can’t hold it. You can’t feel it. Yet the biggest thing they dismiss is me. It’s personal. I have an eye condition which means I wear hard plastic contacts all day long - my eyes get very tired, very easily.

If your passion is in technology, you often sigh with the marketing buzzwords used in sales. Cloud Computing doesn’t actually mean anything specific (or could mean a lot of things). It’s that a lot of things to a lot of people who makes it useful as a term, an  ideology, a way of explaining why you-oh-so-need-to-do-this-now. Cloud computing for me is a platform description. I think of the myriad of hosting companies who offer a platform to build your service atop.

I always enjoy watching shows like CSI for the over-the-top depiction of current technology. They obviously have people in know, it’s not like the script writers of major shows cannot get someone to consult them on technology (or maybe they don’t - sometimes I do wonder).

The video below is about IRC (Internet Relay Chat). They are correct it’s primitive (it’s all text) and hackers do actually use it (groups like Anonymous), but you can’t track someone to their living room using just an IP address!! The montage about the boats trying to explain how IRC works is off-the-wall insane crazy. WHY?!?, alas:

I have recently switched my main desktop over to Arch Linux. If you have never heard about Arch Linux, it is a “roll your own” Linux distribution. This basically means from start to finish, the whole process is custom. Whether your system has a Graphical User Interface (GUI) or sound is totally up to you.

I switched from Ubuntu Linux, which is very much built for new people to Linux. I have been using Ubuntu since it’s release in 2004 (as old as this blog incidentally). I have found it slowly moving away from my power user needs from the release of the KDE 4.0 desktop up to the recently introduced Unity desktop for Ubuntu. Don’t get me wrong I love the whizz-bang effects of the snazzier distributions (like Ubuntu) and have used it to show people the power of Linux (and how really groundbreaking Compiz effects were at the time, ~2005). It’s sad Compiz hasn’t got the kudos but since both Windows and OS X have copied from Compiz, some more usability has been gained.

I haven’t been posting much lately because I have been working hard to improve the experience of visiting this website. You may ask what does that mean? - well it is simple. I love going to websites that are uncluttered, provide useful information and are to the point. It’s also small things like having a really fast page load time. So here’s a flavour of some of what I have been working on lately…

It’s been 10 years since the anniversary of 9/11 and much of the world has changed a lot in that period. We’ve had full body scanners at airports, marshalls on flights, bombs hidden in toner cartridges and two wars. I reflected on this and remembered two really good articles I’ll share here on the topic. Hopefully we’ve changed for the better.

Yesterday I finally wrote something that’s been bothering me for about ten years: The fact that Al Qaeda can’t be as big and bad as it’s made out to be, because its whole design violates every rule of guerrilla organisation. It’s like a counter intelligence officer’s dream, the Al Qaeda plan to bring guerrillas from all over the world, introduce them to each other, and exchange funds, material and ideas.

I recently bought the wifi version of the Motorola Xoom. I did not get the 3G version to keep costs down (no second carrier subscription in addition to smartphone I own). Here’s my review, let it be noted I’ve been an iOS user since version 2 (iPhone 3G) and although I have used devices from Android 1.6 and up - I’ve never ’lived’ with them.

Aesthetics & Design

First of all the design is very well executed. It looks and feels like a premium tablet should (should that be iPad competitor?). The ports are a clear winner and still are over any other tablet. I haven’t got the video dock yet, but I ampositiveit’ll be a great addition to my big HDTV. The only gripe really is that it doesn’t charge through usb, which I believe is because it has two batteries. It charges through supplied plug insanely fast! It lasts all day and then some with heavy use also. I haven’t left the thing alone long enough to test the standby time, but I am sure it’s good also. The 10.1" screen feels like the ‘right’ size for a tablet and I’ll besurprisedif more tablets don’t end up adopting a screen size closer to the Xoom’s. The heft is a bit much, I would like it to be a small bit lighter - but nearly all tablets with proper glass screens will be heavy.

I got a Plantronics .655 USB Headset mainly for the ability to do VOIP well. Those of you who come here often know I reviewed Sennheiser HD595 before, which is a headset built for the quality of reproduction (I use that one for music).

There’s not much you can say about a VOIP headset, so I am going to keep this short! The Plantronics .655 USB isn’t the most comfortable headset and the usb connection seemed like a plus as I’d never owned a USB headset. The mic quality is a lot better with the USB connection (though I am guessing 90% is down to the fact it’s directional and pointed at your mouth), but the sound won’t be.

I try to listen to as many podcasts (netcasts?) as I can. They fall in to two categories: Irish radio and technology. Luckily, there is so much competition in this space it’s hard to pick the best - so quality is high!

1. Tech News Today (TNT) by the TWiT Network

Regular and fills you right up to the minute with the latest tech news. Can replace RSS of many blogs (HUGE time saver) since lively debate of tech topics is the order of the day.